Tag Archives: fitting a stem

Life for a Karl Erik Carved Wenhall Langelinie Made In Denmark 1 Freehand

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I thought with this blog that I would take a different tack in the write up and take you through my process of working on each pipe that we purchase. Jeff has set up a spread sheet to track where the pipe came from, the date of purchase and what we paid for it so that we know what we have invested in the pipe before we even work on it. This takes a lot of the guess work out of the process. This particular pipe was purchased on 04/09/2022 from Cleveland, Ohio, USA from a seller we bought quite a few pipes from. I also want you to understand why we take the photos we do. It is not accidental or chance as the photos have been taken to help me make an assessment of the pipe Jeff sees before he starts his clean up work. We do this to record the condition that the pipe was in when received it and to assess what kind of work will need to be done on. When I look at these photos this is what I see.

  1. The finish is dirty and flat but underneath there is some excellent grain. There are also some leaves carved on the left side of the bowl and around the heel. These were typically done to obscure flaws in the briar.
  2. The plateau rim top and shank end are dirty. In the rim top plateau there is a lot of lava overflow from the cake in the bowl. Along with that there is dust and debris in both the plateau on the rim top and shank end. Its overall appearance is very dirty looking.
  3. The bowl has a thick cake in it but the inner edge of the bowl actually looks to be undamaged from what I can see at this point. There does not appear to be any burning or reaming damage to the edges of the bowl. You would be surprised (though maybe not) in how many pipes we pick up that have major issues in this area.
  4. The stem is vulcanite and has straightened out from heat and sitting and will need to be rebent to match the flow of the shank and bowl.
  5. The stem had some oxidation and tooth marks and chatter that are visible in the photos below. Nothing to deep but nonetheless present.

Overall my impressions of this pipe is that it is a beauty that once cleaned up will look pretty amazing. The cake does not seem to hide any burns or checking and the exterior of the bowl does not show any hot spots or darkening. When I look it I immediately think of the carver Karl Erik. It has a lot of his stylistic touches that I have come to expect as I have worked on a lot of his pipes over the years. The photos below confirm the assessment above. Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl and rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is quite thick and the plateau on the rim top is almost filled in with lava and debris. You can also see the condition of the inner and outer edges of the rim. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. While there is lava and darkening there is no visible burn damage at this point and the previous reaming has not left damage either. The bowl is still fairly round. The plateau on the shank end is very dusty and dirty as can be seen in the fourth photo below. His photos of the stem surface confirmed and heightened my assessment of the condition. You can see the oxidation (particularly around the turned area and the speckled surface of the button area) and what appears to be a gummy substance on the stem surface. Note also the tooth marks on the edge of the button on both sides. It is actually more damaged than the surface of the stem. I always ask Jeff to take photos of the sides and heel of the bowl. While this definitely shows the grain patterns around a bowl it also allows me to do a more thorough assessment of the condition of the briar and the finish. In this case I look at the finish around the carved portions to see if there are any cracks or splits radiating from the pits in the centre of each one. I also look for flaws in the grain as those can also hide cracks or damage. In this case the bowl exterior is sound and should clean up very well. I love the grain patterns and even the odd leaf carvings do not detract too much from that for me. I also ask him to take photos of the stamping so I can see if it is faint in any spots or double stamped or unclear. It often takes several photos to capture what I am looking for. The stamping on the underside of the shank is relatively clear in the picture below. It reads Wenhall [over] Langelinie [over] Freehand [over] Made In Denmark [over] 1. The Wenhall stamp is faint at the top of the stamp but still readable. You can also see that part of the Langelinie is double stamped. The rest of the stamp is clear and readable.Before I start working on any pipe in my hands I want to confirm its provenance. I want to know for certain who made it rather than just counting on my memory. In this case in the back of my mind I remembered a connection between Wenhall and Karl Erik pipes. I could not remember the details of the connection but I remembered there was one. I have several sites that I turn to for this work. First I turned to Pipephil’s – Pipes, Logos and Stampings website and found that there was no information on the brand there.

Then I turned to Pipedia and looked up Wenhall in the Pipe Makers list that is included there. I found the link there I was looking for (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Wenhall). It was a short article but it made a lot of connections to names that I was familiar with from working on pipes. I include the majority of the article because of the pertinent information that it provides and for ease of reference in the future.

Wenhall Pipes Ltd. was a distribution company out of New York City.

By the end of the 1970’s Wenhall approached Michael Kabik and Glen Hedelson, at that time operating from a farm house in Glen Rock, Maryland to create a line of freehands called Wenhall. The situation was favorable, because Kabik & Hedelson had ended their cooperation with Mel Baker of Tobak Ltd. to produce the famed Sven-Lar freehands shortly before.

Upon Wenhall’s offer the partners got a bank loan and set up a studio of 2000 square feet in a fairly new industrial park in Bel Air, Maryland and took on the name Vajra Briar Works. Wenhall initially wanted 500 pipes a week! But Kabik & Hedelson doubted that they could move that much product and told them they would produce 250 pipes per week. Happily, some of the old crew from Sven-Lar joined them at Vajra Briar Works, and thus they rather quickly met the production demands.

Furthermore during this time, Wenhall requested to create a line of pipes consisting of 12 different shapes. The line was called The Presidential and, while they repeated the same 12 shapes for this series, each one was freehand cut. Although they came up with interesting designs, mainly developed by Hedelson, especially Kabik was never really happy with the line or the concept, but, by this time, they had nine people on full-time payroll.

The stint with Wenhall lasted a couple of years, at which time they asked them to join Wenhall in a move to Miami, Florida. But by this time Kabik and Hedelson felt very uncomfortable with the owners of Wenhall and decided that they’d rather close the shop than make the move. Time proved that decision very wise, as Wenhall folded shortly after the move. All the same they had to close Vajra, but scaled down to the two of them and moved the operation to the farm house Glen was currently living in.

Presumably for a shorter period only Wenhall had pipes made in Denmark by Karl Erik. (BTW K.E. Ottendahl ceased all sales to the USA in 1987.)

The last sentence in red above gave me the confirmation I was seeking. I knew that the pipe I had was made in Denmark and thus by Karl Erik. I also knew that it was made before he ceased all sales in the US so that it was made before 1987. That is when his time with Wenhall ended. I always love being able to pin down a time frame for the pipe I am working on and knowing that this one was made prior to 1987 meant this was an older pipe. Now on to the work.

I am sure many of you skip my paragraph on the work Jeff has done before the pipe gets here but it is quite detailed in its brevity. I know some laugh at my opening line Jeff did a thorough cleaning of this pipe. However, I want you to know the details of the work. Back in 2020 Jeff wrote a blog about his cleaning process. I am including a link to that now so you can see what I mean about his process. Do not skip it! Give it a read (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/20/got-a-filthy-estate-pipe-that-you-need-to-clean/). Here is the introduction to that blog and it is very true even to this day.

Several have asked about Jeff’s cleaning regimen as I generally summarize it in the blogs that I post rather than give a detailed procedure. I have had the question asked enough that I asked Jeff to put together this blog so that you can get a clear picture of the process he uses. Like everything else in our hobby, people have different methods they swear by. Some may question the method and that is fine. But it works very well for us and has for many years. Some of his steps may surprise you but I know that when I get the pipes from him for my part of the restoration they are impeccably clean and sanitized. I have come to appreciate the thoroughness of the process he has developed because I really like working on clean pipe!

For the benefit of some of you who may be unfamiliar with some of the products he uses I have included photos of three of the items that Jeff mentions in his list. This will make it easier for recognition. These three are definitely North American Products so you will need to find suitable replacements or order these directly on Amazon. The makeup pads are fairly universal as we were able to pick some up in India when we were with Paresh and his family.

In the blog itself he breaks his process down into two parts – cleaning the stem and cleaning the bowl. Each one has a large number of steps that he methodically does every time. I know because I have watched him do the work and I have seen the pipes after his work on them. He followed this process step by step and when the pipe got to me it was spotlessly clean and ready for my work. The inside of the stem, shank and bowl were clean and to me that is an amazing gift as it means that my work on this end is with a clean pipe! I cannot tell you how much difference that makes for my work.

When the pipe arrives here in Vancouver I have a clean pipe and I go over it keeping in mind my assessment shared in the opening paragraph above. I am looking for any significant structural changes in the bowl and finish as I go over it.

  1. The finish is very clean and the grain stands out on the surface of the clean briar. The carved leaves looked good as well and appeared to have some dark stain tracing the lines in them and helping them stand out. There are no cracks showing up in the grain lines or in the flaws under the leaf carvings. It is sound on the outside. I will need to polish the briar and buff it to bring back the shine.
  2. The plateau rim top and shank end are clean and have some faded spots due to the cleaning and removing of the tars and oils that were scrubbed off. This will mean that in need to restain them with black and buff them with wax to bring them back to what they looked like when sent to the US originally. The good news for me is that there are no cracks showing up in the rim top plateau or in the shank end plateau. Those two areas are also sound.
  3. The bowl was very clean and smelled clean. The clean walls did not show evidence of checking or cracking. There were no hot spots or damage on the walls or around the entrance of the airway into the bowl. It was clean and smooth which is great news for me. The inner edge of the bowl was undamaged and did not show any sign of burning or reaming damage to the edges of the bowl. Both the shank and the bowl were very clean showing no debris on a clean pipe clean run through them. I would need to give it a final cleaning with pipe cleaners and alcohol once I had finished with the external work to remove the debris that may have collected there in the process.
  4. The vulcanite stem has clearly straightened over the years and that can be seen in the angle of the stem to the top of the bowl. I will need to heat it and bend the end to match the angle of the rim top. I always aim to get a basic straight line from the rim top to the curve of the stem when it is sitting in my mouth.
  5. The oxidation was gone from the stem after Jeff’s work on it. The tooth marks and chatter will need to be dealt with once I finish the bowl.

Hopefully the steps above show you both what I look for when I go over the pipe when I bring it to the work table and also what I see when I look at the pipe in my hands. They also clearly spell out a restoration plan in short form. My work is clear and addressing it will be the next steps. I took photos of the whole pipe to give you a picture of what I see when I have it on the table. This is important to me in that it also shows that there was no damage done during the clean up work or the transit of the pipe from Idaho to here in Vancouver. I then spend some time going over the bowl and rim top to get a sense of what is happening there. Remember that with plateau tops there can be dips in the plateau that extend into the bowl edge and are not damage but rather a natural feature. You can see the fading to the black of the plateau on the bowl top and the shank end. It is clean but will need to be restained to match what it was when made. I also went over the stem carefully. There were dents in the stem that are visible in the photos. But the good news is that the tooth marks were not deep and did not seem to puncture the airway. They would clean up well. I examined the button edge as it was damaged with tooth marks as well but I was happy to see that there were no cracks in the button surface. I took photos of the rim top and stem sides to show as best as I can what I see when I look at them.I always check to make sure that the clean up work did not damage the stamping on the shank in any way. I know Jeff is cognizant of this but I do it anyway and take a photo to show what I see when I examine it. In this case it has not changed at all from the pictures I included above. I also remove the stem from the shank and check the tenon and lay the parts of the pipe out to get a sense of the proportion that was in the mind of the pipe maker when he crafted the pipe. It is a beauty in flow and shape.The question at this point of where to begin the restoration work is always a matter of personal preference. If you read this blog much you will see that each of the restorers who post here all start at different points. I personally almost always start with the bowl because I truly do not like the tedious work of stem repairs and polishing. I always leave that until last even though I know that it needs to be done. So if you are restoring your pipes choose where you want to start and go from there. Just know that it all will need to be done by the end but for me the encouragement of seeing a rejuvenated bowl is the impetus I need to attack the stem work.

For me then I started working on this pipe by turning to the bowl. I chose to deal with the faded plateau on the rim and shank first because I would be polishing the briar and always like to go over the rim top and shank end plateau at the same time. I find that polishing those areas with micromesh differentiates the high points of the plateau from the valleys. I used a black stain pen to restain both areas. Remember this is only the first step in rim top staining. Polishing the briar will come next and that will change these areas as well.From here I turned to polishing the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I choose to dry sand the briar rather than wet sand it. Again it is a matter of personal preference. I prefer to use the pads dry and find they work very well on the briar. I sand with each pad (9 in total) and group them by threes for ease of reference. I also work over the plateau areas at the same time. I wipe the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris and check the briar. I love seeing the developing shine on the briar as I move through the pads which is why I include so many photos of this step. Pay attention to the changes in the briar and the plateau top in these photos as you work through them. To further sharpen the curves and grooves of the plateau on the shank and rim top I used a brass bristle wire brush. It is soft enough metal to clean up edges but not hard enough to scratch the surface of the briar.For the past few years now I have been using a product developed by Mark Hoover called Before & After Restoration Balm. I find that it is remarkable in its ability to really give the bowl deepened sense of colour and grain. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar and the plateau. The product works to deep clean the nooks and crannies of finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips and a horsehair shoe brush to get it into the grooves of the plateau. I let it sit for 10 minutes to let it do its work. I wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar and the plateau really began to have a deep shine in the briar. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. You see the shine that the briar has taken on and the contrast finish on the plateau areas is very beautiful. It is a gorgeous pipe. Now it was time to address the part of the restoration I leave until last. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I wanted to repair the tooth damage on the stem surface and on the surface of the button. Before doing any repairs to a stem surface I try to lift the marks as much as possible. To do that I use a Bic lighter to heat the tooth marks and dents in the stem surface. I describe that as “painting” the surface. What I mean by that is that I hold the stem stationary and quickly move the flame of the lighter across the dents repeatedly. Typically I am able to lift the dents significantly and sometimes in totality with the heat. It utilizes the “memory” vulcanite and the heat raises the marks.In this case I lifted all but two – one on each side. The heat did not have any effect on the tooth damage on the edge of the button. To take care of that I filled the edge in with clear CA glue and let it cure. Once it was hardened I recut the button edge with a small file to clean up the damage. I finished the reworking of the button and stem with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing it with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper to remove the scratches. This process makes the repairs almost invisible when polished and also takes care of scratching in the surface of the vulcanite.I usually heat a stem to be bent with my heat gun until it is pliable then set it with running water. Today however I ran into a problem. My heat gun is no where to be found. I evidently either loaned to someone who still has it or it is somewhere in the house where I have overlooked it in the hunt. So I had to resort to an older way of heating the stem that is a bit more tricky. I “painted” the underside of the stem at the bend that was present with the flame of a Bic lighter as described above. When it became soft and pliable enough to bend to the angle I wanted I set the bend with cold water and dried it off. I checked the angle of the bend with the shank repeatedly until I was happy with the new look. I took some photos of the stem and of the stem in place in the shank and have included them below. It is possible to bend a stem with minimal tools. With the bend in the stem finished I needed to polish the stem and bring back a shine. I use micromesh sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pad as I find it does two things – first it protects the vulcanite and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the vulcanite. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the extra fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection from oxidizing quickly.The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I first buff the stem and the briar with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. Blue Diamond is a plastic polish but I find that it works very well to polish out the light scratches in the vulcanite and the briar. I work the pipe over on the wheel with my finger or thumb in the bowl to keep it from becoming airborne. It works well and I am able to carefully move forward with the buffing. I lightly buff the plateau on the rim top and shank end at the same time making sure to keep the product from building up in the grooves of the finish. I finished with the Blue Diamond and moved on to buffing with carnauba wax. Once I have a good shine in the briar and vulcanite I always give the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I following up the wax buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I follow that up with a hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished vulcanite stem. It really is a beautiful pipe. The smooth finish around the bowl sides and shank show the grain shining through the rich brown stains of this Karl Erik Wenhall Langelinie Freehand. The black plateau on the shank end and rim top looked very good with some of the high points showing through in brown. The contrast in the combination looks very good.  The finished 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: 6 inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.90 ounces/54 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that I will be putting on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipe Maker section.

Hopefully this tack of writing this blog is helpful to you in some way. In it I show both what I am looking for and how I move forward in addressing what I see when work on a pipe has been helpful to you. It is probably the most straightforward detailed description of my work process. As always I encourage your questions and comments as you read the blog. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Restoring a Rusticated House of Robertson Bulldog with a Clear Acrylic Stem

3 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

My brother Jeff and I visited an older gentleman near Vancouver, Washington recently and enjoyed a few bowls with him and views many of his pipes. After some viewing and conversation he showed me this House of Robertson Bulldog with a clear acrylic stem and gave it to me as a gift. It is a great looking pipe with a smooth rim top and shank end band. When Jeff and I returned to his home I took photos of it to capture what it looked like when I received it. The finish on the pipe was quite clean and had a great rustication around the bowl and shank. The smooth rim top and edges of the bowl had some wear and tear but was redeemable. There were scratches and nicks around the top and edges on the bowl. The pipe had been topped somewhere in its journey and the front of the cap was lower than the back side of the cap. There was a thin cake in the bowl and the inside was dirty with tobacco debris. The pipe had the House of Robertson etching on the left underside of the diamond shank. The clear acrylic stem fit to the shank very well. The tenon fit well in the mortise. There was some tobacco staining in the airway that would need to be dealt with. There were tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button. I took the following photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my clean up. I took a photo of the House of Robertson etched on the left underside of the diamond shank. It is clear and readable.The pipe has the name House of Robertson roughly hand-etched on the left underside of the diamond shank with an engraving tool. I am including the information that I found when I received my first House of Robertson Pipes a few years ago now. I found a link on Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Robertson) that gave me the only information I could find on the brand. I include that in total as it is interesting to read.

“House of Robertson” was in business for many years, but alas, closed their doors in 1999. They were located in Boise, Idaho. They are noted for making rather large and interesting pipes. Thayne Robertson was a Master Mason, AF & AM, and started the shop about 1947 and his son Jon started working there in 1970 when he finished college, along with Thayne’s daughter. Thayne and his son started making the big pipes at that time, and made them together until 1987 when Thayne passed away. Jon kept the store and his sister moved on to other things. The House of Robertson appears to have closed around 1999.

If you would like to read more about the carver, Thayne Robertson I am including a link to a blog I have included on the site. It is fascinating to read and gives some information on the brand.

https://rebornpipes.com/2021/10/31/house-of-robertson-pipes-boise-pipe-carver-thayne-robertson/

I am also including a scanned version of a House of Robertson catalogue that I have in my collection. Give it a read for more information.

https://rebornpipes.com/2022/12/11/a-house-of-robertson-catalogue-filled-with-great-examples-of-thayne-robertsons-work/

I thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. I reamed it with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the inside of the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. The bowl was clean. I cleaned up the damage to the inner edge of the bowl with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. Once finished it was better. I worked on the back side of the rim top with 220 grit sandpaper followed by a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. I wanted to bring the back of the rim cap down to the same thickness as the front of the rim cap to level out the top. Once it was even it looked much better.I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. I cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I was able to remove a lot of tars and oils from the shank and some of the darkening in the stem and slot.I polished the smooth rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the top down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. It had a rich shine once I had finished. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm to deep clean the nooks and crannies of the rusticated finish, enliven and protect the briar. I hand rubbed it with my fingers, worked it into the rings with a cotton swab and into the finish with a horsehair shoe brush. I let it sit for 10 minutes to let it do its work. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded out the tooth marks with 220 grit sandpaper and started the polishing of the stem with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper.I polished out the sanding scratches and marks in the clear acrylic with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Polish – using both the Fine and Extra Fine Polishes. I gave it a rubdown with Obsidian Oil one last time and set it aside to dry. I put the House of Robertson Bulldog back together and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to lightly polish the stem. I buffed the bowl with a light touch so as not to get any of the buffing compounds in the grooves of the rustication. I buffed the stem to raise the gloss on the vulcanite. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished HOR Bulldog pipe is shown in the photos below. The medium brown stains on the rusticated Straight Bulldog with a smooth rim top works well with the clear acrylic stem. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside Diameter: 1 ¼ inches, Diameter of the chamber: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 36 grams/1.27 ounces. This one will be joining my pipe rack as yet another example of House of Robertson Pipes. I thank my friend in Vancouver, Washington for the gift and will certainly enjoy smoking it very soon. Thanks for following my work on this blog.

Bringing a Thoro-Kleen back from the dead

Leave a reply

Blog by Kenneth Lieblich

Next on the chopping block is one of those pipes that makes you raise an eyebrow and wonder. It is the Thoro-Kleen made by the Greenwich House Corporation of New York. I acquired it from a lady who found a shoebox of pipes in her late-grandfather’s closet, so we can presume this pipe to be his. When Steve last restored one of these, more than seven years ago, he described it as reminding him of the Jetsons from Saturday morning cartoons! It certainly does have a futuristic, out-of-this-world look. To me, it is a striking example of mid-twentieth-century design. The only markings on the pipe were on the left side of the shank. They read: ‘Thoro-Kleen [over] Greenwich-House’.Our friends at Pipedia have a brief writeup on the Thoro-Kleen, which I copy here in its entirety:

The Greenwich House Thoro-Kleen was a metal pipe system sold with both a metal outer bowl with a briar insert and a full briar bowl. They are from the same family as the Roybrooke, Comet, and Original Gridiron pipes, and parts from all are believed to be interchangeable. The pipes were sold by the Greenwich House Corporation, located in 1947 at 939-M 8th Avenue, N.Y. 19, N.Y. The pipe set sold for $2.50 in 1947.Similarly, Smoking Metal (a website dedicated to metal pipes) also has a short writeup:

This family of pipes have been seen as Knowles Air Lite (believed to be Canadian version), Roybrooke, Comet, Original Gridiron and the Greenwich House Thorokleen. Seemingly sold in sets that comprised a normal briar bowl as well as the metal outer with a briar insert. The body of the pipe can be hexagonal, square (Thoro Kleen only seen this shape) or circular in cross section. Regardless of variant all parts are interchangeable. The unmarked version tends to be regarded as the COMET, all the others being stamped with a name.Some instances of this pipe appeared with an entirely-briar bowl, and some came with a metal bowl and briar insert. Some sources indicate that the pipes came with both bowls, and you could take your pick, but the one I have pipe has only the metal bowl and briar insert.

Time to get to work. This pipe was a mess from every perspective. The stem had some serious dents in it. The metal was dirty and dull, and the insides were filthy. In the following picture, you can see the pipe as I disassembled it; there are seven pieces: the stem, the shank (or main section of the pipe), the metal outer bowl, the briar inner bowl, a screw that attached the bowls to the main part of the pipe, a valve screw at the far end, and a washer to go along with it. I don’t think this pipe had ever seen a cleaning! There was crud everywhere.  The stem was first on my list. As usual, I wiped the outside down with Murphy’s Oil Soap on some cotton pads. I also took a BIC lighter and ‘painted’ the stem with its flame to lift the bite marks and dents. This did help, but the dents were so substantial it would need much more than just waving a flame around. Then I cleaned out the inside with pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. It was pretty darn dirty. Next, the stem went for an overnight soak in the Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. The following day, I cleaned the de-oxidizing mess off with alcohol, pipe cleaners, et cetera. The oxidation had migrated to the surface and would be pretty straightforward to remove. I scrubbed with SoftScrub on some cotton pads to remove the leftover oxidation. I built up the dents on the stem with black cyanoacrylate adhesive and let them fully cure. I then sanded the adhesive with some needle files, then 220-, 400-, and 600-grit sandpapers to meld seamlessly into the stem. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to smooth everything and highlight the lovely black lustre on the stem. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing. Since most of the pipe was made of aluminum, the cleaning procedures were different than usual. The inside of the shank was much more ‘cavernous’ than normal, too. I started with pipe cleaners and Q-tips for the inside, but that only worked so well. I ended up using SoftScrub to clean the metal shank, including the interior – and I made extensive use of some metal tubes brushes because the gunk was really tough. Since there was so much grime, it created a foul-smelling and foul-looking paste, which was revolting but satisfying to remove from the pipe. The metal bowl was also cleaned with SoftScrub, but it wasn’t so bad, as it hadn’t been in contact with the burning tobacco. I used my Micromesh pads to polish up the metal. This worked splendidly to shine it, but it’s important to note that the metal had received some battle wounds over the years, which wouldn’t be removed by the pads. They were to be left as part of this pipe’s life story. I also sanded and polished the two screws and the metal bowl. Below, you can the difference between the MicroMeshed bowl and the unworked shank.Now for the briar insert. This is more standard fare, since I’m working with wood again. I took a small wedge of machine metal and, holding it at a 45-degree angle, gently scraped the lava and carbon off the rim. I reamed it with the KleenReem, and 220-grit sandpaper taped to a dowel to eliminate as much build-up as possible. I took the chamber down to bare briar to ensure there were no hidden flaws in the wall. Fortunately, there were none. Then I used cotton rounds and some Murphy’s Oil Soap to scrub the outside. The underside of the insert had some small cracks in the wood, presumably from overtightening of the screw, which attached it to the rest of the pipe. I repaired this by applying some cyanoacrylate adhesive to the cracks, letting it cure and sanding it down. I also used the Micromesh pads on the rim and bottom but not on the sides, as I thought they were fine as they were. Obviously, I didn’t apply the Before & After Restoration Balm on the metal, but I did for the briar insert. The buffing procedure was different because of the metal. I used Red Tripoli, but before I started down that path, I decided to protect the grooves on the side of the bowl from being filled with polishing compound. I wrapped four pipe cleaners around the bowl, in the grooves, which did the trick.I used Red Tripoli and White Diamond to polish the metal nicely. I then took a microfiber cloth to wipe off the remaining compound and finished the metal parts of the pipe with a jewelry cloth to make it shine and sing!This Thoro-Kleen looks fantastic again and is ready to be enjoyed by the next owner! I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the ‘American’ pipe section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 5⅜ in. (137 mm); height 1½ in. (38 mm); bowl diameter 1⅜ in. (35 mm); chamber diameter ⅝ in. (16 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅝ oz. (48 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I did restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading, and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Restoring a Lovely Danish Pickaxe

2 Replies

Blog by Kenneth Lieblich

Next on the chopping block is a beautiful Danish pipe from Scandia. This terrific pipe came to me from an antique shop in the Fraser Valley (an area to the east of Vancouver). The price was reasonable, so I had to have it. The pipe is beautiful and a great example of Danish pipe-making. The pipe is a Danish pickaxe pipe by Scandia, produced from the esteemed pipemaker, Stanwell. The pickaxe is a very attractive shape and this one is no exception. It really makes an impression. It has beautiful, sandblasted briar from the bowl, down the shank and transitions into the vulcanite ferrule. It also has a fantastic push stem. The underside of the shank reads Scandia [over] Made in Denmark. There is a faint marking on the ferrule, which appears to show “10” or possibly “1C”. I don’t think this is a shape number, for reasons I will explain momentarily. Finally, the stem’s top also has the SC, indicating the Scandia make. Both Pipedia and Pipephil list Scandia as being a Stanwell sub-brand or second (and not much else), as per the photo below.Meanwhile, Pipedia has a good amount of information on the Stanwell brand and its history. I certainly recommend looking it over: https://pipedia.org/wiki/Stanwell.Despite the (possible) number 10 on the ferrule, I went to check the list of Stanwell shapes, here on Reborn Pipes, and I found that this definitely did not match. However, I did find something that was a match! Shape 1b is listed as “Freehand, Pick Ax, push mouthpiece, by Sixten Ivarsson. (1975)”. To further confirm this, here is a page from an old 70s or 80s Stanwell catalogue which clearly shows the same shape of pipe with the matching shape number. I think we can safely assume that this is a pickaxe, designed by the legendary Sixten Ivarsson.Anyway, this really is a good-looking pipe. No major issues to resolve – just a few minor ones. The stem was dirty, and some small scratches. There were a couple of significant bite marks, as well as some oxidation and calcification on the vulcanite. The rim on the stummel was blackened and burnt – that would need to be addressed. The insides were fairly dirty and would need some work to clean out. There was also a small nick along the inside edge of the rim. The stem was first on my list. I wiped down the outside of the stem with Murphy’s Oil Soap on some cotton pads. I also took a BIC lighter and ‘painted’ the stem with its flame in order to lift the bite marks and dents. Unfortunately, this didn’t really work, but I have ways of sorting this out. Then, I cleaned out the insides of the stem with pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol.Once this process was done, I used SoftScrub and cotton pads to wipe down the stem before throwing it in the Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover overnight. The following day, I cleaned all of the de-oxidizing mess and again scrubbed with SoftScrub on some cotton pads to remove the leftover oxidation. This worked well. I used some nail polish to restore the letters SC on the stem. I painted the area carefully and let it fully set before proceeding. These letters were too worn to be fully restored, but they definitely looked better after I worked on them.Before I moved on to the Micromesh pads, I built up the dents on the stem with cyanoacrylate adhesive and let them fully cure.I used my miniature files to ensure that the repairs keep the shape and look like they should. I then sanded the stem down with 220-, 400-, and 600-grit sandpapers to meld seamlessly into the stem. I did the same to the remaining tooth marks. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to bring out the lovely black lustre on the stem. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing.I repeated all of the above procedures for the vulcanite ferule, which only came off the stummel after applying heat and some gentle force. On to the stummel, and the usual cleaning procedures were in order for this pipe. I used both the PipNet Reamer and the KleenReem to remove the built-up cake and take the bowl down to bare briar, as I wanted to ensure there were no hidden flaws in the walls of the bowl. Fortunately, there were none.I then proceeded to clean out the insides of the shank with Q-tips, pipe cleaners, and isopropyl alcohol. There was lots of filth inside this stummel, and it took a good number of pipe cleaners etc. to sort that out. I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some dish soap and tube brushes. I then moved on to cleaning the outside of the stummel with Murphy’s Oil Soap and some cotton pads. That removed any latent dirt. I decided to de-ghost the pipe in order to remove any lingering smells of the past. I thrust cotton balls into the bowl and the shank and saturated them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummel sit overnight. This caused any remaining oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton. The bowl was nice and clean after this.As I mentioned earlier, there were some small burn marks on the rim of the stummel that also needed to be addressed. Some of this was removed by the Murphy’s. For the burns that remained, I took some oxalic acid on a Q-tip and rubbed and rubbed. As you will see, the treatment worked reasonably well and the rim was improved. Some would remain, but that is part of the history of this pipe. I completed this step by gently sanding the interior rim edge to remove any remnants that remained. Then I addressed the nick on the rim by filling it with cyanoacrylate adhesive and briar dust. I sanded it down and made it look great. After this, the entire stummel was treated to a rub-down with all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit). A light application of Before & After Restoration Balm brought out the best in the stummel’s sandblast. There is some beautiful wood on this Danish pipe! In fact, as I was working, my youngest child came to watch me for a bit and said, “Is that a doggy?” I wasn’t sure what she meant, but she grabbed the stummel and pointed this out. That’s pretty funny!I glued the ferrule back I place and then it was off for a trip to the buffer. A dose of White Diamond and a few coats of conservator’s wax were just what this pipe needed. I had to be especially careful with the bench polisher, since the edges had a tendency to catch on the buffing wheels. This pipe was a delight from the start and its beauty only increased through the restoration process. This pipe is elegant, light, and incredibly comfortable to hold. Finally, I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the ‘Danish’ pipe section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the Stanwell are as follows: length 5½ in. (140 mm); height 2½ in. (64 mm); bowl diameter 1⅝ in. (41 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (19 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅝ oz. (47 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this restoration as much as I enjoyed restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Restoring a Vauen Nest Rusticated Bent Egg

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

This past week, after some email correspondence I received a package with three Vauen pipes that a friend here in British Columbia wanted me to restore for him. The one was a broken shanked Vauen Meerschaum and the other two were rusticated briars. This is the second of the briars – a Vauen rusticated Bent Egg with a 9MM Filter stem. The smooth rim top had some lava build up and a moderate cake in the bowl. The inner and outer edges of the bowl looked very good. The finish was dirty but had a charm that was characteristic of older rusticated Vauen pipes. The rustication was slightly different than the previous Billiard which make me wonder if it is a newer rendition. The pipe was stamped on the left side of the shank and read Vauen. On the right side it read Nest. There was not a shape number present. It was light weight and would clean up quite nicely. The tenon had come loose from the stem and would need to be reglued but it was in good shape. The stem was quite clean and was made of black acrylic. There was light chatter and marks on the surfaces near the button on both sides but no tooth marks at all. I took photos of the pipe before I started working on it. I took photos of the rim top and the top and underside of the stem. You can see the cake in the bowl and the lava overflow on the rim top. The stem has light tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button. It is dirty but otherwise great. It is a nice looking pipe.The next photos show the stamping on the left and right sides of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts to give a sense of the overall look of the pipe. You can see the loose tenon in the photo as well. It is really a nicely looking pipe that will look great once it is cleaned up.I am including that material on the brand from the previous blog for those who may have missed it. I turned first to Pipephil’s site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-v1.html). I did a screen capture of the information on the site. There was a great sidebar that gave some history of the brand. I include both of them below.In 1848, Karl Ellenberger and his partner Carl August Ziener establish a pipe factory in Nuremberg. In 1901 they merge with Gebhard Ott an other factory in town and they create a firm named Vereinigten Pfeifenfabriken Nürnberg (abbreviated : VPFN*). Shortly after Ernst Eckert, a member of the Ott family became manager of the society. During the 20th century Adolf, Ernst (jr) and Alexander Eckert (CEO in 2012) followed one another at Vauen’s head.* VPFN : “V” is said VAU in German (pronounce faou) and “N” becomes EN. Hence VAUEN.

I also turned to a blog written on rebornpipes by Dal Stanton (Pipesteward.com) that I quote a section from the blog below that gives a great sense of the history of the German brand and some photos from the website (https://rebornpipes.com/2021/04/27/breathing-new-life-into-a-german-vauen-6294-p-lip-saddle-billiard-for-a-special-young-lady/).

… I turn to the question of the history of the VAUEN name? I look to the History section of the VAUEN website and again, I am impressed with the presentation. Whenever I work on a pipe, and especially when a pipe name is new to me, I enjoy looking at its history to appreciate the pipe more fully now on my worktable. From VAUEN’s website:Quality and a wealth of ideas have a long tradition at VAUEN. 160 years of VAUEN: that means 160 years of skilled workmanship and modern technology and 160 years of experience in fulfilling the individual wishes of today’s pipe lovers, and those of tomorrow.

In Nuremberg in 1848, Karl Ellenberger and his partner Carl August Ziener turned an idea into reality: Germany’s first pipe manufacturer produced tobacco pipes for connoisseurs around the world using a selection of the best wood. In an amalgamation with the Gebhard Ott pipe factory, which was founded in 1866 in Nuremberg, the Vereinigten Pfeifenfabriken Nuremberg (United Pipe Factories Nuremberg, or VPFN) was born in 1901.  Under the management of Ernst Eckert, a descendent of the founding Ott family, a company was born whose products and services would shape the tobacco and smoking culture in Europe and overseas for the next 160 years and counting.

The question about the name, VAUEN, not being a name of a person and why it is capitalized throughout is explained:

In his search for a name that would be easily remembered by all pipe lovers, Ernst Eckert’s son, Adolf Eckert, coined a new name for the company in 1909: VAUEN – a composition of the first letters V (pronounced vow) of Vereinigte Pfeifenfabriken and N (pronounced en) of Nuremberg. A brand for the future was born.

Now it was time to work on the pipe itself. I reamed out the cake on the bowl walls with a PipNet Pipe reamer and  cleaned it up with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls smooth with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I cleaned out the mortise and airway into the bowl and the stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol until they came out clean. I scrubbed the rugged exterior of the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I rinsed it off with warm water to remove the grime and the soap. It looked much better once it was clean. I polished the rim top and removed the light scratching in the surface with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping it down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove dust. I stained the rim top and edges with a Walnut stain pen to match the rest of the bowl and shank. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the finish with my fingers and used a shoe brush to press it deep into the crevices of the rustication. The product works to deep clean the finish on the bowl and shank and enliven and protect the briar. After it sat for 15 minutes I wiped it off with a soft cloth. The briar really came alive with a rich shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. It is a beautiful bowl.  I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I reglued the tenon in the cleaned up stem end with clear CA glue. It lined up perfectly and I set it aside for the glue to cure.I polished out the tooth chatter and marks on the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil to remove the sanding dust. I used the Before & After Pipe Polish to remove the small minute scratches left in the vulcanite. I finished by wiping the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry.  As usual at this point in the restoration process I am excited to be on the homestretch. I look forward to the final look of the Vauen Nest Rusticated Bent Egg when it is put back together, polished and waxed. 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 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 took on depth with the wax and polish. The shiny black acrylic stem is a beautiful contrast to the browns of the bowl and thick shank. This Rusticated Vauen Next Bent Egg was another fun pipe to work on. It really is a quite stunning piece of briar whose shape follows the flow of the grain on the briar. The pipe is comfortable pipe to hold in the hand. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.80 ounces/51 grams. This is the second of three Vauen Pipes that I am working on for my friend. Once I finish the last pipe of the threesome I will be sending them back to him. Thanks for reading my reflections on the pipe while I working on it.

Restoring a Vauen College 350 Rusticated Billiard

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

This past week, after some email correspondence I received a package with three Vauen pipes that a friend here in British Columbia wanted me to restore for him. The one was a broken shanked Vauen Meerschaum and the other two were rusticated briars. The first of the briars was a Vauen rusticated Billiard with a 9MM Filter stem. The rim top had some lava build up in the rustication and a moderate cake in the bowl. The inner and outer edges of the bowl looked very good. The finish was dirty but had a charm that was characteristic of older rusticated Vauen pipes. The pipe was stamped on the underside of the shank and read College [over] Vauen followed by the shape number 350. It was quite lightweight and would clean up quite nicely. The tenon was set in the shank and the stem fit over it. The stem was quite clean and was made of black acrylic with the characteristic Vauen White Dot. There was light chatter on the surfaces near the button on both sides but no tooth marks at all. I took photos of the pipe before I started working on it. I took photos of the rim top and the top and underside of the stem. You can see the cake in the bowl and the lava overflow on the rim top. The stem is very clean in regards to tooth marks an damage. It is dirty but otherwise great. It is a nice looking pipe.The next photo shows the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above.I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts to give a sense of the overall look of the pipe. It is really a nicely looking Billiard that will look great once it is cleaned up.I wanted to remind myself of the background on the Vauen brand before I started my work on the pipe. I turned first to Pipephil’s site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-v1.html). I did a screen capture of the information on the site. There was a great sidebar that gave some history of the brand. I include both of them below.In 1848, Karl Ellenberger and his partner Carl August Ziener establish a pipe factory in Nuremberg. In 1901 they merge with Gebhard Ott an other factory in town and they create a firm named Vereinigten Pfeifenfabriken Nürnberg (abbreviated : VPFN*). Shortly after Ernst Eckert, a member of the Ott family became manager of the society. During the 20th century Adolf, Ernst (jr) and Alexander Eckert (CEO in 2012) followed one another at Vauen’s head.* VPFN : “V” is said VAU in German (pronounce faou) and “N” becomes EN. Hence VAUEN.

I also turned to a blog written on rebornpipes by Dal Stanton (Pipesteward.com) that I quote a section from the blog below that gives a great sense of the history of the German brand and some photos from the website (https://rebornpipes.com/2021/04/27/breathing-new-life-into-a-german-vauen-6294-p-lip-saddle-billiard-for-a-special-young-lady/).

… I turn to the question of the history of the VAUEN name? I look to the History section of the VAUEN website and again, I am impressed with the presentation. Whenever I work on a pipe, and especially when a pipe name is new to me, I enjoy looking at its history to appreciate the pipe more fully now on my worktable. From VAUEN’s website:Quality and a wealth of ideas have a long tradition at VAUEN. 160 years of VAUEN: that means 160 years of skilled workmanship and modern technology and 160 years of experience in fulfilling the individual wishes of today’s pipe lovers, and those of tomorrow.

In Nuremberg in 1848, Karl Ellenberger and his partner Carl August Ziener turned an idea into reality: Germany’s first pipe manufacturer produced tobacco pipes for connoisseurs around the world using a selection of the best wood. In an amalgamation with the Gebhard Ott pipe factory, which was founded in 1866 in Nuremberg, the Vereinigten Pfeifenfabriken Nuremberg (United Pipe Factories Nuremberg, or VPFN) was born in 1901.  Under the management of Ernst Eckert, a descendent of the founding Ott family, a company was born whose products and services would shape the tobacco and smoking culture in Europe and overseas for the next 160 years and counting.

The question about the name, VAUEN, not being a name of a person and why it is capitalized throughout is explained:

In his search for a name that would be easily remembered by all pipe lovers, Ernst Eckert’s son, Adolf Eckert, coined a new name for the company in 1909: VAUEN – a composition of the first letters V (pronounced vow) of Vereinigte Pfeifenfabriken and N (pronounced en) of Nuremberg. A brand for the future was born.

Now it was time to work on the pipe itself. I reamed out the cake on the bowl walls with a PipNet Pipe reamer and  cleaned it up with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls smooth with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I cleaned out the mortise and airway into the bowl and the stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol until they came out clean. I scrubbed the rugged exterior of the bowl and the stem with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I rinsed it off with warm water to remove the grime and the soap. It looked much better once it was clean. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the finish with my fingers and used a shoe brush to press it deep into the crevices of the rustication. The product works to deep clean the finish on the bowl and shank and enliven and protect the briar. After it sat for 15 minutes I wiped it off with a soft cloth. The briar really came alive with a rich shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. It is a beautiful bowl.   I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to 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 Obsidian Oil to remove the sanding dust. I used the Before & After Pipe Polish to remove the small minute scratches left in the vulcanite. I finished by wiping the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry.  As usual at this point in the restoration process I am excited to be on the homestretch. I look forward to the final look of the Vauen College 350 Billiard when it is put back together, polished and waxed. I put the bowl and stem back together. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the stem. 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 depth of the rustication really pops with the wax and polish. The shiny black acrylic stem is a beautiful contrast to the browns of the bowl and shank. This Rusticated Vauen College 350 Billiard  was another fun pipe to work on. It really is a quite stunning piece of briar whose rustication flows with the cut of the briar. The pipe is a comfortable pipe to hold in the hand. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe 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 1.02 ounces/ 29 grams. This is the first of three Vauen Pipes that I am working on for my friend. Once I finish the threesome I will be sending them back to him. Thanks for reading my reflections on the pipe while I working on it.

New Life for a Petite S. Bang Sandblast Apple

1 Reply

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe was a surprise to Jeff and me when we bought it from the fellow in Copenhagen, Denmark on November 10, 2022. It is a petite sandblast apple with an oval shank and stem. The stem is vulcanite and the band Sterling Silver. The pipe is stamped S. Bang [over] Kobenhavn on a smooth oval on the underside of the shank.  That is over another smooth patch, a rectangle stamped with Handmade [over] In Denmark. The Sterling Silver band on the shank is stamped Bang [over] 925S. The bowl had a thick cake with some lava overflow on the rim top and inwardly beveled inner edge of the bowl. There were scratches and marks in the finish. The finish on the bowl was dirty but also seemed to have a very shiny coat on it. The silver band is tarnished and dirty. The oval, vulcanite taper stem is dirty, scratched and had tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside of the stem ahead of the button. Jeff took these  photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. He took photos of the rim and bowl to show the thick cake and lava coat covering the rim top. It really was filthy and a mess. It is hard to see if there was any damage to rim top and inner edge from the photos. He also took photos of the stem surfaces to show its overall condition when it arrived. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowls show beautiful blast around the bowl and shank sides. The rich brown stains highlights the grain and adds depth to the finish. It shows some promise. He also took photos of the stamping on the smooth panels on the underside of the shank and on the silver band. It took several photos to capture the stamp on the curve but they were clear and read as noted above. To help me understand the stamping a bit more I turned to Pipephil’s site and read what it said about S. Bang pipes (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-s1.html). I have included a screen capture of the section below as well as the side bar information below the capture. Sven Bang opened his tobacco and pipe shop in 1968 in Copenhagen. He was more a business man than a pipe carver and began to hire pipemakers. About half a dozen succeeded each other in his workshop during the 1970’s (Ivan Holst Nielsen, Jan Wideløv, Phil Vigen…). At least Per Hansen and Ulf Noltensmeier stayed and when Sven retired in 1983 they took over the company (in 1984) keeping its name.

I knew from that the pipe I have was made for the European market and was known as a Black Blast. I also knew that it was made after 1984 when the stamp Copenhagen was replaced with Kobenhavn. It is also the time when Ulf and Per took over the company so it was made by one of them.

To close my understanding of the pipe I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/S._Bang). I quote the section from the article where the company changed hands from S. Bang to Hansen and Noltensmeier in 1984. It is a great read so I have included it below.

Svend Bang retired in 1984. Evidently he felt a great deal of pride in the product that he initiated throughout his career and retirement and until his death in 1993.

Once Hansen and Noltensmeier took over the company (in 1984) they knew it was best to retain the S. Bang name – the two carvers always shared the same philosophy about that. Noltensmeier and Hansen were determined to maintain top quality at the expense of increased numbers. The only change they made concerns the stamping on the pipes changing from the English version “COPENHAGEN” to the Danish “KOBENHAVN”.

Still, they are two separate carvers, with their own styles and preferences. Each makes his own pipes – there is no “assembly line” construction at S. Bang. They bounce ideas off of each other, of course, and admit that when problems arise in a pipe, it is nice to have a partner to discuss them with.

Though they carve pipes as individuals, there are similarities in their work. All Bang pipes are made with black, hand-cut vulcanite stems.

The same engineering is used by both carvers as well. The shape and size of the tobacco chambers vary according to size and design of the pipe, but each carver follows the same design guidelines for choosing the proper chamber dimensions. The smoke channel is always engineered for optimum performance.

Bang pipes are noted for the high definition and fine contrast in the grain. They undergo a double staining process to achieve that effect. The technique makes the grain leap from the bowl of the pipe, making well-grained wood become extra ordinary. The same coloring, however, will produce different results in different pieces of briar, making each pipe truly individual.

Per Hansen is the designated sandblasting artist for the team. He personally takes those pieces that are to be sandblasted to Stanwell, and is permitted to use the sandblasting equipment himself. That is the only S. Bang process, though, that is not executed by the individual carver of each pipe. Everything else, including the famous S. Bang silverwork, is done in the shop by each of the carvers on his own pipes.

Jeff cleaned up the pipe for me. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned it up with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the exterior with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to clean off the grime off the finish and the overflow of lava on the rim top. The cleaning had removed the debris on the rim top. He cleaned up the internals of the shank, mortise and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove all of the oils and tars in the pipe. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and was able to remove much of the oxidation, calcification. When it arrived here in Vancouver it was a clean pipe and I knew what I had to work with. I took photos of it before I started my part of the restoration. I took a photo of the rim top and the stem to show their condition once it arrived in Canada. Jeff was able to clean up the cake and the lava overflow that was shown in the rim and bowl photos above. The rim top and the inner edge of the bowl showed some damage to the inner edge and some darkening on the rim top. He was also able to get rid of the grime and grit in the surface of the briar. The stem looked better, though there were tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank and the Sterling Silver band. It reads as noted above.I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts to give a sense of what the pipe looks like. I started my work on the bowl polishing the smooth rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the briar down after each pad. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm to deep clean them. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it in with my fingers to get it into the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I wiped it off and buffed it with a soft cloth. The briar really began to have a rich shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. It is a beautiful bowl. I used a jewelers cloth to polish the silver band on the pipe. I was able to remove the tarnish and marks on the silver and raise the shine. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the damage on the stem. I sanded the light tooth marks and chatter on the stem smooth with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing it with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. I gave it a further polish with Before & After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I finished by wiping the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I put the stem back on the S. Bang Black Sandblast Oval Shank Apple and took the pipe to the buffer. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish the briar and the vulcanite. Blue Diamond does a great job on the smaller scratches that remain in both. I gave the bowl and the stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. Considering the mess the pipe was when we received it I am amazed at how well it turned out. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. This is a beautiful S. Bang Sandblast Apple – the vulcanite taper stem and rim top and sandblast finish combine to give the pipe a great look. The polished black, vulcanite stem looks really good with the rich grain standing out on the bowl and shank. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 4 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 inch, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is .81 ounces/23 grams. This beautiful little S.Bang will be staying with me for awhile. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me on this beauty!

Is it possible to give this Horribly Abused Stanwell 1986 POY Dublin New Life?

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I am working on was purchased on 11/14/2022 as part of a group of pipes from a fellow in Copenhagen, Denmark. This was a horribly tired and dirty pipe with a lot of wear and tear and obviously it had been someone’s favourite smoker. The pipe has an identifying plate on the left side of the shank that reads Stanwell [over] 1986. There was no other stamping on the shank and the silver plate confirmed for me that it was a Stanwell Pipe of the Year. The dirty sandblast finish on this was worn and tired looking. There were tars and oils ground into the surface of the briar. The silver band on the shank was an later addition to address a crack in the shank on the underside. one showed some nice grain around the bowl and shank and though it was a little dirty it was a nice looking pipe. The bowl had a thick cake that flowed over the top of the lightly crowned rim in a thick coat of a lava and showed potential damage on the top and the inner edge. The stem was a black vulcanite saddle stem with a silver Crown S on the left side of the saddle. It had some deep and wide tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. There was also some oxidation and calcification on both sides of the stem. For me the question was would it clean up well enough to make it worth doing a thorough restoration. Time would tell once it was cleaned up and I had a chance to look it over. Jeff took photos of the pipes before he started his clean up work.  He took photos of the rim and bowl to show the heavy cake and thick lava coat covering the rim top. It really was filthy and a mess. He also took photos of the stem surfaces to show its overall condition when it arrived. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowls show beautiful grain around the bowl and shank sides. The sandblast is nicely done and highlights the grain. The brown stain on the briar adds depth finish on the pipe and makes the grain really stand out. It shows some promise. He took a photo of the crack in the underside of the shank. It had been repaired before but the band had slipped off a bit and the crack had opened up. He also took a photo of the stamped silver plate on the left underside of the shanks. It reads as noted above. Jeff cleaned up the pipe for me. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned it up with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the exterior with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to clean off the grime off the finish and the heavy overflow of lava on the rim top. The cleaning had removed the thick coat on the rim top. He cleaned up the internals of the shank, mortise and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove all of the oils and tars in the pipe. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and was able to remove much of the oxidation, calcification. When it arrived here in Vancouver it was a clean pipe and I knew what I had to work with. I took photos of it before I started my part of the restoration. I took a photo of the rim top and the stem to show their condition once it arrived in Canada. Jeff was able to clean up the incredibly thick cake and the lava overflow that was shown in the rim and bowl photos above. The rim top showed damage on the surface and the inner edge of the bowl was in rough condition. It was chipped and out of round. He was also able to get rid of the grime and grit in the surface of the briar around the sandblast. The last photo of the three below shows the crack in the shank. The stem looked better, though there were deep tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. I took a photo of the stamping on the silver plate on the left side of the shank to show that it was readable and undamaged by the cleanup work.I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts to give a sense of what the pipe looks like.I started my work on the inner edge and rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to remove that damage on the rim top and bring the inner edge back into round. It looked much better. (I also filled in the remnants of the crack on the underside of the shank with clear CA glue to further strengthen the  previous repair. I forgot to take pictures of this step.)I started polishing the smooth rim top with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth. The crowned rim top began to take on a rich shine and grain was beginning to stand out. I wet sanded with all of the pads and wiped the bowl down after each pad with a soft cloth. I used an oak stain pen to touch up the stain on the rim top to match the other smooth portions of the bowl and shank.I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm to deep clean the finish on the bowl and shank. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it in with my fingers to get it into the briar. I used a horsehair shoe brush to work it into the sand blast. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I wiped it off and buffed it with a soft cloth. The briar really began to have a rich shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. It is a beautiful bowl. I polished the silver band and plaque on the side of the shank with a jewelers cloth to remove the slight remaining oxidation and to protect and preserve it. I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem at this point in the process. The stem sat straight in the shank but the fit was thicker on the right side of the shank rather than the left side. I would need to reduce the diameter of the stem on the right side to get a more centered fit. I sanded the side with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper to reduce the diameter on that side. At the same time I filled in the deep tooth marks with clear CA glue. I flattened the repairs with a small file. And sanded the smooth with 220 grit. I started polishing the whole stem with 600 grit sandpaper until the sanding marks were gone. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. I gave it a further polish with Before & After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I finished by wiping the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I put the stem back on the Stanwell Pipe of the Year 1986 Dublin Calabash pipe and took the pipe to the buffer. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish the briar and the acrylic. Blue Diamond does a great job on the smaller scratches that remain in both. I gave the bowl and the stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. Considering the mess the pipe was when we received it I am amazed at how well it turned out. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. This is a beautiful Stanwell POY 1986 – the vulcanite saddle stem and crowned rim top and sandblast finish combine to give the pipe a great look. The polished black, vulcanite stem looks really good with the rich browns standing out in the sandblast. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.34 ounces/38 grams. This is another pipe that I will be putting on the rebornpipes online store in the Danish Pipe Pipemaking Companies Section shortly, if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me on this beauty!

Breathing New Life into a House of Robertson Rusticated Horn

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table was purchased on EBay on 12/20/22 from a fellow in Abita Springs, Louisiana, USA. When Jeff received the pipe he took photos of it to capture what it looked like when he removed it from the box. The pipe was dirty but underneath all of the grime it seemed like it has a great carving around the bowl and shank. The rim top and edges of the bowl had some wear and tear but was redeemable. There was a thin cake in the bowl and a light overflow on the top and edges. The fit of the stem to the shank was off and the diameter of both was slightly different. It had an odd stem set up with what looked like a shank extension with the stem glued into it. The angle of the shank was not straight to the stem was custom fitted against the shank in terms of angles. The tenon fit well in the mortise. There were tooth marks on both sides of the stem ahead of the button and on the button surface itself. Jeff took the following photos of the pipe to show its condition when he received it. He took photos of the rim and bowl to give a sense of what he was dealing with. He also took photos of the stem surfaces to show the condition of the stem when it arrived. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show beautiful carving around the bowl and shank sides. The brown stain adds depth finish on the pipe. Even under the grime it is a unique piece. He also took photos of the etched name on the left side of shank. It reads House of Robertson.The pipe has the name House of Robertson roughly hand-etched on the left side of the shank with an engraving tool. I am including the information that I found when I received my first of the House of Robertson Pipes. I found a link on Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Robertson) that gave me the only information I could find on the brand. I include that in total as it is interesting to read.

“House of Robertson” was in business for many years, but alas, closed their doors in 1999. They were located in Boise, Idaho. They are noted for making rather large and interesting pipes. Thayne Robertson was a Master Mason, AF & AM, and started the shop about 1947 and his son Jon started working there in 1970 when he finished college, along with Thayne’s daughter. Thayne and his son started making the big pipes at that time, and made them together until 1987 when Thayne passed away. Jon kept the store and his sister moved on to other things. The House of Robertson appears to have closed around 1999.

Jeff had thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the grime and calcification. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. The pipe looked very good when it arrived here in Vancouver. I took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show how clean the bowl and the rim top were. You can also see the damage on the rim top and inner edges of the bowl. I took photos of the stem surface to show the condition and tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. You can also see how the stem and shank to not fit well together in terms of diameter.I took a photo of the clear and readable stamping on the left side of the shank. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe parts. It is another unique piece. I decided to start my work on the pipe by addressing the fit of the stem to the shank. With the stem in place on the shank I sanded the shank and stem fit to have a smooth transition. It took a lot of work to get it very smooth. Fortunately, the shank end was smooth so I did not have to damage the rustication on the shank. Once I finished sanding the transition was smooth and the fit was right. I then used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the inner edge and give it a slight bevel inward. Doing that hid the damage on the inner edge of the bowl and blended it into the surface.Now it was time to polish the smooth portions of the bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each  pad to remove the grit. The bowl began to take on a rich shine. It is a beauty. I gave the bowl a light coat of Restoration Balm and sanded the smooth portions further. The pipe took on some charm and the grain shone through. I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the nooks and crannies of the carvings to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I hand rubbed it with my fingers and worked it into the finish with a horsehair shoe brush. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to polish it. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded the shape of the saddle and the tooth marked areas with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing it with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I put the House of Robertson Rusticated Horn back together and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to lightly polish the stem. I buffed the bowl with a light touch so as not to get any of the buffing compounds in the grooves of the rustication. I buffed the stem to raise the gloss on the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished HOR Rusticated Horn is shown in the photos below. The medium brown stains on the well grained briar worked well with the black of the vulcanite stem. The polishing and the reworking of the stem material left this a beautiful and interesting looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 7 inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside Diameter: 1 ¼ inches, Diameter of the chamber: ¾ inches. The weight of the pipe is 2.36 ounces/68 grams. This would be a great addition to the collection of a House of Robertson aficionado. Thanks for looking.

Trying to Breathe Life into a House of Robertson Drinking Horn

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

This very beat up, large, long House of Robertson Horn Shape Pipe is the next pipe I chose to work on. We purchased it on EBay on 10/31/22 from a seller in Abita Springs, Louisiana, USA. It is quite different from the other pipes from this Boise based store that I have worked on. It is a Horn that is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads House of Robertson (two lines). On the right side it is stamped Duello. On the underside of the shank it is carved with what looks like a helmet or a cup. There is carved branch with grapes on the back top of the bowl. There was a carved object on the underside of the shank that allows the pipe to be a sitter. It seems to look like a twisted vine carved into the bottom of the bowl. I am including photos below that were included by the seller in his EBay listing. The first two show the sides of the bowl.The next series of photos show the grain around the bowl and the stamping on the shank sides.He included photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank and the carving on the underside of the shank.The stem had tooth marks and wear on both sides ahead of the button and on the surface of the button itself.He included a photo of the bowl with the stem removed. It is a pipe with a lot of potential.The pipe has the name House of Robertson roughly hand-etched on the left side of the shank with an engraving tool. I am including the information that I found when I received my first of the House of Robertson Pipes. I found a link on Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Robertson) that gave me the only information I could find on the brand. I include that in total as it is interesting to read.

 “House of Robertson” was in business for many years, but alas, closed their doors in 1999. They were located in Boise, Idaho. They are noted for making rather large and interesting pipes. Thayne Robertson was a Master Mason, AF & AM, and started the shop about 1947 and his son Jon started working there in 1970 when he finished college, along with Thayne’s daughter. Thayne and his son started making the big pipes at that time, and made them together until 1987 when Thayne passed away. Jon kept the store and his sister moved on to other things. The House of Robertson appears to have closed around 1999.

When Jeff received the pipe he took photos of it to capture what it looked like when he removed it from the box. The pipe was dirty but underneath all of the grime it seemed like it has some nice grain around the bowl and shank. The rim top and edges of the bowl had been badly abused and beat up and showed chips and wear. There was a thick cake in the bowl and an overflow on the top and edges. There were a lot of scratches and cuts in the briar around the bowl sides and shank. The carving of the vine and grapes at the back top of the bowl is quite damaged as is the “carved vine” on the bottom of the bowl. The pipe has seen a lot of rough travel since the day it left Robertson’s pipe shop in Boise, Idaho. The fit of the stem to the shank is snug and looks good. There were casting marks on the left and right sides of the stem at the shank union that make me think it is a replacement stem. There is also a chipped area on the underside of the shank where it appears the stem had been pried away at some point. The tenon on the stem was incredibly short given the depth of the mortise. There were tooth marks on both sides of the stem ahead of the button and on the button surface itself. Jeff took the following photos of the pipe to show its condition when he received it.The next close-up photos show the condition of the bowl and the rim top. They show the cake in the bowl and the lava overflowing onto the rim top. You can also see how beat up the rim top is. It is in rough condition. The edges are also chipped and damaged. The photos of the stem show the tooth mark and tooth marks on both sides of the stem. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show the grain and the nicks and scratches around the bowl and shank. The brown stain adds depth finish on the pipe. Even under the grime it is a unique piece.He also took photos of the carving on the underside of the shank. You can see the damage on the front side of the carving.The next photo shows the etched name on the left side of shank. It reads House of Robertson. On the back top of the bowl you can see the condition of what appears to be a grape vine. The more I looked at it the combination of grape vines, grapes and the thick branch on the underside of the shank make me think that the pipe is a drinking or wine horn. The shape is very reminiscent of the shape of the horn. It would really help if the stem had a bend in it. The carved vine on the rim edge, the carved chunk of fine on the underside seem to point in this direction.Jeff had thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the grime and calcification. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. The pipe looked very good when it arrived here in Vancouver. I took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show how clean the bowl and the rim top and inner edges of the bowl. I took photos of the stem surface to show the condition and tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. You can see the chip or dented area where the stem meets the shank in the third photo below.I took photos of the stamping on the shank sides (left, right and underside). It is readable as noted above and though faint is clear.I removed the stem (note the short tenon) from the shank and took a photo of the pipe parts. It is a unique piece. The bowl needed a lot of work. I would need to rework the rim top and the inner and outer edge of the bowl and the also sand out the deep gouges, scratches and file marks in the briar on the sides of the bowl. It really was a refinishing nightmare. I decided to start my work on the bowl by addressing the damaged rim top and edges. I topped the bowl to get a flat surface to start on. I used a topping board and 220 grit sandpaper. I then used a wooden ball and 220 grit sandpaper to give the inner edge a bevel inward. Doing that hid the damage on the inner edge of the bowl and blended it into the surface. I sanded the bowl sides and shank with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out and minimize the scratches and marks on the briar of the bowl and shank. It was beginning to look much better. I wiped the bowl and rim top down with alcohol and cotton pads to remove the debris and the heavy stain coat that hid the grain. Once I had wiped it down the grain really stood out. I used a medium and fine grit sanding pad to sand the bowl and rim top further. Once finished the pipe really started to show promise that I was hoping for in an other other wise mess of a pipe. The grain stood out better and the carving on top back of the bowl was clearly a vine and grapes. It looked much better.I needed a break from sanding the bowl so I set it aside and turned my attention to the stem. To start my work on it I decided to heat it and give it a slight bend in keeping with the look of the horn. When it was flexible I bent it and it snapped off in my hand – utter frustration!! That set me back a bit but in the long haul it was much better as I could use a stem with a longer tenon and a better fit to the shank. I went through my can of stems and found a stem with the right bend, the right tenon sized and length for the shank and that would only need a little adjustment to the diameter to make it fit.I put the stem on the shank and took photos of the new look of the pipe. You can see that the diameter of the stem is slightly larger than the diameter of the shank. But I liked the look of the new stem and the angles of the bend it really is looking like a drinking/wine horn. I sanded the diameter of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to reduce it to the same diameter as the shank. Once the stem was adjusted in diameter it looked very good. I sanded the entire stem including the light tooth chatter at the button with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the stem.I removed the stem from the shank and continued sanding out the tooth marks and chatter at the button and smoothing out and shaping the shank end of the stem. Once I was happy with the fit and look of the stem I started polishing it with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I took photos of the underside of the shank stem junction to show the damage that I noted above – the chip out of the underside of the shank. It made the fit against the underside of the shank a challenge that gave me two options to address. I could either use the topping board to flatten it or I could put a thin band on the shank.I tried to top the shank end a bit on the topping board with 220 grit sandpaper but it did not solve the problem as the chip went quite deep into the underside. I decided to go with a thin brass band on the shank end to repair the damage on the end of the shank. I heated the band and pressed in place on the shank. It gave the shank a flat face for the stem to sit against. I liked the look of the bling and the fit of the stem against it. (A passing comment. Can you see the wine cup in the stamp on the shank in the first photo. I put the fitted stem in place on the shank and took photos of the look of the pipe at this point in the process. It looks far better than when I started. Now it was time to polish the bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each  pad to remove the grit. The bowl began to take on a rich shine. It is a beauty. I used a Black stain pen to darken the vine and the grapes on the back side of the bowl and the stamping on the shank sides to highlight the House of Robertson and the Duello stamp. Once they were stained I used the remainder of the micromesh pads to clean up the excess black. I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the nooks and crannies of the carvings to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I hand rubbed it with my fingers and worked it into the finish with a horsehair shoe brush. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to polish it. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I put the House of Robertson Drinking Horn back together and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to lightly polish the stem. I buffed the bowl with a light touch so as not to get any of the buffing compounds in the grooves of the rustication. I buffed the stem to raise the gloss on the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished HOR Drinking Horn is shown in the photos below. The medium brown stains on the well grained briar worked well with the brass band and the bent black of the vulcanite stem. The polishing and the reworking of the stem material left this a beautiful and interesting looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 7 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside Diameter: 1 ¼ inches, Diameter of the chamber: 7/8 inches. The weight of the pipe is 1.69 ounces/ 48 grams. This would be a great addition to the collection of a House of Robertson collector.  If you are interested in adding it to your collection it will be on the rebornpipes store in the American (US) Pipemakers Section shortly. Thanks for looking.