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 Shell Bent Billiard with a vulcanite saddle stem. It is in dirty but in good condition as can be seen in the photos below. It is stamped on a smooth panel on the underside of the heel and shank and reads 656 [over] F/T [followed by] Dunhill Shell [over] Made in England13 [followed by] circle 4S. The stamping is clear and readable. The pipe has rich Shell Finish with a blend of brown, black and oxblood stains on a deep sandblast finish and some amazing grain that the shape follows well. The finish was dusty and lightly dirty with grime in the nooks and crannies of the rugged, deep sandblast. The bowl had a moderate cake and there was tobacco debris in the bowl. The rim top had a thick lava coat in the sandblast rim top and edges. The original white spot saddle stem is dirty and oxidized. The tenon also was drilled for a Dunhill filter. There was a ridge on the underside of the stem that ran for most of the length of the stem. 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 saddle stem ahead of the button. There is also line on the underside of the stem that looks like a crack but it is not. It is probably a trough on the inside of the airway.
The stamping on the heel of the bowl is clear and 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 656 is the shape of the pipe which is a Bent Billiard. The The 56 is the number for a Bent Billiard. The 6 at the front is the size designation. The F/T gives the shape of the stem as a Fishtail. The Dunhill Shell is the finish. Following the Made In England13 gives the year that the pipe was made. The circle 4 S is the stamp for a Group 4 in a Shell finish.
From there I wanted to pin down the date stamp 13. 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 Shell 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).
Shell
The Shell is a deep, craggy sandblast finish with a black stain, traditionally applied to soft, beautifully grained Algerian briar. While perhaps not the first-ever use of sandblasting on pipes, the technique perfected by Dunhill is considered one of the brand’s most significant contributions to the art of pipe making. The development is documented in English patent No. 119708/17; preliminary work began on October 13, 1917, and the patent was granted a year later, just weeks before the end of the First World War.
The origin of the finish is famously recounted as an “Accidental Discovery” in early Dunhill catalogues. The story tells of Algerian briar blocks being inadvertently left near a furnace, causing the softer wood to shrink and the harder grain to stand out in a textured relief. The reality, as detailed in the patent application, was a deliberate process of steeping the briar in oil for weeks, followed by a heat treatment. Only then was the sandblast applied to cut away the softer wood, resulting in a durable, lightweight, and cool-smoking pipe.
In 1986, Dunhill introduced a premium version of the Shell finish called the ‘Ring Grain’. These pipes feature a particularly deep blast reminiscent of the classic style of the 1930s to mid-1960s, applied to briar with a superior grain pattern. The ‘Ring Grain’ name was later changed to ‘Shilling’ in 1995. Regarded by many enthusiasts as among the finest modern Dunhills, these pipes are produced in limited quantities and are exceptionally rare.[122][123]
Now I knew that I was working on a Dunhill Shell 656F/T Bent Billiard with a Saddle stem that was made in 1973.
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 scrubbed the bowl and shank with a tooth brush and some undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I also worked it over with a brass bristle brush and the 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 used a brass bristle brush to clean up the sandblast on the rim top. I was able to remove the debris built up in the grooves of the sandblast. 
I remembered that I had not cleaned the shank. 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 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 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 decided to address the ridge on the underside of the stem first. I checked the inside of the stem and there was a slight trough on the inside left by pipe cleaners perhaps. I heated the surface of the stem with the flame of a lighter and rolled a round lighter across the ridge to smooth it out. I repeated the process until the surface was smooth. I sanded it with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to blend it in. From what I can feel with a pipe cleaner the inside of the stem is smooth. 
I sanded the oxidation, the flattened ridge top and tooth chatter with 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to remove all of the tooth damage on the stem and the majority of the oxidation. 
I sanded the stem and tenon surface 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 saddle stem and the 1973 Dunhill Shell 656F/T bowl with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches and raise the shine. I gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax and the bowl several coats of Conservator’s 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 Shell 656F/T Bent Saddle Stem Billiard. 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: 7/8 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 sandblast. 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.
rebornpipes 