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

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Blog by Steve Laug

When I took this old case out of the box my brother Jeff sent me I could not remember what was inside. Looking at it I was kind of thinking that it might hold an older meerschaum billiard or an old amber stemmed briar billiard. I just could not remember what was in the old case when it arrived. I wrote Jeff and asked him to send me the pictures of the old pipe before he cleaned it up. He also was surprised I think when he opened the case as we have worked on so many pipes I am sure he had forgotten what was in this case. I present the case as it looked when he started working on the old pipe that it contained. What do you think could be inside? Don’t want to guess? That’s okay move onto the photos that follow once he opened the case. It certainly was not what I expected. Okay, no more suspense. Here is what we saw when he opened the case. I suppose your response was similar to ours. “What is that?” we exclaimed in surprise. Inside the old case was no older meerschaum or briar. There was no amber stem. There was only an odd looking pipe with a Bakelite base, shank and stem as a single unit with a screw on briar bowl. It was odd looking and strangely delicate. It was very light weight and different.It was stamped on the left side of the shank with the words SUMKLAS in gold filigree. On what would be a band if it was separated from the shank was also stamped Dasco or Daseo in script. There were no other markings on the pipe. I was unfamiliar with the brand whether it was a SUMKLAS or a Dasco/Daseo pipe. I could find no information on the brand in any of my usual online or book resources. I found a link on the Smoking Metal site to a Daseo  http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=513. It is a three part Bakelite Bent pipe that is made of the same black Bakelite as the one I am working on. It has a similar threaded base on the bowl and a poorly rounded outer edge of the bowl as well. So I am not sure if the pipe is a Daseo or a Dasco. I have included a photo of the stamping on the pipe below. Have a look and see what you think. The script name and the curl at the top of the lower case c or e make either option possible. The pipe remains a bit of a mystery unless one of you who are reading this blog can shed any light on it. Jeff took the pipe out of the case and took photos of it to show what it looked like from a variety of angles. The finish on the briar was badly worn with a lot scratches and nicks in the surface of the wood. The rim top had some lava and there was a cake in the bowl. There was one large nick on the front of the bowl at the outer edge of the rim. The stem and base were dirty and scratched but no real issues. There was light tooth chatter at the button on both sides of the stem. Jeff took a close up photo of the rim top and bowl to show the condition. In the photo the nick out of the rim edge can be seen on the front of the bowl. The light cake in the bowl and the lava on the rim is also visible in the first photo. He unscrewed the bowl from the base and took a photo of the base to show what it looked like inside. The threads were in great shape and the base was dirty with oils, tars and dust. The bottom side of the base unit looked very good – a bit of polishing would shine it up. The next photos show the condition of the briar bowl. Note the nicks and scratches as well as the peeling finish on the bowl. There is some nice grain peeking through the old finish.I kept both of the follow photos of the threads on the bottom of the bowl to show the wear and tear on the briar threads. It appears that the bowl had been overturned several times and one side the threads were almost worn smooth.Jeff did a great job of cleaning this old-timer. He reamed the bowl and scrubbed the bowl and base unit with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running water. The internals were cleaned out with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol. The inside of the base was scrubbed out with alcohol and cotton swabs. When it arrived here in Vancouver I had forgotten what was in the old case. When I opened it I was surprised a second time. I took photos of the pipe before I started working on it give an idea of what needed to be repaired and restored. When I took it out of the case and looked at it the pipe reminded me a lot of an older Swedish pipe that I had restored. That particular pipe was a Bromma Dollar that I restored. The link to the blog is https://rebornpipes.com/…/cleaning-up-a-swedish-bromma…/ I have included a photo of the Bromma here for comparison. It also has a base/stem single unit with a briar screw on bowl. The Dasco/Daseo is older I think and it is certainly more elegantly proportioned than the Bromma but you can see the similarities between the two pipes. I took a close up photo of the rim top and bowl to show the nick toward the front of the bowl as I am holding it in my hand. I have circled it in red to highlight it for you.The stem had tooth chatter on both the top and underside near the button. The button was the older style rounded cap with an orific opening in the end. Overall the stem and base unit were in excellent condition.I took the bowl off the base and took some photos of the parts of the pipe. It is a pretty straight forward design with no systems or sumps. Just a screw on briar bowl and a Bakelite base unit.I took photos of the bowl top and bottom – it is in decent condition. The bottom of the bowl has some nicks in the edge of the threads.I repaired the nick/missing chunk of briar on the side of the bowl (front/side) with clear superglue. I cleaned out the area with a cotton swab and alcohol and then dried it off. I filled it in with clear superglue in layers to build it up even with the rim top surface and the bowl side surface. I sanded the repair with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth it out even with the top of the bowl and the side. I wanted it to be unidentifiable once the bowl was stained. I sanded off the rest of the finish while I was at it. There were bubbles and crackling in the finish. Once the old damaged finish was removed there was some interesting cross grain and birdseye grain around the bowl. Before staining the bowl I “painted” the thread on the bottom of the bowl with clear fingernail polish to build them up for a better fit on the base. Without the added thickness to the threads the bowl overturned and no longer aligned with the edges of the base.I cleaned up the excess fingernail polish on the base of the bowl bottom with a cotton swab and acetone. Then it was time to stain the bowl. I decided to keep things simple and stain the bowl with a Guardsman Dark Brown stain pen. It is simple, mess free but it is also transparent and will allow the grain to show through when buffed. I covered the bowl with the stain pen and repeated until the coverage was what I wanted.I put the bowl on the end of my finger and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to spread out the stain and even the coverage on the bowl. It gave the bowl a nice medium brown colour and allowed the grain to shine through. I buffed it with several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I set the finished bowl aside and worked on the base/stem unit. 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 base/stem unit down after each pad with some Obsidian Oil. I have used it on Bakelite before and like how it worked. I gave it a final coat of the oil after the last pad and set it aside to dry. I screwed the stem back on the base and the alignment was perfect now. The repaired area was on the left side of the pipe rather than the front. It blended in pretty well. I buffed the whole pipe carefully with carnauba wax and a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos that follow. It is a nice light weight pipe that has a unique look and potentially a bit of history. Some of the information on similar pipes dated it in the mid to late 1920s. There is no way of knowing for sure but the orific button and the gold lettering on the shank would fit that time period. It is unique that is for sure. Thanks for looking.

 

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.

Repairing a broken shank and crooked alignment on a Joh’s Churchwarden

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Blog by Steve Laug

I received an email a few weeks ago from a fellow in Vancouver named Chris, asking if I would have a look at a cracked shank on his Joh’s churchwarden. He figured that it was not repairable but wanted to know if I would cut back the broken shank and refit the stem. I asked him to send me some photos of the damaged shank so I could see it myself. He sent me two photos of the pipe – one from the left side and the other from the top. The photos showed some extensive damage to the shank. There were cracks on the top, the bottom, the right and the left side of the shank. There was a large chunk of briar missing on the left side of the shank. It also appeared to me that the diameter of the stem was smaller than the diameter of the shank and that the stem sat toward the left side of the shank.Chris brought the pipe by my office for me to have a look at. We sat in my office and he went over the pipe with me. It was a nice looking pipe with two rusticated panels on the left side of the bowl and the rest of the bowl and rim were smooth. The pipe was in good shape other than the broken shank. The rim had some darkening and oils on the back side. The stem was in excellent condition with no tooth marks at all on either side. We made the decision to work on it and see what I could do repairing the damage. I took photos of the pipe when I brought it home from work and put it on the work table.I took close up photos of the cracked and broken shank. You can see the extensive damage and the difference in the diameter of the shank and the stem. I used a microdrill bit on the Dremel and drilled pin holes at the end of each crack to stop the cracks from spreading further.I used a combination of super glue and briar dust applied in layers to build up area where there was a missing chunk of briar in the left side of the shank. I built it up until the missing chunk was replaced with the mixture. It was not pretty but it was better than it was when I started the process.I sanded the repair with a sanding drum on my Dremel. The sanding drum smoothed out the repair on the exterior of the shank. The next series of three photos show the repaired area of the shank. I used a needle file to smooth out the inside of the mortise and to begin to return it to round. I would do more work on that once I had pressure fit a nickel band on the shank. I heated the nickel band with a Bic lighter to expand it and pressed it onto the shank of the pipe until the edge of the band and the edge of the shank end were even.I remembered that I had not filled in the pinholes that I had drilled. I used clear super glue and a tooth pick to put a bead of glue on top of each pin hole. When the glue had dried I sanded the shank repairs smooth with 220 grit sandpaper until they were blended into the surface of the briar.I polished the sanded areas of the briar and the dirty top of the bowl with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I wiped the shank down with a damp cotton pad to remove the dust. I used a medium brown stain pen to touch up the sanded areas around the shank. The medium brown blended perfectly with the existing stain. I polished the bowl and shank with 3200-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads and wiped it down with a damp cotton pad to remove the sanding dust on the surface after each pad. Before I took photos of the polished stummel after using the 12000 grit pad, I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed the pipe on the buffer with a clean buffing pad to give it a shine. The polished pipe is shown in the photos below. I took close up photos of the shank repair and band to show the look of the repaired shank. If you look closely you can see the repaired cracks and the tiny pinholes but the pipe looks very good with the new nickel band and blended stain. I reshaped the mortise with needle files and built up the left side of the tenon with clear super glue to move the stem toward the centre of the shank. Once I had finished the alignment was far better than when I started and the stem looks more centred in the shank. I used a tooth pick and super glue to fill in the gap between the band and the right side of the shank. You can see from the photo that the shank was not round but more oval and slanted to the left. With the band and the repair the shank is round and the mortise end looks far better.I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect it. I used a very light touch on the rusticated portions of the left side of the bowl. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise a shine and hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe is well proportioned with the following dimensions Length: 10 inches, Height: 2 inches, Bowl diameter: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. The finished pipe is shown in the photos that follow. I think Chris will be happy to see one of his favourite pipes returned to his rotation looking better than when he left it with. Chris if you read this – tell us what you think. Enjoy. 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.

An Old Bakelite Stemmed Diamond Shank Bent Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

This old-timer came from the lot we purchased on our virtual pipe hunt in Montana. It has no stamping anywhere on the sides of the shank. There are faux hallmark on the oxidized brass band that don’t really help in identifying the pipe. The bowl and the shank have an interesting rustication pattern of swirls and divots. The finish was long gone from the bowl and the briar was worn and dirty. Some of the grooves were stained from oils and tars. There was a bone tenon in the stem that screwed into the shank of the pipe. The stem was worn and chipped with deep tooth marks on the top and underside near the button and on the button edges itself. My first impressions of it make me think it is Bakelite not amber. It is not heavy and it is warm to touch. The chips along the edges look like chips in Bakelite not amber and the tooth dents also go along with the theory of it being Bakelite.There was something about the rustication pattern that reminded me of some of the rustication patterns that I have seen on older Wellington style C.P.F. pipes. The next two photos show one with a similar style of rustication and it was in the same lot of pipe from the virtual pipe hunt.The C.P.F. pipe above has a nickel band that had similar faux hallmarks as the one I am working on but it also has the C.P.F. oval stamped in the metal. The hallmarks are an anchor, a star and a bird of some sort. The first photo below is from the pipe I am working on and the second one is the C.P.F. Wellington.It also has the same kind of work on the edges of the ferrule that are folded over the end of the shank. All of these parallels make me wonder if the pipe I am working on was also made by C.P.F. I may never know but I think that it is a pretty good guess.

Jeff took the first photo above and the others that follow before he cleaned up the pipe to give me some idea of what we were dealing with. It is an interesting old pipe and the mystery of the trying to figure out who carved it may never fully be answered. The next photos show the pipe from various angles – looking at it from the left side, the front of the bowl and the underside of the bowl and the shank. You can see from the photos that the finish is almost nonexistent. There are spots on the briar that look like water stains but we won’t know until Jeff does his cleanup work on it. Looking at the pipe from the top down you can see the thick overflow of lava on the top of the rim and the thick cake in the bowl. Remarkably the inner and outer edge of the bowl appear to be in good condition with no damage but I would know for sure once it had been cleaned and reamed.The next close up photos show the swirling carving and divots on the sides and bottom of the bowl. There is some sticky substance like that found on sales labels on several spots on the briar. It is interesting to me that you can see the grain in the wood and some fills peeking through the remnants of the finish. It appears to have some beautiful grain. There were some chips and nicks along the sharp edges of the diamond shaped stem. There was tooth chatter and tooth marks on the top and underside near the button. The surface of the button itself had tooth marks on the left side. All were repairable but all were quite deep.Jeff reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to finish the cleanup of the bowl. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe using Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. He worked the crevices and carvings over carefully to remove the sticky substance and the dirt and grime that were ground in there. When he finished scrubbing the briar he rinsed it off under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth and the soap had removed the deeply ground in grime on the finish and the lava on the rim edges. 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 nicks and tooth marks on the saddle stem using a tooth brush and rinsed it with 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 brought it to my worktable. It is another intriguing little pipe from the collection of older C.P.F. and WDC pipes from our Montana pipe hunt. Once the rim top was cleaned I found that there was damage to the inner edge. There was also some darkening and surface damage on the flat of the rim as well that would need work.Jeff had been able to remove the debris from the chips and tooth marks on the stem surface. It was rough to touch but should clean up well. He had also removed all the tars and oils in the airway of the stem.I filled in the tooth marks and chips in the stem with amber super glue and set the stem aside in my drilled block to dry. This block allows me to work on both sides at the same time thus cutting my drying/curing time.While the repair on the stem cured I turned my attention to the inner edge of the bowl. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damaged edge and bring the bowl back to round.To smooth out the surface of the rim I used a coarse, medium and a fine grit sanding sponge like a topping board. This method removes the grime and build up without removing briar from the rim surface.The band was loose on the shank so I removed it and polished it with micromesh sanding pads and a jeweler’s cloth to remove the tarnish. I used a pick to put some all-purpose glue on the surface of each side of the diamond shank and pressed the band in place. I set the bowl aside to let the glue dry.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I could not do anything about the spidering around the internal airway but the stem was very clean. The repairs polished up nicely. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each pad and set it aside to dry after the final coat of oil. I polished the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. You have to have a light touch on the old Bakelite as it will melt and become deformed if you have too heavy a touch. At this point in the process I did not want to make more work for myself. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and polished it with a clean buffing pad. I hand waxed the rusticated bowl with Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the bowl and stem with a microfiber cloth. This turned out to be a pretty little pipe – its dimensions are Length: 4 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Bowl diameter: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. 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.

Cleaning up an Echt Bernstein Dublin Shaped Meerschaum

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Blog by Steve Laug

Something about the shape of this old meerschaum canted Dublin or Zulu that caught my brother’s eye so he picked it up and added it to the lot he was cleaning up to send my way. The worn red leather case had gold letters embossed on the edge just above and below the latch. At first I thought Echt Bernstein was the brand name but after a bit my high school German kicked in and I realised that it was not. The name was German and it read on the top edge of the case Echt Bernstein which means Genuine Amber and on the lower edge read Echt Naturmeerschaum which translates as Genuine Natural (Block) Meerschaum. The pipe is quite probably of Austrian origin and could have been made by Strambach. That is not provable because the pipe is not marked at all. But the German stamping on the fitted case lends itself to that idea.I looked up Strambach on Pipedia to see if there were any hints about the pipe I had in hand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Strambach). I quote from that article some of the pertinent information.

In 1904 Edmund Jolitschke founded a company that, at the begining, produced cigar and cigarette mouthpieces and later meerschaum pipes. In 1922, Robert Strambach became the leader of the company and he expanded the business. He produced meerschaum pipes and Calabash pipes, and he developed a system to produce the meerschaum mass (this is a convolute of small sepiolite pieces, grinded down, and pressed together with a bonding agent). In 1974, Edith Corrieri succeeded to her father. She is a master-turner, and today, she is the only producing high quality calabashes and meerschaum pipes in Europe…

…(ed. quoting Edith Corrieri, current owner) My company was started in 1904 by my uncle Edmund, and in 1922 my father Robert took over the firm. In the following fifty years my father expanded the firm with many ideas e.g. he developed a special technique to transform raw meerschaum into workable material (so-called meerschaum masse), the secret formula to which he revealed to me shortly before his death. As I was the only child I had the chance in 1974 to become one of the first females in the field of pipe making. After three years of training I received a diploma as Master of Pipemaking. Today we are the only manufacturer of Meerschaum and Calabash Pipes in the European Union and are still making our pipes according the same age-old formula. In 1981 STRAMBACH PIPE CO. was awarded the Austrian “State Seal” for exceptional quality.”

Jeff took photos of the pipe as he opened it and removed it from the case. All of the previous and the following photos were taken before he cleaned up the pipe. Inside the lid of the case it read in English the same thing that had been stamped on the exterior of the case – Real Block Meerschaum in an arc over a six point star and Genuine Amber in an arc under the star.Jeff removed the pipe from the case and took some photos of it fresh from the case. The shape of the bowl was quite beautiful and there was colour beginning to happen on spots on the bowl and rim edge. The rim was exceptional dirty with a lava overflow from the cake that had formed in the bowl. The stem appeared to be a replacement – not genuine amber but an acrylic amber that obviously had been added later in the life of the pipe. The stem showed tooth marks and chatter on both the top and underside near the button. The slot in the button was not smooth but looked to be much like the slot cut in stem blanks that I purchase currently. The shape and the colour seem older but I cannot be certain of that. I know that it is not Bakelite as the colour goes all the way down into the bite marks and does not lighten as it goes deeper. Jeff took a close up photo of the rim top to show the build up and the darkening – not colouration of the meerschaum but burn and tars that was on the surface of the meer. The second photo below shows the shape of the bottom of the bowl. The meerschaum is quite clean and shows little scratching and damage. The smooth and gentle curves show a quality of carving that is not seen too much in more current production meers.The tenon on the pipe is a metal threaded tenon that screws directly into the mortise of the meerschaum and directly into the stem. The tenon has the same threads on both ends so it is reversible and interchangeable. It was incredibly dirty and caked with tars, oils and debris. The airway in the tenon was quite plugged with the tars.The stem itself had tooth chatter and marks on both the top and the underside near the button. In the photos it appears to be white but in reality as the stem is cleaned up the acrylic material is the same colour all the way through the bite marks. Jeff cleaned the pipe with his usual thoroughness – he reamed the bowl and cleaned out the internals with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior with Murphy’s Oil Soap. And worked over the rim top to remove the cake and lava on the surface of the meerschaum. He also removed the marks and grime that was on the exterior of the bowl and shank. 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 its condition. While Jeff was able to remove the tars and lava buildup on the rim top there was still some debris and buildup on the surface. As I examined it I could see that it sat on top of the rim surface rather than down in the meerschaum itself. The surface of the meer was smooth and undamaged so cleaning off the layer on the rim top should come off easily.Jeff was also able to remove the debris around the bite marks in the top and underside of the stem surface. You can see from the photos that the stem material remains the same deep into the marks.I used a fine grit sanding sponge to gently top the bowl. It is a flat surface and I turned the bowl into the sanding sponge. I carefully kept the rim flat against the surface of the sanding block. I worked it on the sanding block until all of the remaining buildup was gone. I polished the bowl and rim with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads. I wiped the meer down with a damp cotton pad. I dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads and wiped it down with the damp cotton pad after each micromesh pad. The photos below tell the story. I lightly sanded the area around the tooth marks to provide a rough surface to provide a surface for the repair to bond to the stem material. I cleaned out the tooth marks with a dental pick and alcohol on a cotton swab to remove any debris on the surface. I repaired both sides of the stem with amber super glue and set the stem aside to dry in the block of ebony.When the glue had cured I filed the repairs close to the surface of the stem and sanded them with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surface. The repair on the underside of the stem still showed some damage so I refilled it with amber superglue and smoothed out the repair. When it dried I sanded it with 220 grit sand paper. The third photo below shows the underside after the touch up repair was blended into the stem surface.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and wiping it down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads and continued to wipe it down after each pad. When I had finished polishing it with the 12000 grit pad I gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. I put the stem back on the pipe and buffed the bowl and stem lightly with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba and the bowl several coats of Clapham’s Beeswax Polish. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise a shine and hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The dimensions on this pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Bowl diameter: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 3/4 inches. The photos below show the finished pipe. It looks far better in person than in these photos. If you are interested in adding the pipe to your collection contact me at slaug@uniserve.com or send me a message on Facebook. It will be going on the rebornpipes store shortly. Thanks for looking.

Restoring a Thompson Freehand 529 with Cumberland Stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the worktable is a freehand with a plateau rim. It has a contrast black and red stain – red on the high spots of the rustication and black in the nooks and crannies. The rim shows the same pattern or reds and black. The shank has a band on it that is briar with brass on either side of it. The pipe was very dirty on the rim and the inside when my brother picked it up at an estate sale in Idaho. The rim had an overflow of the thick cake that filled the bowl. It had a Cumberland style acrylic saddle stem. The stem was in pretty rough shape with deep tooth marks on both the top and underside near the button and tooth marks on the button itself. There was also a bite through on the top side of the stem – mid stem just ahead of the button. It was not a large hole but it was a hole nonetheless. My brother took the following photos before he cleaned up the pipe for me.From a previous blog I wrote and one that Robert Boughton wrote I remembered that Thompson pipes were made for Thompson Cigar Company. This particular pipe was stamped on the left side of the shank with the words Thompson in script over the shape number 529 and Italy. I know that Thompson Cigar Company had pipes made in Italy, the Netherlands (Big Ben), and Turkey (the Meerschaum). Many of their Italian pipes were made by Savinelli. In checking the shape numbers of Savinelli pipes I did not find a listing for a 529 but there were others around that shape number.The photo Jeff took of the rim top and bowl shows the thick cake in the bowl and the lava overflow on the rim top. The insides of the pipe looked as if they had never been cleaned before. The beauty of the mess was that it probably protected the plateau top from damage.The underside of the bowl shows the rustication pattern on the briar and the cleanness of the exterior of the pipe.The next photo, though a little out of focus shows the stamping on the shank. It is very readable and clear.The Cumberland acrylic stem looks very good with the red and black of the stain on the rusticated bowl. The shank band or twin brass bands separated by a briar insert makes a stunning separator for the shank and the stem.The stem was in rough condition as mentioned above. The top of the stem had a lot of tooth chatter and the button was chewed down. There was a small hole in the middle of the stem just below the button. The underside of the stem also showed a lot of tooth chatter and bite marks.The rim top looked really good once he had removed all the built up tar and lava. The high spots and the valleys in contrasts of red and black.The stem was clean but the topside showed a lot of damage. There were tooth marks and the hole to deal with and the large dent in the top of the button edge on the stem top. The underside had some deep tooth marks and some chatter.I sanded the damaged areas on the top and underside of the stem to prepare for the repairs to the tooth marks and dents. I was able to remove much of the chatter and only left behind the deep marks in the surface of the stem.I coated a pipe cleaner with Vaseline and inserted it in the stem below the hole in the stem surface. The greased pipe cleaner would prevent the super glue repair from sticking to the pipe cleaner or clogging the airway. I filled in the hole and the deep tooth marks on both sides of the stem with clear super glue. I used my drilled block to hold the stem so both sides of the stem would dry without interference from my work surface. While the repair cured I buffed the bowl with a soft cotton buffing pad to bring up a shine. Once the repair had cured I used a needle file on both sides of the stem to bring the repair even with the surface of the stem. I sanded the repaired areas with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth them out and blend them into the surface of the stem. The photos below tell the story. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed it with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. I buffed lightly to keep the polish from getting in the grooves of the rustication. I buffed the stem to polish out the remaining scratches. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I gave the rusticated bowl several coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush. I buffed the entire pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Diameter of the chamber: ¾ inches. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store soon. If you are interested in adding this one to your collection email me at slaug@uniserve.com or send me a message on Facebook. Thanks for looking.

Cleaning up a Ropp Cherrywood and a Carved Cherrywood Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

I decided this afternoon to work on a couple of easy pipes – the first is a French Made Ropp Cherrywood and the second is also a Cherrywood but sports that carving of an alligator around the bowl front and sides. The Ropp is stamped on the bottom of the bowl with the typical Ropp circle stamp reading Ropp Cherry arched over Made in France. The “Gator” pipe bears no stamping at all. The Ropp is unsmoked but the stem seems to have marks that make me wonder if it was not a prop in a play or something. I am pretty sure that the stem is not original but a replacement. The “Gator” pipe appears to have been smoked at least once because there is a very faint darkening in the bowl but otherwise it too looks unsmoked. The stem is tiny but it too had some tooth marks on the top and underside near the button. That meant that for both of these I would only need to do the stem work. I took a close up photo of both of the bowls to show the condition. You can see that Ropp is unsmoked (NOS) and that the “Gator” also looks virtually unsmoked.The only thing that looked used on either pipe was the stem. The acrylic yellow stem on the “Gator” pipe had some tooth marks on both sides near the stem. The same was true of the vulcanite stem on the Ropp.I sanded the tooth marks on both stems smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. It did not take too much work to smooth out the tooth marks and chatter. I polished each of the stems 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 sanding pad and after the last pad I rubbed it down and set it aside to dry. I buffed the stems down with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and gave them both multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed them with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I wiped down the bowls with a light coat of olive oil and gave them a coat of Conservator’s Wax. I hand buffed them both with a shoe brush to raise the shine. The finished pipes are shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipes are: ROPP – Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 5/8 inches, Bowl diameter: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. GATOR – Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 2 inches, Bowl diameter: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inches. I will be adding both of them to the rebornpipes store shortly. If you are interested they can both be yours for one price. Check out the shop if interested or email me at slaug@uniserve.com or send me a message on Facebook. Thanks for looking. I took some photos of the Gator carving on the one Cherrywood to give you a sense of what it looks like. The first photo shows the head and shoulders on the left side of the bowl. The second photo shows the front of the bowl with the rear legs and body. The last photo shows the tail of the Gator.