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New Life for a Republic Era Irish Second, Silver Banded Lovat

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table came to me in a group of six pipes I bought from a fellow in Eastern Canada. It included two Canadian made pipes – a Blatter of Montreal and a Trypis. In the mix was an English made Charatan second stamped Mountbatten and two Peterson’s and an Irish Second. The pipes were well used and all had been smoked. The seller sent me a photo of the pipes so that I could see what he was selling. We discussed some options together and arrived at an agreement and the pipes were on their way to me in Vancouver.There was something about the chunky Lovat, the second one down in the right column that grabbed my attention and made me want to start with it. I brought it to the worktable and examined it before starting my work. It had a thick shank, a stamped silver band and a vulcanite saddle, fishtail stem. The pipe is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads IRISH SECONDS [over] 2. On the fancy silver band on the shank end it is stamped Peterson [over] Dublin. To the right of that there are three hallmarks – a seated woman (Hibernia), an oval with 925 centered in it (quality of the silver used) and the letter F (the date letter). There are a few fills in the bowl so it is clearly a Peterson’s second, but it is odd that the band is Sterling Silver. The finish had some grime ground into the finish on the bowl but still looked to be in good condition. The bowl was thickly caked with some light lava on the top at the back and some darkening on the top and the beveled inner edge of the rim. The stem had some calcification and tooth chatter on the top and underside near the button. There were not markings or a logo on the stem. It had promise but it was dirty. I took some photos of the pipe before I started my cleanup work. I took photos of the rim top and bowl to give a clear picture of the thickness of the cake and the overflow of lava on the rim top. I also took photos of the top and underside of the stem to show the oxidation and the chatter and tooth marks. I took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to give a picture of what the briar around the pipe looked like. There is some stunning grain under the grime. I took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank and on the band. It reads as noted above and is clear and readable. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the proportion of this thick shank Lovat.I turned to Pipedia to read the article on Irish Seconds (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Seconds). I quote it below in full.

Irish Second pipes begin life alongside Peterson pipes in Dublin, but at some point a flaw appears making future life as one of those celebrated pipes impossible. At this point the pipes were roughly finished, given a standard vulcanite stem instead of a P-Lip, and stamped only with “Irish Second” and “Made in the Republic of Ireland”. These pipes were sold at a far more affordable rate than Peterson pipes, but are believed to no longer be sold new.

I also wanted to be able to interpret the hallmarks on the silver band. I have captured a portion of the chart that include below that helps to clarify the meaning of each of the three hallmarks. I like the Hallmark feature on the higher end Peterson pipes with Sterling silver bands. It helps to pin down the date even further.

“Hibernia” seated, arm on harp represents Ireland (country of manufacture). There have been minor design changes over the years.

The “Harp Crowned” is the fineness mark denoting the high quality (purity) of the silver, and was used in a variety of designs until October 1992 when it was replaced by the new European Standard or Millesimal mark which gives the purity or quality of the silver in parts per thousand.

The Date Letter Code for the year in which the silver was hallmarked (see the chart below). In certain years a fourth hallmark is applied – for example 1966 – a Sword of Light for the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising 1973. There were also other marks used for the fourth hallmark.

I turned to a blog I wrote on rebornpipes that had a Peterson’s catalogue and a hallmarking chart (https://rebornpipes.com/tag/peterson-hallmark-chart/). I have included it below. On the chart I looked for an upper case italic F in a hexagonal cartouche. I also included a enlargement of the chart and drawn a box around the “F” in blue in the second photo below showing a close up of the dates. From that I am able to date the pipe to 1991.Now I knew I was dealing with a pipe made in 1991. I am not sure how it became an Irish Second rather than one of the first grade lines. Perhaps it is the small fills in the bowl and shank but I have seen others that are full grade that have more fills than this one. It really is a beautiful pipe. Now it was time to work on the pipe itself.

I started my work on the pipe by reaming the bowl the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer using the first and second and third cutting heads to remove the cake. I cleaned up the remnants of the cake on the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I finished by sanding the bowl smooth with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I scrubbed the externals of the pipe with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. I rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. The bowl and rim top cleaned up really well with the lava coat removed. The inner edge of the rim was in good condition. I cleaned up the inner edge of the rim with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to remove almost all of the darkening with the sandpaper. I cleaned out the inside of the mortise, shank and the airway in the stem with isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. The pipe had a strong aromatic smell like a mix of fruit and vanilla so it needed to be deghosted. I filled the bowl with cotton boles and twisted a plug into the shank end. I used and ear syringe to fill the bowl with alcohol. The alcohol will eventually evaporate from the bowl wicking out the oils and tars in the briar into the cotton. I let it sit over night and in the morning pulled it out and took photos of the cotton at that point. I polished the smooth briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the repair and then started polishing it with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. It was great to finish this Peterson’s Made Irish Seconds 1991 Lovat. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with deep sandblast all around it. Added to that the polished black vulcanite stem was beautiful. This Silver Banded Irish Seconds Lovat is great looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 39 grams/1.41 ounces. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will soon be on the rebornpipes store in the Irish Pipe Makers Section of the store. If you want to add it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Restoring an Italian Made Gulden Dansk 9200 Bent Dublin Freehand

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Blog by Steve Laug

This week I received an email from the fellow I had restored the pair of Vauen pipes for. He was sending me a package with a pipe to work on that he wanted restored. It was an old Gulden Dansk pipe made by Savinelli with a vulcanite stem. He wanted me to restore it. It was a rusticated finish with a tight pattern around the bowl. The finish was dirty with dust in the grooves but it was still quite pretty. The rim top was rusticated to match the bowl finish. The rim top was dirty on the right side of the bowl and there was some dust in the finish. The pipe was stamped on the underside of the shank and read Gulden Dansk followed by the shape number 9200. It was quite lightweight and would clean up quite nicely. In chatting with him over email that he wanted the original stem cleaned up and restored. The stem was oxidized and the GD stamp was faded but the stamping looked to be deep enough for a repair. I am including the photos that the pipeman who sent it to me took of it. It is an intriguing looking pipe. When I received the pipe in the mail on Monday, I remembered that Kenneth had worked on a pair of pipes – a Gulden Dansk and a Silveren Dansk. I turned to his blog and read through what he had written about the brands there (https://rebornpipes.com/tag/savinelli-made-gulden-dansk/). I quote the research that Kenneth did on the brand before I started my clean up work. It is very helpful and tied the pipe brand to Savinelli as I assumed looking at it.
The brands Gulden Dansk and Silveren Dansk are ones about which there is very little information. I cobbled together as much information as I could, and I will do my best to record that here. Both brands are sub-brands of Savinelli, according to smokingpipes.com. You can see in the photo below that smokingpipes.com states this clearly, and they are quite knowledgeable.Pipedia had no information at all regarding these brands. Meanwhile, pipephil.eu had precious little info (see below). One small clue is their reference to Italy in the Gulden Dansk image.Comments from some old pipe forums suggest that the brand(s) might be made for the Canadian market and came to full prominence in the early 1980s. See below.The newspaper ad above (sorry for the poor quality) is taken from the Montreal Gazette, November 1st, 1980. It shows that, in addition to pipes, they also sold tobacco.Furthermore, I found Canadian trademark registrations for both brands. I have shown some of that information below. For reasons unknown, the Silveren Dansk trademark is still active, whilst the Gulden Dansk one has expired. I also found an Australian trademark registration for the same, but it was noted on the Australian site that the origin of the application was Canada.Kenneth concluded his work as follows:

In short, we can say a few things about both Gulden Dansk and Silveren Dansk. They were both made by Savinelli, probably for the Canadian market (and perhaps other markets). The Canadian connection obviously fits with the gentleman in Winnipeg. They made pipes and tobacco, and all the comments I could find on the quality of the pipes were very positive. If you have any further details on these brands, I would love to hear from you.

Now it was time to work on the pipe itself. I took photos of the pipe when I opened the box. It is a nice looking shape – Dublin with a saddle stem. Looking at it from the top down the shape of the top of the bowl is oval with a round bowl. You can see the finish as noted above and the oxidation on the stem as well. I took photos of the rim top and the top and underside of the stem. You can see how it fit against the shank. It is oxidized with light tooth chatter and marks on the surface on both sides. You can see the grime on the right side of the rim top and the cleanness (other than dust) of the bowl. It is a nice looking pipe.The next photo shows the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above.I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts to give a sense of the overall look of the pipe. It is really a nicely designed looking bent Dublin that will look great once it is cleaned up.I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I worked over the rim top and edges and rinsed it with warm water scrubbing it while rinsing it. I dried it off and took these photos. I cleaned out the thin cake on the bowl walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls smooth with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I cleaned out the mortise and airway in the shank and the stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol until they came out clean. With the pipe cleaned it still had a ghost of a smell to it. It was a sweet and horrible smell that was a combination of aromatic and Lakeland smells. I wonder if the previous owner had smoke Mixture 74 which leaves a horrible ghost. I stuffed the bowl with cotton bolls and twisted a plug of cotton and turned it into the shank. I used an ear syringe to fill the bowl with isopropyl alcohol and set it aside in an old ice tray to let the deghosting happen! In the morning I woke up to find the cotton bolls in the bowl to be brown around the edges and the shank cotton was also brown at the shank end. I removed it and cleaned the shank once more. The bowl smelled better and the ghost had been exorcised to a large degree. Once I removed the cotton bolls the pipe smelled much better. It was time to carry on with the external work on the pipe. I used a Walnut stain pen to touch up the area on the right side of the rim top. Once cleaned it was spotty under the damage and faded. The stain pen matched perfectly and the pipe looked better.I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the finish with my fingers and used a shoe brush to press it deep into the crevices of the sandblast. The product works to deep clean the finish on the bowl and shank and enliven and protect the briar. After it sat for 15 minutes I wiped it off with a soft cloth. The briar really came alive with a rich shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. It is a beautiful bowl. I set the bowl aside and put the stem in the Briarville Pipe Stem Deoxidizer overnight and took a break to enjoy a movie. I touched up the GD stamp on the left side of the saddle stem with white acrylic fingernail polish. I applied it and worked it into the stamp with a tooth pick. Once it cured I scraped off the excess. It is definitely better though the stamp is faint in some spots. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil to remove the sanding dust. I used the Before & After Pipe Polish to remove the small minute scratches left in the vulcanite. I finished by wiping the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. As usual at this point in the restoration process I am excited to be on the homestretch. I look forward to the final look when it is put back together, polished and waxed. I put the Gulden Dansk 9200 Dublin back together. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The grain really pops with the wax and polish. The shiny black vulcanite stem is a beautiful contrast to the dark browns of the bowl and shank. This rusticated Gulden Dansk 9200 Bent Dublin was another fun pipe to work on. It really is a quite stunning piece of briar whose shape follows the flow of the grain on the briar. The pipe is comfortable pipe to hold in the hand. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches x 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.31 ounces/ 37 grams. I will be sending this beautiful Gulden Dansk back to the pipeman who dropped it off. Thanks for reading my reflections on the pipe while I working on it.

Restoring a GBD Speciale 728

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have worked on several pipes for a fellow in Israel over the past few months and he is great to work with. He has great taste in pipes and the ones he has purchased from me have also been beautiful. Periodically I receive an email from him about another pipe he was interested in purchasing EBay. This next one was one that caught my attention. He sent me the link and wanted my opinion on it. It was a nice GBD with a brass rondel on the stem top. It is stamped with the GBD oval over Speciale on the top of the shank and on the underside it has the shape number 728. GBD called this one a Rhodesian according to their shape charts but I would not call it that. To me it is more of Dublin/Scoop and has some great looking grain around the bowl sides, rim and shank. The pipe appeared to be in decent condition and lightly smoked. Not too many days after that he wrote me to say he had won it and he had it shipped to me rather than to him in Israel. We chatted back and forth about it via email and I would let him know when I received it. Here are the pictures that the EBay seller included with the advertising. I always like to be able to set the pipe I am working on in its historical setting so I turn to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/GBD) and read through the brand history. Toward the middle of the article I found what I was looking for. I quote below:

The Paris factory moved to Saint-Claude in 1952. Since 1981 the majority of GBD pipes come from the English factory.

The premium lines of GBD offered very good values, and are considered amongst the most affordable high end pipe of the 1960’s and earlier and a rival in quality, design, and price to Dunhill. Smokers’ Haven was the main retail supplier for GBD’s in the US until the early 1980’s.

GBD produced consistently well made pipes, almost entirely of Algerian or Grecian briar. In the late 1960’s to late 1970’s, they introduced the “Collector” and “Unique” lines, made primarily by Horry Jamieson, who had carved for Barling for many years, and was skilled in freehand design. Older GBD pieces are excellent smokers and unique in design. They did an excellent executions of classic pipe shapes, as well as some beautiful freehands in the “Unique” line. [2]

The following list comprises the better grades in descending order:

Pedigree, Pedigree I, Pedigree II, Straight Grain, Prodigy, Bronze Velvet, Virgin, Varichrome, Prestige, Jubilee, New Era, Prehistoric, International, Universe, Speciale Standard, Ebony, Tapestry, New Standard, Granitan, Sauvage, Sierra, Penthouse, Legacy, Concorde.

The pipe I am working on was stamped Speciale and though it does not say it was made in France I think it was like the other Speciale pipes I have worked on. Thus I knew that it was made either in Paris before 1952 or in St. Claude after that date and before 1981 when production moved to England. I also new that I was dealing with one of the better grade pipes with the Speciale Standard stamp.

I then followed the links included to a listing of the shapes and numbers on the GBD pipes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/GBD_Shapes/Numbers). The pipe I was working on was labeled by GBD as a 728 which is a Rhodesian/Poker according to the chart. It has an oval shank though and I am not sure I would classify it as either of those shapes.

The pipe arrived this week in a Bubble Mailer from the seller in Italy. To me it is a questionable way to ship pipes as they can be easily damaged. I was concerned when I opened the mailer to examine the pipe inside. Fortunately the seller had separated the stem and bowl and wrapped each in thick bubble wrap which certainly helped. I examined the pipe carefully to assess both the condition of the pipe and what I needed to do with it. There was a light cake in the bowl and no lava on the rim top or edges. There light scratches on the rim top and on the sides of the bowl. The pipe was stamped on the on the top and underside of the shank as noted above. The finish was surprisingly clean and shiny with some great grain showing through. As I looked over the finish it appeared to me that bowl had been varnished to give it that shininess. I personally don’t like that kind of coating as I feel that it gets in the way of the briar breathing and often bubbles when the pipe is heated. The stem had the inlaid brass oval rondel on the top of the saddle portion. The vulcanite stem was fairly clean and there was light tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside. I took some photos of the pipe before I started my work on it. I have included them below. The cleaned up rim top looked very good around the edges and the top. I took some close up photos of the rim top and edges to show how it looked when it arrived. There were a few dents and scratches in the crowned top. The inner and outer edges looked good. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the light tooth marks on the surface near and on the button itself.I took photos of the stamping on the top and underside of the shank. It reads as noted above.I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to have a look at the parts and overall look. You can also see the inner tube in the tenon. It is removable and I will take it out and clean it up in the process.To remove the varnish coat from the briar I wiped it down with cotton pads soaked in acetone. It worked very well and took off the varnish but did no remove the stain finish. It was clean and the grain stood out more clearly. Once the bowl was polished and waxed I think that the rain would sing. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. With the outside polished I decided to clean the insides of the pipe and shank next. I reamed the bowl with the third cutting head of a PipeNet pipe reamer to take the thin cake off the walls of the pipe. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I polished the walls of the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I scraped the inside of the shank with a small pen knife to remove the tars and oils that had built up on the walls of the pipe. I scrubbed the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol and worked on it until the shank was clean. I cleaned out the slot in the button and the airway in the stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol. It was quite dirty but with the scrubbing it was very clean. I decided to de-ghost the bowl with alcohol and cotton pads. I stuffed the bowl with cotton pads and twisted one up to insert in the shank. Once those were in place I used an ear syringe to fill the bowl with isopropyl alcohol. I set the bowl in an old ice cube tray to hold the bowl upright. I set it aside until the morning. At that time the cotton was very dirty with tars and oils both on the twisted cotton in the shank and the bolls stuffed in the bowl. I cleaned out the shank and mortise with alcohol to remove any debris. The pipe smelled much better. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished the scratches and tooth chatter out of the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I am excited to finish this beautifully grained GBD Speciale 721 with a saddle stem. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with beautiful mixed grain all around it. The polished bowl looks great with the black vulcanite stem. The removal of the varnish will enable the briar to breathe. This smooth Classic GBD Speciale 721 is great looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 47 grams/1.62 ounces. It turned out to be a beautiful pipe. I will be sending it off to the fellow in Israel shortly and I look forward to hearing what he thinks of it once he receives it. Remember that we are only trustees of our pipes and long after we are gone the pipes will go onto the next person who takes on the trust. Thanks for your time and as Paresh says each time – Stay Safe.