Tag Archives: Custombilt pipes

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!

Custombilt Imported Briar Rhodesian. maybe I. ROED stamped on top of it.

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by Steve Laug

I picked some older pipes to work on next. The next of these is a Custombilt Saddle Stem Rhodesian with the classic CB style rustication. 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 is a Tall Rhodesian that is stamped on the top left side of the shank and reads Custombilt [over] Imported Briar. It is also over stamped in gold A.I. ROED across the shank stamp. The pipe was well used. The finish was dirty with dust and debris in the rustication and in the twin rings around the rim cap. 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 stem was lightly oxidized and had some tooth marks on the surface ahead of the button. It looked like the stem had sported a Softee Bit Guard and there was debris and calcification where it had been. 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. 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 scratching and the bit guard. In the second photo he removed the bite guard and shows the condition of the stem surface. Jeff took some photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the rustication – both the surface grooves and the hash marks inside the grooves. The twin rings and bowl cap are quite well done. He captured the stamping on the left top and underside of the left side of the diamond shank It reads a noted above. It is interesting to see A.I. ROED overstamped on the brand stamp on the shank.I turned to Pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c8.html) to get a quick view of the brand once again. I knew that I was working with one of the older pipes and probably made by Tracy Mincer himself. He stopped making the Custom-Bilt pipes in the early 1950s. The screen capture I included below shows a brief history of the brand. I quote from the side bar in the above screen capture and have highlighted in red the pertinent part of the article.

Chunky bowls with rough carving or gouges.

Tracy Mincer stopped making Custom-Bilt pipes in the early 1950s. The trademark was successively bought by Leonard Rodgers (1953), Consolidated Cigars (1968) and Wally Frank Co. (early 1970s). The later began to produce again his version of the pipe in 1974 or 1975 at Weber pipe factory (NJ). In 1987, the pipes were made out of the Butz-Choquin factory (France) and then Mexico until the late 1990s. Currently (2010), the Custombilt name is owned by Tobacalera of Spain which is part of Altadis.

It is generally admitted (but not proved) pipes stamped “Custom – Bilt” (with the hyphen) are from the Mincer era. The name might have changed from Custom-Bilt to Custombilt (without the hyphen) in 1946.

I turned to Pipedia and found the following advertisement for the Custombilt line that I am working on (https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:Custombilt_Shapes.jpg). The logo on the advertisement is the same and the shape I have circled in blue in the advert below is the same shape number as the one that I am working on.  The majority of the information on the rest of the site was two book reviews of the Custom-Bilt Story by Bill Unger. I did a screen capture of the stamping that matched the stamping on the pipe that I am working on. The stamping on the one I have might be example of Stamp #2 of the Wally Frank Era pipes (shown in the screen capture below). This stamp has the top arch of “C” extend to the top of “t”. The bottom arch of the “C” also curves into the leg of the “u” as in a cursive signature. I have also included the information on Stamp 3 as it mentions two stamps from this Wally Frank Era.In the early 1970s, Wally Frank Co. bought the Custombilt trademark and began to produce their version of the pipe in 1974 or 1975. Hollco Rohr owned the Weber pipe factory, located in New Jersey, and produced the Custombilt pipes there. From all of the above information I am fairly certain that I am dealing with a Wally Frank-era Custombilt made between 1974-75.

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 was clean and the rustication on the rim top extended into the edge. The stem surface was rough but the oxidation 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 is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above. It also is overstamped as noted above. 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 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. 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 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 Custombilt Imported Briar Straight Rhodesian 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 multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax 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 Custombilt Straight Rhodesian 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 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 55 grams/1.94 ounces. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the American 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 Lovely Custombilt 17 Squat Diamond Shank Bulldog

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by Steve Laug

I picked some older pipes to work on next. The first of these is a Custombilt Squat Bulldog with the classic CB style rustication. 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 is a Squat Bulldog that is stamped on the top left side of the shank and reads Custombilt [over] Imported Briar and on the left underside of the diamond shank it stamped 17. The pipe was well used. The finish was dirty with dust and debris in the rustication and in the twin rings around the rim cap. 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 stem was lightly oxidized and had some tooth marks on the surface ahead of the button. It looked like the stem had sported a Softee Bit Guard and there was debris and calcification where it had been. 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. 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 rustication – both the surface grooves and the hash marks inside the grooves. The twin rings and bowl cap are quite well done. He captured the stamping on the left top and underside of the left side of the diamond shank It reads a noted above. It is interesting to see it stamped in the rustication on the topside.I turned to Pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c8.html) to get a quick view of the brand once again. I knew that I was working with one of the older pipes and probably made by Tracy Mincer himself. He stopped making the Custom-Bilt pipes in the early 1950s. The screen capture I included below shows a brief history of the brand. I quote from the side bar in the above screen capture and have highlighted in red the pertinent part of the article.

Chunky bowls with rough carving or gouges.

Tracy Mincer stopped making Custom-Bilt pipes in the early 1950s. The trademark was successively bought by Leonard Rodgers (1953), Consolidated Cigars (1968) and Wally Frank Co. (early 1970s). The later began to produce again his version of the pipe in 1974 or 1975 at Weber pipe factory (NJ). In 1987, the pipes were made out of the Butz-Choquin factory (France) and then Mexico until the late 1990s. Currently (2010), the Custombilt name is owned by Tobacalera of Spain which is part of Altadis.

It is generally admitted (but not proved) pipes stamped “Custom – Bilt” (with the hyphen) are from the Mincer era. The name might have changed from Custom-Bilt to Custombilt (without the hyphen) in 1946.

I turned to Pipedia and found the following advertisement for the Custombilt line that I am working on (https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:Custombilt_Shapes.jpg). The logo on the advertisement is the same and the shape I have circled in red in the advert below is the same shape number as the one that I am working on.  The majority of the information on the rest of the site was two book reviews of the Custom-Bilt Story by Bill Unger. I did a screen capture of the stamping that matched the stamping on the pipe that I am working on. The stamping on the one I have might be example of Stamp #2 of the Wally Frank Era pipes (shown in the screen capture below). This stamp has the top arch of “C” extend to the top of “t”. The bottom arch of the “C” also curves into the leg of the “u” as in a cursive signature. I have also included the information on Stamp 3 as it mentions two stamps from this Wally Frank Era.In the early 1970s, Wally Frank Co. bought the Custombilt trademark and began to produce their version of the pipe in 1974 or 1975. Hollco Rohr owned the Weber pipe factory, located in New Jersey, and produced the Custombilt pipes there. From all of the above information I am fairly certain that I am dealing with a Wally Frank-era Custombilt made between 1974-75.

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 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 and underside of the shank is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above. 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 step down tenon.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 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. The heat did a great job lifting all of them. The marks and chatter that remained I was able to remove with a light sanding with 220 grit sandpaper. 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 Custombilt Imported Briar Squat 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 multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax 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 Custombilt Squat Straight 17 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 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 55 grams/1.90 ounces. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the American 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!

Restoring a Very Handsome Custombilt Lovat

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by Kenneth Lieblich

My last blog post was the restoration of an Oversize Kaywoodie and, in that article, I mentioned that it reminded me of a Custombilt. Well, lo and behold! I have a Custombilt to present to you all. I was rummaging through a box of junk (and calling it ‘junk’ is being kind) and came upon a really good-looking, substantial Lovat with a great saddle stem (which is ever-so-slightly bent). It’s a pipe that instills confidence. An interesting coincidence (or is it?) is that both the Kaywoodie and this Custombilt were made at almost exactly the same time. Read on. As you can see, the pipe has the classic Custombilt rustication on it. There’s something quite satisfying about this rugged rustication. These marks are reminiscent of Tracy Mincer’s original work and are seen as something of a hallmark of the brand. On the left side of the shank, the markings were as follows: Custombilt [over] Imported Briar. No markings on the right side and no markings on the stem. The history of Custombilt pipes is an interesting one and the most comprehensive source of information comes from Individual as a Thumbprint: The Custom-Bilt Pipe Story by Bill Unger. It is a very good book. Since the last time I worked on a Custombilt, I acquired a copy and it is an excellent resource on these pipes – as well as an entertaining read.

Unger’s book gives us some good information about the dating for this pipe. He displays five different logo stampings and this particular pipe corresponds to stamp number two. Unger writes:

The second stamp, which was used during the Eugene Rich years, from 1946 through 1952 (at the latest; it could have been 1950 or 191), is also quite unmistakable. Custom-Bilt became Custombilt in 1946, and the stamp reflects the major advertising campaign that was undertaken. The script letters do not slant, but the major feature is the big, looping C, which extends over the t (although, in some cases, it extends just to the top of the t). The t has a longer cross than on the Custom-Bilt stamp, but a shorter one than would be used during the Wally Frank era. Remember that the Eugene Rich-era stamp was used on pipes still being made in [Tracy] Mincer’s Indianapolis factory.

Pipedia’s article on Custombilt consists primarily of reviews of Unger’s book. It offers a cursory view of the markings and their approximate dating. This information confirms what I found in Unger’s book. Meanwhile. Pipephil provided a bit more information on the brand, although not strictly related to my pipe. In short, I think it’s fair to say that this sturdy pipe dates from the late-1940s.Let’s get on with cleaning up this pipe. I worked on the stem first and, I must say, I was surprised at its good condition. Not too dirty, not beat up at all.I wiped the outside with some oil soap on some cotton pads. Then I cleaned out the inside with pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. The stem had a bit of oxidation, so I let it soak overnight in pipe stem oxidation remover. The following day, I cleaned all of the de-oxidizing mess off with a toothbrush. The oxidation had migrated to the surface and I scrubbed with SoftScrub on some cotton pads to remove the leftover oxidation. The stem turned out very well. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) all over the saddle stem to remove any scratch marks and make it smooth and lovely. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing.All that finished, I set the stem aside and I began work on the very dirty stummel.Firstly, I decided to ream out the bowl. This is a large bowl and I used the PipNet Reamer’s biggest blade to remove the built-up cake, and followed that with 220-grit sandpaper taped to a couple of dowels to eliminate as much as I could. I took the chamber down to bare briar, as I wanted to ensure there were no hidden flaws in the wall. Fortunately, there were none. As the photos show, there was quite a mound of debris.I then proceeded to clean out the insides of the shank with Q-tips, pipe cleaners, and lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. It was ridiculously dirty and took up the country’s supply of cotton to get it clean. To exorcise the demons of tobaccos past, I decided to de-ghost the pipe. 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 any remaining oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton. I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some dish soap and tube brushes. Spic and span after that. There was still quite a bit of debris on the ample rim and it was time to address it. I took a piece of machine metal and meticulously scraped away the cake without affecting the finish of the wood. This quite a while – but it is most certainly worth it. Following that, I used some oil soap and a toothbrush to clean up the balance of the rim – especially the grooves of the rustication. I was really pleased with the results.Then I sanded the stummel down with the Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit). The smooth areas got all nine pads, whereas the rusticated areas on received only the last three or four. I then coated the pipe with restoration balm and let it sit for 20 minutes or so, before polishing with a microfibre cloth and a horsehair brush. The balm does wonderful things to the wood and makes the whole stummel sing. Finally, I took it to the buffer and applied some White Diamond and a few coats of Conservator’s Wax. The lovely shine made the wood very attractive. This is a very handsome pipe and will provide many years of smoking pleasure.This handsome Custombilt Lovat looks fantastic again and is ready to be enjoyed again by the next owner! I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the ‘American’ pipe section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 7 in. (177 mm); height 2⅛ in. (53 mm); bowl diameter 1⅝ in. (41 mm); chamber diameter ⅞ in. (22 mm). The weight of the pipe is 2¼ oz. (65 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I did restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Restoring a Custombilt Imported Briar taper stem Rhodesian

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By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table was one we purchased on 01/22/24 off eBay from a seller in Jordan, Minnesota, USA. It is a uniquely rusticated Custombilt Rhodesian that really looks good. I have worked on a lot of Custombillt rusticated pipes and enjoy working on them. The stem is a vulcanite taper stem with no markings on the sides. The pipe is stamped on a smooth panel on the left side of the shank. The left side reads Custombilt [over] Imported Briar. The stamping is clear and readable. The finish is quite dirty with grime and dust in the deep rustication where the hand held the bowl on both sides. The rim top is also dirty with darkening and also lava on the smooth surface on the edges as well. There is a thick cake in the bowl with some tobacco debris stuck on the walls and in the heel. The stem is oxidized, calcified and has tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button that are a bit deep and will need to be addressed. Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. It is unique and certainly one that we are looking forward to seeing once it is cleaned up. Jeff took closeup photos of the bowl and rim top to clearly show the condition of both. The condition matches what I described above. He also took photos of the stem to show the oxidation, calcification and tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. It also appears that the stem had a Softee Bit at some time in the past. Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to give a picture of what the briar looked like. The rustication pattern around the bowl is instantly recognizable as done by Custombilt. The stamping on the left side of the shank is clear and readable and read as noted above.I turned to Pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c8.html) to get a quick view of the brand once again. I knew that I was working with one of the older pipes and probably made by Tracy Mincer himself. He stopped making the Custom-Bilt pipes in the early 1950s. The screen capture I included below shows a brief history of the brand. I quote from the side bar in the above screen capture and have highlighted in red the pertinent part of the article.

Chunky bowls with rough carving or gouges.

Tracy Mincer stopped making Custom-Bilt pipes in the early 1950s. The trademark was successively bought by Leonard Rodgers (1953), Consolidated Cigars (1968) and Wally Frank Co. (early 1970s). The later began to produce again his version of the pipe in 1974 or 1975 at Weber pipe factory (NJ). In 1987, the pipes were made out of the Butz-Choquin factory (France) and then Mexico until the late 1990s. Currently (2010), the Custombilt name is owned by Tobacalera of Spain which is part of Altadis.

It is generally admitted (but not proved) pipes stamped “Custom – Bilt” (with the hyphen) are from the Mincer era. The name might have changed from Custom-Bilt to Custombilt (without the hyphen) in 1946.

I turned to Pipedia and found the following advertisement for the Custombilt line that I am working on (https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:Custombilt_Shapes.jpg). The logo on the advertisement is the same and the shape I have circled in red in the advert below is the same shape number as the one that I am working on.  The majority of the information on the rest of the site was two book reviews of the Custom-Bilt Story by Bill Unger. I did a screen capture of the stamping that matched the stamping on the pipe that I am working on. The stamping on the one I have might be example of Stamp #2 of the Wally Frank Era pipes (shown in the screen capture below). This stamp has the top arch of “C” extend to the top of “t”. The bottom arch of the “C” also curves into the leg of the “u” as in a cursive signature. I have also included the information on Stamp 3 as it mentions two stamps from this Wally Frank Era.In the early 1970s, Wally Frank Co. bought the Custombilt trademark and began to produce their version of the pipe in 1974 or 1975. Hollco Rohr owned the Weber pipe factory, located in New Jersey, and produced the Custombilt pipes there.

Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe itself.  Jeff had cleaned up the pipe with his usual penchant for thoroughness. 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 and pipe cleaners. He soaked the stem in Before & After 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 on the front of the bowl. The stem surface was rough but the oxidation and calcification was gone. Overall it looked very good with a few small tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. The stamping on top left of the shank is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. The wide saddle stem is nice and the photo shows the step down tenon.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 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 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 Custombilt Imported Briar Bent Rhodesian 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 multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax 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 Custombilt Rhodesian 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 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ 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 American 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!

Restoring a unique Custombilt Convertibole Saddle Stem Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

I thought it might be helpful to 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 05/01/2022 from an Antique Shop in Bozeman, Montana, USA. I also want you to understand why we take the photos we do. If you have followed for a while then you will see the familiar pattern of the photos we include both in the before and midstream process of working on a pipe. It is not accidental 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 first thing I see is a classic Custombilt Rusticated Billiard with a twist and what appears to be an inserted bowl. It has a vulcanite saddle stem. It is well proportioned and well made with a great classic Custombilt appearance.
  2. The finish is dirty and there is grime and grit ground into the rugged rustication on the sides of the bowl and shank. It is dusty and dull looking but under the grime the pipe looks good.
  3. The rim top has some light lava and debris in the valleys of the rustication on the top and the edges. There is some darkening around the inner edge and top of the bowl. but cleaning will reveal a real beauty.
  4. The bowl has a thick cake and debris on the walls that hides the walls and some grime on the inner edge of the bowl but once it is clean we will know what the bowl and edges really look like. The outer edges look good and there does not appear to be any obvious burn damage to the top or bowl edges.
  5. The vulcanite saddle stem is in good condition – dirty, lightly oxidized and has tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of button. There is no logo on the stem sides.

Overall my impressions of this pipe is that it is a unique pipe even for Custombilt that once cleaned up will look pretty amazing. I like the tactile rustication style on Custombilts and have found nothing that comes close to it. 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, rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is thick with tobacco debris stuck on the walls. The rim top has light lava, grime and darkening around the top and edges in the rusticated surface. You can also see the condition of the outer edge and the inner edge is in great condition. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. There is no visible burn damage at this point. The bowl is still round and other than being in a used condition it is in great shape.  The photos of the vulcanite stem surface from various angles confirmed my assessment of its condition. You can see that it is dirty in the first photo below. The stem has some tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside near the button. Instead of telling you what I see in the next photos of the sides of the bowl and the heel I want to hear from you. Tell me what you see? What does the finish look like to you? Are there any visible problems or issues that stand out to you? Are the cracks or scratches in the valleys of the rustication or the high spots? Are there visible flaws or fissures in the briar? How random does the deep rustication look? Is there a pattern to it? Any visible issues on the heel of the bowl? These questions should help you to see what I am looking for when I see these photos. Jeff removed the bowl from the shank. It was threaded and screwed onto a threaded nipple set in the shank. You can see the deep grime in the finish under the bowl.He took photos of the stamping on a smooth panel on the right side of the shank. It reads Custombilt [over] Convertibole. What stands out for you in the photos of the stamping on the pipe? What do you look for in the stamping? I know it is dirty but what do you see underneath the grime on the surface of the briar and the acrylic? When I am working on pipes I like to get a sense of the history of the brand of the pipe and try to get a feel for the pipe maker. In this case I turned first to Pipephil’s site to see what I could learn about Custombilt (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c8.html). I did a screen capture of the section on the screen. I have also included the information from the side bar below the photo.Chunky bowls with rough carving or gouges.

Tracy Mincer stopped making Custom-Bilt pipes in the early 1950s. The trademark was successively bought by Leonard Rodgers (1953), Consolidated Cigars (1968) and Wally Frank Co. (early 1970s). The later began to produce again his version of the pipe in 1974 or 1975 at Weber pipe factory (NJ). In 1987, the pipes were made out of the Butz-Choquin factory (France) and then Mexico until the late 1990s. Currently (2010), the Custombilt name is owned by Tobacalera of Spain which is part of Altadis.

It is generally admitted (but not proved) pipes stamped “Custom-Bilt” (with the hyphen) are from the Mincer era. The name might have changed from Custom-Bilt to Custombilt (without the hyphen) in 1946.

The pipe in hand that I am working seems to come after the change of stamping that happened in 1946.

I turned then to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Custom-Bilt). I found a brief history of the brand and read some interesting facts that I have included below. I am also include a screen capture and description of the stamp that is on the right side of the shank.I read further and found a description of the Convertibole pipe along with an advertisement for the pipe. I have included both below.

American companies such as Marxman were doing similar things. One Marxman carved head actually was valued at $7,500! It seems to me that Mincer was trying to show that the Custom-Bilt company was a complete outfit capable of making the same things as some of the “big boys” of the day.

There were other variations, such as the Convertible (removable bowl), the Saddle, Military Bit stems, and others. I really like the description “the newest idea in pipe smoking. Interchangeable for every occasion, as individual as a thumbprint, hand-crafted styles for office, home and outdoors.” You can also see the various bowls that were available and can be changed with “the twist of your wrist – plugs in a fresh pipe 2 or 3 times daily.

I am once again including the link to Jeff’s clean up process blog. Please remember that the point of these blogs is not to wow you with the work or make you shake your heads but I want you to know the details of the work we do so you can do your own. 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. I have never seen a is a classic Custombilt Rusticated Billiard with a twist like this Convertibole. It has a vulcanite saddle stem. It is well proportioned and well made with a great classic Custombilt appearance.
  2. The finish is clean and the grime and grit have been removed from the finish on the bowl. The rugged, tactile rustication pattern looks very good as well. There is a unique style removable bowl.
  3. The darkening, lava, grime and dust on the rusticated rim top has been removed and it has revealed that the inner edge is clean and burn free. The outer edge of the bowl is also in good condition.
  4. With the cake reamed out the walls of the bowl are clean and they look very good with no checking or burn damage to the walls.
  5. The vulcanite saddle stem looks very good and cleaned up well. The light tooth marks an chatter will be easily polished out. There is no logo on the sides 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 carefully went over the bowl and rim top to get a sense of what is happening there. In this case once the rim top and edges were cleaned the rim top and inner edge showed no damage. The darkening on the rim top and edges was also gone. I go over the stem carefully. The fit to the shank is snug and the transitions are smooth. There were some light tooth marks and chatter on the surface of the stem and the button. 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 sides in any way. It is in excellent condition and is very clear and readable.I love just looking at the lay of the pipe and the proportion of the hand made pipes. I took the pipe apart to get a sense of what was in the mind of the pipe maker when he crafted the pipe. The photo shows its beauty in flow and shape. I rubbed down the bowl and shank with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar. 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 horse hair shoe brush. I let it sit for 10 minutes then 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 rustication showed depth. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. It is a gorgeous pipe. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pads. I know that many say Obsidian Oil does nothing for acrylic stems, but I find it does two things – first it gives some protection to the stem from buildup 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.The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the light scratches in the acrylic. I gave 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 follow up the wax buff with a buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I 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 nice pipe. The rusticated finish around the bowl sides and shank looks great with the rich brown stains. The Custombilt Convertibole Interchangeable Bowl Billiard feels great in my hand. It is a well balanced pipe. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.45 ounces/41 grams. It is such an interesting version of the Custombilt pipes that I will be keeping it here in my own collection. I look forward to enjoy a bowl in it soon. It should be a great smoking pipe.

Hopefully the style of this blog is helpful to you in some way. In it I wanted to show both what I am looking for and how I move forward in addressing what I see when work on a pipe. Let me know if it is helpful to you. It is probably the most straightforward detailed description of my work process that I have done. 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 pipe men and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Restoring a Classic Custom-Bilt

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Blog by Kenneth Lieblich

Next on the chopping block is this handsome and rugged Custom-Bilt Oom Paul. I acquired this pipe with Steve at one of those antique fairs where the term ‘antique’ is most loosely applied. Editorial comments aside, the fair was good fun and Steve and I enjoyed ourselves. This pipe piqued my interest because I know that there are many admirers (or should I say ‘fanatics’?) of Custom-Bilt pipes. Clearly, this one had had an active life and looked awfully tired now, but I felt I could bring it back to its best. As you can see, the pipe has the classic Custom-Bilt rustication on it. These marks are reminiscent of Tracy Mincer’s original work and are seen as something of a hallmark of the brand, nowadays. On the left side of the shank, the markings were as follows: Custom-Bilt [over] Imported Briar. No markings on the right side and no markings on the stem.The history of Custom-Bilt pipes is an interesting one and the most comprehensive source of information comes from The Custom-Bilt Pipe Story by Bill Unger. By all the accounts that I’ve heard, it is a very good book. I haven’t had the chance to read it myself, but it would appear to be the fount of knowledge on these pipes. If you’ve got a copy of Unger’s book that’s you’d like to get rid of, please drop me a line!Pipedia’s article on Custom-Bilt consists primarily of review’s of Unger’s book. It offers a cursory view of the markings and their approximate dating. My pipe’s markings correspond to “Stamp Number Three” as seen below, even though the markings on my pipe are not identical to that one. Thus, this pipe seems to be from the Wally Frank era.Pipephil provided a bit more information on the brand, although not strictly related to my pipe.Finally, the pipesrevival.com website has yet more information on Custom-Bilt pipes. This page seemed to confirm that my pipe is from the Wally Frank era, but my interpretation of the photos, etc. is that this is from the early part of that era – probably the early 70s. It is difficult to be sure, but that seems reasonable. In any event, if you are interested in these pipes, I recommend reading all three websites.I figure that this pipe must have been a good smoker because it had been thoroughly used and there was plenty of wear from its long life. This wasn’t a difficult restoration, but there were a lot of steps and it took longer than usual. The stem was heavily oxidized. There were a few minor scratches and a couple of notable tooth dents, and the inside was definitely dirty. However, the real issues were on the stummel. It had accumulated much dirt and debris over the years. The bowl had tons of cake inside and the rim was coated in lava (and potentially burn marks). The front edge of the rim was damaged, presumably from banging out dottle on a hard surface over the years. The grooves of the rustication were embedded with debris and there was a notable burn mark on the back-right part of the bowl, near the shank. Meanwhile, on the left of the bowl, there were a couple of fills (including a major one) that would need addressing. I haven’t even mentioned the miscellaneous scratches, dents and other marks all over the place! Let’s get restoring. The stem was first on my list. I wiped the outside with Murphy’s Oil Soap on some cotton pads. I also took a BIC lighter and ‘painted’ the stem with its flame to lift the few bite marks and dents. However, it did not do much. Then I cleaned out the inside with pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. Given the amount of oxidation, this one needed the usual overnight Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover bath. The following day, I cleaned all of the de-oxidizing mess off with alcohol, pipe cleaners, et cetera. The oxidation had migrated to the surface and I scrubbed with SoftScrub on some cotton pads to remove the leftover oxidation. With that done, I built up the dents on the top and bottom of the stem with black cyanoacrylate adhesive and let them fully cure. I then sanded the adhesive down with 220-, 400-, and 600-grit sandpapers to meld seamlessly into the stem. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) all over to bring out the lovely black lustre on the stem. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing.You may notice that the stem looked odd – well, you are right. Over time, it gradually straightened itself out. I wanted the end of the stem to be roughly parallel with the rim of the bowl, so I brought out my heat gun and heated the vulcanite stem to make it malleable. The heat gun is very powerful – it doesn’t take long! When soft, I gently curved the stem over a wooden dowel. The dowel provides a firm surface and a proper curve. Once I had the bend I wanted, I left the stem to cool and set itself in place.

When I was done, I noticed some unusual “stretch marks” on the stem where I’d bent it. Then I asked Steve about it and learned that it does happen occasionally. Suffice it to say, it was extremely annoying as I had to go back and sand that section again. Lesson learned: bend the stem before sanding it!All that finished, I set the stem aside and I began work on the very dirty stummel. Firstly, I decided to ream out the bowl. I used both the PipNet Reamer and the KleenReem to remove the built-up cake and followed that with 220-grit sandpaper taped to a dowel to eliminate as much as I could. I took the chamber down to bare briar, as I wanted to ensure there were no hidden flaws in the wall. Fortunately, there were none. As the photos show, there was quite a mound of debris. I then proceeded to clean out the insides of the shank with Q-tips, pipe cleaners, and lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. It was ridiculously dirty and took up the country’s supply of cotton to get it clean. I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some dish soap and tube brushes. Next, I used cotton rounds and a toothbrush to scrub the outside of the stummel. Due to the lava on the rim, I carefully used a knife to scrape away as much as I could. All that scrubbing accentuated some very ugly fills which had been repaired with typical red putty.To exorcize the ghosts of tobaccos past, I decided to de-ghost the pipe. 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 any remaining oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton. Although it helped, the de-ghosting was not as successful as I hoped. As a result, I plopped the stummel in my alcohol bath overnight. This removes old stain and cleans debris, odours etc. As you can see, after the bath, the stummel looked rather naked but much cleaner. I next used a dental pick to dig out the awful putty in those fills, as I felt I could do better. I redid the fills with a mixture of cyanoacrylate adhesive and briar dust. The main fill on the back of the bowl was in an awkward position for sanding and making it consonant with the surrounding wood was tricky. In any event, I used some miniature files and various grits of sandpaper to make it look good. Next was the burn on the backside. I took some oxalic acid, used several Q-tips, and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed. The burn dramatically improved and any stain I would later apply would cover it up. Fortunately, the burn was very superficial and did not affect the integrity of the wood at all.To remove the nicks on the rim, I “topped” the pipe – that is to say, I gently and evenly sanded down the rim on a piece of 220-grit sandpaper. This effectively removed the damage, without altering the look of the pipe. However, since I did not want to top the pipe too much, the bashed-in front edge of the pipe would have to be addressed differently. I dug out my iron and a damp cloth to attempt a repair. The hot and moist steam can often cause the wood to swell slightly and return to shape. There was some movement – not a lot, but it was better than doing nothing. I opted to ever-so-slightly round the rim of the pipe in such a way that looks both natural and handsome. Then I sanded the stummel down with all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit). The smooth areas got all nine pads, whereas the rusticated areas on received only the last four. Although almost all of the nicks were removed, a hint of a couple of wounds remains. This is part of the story of this pipe – it is its history. Due to all the necessary work for this pipe, I needed to restore the colour, so I stained it with Fiebing’s Medium Brown Leather Dye. First, I brought out my heat gun and spent a couple of minutes thoroughly heating the wood, so it would be as receptive as possible to the stain. I needed the brown to penetrate well into the wood, to give the best results. I applied dye with a cotton dauber. I flamed it with my BIC lighter, let it set, then coated it again with dye, flamed it again, and let that set too. I decided to let the pipe sit overnight. This dye is alcohol-based, so I used isopropyl alcohol to wipe down the pipe and remove excess stain. My intent was not to create a new look for this pipe, but rather to restore the original colour. Finally, I took it to the buffer and used some White Diamond and a few coats of Conservator’s Wax. This pipe took a lot of work, but it was worth it. This Custom-Bilt looks fantastic again and is ready to be enjoyed again by the next owner! I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the ‘American’ pipe section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 4¾ in. (120 mm); height 5⅛ in. (130 mm); bowl diameter 1½ in. (38 mm); chamber diameter ⅞ in. (22 mm). The weight of the pipe is 2⅜ oz. (69 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I did restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Breathing Life into a Custombilt Imported Briar English Squat Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table came to us from an online auction in 2018 from Frisco, Texas, USA. The pipe is a classic Custombilt piece – a rusticated squat English Bulldog shaped pipe with some nice grain around the bowl. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Custombilt [over] Imported Briar. On the underside of the shank on the left it is stamped next to the stem/shank junction with the shape number 17. There was a lot of grime ground into the smooth and rusticated portions of the finish on the briar. The bowl was heavily caked with tobacco debris in the bowl. The rim top had an overflow of lava on the smooth rim top and inner edge of the rim. The inside edges looked to be in good condition. The stem was dirty and lightly oxidized. It had tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside near the button and on the button edge. There were not markings or a logo on the saddle stem. It had promise but it was very dirty. Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. He took photos of the rim top and bowl to give a clear picture of the thickness of the cake and tobacco debris as well as the light lava on the rim top. He also took photos of the top and underside of the stem to show the light oxidation and the chatter and tooth marks. Jeff took photos of the side and heel of the bowl to give a picture of what the briar looked like. The rustication pattern around the bowl is instantly recognizable as done by Custombilt. The stamping on the left topside and left underside of the shank is clear and readable and read as noted above.   I turned to Pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c8.html) to get a quick view of the brand once again. I knew that I was working with one of the older pipes and probably made by Tracy Mincer himself. He stopped making the Custom-Bilt pipes in the early 1950s. The screen capture I included below shows a brief history of the brand. I quote from the side bar in the above screen capture and have highlighted in red the pertinent part of the article.

Chunky bowls with rough carving or gouges.

Tracy Mincer stopped making Custom-Bilt pipes in the early 1950s. The trademark was successively bought by Leonard Rodgers (1953), Consolidated Cigars (1968) and Wally Frank Co. (early 1970s). The later began to produce again his version of the pipe in 1974 or 1975 at Weber pipe factory (NJ). In 1987, the pipes were made out of the Butz-Choquin factory (France) and then Mexico until the late 1990s. Currently (2010), the Custombilt name is owned by Tobacalera of Spain which is part of Altadis.

It is generally admitted (but not proved) pipes stamped “Custom – Bilt” (with the hyphen) are from the Mincer era. The name might have changed from Custom-Bilt to Custombilt (without the hyphen) in 1946.

I turned to Pipedia and found the following advertisement for the Custombilt line that I am working on (https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:Custombilt_Shapes.jpg). The logo on the advertisement is the same and the shape I have circled in red in the advert below is the same shape number as the one that I am working on.  The majority of the information on the rest of the site was two book reviews of the Custom-Bilt Story by Bill Unger. I did a screen capture of the stamping that matched the stamping on the pipe that I am working on. In the early 1970s, Wally Frank Co. bought the Custombilt trademark and began to produce their version of the pipe in 1974 or 1975. Hollco Rohr owned the Weber pipe factory, located in New Jersey, and produced the Custombilt pipes there.

Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe itself.  Jeff had cleaned up the pipe with his usual penchant for thoroughness. 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 and pipe cleaners. He soaked the stem in Before & After 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 on the front of the bowl. The stem surface looked very good with a few small tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button.    The stamping on top left of the shank is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above.I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. The wide saddle stem is nice and the photo shows the step down tenon.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 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.  The bowl was in excellent condition so started by rubbing 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 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 came alive.  I set the bowl aside and turned to work on the stem. 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. This Custombilt Imported Briar Squat English 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 multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax 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 Custombilt Bulldog is another pipe that 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 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 2 inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 48g/1.69oz. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store 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. There are many more to come!

Restoring the Third Custombilt from My Inheritance

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Blog by Paresh Deshpande

This is the third Custombilt pipe that I had brought to my place of work from my grandfather’s collection which I had inherited. I had professed my appreciation and liking for old Custom-Bilt pipes for their large size, shape, hand feel and the rustic looks. However, this one seems to be a Custombilt from a later era which is a surprise for me, more of it when I further research about it.

The Custombilt pipe that is now on my work table is a large Bull moose shaped pipe with a ¾ bent stem, having well defined large vertical rustications with very fine, thin horizontal linear rustications in between. This is a beautifully carved pipe with a classic shape and a thick shank. The stummel is distinctly divided in to two halves by two evenly spaced rings. The cap half is smooth while the lower stummel surface proudly displays the worm rustications. The large smooth rim top surface boasts of some beautiful bird’s eye grains. The worm rustications on this beauty are unlike the large scraggy ones seen on the Custom-Bilt Pot shaped and large Billiard pipes that I had restored in the last few days. The ones on this pipe are more evenly carved and evenly spaced. There is strip of smooth surface at the bottom extending from the shank to the foot of the stummel. The worm rustications extend from the side of this smooth surface on either sides and to the front of the stummel. It is indeed a beautiful looking pipe with a fantastic feel in the hand, beauty of which cannot be justified in words. It is stamped on the left side of the shank as “Custombilt” without a hyphen between the two words, in cursive hand over “IMPORTED BRIAR”, a commonly observed stamp on these pipes. There is no other stamping visible either on the stummel or the stem.To date having worked on 5 or 6 Custombilt pipes and researched each of them, I have a fair idea about dating these pipes based on the stampings seen on them. However, as is always said and emphasized in our pipe community, the mysteries about pipes never end!! The stampings on this pipe has proved this and how! In the cursive Custombilt stamping seen on this pipe, the lower part of C meets, no, originates from the top of the U while the upper portion extends to the left side of the cross of t, the horizontal cross itself barely reaching the next letter o!!

On pipedia.org, there is a brief description of the various stampings as researched by William E. Unger, Jr., PhD, which deals with the study of Custom-Bilt pipes, here is the link to the review of this book (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Custom-Bilt#Other_Comments).

There are three stamps which are shown and serve as a teaser for dating these Custombilt pipes (for more researched examples of stampings, you might consider purchase of a copy of your own!!). Well as of now, I don’t have one and if any one of the reader does, it is requested that the necessary information may please be shared with readers of rebornpipes.com, so that we all could learn and grow together.

With this unresolved mystery as regards dating this pipe (I think it is from later era of Custombilt pipes, even later than the Wally Frank era, but not sure!), I move ahead with my initial inspection.

INITIAL VISUAL INSPECTION
The chamber has a thick and even layer of cake. The condition of the inner walls of the chamber can be determined only after the cake has been completely reamed out down to the bare briar. The draught hole is dead center and at the bottom of the chamber. This should be a fantastic smoker. The slightly outward sloping smooth rim top surface has several minor dents and dings and has darkened surface on the right side. The inner edge of the rim has one bigger and many minor chips all around. This issue should be easily addressed by sanding down with a sand paper. The cap rings are in decent condition with just a couple of small chips towards the left and back of the stummel. As these chips are visible only on very close inspection and affects neither the aesthetics nor the smoking character of this pipe, I might as well let them be.The smooth bottomed stummel feels solid to the touch and makes for a nice fit in the hands of the smoker. The vertical worm rustication with its horizontal thin line rustications within makes for a visual treat. The stummel surface is relatively clean and without any dents, dings or chipped surfaces. The shank end has smooth surfaces on the sides and on top and bottom of the shank. These should polish up nicely and lend a distinct character to the pipe. The upper smooth half of the stummel including the rim top surface has some beautiful straight and bird’s eye grain respectively. This should turn out to be a beautiful and attractive looking pipe, I am sure. The mortise and the shank are clogged with accumulated dried oils, tars and grime and dirt. The draught hole too is constricted due to this accumulation (marked in yellow arrow). The draw is slightly hard and laborious and should ease out once the shank internals are cleaned out.The ¼ bent vulcanite stem is nice and thick at the tenon end and tapers slightly towards the button end. The stem is heavily oxidized in the bite zone due to use of a rubber bit, with heavy tooth chatter on either surfaces of the stem. The button edges including button surfaces are also damaged due to bite marks. The slot and tenon are also covered in dried oils and tars. The stem internals are clogged and would need a thorough cleaning up. THE PROCESS
I started the restoration of this beautiful pipe by first reaming the chamber with size 3 followed by size 4 head of the PipNet pipe reamer. The amount of cake dislodged from the chamber points to the fact that this would have been a favorite of my Grandfather!! With my fabricated knife, I removed the cake from areas where the reamer head could not reach. I followed this reaming with sanding the chamber walls with a folded piece of 220 grit sand paper to completely remove any residual cake. This also helps to smooth the walls of the chamber. I wiped the chamber with a cotton swab and alcohol to get rid of all the carbon dust and expose the bare briar of the chamber. The walls are solid and in good condition. However, the area around the draught hole is slightly charred and a few minor heat lines are visible around it. The heat lines seen around the draught hole are superficial and I address them by further sanding with a folded piece of 220 grit sand paper. I also removed the charred briar around the draught hole by scrapping it with my fabricated knife and the drilling attachment of a Kleen Ream tool. The chamber is now clean and all the issues are addressed to my satisfaction.I followed up the cleaning of the chamber with that of the shank internals. With a dental spatula, I first scrapped out all the accumulated dried crud and cleaned the mortise. The dried gunk so hard and tightly packed that I also had to use a round needle file to dislodge the gunk from within the air way. Using hard and regular pipe cleaners and alcohol, I cleaned the shank internals and the airway. A number of pipe cleaners later, the shank internals are clean and the draw is nice, smooth and even.The internal cleaning was followed by external cleaning of the stummel surface using Murphy’s Oil soap and a hard bristled tooth brush. I also used a brass wired brush to diligently clean out all the dirt and grime from within the worm rustications. With a shank brush and dish washing soap, I thoroughly cleaned the shank internals and the mortise. I dried the bowl with paper napkins and soft cotton cloth. With the stummel set aside to dry out naturally, it was time to move ahead with the stem restoration. I cleaned the stem internals with pipe cleaners and alcohol. With the sharp flat end of a dental tool, I scrubbed the dried out oils and tars from the slot area and also from the tenon end of the stem that seats in the mortise. I cleaned the stem surface with a cotton swab and alcohol.I flamed the bite zone with the flame of a lighter. The heating of the vulcanite raised the tooth chatter to the surface and I followed it with a light sanding with a piece of 220 grit sand paper to even out the surface around the bite zone. Using a flat head needle file, I reshaped and sharpened the button and button edges. This was followed by sanding the entire stem surface with 400 followed by 600, 800 and 1000 grit sand papers to remove the oxidation. I finished the sanding with a 0000 grade steel wool. Using progressively higher grit sand papers helps in a smooth surface while minimizing the sanding marks left behind by the more abrasive sanding papers. I wiped the stem with a small amount of Extra Virgin Olive oil and set it aside to be absorbed by the stem surface. With the stem being set aside to hydrate, I move back to the stummel and sand the smooth rim top surface with a piece of folded 220 grit sand paper. This step took care of the dents and dings on the surface. I also worked the inner edge of the rim with the same piece of sand paper and evened out the numerous dings from the inner rim edge. I wiped the rim top with a moistened cotton swab to remove the resulting sanding dust. Most of the dents and dings on the rim top and edge were addressed thus. Subsequent micromesh polishing will further reduce what little dents and dings that remained. A few minor and insignificant dings that may remain, I intend to let them be as they are a part of this dude’s journey to date.The next evening, I decided to move ahead with polishing and completing the stem. I followed up the sanding regime with micromesh polishing to bring a shine on the stem surface. I wet sand the stem with 1500 to 2400 girt micromesh pads. Continuing with my experimentations that I had spelled out in my previous posts, I mount a cotton buffing wheel on my hand held rotary tool and polish the stem with Red Rouge polish. Further, I mount a fresh buffing wheel on the rotary tool and polish the stem with White Diamond polish. I finish the stem polish by wet sanding with 6000 to 12000 grit pads of the micromesh. I rub a small quantity of olive oil in to the stem surface to hydrate it and set it aside again. I am really happy with this process of stem polishing as the results are excellent while saving me huge amounts of time and effort. With the stem polishing now completed, I moved ahead with micromesh polishing of the smooth surfaces on the stummel (the rim top surface, the smooth portions at the shank end and the bottom of the stummel). I polished the stummel by wet sanding with 1500 to 12000 micromesh pads. The briar stummel is looking really good at this stage of restoration!! Next, I wiped the stummel surface with a moist cloth to remove all the sanding dust left behind by the micromesh pads, paying diligent attention to the areas between the worm rustications. I rubbed a small quantity of “Before and After Restoration Balm” in to the briar with my finger tips and let it rest for a few minutes. The balm almost immediately works its magic and the briar now has a nice vibrant appearance with the beautiful worm rustication patterns on full display. I have been using this balm ever since I embarked on this journey and it is this part of restoration that I always look forward to. I further buff it with a horse hair shoe brush. I mount a cotton cloth buffing wheel on to my hand held rotary tool and apply a coat of Blue Diamond to the smooth surfaces of the stummel and the stem to polish out the minor scratches. The final step in completing this project is to give the entire pipe a nice wax polish. I apply a coat of carnauba wax and continue to work on it till the complete coat of wax had been polished out. I mount a clean cotton cloth buffing wheel and give the entire pipe a once over buff. This step not only removes any excess wax from the surface but also finger prints that inadvertently are left behind. I complete the restoration by giving the entire pipe a rigorous hand buff using a microfiber cloth to raise the shine further. The finished pipe looks amazingly beautiful and is now ready for its long second innings with me… Cheers!!

 

New Life for an old Custombilt Apple

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have always been intrigued by Tracy Mincer and his Custom-Bilt pipes and even his Custombilt pipes like this one. There is something about the rugged carving and appearance of the pipes that gets my attention. I have a few of them in my collection and always enjoy the tactile nature of the pipe when it is being smoked. This old apple has the Custombilt stamp and I had reacquainted myself with the eras of the various spellings of the brand so that I can place it along with the previous billiard within the Rich Era. The pipe was in pretty decent condition when Jeff received it – dirty but really not too bad. The finish was dusty and dirty in the worm trail carvings. The bowl had a thick cake in it that flowed over the rim top into the rustication. The inner edge of the bowl appeared have some damage toward to the front but that would not be clear until it was reamed. The rim top had some deep scratches and gouges toward the right front. The stem had some deep tooth marks on both sides at the button but otherwise was in decent condition. The smooth part of the shank stamped Custombilt in script on the left side. On a smooth panel on the heel of the bowl it is stamped Imported Briar. Jeff took these pictures of the pipe to show its condition before he started his cleanup work. He took close up photos of the rim top and the side and bottom of the bowl to show the condition of the briar and the bowl. You can see the cake in the bowl and the lava overflowing onto the top of the rim. The worm trail rustication is quite dusty and dirty. He took a photo of the stamping on the left shank side and the heel of the bowl.The photos of the stem show the tooth chatter and marks on both sides of the stem near the button and the wear on the button itself.I did the research on the brand when I worked on the previous Custombilt that I restored earlier today (https://rebornpipes.com/2019/01/18/bringing-an-old-custombilt-billiard-to-back-to-life/). I have included much of that here for you to read. It comes from a great article on Pipedia that helps understand the brand and give a sense of what the various stamping looks like on the pipes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Custom-Bilt). I cite from that article to give a feel for the brand:

In 1946, the name was changed to Custombilt after Mincer began an association with Eugene J. Rich, Inc. There were some big changes in advertising and distribution. The slogan “AS INDIVIDUAL AS A THUMBPRINT” began at this time as well.

In 1953, Leonard Rodgers bought the company and emphasized tobacco pouches and butane lighters. (However, it appears Mincer was working on his new pipe, the Doodler.) In 1968, Rodgers sold the Company to Consolidated Cigars. In the early 1970s, Wally Frank Co. bought the Custombilt trademark and began to produce their version of the pipe in 1974 or 1975. Hollco Rohr owned the Weber pipe factory, located in New Jersey, and produced the Custombilt pipes there. In 1987, the pipes were made out of the Butz-Choquin factory (France) and then Mexico until the late 1990s. Currently, the Custombilt name is owned by Tobacalera of Spain.

Along with the information above I found that the stamping that is on this pipe is identical to that identified in the article as Stamp Number Five. I have included that graphic because of the information that it included. It brings some of the issues in identifying the maker and the time period of the brand. In my mind the pipe I have in hand is very much like the Rich era pipes that I have seen and the note below says that. Interestingly the author also says he has seen the same stamping on the Wally Frank era pipes. It is a fascinating piece of history and a beautifully made old pipe.Armed with that information I turned to working on the pipe. Jeff had cleaned the pipe with his usual thoroughness – reaming the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaning up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the bowl, shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior with Murphy’s Oil Soap to clean off the dust and grime on the finish. The rim top looked very good under the thick lava coat. I love the way the grain of the briar shows through the rustication. There were just a few nicks and scratches to deal with. The inside of the bowl itself looked great. The stem was in great condition other than the tooth marks on both sides near the button. I took photos of the pipe before I started working on it. I took some close up photos of the rim top, bowl and stem to show what they looked like after Jeff’s cleanup. The rim top has some darkening around the top and the edges. There is also some nicks and scratches on the surface ant the edges. Some are quite deep looking. The stem was in good shape other than the tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button.  I took some photos of the stamping which seemed far more visible after Jeff’s cleanup than before.I worked on the  rim top and inner edge damage first. I gently topped the bowl to remove the deep cuts and gouges and smooth out the damage. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to  further clean up the inner edge and leave it smooth. I polished the sanded rim top with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. You can see the progress in the photos below. I stained the rim with three different stain pens – Cherry, Walnut and Mahogany. It still needed to be blended in a bit but the match of colour is perfect. I buffed it on the buffing wheel with Blue Diamond polish. The second photo shows the polished rim top. The match is good.Since the briar was in such good condition I started with rejuvenating the wood. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the rustication and worm trails on the bowl and the rim top. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the wood. Once the bowl was covered with the balm I let it sit for about 20 minutes and buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth and then polished it with a microfiber cloth. I took photos of the pipe at this point in the process to show what the bowl looked like at this point. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I decided to address the deep tooth marks on both sides of the stem ahead of the button. I filled in the tooth marks on the both sides of the stem with a clear super glue (Jeff had already cleaned the stem very well so it was not an issue). I set the stem aside to let the repairs cure.Once the repair had cured I used a flat blade needle file to sharpen the edge of the button on both sides of the stem. I also used it to flatten out the repairs. I worked on the remaining repaired areas with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surface of the stem. I polished the stem with Denicare Mouthpiece Polish to take out the oxidation at the button edge and on the end of the mouthpiece. I also worked hard to scrub it from the surface of the stem at the tenon end.I polished repaired areas on the stem, button and blade with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. Once I had finished the polishing I gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. I put the bowl and stem back together. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out any light scratches that remained in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I 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 pretty nicely. The worm trail rusticated finish on this Rich era Custombilt and the smooth portion around the cap on the rim and shank turned out very nice and shows the grain shining through. It has the kind of rustic beauty that draws collectors to them after all of these years. The contrast of the worm trails with the grain swirling through them looked good with the polished black vulcanite. This Custombilt Apple will soon be joining the other pipes I have on the rebornpipes store. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 1/2 inches, Height: 1 7/8 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.