Tag Archives: Dunhill Shell Briar Straight Bulldog

Restoring a Hard-Smoked Dunhill Shell Briar OX Bulldog and Reworking a Badly Damaged Stem

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table came to us from a seller in Cleveland, Ohio, USA on 04/26/2022. It is a Dunhill Shell Briar Bulldog with a saddle stem that has been “ridden hard”. It is in rough shape as can be seen in the photos below. 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 OX followed by Dunhill [over] Shell Briar [followed by] Made in [over] England6 [followed by] Circle 4T. The stamping is faint in spots but still readable. The pipe has a mix of black, cordovan and brown stains on a Shell sandblast finish and some amazing grain that the shape follows well. The finish was dusty and dirty with grime ground into the nooks and crannies of the rugged sandblast. The bowl had a thick cake and there was heavy lava in the sandblasted rim top and edges. The original stem is on the pipe and it is a mess. The button has a crack on the top side and the underside is missing a huge chunk from the button forward about ¾ of an inch or more. Jeff took photos of the pipe to show what it looked like before he started working on it.Jeff 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 short taper stem ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the bowl sides and heel of the bowl to show the deep and rugged sandblast. It is a beautiful looking piece of briar. Jeff a photo of the stamping on part of the shank. He did not capture the shape number or the Dunhill over Shell Briar. It is clear and readable as noted above. 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 OX is the shape of the pipe which I assume is a Bulldog. The Dunhill Shell Briar is the finish. Following the Made In England6 gives the year that the pipe was made. The circle 4 S is the stamp for a Group 4 in a Shell Briar finish.

I turned to Pipedia’s shape charts on Dunhills (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill_Shape_Chart). I have included the shape charts from the site. The first is the chart as a whole and the second is a larger version of the right column.From the above information I could see that I was working on a Saddle Bulldog shaped pipe. The chart shows that the OX is the stamping for Saddle Bulldog.

From there I wanted to pin down the date stamp 6. The pipe has a patent number on it so that will also help with the date of this pipe. I have included the Dunhill Dating Key Part 2 chart below for you to follow (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1a.html). The third column shows the date of the pipe. Since it bears the smaller raised suffix 6 it took me to the 1950 box. From there the key tells me to add 1950 + 6 dates the pipe to 1956.I wanted to know more about the Shell Briar/Shell finish and when it was introduced by Dunhill and how that fit the Patent stamp on the bowl. 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 Tanshell OX Bulldog with a Saddle stem that was made in 1956.

I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had carried out his usual thorough cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the bowl, shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs, shank brushes and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the externals with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. He rinsed the bowl off with running water and dried it off with a soft cloth. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem 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 good when I received it. The bowl and rim top were in good condition but needed work on the blast in the top and damage on the inner edge. The saddle stem had a large piece of vulcanite missing on the underside from the button forward. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition. You can see the clean bowl and damage to the inner edge of the bowl on the front and back side of the bowl. The stem came out looking clean. The issues noted above are visible in the photos below.I took a photo of the underside of the shank to show the stamping. It is clear, though faint toward the stem 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 started by working over the damage on inner edge of the rim. I started with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the inner edge and give it a slight bevel. It looked significantly better.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 tried filling in the chipped area on the stem surface with Black CA Glue, carefully layering it on the surface. When it dried, it also cracked fell out. I tried another repair with a piece of mesh like Kenneth described in his blog on the stem repair. Once it cured it too cracked along the remaining edges of the stem and fell out. There was nothing I could add to strengthen the repair. With the various avenues of repair unsuccessful I decided to cut off the damaged stem end. I did it with a Dremel and sanding drum and removed all of the damaged area on the stem.

I rebuilt the new button on both sides with the Extra Strength Rubberized/Carbon Black CA glue. I layered it on the stem surface and repeated the process until the stem was workable. I let the repair cure overnight. Once it cured I shaped and flattened it with a small file. I shaped the slot with small files and a small pottery saw. I smoothed out the shape of the newly formed button and slot with 220 grit sandpaper. It looked very good at this point. 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. This 1956 Dunhill Shell Briar OX Saddle Stem Bulldog has a beautiful, unique Dunhill Sandblast finish made in 1985. The rich Shell Briar finish that is identified with some great grain around the bowl and shank. It has some great rugged sandblast that Dunhill specialized in making. The polished black vulcanite saddle stem adds to the mix. 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 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 Dunhill Shell Briar OX Straight Bulldog is quite nice and feels great in the hand. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 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 40 grams/1.41 ounces. This one will be staying here as I do some testing on the durability of the repair under normal conditions. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe Thanks for your time.

Restoring the 1st Pipe from Bob Kerr’s Estate – A Dunhill Shell 147 FT Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

I am finally getting around to working on Bob Kerr’s Estate. His son-in-law, Brian contacted me a few months ago saying that the family needed to clean out the estate as they were getting the family home ready to move. He asked if I would be interested in restoring and selling the pipes for them. He brought what originally he said was a few pipes over to show me. When I opened the door Brian was there with a few flats of pipes. There were Dunhills, Petersons, Comoy’s Barlings and a lot of other pipes – a total of 125 pipes and a box of parts. That is the largest estate I had seen. I put together a spread sheet of the pipes and stampings to create an invoice. I was taking on what would take me a fair amount of time to clean up. I could not pass up the opportunity to work on these pipes though. They were just too tempting.

I sorted the pipes into groups of the various brands and had a box of 25 different Dunhill pipes in different shapes, styles and sizes. I decided to work on the Dunhills first. It was a great chance to see the shape variety up close and personal. The photo below shows the box of Dunhill pipes.I went through the box and chose to work on a little sandblast straight shank bulldog. It is stamped on the flat panel on the underside of the bowl and shank as follows. 147F/T Dunhill over Shell Briar. Next to that it read Made in England 12/13 followed by Circle 4S. The pipe was a shape 147 Bulldog with a fish tail stem (F/T). The finish was a sandblast that Dunhill named a Shell Briar. It was a Group 4 size that was made in 1963 and sold in 1964. The finish was dirty with an overflow of the cake onto the rim top. There was still tobacco in the bowl that was stuck in the cake on the walls. The inner edge of the bowl showed a little damage toward the front. The stem was lightly oxidized and had tooth marks and chatter near the button and on the button itself. Overall the pipe would take some work but it was a beauty with solid bones. I took pictures of the pipe before I started working on it. I took some close up photos of the rim top and stem to show what I was dealing with. You can see the cake and tobacco in the bowl. It looks like Bob Kerr had laid down the pipe after just finishing a bowl with the intention of picking it up and continuing later. The rim top shows the buildup of lava particularly on the back edge. You can also see the damage at the front of the bowl on the inner edge of the rim. The stem was dirty, lightly oxidized and had a lot of tooth chatter on the top and underside for about an inch ahead of the button. The button surface was also marked with tooth chatter.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the bowl and shank. It should be easier to read once I get it cleaned up a bit.If you have followed the blog for long then you will not be surprised when I include information on the pipeman whose pipes I am restoring. For me, when I am working on an estate I really like to have a sense of the person who held the pipes in trust before I worked on them. It gives me another dimension of the restoration work. I asked Brian if he or his wife would like to write a brief biographical tribute to her father, Bob. His daughter worked on it and I received the following short write up on him and some pictures to go along with the words. Thank you Brian and tell your wife thank you as well.

I am delighted to pass on these beloved pipes of my father’s. I hope each user gets many hours of contemplative pleasure as he did. I remember the aroma of tobacco in the rec room, as he put up his feet on his lazy boy. He’d be first at the paper then, no one could touch it before him. Maybe there would be a movie on with an actor smoking a pipe. He would have very definite opinions on whether the performer was a ‘real’ smoker or not, a distinction which I could never see but it would be very clear to him. He worked by day as a sales manager of a paper products company, a job he hated. What he longed for was the life of an artist, so on the weekends and sometimes mid-week evenings he would journey to his workshop and come out with wood sculptures, all of which he declared as crap but every one of them treasured by my sister and myself. Enjoy the pipes, and maybe a little of his creative spirit will enter you!

I have included one of Bob’s wood carvings to give you an idea of what he daughter wrote about above. You can see his artistry in the carving that is patterned after British Columbia’s Coastal First Nations people. To me this is a sea otter but perhaps a reader may enlighten us.Now I had a sense of Bob’s spirit as I turned to work on the first of his pipes. I reamed the bowl to remove the cake on the walls and the debris of tobacco shards that still remained. I used a PipNet pipe reamer to start the process. I followed that with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to clean up the remaining cake in the conical bottom of the bowl. I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. It smooths out the walls and also helps bring the inner edges back to round. With the bowl cleaned it was time to work on the inner edge of the rim. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damaged area and give the edge a slight bevel to bring the bowl back to round as much as possible and remove the damage. The photos tell the story.With the bowl reamed I decided to scrub the sandblast finish. I scrubbed it with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the grooves and canyons of the blast. I worked over the tarry lava overflow on the rim with the tooth brush and a brass brush. I rinsed the pipe under running water to remove the grime. I dried it off with a soft towel. I cleaned out the internals of the bowl, shank and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until they came out clean. It was very dirty in the shank and stem but it not only looks clean but smells clean now.I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the briar on the bowl and the rim top. I worked it into the nooks and crannies of the sandblast surface with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the wood. I let the balm sit for about 20 minutes and buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth and then polished it with a horsehair shoe brush. I took photos of the pipe at this point in the process to show what the bowl looked like at this point. I gave the bowl several coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush to raise the shine. The bowl looks really good at this point. The grain just shines and the blast is showing all of the layers of colour that make up a Shell finish. With the bowl basically finished (I will buff it once the stem is finished and on the shank) I turned my attention to the stem. I sanded out the nicks and tooth chatter on the surface of the vulcanite with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I find that these older Dunhill stems are made of very high quality vulcanite and the sanding dust is black! Nice to work on. I polished out the scratches with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. Once I had finished the polishing I gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. I put the bowl and stem back together. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. 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 it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The contrast of colours that show up in the sandblast of the Shell briar bowl looked good with the polished black vulcanite. The Dunhill Shell Bulldog 147F/T looked really good. The pipe has a unique look that catches the eye. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 1/2 inches, Height: 1 3/4 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/4 inches, Chamber diameter: 3/4 of an inch. This is the first of the many pipes that will be coming onto the work table and eventually be posted on the rebornpipes store if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Thanks for reading this while I worked on it. It was a fun pipe to restore and I am pleased with the finished pipe.