Tag Archives: bowls – refinishing

Restoring an odd Daseo/Dasco Bakelite Pipe with a Removable Bowl

New Life for a P. Jackson Co. of Singapore Canadian

Blog by Steve Laug

This P. Jackson Canadian is the second pipe that my friend in Calgary messaged me about when he found a pair of pipes at a little flea market in Winfield, B.C. The first one was a Peterson’s Lovat that I wrote about in a previous blog (https://rebornpipes.com/2017/09/01/cleaning-a-winfield-b-c-find-a-republic-era-petersons-kapruf-lovat-75/). He sent me the photo below showing both of the pipes. He asked if would be willing to refurbish them for him. I wrote back and told that both were nice pipes and I would be happy to work on them for him. He laughed and said they were on their way to Vancouver. The pipes arrived early this week and I unpacked them both. The second pipe above was a virgin finish Canadian. The stamping is centered on the topside of the shank with the script name P. Jackson Co. and underneath that it reads Singapore. The brand was one that I was unfamiliar with and I could not find information on in my usual sources. The pipe looked very English to me – there was something about it that looked like a Comoy’s Canadian but I could find nothing to prove or disprove that assumption. The finish on the pipe was not as worn or dirty as the little Peterson’s Lovat. The finish was dull and dry looking. The rim top was dirty but and had a lava overflow on the backside of the rim top. There was a thick cake in the bowl that was crumbling and soft – exactly like the other pipe. The stem was oxidized and dirty. The stem had the same tooth marks as the other pipe – a line across middle of the stem on both sides. The cake in the bowl, the tooth marks all told me that the pipe came from the same pipe man. This was another a good find. I took the following photos of the pipe before I started the cleanup work. I took a photo of the rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the lava build up. The inner and outer edge of the bowl looked undamaged but I would know more once I cleaned up the bowl and rim.The next photo shows the faint stamping on the shank. You can see what the stamping reads under the light of the flash. The script P. Jackson Co over the block print SINGAPORE is clear.The stem had the same marks and gummy substance as the previous Peterson’s Lovat – sticky from a price label. There was a lot of tooth chatter and the tooth marks mid stem that I mentioned above. The underside of the shank was stamped FRANCE – visible in the second photo below.I decided to look at things a little differently and researched the P. Jackson Singapore connection. I could not find anything on the P. Jackson Co. listed as a company or tobacconist in Singapore so that was a dead-end. I will continue to look for that Company through a variety of documents. I did find several other people on the forums had also found this particular brand of pipe but no one had a clue as to who made it. So I went a little further in my search. I entered P. Jackson Singapore to see if I could come up with leads. I was surprised when it returned a search category for P (Philip) Jackson who was a cartographer in Singapore. I followed those links and this is what I found.

Lieutenant Philip Jackson (b.24 September 1802, Durham, England–d.1879) was an officer in the Bengal Regiment Artillery, and served as Assistant Engineer, Executive Officer and Surveyor of Public Lands in colonial Singapore. An accomplished surveyor and draughtsman, Jackson produced a number of important maps, including one of the earliest maps of the town of Singapore and the earliest known drawing of Singapore – “Plan of the Town of Singapore”. He was also the first architect of the Singapore Institution (the precursor of Raffles Institution) building. http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_140_2005-01-20.html

I followed references in that link and found that Jackson had designed the plan of the Town of Singapore. Here is what I found on that link.

The Jackson Plan or Raffles Town Plan,[1], an urban plan of 1822 titled “Plan of the Town of Singapore”, is a proposed scheme for Singapore drawn up to maintain some order in the urban development of the fledgling but thriving colony founded just three years earlier. It was named after Lieutenant Philip Jackson, the colony’s engineer and land surveyor tasked to oversee its physical development in accordance with the vision of Stamford Raffles for Singapore, hence it is also commonly called Raffles Town Plan. The plan was formulated in late 1822 and published in 1828.[1] It is the earliest extant plan for the town of Singapore, but not an actual street map of Singapore as it existed in 1822 or 1828 since the plan is an idealised scheme of how Singapore may be organized that was not fully realised.[2] Nevertheless it served as a guide for the development of Singapore in its early days, and the effect of the general layout of the plan is still observable to this day.(ED. The endnotes are included underneath the map. I found that the map was interesting in itself so I included that as well.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Plan

[1] Bonny Tan. “Raffles Town Plan (Jackson Plan)”. Singapore Infopedia. National Library Board.

[2] H. F. Pearson (July 1969). “Lt. Jackson’s Plan of Singapore”. Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 42 (1 (215) Singapore 150th Anniversary Commemorative Issue): 161–165.

From this information I surmised that the pipe may have been issued as some kind of Commemorative Pipe to recognize the contribution of Jackson to the city of Singapore. I know I can’t prove that, but it is an interesting possibility. If any of you have information on the brand and could shed light on the origins of this pipe let us all know. Thanks ahead of time.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer to remove the thick cake. I started with the smallest cutting head and worked my way up to the second cutting head to remove the cake and leave the inside of the bowl bare. I wanted to be able to check the inside walls to see if there was any heat damage (once again I was glad to see that there was no damage).I removed the stem from the shank – it was a dirty mortise so the fit on the shank was very tight. I worked it carefully so as not to break or damage the tenon or the shank. I lightly wiped off the debris from the stem, wiped it down lightly with alcohol to remove the gummy substance and put it in the Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer to soak overnight along with the Peterson’s Kapruf stem.While the stem soaked, I worked on the stummel. I scrubbed it down with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I scrubbed hard to remove the lava from the rim top. There was a lot of dirt and grime on the virgin finish and the scrubbing removed that. I rinsed the bowl down with running water to wash off the soap and the grime. I scrubbed it under the running water with the tooth brush and when it was finished, dried it off with a towel. The pipe was looking pretty good at this point in the process. I scrubbed the internals of the pipe with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to clean out the tars and oils that had collected there. It took a lot of scrubbing before the cleaners and cotton swabs came out clean.After I rinsed the bowl and rim I could see the two areas on the right top of the bowl that were sandpits. One of them had a large crumbling fill that went across the rim top (not quite as far as the inside edge of the bowl) and then curved down the side toward the back of the bowl. I cleaned the fill with a dental pick to clean up the putty. I repaired the fill with clear super glue and a little bit of briar dust. The photos below show the repaired areas. When the repair had cured I sanded the repairs smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. I polished them with micromesh sanding pads to blend them in with the top of the rim and the back of the bowl. The photos below show the repairs after the sanding and polishing.I set the bowl aside for a short time and turned my attention to the stem. I removed it from the Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and dried it off. There was still some stubborn oxidation in the vulcanite. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped down the stem after each pad with Obsidian Oil. After the final pad I gave the stem a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. I wiped the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil to give life to the briar. I buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish out the scratches. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. The stamping is still very readable. It is a good looking pipe and the P. Jackson Co. Singapore label is still an ongoing mystery.I put the stem back on the pipe and buffed it lightly with the Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. I buffed the stem harder than the stummel to polish the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and stem more coats of carnauba wax and buffed them with a clean buffing pad to raise a shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It really is a nice long shank Canadian with beautiful grain and a natural finish. I think my friend in Calgary is going to enjoy this second pipe as much as the Peterson’s Lovat. Thanks for following along the restoration path on this one with me.

New Life for a C.P.F. Wellington Style Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on my work table is another C.P.F. from the virtual pipe hunt Jeff and I did in Montana. It is an interesting piece in that it has some age on it but to my thinking it is “newer” than the other C.P.F. pipes I have been working on from that hunt. This one has no stamping on the bowl but has the C.P.F. in an oval logo stamped on the ferrule underneath a set of the expected faux hallmarks.

To me it is very much like later C.P.F./KB&B post-merger Chesterfield pipes. KB&B acquired or started the C.P.F. line sometime between 1884 and 1898” (http://kaywoodie.myfreeforum.org/archive/cpf__o_t__t_161.html). They operated the factory at 129 Grand Street, in New York City, New York. The ferrule and stem are not stamped with the dual stamp that later pipes had, so I think it is safe to assume that it is from pre-1900. I went back and read my blog post on the background of the brand and I think I was able to date this one a bit.

The C.P.F. brand was discontinued sometime between 1910-1920. I turned to a quote I found from Bill Feuerbach where he notes the following, which pins down the time frame of the discontinuation of the brand more specifically, “I have a C.P.F. Chesterfield in our office display that has a nametag from way before my time that says 1900 C.P.F. Chesterfield. It looks like most other Chesterfields you’ve seen, including the military type push stem, except this stem is horn and not vulcanite. As far as I have gathered the C.P.F. brand was phased out sometime around 1915” (http://kaywoodie.myfreeforum.org/archive/cpf__o_t__t_161.html). Interestingly, he noted that the Chesterfield name and style was later introduced in the KB&B, Kaywoodie and Yello-Bole lines. He says that the 1924 KB&B catalog shows KB&B Chesterfields. (Here is a link to the full blog on the brand: https://rebornpipes.com/2013/04/14/some-reflection-on-the-historical-background-on-cpf-pipes/).

My brother Jeff took the previous and the following photos of the pipe before he cleaned it and sent it to me. It was extremely dirty with grime settled deep in all of the grooves of the rustication on the bowl. The nickel ferrule was oxidized and had turned and the stamping in the metal was not visible on the left side. The stem was oxidized and spotty looking and to my eye it had appeared to have straightened over time and lost some of the natural curve it originally had. This old pipe was in really rough shape. The rim was heavily covered in a thick lava coat and the bowl was caked with a hard carbon. It was thick against the walls with the cake thicker on the back side of the bowl. The way the cake was it was hard to tell what kind of condition the inner and outer edge of the bowl would be in until it was all removed.The next photo not only shows more of the rim and bowl but also the damage and heavy oxidation of the ferrule. It was rough to touch and there was a large piece missing on the end.The next photos show the dirt that was caked in the grooves and carvings of the bowl and shank sides. The curved area between the bowl and the shank was really dirty. The third photo below shows the heel of the bowl and the small crack that went across the width. It was hard to tell if it was just a flaw in the briar or a true crack. Once it was cleaned up I would be better able to tell. The one thing going for it was that there was no darkening to the exterior of the heel. The ferrule had come loose at some point in its life and had been reglued upside down. The C.P.F. in an oval logo and the faux hallmarks were on the bottom of the shank. The damaged spot on the ferrule had turned to the top of the shank. I wondered if the damage had been engineered when the shank had been drilled. Once again, I would know once we had cleaned it up and looked at it up close. When the stem was removed the end was wrapped up the stem about an inch with cord. This was often done to tighten the fit in the shank. I have found that on pipes this dirty that the sump below the airway in the mortise is generally filled and the sides of the mortise are so dirty that the stem no longer fits correctly in the shank. Jeff took a photo of the shank end to show the damage to the ferrule close up. It almost looks like it is notched. I am wondering if the turned ferrule (the notch) on the top of the shank rather than the bottom was not one reason for the misfit of the stem.The next two photos show the wrap as he began to unwind it from the end of the stem.The stem was badly oxidized and it was going to be hard to get all of the oxidation off the old vulcanite. The button end had a slight notch that opened up the orific airway. I was not sure if this was original or if it was damage. The stem was stamped on the underside with the words SOLID RUBBER and on the topside near the saddle with C.P.F. in an oval. There was some definite wear and tear on the stem but surprisingly no tooth marks. Once again, Jeff did his usual thorough cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer, scraped the rim top with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to clear off the lava build up. He cleaned out the internals – mortise, airway in the shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the briar with Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove all of the grime and grit in the finish and clean out the areas around the issue I had noted on the heel of the bowl. He rinsed the briar under running water and dried it with a soft cloth. He soaked the stem in OxyClean to bring the oxidation to the surface and remove the grime. When the pipe arrived in Vancouver it certainly looked different than it did when we picked it up out of the sale display in Montana. I did not take photos of the pipe before I started working on it but instead got sucked into the restoration process.

I heated the ferrule with a Bic lighter to soften the glue that held the metal to the shank end. It took a bit of heating a cooling before I was able to pry the ferrule off the shank end. In the photo below you can see the glue on the shank end and the notch in the face of the ferrule. I wiped down the finish with acetone on a cotton pad paying special attention to the glue on the shank end. I wanted the shank end clean before I reglued the ferrule on it. I painted all-purpose glue around the shank, aligned the ferrule so that the notch was at the bottom of the shank and the C.P.F. logo and faux hallmarks were on the left side of the shank as they had originally been when the pipe left the factory. I pressed the ferrule in place. Once it set on the shank I tried the stem and it fit better than previously. I put the stem in a bath of Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer for 24 hours to let the mixture do its magic on the badly oxidized stem.Once the bowl had been reamed clean it was clear that the cake had been reamed out before with a knife and the airway entered the bowl high. The bottom of the bowl was below the airway and because of that it made the bottom quite thin. While the bowl was not burned or damaged it was a candidate for that to happen. I mixed a batch of JB Weld and applied it to the bottom of the bowl and up the sides part way to raise the bottom of the bowl and protect it. The airway entrance was also to open so I built up the edges around it with some of the mix. I set the bowl aside to let the repair cure overnight, turned off the lights and called it a day. Work was so busy last week that I did not get to work on the pipe again until the weekend. The stem had soaked in the bath for 48 hours and I was hoping that the mixture had done its magic and remove the oxidation. I took it out of the bath and dried it off and ran pipe cleaners and alcohol through the airway in the stem.I put a pipe cleaners in the airway and heated the solid rubber stem with a candle to soften the stem enough to be able to bend it. I kept it high enough above the flame so that the rubber would not burn. Once it was soft and flexible I bent it to the point that when in the shank it sat properly in the mouth of the pipe man.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth chatter on both sides of the stem in front of the button. I reshaped the end of the button to make it more round and remove some of the damage on the edges.I buffed the stem with red Tripoli to remove some of the deep remnants of oxidation. I polished it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and rubbing it down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads and once again rubbed it down after each pad. I gave it a last coat of oil after the 12000 grit pad and set it aside to dry. I examined the area on the heel of the bowl with a lens and could see that the bowl was not cracked but rather I was dealing with a flaw in the briar. I picked it clean and wiped it down with alcohol on a cotton swab to make sure that there was no debris in the crack. I pressed some briar dust into the flaw with a dental pick and spatula. I put clear super glue on top of the briar dust and let it seep into the flaw.I carefully sanded the repaired area with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the repair. Once it was smooth I touched up the stain with a medium grit stain pen and buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I rubbed the briar down with Conservator’s Wax and when it dried, I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. The next photos show the bowl at this point in the process.(An interesting note at this point. Looking down the bowl from the top you can see the JB Weld repair on the bowl bottom. Once this cures for about a week I will give the pipe a bowl coating of sour cream and charcoal powder.)I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond and gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I gave the bowl several more coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise a shine on the pipe. The finished pipe is shown below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Bowl diameter: 1 3/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. Though the pipe is far from perfect, I think this old-timer has been given a new lease on life and should last the next pipe man for many years to come. The damages are repaired but in many ways still speak of the story of the old pipe. Hopefully the next pipe will keep the trust for this old pipe and pass it on to the next generation. Thanks for looking.

“Frankensteining” a Badly Damaged C.P.F. Cromwell Double stem pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

This is the second C.P.F. Cromwell Double stem system pipe that I have worked on (https://rebornpipes.com/2017/07/01/out-damn-spots-a-c-p-f-cromwell-double-vertical-stem-bent-billiard/). This one was in very rough shape but the stem was in much better condition. Like other older C.P.F. pipes this one has some real charm that deserved to be repaired and brought back to life. Like the other Cromwell it is on the petite side of things – 4 ½ inches long and 1 ½ inches tall. It was a nice piece of briar, a mix of grains. The silver collar on the shank is stamped with the same faux hallmarks and the C.P.F. in an oval logo as the previous one. It is probably silver or at least plated but I am not sure. The stem is the unusual part of the mix. It has two silver plated spigot tenons that fit into openings in the silver collar. The twin stems merge into one single airway. In the previous blog I posted a line drawing on the pipe showing the flow of air through the bowl to the button. I include that below as it is quite unique to this particular pipe.He took photos of the pipe from a variety of angles to show the uniqueness and the condition. The finish was worn and the top of the bowl had been burned and sanded down by about half of the briar. It was uneven and broken looking. But I think that the pipe still had some life in it. I was toying with the idea of “Frankensteining” the pipe. I was thinking about bonding the upper portion of another pipe bowl to the damaged portion of this bowl. The left side of the shank is stamped in worn gold leaf C.P.F. in an oval over Cromwell in script. There is no other stamping on the bowl. The stem is also stamped on the left side and reads PURE RUBBER on the top stem and C.P.F. in an oval on the lower stem. This pipe is also from the virtual pipe hunt my brother and I did in Montana. The photos he took are shown below. The next two photos show that the pipe continued to be smoked even after all of the damage. It must have been someone’s favourite pipe as you can see the cake that is formed around the inside walls of the bowl. The rim top and edges are absolutely savaged and it looks like someone took a rasp or file to the top to try to smooth out the damage. A view from the front of the bowl shows the damage to the top of the bowl and how it dips dramatically at the front. The bowl sides are scratched and damaged as well.The next two photos show some of the nice grain that remains on the bottom and sides of the bowl.The stamping on the left side of the shank is very readable – C.P.F. in an oval logo over Cromwell in script format. The metal ferrule bears the C.P.F. in an oval logo flanked on the left by the same three faux hallmarks that were on all of the other C.P.F. pipes.The double stem inserted in the ferrule has end caps that are also metal and pressed onto the vulcanite. The stem is stamped Pure Rubber on the top stem and the C.P.F. in an oval logo on the lower stem. The stem is oxidized but it is in good condition.The stem surface at the top and underside near the button is worn and has tooth chatter and wear on the sharp edge of the button.When the stem was removed from the shank the inside of the mortise was dirty and had a lot of oxidation and buildup on the inside and on the stem caps. The airways were also dirty and almost clogged.Once again Jeff did his usual thorough cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the bowl and cleaned out the internals – both sides of the twin mortise, and the convoluted airways in the shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the briar with Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove all of the grim and grit in the finish and clean out the areas around the sandpits. He rinsed the briar under running water and dried it with a soft cloth. He soaked the stem in OxyClean to bring the oxidation to the surface and remove the grime. When the pipe arrived in Vancouver it certainly looked different than it did when we picked it up. I took the photos below to show the condition of the pipe when I brought it to the work table.

The briar was really a nice piece with flowing straight and flame grain running up the sides of the bowl and shank and birds eye on the bottom of both. The rim top was basically gone and what remained was very damaged with missing chunks of briar on the inner edge. The angle of the remaining rim was lower in the front than it was in the back. The bottom of the bowl was over reamed. I took a close up photo of the rim top and bowl. It was really damaged but it was clean. You can see the chips and missing chunks of briar in the rim top. The bowl is totally out of round and is rough with file marks on the top surface.The OxyClean soak had brought the oxidation to the surface of the vulcanite. It was evenly distributed over the entire stem surface. There was some tooth chatter and marks on the stem that showed up with the soak. They are not deep so they will easily cleanup.I topped the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board. I wiped the bowl down with alcohol on a cotton pad to clean up the dust from the topping process. I put the stem in the Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer to soak and turned my attention to working on my idea for the bowl repair. I went through a box of bowls and stuff I have here for repairing pipes and I found a bowl that originally came from a metal pipe that had an open bottom. It was solid with no fills and it was one I had around that did not fit any of the metal bases in my drawer. I decided it would work really well as the replacement for the top half of the bowl. It was time to begin “Frankensteining” the two parts so that they would fit together. I used the sanding drum on the Dremel to sand off the threads on the bowl base and also sand out the inside of the Cromwell base.I built up the top edge and rim top of the bowl with a combination of briar dust and clear super glue. I wanted to build an even surface for the base of the bowl to rest on. I wanted the bowl to anchor firmly in the base using the smoothed out threaded portion of the bowl.I took photos of the bowl top after I had topped it on the topping board. You can also see the sanding marks of the sanding drum on the inside of the bowl.I applied super glue to the edges of the top bowl and on the inside of the base and glued the bowl to the base. I held it in place until the glue set. When it had dried I filled in the gaps between the bowl top and base with super glue and briar dust as shown in the photos below. This is where I begin to shape the “Frankenpipe” and bring the two parts together. I used a Dremel and sanding drum to begin to blend the two parts together. I need to reduce the diameter and flow of the top of the bowl so that it would blend in with the sides of the base portion of the bowl. It was going to take a lot of sanding but I think it actually would work. At this point the bowl is quite tall and that would need to be shortened. I took the stem out of the Before & After bath and dried it off with a rough cloth to remove the oxidation and sludge that clung to the surface of the vulcanite. I cleaned out the airways in the stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol. I sanded out the tooth marks at the button on both sides and wiped the surface with Obsidian Oil. I was so intent on cleaning it up that I forgot to take photos of the stem work.I still needed to polish the stem with micromesh sanding pads but I would do that later in the process.

I turned back to the bowl and continued to sand with the Dremel and sanding drum shaping the bowl top to match the flow of the base. I shortened it each time I sanded the sides but it was going to take some time. I put the stem back in the shank and took photos to see where I stood with the reshaping work. You can begin to see the shape of the new pipe emerging as I sand it. I removed more of the height off the top of the bowl and continued to sand and remove excess briar around the base and sides to blend the two parts together. The photos tell the story. I continued to shape and shorten the new bowl with 220 grit sandpaper. I worked on the inside of the bowl using the Dremel with a sanding drum to smooth out the joint of the two parts. I followed up by using 180 grit sandpaper. In the photos below the pipe is beginning to take shape.To protect the joint on the inside of the bowl from potential burn out or damage I mixed a batch of JB Weld and used a spatula to apply it to the inside of the bowl. I decided to stain the briar with a dark brown aniline stain to make the grain stand out on the briar. I would sand it all off but the dark brown would highlight things well. I would not be able to hide the connection between the two parts of the bowl so I was thinking that I could leave the shank darker, the bottom a shade lighter, the junction between the two black and the top portion lighter. It would have a contrast like a meerschaum. I stained it and flamed it to set the grain in the briar. I repeated the process multiple times. While the stain cured on the bowl I worked on the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit pads and wiped it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads and wiped it down with the oil after each pad. Once again I was so absorbed in working on the bowl that I forgot to take photos of the stem work. I set the stem aside to dry and went back to the bowl. I sanded the bowl with 180 and then 220 grit sandpaper to remove the stain coat on the bowl. The dark band is not even but it looks really good to me. I touched up the stamping on the left side of the shank with Rub’n Buff European Gold. I applied it with a cotton swab and buffed it off with soft pad. It is very readable and clear.With all of the touch ups finished and sanding finished on the bowl it was time to polish the briar. I really like to polish it with micromesh sanding pads as it brings the grain to the surface and gives the briar a deep shine. I work the same each time – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-120000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad. I polished the ferrule and the stem ends with the micromesh pads at the same time. I wiped them down with a jeweler’s cloth to protect and give them a shine. I buffed the bowl and stem separately with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel being careful around the joint of the two parts of the bowl and the metal end caps on the double stem. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad. I rubbed the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil and buffed it with a soft microfiber cloth to deepen the shine on the bowl. The repaired pipe is shown in the photos below. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. In a few days I after the JB Weld has cured in the bowl I will give the bowl a coat of sour cream and charcoal powder to further protect it. What do you think of this Frankenstein pipe? Thanks for looking.

Restoring a Made in England Cumberland Acorn

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Blog by Steve Laug

The stamping on the next pipe that crossed my work table was faint but it read Cumberland over Made in England. There is no shape number and no other name on the pipe. There is nothing Cumberland about the pipe as far as I can tell – the stem is black vulcanite and appears to be original. The finish is sand blast and quite nice though there are some sand pits in the bowl that are quite large and have been filled in. The rim and bowl are in good condition. The stem was badly oxidized and had a few tooth marks but otherwise clean. Like I said nothing Cumberland about it. I looked on Pipephil’s site and as expected nothing with this name other than Dunhill. I looked at Who Made That Pipe and they list it as UNKNOWN. So the mystery remains. I have no idea who made this nicely shaped acorn but I know that it was made in England. Anyone have any ideas?

I received a comment on the blog and on my Facebook page both confirming what I asked regarding the maker of this pipe. Al Jones (upshallfan) and Dan Chlebove both figured it was made by Charatan. I did some searching online and found a Charatan Shape Chart on Al Pascia’s website. Sure enough, the shape was on the chart. It is the Salisbury Shape 173. Dan noted that it was an older one because it did not have the Double Comfort style bit on it. I think that the scar on the front of the bowl and the sandpit on the back make it a Charatan Reject. Thanks for the information gentlemen.My brother took the photo above and the ones that follow to show the condition of the pipe when it arrived in Idaho. The finish was very dirty and there was a lot of grime and dirt in the grooves of the sandblast. There was significant tar and darkening on the rim top and edges. The bowl had a thick cake and it had overflowed onto the rim top. The stem was lightly oxidized and very dirty with the slot almost closed off with tars. There were tooth marks and chatter on both the top and underside of the stem near the button and tooth damage to the sharp edge of the button on both sides.The next photo shows the cake and the overflow on to the bowl top. I have found that generally this kind of buildup protects the rim top as well as the inner and outer edges from damage.The next photos show the interesting sandblast finish on the bowl from various angles. Looking past the dirty finish it is an interesting blast. The first photo below shows the sandpit on the front of the bowl but future photos will give a better view of that spot.I have included both of the next photos because together they give a clear view of the stamping on the underside of the shank. The first one show the CUMBERLAND stamping though the Made in England stamp is blurry. The second is the reverse. The shank is stamped on the curve of the shank so it is hard to get a clear photo of both at the same time.The close up photos of the stem surfaces show the tooth marks, chatter and damage to the edge of the button on both sides.Jeff did his usual thorough cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the bowl and cleaned out the internals – mortise, airway in the shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the briar with Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove all of the grim and grit in the finish and clean out the areas around the sandpits. He rinsed the briar under running water and dried it with a soft cloth. He soaked the stem in OxyClean to bring the oxidation to the surface and remove the grime. When the pipe arrived in Vancouver it certainly looked different than it did when we picked it up. I took the photos below to show the condition of the pipe when I brought it to the work table. The finish looked amazingly clean. The rim top looked better without the tars and buildup. There was some darkening on the rim top but the edges of the rim looked very good.The OxiClean had done the job and the oxidation was on the surface of the vulcanite stem. It was pretty green. I dropped it in the Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer to soak for 24 hours while I turned my attention to the stummel. The “Harry Potterish” scar (flaw/sandpit) on the front of the bowl was quite deep but it was not cracked. To me it took away from the overall look of a nice sandblast. There was also a round sandpit on the back side of the bowl on the left toward the top edge that also needed attention. I used a brass bristle brush to scrub out the remaining debris in those areas. I filled them in with clear super glue to blend them into the surface of the briar better. When the repairs had cured I carefully wiped around the edges with acetone on a cotton swab to remove the excess glue. I have found that the super glue repairs leave a shiny spot on the finish if you don’t remove the overage. To blend the repairs into the briar even more I topped up the repaired areas with black super glue. It would blend in better with the final stain that I was planning on using on the briar. I cleaned up the areas with a cotton swab and acetone to remove any excess glue in the surrounding sandblast. I warmed the briar and stained it with a dark brown aniline stain. I applied the stain and flamed it several time until I had an even coverage on the stummel. I set the pipe aside for about an hour and worked on another pipe I have on the work table. When the stain had dried I wiped it off with alcohol on a cotton pad to make it more transparent and show some of the underlying grain. I like the contrast that happens in the finish when I wiped off some of the stain. Notice the repaired areas on the front and back side of the bowl. They blend in quite well with the darker finish. I gave the sandblast several coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush to raise the shine. I really like the new colour on the bowl and find that the repaired areas really do blend in quiet well with the rest of the finish. It also blends in the darkening on the rim top and gives the pipe a richer new look. I took the stem out of the Before & After soak and dried off the stem with a rough cloth to remove the remnants of the soak and the oxidation that it had lifted. The next two photos show the stem after the soak. There is still some deep oxidation that will need to be addressed but it looks far better than it did when I started.I put the stem on the stummel and took some photos to get an idea of where I was at with the restoration. The pipe is going to look good once I am finished. I used some black super glue to repair the edge of the button on both sides of the stem. Once the repair dried I sanded the repairs and the rest of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to shape the button and to remove the remaining oxidation. I worked on the saddle portion of the stem carefully so as not to round the edges where it met the shank of the pipe. It was looking better but more work was necessary to bring it to a full shine. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and wiping the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish to further remove the scratches left behind by the sandpaper. I dry sanded the stem with 3200-12000 grit micromesh pads to deepen the polish. I wiped the stem down after each pad and set it aside to dry after sanding with the 12000 grit pad. I put the pipe back together and polished it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I find that Blue Diamond Plastic polish really takes out the scratches in the vulcanite stems. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and polished it with a clean buffing pad. I hand waxed the sandblast bowl with a final coat of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the bowl and stem with a microfiber cloth. The darker stain blended the repaired sandpits and the darkening on the rim top into the rest of the finish. It turned out to be a nice looking pipe – its dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 1/2 inches, Bowl diameter: 1 3/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store soon. If it interests you, send me an email to slaug@uniserve.com or a message on Facebook. Thanks for looking.

Restoring a Sad, Old MLC Bent Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

This older MLC bent billiard is a turn of the 20th century pipe. The initials stand for Mary Linkman Company. The company was named for the mother of the same Linkman who eventually branded pipes under that same name and then eventually became the Dr. Grabow pipe manufacturer with which we are familiar. If you have followed this blog for a while you have come to know that I love really old pipes and this one fits the bill. It is stamped MLC in an oval with no other stamping on the shank. The ferrule is brass and has faux hallmarks on the left side. They are worn but still readable with a bright light and a lens. It is another small pipe, slightly under 4 inches long and 1 ½ inches tall. The stem is Bakelite or Redmanol and has a lot of small spidering cracks in the flat portions of the stem on both sides. Both sides of the saddle are split the entire length of the saddle. There is very little tooth chatter or and minor tooth marks on both sides near the button. Jeff took the photos that follow before started the cleanup. (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-m6.html)The pipe was in really rough shape. The finish was worn and spotted with paint specks, grime and nicks in the briar. The stem was split and worn. The bone tenon looked good but the band on the shank was loose and spun around the shank. The wear and tear on the brass band and the tarnish left is a mottled mess. The bowl had been reamed somewhere in the process so the cake was not thick. The lava on the rim was light. The inner and outer edge of the bowl was undamaged. The rim close up shows the cake and the peeling lava on the surface of the bowl.Jeff took photos of the sides of the bowl and the bottom side to show the wear and tear on the finish. There were some deep gouges in the briar and a lot of paint speckles on the briar. The stamping on the left side of the shank is quite clear – MLC in an oval. It had originally been gold leaf but it was worn. The stamping on right side of the oval was lighter than the rest of the stamping.I did some digging on the net to see what I could find out about the MLC brand. I knew that it was a Linkman pipe but could not remember much about it. I turned to my go to site for quick information – Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/M._Linkman_%26_Co). The information did not add much to my understanding other than pin down the date to the late 1890s or early 1900s. Included in the article was a photo of Mary Linkman, her son Louis and August Fisher at their Chicago Office. The photo is from Mary’s obituary and is a fascinating piece of history. The scan of the photo and obituary are courtesy of August Fisher’s granddaughter.Jeff took some photos of the stem. The right side of the saddle stem was split from the end up to the transition to the blade of the stem. The right side also had a crack. It looked to me that someone had turned the bone tenon too deep into the stem and split the saddle. The flat surfaces of the top and bottom of the stem were filled with a series of small spidering cracks. The stem, like the bowl was covered with paint flecks or spray. You can see from the first photo that the band has been turned all the way around so that the worn faux hallmarks are upside down and on the wrong side. Jeff cleaned the exterior of the pipe with some Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush and rinsed it off under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth and the soap had removed the paint flecks and the deeply ground in grime on the finish. He ran pipe cleaners and alcohol through the mortise and the airway in the shank and stem to remove dust and debris that had collected there. He carefully scrubbed out the cracks and splits in the sides of the saddle stem using a tooth brush and rinsing it in water. Once the pipe was clean, he packed it up and sent it my way for the repair and restoration work. I took photos of the pipe when I unwrapped it on my worktable. It is an intriguing little pipe that caught my attention. When I unscrewed the stem the ferrule fell off in my hand. I laid out the parts of the pipe and took the following photo. It shows the nicks, dents, sandpits and flaws in the briar. The band looked as if it was never glued to the shank. The briar is clean and the inside of the ferrule had no remnants of glue. It was clean.I took some close up photos of the stem to show the cracks and splits in the saddle portion. The stem was worn and battered. The bone tenon was darkened from tobacco smoke and tars. The edges on the tenon were worn down and when the stem was on the pipe it was over turned or over clocked. I cleaned out the cracks in the side of the saddle stem with a dental pick and a damp cotton swab until the inside of the crack was clear of debris that would cause the stem repair to be very visible. I dried the stem off with a cotton pad. I filled in the cracks on both sides of the stem with amber super glue and set the stem aside to dry.When the repair had cured I sanded it smooth to blend it into the rest of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded all of tooth chatter and marks out of the surface of the stem as well to smooth out all of the damage. I wanted it to disappear into the amber Bakelite. After I had smoothed out the repair I polished it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to dry. (I almost forgot to add this piece of information. Just before I polished the stem I painted the threads on the tenon with clear fingernail polish to build them up so the stem would align properly when I put it in place.) The bowl needed a lot of work. I wiped the bowl down with acetone and filled in the nicks, dents, flaws and sandpits in the briar with clear super glue. I sanded the fills smooth with 220 grit sandpaper until they blended into the surface of the briar. I wiped the bowl down again with alcohol on a cotton pad to remove the sanding debris. I gave the shank end a coat of white all-purpose glue and put the ferrule in place with the faux hallmarks aligned with the stamping on the shank side. I left it to dry and worked on another pipe for a while. Once the glue had set I sanded the bowl and the ferrule with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the scratches left behind from sanding with the 220 grit paper. The photos below show the bowl at this point in the process of the restoration. I stained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain and flamed it to set it in the grain. I figured that the dark brown stain would hide the repairs and give the bowl the original rich colour. I set it aside to cure while I went to work for the day.I buffed the bowl with red Tripoli on the buffing wheel to remove some of the heavy coat of stain. I sanded the bowl with 2400-6000 grit micromesh sanding pads to make the finish more translucent so the grain would stand out when it was polished. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and set it aside to dry. I touched up the gold filled MLC Oval with Rub’n Buff European Gold. I applied it with a cotton swab and hand buffed the excess off with a cotton pad.I carefully buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The photos of the finished pipe are shown below. It has come a long way from what it looked like when I started. It turned out to be a beautiful pipe that has served pipe men well for well over 100 years. Thanks for looking.

Breathing life into a Superior Real Briar Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

This older C.P.F. style bulldog with an ornate rim cap and shank end cap was another pipe that my brother and I found in our pipe hunt in Montana. That hunt yielded a lot of older C.P.F. and WDC pipes from between the late 1890s and the early 1900s. This one is certainly from that time period. The briar is very worn and the finish is gone. The metal rim cap and shank cap or ferrule are brass coloured but blackened with oxidation. The top of the rim is thickly caked with the lava overflow from the heavy cake in the bowl itself. The stem is either Redmanol or Bakelite and has some cracking near the shank/stem junction but nothing that affects the fit of the stem to the shank. There is some tooth chatter and tooth marks near the button on the top and underside of the stem. My brother took the photos that follow before he did his clean up.The pipe has some faint stamping on the left side of the shank. The photo below shows the condition of the stamping. It clearly reads SUPERIOR in a diamond. There seems to be other stamping that is faint underneath SUPERIOR in the diamond but I am unable to read it. On the outside of the diamond there is stamping on either side. It is faint but to the left under the edge of the diamond is faint stamping Real and under the right edge of the diamond it reads Briar. There appears to be something underneath the diamond going across the shank but it is not clear enough for me to be able to read.The next two photos show the pipe from two different angles to give an idea of what the pipe looked like in its entirety. There is some real promise with this old pipe.The rings around the cap on the bowl are in excellent condition. There is some debris lodged in them but there are no chips or cracks in the ring. The finish on the briar is spotty with small remnants of the original finish in place. The grain on the pipe is quite nice underneath the grime. The bowl has a thick cake in it and the lava has flowed over on top of the rim top. The metal rim top is blackened and has a thick cake of lava on it. It is hard to know what the inner edge of the rim will look like at this point because of the cake in the bowl. The carvings/castings in the metal rim cap and the shank end are dirty and have a lot of grime built up in the grooves and crannies. The Bakelite/Redmanol stem had tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem from the button forward about an inch. There were some small cracks in the shank end of the stem that would need to be addressed in the repair.Jeff did an amazing job of reaming out the bowl on this one and revealed that the metal cap was folded over and lined the inner edge of the rim thus protecting the rim from damage. He was able to ream the bowl back to bare briar without damaging this inner rim edge. He cleaned out the internals of the pipe with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they were clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl and the metal with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap. This removed the grime in the nooks and crannies of the metal work and also cleaned the briar. He was careful around the already damaged stamping so as not to damage it further. When the pipe arrived in Canada it was clean and ready for restoration. I took photos of the pipe before I began my work to show what it looked like cleaned and ready for me. I love working on clean pipes! He was able to get all of the buildup off the rim cap but the surface was pitted and worn from all of the years of grime sitting on the brass. The bowl looked really good and the brass folded over the inside edge was darkened but undamaged.The stem was cleaned of the tars that were on the inside of the airways. The photos show the cracking at the shank end near the band. While the cracks were not rough to touch they were present. There were also many tiny little spidering cracks on the inside of the airway.I polished the metal rim cap and inner edge with micromesh sanding pads, wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads. I was able to remove much of the pitting and scratching on the surface and the blackening of the inner edge of the cap. I dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads to further polish the cap and edge.I laid the bowl aside for the time being and turned my attention to the stem repairs. I cleaned the surface of the stem around the largest and roughest feeling crack with a water dampened cotton pad. I sanded it with 1500 micromesh and wiped it another time to remove the sanding residue. I filled in the cracked surface with clear super glue and let it cure. When it dried I sanded it smooth with 220 grit sandpaper and also sanded the tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem at the button.I cleaned out the interior of the stem with pipe cleaners and water to remove more of the debris from the airway.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after sanding with each micromesh sanding pad, gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. I turned back to the bowl to finish my work on it. I wiped the briar down with a cotton pad and alcohol being careful around the faint stamping on the shank. I was hoping that when it was wet it would be more readable. Sadly it was not. The SUPERIOR stamp was all that I could read. The briar has some nice grain. I decided to leave the nicks and scratches alone as they were well earned character marks on this 100+ year old pipe. I really like the look of the raw briar on this one so I decided to rub it down with olive oil to make the grain stand out and give the briar some life. The next photos show the grain on the oiled bowl. It looks really good to my eye. I gave the bowl a coat of Conservator’s Wax to protect the briar and when the wax dried I buffed it with a flannel cloth to give it a shine. I put the stem back on the shank and in doing so remembered that it was slightly overturned. The lines of the shank and the diamond stem did not align. I have found that on these old bone tenon and threaded mortises that they wear down slightly over time. A little trick I use to address the wear is to paint the tenon with a thin coat of clear fingernail polish that I swiped from my daughters years ago. It dries clear and just one thin coat was enough to align the stem perfectly when I screwed it into the mortise.I lightly buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to remove the tiny scratches that remained on the brass and the briar. I gave the briar portion of the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and polished them with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I polished the brass with a jeweler’s cloth and buffed it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the entire pipe with a microfiber cloth to put on the finishing touches. The pipe is shown in the photos below in all of its beauty. I love the look of these older pipes with all of the bling and the Redmanol/Bakelite stems. They really look elegant and show their era well. Thanks for coming with me on this refurb.

Revitalizing a Distinctive L J Peretti of Boston – Large Full Bent Egg

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Blog by Dal Stanton

I’ve grown to like L J Peretti pipes and I guess you could say, that I’ve started collecting them. Why? My son gave me my first Peretti for Christmas which I restored by splicing the missing part of the stem by cannibalizing another: A Christmas Gift in need of a stem splice – L J Peretti Squared Shank Billiard. It turned out to be a great smoker and I like the stout squared shank.It was my research with this pipe that I discovered the mystique of the Boston-based, L. J. Peretti name and its place in Americana pipe history as the second oldest US Tobacconist started in 1870 (Quoted from Lopes in Pipedia). The L J Peretti Co. continues to serve patrons today in their Boston shop on 2 ½ Park Square by being one of the few places where one can bring his/her pipe and be guided by experienced tobacconists and test several selections before deciding to purchase! I was also attracted to the Peretti story because Boston is a cool city – my son lived there and I enjoyed my visits.The next Peretti I serendipitously received was from a colleague working in Ukraine – a square shanked Rhodesian. He brought it to me when we met last winter in Oslo, Norway, to watch a world-class Biathlon event (skiing and shooting). He wasn’t utilizing him anymore and asked me if I would. Yes! It’s a smaller pipe and good for a shorter smoke. Suddenly, I had two Perettis of Boston! Both, strong, squared shanks – I liked them.Then I drank the Peretti Kool Aid. I bought my own Peretti – well, that’s not the whole truth. I bought 10 pipes of Peretti in a lot for sale on eBay from a seller located in Everett, Massachusetts, just north of Boston. I guess you could say that I’m now a Peretti collector! Of the 10 pictured from the eBay seller below, I chose 4 to add to my personal collection – one of the Oom Paul’s (many to choose from!), the Calabash (top left), the Billiard EX (bottom), and the massive Full Bent Egg in the center of the picture. The remaining Peretti cousins will eventually be restored and put up for adoption in The Pipe Steward Store Front to benefit the Daughters of Bulgaria. I’m pressing to restore and ready the Peretti Full Bent Egg for service because my wife and I will be returning to the US from Bulgaria for a few months and I was hoping to bring this new Peretti along! Now on my worktable, on the 10^th floor of a former Communist block apartment building, I take some pictures of the L J Peretti Full Bent Egg in the condition he arrived from Everett, Mass. The pipe is generally in good shape. It shows normal wear and usage. The briar surface is grimy. The narrow, cylindrical bowl is laden with cake which needs removal. The stem is heavily oxidized with tooth chatter and some compressions present. This L J Peretti has enjoyed a lot of use showing that the former steward enjoyed his company. The nomenclature is situated on the left-side of the shank and simply reads, ‘LJ PERETTI CO’ and is very worn. I’ll be careful to preserve it. There are no other markings that I can tell. I take a magnifying glass to the left side of the full bent saddle stem to see if there might be a Peretti ‘P’ stamp hiding in the oxidation, but I see no sign. I’m anxious to recommission this newest of my L J Perretti collection – an extra-large Full Bent Egg. The first step is to put the full bent stem into the OxiClean bath to raise the serious oxidation on the stem. I leave it in the bath overnight. Then, using the Pipnet Reaming Kit (minus blade #3 which broke during the last restoration), I attack the cake in the chamber. I use only the smallest two blades, and the cake easily surrenders. The carbon cake was crusty – like hard toast, and it comes out readily. I finetune the reaming with the Savinelli Fitsall Reaming Knife which can reach down the long, deep chamber. To clean the walls further and to reveal fresh briar for a new start, I wrap 240 grade paper around a Sharpie Pen and sand the chamber. Finally, I wipe out the chamber with a cotton pad and alcohol – ridding the chamber of the carbon dust resulting from the reaming. The chamber condition looks good. The pictures show the progress. Next, I clean the external briar surface. I do this using undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a cotton pad. I also employ the use of a brass wire brush to work on the tight rim of the Egg shape as well as my thumb nail to scrape the crusted briar and lava. Grimy was an understatement. The stummel was dirty and the rim came clean through the process, but revealed some burn damage to the slender, vulnerable rim. I’ll need to top the rim gently to remove the scorched, ‘charcoaly’ wood. The cleaning also reveals a beautiful piece of briar – inspecting the surface I find no fills. The large Egg bowl shows a lot of grain movement – very nice! My day is ending and I will let the internals of the stummel clean through the night using a kosher salt/alcohol soak. I’ve never started with the soak before. I’ve always worked first on the internals with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl 95% and then followed with a soak. I’ll do the soak and see how it does. I fill the chamber with the kosher salt, that does not leave an aftertaste as does the iodized variety. Then I fashion a cotton wick by stretching and twisting a cotton ball and then stuffing it down the mortise. Its purpose is to draw the tars and oils out during the soak. I then fill the chamber with alcohol using a large eye dropper until it surfaces over the salt. I wait a few minutes and top off the alcohol once more. Then I set the stummel in an egg cart and turn off the lights. Morning has arrived and I check out the progress with the salt/alcohol soak. Both the kosher salt and the cotton wick have darkened indicating the nocturnal stealth activities of cleaning. I remove the expended salt and wipe the chamber with a paper towel and run long-wired bristled brushes in the bowl and through the mortise to remove salt crystals. I then use pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in isopropyl 95% to clean up the leftover gunk from the soak. There were additional oils and tars in the mortise – in the moisture trap underneath the airway drilling, but all clean up quickly and well. I also scrape the mortise walls with dental probes and a pointed needle file to augment the cleaning. Internals clean!It’s time to take the stem out of the OxiClean bath and clean it up. The oxidation has surfaced well during the soak and using 600 grit sanding paper I wet sand the stem to remove the top layer of oxidation and tooth damage to the bit. I follow with 0000 steel wool to reduce the oxidation further and buff up the vulcanite. I now take a closer look at the bit to see what tooth chatter remains. Using 240 grit paper I sand the areas where tooth dents remain on the top and bottom bit. There also remains a dent on the lower button lip. At this point I use the heat method to help minimize the dents that remain. With a lighter, I pass the flame over the bit area and ‘paint’ the vulcanite surface. I don’t want to ‘cook’ the vulcanite but warm it sufficiently to expand the rubber. When this happens, the dents seek their original pre-dental positions. This works very well and the dent on the lower button lip has all but disappeared. I return to using 240 grit paper, followed by 600 then steel wool and the damaged bit areas look great. This time around I will not need to use CA glue to repair the dents.With the stem in hand I turn to cleaning the internal airway. Using only a few pipe cleaners dipped in alcohol and the stem is good to go!Looking now at the scorched rim, I need to remove the charred briar at the 1 to 2 o’clock position on the rim in the picture below. The Egg shape bowl sets off the rim as the shape tightens as it moves toward the rim. It creates a very tight look with the top. The rim appears originally to have been crowned – a gently rounded rim. I will aim toward restoring the crowned rim. First, I top the rim very little – it’s not easy as the shank extends further than the plane of the rim so it will not sit on the topping board. I must hang the shank over the topping board edge to allow the rim to sit flat. I then gently rotate the stummel in a limited fashion. I don’t take much off and then switch to 600 grit paper on the board and rotate the stummel more. Now, using 240 grit paper rolled, I sand the inside of the rim creating a beveling effect and removing the remaining damaged briar. After beveling and cleaning the internal rim lip, I gently bevel the outer lip of the rim. This is sharpening and restoring a rounding of the tight rim. I follow using 600 grit paper which smooth the rim more and enhances the crowned effect I want. The pictures show the results – I like the look of the rim – it enhances the Egg shape.Looking at this large block of briar, the Bird’s Eye grains are wonderfully portrayed in the first 2 pictures below – large landscapes of grain movement – I like that! From my original Peretti research I emailed the L J Peretti Tobacconist Shop in Boston with a question about where their pipes were manufactured. Tom was kind enough to respond, saying that over the years they had used many different sources, but most had been produced by Arlington Briars. I found this about Arlington in Pipedia:

Arlington Briar Pipes Corporation was founded in 1919 in Brooklyn, New York, and produced the Arlington, Briarlee, Firethorn, Krona and Olde London brands among dozens of others, primarily acting as a subcontractor making pipes to be sold under other brand names. Among others, in the 1950’s, Arlington turned pipes for the famed Wilke Pipe Shop in New York City. The corporation was dissolved by the State of New York as inactive on December 6, 1978.

Where ever this L J Peretti Full Bent Egg was birthed, the block of briar used was an excellent specimen and it is now showcased in this striking pipe. I see no fills on this stummel, only minor nicks which is normal for any pipe’s experience. I use a two grades of light sanding sponges to remove these small imperfections. I continue with the grain’s emergence using micromesh pads. I begin by wet sanding with pads 1500 to 2400, followed by dry sanding with pads 3200 to 4000, then 6000 to 12000. There is nothing quite like the natural briar shine that emerges during the micromesh process. The pictures show the transformation. I will stain the bowl keeping it on the lighter side by using Fiebing’s Light Brown Leather Dye and adding alcohol to it. I use a 2 to 1 ratio of Light Brown to alcohol. I first clean the stummel with a cotton pad wetted with alcohol. I mix the ratio of dye/alcohol in a shot glass and insert a cork into the shank to serve as a handle. I heat the stummel with a hot air gun to expand the briar better to receive the dye. After warmed, I use a folded pipe cleaner to apply the dye to the bowl. After fully covered with dye, I fire the aniline dye using a lit candle. The alcohol burns off setting the pigment in the grain. I wait a few minutes then repeat the process. I then put the stummel aside to rest. With the stummel resting, I turn again to the stem and wet sand it using micromesh pads 1500 to 2400, then dry sanding with pads 3200 to 4000, then 6000 to 12000. After each cycle, I apply Obsidian Oil to restore vitality to the vulcanite. The full bent saddle stem was a chore to hang on to and sand with the tight angles, but the stem looks good and has that new vulcanite pop! It is finally time to unwrap the stained and fired stummel to see what we have underneath! I enjoy this part of the restoration process primarily to see the grain emerge – this large Egg shaped stummel holds great promise. I mount a felt buffing wheel onto the Dremel and set the speed at the lowest which is 20% of its power. I apply the more abrasive Tripoli compound to the stummel to do the unwrapping of the crusted shell. To reach into the crook between the shank and stummel, I switch to an angled felt buffing wheel to remove the wrapper from the hard to reach place. To lighten the stain and to blend the dye, using a cotton pad wetted with alcohol, I wipe the stummel. This is an advantage of using aniline dyes for staining. The alcohol wipe clouds the finish but this is normal. I follow now by mounting a cotton cloth buffing wheel onto the Dremel and set at 40% speed, I apply the less abrasive Blue Diamond compound to buff-sand the stummel, as well as the full bent saddle stem which I remount. After completing the application of Blue Diamond compound on stem and stummel, to remove compound dust before waxing, I buff the pipe with a felt cloth. Then, I mount a cotton cloth buffing wheel to the Dremel and maintain the speed at 40% and apply several coats of carnauba wax to the Egg shape stummel and full bent saddle stem. The wax protects the surfaces but it also causes the shine and natural gloss of the briar to shine – I don’t know how to describe the natural beauty of briar when it shines through – and this L J Peretti is making a statement! After completing the application of carnauba wax I give the pipe a rigorous hand buffing and I’m enjoying the view.This L J Peretti Full Bent Egg is a beautiful example of briar grain coming and going. The size and the feel of the large Egg stummel in my hand fits like a glove. The tight, cylindrical bowl’s apex with the thin, crowned rim is classy. I’m happy to add this Peretti to my Peretti collection and I look forward to trying him out with a bowl of my favorite blend, Lane BC. The pipes I restore and don’t adopt myself, are put in The Pipe Steward Store Front which benefits our work with the Daughters of Bulgaria, women and girls who have been sexually exploited and trafficked. Thanks for joining me!

There is Life in this Apple Shaped Pencil Shank Jost’s Thames Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

This little apple shaped Jost’s pipe also came from Josh (misterzippo), a reader of the blog earlier this year. He sent me an email and photos some pipes that he thought I might want. As usual when you have incurable PAD there is always something that catches my eye. We fired some emails back and forth about the pipes and it did not take long to make a deal. I bought a Malaga Bulldog, a pair of Wally Frank Sandblast Filter pipes and this little Jost’s. In the photos that Josh sent were a few photos of the Jost’s pipe. The first one below shows the overall condition and appearance of the pipe. The pipe was dirty but that is never really a problem. The tape measure in the photo shows that the apple is about 6 inches long with a taper stem. The stem was in good shape with light oxidation and some tooth marks on both sides near the button.The bowl had a thick cake with overflow of tars on the rim top. The bowl looked to be slightly out of round but I would know for sure once it was cleaned and reamed. Josh sent some pictures of the stamping on the shank and the grain on the side of the bowl along with the above photos. I was hooked. This one would join the other three in its trip north.Over the past few years I have worked on and restored several Jost’s pipes and have written about the restorations and the brand itself. I reread the blog I had done on a Jost’s Olde English Deluxe/Supreme and read through the history of the brand. I learned once again that Jost’s Pipe Shop was owned and operated by Mrs. Henry A. Jost. She not only owned and operated the shop but she was a pipesmoker. There was a resident pipe carver employed by Mrs. Jost named Harvey Raspberry. I also reread the blog and was reminded that Jost’s pipes are closely tied to Comoy’s. I did not think this was one of the pipes linked to Comoy’s as it was missing the shape number and the COM stamp that usually shows up on Comoy’s made Jost’s. I read that the sure fire way to tell the difference between a regular Jost’s pipe and a Comoy’s made one was quite simple – if the Jost’s pipe doesn’t have the “Made in England” stamp it is probably made by Harvey Raspberry. There are always exceptions to the rule but 95% of the time, this is accurate.

I went back to the Pipephil website to see if there was a listing there for the Jost’s Thames Pipe. There indeed was one that matched the stamping on the pipe that I am working on. The shape of the one pictured below was different and the one I had in hand did not have the J on the stem. Otherwise the stamp on the shank is identical.

In the blog on the Olde English I had found a blog that did a great write up on Jost’s Pipe Shop in St. Louis, Missouri and gave some definitive information on the brand and grades of the pipes. Click on the word link to access that site. It includes well written history of the brand and also some interesting details about shop blends of tobacco.

In the blog the author included a list of the different Jost’s pipes that were offered. I have included the section of the blog on the pipes. It covers a lot of information regarding the source of the pipes and the levels/grades of pipes. I quote that section in total. (I have drawn a box around the pipe that I am working on.)

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

Jost Old English De Luxe: $85.00 – These were typically of the highest… Grain is stunning and the briar is flawless. These are the grade you should look out for as they are great smokers.

Jost Old English Supreme: (no pricing available) The majority of the Old English version pipes you see are marked Supreme. These are stained in a darker color and are presumably from the same Algerian aged Briar as the De Luxe brothers. These are also of the highest quality available.

Jost Virgin Briar Supreme: $35.00 Don’t see too many marked as Virgin Briar Supreme but you will often find “Supreme” Jost pipes on the second hand market (see above). Excellent quality briar and displays the lighter toned finish of the De Luxe above. Grain is not as flashy or desirable as the De Luxe model.

Jost Sandblast Briars: $25.00 These are a great value. The shop made sand-blasted pipes are usually quite large and snapped up very quickly by collectors. The Comoy’s versions (with J shape #s) are of excellent quality and typically rather small compared to the shop-made variety.

Dukes Briars: $15.00 These come up very rarely. The two I’ve seen in recent years are rather small in size. Smooth finish with light / honey stain color. Not sure what the story is behind these.

Putting together the information I had gleaned from the various sources, I concluded that the pipe I had was four grades down the list and that it was carved by Harvey Raspberry. I also could see that I had something of a rare Thames Pipe in that it was smooth and did not have any noticeable fills in the briar. When it arrived in Idaho, my brother took some photos of the pipe before he cleaned it. Jeff took some close up photos of the rim top and bowl to show the thickness of the cake and the buildup on the rim. It was a thickly cake pipe and I am sure glad that he is the one who is going to ream and clean it. The next two photos show the sides of the bowl and the kind of grain that was hidden under the dirt and grime of the finish. I was pretty certain that this particular pipe had never been stained but that it had a simple oil finish.The stamping was very clean on the shank. The left side read Jost’s over Thames in an arch over Pipe. The right side read Imported Briar.The stem looked badly oxidized and there was a lot of flaking calcification on the top and underside. There were some bite marks visible on the underside but once it was clean I would know how deep they were.My brother cleaned the pipe with his usual thoroughness – reamed the bowl and cleaned out the internals. He scrubbed the exterior with Murphy’s Oil Soap. He soaked the stem in OxyClean to deal with the oxidation and bring it to the surface. When it arrived in Vancouver it was in clean shape and ready to be restored. I took some photos of the before I started to work on it to show how its condition. The pipe looked really good. The finish was clean and other than one dark spot on the front of the bowl it was flawless. The spot looked like a burn mark but it did not appear to go deep in the surface of the briar. The rim was clean but the inner edge was out of round. There was some damage on the back side of the bowl were it had a gouge out of the edge.I took the stem off and worked on the inner edge of the bowl with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to remove much of the damage around the inner edge and minimize the badly damaged area. I used some clear super glue and briar dust to fill in the damaged area. I mixed briar dust putty and applied it to the edge with a dental spatula. I used a folded piece of sandpaper to bevel the inner edge and blend it in with the rest of the rim. The pictures below tell the story. The stem was oxidized evenly and had tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside near the button and on edges of the button. I soaked the it in a tray of Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and let it do its work overnight. At that point I decided to call it a night and check back on things in the morning.When I took the stem out of the bath in the morning and wiped it down it was pretty clean. The photos below show the mild oxidation in the vulcanite and the tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside of the stem.I “painted” the tooth marks on the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter and was able to raise them significantly. Many of the ones on the topside disappeared and what was left a light sanding would remove. The ones on the underside were a little deeper but they too were raised enough that I could sand them smooth.I sanded the surface of the stem to smooth out the remaining dents with 220 grit sandpaper. It did not take too much sanding to remove all of them. The stem surface was ready to be polished.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each pad and after the 12000 grit pad I set it aside to dry. I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil after the 2400 grit pad. I dry sanded with 3200-12000 grit pads. After each grit of micromesh I wiped the bowl down with a damp cotton pad. The photos tell the story of the progressive shine in the briar. I put the stem back on the pipe and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. Blue Diamond polish takes out the minute scratches in the vulcanite and the briar and leaves behind a great shine. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect it. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The dimensions of this pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 7/8inches, Bowl diameter: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 inches. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is a beautiful pipe. I will be adding it to the rebornpipes store shortly so if you are interested in adding it to your collection, send me an email to slaug@uniserve.com or send me a message on Facebook. Thanks for looking.

A Goliath Among Giants – Releasing a Savinelli Goliath 619EX Italy

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Blog by Dal Stanton

Have you ever trolled through the 1000s of “Vintage Estate Pipe” offerings on eBay’s auction block and then, one pipe seizes your attention, and you know that you will be bringing it home? When I saw the Savinelli Goliath, I saw the pipe – not the Savinelli name, nor the condition information offered by the seller. I could tell it was a huge pipe – I like big pipes not just sitting in my palm, but occupying it. I also saw the rustification beautifully textured across the paneled (octagon shaped) Billiard landscape. Lastly, but not with waning attention, I saw the Cumberland vulcanite swirl – not just the stem but also the shank extension. The Cumberland display was like frosting on the cake. Here are a few pictures I saw from the seller in California.This Savinelli Goliath 619EX of Italy may represent my last restoration for several months as my wife and I return to the US from Bulgaria to reconnect with family and friends. Our organization here in Bulgaria, is a ‘not-for-profit’ so we also spend time reconnecting with the generous, dedicated people who provide their resources to enable our efforts in Bulgaria to happen. Before my wife and I head to the US, we will spend one last bit of time on the Black Sea coast enjoying the sun and sand, and I wanted to restore a pipe from my own personal collection’s “Help Me!” basket. So, this big boy will not be going into The Pipe Steward’s Store Front for a new steward to adopt and hence, benefiting the Daughters of Bulgaria, one of our important activities, helping women and girls who have been sexually exploited and often trafficked.

The Savinelli name needs almost no introduction as one of the most well-known Italian pipe houses and whose pipes are highly sought after (See the TobaccoPipes Link for Savinelli’s History). The Goliath line is no longer produced by Savinelli. Eric Squires, from SmokingPipes.com, observes,

I’ve only seen a few Savinelli Goliaths, but between the name and the fact that those few I’ve seen have all been “EX” sized pipes, I would presume the entire series was all-EX. Finish-wise they look much like the Hercules line, with the significant difference being the presence of Cumberland ferrules and stems.

The Savinelli Hercules line is still produced and examples of the differences between the former Goliaths and current Hercules offerings can be seen in the Hercules shape 619EX also from Smoking Pipes. It looks like my Goliath without the Cumberland stem and shank extension.The following now defunct Smoking Pipes ad for the Savinelli Goliath 619EX does all the work for me regarding description of this massive pipe. I find Andrew Wike’s description spot on.

Savinelli’s Goliath line is aptly named, presented some of their classic shapes in extra-large, EX proportions and topped them with Cumberland mounts and stems. Here we see the “619” bent Foursquare rendered positively massive. It’s finished in a crisp, uniform rustication, offering plenty of texture in hand, without compromising the paneled shape’s clean lines. Length: 6.19 in./157.23 mm.

Weight: 2.50 oz./70.87 g.

Bowl Height: 2.12 in./53.85 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.80 in./45.72 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.89 in./22.61 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.65 in./41.91 mm.

Stem Material: Vulcanite

Filter: 9mm

Shape: Panel

Finish: Rusticated

Material: Briar

Country: Italy

These pictures that I take of the Savinelli Goliath 619EX from the worktable here in Sofia, Bulgaria, form the starting planks of rebuilding the bridge from where this massive pipe is now and the pristine picture depicted above. I don’t have huge hands, but just to give a sense of the size of the stummel, I conclude with a ‘palm shot’ where I’m imagining this Goliath in my rotation! The nomenclature is located on the underside of the shank. To the left is stamped ‘SAVINELLI’ [over] GOLIATH. To the right of this, is stamped the Savinelli logo followed by ‘619EX’. Without success, I look through several catalogues featuring Savinelli lines and I am unable to unearth the Goliath to try to date the production history. I sent the question to Savinelli’s current ‘Contact’ page in their website to see if someone might fill in those details – I’m not holding my breath. I find this nice example of a Goliath, slightly different shape, at Chris’ Pipe Pages and I discover something that I had totally overlooked.This example provides pictures of a stem stamping on the topside of the Cumberland stem! Looking more closely at my Goliath’s stem, I discover the faintest shadows of the stamping. Now that I know it’s there, I’ll do my utmost to protect it! I take a picture of the phantom.I’m anxious to recommission this Savinelli Goliath and introduce him to the other pipes in my rotation! He needs some work. The stummel has plenty of grime in the rustified surface. The cake in the chamber is thick and it needs to be removed to expose fresh briar. The rim has lava flow and crusting. The Cumberland stem has heavy oxidation and the former steward of this Goliath was a definite clencher – the bit/button area is pocketed with chatter and dents. The button lip also has damage. We have some goliath challenges, but I’m glad to start the restoration. The first thing I do is cover the phantom stem mark with petroleum jelly and put the Cumberland stem in the OxiClean bath to soak and to raise the oxidation. With stummel in hand, the first thing is to ream the ample chamber removing the thick accumulation of cake on the chamber wall. Using the Pipnet Reaming Kit, I use the full array of 4 blades available to me, starting with the smallest blade. After putting paper towel down to minimize clean up I go to work. The cake is hard as a brick and it takes more effort than normal. I wonder if this bowl has ever seen the likes of a reaming blade before. As I continue to work with the first, smallest blade, images of oil drilling come to my mind…. I’ve never taken a progress picture of a reaming project before, but I do drilling down into the deep recesses of this Goliath. The first picture shows the starting point. The second picture shows the shape of the smaller blade as it makes progress down the throat of the carbon cake – maybe just past the halfway point. The cavern beyond is visible. The last picture shows the break-through to the floor of the chamber. Now, the next larger blade, blade number 2. That blade worked through to the floor and then to blade #3, the next larger. I was just thinking that I seldom worked on a pipe requiring blade #3, let alone #4. I was also just thinking, “Let the blade do the work, and don’t put a lot of torque on it. The Pipnet system is made of heavy duty plastic. Not long after those fleeting thoughts, blade #3 had a major failure and the extending blade part broke off from the insert part, stuck in the hand turning tool. Ugh! I gently coax the parts out of the stummel and tool, and put them aside for potential repair! Unyielding, I mount blade #4 and coax it gently down the chamber, overtaking the short-comings of blade #3. I record the completion of the Pipnet progress, clean the carbon dust which is much. The chamber looks good, but I’ve yet to finish. I finish up the reaming, which is no perfunctory job this time, using the Savinelli Pipe Knife, which more accurately is the Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Reamer (See: Savinelli site). I found it on eBay sometime back after Steve bragged so much about his during many of his restorations on Reborn Pipes! It did not come cheap, but I have enjoyed its talent to finetune a reaming project. After using the Fitsall Pipe Reamer to remove more carbon in hard to reach places, I take 240 grit paper, wrap it around a Sharpie Pen and sand the chamber wall clearing out the last remaining deposits of carbon cake and presenting fresh briar for a new start. To finish the internal cleanup, I use cotton swabs and pipe cleaners wetted with alcohol to clean the mortise. I also employ the long, wired bristle brushes for the cleaning. The mortise is cleaning up well. Later, I will give the bowl a Kosher Salt/alcohol soak to clean further and freshen it. I let the stem soak overnight in the OxiClean bath. I take it out and with thumb firmly over the phantom stem stamp, I work on removing the oxidation by wet sanding with 600 grit paper then with a buffing with 0000 grade steel wool. I like working on clean stems. I use pipe cleaners dipped in isopropyl 95% to work on the internal airway of the stem. I use cotton swabs to clean the filter bay. With the condition of the chamber, bit and grime on the stummel, I expected some gunk deposits in the stem and filter bay. I was not disappointed, but after several courses of pipe cleaners and cotton swabs and alcohol, the gunk gave way to a state of cleanliness.Turning now to the rustified surface of the Goliath, I use undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with cotton pads and a bristled tooth brush to scrub the grime off the surface as well as the rim. After scrubbing, I rinse the stummel with warm tap water without flooding the inside with water. The grime has come off, but the finish has as well for the most part. The rim is still a bit dark, but that’s not a problem. I want to reestablish a very smooth and perhaps a bit lightened rim, as I’ve seen exemplified with newer Goliaths and the Hercules series. To reestablish a crisp rim and remove the dings, scratches and darkened briar, I will lightly top it. There is already an internal rim bevel which will be re-sharpened as well. With the chopping block serving as my topping board, I put a sheet of 240 grit paper on it and rotate the stummel in circles over the paper. I don’t need to remove much – my goal is cleaning and crisper lines and to remove the scorched briar on the internal ring. After the 240 grit paper, I put 600 grit paper down and repeat the process. The rim plateau looks good, but the black ring is now more distinct. To address the blackened ring, I use a piece of rolled 120 grit paper and recut the bevel. After this, I smooth the bevel more with 240 grit paper rolled tightly and then with 600 grit paper. After the beveling, I again put the stummel on the topping board with 600 grit paper to give a finishing touch to the bevel lines. I still see a hint of the dark ring but I’m satisfied with where the rim is.Switching from the rim, I now want to work on the Cumberland shank extension. To break up oxidation and remove scratching, I lightly sand the surface with 240 grit sanding paper. I follow this using 600 grit paper then 0000 grade steel wool. The Cumberland shank extension looks good. Now, back to the stem and to address the bit repairs needed. Up to this point, I’ve only dealt with the oxidation in the stem. Next, I will use the heating method to expand the vulcanite to minimize the dents on the upper and lower bit. There are dent compressions on the button lips as well. I take fresh pictures of the upper and lower bit area to mark the starting point. It is apparent, based upon how far forward the tooth dents are on the stem, the former steward smoked the Goliath without hands at times. To counter the weight of the stummel, one would have to clench the stem toward the center. Using a butane lighter, I pass the stem through the flame, ‘painting’ the damaged areas with the heat. I do this several times until it appears that I’ve reached maximum benefit of the heating method. The deepest dents and compression points remain, but are tighter and more defined by the expansion of the vulcanite. Now, I use 240 grit paper and a flat needle file to sand down the area more. I work primarily on the lower button lip area with the flat needle file to redefine the edge of the lip. After sanding and filing, I’m left with the areas needing patching. I wipe and clean the bit, upper and lower, with a cotton pad and alcohol to prepare it for the drop-filling with CA Glue. I use transparent Hot Stuff Special ‘T’ to do the filling, by applying it with a toothpick. For the deep fills on the lower bit, I allow ample glue to fill the area. I spray the patches with an accelerator to shorten the curing time. Starting with a flat needle file I remove the excess CA glue to bring the mounds down close to the stem surface as well as shape the buttons working off the excess glue. After the file, I use 240 grit paper to sand the patch mounds down to the vulcanite surface, removing the excess CA and blending as much as 240 paper allows. Then, I follow the 240 with 600 grit paper which fine tunes the patch surfaces and blends further. At this point, I used a method for the first time. Note the first picture below – this is the upper bit and what transpired which I didn’t picture, I’ve pictured in the second picture, of the lower bit. As often is the case, CA glue patches after curing will have air pockets which are addressed by painting the patch area with thin CA glue which fills the small pocket holes and after dried, removing the film of excess glue with sanding. I notice that the patch areas, where the air pockets emerge, were whiteish. Often this is vulcanite dust lodged in the pockets. I wipe off the patch areas with a cotton pad and alcohol but pockets remained white as in the second picture. The white is the cured CA glue itself which I’ve seen before. What I also have seen before is that if you paint the white again with CA to fill the air pockets, the white spot is also sealed by the transparent CA glue and will show. What I do, for both the upper (which is not shown above) and the lower bit (which is shown below) is to darken the whitened patch material using a black fine point Sharpie Pen. After this, I paint with the thin CA glue to fill the pockets. Black blends much better than white does on vulcanite – or in this case, a black/red swirl of a Cumberland stem. After the CA glue cures, I will file/sand it down in the same manner as the upper bit.Turning again to the stummel, before I stain the stummel, I continue sanding the rim plateau with the full array (9) of micromesh pads 1500 to 12000. Since I forgot to take a start picture, I brought this picture forward again for comparison.Now, also using the micromesh pads, I work on the Cumberland shank extension first using pads 1500 to 2400, then 3200 to 4000, then finally, 6000 to 12000. After each set of 3, I apply Obsidian Oil to the shank to revitalize the vulcanite. What can I say? I love Cumberland vulcanite! With each iteration of micromesh pads and Obsidian Oil, my anticipation of recommissioning this Savinelli Goliath with a bowl full of my favorite blend, Lane BC, is growing! For the last 6 micromesh pads, I also polished the smooth briar on the lower shank that holds the Savinelli nomenclature – pictured below. Since I cleaned the stummel with Murphy’s Oil Soap (a few days ago!) and the finish dulled significantly, I have been thinking about how to finish this Savinelli Goliath keeping it within the original Savinelli framework when it was initially commissioned. For a ‘tenderfoot’ (former Boy Scouts will understand) restorer, here are the questions that come to my mind. The color – there is a subtle reddish lean to the rustified surface. How do I emulate it? The rustification – the texture of the rustification in the picture below shows the rising and falling definition of the color tones over the contoured rustified landscape. How do I emulate this so that the stummel color doesn’t turn out one dimensional? And finally, the Rim Plateau. I call it a plateau – it’s too massive simply to be a rim! Goliath’s Plateau! I’ve seen pictures of Goliaths and the cousin series, Hercules, that leave the rim ‘plateau’ lighter or perhaps, left natural – leaving a striking relief between stummel and rim. An example from Worth Point in pictures 2 and 3 below – though the rounded rim is not wanted for the Goliath. Should I stain the plateau or leave it as is? Questions. Question 1 – Color of stain. After consulting with my wife, and a lot of going back and forth, I’ve settled on a dye mixture of 3 to 1 – 3-parts Fiebing’s Light Brown Leather Dye to 1-part Fiebing’s Oxblood. Question 2 – Rustification contouring. After I apply the stain and unwrap it after firing, I will experiment with lightly applying a 1500 grit micromesh pad to the ‘peaks’ of the rustification which creates the different tones in the color – peaks and valleys. I did this once before when I restored another Italian – a rustified Lorenzo Rialto full bent Egg. And, question 3: Goliath’s Plateau. I’ve decided to leave as is initially but TRYING to avoid applying dye to the rim. I’ll look at the results and then decide whether to go ahead and apply the dye afterwards. Thinking done – time for action!

The first thing I do to prepare the stummel is to clean it thoroughly with isopropyl 95% and a cotton pad. Then, to protect the vulcanite Cumberland shank extension from the dye, I tape off the shank with masking tape. I mix the dyes, 1-part Oxblood to 3-parts Light Brown. I use a large eye dropper to do the mixing. At the last minute, before I added the Oxblood to the Light Brown, I decide to add a small bit of alcohol to the Light Brown – to lighten it. We’ll see how that works! Using the hot air gun, I warm the stummel to expand the briar to help its receptivity to the dye. After warmed, I use a folded over pipe cleaner to apply the dye mixture. Instead of covering the whole stummel and then firing it, I did a portion of the stummel at a time – panel by panel, firing it, and moving on. This seems to have worked well for this large stummel and for the fact that the rustified surface was absorbing the dye quickly. After applying 2 coats of dye, I set the stummel aside to rest. The pictures show the progress. With the stummel resting, I finish the repairs to the Cumberland stem. Now on the lower bit, I file down the patch mounds with a flat needle file, further sanding with 240 grit paper to bring the patch flush with the vulcanite surface. Then finally, I finish the sanding and blending with 600 grit paper and 0000 grade steel wool over the entire surface (but protecting the Savinelli stem logo). The patches on the lower bit are still visible to the informed eye, but I’m hoping that micromesh process will continue to blend and hide the patches. I finish by cleaning up the slot with 600 grit paper. With my day closing, while the stummel is resting, I’ll give it a bath, or rather a kosher salt and alcohol soak. The work order of this soak is not ideal with the new stain, but I’m careful to pour the salt into the bowl, and insert into the shank a stretched and twisted cotton ball to act as a wick to draw the oils out of the mortise. I then add isopropyl 95% to the bowl with a large eye dropper until it surfaces over the kosher salt. I then put the stummel aside to continue its rest and soak for several hours. Again, careful not to disturb the externals, the next morning, I dump the expended salt and wick which had darkened somewhat, and finish cleaning the mortise with cotton swabs and pipe cleaners dipped in alcohol. The internals are now declared cleansed! Time to continue work on the Cumberland stem. I begin by wet sanding using micromesh pads 1500 to 2400, then dry sand with pads 3200 to 4000 and 6000 to 12000. After each set of 3 I apply Obsidian Oil which revitalizes the vulcanite. The swirling colors of the Cumberland stem are revitalized! I’m liking what I see! I’m now ready to unwrap the fired crust on the rustified stummel to see what we have. I mount a cotton cloth buffing wheel on the Dremel, speed set at 40%, and apply Tripoli compound, a more abrasive compound, to the surface. The cotton cloth buffing wheel is better able to work the crevices of the rustification than the felt wheel, which I use for smooth briar during the Tripoli phase. After unwrapping the stummel with the Tripoli compound, I want to lighten the stain some so I use a cotton pad and alcohol and wipe it down. After wiping the stummel with alcohol, I load another cotton cloth buffing wheel on the Dremel, at the same speed, and apply Blue Diamond compound not only to the stummel, but to the Cumberland shank extension and stem. I attempt to rejoin the stem but discover that during the restoration process, the stem loosened up a bit and I’ll need to tighten the fit with the mortise. After I complete the application of the Blue Diamond compound, I give the stummel, stem and shank extension a buffing with a felt cloth to remove the compound dust from it. At this point, as I mentioned before, I hope to create more color texture in the rustified surface. I do this by using a 1500 grit micromesh pad and rubbing it gently over the surface of the rustification – aiming to nip the peaks of the contoured rustified briar. This will remove the finish on the peaks and lighten them. After I do a few runs at gently applying the micromesh pad to the peaks, I then do a follow-up buffing with the Blue Diamond wheel on the Dremel. I am very pleased with what I’m seeing emerge. I’m seeing the color texturing but what I didn’t anticipate, but has happened, is that the lightened peaks are tying in the unstained rim – I had decided to leave the rim plateau the bare, natural briar to form (I had hoped) an appealing, eye catching, contrast with the rustified stummel. With the smooth grain-showing rim plateau and the rustified bowl – the best of both worlds is captured. I’m liking the decision not to stain the rim so I will leave it the natural briar. As I look at the rim, I notice just a few places where the staining did veer a very small bit onto the rim plateau. I remedy this by wetting a cotton pad with acetone and carefully wiping the rim and removing the stain. It looks good – no, looks great!My day is coming to an end, but I want to do one more thing. To tighten the tenon insert in the Cumberland shank extension, I paint the tenon/filter sleeve with thick CA glue applying it around the base of the tenon with a manicure brush. I let it cure overnight and I will see how it fits tomorrow. Tomorrow arrived and I work further on fitting the stem. I sand the CA glue that I painted around the base of the tenon with 240 grit paper. I follow with 600 to smooth and blend it. I try the fit several times, sanding slowly – not wanting to sand too much. With patience, the stem is fitting much more snugly and the repair is invisible! For the final push, I mount a cotton cloth buffing wheel on the Dremel dedicated to carnauba wax and I apply several coats of the wax to the rustified stummel, rim plateau, Cumberland shank extension and stem. After applying the wax, I give the entire pipe a rigorous hand buffing with a microfiber cloth to bring out the shine even more.

What can I say? I am proud of the results of this Savinelli Goliath 619EX. The interplay of the natural briar of the rim plateau with the rustification flecks on the peaks and the deep red tones of the briar pulling at the swirls in the Cumberland shank extension and stem – all coalescing together are striking. Then, when one adds the staggering size and presence of the bowl…. Oh my. I can say that this Pipe Steward is happy that this Sav is going to the Black Sea coast in a few weeks to enjoy the sand, surf and yes, a few bowls of my favorite blend! Even though this Savinelli Goliath will be joining my personal collection, check out my blog, The Pipe Steward for other pipes available in the store. These pipes benefit the Daughters of Bulgaria, our work with women and girls who have been sexually exploited and trafficked. Thanks for joining me!