Comoy’s Gold Bark pipes

Blog by Steve Laug

I have only 15 more of Bob’s pipes to finish before I have completed the restoration of his estate so I am continuing to work on them. The next one from Bob Kerr’s Estate is an interesting Comoy’s Gold Bark Bent Billiard. It is a bit of a strange one for me as I have several Comoy’s Gold Bark pipes and all are sandblast with a golden stain. This one is smooth! Where is the Bark and is the band the Gold?

(Bob’s photo is to the left). If you have not “met” the man and would like to read a bit of the history of the pipeman, his daughter has written a great tribute that is worth a read. Because I have included it in most of the restorations of the estate to date I thought that I would leave it out this time. Check out some of the recent Dunhill restoration blogs that include the biographical notes about Bob. Here is a link to one of them (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/01/restoring-the-last-of-bob-kerrs-dunhills-a-1962-dunhill-bruyere-656-f-t-bent-billiard/).

The Comoy’s Bent Billiard with a fluted gold coloured band on the shank. It is a smooth finish around the bowl and shank that has a lot of dust and debris ground into the finish of the briar. It was stamped on both sides of the shank. It is stamped Comoy’s [over] Gold Bark on the left side of the shank. On the right side it is stamped with the Made in London England circle COM stamp followed by the shape number 42. There was a thick cake in the bowl and lava overflow on the rim top. The vulcanite stem was calcified, oxidized and had tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button on both sides. Jeff took photos of the pipe to show its general condition before he did his cleanup. As I mentioned above the exterior of the pipe was very dirty – grime and grit ground in from years of use and sitting. The rim top was covered with a coat of thick lava that overflowed from the thick cake in the bowl. It was hard to know what the rim edges looked like because of the lava. Jeff took photos of the sides and the heel of the bowl to give a better feel for the condition of the briar around the bowl. You can also see some of the few fills in the briar in the photos. The next photo show the stamping on the underside of the shank and it is very readable. It reads as noted above. The stem was dirty, calcified and oxidized with tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside of the stem at the button. With over 125 pipes to clean from Bob’s estate I took a batch of them to the states with me when I visited and left them with Jeff so he could help me out. Jeff cleaned the pipes with his usual penchant for thoroughness that I really appreciate. Once he finished he shipped them back to me. Bob’s pipes were generally real mess and I did not know what to expect when I unwrapped it from his box. I was surprised to see how well it turned out. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish looks very good with good looking grain around the bowl and shank. Jeff scrubbed it with Soft Scrub and soaked it in Before & After Deoxidizer to remove the oxidation on the rubber. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour it looked a lot better. I took photos before I started my part of the work. I took some close up photos of the rim top and the stem surface. I wanted to show what cleaned bowl and rim top looked like. The rim top had some light damage and the inner and outer edges of the bowl were in excellent condition. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the tooth marks and the remaining oxidation on the stem surface. I took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank and it is clear and readable. There is also a C stamped on the left side of the saddle stem. It is stamped as noted above. There is a small chip in the edge of the stem at the shank junction just left of centre visible in the first photo below. I removed the stem for the shank and took a photo of the bowl and stem to give a picture of what it looked like. The heavy oxidation is very visible.I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and wiping it down after sanding pad. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth and shoe brush to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I scrubbed the surface of the stem with Soft Scrub to remove as much of the oxidation as I could. It is amazing how well this product works on vulcanite stems. I sanded out the remaining oxidation and the tooth dents in the top and underside of the stem with 220 sandpaper. I started polishing the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I touched up the stamped C on the left side of the stem with some Liquid Paper. I applied it and when it dried I scraped and sanded off the excess. I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I left a little oxidation around the stamp so as not to damage it more. This Cadogan era Comoy’s Gold Bark 42 Bent Billiard from Bob Kerr’s estate cleaned up really well and looks very good. The mixed stain brown finish on the pipe is in great condition and the fluted gold ferrule works well with the polished vulcanite taper stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Comoy’s Gold Bark Bent Billiard fits nicely in the hand and I think it will feel great as it heats up with a good tobacco. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. If you are interested in carrying on Bob’s legacy with this pipe send me a message or an email. I have more to work on of various brands. Perhaps one of those will catch your attention. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. This is an interesting estate to bring back to life.

Blog by Steve Laug

Quite a few years back now, my daughters gave me this little Comoy’s Golden Bark Zulu as a birthday gift. They had dutifully hunted for the pipe and then picked it up at a local pipe shop. I loved the look and the shape of it as it reminded me of an older one that I had smoked from time to time. I loaded a bowl and smoked it just twice because the finish bubbled and blistered in the sandblast on the back, front and sides of the bowl. I talked with others about what to do and found out that really there was nothing left to do but refinish the pipe or return it to the shop. I looked into returning it to the shop but found that it was one of a kind so I kept it. I put it in the pipe cupboard and there it remained for many years. In the photos below you can see the blistering in terms of discolouration on the sides of the bowl. The underside of the shank had also faded and was significantly lighter than the rest of the pipe. Fast forward to several weeks ago. On Facebook I was following a conversation that Chuck of Stag Tobacco in Albuquerque, New Mexico was having with one of the Stokkebyes and found that they were talking about Comoy pipes. I wrote a real time question on the thread there and found out quickly that what I had in hand was an English Comoy and that it was significantly older than I had originally imagined. Somehow I thought it was made during the period when the Italians made the pipes during the Cadogan era. I was wrong it turns out. The stamping on the underside of the shank reads COMOY’S over GOLD BARK over the round COM stamp with Made in London in a circle with the in residing in the center of the circle. Underneath the circle is a straight line reading ENGLAND. Next to that stamping is the 87S shape number and then along the edge of the shank stem joint is stamped 004.

I decided then that it was time to address the finish on the pipe. I took a few close up photos to show the blistering of the finish to give you an idea of what I was working with. The rim also had a little darkening from the little bit I had used it and there was the beginning of a light cake in the bowl.To begin stripping the bowl I wiped it down with acetone on cotton pads and found that it worked to remove the finish on the high spots of the blast but left a lot of the shiny bubbly finish in the deep grooves. To deal with the bubbly finish in the grooves of the blast I used a brass bristle brush and then wet the bowl down with acetone to keep the surface wet while I scrubbed it with the brush. I finished removing the finish with more acetone on cotton pads until the finish was clean. I took a few photos of the pipe at this point to show the new look of the finish. The lighter colour of the shank was beginning to blend in better with the rest of the pipe. I gave the bowl a light coat of olive oil to highlight the red tones in the finish and then buffed it lightly with a clean buffing pad. I gave it a coat of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The colour of the blast and the look of the pipe exceed what I thought it would look like when I was finished. The grain on the pipe shows through the blast and gives the pipe a beautiful look in my opinion. Thanks Chuck for the impetus to get this pipe cleaned up. I am once again looking forward to using this pipe and enjoying the gift from my daughters. Thanks for looking.