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Renewing Paw’s Kaywoodie “500” Round Shank Bulldog – The Third Pipe of a Great Grandfather’s Legacy

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Blog by Dal Stanton

This Kaywoodie “500” is the final of three pipes Joe sent.  It belonged to Paw, Joe’s wife’s great grandfather.  I’ve enjoyed learning about Paw, or ‘2-Page Sam’, the name given to him by his fellow workers of Brown & Williamson Tobacco, Corp, founded in the 1800s in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In the restoration of the first of three, a Medico Apollo Brylon (See: Another Legacy Pipe of a Great-Grandfather: Challenges Working with ‘Brylon’ on a Medico Apollo) an article in the B&W Tobacco, Co.’s company magazine, Pipeline, Sam’s 43-year career was showcased and it described how he became known as ‘2-Page Sam’.  As a salesman for the tobacco company, Sam’s daily goal was to secure enough orders from clients he would visit, ‘Ma & Pa’ establishments mostly, to reach page two of the order book for the day.  This company-wide work ethic, along with how the article captures Sam’s sincere respect for people – his fellow M&W employees and supervisors as well as the normal working-class people he sold to that made his livelihood possible.   Joe sent the picture on the left, below, of Sam among fellow employees of B&W.  I’m not sure which one is Sam but, my guess is the top, fourth man from the left!  The picture on the right is Sam (standing on the right) – capturing a moment in an age long gone.The second of Sam’s pipes that I just restored (See: Bringing to Life a Unique Kaywoodie Natural Burl 33 – Another Legacy Pipe of a Great Grandfather) was a rarer, Kaywoodie ‘Natural Burl’ 33, Apple shape.  It turned out very, very well and even included the collaborative help of Bill Feuerbach, Kaywoodie’s – or more correctly, S. M. Frank Co.’s, president, the holding company of Kaywoodie, Medico and Yello Bole.  The last of the three is on the worktable now, the Kaywoodie “500” IMPORTED BRIAR US Pat. 2808837 50C.  Here are a few pictures to take a closer look. The nomenclature on both sides of the shank is clear.  The left flank is stamped KAYWOODIE [over] “500” [over] IMPORTED BRIAR [over] PAT. 2808837.  The right side of the shank is stamped with the Kaywoodie shape number, ‘50C’.  The stem holds the classic inlaid Kaywoodie shamrock or clover. The first interesting aspect about this Kaywoodie is the shape designation.  When I first saw pictures of the pipe that Joe sent, I made the immediate identification of the shape to be a compact Rhodesian.  When I looked up the Kaywoodie shape number in the extensive list provided by kwguy originally in the Kaywoodie forum listed also in Pipepedia’s listing, the description surprised me:

50C Small bulldog, round shank 1960-1963

My main pipe shape ‘go to’ is Bill Burney’s Pipedia’s Pipe Shapes  where the debate is described:In deference to Kaywoodie, I’ll call Paw’s pipe a small Round Shank Bulldog.  What was also helpful is that the short period that the Round Shank Bulldog was in production is small – 1960 to 63.  Pipephil.eu’s comments on Kaywoodie’s
500 and 600 series were that they were cheaper, low-end pipes that ran through the period: 1959 – 1967.  It’s probable that Paw’s Kaywoodie “500” Round Shank Bulldog which isolates it as a “500” that was marketed between 60 to 63, cost him $5.95.  The 1962 Kaywoodie catalog page that Bill Feuerbach provided to include in the restoration write-up of Paw’s Kaywoodie Natural Burl, also included an ‘All New Kaywoodie “500”’ advertisement.  Bill’s explanation of the page below indicated that the cost of the pipe, $5.95, identified it as the 1962 catalog which would have encompassed the 1960 to 1963 timeframe of the round shank Bulldog production. The Kaywoodie “500” add also touts a “Syncro-Lok Stem” and a “New Miracle Finish” which lasts for years.  The “Syncro-Lok Stem” was a component part of the US Pat. 2808837 which is stamped as part of the “500” nomenclature.  According to Pipedia’s Kaywoodie article, the 1957 Pat. 2808837 applies specifically to the metal on metal fittings developed by Kaywoodie (Picture below courtesy of Doug Valitchka).  It was interesting for me recently to hear Bill Feuerbach, president of S. M. Frank Co., describing the era of Kaywoodie’s metal fitments coming to a close in his January, 2016, interview with Brian Levine on the  Pipes Magazine Radio Show.  Some reasons discussed were the changing landscape of pipe smokers where ease of cleaning and the fact that today’s pipe smoker, representing a younger generation, is not using the pipe as rigorously as those of earlier generations.  The other primal reason that Bill gave were the economics – the company that had manufactured these parts for Kaywoodie no longer was in business and finding a replacement ended up not making economic sense. With a better understanding of the Kaywoodie “500” on my worktable, I now take a closer look at the Bulldog’s issues.  The cake in the chamber is not thick in the upper chamber, but tightens toward the floor of the chamber. The rim is classic ‘2-Page Sam’ as it has sustained Sam’s rushed knocking damage on the aft quadrant of the rim – but it’s not severe.  As with the other 2 pipes, and with Paw’s Kaywoodie “500” Long Shank Billiard that I restored for Joe last year, this “500”’s rim will also carry these marks in remembrance of Paw. The internal edge of the rim has a large divot which I will repair.  The rest of the rim shows some grime and nicks on the external edge which one would expect.  The finish on the “500” series to me is not preferred.  In the Kaywoodie “500” add above it describes the finish as a “New Miracle Finish” which lasts for years.  As with the other “500”, to me the acrylic-like finish is not as attractive as a natural briar shine.  The ‘candy apple’ shine I will remove in order to reveal better the grain beneath.  The stem is thick with deep residual oxidation and the bit is caked with calcium deposits.  There is tooth chatter, but the button seems to be in good shape.One last issue is that the Kaywoodie screw in stem is slightly under clocked.  This will need a small adjustment and may even correct itself through the cleaning.  With the help of my mouse and box of matches, I’m able to show the stem’s orientation.To begin the restoration of the last of Paw’s pipes, I start by working on the stem. I first clean the internal airway with pipe cleaners wetted with isopropyl 95%.  In order to reach through the tight quarters of the 3-hole stinger, a shank brush is used to help clean.To get a jump on dealing with the oxidation and calcium deposits, I take the stem to the kitchen sink and use a Soft-Scrub-like product here in Bulgaria called CIT.  Using 000 steel wool, I scrub the stem with the CIT cleaner.  The results look good, but I’ll probably use 240 sanding on the stem after seeing how the soak with Before & After Deoxidizer goes.The Kaywoodie “500” stem then joins other pipes in the queue for a soak in the Deoxidizer. After a few hours in the soak, the Kaywoodie’s stem is taken from the Deoxidizer and drained of the excess fluid to save it for future use!  After I squeegee the liquid with my fingers, I again use a pipe cleaner wetted with isopropyl 95% to clear the remaining Deoxidizer from the stem’s airway and a cotton pad, wetted with alcohol, is used to wipe away oxidation raised by the soaking process.Then, to condition the vulcanite stem, paraffin oil, a mineral oil, is applied to the stem and set aside to absorb.Turning to the Kaywoodie “500” Bulldog stummel, the chamber has cake that thickens as it moves toward the chamber floor.  To remove this cake buildup, the smallest blade of the Pipnet Reaming Kit goes to work on the small chamber.  After using only this blade head, the Savinelli Fitsall Tool is employed to further scrape the chamber walls removing more carbon cake buildup.  Next, using 240 grade paper wrapped around a Sharpie Pen, the last vestiges of carbon are removed from the chamber wall.  After wiping the chamber with a cotton pad wetted with alcohol to clean the carbon dust residue, an inspection reveals a healthy chamber. Transitioning now to the external cleaning, the rim has some darkening from lighting and light lava flow. The stummel has normal grime. The second picture below shows the shininess of the acrylic-like finish.  I’m interested to see how the finish holds up through the cleaning.Undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap is used on a cotton pad to begin the external cleaning.  A brass wired brush is also used to clean the rim.  After some cleaning, the stummel is taken to the kitchen sink where with shank brushes and anti-oil liquid dishwashing soap is used to clean the mortise and airway using warm water.  After a good scrubbing, the stummel is rinsed thoroughly and after returning to the worktable, I take a picture to show the results of the cleaning.Next, returning to cleaning the internals, I use cotton buds with pipe cleaners wetted with isopropyl 95% to do the job.  The metal threaded shank insert is small, and this makes it difficult for the cotton buds to exit with their buds!  The buds are pulling off the sticks in the close quarters and that makes retrieval difficult.  I discover in the end, if I ‘unscrew’ the buds when extracting them, the threads help instead of grabbing the buds.  This makes cleaning a bit slower.  A small dental spoon is helpful is scraping the mortise walls and excavating old tars and congealed oils.  Another helpful technique was folding two bristled pipe cleaners and twisting the ends together.  This provides the action of 4 pipe cleaners in the mortise at one time enhancing the cleaning action.  In time, the buds are coming out lighter and I transition to cleaning with a kosher salt and alcohol soak.The hour is late, and I’ll let the soak go through the night.  Kosher salt and isopropyl 95% are used for the soak and this method of cleaning helps to freshen the internals for the new steward.  I first fashion a ‘wick’ by pulling and twisting a cotton ball.  It is then inserted and guided down the mortise and airway with the aid of a stiff wire.The chamber is then filled with kosher salt, which leaves no aftertaste, and placed in an egg carton for stability.  Using a large eyedropper, the chamber is then filled with isopropyl 95% until surfacing over the salt.  After a time, the alcohol is absorbed, and I top the bowl off once more with alcohol and turn out the lights.The next morning, I discover that the salt and wick have soiled little which usually is a good indicator that last night’s cleaning was effective.  After tossing the expended salt in the waste and clearing the salt from the stummel with the use of paper towel and by blowing through the mortise, I use a few more pipe cleaners to complete the internal cleaning.Next, I take another look at the stummel surface and finish.  As with Paw’s Kaywoodie “500” I restored for Joe last year, the candy apple shine of the acrylic-like Kaywoodie finish lingers.  My preference is to remove the finish and to get down to the natural briar.Another reason for removing the old finish is the fact that it’s already been removed on the rim from Paw’s knocking on the back side of the rim.  Raw briar is already exposed here but the wear on the rim edge also shows where the finish is either gone or very thin.The most efficient way I found to remove the Kaywoodie “500” finish from my previous experience is with acetone.  Starting with cotton pads I incessantly rub the surface with the cotton pads wetted with acetone.  From the very beginning, the red dye begins to show on the cotton pads as the acetone breaks down the old finish.The next picture shows the progress on the stummel surface.  The shiny surface indicates old finish hanging on.  Next to it, you can see splotches of dull surface – the goal!The progress is slow with the cotton pads, so I transition to utilizing 000 steel wool wetted with acetone.  This does the trick as the following pictures show.  I’m amazed at the grain that I can now see, and it’s not half bad!  Even though I do not prefer the thick acrylic-like finish, the upside of it at this point is that it has successfully protected the stummel’s surface from damage.  Most of the nicks and scratches that could be seen before were superficial damage to the finish shell and not to the briar.  As I inspect the stummel, I’m seeing a practically pristine surface. Before moving further with the stummel’s finishing, the divot on the rim needs attention.  It’s located on the internal edge just in front of Paw’s skinned rim backside.  It’s small but filling it will provide a better rim presentation.I fill the divot by mixing a very small amount of thick CA glue with briar putty.  After placing both the briar dust and glue on the mixing palette, I use a toothpick to draw the briar dust into the glue until it reaches the thickness of molasses at which time I apply it to the divot. I use an accelerator to quicken the curing time of the patch.  I next use both flat and half-round needle files to remove the excess briar putty patch.After doing the primary removal with the needle files, 240 grade sanding paper finishes the patch blending at this point.With the 240 paper in hand, I do a quick internal rim edge sanding.  There is a dark ring remaining on most of the internal rim that is cleaned up.Taking a close look at the rims condition, there are nicks throughout the external rim’s edge.  There are also pits here and there which need cleaning.I decide to do a very gentle cosmetic topping of the stummel to clean the rim and give it a fresh definition.  Using the chopping board for my topping board, I first place 240 grade paper on it.  With the stummel inverted, I give the bowl a few rotations and check. Then, after a few more rotations, I’m satisfied.  I’m not concerned with Paw’s aft knocking damage – that remains.  I’m concerned that the rest of the rim enjoys fresh rim lines.  This is especially with a Rhodesian and Bulldog – the twin dome lines that encircle the bowl give these pipes their unique shapes. Then, switching to 600 grade paper on the topping board, the stummel goes a few more rotations to smooth things out further.Next, I use sanding sponges to further erase minuscule nicks and scratches and to start the process of coaxing out the grain that has been waiting beneath the heavy finish.  Starting the sanding with a coarse sponge is followed with a medium then light grade sponge. I avoid the nomenclature except with the final sponge. HOLD THE PRESS! – At this point I had moved into the process of applying the full regimen of micromesh pads to the “500” and Steve had published a really good write up on rebornpipes that caught my attention which I was reading as I sanded (See: Operation Rescue – “My Dog Ate my Ser Jacopo L1 Billiard!”).  He described the process of applying rustication, a skill that I’ve not had too much experience with, and I was very interested in the processes he described.  One of these processes that dovetailed with my current musings about the Kaywoodie “500” on my table was the staining process.  Steve described in his write-up using a black undercoat stain followed by a mahogany on the smooth briar parts of his project (See picture).  He also described the reasoning and the other micro steps leading into and out of this process. The motif of the Kaywoodie “500” series is obviously red, but the grain underneath is dark to stand out in contrast to the light wood.  Last year when I restored Paw’s other Kaywoodie “500” I had used a dark brown undercoat followed by an Oxblood overcoat.  This achieved results that emulated very well the “500” red theme.  The question in my mind after reading Steve’s write-up was the use of black versus dark brown.  I sent Steve an email with that question that resulted in several emails back and forth where Steve responded to more questions raised about how his approach to undercoat staining was different than what I had done and probably, much more effective in creating the affects desired.  Without repeating the full email chain, the process difference that I’m trying out with the Kaywoodie “500” from Steve’s input is to move the undercoating process before the micromesh process and to focus more on the undercoat process of removal of the excess dye.  So, now you know why the presses are on hold!

Therefore, I stop the micromesh process mid-stream and plan to insert Steve’s approach to provide an undercoat and see how it goes!  Regarding the question of the use of black or dark brown for the undercoat, Steve saw no difference in the two.  I understand why now – the point of an undercoat is to darken the grain threads for the most part and in his approach, the undercoat is, in large measure, removed but for these effects.  I decide to apply Fiebing’s Dark Brown Leather Dye as the undercoat.  I assemble on my desktop the needed components.  With spring in full swing here in Sofia, I’m working on my 10th floor Man Cave balcony and enjoying the views while I work.  To begin, after wiping the bowl with alcohol to clean it, I warm the stummel with a hot air gun (inside again for a few minutes).  This warms the briar with the result of opening the grain to be more receptive to the dye.  Then, back on the Man Cave, I use a folded pipe cleaner to paint the aniline dye onto sections of the briar surface.  While still wet, the lit candle ‘flames’ the dye.  The flame combusts the alcohol in the dye leaving behind pigmentation in the grain.  I cycle around the bowl painting and flaming twice to make sure the coverage is thorough.  I then put the stummel aside for the initial undercoat to dry.  The following pictures show the dense appearance of the flamed surface.Turning now to the stem, there is very little chatter on the bit. The lower side pictured in the second picture only has a small button compression that I will address.Deep oxidation is still hanging on especially on the shank side of the stem.  The lighter exposure of the picture helps to show what I can see with the naked eye.To address the lower bit button compression, I use the heating method of expanding the vulcanite, a rubber compound.  With the flame of a Bic lighter, the bit is painted and as the vulcanite heats, the dent hopefully reclaims lost territory.  The result is good.  Only sanding will be necessary.The flat needle file is used to freshen the button and 240 grade paper sands the bit, and the minor chatter is erased.I expand the 240 sanding to the entire stem to address the latent oxidation.  I do not relish the thought of the oxidation emerging during the later polishing stages.  I use a plastic disk I fabricated for this purpose that I pinch up against the stem facing to guard against shouldering the edge of the stem.  The disk works well to maintain a crisp facing.Next, the entire stem is wet sanded with 600 grade paper followed by an application of 000 grade steel wool.  The 3-hole stinger also receives attention from the steel wool.The stem is now ready for the full regimen of micromesh pads beginning with wet sanding using pads 1500 to 2400 and followed by dry sanding with pads 3200 to 4000 and 6000 to 12000.  Between each set of 3 pads, Obsidian oil is applied to condition the stem and to guard against future oxidation setting in.  The Kaywoodie “500” stem looks great. Turning again to the stummel, per Steve’s description I use 430 grade paper to sand off the dried excess undercoat.I combine the sanding with wiping the stummel with a cotton pad wetted with alcohol.  This helps to remove the excess and to allow the grain to come through more.At this point I transition to applying the full regimen of micromesh pads from 1500 to 12000 in 3 pad increments – 1500 to 2400, 3200 to 4000, and 6000 to 12000.  The point of the undercoat is darkening and giving greater definition to the grain.  The progression of the micromesh process shows this to be the case. Next is the overcoat staining with the new red aniline dye I acquired.  I’m hoping to get close to the Kaywoodie “500” red finish hue.  I used Fiebing’s Oxblood as the overcoat last time.  I approach this overcoat stain as if it were the first coat.I begin by heating the stummel with the hot air gun to open the briar’s receptivity to the dye.Next, using a folded pipe cleaner, I paint the red dye on the stummel.  I discover at the first attempt to flame the dye with the lit candle, that there wasn’t enough alcohol content in it to combust.  The application of the dye transitioned into a dye wash – hmm.  I paint the dye on to get a thorough coverage.  I repeat the process once more to make sure all was covered well with the dye. Afterwards, I set the dye aside to dry.  I’m a bit concerned at this point that the red dye may not have enough resonance or depth in it.  It seems to light or pale at this point.I decide to unwrap the finish using Blue Diamond compound and a cotton cloth buffing wheel on the Dremel.  The Dremel is set at about 40% full power.After removing the dye excess my concerns were confirmed.  The new red dye mixture that I used was not ‘grabbed’ by the grain to create much of a red tent over the dark brown undercoating.  I take a quick picture on the black cloth I normally use for the finish shots at the end of the restoration to see what the camera might see.  The finish looks great – the grain looks great, but the color of the Kaywoodie “500” is falling short of expectations. Last time I worked on Paw’s other Kaywoodie “500”, I used an Oxblood over dark brown and it turned out well.  I know my processes have changed up somewhat, but I have a foundation of dark brown undercoating that has been brought down to a darkened grain presentation.  On top of that, the red dye added something… and now, Fiebing’s aniline Oxblood Leather Dye on top of that.  The only thing I do to prepare the surface for the Oxblood is to wipe it well with a cotton pad wetted with alcohol.  Interestingly, almost no dye residue came off after the red wash.  Now using Fiebing’s Oxblood, I apply the dye, flame it, and set the stummel aside to rest for several hours – overnight.  Even at this ‘raw’ state, I can see a marked difference in the dye’s resonance.The next morning, the fire-dyed stummel is ‘unwrapped’ using my normal process, with a felt buffing wheel and Tripoli compound with the Dremel set at the slowest speed.  I take a picture midstream to show the contrast between the flamed shell and the unwrapped briar surface.  The difference is marked.  As the surface is unwrapped, I purge the felt wheel many times during the process by running the felt wheel against the edge of the lapboard I’m working on.  This keeps the felt wheel cleaners and more supple.  The picture below shows the caking on the wheel that happens as the wheel does the plowing. I follow by wiping the stummel with a cotton pad wetted with alcohol.  This lightens the finish some but helps to remove excess dye build up and help to blend the finish.Next, after changing to a cotton cloth buffing wheel set at about 40% full power and after reuniting stem and stummel, Blue Diamond compound is applied to the entire pipe. Tripoli is a coarser abrasive and Blue Diamond is finer, and less abrasive as the fine sanding is completed. After completion, I use a felt cloth rag to buff/clean the pipe of compound dust in preparation for the application of wax.In the homestretch – after changing the cotton cloth buffing wheel and leaving the speed of the Dremel at 40%, carnauba wax is applied to the entire pipe – stem and stummel.  Following this, the pipe is given a rigorous hand buffing with a microfiber cloth to raise the shine.After some twists and turns trying out new processes and a new dye, I’m pleased with the results.  I believe the undercoating advice that Steve provided certainly deepened the signature of the darker grains.  Paw’s Kaywoodie “500” 50C Round Shank Bulldog is looking good with a classy, sharp presentation, and I believe the Oxblood works well to bring out the deeper red tones of the Kaywoodie “500” series.  Paw’s signature remains on the back side of the rim with the shadow of Paw’s penchant for knocking and a reminder of the man he was as ‘2-Page Sam’.  It was a privilege bringing life back to this Kaywoodie “500” for Joe and Hannah and preserving a great grandfather’s legacy to his family. Moreover, Joe’s commissioning of this restoration benefits the Daughters of Bulgaria – women and girls who have been trafficked and sexually exploited. Thanks Joe!, and thanks to all, for joining me!

Bringing to Life a Unique Kaywoodie Natural Burl 33 – Another Legacy Pipe of a Great Grandfather

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Blog by Dal Stanton

This is the second of 3 of Paw’s pipes that Joe sent to me from Athens, Greece, where he and his wife, Hannah, live and work.  Paw is Hannah’s great grandfather who left behind several pipes that Joe has asked me to restore for the family.  Paw, also known as, ‘2-Page Sam’ by those who knew him as a salesman of over 40 years of the tobacco giant, Brown & Williamson Tobacco, Corp, has a fascinating story that was described in an article in B&W’s company magazine that I included in the write up of Paw’s Medico Apollo Brylon, which I just completed that turned out well (See: Another Legacy Pipe of a Great-Grandfather: Challenges Working with ‘Brylon’ on a Medico Apollo).  Next, two Kaywoodies remain to be restored – a Kaywoodie “500” and the one on my worktable now, a Kaywoodie Natural Burl 33.  Here are pictures to take a closer look. The nomenclature is on the underside of the shank’s smooth briar panel with ‘KAYWOODIE’ (as most of it is not legible as the upper half of ‘Kaywoodie’ bleeds into the craggy rusticated landscape) [over] ‘Natural Burl’ in fancy cursive script. To the left of the nomenclature is stamped the Kaywoodie shape number of 33.  In Pipedia’s listings of Kaywoodie shape numbers, 33 is listed as: “Large apple, rounded top” that was used as a shape designator from 1937 to 1972.The dating indicators of this Kaywoodie are good.  The Natural Burl has a 4-holed stinger which were phased out at the end of the 1950s, though they still show up some in the 60s according to Pipephil.eu’s discussion about Kaywoodie’s stinger evolution.  The inlaid white shamrock also points to an earlier period.I found nothing specific in Pipedia or Pipephil.eu about Kaywoodie’s ‘Natural Burl’ line.  Expanding my search, I did find very helpful anecdotal information in a February, 2013, thread by ‘kwguy’ on a Kaywoodie discussion group on Tapatalk.com:

Natural Burls are in the catalogs from 1957 to 1962. They were $4.00 when they first came out and $5.00 by the time they were discontinued.  They were basically a stained version of the Coral White Briar, which also debuted in 1957.  The overall rough texture was described in the catalogs as having a rough texture like the outside of the burl.  The rough texture in theory would create more surface area for a cooler feeling bowl.  Carving of this type was done on bowls of less desirable grain and with excessive surface imperfections.  On the lower side of the quality scale, Natural Burls would have had the white cloverleaf.  There may have been the occasional higher grade pipe that was downgraded during production and hence would have the round logo, but I think you’ll mostly see them with the white logos.

Based upon the information of this thread, the Natural Burl Apple before me dates from 1957 to 1962, when they were featured in Kaywoodie catalogs. I looked for a catalog during this period online, but unfortunately, I was unable to find one.  The rusticated or carved surface theoretically provides a cooler feeling bowl.  This pipe fits Sam’s low budget approach to his pipes.  When the Natural Burl Apple first hit the market, it was in a working man’s modest budget range, $4!  I’m hopeful that after I’ve completed working on Paw’s vintage Kaywoodie it will look like a million bucks!

The above thread from ‘kwguy’ also mentions that the ‘Natural Burl’ line was featured in Kaywoodie catalogs from 1957 to 1962.  There are Kaywoodie catalogs and adds referenced on Pipedia and the Chris Keene Directory of Pictures, but I could find nothing in these ‘go-to’ places for catalogs or listing between 57 and 62.  Emails to Steve and rebornpipes contributor, Al Jones, also came up empty.  However, Al encouraged me to reach out to Bill Feuerbach, the current president of S.M. Frank with Kaywoodie production in New York.  Al said that Bill had always been helpful and had seemed to enjoy providing info.  Nothing like going to the top of the pipe food chain!  I sent a note to Bill through the S.M. Frank website as well as to the ‘kwguy’ in the Natural Burl thread with the hope of getting a response and perhaps a historical Natural Burl add!

Al’s suggestion to me paid off!  In a few days I received a response from Bill Feuerbach, president of S.M. Frank since taking over the role from his father in 1990 as the fourth generation of Feuerbachs overseeing the company.  Bill’s note to me:

Dal 

I’d love to be able to help you out with that. I’ve looked through what I have at the shop and most of those catalogs are later 60’s to later 70’s.  I’m sure I’ll have those older catalogs from that range at home.  I’ll try and check tonight.

Best regards

Bill

After arriving home that night, Bill sent an additional note that he hadn’t found anything at his home and would redouble his efforts the following day at the shop to find the sought after ’57 to 62’ catalog pages.  Then, this note came in and the treasure hunt ended with success!

Dal

Success!!  I found the catalogs at home.  They were in a storage tub in the downstairs closet. Funny I don’t remember putting them there. It’s probably been 4 years since I referenced them. It is hell getting old, CRS is kicking in.

Anyway, I’ve attached three images from the 1958, 1960 and 1962 catalogs.  I was only using my phone to take pictures and it was difficult not to get any flash or glare.  Are they ok?  You can tell the year by the retail prices for the Natural Burl.

1958- $4.00

1960- $5.00

1962- $5.95

Let me know when you’ve posted this and the link. I’d like to take a look.  If you have any other questions let me know. If in the future you need other images from the catalogs, let me know.

Best regards

Bill

The images Bill sent were great depicting the Kaywoodie presentation of the Natural Burl line.  Both the 1960 and 1962 pages, second and third below, showcase the Large Apple on my worktable.  The pictures and descriptions are great helping to wrap Paw’s pipe in its historical context! I appreciated the help of Bill Feuerbach, president of the S. M. Frank Co. & Inc. based in New Windsor, New York.  The Frank website not only showcases the Kaywoodie, Yello-Bole and Medico brand lines, but has other interesting information as well.  In my email response to Bill, I offered to digitize the ‘treasure tubs’ of Kaywoodie catalogs and adds if I only lived a bit closer to his neighborhood!  Oh my….

As I was waiting for word from Bill before he found the catalogs, I reread the Pipedia article on the S.M Frank Co. and discovered at the bottom of the article a reference to Brian Levine’s interview of Bill on the Pipes Magazine Radio Show.  I tuned in to learn more about Bill and the Kaywoodie name.  I was interested to hear in the interview that not only is Bill the CEO of the company, but he is an accomplished freehand pipe maker himself, likes single malts and owns and enjoys pipes in his rotation other than Kaywoodies!  It was a great interview and I encourage readers to tune in too!

The name for this Kaywoodie series, ‘Natural Burl’, harkens back to a pipe’s origins – or at least its bowl.  The Natural Burl adds above from Bill describe the ‘rugged, weather-carved briar’ that breathes more because of the increased surface of the bowl.  Briar comes from a bush-like plant that grows in arid lands.  The Kaywoodie motif focuses on the rough state of the burl in its natural form sporting rusticated or carved bowls to emulate a natural harvested burl.  The burl is the base of the briar bush that is cut into blocks, each becoming the raw material for fashioning each unique bowl. I found this example online of the burl texture which looks very much like the pipe on my worktable! This interesting information was added about the process at the WorthPoint site:

The mother of briar is Erica Arborea, an evergreen bush / tree, that grows in all forests of the Mediterranean area, preferring acid soils (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Morocco, Algeria- these are the countries where it is found). The bush has a typical height of 3 – 12 feet. But not the visible parts are the wanted ones, the ball-like roots are the pipe makers desire. These are the raw material for the briar wood, which is cut in blocks (plateaux and ebauchons) by real specialists. After a long process of boiling them in clear water and drying periods, these briar blocks will be ready for the experienced hands of a pipe maker.

With a deepened understanding and appreciation for Paw’s Kaywoodie on my worktable, I look more closely at the issues it brings from its years of service. As one would expect, the craggy Burl bowl is full of grime.  The chamber has thickening cake as you go down toward the floor.  This needs to be cleaned out as well to inspect the chamber wall and to give the briar a fresh start. The rim has evidences of Sam’s penchant for knocking the stummel on the back side of the rim.  It is worn and tapers away from the chamber. The rim was fashioned to be somewhat rough complementing the craggy bowl motif, but there is a large chip or divot out of the rim that will need to be filled and then blended. The bowl itself, along with the rim, is faded and skinned up.  I suspect that the original finish bent toward a light brown, but it is now thin and will need refreshing with new dye to blend the rim and bowl.  The 1962 add above describes a ‘2-tone brown finish’ characterizing the ‘Natural Burl’ line.  This is helpful information that hints at the depth of the final finish.The stem is in rough shape.  The oxidation is thick and deep.  The bit has calcium caked on it and some lower tooth compressions – not as bad as I’ve seen on Paw’s previous pipes! The stem orientation is also over-clocked which is a normal phenomenon with Kaywoodie screw in stems that happens over years of use with repeated loosening and tightening.  This will need to be adjusted as well. I begin the restoration of Paw’s Kaywoodie Natural Burl Large Apple by addressing the severe oxidation in the stem.  Before placing the stem in a soak of Before & After Deoxidizer, I get a head-start on removing the oxidation by pre-sanding the stem.  I use both 240 grade sanding paper and 000 grade steel wool to sand the stem to remove as much oxidation and caked calcium as possible.  The nickel 4-hole stinger also is cleaned up with the steel wool.After the sanding, the stem joins other pipes in the queue in a soak of Before & After Deoxidizer. After a few hours, the Kaywoodie’s stem is extracted from the Deoxidizer and after draining, I squeegee the liquid off the stem with my fingers.  I then run a pipe cleaner wetted with isopropyl 95% through the airway to clear the Deoxidizer.  Using a cotton pad and alcohol, the stem is wiped to remove the raised oxidation resulting from the soak.After cleaning the stem, paraffin oil is applied to help condition the vulcanite.  I put the stem aside to absorb the oil.  The stem looks great compared to where it started. It’s cleaning up nicely.Next, I turn the attention to the stummel.  I begin by reaming the Kaywoodie’s chamber to remove the cake.  Using the Pipnet Reaming Kit, I use two of the four blade heads available in the Kit.  I don’t know how long this cake has been waiting to be removed, but it is as hard as a brick.  I’m careful not to force the blades beyond their torque endurance level – simply allowing the scraping action to wear away the brick cake.  When both blades do what they can, the Savinelli Fitsall Tool continues the scraping of the chamber walls. Finally, to remove the last remaining carbon remnants, a 240 grade sanding paper is wrapped around a Sharpie Pen to sand the chamber getting down to fresh briar. After wiping the chamber with a cotton pad wetted with alcohol, and inspection reveals a perfectly healthy chamber.  The picture on the 10th floor Man Cave balcony where I’m working, does not allow a very good picture of the chamber, but it looks good.  Moving on.Next, using undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap, I go to work on the wonderfully craggy but grime-filled surface of the Natural Burl bowl.  I use a cotton pad a bit, but transfer to using a bristled toothbrush which gets into the nooks and crannies of the landscape much more effectively.Next, after transferring the bowl to the kitchen sink, I continue to clean the surface and use shank brushes and liquid anti-oil dish soap and warm water to work on the internals.  After rinsing thoroughly, back on the worktable I take some pictures of the results.  The cleaning has totally removed what was left of the old finish – not unexpected.  The cleaning reveals some white fills on the right side of the stummel which are fully embraced in the craggy landscape cover and seem to be solid after testing them with a sharp dental probe.Next, I focus again on the internal cleaning using pipe cleaners and cotton buds wetted with isopropyl 95%.  Cleaning Kaywoodie pipes tends not to be easy.  Working through the threaded metal shank facing makes access to the mortise difficult.  Along with pipe cleaners and buds, the full arsenal added the use of shank brushes, and a dental spoon to scrape the mortise walls.  After quite a bit of time and effort, the buds start to emerge lighter and a cease fire is called. I’ll continue the cleaning later with a kosher salt and alcohol soak to work through the night to further clean and freshen the internals of the Kaywoodie stummel.Turning now to the rim, the next step is to fill the divot, or perhaps, the crater on the rim.  I go along with the ‘rough’ motif of this Kaywoodie Natural Burl.  The rim is rough and the only repair I plan for the stummel is this divot.  The damage of Paw’s knocking will remain – it simply adds to the rough rustic look and will be a remembrance of Paw when it is put into service by the family.I place a small mound of briar dust on the mixing palette that I’ve covered with scotch tape for ease of cleaning.  Next to the briar dust a small amount of BCI Extra Thick CA glue is puddled.Using the toothpick, briar dust is pulled into the glue and mixed as it is added.  As more is added, the resulting briar dust putty thickens.  When it reaches the thickness of molasses, with the toothpick the putty is troweled to fill the rim divot.With the briar putty applied, I place the stummel aside for several hours for the putty to cure.Turning now to the stem, the upper bit is in good shape after the ‘pre-sanding’ that was done before putting the stem into the Deoxidizer.  The lower bit, pictured below, has some compressions and a button bite compression that need addressing.I start by using the heating method with a Bic lighter.  Using the flame of a Bic lighter, I paint the bit using a back and forth motion heating the vulcanite.  As the vulcanite heats, it also expands to regain the disposition of the stem before the compressions were made by Paw.  The picture below is after the heating and the process has helped the bit compressions so that only sanding should be needed to remove the damage.  However, the button is still in need of additional steps.To fill the button lip bite, after wiping the area with alcohol to clean it, I spot drop black CA glue on the compression and put the stem aside for the patch to cure.The patch on the rim is now ready for filing.  I use both the flat and half-rounded needle files to remove the excess putty and to shape the internal curve of the rim. I put a stop on sanding and further cleaning the rim because the hour is late, and through the night I want to use a kosher salt and alcohol soak to advance the cleaning of the internals of the stummel.  I first fashion a cotton ball into a ‘wick’ by pulling and twisting it.  It is then inserted down the mortise into the airway with the help of a stiff wire. The wick helps to draw out the latent residue of tars and oils.The bowl is then filled with kosher salt, which leaves no aftertaste as with regular iodized salt.  After placing it in the egg carton to keep it stable, I then fill the chamber with isopropyl 95% until it surfaces over the salt. After a few minutes, as the alcohol is drawn into the stummel, the alcohol is topped off and it is set aside to work through the night. The next morning, the salt and wick are slightly soiled which hopefully means that the internals are already clean from earlier. After dumping the expended salt and wiping the bowl with a paper towel, I blow through the mortise to make sure all the salt crystals have been dislodged. To make sure that the internals are clean, and nothing has been left behind after the soak, I use only one pipe cleaner and cotton bud as confirmation of the cleaning. Moving on.I return now to the rim.  I plan to apply a fresh color to the stummel and the only preparation for applying the new stain to the stummel is on the rim.  I plan to leave it in the rough motif of the Natural Burl line, but I want the rim cleaned.  I lightly sand the internal rim edge as well as lightly around the rough external rim edge as it transitions into the Burl landscape.  I’m looking for ‘rough’ and ‘rustic’ but ‘fresh’ to give this unique Kaywoodie a fresh start.I follow the 240 paper with 600 grade paper with the same approach – keep the rustic but refresh the rim.Before moving to the next step, I notice that the nickel shank facing after the cleaning had not been spruced up.  A quick revolution of 000 steel wool takes care of this.  This is the only bling this Kaywoodie has and I’m making the most of it!As I think about applying a fresh color to Paw’s Kaywoodie, I have only one picture of another Natural Burl online and it is no help in hinting at the original 2-toned brown coloring Kaywoodie used.  The best clue I have is on Paw’s pipe. The smooth briar panel on the underside of the shank holding the nomenclature holds a clue.  To guard the stamping on the panel I’ve not sanded it – only cleaned with the rest of the stummel.  I’m guessing that the coloring of the panel leans toward a light brown.  I’m thinking that Kaywoodie’s approach was straightforward with this less expensive line of pipes.  Yet, the craggy surface now is so dry and bare, showing pristine briar, that applying even a light brown dye will probably darken considerably as the thirsty briar drinks it in.Looking at the craggy landscape in the picture above brings the next question in my mind about applying a new finish.  My normal way of staining with aniline dye is to flame it to combust the alcohol which encourages a deeper embrace of the dye by the briar grain.  My normal follow-up to this is then to apply compounds to remove the crusting the combustion creates and to further shine the surface with the fine abrasives of Tripoli and Blue Diamond compounds.  The roughness of this stummel causes me to question my normal approach.  My concern is that if compounds are used on this craggy rough surface, I will forever be trying to clean out the compound residue lodged in the rough surface!  I think I can utilize buffing wheels on the Dremel without too much problem, but without compounds.  I decide in the end to apply a dye wash instead of flaming the dye because of this concern.

After wiping the stummel down with a cloth and alcohol to clean it the best I could, the stummel is heated with the hot air gun to open the briar.Then, with the use of a folded pipe cleaner, the surface is painted with Fiebing’s Light Brown Leather Dye.  I make sure the dye is getting into all the cracks, crevasses, nooks and crannies.  The rim also receives the dye.After the dye is applied, the stummel is set aside to rest for several hours before continuing with the next steps of finishing.  This ‘rest’ helps the new dye to stabilize in the briar.Turning back to the stem, the patch applied to the lower button lip is cured and I use a flat needle file to remove the excess patch material and to shape and refresh the button lip.  I also file the bit area to remove any residual tooth compression.Flipping over to the upper bit, I file residual compressions as well as refresh the button lip.  Refreshing the button lip is helpful to allow a better ‘hang’ grip of the pipe without biting and clenching, and extreme chewing!Continuing now with 240 grade sanding paper on the upper side, the file scratches are removed, and the button is smoothed further.  The same is done on the lower bit and to further blend the button patch.   I expand the 240 sanding to the entire stem to make sure that residual oxidation has been addressed. Following the 240 sanding, I wet sand the entire stem with 600 grade paper and follow with applying 000 steel wool. The nickel stinger is also a benefactor of the steel wool polishing again.Moving on, the full regimen of 9 micromesh pads are applied by first wet sanding with pads 1500 to 2400 and dry sanding with pads 3200 to 4000 and 6000 to 12000.  Between each set of 3 pads, Obsidian Oil is applied to condition the vulcanite and to guard against oxidation. I love the glossy pop of newly micromeshed vulcanite! I had observed earlier that the Kaywoodie screw in stem was over clocked a few degrees.  This happens over time with tightening and loosening.To correct this problem and to bring the stem back to an accurate orientation, a Bic lighter is used to heat the nickel 4-hole stinger.  Since the stinger is gripped by the vulcanite of the stem, the goal is to warm the stinger so that the vulcanite gripping the stinger heats and loosens its grip allowing the stinger to rotate. After heating the stinger, I quickly re-screw the stem into the threaded shank facing and when it tightens to the orientation pictured above, I continue to apply clockwise pressure and the heated vulcanite releases its grip and it allows me to turn the stem one full revolution to line it up correctly.  I had to heat the stinger twice as the first try did not loosen the grip.  After lining the stem orientation correctly, I leave the stem in place and as the vulcanite cools, the grip on the stinger is re-engaged holding the stem again in the proper orientation.Time to address the dyed stummel.  It has been resting for several hours to help stabilize the dye in the briar.I use a cotton pad wetted with alcohol to wipe down the dyed stummel.  I do this to remove excesses of dye on the surface and to lighten and blend the new dye.Next, I mount a cotton cloth buffing wheel onto the Dremel and simply buff the stummel.  I do not use any compounds so that the compound dust does not fowl up the surface getting lodged in the plethora of hiding places on the Burl surface causing me to have to clean it!  The Dremel is a great tool for getting into the nooks and crannies of the Natural Burl landscape. I’m able to rotate and move up and down ridges and to reach into crevasses.  The newly dyed surface responds well to the buffing wheel.  The coloring of the wheel shows that new dye is leeching out of the surface.  The more I’m able to remove now, less likely to come off on hands later!Next, I use the 1500 grade micromesh pad and lightly sand over the Burl surface.  The aim is to ‘scalp’ the peaks of the mountain tops on the craggy surface to lighten them.  The lightening of the peaks creates more contrast and depth definition to the landscape.  I follow the scalp sanding by running the Dremel’s buffing wheel over the surface again.  This, I believe, achieves the ‘2-toned’ look of Kaywoodie’s design for the ‘Natural Burl’ line.In the homestretch – next, I mount another buffing wheel onto the Dremel setting the speed at about 40% full power.  After reuniting the Kaywoodie’s stem and stummel, Blue Diamond compound is applied to the rim and smooth briar surface on the underside and end of the shank.  The compound is also applied to the stem.  After applying the Blue Diamond compound, the pipe is buffed with a felt cloth to remove the compound dust from the areas on the stummel and from the stem.  Next, another cotton cloth buffing wheel is mounted and set at the same speed and carnauba wax is applied to the entire pipe.  I’m careful to apply with a very light touch of wax to the Natural Burl surface not to allow wax to build up in the crannies.  Wax is applied to both stummel and stem and then the pipe receives a rigorous hand buffing with a microfiber cloth to raise the shine.

Wow!  I’m very pleased with how this Kaywoodie Natural Burl Apple shaped up.  The brown craggy finish is flecked with shade differences that give it a depth and warmth – a rustic knobby feel.  I always enjoy the contrast nuances that the coalescing of rough and smooth briar creates. The smooth briar underside and shank ring alongside of the Burl texture is nice.  I’m amazed that this pipe occupied the lower shelf on Kaywoodie’s offerings back in the day when Sam chose it and added it to his rotation of pipes.  The TLC it has received has enhanced the briar presentation with this unique Natural Burl finish. I appreciate the collaborative help from Bill Feurbach who even as the president of the S.M. Frank Co., was not hindered from helping with the recommissioning of this one vintage Kaywoodie – a pipe man at heart.  Thanks, Bill!  I like the Natural Burl a lot and I trust that Joe likes it too.  Paw’s Kaywoodie Natural Burl 33 – Large Apple, that was put into production in the mid-50s/early 60s, is a venerable 60-year-old(!), and is starting a new lifetime in the loving care and stewardship of Paw’s family.  Adding frosting to the Kaywoodie cake, Joe’s commissioning of this restoration of Paw’s Natural Burl also benefits the Daughters of Bulgaria – women and girls who have been trafficked and sexually exploited.  Thanks for joining me!

Another Legacy Pipe of a Great-Grandfather: Challenges Working with ‘Brylon’ on a Medico Apollo

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Blog by Dal Stanton

It gave me a great sense of satisfaction when I received Joe’s response to reading and seeing the results of restoring the first of Paw’s pipes entrusted to me.   Joe and his wife, Hannah, who live in Athens, Greece, and are colleagues working in our organization, last year sent me a Kaywoodie “500” that I restored (See Link: Reclaiming Paw’s Kaywoodie “500” 04 Long Stem Billiard – A Great-Grandfather’s Legacy) as a gift for Hannah’s father, Ben, ‘Paw’s’ grandson.  The Kaywoodie was a special gift for Ben’s birthday.  Later, Joe wrote this letter:

Hello Dal,

My in-laws came to Athens to visit Hannah and I last month. I gave Ben the pipe. I showed him everything you wrote and documented about it. He absolutely LOVED how the pipe looked, and he was also deeply touched by the love, care, and respect you showed not just the pipe but his family. 

So many things you said in your blog triggered sentimental images for Ben about his grandfather, Sam Ellison. You called Sam (AKA Paw) a “knocker” and explained that based on some of the inner rim damage, that was from when Sam would knock out residual tobacco from the bowl, and Ben immediately could remember and visualize Sam doing that. 

During Ben’s last few days in Athens, he lived in blissful nostalgia, thinking of Paw and sweet memories along with him. When Ben went back to Georgia, he went through the storage unit and found stacks of old pictures and articles. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find a picture of him smoking the pipe, but there are some pictures (that I will attach below) of Paw with some of his tobacco co-workers at Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp, along with an article in the Brown & Williamson newsletter, “The Pipeline” about him called ‘Two page Sam’. 

Two pictures Joe included were of Ben, his father-in-law fellowshipping with Paw’s newly restored Kaywoodie “500” and reminiscing about his grandfather.  What I understood from Joe, was that Paw essentially was the one who raised Ben.  The other picture was Paw and Ben 45 years earlier….  This is why I love what I call my work, The Pipe Steward – pipes are passed on, but also the special memories those pipes uniquely bring with them are also passed on to the following generations.

What was also of great interest to me in Joe’s letter, not only was Paw a pipe man, but he was also a tobacco man –  not just a tobacco man, but a tobacco SALES man for the Brown & Williamson Tobacco, Corp. and sent clips of an article of this tobacco company’s magazine about Paw, or as the rest of the world new him, ‘Two-Page Sam’!  When doing a restoration (and I will get to that!) it doesn’t get better than this regarding the story a pipe tells.  Doing a little research, I find out that B&W would be considered a ‘Big Tobacco’ company and Wikipedia described the beginnings in the latter 1800s:

B&W was founded in Winston (today’s Winston-Salem), North Carolina, as a partnership of George T. Brown and his brother-in-law Robert Lynn Williamson, whose father was already operating two chewing tobacco manufacturing facilities.[3] Initially, the new partnership took over one of the elder Williamson’s factories.[4] In February 1894, the new company, calling itself Brown & Williamson, hired 30 workers and began manufacturing in a leased facility.

In 1927, the Brown and Williamson families sold the business to London-based British American Tobacco. The business was reorganized as the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation. Manufacturing and distribution were expanded, and work on a new B&W factory in Louisville was begun.

The Wiki article jumps a century from this earlier history to the 1990s which was a time rife with controversy regarding infamous ‘Big Tobacco’, congressional hearings, cover-ups and 60-Minutes TV pop-journalistic investigations – all low-hanging ripe story lines for a John Grisham novel and movie contracts!  As tantalizing as this later storyline was, I was drawn more to the story of ‘Two-Page Sam’, the article written about Paw’s life and relationships through the years that the Wiki article jumped over.  I include this story from the December 1984 article that Joe sent from B&W’s company magazine, ‘PIPELINE’.  The piece was subbed: “’Two-Page Sam’ – An 81-year old retiree, with a memory like a steel trap, about his 43-year career with B&W”. I enjoyed the read immensely as it not only tells of the life of Paw – aka, Two-Page Sam, but its portrayal of period perspectives revealing much about life and relationships when Sam started work for B&W in 1923 and later.  Enjoy! After the test run with Paw’s first pipe, Joe entrusted me with three more pipes to restore – two more Kaywoodies and a Medico.  Paw’s choice of pipes tells much about him!  One of the Kaywoodies is another of the “500” series, but this time, in addition to the long-shank Billiard from last time, a “500” Rhodesian is added.  Paw liked the “500”s – they are smaller pipes easier for hands-free fellowship (and chewed bits!) and work, as Sam went from vendor to vendor in his job selling tobaccos.  The other Kaywoodie is a Kaywoodie Natural Burl 33 – the finish is great!  Here is the lineup of Sam’s pipes that Joe sent:Along with the other Kaywoodie “500” its obvious that Sam stayed with American made pipes – pipes that would be considered ‘working men’s pipes’.  They are not high shelf purchases but would be found on many of the shelves of the tobacconists and ‘mom & pop’ stores he served through the years.  Affordable pipes that would be the kind a person who had known life through the Great Depression and Great Wars – as a child then as an adult – often called, the Great Generation.  With a deepening understanding of the man who was a steward of these pipes, I’m appreciative of the trust that Joe (and Hannah!) has placed in me to restore them as treasured family heirlooms.  What’s even better is that these restorations benefit the Daughters of Bulgaria – women and girls who have been trafficked and sexually exploited.

After looking over the pipes, I decided to start with the Medico Apollo Brylon – the most challenging.  With the Medico now on the worktable I take some pictures to get a closer look. The nomenclature found on left shank flank reads MEDICO [over] Apollo [over] Brylon (with circled ‘R’ for registered trademark).  The stem has a fancy, lopsided (or worn away) ‘A’ for Apollo pressed into the right side.During my communications with Joe about the conditions of the pipes he intended to send to me, I was assuming that this Medico was a briar that had dulled.  It wasn’t until I received the pipe and started to research the Apollo ‘Brylon’ line of Medico that I discovered the stummel was not made of briar but ‘Brylon’.  Pipephil.eu confirmed another Medico Apollo Brylon and the stem stamping but with no further information about the ‘line’ Brylon.Pipedia’s short introduction to the article about Medico provides this:

Medico was created in 1933, and is still produced by S.M. Frank. The brand is famous for its pipe filters, which were launched in the same year. Since 1966, some models have been made in Brylon, a synthetic material, and others in briar. The brand was also sold by the English company Cadogan and Oppenheimer Pipe.

I discovered very quickly that Brylon was not a line and that the Medico Apollo on the worktable was not briar!  In 1966, an innovation was introduced by S.M. Frank of fashioning bowls from a synthetic material.  At this point I’m thinking about Paw’s Apollo, whether I could repair it with the same procedures as with briars?  Rim?  Cracked shank? Blending repairs?  The same Pipedia article continued later with this additional interesting information about Brylon:

The company ended up buying some of their main competition in 1955. That year the Kaywoodie brands came under the S.M. Frank Company. The Medico brand continued production through this transition without many changes. The next big change for the brand came in the late 1960s. In 1966, the company developed a synthetic material that combined the traditional briar wood with resins. It is known as Brylon. At that time, all Medico pipes were made from imported briar wood. In order to keep production costs down, the company began offering some lines with Brylon. Today, that is still true…. In the Brylon, the line includes the Lancer, Apollo, Standard, Varsity, Conqueror, Medalist, Cavalier, and V.F.Q. As far as price, the briar wood pipes tend to be higher in cost than the Brylon ones. Courtesy TobaccoPipes.com

In another Pipedia discussion of various material and construction methods used in pipe production lines generally, Brylon is identified as a “High Temperature Resin with Wood Flour”:

In 1966, S.M. Frank developed a material called “Brylon” made of a high temperature resin combined with “wood flour”, which is pulverized wood of varying consistency. The pipes were cheaper and more durable, but heavier in the mouth and had a tendency to smoke hot and wet. They are still made today and favored by some for their inability to be burnt out or otherwise damaged without significant effort and the ease of cleaning the pipe. For more information see S.M. Frank.

Well, the unique characteristics of Brylon are becoming more evident.  They are less expensive, have differing smoking behaviors compared to their briar brethren and purportedly to be less susceptible to burning and damage compared to their briar brethren, BUT, (I love the qualifier!) “without significant effort”.  I guess Paw’s proclivities were with significant efforts by the looks of his Apollo!  Wow!  I wonder if Sam took the durability billing of S.M. Frank as a challenge 😊?

The question now is whether the issues of this Medico Apollo are addressed differently than my normal briar restoration protocols?  The significant issues start with the rim damage.  With the restoration of the first of Paw’s Kaywoodies, he seems to have been a habitual bowl ‘knocker’ with consistent damage to the aft quadrant of the rim.  Using the stem as a handle, Paw seems to have inverted the pipe and thumped the bowl on something hard enough to dislodge the ash and dottle – probably on his way hurriedly to the car after visiting a client, having secured his sale of B&W product line working toward ‘2-Page’ success, and speedily transitioning his mind and body to the next visit! I take a few pictures to show the aft rim damage.The shank also has a huge crack starting on the top of the shank running to the bowl crook.  When I communicated with Joe before receiving the pipe, he commented about the stem’s metal filter housing being out of round.  When I received the pipe, the stem and stummel were joined.  When I gingerly extracted the stem from the mortise, I could see how the nickel had been bent.  When I tried to rejoin the stem and stummel, the fit was so tight that I decided to leave things like they were.  I began to question whether the stem was the original for this stummel and forcing it had caused the cracked shank?  Yet, the stem does have the Apollo ‘A’ stamping – probably, just bent so much that the mortise no longer can accommodate it.The stem’s condition I believe is confirmation that ‘2-Page Sam’ often had the Apollo in a hands-free mode with it clenched between his teeth while he filled out his orders!  The chewing of the bit is evident with severe chatter and bite compression.  The oxidation appears to be minor.There also is a pit and dent mid-way on the stem’s underside which will need addressing.To begin the restoration of Paw’s Medico Apollo, I work on cleaning the internal airway with pipe cleaners wetted with isopropyl 95%.  While cleaning, I discover that the pipe cleaners are obstructed at the bit-end of the stem.  I also use a shank brush to push through.  The shank brush does push through but what becomes evident is that the chewing of the bit appears have closed the airway to such a point, the pipe cleaners are hindered from functioning.  This is a problem for keeping the airway fully cleaned.  I’ll need to address this issue as well.  When the airway is as clean as I’m able to get it, the stem is added to a soak of Before & After Deoxidizer along with other pipes in The Pipe Steward queue, along with Paw’s other 2 Kaywoodies.After a few hours, the Apollo stem is removed from the Deoxidizer and I squeegee the liquid off with my fingers then wipe the stem with cotton pads wetted with alcohol to remove the resulting raised oxidation.Following this, paraffin oil is applied to the stem to condition the vulcanite and I put the stem aside for the oil to be absorbed.Turning my attention now to the Brylon stummel, the questions I asked earlier about how to proceed with the repairs have been clarified in my mind.  It was helpful to find a blog on Dad’sPipes, What the Heck is Brylon?? – A Yello Bole Standard Panel Billiard, where Charles Lemon had previously had the same questions regarding working on Brylon!  Charles’ blog mainly was focused on cleaning and polishing issues and not with actual repairs to the Brylon – the rim and shank in this case.  My note to Charles describes my proposed working approach with Brylon:

Charles, hope you and your family are well and staying clear of harm’s way during these difficult times. I read one of your blogs where you worked on Brylon. I’m working on a Medico Apollo Brylon that needs extensive rim work. I’ve attached a picture to give you an idea of the dark brown color. Of course, I’m thinking of briar dust and CA glue to do the patchwork. However, it will probably be lighter than the hue of this brown. Do you think adding a wee bit of dark brown aniline dye would work?  Do you have any best practices, beyond the blog I read 😊.  The default if patching doesn’t work is to top the stummel but that reduces the height.

Charles’ email reply came quickly: Hi Dal. Good to hear from you! I hope all is well with you and yours. I have not attempted to fill Brylon. To be honest I have avoided the stuff as there is limited resale value in it. I think you are right – briar dust will show paler against the brylon. Mixing in some dye may do the trick. If not, you can always top the bowl afterwards. Good luck with it. I’ll be interested to see the results!

Charles

Charles’ response was what I was hoping to hear regarding using a mixture of CA glue and briar dust, which is the main component of Brylon though briar is not specified as the wood component.  The issue is the coloring.  Fiebing’s Dark Brown Leather Dye, which is an aniline dye, I think might be a very close match, but I’ve never introduced dye to a CA glue before – what will it do?  The worst-case scenario is that the patch doesn’t work and I top the bowl, turning it into a Pot shape.  I’m thinking to first introduce just a small amount of the dark brown dye – a drop, to a puddle of CA glue and mix it thoroughly and see how the CA/dye mixture behaves.  Then, as with briar repairs, if the glue/dye mixture looks good, I’ll introduce briar dust and see what happens!  With this next day of quarantine in Bulgaria being beautiful, I work outside on my 10th floor Man Cave balcony.

The first two pictures are marking the start – looking at the inside of the rim and then the outside.After preparing my plastic mixing palette by covering it with some scotch tape to help in the cleaning later, I place a small mound of briar dust on the palette and next to it, a small puddle of BSI Extra Thick CA glue.Using an eye dropper, I place one drop of Fiebing’s Dark Brown Leather Dye in the middle of the CA puddle and it immediately expands through the puddle. Not able to take any additional intermediate pictures to chronicle the mixing – the clock starts ticking when the briar dust is introduced to the CA glue.  I used a toothpick to gradually pull briar dust into the CA/dye, mixing as I go. I noticed that the CA mixture thickened more rapidly than normal with the dye alone, but it didn’t solidify which was what I was concerned about.  When the mixing came to a point where the resulting putty was about the consistency of molasses, I troweled the putty to the rim to fully cover the damaged area. This picture shows the progress at this point and a bit of wind-blown briar dust on the Man Cave!I use an accelerator to hold the patch material to the rim – it did want to move a bit.  Examining the patch in the sunlight, I’m VERY pleased with the color.  It appears to be very, very close to the Brylon at this point in the process. With the same approach now as with briars, I start with the outer rim and file the patch mound down to near-flush with the Brylon surface. Before moving to the inside and top of the patch, I use 240 grade sanding paper on the external rim patch.  I’m anxious to see what it does.  As I sand, pockets do appear in the patch area in this rough state.Switching to the internal rim patch area, I mount a sanding drum to the Dremel and bring the patch down to flush.Carefully, I use the drum on the top as well. I do not want to be too aggressive by sanding below the plane of the rim with the more powerful mode of sanding. Following the sanding drum, continuing with 240 paper wrapped around a Sharpie Pen, the chamber is sanded to help blend the patch area and to clean the chamber.  Then 240 sanding paper is redeployed to fine tune the rim contours and to smooth the patch.  The color match is looking good but at this rough state, the patch area on the rim reveals the air pockets which I’ll work on masking in the later stages. Having reached this point in the repair on the rim, before doing more sanding to improve the rough patch area, I address the shank crack.  The question rolling around in my mind regarding Brylon is whether I should drill a counter-crack creep hole at the end of the crack?  The crack ends at the shank/bowl merger.  The two pictures show the crack and a closeup of the end of the crack.  Working on the Man Cave balcony, the best angle of sunlight to see the crack was in the flower box hanging over the edge of the balcony with signs of early spring sprouting in Bulgaria!Marking the end of the crack with an arrow, the crack has turned the vertical corner and is on the bowl side – just slightly.  Since this is the first time working on Brylon and I haven’t found others who have complied a list of ‘best practices’ working with Brylon, I decide to drill the hole to be on the safe side.  Earlier, I had decided not to reinsert the stem because it seemed that it was too tight and may have caused the crack.  I’m thinking that the best way to address the crack is first, to drill the counter-creep hole. Following this, carefully reinsert the tight stem and allow the nickel filter housing to expand the crack allowing thinner, regular CA glue to seep into the cavity assuring a stronger bond.  I’ll then remove the stem, closing the crack and hopefully removing the threat of the crack advancing.  I’ll be thinking about whether to use a band to protect the shank for future use.To prepare to drill, I use a sharp dental probe to create a guide hole for the drilling.  It took the use of a magnifying glass to identify the end of the crack.  Unfortunately, there was a bit of collateral damage, but nothing serious.  When I applied pressure to the dental probe to imprint the indentation for a guide, I discover the Brylon to be much harder than briar and with the additional pressure that was needed, the probe skidded off to scratch the stummel.  Ugh! – it will sand out later.Next, after mounting a 1mm drill bit onto the Dremel, I carefully drill a hole using the guide hole – a great help in keeping the hand-held drill bit from dancing around!  I’ve gotten better at drilling these holes freehand with the handheld Dremel extension – my main work tool.With the hole drilled, with fear and trembling I coax the filter housing into the mortise and as expected, the terribly tight fit helps expand the crack for a more effective application of CA glue.  I must be honest; I was bracing myself for the stummel to split, but thankfully it didn’t!  I will address the fit later after the shank is repaired and stabilized.With the crack expanded, a line of regular CA glue is run starting from the hole down the shank to the shank facing. After laying down the glue, the stem is extracted, and the crack again compresses with CA glue in the cavity.For some cosmetic help and to keep the glue in place, I sprinkled the glue line with briar dust. I put the stummel aside to allow the glue to cure.With the Brylon bowl on the sidelines, I turn my attention to the stem.  The first step will be to repair the chewed bit – Two-Page Sam’s trademark!  I take fresh starting pictures of the upper and lower bit to show the carnage.  After each of these, is the comparison picture after using the heating method to minimize the damage.  Using a Bic lighter the bit is painted with the flame heating the rubber and helping it to expand to regain some of its original disposition.  I think the heating definitely improved the minor chatter so that for the upper bit, sanding should be all that is needed with some filing to freshen the button. For the lower bit, again, chatter was minimized but patching will still be required for the compressions.Medium-Thick Black CA glue is used to do the fills.  After filling the deep compressions, I set the stem aside to allow the CA glue to cure.After the fills have cured, a flat needle file is used to file down the patch mounds and to shape and refresh the button.The upper bit also is the recipient of the filing to file out the more severe chatter and shape the button.After the filing, 240 grade paper is used to further smooth the upper and lower bit.  The repairs on the lower side are looking good. About mid-way on the lower side of the stem there is a dent and a divot.  I expand the 240 paper sanding to the entire stem to address these issues and to remove any oxidation hanging on.  I’m careful to guard the Apollo ‘A’ stamping from the sanding. Before going further with the fine sanding, I remembered that earlier that it was very difficult to clean the stem’s airway because the bit area was too compressed from Paw’s chewing the bit.  To address this, I start a new pipe cleaner down the airway while warming the bit with the hot air gun.  I warm it on the upper bit avoiding the fills that are on the lower bit.  I do this to avoid dislodging the fills which will not expand the same as the rubber.It works like a charm.  As the vulcanite warmed it becomes supple and I move the pipe cleaner gradually through the airway as the compressed area relaxes.  When the pipe cleaner is moving freely and normally, with the pipe cleaner remaining in the airway, I run the stem under cool tap water setting the expansion in the vulcanite airway.Next, the entire stem is wet sanded using 600 grade sanding paper followed by applying 000 grade steel wool as I normally do with briars. The nickel stem facing and filter housing also receive attention from the steel wool and clean up very nicely.Putting the stem aside, I focus on the shank repair.  The glue has cured, and I use 240 grade paper to clean away the excess patch material from the surface of the shank.  The half-rounded needle file helps to remove the thicker patch buildup at the crook of the shank and bowl.Charles Lemon’s blog on ‘Dad’s Pipes’ was helpful to know what to expect working on the sanding and polishing of Brylon – or, what NOT to expect.  He found that Brylon does not polish up like briar but remains somewhat speckled and a dulled finish.  With my repairs on the Brylon being more intrusive than Charles’ experience, my concern is for the overall blending of the surface.  Will the area of Brylon that has received more focused 240 sanding appear differently from the other areas in the end?  To avoid this, I decide to encourage overall blending beginning with wet sanding the entire bowl, including the patch, with 600 grade paper.  This is followed with applying 000 steel wool.  The following pictures show the result – a darkening of the Brylon finish and with the uniform blending that was my hope.  This result encourages me to continue the fine sanding on the Brylon surface but also to continue blending the patches.Before moving forward with sanding and polishing of either the stem or stummel, one more technical challenge has yet to be remedied: the fit of the stem into the mortise.  With the shank crack glued, the last thing I want to do is to crack it again!  The picture shows the irregular shaping of the nickel housing.  The starting place is to ‘re-round’ the housing.  I use needle-nose pliers to do this.  First, I heat the nickel with the hot air gun to encourage movement in the metal without splitting it.  After heated, with the closed needle-nose pliers inserted into the nickel housing, I slowly turn the stem and apply gentle pressure to coax the nickel into a more rounded orientation.  Patience is key! Not perfect, but much better.  I don’t want to put too much stress on the nickel, so I decide to stop.No surprise – I try a half-hearted attempt to engage the stem and stummel but fit remains too tight.  The next step is to relieve the internal mortise pressure. I find a drill bit small enough to accommodate being wrapped with 240 grade paper and able to navigate the mortise.  Once, I get the best fit, I sand the mortise and attempting to fit the stem as I go.  It becomes clear that the roundness, or lack therein, of the filter housing was continuing to cause problems with ‘high spots’ as I attempted to rejoin the stem.  After returning to the hot air gun and making further adjustments to the nickel housing, I achieved a round housing that fit BUT the adjustment now left the housing lose in the mortise…ugh.  The restoration nightmare – repairing a repair.The solution I decided on was to rebuild the internal mortise grip by painting the mortise with acrylic nail polish.  I paint the mortise walls with the small brush provided, wait for it to dry and then paint it again, adding an additional layer.  This was not part of the plan…After several revolutions of adding layers of acrylic polish, the grip in the mortise was restored.  A detour but moving forward!The full regimen of micromesh pads is applied to the stem starting by wet sanding with pads 1500 to 2400 followed by dry sanding with pads 3200 to 4000 and 6000 to 12000.  Between each set, Obsidian Oil is applied to condition the stem and protects it from developing oxidation.  The stem is looking good! I decide to run the Brylon stummel through the full micromesh battery as well.  I’m not sure it will enhance the shine much, but I want to continue the process of blending the entire stummel surface, including the rim patch.  Wet sanding begins with pads 1500 to 2400 and is followed by dry sanding with pads 3200 to 4000 and 6000 to 12000.  The results are good.  The surface did shine up and the color deepens. Before applying Blue Diamond compound, I want to apply some cosmetic touches.  The crack in the shank is visible as a lighter line.  The large rim patch is speckled as well.  Using a walnut colored dye stick, I apply it to the shank and to the rim with very nice results.  The dye helps the blending. Next, to continue with polishing, I apply Blue Diamond compound to the stem and stummel after mounting a cotton cloth buffing wheel to the Dremel with the speed set at about 40% full power.After completing the application of Blue Diamond, one more cosmetic project awaits attention before applying wax. The Apollo ‘A’ stamping needs refreshing.  I apply a small dab of white acrylic paint over the stamping.Then, with a cotton pad, I tamp the paint drawing off the excess paint leaving a thin layer of paint over the stamping which dries very quickly.Then, using a toothpick’s flat side, I lightly scrape over the stamping to remove the excess paint leaving behind the paint in the imprint.  The ‘A’ appears to be partially worn and the paint only hold where the imprint is deep enough.  It looks good!Finally, another cotton cloth buffing wheel is mounted onto the Dremel, set at the same speed, carnauba wax is applied to the entire pipe.  The Brylon doesn’t absorb like briar so the wax seems to only make a very superficial shining on the surface.  Because of this, very little wax was needed on the surface.After completing the wax application, the final step in the restoration of Paw’s Medico Apollo Brylon was to give it a rigorous hand buffing with a microfiber cloth to raise the shine.

This restoration was a challenge but worth it!  Working with Brylon has unique challenges but it was good to learn more about how it behaves in case I have another S.M. Frank innovation come across my worktable!  The rim patch worked well but speckling remains as a reminder of Paw’s knocking activities!  In the end, this pipe of Paw’s legacy is ready to go again bringing with it the memories of the man called, ‘Two-Page Sam’ to be remembered and treasured by his family.  Thanks for joining me!

A Gift for My Good Friend in India – An Italian Savinelli Punto Oro 413KS Woodstock

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Blog by Dal Stanton

As I begin this restoration, my mind is replaying the plethora of experiences that were shaped and riveted into my memory of my visit last year to India.  Not many ‘good’ experiences in life can be described as ‘life changing’.  These kinds of changes are usually reserved for the difficult times – like now, as the world is navigating a pandemic that creates confusion and uncertainty about life and the future.  Yet, Paresh’s invitation to me, along with the rebornpipes’ trust, Steve and Jeff Laug, to visit his home and family was an experience that was life changing for me.  It wasn’t just the sights and sounds of a different cultural context or the different foods the pallet experienced tasting Indian cuisine.  What was so profoundly and wonderfully life changing was the depth of loving hospitality Paresh and his wife, Abha, provided to us during the visit.  Meeting and enjoying his family, along with their two daughters, Mudra and Pavni, was truly an experience that will walk with me in the life I continue to enjoy by God’s grace.  Of course, I cannot fail to mention the ‘reason’ for our travels where West met East!  Paresh asked that we collaborate in the restoration of one of his heirloom pipes, an unbelievably fun and enriching experience that produced this story, perhaps my favorite:  West Meets East in India to Restore a Grandson’s Treasure – an 1846 BBB!  How does an Italian Savinelli Punto Oro heading to India enter this story?  It has to do with an Italian American L. J. Peretti pipe that I noticed in India – basking nonchalantly among the historic pipes of Paresh’s unbelievable heirloom collection he received from his grandfather.  The Peretti that got my attention was not from his grandfather’s collection, but a pipe that Paresh had acquired himself.  Since doing my first restoration of a L. J. Peretti, I have become somewhat of a collector of these blue collar ‘shop pipes’ from the second oldest tobacconist shop located in downtown Boston.  I had never seen a Peretti Cutty shape before and hence, the Savinelli Punto Oro makes his debut on the stage.One of the great things about ‘Pipedom’s’ smaller subset, pipe restorers, is that it is special and an honor to have pipes in your personal collection that have come from other restorers who you’ve learned from and appreciated.  I have pipes in my rotation from Steve, who introduced me to the world of pipe restoration and is a good friend who has visited me here in Sofia and I’ve had the privilege of visiting his home terrain, Vancouver.  When I enjoy fellowship with one of his pipes with my favorite blend stoked in the bowl, the relationship is always the focus of the reflection during those paused moments.  I managed to secure one very special pipe for my collection from Charles Lemon of Dad’sPipes, who I’ve also learned much from in his restorations and appreciated that his health has allowed him to come back from hiatus.

When Paresh became aware of my attraction to his L. J. Peretti Cutty, the accord we ratified between us was to do a reciprocal gifting from our personal collections.  Paresh gifted me his Peretti Cutty which I brought home to Bulgaria from India.  After getting back to Bulgaria, I chose a pipe from my personal collection for him.  The special pipe I chose for Paresh was a Savinelli Punto Oro that was in my personal restoration queue – for a LONG time.  The problem of restoring pipes primarily for others is that sometimes it’s difficult to work on your own trove of treasures!  When I saw the Punto Oro on German eBay located in Bühl, I was drawn by the elegant lines of this Savinelli offering. The shape is unique with the Dublin-esque bowl, but not quite.  In my initially assessment of the pipe, I was calling it an oval shank, slightly Bent Billiard – but not quite. The shank was not actually a true oval but a compressed oval – an American football or rugby ball shape.  The unique shape created a lined definition running down the sides of the shank transitioning into and through the stem – flow and balance!  With so much attention on focused the shape, the fact of the striking fire grain showcased throughout the pipe – was reminiscent for me of a tiger’s fur, flowing even through the shank composition.  This only added frosting on this Savinelli Punto Oro cake!  Very nice! Unfortunately, it has taken me a few years to get to this beautiful pipe, but it was waiting.  It was patiently waiting in the ‘Help Me!’ basket and when it came to mind as a comparable reciprocal gift for Paresh, his debut on the worktable became a reality.  Here are more pictures of a very nice Savinelli Punto Oro yet having some daunting issues. The nomenclature is on the upper shank and it reads, SAVINELLI [over] PUNTO ORO, (Gold Point).  ‘Gold Point’ may also be referencing the single gold point brass dot embedded on the upper stem panel.The lower panel section is stamped with the encased ‘S’ in Savinelli’s well known and recognized symbol.  The Savinelli symbol is to the left of the shape number, 413KS [over] the COM, ITALY.  The shape is found in the Savinelli shapes chart found in the Pipedia article on Savinelli,  but the chart offers no names for the shapes, only numbers.  This 413 is designated as a ‘King Size’ by the KS.   Whatever the shape is, I like it!Not satisfied with my lack of definition on what to call this shape, I sent a note off to Steve asking for his opinion – Calabash, Dublin, fancy Billiard?  Steve’s response settled the question directing me to Savinelli’s website – my first thought, why didn’t I think of that?  In the Savinelli line up of shapes or models, the 413KS is described as a Woodstock (pictured below).  Nice!  Bill Burney’s description of the Woodstock in his Pipedia shapes discussion is helpful and includes all the variations I was contemplating!

Zulu/Woodstock – The Zulu shape combines the canted bowl of the Dublin with an 1/8 bent stem.  The shape is sometimes referred to as a Woodstock, Yacht or Yachtsman.  The gentle bend makes the pipe more comfortable to hold in the teeth than a straight pipe.  This popular style is made by most pipemakers and is widely available on the estate market.My first restoration with the Italian name of Savinelli stamped on the pipe was a Tortuga, which was a very sharp looking pipe.  During that initial exposure to the name Savinelli, I learned that before and after WW II, when Italian pipe production was known more for volume than for quality, and not considered by many in the same league with other European pipe makers, Achille Savinelli Jr.’s ambition took shape to make Savinelli one of the premier names in pipe making today.  This clip from the Pipedia Savinelli article summarizes this well:

Savinelli Pipes began production in 1948 and, although the pipes were of a superior quality and unique in their aesthetic, the brand wasn’t an immediate success. Few new brands are. It takes time for the public to catch on. Retailers were skeptical of placing Italian pipes alongside their best sellers from England or France, and customers, in turn, were hesitant to purchase a Savinelli over pipes by already established, foreign brands. Achille Jr. stood by his product, however; he knew it was only a matter of time before the world realized that these pipes were of a far superior quality, capable of competing with even the most well-established pipe manufacturers in the world. As it turns out, he was right. In less than a year, Savinelli pipes gained prestige in markets all across the world—heralded for their delicate balance of innovation and tradition, of form and function. Savinelli pipes were placed alongside the likes of Dunhill and Comoy’s in tobacconists from the United States to Europe, and, in time, this exposure modified Italy’s reputation; it was not only the premier exporter of briar, but now a premium source of fine briar pipes.

The Punto Oro line is considered a top shelf Savinelli offering.  When I first acquired this pipe, wishing to know more especially about the Punto Oro line, I emailed rebornpipes contributor, Al Jones, for his input.  His response was helpful.

Dal:

I’m sorry to say that I have very little expertise in the Savinelli world, save the Guibileo d’Oro or Autograph lines (and only cursory in those).

Here’s an interesting thread about that line on the Pipesmagazine.com forums (I’m a moderator there) http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/opinions-sought-savinelli-punto-oro.  Older ones, like yours appears to be, were a pretty high grade, from what I can gather. 

If your stem is vulcanite and non-filter, it should have been made before 1981 (looks that way to me).   In ’81, they switched to filter pipes.

I’ll look forward to your restoration!

Al

The thread from PipesMagazine.com Forum was helpful.  The general impression from the thread was that the older Punto Oro pipes were on the upper shelves of Savinelli offerings, just under the Guibileo D’Oro and older Autographs.  The Punto Oro catalog ad on Pipedia describes the quality of this Savinelli line and the processes involved in the producing the quality finish.  I found interesting that the ad describes the two finishes available with the Punto Oro line – “Rich Mahogany and genuine Sandblast”.  With the smooth surfaces, the hue is mahogany – the pipe on my table fits this described hue with flare!

I like this pipe – a Woodstock (!) a lot and I think it will be a good addition Paresh’s collection although a lesser, humbler cousin in that collection to be sure!  Looking at the state of the Punto Oro’s condition, the briar landscape is beautiful – no issues that I can see.  The chamber has very light cake – the appropriate dime-width that is recommended.  I’ll remove it for the briar to have a fresh start and to inspect the chamber condition.  The rim reveals the lighting practices of the former steward – over the aft rim surface where it’s darkened and caked with crusted lava flow.  The picture below looks at the chamber and rim.The major issues with the restoration of this Punto Oro are with the stem.  The upper bit has tooth compressions on the bit and button.The lower bit is where all the fun is hiding!  The lower button has broken off and the break migrates down the stem – it will be no small button rebuild to address this moon crater!  There is also tooth chatter evident on the lower bit.  To restore the usefulness of this original Savinelli ‘Gold Point’ stem, which to me is critical, requires a button rebuild.  Rebuilds are never as strong as the original stem, of course, but I’m hopeful of building in some strength as I do this rebuild. I begin the restoration of this gift for Paresh by cleaning the Savinelli stem airway with a pipe cleaner wetted in isopropyl 95%.  It takes one cleaner to do the job.The oxidation on the stem is deep.  I use grade 000 steel wool with CIT, a product like SoftScrub, to work on the oxidation before putting it into the soak of Before & After Deoxidizer.  I like this product but when the oxidation is deep I’ve found that the soak alone is not sufficient to remove the oxidation.  The steel wool gives a head start for the Deoxidizer to break up the oxidation.The stem is then added to the soak of Before & After Deoxidizer along with several other pipes in the queue and their stems.  I let the stem soak for a few hours.When I fish out the stem after a few hours, I let the Deoxidizer fluid drain off the stem and I also squeegee the stem with my fingers.  Using a pipe cleaner wetted with isoproypl 95%, the airway is cleaned of the Deoxidizer.  I also wipe off raised oxidation from the stem with a cotton pad wetted with alcohol.  To help to rejuvenate the vulcanite stem, I also apply paraffin oil and set the stem aside to soak in the oil.Turning now to the stummel, I use the Pipnet Reaming Kit to begin the removal of carbon cake from the chamber.  After taking a picture showing the starting point, I use 3 of the 4 blade heads available in the kit. The chamber narrows at the bottom, consistent with a conical shape of the Woodstock crafted stummel.  I use the Kleen Reem Tool that more easily reaches to the floor of the tapered chamber.  The Savinelli Fitsall tool continues the scraping and finally the chamber is sanded with 240 grade paper wrapped around a Sharpie Pen.  After wiping the chamber with a cotton pad wetted with alcohol to clear the carbon dust, an inspection reveals heat veins in the chamber briar.  These are fissures that form from overheating the stummel.  The veins are not substantial enough to repair, but I will complete the restoration by applying a coating of yogurt and activated charcoal mixture to the chamber that will protect the chamber wall and encourage the formation of a protective cake. Switching now to the external briar surface, undiluted Murphy’s Oil soap is used with a cotton pad to scrub the stummel.  The thick, crusted area on the aft of the rim is stubborn.  With the solvent working, I also carefully scrape with my thumb nail, with the edge of my Winchester pocketknife, and with a brass wired brush.  After working on the scrubbing of the external briar surface, I then transfer the stummel to the kitchen sink and using warm water, I scrub the internal mortise and airway with shank brushes and anti-oil liquid dish soap.  After a thorough rinsing, I take a picture back on the worktable.  The stummel cleaned nicely, but the darkened area remains on the stummel’s rim.  I’ll continue to work on that with minor sanding later.I turn now to focus on the internal cleaning.  With only one cotton bud and one pipe cleaner wetted with isopropyl 95%, the fact of the internal cleaned condition is established.  Nice!With the stummel cleaning completed, I turn now to the stem.  The daunting aspect of the restoration is the button rebuild.  Before starting on this, I first focus on the tooth chatter and compressions on upper and lower bit.  I go in this order because the approach in rebuilding the button introduces the CA glue and activated charcoal patch which has a different composition from the vulcanite stem. Since I’m beginning with the heating method to erase as much as possible the chatter and compressions, this involves the heating and expanding of the vulcanite.  This is better done before the patch is applied in the button rebuild.  Using a Bic lighter, I paint the upper and lower bit to heat the vulcanite and through heating the rubber compound expands to reclaim its original disposition – or closer to it.  After going through the painting procedure and comparing the before and after pictures, the heating method did not help a great deal with the composition of this vulcanite stem. It helped some, but not a great deal it seems to me.With pictures showing the starting point for the upper and lower bit, it’s interesting to me to see where the tooth chatter is on the lower bit.  It extends about a quarter of the way down the stem!  I think what this indicates is that a frustrated steward, after he crunched the button, refused to put one of his favorite pipes aside!  Just like in American baseball, he ‘choked up’ on the stem, to keep using his pipe even though the button had endured catastrophic failure.  Now I turn my attention to the button rebuilding procedure.  First, I fashion a cone that inserts into the airway having a pipe cleaner running through the cone into the airway.  The cone is covered with scotch tape and then petroleum jelly is put on the tape.  This helps the cone not to get stuck after the patch material is applied. The patch material is a mixture of activated charcoal that is in capsule form and CA glue.After placing the charcoal in a small pile from the capsule, the glue is placed in a small puddle next to it.  The toothpick is used to mix the charcoal and glue by gradually pulling charcoal into the CA glue while mixing.  As the charcoal is mixed in, the patch material thickens.  After it reaches the consistency like molasses, I apply the charcoal putty to the button using the toothpick as a trowel. I intentionally use a mixture that is a bit thinner at the beginning so that is will seep down around the cone filling in the open spaces.  This is important to create as much strength as possible in the rebuild.  I apply more than is needed to build a mound that will later be filed and sanded to shape the new button. After enough patch material has been applied, I put the stem aside overnight allowing the button build to cure.  The lights go out!Well, the next morning held some surprises!  When I examine the button rebuild, looking forward to starting the process of filing and shaping, I discover that the new CA glue that I used did not cure to a solid state!  The patch was reminiscent of a bite guard – pliable rubber.  With some tugging and peeling, the repair came off in two pieces….  Interestingly, nowhere that I can find on the labeling that this glue does not harden, unless the “Extra Durable and Versatile” on the front label implies this?The good news is that the cone was removed without trouble and is ready to go again for button rebuild patch attempt number two!  I’ll spare the reader of all the pictures to record this second process but will jump forward.  What I did do differently after examining the large area of the patch, was to better engineer and strengthen the resulting rebuild.  I carefully applied rounded and flat needle files to the edge of the break.  I filed to taper downwardly the edge toward the break. My thinking is that this small innovation perhaps will strengthen the patch by providing more of a shelf or footing upon which the patch material can rest.  It seems that this engineering would inherently provide better buttressing than a straight vertical edge drop.  I’m thinking also that this will help in the sanding and blending of the patch. The sketching below illustrates my thinking.  I also file and clean out the entire button cavity and clean it with a cotton pad wetted with isopropyl 95% in preparation for the new patch.  Before starting on the button patch, I decide to do a quick fill of the upper bit and button lip where there were compressions.  I use medium-thick black CA glue to do the filling.  To quicken the curing and to hold the patch in place I use an accelerator.The next pictures show the second finished button rebuild patch with the engineering changes beginning the curing process.After the second button rebuild patch is cured, using the flat needle file, the patch on the upper bit and button lip are filed down flush with the vulcanite stem surface.Switching to the underside, filing and shaping begin on the button rebuild.  I start with the slot facing to flatten it by removing the excess patch material.  Then, cutting the line shaping the button lip is next.Filing continues with the main bit patch and button shaping.  I’m careful to allow a rounded patch and not filing straight across horizontally.  This would weaken the patch – thinking of the difference between an arched bridge’s symmetry rather than that of a flat bridge’s.  Maintaining the patch thickness is critical to its strength.With the filing phase completed I transition to using 240 grade paper starting first on the upper bit and button lip fills.The 240 grade sanding fine tunes the button rebuild further. I’m careful not to sand too much on the patch and continue to round it to maintain thickness.  A slightly thicker lower button lip purchases some strength as well. I focus on sanding the seams of the patch so that they are flush with the vulcanite surface.  The patch is still rough but making progress!I use the flat needle file to shape and smooth the slot as well.  It’s almost a given that air pockets will emerge as the sanding continues to shape the button.A careful examination of this cross-section view of the slot facing shows the added buttressing effect of the earlier tapered filing.  Arrows help to show this.With the 240 grade sanding paper still in play, I sand the entire stem to remove any residual oxidation.  Deep oxidation always seems to appear during the fine sanding and polishing phases.  Sanding the stem with 240 now will hopefully address this as well as the remnants of tooth chatter remaining on the bit.  I use a plastic disk that I fabricated to be able to sand the stem facing without shouldering the edges.Next, I sand the entire stem by wet sanding with 600 grade paper and following this, 000 grade steel wool is applied.The upper bit and button repairs are looking great – the sanding is erasing the contours of the patch and blending nicely.Work on the lower stem side is a bit more of a challenge with the huge button rebuild patch material.  The stem is looking great, but the challenge is to blend the large patch area.Air pockets are the most common side effects of patching.  Air bubbles are trapped in the CA glue and activated charcoal as it is mixed and these air bubbles become visible as sanding dissects and reveal the pockets.The many microscopic air pockets are not easy to remove.  I use a clear acrylic nail polish to try to fill and erase the pockets.  CA glue can be used to do the same. I use the brush provided by the nail polish and I paint over the pockets almost covering the entire patch.  I let it dry and repeat the process for a second coating.After the acrylic polish cures, I apply 000 steel wool to the patch and the picture below shows the results.  The nail polish does an amazing job but there remain some pockets.  These are very small and I’m doubtful that more coating will erase them.  I’m satisfied now with leaving them and moving on!  They remain as a testament to the catastrophic button failure and this noble attempt to recommission this beautiful Savinelli Punto Oro Woodstock!  Moving on!I move on to applying the full regimen of micromesh pads to the Woodstock stem.  I begin with wet sanding using pads 1500 to 2400 and follow by dry sanding with pads 3200 to 4000 and 6000 to 12000.  Between each set of 3 pads, Obsidian Oil is applied to condition the stem and to protect it from oxidizing.  The stem is looking great. With the stem sanding completed, looking now to the stummel, I focus first in cleaning up the rim.  There remains darkened briar from the lava flow earlier cleaned on the aft quadrant of the rim.  The inner rim edge is also darkened at places with the normal nicks from wear and tear.  The outer edge of the rim is also with some normal nicks and dents – all very small. To clean the rim, I first start by using 240 sanding paper and doing a very light inner and outer rim bevel – just enough to clean the edge of the rim.  After this, I also use the 240 paper to lightly ‘feather sand’ the aft part of the rim to clean the darkened surface.  I run the sandpaper lightly around the full rim plane surface to clean the briar, not to remove it.I follow the same procedure with the rim edges and the rim plane with 600 grade sanding paper.  The rim is shaping up very nicely.Next, I use micromesh pads to do fine sanding on the Savinelli Gold Point stummel.  I begin by wet sanding with pads 1500 to 2400 and then dry sanding with pads 3200 to 4000 and 6000 to 120000.  The fine sanding brings out the grain and restores the mahogany finish for which the Punto Oro line is known.  Very nice indeed! To deepen the natural hues of the briar, Mark Hoover’s Before & After Restoration Balm (www.ibepen.com) does a great job.  I put some of the Balm on my finger and work it into the briar surface.  The Balm begins with a cream consistency and then thickens into a waxy consistency as it is worked into the stummel.  After working the Balm thoroughly into the surface, I put the stummel aside for about 20 to 30 minutes as the Balm is absorbed into the briar.  The picture below was during this period.  Afterwards, I wipe off the Balm with a cloth dedicated to this, and then the stummel is buffed up using a microfiber cloth.  The stem also is a beneficiary of Before & After Fine Polish and Extra Fine Polish.  The polish helps further to condition the vulcanite and to rid the stem of oxidation.  Starting with the B&A Fine Polish, I work the black oily liquid into the stem – the liquid has a gritty texture.  Afterwards, I let the stem absorb the polish for 15 minutes and then wipe the excess off with a paper towel.  I follow by applying the Extra Fine Polish in the same manner.  Again after 15 or so minutes, the excess is wiped off and the stem is buffed with a microfiber cloth.Now, the homestretch.  After reuniting stem and stummel and mounting a cloth buffing wheel to the Dremel setting it at about 40% full power, Blue Diamond compound, a fine abrasive, is applied to the pipe.  After this, the pipe is wiped down with a felt cloth to clean it of compound dust before application of the wax.  Next, after mounting another cotton cloth buffing wheel onto the Dremel at the same speed, carnauba wax is applied to the pipe.  Following the wax application, the pipe is given a vigorous hand buffing to further raise the shine.

After the buffing, one project came to mind that I had almost forgotten.  Earlier, after inspecting the chamber and finding some heating veins, I had decided to apply a coating of natural yogurt and activated charcoal powder mixture to the chamber wall.  This mixture, after applied to the chamber, hardens into a protective layer to help protect the briar as well as encourage the formation of a protective cake.  I mix some charcoal powder with a small amount of natural yogurt.After the yogurt and charcoal are mixed and is somewhat thickened – not running but with the consistency of mud, and after inserting a pipe cleaner to keep the draft hole cleared, I use the pipe nail and spread the ‘mud’ over the chamber wall.  After it is covered, since it is late, I put the pipe aside to allow the mud to dry through the night and the lights go out!The next morning, after applying the pipe mud mixture to the chamber, I give the pipe one more rigorous hand buffing to raise the shine and my gift to Paresh is complete.

The button rebuild was, without doubt, the most technically demanding part of the restoration of this striking Savinelli Punto Oro Woodstock.  The grain is beautiful, and I am especially drawn to the Woodstock shape with the lines guiding the eyes down the sides of the pipe, taking in the movement of grain and shape.  I’m thankful for my L. J. Peretti Cutty that I received from Paresh when I was in India.  I have yet to put the Cutty into service here in Bulgaria – it has been waiting for my gift to Paresh to make it to India.  It still needs to be refreshed and a little polishing work, and my plan and hope is that Paresh and I will share our first bowls together with our gifted pipes to each other, perhaps not in person, but via video conferencing, today’s miracle bringing people together throughout our ever shrinking world.  After the pandemic issues are behind us, I’ll be mailing the Savinelli Punto Oro Woodstock to India.  Thank you for the Peretti Cutty, my friend!

Fashioning a Churchwarden from a Blasted French Dr. Geo Deposée Bowl

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Blog by Dal Stanton

This is the second commissioning project for the pipe man, clam man, Jon, from South Florida.  His first commissioning (see: A Striking Savinelli Fiammata 2 Briar Calabash for a Clam Man Pipe Man) turned out to be a diamond in the rough!  He had commissioned this pipe not from the usual perusal of my online ‘Help Me!’ baskets in the For “Pipe Dreamers” Only! collection, but he had visited us here in Sofia, Bulgaria, along with a team of folks from his church.  During this visit, Jon went through the boxes and baskets of the inventory and found the Savinelli Fiammata and pulled him aside to commission.  During this visit, Jon also saw my personal collection of Churchwardens and offered to give one of them a new home!  In the end, Jon also commissioned a CW project which also benefits the Daughters of Bulgaria, our work here in Bulgaria working among women and girls who have been trafficked and sexually exploited.  This was also important to Jon, who as a father, had brought his daughter with him to Bulgaria.  My goal in fashioning Churchwardens from bowls that were either orphaned or in their current states had little hope of being put in service again.  I liken it to Santa’s mythical island of misfit toys.  Repurposed bowls mounted on CW stems can rise from ash heap, as it were, to live and serve again.  I sent Jon a picture of different bowls to see which would speak to him as his new Churchwarden.  He had told me he preferred a bent shank – here were the candidates with differing characteristics.Our emailing back and forth between South Florida and Bulgaria to identify the bowl speaking Jon’s name, resulted in the French Blasted Dr. Geo Deposée, the second pipe pictured above.  I acquired the Dr. Geo during one of our summer vacations on a pipe picking expedition to the Bulgarian coastal city of Burgas on the Black Sea.  I found the ‘Burgas Lot of 9’, at a secondhand shop on the main walking street.  The Dr. Geo is at the end of the line of 7 pipes pictured below which were part of the haul – 2 others were added to these that were eventually posted in the For “Pipe Dreamers” Only! collection from which pipe men and women can choose and commission.The Dr. Geo I acquired I called a Prince shape.  I knew nothing about a Dr. Geo line, but what attracted me to the pipe was the blasted bowl – it was tired and dull, but had potential, though the pipe itself was unimpressive and attracted no attention when it had its time in the Dreamers collection.With the bowl now on my worktable to transform into a Churchwarden, I found some information online about the origins of Dr. Geo Deposée.  Pipephil.eu’s panel gave some information confirming that it was of French origins from the Gichard & Cie Company.Pipedia adds some additional information in its list of French made brands.  It lists that Dr. Geo was produced in the 1940s from Guichard & Cie, and later sold by M. Marmet Regge, with Ebonite stems.  Interesting to me is that my guess is that The Dr. Geo I’m looking at was from the later, M. Marment Regge ownership with the specific reference to the use of Ebonite stems.  I have another Dr. Geo in my Dreamers inventory from another Lot I purchased from France, it has a horn stem, which most likely places it in the earlier dating when rubber was in short supply during WW2.  The listing for Marmet in Pipedia, called M. Marmet-Regge, also sold the Dr. Geo brand which were produced in Saint-Claude. The meaning of the French, “Deposée”, attached to Dr. Geo is a bit cryptic, at least to one who is relegated to Google Translate to make sense of the meaning.  The direct primary English translation provided is “deposited” which is a past tense rendering.  Looking at other definitions provided by Google Translate, the possible meaning could be tied to the idea that “Dr. Geo” attests to or is behind the goodness of this pipe brand like Dr. Grabow!  It seemed like I was grasping at straws until I see the ‘info link’ on the Dr. Geo panel provided by the Pipephil.  The link goes to a French site called  ‘Ces pipes pas comme les autres’ (These pipes like no other) to a May 2006 listing selling ‘Two Doctors’ pipes with information about each.  A ‘Dr. Geo’ is described as one of the doctors with the possible clue pointing to a rational for the sub-name of ‘Deposée’:

Many pipe brands have earned the doctoral title. This makes smokers smile during these times of heightened hunting.

During the post-war years this title was more a guarantee of seriousness or of a search for perfection rather than the sign of a healthy practice. We did not allow ourselves to be disturbed by medical considerations. Everyone knew that smoking was not very healthy and took responsibility. But that has changed a lot today with the new globalized MacCarthyism.

José Manuel Lopes (1) counts seventeen brands of pipes that bear the famous title! I would like to introduce you to an 18th: Dr Arthur recognizable by his “A” circled on the pipe. No further information on this doctor there Maybe you thought I was going to present you with a leather-wrapped pipe, stamped with the most famous of these doctors? It would be bad to know me. But fear not: in this section you will not escape the famous Franco-English doctor whom I have already mentioned in the section of Cavalier pipes.

The pipes of Dr Géo – French brand of Gichard & Cie which is no longer produced – do not have an exceptional notoriety but sufficient to be cited here and there.

(1) José Manuel Lopes (President of Pipe Club of Portugal), Pipes, Artisans and Trademarks. Quimera Editores, 2005

The listing shows a picture of each Doctor cited with dimensions and a pricing.  I find interesting the dismissive gesture for the listing for the Dr. Geo: “…no longer produced – do not have an exceptional notoriety but sufficient to be cited here and there”.  My hope is to change the demeanor of the Dr. Geo Blasted Prince bowl on my worktable transforming him into a Churchwarden. Churchwardens as a classic pipe shape are unique among pipes.  Bill Burney’s description of Churchwardens on his great Pipedia shapes page, describes why they are unique among pipes:Working on my Man Cave 10th floor balcony, I take a few more pictures to get a closer look at the Doctor Geo Prince bowl, which is essentially an Apple shape without the Prince stem – hmmm, an exception to the CW stem principle? The blasted finish is nice – the smooth 3-D picture of the bowl’s grain structure is nice. The finish on the stummel appears to be a very dark brown.  There are minuscule red flecks visible through the cloudiness of the old finish.  At this point, my thinking is to refresh the finish seeking to apply the ‘Dunhill’ finish that I learned from fellow-restorer and rebornpipes contributor, Paresh.  First, after applying all the paces in cleaning the stummel, I’ll assess the condition of the stummel and how to proceed.  Following this, fashioning the CW stem will come.  To start, the Dr. Geo chamber is moderately caked. To address this, I employ the Pipnet Reaming Kit using only the smallest of the 4 blade heads available in the kit.  I follow by scraping the chamber walls with the Savinelli Fitsall Tool and complete the carbon cake removal by sanding the chamber walls with 240 grade paper wrapped around a Sharpie Pen. After wiping the chamber with a cotton pad to remove the carbon dust, an inspection reveals a healthy chamber.Transitioning to cleaning the exterior surface, using undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap, I go to work using a cotton pad and a bristled toothbrush. The brass bristled brush also works on the rim.Next, I take the bowl to the kitchen sink to continue the cleaning with shank brushes and anti-oil liquid dishwashing soap to clean the internal mortise and airway.  After giving the bowl a thorough rinsing with warm water, I transfer it back to the worktable.Through the cleaning, the finish has started to come off.  This is an indicator that a fresh start is needed. The finish is old and unstable.I decide to remove the old finish to get to the fresh briar beneath.  Isopropyl 95% is the first agent I try scrubbing the blasted finish with a cotton pad.  It is not effective.Transition next to using acetone is much more effect.  The cotton pad is evidence of the old stain which appears black and purple.  I decide to put the entire stummel into an acetone soak to fully remove the finish.  I leave it in the soak for a few hours. After a couple hours the jar containing the stummel soaking in acetone is clouded with leeched finish.  After taking the stummel out, I use a cotton pad to continue rubbing the finish off as well as employing a little steel wool. The light spots that appeared first are areas that were filled, at least partially, with wood putty which have weakened due to the cleaning.  I use a sharp dental probe to test the fills and they are solid. With the rough texture of the blasted surface, these areas will not be visible after applying new dye to the stummel. Before doing more work on the stummel, I switch the focus to fashioning the CW stem.  The first thing I do is to bring out the electronic caliper and measure the diameter of the mortise which gives me the target size of the tenon that needs to be shaped. This measurement is 7.81mm.  I add about 40mm to this to form my ‘fat target’ – the size I’ll cut the tenon and then follow by sanding to form a customized fit to the mortise.  The fat target is about 8.20mm. Next, with the drill bit provided by the PIMO Tenon Turning Tool, I predrill the airway to accommodate the guide pin of the TTT. Next, after mounting the PIMO tool on the hand drill, I do a test cut on the raw tenon of the precast CW stem and measure it – 8.01mm on the button. Whoops – that is 20mm less than I was aiming for as the ‘fat target’ but I decide to cut the tenon at this size and then sand.  This gives less margin of error, but I’m not too concerned. Keeping the same adjustment of the PIMO tool, I continue the test cutting to form a I have made several Churchwardens and one of the mistakes I have learned is to cut the tenon all the way through the precast uneven molding to create a true stem facing.  Not to do this will leave what appears to be shouldering over the edge of the stem facing.  The picture below shows a sharp 45-degree angle which is the goal.Next, using 240 sanding paper, I sand the newly cut tenon to bring it closer to the target mortise size – 7.81mm.  The rough end of the precast tenon is flattened and smoothed using the flat needle file.After a short time of sanding and fitting, the tenon seats into the mortise.Looking closer, there is a small gapping on the right side which I can close during the fine-tuning sanding.What is also the case is that there is a small overhang of the shank over the seated stem.  This will need to be sanded so that the transition between stummel and stem is smooth.I use masking tape to protect the nomenclature as well as to give a sanding boundary around the shank.I start the sanding on the shank/stem transition.  What is helpful shown in the picture below is that it shows what the ‘low-spot’ is in the pre-cast stem in the darker area passed over by the sanding indicating where sanding continues to be needed. As often is the case with the pre-cast CW stems I purchase, the shank facing along the casting seam has a dimple.  This is a pain because these dimples simply mean more sanding required at those points.Progression with the dimple – I don’t want to take off more than needed.  Note, the darkened area has disappeared on the stem indicating that the sanding paper is making seamless contact between shank and stem.With the shank/stem transition sanding completed, I move to sanding the entire pre-cast CW stem.  To start, I use a coarse 120 grade paper to do the initial sanding.  The casting seams along both sides of the stem need to be erased.  The following picture again shows the differences in the surface of the pre-cast stem.  The pre-cast stem has ripples – unevenness, even though it is new.  The dark stretch below shows a ‘valley’ in the rippling that means I sand more there to bring the edges of the valley flush with the valley floor.  The following pictures show the progression in the 120 sanding.With the CW stem smoothed after the 120 grade sanding, I switch to fine-tuning the button.  As with the stem, the button is rough. The bit needs filing to flatten it and to bring more definition to the button edges.  The slot facing on these CW stems is curved and the upper button extends out a bit more than the lower. This helps in identifying the up/down orientation of the stem.  The pictures show the progression with upper and lower bit.  Upper first:Lower :After the main filing is completed, 240 grade paper is employed to fine-tune the bit and button as well as to sand the entire stem after the 120 sanding.  Upper and lower first: Next, to continue the smoothing, 600 grade paper is used to wet sand the entire stem.  This is followed by applying 000 grade steel wool.A closeup of the button area shows the nice progression!Next, the full regimen of 9 micromesh pads is applied from 1500 to 12000. Between each set of 3 pads, Obsidian Oil is applied to condition and protect the vulcanite from future oxidation.  I only show one orbital view and a couple closeups of the finished process focusing on the upper and lower bit. With the CW stem’s sanding completed, its time to bend the stem.  The general principle I follow in stem bending is that the mouthpiece at the end of the stem, should be generally on the same horizontal plane as the rim.  It’s helpful for me to draw templates to visualize the finished stem.Where the original stem template starts with and estimation of where the bend should take place.I use the hot air gun to focus the heat on the lower side of the stem first – the thicker part.  I want it to become supple before heating the upper, thinner area of the stem which heats faster and wants to be the first place the bend begins.  I want the bend to start in the thicker part of the stem then followed by the thinner.As the stem warms over the hot air gun, I gently coax the bend as the stem softens.  After bending to a point that looks good, I bring the stem to the template holding it there for some minutes for the orientation to take hold.  I then take the stem to the kitchen sink and run cool water over it to solidify the bend.  The first try works well.  I like the look and feel of the pipe in my hand.With the stem sanding and bending completed, focus is again transitioned to the Dr. Geo blasted bowl.  Before moving to the staining process, the stummel needs some preparatory work.  One of the things I really like about working with a combination of blasted and smooth briar surfaces is the contrast that this produces.  I love to see both presentations of the grain – the smooth 2-D viewpoint as well as the rough, blasted 3-D viewpoint of the grain.  This bowl provides an opportunity for the striking contrasting. The rim is angled in a beveled slope from the external rim’s edge downward toward the chamber to the internal rim’s edge.  This rim, I believe, will look great after it is sanded to bring out the smooth briar contrast.The other sanding will bring out smooth grain over the nomenclature panel on the left shank flank as well as the newly sanded area transitioning to the stem.  To begin, 240 grade paper is used on these smooth briar patches followed by dry sanding with 600 grade paper. The full regimen of 9 micromesh pads, from 1500 to 12000, is applied to the smooth briar patches next.I’m loving what I’m seeing!  That grain contrast is great.  In the second picture, the rough area from the old fill is still visible and looks shaky, but it should disappear as it blends with the surrounding briar after the staining process.The staining process is next.  I assemble my desktop staining module with all the component parts.  I recently used the method I learned from my fellow restorer from India, Paresh, of creating the rich Dunhill look.  With this bowl being originally darker, I thought that this approach would be good.  It starts with an undercoat of Fiebing’s Dark Brown Leather Dye that is followed with the washing with red dye. After wiping the bowl with a cotton pad wetted with alcohol to clean it, I warm it with the hot air gun to open the briar helping it to be more receptive to the dye which is applied using a folded over pipe cleaner.  Using the pipe cleaner, I paint sections of the bowl with the Dark Brown Dye and then immediately ‘flame’ it with a lit candle.  This combusts the aniline dye burning away the alcohol leaving the dye pigment embedded in the briar.  After applying the dye, the stummel is set aside for several hours – through the night, for the dye to ‘rest’ and settle in.  This helps the dye to take hold in the briar.The next morning, it’s time to ‘unwrap’ the flamed stummel.  To do this, a felt cloth buffing pad is mounted onto the Dremel set at the slowest speed, and Tripoli compound is applied to help remove the crusted shell exposing the dyed briar beneath.After the Tripoli compound removes the flamed crust, I wipe the bowl to rid it of the compound dust.  When this is completed, I apply a wash of red overcoat to the briar surface and lightly wipe it with a cotton cloth.  I apply and wipe until I’m satisfied with the hue.  I like what I see.  The rich red tones give a depth to the blasted finish.Next, since it’s easier to handle the stem and stummel separately, after mounting a cotton cloth buffing wheel to the Dremel set at about 40% full power, Blue Diamond compound is applied to the long Churchwarden stem and Dr. Geo bowl.  One more step to guard against dye leeching.  Often, bowls that have been newly stained, dye will come off on the steward’s hand the first times the bowl is heated up and put into service. To emulate this, I heat the bowl with the hot air gun and then wipe it with a cotton cloth to pick up leeched dye.  Hopefully, this will keep the bowl from leeching later!I complete the fashioning of the Dr. Geo Churchwarden by giving the reunited stem and bowl a vigorous hand buffing bringing out the shine.  I’m very pleased with the results of the ‘Dunhill’ approach to finishing the bowl that I learned from Paresh.  The Dr. Geo Prince bowl serves well mounted on a long, flowing Churchwarden stem. The contrasting with the smooth and blasted briar surfaces also work very nicely. This was Jon’s second commissioned pipe and he will have the first opportunity to claim this French Dr. Geo Churchwarden from The Pipe Steward Store benefitting the Daughters of Bulgaria – women and girls who have been trafficked and sexually exploited.  Thanks for joining me!

A Striking Savinelli Fiammata 2 Briar Calabash for a Clam Man Pipe Man

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Blog by Dal Stanton

The Lot of 66 is a gift that simply put, keeps on giving.  It was the first time I stuck my neck out to buy a lot of pipes on eBay’s auction block.  I’m thankful that I did – it has produced many treasures that are now in the possession of new stewards from a good cause called the “Caring Place” in Georgetown, Texas.  The description of the Lot of 66 was “Huge Lot Of 66 Smoking Pipes Pre-Owned Pre-Smoked and Deeply Loved” followed by information that this was one person’s collection that had been donated to benefit the Caring Place helping the community in Georgetown.  This Lot of 66 benefiting the community there has also continued to benefit the work of the Daughters of Bulgaria – women and girls who have been trafficked and sexually exploited.  Here is the picture I saw and the Savinelli Fiammata Briar Calabash now on my table is circled.Most people commission pipes from my online ‘Help Me!’ baskets in the For “Pipe Dreamers” Only collection where pipes in need of adoption may be commissioned by pipe men and women benefiting the Daughters of Bulgaria.  Jon commissioned two pipes but as a visitor to Bulgaria he was able to peruse the actual boxes and buckets and chose a pipe.  Jon was part of a church team from South Florida exploring the work we do in Bulgaria.  Of course, if guests are in my home, they find out about The Pipe Steward and receive a tour of the work room and the Man Cave on my 10th floor balcony!  Jon brought along his daughter as well, but what was unique to me was that Jon is a farmer – of sorts.  His farm is under water as he grows and commercially sells clams as well as other various sea foods which I absolutely love!  His farm is called Southern Cross Sea Farms.  Next time I’m in South Florida I hope to visit Jon, share a bowl with him and hopefully a few clams!

Not only did Jon commission the Savinelli Fiammata 2, but he also drooled over my collection of Churchwardens and when I would not relent in allowing mine to find a new home in South Florida’s clam country, he commissioned a Churchwarden project along with the Fiammata.  To benefit the Daughters of Bulgaria, I also fashion CWs with re-purposed bowls that most likely, would have never again be put into service – castaways to be used a forgotten.  Again, so many analogies to the work we do here with the Daughters!  Here are pictures of the Briar Calabash that got Jon’s attention. The nomenclature that is stamped on the left flank of the shank is ‘FIAMMATA 2’.  On the right flank is stamped 611KS – the Savinelli shape number [over] ITALY, the COM.  There are no stampings on the stem that I can detect.I’m calling the Fiammata 2 a ‘Briar Calabash’.  The 611KS is a Savinelli shape number and it is depicted in the familiar shapes chart provided on the PipePedia discussion of Savinelli.  In the same article, Fiammata is listed as a second of the well-known Italian name, Savinelli. The interesting factoid related by Pipedia is that this second, ‘Fiammata’ was a special line of pipes that did not make the prized Savinelli line, “Giubileo D’Oro” (“Gold Jubilee”) – a Straight Grain line.  What this means is that a Fiammata marked pipe was of an initial assessed quality that destined it as a ‘Top Shelf’ Savinelli pipe offering, but because it didn’t meet that standard along the way, it was put in the ‘first runner up’ Fiammata line.  So, in no way would this line be considered a sub-quality line, but an upper shelf to be sure.  Fiammata means ‘Flame’ in Italian.  Pictures of the Gold Jubilee offerings in Pipedia’s Savinelli article bare this out. The Fiammata I’m looking at looks strikingly similar.

The Savinelli Pipedia article also included some catalog page examples (courtesy Doug Vliatchka) of this top shelf line, “Giubileo D’Oro” which describe the line of pipes that the Fiammata seems to have fallen short in achieving!.  I find the page clipping below interesting because of the information it provides, but also the similarity of the grains depicted like the Fiammata on my worktable – long straight grain, fire grain.So, the Savinelli Fiammata 2 on my worktable started with great aspirations, and the grain it has is very appealing.  The condition of the Briar Calabash is generally good, but with some issues.  The chamber has a light cake on the walls.  The rim has a dark ring around the inner rim edge which should clean up.  It also has what appears to be a large fill on the rear, left hand side.  The right side of the rim also has some dings. There is a major scratching event on the lower left heel – ugh!  It appears that it was in a bucket of nails or something – the scratching is deep and will need to be sanded out. The stem has minor oxidation but there is tooth chatter on the upper and lower bit in need of sanding out.To begin the restoration of the Savinelli Fiammata 2 Briar Calabash, I first use only a pipe cleaner dipped in isopropyl 95% to clean the airway of the stem.With the airway clean, the Fiammata stem joins several other stems in a soak of Mark Hoover’s product (www.ibepen.com) Before & After Deoxidizer.  This is the only part of the restoration process that I try to mass produce!  The Fiammata is on the far left, next in the queue, and it joins several other pipes that are also in the queue along with their stems in the soak as well.  The stems were just put in the Deoxidizer and are in the process of sinking into the interesting mixture.  I leave the stems in the soak for a few hours.After a few hours, I fish out the Fiammata’s stem and after using my fingers to squeegee the Deoxidizer off, I run some pipe cleaners wetted with isopropyl 95% through the airway to clear out the fluid.  I then use a cotton pad wetted with alcohol to wipe down the stem to remove raised oxidation from the stem.To enhance the rejuvenation of the vulcanite, paraffin oil is applied with a cotton pad and the stem is set aside to soak in the oil.Turning now to the stummel cleanup, I begin by reaming the chamber with the Pipnet Reaming Kit.  With the day a bit warmer during this time of self-quarantine because of the virus concerns, I’m trying to work out on the Man Cave as much as possible.  My ‘Man Cave’, where I’m allowed to smoke my pipes is located on the 10th floor of our apartment blok built during the days when Communism was still up and functioning in Bulgaria.   I take my tools to the Man Cave and go to work.  I’m enjoying a bowl of Black Stoker in a Made in London England Canadian.The cake is not bad, but the long, conical chamber of the Savinelli Fiammata 2 is a challenge.  The shape of the chamber tapers down so that is it narrower at the floor of the chamber. I use all 4 of the blade heads available to me in the Pipnet reaming kit, which speaks to the size of the chamber as it expands upwardly.  I am careful not to bore ridges into the side of the chamber with the different blade heads starting at different points.   I transition after the blades to the Savinelli Fitsall Tool to fine-tune the chamber wall scraping reaching down to the floor and to the more difficult areas of the conical chamber.  To rid the final vestiges of carbon, I then wrap 240 grade paper around a Sharpie Pen and sand the chamber. After wiping the chamber with a wetted cotton pad to clear the carbon dust, I inspect the wall and find a healthy chamber.  I move on! Transitioning to cleaning the external surface, I use cotton pads wetted with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap.  I patiently focus on the blackened ring on the internal edge of the rim.  My thumbnail proves to be helpful as well as a gentle scraping with my Buck pocketknife.  A brass wired brush also helps.  Transferring the pipe to the kitchen sink, I also employ shank brushes with anti-oil liquid dish soap to clean the internal mortise and airway.  After a thorough rinsing, the stummel returns to the worktable.  The cleaning did a fantastic job on the rim.  What I thought to be fills on the rim, held very firmly and have all but disappeared.  To make sure the internals are clean, a few pipe cleaners and cotton buds dipped in isopropyl 95% confirm this!  I move on!The disaster area on the front left side of the heel of the Fiammata Calabash stummel is now my focus. The sharp cuts in the briar are most likely from metal.  It’s sad…First using 240 grade sanding paper I sand the impacted area.  I do not go beyond the damaged area because heavy sanding changes the composition of the surface drastically.  It creates a lightened patch that needs again to be darkened in order to re-blend it with the surrounding briar complexion.  While the 240 paper is in play, I also lightly sand the rim’s internal edge to remove fully the darkening that remains after the cleaning.  There’s a lot of forgiveness in a rounded rim presentation!After the 240 grade paper, I sand with a dry 600 grade paper to the lightened area.  You can see how the sanding process gradually coaxes the briar grain to darken moving toward blending the sanded area.  Not pictured is that I do the same with the rim area that I had sanded with 240 paper.The blending continues by sanding the bowl with sanding sponges.  Before doing this, I cover each of the stampings of the Savinelli nomenclature with masking tape on both sides of the shank.  I try not to contribute to the demise of this pipe’s history and story!I start with a coarse sponge and follow with medium and light grade sponges.  The sanding sponges, unlike the 240 grade paper, are a gentler form of sanding that is less invasive.  Sanding sponges address the minor nicks and cuts that come through the normal life of a pipe in service.  They also help with the darkening and re-blending of the damaged sanded area (second picture).  I like the results and the fire grain of this Fiammata Briar Calabash is starting to get my attention – wow!  This is a quality piece of briar block! Loving the briar grain that is emerging through the sanding processes, I transition next to applying the full regimen of 9 micromesh pads from grades 1500 to 12000.  First, wet sanding is with pads 1500 to 2400 followed by dry sanding with pads 3200 to 4000 and 6000 to 12000.  I’m loving the show of the grain on this stummel gradually emerging!  The damaged area has been fully reintegrated into the briar environment. The next step is to apply Mark Hoover’s Restoration Balm (www.ibepen.com) which works well to bring out the rich deeper hues of the natural briar grains.  After placing a small amount of the Balm on my finger, I work it into the briar surface.  It begins with a cream-like consistency and then thickens to a waxiness that covers the entire surface.  After a thorough application of the Balm, I set the stummel aside to absorb the Balm for about 20 minutes (pictured below).  After the 20 minutes, I use a dedicated microfiber cloth to wipe the stummel removing the excess balm and to buff the stummel somewhat.  I also use this ‘balm saturated’ cloth to wipe other pipes in my collection for regular Balm maintenance – they enjoy this very much!  I follow with another microfiber cloth to buff further.  My, oh my….The Calabash’s bent stem is waiting for my attention.  It’s the next day and continuing to work on the Man Cave with another beautiful day, I take another close look at the stem.  The Before & After Deoxidizer has done a good job dealing with the oxidation.  The upper and lower bit has tooth chatter, but not severely.  The button is in pretty good shape.  To help to minimize the chatter and one evident scissor bite mark I see on the upper side, I first use the heating method.  Using a Bic lighter, I ‘paint’ the chatter with the flame.  The flame heats the vulcanite and it expands to reclaim its original disposition – or at least closer to it.  This then allows sanding out the remaining marks easier.  Before and after pictures comparing the effects of the heating approach are below – a definite improvement.  First, the upper bit comparison – note the minimization of the vertical scissor bite compression:Next, the lower bit comparison – the chatter disappears:Next, I use the flat needle file to refresh the button and 240 sanding paper to erase what remains of the tooth chatter.Even though the stem showed no signs of oxidation after use of the deoxidizer soak, I expand the sanding to the entire stem with the 240 paper.  I want to make sure no vestiges of oxidation show up in the latter stages of polishing which is when deeper oxidation usually shows up!Next, I wet sand using grade 600 paper and follow by applying 000 grade steel wool.The sanding preparatory work is completed and now the fine tune sanding with the full regimen of micromesh pads follows.  First, I wet sand with pads 1500 to 2400 and follow by dry sanding with pads from 3200 to 4000 and 6000 to 12000.  Between each set of 3 pads, Obsidian Oil is applied to rejuvenate and to protect against future oxidation.  I love the ‘pop’ of newly micromeshed stems! Now, the home stretch.  After rejoining stem and stummel and after mounting a cotton cloth buffing wheel to the Dremel setting it at 40% of full power, the fine abrasive compound, Blue Diamond, is applied to the entire pipe.  Following the compound, after wiping the pipe with a felt cloth to clear the compound dust, another cotton cloth buffing wheel is mounted and at the same speed carnauba wax is applied.  The restoration is completed after giving the pipe a rigorous hand buffing with a microfiber cloth to raise the shine.

If this pipe is a normative example of the “Giubileo D’Oro” (“Gold Jubilee”) reject line, keep the rejects coming!  What can I say?  This is one of those restorations that discovered gold in hiding. The grain presentation on this ample Briar Calabash bowl is reminiscent to me of Preben Holm’s moniker, ‘Follow the grain.’  The straight, fire grain reaches toward the rim and the rim’s rounded shape provides a view of delicate bird’s eye, a 3-D perspective of the tips of the fire grain’s release into the air.  The heel presentation is equally expressive of larger, more chaotic patterns – for me, characteristic of the origins of the fire.  The Briar Calabash shape also contributes to the ensemble with its sweeping curves and lines moving toward the gently bending stem.  Is it obvious that I’m impressed with this line of Savinelli, Fiammata?  Clam man Jon commissioned this pipe and has the first opportunity to adopt him from The Pipe Steward Store benefitting the Daughters of Bulgaria.  Thanks for joining me!

Sprucing Up a Meerschaum Teardrop Lattice Billiard

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Blog Dal Stanton

I just completed an Aldo Velani from what I’ve called the St. Louis Lot of 26 (See: Refreshing a Saucy Italian Aldo Velani Trio Bent Apple) and the next pipe in queue is also from this Lot.  The Meerschaum just above the giant Champion Churchwarden’s bowl is on the worktable now.  My son, Josiah found this lot in an antique shop in St. Louis where he was studying.  He sent me a text here in Bulgaria about his find with pictures.  We went in together to purchase the lot with the provision that my son’s part of the purchase would be for me to pick a pipe out of the lot as a Christmas present from him.  I chose the giant Champion Churchwarden!  Other pipe men and women have chosen other pipes from this lot of treasures which are posted in the online collection, For “Pipe Dreamers” Only! .This is where Jeremiah, from the state of California, saw the Meerschaum and commissioned him back when my wife and I were enjoying the Black Sea during our summer R&R.  I appreciate Jeremiah’s patience as his pipe worked up the queue!  Here are more pictures taking a closer look at the Meerschaum Teardrop Lattice Billiard. There are no markings on the pipe.  The size of the Billiard shape is Length 5 5/16 inches, Height 1 5/8 inches, Rim width 1 1/8 inches, Chamber width 3/4 inches, Chamber depth 1 3/8 inches. What is unique about this Meerschaum Teardrop Lattice design are the size of the tear drops, or the egg-shaped carvings – they are large.  The fine circular scallop carvings are in comparison, small and tight.  The Meer is set-up with a basic push/pull tenon which appears to have a crack in the mortise insert (pictured above).  The tenon insert is worn and discolored.  The pipe itself appears to be in great shape in need of cleaning.  The chamber has some carbon build up which is not needed or desired in a Meer chamber.  One of the great things about Meerschaums is that they do not need to rest between uses as with briars.  There is a bit of the coveted patina developing around the scalloped shank and climbing toward the back of the bowl.  This is good.  This brief description from Meerschaum.com that I’ve previously cited is helpful to understand the nature of Meerschaum:

Meerschaum is a very rare mineral, a kind of hard white clay. Light and porous structure of the pipe keeps the smoke cool and soft. The pipe itself is a natural filter which absorbs the nicotine. Because of this peculiarity, meerschaum pipes slowly change their colors to different tones of gold and dark brown. This adds an esthetic enjoyment to its great smoking pleasure. The longer a pipe is smoked the more valuable it becomes due to the color change. Today many old and rare meerschaums have found a permanent place in museums and private collections.

I begin the restoration of this Meerschaum by disassembling the component parts.  This helps with the cleaning.  I also plan to replace the push/pull tenon.  With the help of a pair of needle nose pliers, the push/pull components are easily removed.Taking the stummel in hand, the chamber has moderate carbon cake build up which will be removed.I don’t use the reaming kit with Meerschaum because it produces too much indiscriminate torque on the Meer chamber wall.  A more gentle and strategic approach is the use of the Savinelli Fitsall tool.  I’m able to scrape the chamber walls with the tool in a way that removes carbon buildup but is mindful of the Meerschaum.Following the wall scraping, the chamber wall is sanded with 240 grade paper wrapped around a Sharpie Pen.  This does a good job of removing the last vestiges of carbon build up.  A Meerschaum chamber does not need a cake protection like a briar chamber.An inspection of the chamber after cleaning looks good.  The Meer is still colored but it is clean and smooth to the touch.Cleaning the external surface of the Meerschaum starts with the rim which has lava caked on it, especially on the aft quadrant where most of the lighting occurred.  Using undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap, I begin on the rim to soften and break up the lava without damaging the scalloped rim carvings.  I am patient to allow the solvents to break up the cake on the rim.  I also gently utilize a brass wired brush on the rim but most of the scrubbing is done with a bristled toothbrush.  I use the toothbrush to clean the rim as well as work into all the carvings of the bowl.  I take the bowl to the kitchen sink and continue cleaning with a cotton pad and toothbrush under warm water.  Not pictured is something I tried for the first time.  I have a Soft-Scrub product here in Bulgaria called CIT which has a gentle bleach and abrasion composition.  I put a small amount on a cotton pad and continue to work on the rim’s darkened condition.  After a thorough rinsing with warm water, the stummel returns to the worktable.I’m very pleased with the cleaning results. The stummel will lighten more because it’s still damp from the cleaning. The rim cleaned up very nicely.  One blackened area remains on the extreme edge of the aft rim quadrant.  Later, I may be able to clean this with very strategic sanding. The patina gathering at the bowl/shank crook remains through the cleaning. Moving now to cleaning the internals, I use cotton buds and pipe cleaners dipped in isopropyl 95%.  I also employ a small dental spoon to scrape the internal walls of old oils and tars.  The more excavated, the faster the cotton buds can clean.  In time the buds emerge in a lightened state and the job is completed.It took no time to dispatch the internal cleaning of the acrylic stem.Focusing now on the stem repairs, I like the brown tone acrylic.  It will clean up well.  The stem bit has significant biting damage to both upper and lower bit that will require patches from the start.  The button is damaged as well.  It appears this stem was the victim of mauling, not just biting.  There is also what appears to be a burn on the side of the stem – that’s the only thing I can think it would be. It is rough to the touch so sanding should help this blemish later.I use regular CA glue to fill the compressions on one side first.  An accelerator is also used to hold the glue in place and to quicken the curing process.After the CA glue cures, I use the flat needle file to remove the excess patch material and to shape and refresh the button lips – both upper and lower.  The first two pictures are the upper.Next the lower.Next, with the filing completed, I continue to sand with 240 grade paper on the upper and lower bit.From the bit, I also sand the entire stem and focus on the burn or blemish on the side of the stem.As I look at the mark on the side of the stem, I believe now it’s simply a blemish in the acrylic.  It is not just surface but seems to go deeper.  I can only sand it out as much as possible.After sanding with 240 paper, I transition to wet sanding the entire stem with 600 grade paper then the 000 grade steel wool fine tunes the acrylic stem – it’s looking great.Transitioning now to the full regimen of micromesh pads, I wet sand with pads 1500 to 2400 and follow with dry sanding with pads 3200 to 4000 and 6000 to 12000.  Between each set of 3 pads Obsidian Oil is applied.  I like the fire in this acrylic stem. I want to strategically sand the burn spot on the extreme back of the inner rim edge.  I use a very light 240 grade paper and follow with a dry 1500 micromesh pad.I think it looks good.  The darkness is not erased but it is reduced.  To enrich and encourage the coveted patina in the Meerschaum, the age-old approach is a beeswax treatment.  Using a hot air gun, the beeswax in the Mason jar is heated until it liquefies.  I also heat the Meer bowl with the gun and then apply the liquefied beeswax to the stummel – painting thoroughly all the nooks and crannies of the sculpting.  During the painting process, I have the hot air gun propped in such a way as to continue to blow hot air on the stummel as I’m painting it.  This helps to keep the wax thin and it is more easily absorbed into the porous Meerschaum.After the stummel is thoroughly coated in beeswax, I put it aside for the stummel to cool.After cooling, I buff the stummel with a microfiber cloth to remove excess wax and to raise the shine.  The Meerschaum literally drank in the beeswax!I decided earlier to replace the old push/pull tenon system with a new set.  The shank acrylic fitment and the stem tenon both screwed in with no problem. When I tried inserting the tenon into the shank receptor, the fit was very tight – too tight to fit without me being nervous about cracking something.  To remedy this, I hand turn a drill bit just a bit larger than the hole and it bores out a slightly more comfortable fit.  This works like a charm. With the stem and stummel reunited, after mounting a cotton cloth buffing wheel to the Dremel and set the speed at 40% full power and Blue Diamond compound is applied only to the acrylic stem.  Following the compound, after wiping the stem with a felt cloth to clean it of compound dust, the same procedure is followed with another cotton cloth buffing wheel and carnauba wax is applied to the acrylic stem.  After this, the entire Meerschaum Teardrop Lattice Billiard is hand buffed to raise the shine.

The design of this Meerschaum is a classic carvers’ template in this genre of pipe.  The patina on the Meerschaum has a good start with the honey honed hues which complement beautifully the fire waves of the acrylic stem.  Jeremiah wanted to add a Meerschaum to his growing collection, and he will have the first opportunity to add this Teardrop Lattice Billiard from The Pipe Steward Store benefiting the Daughters of Bulgaria – women and girls who have been trafficked and sexually exploited.  Thanks for joining me!

Refreshing a Saucy Italian Aldo Velani Trio Bent Apple

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Blog by Dal Stanton

The St. Louis Lot of 26 that my son, Josiah, found in an antique shop before last Christmas is where I landed the Aldo Velani now before me. He was impressed by the quality of pipes in the Lot and emailed me in Bulgaria with a proposition of going in together for the Lot of 26.  His business proposal would be that his part would be his Christmas present to me – I would choose a pipe for my own from the Lot.  My part of the purchase would be to acquire this Lot and posting them in my online collection, For “Pipe Dreamers” Only! for pipe men and women to commission to add to their collections benefiting the Daughters of Bulgaria.  It was a proposal hard to refuse and some weeks later I unwrapped the St. Louis Lot of 26 in Denver where our family had gathered for Christmas.  I chose as my gift from Josiah an unbelievable find in the picture below, a huge Champion Churchwarden.  The Aldo Velani Trio Bent Apple is situated on the right just under the Churchwarden stem.Pipe man Michael saw the Aldo Velani in the Dreamers collection.  Originally in the Lot, there were 4 pipes in the Aldo Velani Trio set.  A Rusticated Volcano already found a home with a new steward (See: Rebuilding a Rim and Chamber for an Aldo Velani Trio Rusticated Volcano).  The common characteristics of the set is the bright burgundy/reddish hue, the double-bumped gold banding and an assortment of acrylic stems.  The set is attractive.Michael was drawn to the Bent Apple and after communicating back and forth, he decided to commission it.  Here are more pictures taking a closer look at the Aldo Velani Bent Apple.  This line is a ‘bling’ line of pipes.  The fancy acrylic stems with the double-bumped gold-plated ring, and the shine of the finish – all together give a bling, after dinner pipe feel.  The Apple has an elegant presentation. The chamber shows moderate buildup of cake and some lava flow over the rim. The clear acrylic stem has a burgundy airway that through the stem some build up is detected.  I’m assuming that it’s burgundy colored and that its not supposed to be clear as well!  We’ll see.  Whenever I see a clear acrylic stem, the question is whether it’s a Perspex acrylic, an earlier more temperamental material that will not tolerate cleaning with alcohol and may craze or even shatter.  I don’t think I need to worry about this because Perspex would be on older GBD pipes and early acrylic.   The bit is in great shape – almost no detectable tooth chatter.The gold band I’m assuming is nickel plated as there are no markings showing a gold metal content.  The double-bumped ring or shank facing is attractive and adds a touch of class as it joins the acrylic stem and Apple bowl.  The ring will shine up nicely.The nomenclature on the left shank side is cursive script, ‘Aldo Velani’ [over] ‘TRIO’.  On the underside of the shank is the COM ‘ITALY’ and to the immediate right, the shape number ‘56’.The stem is stamped with a unique mark which I was able to figure out the last Aldo Velani I restored.The Aldo Velani stem stamp is interesting and takes a closer look to figure out.  I found in Pipedia’s Aldo Velani article, an example and details of the stamping on an original Aldo Velani box, courtesy of Doug Valitchka.  The stamp depicts a pipe as the front leg of the ‘A’ for Aldo and the back leg of the ‘A’ forms the front riser of the ‘V’ of Velani.From my earlier Aldo Velani post, the article cited from Pipedia provides helpful information understanding the provenance of the Aldo Velani name:

Most Aldo Velani pipes are made in Livorno, Italy, for the USA market by Cesare Barontini. They were previously imported by Lane Limited. Lane spokesman Frank Blews once described Velani’s stylish, intrinsically Italian designs as “Billiards with more ball, bulldogs with more jaw.” The name “Aldo Velani” is actually fictional.

Another Barontini 2nd is named “Cesare”.

I learn two interesting things from this information.  First, Aldo Velani is a faux name that does not describe an Italian pipe house but a specific pipe line.  Secondly, the Aldo Velani line is made by the Casare Barontini name based in Livorno, Italy.   Further information is available cross referencing to Casare Barontini in Pipedia:

In 1890 Turildo Barontini opened a factory for the production of briar. In 1925 his son Bruno began to produce the first pipes. Cesare Barontini, son of Bruno, started direction of the factory in 1955, and still runs it together with his daughters Barbara and Silvia.

Sub-brands & Seconds: Aldo Velani. Cesare, L’artigiana, Stuart, Cortina

Pipephil’s site has several examples of the Aldo Velani line depicted which tend to be very stylish and nice-looking pipes which confirms the Pipedia assertion that Casare Brontini produced the Aldo Velani lines primarily for export.  It is evident that there was not a consistency in the stem stamping or name style for Aldo Velani as different examples are given.  Here are the stem stamping variations provided by Pipephil:With a better understanding of the Aldo Velani Trio Bent Apple before me, I begin his refreshing by cleaning.  I start by disassembling the parts – I find that the gold ring easily is removed which will allow cleaning of each element to be easier.I then take the stummel and ream the chamber using the Pipnet reaming kit.  I use the 2 smaller blade heads then switch to the Savinelli Fitsall tool.  Then sanding the chamber wall is done with 240 grade paper wrapped around a Sharpie Pen to further clean away the remaining vestiges of carbon.  I wipe the chamber with a cotton pad wetted with isopropyl 95% and after inspection of the chamber, all appears to be healthy briar – I forgot to take a picture! Next, to clean the external surface undiluted Murphy’s Oil soap is used with a cotton pad.  The smooth surface is easily cleaned.  Using a brass wire brush and a little help from my thumb’s fingernail the remaining lava is cleared. The stummel is then transferred to the kitchen sink where the internal mortise is cleaned with shank brushes and anti-oil dish liquid soap.  After scrubbing, the bowl is thoroughly rinsed and returned to the worktable. Continuing with the internal cleaning, I use two pipe cleaners and one cotton bud wetted with isopropyl 95% to discover that the internals are essentially clean.  Nice for a change!Switching now to the acrylic stem, the shady areas inside the translucent airway I assume is build up which should be able to be cleaned.  I use a combination starting with isopropyl 95% and followed by a Soft-Scrub-like product I can find here in Bulgaria along with both bristled and soft pipe cleaners to clean the airway.  With the bristled pipe cleaners, after wetting them with the CIT, I insert it into the stem and then ‘crank it’ to rotate in the airway.  This does a good job.You can see that some of the burgundy color came off on the pipe cleaner as it cleaned.  There is still some coloration in the airway, but it seems to be clean.After the cleaning of both the stummel and the stem, it is apparent that they are in good condition and for both I move directly to applying Blue Diamond compound, a mild abrasive, to both the acrylic stem and stummel.  The compound will clear very small imperfections on both the stummel and acrylic surfaces.  At this point, the gold-plated ring is kept off the shank for the application of compound.  With a cotton cloth buffing wheel mounted to the Dremel and speed at about 40% full power, compound is applied to both stem and stummel.After the compound and after I wipe the pipe down with a felt cloth to clear the compound dust from the pipe, another cotton cloth buffing wheel is mounted with the same speed and carnauba wax is applied to only the stummel.  The acrylic stem cannot be improved with wax!  Following the application of wax, I use a microfiber cloth to give the pipe a vigorous hand buffing to raise the shine.A few more small projects are left.  The ‘AV’ stamping on the acrylic needs refreshing.  To match the gold ring, which is gold – the stamping in gold is a very nice touch.Using European Gold Rub’n Buff I apply a small amount of gold over the stamping.  And as the name says, I rub and buff!  The results are very nice. Before reattaching the double-bump ring to the shank, I clean it using 000 steel wool.Then, placing a small amount of Extra Thick CA glue to the inside of the ring, I attach it to the shank. I use thick CA glue and only a small amount so that it doesn’t run over the confines of the ring.With the ring reattached, the Aldo Velani Trio Bent Apple stummel and fancy acrylic stem are rejoined and enjoy another hand buffing with a microfiber cloth to raise the shine.

Wow – what a party pipe!  This pipe certainly has flare and bling and it’s the type of pipe that one wears matching cuff links!  The Bent Apple shape provides a touch of elegance and the ensemble works well with the striking burgundy – reddish finish, the gold double-bumped ring and acrylic stem – with its matching airway running the length.  Michael commissioned this Aldo Velani Trio Bent Apple and he will have the first opportunity to acquire it from The Pipe Steward Store benefiting the Daughters of Bulgaria.  Thanks for joining me!

New Life for a Kaywoodie Standard Apple for a Special Pipe Woman

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Blog by Dal Stanton

I remember well where I came into possession of the Kaywoodie now on my worktable.  My wife and I were in the US for the wedding of our youngest child, our daughter, who was married near Nashville, Tennessee.  After the wedding, driving along US Interstate 24 heading back toward Atlanta, a billboard sign beckoned us like a Siren to heed the next exit – it said: “Antiques”!  We exited and found Madeline’s Antiques & Uniques near Manchester, Tennessee.  It was the real deal for pipe picking and picked I did!It was at Madeline’s that I found my first Dunhill in the wild (Another Wedding Trip Pick: A 1961 DUNHILL EK Shell Briar Made in England 1 4S).  Along with some other very nice finds, the Kaywoodie Standard Apple also made its way to Bulgaria and was posted in my online collection called For “Pipe Dreamers” Only! where pipe men and pipe women can find a pipe and commission benefiting the Daughters of Bulgaria – women and girls who have been trafficked and sexually exploited.  The Kaywoodie is standing in the rack on the right.The Kaywoodie got the attention of one special young lady, Grace, a budding pipe woman.  One of the joys of living and serving in Bulgaria is that we encounter gifted young adults who come to serve with us for a time living and working in a culture much different from the US.  Grace was one such young lady.  She has been to Bulgaria twice now and on one of her deployments my wife and I were host to her as she lived with us in our flat.  It was then that her aspirations as a pipe woman were born as she tried a pipe on my ‘Man Cave’ – my 10th floor balcony where smoking pipes is allowed!  In the picture below Grace is on the right with a Zulu in tow along with a special Bulgarian friend, Kari, who also has her pipe that she commissioned from The Pipe Steward. Last time that Grace was with us, she went through the many ‘Help Me!’ baskets and found the Kaywoodie.  I asked her if it was a gift for someone and she replied somewhat demurely, no, that it was for her 😊.  Here are more pictures of the classic Kaywoodie Standard Apple that got Grace’s attention. The 3-holed stinger of this Kaywoodie Apple marks it as having a date at least from the 1960s when Kaywoodie transitioned from 4-holed to 3-holed stingers (LINK).The nomenclature on the shank is holding on as a wisp in the wind.  It is so thin that only with a direct angle of reflection am I able to discern it.  The stamping is KAYWOODIE [over] Standard (in fancy cursive script) [over] IMPORTED BRIAR.  The stem has the older, inlaid clover. The next picture in this set shows the Kaywoodie shape number ‘33’ on the right flank of the shank which points to the designation of a ‘Large Apple’ from the US production of Kaywoodie pipes (LINK).  According to this discussion on Tapatalk.com, the 2-digit system, employed from 1927 to 1972 when the system was changed to a 3-digit system, was when pipe production (for Kaywoodie, Yello-Bole and Medico) was moved to the Medico factory in Richmond Hill Queens NY as plans for new plant were in process.  The 3-digit numbers was used during this period for all Kaywoodie and Medico pipes, from 1972 to 1980.  The same article indicated that the 2-digit numbers were only for Kaywoodies produced in the US – that Kaywoodie of London (Cadogan) had their own three-digit system.  Putting all the information together, this Kaywoodie Apple is most likely a 1960s vintage.  According to the Kaywoodie Discussion at MyFreeForum the ‘Standard’ line of Kaywoodie started in the 1950s, but with the 2 digit shape number and the 3 hole stinger, the evidence points to the 1960s dating.The Kaywoodie shape number 33 is pictured in this 1970s listing from the now defunk Chris’ Pipe Pages which I had saved from a previous restoration.  The 33 is in the second column, third from the bottom.As I look more closely at the pipe itself, the chamber is relatively clear of carbon cake and the rim has minor lava crusting on the rim. The finish is old, faded and thin.  There is grime on the stummel surface and dark spots/blots that I’m hopeful will clean.  The stem has oxidation but the bit has no detectable tooth chatter. The stem is not in alignment.  It is under-clocked by a few degrees. Kaywoodie is perhaps the quintessential American pipe name and I welcome restoring this Kaywoodie Standard Apple for Grace.  Starting with the stem, with pipe cleaners wetted with isopropyl 95%, I clean the internal airway.  I also use a shank brush to get into the smaller airway of the 3 holed stinger.With the airway cleaned, the Kaywoodie joins other pipes’ stems in a Before & After Deoxidizer soak.  The stems soak in the Deoxidizer for a few hours.After fishing the Kaywoodie stem out of the Deoxidizer, I squeegee the liquid with my fingers and use cotton pads wetted with alcohol to wipe off the raised oxidation.  I also use pipe cleaners to clear the Deoxidizer liquid form the internal airway and stinger.To rejuvenate the vulcanite, paraffin oil is also applied to the stem and put aside to soak.Turning to the Kaywoodie Apple bowl, I use the Pipnet Reaming Kit to clean the light carbon cake in the chamber.  I employ 2 of the 4 blade heads available in the kit, then transition to scraping the chamber wall with the Savinelli Fitsall Tool.  Finally, after wrapping 240 grade paper around the Sharpie Pen, the chamber is sanded to remove the final vestiges of carbon.  After wiping the chamber with a cotton pad wetted with alcohol to remove the carbon dust, an inspection of the chamber reveals healthy briar with no heating issues.Transitioning now to the external briar surface, undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap is used on a cotton pad.  I’m anxious to see what the cleaning does to the dark spots/blots on the surface. Along with the cotton pad, a brass wired brush helps on the rim as well as focusing on the dark spots.  The bowl is then transferred to the kitchen sink to focus on the internals.  Using a shank brush with anti-oil liquid dish soap, the internal mortise is addressed as well as using my fingernail on the dark spots.  After a thorough rinsing, the bowl goes back to the worktable.I use 000 grade steel wool to clean the nickel shank facing as well.  The spotting on the aft side of the bowl, top of the shank and shank underside are still present but perhaps lessened.  They will need sanding to eradicate.Next, continuing with the internal cleaning, pipe cleaners and cotton buds dipped in isopropyl 95% work on the mortise.  The metal threaded shank facing makes cleaning the internals a bit tricky.  I reach into the mortise with a small dental spoon and excavate old oils and tars by scraping the mortise walls.  This was quite a battle! At the end of the excavating and pipe cleaners and cotton buds, more of a truce was called – not a victory.  I will continue the internal cleaning later with a kosher salt and alcohol soak!Not wanting to contribute to the further demise of the Kaywoodie nomenclature, masking tape is placed over the markings on both sides of the shank.The darkened areas on the rim and the spotting areas are addressed with a light sanding with 240 grade paper.  First, before pictures and after sanding. After sanding the spots are erased.Next, to clean the entire stummel of scratches, cuts and nicks, I utilize sanding sponges.  First, a coarse sponge is used followed by medium and light grade sponges.  I like the appearance of the grain on this Apple bowl.  The grain is showing a lot of flow with some bird’s eye.  It appears this block of briar was taken toward the edge of the bole. Next, using the full regimen of micromesh pads, I wet sand with pads 1500 to 2400 and then dry sand with pads 3200 to 4000 and 6000 to 12000.  I remove the masking tape in the last set of three to allow some blending without much in the way of sanding. I’m anxious to see how a treatment of Mark Hoover’s Before & After Restoration Balm works on this Kaywoodie stummel.  I am especially interested in the shank areas where the masking tape covered the briar to protect the nomenclature and is a somewhat different hue.  I’m hopeful that the Balm might even out the contrast in these areas.  After putting some of the Balm on my fingers, I work the Balm into the briar surface.  The Balm begins with a cream-like consistency but then thickens to a wax-like texture as it’s worked into the surface.  After applying the Balm, I let the bowl set for several minutes for the Balm to do its thing.  I then remove the excess Balm with a cloth and follow by buffing the surface with a microfiber cloth.The Balm does a great job, but the only way to remove the darker hue over the nomenclature is to destroy the nomenclature and this I’m unwilling to do!  The nomenclature is a pipes heritage and part of its story.Looking now to the stem, first the metal tenon’s 3-holes are clogged.  Using a sharp dental probe, this is cleaned out.Using 000 grade steel wool I then clean and polish what I assume is a nickel tenon/stinger.The stem surface is in good shape.  There is a small imperfection near the clover leaf.I decide to sand the entire stem with 240 grade paper to remove the small divot but also to address potential residual oxidation.Following the 240 paper, wet sanding with 600 grade paper followed by applying 000 grade steel wool leaves the stem in good stead.Earlier I had commented that the stem was not in alignment and that it was under-clocked.  I rejoin the stem with the stummel and screw it in.  It appears that the cleaning corrected the alignment.  It looks good now.Next, the stem receives the full regimen of 9 micromesh pads.  I wet sand beginning with pads 1500 to 2400 then dry sand with pads 3200 to 4000 and 6000 to 12000.  Between each set of 3 pads, Obsidian Oil is applied to rejuvenate the stem and to guard it against oxidation. Before applying Blue Diamond and wax, I continue the internal cleaning of the stummel using a kosher salt and alcohol soak.  This refreshes the pipe for a new steward and penetrates the internal briar walls to clean further. A wick is created by pulling and twisting a cotton ball.  The wick serves to draw oils and tars from the internals.  Using a stiff wire, the wick is forced down the mortise as far as it will reach. After this, the bowl is filled with kosher salt which leaves no aftertaste.  After filled, the bowl is placed in an egg carton to provide stability.  Next, the bowl is filled with isopropyl 95% alcohol with a large eye dropper until it surfaces over the salt.  After a few minutes, the alcohol is drawn into the salt and cotton wick.  I top off the alcohol and set it aside to soak for several hours – through the night. The next morning, I find the salt and cotton wick unsoiled.  Doubtful that this was an accurate indicator of the clean condition of the internals, I follow with additional pipe cleaners and cotton buds wetted with alcohol.  My guess is that the metal fitment hindered the wick from making it to raw briar to then draw out the tars and oils.I was correct – many more cotton buds were necessary with additional scraping with the dental spoon to achieve satisfactory results!  I move on.Now on the home stretch.  With the Kaywoodie stem and stummel reunited, a cotton cloth buffing wheel is mounted to the Dremel set at about 40% full power and Blue Diamond compound is applied to the entire pipe.  After completing the Blue Diamond, I wipe/buff the pipe with a felt cloth to remove the carbon dust.  Then, after mounting another dedicated cotton buffing wheel onto the Dremel, set at the same speed, a few coats of carnauba wax are applied to the briar surface.  After completed, I give the pipe a rigorous hand buffing to raise the shine.

There is a large following of Kaywoodie pipes from what I’ve read and the following is increasing.  I’m pleased with how this 1960s vintage Kaywoodie Standard Apple has turned out.  The briar grain works well around the Apple shape. It has much movement and action.  The nomenclature is still surviving, and this pipe is ready for a new steward.  I’m pleased that pipe women Grace commissioned this Kaywoodie and has the first opportunity to acquire him from The Pipe Steward Store.  This Kaywoodie benefits the Daughters of Bulgaria.  Thanks for joining me!

Bringing Life Back to a Heritage Antique 86 Blasted Apple  

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Blog by Dal Stanton

A few years ago I landed a large lot of pipes on the eBay auction block from a seller in Georgetown, Texas.  The seller was actually a charitable organization called the Georgetown Caring Place operating some thrift stores mainly manned by volunteers – elderly.  I liked it from the start!  The description on the ‘Lot of 66’ said it all:

Huge Lot Of 66 Smoking Pipes, Pre-Owned, Loved, Pre-Smoked, Many different makers styles and Brands, We will not be able to list specifics on these pipes, We are not pipe people, You are buying one person’s collection

Undoubtedly, an estate collection of a pipe man’s collection that the family donated to benefit the Caring Place. My bid won the Lot of 66 and helped a good cause.  It also placed the former steward’s pipes in my charge, and it has been a joy for me to discover many treasures in the Lot of 66 and to enable these pipes to continue to serve many new stewards for years to come.  Here’s the Lot of 66 that I saw on eBay.Pipe man Todd, who has commissioned and received several pipes from The Pipe Steward before, all benefiting the Daughters of Bulgaria, saw one of the Lot of 66 waiting, an unassuming ‘Heritage Blasted Apple’ listed in my online inventory called For “Pipe Dreamers” Only! and he commissioned it along with 2 others (See: Borge Mortensen of Denmark and Ehrlich Special Chimney of Boston). Todd has a knack for seeing good pipes with ‘Pipe Dreamer’ eyes!  Here are the pictures he saw that got his attention despite the cardboard presentation background! The nomenclature, what there is, is/would be located on the bottom panel.  My initial pictures held little promise of identifying any markings.  In this picture, ‘86’ is discernible – a shape number. The next picture, which is a picture I recently took to get a better look, ‘ANTIQUE’ is discernible on the lower part of the panel.  When I first looked at these pictures, I wanted to see lettering all over the panel, but most would be phantom suggestions.  Yet, above ‘ANTIQUE’ I want to see more lettering on a diagonal, but nothing is discernible without question.The stem provides the first strong clue of identifying this mystery ‘Antique’ Blasted Apple.  A quick trip to Pipephil.eu identifies the double diamond inlay as a ‘Heritage’.  The panel information identified a ‘Heritage Pipe Inc.’ which had closed in 1971 as a submark of the S.M. Frank pipe conglomeration.  The double diamond stem inlay was a match.The next stop at Pipedia brought more clarity to the Heritage name and origins.  In the ‘Collector’s Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes’ (LINK) there was a section devoted to “Other” Kaywoodie Pipes which provides great information.  I include the introductory paragraph and then the information related directly to the ‘Heritage’ brand.

NOTES ON “OTHER” KAYWOODIE PIPES

Kaywoodie Stembiter and Chinrester, courtesy ChrisKeene.com

The previous sections of this Chapter summarize information taken from eight Kaywoodie Catalogs from the period 1936 to 1969. Because of the gaps in the catalogs, it is highly likely that many “holes” exist in the material presented in this monograph. This section presents a brief overview of some Kaywoodie Pipes that did not appear in any of the catalogs consulted in this research. The information on these pipes was provided by W.R. “Bill” Lowndes (a well-known Kaywoodie Collector from California).

Heritage. Lowndes suggests that the Heritage pipes were introduced in the 1960’s to compete with Dunhill. No fitments. Smooth finish called “Heirloom”, sandblast called “Antique”. Lowndes notes that there was a carved Heritage similar to Barling Quaints. Pipes were not marked “Kaywoodie”, and logo on bit is a double diamond. Lowndes notes that the Heritage pipes in his collection are small to medium-­size pipes and have Kaywoodie shape numbers. Lowndes suggests there may have been a special Heritage catalog.

I love it when research begins to back up the forensics of the pipe on your worktable!  “Antique”, which I could barely make out on the lower panel is the sandblasted line of Heritage pipes, a line introduced by Frank to compete with Dunhill.  Not a bad aspiration!

The article provided by Pipedia on the S. M. Frank & Co. adds more information:

The history of S. M. Frank & Co. spans nearly a century and half of pipe making, supporting its claim as the “oldest pipe house in America.” S. M. Frank, as it exists today, is a combination of some of the biggest names in pipe making from the early part of the 20th. century. The pipe names Kaywoodie, Yello-Bole, Reiss-Premier, William Demuth Company, Medico, Heritage (Heritage Pipes Inc.), and Frank are familiar to generations of pipe smokers.

In May of 1960, S. M. Frank started a subsidiary company called Heritage Pipes. The Heritage pipes were an upscale line of push bit pipes meant to compliment the Kaywoodie line. Although not hugely successful, Heritage produced some fine pipes that are still in the collections of many pipe smokers. This company was dissolved on December 31, 1971.

The article references an article about Heritage Pipes Inc. does not add new information but has examples of Heritage pipes which give a clue to the nomenclature and the marking design of the Blasted Apple on my table.  The picture on the top shows the way ‘Antique’ was below the fancy script ‘Heritage’ above it and diagonal – as I was trying to make out on the panel of the Blasted Apple.  The shape number to the left, beneath the bowl proper, is the design which I’m seeing – or, barely seeing.  The upscale Heritage pipe subsidiary of Frank was started in May of 1960 and the company closed its doors in December of 1971.  The look and feel of the pipe on my table I would guess ranges toward the early of these years.  The look and wear it has endured, with much dignity, gives it an older cast to me.

As if frosting were needed on the Heritage Antique cake, the reference to ChrisKeene.com.  In the introductory paragraph to the “Collectors Guide to Kaywoodie Pipe” was a reference to Chris Keen’s Pipe Pages.  This site has been down for some time and I miss the information that was on this site.  Here’s the paragraph:

This is an ongoing effort to adapt information from the Collector’s Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes into Pipedia articles. The Guide was first compiled by Chris Keene for his pipe pages at ChrisKeene.com. Chris used source material from Robert W. Stokes, Ph.D and additional support materials from Bill Feuerbach III, of the S.M. Frank Co.. Many thanks to these dedicated pipemen for their work in compiling this material.

Without expecting too much, I followed the ChrisKeene.com link to see what I might find.  What I found appears to be links to ALL the information that was formerly compiled in the now defunk Pipe Pages site.  Oh my!  There are 100s of links to catalogues and brochures listed.  They are not categorized but the links gives some identifying information.  I went down the long list of links and pulled out four pictures that had ‘Heritage’ referenced.  A brochure of ‘Heritage – Briar Pipes of Rarest Beauty’ emerged with great information about this line of pipes – included is the ‘Antique’ line and the shape number of 86 – a large Apple.  I enjoyed the motto given for the ‘Double-Diamond’: “Symbol of FINEST, RAREST PIPES of IMPORTED BRIAR”.

I love historic brochures and catalogs!  With a better understanding of the Heritage Antique name and history, I take a closer look at the Blasted Apple on my worktable.  The chamber has moderately heavy cake build up which needs to be removed to give the briar a fresh start.  The rim has grime as you would expect, but most notable are the divots out of the internal rim lip.  The damage to the rim is significant.  The left-aft quadrant of the rim is in especially poor shape where it appears that lighting practices caused the chamber wall to deteriorate so that it’s now thinner at this point.The blasted briar surface is dirty and has grime build-up, but the blasted surface has a look of quality about it. The stem has oxidation and the bit has biting.  There are compressions on the upper and lower bit, but the button appears to be in good shape.  Interestingly, the left side of the stem has a cut where a wedge of vulcanite has been removed.I start the restoration of this Heritage Antique Blasted Apple by cleaning the stem’s airway using a pipe cleaner wetted with alcohol. To address the oxidation, I use a soak of Before & After Deoxidizer along with the Ehrlich stem.  I leave the stems in the soak for a few hours.After fishing out the Heritage stem, I squeegee the liquid off with my fingers and run a pipe cleaner wetted with alcohol through the airway to clean it of the Deoxidizer.  I use cotton pads wetted with isopropyl 95% to wipe off the raised oxidation.  The Deoxidizer did a good job dealing with the oxidation.To help rejuvenate the vulcanite stem, paraffin oil is applied with a cloth for that purpose.Turning now to the stummel, to ream the chamber I use the Pipnet Reaming Kit.  After putting paper towel down for easier cleanup, I use the two smaller blade heads of the four available.  I follow the reaming by scraping the chamber wall with the Savinelli Fitsall Tool and then sanding by wrapping 240 grade paper around a Sharpie Pen.  Finally, after wiping the bowl with a cotton pad wetted with alcohol, an inspection reveals a healthy chamber.Continuing with cleaning, using undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap, the external blasted surface is cleaned using a cotton pad and bristled toothbrush.  For the rim, I employ the brass wire brush to clean it of minor lava flow.Next, taking the stummel to the kitchen sink, I use shank brushes to clean the mortise with anti-oil dish soap.  After rinsing well, I return to the worktable.Continuing with the internal cleaning, I find that it is clean and pipe cleaner and cotton bud wetted with isopropyl 95% are not soiled indicating that the internals are clean.After the cleaning is completed, I look at the stummel.  The old finish has been removed during the cleaning process.  I’ll need to give some consideration to how to proceed down the path regarding re-staining the blasted surface.  With the original coloring emulating the Dunhill look – S. M. Frank’s marketing strategy, I hope to oblige.  I decide to send my fellow restorer and good friend in India, Paresh, an email asking for advice.  I know that in his past restorations of Dunhills, he has worked on techniques in restoring the Dunhill hue.  With an email written including pictures, I’ll await Paresh’s advice. Turning now to the rim, it’s in bad shape.  There are some significant divots out of the internal rim edge.  In the picture below with 12 o’clock being up, a small divot is at 12 o’clock, and larger divots at 3:30, 4:30 and 5:30.  The 2 o’clock region suffers from some burning degradation with a slight compression in the rim plane because of it.  The questions in my mind focus on restoring this Heritage close to its original design – a challenge to Dunhill!  The coloring is an issue and the remnants of blasting on the rim are evident especially at the 4 o’clock region.  I have not done much in the way of rustication processes to emulate the blasting and to repair the rim will undoubtedly mean topping it and therefore, removing the blasting on the rim as a result.  The question would then be how to restore it?  With this question in my mind, I send an email off to Steve with the full weight of rebornpipes.com experience behind him, to see what light he could shed on an approach.As I await responses from my fellow restorers, I move forward with the structural issues of the rim that must be addressed either way.  As I look at it, there is no way around having to top the bowl to provide a new rim foundation from which to work.  Starting with 240 grade paper on the chopping board, I give only a few rotations.  The picture below reveals the contouring in the rim with the flat surface of the topping board not touching the areas that are compressed.  The upper (in the picture) area that I referenced above is compressed.  The divots are more distinctly defined as well. After several more rotations on 240 grade paper, the compression is minimized.  The divots from 3:30 to 5:30 are also growing less distinct.I come to the terminal point in using 240 grade paper.  I only take off what is needful because we can’t replace briar!  My goal was to erase the degraded area at the 1 to 2 o’clock area.  That has been done.  In the process, the major divots no longer appear as divots but areas of the rim that are thinner.After replacing the 240 paper with 600 grade paper, the stummel is rotated several more times to smooth and erase the scratching of the 240 papers. With the topping completed, the small divot at the top should be dispatched with sanding.  On the lower quadrant, from 3:30 to 7 o’clock, the rim is noticeably thinner.  To see the lower quadrant from different angles to demonstrate what I can see, I take a few more pictures looking from the left, then the right.  As I see it, I have two options of approach.  First, to even out the entire circumference of the rim internal edge and to blend the thinning on the lower quadrant in the pictures, I can sand the entire circumference of the internal rim to smooth to even out the different rim depths.  Or, secondly, I can build up the lower quadrant with briar dust putty and sand it down to blend with more balance with the entire rim.I decide to do the latter – seek to build up the thinning area with briar dust putty.  Since the application will be only on the very upper part of the chamber, I’m not concerned about issues of heating.  I use the plastic disk that serves as a mixing pallet and cover a portion with scotch tape to ease the cleanup.  I scoop a small mound of briar dust on the pallet. Following this, I place next to the briar dust a small puddle of Extra Thick CA glue and with a toothpick, I pull briar dust into the glue.As briar dust is pulled into the glue, it is mixed with the developing putty.  I aim for the thickness of molasses – not runny and if it gets too thick, it will set up and harden spontaneously – with a little smoke for excitement!  The putty needs to be pliable enough to adhere to the chamber/rim edge.  When it’s thick enough, I trowel the putty onto the target area.I set the bowl aside to allow the briar dust putty to cure thoroughly.  It looks good.  In the picture below you can see how it adheres to the contours of the damaged area.After a few hours, the briar dust putty is ready to go.  The process of removing the excess patch material and shaping starts with a half circle needle file focusing on the center of the patch to shape out the curved pitch of the rim. After a few minutes of filing, I remember that I have a Dremel and attach a sanding drum!  With the speed set to low, the Dremel quickens the job of removing the excess and shaping the curve.  I do go slowly and patiently not to take off too much too quickly.After the sanding drum does its job, I switch back to filing to fine tune the removal of excess patch and shaping. When the needle file brings the patch down near to flush to the briar chamber, I switch and use 240 grade paper wrapped around a Sharpie Pen.  This works well to continue a nice curve and to give more leverage to removing excess patch material.  My goal is to feel no transition from the patch to the chamber wall.This is achieved after the sanding.  I like what I see.Transitioning now to the rim surface, using a flat needle file the patch excess is removed and smoothed to blend with the rim surface.After using the file, I use 240 then 600 grade paper to fine tune.  I also sand around the full circumference of the rim to remove other smaller nicks.I’m pleased with the progress of the rim’s restoration.  The rim rebuild with briar dust putty will be invisible after the rim is dyed and I figure out an approach to introduce an emulated blasted surface on the rim!Well, I received Steve’s response regarding his thoughts about how to approach the rim.  His counsel was not to top the stummel and to blend repairs and blemishes using burrs from the Dremel.  His counsel arrived a bit late but using burrs to emulate a ‘blasted’ rim surface is the direction I’ll take.  Since I’ve not had a lot of experience with the use of burrs and what effects they produce, I practice on a discarded stummel destined for the briar dust container.After testing different burrs and saw what they do, I chose an approach and apply it to the Heritage’s rim.  I start with a cylindrical burr and finish with a sharper, cone-like burr to get the effect that I practiced. Still not sure if I will stain or leave the stummel as it is, I decide to hydrate the stummel as well as get a sneak peek at what the stummel would look like more in a finished state.  I apply paraffin oil to the stummel, not the rim.  The stummel darkens nicely, but the finish is uneven – patches of lighter on the lower side which darkens going up.  Still thinking….With the stummel darkened, I need to darken the raw rim briar to match where the stummel is.  I use two dye sticks to do the job.  The under coat is with a walnut stain, then over that, a mahogany.  Then, in order to give the new fresh rim surface a more weathered look, I use three mid-range micromesh pads and lightly sand the rim.I heard back from my good friend, Paresh in India, about his approach to achieving a Dunhill color tone.  His basic approach is to apply a dark brown undercoat in the normal way – flamed and then ‘unwrap’ after several hours.  Then, the key part of the process is when Paresh stain washes with a cherry red dye, applying with cotton pad and immediately wiping until the hue that is wanted is reached.  He also sent a link to his great write up on rebornpipes describing the process: A Project Close to My Hear: Restoring a Dunhill From Farida’s Dad’s Collection.  With Paresh’s encouragement, I decide to give Paresh’s approach a try with this Dunhill minded Heritage Antique Blasted Apple.  Not long ago, thankfully, I acquired some red concentrated dye solution that I’ll be able to employ for the first time.  To start, I assemble my desktop staining ensemble.  After wiping the bowl with a cotton pad wetted with alcohol to clean, I warm the stummel using a hot air gun.  This has the effect of expanding the briar and helping it to be more receptive to the dye. Using a fashioned cork as a handle, I then apply Fiebing’s Dark Brown Leather Dye, per Paresh’s directions.  I use a folded over pipe cleaner to do this.  After ‘painting’ a section, I immediately ‘flame’ the alcohol-based dye with a lit candle.  The combustion burns off the alcohol leaving behind the embedded hue absorbed into the briar. After completing this process with a thorough painting and flaming of the entire stummel, I put it aside for several hours for the new dye to rest.  This helps to solidify the new dye.With the newly dyed stummel resting, I turn my attention to the stem.  Taking a closer look, the compressions on the upper bit and lower bit are significant.  There is also a divot of vulcanite sliced off the left side of the stem.  I’m not sure how something like this would happen – perhaps a lit match?  I’ll work on blending this in by sanding.  First, using the heating method, I paint the compressions with the flame of a Bic lighter.  This heats and expands the rubber helping it to regain its original disposition – or closer to it.  The goal is to raise the compressions sufficiently enough so that simple sanding will then be all that is needed to erase them – hopefully avoiding patching.   Before and after pictures of upper and then lower show the results.  First, the upper: And the lower:I believe that the lower bit may now be sanded out.  I’m not so sure about the upper bit – the compression next to the button is still significantly deep.  Before sanding, I fill this compression with black CA glue to be on the safe side and fill up against the button.  When the patch cures, this will make sure that the compression is addressed in conjunction with the button lip edge.After the patch cures, a flat needle file goes to work on bringing the excess CA glue down to the stem’s surface level on both the upper and lower sides.  The change in the background is explained by me moving out onto my 10th floor balcony ‘Man Cave’ to enjoy the warmth of the day!As I was filing the lower side, it became apparent that the compression was too pronounced for filing and sanding to remove.  It would require too much to dig that deep.  Switching gears, I decide to detour a bit and fill the compression with black CA glue.After cleaning it with alcohol, I place a drop of black CA glue on the lower side compression.What I missed taking a picture of was that during the detour, I also decided to apply some black CA glue to the wedge on the left side of the stem.  I used an accelerator to hold the glue in place and to quicken the curing time.After both of the ‘tour patches’ cure, I used the flat needle file on both to remove excess and to bring the patches down to stem level.After filing, the sanding continues with 240 grade paper on the upper and lower.Sanding is continued after the 240 grade paper with wet sanding using 600 grade paper on the entire stem along with applying 000 grade steel wool.Continuing to the micromesh process, I wet sand with pad 1500 to 2400 and dry sand with pads 3200 to 4000 and 6000 to 12000.  Between each set of three pads Obsidian Oil is applied to freshen as well as to protect the vulcanite against oxidation.  I’m pleased with the repairs.  The large fill on the upper side is solid but still visible.  We still live in an imperfect world! Turning back to the newly stained stummel, it has been resting now for several hours and it’s time to ‘unwrap’ the flame crusted surface.  To remove the crusted surface, a felt buffing wheel is mounted onto the Dremel with the speed set almost to the slowest to avoid excess heating with the friction created by the felt on the briar surface.  With the felt wheel, the coarser Tripoli compound is applied to the blasted briar surface.  With my wife’s help taking some pictures while my hands are full, it shows the ‘unwrapping’ process.  The second close-up shows the line between the crusted part and the unwrapped part.The stummel has been unwrapped revealing the dark brown undercoat.  Next, the stain wash with a red dye applied until the desired hue is reached – hopefully!The red dye concentrate I acquired not long ago prescribes a ratio of 1 fluid ounce per quart of either water or alcohol.  For my smaller purposes of application, I pour some isopropyl 95% in a small jar – about 1/3 filled and add several drops of the red tint concentrate until it looks good. Then, using a folded pipe cleaner, I wash the stummel with the red dye and wipe it with a cotton pad.  Since I haven’t done this before, I’m going by the ‘seat of my pants’ to see how the briar takes the wash and what the effect will be.Satisfied at this point, not sure whether I’m achieving the ‘Dunhill’ look, I set the stummel aside to rest for several hours through the night.The next morning, the red dye wash has had time to settle.  The next step to unwrap the stummel a second time.  For this, I mount the Dremel with a softer cotton cloth buffing wheel, set at the normal 40% speed, and apply the lesser abrasive compound, Blue Diamond.  Again, my wife assists with a picture of this process.DISASTER AVOIDED!  When I reached for the stem to rejoin it to the stummel to apply Blue Diamond to it, I noticed that the double diamond inlay was missing!  Oh my!  Miracle of miracles, I looked down and amazingly saw the diamonds.  To remedy this near disaster, using a toothpick, I dab a bit of CA glue in the diamond cavities on the stem and with tweezers replace the double diamond inlay.  The process was not as easy as it sounds as small as the double diamonds are and not getting excess CA glue on the finished stem surface…. With Double Diamonds reattached, and the stem and stummel reunited, I continue the application of Blue Diamond compound to the stem.  I do change buffing wheels because of the dye unwrapping.Before applying wax, I do a ‘heat’ buffing.  To help minimize dye leaching off on the hands of the new steward, I use the heat gun to warm the stummel, emulating the heating of a pipe in service, and use a cotton cloth to wipe it during the heated state.  This helps to stabilize the new dyed briar surface.After reuniting stem and stummel, I mount another cotton cloth buffing wheel to the Dremel, set at 40% full power, and apply carnauba wax to the pipe.  When completed, a microfiber cloth provides a rigorous hand buffing to raise the shine.

Wow!  With Paresh’s help, I think I nailed it!  The depth and richness of this blasted finish has that ‘Dunhill’ look to it I believe.  Thanks, Paresh!  The blasted landscape of this Heritage Antique Blasted Apple jumps out with the 3-dimensional contours of the briar grain contours.  I can’t get over the red notes in the finish – it gives it a depth and richness that is something to enjoy.  The technical challenges with the rim repairs and stem patches turned out great.  I’m pleased with this restoration and Todd, who commissioned it, will have the first opportunity in The Pipe Steward Store to acquire the Heritage Antique benefiting the Daughters of Bulgaria – women and girls who have been trafficked and sexually exploited.  Thanks for joining me!