Tag Archives: Dunhill Red Bark Sandblast pipes

New Life and a New Stem for a 1973 Dunhill Red Bark N792 F/T Canadian

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is another one that came to us from the seller in Caldwell, Idaho, USA on 07/12/2025. It is a Dunhill Red Bark Canadian missing the original stem. It is in dirty but in good condition as can be seen in the photos below. It is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads N792 F/T [followed by] Dunhill [over] Red Bark. That is followed by Made in [over] England13. That is followed by a stamping Circle 4R/B. The stamping is clear and readable. The pipe has rich Red Bark Sandblast Finish with a blend of red/oxblood stains on a richly grained sandblast finish that the shape follows well. The finish was dusty and dirty with grime ground into the finish. It appeared to have a crack in the shank on the topside that extended into the shank about ½ inch. The bowl had a moderate cake and there was tobacco debris in the bowl. The rim top had a thick lava coat on the top and edges. I was excited to work on the pipe and forgot to take photos before I started working on it. I had a tarnished Sterling Silver Band that would fit the shank well so I heated it and pressed it in place. Then I remembered that I had not taken photos before the band. I took photos of the pipe with the banded shank to show what it looked like before I started working on it. The stamping on the underside of the shank is readable as noted above. I took a photo of the stamping.One of the first things I like to do is to unpack the stamping and understand each element in it. I turned to Pipephil’s helpful site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/shell-briar1.html). The stamping is interpreted as follows: The N792 is the shape of the pipe which is a Canadian. The F/T designates a Fishtail stem. The Dunhill Red Bark is a red stained sandblast finish. Following the Made In England13 gives the year that the pipe was made.  The circle 4R/B is the stamp for a Group 4 in a Red Bark finish.

From the above information I could see that I was working on a Red Bark Canadian shaped pipe.

From there I wanted to pin down the date stamp 1. I have included Page 2 of the Dunhill Dating Key (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1a.html). Following that it takes me to the box with 1960+suffix. That tells me that the pipe is a 1973 pipe.I wanted to know more about the Red Bark finish and when it was introduced by Dunhill. I turned to a listing on Pipedia that gave me the information I was looking for (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill).

Red Bark:

Red Bark: Introduced in 1972, the Redbark was a sandblasted finish characterized by a reddish stain and is arguably the most famous of Dunhill’s discontinued lines. Initially, the stain was a medium red, but a few years after its introduction, it was changed to a significantly brighter, almost pinkish hue. This new colour proved unpopular, causing sales to plummet. In response, the company reverted to the original, darker red stain in 1976. The Redbark finish was officially discontinued in 1987.[122][123]

Now I knew that I was working on a Dunhill Red Bark N792 which original would have had a Taper Stem that was made in 1973 and was only made until 1987 before it was discontinued.

I turned to work on the pipe itself. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer using the cutting heads 2 and 3. I finished the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls of the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and both bristle and regular pipe cleaners. I scrubbed the bowl and shank with a tooth brush and some undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I rinsed it off with warm water to remove the dust and soap from the finish. I dried it off with a soft cloth and it looked much better. I worked on the darkening on the rim top with a brass bristle wire brush and some Before & After Briar Cleaner. I worked it into the grooves on rim top sandblast and let it sit for 5 minutes. I repeated the process four times and when finished I wiped it off. I was able to remove the majority of the darkening with this method. I polished the band with micromesh sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil Cloth to clean it up and add to the shine. I cleaned the Sterling Band with a jeweller’s cloth to remove the tarnish and protect the silver from further tarnishing. I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips to work it into the finish. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm. I set the bowl aside and turned to deal with the stem. I had a stem in my can of stems that would work on this pipe. I fitted the stem to the shank. It did not take any adjustments to the tenon or the stem. It is a perfect fit to the shank.I sanded the surface of the stem with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and clean up the tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch pads. I wiped the stem down with an Obsidian Oil cloth after each sanding pad.I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I the polished newly fit Sterling Silver Band and the new vulcanite taper stem and the 1973 Dunhill Red Bark N792 F/T Canadian bowl with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches and raise the shine. I gave the bowl and the stem several coats of carnauba wax then 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. This turned out to be a beautiful Dunhill Red Bark N792 F/T Canadian with a Taper Stem. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.38 ounces/38 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration and restemming with me as I worked this beautiful little Dunhill Red Bark. I will be adding it to the rebornpipes store in the British Pipe Makers Section if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for looking.

New Life for a 1973 Dunhill Red Bark 142 Dublin with a Taper Stem

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is another one that came to us from the seller in Caldwell, Idaho, USA on 07/12/2025. It is a Dunhill Red Bark Dublin with a vulcanite taper stem. It is in dirty but in good condition as can be seen in the photos below. It is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads 142 [over] F/T [followed by] Dunhill [over] Red Bark. That is followed by Made in [over] England13. That is followed by a stamping Circle 4R/B. The stamping is clear and readable. The pipe has rich Red Bark Sandblast Finish with a blend of red/oxblood stains on a richly grained sandblast finish that the shape follows well. The finish was dusty and dirty with grime ground into the finish. It was also spotty and possibly faded. The bowl had a moderate cake and there was tobacco debris in the bowl. The rim top had a thick lava coat on the top and edges. The original white spot taper stem is dirty and oxidized with light tooth marks and chatter on both sides. I took photos of the pipe to show what it looked like before I started working on it. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the thickness of the cake and the lava coat on the rim top. There was some tobacco debris in the bottom of the bowl. The stem photos show the condition of the taper stem ahead of the button.The stamping on the sides of the shank are faint but readable as noted above. I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to give a sense of the proportions of the pipe. It is a real beauty. One of the first things I like to do is to unpack the stamping and understand each element in it. I turned to Pipephil’s helpful site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/shell-briar1.html). The stamping is interpreted as follows: The 142 is the shape of the pipe which is a Dublin. The F/T designates a Fishtail stem. The Dunhill Red Bark is a red stained sandblast finish. Following the Made In England13 gives the year that the pipe was made.  The circle 4R/B is the stamp for a Group 4 in a Red Bark finish.

From the above information I could see that I was working on a Red Bark Dublin shaped pipe.

From there I wanted to pin down the date stamp 1. I have included Page 2 of the Dunhill Dating Key (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1a.html). Following that it takes me to the box with 1960+suffix. That tells me that the pipe is a 1973 pipe.I wanted to know more about the Red Bark finish and when it was introduced by Dunhill. I turned to a listing on Pipedia that gave me the information I was looking for (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill).

Red Bark:

Red Bark: Introduced in 1972, the Redbark was a sandblasted finish characterized by a reddish stain and is arguably the most famous of Dunhill’s discontinued lines. Initially, the stain was a medium red, but a few years after its introduction, it was changed to a significantly brighter, almost pinkish hue. This new colour proved unpopular, causing sales to plummet. In response, the company reverted to the original, darker red stain in 1976. The Redbark finish was officially discontinued in 1987.[122][123]

Now I knew that I was working on a Dunhill Red Bark 142 F/T Dublin with a Taper Stem that was made in 1973 and was only made until 1987 before it was discontinued.

I turned to work on the pipe itself. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer using the cutting heads 2 and 3. I finished the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls of the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and both bristle and regular pipe cleaners. I scrubbed the bowl and shank with a tooth brush and some undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I rinsed it off with warm water to remove the dust and soap from the finish. I dried it off with a soft cloth and it looked much better. I worked on the darkening on the rim top with a brass bristle wire brush and some Before & After Briar Cleaner. I worked it into the grooves on rim top sandblast and let it sit for 5 minutes. I repeated the process four times and when finished I wiped it off. I was able to remove the majority of the darkening with this method. I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips to work it into the finish. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm. I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I sanded the surface of the stem with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and clean up the tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch pads. I wiped the stem down with an Obsidian Oil cloth after each sanding pad.I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I the polished vulcanite taper stem and the 1973 Dunhill Red Bark 142 F/T Dublin bowl with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches and raise the shine. I gave the bowl and the stem several coats of carnauba wax then 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. This turned out to be a beautiful Dunhill Red Bark 142 F/T Dublin with a Taper Stem. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 3/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.20 ounces/34 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked this beautiful little Dunhill Red Bark. I will be adding it to the rebornpipes store in the British Pipe Makers Section if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for looking.

Breathing Life into a 1972 Dunhill Red Bark 6P F/T Group 4 Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table came to us in a group of pipes that we purchased from a fellow in Los Angeles, California, USA. It is a Dunhill Red Bark Bent Bulldog that is in good condition. It is stamped on a smooth panel on the underside of the shank. On the heel of the bowl it is stamped with the shape number 6P F/T followed by Dunhill [over] Red Bark followed by Made in England 12. That is followed by 4 in a circle followed by R/B for Red Bark. Interpreting that stamp it is as follows: The 6P is the shape for a bent saddle stem Bulldog and the F/T is the designation for the button shape – a Fish Tail. The Dunhill Red Bark is the finish which is corroborated the R/B at the end of the stamping. The 12 following the D of England gives the date the pipe was made and identifies it as 1972. The stamping is clear and readable. The age of the pipe and the oils in the sandblast finish has given the pipe a rich reddish brown finish. There is also some amazing grain that the shape follows well. The finish was dirty with dust around the nooks and crannies of the sandblast. There was a thick cake in the bowl and tobacco debris stuck to the walls of the bowl. The rim top showed darkening and some lava in the sandblast. The vulcanite saddle stem was oxidized, calcified and had light tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button.  Jeff took photos of the pipe to show what it looked like before he started working on it.  He took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the thickness of the cake and the darkening and light lava overflow on the rim top. The photos of the stem show the oxidation, calcification and tooth marks and chatter on the surface on both sides.  The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show the deep sandblast grain on the pipe. It is a beauty under the grime and dust.    The stamping on the underside of the shank is shown in the photos below. It looks very good and readable. It reads as noted and explained above. The third photo shows the white spot on the stem.   I turned to Pipedia’s section on Dunhill Red Bark Pipes to get a bit of background on the Dunhill finishes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill#Root_Briar). I quote:

Red Bark

Red Bark: Introduced in 1972, the Red Bark is a reddish stained sandblast, and is the most famous of Dunhill’s retired finishes. Originally, the stain was a medium red. A couple of years later the stain was changed to a brighter red, almost pinkish in colour. The almost pink colour caused pipe sales to plummet. In 1976, the stain was changed back to the original darker medium red finish. The Red Bark finish was officially retired in 1987. The County and Russet finishes have also been retired.

I turned to Pipephil’s dating guide to show how I arrived at the date of manufacture for this pipe (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1a.html). I am including the chart that is provided there for the dating a pipe. I have drawn a red box around the section. Since the pipe I am working on has a 12 it points to the 1960+ suffix line on the chart below.I now knew that I was working on a Red Bark that came out in 1972 which was the first year that the line was introduced. It was retired in 1987 and was one of the most famous of Dunhill’s retired finishes. It also had the medium red stain of the first pipes introduced from Dunhill in the Red Bark line.

I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had carried out his usual thorough cleanup of the pipe. He had reamed it with a PipNet reamer to remove the cake and cleaned the reaming up with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the bowl and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the externals with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and rinsed the bowl off with running water. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and once it had soaked rinsed it off with warm water to remove the residual solution. He dried it off and rubbed it down to remove any oxidation that was still on the stem. The pipe looked very clean when I received it.  I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition. You can see the darkening on the rim top on the back right. It is roughened and chipped and out of round. The saddle stem came out looking quite good. There are light tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button as well as some remaining oxidation.     I took a photo of the underside of the shank to show the stamping. It is clear and readable as noted above.I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe parts to show what I was working with. It is a nice looking pipe.I decided to start the restoration on this one by working on darkening on the right rear of the rim top. I scrubbed it with a brass bristle wire brush to remove the darkening. I also scrubbed the front of the bowl where there was some darkening. After scrubbing it the bowl and the rim top looked much better.   With the repair completed I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to work it into the nooks and crannies of the sandblast finish. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 15 minutes while I worked on the stem. After the time passed I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. It turned out to be a 6mm filter stem. It had some underlying oxidation that needed to be dealt with. I put it in a bath of Briarville’s Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover and let it soak for half a day. I took it out of the bath, dried it off and scrubbed the remaining oxidation with Soft Scrub All Purpose Cleanser.    I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem.   This Dunhill Red Bark 6P F/T Bent Bulldog is a beautiful sandblast with the unique Sandblast finish made in 1972. It is a great looking pipe that came out looking very good. The Red Bark finish has a great rugged sandblast that Dunhill specialized in making. The finish on the pipe is in excellent condition. The oils off the smoker’s hands and the mahogany/medium red stain on the bowl works well to highlight the grain. The polished black vulcanite saddle stem adds to the mix. With the dust gone from the finish and the bowl it was a beauty and is eye-catching. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel being careful to not buff the stamping. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished 6P F/T Red Bark Bulldog is quite nice and feels great in the hand. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. I can only tell you that like the other pipes I am working that it is much prettier in person than the photos capture. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 37grams/1.31oz. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of the next generation.