Tag Archives: Bowl – finishing

Restoring a Kaywoodie Hand Made Rusticated Rhodesian

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Blog by Steve Laug

Last Fall I took a trip for work to Gainesville, Georgia in the US and during that time had a day free to do a bit of roaming. The friends I was staying with took us to a couple antique malls to have a bit of a pipe hunt. I found a few good pipes that I will be working on in the days ahead. This is the first of them – a Kaywoodie Hand Made Rhodesian. The stamping on the left side of the shank is faint but readable with a bright light and a lens. It reads Hand Made over Kaywoodie. On the right side of the shank it reads Imported Briar. The bowl had a light cake lining the walls and bottom while the rim top had a coating of lava that made the rim top look like it was rusticated or knocked about. The rim top is beveled slightly inward and was probably originally smooth. The carved worm trails pm the bowl sides and shank have angled slash marks across each of the grooves. The grooves on the bowl sides are more worn than those on the shank. There are twin rings around the bowl separating the cap from the bottom portion of the bowl. The finish was dirty and many of the grooves were filled in with dust and debris of the years. The stem had some nicks and scratches in the vulcanite and was lightly oxidized. There was also a spot on the top side near the shank where there must have been a logo insert that was lost many years ago and had been filled in with glue. There was light tooth chatter on both sides of the stem at the button but no deep tooth gouges. I took close up photos of the bowl, rim top and both sides of the stem to show the condition prior to cleaning. The buildup on the rim top is a combination of thick lava and damage to the surface of the briar. There appears to be some rustication on it but at this point I am not certain it is actually rusticated or just damaged.On the top side of the stem was a round spot that I think had originally held a Kaywoodie logo. It was missing and there was a slight divot in the stem. I filled it in with a clear super glue and set it aside to cure.I cleaned up the rim top with a Savinelli Fitsall Knife blade. I scraped the surface of the rim and also the inner edge of the bowl to smooth things out. Once the rim was cleaned off the damage to the surface of the rim was visible. It was rough to touch. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer starting with the second cutting head and finishing with the third head which was the close to the same size as the bowl itself. I reamed the cake back to smooth briar. I worked over the beveled rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the rough surface and remove as much of the damage as possible.I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the rusticated patterns of the briar to clean, enliven and protect it. I worked it into the rustications with my fingertips and with cotton swabs. I worked it into the rim and shank end. I set it aside for a few minutes to let the balm work. I wiped it off with a soft cloth and buffed it with a horsehair shoe brush to polish it. The briar really began to have a deep shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The grain on the bowl is really beginning to stand out and will only do so more as the pipe is waxed.  I wiped down the rim top and polished it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the rim top down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I restained the rim top to match the contrasting stains on the rest of the bowl. I used a black Sharpie pen to colour in the grooves on the top of the rim to match the grooves around the bowl. When I had finished I like the final look of the pipe.I used a dental spatula to clean out the hard tars and oils on the walls of the mortise. It did not take too much work to remove the hard build up. I scrubbed out the shank after that using cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. I cleaned out the airway in the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. The airway in the end of the tenon was slightly out of round because somewhere along the way the stinger had been removed and the airway damaged. I used a knife to bevel the edge of the airway in the tenon and then sanded it with a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth it out. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish both Fine and Extra Fine to remove the last of the scratches. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. With the stem polished I put it back on the pipe and lightly buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond. I buffed the stem with a more aggressive buff of Blue Diamond. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I will be posting it on the rebornpipes store very soon. It should make a nice addition to your pipe rack if you have been looking for a reasonably priced older Kaywoodie Hand Made Rhodesian carved in an almost classic Custombilt style. It should be a great smoking pipe with a good hand feel. The dimensions are Length: 5 3/4 inches, Height: 1 1/2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 3/4 inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 inches. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked this pipe over.

 

Restemming and Restoring a Straight Custombilt Rhodesian

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Blog by Steve Laug

Mike, reader of rebornpipes contacted me about fixing two of his pipes. Probably over a month ago he emailed me. He packed the pipes up and sent them to me. The second one was a Custombilt Rhodesian or probably some would call it a Bulldog I have already repaired and blogged about the pear wood pipe (https://rebornpipes.com/2018/04/06/putting-humpty-dumpty-back-together-again/). The second pipe needed a new stem and a thorough cleaning and restoration. The broken stem looked to be a replacement as the fit to the shank was not perfect and the diameter of the shank and the stem were slightly different. The tenon was also short and did not extend the full length of the mortise like I have come to expect on Custombilt pipes. The inside of the bowl had already been reamed and cleaned when I got it. The top of the rim had a slight lava build up and the inner and edges were out of round. The inside and the outside of the bowl were very dirty. There was a lot of dust and grime in the rustication of the bowl and shank as well as in the twin rings around the cap.  I would soon find out why it was not cleaned. I took a close up photo of the rim top to show the damage to the top surface and the inner edge of the bowl. You can see that the top is rough from knocking the pipe out against a hard surface and the inner edge looks to have been damaged by reaming with a knife. I also took photos of the stem to show the large chunk that was missing near the button. Notice also the fit of the stem to the shank. I went through my can of stems to see if I could find a stem that would fit the shank better. I also did a bit of hunting online and found that often the Custombilt Bulldog had a saddle stem rather than a taper stem. The next stem had a tenon that was the correct length. It was slightly shorter than the broken stem but it would work well on the shank of the pipe.I put the new stem on the shank and took pictures to evaluate the new look. I also sent copies of the photos to Mike to see what he thought. I received and email reply from him that he liked the new look of the pipe so I continued with the fit of the stem. The fit of the stem to the shank was far better than the previous one. Since the shank was not round I would need to work on the shank to round out the two sides to match the stem. The next two photos show that the stem fits well on the top and the bottom of the shank but that both sides are wider than the diameter of the stem (slightly better than the previous stem).I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to sand down the sides of the shank to match the stem. I worked on it to make it round rather than the slightly off centred broad oval that it was when I started. I sanded the fit against the shank with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper to smooth out the transition between the stem and shank and remove the scratching in the briar. I cleaned out the interior of the mortise and shank with a dental pick to remove the buildup of tars and oils that were built up in front of where the replacement stem tenon had ended. I cleaned it out with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to remove all of the grime. Once the cleaners and cotton swabs came out clean I was finished with the cleanup. I did the same with the airway in the stem until it too was clean. I used a dental pick to clean around the inside of the slot in the button. I topped the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board to remove the damage to the rim top and remove the damage to the inner edge of the rim. I removed very little to smooth out the rim. I also used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the inside edge of the rim and remove the damage. I gave the edge a slight bevel to smooth out the edge. I polished the rim top and the reshaped shank end with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped down the surfaces after each pad with a damp cloth. After the final 12000 grit pad I gave it a final wipe before I continued with the restoration work. I used a combination of three stain pens – Cherry, Maple and Walnut to stain the sanded areas of the bowl. I used them on the rim top and around the end of the shank. The three together matched the colour on the rest of the bowl. I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the rusticated patterns of the briar to clean, enliven and protect it. I worked it into the rustications with my fingertips and with cotton swabs. I worked it into the rim and restained shank end. I set it aside for a few minutes to let the balm work. I wiped it off with a soft cloth and buffed it with a horsehair shoe brush to polish it. The briar really began to have a deep shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The grain on the bowl is really beginning to stand out and will only do so more as the pipe is waxed.  I sanded the stem surface with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem near the button. I also sanded out the deep scratches in the surface of the stem. I followed up by sanding the stem again with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper to remove the scratches left behind by the 220 grit sandpaper. I polished stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each pad. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish, both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I waxed the bowl and shank with multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax. I buffed the stem with carnauba wax. I buffed bowl and stem with a clean buffing wheel to raise a shine. The photos below show the finished pipe. It is a great looking pipe. I love the old Custombilt shapes and the look and feel of them in hand. This one is a beauty that looks great with its new stem. Now that I have finished the second of Mike’s pipes I will soon be packing them up and sending them on their way back to New York where I am sure he is waiting to fire them up and enjoy them once again. Thanks for looking.

Putting Humpty Dumpty Back Together Again

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Blog by Steve Laug

I was contacted by Mike, reader of rebornpipes about fixing two of his pipes. It was probably over a month ago when he emailed me. The first one was a gift from a friend and when he tried to take of the stem the shank broke away from the bowl. This sounds awful but it is not as bad as it sounds. He sent me photos of the pipe so I could have a look at it. It is made out of pear wood I believe and is a Chinese made pipe (at least it appears to be). He packed it up with another pipe, an old Custombilt that needed a new stem and mailed them to me. When it came the pipe was in a bag – it looked much liked the first series of photos below. It looked like Mike had been loading a bowl for a smoke when it broke. The shank and bowl were held together by an inner tube that appears to be plastic but even that is not overly clear at this point. Whatever it was it was brittle and broke neatly apart. The brass washer that was used for decoration was loose, having been held in place by the joint. The pipe was very dirty on the outside and the inside and needed some work. I would soon find out why it was not cleaned.The stem was tight in the shank and was hard to remove. Mike had said that the pipe was a filter pipe but I am not certain of that. Certainly the tube looked like it could hold a paper filter but the inside of the tube had been stepped down several times. There was a thick cake in the bowl and an overflow of lava on the rim top and some darkening around the edges and top.I took a photo of the end of the shank to give a bit of an idea of what that portion looked like. It was a tube within a tube with something stuffed in between the two tubes.I scraped out the load of tobacco in the bowl to begin my cleaning process. I reamed the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and took the cake back to bare wood. I wanted to be able to see what was going on under the cake. Everything looked good once I had removed the cake.I cleaned out the internals of the pipe and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. Cleaning out the airway into the bowl proved to be a difficult proposition. It was hard to work a pipe cleaner through and blowing air through it seemed really constricted. I worked on it quite a while and was able to work the pipe cleaner through. It seemed like there was some kind of fitting in the bottom where the airway entered the bowl that dissipated the smoke. It felt like some kind of nipple with multiple air holes. Cleaning the shank was simpler but even there I ran into several step downs along the inside of the shank piece.I took a photo looking down into the airway and you can see the broken tube that held the shank to the bowl just inside the shank walls. Deeper down the shank is another tube that appears to be aluminum. Inside that tube at the bottom is a centered hole that descends into the bowl and to the nipple with multiple air holes at the bottom where it enters the bowl bottom.I cleaned the end of the short shank entering the bowl and flattened the broken tube that held the shank and bowl together on both. It was ragged and crooked. I cleaned up the brass washer that acted as an ornamental space with 1500-2400 micromesh sanding pads. I used all-purpose glue and reset the washer in place on the bowl end of things.I had a piece of steel tubing that was the right size to insert in both the shank and the bowl end of the broken tube. I roughed it up with a file to give the glue something to anchor too on the smooth steel. I mixed a batch of JB Weld to bind the metal tube in the shank first. I packed the mixture in around the broken tube and the outside of the wooden shank with a dental spatula and set it aside to dry.  I joined the family for dinner and afterwards the glue was cured enough to connect the bowl end. I applied another coat of the JB Weld mixture to the tube and to the edge of the two sides that would be pressed together. I aligned the two parts and held it tightly until the glue had set enough for it to be stable when I laid it down. I set it aside to let the glue harden. After a short time I took photos of the newly joined bowl and shank. I set the bowl aside for the evening to let the glue cure overnight and turned to work on the stem. I cleaned the inside with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. Once more I was in for a surprise. There was a brass grate inside the airway at the place the saddle portion is on the outside of the stem. It was very dirty but the cotton swabs and alcohol cleaned the grate. I was able to work the pipe cleaner through each section of the grate until the grate and stem was very clean. The tenon was wide open like it was made for a paper filter. A 9mm filter would work well in this tenon. My only issue is that with all of the brass pieces in the airway in the bowl, shank and stem the filter would further constrict the flow of the smoke through the airway into the mouth of the smoker. I don’t think it is worth smoking with a filter.I sanded out the tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside of the stem next to the button to remove the damage in those areas. I used 220 grit sandpaper and was able to smooth out all of the damage. The stem is not vulcanite but seems to be a soft plastic that is similar to the tube that runs through the entire shank and that broke at the joint of the bowl and shank. I polished it with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper to polish out the scratches in the soft plastic. I continued to polish the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped down the stem after each pad with Obsidian Oil. After the final 12000 grit pad I gave it a final wipe with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. The oil is not absorbed like it is with the vulcanite but it did clean up the remaining dust and grime from the polishing. I set the stem aside and wiped the bowl down with alcohol. I cleaned up the excess glue that has squeezed out at the bowl shank joint. I removed all of the oils, grime and dirt that were ground into the pear wood. I worked on the rim top with alcohol and micromesh sanding pads until the wood was clean. With the wood clean I polished it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth between each pad. When I finished with the 12000 grit pad I wiped it down a final time and hand buffed it with a soft cloth. I waxed the bowl and shank with multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax. I buffed the stem with carnauba wax. I buffed bowl and stem with a clean buffing wheel to raise a shine in the pear wood. The photos below show the finished pipe. It is actually quite unique in terms of shape and design the multiple brass grates in the bowl, shank and stem constrict the air flow but the draw is ok. It definitely should be smoked without a filter. Once I finish the second of Mike’s pipes they will wing their way back to New York where I am sure he is waiting to fire them up and enjoy them once again. Thanks for looking.

Refreshing a ‘Faux’ Mastro de Paja Poker

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Blog by Dal Stanton

One of the great things returning to Bulgaria after 6 months in the US, was again reuniting with our colleagues, fellow team members – our family in Bulgaria.  One of those reunions was in Bulgaria’s second largest city, and arguably one of the most beautiful, Plovdiv, declared to be the ‘European Capital of Culture’ in 2019 by the EU.  I met with our team working there, and one of my team members, Brett, confided that he had something for me in his flat.  When we arrived, I was not expecting what he pulled off the top shelf of the bookcase, waiting some months for my return to Bulgaria.  What I saw was a massive Poker with an eye-catching brown-swirl acrylic stem.  The shank was joined with the stem by an attractive silver ensemble – stem extender joining a shank ferrule. As frosting is to cake, I turned the stummel over in my hand and found the eye-catching starburst heel.  Oh my!  I was speechless – wafting in Pipe Man Heaven.  When I looked closer, I saw the round silver rondel embedded in the stem, which I had not seen before.  I asked Brett where he found this beauty and as I expected, in one of the many second-hand antique shops in Plovdiv’s Old Towne quarter was his reply.  He told me I could keep it for my own collection as a gift or sell it to benefit the Daughters of Bulgaria – our work helping women and girls trafficked and sexually exploited.   I thanked Brett as thoroughly as I knew how – what better gift for a pipe man???  When I returned to Sofia, I took these pictures of this very striking Poker. The last picture I took with the pipe in my hand to give an idea of its size – the stummel is 2 ¼” tall and 1 ¾” wide at the rim – a wonderful handful!  Normally, I’m not drawn as much to swirly, acrylic stems because sometimes, it seems to me, they are too ‘blingy’ for my taste and detract from the real show, the beauty of the briar.  However, this multi-brown hued acrylic stem compliments well the massive and expressive Poker stummel.  My first impressions of this pipe, mainly because of the starburst heel, was that it was probably a freehand – someone’s creatives juices unleashed in a classic Poker shape – a shape which to me is iconic and fun.  Pokers got their name from the ease of setting them on the card table as their stewards looked at their dealt hands, preparing the strategy to take the hand of poker warfare.  The pipe is distinctive and the first question that came to mind was whether there was a mark on it that would identify its origin.  What I found on closer examination of the shank was this mark.As I considered the small mark on the left, underside of the shank, was it was a rustic ‘W’ or perhaps an ‘M’?  I could find no other identifying marks except for the silver rondel unexpectedly embedded purposefully in the stem. I didn’t have a lot to go on to uncover the origins.  So, as I’ve done before, I sent the pictures to Steve.  With the 100s of pipes he’s seen and chronicled in Reborn Pipes, perhaps he’ll have a clue.  Steve’s response to my query was quick and helpful:

For sure the shape is a Poker. I would not even call it a freehand. No plateau and a standard shape. I think it is a Mastro de Paja from the silver spot on the stem and the silver work on the stem and shank. The mark on the bottom is a sunburst which I have seen on those pipes. I wonder if the lack of stamping and the marks are not XX which is a mark reserved for pipes that did not meet the grade. Not sure but the pipe certainly looks like a Mastro to me…

Steve

Hmm, maybe a Mastro.  My first stop after receiving this lead from Steve was to Pipedia and to its article (see LINK) on the Italian, Mastro de Paja name.

In 1972 Giancarlo Guidi, after having spent some time as a hobbyist in producing pipes, decided to officially found a production workshop called “Mastro de Paja”. Mastro: obviously as a master craftsman, De Paja: it derives from the name with which he was affectionately called by friends “Pajetta” because of his curly hair and translated into a dialectal expression “de Paja”.

After describing the ups and downs of the company and the changes in oversite of the company, I found this statement interesting revealing Mastro de Paja’s commitment to excellence:

Currently the Mastro produces about 2 thousand pipes a year with strictly artisan procedure, at the Mastro currently reigns a warm harmony, is a group of friends who strives to get the best. This also stems from the fact that pipes for Mastro de paja are not to be considered as any other object to be produced and sold following cold strategies common to everyone in the business world, it’s completely different, it is necessary to love it, it is a style of being, a philosophy of life that can only be appreciated by a noble soul and not noble by title but by principles.

Looking over the entire article, it became clear that Mastro de Paja produces very high quality, high-end pipes – way beyond my budget!  As I looked through the pictures in the Pipedia article, the Mastro stem rondel displayed throughout was the sun with a face – pictured in the top, right in the example pictured below.From Pipedia, I found some Mastro de Paja examples at Pipe Phil’s site.  Here I found what I was looking for.  The solid, silver rondel like the Poker on my worktable.  Here is one example for comparison. What was clear was that my Poker, in some significant ways, resembled the Mastro pipes, but the Poker was missing typical markings on the shank identifying it specifically, as did the other Mastro pipes.  I decided to go to the source, to Mastro de Paja’s website which was listed in the Pipedia article.  My impression of Mastro de Paja via it’s website, overwhelmingly confirmed what I read earlier – production of very high-end pipes, and a commitment to quality with an artistically complimenting use of fine metals augmenting their creations.  I would describe it as a ‘Tobacconist Boutique’.  I looked through several of their catalogues which can be downloaded via PDF files after giving one’s contact information.  Then the idea hit me – to email the Mastro contact address and ask if they had a mark ‘XX’ which identified their sub-par pipes/seconds or rejects?  I’ve done this in the past and had surprisingly positive results.  I sent the same pictures as I had sent to Steve and received a response the very next day from Mastro de Paja!  Here is the note from Alberto:

Dear Mr. Dal Stanton
First of all thanks a lot to appreciate our pipes.
Talking on the pipe in the photos, I am so sorry to inform You that this pipe is a FAKE.
I see on the mouthpiece the silver dot but this is not our production.
May I ask You where did You get?
Thanking in advance for Your help waiting to read You, I remain
Friendly Your
Alberto

Hence, the title on this post, “Refreshing a ‘Faux’ Mastro de Paja Poker”.  I responded to his question about where I acquired the pipe and assured him that I would be sure that the genuine name of Mastro de Paja was clearly communicated in my publication of this restoration.  I have yet to hear back from Alberto, but my curiosity is piqued as to whether he is the same ‘Alberto’ who is the current owner of the company which Pipedia described:

Soon after even Spadoni decides to leave (and create his own new company), Cecchini then puts his eyes on a very smart young man who he considered capable of giving new glaze to the mastro de paja which, meanwhile, inevitably presented some productive and commercial problems. That young man is called Alberto Montini and he start like this in his thirties his beautiful adventure in the pipes world.

The Pipephil.eu information said that Alberto Montini became the sole owner of the brand in 1995.  Whether Mr. Montini responded to my inquiry or not, I appreciate that I received a response and had the opportunity to learn more about this distinctive Italian pipe name.

What is amazing to me, is that the Poker on my worktable is a striking pipe.  Whether it is an intentional copying of the Mastro style or not, I don’t know.  Nonetheless, it stands on its own as a pipe that I would gladly add to my collection!

I take a closer look at the stummel.  The pipe is in excellent condition.  It has been smoked, but very lightly.  The briar’s flame grain is striking along the circumference of the Poker’s cylindrical stummel – I see no fills but the finish is dulled some.  There is very light dirt and oils on the surface and tiny hair-like scratches that come from normal wear. The acrylic stem is pristine and is prepared for a 9mm filter or airway restrictor for those who prefer this – like I do. The silver-plated ferrule and stem extender will shine up very nicely.First, I turn to the chamber and only use the Savinelli Fitsall tool to scrape the chamber wall removing the light cake.  I then roll a piece of 240 grade paper wrapped around a dowel rod and sand the chamber uncovering the fresh chamber briar. I finish the chamber cleaning with a cotton pad wetted with alcohol and wipe out the carbon dust.  Inspecting the chamber wall, I find no problems. Turning to the internals, for both the mortise and the stem, the grunge is very light.  Using pipe cleaners and cotton buds, and a long bristle pipe brush, wetted with isopropyl 95%, the internals clean up quickly.  Using undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap, I clean the stummel surface using a cotton pad.  I also employ a bristled tooth brush especially on the starburst ridges of the Poker’s heel.  Afterwards, I rinse the stummel surface in cool tap water.  I take a closer look at the stummel after the Murphy’s cleaning and I see two fills on the base of the stummel.  They don’t look like they will be an issue – they are solid and already well blended.  I also look at a small imperfection on the rim.  It is small and is part of the grain.  I let it pass as it adds character.Looking at the starburst heel of the Poker, I like the look – very rustic and gives the whole stummel the impression of a tree branch.  What I decide to do is to deepen the darker hues in the crevices of the sculpted burst.  I’ll then remove the upper ridges with sanding to give the multi-textured look.  I first use a darker walnut colored dye stick to apply the color getting down into the valleys.  Then I follow with an even darker, slightly redder hue, mahogany dye stick to add contrast.  Finally, I use 1800 and 2400 grades micromesh sanding pads lightly to sand swipe the peaks of the ridges to lighten the ridge peeks.  I’m pleased with the overall look and the darkening and shading. Without removing the finish, I put the bowl and rim through the full micromesh sanding regime with pads from 1500 to 12000.  This teases out the minor, simple wear scratches on the stummel surface.  The micromesh pads do a great job of abrasive polishing with major intrusion on the wood and the grain responds!Next, to fine tune the abrasive buffing more, I apply Red Tripoli compound to stem and stummel, while avoiding the silver ferrule and stem extender.  I use a felt buffing wheel (which applies more abrasion than a cotton cloth wheel) mounted on the Dremel, set to the slowest speed. I apply the Tripoli methodically to the stummel using the sheen of the lamp light reflecting off the briar surface which helps me in applying the fine abrasive.  Because of my small, compact workspace on the 10th floor of a former Communist apartment block, I use a Dremel for all my buffing procedures.  This enables me to get up close and personal to see the effects of the buffing using the compounds and later the wax.  After completing the smooth briar on the Poker’s sides and rim, I run the wheel sparingly over the ridges of the sculpted starburst on the heel of the Poker.  The starburst is meant to look rustic and I rough it up a bit with the felt buffing wheel and Tripoli going with the ridges, not across them.  After Tripoli, I repeat the same on the stummel with the slightly lesser abrasive, Blue Diamond compound – but this time, I mount a cotton cloth wheel and turn the Dremel’s speed up about 20%. With my wife’s help, one picture below shows the application of Blue Diamond compound in action. I complete the use of compounds using White Diamond – the finest of the 3 compounds.  I mount a new, cotton cloth wheel, applying the White Diamond on the ferrule and stem extension to shine up the silver.  I’m careful not to overrun onto either the briar or acrylic stem.  The polishing of silver produces a dark residue that can color the briar – not good.  I can see the coloration on the new, white cloth wheel.  I take a picture at the end of the silver polishing to show this.  Then, I give the entire pipe a buffing with a cotton cloth to remove the powder left behind after the compounds.  This prepares the surface for the carnauba wax application. I mount the Dremel with a cotton cloth wheel dedicated to applying carnauba wax and maintain the speed at plus 20%.  I apply several` coats of the wax on stem and stummel and finish by giving the entire pipe a good, hearty buffing using a micromesh cloth.  This brings out the shine and the richness of the briar even more.  It looks great!

This iconic Poker shape was not, in the end, claimed by the Italian pipe maker, Mastro de Paja. I appreciate Alberto’s response to my inquiry.  The origins will probably not be known with certainty, but what I do know with certainty is that this is a beautiful pipe regardless of the origin.  Its robust size amply fills the hand and the grain is a sweeping display of God’s amazing handiwork.  The front of the Poker has a tight grain pattern that reminds me of the pattern of a tiger and the starburst heel of the Poker gives it a classic, rustic feel – ‘down home’.  Both the acrylic swirled stem and silver work joining the stem and bowl completes a very attractive ensemble that is both upscale but not pretentious.  I’m tempted to keep this Faux Mastro de Paja Poker for my collection, but it’s going into the Pipe Steward store to be sold to benefit the Daughters of Bulgaria, helping women and girls who have been trafficked and sexually exploited.  Thank you, Brett, for this wonderful gift which will help the Daughters as well as make a new pipe steward very happy!  Thanks for joining me!

Restoring a Bewlay Sandblast 156 Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

Sometimes a voice from the past is a good thing for both parties. Many years ago now, here in Vancouver I met Eric at the Vancouver Pipe Club. We talked at pipe club meetings and had a common calling as ministers in within different Christian Churches. Over time Eric moved to Eastern Canada and I moved on to work for an NGO here in Vancouver. Not too long ago I received an email from Eric about some pipes that he had that he wanted me to work on for him. We made arrangements and soon a box with three of his pipes was traveling to me from Ontario. It arrived quite quickly and I opened it when it arrived. Eric had thoughtfully included a tin of Samuel Gawith’s Commonwealth Mixture Full Strength for me to smoke and I was looking forward to cracking it open. Included in the box were three pipes – a Danbark Hand Carved from Denmark that was quite stunning, a Bewlay Sandblast Billiard and a Le Nuvole Long Shank Dublin. Each had different challenges to address but each was a beautiful example of the pipe maker’s craft. The final pipe was the Bewlay Sandblast London Made Billiard.

The finish on the pipe was very dirty with a lot of grit and grim in the grooves and crevices of the sandblast. The shank appeared to be rusticated to look like the sandblast around the bowl sides. The rim top was also rusticated to look like a sandblast finish but it is similar to the one that I carved with a dental burr. The rim top was dirty but it did not have a lot of lava overflow. There was a fairly thick cake in the bowl that was soft and brittle. The edges – both inner and outer were in excellent condition other than just dirty. The grain on the sandblast portions was really quite nice and there were places that the finish was worn almost smooth. The underside of the shank was stamped Bewlays in script over Sandblast over London Made followed by what looks like an O. Just below that and toward the stem is the shape number 156. The vulcanite stem had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides at the button. It also had some discolouration on the first inch of the stem that I have come to associate with pipe Softee bits. The pipe was not as dirty and this one smelled of aromatics rather than English blends as the first pipe of Eric’s I worked on. I took photos of the pipe to show the condition it was in when it arrived.    I took close up photos of the bowl and rim top to show its condition. You can see the cake in the bowl and the darkening and dust in the rim top grooves, nooks and crannies. The rim does not look damaged on the inner or outer edge in this photo. I also took photos of the stem to show the general condition it was in as well. It looked pretty good other than chatter on both sides ahead of the button and the puncture on the topside of the stem. I decided to read a little about the Bewlay brand to refresh my memory. On the PipePhil site I found out information on the brand. The brand was distributed by Bewlay & Co. (a chain of pipe stores in England) until the 50’s when it was taken over by Imperial Tobacco & Co. I took a screen capture of the Bewlay brand. The stamping on the one I am working on is shown in the second photo below and you can see that it is the same as this other than the shape number.  http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-d2.html

I did some searching on Pipedia and found a short write up on the brand and found a photo and some helpful information that I have included below.The English brand of Bewlay & Co. Ltd. (formerly Salmon & Gluckstein Ltd.), was in business from the early 20th century until the 1950’s. The brand ended up being sold and taken over by Imperial Tobacco Co. The shop chain closed in the 1980’s but there seems to be one shop still in business on Carr Lane in the city of Hull.

Bewlay pipes were made by numerous prestigious firms. Notably Barling, Charatan, Loewe & Co., Sasieni, Huybrecht, and Orlik. So understandably, the English considered a Bewlay pipe a quality pipe.  https://pipedia.org/wiki/Bewlay

The article also cross referenced a thread on the Pipesmagazine.com forum that gave further information on the various makers and shapes. (http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/a-bewlay-pipe-thread-with-pictures). There was one responder there that referred to a pipe that had the same shape number as the one I am working on. He wrote the following: One of my nicest Bewlay’s is a 156 billiard which, it turns out, correlates with nr. 156 on the Orlik shape chart.

I started my restoration of this pipe by reaming it with a PipNet pipe reamer starting with the smallest cutting head to remove the initial cake and then moving up to the second cutting head to take the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up what remained with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to take back what remained of the cake to bare briar. I scraped the inside of the shank with a pen knife to remove the tars and oils on the inside of the mortise. I followed that up by cleaning out the interior of the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. Cleaning the stem took the same amount of pipe cleaners as the shank but I forgot to include a photo of that. I cleaned it until the cleaners came out white. I scrubbed the briar with Before & After Restoration Balm working it into the nooks and crannies of the sandblast and rusticated finish. The balm cleans, enlivens and protects the briar and removes the dust and debris in the rustication. It also brought new life to the bowl and the rim top. I rubbed it in and let it sit for a little while then buffed it with a horse hair shoe brush to work it into the finish. I buffed it with a cotton cloth to remove the excess and the debris. The photos below show the progress of the polishing.  I set the bowl aside and sanded the repair with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth marks and chatter on the surface of the vulcanite stem. I followed that with 400 grit wet/dry sanded paper – wet sanding until the scratches and repair had begun to blend into the surface of the vulcanite. I polished the acrylic with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down after each pad with a damp cloth. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both the Fine and Extra Fine. I wiped it down and gave it a shine with some Obsidian Oil. With the stem polished I put it back on the shank and polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I used a light touch on the briar so as not to fill in the sandblast buffing compound and a slightly heavier touch on the vulcanite stem. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax by hand rubbing it into the finish and the stem multiple coats of carnauba on the buffing wheel. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine on the briar and the vulcanite. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos that follow. It is another beautiful piece of pipe crafting. I am sure Eric will enjoy this beauty once it heads back to Ontario. This is the last of his pipes that I had to work on so now I can pack them up and send them on their journey east. Thanks for walking with me through the restoration. Cheers.

Repairing and Restoring a Hand Carved Danbark “Honey Stick”

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Blog by Steve Laug

Sometimes a voice from the past is a good thing for both parties. Many years ago now, here in Vancouver I met Eric at the Vancouver Pipe Club. We talked at pipe club meetings and had a common calling as ministers in within different Christian Churches. Over time Eric moved to Eastern Canada and I moved on to work for an NGO here in Vancouver. Not too long ago I received an email from Eric about some pipes that he had that he wanted me to work on for him. We made arrangements and soon a box with three of his pipes was traveling to me from Ontario. It arrived quite quickly and I opened it when it arrived. Eric had thoughtfully included a tin of Samuel Gawith’s Commonwealth Mixture Full Strength for me to smoke and I was looking forward to cracking it open. Included in the box were three pipes – a Danbark Hand Carved from Denmark that was quite stunning, a Bewlay Sandblast Billiard and a Le Nuvole Long Shank Dublin. Each had different challenges to address but each was a beautiful example of the pipe maker’s craft. I decided to work on the Danbark Hand Carved pipe next.

The finish on the pipe was very dirty with a lot of grit and grim in the grooves and crevices of the spiral style of rustication. The rim top was heavily tarred with lava that flowed from a caked bowl. The edges and top of the rim looked like it had burn marks on the front just left of centre and on the rear left side. Other than the burn marks it appeared to be in okay condition though I would not know for sure until I had reamed the bowl and cleaned off the rim top. The bowl was rusticated all around other than the rim top and about half of the shank. The grain on the smooth parts was very nice. The underside of the shank is stamped Danbark over Hand Carved over Denmark.The acrylic stem had the white Danbark “D” logo on the top side. There was tooth chatter on both sides at the button and a triangular shaped puncture on the top side about ¼ inch from the button. The pipe was not as dirty or smelly as the first pipe of Eric’s I worked on. I took photos of the pipe to show the condition it was in when it arrived.  I took close up photos of the bowl and rim top to show its condition. You can see the thick cake in the bowl and the overflow of lava onto the inner edge bevel and on the rim. You can also see the burn marks on the rim top just left of centre and on the back side mid rim. The rim does not look damaged on the outer edge in this photo. I also took photos of the stem to show the general condition it was in as well. It looked pretty good other than chatter on both sides ahead of the button and the puncture on the topside of the stem.I decided to read a little about the brand and the pipemaker. It turns out that the pipe was made by Soren Refbjerg Rasmussen who also made Refbjerg and Soren pipes. That was a surprise to me as I had no recollection of the connection. This “honey stick” style pipe is a Danbark with the same stamping on the shank as the pipe in the photo from Pipephil’s site. I have cleaned and restored several or Soren’s pipes in the past, both Refbjerg and Soren stamped ones but I have never worked on a Danbark. I did a screen capture of all three of the brands carved by Soren and the information included in them. It turns out that the Refbjerg pipes were made for the European market and the Soren ones for the US market. The Danbark pipes seem to overlap on both sides of the Atlantic. The D on the stem is also the same in the photo as the pipe I am working on for Eric.The Danbark that I am working on is stamped on the underside of the bowl and shank at the stem/shank junction. It is stamped with the following information: DANBARK over Hand Carved over Denmark. Soren’s handmade stems have a funneled airway leading through the tenon to a normal rectangular slot in the end of the stem. There is no flaring or shaping done to the slot. It almost looks like a factory blank that has been reworked slightly.

I did a bit more searching and on Pipedia I found out that Danbark was a second line that came from Soren (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Refbjerg). There was also a direct quote from Soren speaking of the Danbark line on Frenchy’s Pipes online. Frenchy’s was an online seller that retailed both new and estate pipes quite a few years back. I did business with him in those years and enjoyed him – great sense of humour. Here is what he quotes from Soren and is requoted on Pipedia.

“A note from the carver: I am very proud to introduce my new (!) series of hand-carved Danbark Pipes by Søren. These pipes are crafted from the finest Corsican and Grecian briars. I take a great deal of pride in crafting the Danbark Pipes to be highly functional and so they will provide the smoker with many years of dedicated service. The Danbark Pipes by Søren are available in several different styles and finishes with my personal touch and inspirations. At this time I favor making classic shaped pipes with a slight touch of my own hands and feelings. I do not produce many pipes today but the pipes that I do make available are individually crafted from the finest Corsican and Grecian Briars available to me. I still make free-hand pipes but not as many as I once made. For the past 35 years I have always tried to make good smoking pipes in my workshop located near Copenhagen, Denmark. I have always tried to craft my pipes in such a way as they will be long lasting and best friends with the owners. I take great pride in the shape of my pipes, the drilling of the pipes, and the overall dimensions of the pipes. I enjoy spending my spare time on the very long, rugged coasts of Denmark. I derive much relaxation from being on the coast while angling for Sea Trout with my own hand-tied flies. I find this environment is a great inspiration to me for making pipes. Many times I think to myself, ‘Inspired by nature, made by me’. — Happy puffing, Søren”

I decided to start the work on this pipe by repairing the puncture in the stem. I cleaned the inside of the stem with pipe cleaners to remove the grime. I wiped the stem down with alcohol on cotton pads to remove any debris or grime on the puncture wound. I cleaned the edges of the puncture with a cotton swab and alcohol. Once it was clean, I greased a pipe cleaner with Vaseline and inserted it through the slot making sure that the space below the puncture was filled with greased fuzz. I filled in the puncture with black super glue. I sprayed it with an accelerator to set the repair quickly so that I could remove the pipe cleaner. I sanded the repair lightly to smooth it out. I refilled the repaired area with a bubble of black super glue to fill in the air bubbles in the repair. I set the stem aside until the repair had hardened. While the repair was curing I turned my attention to the bowl. I reamed the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to scrape away the cake and take it back to bare briar. I worked it over from top to bottom removing the thick cake coat.I rolled a piece of sandpaper around my finger and sanded the walls of the bowl smooth. I worked over the inner edge of the rim and the rim top to remove as much of the burn damage and damage to the edge of the bowl. I worked on it with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth it out. I lightly topped the bowl on the topping board with 220 grit sandpaper to remove more of the damaged wood. The top of the bowl was charred at the front edge a little left of center. I topped it to remove the char and smooth it out. The wood that is left is solid. I did not take too much of the top because of the smooth outer edge above the last spiral of rustication.I cleaned out the interior of the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I cleaned it until the cleaners came out white.I sanded newly topped rim gently with a worn piece of 220 sandpaper and wet sanded it with some 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the rim top with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down after each pad with a damp cloth. The photos below tell the story of the polishing of the rim top. Once the rim was polished and scratch free I used a Maple stain pen to match the colour of the rest of the smooth areas around the shank and bowl. I wanted the stain to hide the burn marks on the rim. I figured that it would at least mask them a bit.I let the stain dry and then rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm working it into the nooks and crannies of the rusticated finish with my fingertips. I am really enjoying working with the balm and it cleans, enlivens and protects the briar and removes the dust and debris in the rustication. It also helped to blend in the stain on the rim and brought new life to it as well. I rubbed it in, used a horsehair shoe brush to work the balm into the finish, let it sit for a little while then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The photos below show the progress of the polishing.  I gave the bowl and shank multiple coats of Conservator’s wax – once again rubbing it into the finish with my fingertips and then letting harden slightly. I buffed it with a shoe brush and a cotton cloth. I repeated the process until I had given the bowl several coats of the wax. The finish really had taken on a shine that was beautiful. I set the bowl aside and called it a night. When I returned the next evening after work I turned my attention to the stem. The repair had hardened and looked good. I sanded it smooth with a 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad. I did not want to sand too deeply into the repair rather I wanted to have it form a protective layer over the puncture mark. I used 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper to feather in the edges of the repair. I polished the entire stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down after each pad with a damp cloth. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both the Fine and Extra Fine. I wiped it down and gave it a shine with some Obsidian Oil. With the stem polished I put it back on the shank and polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I used a light touch on the briar so as not to fill in the rustication or the rings with buffing compound and a slightly heavier touch on the acrylic stem. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax by hand rubbing it into the finish and the stem multiple coats of carnauba on the buffing wheel. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine on the briar and the acrylic. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos that follow. It is a beautiful piece of pipe crafting. I am sure Eric will enjoy this beauty once it heads back to Ontario. Just one more of his pipes to work on before they all travel east. Thanks for walking with me through the restoration. Cheers.

Breathing Life into a Republic Era Peterson’s System 313 Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have been corresponding with Paresh for some time now and have repaired and restored two of his pipes and sent him others as well. We carry on conversation via WhatsApp on the internet and discuss the various pipes he is purchasing as well as ones that he has inherited from his grandfather. This Peterson 313 System pipe came to me direct from the eBay seller in England. It took so long to get here (almost 2 months) that we both had pretty well given up on it. It arrived in a crushed package that I had to pick up at the post office. I was worried that the pipe inside had been damaged as well. This was one of those times that the seller had done a very thorough wrapping of the pipe in bubble wrap so it was unscathed by the crushing of the box. The pipe was stamped Peterson’s arched over System over Standard on the left side of the shank and Made in the Republic of Ireland on the right of the shank with the shape number 313 under that. The nickel ferrule was stamped K&P over Peterson.

The finish on the pipe was very dirty with a lot of dents on the bottom side of the bowl and shank. There was a long deep dent on the front of the bowl. The bowl had a very thick, hard cake that had overflowed onto the rim top. The bowl was out of round and the inner bevel was burned and damaged. It looked as if some had tried to ream the bowl with a knife sometime in its life. There were two fills – one on the back left and one on the back right. In the angle of where the shank and bowl connected there was a heavy oily grime build up. The inside of the shank and sump were filled with tars and oils. The nickel ferrule was in great condition with light scratching but no real oxidation. The stem was a mess. The top side of the stem had deep tooth grooves extending forward from the p-lip button about 1 inch. On the underside there were also tooth marks. Both sides had a lot of serious chatter and some calcification build up. The stem was oxidized and very dirty. I took some photos of the pipe before I started working on it. I took close up photos of the rim top and the stem to show the condition it was in when it arrived in Vancouver. You can see the heavy lava buildup on the rim top. You can also see the damage on the inner edge, particularly heavy on the right front side. The cake was quite thick and very hard leaving barely enough room for my little finger to fit in the bowl. You can see the condition of the stem and the tooth marks in the oxidation on both sides. The tooth marks and chatter on both sides are deep and worn looking.The stem was stuck in the shank and would not move. I tried to twist it and turn it but nothing moved. I put the pipe in the freezer for half an hour let it do its magic. At the end of the half hour I was able to easily remove the stem from the shank.I decided to soak the stem in a bath of Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer so I dropped it in the airtight container and set it aside overnight to let it do its work.I turned my attention to the bowl. I started by reaming the hard cake back with a PipNet pipe reamer. I started with the smallest cutting head and worked my way up to the second head. I took the cake all the way back to bare briar. I cleaned up the remnants in the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. The knife allowed me to get all the way to the bottom of the bowl and remove the cake that still remained around the airway.I topped the bowl on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper. I worked on it until I had removed the damage on the top of the rim and was able to minimize the damage to the inner and outer edges of the bowl. I used a folded piece of sandpaper to rework the inner edge of the bowl and give it a slight bevel to hide the burn marks and the damage from the knife reaming. With a little work I was able to remove the damage on the inner edge of the bowl. I also ran the folded sandpaper around the outer edge to smooth out the nicks and marks.The briar on the bowl had some dents around the sides, front and back of the bowl. The underside of the shank was also dented. Before I dealt with the dents in the surface I decided to polish the briar and raise a shine. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove any sanding dust. The grain in the briar really began to stand out. There was some really nice birdseye on the sides of the bowl and cross grain on the front and back sides. I used a cherry stain pen to restain the rim top to match the colour of the rest of the bowl. I have found that this particular cherry stain perfectly matches the colour of the Peterson’s System Standard pipe.I cleaned out the inside of the shank, the sump and the airway into the bowl with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. It took a few of each but after while the cleaners and cotton swabs came out clean and the pipe smelled fresh.With the internals clean and the externals clean I decided to address all of the dents in the briar on the bottom and front of the bowl. I took photos of the dents to give an idea of the sheer number of them all around the shank, bowl bottom and up the front. They were all quite rounded dents rather than cuts so I figured that I could steam most of them out. I use a wet cloth (not dripping but enough to make steam when heated) and a hot butter knife to steam the dents. I heated the knife over a flame on my gas stove, put the wet cloth over the dents and touched the surface of the briar with the hot knife. The heated blade on the wet cloth created steam and began to lift the dents. I repeated the process until the majority of the dents had been lifted. I took photos of the pipe, knife and wet cloth.I dried off the bowl and took photos of the briar to show how well the steam had lifted the dents in the wood. I rubbed some Before & After Restoration Balm into the briar to lift out the dust in the grain, enliven and protect the clean and steamed bowl. I let it sit for a little while then buffed it off with a soft cloth. I like the way the grain stands out now. Some of the dents are still visible on the bottom left side of the shank but they are far better than they were. I took the bowl to my buffer and buffed it with Blue Diamond to polish it and raise a shine. I was careful around the stamping so as not to damage it or reduce its readability. The bowl looks really good at this point. All that remains for the bowl is to wax it and buff it. I set it aside and began my work on the stem. I took the stem out of the Before & After Stem Deoxidizer bath and rinsed it under warm water. I blew air through the stem to remove the deoxidizer from the inside of the airway. I dried it off with a paper towel to remove the residual oxidation that was on the surface. I took photos of the stem at this point in the process. You can see some of the calcification on the stem around the button and the tooth marks on both sides. The tooth marks on the underside are by far the deepest.I cleaned the inside of the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the residual deoxidizer in the airway.I painted the surface of the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter to left as much of the tooth denting as possible. Once I had repeated that and the stem would no longer rise I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage. I finished by sanding it with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper to remove more of the scratches in the vulcanite. I sanded the entire stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the calcification and remaining oxidation. I used a needle files to sharpen and reshape the sharp edge of the p-lip button on the top side and the shelf on the underside. I need to clean up those areas before I could repair the deep tooth marks. I cleaned out the deeper tooth marks with alcohol and cotton swabs to remove the debris and dust from the divots. I dried them off with a cotton pads. I filled in the tooth dents with black super glue. I spread the glue and smoothed it out with a dental spatula. I set it aside to let the glue cure.I sanded the repairs smooth with 220 grit sandpaper and with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper. I blended them into the surface or the stem and reshaped the button and shelf. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with a damp cloth. I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I rubbed it into the stem and polished it with a cotton pad. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. With the stem reshaped and polished I put it back on the pipe and buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond. I used a light touch on the stem to polish out any remaining scratches. I gave the bowl and the stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. This is the fifth pipe I have worked over for Paresh. Once I finish the other two pipes that he has in the queue I will pack them up and send them to India. I look forward to hearing what he thinks one he has them in hand. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as this one provided a few different challenges to the restoration craft. Cheers.

Restoring Barry’s Dad’s Pipes #6 – a Dunhill Root Briar 34 F/T Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have been including some of the back story in each of the restorations of these pipes because to me the story gives colour to the pipe as I work on it. I am including it once again. Skip over it if you want to. Late in the summer of 2017 I received an email on rebornpipes blog from Barry in Portland, Oregon. He wanted to know if I would be interested in purchasing his Dad’s pipes. I have finished four of them so far, a 1939 Dunhill Patent Shell Bulldog, a Comoy’s Grand Slam Zulu, a Comoy’s London Pride Liverpool and a 1959 Dunhill Root Briar Billiard. After I finished the second pipe Barry wrote me an email that gave me a little more information on his Dad and incidentally on himself as this pipe was one of his own. Here is what he wrote me.

Steve, — Another great restoration and writing to go with it. I appreciate these pipes more watching the work it takes to get them in good condition.

Your (mine?) floral words about my father are perhaps a little deceptive. Inside that man was a lifelong Bolshevik. Who yearned for the revolution and settled for the party of Roosevelt. His parents were born in the Russian Empire (Ukraine), his father having escaped after brief detention during the 1905 failed uprising and to avoid conscription. His father was gruff, a bit crude and all politics. Given those origins he made the best of himself, had tons of friends and would have been a great social worker.

I misled you on the origin of his pipe conversion. It seems clear based on the 1939 pipe that he smoked a pipe in college, returning to them after the 1964 Surgeon General ‘s report on the danger of cigarettes. After that he only reverted to cigarettes at moments of great stress, a death, business setback or a fight with his wife.

He gave me two pipes in college – the GBD bulldog and a “Parker”. The latter I used to smoke a few times but found I was allergic to it, fortunately. The GBD was to get girls with an MGB, a Harris Tweed sport coat with leather elbow patches and jug wine. Didn’t work. Stanford women were in revolt and saw through the pretense. I put both pipes away for nearly fifty years and now they are in your good hands. — Barry

Barry and I corresponded back and forth and concluded our deal. I became the proud owner of his Dad’s pipes. The inventory of the pipes he would be sending included some real beauties – Comoy’s, Parkers, Dunhills and some no name brands. They were beautiful and I could not wait to see them. I had him send them to Jeff where he would clean them up before I received them. Jeff took some photos of the lot as he opened the box. Each pipe was individually wrapped with bubble wrap and taped to protect them. There were 25 bubble wrapped packages and a lot of pipe accessories included – pipe racks, reamers, scrapers and Comoy’s filters and washers. There were pipe pouches and a wooden cigar box that held all of the accessories and reamers. There was a boxed KleenReem pipe reamer that was virtually unused. Jeff unwrapped the pipes and took pictures of the estate showing both the pipes and the accessories. Barry had labeled each pipe with a sticky note. It was an amazing addition to my pipe and tool collection. The next pipe I chose to work on from the collection was the Dunhill Root Briar billiard that is the third pipe down in the photo above. It was in decent condition with dents and wear of the years on briar but the stem was un-oxidized. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank with the shape number 34 followed by F/T which is the style of stem (fish tail). I looked up the shape number on a previous blog on rebornpipes (https://rebornpipes.com/2012/11/01/dunhill-pipe-shapes-collated-by-eric-w-boehm/). The shape number 34 is a Billiard. Next to that it reads Dunhill over Root Briar. On the right side of the shank it reads Made in over England with a superscript 9 and a c. Next to that is the familiar 2 in a circle for the size of the pipe followed by a capital R for the Root Briar finish.

This petite billiard was interesting to me in that it was a unique little Root Briar with a mystery stamping next to the Made in England stamp. The superscript underlined 9 gives a potential date of 1959 but the mystery to me is the superscript underlined c next to that. I had not seen that before on any of the Dunhill pipes that I have worked on. The finish was dirty but in decent condition and the stamping was very readable. The bowl was caked and had an overflow of lava on the rim top as well as some darkening. The outer edges of the rim had some rough spots from knocking the pipe against something hard. There was a burn mark on the front right side of the bowl and the rim top. Even through the grime and grit the amazing birdseye on the sides and cross grain on the front and back of the bowl. The stem was in excellent condition with no oxidation and some tooth chatter both sides of the stem at the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he cleaned it up. As usual the photos tell the story better than my words can. Jeff took some close up photos of the bowl and rim top to show the cake and the overall condition of the bow and rim top. Both the outer edges and inner edges of the rim show damage. The top of the rim had some lava build up and had scratches and nicks in the surface. He also took a photo of the underside of the bowl to show the grain and the small dents. It is a really nice piece of briar and should clean up well. The stem was made of hard rubber and was barely oxidized as mentioned above and had tooth chatter on both sides near the button. Jeff took photos of both sides of the stem to capture their condition before he cleaned the pipe. The small white spot on the top of the stem was in good condition and slightly indented. Jeff once again did his usual great job on cleaning this pipe, leaving it pristine and without damage to the finish. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the remnants with the Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl, rim and shank with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime of the smooth finish on the bowl and shank. He was able to remove the tars and oil on the rim but the darkening and damage to the surfaced would need to be addressed. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. Once the dust and debris were removed the finish looked very good. He soaked the stem in Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer to remove the light oxidation, rinsed it with warm water and dried it off. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it.   I took some close up photos of the bowl, rim top and damaged areas around the outer edge of the bowl. The front outer edge has a burn mark. The bowl was very clean and the rim top had some nicks on both the inner and outer, some scorching and general darkening. Jeff had been able to remove the lava from the finish. The inner edge had some damage and nicks and the roughness of the rim top and outer edge was visible. The stem was barely oxidized as can be seen in the photos and has tooth chatter near the button on both sides.Before I did and restoration work on the bowl or stem I decided to pin down the date a bit more. I knew that the pipe was made after the patent era pipes as there was no patent number on the shank but I wanted to narrow that down more. One of the beauties of Dunhill pipes is that the stamping can give you a precise date of manufacture. In this case I wanted to work on the stamping Dunhill Root Briar on the left side of the shank and the Made in England9 c  on the right side of the shank. I looked up the brand on the Pipephil website as he has very helpful photos and information in dating and interpreting the stamping on Dunhill pipes. On one of the supplemental pages associated with Dunhill pipes he has a page on the Patent era pipes. I find that this page is particularly helpful when I am trying to properly identify a pipe. Here is the link to the page: http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/root-briar1.html.

The stamping on this one is similar to the one I am working on. Though the one I have in hand is not a DR A.  The one I have is stamped 34 F/T. The Made in England marking on the pipe in the photo on the right side of the shank is similar as well. The 9 on mine is more of a superscript than this one but the underscore is the same. There is also a 1969 version that is similar but it does not have the underscore on the 9. So the pipe I have is either a 1959 or a 1969 Root Briar. What is also unique on the one I have is the superscript underlined c next to the 9. I cannot find any information on what that means.Jeff photographed the stamping on the right side the shank to show what it read and the condition of the stamping. You can see the underscored superscript 9 matches the one above. The formula is simple – the base number is either1950 or 1960 and you add the underscored superscript 9 to that number. It is either 1969 or 1959. The parallels to the photo above leads me to think it is probably a 1959 pipe. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.To remove the damage on the rim I decided to top the bowl. I used 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board to remove the damage. I worked on it until the top was smooth and the damage on the outer edge of the bowl was minimized. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damages along the outer rim. I used it to also work on the inner edge of the bowl. I gave the inner edge a slight bevel like it original had before I started.  I polished the rim with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads. I wiped it down after each pad to check on the progress. I used a maple stain pen to touch up the rim top to match the colour on the rest of the bowl. With the touch ups the rim matches the rest of the bowl colour.I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the briar on the smooth finish to clean, enliven and protect it. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to polish it. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The grain on the bowl is really beginning to stand out and will only do so more as the pipe is waxed. I started working on the stem next. I sanded out the tooth chatter next to the button on both sides with 220 grit sandpaper. I wiped the stem surface clean with a damp cloth. I sanded it with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper to blend the scratches left behind by the sandpaper and blended the scratches into the surface of the vulcanite.  I polished stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each pad. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish, both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. This small Dunhill Root Briar is a real beauty with straight grain on the back and front and beautiful birdseye on both sides of the bowl and shank. The grain really is quite stunning. The rim top looks much better. The Dunhill vulcanite stem is high quality and shined up well. I buffed the bowl and the stem with Blue Diamond polish to raise the shine on the briar and the vulcanite. I was careful to not buff the stamping and damage it. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The rich brown stain allows the grain to really stand out on this little pipe and it works well with the rich black of the vulcanite stem. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 1/2 inches, Outside Diameter: 1 1/8 inches, Diameter of the chamber: 5/8 inches. This little Dunhill will fit really nicely into the collection of a friend of mine, Henry who has been looking for a pipe this size. I will sending it to him soon and I know that he is looking forward to enjoying his first bowl in it. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me.

There is something about Custombilt Bulldogs that attracts me

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Blog by Steve Laug

I needed a short break from the repairs that I have been doing a lot of lately so I chose to work on a nice Custombilt Bulldog that Jeff had sent me. It was a well-shaped ¼ bent Bulldog with worm trail rustication with a slight variation. Each of the worm trails and all around them was marked with a further rustication over the top – horizontal lines that ran all across them and around the bowl. They continued about half way up the shank on the top of the diamond shank. On the underside there was less rustication. The lower left side is stamped Custombilt over Imported Briar. There were two rings going around the bowl separating the rim cap from the rest of the bowl. One ring was slightly larger than the other. There were some small chips and nicks in the rim cap and between the rings. They were not too bad so they would not need a lot of work. The bowl had thick cake and a slight overflow of lava on the back side of the rim. There was some darkening to the rim. The rusticated finish was dirty and had grit and dirt in the grooves. The vulcanite stem was oxidized and there was tooth chatter on both sides near the button. There were no deep tooth marks in the stem itself. Jeff took some photos before he started working on his normal cleanup of the pipe. Jeff took a close up photo of the bowl and rim to show the condition of the pipe before he started to work his magic on it. The bowl had a thick dark cake and some overflow on the rim top. The rim edges were in decent condition with light dents in the surface. You can see some of the chipping to the edge of the cape over the twin rings around the bowl. Jeff took photos of the sides and bottom of the bowl from different angles and you can see the overall condition of the finish on the pipe. The next photo shows the chips in the edges of the cap. The middle ring was intact in this photo.He took a photo of the underside of the shank to show the stamping. The stamping is readable and is the standard Custombilt over Imported Briar stamp. The style of script in the stamp should help date and identify the time period the pipe was made.The next photos show that the stem was quite heavily oxidized and pitted. There was some light tooth chatter on both surfaces of the stem near the button and on the button edges itself.  I wanted to identify the stamping on the pipe so I started going through various sites I have used before. I looked on both the Pipephil website and the Pipedia website. The Pipephil site gave the following information: Tracy Mincer stopped making Custom-Bilt pipes in the early 1950s. The trademark was successively bought by Leonard Rodgers (1953), Consolidated Cigars (1968) and Wally Frank Co. (early 1970s). The later began to produce again his version of the pipe in 1974 or 1975 at Weber pipe factory (NJ). In 1987, the pipes were made out of the Butz-Choquin factory (France) and then Mexico until the late 1990s. Currently (2010), the Custombilt name is owned by Tobacalera of Spain which is part of Altadis. It is generally admitted (but not proved) pipes stamped “Custom – Bilt” (with the hyphen) are from the Mincer era. The name might have changed from Custom-Bilt to Custombilt (without the hyphen) in 1946. http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c8.html

I did some more research on the brand in the article on Pipedia. As I read through the material there I came across this photo that is pretty close to the stamping on the pipe I am working on. The note under the stamping photos identifies the stamping as one that was on pipes from the Wally Frank era.

https://pipedia.org/images/6/64/Custombilt_Stamp3.jpg

I read further in the Pipedia article to help confirm this. In the early 1950’s, Tracy Mincer developed severe financial problems that caused him to stop making the Custombilt, and he lost the name. In 1953, Leonard Rodgers bought the company and emphasized tobacco pouches and butane lighters. (However, it appears Mincer was working on his new pipe, the Doodler.) In 1968, Rodgers sold the Company to Consolidated Cigars. In the early 1970s, Wally Frank Co. bought the Custombilt trademark and began to produce their version of the pipe in 1974 or 1975. Hollco Rohr owned the Weber pipe factory, located in New Jersey, and produced the Custombilt pipes there. In 1987, the pipes were made out of the Butz-Choquin factory (France) and then Mexico until the late 1990s. Currently, the Custombilt name is owned by Tobacalera of Spain. https://pipedia.org/wiki/Custom-Bilt

From all of that I can say with fair certainty that the pipe came out in the 1970s and was made by the Wally Frank Company.

Jeff reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and followed up with a Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife to remove the cake. He scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl, rim, shank and stem with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the oils and tars on the bowl, rim and shank. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. Once more he soaked the stem in Before & After Stem Deoxidizer to remove the oxidation. The pipe came out looking really good. The grooves and carving on the briar looked clean and the stem oxidation was virtually gone. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition it was in after the cleanup. Jeff was able to remove the darkening and tars from the rim top and edges. The grain on the top is very nice and the top is clean. There were dents in the surface of the rim but the edges of the rim itself looked very good. It is a nice looking finish. The stem was clean and you can see that the deoxidizer had done a great job removing the oxidation. The tooth chatter, though present was not as visible on the stem and button.I took a photos of the chips out of the cap on the front and middle left. While they are visible I will leave them as part of the story of the journey of this old pipe.I started my restoration with the bowl. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out some of the nicks in the inner edge of the bowl. It was not out of round so it did not take too much work to remove the damage to the edge.The rest of the pipe was in such good condition from the cleanup that I did not have to do any sanding on the rim top or bowl. I began by rubbing the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm to deep clean the rusticated briar and the smooth rim. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I hand rubbed it with my fingers and worked it into the rustication with cotton swabs. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a horsehair shoe brush to polish it. The briar really began to have a rich shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. I sanded the repair smooth with 220 grit sandpaper followed by 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper to remove the pitting and light oxidation that remained in the curves of the saddle and the edges of the button. (I apologize for the lighting on the 2 sanding photos as they are a bit dark. The stem actually looks far better than my photos at this point.)I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. I used the Before & After Pipe Polish to remove the small minute scratches left in the vulcanite. I finished by wiping the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry.    I put the stem back on the pipe and worked it over with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches. I gave the bowl several more coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. This chunky Custombilt Bulldog has been brought back to life. It is my kind of pipe but it is one that I will likely sell on the store. If you are interested let me know as I will be posting it soon. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 1/4 inches, Height: 1 1/2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 2 inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 inches. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this Custombilt.

Restoring a CB Weber Inc. Maplewood Streamliner

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Blog by Steve Laug

Recently I was contacted by a reader about restoring a couple of pipes that he had picked up at a local antique shop. It was a nice looking Art Deco style pipe with a prow and fins around the bowl. The inside of the bowl itself was oval. The pipe was made out of Maple rather than briar. The fins went around the sides, back and front of the bowl. The finish was dirty but otherwise not too bad. The cuts around the bowl were rough and unsanded with a lot of burrs around the edges of each fin. The top of the bowl was darkened and also had a buildup of lava on the back side of the bowl and some darkening on the rim top. There was a cake in the bowl and shards of tobacco stuck to the sides and bottom. There were scratches on the shank and the bottom of the bowl. The bottom of the bowl had a raised ridge across the middle which made the pipe sit upright on the desk top. The stem appeared to be vulcanite with scratches and tooth chatter on the top and underside at the button. There was a small metal stinger in the tenon. I took photos of the rim top and both sides of the stem to show the condition of both. The close up of the rim top shows the darkening one the back side of the rim top and some around the other sides. The photo shows the tobacco debris stuck in bottom and on the sides of the bowl. Both sides of the stem had tooth chatter near the button. There were no deep tooth marks so it would be a fairly easy cleanup.The first article that I quoted from in that blog came from the following blogpost on WordPress: http://streamlinesdeluxe.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/weber-streamliner-pipe-2/. The author of the blog makes a brief reference to the pipe I found (and this one by the way) and even has a picture of it. He speaks of the stem being made of something other than vulcanite. Other references I found in online pipe forums spoke of the fact that the bowl was not made of briar but of some composite material. Others said that the bowls were made of American hardwoods. Interestingly no one spoke of what hardwoods were used. I have hunted high and low on the web and can find nothing definitive on the pipe’s manufacture or composition.

I broadened my search to information on finned pipes. I did not want information on Porsche design pipes or metal finned pipes but was looking for anything on wooden finned pipes. I came across the following information on a patent taken by a carver/designer named Wayne Leser. His diagrams and patent application is included below and it can be seen that it is actually very close to CB Weber’s Streamliner. His patent was applied for through the US Patent Office in January of 1941. I assume the patent was granted as it is on the Patent website. Weber’s design seems to be elongated a bit more than the Leser design but the tear drop shape of the outer bowl and the similarly tear drop shape of the drilling match quite well.

I can find no further information on Wayne Leser so I have no idea if he sold his concept to Weber, or worked for Weber. If anyone has further information on that connection it would be great to learn about it. Please post a response below. Refreshing myself on the history of the brand gave me the kind of background information that I enjoy when working on pipes that I am restoring. I took some close up photos to show that the pipe is made of Maple wood. It also shows that the shank of the pipe I am working bears stamping on both sides. On the left side it is stamped Streamliner in script over C.B. Weber Ltd. On the right side it is stamped Wally Frank Ltd. That means that while the pipe was made by C.B. Weber it was sold and distributed by Wally Frank. I wonder if it was not one of their Pipe of the Month sales.I reamed the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to remove all of the cake and the tobacco debris that was stuck to the walls of the bowl. I scraped the cake back to bare wood so that I could examine the walls of the bowl. There were very clean and there was no checking or burn marks.I used a folded piece of 320 grit sandpaper to smooth out the inside of each of the fins so that the sawed areas were smooth and all of the burrs left behind by the sawing of each fin were removed and smoothed out.I polished the rim top to remove the darkening and the light lava overflow. I also sanded the outside of the bowl with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. I took some more photos of the stem when it had been removed from the shank. You can see the scratching and wear on the top and underside near the button and other scratches up the stem toward the stinger in the tenon.  I removed the stinger and took a photo of it next to the stem.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the tooth marks and chatter. I worked on it until the surface was smooth. I polished the stem surface with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I further polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine deepen the shine. I gave the pipe a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I put the stem back on the bowl and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to lightly polish both the bowl and the stem. I buffed the bowl and stem to raise the gloss on the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The C.B. Weber Maple Streamliner is unstained. The grain on the Maple wood shows through on the rim, sides and shank of the pipe. The blonde maple goes well with the rich black of the vulcanite stem. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 1/2 inches, Outside Diameter: 1 1/4 inches, Diameter of the chamber: 5/8 inches wide and 1 inch long. This is an interesting pipe with an Art Deco look and a streamlined flow. The fins along the sides, front and back of the bowl act as cooling fins when the pipe is smoked. I have a second pipe to work on for Daniel and then I will mail both of them back to him. I know he is looking forward to loading it up and smoking it. Thanks for walking with me through the restoration.