Tag Archives: Bowl – finishing

Restoring a Sasieni Buckingham Four Dot Ruff Root Sandblast Billiard with a Craggy Gold Shank Band

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on is a nice looking sandblast straight billiard with a sandblast rim top and a gold band on the shank. The stem is an original saddle stem. We picked it up on 11/18/2021 from a fellow in Gardenia, California, USA. The stamping on the underside of the shank reads “Buckingham” S on the heel of the bowl followed by three lines reading Sasieni [over] Four Dot [over] “Ruff Root”. Next to that stamping there is a single line reading London Made with the chunky gold band covering a portion of the stamping. The vulcanite saddle stem has the four light blue dots on the left side of the saddle. The pipe is a nice looking pipe with a reddish brown finish that highlights the sandblast on the bowl sides and shank. The bottom of the shank and bowl are flattened so that the pipe sits on the desktop. There is a sandpit on the right side of the bowl mid bowl. On the underside there is a putty fill running diagonal across the heel. The vulcanite stem is set apart from the shank by the gold nugget band. It is light weight and comfortable pipe to hold. Jeff sent me the following photos of the pipe to show the condition it was in before he worked on it.

This is what I saw when I looked over the pipe.

The finish shows darkening of hand oils and some thick grime ground into the sand blast finish around the bowl sides. The stain is dull and the grain patterns under the grime are obscured around the bowl sides and shank
The sandblast rim top was very dirty with darkening and lava ground into the blast. It is heavier on the back side. The inner edge of the bowl looks quite good under the tars.
There was a thick cake in the bowl. The bowl itself was very dark and dirty. Once the bowl was cleaned up we could confirm the condition of the bowl walls.
The vulcanite stem was filthy, oxidized and had tooth marks and chatter on both sides. There were some deeper tooth marks on the underside ahead of the button.
There is a standard pattern Sasieni Four Dot logo on the stem that appears to be light blue in colour.

To summarize what I saw – this Sasieni Four Dot Ruff Root Sandblast Billiard is a well made pipe. The bowl and stem are very dirty which says to me that the pipe was someone’s favourite pipe. The look and feel of the pipe in the hand is great. It should clean up very well. Here are photos of the pipe taken before Jeff started the clean up. Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl, rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is thick – covering the walls of the bowl. The rim top has thick lava coat and has some darkening on the inner edge and is heavier toward the back of the bowl. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. I look forward to viewing it in person after the clean up work. The stem is dirty, oxidized, calcified and has grime all over the surface as noted in the description above. There are toothmarks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Instead of telling you what I see in the next photos of the sides of the bowl and the heel I want to hear from you. Tell me what you see? What does the finish look like to you? Are there any visible problems or issues that stand out to you? Are the cracks or scratches in sandblast finish of the bowl? Are there visible flaws or fissures in the briar? Note the fills that you see in the heel of the bowl. What does the finish look like? Is there a pattern to it? Any visible issues on the heel of the bowl? These questions should help you to see what I am looking for when I see these photos. He took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is stamped as noted above on the right and the left sides. The stem shows the Sasieni Four Dots in light blue on the left side of the saddle portion of the saddle. What stands out for you in the photos of the stamping? What do you look for in the stamping? It is dirty but what do you see underneath the grime on the surface of the briar? I decided to do some work on the stamping of this pipe to get an idea of the time period it was carved. I turned first to Pipephil’s site to see what I could learn (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-sasieni.html). I found a pipe that was stamped the same way as the one I am working on. It is stamped on the underside of the shank like the one in the screen capture photo below. Mine is stamped the same way Sasieni in script without the fish tail. Underneath it is stamped FOUR DOT NATURAL [over] London Made. Next to the shank is also the Made In England Stamp like the one below. On the heel of the bowl mine is stamped “Buckingham” S stamp rather than the “Appledore” stamp in the same place. I included the side bar notes below the picture. From that I knew that the pipe was made during Pre-transition Period 1946-1979.Pre-transition, 1946 – 1979. Four dot. Ruff Root is the name for a sandblast finish. “Buckingham” is the shape name (town) that is used on the pipe I have in hand.

I then turned to Pipedia for more detailed information (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Sasieni). I quote a section of that article below. It refers to the Patent Number that is on the pipe I have on the table. The underlined portion below is particularly pertinent to this pipe.

To begin with, there are three main elements to dating the Sasieni pipe, the patent number, the style of the name “Sasieni” as it appears on the shank, and the Dots themselves. Naturally, there are exceptions to these rules (this hobby would be boring without them), but for the most part these guidelines apply better than 95% of the time. All Sasieni One, Four, and Eight Dot pipes made before W.W.II and destined for the U. S. market carried a patent number on the shank which usually started with the numbers “15″, with 150221/20 and 1513428 being representative of the group. Also, the name “Sasieni” was stamped on the shank in a very florid manner, with the tail of the last “i” sweeping underneath the name forming a shape which has been compared to a fish by more than one collector. This script was discontinued by Alfred almost immediately after he took over the company, so this alone tells you your pipe is pre W.W.II. Underneath in block lettering are the words “London Made”, with the patent number making the third line.

The dots will help you narrow this down further. As we mentioned, the short lived U. S. market One Dot was introduced around 1920, and was replaced by the early to mid 1920’s by the Four Dot. The 1920’s Four Dot is distinguishable by the florid Sasieni script, a patent number, and four blue dots, which are quite small compared to the pipes of post war years. Furthermore, by 1935 Sasieni began stamping pipes, based on the shape, with their own names, which were usually, but not always, English towns. For example, apples were stamped “Hurlingham”, bulldogs were “Grosvenor” or “Danzey”, and panels were “Lincoln”. One rare and interesting variation of this was the large bent, dubbed “Viscount Lascelles”. Even in this soft Sasieni market, these pipes regularly sell for $150 in their rare appearances in mailers.

The pipe I have is one does not have a patent number so it was not made for the US market. The flourished “i” was discontinued by Alfred so that confirms that the pipe was made Pre-transition, 1946 –1979. The third line stamped is London Made in block lettering. With all that information I knew that my pipe was from the period before the transition (Pre Transition) so it was an older one.

I am sure many of you will shake your head and ask maybe even out loud, “Why is he including this again?” However, please remember that the point of these blogs is not to wow your with the work or make you shake your heads but I want you to know the details of the work we do so you can do your own. Back in 2020 Jeff wrote a blog about his cleaning process. I am including a link to that now so you can see what I mean about his process. Do not skip it! Give it a read (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/20/got-a-filthy-estate-pipe-that-you-need-to-clean/). Here is the introduction to that blog and it is very true even to this day.

Several have asked about Jeff’s cleaning regimen as I generally summarize it in the blogs that I post rather than give a detailed procedure. I have had the question asked enough that I asked Jeff to put together this blog so that you can get a clear picture of the process he uses. Like everything else in our hobby, people have different methods they swear by. Some may question the method and that is fine. But it works very well for us and has for many years. Some of his steps may surprise you but I know that when I get the pipes from him for my part of the restoration they are impeccably clean and sanitized. I have come to appreciate the thoroughness of the process he has developed because I really like working on clean pipe!

For the benefit of some of you who may be unfamiliar with some of the products he uses I have included photos of three of the items that Jeff mentions in his list. This will make it easier for recognition. These three are definitely North American Products so you will need to find suitable replacements or order these directly on Amazon. The makeup pads are fairly universal as we were able to pick some up in India when we were with Paresh and his family.

In the blog itself he breaks his process down into two parts – cleaning the stem and cleaning the bowl. Each one has a large number of steps that he methodically does every time. I know because I have watched him do the work and I have seen the pipes after his work on them. He followed this process step by step and when the pipe got to me it was spotlessly clean and ready for my work. The inside of the stem, shank and bowl were clean and to me that is an amazing gift as it means that my work on this end is with a clean pipe! I cannot tell you how much difference that makes for my work.

When the pipe arrives here in Vancouver I have a clean pipe and I go over it keeping in mind my assessment shared in the opening paragraph above. Now that I have it in hand I am looking for confirmation of what I saw in the photos as well as any significant structural changes in the bowl and finish as I go over it.

The finish is clean and the oils have been removed from both sides of the bowl. The grime ground into the finish is gone and there is some great grain showing through the sandblast finish around the bowl sides.
The lava coat and darkening on the rim top has been removed and it is very clean. The inner edge also looks very good.
The cake had been totally removed and the walls of the bowl are clean. There is not any checking or burn damage on the interior walls of the bowl.
The vulcanite saddle stem is clean and has light tooth chatter and marks on both sides. There is also some oxidation remaining on the stem surface.
The four blue dots (Sasieni logo) on the left side of the saddle look very good.

Hopefully the steps above show you both what I look for when I go over the pipe when I bring it to the work table and also what I see when I look at the pipe in my hands. They also clearly spell out a restoration plan in short form. My work is clear and addressing it will be the next steps. I took photos of the whole pipe to give you a picture of what I see when I have it on the table. This is important to me in that it also shows that there was no damage done during the clean up work or the transit of the pipe from Idaho to here in Vancouver. I carefully went over the bowl and rim top to get a sense of what is happening there. In this case once the lava was removed and the top looked good. There was some darkening around the inner edge, heavier toward the front of the bowl. It is clean but will need to be worked on to bring it back to normal. I also go over the stem carefully. There were some light tooth marks and dents on both sides of the stem. I took photos of the rim top and stem sides to show as best as I can what I see when I look at them.I always check to make sure that the clean up work did not damage the stamping on the shank in any way. It looks good but is faint in some parts – particularly on the heel of the bowl. The putty fill is visible in the photo below. I always appreciate the handiwork of the carvers at Sasieni who turn a piece raw briar into a beautiful pipe. I love just looking at the beauty of the lay of the pipe with the grain and the proportion of the pipes. I like to remove the stem from the shank to get a sense of what was in the mind of the pipe maker when he crafted the pipe. It is a beauty in flow and shape.I started working on this pipe by turning to the bowl. I chose to deal with the darkening on the inner edge of the rim. I used a piece of 220 grit sandpaper to remove the darkening on the inner edge. It took a little work but I was able to remove most of the damage. It looks much better after I worked it over.I used a Cherry Stain Pen to stain the putty fill and blend it into the surface of the sandblast billiard. It looked much better once it had cured.For the past few years now I have been using a product developed by Mark Hoover called Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar. The product works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips and a shoe brush and let it sit for 10 minutes to do its work. I wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to shine and the grain shone through the blast. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. It is a gorgeous pipe. I set the bowl aside and turned to the stem. I “painted” the stem surface with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the tooth marks. I was able to lift them and sanded out what remained with 220 grit sandpaper. I started the polishing of the stem with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I wiped the stem down with Soft Scrub cleanser to remove the remaining oxidation on the stem surface. It looked much better. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pads. I know that many say Obsidian Oil does nothing for acrylic stems, but I find it does two things – first it gives some protection to the stem from buildup and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the acrylic. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the Extra Fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection.The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I don’t buff a sandblast finish on the buffer with polish as it can fill in the deep grooves. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the light scratches in the vulcanite. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservators Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I follow up the wax buff with a buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished stem. It really is a nice pipe. The smooth finish around the bowl sides and shank looks great with rusticated plateau style crowned rim. The acrylic stem works well with the pipe. The Sasienin Four Dot Ruff Root Sandblast Billiard with a craggy gold shank adornment feels great in my hand. It is a well balanced pipe. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.62 ounces/46 grams. It is a beautiful pipe that I will soon be adding to the rebornpipes store in the British Pipemakers Section. If you would like to add it to your collection let me know. It should be a great smoking pipe. Hopefully the style of writing of this blog is helpful to you in some way. In it I wanted to show both what I am looking for and how I move forward in addressing what I see when work on a pipe. Let me know if it is helpful to you. It is probably the most straightforward detailed description of my work process that I have done. As always I encourage your questions and comments as you read the blog. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipe men and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Putting together and restoring a German Porcelain Wine Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

The fellow I restored the Napoleon figural briar for also had some parts of a Porcelain wine pipe. The base was badly chipped, the bowl was missing the brass cap and the bowl showed damage on the long neck that sat in the base. The bowl itself also had a long crack running down the front of the bowl and held together by the brass rim cap. There were no corks in the base and the two cherrywood shanks were too long and neither of them fit the base. The horn stems on them both were damaged and chipped. After going over it with him we decided to see what I could do with parts that I had available here and not use the damaged bowl and base. I also felt that the cherrywood parts would also be better used with something else. Now the hunt through my parts began in earnest. Here is a photo of the parts that he brought me carefully wrapped in tissue paper.I went through my box of parts and went through probably at least a dozen options. All were in various states of disrepair. All would need to be cleaned up. However, I found one that to me was a very likely candidate. All the parts were present on this interesting and dirty wine pipe. The pipe was kept together in a small plastic bag so I knew that all parts came to us together. It had an unchipped base, an uncracked bowl, a complete brass windcap and the a cherry wood shank and horn stem that were all in good condition. The shank end had a new cork that would need some work to fit it to the base correctly but it worked. The base had a new cork in place to hold the bowl. The painting and glaze on the bowl was in great condition other than being dirty. The amazing thing to me was that the pipe was unsmoked! I sent photos of the this pipe after I assembled it and another that I put together from parts to the fellow and he chose the one below. It has a painting of the fox on the front of the bowl. It will clean up very well and the new trustee will get to give it an inaugural smoke! I have looked for background information on these porcelain glazed Tyrolean or Wine pipes in the past and not found much information about them. I did have an interesting graphic on my iPad that I have included below. I have no idea where I picked it up as it has been here for a long time. The pipe I am working on is virtually identical to the pipe on the far right in the photo below. Even the tassels look the same. It has a deer under the glaze on the bowl front while this one has a fox. Otherwise it is the same.I turned next to cleaning up the porcelain. I used a mild dish soap and a damp cotton pad to remove the grime and detritus from sitting in a drawer for so many years. It came off with a bit of scrubbing. I don’t like to use anything harsh on the glaze so a mild dish soap is perfect. I started with the base and then worked on the bowl. With the bowl and base cleaned and ready to go I turned to the rim top and cap. I polished the silver and brass metal on the rim top and dome wind cap with a jewelers cloth and it remove the tarnish and gave the cap a shine. It will protect it from further tarnishing. I set the base and the bowl aside and turned my attention to the shank fit. I reshaped the cork on the end of the shank so that the fit would be more solid. I used a wood rasp and very carefully reshaped the cork. I checked it often to assure that I was improving the fit not wrecking it ;). Once I was finished I used some Vaseline to enliven the cork and soften it. I have found that works to give more elasticity to the cork and makes it hold better in the porcelain. I also used it on the cork where the bowl neck fits as well to soften it. I inserted the shank in the base and the fit is snug now and feels good. I rubbed the horn shank end and the cherrywood shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the wood and horn with my finger tips. I let it sit for ten minutes then buffed it off with a soft cloth. It looks more alive now.I set the shank aside to let the Balm soak in and put the bowl and base back together again. The fit in the base is very good and the combination works well. I next fit the cherry wood shank in the base and bowl. The pipe is coming together really well. I rubbed the older style horn stem down with Before and After Restoration Balm and buffed it out after 10 minutes. It looked much better. I screwed it into the cherrywood shank once it was finished. The shank and stem look very good.I put the parts together to have a look at the finished pipe. It came out looking very good.I hand buffed the parts of the pipe and put it back together. The contrast between the white porcelain, the painted fox on the front of the bowl and the horn and cherrywood shank is quite stunning. The two tassels on the string look very good as well. I believe they are made out of horsehair. The dimensions of the pipe are length: 11 inches, height base to cap: 7 inches, diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. It is ready to be picked up along with the Napoleon figural briar pipe. Perhaps on the weekend the fellow will stop by and pick them up. Thanks for reading the blog as I walked through my work on this unsmoked old timer.

Writing Straight with Crooked Lines

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By Kenneth Lieblich

A few weeks ago, I posted a blog about a Peterson Standard System 307. That pipe sold quite quickly and a kind gentlemen contacted me to say that if I came across another, he would be interested. As it happened, I did have another 307 in my pile of pipes, so I was only too happy to get working on that one. The 307 is a good-sized pipe and the look of it gives one a feeling of confidence. It is satisfying and comfortable in the hand. This particular pipe had some serious issues, but I was confident that I could still make it beautiful again. I guess I was trying to make virtues out of vices (or something like that) – hence writing straight with crooked lines.Let’s have a closer look. This Peterson 307 pipe has the classic “System” look: bent shape, nickel mount, and tapered, army-style stem. Of course, it also had the traditional Peterson P-lip stem. The markings on the left side of the shank are Peterson’s [over] System [over] Standard. The right side of the shank showed Made in the [over] Republic [over] of Ireland [over] 307. The nickel mount on the shank had K&P [over] Petersons. There were no markings on the stem. The Peterson System pipes are well-storied among Peterson collectors/admirers. I took the opportunity to read the article on Pipedia, specifically about the System pipes, by Jim Lilley. There is lots of good information there and I encourage you to read it: https://pipedia.org/wiki/A_closer_look_at_the_famous_Peterson_Standard_System_Pipe On to the pipe itself: it was in rough shape – very dirty and harshly treated. The stem was thoroughly calcified and oxidized. It also had some major dents: one on the top and one on the bottom. Most notably, however, there was some significant wear to the side of the P-lip. The bowl was very dirty and had quite a bit of lava and plenty of cake. The front edge of the rim had been heavily bashed in – presumably from banging out dottle etc. The outside of the bowl had some small fills and some very deep scratches – much deeper than the photos convey. The nickel mount was in rough shape – stained, corroded, and heavily chipped along the top edge. To work! The stem was first on my list. I wiped the outside down with Murphy’s Oil Soap on some cotton pads. I also took a BIC lighter and ‘painted’ the stem with its flame to lift the bite marks. Sadly, however, this did not do much, as the dents were much too deep. Then I cleaned out the inside with pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. I used some SoftScrub on the outside of the stem to remove some oxidation. Then, the stem went for an overnight soak in the Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. The following day, I cleaned the de-oxidizing mess off with alcohol, pipe cleaners, et cetera. The oxidation had migrated to the surface and would be fairly straightforward to remove. I scrubbed again with SoftScrub on some cotton pads to remove the leftover oxidation. I built up the dents on the stem with black cyanoacrylate adhesive and let them cure. I then sanded the adhesive down with 220- and 400-grit sandpapers to meld seamlessly into the stem. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to polish it and highlight the black lustre on the stem. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing. What about the worn side of the P-lip? I decided to leave that as it was. I did not have a spare Peterson stem to replace this one and I always like to use original parts whenever possible. The stem shows that wear, but it is part of the history of the pipe and so it shall stay.

Moving on to the stummel, I first decided to ream out the bowl. I used both the PipNet Reamer and the KleenReem to remove the built-up cake and followed that with 220-grit sandpaper taped to a dowel to eliminate as much as possible. I took the chamber down to bare briar to ensure there were no hidden flaws in the wall. Fortunately, there were none.I proceeded to clean out the insides of the shank with Q-tips, pipe cleaners, and lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. There was quite a bit of filth inside this stummel, and it took a fair amount of cotton to get it clean. I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some dish soap and tube brushes.I then used cotton rounds and some Murphy’s Oil Soap to scrub the outside of the stummel and a toothbrush with Murphy’s for the lava on the pipe’s rim. At this point, I opted to remove the nickel mount before moving on. It wasn’t well attached to the stummel anyway. It would need some special work, as there was a crack in the edge of the shank – hidden by the mount. The first step in dealing with this was to ensure that the crack would not continue to creep after I had repaired it. To that end, I took a micro-drill bit, inserted it in my Dremel, and very carefully drilled a hole right through the wall of the shank, into the mortise. I then needed to apply cyanoacrylate adhesive in order to seal and repair it. I carefully applied a tiny bead of adhesive to the hole and the length of the crack. Finally, I clamped it shut and let it cure. This was a great success and the mount would hide the repair going forward. I decided to de-ghost the pipe in order to remove any lingering smells of the past. I thrust cotton balls into the bowl and the shank and saturated them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummel sit overnight. This caused any remaining oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton. The bowl was nice and clean after this. Now I could address the roughness on the rim. I “topped” the pipe – that is, I gently and evenly sanded the rim on a piece of 220-grit sandpaper. This effectively removed the damage without altering the look of the pipe.Then I was able to address the small nicks on the rim and the bowl. I dug out my iron and a damp cloth to try to raise the nicks. The hot and moist steam can often cause the wood to swell slightly and return to shape. This worked very well and many of the scratches were corrected with this method.Now it was time to address the remaining fills on the bowl. I repaired them with a mixture of briar dust and cyanoacrylate adhesive. This ensures a strong repair and one that looks similar to the surrounding wood. I sanded the repairs down with 200- and 400-grit sandpaper until they were level with the surrounding briar.Then, I used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) on the stummel to finish it off. I opted to turn the bashed-in front edge of the rim into a rounded front edge. This was possibly an odd choice, but I am very pleased how it turned out in the end. However, the deep, parallel scratches on the side of the stummel were not going anywhere. Unfortunately, they were too deep to be sanded out and too narrow to be filled with briar and glue. The scratches were sanded with the Micromesh pads, and looked much improved. The nickel mount also needed serious help. I wanted to keep as much of the metal as possible, but didn’t want to leave a purely jagged edge. I sanded this edge to ensure a proper balance between keeping the maximum amount of metal and taking away a possible hazard. Then, I used some SoftScrub on cotton rounds to clean the metal and remove some corrosion. I used some of my MicroMesh pads (only 3,600-12,000) to eliminate some of the minor scratches on the metal. It also gave a nice shine. I used a jewelry cloth to give the final polish to the nickel. This mount would always retain some small dents etc. from its hard life, but it looks much improved. I used some white glue to reattach it to the stummel. At this point, I rubbed some Before & After Restoration Balm into the briar and left it to sit for 15 minutes or so. I brushed it with a microfibre cloth. The B&ARB does wonderful things to the wood, and I really like the natural colour of the briar. Off to the bench polisher to put the final touches on this pipe. I first gave it a thorough going-over with White Diamond compound. Following that, several coats of carnauba wax created a beautiful, glossy seal on the pipe. This Peterson Standard System 307 looks fantastic again and I know that the new owner will enjoy smoking it for many years to come. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 6¼ in. (158 mm); height 2 in. (51 mm); bowl diameter 1⅝ in. (41 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (20 mm). The weight of the pipe is 2¼ oz. (66 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe as much I as I did restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Restoring Grandfather’s Figural Briar Napoleon Pipe for a Local Pipe Man

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is one that came to me from a Vancouver pipe man who I have worked on pipes for in the past. This one came to him from his Grandfather who passed away in the 1970s, and has not been smoked since he last smoked it. It is an interesting figural pipe that is a carved head of Napoleon Bonaparte I believe. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Real Briar in an oval over Made in France. It was well smoked and quite dirty. The finish was mixed rusticated on the base and shank and smooth around the carving on the face and on the hat. The carving was nicely done with well defined features around the face. The pipe had a lot of grime ground into the finish and hand oils in the briar. It was dirty. The rim top was thickly coated with tars and lava that had overflowed from the cake in the bowl. The inner edge of the bowl was also thickly covered with lava. The bent taper stem was oxidized with light calcification at the button. There was light tooth chatter on the top and underside of the stem ahead of the button. The button was in excellent condition. It was going to be a fun clean up. I wanted to capture the condition when I was given it. I took photos of the pipe before I started my clean up on it. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the cake and the lava overflow on the top. You can also see some potential damage on the inner edge of the rim. There is darkening on right back edge of the hat and on the left front edge of the hat. It was a mess. The cake is hard and thick. The photos of the stem surface show the oxidation, calcification and tooth chatter. I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank. It reads as noted above – REAL BRIAR in an oval [over] Made in France. It is clear and readable. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of overall look of the pipe. There was also a metal stinger in the tenon that was covered in tars and oils.I took photos of the carving all around the bowl sides beginning with the facial features. It is a well carved beautiful pipe. I started my clean up work on the pipe by reaming the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer. I used the second cutting head to take the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and then sanded the bowl smooth with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl walls looked very good once sanded showing no burn damage and checking. They were smooth. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the inner edge and smooth out the damage as well as to remove the lava build up on the rim top. It looked much better though there was still work to be done.I heated the metal stinger on the end of the tenon with the flame of a lighter. Once it was warm I was able to unscrew it from the tenon. Now that it was out I could clean out the airway in the stem and in the shank more easily.I cleaned out airway and mortise in the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol (99%). I cleaned the metal stinger with alcohol and a cotton pad to clean off the grime and tars. Once I had cleaned out all the parts, the pipe smelled significantly better. With the internals clean I turned my attention to the exterior of the bowl and all the nooks and crannies of the carvings. I scrubbed it with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap, I rinsed off the soap suds and grime with warm running water and repeated the process until the surface was grime free. The photos show the pipe at this point in the process. Once clean the surface had some spots of varnish or shellac on the surface leaving shiny spots on the surface of the carving. I wiped it down with acetone on a cotton pad until the surface was clean and the shininess was removed. It was looking good. I worked over the rim top, cap edges and the grooves between the cap and the rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. It looked much better.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I choose to dry sand the briar rather than wet sand it. Again it is a matter of personal preference. I prefer to use the pads dry and find they work very well on the briar. I sand with each pad (9 in total) and group them by threes for ease of reference. I wipe the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris and check the briar. I love seeing the developing shine on the briar as I move through the pads which is why I include so many photos of this step. I rubbed down the bowl and shank with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar. The product works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips and a horsehair shoe brush. I let it sit for 10 minutes then wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine and the carving showed depth. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. It is a gorgeous pipe. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pads. I find it does two things – first it gives some protection to the stem from buildup and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the vulcanite. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the Extra Fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection.The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I carefully buffed the figural bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the light scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I follow up the wax buff with a buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished stem. It really is a nice pipe. The carved face and cap work well with the vulcanite stem. The Carved Napoleon Figural is a beauty and feels great in my hand. It is a well balanced pipe. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 ¾ inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.54 ounces/73 grams. It is a beautiful pipe that I will soon sending home to the pipeman who dropped it off. I have one more pipe to finish for him then he can enjoy them and the memories they hold.

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

Refurbishing a beautiful classic billiard from Peterson’s – a Kapet # 150, London Made, England

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Blog by Paresh Deshpande

The next pipe that I selected to work on is a beautiful classic billiard shaped Peterson’s pipe with a P-lip tapered stem. The very appearance of this pipe shouted “ol’ timer” to me even before I saw the stampings. The size also indicated that this pipe was from an era when large bowl were not in vogue, specifically the English made.

The pipe boasts of some beautiful mixed grains of bird’s eye and cross grains hidden beneath the layer of dirt and grime. That this pipe is from a quality pipe maker is evident from the quality of fit, finish and the briar used. There are only a couple of small fills that I could identify. The tapered P-lip vulcanite stem also oozes quality and points it to be a Peterson’s pipe. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank as “PETERSON’S” with a forked P over “KAPET”, all in capital letters. The left side of the shank is stamped as “LONDON MADE” over “ENGLAND” and followed by shape code “150” towards the shank end. The stem has the trademark letter P in cursive hand over the left side.I have worked on quite a few Peterson’s from pre-1960s and from those researches; I know that this pipe is from the classic range of pipes from Peterson’s and belongs to the period when Peterson’s had an office in London up to late 1950s when the shop was closed. I referred to pipedia.org just to refresh my knowledge about the history of Peterson’s pipes. It always does make for an interesting read and is highly recommended. Given below is the link to this detailed history of the brand Peterson’s.

https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson

Given below is the link to the Dating Guide for Peterson’s pipes at the end of the article on pipedia.org.

https://pipedia.org/wiki/A_Peterson_Dating_Guide;_A_Rule_of_Thumb

To summarize, this pipe is from the classic range of Peterson’s, an entry level Pete pipe. This is evidenced from the KAPET stampings and a couple of fills in the briar surface. The COM stamp points to a period between 1895, when Peterson’s opened a shop in London, and late 1950s when this shop was closed. Thus this pipe definitely dates to pre-1960s.

INITIAL VISUAL INSPECTION
The chamber of this classic billiard shaped pipe has a thick coat of even cake with small traces of lava flow over the rim top surface. The rim top itself has a few dents and dings along its surface. The stummel surface is dull, dry and covered in grime giving it a lackluster appearance. The shank shows accumulation of old oils, tars and gunk. The vulcanite stem does not sit flush with the shank face. The stem bite zone has signs of deep tooth indentations over the button edges and around the round slot end. Here is how the pipe appears as it sits on my work table. Detailed Inspection
The chamber has a decent layer of even cake that lightly overflows over the rim top surface. The condition of the chamber walls can be commented upon once the cake has been completely taken down to the bare briar. The inner rim edge is charred in 6 o’clock and 11 o’clock directions (encircled in yellow). The rim top itself is dotted with dents and dings. The outer rim edge too has a few minor chipped areas, but nothing serious.The stummel is covered in dust and grime of all the years of use. There are a couple of fills (marked by green). The shank is filthy with the accumulated old oils, ash and grime. This clogging could be the reason for the seating of the stem not being flush with the shank face. Other than these issues, the stummel is in a decent condition. The P-Lip straight vulcanite stem is oxidized with severe tooth indentations on the button edge on either surfaces of the stem in the bite zone to the extent that the round slot at the top is completely deformed. The step tenon end shows heavy traces of dried oils and tars and remnants of ash and the heavy draw through the stem airway convinces me that there is heavy accumulation of gunk throughout the airway.The Process
I started the process of restoration by first cleaning the stem internals with anti-oil dish cleaning soap and thin shank brushes. The stem air way was filthy to say the least. I further cleaned the stem internals with hard bristled and regular pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. A lot of elbow grease and a pile of pipe cleaners later, the pipe cleaners emerged white and I knew that the stem internals were now clean and fresh. I dunked the stem into the deoxidizer solution have overnight for the oxidation to be pulled out to the surface. I usually have around 4-5 pipes lined for restoration and this Pete is indicated by a green arrow.The next afternoon, Abha fished out the stem from the deoxidizer solution and scrubbed it with a Scotch Brite pad to get rid of the loosened oxidation from the surface. She followed this scrub with a second scrub using 0000 grade steel wool and this helped in further removal of raised oxidation from the surface and even out the minor scratches resulting from using the Scotch Brit pad. She rinsed the stem under warm running water to completely remove the solution from the airway and slot end. She ran a couple of pipe cleaners to remove the last traces of residual deoxidizer solution from the airway and dry out the airway.With the external and internal cleaning of the stem completed, Abha handed over the stem to me to complete the repairs. Continuing with the stem refurbishing, I heated the bite zone with the flame of a lighter to raise the tooth indentations to the surface. Though the results were not what were expected, the vulcanite was raised a little leaving behind deep tooth compressions over the button edge on either surfaces. These surfaces of the stem were filled with a mix of CA Gorilla superglue and activated charcoal powder and set aside for the fill to cure. I really hope that this time around I get better results with using this new CA glue. With the stem repairs set aside to harden, I started with the stummel repairs by reaming the chamber with the smallest of the PipNet reamer blade. I used my fabricated knife to remove cake from areas inaccessible to the reamer blade and completed the process by sanding the walls smooth with a folded piece of 180 grit sandpaper. I wiped the chamber with a cotton swab wetted with alcohol to clean the residual carbon dust. The chamber walls are solid with decades of residual service life. However, the rim has slightly deformed due to charring at 6 and 12 o’clock directions and encircled in green. I cleaned the external surface of the stummel with undiluted Murphy’s oil soap and a hard bristled toothbrush. I cleaned the smooth rim top surface with the soap and Scotch Brite pad. The darkened inner rims edge in the 6 o’clock direction is now clearly visible (marked in red) and confirms a charred rim edge. Simultaneously, I thoroughly cleaned the mortise with shank brush and anti-oil dish washing soap. This ensured that the stummel now smells clean and fresh. I dried the stummel internals and externals with paper towels and soft absorbent cotton cloth and set it aside overnight to completely dry out before I worked on it any further.By next afternoon, the stummel had dried out and I decided to address the issue of fills over the surface. With a sharp dental tool, I extracted the old and loosened fills and cleaned the area with a cotton swab and alcohol. Using clear CA superglue, I filled up the pits over the stummel surface and set it aside to cure. Once the fill had hardened, I first sand the fills with a needle file to roughly match the fill with the rest of the surface followed by sanding with a folded piece of 220 grit sand paper to further blend in the fills with the rest of the briar surface.Next, I moved on to address the charred edges over the rim top surface. I topped the rim over a piece of 220 grit sand paper by slowly rotating the rim over the sand paper. I hate to lose briar any more than absolutely necessary and so frequently checked the progress I was making. I was quite pleased with the appearance of the stummel at this stage in restoration.With a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper pinched between my forefinger and thumb, I imparted a nice bevel to the inner rim edge. This eliminated the minor charring that had remained over the inner rim edges.Now that the stummel repairs were complete, Abha took over the bowl to work her magic and bring alive the grains over the briar surface. She went through the complete set of micromesh pads, wet sanding through 1500 to 12000 grit pads. Next, she rubbed a small quantity of “Before and After Restoration Balm” deep in to the briar with my finger tips and let it rest for a few minutes. The balm almost immediately works its magic and the briar now has a nice vibrant appearance with the beautiful grain patterns displayed in their complete splendor. I really like the looks of the stummel at this point in restoration. The grains and the clean lines of this piece of briar is really appreciable. While Abha was polishing the stummel, I worked on the stem repairs. The fill had cured and with a flat head needle file, I worked on the filling till I had achieved a rough match with the surrounding surface and had sufficiently sharpened the button edges. For a better blending, I further sand the entire stem with 320.Next, to impart a nice shine, I dry sanded the entire stem with 320, 600 and 800 grit sand papers followed by wet sanding using 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit sand papers. This progressive use of higher grit sandpapers helps to, firstly, reduce the sanding marks left behind by the more abrasive ones, secondly, completely eliminates the oxidation while imparting a clean shine to the stem surface. Thirdly, this also helped to even out the minor imperfections from the bite zone. I applied a little EVO and set the stem aside for a few minutes for the oil to be absorbed in the stem surface. To bring a deep shine to the vulcanite stem, I went through the dry sanding with 3200 to 12000 grit micromesh pads, and wiped the stem with Extra Virgin Olive oil to rehydrate the vulcanite. The repairs have blended in very well and the stem now looks shiny black and beautiful. The finished stem is shown below.To refresh the stem logo, I coat the stem logo with white correction ink and let it dry out completely. Once the ink had dried out, with a toothpick, I gently removed the excess ink from the surrounding surface. Though the logo is not very crisp, this is the best that was possible given how worn out the stamping was to start with.This is that part in pipe refurbishing that I love and enjoy the most. I began the final polishing cycle by mounting a cotton cloth buffing wheel on to my hand held rotary tool and applying a coat of Blue Diamond to the entire pipe to polish out the minor scratches. With a cotton buffing wheel that I use for carnauba wax, I apply a coat of carnauba wax to the stummel and stem and continued to work on it till the complete coat of wax had been polished out. I mount a clean cotton cloth buffing wheel and gave the entire pipe a once over buff. I finished the restoration by giving the entire pipe a rigorous hand buffing using a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine further. This classic Billiards shape pipe from Peterson’s oozes a solidity and beauty that draws you to it. Here are a couple of pictures of the pipe at the end of the restoration process. P.S. I shared the pictures of this pipe on our club’s WhatsApp group and was immediately snatched up by one of the members. As I completed the write up, I have received a fantastic feedback on the smoking qualities and aesthetics of this pipe…..and this is truly the most satisfying experience of the entire process!!

There are some interesting pipes that I have lined up next…..keep following rebornpipes for the write ups. Stay safe and keep the pipe lit.

A tale of two pipes- restoring a pair of vintage cased meerschaum pipes – Part-11

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Blog by Paresh Deshpande

I had been working on a pair of meerschaum pipes that came in a beautiful well preserved case. I have completed refurbishing the first pipe, a straight Dublin. Though I had worked on both these pipes simultaneously, I have done the write up in two parts.

For detailed information on the brand and other general information about the pipe, please read PART- I of this series.

Part- ll: Straight Billiard

Initial visual inspection
Of the two pipes in this set, this Straight Billiards appears to have seen the max abuse as well as use. The chamber has a thin layer of cake while the rim top surface has a couple of dents and dings. The inner rim edge has a couple of nicks and darkened in couple of areas. The stummel surface is marked by a number of scratch marks and is dirty with grime rubbed in to the surface. The Amber stem is badly damaged with cracks towards the tenon end and tooth indentations in the bite zone. The seating of the tenon in to the mortise is loose. The shank end has white silicon or some such tape sticking out and was likely used to tighten the fit of the stem in to the shank. Here is how the pipe looks as it sits on the worktable. Detailed Inspection
Both the pipes in the set appear to have been reamed prior to storage as is evident from the very thin layer of carbon in the chamber of both these pipes. The rim surface is clean of any lava overflow with slight darkening in 5 o’clock direction. However, there are a number of scratches and a couple of slight gouges (encircled in green) along the rim surface. The inner and outer rim edges have a few minor dings and would need to be addressed. The draught hole is right in the center and at the bottom of the chamber making these pipes a fantastic smoke. The stummel is peppered with minor as well as some slightly deep scratch marks. These scratches are predominantly on the right side of the stummel surface. There is a ton of grime and dirt over the surface. The shank end has a brass band and close scrutiny confirmed that the band is not a repair band. The white silicon (?) duct tape that is seen along threads inside of the mortise is indicative of having been placed to tighten the seating of the tenon in to the mortise. The mortise is severely clogged with tobacco ash, oils and gunk making the draw labored. Notwithstanding the present appearance of this pipe, I think that this pipe has some really beautiful coloration hiding beneath all the dirt and grime. The butterscotch yellow Amber stem with its threaded bone tenon sits very loose in to the mortise. I also noticed that the bone tenon is on the shorter side and does not extend all the way in to the mortise. Amber is a highly brittle material and with age and use is highly prone to develop cracks. This Amber stem is no exception. There is major fault line starting from the top surface of the stem at the tenon end, moving down for about an inch and branching off towards either sides of the stem. The crack line on the left side takes an upward turn on the lower surface and extends towards the stem face again. These cracks appear to have been repaired by gluing them together. All these cracks are indicated by red arrows. The bite zone on either stem surface has tooth indentations with chipped surfaces and these would need to be filled up. The round orifice has chipped areas around the edges. The leather covered case is in very good condition. The inside of the case is lined with deep maroon velvet that shows signs of being worn down, but intact. The intact outer leather covering is dirty and looks dull and lifeless with the brass pins and latches/locks all in working condition. This leather case should clean up nicely and be ready to accept these freshly refurbished pipes soon. The Process
I started this project by first reaming the chamber to rid the walls of the little cake that was visible. I used my fabricated knife to gently scrap off the cake. I followed this up by sanding the walls of the chamber with a piece of 180 grit sandpaper. This sanding not only helps to completely remove the cake but also helps to even out the wall’s surfaces. A wipe using 99.9% pure isopropyl alcohol on a cotton swab ensured that the carbon dust that remained is completely lifted from the wall surface and the ghost smells are eliminated.I followed the cleaning of the chamber with cleaning the shank and mortise. If you recollect, I had mentioned that the draw through the mortise is heavy/ labored and assumed that it was due to accumulation of oils/ tars and gunk. However, during the cleaning, I was unable to get a pipe cleaner in through the airway and out through the draught hole. It was at this point that I handed over the stummel to Abha, my wife to see if she could clear the air way. By the late afternoon, when I came back from some work, Abha had removed the blockage from the shank air way and it was a solid piece of wood (clearly seen in the picture). She ran a few hard bristled and regular pipe cleaners dipped in 99.9% isopropyl alcohol through until the shank and mortise was spotless clean and disinfected. Close inspection of the piece of wood extracted from the mortise makes me believe this piece to be remnants of a 6mm Balsa filter. How and why would anyone even think of doing so, let alone do it, is beyond my comprehension.With the stummel internals all cleaned and spruced up, I cleaned the external surface of the stummel with cotton swab and oil soap. Once the grime was cleaned, I wiped the surface with a moistened cotton swab to completely remove the residual soap and grime from the surface. The scratches are now distinctly visible all across the surface. Also, the color at the foot of the stummel and over the shank surface is succinctly visible. With this external cleaning, the damage to the rim top is now clearly visible. I topped the rim surface on a piece of 220 grit sandpaper, frequently checking for the progress. Once I was satisfied that the damage is sufficiently reduced, I stopped the process of topping. Though the damage to the rim top is still visible, it is now in much better state than before. I think I shall let these signs of damage remain as a part of this pipe’s journey to date. I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded the entire stummel with 1500 to 12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth to remove the dust that was left behind by the sanding. While I was working on the bowl top I also worked over the sides and bottom of the bowl to polish them as well. I wanted to minimize the scratching but not necessarily remove them all. These lacerations and dings must have had a history and I wanted to preserve it. I like the appearance of the stummel at this stage of restoration. I set the stummel aside and started with refurbishing of the stem. I cleaned the stem internals using anti oil detergent and thin shank brushes and rinsed it under warm water. I also cleaned the external surface of the stem using the soap and Scotch Brite pad. I further cleaned the stem airway with pipe cleaners and 99.9% pure isopropyl alcohol. I filled the tooth chatter with clear CA superglue and set the stem aside for the fill to cure.While the stem repairs were set aside to cure, I started with cleaning the leather covered case that housed the pipes. I used a hard bristled toothbrush and warm soap water to clean the maroon velvet lining the insides of the case and wiped it completely dry using paper towels. I cleaned the external surface of the case using cotton swabs and Murphy’s Oil soap and set it aside to dry out naturally.I checked the repairs over the stem and found that the fills had cured completely. Using a needle file, I roughly blended the filled surface with the surrounding surface. With a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper, I further fine tuned the blend by sanding the filled areas to match with the stem surface. The progress so far is good.To bring a deep shine to the stem, I went through the complete set of micromesh pads, dry sanding with 1500 to 12000 grit pads. Though the repairs are visible, they are meant to be as it is after all a repair. I have made peace with this.With the stem repairs and polish completed, I checked the leather case. It had dried completely. Next, I applied a liberal coat of Neutral color shoe polish over the leather and kept it in the sun for the leather to absorb the wax from the polish. I followed it up with a nice polish using a horse hair shoe brush. The leather is now nicely hydrated and taken on a nice shine.At this stage, the stummel has been polished with micromesh pads, the stem repairs and polishing is completed and the leather case has been cleaned and polished. I decided to address the loose seating of the tenon in to the mortise. I thought of using clear CA superglue to coat part of the tenon surface at the stem end and fit it in to the mortise. The rotation of the coated tenon within the mortise would create a thread pattern on both the tenon and mortise wall. I gave a few in and out rotations for the threads to set in to the coat. Once I was satisfied with the seating and alignment of the stem, I set it aside for the glue to set. I seem to have lost pictures of the process at this stage or may have not even taken them as after this complete project went in to a downward spiral….

Once the tenon coating had completely cured, I checked the seating of the stem in to the mortise again and heard a small cracking sound (though utterly deafening to my ears) and I knew that I was in trouble, rather huge trouble. The Amber stem cracked exactly along the fault lines that I had indicated early on. The pain, frustration and the agony is indescribable!! I decided to set the carnage aside and took a break.A couple of days later, I had a fresh look at the broken stem and worked out a POA to address the damage. I decided to replace the old tenon with a fresh bone tenon from my cache of spare tenon and glue the broken stem pieces together. I would further stabilize and strengthen the cracked portion of the stem with a sterling silver band. This replacement of the tenon would also address the issue of shorter tenon that I had mentioned above.

I selected a bone tenon that would fit snugly in to the mortise as well as in to the broken stem. I fixed the tenon in to the remaining intact part of the Amber stem using superglue. Once the glue had cured, I fixed the broken parts of the stem around the tenon with superglue and set it aside for the glue to cure completely. Once the glue had cured, I sand the repaired surface with a piece of 320 grit sand paper to match with the rest of the stem surface. Thereafter I attached a sterling silver band, which I had got specifically made for this stem, using superglue. The repairs are solid and I am quite satisfied with the progress being made.The gentleman who had commissioned this set had made it amply clear that the scratches/dents and dings over the stummel surface should remain as it is a part of the pipe’s past journey. I too agreed with the new owner and decided to move ahead with polishing and waxing of the stummel with beeswax. I brought a deep shine to the surface by dry sanding with micromesh pads and followed with a microfiber cloth. I assembled the equipment and materials that would be needed during the waxing process viz heat gun, paper towels, q-tips and a steel container graciously lent by Abha from the kitchen and of course, beeswax. I stuffed the chamber with cork and the shank end with folded pipe cleaners to prevent inadvertent seepage of the melted beeswax into either. Next, I melted a sufficient quantity of beeswax using my heat gun and thereafter heated the stummel. Using the a folded pipe cleaner, I completely coated the stummel with the wax and continued the application till the surface was saturated and set the stummel aside to absorb the wax. I reheated the stummel with the heat gun about 20 minutes later and let the excess wax either be absorbed or drip off from the stummel surface. I rubbed off the excess wax with a soft cotton cloth and. The deep golden brown coloration that the meerschaum has taken is a visual treat. With the stummel now completed, I was through with repairs and refurbishment of this cased pair. I reattached the Amber stem with the stummel for a final inspection and polish. Unfortunately, this was not the end of the journey with this pipe!!! As I reattached the Amber stem, the shank band broke free and fell on the table along with a small portion of the threads. Luckily, the concave surface of the shank face and the convex surface of the band were intact and I decided to glue them up again as was done originally.Since the threads were now damaged, I decided to do a complete stem replacement and shortlisted a near matching sized stem as a replacement to the Amber stem. The two aspects that I needed to match was the stem face diameter and the second was the matching of the taper and width with the Amber stem.This decision to replace the stem on this pipe has now necessitated that I consider replacing the replacement stem on the Dublin from this set. All the efforts that had gone in to fabricating and shaping the acrylic stem on the Dublin are for naught!! I did the replacement of the acrylic stem on the Dublin and the end results are more than satisfying (you can read all about it in Part-I of this restoration).

Using needle files and folded piece of sandpaper, I evened out the threads inside the mortise wall. This would make it easier for the mortise to accept a push pull tenon type.Next I tackled the sizing of the tenon. I first did the major hard work by sanding the tenon with a 150 grit sanding drum mounted on a hand held rotary tool. The challenge of achieving a perfect fit of the tenon in to the mortise was achieved by sanding the tenon using sandpaper. It did take a few man hours, tons of elbow grease and patience to achieve perfect fit.With snug seating of the stem in to the mortise ensured, it was time to adjust the length and other parameters of the replacement stem. I wanted an old style stem with an orifice to match the correct time period of 1920s. I marked the length of the stem that would fit in to the case and cut off the excess with a blade. This cutting off of the stem provided me with a rounded slot and a taper that nearly matched the required shape.I cleaned out the stem internals using shank brushes and anti oil dish washing soap. I ran a couple of pipe cleaners through the airway to further clean and dry out the stem internals.I firstly evened out the slot end of the shortened stem by topping on a piece of 220 grit sandpaper. Thereafter began hours of hard and laborious task of shaping the stem to match the shape and rebuild buttons on either stem surface using needle files and sandpapers. It did take hours of work and eyeballing to get the shape I desired and most importantly, the slot end. I am pleased with the results achieved. Next, I wet sand the entire stem with 600, 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit sand papers. This progressive use of higher grit sandpapers helps to, firstly, reduce the sanding marks left behind by the more abrasive ones, secondly, completely eliminate the oxidation while imparting a clean shine to the stem surface. Thirdly, this also helped to even out the sanding marks left behind by the flat needle files. I applied a little EVO and set the stem aside for a few minutes.This was followed by wet sanding the stem with 3200 to 15000 to bring a deep shine and smooth finish to the stem. I applied a small amount of EVO and set it aside.To put finishing touches to this pipe, I polished the stem with Blue Diamond compound and subsequently with carnauba wax using my hand held rotary tool and vigorously buffed the stummel with microfiber cloth to bring a deep shine. This pipe looks absolutely stunning and I am sure that my friend will like it too.

A tale of two pipes- restoring a pair of vintage cased meerschaum pipes – Part 1 (A)

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Blog by Paresh Deshpande

Recently I had purchased a few pipes on eBay and this time the delivery was effected without any issues from the Seller. All the Sellers had described the pipes just as they are received, items were well packed and shipping was record quick making this a nice experience (far cry from all my previous experiences on eBay!). I shared the pictures of the pipe haul with members of my Pipe Club and this pair of cased Meerschaum called out to one of the founding members of the club and more importantly a dear friend of mine.

Looking at the pipe set, it is apparent that these pipes had seen many a summers, many a number of repair jobs more so to the stem including splicing and many ages of (mis?)use. The case consists of two Meerschaum pipes; a Dublin and a Billiard (or maybe a Tulip or even an Apple shape!!!). There are no visible stampings or markings either on the pipe or on the hard leather case except a small note with c.1920’s written on it (well, again veracity of this note cannot be established and needs to be considered with a pinch of salt, or rather a handful of salt!). This makes it impossible to firmly establish the provenance of this pipe set. However, the overall feel, appearance and quality make me want to believe that small little note. Here are a couple of pictures of the cased set of meer as it sits on my table. Though both the pipes were worked on simultaneously, for the sake of brevity and convenience of explaining the process and how issues that cropped up on one pipe affected the other, I shall divide the write up in to two parts.

Part 1: Dublin
The Dublin shaped meerschaum pipe is in pretty good condition with a thin layer of cake in the chamber. The rim top surface is clean and in good condition with no dents or dings over the rim edges. The major issue on this pipe is with the stem. Somewhere down the line during its previous innings, the Amber stem on this pipe must’ve broken in half and was repaired using a multicolored acrylic or cheap plastic stem spliced in to place at the tenon end. The seating of the tenon in to the shank end is very loose and barely holds the walls of the mortise. This seems to be the main reason why this pipe was so sparingly used as evidenced by the thin layer of cake in the chamber. The following pictures will give a general idea of the condition of this pipe as it sits on my workbench. Detailed Inspection
The chamber is clean with a thin layer of even cake. The rim top surface is clean and in pristine condition without any dents and dings over the rim top. The inner and outer rim edges are smooth, even and without any darkening along the edges. The rim appears thinned out in 12 o’clock direction along the outer rim edge. I think it is the design feature which has the stummel in a slight inwards turn near the upper surface. However, the chamber itself is perfectly rounded. The stummel surface shows a few scratches, but none serious enough to draw away your attention from the beauty of the bowl. The inward turning shape to the upper surface of the stummel that I have mentioned above is indicated by green arrows. There are a couple of dark spots over the stummel surface and encircled in pastel blue. The shank end shows residual white tape and is indicative of an earlier repair work to the shank end. The band, though identical to the other pipe in this set, appears to be fixed after the pipe was completed. The white Teflon tape, in all probability, was used to tighten the seating of the threaded tenon in to the mortise. However, this was an utter failure as the tenon is too loose in the mortise and is the reason for this pipe being so sparingly used. The stem is where maximum repair work is required. The stem has been spliced and repaired previously with the rounded slot end made of Amber while the tenon end is a similar colored variegated acrylic or plastic stem. The joint is easily discernible and is encircled in Red. Though the stem airway is aligned, the stem shape is not. The mismatched stem shape is indicated by green. The tenon is too short and filthy and very loose fitting in the shank. The slot end has tooth indentations and chipped surface. Given the present condition of the stem and its seating in to the mortise, I shall be replacing the stem itself to make it both functional and aesthetically appealing to the eye (that’s what the intention is!). The Process
I started this project by reaming the chamber with my smaller fabricated knife and scraped out all the carbon from chamber. I used a 220 grit sand paper, pinched between my thumb and forefinger, to sand the inner walls of the chamber of the pipe. Once I had reached the bare walls, I wiped the chamber with a cotton pad dipped in isopropyl alcohol. This removed all the residual carbon dust and also rid the chamber of all ghost smells. I followed it up by cleaning of the mortise and air way of the pipe using hard bristled and regular pipe cleaners, q-tips dipped in alcohol. The mortise and the draught hole were given a final clean with shank brushes dipped in alcohol. I dried the mortise with a rolled paper napkin. The shank internals and the draught hole are now nice and clean with an open and full draw.I cleaned the external surface of the Meerschaum bowl with Murphy’s Oil soap and cotton swabs. I wiped the bowl surface with a moist cloth to remove the soap and grime that remained on the surface. The stummel surface cleaned up nicely. The scratches and dents and dings over the stummel surface are now clearly visible and will be addressed to an extent when the stummel is polished using the micromesh pads. I polished the rim top surface and rim edges with micromesh pads. I then went on to dry sand the entire stummel with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth to remove the dust that was left behind by the sanding. I had planned to minimize the scratches but not necessarily remove them. These lacerations and dings must have had a history and I wanted to preserve it. Once I was done with the micromesh cycle, I applied a small quantity of Paragon wax and vigorously polished it off with a microfiber cloth. The stummel now has a nice deep shine to it. Next I decided to address the stem repairs or rather stem replacement since the damage to the already repaired stem was far too extensive and yet it would not make this pipe fully functional since the tenon was too loose and too short. The stem that I selected is a beautiful yellow acrylic stem that perfectly matched the shank face diameter. I selected a Delrin tenon that perfectly threaded in to the mortise for a snug fit.Now it was necessary to down size the smooth end of the tenon to fit in to the stem face. I mounted a 150 grit sanding drum on to my hand held rotary tool and sand down the smooth end of the tenon till I had achieved a rough seating of the tenon in to the stem face. My previous experience has taught me an invaluable lesson; “SAND ONCE AND CHECK TWICE”!! Once I had achieved a rough seating, I got down to the arduous and time consuming task of manually sanding down the smooth portion of the tenon with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper till I had achieved a perfect seating of the tenon in to the stem. Here I was extra careful and vigilant while sanding the sides of the tenon and frequently checked the alignment of the tenon airway with the stem airway and finally through the shank airway and right through the draught hole. Once I was sure that the tenon, stem and shank face and airways are all aligned and seated flush, I glued the tenon in to the stem. I took some time to admire the overall appearance of the pipe and I like it very much.Next on the agenda was to match the length of the replacement stem with that of original stem. Using needle file and 150 grit sand paper, I sand the slot end of the replacement stem till I achieved a perfect length match. Even though it took me a few man hours and lots of efforts, I was able to achieve the desired length. I checked the seating of the pipe in to the case and noted with satisfaction that the case closed without any gaps. However, in achieving the desired length, the button edges on the new stem were sanded down. This necessitated rebuilding of button edges on the new stem.With clear CA superglue, I rebuild the buttons using layering technique. Once the glue had hardened, using a needle file, I roughly shaped the buttons and further fine tuned the buttons using a piece of 330 grit sandpaper. The slot end at this stage is rounded and the horizontal slot needs to be carved. I marked the center line on either sides of the orifice and using a slot file, I carved out a horizontal slot. The stem looks good at this stage.Next the stem was subjected to a full cycle of polishing using micromesh pads.With the shaping and polishing of the replacement stem completed, I turned my attention back towards the stummel. I gave a beeswax polish to the meerschaum bowl. I assembled the equipment and materials that would be needed during the process viz heat gun, paper towels, q-tips and a Katori, a steel container graciously lent by Abha from her kitchen and of course, beeswax. I stuffed the chamber with cork to prevent inadvertent seepage of the melted beeswax into it. Next, I melted a sufficient quantity of beeswax in the katori using my heat gun and thereafter heated the stummel. Using a folded pipe cleaner, I completely coated the stummel with the wax and continued the application till the surface was saturated with the beeswax and set the stummel aside to absorb the wax. I reheated the stummel with the heat gun about 20 minutes later and let the excess wax either be absorbed or drip off from the stummel surface. I rubbed off the excess wax with a soft cotton cloth and brought a deep shine to the surface with a microfiber cloth. With the replacement stem all shaped and aligned and the bowl waxed and polished, I had completed the refurbishing of this pipe from the cased pair and set the pipe aside.

However, little did I know at this stage that all the man hours and efforts that I had put in making this replacement stem to make this pipe aesthetically beautiful and functionally sublime would come to a naught due to certain challenges that I was presented with while working on the second pipe from the set. I shall cover those aspects in Part- II of the write up. It will suffice to say here that I had to discard this stem and fabricate a new vulcanite stem from scratch.

PART-I (B)
Now that I have decided to match the stem on this pipe to the vulcanite stem that I had fabricated on the second pipe from the set, I first selected a vulcanite stem that would more or less be a perfect match to the butterscotch yellow acrylic stem that was made earlier. I would need to shape the flare at the slot end to a nice smooth taper (indicated by yellow lines), reshape the slot end to an orifice with old style rounded buttons and would need to greatly reduce the diameter of the tenon (indicated by red arrows) for a snug fit in to the mortise. Once that was achieved, I would need to clean and polish the vulcanite to a nice black shine. Here is a picture to give you an idea of both the stems.First I removed the metal stinger from the tenon end by heating it with the flame of a match light and pulling it out with a pair of nose pliers. I followed this with cleaning the stem internals using anti-oil dish washing soap on a thin shank brush and rinsing it under warm running water. I ran a couple of pipe cleaners through the airway to completely remove any residual traces of soap and also to dry it out. With a 150 grit sanding drum mounted on my hand held rotary tool, I sized down the tenon to achieve a rough match with the mortise size. I fine tuned the seating of the tenon in to the mortise by sanding it further with a 180 grit sand paper till I had achieved a snug fit.As I was trying out the seating of the tenon in to the mortise a second time, the brass ring separated from the shank end with threaded portion of the mortise while revealing a minor crack at the shank end (unfortunately, in my haste to address the newly presented challenge, I missed out on taking pictures of the damaged shank end). The problems are continually mounting unabated!!

Luckily, I had a Sterling silver band that I previously got made from a local silversmith which perfectly fit the shank end. I filled the crack with thin CA superglue. Once the glue had seeped in to the crack and hardened completely, I attached the band over the shank end with CA superglue and set it aside for the repairs to cure.Now I turned my attention back to the stem. The tenon mod was completed and next I decided to address the extra flare at the slot end of the replacement stem. I wanted an old style stem with an orifice to match the correct time period of 1920s and had achieved it to a certain extent on the billiards pipe from the set. I cut about half an inch off the slot end. This achieved two aims; firstly, the flare was reduced and secondly, I now had an orifice at the slot end. I further evened out the cut surface by sanding the surface over a 220 grit sand paper.Thereafter began the arduous task of eyeballing and filing with flat/ semi-circular needle files. It did a take long time and lots of elbow grease to achieve a rough desired shape. I further fine tuned the rough edges and shape by sanding the stem surface using a 220 grit sand paper. Next, I wet sand the entire stem with 600, 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit sand papers. This progressive use of higher grit sandpapers helps to, firstly, reduce the sanding marks left behind by the more abrasive ones, secondly, completely eliminate the oxidation while imparting a clean shine to the stem surface. Thirdly, this also helped to even out the sanding marks left behind by the flat needle files. I applied a little EVO and set the stem aside for a few minutes.I went through the 1500 to 12000 grit micromesh pads to wet sand the stem. The stem now has a nice deep shine along the entire stem surface. I rubbed a small quantity of EVO and set the stem aside for the oil to hydrate the stem surface.To finish the restoration of this pipe, I polished the stem with Blue Diamond compound and subsequently with carnauba wax using my hand held rotary tool. I once again vigorously buffed the stummel with microfiber cloth to bring a deep shine. The finished pipe actually looks much attractive in person than in the pictures below.

Rebirth of a Charatan Executive Hand Made in City of London Dublin

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on is a nice looking straight grain Dublin with a plateau rim top and a replacement acrylic stem. We picked it up on 03/30/2022 from an estate in Plano, Texas, USA. The stamping on the left side of the shank read Charatan’s Make [over] London, England [over] Executive. On the right side it is stamped Made by Hand [over] in [over] City of London. The acrylic, black saddle stem is a replacement. The pipe is a nice looking pipe with a medium brown finish that highlights the straight grain on the bowl sides and shank. The rim top has a plateau style rustication. The acrylic stem works very well with the bowl. It is light weight and comfortable pipe to hold. Jeff sent me the following photos of the pipe to show the condition it was in before he worked on it.

This is what I saw when I looked over the pipe.

The finish shows darkening of hand oils and some thick grime ground into the finish around the bowl sides. The medium brown stain is dull and the grain is obscured around the bowl sides and shank
The plateau style rusticated rim top was very dirty with darkening and lava ground into the rustication to point that it was almost smooth. The inner edge of the bowl was unclear but seemed to show some damage under the lava coat.
There was a moderate cake in the bowl. The bowl itself was very dark and dirty. Once the bowl was cleaned up we could confirm the condition of the bowl walls.
The acrylic taper stem was filthy and had tooth marks and chatter on both sides. There were some deeper tooth marks on the underside ahead of the button.
There is no marking or logo on the stem but it is a well fit replacement stem.

To summarize what I saw – this Charatan’s Make London, England Made by Hand Executive is a well made pipe. The bowl and stem are very dirty which says to me that the pipe was someone’s favourite pipe. The look and feel of the pipe in the hand is great. It should clean up very well. Here are photos of the pipe taken before Jeff started the clean up. Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl, rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is thick – covering the walls of the bowl. The rim top has thick lava coat and has some darkening on the inner edge and is heavier toward the back of the bowl. The inner edge looks like it might be damaged. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. I look forward to viewing it in person after the clean up work. The acrylic stem is dirty and has grime all over the surface. There are tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Instead of telling you what I see in the next photos of the sides of the bowl and the heel I want to hear from you. Tell me what you see? What does the finish look like to you? Are there any visible problems or issues that stand out to you? Are the cracks or scratches in rusticated finish of the bowl? Are there visible flaws or fissures in the briar? What does the finish look like? Is there a pattern to it? Any visible issues on the heel of the bowl? These questions should help you to see what I am looking for when I see these photos. He took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is stamped as noted above on the right and the left sides. The acrylic stem shows no logo or CP stamping on the saddle portion of the saddle. What stands out for you in the photos of the stamping? What do you look for in the stamping? It is dirty but what do you see underneath the grime on the surface of the briar?I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-charatan.html) to look up information on the Executive line. There was a great photo of the line and a blow up picture of the side and rim top. It also describes the rim top of the pipe I am working on. I have included the photos below as well as the noted below the first screen capture.

After 1965, some Executive had a carved top to resemble plateau briar (see detailed view below).The carved plateau top tells me that the pipe was made after 1965. The rim top is definitely hand carved and is clearly an indication of the date of its carving.

The finish is clean and the oils and grime in the finish shows the beautiful straight grain around the sides. The medium brown stain highlights the grain.
The plateau style rusticated rim top was clean but still had some darkening in the rustication. The inner edge of the bowl is clean and appears to be in excellent condition.
There cake in the bowl has been removed and the bowl is very clean. The walls of the bowl are smooth and appear to be undamaged and show no checking or burn damage.
The acrylic taper stem looks better though the tooth marks and chatter on both sides are still visible. There were some deeper tooth marks on the underside ahead of the button.
There is no marking or logo on the stem but it is a well fit replacement stem.

Hopefully the steps above show you both what I look for when I go over the pipe when I bring it to the work table and also what I see when I look at the pipe in my hands. They also clearly spell out a restoration plan in short form. My work is clear and addressing it will be the next steps. I took photos of the whole pipe to give you a picture of what I see when I have it on the table. This is important to me in that it also shows that there was no damage done during the clean up work or the transit of the pipe from Idaho to here in Vancouver. I carefully went over the bowl and rim top to get a sense of what is happening there. In this case once the rim top and edges were cleaned the rim top looked better. The inner edge was in good condition and looked good with the rusticated plateau style rim top. I also went over the stem carefully. The fit of the replacement to the shank is snug and the transitions are smooth. There were some tooth marks and chatter on the surface of the stem and the button on the underside. The acrylic stem surface was clean and looked better. I took photos of the rim top and stem sides to show as best as I can what I see when I look at them. I always check to make sure that the clean up work did not damage the stamping on the shank sides in any way. It is in excellent condition and is very clear and readable. I love just looking at the lay of the pipe and the proportion of the hand made pipes. I took the pipe apart to get a sense of what was in the mind of the pipe maker when he crafted the pipe. The photo shows its beauty in flow and shape. I started my work on the pipe by dealing with the darkening on the top of the bowl. I used a brass bristle wire brush to work over the rim top rustication. It looked much better when I had finished. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I choose to dry sand the briar rather than wet sand it. Again it is a matter of personal preference. I prefer to use the pads dry and find they work very well on the briar. I sand with each pad (9 in total) and group them by threes for ease of reference. I wipe the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris and check the briar. I love seeing the developing shine on the briar as I move through the pads which is why I include so many photos of this step. I rubbed down the bowl and shank with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar. The product works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips. I let it sit for 10 minutes then wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine in the briar and the rustication showed depth. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. It is a gorgeous pipe. I set the bowl aside and turn to work on the stem. I used a pottery saw and files to reshape the airway in the end of the button. It was a small round hole that is often found on replacement stems and I shaped it into a slot. I filled in deep marks on the underside of the stem with black CA glue. I set the stem aside for the repairs to cure. Once hardened I used a small file to flatten out the repairs. I sanded them smooth with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing it with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pads. I know that many say Obsidian Oil does nothing for acrylic stems, but I find it does two things – first it gives some protection to the stem from buildup and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the acrylic. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the Extra Fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection. The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the light scratches in the briar and the acrylic. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I follow up the wax buff with a buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished stem. It really is a nice pipe. The smooth finish around the bowl sides and shank looks great with rusticated plateau style crowned rim. The acrylic stem works well with the pipe. The Charatan’s Make Executive Made by Hand in City of London Dublin feels great in my hand. It is a well balanced pipe. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.69 ounces/48 grams. It is a beautiful pipe that I will soon be adding to the rebornpipes store in the British Pipemakers Section. If you would like to add it to your collection let me know. It should be a great smoking pipe.

Hopefully the style of writing of this blog is helpful to you in some way. In it I wanted to show both what I am looking for and how I move forward in addressing what I see when work on a pipe. Let me know if it is helpful to you. It is probably the most straightforward detailed description of my work process that I have done. As always I encourage your questions and comments as you read the blog. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipe men and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

A Brigham Canada 141 Rusticated Acorn Reborn

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on is a nice looking rusticated ¼ bent acorn with a black vulcanite stem. We picked it up on 09/12/2021 from an auction in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, USA. The stamping on the underside of the shank has the shape number 141 on the heel of the bowl followed by Brigham in script [over] CANADA. The vulcanite stem has a single brass dot inserted on the left side. The pipe is a nice looking pipe with a medium brown finish that highlights the grain under the rustication. The ¼ bent vulcanite stem works very well with the bowl. It is light weight and comfortable pipe to hold. Jeff sent me the following photos of the pipe to show the condition it was in before he worked on it.

This is what I saw when I looked over the pipe.

The finish shows darkening of hand oils and some thick grime ground into the finish around the bowl sides. The medium brown stain is dull and the grain is obscured around the bowl sides and shank
The rusticated rim top was very dirty with darkening and lava ground into the rustication to point that it was almost smooth. The inner edge of the bowl was unclear but seemed to show some damage under the lava coat.
There was a moderate cake in the bowl. The bowl itself was very dark and dirty. Once the bowl was cleaned up we could confirm the condition of the bowl walls.
The vulcanite taper stem was filthy with oxidation, calcification and tooth marks and chatter on both sides. There were some deeper tooth marks on the underside ahead of the button.
There is a brass single dot on the left side that identifies it as a Brigham pipe. It is tarnished and almost invisible in the oxidation of the stem. The tenon is a Hard Rock Distillator system that holds a maple filter and it is tarred and heavily dirty.

To summarize what I saw – this Brigham Canada 141 Acorn is a well made pipe. The bowl and stem are very dirty which says to me that the pipe was someone’s favourite pipe. The look and feel of the pipe in the hand is great. It should clean up very well. Here are photos of the pipe taken before Jeff started the clean up. Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl, rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is thick – covering the walls of the bowl. The rim top has thick lava coat and has some darkening on the inner edge and is heavier toward the back of the bowl. The inner edge looks like it might be damaged. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. I look forward to viewing it in person after the clean up work. The stem is very oxidized with thick calcification on the last half of the stem and there are tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Instead of telling you what I see in the next photos of the sides of the bowl and the heel I want to hear from you. Tell me what you see? What does the finish look like to you? Are there any visible problems or issues that stand out to you? Are the cracks or scratches in rusticated finish of the bowl? Are there visible flaws or fissures in the briar? What does the finish look like? Is there a pattern to it? Any visible issues on the heel of the bowl? These questions should help you to see what I am looking for when I see these photos. Jeff removed the stem from the shank and took photos of the distillator aluminum tenon. There was no maple filter in the tenon so the tube was filled up with tars and oils. The outside of the tube is also covered with tars as well. He took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. On the heel it is stamped with the shape number 141. That is followed by Brigham in script [over] Canada. The vulcanite stem has the brass pin in the left side of the taper. What stands out for you in the photos of the stamping? What do you look for in the stamping? It is dirty but what do you see underneath the grime on the surface of the briar? I am also including the information from Pipedia’s article on Brigham pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Pipes). Charles Lemon (Dadspipes) is currently working on a book on the history of the brand. Until that is complete this article is a good summary. I have included it below.

Roy Brigham, after serving an apprenticeship under an Austrian pipesmith, started his own pipe repair shop in Toronto, in 1906. By 1918 the business had grown to include five other craftsmen and had developed a reputation across Canada for the high quality of workmanship. After repairing many different brands of pipes over the years, Roy noted certain recurring complaints by pipe smokers, the most common referred to as “tongue bite”. Tongue bite is a burning sensation on the smoker’s tongue, previously thought to be due to the heat of the smoke (i.e. a “hot smoking pipe”).

He soon began manufacturing his own pipes, which were lightweight, yet featured a more rugged construction, strengthening the weak points observed in other pipes. The problem of tongue bite intrigued him, and he decided to make overcoming it a future goal.

About 1938, Roy’s son Herb joined him to assist in the business. The business barely survived the great depression because pipes were considered to be a luxury, not a necessity, and selling pipes was difficult indeed. In approximately 1937 [1], after some experimentation, Roy and Herb discovered that tongue bite was in fact a form of mild chemical burn to the tongue, caused by tars and acids in the smoke. They found that by filtering the smoke, it was possible to retain the flavour of the tobacco and yet remove these impurities and thereby stop the tongue bite.

Just as Thomas Edison had searched far and wide for the perfect material from which to make the first electric light bulb filaments, Roy & Herb began experimenting with many materials, both common and exotic, in the quest for the perfect pipe filter. Results varied wildly. Most of the materials didn’t work at all and some actually imparted their own flavour into the smoke. They eventually found just two materials that were satisfactory in pipes: bamboo and rock maple. As bamboo was obviously not as readily available, rock maple then became the logical choice.

They were able to manufacture a replaceable hollow wooden tube made from rock maple dowelling, which when inserted into a specially made pipe, caused absolutely no restriction to the draw of the pipe, yet extracted many of the impurities which had caused tongue bite. The result was indeed a truly better smoking pipe…

I then turned to a second article by Charles Lemon called, “A Closer Look at the Dots, Dates, and Markings of Brigham Pipes” to be able to pin down the time frame that the pipe was made in and to help interpret the stampings and shape number on the pipe. Here is the link to his article. (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Pipes_%E2%80%93_A_Closer_Look_at_Dots,_Dates_and_Markings

I have dubbed the decades between 1980 and 2000 the Late Canadian Era, a period that saw several changes at Brigham that are of note to the collector. First, the traditional 8-grade pinning system (the famous Brigham “Dots” which denoted the quality of the pipe) was changed to a 7-grade system to simplify pinning (more on this below), and the Norsemen and Valhalla series were merged to form the President Series, which represented the very finest pipes coming out of the Toronto factory. Early pipes from this era (left, below) are stamped with a shape number and “Brigham” over “Canada”; later pipes (late 1980s+, on right below) are stamped simply with a shape number and the Brigham logo.

I have included the photos and headings on the photos below.

Late Canadian Era Stamps1980-85 1990s

With the information from Charles’ message and the chart above that he included I knew what I was dealing with in terms of the stamping and the age of this pipe. I learned that this Late Canadian Era was made between 1980-1985. The pipe is a Brigham Standard (1-Dot) 141 Acorn. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

The finish cleaned up quite well but there was still some darkening of hand oils in the finish around the bowl sides. The medium brown stain is clean and the grain around the bowl sides and shank
The rusticated rim top was clean and the lava was cleaned out of the grooves and hollows of the rustication. The inner edge of the bowl showed some rough areas but was very clean.
The cake was cleaned out of the bowl. The bowl very clean and the bottom of the bowl was raw briar. The bowl walls were smooth and there was no checking or burn damage.
The vulcanite taper stem was very clean and the oxidation and calcification were gone. The tooth marks and chatter on the topside looked better. There were some deeper tooth marks on the underside and on the button.
There is a brass single dot on the left side that identifies it as a Brigham pipe. It looks better and once it is polished with shine. The tenon is a Hard Rock Distillator system that holds a maple filter is very clean.

Hopefully the steps above show you both what I look for when I go over the pipe when I bring it to the work table and also what I see when I look at the pipe in my hands. They also clearly spell out a restoration plan in short form. My work is clear and addressing it will be the next steps. I took photos of the whole pipe to give you a picture of what I see when I have it on the table. This is important to me in that it also shows that there was no damage done during the clean up work or the transit of the pipe from Idaho to here in Vancouver. I carefully went over the bowl and rim top to get a sense of what is happening there. In this case once the rim top and edges were cleaned the rim top looked better. The inner edge was damaged and was the bowl was slightly out of round. I also went over the stem carefully. The fit to the shank is snug and the transitions are smooth. There were some tooth marks and chatter on the surface of the stem and the button on the underside. The vulcanite stem surface was clean and looked better. I took photos of the rim top and stem sides to show as best as I can what I see when I look at them. I always check to make sure that the clean up work did not damage the stamping on the shank sides in any way. It is in excellent condition and is very clear and readable. I love just looking at the lay of the pipe and the proportion of the hand made pipes. I took the pipe apart to get a sense of what was in the mind of the pipe maker when he crafted the pipe. The photo shows its beauty in flow and shape.I started my work on the pipe by dealing with the damaged inner edge of the bowl. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the edges and to give the rim edge a slight bevel to hide the damage. It looked much better when I had finished. I rescrubbed the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a brass bristle wire brush. I rinsed it with hot water to remove the remaining grime in the briar. The Tiger Striped stain on the pipe looks amazing. I rubbed down the bowl and shank with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar. The product works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips and a horsehair shoe brush. I let it sit for 10 minutes then wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine in the briar and the rustication showed depth. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. It is a gorgeous pipe. I set the bowl aside and turn to work on the stem. I painted the stem surface with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the tooth marks. I was able to lift the majority of them significantly. The deep marks on the underside of the stem did not completely come up and neither did the deep mark in the button edge on the underside. I filled them in with black CA glue and set the stem aside for the repairs to cure. Once hardened I used a small file to flatten out the repairs and reshape the button edge on the underside. I sanded them smooth with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing it with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I fit the aluminum tenon/Distillator holder with a Hard Maple filter tube. It fits in the aluminum tube and fits snug against the tube end.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pads. I know that many say Obsidian Oil does nothing for acrylic stems, but I find it does two things – first it gives some protection to the stem from buildup and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the vulcanite. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the Extra Fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection.The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the light scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I follow up the wax buff with a buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished stem. It really is a nice pipe. The rusticated finish around the bowl sides and shank looks great with the vulcanite stem. The Brigham Canada Acorn 141 feels great in my hand. It is a well balanced pipe. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.31 ounces/37 grams. It is a beautiful pipe that I will soon be adding to the rebornpipes store in the Canadian Pipemakers Section. If you would like to add it to your collection let me know. It should be a great smoking pipe.

Breathing Life into a Chacom New Festival 438 Billiard with a Striped Stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on is a nice looking smooth brown straight Billiard with a black acrylic stem with a white stripe running from the button to the end of the tenon. I picked it up on 01/26/2023 from a fellow we buy pipe from in Copenhagen, Denmark. The stamping on the left side of the shank reads Chacom [over] New Festival. On the underside it was stamped with the shape number 438 at the shank/stem junction. The acrylic taper stem has a stamped white CC Chacom logo on the left side. The pipe is a nice looking pipe with a medium brown finish that highlights the grain. The striped stem works very well with the bowl. It is light weight and comfortable pipe to hold. Jeff sent me the following photos of the pipe to show the condition it was in before he worked on it.

This is what I saw when I over the pipe.

The finish was very good with only some light dust and grime ground into the finish around the bowl sides. The medium brown stain is dull but the it really highlights the grain around the bowl sides and shank
The smooth rim top looked very good and the inner and outer edges look very good. There was some light lava build on the top and some darkening on the inner edge of the bowl.
There was a light cake in the bowl. That also showed some raw briar on the bottom 1/3 of the bowl. Once the bowl was cleaned up we could confirm the condition of the bowl.
The acrylic taper stem has a white stripe that runs the length of the stem from the button and also on the tenon and button end. It is obviously cast into the acrylic stem when it was made.
There is a white CC logo stamped into the acrylic on the left side that identifies it as a Chacom pipe. It is in excellent condition with just some light tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside ahead of the button.

To summarize what I saw – this Chacom New Festival 438 Straight Billiard is a well made pipe. It is a little dusty but otherwise in good condition. The acrylic stem is lightly tooth marked but otherwise undamaged. There does not appear to be any calcification on the stem surface. The look and feel of the pipe in the hand is great. It is going to clean up very well. Here are photos of the pipe taken before Jeff started the clean up. Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl, rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is not too thick – lightly coated on the walls of the bowl. The rim top has some light spots of lava coat and has some darkening on the inner edge and top toward the back of the bowl. The inner edge looks to be in good condition otherwise. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. I look forward to viewing it in person after the clean up work. Instead of telling you what I see in the next photos of the sides of the bowl and the heel I want to hear from you. Tell me what you see? What does the finish look like to you? Are there any visible problems or issues that stand out to you? Are the cracks or scratches in smooth finish of the bowl? Are there visible flaws or fissures in the briar? What does the grain look like Is there a pattern to it? Any visible issues on the heel of the bowl? These questions should help you to see what I am looking for when I see these photos. He took photos of the stamping on the left side of the shank. On the left side it is stamped with the Chacom [over] New Festival and on the underside it is stamped with the shape number 438. The striped acrylic is stamped with the expected Chacom CC logo on the side of the taper. What stands out for you in the photos of the stamping? What do you look for in the stamping? It is dirty but what do you see underneath the grime on the surface of the briar? I am sure many of you will shake your head and ask maybe even out loud, “Why is he including this again?” However, please remember that the point of these blogs is not to wow your with the work or make you shake your heads but I want you to know the details of the work we do so you can do your own. Back in 2020 Jeff wrote a blog about his cleaning process. I am including a link to that now so you can see what I mean about his process. Do not skip it! Give it a read (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/20/got-a-filthy-estate-pipe-that-you-need-to-clean/). Here is the introduction to that blog and it is very true even to this day.

The finish is clean and the grime and grit have been removed from the finish on the bowl. The smooth grain looks very good as well. It cleaned up very well and has some shine already that reveals the grain.
The lava, grime and darkening on the rim top has been removed and it has revealed that the inner and outer edges are clean and burn free.
With the cake reamed out the walls of the bowl are clean and they look very good with no checking or burn damage to the walls.
The acrylic taper stem has a white stripe that runs the length of the stem from the button and also on the tenon and button end. It is obviously cast into the acrylic stem when it was made.
There is a white CC logo stamped into the acrylic on the left side that identifies it as a Chacom pipe. It is in excellent condition with just some light tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside ahead of the button.

Hopefully the steps above show you both what I look for when I go over the pipe when I bring it to the work table and also what I see when I look at the pipe in my hands. They also clearly spell out a restoration plan in short form. My work is clear and addressing it will be the next steps. I took photos of the whole pipe to give you a picture of what I see when I have it on the table. This is important to me in that it also shows that there was no damage done during the clean up work or the transit of the pipe from Idaho to here in Vancouver. I carefully went over the bowl and rim top to get a sense of what is happening there. In this case once the rim top and edges were cleaned the rim top and inner edge looked very good. A bit of polishing would bring it back well. I also go over the stem carefully. The fit to the shank is snug and the transitions are smooth. There were some light tooth marks and chatter on the surface of the stem but the button was in excellent condition. The acrylic stem surface was clean and looked very good. I took photos of the rim top and stem sides to show as best as I can what I see when I look at them. I always check to make sure that the clean up work did not damage the stamping on the shank sides in any way. It is in excellent condition and is very clear and readable. I love just looking at the lay of the pipe and the proportion of the hand made pipes. I took the pipe apart to get a sense of what was in the mind of the pipe maker when he crafted the pipe. The photo shows its beauty in flow and shape.I polished the smooth portions of the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I choose to dry sand the briar rather than wet sand it. Again it is a matter of personal preference. I prefer to use the pads dry and find they work very well on the briar. I sand with each pad (9 in total) and group them by threes for ease of reference. I wipe the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris and check the briar. I love seeing the developing shine on the briar as I move through the pads which is why I include so many photos of this step. I rubbed down the bowl and shank with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar. The product works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips. I let it sit for 10 minutes then wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine in the briar and the rustication showed depth. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. It is a gorgeous pipe. I set the bowl aside and turn to work on the stem. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pads. I know that many say Obsidian Oil does nothing for acrylic stems, but I find it does two things – first it gives some protection to the stem from buildup and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the acrylic. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the Extra Fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection.The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the light scratches in the briar and acrylic. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I follow up the wax buff with a buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished stem. It really is a nice pipe. The mix of smooth finish around the bowl sides and shank looks great with the black and white acrylic stem. The Chacom New Festival Billiard feels great in my hand. It is a well balanced pipe. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.45 ounces/41 grams. It is a beautiful pipe that I will soon be adding to the rebornpipes store in the French Pipemakers Section. If you would like to add it to your collection let me know. It should be a great smoking pipe.