Tag Archives: contrast staining

Sasieni Four Dot Patent No. Amesbury Rusticated Canadian

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on was purchased on 11/11/2021 from an Antique Store in Aurora, Oregon, USA. It is a nice looking rusticated Canadian with 4 light blue dots on the top side of the taper stem. It was stamped on the underside of the shank and read Sasieni in script with the tail of the “i” short and tight. Underneath that it was stamped FOUR DOT in block letters [over] London Made [over] Pat. No. 50221/20 [over] “Amesbury”. Next to the bowl shank junction it was stamped Made in England shaped like a football vertically. The rusticated finish was very dirty with dust and debris in the grooves of the rustication. The bowl had a thick cake in it with lava overflow into the rustication on the rim top. It was an incredibly dirty pipe. The stem was oxidized and had calcification along the first inch ahead of the button. There were tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button and on the button surface itself. The 4 light blue dots on the left side of the taper stem were in good condition and very light in colour.

Jeff took these photos of the pipe before he started the clean up work on it. I want you to understand why we take the photos we do. It is not accidental or chance as the photos have been taken to help me make an assessment of the pipe Jeff sees before he starts his clean up work. We do this to record the condition that the pipe was in when received it and to assess what kind of work will need to be done on. When I look at these photos this is what I see.

  1. The rusticated finish is very messy and dirty. There was dust and grime ground into the deep grooves of the finish around the bowl. There are also nicks in the finish were there is wear and tear from being knocked around on ash trays and perhaps a heel of a boot. There are no burn marks or dark spots on the bowl sides and heel of the bowl.
  2. The rim top is filthy. The lava overflow from the cake in the bowl on the rim top though is thick and fills in the grooves. The front outer edge of the bowl has been damaged from being knocked against something hard.
  3. The bowl has a very thick cake in it that covers the inner edge of the bowl. That lava can either act as protection or could hide damage. We will not know until the bowl is cleaned. There does not appear to be any burning or reaming damage to the edges of the bowl.
  4. The stem is vulcanite and has the Sasieni Four Dot light blue dots logo inlaid in the top of the vulcanite taper stem.
  5. The stem was oxidized, calcified and very dirty. There was tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button visible in the photos below. The ones on the underside of the stem were quite deep in the surface of the stem.

Overall my impressions of this pretty rusticated Canadian was that it was in solid shape with no significant damage to the briar other than the knock about damage on rim top and edges. The cake is very thick so I have no way of knowing what is under it. The good news is that it does not seem to have any cracks in the bowl from the overloaded cake. The photos below confirm the assessment above.Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl and rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is quite thick and the rim top has a coat of lava and debris on it that will need to come off. You can also see the lava on the inner edge of the rim. You can also see the condition of the inner and outer edges of the rim and down the outside of the bowl. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. The bowl appears to be still round. His photos of the stem surface confirmed and heightened my assessment of the condition. You can see the oxidation, calcification and tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button. From the photos you can see the light blue four dot diamond the top of the taper stem they are in good condition.  He took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the rustication patterns in the briar. It is a unique finish that shows the grain through the finish. He took photos of the stamping on the smooth panel on the underside of the shank to capture what was stamped there. It is faint but readable as noted above. I decided to do some work on the stamping of this pipe to get an idea of the time period it was carved. I turned first to Pipephil’s site to see what I could learn (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-sasieni.html). I found a pipe that was stamped the same way as the one I am working on. I is stamped on the underside of the shank like the one in the screen capture photo below. Mine is stamped the same way Sasieni in script without the fish tail. Underneath it is stamped FOUR DOT [over] London Made [over] Pat. No. (1)50221/20 (the 1 is faint and almost illegible). Mine does not have the “Retford” stamp but rather the “Amesbury” stamp in the same place. To the left it is stamped with a football shaped Made in England stamp. I included the side bar notes below the picture. From that I knew that the pipe was made during Pre-transition Period 1946-1979.Pre-transition, 1946 – 1979. Four dot. Notice the change of “Sasieni” script without the fish-tail initiated by Alfred Sasieni after second world war.

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

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

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

The pipe I have is one that was made for the US market as established by the Patent Number on the shank. The flourished “i” was discontinued by Alfred so that confirms that the pipe was made Pre-transition, 1946 – 1979. The third line stamped is London Made in block lettering. The single dot stamp was changed to a four dot in the early to mid 1920s. The 1920s Four Dot is distinguished on this pipe by the florid script, the patent number and four faint blue dots that are quite small. With all that information I knew that my pipe was from the period before the transition so it was an old timer.

In reading the history of the brand on the page I also read through the various photos and brochures that were included in the article. I found a photo of a page from a catalogue describing the rustic briar that I have included below. The rustication pattern is very similar to that on the pipe one that I have here. It is interesting to read the descriptions on the page both of the rustication and the patent.Now that I knew the early dating of the pipe that I had in hand it was time to work on it.

I am sure many of you skip my paragraph on the work Jeff has done before the pipe gets here in my many blogs but it is quite detailed in its brevity. I know some laugh at my opening line Jeff did a thorough cleaning of this pipe. However, I want you to know the details of the work. Back in 2020 Jeff wrote a blog about his cleaning process. I am including a link to that now so you can see what I mean about his process. Do not skip it! Give it a read (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/20/got-a-filthy-estate-pipe-that-you-need-to-clean/). Here is the introduction to that blog and it is very true even to this day.

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

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

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

  1. The rusticated finish cleaned up very well. There was dust and grime were gone and the pipe looked clean. The nicks in the around the rim top and edges were visible. There are no burn marks or dark spots on the bowl sides and heel of the bowl.
  2. The rim top is was clean but showed damage. The rustication on the top and outer edge were clean but damaged slightly. The front outer edge of the bowl has been damaged from being knocked against something hard.
  3. The bowl was clean and the inside was smooth without checking or damage. There is not any burning or reaming damage to the edges of the bowl. The beveled inner edge of the bowl looks good.
  4. The stem is vulcanite and has the Sasieni Four Dot light blue dots logo inlaid in the top of the vulcanite taper stem.
  5. The stem looks much better and was clean. There were tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button visible in the photos below. The ones on the underside of the stem were deeper than the ones on the top side of the stem.

Hopefully the steps above show you both what I look for when I go over the pipe when I bring it to the work table and also what I see when I look at the pipe in my hands. They also clearly spell out a restoration plan in short form. My work is clear and addressing it will be the next steps. I took photos of the whole pipe to give you a picture of what I see when I have it on the table. This is important to me in that it also shows that there was no damage done during the clean up work or the transit of the pipe from Idaho to here in Vancouver. I took photos of the rim top and the top and underside of the stem. You can see the clean bowl and rim top. The stem has light tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button. It is dirty but otherwise great. It is a nice looking pipe. The next photo shows the stamping on a smooth panel on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts to give a sense of the overall look of the pipe. It is really a nicely looking pipe that will look great once it is cleaned up.I used a brass bristle wire brush to clean up the rim top. The rustication patterns on the surface came back to life with the brushing. The beveled inner edge looked surprisingly good. I touched up the nicks and light spots on the top and the edges of the bowl with a walnut stain pen. The match was perfect and looked great with the other parts of the rusticated finish.I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm to deep clean the nooks and crannies of the rusticated finish, enliven and protect the briar. I hand rubbed it with my fingers and worked it into the deep rustication with a horsehair shoe brush. I let it sit for 15 minutes to let it do its work. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the surface dents with a Bic light flame and was able to lift them significantly. I filled in the deep marks that remained with clear CA glue. I set it aside to cure. When it cured I reshaped the button edge and flattened the repairs with a small file. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to further blend them into the vulcanite. I started the polishing of the stem with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. To polish the stem and repairs I use micromesh sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pad as I find it does two things – first it protects the vulcanite and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process.After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the vulcanite. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the extra fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection from oxidizing quickly.The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I first buff the stem and the briar with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. Blue Diamond is a plastic polish but I find that it works very well to polish out the light scratches in the vulcanite and the briar. I work the pipe over on the wheel with my finger or thumb in the bowl to keep it from becoming airborne. It works well and I am able to carefully move forward with the buffing. The briar and stem just shone! This is another pipe I am excited to finish. It is a Patent Number Sasieni London Made Four Dot Rusticated Canadian. I put the pipe back together and buffed it lightly with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and hand buffed it with microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished vulcanite stem. It really was a beautiful pipe. The rusticated surface is quite unique and there is grain shining through the rich browns/black stain on the finish of this Sasieni London Made Four Dot Rusticated Canadian. It is nice looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.20 ounces/34 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be going on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipe Makers Section. Thanks for walking through the cleanup with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Restoring a Vauen Luxus 4234 Filter Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

I thought I would take you through my process of working on each pipe that we purchase. This is one that I am working on for a friend so it is not a purchase. When I am working on a pipe from the start I take the same photos. By now you should now why I included these photos. Even when I am starting from scratch myself I take the photos because they tend to show things clearly in a way that I might miss when I am looking at it in person. Combing the two gives a good view of what is going on with the pipe. I also take the photos to record the condition that the pipe was in when I received it and to assess what kind of work will need to be done on. When I look at the pipe along with these photos this is what I see.

  1. The finish is dull and very dirty with dust ground into the grooves of the sandblast finish around the bowl. There oils from holding the pipe on the sides of the bowl. The blast is rugged and shows some interesting grain patterns.
  2. The rim top is dirty with grime and lava all around the bowl and filling in much of the sandblast on the rim top. There was also darkening on the top and on the edge of the rim.
  3. The bowl has a thick cake in it and it had overflowed onto the inner edge of the bowl. It actually looks to be undamaged from what I can see at this point. There is a trough carved in the bottom of the bowl from either overdrilling or more likely from zealous use of pipe cleaners. There does not appear to be any burning or reaming damage to the inner edges of the bowl. There were some nicks in the briar on the outer edge.
  4. The stem is vulcanite and has the Vauen white dot logo inlaid into the vulcanite on the saddle stem. It fits the shank very well. It is made for a filter but significantly smaller than a 9mm. Could well be the Vauen 6mm filters would fit.
  5. The vulcanite stem had oxidation, calcification and tooth chatter and some deeper marks ahead of the button that are visible in the photos below. Nothing to deep but nonetheless present.

Overall my impressions of this German made Billiard was that it was in solid shape with no significant damage to the briar on the bowl sides and rim. The cake does not seem to hide any burns or checking and the exterior of the bowl does not show any hot spots or darkening. My examination of the bowl and what I see in the photos below confirm the assessment above. I took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl and rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is quite thick and the rim top is filled in with lava and is dirty. You can also see the darkening on the inner edge and the rim top. You can also see the condition of the outer edge of the rim and see that nicks toward the back of the bowl. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. The photos of the stem surface confirmed my assessment of the condition. You can see that the stem is dirty – oxidized and calcified. You can also see the tooth chatter and marks on the surface. The white dot logo on the top of the saddle stem is in great condition. I took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl. While this definitely shows the grain patterns around a bowl it also allows me have a different look at the of the condition of the briar and the finish. I look at the finish to make sure there are no nicks and damage. The stain on the bowl is spotty but highlights the grain.There were no cracks or splits following the grain or coming down from the rim edges. There were no cracks in the shank. I also look for flaws in the grain as those can also hide cracks or damage. In this case the bowl exterior is darkened on the sides by hand oil but is still sound and should clean up very well. The grain patterns are nice. I took photos of the stamping so I can see if it is faint in any spots or double stamped or unclear. It often takes several photos to capture what I am looking for. The stamping on the underside of the shank are clear and readable in the pictures below. It reads Vauen [over] Luxus. It is followed by the shape number 4234 followed by the stamp of crossed pipes. As usual I do some background reading to remind myself of the background on the Vauen brand before I started my work on the pipe. It is an important part of the restoration to me as it adds colour to the pipe I am working on. I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-v1.html). I did a screen capture of the information on the site. There was a great sidebar that gave some history of the brand. I include both of them below. In 1848, Karl Ellenberger and his partner Carl August Ziener establish a pipe factory in Nuremberg. In 1901 they merge with Gebhard Ott an other factory in town and they create a firm named Vereinigten Pfeifenfabriken Nürnberg (abbreviated : VPFN*). Shortly after Ernst Eckert, a member of the Ott family became manager of the society. During the 20th century Adolf, Ernst (jr) and Alexander Eckert (CEO in 2012) followed one another at Vauen’s head.* VPFN : “V” is said VAU in German (pronounce faou) and “N” becomes EN. Hence VAUEN.

Dal Stanton (Pipesteward.com) wrote a great piece on the history of the brand on a Vauen pipe that he worked on. I reread that and quote a section from the blog below that gives a great sense of the history of the German brand and some photos from the website (https://rebornpipes.com/2021/04/27/breathing-new-life-into-a-german-vauen-6294-p-lip-saddle-billiard-for-a-special-young-lady/).

… I turn to the question of the history of the VAUEN name? I look to the History section of the VAUEN website and again, I am impressed with the presentation. Whenever I work on a pipe, and especially when a pipe name is new to me, I enjoy looking at its history to appreciate the pipe more fully now on my worktable. From VAUEN’s website:Quality and a wealth of ideas have a long tradition at VAUEN. 160 years of VAUEN: that means 160 years of skilled workmanship and modern technology and 160 years of experience in fulfilling the individual wishes of today’s pipe lovers, and those of tomorrow.

In Nuremberg in 1848, Karl Ellenberger and his partner Carl August Ziener turned an idea into reality: Germany’s first pipe manufacturer produced tobacco pipes for connoisseurs around the world using a selection of the best wood. In an amalgamation with the Gebhard Ott pipe factory, which was founded in 1866 in Nuremberg, the Vereinigten Pfeifenfabriken Nuremberg (United Pipe Factories Nuremberg, or VPFN) was born in 1901.  Under the management of Ernst Eckert, a descendent of the founding Ott family, a company was born whose products and services would shape the tobacco and smoking culture in Europe and overseas for the next 160 years and counting.

The question about the name, VAUEN, not being a name of a person and why it is capitalized throughout is explained:

In his search for a name that would be easily remembered by all pipe lovers, Ernst Eckert’s son, Adolf Eckert, coined a new name for the company in 1909: VAUEN – a composition of the first letters V (pronounced vow) of Vereinigte Pfeifenfabriken and N (pronounced en) of Nuremberg. A brand for the future was born.

Knowing that about me you can guess that I started working on this pipe by turning to the bowl. I turned to the bowl and started working on the cake to remove it. I reamed back the cake on the bowl walls with a PipNet Pipe reamer and  cleaned it up with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls smooth with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I used a brass bristle wire brush to remove the debris in the sandblast of the rim top. I scrubbed the sandblast exterior of the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I rinsed it off with warm water to remove the grime and the soap. It looked much better once it was clean. Once the bowl had dried the finish was very spotty. There were dark places on the bowl and the rim top was dark. The spottiness really had to go. I generally start with this kind of thing by wiping the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads. I was able to get a lot of the spots off but there were still dark spots on the sides and rim top. It would need to be restained. It dried out and it was much better even though the spots were bothersome to me. There were also some putty fills that were visible in the finish. I mixed up a wash of light brown stain and isopropyl alcohol. I stained the bowl and shank with the stain was using a dauber. I lit the stain on fire with a lighter and flamed the stain to set it in the grain. I repeat the process until I am happy with the look of the finish.I set the bowl aside to let the stain cure. It was a bit dark to my liking but it was no longer spotty looking. Usually the stain will dry to the point of being able to work on it in about 40 minutes. I wanted to get a bit more opacity to the stain coat and show the various layers in the grooves and high points of the finish. I wiped it down with some isopropyl alcohol to remove the  heaviness of the stain coat. I really like the way it is looking at this point. Then I remembered I had not cleaned out the shank and stem. I went back and cleaned out the mortise and airway into the bowl and the stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol until they came out clean. It looked much better.I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the finish with my fingers and used a shoe brush to press it deep into the crevices of the sandblast. The product works to deep clean the finish on the bowl and shank and enliven and protect the briar. After it sat for 15 minutes I wiped it off with a soft cloth. The briar really came alive with a rich shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. It is a beautiful bowl. I will need to buff the bowl to finish the shine. I decided to address the “overdrill” or overzealous pipe cleaner damage to the inside front bottom and wall of the bowl by mixing a batch of cigar mud – a mixture of fine cigar ash and water to form a paste (I added a bit too much water so it needed to sit for a while to evaporate). Once it was the right consistency I put a pipe cleaner in the airway entry to the bowl and pressed the mud into the trough. I used a dental spatula to lay the mud in place and pressed it against the wall and bottom of the bowl. I layered it into the groove and set it aside to harden. I set it aside in the evening and in the morning when I checked on the bowl to make sure the bowl had cured. I was happy to see that the repair had cured very well.I set the bowl aside to let the repair to the bowl bottom cure. It is wet and dark but will dry hard and a light grey. I turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the stem surface with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the tooth marks. I was able to lift them all to the point that I would be able to sand the remnants of them out. I sanded the stem surface with 220 grit sandpaper and started the polishing the stem with 600 grit wet dry sand paper. I wiped it down with some Obsidian Oil and moved on to polishing the stem. I polish the stem to remove the light chatter and scratches. Over the years I have developed my own process for this. It is all preparation for the buffing that will come last. I use micromesh sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pad as I find it does two things – first it protects the stem and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I always rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the acrylic. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the Extra Fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem by wiping it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil dissipate. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection for the stem surface.Once I finish a filter stem I like to fit it with a clean filter. In this case I do not have the filters to fit it. My thinking is that it is a Dr. Perl Junior 6mm filter. The pipeman I am restoring it for will have to pick some up. I have included a photo of what I think the filters will be.The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I first buff the stem and the briar with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. Blue Diamond is a plastic polish but I find that it works very well to polish out the light scratches in the acrylic and the briar. I work the pipe over on the wheel with my finger or thumb in the bowl to keep it from becoming airborne. It works well and I am able to carefully move forward with the buffing. I finished with the Blue Diamond and moved on to buffing with carnauba wax. Once I have a good shine in the briar and vulcanite I always give the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I following up the wax buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I follow that up with a hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished stem. It really is a beautiful pipe. The bowl coating and build up of cigar mud should harden and provide a base for the build up of new cake. The sand blast finish around the bowl sides and shank show the grain patterns underneath the rich brown stains of this Vauen Luxus 4234 Filter Billiard and the polished vulcanite stem is a great addition. The finished pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.10 ounces/31 grams. It is a beautiful pipe that I will be sending to a friend of mine who is collecting older Vauen pipes. I look forward to hearing what he thinks of it.

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

Restoring a Silver Banded BBB Own Make 722 Diplomat

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Blog by Steve Laug

I thought with this blog that I would take a different tack in the write up and take you through my process of working on each pipe that we purchase. Jeff has set up a spread sheet to track where the pipe came from, the date of purchase and what we paid for it so that we know what we have invested in the pipe before we even work on it. This takes a lot of the guess work out of the process. This particular pipe was purchased on 01/26/2023 from Copenhagen, Denmark from a seller we buy a lot of pipes from. I also want you to understand why we take the photos we do. It is not accidental or chance as the photos have been taken to help me make an assessment of the pipe Jeff sees before he starts his clean up work. We do this to record the condition that the pipe was in when received it and to assess what kind of work will need to be done on. When I look at these photos this is what I see.

  1. The finish is dirty and there are nicks in the sides of the bowl from being dropped it looks like. There appeared to be some nice grain under the grime. The shank is fairly short with the factory silver band on the end.
  2. The slightly crowned rim top had a thick lava overflow from the cake in the bowl. It was thicker on the back half of the rim top. There was also some darkening around the top and edges as well. The inner and outer edges of the bowl looked to be in good condition though covered with thick lava. Its overall appearance is very dirty looking.
  3. The bowl has a thick cake in it but the inner edge of the bowl actually looks to be undamaged from what I can see at this point. There does not appear to be any burning or reaming damage to the edges of the bowl. You would be surprised (though maybe not) in how many pipes we pick up that have major issues in this area.
  4. The stem is an oddity to me. The first inch of the stem from the silver band back down the stem is lighter in colour than the rest of the stem. It appears to combine vulcanite and acrylic bound together somehow. I want to try to understand how the two materials are bound together.
  5. The stem had some oxidation on the top portion around the logo. The acrylic portion was clean and there were no tooth marks and chatter visible in the photos below.

Overall my impressions of this pipe is that it is a beauty that once cleaned up will look pretty amazing. The cake does not seem to hide any burns or checking and the exterior of the bowl does not show any hot spots or darkening. The pipe is very English looking and is a classic Diplomat shape. It has a lot of BBB stylistic touches that I have come to expect as I have worked on a lot of them over the years. The photos below confirm the assessment above.Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl and rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is quite thick and the rim top has lava and debris on it. You can also see the condition of the inner and outer edges of the rim. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. While there is lava and darkening there is no visible burn damage at this point and the previous reaming has not left damage either. The bowl is still fairly round. There are some scratches in the surface of the crowned rim top. His photos of the stem surface confirmed and heightened my assessment of the condition. You can see the oxidation (particularly around the top inch of the stem from the shank end back) and a different appearance to the second part of the stem. It really does appear that they are two separate materials – vulcanite around the brass logo and acrylic on the back two thirds. The stem is quite dirty but otherwise undamaged. I always ask Jeff to take photos of the sides and heel of the bowl. While this definitely shows the grain patterns around a bowl it also allows me to do a more thorough assessment of the condition of the briar and the finish. In this case I look at the nicks and scratches around the bowl sides to see if there are any cracks or splits radiating from the pits in the centre of each one. I also look for flaws in the grain as those can also hide cracks or damage. In this case the bowl exterior is sound and should clean up very well. I love the grain patterns and the way the play off the silver band on the shank end. I also ask him to take photos of the stamping so I can see if it is faint in any spots or double stamped or unclear. It often takes several photos to capture what I am looking for. The stamping on the underside of the shank is actually undecipherable for the most part. It appears to have a BBB diamond logo at the top of the photo (left side). Underneath that is seems to read Own Make (very faint) [over] Made in [over] London England [over] 722. There is also an odd symbol next to the shape number. Jeff also took photos of the stamping on the silver band and the brass inset logo on the top of the stem. The stamp on the band is hallmarked with three silver hallmarks – a rampant lion, a lion’s head and the letter C. The first one tells us that it is sterling silver. The second one tells us that it is a London assay mark. The third one – the C – is a date stamp. I will work on the date of the pipe once I have it in hand. The brass logo is slightly damaged on the lower side of the inset. I love working on background history of the pipes I restore as they add a depth to my ongoing understanding of the pipe. Being able to put it in a specific date on the pipe puts it in a time frame. I turned to a British Silver Makers Hallmarks site that I use all the time. I narrowed down my search to the London pipes. The first two marks as noted above – the rampant lion and the lion’s head were simple to decipher. The Rampant Lion is the symbol for Sterling silver. The The Lion’s Head is the symbol for London Silver makers. I turned to the dates list on the site. I have included it below (https://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/Dates/London.html).I clicked on the section that had a C stamp like the one on the band and it expanded to a size that I could easily read. I have included the link below as well as a screen capture of the section of the list (https://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/Dates/London/Cycle%201975-1999.html).

I knew that the pipe I had was made in London by BBB and the silver assay stamp dates the pipe as 1977 in terms of the shape of the C. The band I am working on does not have a Queen’s Stamp so it is a little different. But I am convinced that the pipe was made in 1977.

I am sure many of you skip my paragraph on the work Jeff has done before the pipe gets here but it is quite detailed in its brevity. I know some laugh at my opening line Jeff did a thorough cleaning of this pipe. However, I want you to know the details of the work. Back in 2020 Jeff wrote a blog about his cleaning process. I am including a link to that now so you can see what I mean about his process. Do not skip it! Give it a read (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/20/got-a-filthy-estate-pipe-that-you-need-to-clean/). Here is the introduction to that blog and it is very true even to this day.

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

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

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

When the pipe arrives here in Vancouver I have a clean pipe and I go over it keeping in mind my assessment shared in the opening paragraph above. I am looking for any significant structural changes in the bowl and finish as I go over it.

  1. The finish is very clean and the grain stands out on the surface of the clean briar. The scratches in the briar swelled up a bit so that they were not as deep as originally assumed in the first photos. There are no cracks showing up in the grain lines or in the flaws under the leaf carvings. It is sound on the outside. I will need to polish the briar and buff it to bring back the shine.
  2. The slightly crowned rim top is clean of the lava but there is still some darkening on the top and edges of the bowl. The good news for me is that there are no cracks showing up in the rim top. The bowl was sound.
  3. The bowl was very clean and smelled clean. The clean walls did not show evidence of checking or cracking. There were no hot spots or damage on the walls or around the entrance of the airway into the bowl. It was clean and smooth which is great news for me. The inner edge of the bowl was undamaged and did not show any sign of burning or reaming damage to the edges of the bowl. Both the shank and the bowl were very clean showing no debris on a clean pipe clean run through them. I would need to give it a final cleaning with pipe cleaners and alcohol once I had finished with the external work to remove the debris that may have collected there in the process.
  4. The oddity I saw in the stem was even more evident now – the vulcanite stem end and the acrylic bit were bound together in a well done manner. It was going to be interesting to examine more closely and possibly remove some of the oxidation on the vulcanite portion.
  5. The oxidation was much less on the front portion of the stem after Jeff’s work on it. The acrylic portion did not show any tooth marks or chatter. It was in great condition.

Hopefully the steps above show you both what I look for when I go over the pipe when I bring it to the work table and also what I see when I look at the pipe in my hands. They also clearly spell out a restoration plan in short form. My work is clear and addressing it will be the next steps. I took photos of the whole pipe to give you a picture of what I see when I have it on the table. This is important to me in that it also shows that there was no damage done during the clean up work or the transit of the pipe from Idaho to here in Vancouver. I take some time to go over the bowl and rim top to get a sense of what is happening there. In this case has some darkening on the top and the inner edge of the bowl. It is clean but will need to be worked on to bring it back to normal. The edges are not damaged and neither is the top of the bowl. That is the good news. I also go over the stem carefully. There were no tooth marks or dents in the stem. The biggest mystery for me is the connection of the two materials on the stem. There is a visible difference in the photos below. I took photos of the rim top and stem sides to show as best as I can what I see when I look at them.I always check to make sure that the clean up work did not damage the stamping on the shank in any way. I was hoping that the clean up might have made the stamping more clear but that was not the case. It was as faint as before. You can see a bit of it in the last photo above. I also took a photo of the silver. I also removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to get a sense of what was in the mind of the pipe maker when he crafted the pipe. It is a beauty in flow and shape. The question at this point of where to begin the restoration work is always a matter of personal preference. If you read this blog much you will see that each of the restorers who post here all start at different points. I personally almost always start with the bowl because I truly do not like the tedious work of stem repairs and polishing. I always leave that until last even though I know that it needs to be done. So if you are restoring your pipes choose where you want to start and go from there. Just know that it all will need to be done by the end but for me the encouragement of seeing a rejuvenated bowl is the impetus I need to attack the stem work.

For me then I started working on this pipe by turning to the bowl. I chose to deal with the darkening to the rim edges and top. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to reshape and remove the rim top and damage. It took a little work but I was able to remove all of the darkening. It is a beautiful piece of briar with some great grain.When I have to deal with scratch marks like those on the left side of the bowl I generally use a butter knife and a damp cloth to steam them out of the finish as much as possible. I know others use steam irons with great success but I generally use the butter knife and damp cloth to lift them as it allows me to pin point the tip of the knife on the marks. I was able to lift some of them nicely but some still remained when I finished. I used a small bit of CA glue to fill in the three marks that remained (it looks like more glue than it actually is – it is quite thin). I sanded the repairs smooth with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I started the polishing with micromesh sanding pads – working it over with 1500 grit pads.Once I have the repair sanded smooth I blend them into the surface of the briar. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I choose to dry sand the briar rather than wet sand it. Again it is a matter of personal preference. I prefer to use the pads dry and find they work very well on the briar. I sand with each pad (9 in total) and group them by threes for ease of reference. I also work over the plateau areas at the same time. I wipe the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris and check the briar. I love seeing the developing shine on the briar as I move through the pads which is why I include so many photos of this step. Once I have a bowl at this point in the process I go over it to see the coverage on the bowl. In this case the finish was very spotty. I chose to restain the bowl with a Light Brown aniline wash. I mixed some brown pigment with some isopropyl alcohol to mix a wash. I used a cotton dauber to  cover the surface of the briar with the stain wash. I lit the finish with a lighter and set the stain in the briar. I repeated the process a second time to make sure it was a smooth finish. I took a few photos of the stained bowl. It appears significantly darker than I expected but I knew that buffing it would lighten the finish and perhaps make it match. Buffing would tell the tale. When I stain a bowl like the one above I take it to the buffer after the stain has dried. I buffed it first with Red Tripoli to remove the “crust” of the new stain. The Tripoli took off the opacity of the stain on the bowl and gave me more of the colour I was hoping for under the stain coat. I buffed it a second time with Blue Diamond and was able to remove more. The bowl also began to take on a deep shine. I took photos of the bowl after buffing and have included them below. For the past few years now I have been using a product developed by Mark Hoover called Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar and the plateau. The product works to deep clean the nooks and crannies of finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips and let it sit for 10 minutes to do its work. I wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine in the briar and the grain shone through. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. It is a gorgeous pipe. Now it was time to address the part of the restoration I leave until last. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. This one was a unique stem so I was not as slow to start because of damage to the stem it was more to try to put together why the stem has two materials and how they were joined. The junction was flawlessly done and the transition was very smooth. It made me wonder who had done this work and why. I have never seen any other BBB pipe with the compound material stem. Here are a couple of thoughts I have as I have been working on it. There are several possibilities.

The first is that this stem is kind of a Frankenpipe rebuild.

  1. Somewhere in the life of the pipe the original vulcanite stem was ruined from the button forward. The original owner wanted to keep the front portion next to the shank intact so that original brass logo would not have to be moved.
  2. A possibility is that the old stem was cut off and an acrylic end was made for it. They were joined together with a tenon and glue that bound the parts together seamlessly.
  3. The stem was then sanded to make the transition between the two materials seamless.

The second is that it originally came out that way as a means of protecting the stem from bite through. It may well have been a BBB innovation – just one that I have never seen or read about.

I suppose at one level I will never really know for sure but whatever the reason for the mixed material of the stem it is a beauty. Now it was time to work on it.

At this point in the process I chose to polish the stem and bring back a shine. I use micromesh sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pad as I find it does two things – first it protects the vulcanite and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the vulcanite. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the extra fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection from oxidizing quickly.The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I first buff the stem and the briar with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. Blue Diamond is a plastic polish but I find that it works very well to polish out the light scratches in the vulcanite and the briar. I work the pipe over on the wheel with my finger or thumb in the bowl to keep it from becoming airborne. It works well and I am able to carefully move forward with the buffing. The briar and stem just shone! I finished with the Blue Diamond and moved on to buffing with carnauba wax. Once I have a good shine in the briar and vulcanite I always give the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I following up the wax buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I follow that up with a hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished vulcanite and acrylic combination stem. It really is a beautiful pipe. The smooth finish around the bowl sides and shank show the grain shining through the rich brown stains of this BBB Own Make 722 Diplomat. The finished pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/8 inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.59 ounces/44 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that I will be putting on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipe Maker section.

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

Life for a Karl Erik Carved Wenhall Langelinie Made In Denmark 1 Freehand

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I thought with this blog that I would take a different tack in the write up and take you through my process of working on each pipe that we purchase. Jeff has set up a spread sheet to track where the pipe came from, the date of purchase and what we paid for it so that we know what we have invested in the pipe before we even work on it. This takes a lot of the guess work out of the process. This particular pipe was purchased on 04/09/2022 from Cleveland, Ohio, USA from a seller we bought quite a few pipes from. I also want you to understand why we take the photos we do. It is not accidental or chance as the photos have been taken to help me make an assessment of the pipe Jeff sees before he starts his clean up work. We do this to record the condition that the pipe was in when received it and to assess what kind of work will need to be done on. When I look at these photos this is what I see.

  1. The finish is dirty and flat but underneath there is some excellent grain. There are also some leaves carved on the left side of the bowl and around the heel. These were typically done to obscure flaws in the briar.
  2. The plateau rim top and shank end are dirty. In the rim top plateau there is a lot of lava overflow from the cake in the bowl. Along with that there is dust and debris in both the plateau on the rim top and shank end. Its overall appearance is very dirty looking.
  3. The bowl has a thick cake in it but the inner edge of the bowl actually looks to be undamaged from what I can see at this point. There does not appear to be any burning or reaming damage to the edges of the bowl. You would be surprised (though maybe not) in how many pipes we pick up that have major issues in this area.
  4. The stem is vulcanite and has straightened out from heat and sitting and will need to be rebent to match the flow of the shank and bowl.
  5. The stem had some oxidation and tooth marks and chatter that are visible in the photos below. Nothing to deep but nonetheless present.

Overall my impressions of this pipe is that it is a beauty that once cleaned up will look pretty amazing. The cake does not seem to hide any burns or checking and the exterior of the bowl does not show any hot spots or darkening. When I look it I immediately think of the carver Karl Erik. It has a lot of his stylistic touches that I have come to expect as I have worked on a lot of his pipes over the years. The photos below confirm the assessment above. Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl and rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is quite thick and the plateau on the rim top is almost filled in with lava and debris. You can also see the condition of the inner and outer edges of the rim. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. While there is lava and darkening there is no visible burn damage at this point and the previous reaming has not left damage either. The bowl is still fairly round. The plateau on the shank end is very dusty and dirty as can be seen in the fourth photo below. His photos of the stem surface confirmed and heightened my assessment of the condition. You can see the oxidation (particularly around the turned area and the speckled surface of the button area) and what appears to be a gummy substance on the stem surface. Note also the tooth marks on the edge of the button on both sides. It is actually more damaged than the surface of the stem. I always ask Jeff to take photos of the sides and heel of the bowl. While this definitely shows the grain patterns around a bowl it also allows me to do a more thorough assessment of the condition of the briar and the finish. In this case I look at the finish around the carved portions to see if there are any cracks or splits radiating from the pits in the centre of each one. I also look for flaws in the grain as those can also hide cracks or damage. In this case the bowl exterior is sound and should clean up very well. I love the grain patterns and even the odd leaf carvings do not detract too much from that for me. I also ask him to take photos of the stamping so I can see if it is faint in any spots or double stamped or unclear. It often takes several photos to capture what I am looking for. The stamping on the underside of the shank is relatively clear in the picture below. It reads Wenhall [over] Langelinie [over] Freehand [over] Made In Denmark [over] 1. The Wenhall stamp is faint at the top of the stamp but still readable. You can also see that part of the Langelinie is double stamped. The rest of the stamp is clear and readable.Before I start working on any pipe in my hands I want to confirm its provenance. I want to know for certain who made it rather than just counting on my memory. In this case in the back of my mind I remembered a connection between Wenhall and Karl Erik pipes. I could not remember the details of the connection but I remembered there was one. I have several sites that I turn to for this work. First I turned to Pipephil’s – Pipes, Logos and Stampings website and found that there was no information on the brand there.

Then I turned to Pipedia and looked up Wenhall in the Pipe Makers list that is included there. I found the link there I was looking for (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Wenhall). It was a short article but it made a lot of connections to names that I was familiar with from working on pipes. I include the majority of the article because of the pertinent information that it provides and for ease of reference in the future.

Wenhall Pipes Ltd. was a distribution company out of New York City.

By the end of the 1970’s Wenhall approached Michael Kabik and Glen Hedelson, at that time operating from a farm house in Glen Rock, Maryland to create a line of freehands called Wenhall. The situation was favorable, because Kabik & Hedelson had ended their cooperation with Mel Baker of Tobak Ltd. to produce the famed Sven-Lar freehands shortly before.

Upon Wenhall’s offer the partners got a bank loan and set up a studio of 2000 square feet in a fairly new industrial park in Bel Air, Maryland and took on the name Vajra Briar Works. Wenhall initially wanted 500 pipes a week! But Kabik & Hedelson doubted that they could move that much product and told them they would produce 250 pipes per week. Happily, some of the old crew from Sven-Lar joined them at Vajra Briar Works, and thus they rather quickly met the production demands.

Furthermore during this time, Wenhall requested to create a line of pipes consisting of 12 different shapes. The line was called The Presidential and, while they repeated the same 12 shapes for this series, each one was freehand cut. Although they came up with interesting designs, mainly developed by Hedelson, especially Kabik was never really happy with the line or the concept, but, by this time, they had nine people on full-time payroll.

The stint with Wenhall lasted a couple of years, at which time they asked them to join Wenhall in a move to Miami, Florida. But by this time Kabik and Hedelson felt very uncomfortable with the owners of Wenhall and decided that they’d rather close the shop than make the move. Time proved that decision very wise, as Wenhall folded shortly after the move. All the same they had to close Vajra, but scaled down to the two of them and moved the operation to the farm house Glen was currently living in.

Presumably for a shorter period only Wenhall had pipes made in Denmark by Karl Erik. (BTW K.E. Ottendahl ceased all sales to the USA in 1987.)

The last sentence in red above gave me the confirmation I was seeking. I knew that the pipe I had was made in Denmark and thus by Karl Erik. I also knew that it was made before he ceased all sales in the US so that it was made before 1987. That is when his time with Wenhall ended. I always love being able to pin down a time frame for the pipe I am working on and knowing that this one was made prior to 1987 meant this was an older pipe. Now on to the work.

I am sure many of you skip my paragraph on the work Jeff has done before the pipe gets here but it is quite detailed in its brevity. I know some laugh at my opening line Jeff did a thorough cleaning of this pipe. However, I want you to know the details of the work. Back in 2020 Jeff wrote a blog about his cleaning process. I am including a link to that now so you can see what I mean about his process. Do not skip it! Give it a read (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/20/got-a-filthy-estate-pipe-that-you-need-to-clean/). Here is the introduction to that blog and it is very true even to this day.

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

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

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

When the pipe arrives here in Vancouver I have a clean pipe and I go over it keeping in mind my assessment shared in the opening paragraph above. I am looking for any significant structural changes in the bowl and finish as I go over it.

  1. The finish is very clean and the grain stands out on the surface of the clean briar. The carved leaves looked good as well and appeared to have some dark stain tracing the lines in them and helping them stand out. There are no cracks showing up in the grain lines or in the flaws under the leaf carvings. It is sound on the outside. I will need to polish the briar and buff it to bring back the shine.
  2. The plateau rim top and shank end are clean and have some faded spots due to the cleaning and removing of the tars and oils that were scrubbed off. This will mean that in need to restain them with black and buff them with wax to bring them back to what they looked like when sent to the US originally. The good news for me is that there are no cracks showing up in the rim top plateau or in the shank end plateau. Those two areas are also sound.
  3. The bowl was very clean and smelled clean. The clean walls did not show evidence of checking or cracking. There were no hot spots or damage on the walls or around the entrance of the airway into the bowl. It was clean and smooth which is great news for me. The inner edge of the bowl was undamaged and did not show any sign of burning or reaming damage to the edges of the bowl. Both the shank and the bowl were very clean showing no debris on a clean pipe clean run through them. I would need to give it a final cleaning with pipe cleaners and alcohol once I had finished with the external work to remove the debris that may have collected there in the process.
  4. The vulcanite stem has clearly straightened over the years and that can be seen in the angle of the stem to the top of the bowl. I will need to heat it and bend the end to match the angle of the rim top. I always aim to get a basic straight line from the rim top to the curve of the stem when it is sitting in my mouth.
  5. The oxidation was gone from the stem after Jeff’s work on it. The tooth marks and chatter will need to be dealt with once I finish the bowl.

Hopefully the steps above show you both what I look for when I go over the pipe when I bring it to the work table and also what I see when I look at the pipe in my hands. They also clearly spell out a restoration plan in short form. My work is clear and addressing it will be the next steps. I took photos of the whole pipe to give you a picture of what I see when I have it on the table. This is important to me in that it also shows that there was no damage done during the clean up work or the transit of the pipe from Idaho to here in Vancouver. I then spend some time going over the bowl and rim top to get a sense of what is happening there. Remember that with plateau tops there can be dips in the plateau that extend into the bowl edge and are not damage but rather a natural feature. You can see the fading to the black of the plateau on the bowl top and the shank end. It is clean but will need to be restained to match what it was when made. I also went over the stem carefully. There were dents in the stem that are visible in the photos. But the good news is that the tooth marks were not deep and did not seem to puncture the airway. They would clean up well. I examined the button edge as it was damaged with tooth marks as well but I was happy to see that there were no cracks in the button surface. I took photos of the rim top and stem sides to show as best as I can what I see when I look at them.I always check to make sure that the clean up work did not damage the stamping on the shank in any way. I know Jeff is cognizant of this but I do it anyway and take a photo to show what I see when I examine it. In this case it has not changed at all from the pictures I included above. I also remove the stem from the shank and check the tenon and lay the parts of the pipe out to get a sense of the proportion that was in the mind of the pipe maker when he crafted the pipe. It is a beauty in flow and shape.The question at this point of where to begin the restoration work is always a matter of personal preference. If you read this blog much you will see that each of the restorers who post here all start at different points. I personally almost always start with the bowl because I truly do not like the tedious work of stem repairs and polishing. I always leave that until last even though I know that it needs to be done. So if you are restoring your pipes choose where you want to start and go from there. Just know that it all will need to be done by the end but for me the encouragement of seeing a rejuvenated bowl is the impetus I need to attack the stem work.

For me then I started working on this pipe by turning to the bowl. I chose to deal with the faded plateau on the rim and shank first because I would be polishing the briar and always like to go over the rim top and shank end plateau at the same time. I find that polishing those areas with micromesh differentiates the high points of the plateau from the valleys. I used a black stain pen to restain both areas. Remember this is only the first step in rim top staining. Polishing the briar will come next and that will change these areas as well.From here I turned to polishing the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I choose to dry sand the briar rather than wet sand it. Again it is a matter of personal preference. I prefer to use the pads dry and find they work very well on the briar. I sand with each pad (9 in total) and group them by threes for ease of reference. I also work over the plateau areas at the same time. I wipe the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris and check the briar. I love seeing the developing shine on the briar as I move through the pads which is why I include so many photos of this step. Pay attention to the changes in the briar and the plateau top in these photos as you work through them. To further sharpen the curves and grooves of the plateau on the shank and rim top I used a brass bristle wire brush. It is soft enough metal to clean up edges but not hard enough to scratch the surface of the briar.For the past few years now I have been using a product developed by Mark Hoover called Before & After Restoration Balm. I find that it is remarkable in its ability to really give the bowl deepened sense of colour and grain. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar and the plateau. The product works to deep clean the nooks and crannies of finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips and a horsehair shoe brush to get it into the grooves of the plateau. I let it sit for 10 minutes to let it do its work. I wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar and the plateau really began to have a deep shine in the briar. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. You see the shine that the briar has taken on and the contrast finish on the plateau areas is very beautiful. It is a gorgeous pipe. Now it was time to address the part of the restoration I leave until last. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I wanted to repair the tooth damage on the stem surface and on the surface of the button. Before doing any repairs to a stem surface I try to lift the marks as much as possible. To do that I use a Bic lighter to heat the tooth marks and dents in the stem surface. I describe that as “painting” the surface. What I mean by that is that I hold the stem stationary and quickly move the flame of the lighter across the dents repeatedly. Typically I am able to lift the dents significantly and sometimes in totality with the heat. It utilizes the “memory” vulcanite and the heat raises the marks.In this case I lifted all but two – one on each side. The heat did not have any effect on the tooth damage on the edge of the button. To take care of that I filled the edge in with clear CA glue and let it cure. Once it was hardened I recut the button edge with a small file to clean up the damage. I finished the reworking of the button and stem with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing it with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper to remove the scratches. This process makes the repairs almost invisible when polished and also takes care of scratching in the surface of the vulcanite.I usually heat a stem to be bent with my heat gun until it is pliable then set it with running water. Today however I ran into a problem. My heat gun is no where to be found. I evidently either loaned to someone who still has it or it is somewhere in the house where I have overlooked it in the hunt. So I had to resort to an older way of heating the stem that is a bit more tricky. I “painted” the underside of the stem at the bend that was present with the flame of a Bic lighter as described above. When it became soft and pliable enough to bend to the angle I wanted I set the bend with cold water and dried it off. I checked the angle of the bend with the shank repeatedly until I was happy with the new look. I took some photos of the stem and of the stem in place in the shank and have included them below. It is possible to bend a stem with minimal tools. With the bend in the stem finished I needed to polish the stem and bring back a shine. I use micromesh sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pad as I find it does two things – first it protects the vulcanite and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the vulcanite. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the extra fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection from oxidizing quickly.The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I first buff the stem and the briar with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. Blue Diamond is a plastic polish but I find that it works very well to polish out the light scratches in the vulcanite and the briar. I work the pipe over on the wheel with my finger or thumb in the bowl to keep it from becoming airborne. It works well and I am able to carefully move forward with the buffing. I lightly buff the plateau on the rim top and shank end at the same time making sure to keep the product from building up in the grooves of the finish. I finished with the Blue Diamond and moved on to buffing with carnauba wax. Once I have a good shine in the briar and vulcanite I always give the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I following up the wax buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I follow that up with a hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished vulcanite stem. It really is a beautiful pipe. The smooth finish around the bowl sides and shank show the grain shining through the rich brown stains of this Karl Erik Wenhall Langelinie Freehand. The black plateau on the shank end and rim top looked very good with some of the high points showing through in brown. The contrast in the combination looks very good.  The finished pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.90 ounces/54 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that I will be putting on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipe Maker section.

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

Cleaning Up and Restoring A “Caminetto Business” 185 Cavalier KS1

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on my worktable is a Caminetto Business Pipe was purchased on 03/30/22 from Plano, Texas, USA. It is a beautiful rusticated Cavalier with an acrylic end cap on the shank and an acrylic saddle stem. It was a good looking pipe but it was filthy with grime and oils ground into the rusticated finish on the bowl. The pipe had some rustic beauty shining through the dust and debris in the valleys of the rough finish. The rustication covered the rim top, bowl and shank with a smooth panel on the underside of the shank. The finish was dull and lifeless and dirty from sitting around. There was a very thick cake in the bowl with lava flowing out of the bowl and over the rim top. The lava had filled in the deeper grooves of the rusticated finish on the rim top. The inner edge of the rim appeared to be in good condition but it was hard to tell under the thick lava. The stamping on the underside of the shank read “CAMINETTO [over] BUSINESS”. To the right of that toward the stem it was stamped HAND MADE IN ITALY [over] CUCCIAGO (CO). That was followed by the shape number 185 and KS1. The golden variegated acrylic saddle stem had light tooth chatter and a few deeper tooth marks on both sides near the button. Jeff took the following photos before he started his cleanup work on the pipe.He took close-up photos of the bowl and rim top from various angles to capture the condition of the bowl and rim top edges. You can see the lava overflow and debris in the rustication of the rim top. You can see the cake in the bowl. This was a dirty pipe but it was the finish was in great condition. The next photos show the overview of the stem and the fit in the rusticated shank end as well as the light tooth chatter and a few deeper marks on the top and underside of the stem. He took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the beautiful incredibly deep rustication around the bowl. It is the same kind of rough rusticated finish that I really like on Castello Sea Rock pipes. You can see the oil, dust and debris in the finish on both sides of the bowl. Jeff took photos of the stamping on the shank. It reads as noted above. The stamping is clear and readable. I turned to Pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c1.html) to see if he included not only information on this Caminetto Business 182. He gave some interesting information about the brand. It was created in 1986 by Guiseppe Ascorti, Luigi Radice and Gianni Davoli as the distributor. It states that in 1979 the first Caminetto period ended with Luigi Radic leaving the company. Guiseppe Ascorti continued making the pipe with his son Roberto. In 1986 the New Caminetto period began by Roberto Ascorti.I turned to Pipedia for more information on the Caminetto and how to date the pipe I had in hand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_Caminetto_(shapes,_stamping,_articles,_etc.). I quote a pertinent paragraph:

Stampings and dating: First off, dating earlier Caminetto’s is nearly impossible. Nevertheless, there were three phases, some in which were much earlier, of development that occurred in the stamping process of Caminetto. Before that though, every pipe had the stamp of Caminetto in one of two ways: Caminetto in script or Caminetto within quotation marks in block letters (I do not know how it was decided which pipe got which stamp, as I have had EARLY Caminetto’s with both)…

The stampings are shown in the photo to the left. The stamping on this pipe is like #2.

…Now, the question is which stamps are earlier and more likely to have been made by Ascorti and/or Radice. The answer is #1. The differences in #2 and #3 seem to be minute, as Cucciago is simply a suburb of Cantu. Pipes stamped like #1 are the most valuable Caminetto’s as they are the earliest production of the brand, as well as what some would claim the most perfect of Ascorti and Radice’s work. The last tidbit is, of course, debatable…

… There is also another factor in stamping, that is, which series the pipe falls in. The majority of Caminetto’s one sees are those of the “Business” series, which are stamped such with their collective shape (see photo of shapes below). Another stamp that sometimes follows the “Business” one is “KS,” which from what I know means “King-size” (this could be wrong, as there are pipes stamped with KS1, KS2, and KS3).

Now it was time to look at it up close and personal. Jeff had done an amazing job in removing all of the cake and the lava on the rim top. He had reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He took the cake back to bare briar so we could check the walls for damage. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime on the bowl and rim and was able to remove the lava and dirt. He cleaned out the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they came out clean. He cleaned the stem and the trap at the end of the shank with Soft Scrub to remove the grime on the exterior and cleaned out the airway with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration. To show how clean the rim top and stem really was I took a close-up photo of the rim and stem. The bowl was clean and cake free. The rim top is very clean with no residual lava buildup in the rusticated finish. The inner edges of the bowl look good. The golden acrylic saddle stem cleaned up nicely. The surface had some light tooth marks but the button edge looked really good. I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. You can see that is clear and readable as noted above.I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts of the pipe to show the overall sized of the pipe. It is a great piece that combines the gold acrylic on the shank end cap and the stem with the rusticated finish on the bowl and shank.I started my work on the pipe by staining the areas on the rim top and rusticated finish were worn and faded. I used a Walnut stain pen to touch up the rim and around the top edge. The bowl looked very good so I did not need to do any further work on it. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm to deep clean the finish on the bowl and shank. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it in with my fingers and with a horse hair shoe brush to get it into the nooks and crannies of the deep rustication of the finish on the bowl and shank. I let it sit for about 20 minutes to let it do its magic. I buffed it with a soft cloth. The briar really began to have a rich shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I filled in the deep tooth marks with clear CA glue. I sanded the repaired tooth marks and chatter smooth with 220 grit. I started polishing the whole stem with 600 grit sandpaper until the sanding marks were gone. I touched up the mustache stamp on the stem with Rub’n Buff Antique Gold. I applied it with a toothpick working it into the stamp. There were places on the sides of the stamp that were faint. I buffed it off with a soft cotton pad. It looked better. I polished the stem on both sides using micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded the stem with the 1500-12000 grit pads, then wiped it down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After stem polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I put the Caminetto bowl and stem back together again and buffed them with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I used a soft touch on the rusticated bowl so as not to fill it in with the polishing product. I gave the bowl several coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem several coats of carnauba wax. I carefully buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I finished buffing with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe looks very good. The rustication is very tactile and feels great in the hand. It is comfortable and light weight. The finished Caminetto Business 185 Cavalier is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 7 inches, Height: 3 1/2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 63 grams/2.26 ounces. This great looking rusticated Caminetto turned out very well. It should be a great pipe. It will be going on the rebornpipes store in the Italian Pipe Makers Section shortly if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

 

Is it possible to give this Horribly Abused Stanwell 1986 POY Dublin New Life?

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I am working on was purchased on 11/14/2022 as part of a group of pipes from a fellow in Copenhagen, Denmark. This was a horribly tired and dirty pipe with a lot of wear and tear and obviously it had been someone’s favourite smoker. The pipe has an identifying plate on the left side of the shank that reads Stanwell [over] 1986. There was no other stamping on the shank and the silver plate confirmed for me that it was a Stanwell Pipe of the Year. The dirty sandblast finish on this was worn and tired looking. There were tars and oils ground into the surface of the briar. The silver band on the shank was an later addition to address a crack in the shank on the underside. one showed some nice grain around the bowl and shank and though it was a little dirty it was a nice looking pipe. The bowl had a thick cake that flowed over the top of the lightly crowned rim in a thick coat of a lava and showed potential damage on the top and the inner edge. The stem was a black vulcanite saddle stem with a silver Crown S on the left side of the saddle. It had some deep and wide tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. There was also some oxidation and calcification on both sides of the stem. For me the question was would it clean up well enough to make it worth doing a thorough restoration. Time would tell once it was cleaned up and I had a chance to look it over. Jeff took photos of the pipes before he started his clean up work.  He took photos of the rim and bowl to show the heavy cake and thick lava coat covering the rim top. It really was filthy and a mess. He also took photos of the stem surfaces to show its overall condition when it arrived. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowls show beautiful grain around the bowl and shank sides. The sandblast is nicely done and highlights the grain. The brown stain on the briar adds depth finish on the pipe and makes the grain really stand out. It shows some promise. He took a photo of the crack in the underside of the shank. It had been repaired before but the band had slipped off a bit and the crack had opened up. He also took a photo of the stamped silver plate on the left underside of the shanks. It reads as noted above. Jeff cleaned up the pipe for me. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned it up with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the exterior with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to clean off the grime off the finish and the heavy overflow of lava on the rim top. The cleaning had removed the thick coat on the rim top. He cleaned up the internals of the shank, mortise and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove all of the oils and tars in the pipe. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and was able to remove much of the oxidation, calcification. When it arrived here in Vancouver it was a clean pipe and I knew what I had to work with. I took photos of it before I started my part of the restoration. I took a photo of the rim top and the stem to show their condition once it arrived in Canada. Jeff was able to clean up the incredibly thick cake and the lava overflow that was shown in the rim and bowl photos above. The rim top showed damage on the surface and the inner edge of the bowl was in rough condition. It was chipped and out of round. He was also able to get rid of the grime and grit in the surface of the briar around the sandblast. The last photo of the three below shows the crack in the shank. The stem looked better, though there were deep tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. I took a photo of the stamping on the silver plate on the left side of the shank to show that it was readable and undamaged by the cleanup work.I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts to give a sense of what the pipe looks like.I started my work on the inner edge and rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to remove that damage on the rim top and bring the inner edge back into round. It looked much better. (I also filled in the remnants of the crack on the underside of the shank with clear CA glue to further strengthen the  previous repair. I forgot to take pictures of this step.)I started polishing the smooth rim top with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth. The crowned rim top began to take on a rich shine and grain was beginning to stand out. I wet sanded with all of the pads and wiped the bowl down after each pad with a soft cloth. I used an oak stain pen to touch up the stain on the rim top to match the other smooth portions of the bowl and shank.I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm to deep clean the finish on the bowl and shank. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it in with my fingers to get it into the briar. I used a horsehair shoe brush to work it into the sand blast. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I wiped it off and buffed it with a soft cloth. The briar really began to have a rich shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. It is a beautiful bowl. I polished the silver band and plaque on the side of the shank with a jewelers cloth to remove the slight remaining oxidation and to protect and preserve it. I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem at this point in the process. The stem sat straight in the shank but the fit was thicker on the right side of the shank rather than the left side. I would need to reduce the diameter of the stem on the right side to get a more centered fit. I sanded the side with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper to reduce the diameter on that side. At the same time I filled in the deep tooth marks with clear CA glue. I flattened the repairs with a small file. And sanded the smooth with 220 grit. I started polishing the whole stem with 600 grit sandpaper until the sanding marks were gone. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. I gave it a further polish with Before & After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I finished by wiping the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I put the stem back on the Stanwell Pipe of the Year 1986 Dublin Calabash pipe and took the pipe to the buffer. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish the briar and the acrylic. Blue Diamond does a great job on the smaller scratches that remain in both. I gave the bowl and the stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. Considering the mess the pipe was when we received it I am amazed at how well it turned out. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. This is a beautiful Stanwell POY 1986 – the vulcanite saddle stem and crowned rim top and sandblast finish combine to give the pipe a great look. The polished black, vulcanite stem looks really good with the rich browns standing out in the sandblast. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.34 ounces/38 grams. This is another pipe that I will be putting on the rebornpipes online store in the Danish Pipe Pipemaking Companies Section shortly, if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me on this beauty!

New Life for a Zettervig Pipes Virgin Bulldog with a filter saddle stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

Jeff and I purchased this pipe on 11/14/2022 from a fellow in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is high topped Bulldog with a diamond shank. The pipe is stamped on the left topside of the shank and reads Zettervig Pipes (the Z is large) [over] Virgin. The stem is stamped with a stylized Z (logo for Zettrvig). There is no other stamping on the shank in terms of shape numbers or the location where it was made. There was a moderate cake in the bowl and some darkening on the inner edge. The rim top looked very good. The stem looks and feels like acrylic and has a tenon made to hold a 9mm filter.  There were light tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. He took photos of the rim and bowl to give a sense of what he was dealing with. He also took photos of the stem surfaces to show the condition of the stem when it arrived. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show beautiful carving around the bowl and shank sides. The brown stain adds depth finish on the pipe. Even under the grime it is a unique piece. He also took photos of the etched name on the left side of shank. It reads as noted above. He also captured the Z stamp  on the left topside of the saddle stem.Before I started to work on the pipe I decided that I would look up some information on the Zettervig brand before I started the clean up on the pipe. I looked up information on two of my favourite sites. The first was Pipedia. Here is the link: https://pipedia.org/wiki/Zettervig. I quote in full:

In the 1960’s and into the early 1970’s Ole Zettervig had a shop in Copenhagen, Denmark where he was carving high quality pipes equal to Stanwell, Larsen, Anne Julie, Thurmann, Bang and others. These early pipes were marked “Copenhagen” and are very collectible. He sold his shop at some point in the 70’s and moved to Kolding and continued to produce pipes as a hobby, but the quality of briar and workmanship is said to not equal the early production. The later pipes he now marked as Kobenhaven rather than Copenhagen, and these were sold by Ole at flea markets throughout Europe.

I turned to Pipephil’s site and did a screen capture of the information that was there. There was no addition info but it did show one of the pipes (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-z.html). You can also see the style of the stem and the Z on the top of the stem. Jeff had thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the grime and calcification. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. The pipe looked very good when it arrived here in Vancouver. I took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show how clean the bowl and the rim top were. You can also see the damage on the rim top and inner edges of the bowl. I took photos of the stem surface to show the condition and tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. You can also see how the stem and shank to not fit well together in terms of diameter.I took a photo of the clear and readable stamping on the left side of the shank. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe parts. It is another unique piece. I decided to start my work on the pipe by addressing darkening on the inner edge and give it a slight bevel inward using 220 grit sandpaper. Doing that hid the damage on the inner edge of the bowl and blended it into the surface.Now it was time to polish the bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad to remove the grit. The bowl began to take on a rich shine. It is a beauty. I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the rings around the bowl and the bowl and shank to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I hand rubbed it with my fingers and worked it into the finish. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to polish it. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. I polished the stem 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 fitted the stem with a 9MM Dr Perl filter. It fit the shank perfectly and did not restrict the draw. I put the Zettervig Virgin Bulldog back together and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to lightly polish the stem. I buffed the bowl with a light touch so as not to get any of the buffing compounds in the grooves of the rustication. I buffed the stem to raise the gloss on the acrylic. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Zettervig Virgin well with the black of the acrylic stem. The polishing and the reworking of the stem material left this a beautiful and interesting looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside Diameter: 1 ¼ inches, Diameter of the chamber: ¾ inches. The weight of the pipe is 1.76 ounces/50 grams. This on will be joining the other Danish Made pipes in the Danish Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store. If you want to add it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me.

Restoring a Nicely Grained Stanwell Royal De Luxe 148 Canadian with internal bowl damage

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Blog by Steve Laug

It is a rainy Saturday for me here in Vancouver so I decided to work on another one that was purchased on 01/10/2023 in a lot of pipes that came to us from Copenhagen, Denmark. This is a oval shank Canadian with a smooth finish and a silver band on the shank. It is another Made in Denmark Stanwell. The smooth finish on this pipe, around the bowl and shank has a mix of grain highlighted by the reddish brown stain. The pipe is stamped on the underside of the shank near the stem/shank junction and reads STANWELL [over] Royal De Luxe [over] Made In Denmark. On the underside of the center of the shank it has the shape number 148 stamped. On the silver band there was a 925 stamp on the right side giving the quality of silver in the band. The pipe was a well used pipe when Jeff received it. There was dust and grime ground into the finish which was worn thin on the sides of the bowl. The mixture of brown stains highlights some beautiful grain under the dirt. The bowl was moderately caked and there was a light overflow of lava on the smooth rim top. The inner edge looked worn but okay. There was a trough on the bottom of the bowl that had been worn with repeated use of pipe cleaners. It was not terribly deep but bothersome looking and if left alone could further wear through the heel of the bowl. The saddle stem is vulcanite and was dirty, oxidized and had light tooth marks, chatter and scratches on both sides ahead of the button and on the button itself. There is a Silver Crown S logo inlaid on the topside of the saddle stem. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on it. He took photos of the bowl and rim top to show what they looked like before his clean up. You can see the scratches in the smooth rim top. The inner edge also shows some damage. He also took some of the stem to show the condition of both sides. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show the faded stain and the grain around the bowl and shank. The mixture of brown stains adds depth finish on the pipe. Even under the grime it is a real beauty. You can also see the swirls in the acrylic shank extension. The stamping on this one was around the bamboo horizontally and is shown in the photo below. It is clear and readable as noted above. The second photo shows the white stamped crown S on the stem side. Before I started my work on the pipe I wanted to see if I could find any information that would help me get a sense of the line. I turned to Pipephil to see if there was any listing on the Royal Deluxe Line (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-stanwell.html). There was nothing listed.

I then turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Stanwell) for more information. The article is great and gives a lot of history on the brand. There were also links to a shape article by Bas Stevens that I originally published on rebornpipes. I looked up the 148 shape number to see who had designed that shape (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Stanwell_Shape_Numbers_and_Designers). I quote the information on shape 148.

  1. Canadian, short saddle mouthpiece by Jess Chonowitsch.

Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the grime and calcification. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. The pipe looked very good when it arrived here in Vancouver. I took close up photos of the bowl, rim and the stem. You can see the damage on rim top and inner edge. The bowl is quite clean inside with trough worn into the bottom of the bowl visible in the photo below. The vulcanite saddle stem is in good condition with light tooth marks and some chatter as noted above. I took photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is faint but readable as noted. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to give a sense of the proportions of the pipe. The briar is quite beautiful and the dark and medium stains really make it stand out.I started my work on the pipe by dealing with the trough in the bottom of the bowl. I decided to use a mixture of Plaster of Paris and water to make a thick paste to fill in the trough in the bottom and up the front side of the bowl. I put a pipe cleaner in the airway to keep it from clogging. I applied the plaster in the bowl with a dental spatula, tamped it down with a tamper and cleaned up the sides and edges of the repair with folded pipe cleaners. While the Plaster repair cured, I worked on the damage to the inner edge and the rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to bring the edge back into round and smooth out the scratches on the top. By the end it looked much better.I wiped down the excess Plaster of Paris with qtips until all that remained was in the bottom and front of the bowl. I let the inside of the bowl repair cure. Once cured I would need to give it a slight bowl coating.I polished the bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad to remove the grit. The bowl began to take on a rich shine. It is a beauty. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips. I let it sit for 10 minutes and the Balm did its magic. It enlivens, cleans and preserves the briar. It certainly brought this bowl back to life. I buffed it off with a clean cloth and took the following photos. I coated the bowl with a mixture of sour cream and charcoal powder. The bowl coating is applied over the Plaster of Paris repair on the bottom of the bowl and the walls. I used a dental spatula to mix it up and put a pipe cleaner in the airway to keep it from clogging. I used a folded pipe cleaner to paint it on the bowl bottom and walls. Once finished I set it aside to dry. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished the stem 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. This Stanwell Royal De Luxe 148 Canadian with a vulcanite saddle stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The mix of stains once cleaned up really highlights the grain and the polished sandblast finish is stunning. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the 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 Stanwell Royal Deluxe 149 Canadian fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/8 inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 36 grams / 1.27 ounces. I will be adding the pipe to the Danish Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store. If you are interested in purchasing this pipe send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

Restoring a Nicely Grained Stanwell Buffalo 141 Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

It is a rainy Saturday for me here in Vancouver so I decided to work on another one that was purchased on 01/10/2023 in a lot of pipes that came to us from Copenhagen, Denmark. This is a tall billiard almost a tall Brandy with a smooth finish and a variegated yellow/gold shank extension. It is another Made in Denmark Stanwell. The smooth finish on this pipe, around the bowl and shank has a mix of grain highlighted by the reddish brown stain. The pipe is stamped on the underside of the shank near the stem/shank junction and reads STANWELL [over] Made in Denmark [over] Buffalo. On the left side of the shank it has the shape number 141 stamped. The pipe was a well used pipe when Jeff received it. There was dust and grime ground into the finish. The mixture of brown stains highlights some beautiful grain under the dirt. The bowl was lightly caked and there was a light overflow of lava on the smooth rim top. The inner edge looked quite good. It had been reamed recently before we received it and there were scrape marks around the bottom of the bowl. They not grooves but rather smooth clean briar scraped by a reamer. The stem is vulcanite and was dirty, oxidized and had light tooth marks, chatter and scratches on both sides ahead of the button and on the button itself. There is a white crown S logo stamped on the left side of the taper stem. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on it. He took photos of the bowl and rim top to show what they looked like before his clean up. You can see the scratches in the smooth rim top. The inner edge also shows some damage. He also took some of the stem to show the condition of both sides. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show the uniquely stained grain around the bowl and shank. The mixture of brown stains adds depth to the finish on the pipe. Even under the grime it is a real beauty. You can also see the swirls in the acrylic shank extension. The stamping on this one was around the bamboo horizontally and is shown in the photo below. It is clear and readable as noted above. The second photo shows the white stamped crown S on the stem side. Before I started my work on the pipe I wanted to see if I could find any information that would help me get a sense of the line. I turned to Pipephil to see if there was any listing on the Buffalo Line (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-stanwell.html). There was nothing listed.

I then turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Stanwell) for more information. The article is great and gives a lot of history on the brand. There were also links to a shape article by Bas Stevens that I originally published on rebornpipes. I looked up the 141 shape number to see who had designed that shape (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Stanwell_Shape_Numbers_and_Designers). I quote the information on shape 141.

  1. Billiard, medium size, conical bowl, full mouthpiece by Jess Chonowitsch.

I found a listing on Smokingpipes.com that had a description of the Buffalo line of pipes (https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/denmark/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=229371). I am including part of the description below.

A rather easy to spot Stanwell series, the pipes of the Buffalo line were distinguished by swirled pattern acrylic ferrules in colors reminiscent of water buffalo horn.

Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the grime and calcification. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. The pipe looked very good when it arrived here in Vancouver. I took close up photos of the bowl, rim and the stem. You can see the damage on rim top and inner edge. The bowl is quite clean inside with marks from a previous reaming on the bottom of the bowl. The acrylic stem is in good condition with light tooth marks and some chatter as noted above.I took photo of the stamping on the underside and right side of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to give a sense of the proportions of the pipe. The briar is quite beautiful and the dark and medium stains really make it stand out.I started my work on the pipe working on the damage to the inner edge and the rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to bring the edge back into round and it looked much better.I used a Cherry stain pen to touch up the sanded edges and top spots on the rim top where I sanded it smooth and removed the damaged. The colour was a perfect match to the remainder of the bowl and shank.I polished the bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad to remove the grit. The bowl began to take on a rich shine. It is a beauty. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips. I let it sit for 10 minutes and the Balm did its magic. It enlivens, cleans and preserves the briar. It certainly brought this bowl back to life. I buffed it off with a clean cloth and took the following photos. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished the stem 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. This Stanwell Buffalo 141 Billiard with a vulcanite taper stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The mix of stains once cleaned up really highlights the grain and the polished sandblast finish is stunning. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the 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 Stanwell Buffalo 141 Billiard fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 40 grams / 1.41 ounces. I will be adding the pipe to the Danish Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store. If you are interested in purchasing this pipe send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

Restoring a Stanwell Bamboo Brown Sandblast Billiard with a taper stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

This quiet day off for me here in Vancouver I decided to work on was another one that was purchased on 11/14/2022 in a lot of pipes that came to us from Copenhagen, Denmark  It included a group of Stanwell Bamboo pipes that are quite beautiful, combining a briar bowl, a bamboo shank and an vulcanite or acrylic stem. This is the last of the bamboo pipes and the second of the sandblast pipes that we had to work on. I have enjoyed working on these Bamboos  and the light weight feel of the pipe in hand. The rugged sandblast on this pipe, around the bowl and shank has a mix of ridges and valleys highlighted by dark stain. The pipe is stamped around the middle of the bamboo and reads STANWELL. The pipe was a well used pipe when Jeff received it. There was dust and grime ground into the sandblast finish. The mixture of brown stains highlights some beautiful blast under the dirt. The bowl was heavily caked and there was an overflow of lava on the smooth rim top. The inner edge was hard to see clearly and the lava could easily be hiding damage. The stem is vulcanite and was dirty, oxidized and had light tooth marks, chatter and scratches on both sides ahead of the button and on the button itself. There is a brass/gold crown S logo inlaid on the left side of the saddle stem. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on it. He took photos of the bowl and rim top to show what they looked like before his clean up. You can see the scratches in the smooth rim top. The inner edge also shows some damage. He also took some of the stem to show the condition of both sides. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show the uniquely stained grain around the bowl and shank. The mixture of black and brown stains adds depth finish on the pipe. Even under the grime it is a real beauty. He also took photos of the bamboo showing the patina on the wood. The stamping on this one was around the bamboo horizontally and is shown in the photo below. It is clear and readable as noted above. The second photo shows the gold crown S on the stem side.  Before I started my work on the pipe I wanted to see if I could find any information that would help me get a sense of the line. I turned to Pipephil to get a quick review of the  Bamboo line (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-stanwell.html). The Brass Crowned S inlaid logo on the stem is shown in the photo below. I have included a screen capture of the brand info there.I then turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Stanwell) for more information. The article is great and gives a lot of history on the brand. There were also links to catalogues at the bottom of the page. I am including a page from a catalogue on the site below that gives a bit of a glimpse into the brand. Here is the link (http://www.axeljeske.de/Pfeifen/Stanwell_Amager.pdf). The catalogue page gives a great description of the Bamboo line. It reads as follows: Top quality bowls perfectly fitted with porous bamboo shanks for casual elegance.

Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the grime and calcification. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. The pipe looked very good when it arrived here in Vancouver. I took close up photos of the bowl, rim and the stem. You can see the damage on rim top and inner edge. The bowl is quite clean inside. The acrylic stem is in good condition with light tooth marks and some chatter as noted above.I took photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank. It is readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to give a sense of the proportions of the pipe. Once again it has a stainless steel tenon. The sandblast is quite beautiful and the dark and medium stains really make it stand out.I started my work on the pipe working on the damage to the inner edge and the rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to bring the edge back into round and it looked much better.I polished the smooth rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each  pad to remove the grit. The bowl began to take on a rich shine. It is a beauty. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar and the bamboo with my finger tips. I let it sit for 10 minutes and the Balm did its magic. It enlivens, cleans and preserves the briar. It certainly brought this bowl back to life. I buffed it off with a clean cloth and took the following photos. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks on the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift them. I was able to lift the majority of them and filling the remnants of the marks with clear CA glue. I sanded out the repairs with 220 grit sandpaper and then started the polishing with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the stem 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. This Stanwell Bamboo Sandblast Billiard with a vulcanite taper stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The mix of stains once cleaned up really highlights the grain and the polished sandblast finish is stunning. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the 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 Stanwell Bamboo Sandblast Billiard fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 34 grams / 1.20 ounces. I will be adding the pipe to the Danish Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store. If you are interested in purchasing this pipe send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.