Tag Archives: contrast staining

Restoring a Conway Aristocrat Made in England Bulldog

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by Steve Laug

I picked some older pipes to work on next. The next of these is a Classic, Smooth Straight Bulldog with a Saddle Stem. We purchased this one on 09/20/2023 from a seller in Portland, Oregon, USA. The is a large straight Bulldog that is stamped on the top left side of the shank and reads Conway [over] Aristocrat. On the left side it is stamped Made in England. On the top left side of the saddle stem the Circle C logo of Conway was stamped. The pipe was well used. The finish was dirty with dust and debris in the smooth briar and in the twin rings around the rim cap. The bowl had a thick cake in it and heavy lava on the rim top and the inner edge. There was some damage on the left back of the rim top and om the bevelled inner edge of the bowl. The vulcanite stem was oxidized, calcified and had some tooth marks on the surface ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. He took some closer photos of the rim top and bowl to show the condition. You can see the thick cake in the bowl and the lava on the rim top and inner edge. You can see the chip on the outer edge at the back of the rim top. It is hard to know for certain but it looks like there is some roughening on the back inner edge. He also took photos of the stem to show its condition. You can see the oxidation, calcification and tooth marks and chatter. Jeff took some photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the condition of the finish on the bowl. The twin rings and bowl cap are quite well done and you can see the nicks and damage in the briar. He captured the stamping on the left top and right top side of the diamond shank. It is faint in spots but reads as noted above. It is interesting to note the nicks on the shank. The circle C logo stamped on the left side of the saddle stem is faded but the stamp is quite deep. I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c6.html) to see what I could find out on the brand. I did a screen capture of the section on the site on the Conway label. It is a pipe that bears the same stamping as the one in hand here other than the shape number. I also copied the sidebar information below the screen capture.Conway pipes were most probably made by Singleton & Cole. If the pipe is stamped with a shape number this probability almost becomes a certitude. According to Wilczak & Colwell (op. cit.) Loewe had a line named Conway.

I turned to a link on Pipedia hoping for more information (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Conway). Sadly the only information was a mention of the information on Pipephil’s site. There were some amazing photos of the brand on the site. There was one that included an unsmoked Apple with a box and pipe sock as well as a brochure. The interesting point is that it was also an Aristocrat.Armed with that information that pipe was probably made by Singleton & Cole in London, England. I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had cleaned up the pipe and it looked very good. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of it 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, shank brushes and pipe cleaners. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration work. The rim top cleaned up really well. The rim top had some damage on the back left side of the top. The outer edge of the bowl look very good. The inner bevelled edge was clean but had some darkening all around the bowl. The stem surface was clean but the oxidation was still visible and calcification was gone. Overall it looked very good with a few tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button.The stamping on top left side of the shank and the top right side is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above. It is faint in spots but still clear. The logo on the left topside of the saddle is also clear. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. The wide taper stem is nice and the photo shows the proportions of the pipe. I used a wooden half sphere and a piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the rim top and the bevel on the bowl. Once finished the inner edge looked better. I then topped the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damage to the left side of the rim top. I took a photo of the top after this part of the work as well.I washed the bowl with cotton pads and acetone to remove some of the opaqueness of the stain. Once I washed it down it looked much better. The grain really stood out and I was able to add a bit of colour to the sanded rim top. I touched up the stain on the rim top with a Walnut stain pen to match the rest of the bowl colour. It matched well and once it was polished and buffed it would be perfect.I sanded the bowl and shank with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad to remove the debris. The pipe was beginning to look much better. I polished the smooth briar around outside of the bowl and the rim top with micromesh sanding pads. I sanded it with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to get it into the rings and rustication. It works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The grain and the rustication came alive. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks with the flame of a lighter to lift them (forgot to take photos). The heat did a great job lifting all of them. The marks and chatter that remained I filled in with black CA glue strengthened with carbon and rubber. Once cured I flattened them with a file and blended them into the surface by sanding with 220 grit sandpaper. I touched up the Circle C logo on the left side of the stem with white acrylic nail polish. Once it cured I scraped off the excess and polished the stem.I polished the roughness, scratch marks and smoothed the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It removes the dust and also gives the sanding pads some bite. By the final pad it was looking quite good.I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. This Conway Aristocrat Straight Bulldog is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The style of rustication that is used around the bowl is quite beautiful and works well with both the shape and the polished vulcanite taper stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel and followed by buffing the pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Conway Aristocrat Bulldog 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 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 47 grams/1.66 ounces. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipemakers Section shortly. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your collection send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. I appreciate your support and time!

A Large Sandblast Lorenzo Ravenna Studio 826 Italy Lovat Style Stack

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by Steve Laug

We picked some older pipes to work on next. The second of these is a Lorenzo larger Lovat Stack with the light sandblast and polished finish. We purchased this one on 01/22/2024 from Jordan, Minnesota, USA as part of a lot on eBay. Just one more piece of evidence that, contrary to my own opinion, there are still some good finds at good prices to be found on that site. The pipe is a tall, large Lovat that is stamped on a smooth band on the underside of the shank and reads Lorenzo [over] Ravenna followed by Studio [over] 826 followed by Italy. The pipe was well used. The finish was dirty with dust and debris in the sandblast. The bowl had a thick cake in it and some lava on the rim top and the inner edge. There was also some roughening to the inner edge of the bowl. The vulcanite saddle stem was oxidized and had some tooth marks on the surface ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work.  He took some closer photos of the rim top and bowl to show the condition. You can see the thick cake in the bowl and the debris on the rim top and lava on the inner edge. It is hard to know for certain but it looks like there is some roughening on the back inner edge. He also took photos of the stem to show its condition. You can see the oxidation, calcification and tooth marks. Jeff took some photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the sandblast and the condition of the finish around the bowl and shank. It is a great looking pipe. He captured the stamping on the underside of shank. It reads a noted above. It is interesting to the length of the stamping on the smooth panel. There is also the stylized cursive L on the top of the saddle stem. I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-l6.html) to have a look at what was there on the Lorenzo brand. I did a screen capture and included the side bar info below.Brand created in 1946. In 1969 Lorenzo Tagliabue began to manage the company and ran it until 1987. After the death of L. Tagliabue, Riccardo Aliverti bought the brands rights in 1988. His son Massimo Aliverti succeeded him as manager in 1991.

From there I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Lorenzo) to read the details on the brand. It is quite interesting to read about. I have actually spent time in Varese so it is fascinating to see that location noted below. I included a portion of that article below.

Following Rossi (1886 in Barasso) and Ceresa (1897 in Cassano Magnano) the third pipe manufacture in the Lombardian province of Varese was established in 1900 in the picturesque city of Gallarate by two brothers. Fratelli Lana (Lana Bros.) produced briar pipes for the Italian market under their own brand name.

In 1922 Fratelli Lana went into a close co-operation with the merchant’s family Tagliabue from Milano. Sales outside of Italy began immediately and the demand throughout Europe steadily increased. By 1939 the manufacture had grown to factory size with 120 persons employed – a considerable number for the time. The program remained unchanged for decades: cheap, unpretentious budget pipes for the mass markets. Most of them didn’t even have any stampings besides “Genuine Bruyere” or similar. A large share of the production emerged as fabrications for other firms so that an own style of the Lana pipes was hardly recognizable.

After WW II the world of the briar pipe wasn’t the same anymore and especially Italian firms suffered from the ravages. In 1946 Tagliabue took over Fratelli Lana and changed the name to Manufattura di Pipe Tagliabue. Shortly before 1950 Lorenzo Tagliabue became in charge of the company’s management. He had closely studied the first successful steps of the newly established Italian brands like Castello and Brebbia and began to design new models of his own in an unmistakable style. Simultaneously the previous segment of the cheap, cheaper, cheapest bulk pipes was left and pipes reflecting to more elevated standards were produced.

From 1969 on Lorenzo Tagliabue changed the brand’s name to Lorenzo Pipes. The reason currently quoted is another pipemaking firm named Tagliabue.

The newly issued Lorenzos mostly showed extremely strong forms in designs appealing greatly and massively. Thick, “beefy” walls of the bowls and broad and strong stems were significant for them. As contemporary ads said, these pipes were “Made for real men with strong hands”. Many had a flattened bottom to sit on the table. Next to the unusual shapes, the patina effect of the silk mat surface combined with a bold red or a bright orange staining gave the pipes their distinctive look. The most successful model was a big Oom Paul that was executed in numerous variations…

…In 1983 Lorenzo Tagliabue came to bitter grief: his little daughter, the only child, died of cancer. He lost all interest in the business and retired still in 1983, leaving no heirs who wished to continue the business. Lorenzo Pipes was licensed for and continued for a shorter period by Comoy’s of London (Cadogan / Oppenheimer Group). Then Lorenzo Pipes almost disappeared and Lorenzo Tagliabue passed away in 1987.

But this wasn’t the end. In 1988 Riccardo Aliverti and his wife Gabriella purchased all rights to the Lorenzo trademark from the Tagliabue family and production of the renown Lorenzo Pipes resumed.

The Aliverti family is involved in pipemaking since Romolo Aliverti, the father of the current owners, joined the Lana Brothers in 1920. He later reached the rank of technical director. No wonder that his son Riccardo showed an interest in pipe making. Riccardo began learning the pipemaking trade in 1954 at the age of fourteen under his father’s watchful eyes and succeeded him as technical director upon his father’s retirement in 1973.

Today the third generation of the Aliverti family is working for the company. Massimo Aliverti, Riccardo’s son, has been with the company as sales director since 1991. He works closely with his father and knows all phases of production. Massimo has established a broad customer base for Lorenzo around the world.

As far as the informations are reliable, Lorenzo’s better lines (One Star, Two Star, Three Star, Moscato, Spumante and the Grand Canadian) are made in Italy while the cheaper ones (New Era – Riesling, New Era – Poggio, Angera, Angera Satinato, Cadry, Churchwarden, Filtro, Arena, Cadore, Sport PS and Garden) are made in Albania by Tomori to benefit from the rich deposit of briar in Albania.

Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe itself.  Jeff had cleaned up the pipe and it looked very good. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of it 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, shank brushes and pipe cleaners. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration work. The rim top cleaned up really well. The rim top and outer edge of the bowl look very good. The inner edge has some damage. The stem surface was rough but the oxidation was lessened and calcification was gone. Overall it looked very good with a few light tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button.The stamping on and underside of the shank is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above. The saddle stem is also stamped with the Lorenzo L logo on the top. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. I cleaned up the inner edge of the bowl with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage. Once I had smoothed out the edge the bowl was ready. I worked over the sandblast rim top with a brass bristle wire brush to work out the debris. It looked better when finished. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to get it into the depths of the sandblast. It works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The sandblast took on depth and the pipe came alive. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. The overall look of the stem was clean. I decided to touch up the L stamp on the top of the saddle portion of the stem. I used a folded pipe cleaner to work some Rub’n Buff Antique Gold into the stamp and then buffed it off with a soft cloth. It came out looking good.I started polishing the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It removes the dust and also gives the sanding pads some bite. By the final pad it was looking quite good.I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. This Lorenzo Ravenna Studio 826 Tall Sandblast Lovat is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The shallow sandblast that is used around the bowl is quite beautiful and works well with both the shape and the polished vulcanite saddle stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel and followed by buffing the pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Lorenzo Ravenna Studio 826 Lovat 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 ¾ inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 52 grams/1.87 ounces. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Italian Pipemakers Section shortly. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your collection send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. I appreciate your support and time!

A Gold Star Diplomat 9486 from my Grandfather

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by Kenneth Lieblich

This pipe has a bit of a story to it. Every once in a while, I pull out a pipe from my late grandfather and clean it up. The pipe today is a charming hexagonal panelled billiard, with a square shank, and a straight square stem. I do not know where my grandfather acquired it (or under what circumstances), so I asked my father but he didn’t know either. It doesn’t really seem like the sort of pipe he would have selected, so I wonder if it was given to him. After my grandfather died, his pipes ended up wrapped in newspaper, in a cardboard box, in a basement – as so many grandfather’s pipes do. In this case, it was the basement of my parents’ home. About fifteen years ago, my parents had a small flood and this box (along with several others) got wet and stayed wet for a long time. This had ramifications… The pipe’s markings on the left side of the shank read Gold Star [over] Diplomat. On the right side, they read London England [over] 9486. Also, on the stem, there is a star enclosing the letters GS.Very little information turned up about the brand, Gold Star. Nothing from Pipedia. Over at Pipephil, they had the following:This suggested to me that the pipe was a Sasieni sub-brand. Crucially, however, Pipephil also included this line:

The pipes temporarily gathered under the “Gold Star” label obviously aren’t from the same maker.

This was important to me, because the shape number, 9486, didn’t seem to correspond to anything that Sasieni made. So, I did some sleuthing and figured out that, in fact, the name Gold Star was also produced by GBD. This did fit, and I found some examples of GBD 9486 online, including this one (among others) from Iwan Ries’ website:Clearly, my grandfather’s pipe was one of these and I can confirm that both Sasieni and GBD (at least) made the Gold Star name. I am pleased to say that this post has added that small tidbit to the collective knowledge of pipe making in the twentieth century.

Anyway, on to the pipe – and this poor pipe had some issues. Sitting in moist newspaper for as long as it did had some very negative effects. I don’t remember the crack on the shank being there in the past and I wonder if the water induced stresses in the wood that caused the crack. There were other small fissures in the bowl, I don’t think they were flood-related. Another problem related to the water was the colour of the wood – any staining this pipe had was long gone. Finally, as I was examining the pipe, I didn’t realize it in the moment, but the yellow stem would prove to be the biggest problem of them all. The effect of water on vulcanite stems is well known, but stems don’t normally sit in water for an extended period of time. Aside from the above, the stummel had the following problems: lava on the rim, charring to the rim, some cake in the bowl, and a few substantial fills. Meanwhile, the stem had its own set of problems (besides its colour): tooth marks and scratches, and a filthy stinger. The stinger was first on my list. It went for a soak in some lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. I let it set for several hours and then cleaned it off and it looked much improved. I then finished it with some 0000-grit steel wool and moved on.I wiped down the outside of the stem with oil soap on some cotton pads. That did next to nothing. I took my BIC lighter and painted the stem with its flame. This helped a bit, but not much. Then, I cleaned out the insides with pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol.Now it was time to remove the horrific yellow on the stem. I used some cream cleanser on the outside to remove the oxidation. I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. Then, the stem went for an overnight soak in the Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. The following day, I cleaned the de-oxidizing mess off with alcohol, pipe cleaners, et cetera. I scrubbed again with cream cleanser on some cotton pads to remove the leftover oxidation. This worked only so well. I put the stem down, thought about it for a while, and decided to repeat that entire procedure: scrub with cream cleanser, soak overnight, and scrub with cream cleanser. This made the stem so much better than before, but still not great. Steve reminded me of an additional technique to try: soaking in Oxyclean. Again, this helped a bit, but it was just not going to be enough. This stem was definitely improved, but would always show the signs of its time in the water.I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) on the stem to make it look as good as possible. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing.On to the stummel. I used the KleenReem to remove the built-up cake, and followed that with 220-grit sandpaper to remove as much as I could. I wanted to take the bowl down to bare briar to ensure there were no hidden flaws in the walls of the bowl. Fortunately, there were none. I then proceeded to clean out the insides of the shank with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners, and isopropyl alcohol. There was quite a bit of filth inside this stummel – it took many pipe cleaners et cetera to clean it out.I decided that a de-ghosting session would be a good idea. I thrust cotton balls into the bowl and the shank and saturated them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummel sit overnight. This caused the oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton. I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some Castile soap and tube brushes. I then moved on to cleaning the outside of the stummel with oil soap and some cotton pads. That removed any remaining dirt. The bowl was nice and clean after this. Having completed that, I was able to address the crack on the shank and the nicks on the bowl. This took some careful work. I filled the crack and the tiny divots with cyanoacrylate adhesive then let them cure. Now, with the nicks and crack filled, it was time to sand down the stummel. I used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to sand everything smooth. Much improved. I felt that this pipe really needed a bit of colour – it had lost it during the flood. However, I only wanted a light stain. So I made a very dilute mixture of leather dye and alcohol. This didn’t really work well, so, instead, I simply put a drop (literally) at a time on my dauber and gently coated the wood with theat. I flamed it with my Bic lighter and let it sit overnight. Upon the morrow, I used isopropyl alcohol to wipe down the pipe and remove excess stain. I am very happy with the results.After that, a light application of Before & After Restoration Balm brought out the best in the stummel’s grain. What a difference that made! Then it was off for a trip to the buffer. A dose of White Diamond and a few coats of carnauba wax were just what this pipe needed. The lovely shine made the wood look great. This Gold Star Diplomat 9486 panelled billiard has an elegant feel to it. It took a lot of work – and the results were not exactly what I had hoped for – but I am proud of it and the final product is (hopefully) worthy of my beloved grandfather’s memory. Obviously, this is one pipe that I am keeping for myself and adding to my collection. I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe as much I as I did restoring it. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 5⅛ in. (130 mm); height 1½ in. (39 mm); bowl diameter 1¼ in. (32 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (19 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1 oz. (31 g). If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Restoring a Rare Preben Holm Private Collection Circle B Hand Made in Denmark Freehand

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by Steve Laug

This particular Freehand pipe was purchased from an auction seller in Sylacauga, Alabama, USA on 04/08/2024. It really is a very Preben Holm style Freehand pipe that is almost flower like in its shape. It has a twisted shank and a twisted vulcanite shank extension. It is stamped on a heel of the bowl and the lower backside of the bowl and reads Preben Holm on the bottom edge at the back of the bowl. On the heel it is stamped Private [over] Collection [over] B enclosed in a circle [over] Hand Made [over]In [over] Denmark. The smooth floral shaped pipe is dirty but the grime does not hide the beautiful looking combination around the bowl and shank. The stain is a black understain that brings out the grain highlighted by a top coat of walnut stain. The pipe had a moderate cake in the bowl and a thick lava overflow on the backside of the smooth rim top and inner edge of the bowl. There was grime ground into the smooth and sandblast finish and dust and debris in the valleys and turns on the flower petal shaped carving around the bowl and the shank end. The top edge of the petal on the left front of the bowl had a chip. There was also a darkened spot mid bowl on the right mid bowl toward the back of the bowl. The fancy vulcanite saddle stem and the vulcanite shank extension were oxidized. Added to that the stem surface was also calcified and had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. The pipe must have been a great smoker judging from the condition it came it. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his work on it. Jeff took photos of the rim top and the stem to show the condition of the pipe when we received it. You can see the moderate cake in the bowl and the lava on the rim top and inner edge of the bowl. The turned and twisted vulcanite shank extension and stem were dirty and had light chatter and tooth marks on both sides near the button. He took photos of the sides of the bowl and the heel to give an idea of the shape and the condition of the briar around the bowl. You can see the chip on the top of the front flower petal in the first photo. You can also see the darkened spots on the right side of the bowl in the second photo. It really is a nicely shaped pipe that has the classic look of a Freehand carved by Preben Holm.The next photos Jeff took shows the stamping on the back side of the bowl and the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took the stem off the shank and took a photo to give a sense of the proportion of the pipe.
I had vague memories about the Private Collection line being a unique and special line of pipes made by Preben Holm but I had no idea what it meant and how it came to be so designated. It would take a bit of digging to ferret our that information on the web. I turned first to Pipephil’s site and there was an additional page on the Private Collection line that gave me a lot of detailed information on the line (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/infos/prebenholm-pc1.html). I quote the extra page in full below with the inserted graphics.

The “Private Collection” pipes are Preben Holm’s most coveted pieces. They were crafted by the artisan himself from the late 1970’s to the end of his career in 1986.

The stampings on the shanks are always displayed in the same order (see right). Information in white is systematically stamped, the one in grey is optional.

“Additional stampings” may sometimes occur under the carver’s name (ie: “Traditional”, “Fancy”, “9m/m”, …)

The “C5” stamping appears on pipes distributed in the USA by CAO who took over distribution from Lane Ltd. in 1985. This distinguishing stamping was to avoid warranty issues with pipes that were not of CAO’s distribution.

Gradings: The early Private Collection series were graded with 4 letters (ascending): A, B, C and D. Those letters may be encircled (older markings) or not.

Later, a “x0x” 5 tiers grading system was introduced (ascending): 101, 202, 404, 606 and 808. Letter and x0x systems may coexist on the same pipe.

Signature stem logo

Nearly all pipes of Preben Holm’s Private Collection sport the carver’s signature on their stem. It may sometimes be worn and in a very few cases it may be missing (replacement stem?). But Preben Holm’s logos with the PH initials do not originally occur on Private Collection pipes.

So now I knew that the pipe was a part of the unique Private Collection that were crafted by Preben Holm himself. I learned that the pipe was made between the late 1970s and the end of his career in 1986. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had cleaned up the pipe following his normal cleaning process. In short, he cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife.  He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He worked over the lava and debris on the plateau rim top and shank end and was able to remove it. 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 stem with Soft Scrub and cotton pads to remove the debris and oils on the stem. He rinsed it with warm water and dried it off. I took photos of the pipe once I received it. You can see the burn marks on the right side of the bowl. It is very visible in the second photo below at midbowl. The one toward the back of the bowl had a very fine micro crack in the bowl. The second one was just darkened not damaged. The stem was still oxidized in the grooves after Jeff’s work but it was definitely better. The pipe really looked good. I took close up photos of the stem and the rim top to show both how clean they were and what needed to be addressed with both. The rim top and bowl still had some darkening and what looked like some hard lava in the plateau inner edge. The stem looked better and the tooth marks and chatter though light were still present. I would need to remove those to bring the stem back.I took photos of the stamping on the back bottom of the bowl and the heel of the bowl. You can see from the photos that it is clear and readable. I removed the stem from the bowl and took a photo of the parts to give a sense of the beauty of the pipe.I started my work on the pipe by using clear CA glue to fill in the burn areas on the bowl. The one toward the back of the bowl had a tiny micro crack in it. The one toward to front of the bowl was merely darkened. I shined a light in the inside of the bowl and checked it out for burn damage or cracks in the bowl sides. That would help explain if there were flaws on the inside or potential burn out or pointed to that potential in the bowl. Thankfully there was not any burn damage on the inside of the bowl. There were no burned areas behind the damage on the outside of the bowl. Once the glue cured on the bowl side I sanded it smooth with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper.I scrubbed the oxidized vulcanite shank extension with Soft Scrub on cotton pads. I was able to remove a lot of the oxidation with the product but there was still work to do on it.I sanded the bowl sides, reshaped the chipped petal edge on the left front outer edge and sanded the vulcanite extension with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. It worked very well. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad to get a sense of the progress in the process. To minimize the burn marks on the side I decided to stain the bowl with a Cordovan stain. I applied it with a wool dauber, flamed it with a lighter and repeated until I was happy with the coverage around the bowl and rim. Once the stain had cured I wiped the bowl down with cotton pads and acetone to make the stain on the bowl more transparent. It looked better but sanding and buffing would take off the remainder and leave it like I was aiming for. I set aside for the evening. In the morning I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond to work toward more transparency in the stain coat. I wanted to see grain showing through but still disguise the burn marks a bit. It worked. I then sanded it with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down after each pad with a damp cloth. I finished by another trip to the buffer and finally I had it where I wanted it! Note: the stamping is untouched. I carefully avoided both buffing and sanding it. The stamp is on a curve so it is out of focus. I rubbed down the briar Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface with my fingertips. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 15 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention stem. I scrubbed the surface of the stem with Soft Scrub cleanser to begin to break through the remaining oxidation on the stem.I sanded out the scratches in the horn with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. It started to take on a deep shine.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads to remove them. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. I am really happy with the way that this Preben Holm Private Collection Circle B Hand Made in Denmark Freehand turned out. It really is a beautiful looking pipe with a great shape and smooth finished bowl and rim and vulcanite shank end. The fancy original acrylic saddle stem is really nice. The black vulcanite colour of the stem works well with the briar. The briar really came alive with the buffing. The rich cordovan and brown stains of the finish gave the pipe a sense of depth with the polishing and waxing. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Preben Holm Private Collection B Grade really is a beauty and feels great in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 7 inches, Height: 3 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 2 inches long x 2 inches wide, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 48 grams/1.76 ounces. In all my years of working on pipes I have never seen a Preben Holm Private Collection pipe and this one is a beauty. I intend to hold onto it for my own enjoyment. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on!

Getting Creative with this Weber Golden Walnut Imported Briar Apple

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by Steve Laug

The next bowl on the table is a classic shaped Apple. It has been sitting here and I have looked at it over and over again and today I decided to restem it. I wanted to try something a little different with this restem and see if I could come up with an interesting restem. I think when you see it you will either love it or hate it! But there you go. Here is what I did! I cleaned up the bowl and matched a stem with briar bowl. It is a cleanup and restore and is a break from my work on the Freehand pipes. The bowl is dirty and somewhere in its life before it came to us the stem was lost. The finish was coated with varnish that left it shiny even under the grime. It showed promise under the grit and grime of the years. It was stamped on the left side of the shank and read Weber in an oval [over] Golden Walnut. The right side of the shank it is stamped Imported Briar. The bowl had a thick cake and a thick lava overflow on the rim top. There was some lava and tars coming down the bowl sides from the top. It is a pretty pipe with some great grain under the grime. I am hoping to match a nice stem to it. I took some photos of the bowl before I started my work on it. I took a close up photo of the rim top and bowl to give more of a sense of what I see and noted above. It is a dirty pipe but seems to have no damage on the rim top or edges.I took a photo of the snapped tenon in the shank end. The end of the tenon is quite smooth so it was a clean snap. I will need to pull it before I can fit a new stem to it.I took a photo of the stamping on the left and right side of the shank. The stamping looks blurry and double stamped in the photos but in person it is clear and readable. Recently I picked up some unused acrylic stems. There was an acrylic amber/orange variegated saddle stem in the lot. It was drilled for a new tenon and was clean. This stem had a close diameter to the shank end of the Weber and would work well I think.I put the bowl in the freezer for 30 minutes then used a drywall screw to pull out the broken tenon. I screwed it into the tenon and wiggled it free from the shank. I used the tenon piece to fit a new tenon in the shank end.I fit the new tenon in the shank end and it was a little tight. I used a Dremel and sanding drum to reduce the diameter just enough for a snug fit. I painted the threaded tenon with black CA glue and turned it into the end of the new stem. The fit was good. I set it aside and let the glue cure. I put it in the shank and the fit against the shank end was slightly off. I used a file to make the transition between the shank and the saddle portion of the stem very smooth. I liked the look of the variegated orange acrylic stem with the browns of the briar bowl. I cleaned up the file marks on the shank and avoided the stamping on both sides with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. Once finished the transition and both the briar and the acrylic were smooth. I set aside the stem and turned my attention to reaming the pipe. I used a PipNet Reamer with the first and second cutting heads to take back the heavy cake to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and finally sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. I like to remove all the cake to examine the walls for damage and checking. Great news is that this one is free of any damage. With the bowl reamed it was time to work on the rim top. The lava was hard and thick. I started the process with a topping board and 220 grit sandpaper. Once I had smoothed off the top outer edges it was clear that the inner edge of the rim top was slightly bevelled inward. I used a wooden half sphere and 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the bevel and remove the damage to that portion of the rim top and edges. I cleaned up a few spots with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. To remove the shiny varnish coat on the bowl and to use the stain on the bowl to colour the rim top and sanded shank end I wiped the bowl and shank down with acetone. I used cotton pads with the acetone and was able to easily remove the varnish and move some of the stain to the sanded portions of the shank and rim. I would need to restain but it definitely looked much better. I matched the stain on the bowl and shank with a Maple Stain Pen. I put it on the smooth sanded rim top and shank end. I wanted it to start matched before I started sanding the bowl and shank with sanding pads. I was very happy with the match. I worked on polishing out the sanding marks with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I worked particularly on the transition between the shank and the stem surface. I also worked over the briar of the bowl and rim top at the same time. The bowl and stem looked very good once I finished. I took the stem off the shank and turned to the bowl first. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. After each sanding pad I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris and dust. It began to take on a deep shine. I rubbed down the briar Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface with my fingertips. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 15 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads to remove them. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. This is another pipe that I am really happy about the finished restoration. This reborn Weber Golden Walnut with a newly fitted golden acrylic variegated stem turned out really well to my eye. After restemming I think that it is unique and beautiful looking classic apple with a twist. The bowl is a classic Bent Billiard and the “new” horn stem is a great match. The polished horn stem works well with the briar and the nickel ferrule. The briar really came alive with the buffing. The rich reddish brown stains of the finish make the grain really pop with the polishing and waxing. I put the stem back on the bowl and 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. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Weber Golden Walnut Apple really has a unique beauty and feels great in the hand. It looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 45 grams/1.62 ounces. The pipe will be going on the rebornpipes store soon. It will be in the American Pipemakers Section if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on!

Cleaning up and Restemming a Sandy London Made Sandblast Billiard

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by Steve Laug

Once again, I dipped into my box of bowls to restem and came out with this interesting sandblast straight billiard. It is stained with a rich combination of brown stains that highlight the highs and lows of the blast. The finish is scratched and dirty but still interesting. The pipe is stamped on a smooth panel on the underside of the shank and reads 2 [followed by] Sandy [over] London Made. The bowl has a thick cake with some lava overflow on the rim top. There is something interesting about this little billiard bowl that makes me choose it next. Here are some photos for you to have a look. I took a close up photo of the rim top and bowl to give a sense of the thickness of the cake and the lava in the sandblast on the rim. It was a mess but obviously a well loved pipe. I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. There is a numeral 2 toward the heel of the bowl and the rest is centered in the shank in two lines as noted above.I took a photo of the stem I had chosen for the pipe next to the bowl so you can see the overall look of the stem and shank. It is slightly larger in diameter than the shank so that will need to be adjusted. The tenon is also slightly larger.I used a flat needle file to reduce the diameter of the tenon so that it would fit the shank of the pipe. It did not take too much to do and once it was removed it looked very good.I heated the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter to soften the vulcanite. Once it was soft enough I was able to straighten the stem to the angle that I wanted.I fit the stem to the shank and used a rasp to reduce the diameter of the stem. I wanted it to be a smooth transition from the shank to the stem. It was looking much better. I sanded the reduced stem diameter with 200 grit sandpaper to remove the file marks and smooth out the scratches. The transition began to really look good and it was smooth to the touch.I sanded out the scratches in the vulcanite with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. It started to take on a deep shine.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads to remove them. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. I turned my attention to the bowl. I used a PipNet Reamer with the first and second cutting heads to take back the heavy cake to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and finally sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. I like to remove all the cake to examine the walls for damage and checking. Great news is that this one is free of any damage! I used a brass bristle wire brush to work over the sandblast rim top and edges. The inner edge and the top looked to be undamaged.I used alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to clean out the internals of the shank and the new stem. Once finished the pipe smelled as clean as it looked.I scrubbed the bowl with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the debris from the sandblast finish. I rinsed the bowl off with warm running water and dried it with a soft towel. It looked much better at this point. I restained the faded spots on the bowl sides and heel with a Mahogany and a Cherry stain pen to blend the colours into the sandblast finish. It looked much better at this point. I rubbed down the briar Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface with my fingertips. I used a shoe brush to work the balm into crevices of the sandblast. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 15 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm. This is another pipe that I am really happy about the finished restoration. This reborn Sandy 2 London Made Sandblast Billiard turned out really well. I used a vulcanite stem I had here to fit the pipe with a new stem. After restemming I think that it really is a great looking pipe with a great shape and grain. The bowl is a classic English Billiard that looks excellent with the new vulcanite stem. The polished black of the stem works well with the briar. The briar really came alive with the buffing. The rich brown and mahogany stains of the finish make the blast really pop with the polishing and waxing. I put the stem back on the bowl and 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. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Sandy 2 London Made Billiard really has a unique beauty and feels great in the hand. It looks very good. 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 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 28 grams/.99 ounces. The pipe will be going on the rebornpipes store soon. It will be in the British Pipemakers Section if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on!

Having Fun Restoring Four Charming Pipes

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by Kenneth Lieblich

A great customer of mine recently sent me some pipes for repair and restoration. I was happy to help out and the pipes were sent to me post-haste. There were some surprises to be discovered and challenges to be overcome. On this occasion, I did something different than I usually do: I restored all four at once, rather than one at a time. This blog is more of a show-and-tell than my usual restoration stories. This blog post is going to give a good overview of the restorations but doesn’t need to provide detail on each individual pipe. Let’s jump right in and see what we’ve got.First is a Comoy’s Castleton 126 large straight pot. Second is a Savinelli Oscar 622KS Lucite king size bent pot. Third is a GBD London Made 1978 bent Dublin. Fourth is a Peterson Sherlock Holmes Watson P-lip. All four are very attractive and I’m sure will be good smokers. A first glace at them all suggests that everything is fine, but things are not always what they seem… As I was inspecting the Comoy, I noticed, to my chagrin, that the shank was completely snapped. Someone had glued it back together, but it wasn’t well done and I was going to have to redo it. Similarly, when I dug deeper into the Savinelli, I noticed that there was a lot of damage to the inside of the bowl. That’s a problem! But I’ve got a solution. Fortunately, the GBD and Peterson didn’t have any major issues. That was good news. With all four stems, I wiped down the outside with some oil soap on some cotton rounds. Naturally, the insides needed to be cleaned too, and I did that with some pipe cleaners and 99% isopropyl alcohol. Two of the stems were vulcanite and two were acrylic, so I only needed to soak the vulcanite stems in the deoxidizing liquid. When they were done, I wiped them down with some cleanser on cotton rounds. After that, I sanded all four stems with my Micromesh pads – and I used the pipe stem oil towards the end of the sanding. They all looked so much better when I was done. Next step, of course, was removing all the cake from inside the bowls. I took out my PipNet reamer and my KleenReem and went to work. There was plenty of filth inside and it took a little while to get it all out of four bowls. I followed that up by sanding the insides with a piece of 220-grit sandpaper on a wooden dowel. I also gently scaped down the bowl rims in order to remove any lava there. Working through these pipes reminded me that most of my cleaning techniques for these pipes came from Steve and his brother, Jeff. They personify the standard for which all pipe restorers should strive. Thanks again Jeff and Steve for all your help to me.Before I moved on to cleaning the inside of the stummels, I decided that it made sense, at this point, to take apart the broken shank. This would make it easier to clean. I used my heat gun, softened the glue, and it came apart easily. I wiped down the ends with acetone to ensure that no glue remained.Now, it was time to clean the insides. As usual, I used a truck load of pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, and isopropyl alcohol to get everything spick and span.Following that, I set all four stummels up for a de-ghosting session. The bowls were stuffed with cotton balls and then socked with alcohol. This works to draw out any remaining filth. It really makes things look and smell better. When that was done, I used some soap and tube brushes and scoured the insides. They looked fabulous. I also cleaned the outsides with some oil soap on some cotton rounds.Next, I needed to repair the broken shank on the Comoy and the gouges in the Savinelli. The location of the break on the shank was awkward and wouldn’t allow for a strengthening tube to be installed. So, I simply had to glue it with great care. I used wood glue, as it has the best strength for what was needed. I also coated a couple of cotton swabs with petroleum jelly and shoved them down the shank to prevent any glue from dripping into the shank. I clamped the two parts together and left them overnight. I was quite pleased with the results.Meanwhile, I needed to mix up some heat-resistant epoxy for the Savinelli. I stuck a petroleum-jelly-coated pipe cleaner into the draught hole of the pipe and applied a thin layer of epoxy. I also let this cure overnight. I then sanded down the excess and made the bowl a new coating – a mixture of yoghurt and activated charcoal. This also sat for some hours to try and it makes a wonderful coating for a new cake to build on. I then moved on to sanding down the wood on all four stummels. I used all of my Micromesh pads and endured that everything was smooth and lovely. There was, however, considerable burn damage on the Comoy. After topping the pipe and reshaping it, I decided that this one needed a new stain on the wood. With the broken shank, burns on the rim, and topping, it needed a beauty treatment. I ended up staining this one with Fiebing’s mahogany stain – it turned out absolutely beautifully, but, for whatever reason, the photos here show it as being much darker than it is in person. Trust me: in person, it looks great. All four pipes got a nice coating of the restoration balm and were left to sit for 20 minutes or so. I then buffed them by hand with a microfibre cloth. I took the pipes to my bench buffer and spiffed them all up with some White Diamond and carnauba wax. My last step was to polish the sterling silver band on the Peterson with my jewellery cloth. And voilà! These beauties are already on their way back to their owner. I trust that he will enjoy their new and improved status. I hope you enjoyed reading this quick write-up of this lovely bunch of pipes. If you are interested in my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Restemming and Redressing an interesting Prince Amled Calabash

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by Steve Laug

For the next pipe to work on I chose to clean up and match a stem with a uniquely rusticated calabash bowl that I have here in my box. This one was more complicated than some of the other quick cleanup and restores but it is interesting enough work to give me a break from normal restoration. This bowl has a wire rustication or bark rustication on the sides and shank. There is a smooth band on the shank end and around the rim top. The rim top itself is also smooth and bevelled inward. The finish was worn and quite lifeless looking. Nonetheless to me it showed promise under the grit and grime of the years. On the underside of the shank on a smooth panel it was clearly stamped Prince Amled [over] Made in Denmark [over] Hand Made. The conical bowl had a thick cake and an overflow of lava covering the inwardly bevelled rim top. The wire rustication was a filthy mess with lots of dirt and a bit of paint in the crevices. The shank end had some damage and was no longer smooth. There was also a small tenon snapped off in the shank that would need to be pulled before I could fit a stem to it. I took some photos of the bowl before I started my work on it. I took a close up photo of the bowl to give an idea of what I had to work with. The bowl was very dirty and had a thick cake. The rim top had a thick and hard lava that was obscuring whether there was damage to the smooth rim. Perhaps it had protected it from burn damage but only cleaning will reveal that. I also captured the broken tenon in the shank in the second photo. I took a photo to try and capture the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is present and is readable in person far more than the photos show. It is stamped as noted above.I went through my cans of stems here and found a thin taper stem that would fit quite well once the tenon was shaped and the diameter of the stem was fitted at the shank. It was dirty and needed a thorough cleaning but I think it will look good.Before I started to work on the pipe I wanted to refresh my memory about the brand. I turned first to Pipephils site to see if there was any information about the Danish Made Prince Amled brand (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-p5.html). I did a screen capture of what was on the site and I include that below. It was another of those pipes with little information included.I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Amled) to see if there was any further information to help me with hunt for this pipe manufacturer. The listing for that pipe company had some great photos but also an appeal for information on the brand. It looked like I had as much information as I could find online.

It was time to work on the pipe! I decided to start by pulling the broken tenon in the shank. I screwed a coarse thread drywall screw into the airway and gently wiggled the tenon piece free. The shank was dirty but otherwise undamaged. There was some nicking on the shank end and edge that would need to be dealt with but otherwise it was good.Now the pipe was ready to be cleaned. I reamed it with a PipNet Pipe Reamer using the 1st and 2nd cutting heads to remove the cake. I cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I finished the bowl by sanding the walls with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl walls looked very good. I went through my thin brass bands to find one that would work to clean up the damage on the shank end. I use these to give a smooth surface to face the new stem. It adds a bit of bling but also does a great job making the shank face smooth to match the stem. I wiped the shank end down with alcohol to clean it off and gave the shank end a coat of glue. I pressed the band in place over the all-purpose glue and cleaned off the excess with a wet cloth.Once the glue had dried I scrubbed out the internals with pipe cleaners (normal & bristle), cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils in the shank between the mortise and the entrance of the airway into the bowl. It was quite dirty. I cleaned out the internals on the stem at the same time.I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl and shank with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I worked it into rustication on the bowl and shank and the dirty rim top with a tooth brush. I rinsed the soap and grime off with warm water and repeated the process until the pipe was clean. I dried it off with a soft towel. It looked much better at this point. I polished the rim top and the smooth portions of the band around the rim edge and underside of the shank with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500 – 12000 grit pads. I wiped the briar down after each sanding pad to remove the debris. The smooth rim and edge began to take on a shine. I stained the rim top and the smooth portions of the rim edge, bowl and shank with a Cherry stain pen. It looks good but will look even better once it is buffed and polished. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for 10 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. Mark Hoover’s Balm is a product that I have come to appreciate and one I use on every pipe I have been working on. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded the stem surface with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to further blend them in and smooth out the surface of the stem.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with some Obsidian Oil. I finished hand polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – Fine and Extra Fine. I rubbed it down with another coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. The stem really looked very good. This delicate and petite Prince Amled Hand Made Calabash Pipe is a real beauty. I know it is hand made in Denmark but that is the extent of the information available on the brand. The carving looks like tree bark on the sides and a great smooth rim and trim. The finish on the pipe is in excellent condition and the contrasting stains work well to highlight the stunning finish on the pipe. The thin vulcanite pencil stem adds to the mix. With the grime and debris gone from the finish and the bowl it was a beauty and the finish shows depth at this point. The rim top looks really good now. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe 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 on the buffing wheel. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad on the buffer and hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Prince Amled Calabash is quite nice and feels great in the hand. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 5/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is .92 ounces/25 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another interesting pipe. This pipe will be added to the Danish Pipe Makers section of the rebornpipes store soon. If you want to add it to your collection send me an email or a message! Thanks for your time.

Restoring a rather odd Barrel Like Manhattan Oval Shank Billiard

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is a unique shape that looks a lot like a billiard banded with barrel iron and buttons. It is very unique looking. It is stamped on the top side of the shank and reads MANHATTAN in gold letter. The shank has a brass (nickel) decorative band with faux hallmarks on top. On the underside of the stem it reads SOLID RUBBER. There were no other identifying marks or stamps on the shank or the stem. It came to us form a seller in Austin, Texas, USA on 11/07/2020. It has a mix of grain around the sides and shank. The bowl had a heavy cake in the bowl and thick lava on the rim top. It was thick so it was hard to be certain what the inner edge looked like. The finish was very dirty so it was hard to know with certainty what lay underneath. The bowl is a classic Billiard shape. The solid rubber oval taper stem had an orific button and showed some age. It has oxidation, calcification, tooth chatter and tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started working on it. Jeff took photos of the bowl, rim top and stem sides to show the condition of the both. It was a dirty bowl with debris and a heavy cake on the walls. The rim top had a thick lava covering the bowl and the edges. It was hard to know what the condition of the inner edge was underneath. I took photos of the top and underside of the stem showing condition and the tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the grain around the sides and the heel of the bowl to show the briar that was used to craft this unique pipe. He took photos to capture the stamping on the top and underside of the shank, band and stem. It is clear and readable as noted above. I turned to Pipedia and found a helpful article on the background. It was called The Manhattan Briar Pipe Company. It is an interesting read so I have included the article in its entirety as well as the advertisement from 1913 that showed a Manhattan pipe. The interesting thing for me is that the pipe is the same shape and style as the one I have in hand. The difference of course is that mine does not have a silver band and there is a horn stem rather than a vulcanite stem.

The Manhattan Briar Pipe Co. was organized in October, 1902 by the American Tobacco Company, under an agreement with the owners of the Brunswick Briar Pipe Company, as a New York corporation. Its initial address was 111 5th Avenue, New York City, and the value of its stock in 1902 was $350,000.00. American Tobacco Company had itself been founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco companies, and was one of the original twelve members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1896. It was commonly called the “Tobacco Trust”.

The majority of the stock in Manhattan Briar Pipe Company was immediately acquired by the American Tobacco Company after the company was organized, but the prior owners retained a controlling minority interest for some years. In October, 1906, however, the American Tobacco Company acquired the remaining shares of stock, and from that point on Manhattan Briar was the pipe making branch of American Tobacco. By 1911, however, American Tobacco had been dissolved in anti-trust litigation, and Manhattan Briar Pipe Co. became a separate concern.

Manhattan Briar Pipe Co. had started operations in 1905 in Jersey City, New Jersey, having taken on a lease for a ten year period in 1905, and maintained a factory at Marion, New Jersey, where the pipes were made. By 1913, former American Tobacco pipe department chair John Glossinger was the president of Manhattan Briar Pipe Company, and began a significant advertising push for high grade pipes, using the slogan “Don’t spoil good tobacco by using a poor pipe”. It appears from cases having appeared on the estate market that Manhattan also sold meerschaum pipes, most likely rebranded articles originally made by European craftsmen.

After the expiration of the Jersey City lease the Manhattan Briar Pipe Company maintained offices and a factory at 415-425 Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn, New York beginning in 1915, evidently under the direction of W. C. Bastian, who had been granted a patent for a chambered pipe stem otherwise seemingly identical to a Peterson P-Lip in 1910. An employee of the company, one J. Gianninoto, was granted a patent for a device meant to permit the emptying of a cuspidor without the mess in early 1918, and the company continues to be listed in local directories through 1921. In 1922 Manhattan Briar was purchased by S.M. Frank and merged into that company. https://pipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Briar_Pipe_Co.

Further digging led me to a link on the S.M. Frank Co. & Inc. history page. Reading through the history of the company I found that S.M. Frank not only purchased the Manhattan Briar Pipe Company but also purchased WDC or William DeMuth & Company – two of the older brands that I enjoy working on. Here is the relevant section from the link: In the year 1900 Sam Frank Sr. started his own business, selling pipes and other tobacco items. His original office was located at 20 W. 17th Street, NYC. He was also closely associated with the sales staff of Wm. DeMuth & Co., selling their line of pipes. It was at this time that Mr. Frank first met Ferdinand Feuerbach and formed what would be a lifelong friendship. Mr. Feuerbach started working for the DeMuth Company in 1897 and by 1903 had become the production manager. In 1919, when Mr. Frank needed an experienced pipe man to run his pipe factory, located at 168 Southern Blvd., in the Bronx, he persuaded his old friend Ferdinand to join him. Mr. Feuerbach is credited with developing DeMuth’s popular Royal DeMuth and Hesson Guard Milano pipelines. In 1922, when S. M. Frank purchased the Manhattan Briar Pipe Co. the company incorporated.  http://www.smfrankcoinc.com/home/?page_id=2

That link led me to me to some further information including an advertisement and a shape chart on Chris Keene’s Pipe Pages http://pipepages.com/mbpc2.htm. I have included them here with acknowledgement to Chris Keene. I always enjoy reading the old copy of these advertisements as they take me back to place where the pipe was an acceptable part of the life. The pipe I have in hand is one that was made between the opening of the Manhattan Briar Pipe Company in 1905 in New Jersey and 1922 when SM Frank bought the company and it ceased to exist as a separate entity. That fit my experience of working on pipes with stems stamped Solid Rubber.

Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He cleaned up the inside of the bowl with a PipNet reamer and a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. The bowl walls looked very good. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He worked on the rim top lava and darkening with the soap and tooth brush. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior with Soft Scrub and then soaked it in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. He washed it off with warm water to remove the deoxidizer. The pipe looked far better. I took photos of the pipe when I received it before I started working on it. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to show how clean it was. The top and the inner edge of the rim show some darkening, nicks and scratches. The stem looks clean of debris and grime. There are light tooth marks and chatter on both sides. I took a photo of the stamping on the top of the shank. The stamping is clear and readable and appears to have had gold stamp in the letters. The stem shows a Solid Rubber stamp clearly on the underside. I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to show the overall look of stem, tenon and profile of the pipe. I started my work on the pipe by addressing the issues on the top and the inner edge of the rim. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the roughness. It looked much better at this point in the process.I sanded the briar rim top and the sides of the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad. By the time I finished with the 3500 grit pad the briar had taken on a rich glow. I touched up the gold stamp on the top of the shank with Rub’n Buff Antique Gold. I worked it into the stamping with a tooth pick and buffed it off with a soft cloth. It was very readable and looked good with the brass band and brass rings and studs on the bowl. I polished the briar bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the debris. The bowl took on a rich glow. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for 10 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. Mark Hoover’s Balm is a product that I have come to appreciate and one I use on every pipe I have been working on. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem issues. I sanded it with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to begin the process of blending the chatter and marks into the stem surface. On the underside I found a piece of metal embedded in the rubber confirming an early date as mentioned above.I sanded it with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to further blend them in and smooth out the surface.I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem.

I put the stem back on the Manhattan Barrel Like Oval Shank Billiard and took it to the buffer. I worked it over with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches. 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. The pipe polished up really well and the bevelled rim top looked good. I was happy with the look of the finished pipe. The photos below show what the pipe looks like after the restoration. This Oval Shank Manhattan Billiard is a beautiful and unique take on a classic shape. The polished solid rubber taper stem looks really good with the browns of the briar and the brass of the bands around the bowl and shank. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 7 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.83 ounces/52 grams. This is another pipe that I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipe Makers Section shortly, if you are interested in adding it to your collection. The unique brass on the bowl gives it a great look and feel. This one should be a great smoker. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me on this beauty!

Replacing a tenon, restemming and restoring another Mixed Finish Soren Hand Carved Freehand

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by Steve Laug

I am taking a break from the last two of the four pipes I am working on for Jack to clean up and match a stem with a nice freehand pipe that I have here in my box. It is another quick cleanup and restore and gives me a break from the heavier restoration work on Jack’s next pipe. This bowl has a mixed smooth and rusticated finish with a plateau rim top and shank end. The finish was a bit dull and lifeless. It showed promise under the grit and grime of the years. On the underside of the shank it was clearly stamped Soren [over] Hand-Carved [over] Made in Denmark. The bowl had a thin cake and some lava overflow on the smooth and plateau areas of the rim top. The bowl also had some dust and debris in rusticated patch on the right side of the bowl as well as in the crevices of the plateau on the shank end. I took some photos of the bowl before I started my work on it. I took a close up photo of the bowl to give an idea of what I had to work with. The bowl was very dirty and had a moderately thick cake. The smooth portions of the rim top have a lava coat the plateau portions are also almost filled in with lava. I also took a photo of the plateau on the shank end to show its condition – dirty but in good shape.I took a photo to try and capture the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is present and is readable in person far more than the photos show. It is stamped as noted above.I went through my cans of stems here and found a nice vulcanite fancy saddle stem that would fit quite well ONCE I REPLACED THE SNAPPED TENON. It was dirty and needed a thorough cleaning but I think it will look good.I have worked on quite a few Soren pipes over the years and turned to one of the blogs that I wrote  on another interesting Soren Freehand Sitter (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/02/26/this-interesting-soren-hand-carved-freehand-turned-out-to-be-more-work-than-expected/). I quote from that blog below.

I looked up the brand on Pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-s10.html) and found that the brand was carved by Søren Refbjerg Rasmussen. Pipes that he made for the European market were mostly stamped “Refbjerg” while those made for the US market were stamped “Soren”. Thus, I knew that one I was working on was imported into the US market.

It was time to work on the pipe! I decided to start with refitting the new tenon to the stem I had chosen. Hmmm…I thought I was done with that for a while but this stem just worked with the bowl. I flattened the broken tenon remnants on the stem end with a Dremel and sanding drum and then further smoothed it out with a topping board and 220 grit sandpaper. I wanted a smooth surface for my drilling.I learned a helpful trick on the last batch of six tenon replacements. I use a small pen knife to give the airway in the stem end a slight chamfer to guide the drill bit into it and keep it straight. Once I did that I used a series of drill bits to open the airway to receive the threaded portion of the tenon. I choose to use threaded replacement tenons as they provide a rough serrated surface for the glue to bind to the drilled hole in the stem. It has worked well for me a for a long time.Once it fit well in the stem I needed to reduce the diameter of the portion that went in the shank mortise. I use a Dremel and sanding drum to work it until it fits well in the shank of the pipe. I took photos of the look of the tenon when it was finished and put it in the shank and put the stem on it and took photos. I think it will work very well! I checked the fit of the stem to the tenon, the tenon to the shank repeatedly and once it was proper I glued it in place with black CA glue.I set the stem aside to allow the glue to cure. While it dried I took a photo of the stem and the bowl together to give a sense of the look of the pipe and stem. Proportions and look just work together in my opinion. While the glue cured I turned my attention to the bowl. I reamed it with a PipNet Pipe Reamer using the 2nd and 3rd cutting heads to remove the cake. I cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I finished the bowl by sanding the walls with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl walls looked very good. I scrubbed out the internals with pipe cleaners (normal & bristle), cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils in the shank between the mortise and the entrance of the airway into the bowl. It was quite dirty.I cleaned up the plateau areas on the rim top and shank end with a brass bristle wire brush. I worked on it until the groves were clean. I wiped it down with a damp cloth to remove all the debris. I sanded the smooth portions on the rim top with a folded piece of 200 grit sandpaper. It was looking better each step!I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl and shank with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I worked it into the grain on the sides, the plateau on the rim top and shank end and the rusticated patch on the right side of the bowl with the tooth brush. I rinsed the soap and grime off with warm water and dried it off with a soft towel. I looked much better at this point. The grain really stands out. I sanded the smooth part of the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to start the polishing process. I wiped down the bowl with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I followed that by polishing the smooth portions of the bowl sides with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad. With the briar polished I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips and into the plateau rim top, shank end and rustication with a horsehair shoe brush. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the Balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. While the Balm did its work, I worked on the “new stem”. I sanded the tooth chatter and marks on the stem surface with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. It was starting to look better.I sanded the stem surface with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to further polish the stem. I wiped it down between sanding pads with a damp cloth. I polished the acrylic 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 beautiful Soren Hand Carved Made In Denmark Freehand with a fancy, turned vulcanite saddle replacement stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and 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 Soren Hand Carved Freehand 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 ½ x 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 58 grams/2.12 ounces. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your collection send me a message or an email to slaug@uniserve.com. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipe Makers Section shortly if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for your time.