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Restemming and Reclaiming a London Tower Made in London ¼ Bent Bulldog

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by Steve Laug

The next bowl on the table is a classic English looking ¼ Bent Bulldog that I decided to restem. I cleaned up the bowl and matched a stem with briar bowl. It is a cleanup and restore and gives me a break from the routine of my other work on pipes. The bowl is dirty and somewhere in its life before it came to us the stem was lost. The finish was a bit dull and lifeless even though there was a shiny varnish coat. It showed promise under the grit and grime of the years. It was stamped on the left side of the shank and read London Tower in block text. On the right side it read Made In London [over] England. The bowl had a thick cake and some lava overflow on the rim top. The bowl also had some dust and oils ground into the finish of the bowl. There were a few small fills in the shank but the bowl seemed to be free of them. It is a pretty pipe with some great grain and I am hoping to match a nice stem to it. I took some photos of the bowl before I started my work on it. I took a close up photo of the rim top and bowl to give more of a sense of what I see and noted above. It is a dirty pipe but seems to have no damage on the rim top or edges.I took photos of the stamping on the left and right side of the shank. You can see that it is quite clear and readable. There were also some interesting water spots on the briar that are visible in the photos. There may well have been a shape number after the England stamp below and near the bowl but it not clear… potentially some remnants of numbers.I found a stem in my cans of stems that would work well with the pipe. It is interestingly a worn The Everyman Pipe by Comoy’s three bar logo stem and the shape was right for the pipe. The tenon was a Delrin replacement tenon that had been done before I had it and I would need to clean up the tenon end a bit and smooth it out for a clean fit but I think it would look good! Now it was time to learn about the brand itself. I was unfamiliar with the London Tower Brand but there was something about the shape and the way it looked with the Comoy’s Everyman stem above that made me think there was a Comoy’s Connection. Of course, I found nothing on either PipePhil’s site or on Pipedia. Pipedia had a listing for the brand but showed a few photos and asked for information. In essence it asked for the same thing I was looking for.

So, I turned and just did a general Google search for the London Tower Made in London England pipe. Low and behold I was given a link on Smokingpipes.com and two on eBay that connected the pipe to Comoy’s.

Here is the link to the Smokingpipes link that included a phot of the pipe they were selling. (https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/england/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=257202). The description highlighted the stamping and the single photo shows the stamping clearly. I quote below and also have included the photo. The LONDON TOWER stamp is identical to the one I am working on though above it there is a Comoy’s stamp. The little bulldog I am working on does not currently have a Comoy’s stamp and honestly I do not think it did in my case.

A tall-bowled straight Billiard, this Comoy’s may not be amongst those that collectors spend countless waking hours pouring over listings in search of, but it’s still a fine representative of the English school nonetheless. Lightly smoked, but otherwise good condition. – Daniel BumgardnerThe first eBay item listed next was of a saddle stem, sandblast pot that bore the same stamp as the smokingpipes billiard. Here is the link (https://www.ebay.com/itm/145100770839). I include two photos of the pipe and its stamping. London Tower stamp is the same though this one just says Made in England where the one I am working on says Made in London England. The second eBay sale was for a different shaped pipe but the stamping was the same as the smokingpipes billiard – Comoy’s [over] London Tower. And like the one I have here it had some obvious fills (https://www.ebay.com/itm/195608835371?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5338722076&customid=&toolid=10050).From the information I learned that the London Tower classic shape was in all probability made by Comoy’s and was a seconds line. Now it was time to work on the pipe itself.

I began by reaming the pipe. I used a PipNet Reamer with the first and second cutting heads to take back the heavy cake to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and finally sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. I like to remove all the cake to examine the walls for damage and checking. Great news is that this one is free of any damage! I scraped off the rim top and edge of the bowl with the Savinelli Fitsall knife. The inner edge and the top looked to be undamaged.I moved on to using the folded sandpaper to clean up the rim darkening on the pipe as well as further addressing the build up on the rim top. I was definitely looking better when I finished.I cleaned off the shiny coat of varnish on the bowl and shank with a cotton pad and acetone. I also used a dental pick to clean out the twin rings around the cap of the bowl. Once finished it looked better. Surprise, even what I thought was a fill on the top of the shank turned out to be a fleck of paint and it disappeared. I sanded the bowl to blend in the remaining fills to the surface of the bowl and to continue to clean up the rim top and remove any remnants of varnish. I used 320-3500 grit sanding pads and wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to check on the progress. It came out looking much better. I used alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to clean out the internals of the shank and the new stem. Once finished the pipe smelled as clean as it looked.I decided to put a narrow diamond shank band on the pipe. It is polished nickel and would work well with the three bars on the stem side.  The band came quite deep and I used a Dremel and sanding drum and a topping board to reduce the depth of the band. The first photo below shows the amount of band that I removed from the original band and the shorter band on the shank. I heated the band and pressed it in place on the shank end. It was short enough in depth to no hide any of the stamping. I polished the briar bowl and nickel band with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the debris. The bowl and the band took on a rich glow. I rubbed down the briar Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface with my fingertips. I used a shoe brush to work the balm into the twin rings around the cap. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 15 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 fit of the stem against the shank as it was slightly larger than the shank. I also worked on removing the tooth indentations and oxidation on the stem surface. I started with 220 grit sandpaper to do the majority of the work and it began to look much better.I sanded out the scratches in the vulcanite with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. It started to take on a deep shine.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads to remove them. I wiped the stem 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 rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. This is another pipe that I am really happy about the finished restoration. This reborn London Tower Made in London England Bent Bulldog turned out really well. I used a vulcanite stem I had here to fit the pipe with a new stem. After restemming I think that it really is a great looking pipe with a great shape and grain. The bowl is a classic English Bent Bulldog that appears to have been made by Comoy’s and the “new” vulcanite stem is close to the original stem. The polished black of the stem works well with the briar. The briar really came alive with the buffing. The rich brown stains of the finish make the grain really pop with the polishing and waxing. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. 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. The finished London Tower Bulldog really has a unique beauty and feels great in the hand. It looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. 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 40 grams/1.41 ounces. The pipe will be going on the rebornpipes store soon. It will be in the British Pipemakers Section if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on!

Restemming and Reclaiming a Stanwell Design Choice 886

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is nice looking Stanwell Danish style Pot that I decided to restem. I cleaned up the bowl and matched a stem with briar bowl and vulcanite shank extension. It is a cleanup and restore and gives me a break from the routine of my other work on pipes. This bowl has a classic Stanwell look from the 1960s and 1970s. The finish was a bit dull and lifeless. It showed promise under the grit and grime of the years. It was stamped on the underside of the shank and read 866 [over] Stanwell [over] Design Choice [over] Made in Denmark. The bowl had a thick cake and some lava overflow on the crowned rim top. The bowl also had some dust and oils ground into the finish of the bowl. The vulcanite shank extension is lightly oxidized. It is a pretty pipe with some great grain and I am hoping to match a nice stem to it. I took some photos of the bowl before I started my work on it. I took a close up photo of the rim top and bowl to give more of a sense of what I see and noted above. It is a dirty pipe but seems to have no damage on the rim top or edges.I tried to capture the stamping in a photo. It is clear and readable as noted above. There are some faint spots on them but they are still readable.I found a stem in my cans of stems that would work well with the pipe. I would need to clean up the tenon end a bit and smooth it out for a clean fit but I think it would look good!I did some hunting on both Pipephil’s site and also on Pipedia for both the shape number and also the Design Choice series. While both sites were very helpful neither one gave information specific to the Design Choice.

I then did a general Google search for a Stanwell Design Choice 886 six pipe and came up with several pipes with info. Two were on Worthpoint auction site and gave me little that I did not have by just looking at the pipe. However, Smokingpipes.com had a listing for an 886 that gave a little more data to me. Here is the link and a quote from the description on the site for this shape (https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/denmark/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=302469).  I quote:

Spanning a length of time between the 1960s and 1970s, Stanwell’s “Design Choice” series of variations on the marque’s shapes all predominantly featured the presence of a typically flared ferrule (which this “886” has). Likely based on a shape designed by Sixten Ivarsson himself, this Danish bent Pot also sports a pretty sweet cross-cut grain pattern. There are some dings on the bowl, and a touch of rim darkening, but otherwise condition is good. – Daniel Bumgardner

From the information I learned that the line featured a lot of Stanwell’s classic shape with the addition of a flared ferrule made of vulcanite. The pipe came out between the 1960 and 1970s and was probably based on a design by Sixten Ivarrson. Now it was time to work on the pipe itself.

I began by reaming the pipe. I used a PipNet Reamer with the first and second cutting heads to take back the heavy cake to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and finally sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. I like to remove all the cake to examine the walls for damage and checking. Great news is that this one is free of any damage! I scraped off the rim top and edge of the bowl with the Savinelli Fitsall knife aand started the clean up of the debris with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. The inner edge and the top looked to be undamaged.I moved on to using the folded sandpaper to clean up the rim darkening on the pipe as well as further addressing the build up on the rim top. I was definitely looking better when I finished.I polished the briar bowl and vulcanite shank extension with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the debris. The bowl took on a rich glow. I was enjoying the beauty of the bowl when it suddenly dawned on me that I had not cleaned the shank or the airway in the bowl or stem. I went back and did so now. I had to be careful with the alcohol so as not to drip on the shank extension of the briar. I used alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to clean out the internals and it is now clean on both the inside and outside.Now I could go back to my normal process. I rubbed down the briar and the vulcanite shank extension with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface with my fingertips. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 15 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm. I paused the process to put the stem in the shank and take a photo of the new look of the pipe with a stem in place. I still need to polish the stem but the look is very nice! I like it. I removed the stem and started my polishing process. I sanded out the scratches in the vulcanite with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. It started to take on a deep shine.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads to remove them. I wiped the stem 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 rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. This is another pipe that I am really happy about the finished restoration. This reborn Stanwell Design Choice 886 Danish Pot turned out really well. I used a vulcanite stem I had here to fit the pipe with a new stem. After restemming I think that it really is a great looking pipe with a great shape and grain. The bowl is Danish Style Pot shape and the vulcanite shank extension goes well with it. The new vulcanite stem is close to the original stem, though missing the saddle portion. The polished black of the stem works well with the briar. The briar really came alive with the buffing. The rich brown stains of the finish make the grain really pop with the polishing and waxing. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. 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. The finished Stanwell Design Choice 886 Pot really has a unique beauty and feels great in the hand. It looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 43 grams/1.45 ounces. The pipe will be going on the rebornpipes store soon. It will be in the section on Danish Pipe Makers if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on!

Restemming and Redressing an interesting Prince Amled Calabash

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by Steve Laug

For the next pipe to work on I chose to clean up and match a stem with a uniquely rusticated calabash bowl that I have here in my box. This one was more complicated than some of the other quick cleanup and restores but it is interesting enough work to give me a break from normal restoration. This bowl has a wire rustication or bark rustication on the sides and shank. There is a smooth band on the shank end and around the rim top. The rim top itself is also smooth and bevelled inward. The finish was worn and quite lifeless looking. Nonetheless to me it showed promise under the grit and grime of the years. On the underside of the shank on a smooth panel it was clearly stamped Prince Amled [over] Made in Denmark [over] Hand Made. The conical bowl had a thick cake and an overflow of lava covering the inwardly bevelled rim top. The wire rustication was a filthy mess with lots of dirt and a bit of paint in the crevices. The shank end had some damage and was no longer smooth. There was also a small tenon snapped off in the shank that would need to be pulled before I could fit a stem to it. I took some photos of the bowl before I started my work on it. I took a close up photo of the bowl to give an idea of what I had to work with. The bowl was very dirty and had a thick cake. The rim top had a thick and hard lava that was obscuring whether there was damage to the smooth rim. Perhaps it had protected it from burn damage but only cleaning will reveal that. I also captured the broken tenon in the shank in the second photo. I took a photo to try and capture the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is present and is readable in person far more than the photos show. It is stamped as noted above.I went through my cans of stems here and found a thin taper stem that would fit quite well once the tenon was shaped and the diameter of the stem was fitted at the shank. It was dirty and needed a thorough cleaning but I think it will look good.Before I started to work on the pipe I wanted to refresh my memory about the brand. I turned first to Pipephils site to see if there was any information about the Danish Made Prince Amled brand (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-p5.html). I did a screen capture of what was on the site and I include that below. It was another of those pipes with little information included.I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Amled) to see if there was any further information to help me with hunt for this pipe manufacturer. The listing for that pipe company had some great photos but also an appeal for information on the brand. It looked like I had as much information as I could find online.

It was time to work on the pipe! I decided to start by pulling the broken tenon in the shank. I screwed a coarse thread drywall screw into the airway and gently wiggled the tenon piece free. The shank was dirty but otherwise undamaged. There was some nicking on the shank end and edge that would need to be dealt with but otherwise it was good.Now the pipe was ready to be cleaned. I reamed it with a PipNet Pipe Reamer using the 1st and 2nd cutting heads to remove the cake. I cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I finished the bowl by sanding the walls with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl walls looked very good. I went through my thin brass bands to find one that would work to clean up the damage on the shank end. I use these to give a smooth surface to face the new stem. It adds a bit of bling but also does a great job making the shank face smooth to match the stem. I wiped the shank end down with alcohol to clean it off and gave the shank end a coat of glue. I pressed the band in place over the all-purpose glue and cleaned off the excess with a wet cloth.Once the glue had dried I scrubbed out the internals with pipe cleaners (normal & bristle), cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils in the shank between the mortise and the entrance of the airway into the bowl. It was quite dirty. I cleaned out the internals on the stem at the same time.I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl and shank with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I worked it into rustication on the bowl and shank and the dirty rim top with a tooth brush. I rinsed the soap and grime off with warm water and repeated the process until the pipe was clean. I dried it off with a soft towel. It looked much better at this point. I polished the rim top and the smooth portions of the band around the rim edge and underside of the shank with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500 – 12000 grit pads. I wiped the briar down after each sanding pad to remove the debris. The smooth rim and edge began to take on a shine. I stained the rim top and the smooth portions of the rim edge, bowl and shank with a Cherry stain pen. It looks good but will look even better once it is buffed and polished. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for 10 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. Mark Hoover’s Balm is a product that I have come to appreciate and one I use on every pipe I have been working on. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded the stem surface with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to further blend them in and smooth out the surface of the stem.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with some Obsidian Oil. I finished hand polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – Fine and Extra Fine. I rubbed it down with another coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. The stem really looked very good. This delicate and petite Prince Amled Hand Made Calabash Pipe is a real beauty. I know it is hand made in Denmark but that is the extent of the information available on the brand. The carving looks like tree bark on the sides and a great smooth rim and trim. The finish on the pipe is in excellent condition and the contrasting stains work well to highlight the stunning finish on the pipe. The thin vulcanite pencil stem adds to the mix. With the grime and debris gone from the finish and the bowl it was a beauty and the finish shows depth at this point. The rim top looks really good now. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe 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 on the buffing wheel. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad on the buffer and hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Prince Amled Calabash is quite nice and feels great in the hand. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 5/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is .92 ounces/25 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another interesting pipe. This pipe will be added to the Danish Pipe Makers section of the rebornpipes store soon. If you want to add it to your collection send me an email or a message! Thanks for your time.

New Life for a Royal Demuth Mixed Finish Silver Rim Cap Patriotic 44 Billiard

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by Steve Laug

I decided work on this interesting Royal Demuth mixed finish billiard next. Jeff pick up from an auction in Blue Springs, Missouri, USA on 05/07/20. So, it has been here for a while. It had a silver rim cap and band on the shank. The bowl has some unique rustication on the sides of the bowl and a carving of an eagle standing on a shield with the stars and stripes inside. The eagle has its wings extended. The carving is well done and very tactile. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads WDC in a triangle [followed by] Royal [over] Demuth. On the right side it is stamped Imported Briar [over] Briar Root [followed by] the shape number 44. On the underside of the shank it is stamped FILTER PAT’D [over] 1934. The stem has no markings or stampings. The stem is a replacement I believe as it does not have the filter tenon as noted on the shank. It is vulcanite with a fishtail taper stem. It is lightly oxidized and has some tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem near the button. The bowl had a thick cake in it and some bits and bobs of tobacco stuck to the walls. There was a thick lava coat on the rim top and edges. The silver rim cap is tarnished as is the silver band on the shank end. The finish was dirty but still winsome in some strange way. Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he started working on it. He took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is heavily caked and the rim top and edges have a heavy coat of lava overflowing on to them. The silver rim cap is also tarnished as is the band on the shank. The stem is oxidized and has tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button end. He took photos of the finish and carving around the sides and heel of the bowl. It is a combination of rustication carved between smooth bands on the bowl sides and the shank. It is unique and very interesting. He took photos of the carving on the bowl front and the stamping on the sides of the shank. You can see that it is clear and readable. It reads as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts to show how the pipe looks.   I looked on Pipephil’s site and though there were many WDC pipes there was nothing stamped Royal Demuth and nothing with any of the other stamping on the shank sides of this pipe. I turned then to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/William_Demuth_Company). As always there is a great history of this American brand. If you are interested be sure to turn there and take time to read about it.

Royal Demuth example with box and filters, courtesy of Doug Valitchka

There was an interesting example of the Royal Demuth provided by Doug Valitchka that has identical stamping to the one that I am working on. It is a different shape but it identical in terms of the stamping. It also looks like it takes a filter that is similar to the Medico filter but I will double check that once it is thoroughly cleaned. This series of photos confirm that the stem on the pipe I am working on is a replacement as it is a push stem. There was also an advertisement for the WDC Changeable Filter Pipes that included the Royal Demuth. I have included that below. There is also a great article by Ben Rapaport on the Demuth – Dunhill Connection that is an enjoyable read (https://pipedia.org/wiki/A_Demuth%E2%80%94Dunhill_Connection%3F).

I now knew that the pipe was part of a line of Filter Pipes that WDC put out and that the filter system was patented in 1934. The stamping that the Filter was Pat’d 1934 tells that it came out after the patent was granted. However, I could not fine tune the date more than that. I also knew that the pipe I was working on was an older one but that it had been restemmed sometime in its life.

I did a bit more digging to see if I could find anything on the Royal Demuth pipe I was working on with the same stamping but also with a carved Eagle and Shield on the front of the bowl. I googled that and found two examples of the same type of carving on Worthpoint. I have included both descriptions given by the seller as well as photos.

Here is the first of the sale pipes listed: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/world-war-ii-wdc-royal-demuth-filter-1797860035

World War II era WDC Royal Demuth, says “Filter Patent’d 1934 on the bottom, “Imported Briar Root’ and the number 28 on the left side, has an Eagle and Shield motif carved into the bowl, this was on of the patriotic pipes they came out with during the war. In pretty good shape, some minor chatter on the stem, a little bit of wear on the rim. The Royal Demuths are generally considered some of the best WDC pipes.Here is the second of the sale pipes listed: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/estate-royal-demuth-pipe-carved-american-eagle

I have up for auction estate Royal Demuth pipe. It is marked on both sides and the bottom. The side that has the name also has a triangle with the letters, W, C, D inside. The other side has, Imported Briar Root, # 11. The bottom has, Filter Pat’d 1931. I am unsure of the actual date mark is does have some wear. The bowl has a beautiful American Eagle standing on a shield with 4 stars and stripes. The bowl has a strip of sterling on the rim and a band on the stem. The band is marked Sterling and has a square with a sideways anchor in it, a T in a square, and a lion in rectangle. I do not know the name of this company. The pipe is a well loved pipe and has been used. Some of the pictures were taken before I cleaned the silver.

From these sale sites I learned that the pipe I was working on was a World War II era WDC Royal Demuth. The patent date gave a start date and thus I knew it was made after that. It also has an Eagle and Shield motif carved into the bowl and the first seller surmised that it was one of the patriotic pipes that came out with during the war. I also knew that the stem was replaced sometime later and did not have the filter system expected on this pipe.

When I received it from Jeff it did not look like the same pipe. It was clean and the finish had life. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and got rid of the cake. He cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife so that we could see the walls of the bowl and assess for damage. It was in good condition. He cleaned the internals of the shank and stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol. He scrubbed the exterior with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. He rinsed the pipe under warm water. He dried it off with a cloth and then let it air dry. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and soaked it in Briarville’s Stem Deoxidizer. He rinsed it with warm water and dried it off with a soft cloth. It came out looking very good. The finish on the bowl and the rim top cleaned up nicely. I took pictures of the pipe to show how it looked when I brought it to the table. I took some photos of the rim top and stem to show the condition of them both when the pipe arrived. The rim top had some damage to the inner edge of the bowl and some marks on the top surface. Overall it looked very good. The oxidation on the stem had come off very well and the tooth marks chatter in the surface of the stem were visible. I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It was clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the appearance of the parts. It is a beauty. I started my work on the pipe by polishing the metal rim cap, edges and shank band. I polished it with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to polish out the scratches in the metal. It looked much better at this point in the process. I polished the metal cap and band with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the debris. The metal took on a rich glow. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for 10 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. Mark Hoover’s Balm is a product that I have come to appreciate and one I use on every pipe I have been working on. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I had been thinking about the replacement stem and went through my cans of stem to see if I could find a WDC stem with the triangle logo on the left side. The amazing thing was I found one!!. The metal tenon (made for the WDC filters) was misshaped and was larger next to the stem than the mortise end. I used a small file and a Dremel and sanding drum to even us the diameter of the tenon all the way from the end to the stem end. It took some work but it worked well and the end result was the stem fit in the shank well. The diameter of the metal spacer was taller at the top than at the bottom. The measurements showed that from the tenon to the stem top was larger than the distance from the bottom edge. I would need to shape and work out that shape.  I took off some of the metal and vulcanite on the top half of the stem with the Dremel and sanding drum. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the sanding marks from the Dremel. Once I had smooth them out I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to further blend them in and smooth out the surface of the stem.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with some Obsidian Oil. I finished hand polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – Fine and Extra Fine. I rubbed it down with another coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. The stem really was beginning to look very good. This is a beautiful WDC Royal Demuth Silver Capped and Banded Billiard with a fitted filter vulcanite stem. The flat bottom makes it a sitter that is well balanced. The shape fits well in the hand with the curve of the bowl makes it a great pipe to hold. I polished stem with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. I gave the rusticated bowl and carvings on the bowl front multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax. I gave 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 rich combination of black and dark brown stains gave the sandblast a sense of depth. The pipe took on life with the buffing. The rich colour of the briar and the polished silver rim cap and shank band works well with the polished stem. Have a look at it with the photos below. The shape, finish and flow of the pipe and stem are very well done. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/8 inches, Chamber diameter: 5/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 33 grams/1.16 ounces. This American Made Silver Capped and Banded Filter Billiard is a real beauty. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This one will be going on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipe Makers Section shortly if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for your time.

Pulling a Broken Tenon and Restemming a Tiny Hexagonal Dublin

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by Steve Laug

I received two pipes for repair from Brady, who works at a Pipe and Tobacco Shop in Texas yesterday. The first is a tiny Hexagonal Dublin stamped Genuine Briar. The second one is a leather coated bowl stamped Longchamp France Billiard. Both were quite dirty and needed some special attention. I decided to work on the harder of the two pipes – the tiny Genuine Briar Hex Dublin. It had a broken tenon in the shank and a small stem. In looking it over I felt it was too thin to set a new tenon in. I would need to restem it. I was in a rush to work on it so I started without taking the customary photos. I put the bowl in the freezer to see if the cold and change would loosen the tenon from the shank. I took it out and used a screw to try and pull it. It did not work as it was solidly stuck. I repeated the freezer trick with no luck at all. I examined it and found that the tenon in the shank was quite cracked. I used a dental tool to pull out the pieces as much as possible. I cleaned up the shank with a pen knife to scrape out the remnants of vulcanite. A second issue became clear. There was a snapped aluminum stinger in the shank with a large ball on the end. It took some work and the ball stinger dropped out of the shank.With the stinger removed I worked on fitting a new stem to the shank. I toyed with a thin brass band to stabilize the thin shank. I tried it on for the fit and look and liked it. I glued it in place. I used sand paper and the Dremel and sanding drum to reduce the diameter of the tiny tenon. I finished it and the fit was right. All that was left was to polish it. I reamed the tiny bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife and took cake back to briar. I sanded the walls of the bowl with a folded piece of 220 sandpaper.I cleaned out the internals of the bowl, shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. It came out smelling much better.The bowl had a lot of tars, lava and even varnish underneath the grime. I wiped it down with acetone on cotton pads until the surface of the bowl was much cleaner. I sanded the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the briar down after each sanding pad to remove the dust and debris. The bowl began to look much better. I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad to remove the dust and debris. The grain stood out more with each set of pads. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the bowl, rim top and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I find that the balm really makes the briar come alive again. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The bowl really looks good at this point. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads and wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil saturated cloth to remove the sanding dust and protect the stem. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both fine and extra fine. This Petite Genuine Briar Hexagonal Dublin with a new vulcanite stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Genuine Briar Dublin fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 inch, Chamber diameter: 5/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is .71 ounces/21 grams. This tiny, older American Made Hexagonal Dublin is a real beauty. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. I will set it aside and once I finish the other pipe that Brady sent to me, I will send them back to him. Thanks for your time.

Restoring and Restemming a BBB Own Make Thorneycroft Sand blast Canadian 506

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe I decided to work on is one from a Dan in South Carolina. He contacted me several weeks ago now about a pipe that he had come across in his things that was on that his mom had picked up for him. Now 16 or 17 years later he decided it is time to work on it. He wrote me the email below regarding this pipe and how he came upon. It piqued my interest because to be honest with you I love all things BBB.

Hello,
I recently stumbled on an old billiard pipe that my mom had bought me at an antique store while I packing up for a move. I was 16 or 17 at the time so I couldn’t use it and basically forgot about it until now, at 33, I’m starting to get into pipe tobacco more and more. The pipe has the “BBB” inside a diamond with “OWN MAKE” underneath that on the top of the shank, and “THORNEYCROFT Made In ENGLAND” with “506” just below it on the underside of the shank.

The problem is it has no stem, and the end of the shank where the stem would fit into, has many marks that I can’t tell whether they are chew marks or if they are just a part of the grain etc. To my very untrained eye the pipe seems to be in OK condition otherwise.

Being very new to this hobby and not knowing many resources yet or really what to do, and seeing your restorative work, I’d like to ask if you restore pipes for people or if you might be able to point me in the right direction on how I should go about making this pipe smokeable once again, or if it might not be worth it except for sentimentality sake. I’m able to provide pictures of the pipe if needed as well.

Thank you,
Dan

I wrote Dan back and asked him to send me some photos of the pipe so that I could see what I was dealing with in this pipe. He sent some amazing photos of various angles of the pipe and I was hooked. I asked him to send it up and I would restore and restem it for him. Here are the photos that he included for me. The first four photos are overall views of the pipe as a whole. The craggy sandblast, the typical rustication on the shank end that I have seen on most of these Thorneycroft pipes, and the delicate but classic look of a Canadian are all well captured. Dan sent photos of the bowl and rim top as well as photos of the sides of the bowl. I appreciate the detail in these photos. The bowl shot shows the tar and cake on the sides and heel of the bowl and the lava build up in the sandblast of the rim top. It should clean up fairly easy. He also notes with a red circle what appears to be a chip on the left side of the bowl on the outer edge of the rim. The more I examine it the more I think it is probably a part of the blast. But I will know more once I have it in hand. His close up photos of the shank show the rustication and the washed out stain on the shank end. I think it is the typical BBB rustication that I have seen on the shank end of the Canadians and long shank pipes in the Thorneycroft line. Dan did a great job capturing the stamping on the shank top and underside. It reads as he noted in his opening email.He took close up photos of the rustication as well. It is rugged and I have to say that I like it. Once it is restained it will look quite nice. The photo of the shank end shows that there are no crack in the shank. There is a nick on the lower right side that is probably a flaw in the briar.I did a search on Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-bbb.html) and looked for the specific Thorneycroft line. The second pipe in the list is stamped the same way as the one that I am working on and the stamping on the stem is the same. The Made in England stamp is identical to the second one. I looked on Pipedia and found several references to the BBB Own Make Thorneycroft pipe but nothing specific (https://pipedia.org/wiki/BBB). I also found an advertisement courtesy of Doug Valitchka from 1957 that had a great description of the Thorneycroft that I include below. It reads as follows:

Beautifully balanced, superbly lightweight and mellow smoking… these qualities have made the BBB Own Make Thorneycroft famous. First tough, age-old Algerian briar is carefully selected and cured then the bowls are carefully hand-turned. Now comes the special process of sand- erosion. The soft parts of the briar are literally blasted away leaving a hard bowl of unusual beauty, durability and sweetness. A mouthpiece of finest English Ebionite, inlaid with the famed metal emblem, and a specia dry smoking condenser tube complete the picture. Available in all 24 BBB shapes…I took some photos of the bowl as it was when I unpacked it. It was stamped as Dan noted above and was clear and readable. The rough shank end of the pipe was not damaged but had lost the stain that had originally coloured it. The little nick in the shank end does not damage the airway in the shank. The nicks that were noted on the edge of left side of the bowl appeared to me to be part of the blast and should be left as is. The bowl had a light cake on the walls and there was a light lava coat on the rim top where it had filled in some of the blast. The inner edge of the rim was in excellent condition with no damage. The outer edge had no damage either but there was some roughness to it due to the sand blast finish on the edge. It looked very good however. I took photos of the bowl to show the condition when I received it from Dan. I have included them below. I was hoping I had a BBB stem for the Canadian but I did not have one with the brass insert. I did have one that was a pretty decent fit. It would need to be adjusted in terms of the top, bottom and sides of the stem to fit the shank dimensions but it was the right length and shape for the pipe. It had a great shape on the slot that would give a good spread to the smoke.Now it was time to clean up the bowl. Since the cake was thin I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to scrape out the cake that was in the bowl. I took it back to bare briar and then sanded the walls with a piece of dowel wrapped with 220 grit sandpaper. The bowl walls were in very good condition with no checking or burn damage.I wiped off the bowl with a damp cloth and was amazed at how little dust came off the finish. Dan had obviously wiped it down before he sent it. I also wiped down the rim top and it was quite clean as well. I used a black and a walnut stain pen to stain the shank end rustication to match the rest of the briar. It looked very good. Once it was buffed and polished it would be a perfect match. I used a brass bristle wire brush to knock off the remaining debris in the sandblast on the rim top. It looks very good with some deep blast sections on the top right and left. Beautiful blast in all ways.I cleaned out the internals of the shank, mortise and the airway in both the shank and the new stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. The pipe smells fresh and ready to smoke again.Now that it was clean it was time to do a few minor surface repairs. The first of these was a small repair to a flaw on the shank end on the inner edge of the mortise on the lower left side. I used a tooth pick to put a drop of CA glue in the flaw and smooth it out on the surface. I did the same to the pit on the outer edge of the rim on the right side toward the back. Both were cosmetic rather than structural but it improved the look of the bowl in those spots. I smoothed out the repair on the shank end with a folded piece of sandpaper and touched the paper to the repair on the rim edge as well. I stained both with a Walnut stain pen and blended them into the surface. I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a shoe brush 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 depths of the blast in the briar really comes alive with the balm. I worked on the fit of the stem to the shank with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I needed to reduce the diameter of the stem from top to bottom and from right to left. I worked on it for quite a bit of time sanding, sanding and more sanding until the fit to the shank was good and the transition between the shank and stem was smooth.I polished the stem once it fit with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each pad with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. By the end the stem took on a good shine and the fit was very good.I polished the vulcanite stem 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 the stem. The photos below show the polished stem. I am pretty happy with the restoration and restemming of this BBB Own Make Thorneycroft Sandblast Canadian. There is a sandblast finish to the bowl that is rugged and rich looking. The newly fit stem is clean and smooth and looks good on the shank. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. 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 the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished BBB Own Make Thorneycroft Canadian fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe was 30grams/1.02ounces. I will be sending it back to Dan shortly. I look forward to hearing what he thinks of it. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It is a privilege to be a part of the restoration and preservation of these old timers with a back story!

Restoring a Piece of Danish Pipe History – a Suhr Kobenhavn Bruyere Extra Dublin

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By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is an interesting short stemmed, sandblast Dublin that I found in a display cabinet. We purchased it from an Antique Mall in Lincoln City, Oregon, USA on 08/24/2024. The pipe is stamped on the underside of the shank Suhr [over] Kobenhavn. That is followed by Bruyere [over] EXTRA. The band covers some of the next portion of the stamp but it looks like it reads By Hand [over] a shape number beginning with 9. The band is stamped Birmingham Sterling Silver and has a T date stamp. The shank is cracked and I assume that someone put an English band on it that in no way reflects the country of origin. The bowl had a thick cake and lava overflowing on the rim top and inner edge. The sandblast finish was dirty with grime in the sandblast. The stem is worn and has been cut off and a button shaped at the end. There was no bother taken on the slot and it is uneven and rough. It leaves a short snorter of a pipe that does not quite look right.  I took photos of the pipe before I started my clean up work. I have included them below. I took a photo of the rim top, bowl and the surfaces of the stem to give a sense of the condition of the pipe. The bowl is out of round toward the front of the bowl. There was a thick lava coat on the rim edges or top filling in the sandblast. The stem is heavily oxidized, calcified and dirty. It has also been cut off a bit crooked and the button is not clean. The Sterling Silver shank band is dented, scratched and oxidized. It has also been cut at an angle.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable and read as noted above. I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed. It is definitely dirty and very oxidized on the shank extension and the stem.While I was looking at the pipe in the Antique Mall I looked up the Suhr brand on Pipephil’s helpful site where he has some great resources on stamping (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-s13.html). I had a fleeting memory of the name but I could not give it any data. I read about the brand and looked at the shape of the pipe shown on the site which was very similar to the pipe I was looking at. I was pretty convinced that the pipe at the shop was made by the same Suhr as shown on Pipephil’s site. The photos included also gave a clear picture of what the original stem may have looked like on the pipe when it left the maker. I bought it based on that information and added it to the purchase.

I have added the information, photos and a screen capture of the section below for the purpose of putting the information together with the restoration. Suhr’s Pibemageri (pipe workshop) was owned by Teophil Suhr. Poul Rasmussen († 1967), Svend Axel Celius or Sven Knudsen used to produce the pipes proposed in the shop.

It is not established the red-white dot is Suhr’s original logo. it may be the symbol used by Poul Rasmussen himself. See also: Anne Julie (widow of Poul Rasmussen)

When I got home and before I began working on the pipe I reread PipePhil’s info included above and turned to Pipedia for more (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Suhr%27s_Pibemageri). I quote from that site below.

Suhr’s Pibemageri was a pipemaking workshop started by Teofil Suhr in Copenhagen central to the birth of the modern Danish pipe. When Sixten Ivarsson, then a debt collector newly moved to Copenhagen, broke his pipe, it was to Suhr’s he went for a repair, only to find a broken lathe and no pipemaker. Soon after, he was working as the foreman at Suhr’s, where, among others, Peter Micklson got his start and Sven Axel Celius learned pipemaking from Poul Rasmussen and his then foreman Sven Knudsen. Pipes from Suhr’s were stamped with the workshop name Suhr, and on occasion carried the same red and white dot used by Anne Julie to this day.

While it is said to be a disagreement with Suhr’s that led Ivarsson to leave for Stanwell, and all of these names went on to greater fame in later years, it would be impossible to overstate the importance of Suhr’s to the evolution of the modern smoking pipe.

I googled Suhr to find more information. I found some on the Smokingpipes.com web site (https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/new/suhr/). I quote the information on the brand there.

Suhr is a venerable name, tracing back to the 1940s in Copenhagen, where it was primarily a pipe repair shop before picking up pipe manufacturing. Sixten Ivarsson served as foreman there in the 1940s before moving on to Stanwell. When he left, Poul Rasmussen became foreman and made Suhr pipes until his death in 1967. His widow, Anne Julie, started making pipes at that time, and eventually trained other carvers, including Tom Eltang.

The grandson of famous pipe makers Poul Rasmussen and Anne Julie, Johannes Rasmussen trained with Tom Eltang for years before carrying on the Suhr name.

When Johannes decided to pursue pipe making, he went full circle in his family history and contacted Tom Eltang for an apprenticeship. While at the Eltang workshop, he learned the basics and began exploring his own creative voice, expanding his artistic reach until confident about breaking out on his own.

It was natural to resurrect the Suhr name for his pipes. Johannes credits his grandparents and Tom Eltang for his inspiration, and they were all part of Suhr history. He maintains a keen understanding of his place in the historical legacy of pipe making, in which he stands on the shoulders of giants.

I also turned to another site listed by google called Worthpoint. The site also showed a Suhr pipe and the description is very similar to mine (https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/bruyere-extra-suhr-kobenhavn-hand-1864270360). I quote the site’s description below.

No cracks or rim chips. Reads “2085 BRUYERE EXTRA SUHR KOBENHAVN BY HAND ” on the shank.

The shape number 2085 is the only difference in the stamp. The order of the stamp is slightly different but the data is the same. From that it helped me interpret what is partially hidden under the silver band. I now knew that it read By Hand and the shape number starting 9.

Now it was time to work on the pipe. I started my work by reaming the cake and debris in the bowl. I reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer using the 1st and 2nd cutting heads to remove the cake. I took it back to bare briar. I followed that by scraping out what remained 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. The bowl walls looked very good with no burn damage or checking on the walls. I scraped the rim to with the Fitsall knife to remove the thick lava coat. I went over it with a brass bristle brush to clean out the grooves in the sandblast rim and it was starting to look better.I cleaned out he internals of the shank, mortise and airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I hard started shaping the new stem (an older worn Stanwell saddle stem seemed a fitting one to use). I paused to clean it at this point.I scrubbed the dirty bowl with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I rinsed it off with warm water and dried it with a cotton cloth. It did a great job removing the oils and tars and overall the bowl looked much better. I touched up the outer edge where it was worn and the top of the rim with a Maple Stain Pen. The colour was a perfect match. The only frustration was the burn damage on the front of the inner edge now really is visible. I think I will need to go back and work on that area. I worked over the inner edge again with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to give it a bevel and try to minimize the damage. Once finished I restained it with the Maple Stain Pen.I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the sandblast finish with my fingertips and a shoe brush. 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. The blog is slightly out chronological order as I worked on the stem fit before I worked on the bowl but I decided to write it this way. Using your imagination walk with me through the stem fitting process. I had to search for a stem in my collection of stems that would work with this pipe. I wanted a saddle stem that had some more length on it and would require a minimum of shaping and contouring. I had a tired older Stanwell saddle stem that I think looked very similar to the Suhr in the photos on PipePhil. I think it is quite appropriate to use a Stanwell stem on this Danish piece of history. I would need to reshape the saddle portion and clean up the tenon but the stem would do the trick. Before I cleaned up the pipe I ft the stem to the shank to get a sense of what it looked like. It would take a lot of shaping and sanding to get the fit right but I liked the look. Whoever had banded the pipe in the past had put the band on crooked so the shank end was no longer straight It was off to the left side and the stem would not face against the shank well. Since I was going to make a mess with the stem I decided to do the fitting work before I cleaned up the pipe. I used a Dremel and a Sanding drum to shape the saddle portion to fit the follow of the shank. It took a bit of work but I was able to get a rough fit. I heated the band with my heat gun to loosen the band. It was tightly in place. I used some acetone to try and it to failed. It seemed that the band had been glued in place on the shank with epoxy during the repair. It refused to move! So, the Danish Pipe would be permanently joined with a British Sterling band from Birmingham made in either 1943 or 1968. The stamping on the band was not altogether clear though it was a T. The only I am sure of is that it was added after market as a repair using a band that was handy. Left with that unmovable nature I had to work with what I had. I used a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper and hand sanding to flatten the shank end and square it up for a better stem fit. The stem fit better against the shank. Now I needed to sand the sides to shape them to match the shank curves. I worked over the stem with 220 grit sandpaper while I sat on my front porch. I shaped it in place on the shank just to make sure the fit was right. The shape of the shank appears to be oval but it is flat on the bottom and domed on the top. It took a lot of sanding and shaping to get the fit right but the photos show where it is after much sanding. Chronologically it was at this point in the process that I removed the stem and went back and scrubbed the bowl to clean up the mess. I cleaned it and used the Balm on it. While it sat doing its magic I started the polishing process on the stem. I sanded it with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It really began to take on a finished look.I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. This beautiful Suhr Kobenhvn Bruyere Extra Zulu with a newly fit saddle looks amazing. The briar is clean and the finish really came alive. The rich brown stains gave the finish a sense of depth with the polishing and waxing. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. 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. The finished Suhr Kobenhvn Zule really is a beauty and feels great in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¼ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 28 grams/.95 ounces. This beautiful pipe will reside in my collection at least for a while as I enjoy this piece of Danish Pipe History. If the condition of the pipe when it was found is any indicator, the pipe should be a great smoker. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on.

Restoring and Restemming a John Crouch Heavyweigh Rhodesian

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By Steve Laug

A while back I received an email reaching out about a pipe that the writer, Anthony had acquired long ago and wanted to know if I had heard of it. He wrote the following email:

Hello, I am just wondering if in all your refurbishings you’ve come across any pipes stamped with the name John Crouch? I would love to send you photos but don’t see a way possible to do that. I’ve had this for 20 years and don’t really remember where I picked it up. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

I wrote him back and asked for photos of the pipe and the stamping so I had something to work with. For me this always helps in the hunt for the identity as generally it gives me a lot of information. Anthony wrote back and sent some photos for me.

Hi Steve, thank you for the quick response!! Here are a few shots I have of this beauty. It’s one of the only bulldogs I’ve seen without the double lines engraved into it. Like I said in my first message. I’ve had it for 20+ years. If I had to guess I picked it up in Colorado when I lived out there. I would love to hear what you think. Thanks again!!! ps. if you need more photos let me know. The third photo he included gave a clear look at the stamping on the left side of the shank. It read John Crouch [over] HEAVYWEIGH [over] Italy. My initial thinking before doing any digging on the brand is that it was a pipe made for a pipe shop by someone like Savinelli (Italy). It is stamped with what I think is the shop name. I think that the “T” is missing on the end of HEAVYWEIGH as the shank is to short for the stamp. But some digging will clear that up.I wrote Anthony back with what I found. I was surprised that Pipedia included the brand but not surprised that it confirmed my suspicions about it being a pipe shop pipe. Here is my email:

The pipe is a beauty Anthony. I did a bit of digging and found this information on https://pipedia.org/wiki/John_Crouch

“John Crouch Tobacconist embodies the essence of Virginia. After all, tobacco is Virginia’s oldest industry. Years ago, tobacco was believed to have medical properties and a tobacconist was consulted in much of the same way that a pharmacist is today. In those days, a tobacconist would create a blend of tobacco products to ease an ailment. John Crouch Tobacconist has been home to the Washington areas’ nicest and largest humidor for over 30 years.” Apparently they also have pipes made for them under their name. I have also included photos from that listing. Hope that helps – Steve

I am including the following photos from Pipedia and the advertising page that Anthony sent as well as they give a clear picture of the manufacturer of the pipe and the shop it was made for. Now I really want to visit this shop! Anthony wrote back and I include that below. I think his idea of calling or emailing them is perfect. He also asked if I would consider working on it if he chose to send it to me.

Hey Steve, Thanks for the info. I, too, found this but didn’t think it was associated with the shop in Virginia!!! I guess I need to give them a call or email them to try to get to the bottom of this. Thanks for the help. Actually, two other things. 1.Is there a reason so few bulldogs lack the double engraved lines around the bowl? 2. If down the line what would a refurbishing run me? Rough estimate, nothing set in stone find of thing. Again. Thanks for your quick responses and your time.

I answered him that I would gladly take on the project for him for the chance to see the pipe up close and personal. I answered his other questions about the lack of rings around the bowl cap. Some time went by and he wrote again.

I also wanted to thank you for helping me figure out my John Crouch Heavyweigh pipe!! I contacted and talked with one of the guys down there in Alexandria, VA. He said, yes, back in the 70’s they in fact imported these Italian pipes then stamped and sold them. I would love to send you this pipe for a restoration. If you could send me your address I’ll send it off in the next few days. I should have ask first if you have time or backed up on restorations? Or when would be a good time to send it to you?

I look forward to seeing what you can do to this amazing pipe. I love how detailed your blog posts and restoration process are!!

Thank you again and hope to hear from you soon.

I answered and Anthony wrote that he had sent the pipe to me. He also included another piece of information that would be important in the restoration and repair.

Hey Steve… I should tell you I did break a chunk of the stem off. I slipped off a step as I was walking down then and unfortunately one of my reactions was to bite down and it broke the mouth piece of the stem. I think I have them still. If I can find the pieces should I send them?

Thank you in advance. I can’t wait to see the transformation and the documentation on the blog. All the best!! Anthony

The pipe arrived yesterday just as I finished the repair on the table that was ahead of it. Great timing! I opened the box and took photos of the pipe as I examined it to get a clear assessment of the work that lay ahead of me. Before I took the photos I removed the Softee Bit from the stem so I could see the damage on the stem top that Anthony had mentioned. I love the shape of the pipe – to me a Rhodesian without the rim cap rings but still the right shape. The pipe is well used and must be a great smoker. There was a moderate cake in the bowl and lava on the rim top. The inner edge of the bowl is rough and shows some reaming damage leaving it out of round a bit. The finish is dirty and there are some spots of varnish or shellac remaining around the bowl and shank. There are a few fills but they are solid. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads as noted above. The stamp is clear and readable. I wonder if the HEAVYWEIGH stamp is missing the “T” but suppose we won’t know for sure. The stem is well fit but the damage on the topside was more extensive than I thought once I remove the Softee Bit. I have mad patches this big before but really never have been happy with the suspected lack of durability of them. I think this one would be better off with a new stem. I took some closeup photos of the bowl and rim top to show the condition. You can see the damage on the inner edge and the generally roughness of the top and edge. The photos of the stem surface show the size of the damage. I hope you can see my rationale for restemming this one rather than making a patch that large.I took a photo of the stamping on the shank. It is clear as noted. You can also see why I wondered if the HEAVYWEIGH portion is missing the T. You can also see the shellac or varnish on the shank in this photo. To give a sense of the proportion of the of the pipe I removed the stem and took a photo of it. This will help me when I choose a new stem for it.Now to work on the pipe itself. I started by reaming it with a PipNet Pipe Reamer. The bowl was large enough that I used the second and third cutting heads. I took the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I also scraped off the lava build up on the rim top with the knife. I sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. I took it back to smooth walls. The walls looked very good with no sign of checking or burning. I cleaned out the shank, mortise and the airway in the bowl with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. It took a lot of cleaners but I got the grime and oils out of the shank and though the pipe smelled of tobacco it was much cleaner smelling than previous to that. I chose not to clean the stem since I was going to replace it.With the internals cleaned I turned my attention to the rim top. I worked over the inner edge of the bowl and the rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I then gently topped the bowl on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper. I cleaned up the inner edge a bit more. The pipe looked amazingly good. I wiped down the bowl with acetone soaked cotton pads to remove the varnish/shellac coat. It was particularly heavy around the stamping on the shank – both sides. It took much work to remove the shiny coat. I sanded the bowl with sanding pads – 320-3500 grit pads. I dry sanded it and wiped it down with a damp cloth after each pad. I was able to remove all of the shiny coat and the bowl began to take on a natural shine. I stained the rim top with a Cherry stain pen to match the rest of the briar. I also stained the lighter areas around the shank end. The rim top looked much better.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris on the surface. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I used a shoe brush to work it into the twin rings around the bowl cap. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth and shoe brush to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to a new stem. I found a blank in my can of stems that was close to the right diameter and just slightly longer. With a few adjustments to the tenon and the diameter at the shank the fit will be good. You can also see the large broken chunk missing on the original stem in the photo below. In the second photo below, I knocked off the casting debris with a Dremel and sanding drum in preparation for using my tenon turning tool.I used the PIMO tenon turner to bring the tenon down close to the size that I wanted. I do this in stages as the tool can chip the tenon if you take too big a bite at one time. The second photo shows it getting closer. I paused mid turn to show how it cuts away material. Once I cleaned it up the fit was very close. Some sanding would make the fit perfect. I used a small flat file to remove the casting marks on the sides of the stem and fine tune the tenon fit in the bowl and took some photos of where it stands at this point.I started sanding the diameter of the stem to match the shank and then decided to give it a quick bend. I heated it with the flame of a lighter until the vulcanite was soft then bent the end to get the angle correct. I checked it against the original stem and the bend matched. Good to go! Now I had a lot of hand sanding to do to trim back the diameter to fit the shank. I do this next part all by hand with the stem removed and constantly putting it on the shank and checking progress. It is tedious so I can think of other things while sanding. It makes the process a bit of a respite. I can’t tell you how many hours of sanding this took but it is finally there. The fit is right and now it is time to polish it. Once the fit was correct, I started polishing out the scratch marks and smoothing the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It removes the dust and also gives the sanding pads some bite. By the final pad it was looking quite good.Following my usual process in restoration I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it further with Before & After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to absorb the oil. The John Crouch Heavyweigh(t) Rhodesian has been restemmed and is finished other than the final waxing and buffing. I polished the new stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches and gave it several coats of carnauba. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad on the buffer to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 45 grams/1.59 ounces. It does not feel heavy and the weight certainly does not put it in a heavy category for me. I will be sending it back to Anthony shortly. I look forward to hearing what he thinks of it once he has it in hand. If the condition was any indicator it is a good smoker. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this John Crouch Heavyweigh(t) Rhodesian.

A Pipe Hunt Find in Bellingham – A WDC Royal Demuth Imported Briar Root 25 Apple

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Blog by Steve Laug

On our recent Victoria Day Weekend (5/18/24) my family met Jeff and his wife in Bellingham for breakfast, a visit and a bit of pipe hunting. We visited three of my favourite antique malls and worked out way through the aisles of wares for sale. Jeff and I tend to divide and conquer, each walking through the aisles of the shop looking for pipes. The rest of the family moves through looking for their own treasures. We left the second shop and using Google maps worked our way to a new shop that I had not visited before. We walked into a nicely laid out shop and I asked the clerk if there were any pipes available. He walked us back to a display case and took out a circular pipe rack. There in the rack were two pipes remaining in it. The first was a square shank Irwin’s (GBD made) London Made London England 9487 shape and the second was an older WDC Royal Demuth Imported Briar Root 25. Both were great and were added to the hunt bag. Here is the link to the blog on the hunt and a photo of the pipes we added (https://rebornpipes.com/tag/bellingham-pipe-hunt/). I decided to take a break from the pipes in my queue of pipes to work on and deal with the Royal Demuth 25 Apple. It is the bottom pipe in the two photos above. It was an interesting shape that has some great grain under the grime on the bowl and shank. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads WDC in a triangle [followed by] Royal [over] Demuth. On the right side it is stamped Imported Briar [over] Briar Root [followed by] the shape number 25. On the underside of the shank it is stamped FILTER PAT’D [over] 1934. The stem has the WDC white triangle on the left side of the taper. The stem was an older style vulcanite with a narrow taper from shank to button. It was lightly oxidized and has some tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem near the button. The bowl had a thick cake in it and some bits and bobs of tobacco stuck to the walls. There was a thick lava coat on the rim top and edges. The finish had been varnished sometime in its life and it was peeling and there was a lot tars ground into the surface of the bowl. I took some photos of the pipe before I started working on it. I took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is heavily caked and the rim top and edges have a heavy coat of lava overflowing on to them. It is hard to know with certainty the condition of the bowl at this point but clean up will reveal all. The stem is lightly oxidized and has light tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button end. I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. You can see that it is faint in spots but it is still very readable. It reads as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts to show how the pipe looks. I looked on Pipephil’s site and though there were many WDC pipes there was nothing stamped Royal Demuth and nothing with any of the other stamping on the shank sides of this pipe. I turned then to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/William_Demuth_Company). As always there is a great history of this American brand. If you are interested be sure to turn there and take time to read about it.

Royal Demuth example with box and filters, courtesy of Doug Valitchka

There was an interesting example of the Royal Demuth provided by Doug Valitchka that has identical stamping to the one that I am working on. It is a different shape but it identical in terms of the stamping. It also looks like it takes a filter that is similar to the Medico filter but I will doulbe check that once it is thoroughly cleaned.There was also an advertisement for the WDC Changeable Filter Pipes that included the Royal Demuth. I have included that below.There is also a great article by Ben Rappaport on the Demuth – Dunhill Connection that is an enjoyable read (https://pipedia.org/wiki/A_Demuth%E2%80%94Dunhill_Connection%3F).

I now knew that the pipe was part of a line of Filter Pipes that WDC put out and that the filter system was patented in 1934. The stamping that the Filter was Pat’d 1934 tells that it came out after the patent was granted. However, I could not fine tune the date more than that. I also knew that the pipe I was working on was an older one because of the style of the stem – straight taper and smaller profile at the button ends.

I started my work on the pipe cleaning up the bowl and the shank. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer to take the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the remnants of the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the bowl walls with sandpaper wrapped around a piece of briar to smooth them out. The inside walls were clean and there was no sign of burning or checking on them. Note the spotty varnish coat peeling on the bowl sides that would need to be removed. I decided to clean the internals before scrubbing the externals. I scrubbed the shank and the airway in the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. Once it was clean it smelled much better. To get rid of the peeling and spotty varnish coat on the bowl I wiped it down with some acetone (fingernail polish remover) on cotton pads until the shine was gone and the finish was quite smooth and clean. I scrubbed the externals of the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime in the finish. I rinsed the bowl off with warm water. I scrubbed the internals with a shank brush and soap to remove the remaining tars and oils inside both the stem and the shank. I was able to remove a lot of the lava on the rim top as well. The bowl was beginning to look much better at this point. The pipe really smelled strongly of the aromatic tobacco (perhaps Half & Half) that had been smoked in it before so it needed some work. I deghosted the bowl with 99% isopropyl alcohol and cotton bolls. I stuffed it and twisted a plug for the shank. I used an ear syringe to load it with alcohol and set it in a pipe rest to let it do its job. I would let it sit for several hours while I was at work today. In the evening I removed it and it was dark with tars and oils. I recleaned the bowl and shank afterwards and the pipe is smelling better! I sanded the bowl (rim top and shank) with sanding pads – sanding with 320-3500 grit pads and wiped down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The bowl began to take on a real shine. It was going to be a beautiful pipe. I wiped down the sanding dust with a damp cloth and restained the pipe with some Fiebing’s Cordovan alcohol based stain. I applied the stain and flamed it with a lighter to set the stain deep in the grain. It was a rich colour that I knew would look better with a little more work and buffing. I wiped the bowl down with alcohol on cotton pads to make the stain more transparent. I wanted to be able to see the grain. I wiped it down further with some 100% acetone to get even more transparency. It is beginning to look very good at this point. I followed that by polishing the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping the bowl down after each sanding pad. The grain really began to shine through. It is a beautiful pipe. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar to clean, preserve and polish the wood. The product works to really give new life to the briar and in this case the briar looked much better. I sanded out the scratches and marks in the stem surface with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. It looked much better and really started to take on a shine.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. With the pipe cleaned up and ready to go I fitted the filter stem with a Medico Paper Filter and it fit precisely like the original WDC paper filters. I am excited to put the final touches on this interesting piece of American Pipe History found in Bellingham, Washington. It is a beautiful WDC Royal Demuth Filter Pat’d 1934 Shape 25 Apple shaped pipe. 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 grain on the bowl sides, top and bottom. The polished black vulcanite stem combined with the bowl to make a stunning pipe. This older WDC Royal Demuth Filter Pipe 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 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ½ 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. I will be adding it to the American Pipemakers Section of the rebornpipes store shortly. 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. Bowl – finishing, Bowl – refinishing, bowl topping, Bowls – refinishing, buffing, finishing, fitting a new stem, micromesh sanding pads, WDC Pipes, WDC Royal Demuth apple 25, Royal Demuth Filter Apple 25 Pipe, pipe refurbishing, polishing, polishing a stem, polishing stems, refinishing, refurbishing,  stem work, vulcanite, waxing, waxing a stem, removing tooth marks, repairing bite marks, sanding a stem, stem work, polish a vulcanite stem, waxing, waxing a stem