Tag Archives: Bjarne Nielsen pipes

Restoring a Bjarne Nielsen Handmade Brandy C Grade with a Cumberland filter stem

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a Freehand with some rustication at the shank/bowl joint and plateau on the rim top. It has a well shaped thick vulcanite taper stem. We purchased it from an estate sale in Oregon City, Oregon, USA on 03/21/2024. The pipe is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads Bjarne Nielsen [over] Handmade [over] In Denmark [over] C. There is no other stamping on the bowl or shank. There was a thick cake in the bowl and some darkening and lava on the inner edge of the bowl and some spots of lava on the rim top. It was hard to know for certain the condition of the inner edge though it appeared to be in good condition. There were oils and grime ground into the bowl sides gives the finish a flat look though there is some great grain. The shank is thick and has a slight curve to it giving the pipe a Brandy Glass shape. The saddle stem matches the curves of the bowl and shank. It has what looks like a Boxwood band on half of the saddle. The Cumberland stem is a dirty stem and has a rubber Softee Bit on the area ahead of the button. There is calcification, oxidation, grime, grit on the surface and also light tooth marks on both the top and underside of the stem just ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. I have included them below. He took photos of the pipe’s bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl, the darkening on the inner edge and the spotty lava coat overflowing onto the top. It is another dirty pipe. He also took photos of the stem with and without the rubber Softee Bit to capture the oxidation, calcification and the light tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem near the button. He took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the grain around the bowl and the amount of grime ground into the surface of the briar. He took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and quite readable. It reads as noted above. I have had many Bjarne pipes cross my work table over the years but all had been stamped only Bjarne or Bjarne Handmade. None of them had his full name stamped on it and none had a letter stamp which I assumed indicated the grade of the pipe. I did some research on Pipedia.com and found some helpful information on both the stamping of my pipe and the history of Bjarne Nielsen himself. I am including the link to the full article on Pipedia and also some pertinent sections of the article that I have edited for quick reference. https://pipedia.org/wiki/Bjarne From the early 1990s Bjarne had seven pipemakers employed and the pipes were sold in no fewer than 32 countries. For more than six months each year, Bjarne travelled around the world to promote his pipes by meeting with dealers and customers. But sadly, it all ended in February 2008 when Bjarne, then 66 years old suffered a fatal heart attack. An unexpected blow fist of all to his family, but also to the pipemakers who had been working for him, and to all lovers of his pipes from around the world. And as no one was willing to take over, the Bjarne pipe died together with its creator.

Among the pipemakers that worked for Bjarne were Johs (for the lower priced high volume pieces), and makers like Ph. Vigen, Ole Bandholm and Tonni Nielsen for high grade pieces. The cheaper line was stamped “Bjarne” while the highest grades were stamped “Bjarne Nielsen” (never with the pipemakers’ name) and graded, from highest to lowest, by the letters: AX, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and J.

From that information I knew that the pipe that I was working on was made before 2008 and could well have been made by Tonni Nielsen. The C stamping told me it was a fairly high grade pipe – fourth grade from the top AX grade. That makes sense when I look at the grain and also the way the pipe maker cut the pipe to maximize the lay of the grain on the bowl. Now it was time to work on the pipe on my end.

When I received it from Jeff this past week it did not look like the same pipe. It was clean and the finish had life. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and got rid of the cake. He cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife so that we could see the walls of the bowl and assess for damage. It was in good condition. He cleaned the internals of the shank and stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol. He scrubbed the exterior with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. 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 soaked in Briarville’s Stem Deoxidizer. It came out looking very good. The finish on the bowl and the rim top cleaned up nicely. I took pictures of the pipe to show how it looked when I brought it to the table. I took some photos of the rim top and stem to show the condition of them both when the pipe arrived. Overall the briar looked good. The Cumberland stem had some light tooth chatter and marks ahead of the button and on the button surface on both sides.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is readable and in great condition. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe to show the look of the pipe.I took a photo of the filter tenon on the stem and the Boxwood band on the saddle portion of the stem. It looked very good and I fit it with an adapter that converted it to a regular tenon. It is removable allowing the pipe to be smoked with or without a filter. There was some nicking and damage on the inner edge once I examined it closely. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sand paper to smooth out the inner edge and give it a light bevel. Once the bevel was in good condition I used a Cherry stain pen to blend in the newly sanded areas into the rest of the bowl.I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the briar down after each pad with a damp cloth. The bowl is starting to look very good. 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 photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded out the tooth marks and chatter with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth. By the final 3500 grit sanding pad the rim top had a shine.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with some Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and buffed it off with a cotton cloth. This is a beautiful Bjarne Nielsen Bent Brandy Handmade in Denmark C Grade with a Cumberland saddle stem. It has a great look and feel. The shape fits well in the hand with the curve of the bowl and shank junction a perfect fit for the thumb around the bowl when held. I polished stem and the bowl with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The rich combination of browns in the smooth finish took on life with the buffing. The rich colour of the briar works well with the polished hard rubber stem. I like the grain and finished look of this Bjarne Nielsen Bent Brandy C Grade. 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 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches wide, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 80 grams/ 2.82 ounces. This Danish Freehand is a real beauty. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This one will be going on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipe Making Section shortly if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for your time.

An Exceptional Bjarne Hand Made Freehand

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Blog by Robert M. Boughton

He could have been an ambassador for his country, but instead he became an ambassador for Danish pipes.

— Jan Anderson, author of Scandinavian Pipemakers (2012)

INTRODUCTION

Jan Anderson was speaking of Bjarne Nielsen, the great Danish pipe maker, who finished his studies at the University of Copenhagen with an MBA in the early 1960s and went to work for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the export division. Nielsen made his first pipes when he was 16 and gave them to friends then and later at the university, and of course he continued making pipes as a hobby. Whether he knew it or not, he was bitten by the bug. Call it Pipe Makers Disorder (PMD), if you like. Bjarne was considered a likely candidate for appointment as ambassador to a foreign country, but he gave it all up to pursue his real ambition, which will come as no surprise to anyone with creative leanings was to form his own business.

Bjarne may never even have imagined turning his pastime into a career, but fate, if there is such a thing, is powerful. The freehand pipe movement was first building speed when Bjarne was at the Ministry, and he was often asked to help find foreign buyers for the style of pipe that was more popular abroad than in Denmark, where it started. Many older smokers, deeply rooted in the English tradition of the classic Dunhill style, considered the new direction outlandish, crazy and worst of all, ugly. And every source Bjarne knew had orders for such pipes up the wazoo. I’m sure he used more diplomatic words.

Then, out of the blue, again if there is such a phenomenon, Bjarne had the idea to send photos of some of his pipes to a few of those same foreign distributors. I’m sure he put it out of his mind and wasn’t watching the pot until it started to boil over with so many positive responses he had to decide whether to stay with the Ministry or pursue his innate talent. Not being the average man, fearful of taking such a huge risk – or, rather, being the typical young man he was, still full of dreams – Bjarne embarked on the journey that would make him a legend, meaning most of the world has never heard of him.

The hand-made Danish freehand in this blog has three lines of clear block nomenclature on the bottom of the shank, below the stem: BJARNE/HANDMADE/ IN DENMARK. The stem also bears a mark – a lower-case b sitting in the curl of a lower-case j.

Courtesy Pipephil

This means Bjarne did not make the pipe himself, but instead delegated the job to one of three master carvers who were and are in business for themselves and did special work for him. They are Mogens “Johs” Johansen, Jes Phillip Vigen Jertsen (Ph. Vigen) and Tonni Nielsen. These pipes were sold by Bjarne as lower-grade pieces than those he carved and on which he ascribed his full name, in cursive script, above HANDMADE/IN DENMARK. The pipes Bjarne carved himself also bore a grade of AX or A-J. The man’s self-appraising standards were refined to the extreme. They bear no mark on the stems.

Bjarne Nielsen Bulldog Grade O, photos, courtesy abel2antique on eBay

I didn’t mind that my new Bjarne, whichever of the fine craftsmen above made it, came with a box and sock as well.

RESTORATION Three long years ago, before I learned lessons beyond count and, more than anything else, that the process never ends, I wrote a blog here called “Ben Wade and the Chamber of Horrors,” in which I recounted the restoration of a huge BW poker with cake so gnarly it took me hours to repair. As I can think of no better words to describe the terrors of uncovering layer after layer of hardened old carbon, only to reach a patch of almost perfect smoothness and then reaching spiraling new veins and lumps, I’ll give a brief quote from the BW blog.

“The ongoing task of removing all of the cake, every time I thought I achieved smoothness all around, only uncovered still more hidden holes, like microcosmic pits and craters on the moon, only black…the evil chamber walls in spots felt like the bowels of a volcano.”

But this pipe was so much worse, it took me days of concerted effort to get to the bottom of the years of iron-like cake. I am certain that had this pipe come my way three years ago, I would have been forced to set it aside in the to-do pile.

I started with my Junior Reamer, which, due perhaps to the curve of the freehand chamber, made almost not even a dent. The coarsest sandpaper I had was a small old finger-length strip of 180-grit that has stood by me for years and is most often the roughest I need to get with a chamber’s walls. A half-hour or so of that left my hand aching, my fingers burning and one of them torn open, as was the case to a much more serious degree with the BW chamber of horrors. I put the chamber ordeal on pause and decided to see how awful the shank’s airway might be. I admit my attitude sucked by then, but also that I was pleased with the relative ease of clearing the shank of grime with alcohol-dipped regular pipe cleaners. The first one took some finagling to break on through to the other side, but only four cleaners were needed for the preliminary cleaning. I girded for another go at the chamber with the following armaments.I hoped I would not have to resort to either (and certainly not both) blades, but I was going to be prepared for anything. As it turned out, the Dremel I used in the BW chamber of horrors case would have come in handy, but I had to borrow it and didn’t want to take the time. The task was longer and more arduous than I can detail in photos, but here are some time lapses – during the first day. I hope they show the bulges and veins that appeared hither and thither with each new attack. Indeed, both the pen and utility knives were needed throughout the three-day process of perfecting the chamber. Another problem I’m sure has not gone unnoticed was the rim burn that was fairly bad, but on the plateau area of a freehand presented greater than average problems. I did not want to use sand paper or even spot-soak the rim in alcohol, if black stain was under the char. After debating the options available to me with my resources at hand, I opted for an approach that may seem unusual but I knew from experience would leave any black paint intact. I submerged the entire stummel in alcohol for several minutes at most, and when I removed it I thought I had the desired result of eliminating the old stain and excess char. Scrutiny of the outer wood showed a perfect piece of briar, free of any blemishes or even a single scratch. The only other such experience I recall after alcohol-stripping a stummel was with my previous blog about a Capitello Jonico Dublin. I tried to tell myself the remaining blackness on the rim was natural or maybe left-over stain.

Other than the final sanding, which tore through the final layer of uneven cake, the time for micro-meshing had arrived. Giving the stummel a final inspection, I overrode my misgivings about the dull murkiness that pervaded most of the rim, with random rays of nice red wood making it through the gloom. I remembered a Ben Wade by Preben Holm I restored and had to re-stain the rim black, and I’ve never quite been happy with it. The whole approach to this project was to restore the freehand to a better look than it may ever have had, if I may be excused the apparent impertinence. Still, I proceeded with the micro-mesh, which only confirmed my gut instinct. Before I return to the rim, there are a few minor wrap-ups to make. First, look at the discoloration of the wood at the top of the front view above. I figured Super Fine 0000 steel wool should do the trick, and it did.Then there were the stains on the tip of the Lucite tenon and inside the button of the stem. I scraped out the difficult to reach crud from the button with a mashed end of a pipe cleaner dipped in alcohol and sanded clean the open end of the tenon with my trusty 180-grit fragment of paper.The retort went well, requiring only three Pyrex test tubes of alcohol – the first that was sucked up into the cotton stuffed in the chamber, the second coming out moderately dirty, and the third, after boiling through the pipe four times, was clear.The last step I imagined before the final wheel buffing – there would be no stain – was to fill in the congruent bj etching on the stem that had not been worn away.Unfortunately, the curl of the b is completely faded away.

I just could not see proceeding with either of the courses that presented themselves, leaving the dull, scorched earth look of the rim as it was and trying to make it shine or buying more black stain and hiding the beautiful wood I was sure was hidden. And so, I gave the rim a spot-soak in alcohol to see what lay beneath.The result was a very pale rim, but I knew that would change with another, focused full course of the micro-mesh pads. The semi-final result as I headed for the buffers was just what I wanted. I buffed the stummel with brown Tripoli and a heavy coat of Carnauba, and the stem with Carnauba.

CONCLUSION

This restore was one of the biggest surprises I’ve had in the few years I’ve been learning a few of the myriad techniques and resources available. Thinking at first it would be done overnight, three days later I knew never to underestimate the opponent each new pipe presents as. I struggled with the question of to sell or not to sell, and gave in to my P.A.D. All I have to say is, I’m glad I did, because, as the title says, this is one extraordinary freehand.

SOURCES

https://pipedia.org/wiki/Bjarne
http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-b5.html

Beautiful High Grade B Bjarne Nielsen Handmade Freehand

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Blog by Steve Laug

I picked this pipe up from Pocatello, Idaho when my brother and I visited an older pipeman there who was selling some of his collection. It was a beautiful freehand pipe cut to maximize the amazing grain. The flame grain flows up the sides of the bowl and shank with great birdseye on the top and the bottom of the bowl and shank. It has a Cumberland stem with a briar insert centered in the saddle portion of the stem. There is also what appears to be an ivory or faux ivory ring that is integrated at the end of the saddle that sits against the shank when the pipe is inserted. The Cumberland tenon is part of the pipe and is funneled to direct the airflow from the shank to the stem.

The pipe is stamped on the underside of the shank Bjarne Nielsen over Handmade over In Denmark. There is a grade stamp B under the other stamping. The bowl was in very good shape though there was dust and grime over the surface of the bowl that was mixed in with the wax and gave the bowl a waxy almost sticky feel in the hand. The birdseye on the rim was hidden in the grime. There was a light cake in the bowl that I reamed out when I was visiting my brother so when I started working on it today there was nothing in the bowl. The stem was oxidized and also covered with the same waxy stickiness as the bowl. The briar insert was faded and light under the grime. The stem was obviously handmade and very well cut with a thin button. The pipe is amazingly light weight for a pipe this size. I have had many Bjarne pipes cross my work table over the years but all had been stamped only Bjarne or Bjarne Handmade. None of them had his full name stamped on it and none had a letter stamp which I assumed indicated the grade of the pipe. I did some research on Pipedia.com and found some helpful information on both the stamping of my pipe and the history of Bjarne Nielsen himself. I am including the link to the full article on Pipedia and also some pertinent sections of the article that I have edited for quick reference. https://pipedia.org/wiki/Bjarne

From the early 1990s Bjarne had seven pipemakers employed and the pipes were sold in no fewer than 32 countries. For more than six months each year, Bjarne traveled around the world to promote his pipes by meeting with dealers and customers. But sadly, it all ended in February 2008 when Bjarne, then 66 years old suffered a fatal heart attack. An unexpected blow fist of all to his family, but also to the pipemakers who had been working for him, and to all lovers of his pipes from around the world. And as no one was willing to take over, the Bjarne pipe died together with its creator.
Among the pipemakers that worked for Bjarne were Johs (for the lower priced high volume pieces), and makers like Ph. Vigen, Ole Bandholm and Tonni Nielsen for high grade pieces. The cheaper line was stamped “Bjarne” while the highest grades were stamped “Bjarne Nielsen” (never with the pipemakers’ name) and graded, from highest to lowest, by the letters: AX, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and J.
Now I knew that the pipe I had was made before 2008 and could well have been made by Tonni Nielsen. The B stamping told me it was a fairly high grade pipe – third grade from the top AX grade. That makes sense when I look at the grain and also the way the pipe maker cut the pipe to maximize the lay of the grain on the bowl. I took a few photos of the pipe taken apart to show how the stem was made and to give a good look at the Cumberland under the oxidation. There were no tooth marks or chatter on the stem top or bottom.I scrubbed the sticky wax and grime off the bowl surface with Murphy’s Oil Soap on a cotton pad. I was surprised how much grit and grime came off the bowl. Some of what appeared to be nicks or scratches were in the thick wax coat on the bowl and once it was removed so were the marks in the surface. The grain really showed clearly once I rinsed off the soap on the bowl. I cleaned out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol. The stem was in such good shape under the wax, grime and oxidation that I wiped it down lightly with alcohol on a cotton pad and then went directly to the micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit pads and gave the stem a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished by sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. I set the stem aside to dry. I buffed the pipe and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel being careful to not buff the stamping on the underside of the shank. I gave the bowl and stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It too will be available soon on the rebornpipes store. Send me a message or a response if you are interested. Thanks for looking.