Tag Archives: fitting a stem

Repairing A Worm Hole Ridden Horn Stem And Refurbishing A c.1908 T.C.G Bent Billiard

Blog by Paresh Deshpande

This pipe had caught my eye for a long time. However, the extensive damage to the horn stem was a big challenge and was always relegated to ‘will- deal- with- later’ category of pipes. This time around, I decided to pick up the gauntlet and got the pipe to my work table.

The pipe currently on my table is as elegant and understated as the British and as compact as any English pipes of yore. The briar stummel has mixed grains and is sans any fills. The right side of the shank is stamped as “T.C.G” in an oval. There is no COM stamp. The only pointer to this pipe being English is the stamping on the Sterling Silver ferrule at the shank end. It is stamped “T.C.G” without frame over three sterling silver hallmarks. From left to right the first cartouche is with a LION PASSANT certifying silver quality followed by a cartouche with symbol for Chester Assay Office and the last cartouche contains the date code letter “H”. This was an English brand that I had neither seen before nor ever heard of. My first instinct to search for any new-to-me pipe brand is to visit rebornpipes and very rarely have I returned empty handed. This was one such rare instance where I came up empty handed. Pipedia.org and pipephil.eu, other popular sites that I visit for pipe related information, too did not have any mention of this pipe manufacturer.

The only clue to unravel the mystery of this pipe was in the stampings seen in the hallmarked silver band. I visited www.silvercollection.it and upon searching through the index, I came across a maker’s mark that was as seen on the pipe in my hands. The maker’s mark was described as Thomas Claud GOODING Edward Ryan GOODING – London. Here is the link and screen shot of the details and relevant details are highlighted in red.

http://www.silvercollection.it/DICTIONARYTOBACCONISTT.html The next step was to date this pipe with the help of the hallmarks as seen on the silver band at the shank end. The Chester City mark was easy to identify. The letter “H” perfectly matched up with the letter that identified it as being assayed by the Chester Assay office in 1908. Given below is the link that will take the readers to the relevant section of dating and the picture that I have taken with the date code letter.

http://www.silvercollection.it/englishsilverhallmarksCHE.html

I further Google searched for Thomas Claud Gooding and other than an address for the said tobacconist at Farringdon Street, London, I could not glean much information.

It is my informed guess that TC Gooding got pipes made from other manufacturers like Barling’s, Comoy’s etc and got them stamped from manufacturers with their own registered name, T.C.G and sold these pipes from their shops. This was a very common practice in those days.

To summarize, the pipe that I am working on was from a tobacconist shop run by T C Gooding at Farringdon Street that was made in c1908 by some of the more established pipe manufacturers in London and sold under their own name T.C.G.

Initial Visual Inspection
This pipe is a beautiful smaller sized bent billiards, a classic English shape. The stummel has beautiful mixed grains all around without a single fill. The rim top surface is uneven with dents and dings to the inner rim edge. There is a very thin and even layer of cake (which was proved otherwise once I reamed the chamber) in the chamber. The stummel surface is dull and dirty. The bone tenon is threaded and locks in to place with a perfectly aligned shank and horn stem. It is the horn stem that has the most damage. Worm holes at the upper surface at the button end exposing the air way and at the shank end lower surface the threaded bone tenon remains exposed. The following pictures present a general idea of the condition of this pipe. Dimensions Of The Pipe
(a) Overall length of the pipe: – 4.5 inches.

(b) Bowl height: – 1.5 inches.

(d) Outer diameter of chamber: – 1.1 inches.

Detailed Visual Inspection
The chamber has a thin layer of even cake and appears to have been lightly reamed before being stowed away. The condition of the chamber walls will be ascertained once the cake is completely taken down to the bare briar. The inner rim edge is lightly charred on the right side in the 4 ‘O’ clock direction (encircled in green) while the left inner edge is uneven (indicated with yellow arrows). The outer rim edge shows damage to the left and front (encircled in red) due to knocking the edge against a hard surface. The rim top is sans any lava overflow but is peppered with scratches, dents and dings. The stummel surface is covered in a layer of dust and grime giving the surface a dull and lackluster appearance. From underneath this grime, a mix of bird’s eye swirls and cross grains can be seen that waits to be brought to the fore. There are a number of scratches, dents and dings over the stummel surface but predominantly over the foot of the bowl (encircled in pastel blue). The mortise is clean with small traces of remnants of old oils and tars.The stem is where maximum damage can be seen. The bone stem is riddled with worm holes in the bite zone and towards the tenon end. The following pictures will give the readers a clear idea of the extent of damage to the stem and what I would be dealing with during its repairs. At the rounded slot end, the damage is deep enough to expose the air way (encircled in yellow) but thankfully; the air way is undamaged and intact. At the tenon end, the worm hole is deep and exposes the threaded bone tenon (encircled in green). The round slot and the bone tenon opening shows residues of dried oils and tars. The silver lining to all this damage is that the button edge surface and the tenon end flat base surface is still intact and will serve as a guide while I build up the damaged surface. The Process
I started the repairs with the stem first as it would be the most tedious work and take the longest time. I cleaned the internals of the stem with thin shank brushes and anti-oil dish washing soap. This helps reduce the number of pipe cleaners that I would otherwise use for the cleaning of the airway.I ran a couple of bristled pipe cleaners dipped in isopropyl alcohol to thoroughly clean the airway. I followed it by cleaning the stem surface with cotton swabs wetted with alcohol in preparation for rebuilding the damaged horn surface with clear CA superglue.With the internal and external surface of the stem cleaned up, I moved ahead with reconstruction of the worm hole ridden bite zone and the tenon end of the stem with high viscosity clear CA superglue. I started the repair work at the tenon end. To hasten the process of curing, I sprayed the fill with accelerator. I followed the layering technique to rebuild the damaged surface, that is, first drop a blob of superglue over the surface to be rebuilt and spray the accelerator. Once the glue has hardened, drop superglue over the same area and spray the accelerator to harden the glue. I continued with this method at both the ends of the stem till I had completely covered the area to be rebuilt and then some more. The purpose of excessive build up of the damaged stem surface was that it would be sanded down to perfect or near perfect match with the rest of the stem surface. Following pictures will give the readers a general idea of the process explained above. Once the tenon end of the stem was filled with superglue and set using the accelerator, I followed the same procedure to rebuild the slot end of the stem. Thereafter, I set the stem aside for the fills to cure overnight. While the stem was set aside for the fills to cure, I reamed the chamber with size 1 and 2 heads of the PipNet pipe reamer. I removed the carbon from the areas where the reamer head could not reach with my fabricated knife. To completely remove the residual carbon from the walls of the chamber and even out the walls, I sand the chamber walls with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper followed by cleaning the chamber with a cotton swab wetted with isopropyl alcohol. The chamber walls are in pristine condition. The quantity of carbon that was removed did surprise me as I had anticipated a far less build up of cake in the chamber. I also cleaned the mortise with pipe cleaners and alcohol. Continuing with internal cleaning of the bowl, I decided to subject the chamber and mortise to cotton and alcohol bath. I packed the chamber with cotton balls and drew out a wick from the cotton and along with a folded regular pipe cleaner, inserted it into the mortise and through the draught hole into the chamber. I tightly packed cotton balls in to the remaining portion of the mortise. Thereafter, I soaked the cotton balls with isopropyl alcohol up to the brim. About half an hour later, the level of alcohol had gone down, having being absorbed by the cotton. I topped it up once again and set it aside overnight. By next afternoon, the cotton and alcohol had drawn out all the remaining oils and tars from the chamber and mortise. I removed the cotton balls and the filth can be gauged by the appearance and coloration of the cotton balls and the pipe cleaner. I ran pipe cleaners through the mortise and draught hole to clean out all the loosened tars and gunk that was lodged in the draught hole and mortise. The chamber and mortise now smelled clean, fresh and looked it too. I set the stummel to dry out naturally.With the internal cleaning done, it was time for the external cleaning of the stummel surface. I used a hard bristled tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap, to scrub the stummel and rim top. I washed the stummel under running warm water with anti oil dish washing detergent till the stummel surface was clean and dried it using paper towels and soft cotton cloth. I simultaneously cleaned the shank internals with the detergent and hard bristled shank brush and set the stummel aside to dry out naturally.Next, I addressed the various stummel repairs that I have mentioned above. First issue that I addressed was that of the rim top surface dents/ dings, charred inner rim edge and chipped outer rim edge. To address the rim top damage, I topped the rim surface on 220 grit sandpaper till the surface was nice and even. I hate losing any briar and prefer to restrict topping to the barest minimum that is required. The damage to the outer rim edge, though greatly eliminated, can still be seen to the left side. This would be taken care of by creating a slight bevel to the outer edge. The charring to the inner rim edge is still visible (encircled in green). These issues could be completely addressed by the process of topping but the extent of topping that would be required to do so would alter the bowl height and also the entire stummel profile.With a folded piece of worn out 180 grit sand paper pinched between my thumb and forefinger, I carefully created a bevel over the inner and outer rim edge and addressed the issue of charred inner rim edge. The rim edges appear much better at this stage and should further improve the aesthetics of the stummel when the bevel and stummel is polished using the micromesh pads. While I was working on the stummel, the stem fills had cured completely and as I was keen to shape the stem fills, I kept the stummel aside and worked on the stem repairs. I used a flat needle file to roughly match the fills with the rest of the stem surface. I further evened out the fills by sanding the stem surface with a folded piece of 150 grit sandpaper. All this filing and sanding had exposed a few air pockets (indicated with green arrows) and a portion of the upper button edge (encircled in indigo) that would need to be further rebuilt.Since I had rebuilt the stem face at the tenon end, it was imperative for me to check the alignment of the stem against the shank face when seated. My expected fears came true and how! The stem was grossly overturned to the right.The general rule of thumb is that if the overturn is to the right, one needs to sand the left side so that the threads could complete the turn and achieve a perfect alignment. However, this need to be done extremely carefully as any excess sanding of the left side could result in a left overturn. Using needle files and a 220 grit sandpaper, I sand the excess fill from the left side, checking very frequently for the alignment. A few hours and numerous checks later, I achieved a perfect alignment of the stem and shank face. My mantra of “less is more” was always playing at the back of my mind as I worked on the stem face. Now I could move ahead with addressing the air pockets and rebuild of the button edge over the upper stem surface. I filled the air pockets and rebuilt the button edge over the upper surface with CA superglue and once the glue had cured, with a needle file and sandpaper, I reshaped and evened out the fills to match the rest of the stem surface. Next, I decided to address the dents and dings on the stummel surface, notably at the foot and lower sides of the bowl. Using a marker pen, I marked all the major areas with dents and dings as I had decided to leave the minor ones as they were. I heated my fabricated knife over the flame of a candle, placed a wet Turkish hand towel over the marked areas and steamed out the dents by placing the heated knife over the towel. The steam generated by placing a hot knife on the wet towel helps the briar to expand within these dents and dings, making for a smooth and even surface. The stummel appears much better and smooth at this juncture.To further even out the remaining minor dings, I lightly sand the entire stummel with a folded piece of worn out 180 grit sand paper. I followed it by wet sanding the stummel with 1500 to 12000 grit micromesh pads, wiping frequently with a moist cloth to check the progress. I rubbed a small quantity of “Before and After Restoration Balm” deep into the briar with my finger tips and let it rest for a few minutes. The balm almost immediately works its magic and the briar now has a nice vibrant appearance with the beautiful grain patterns displayed in their complete splendor. I further buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. Now I needed to work on the stem again. I had completed the refilling/ rough reshaping of the damaged stem and now proceed to fine tune the reshaped button edge, rebuilt surfaces and polishing of the stem. I sand the stem with 220, 320, 600, 800 and 1000 grit sandpapers. The coarser grade sandpapers help in achieving exactness of shape and removing excess repair material to match rest of the surface while 600, 800 and 1000 grit sandpapers help in eliminating the sanding marks left behind by the coarse grit papers and imparting a shine to the stem surface. I rubbed a small quantity of EVO in to the bone to hydrate it.To bring a deep shine to the horn stem, I went through the complete set of micromesh pads, wet sanding with 1500 to 12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem with moist cloth after each pad and rubbed it down with Extra Virgin Olive oil to rejuvenate the bone stem. I am pretty happy with the way the stem repairs have shaped up and also the button has a nice delicate shape. The finished stem is shown below. I cleaned the sterling silver ferrule at the shank end with “Pitambari”, a powder that is available all across India that is used to clean and shine brass and silver ware. Even Abha uses it to polish her silver and gold jewelry and cutlery. This compound is a very fine powder and is least abrasive with fantastic results. The band is now a nice shining piece of sterling silver and will provide a nice contrast between the shining horn stem and the dark brown stummel.To complete the restoration, I mount a cotton cloth buffing wheel on to my hand held rotary tool and polished the stummel and stem with Blue Diamond compound. This compound helps to remove the minor scratch marks that remain from the sanding. I mounted another cotton buffing wheel that I have earmarked for carnauba wax and applied several coats of the wax. I finished the restoration by giving the entire pipe a rigorous hand buffing using a microfiber cloth to raise the shine further. The finished pipe looks amazingly beautiful and is ready to join my collection. I only wish it could share with me its life story of the past years while I enjoy smoking my favorite Virginia blend in it or maybe an English blend or maybe just keep admiring it!! I wish to thank all the esteemed readers for reading through this write up and thereby being a companion in my journey.

Cleaning up a Crown Duke, Dr. Grabow Bent Billiard for a Memory Box of Dad

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

I received an email a while ago from a lady who wanted to have one of her Dad’s pipe cleaned and restored. As we emailed back and forth it was clear that it was one of those pieces that was filled with memories. I pressed to see if she was sure that she wanted it cleaned as it would remove the remnants of debris and tobacco from her Dad’s use of the pipe. She was clear that she wanted it cleaned up to look as good as possible because she was going to make a shadow box to hold the pipe and a photo and other memorabilia of her late Dad. When it finally arrived here in Vancouver I could see why she wanted it clean. The pipe was very dirty and there was a crack in the shank. The pipe had not been smoked for a long time and there was no tobacco smell in it at all. There was a hard thin cake in the bowl and lava on the rim top. The stem was oxidized and had calcification on the button end. It was a filter pipe that had been smoked without a filter so the insides were dirty. The pipe was stamped on the left side and read Crown Duke [over] Dr. Grabow. On the right side it read Imported Briar. There was a blue Grabow Spade on the left side of the taper stem. It was dirty and worn looking with some obvious fills around the bowl. I took some photos of the pipe before I started to work on it. I took a photo of the rim top and bowl to give a clear picture of what I was dealing with. I also captured the crack in the top of the shank in the photo (I have outlined it in a red box). Other than being incredibly dirty the stem was in decent condition with light tooth chatter and light marks near the button edge.The stamping on the shank sides was faint but readable and reads as noted above.I took a better photo of the crack in the top of the shank and have included it below. It was quite wide open but came to an end in the squiggle at the end toward the bowl. I would need to glue and band it to make it solid again.I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to get a sense of the look of the Bent Billiard.I picked a band out of my box of bands. It is far too deep so I will need to take it down for a proper fit on the shank. I started the process by using a topping board. I then used my Dremel and sanding drum to remove the full amount I wanted gone. I finished the shaping of the band on the topping board.Once I had the fit correct, I removed it from the shank and cleaned up the area around the crack with alcohol and cotton swabs. I filled in the crack with clear super glue and clamped the crack shut. Once the glue cured I heated the band and pressed it onto the shank. I took some photos of the repaired shank and band. Now it was time to clean the bowl. I have often done the process in reverse but I really wanted to stabilize the crack before I worked on cleaning the exterior and interior of the bowl and shank. I did not want to chance making the crack worse. I reamed the cake out of the bowl with a Pipnet pipe reamer and took the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife and sanded the bowl walls smooth with a piece of dowel wrapped with 220 grit sandpaper. I wanted the bowl to be smooth for the display. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I was able to remove the debris and grime around the bowl and clear off the lava on the rim top. I dried the bowl off with a cloth and took these photos. You can see the dark fills and spots around the bowl sides. The largest was a rough fill on the front of the bowl that was pink putty. I repaired the pink, rough fill on the front of the bowl with clear super glue. Once the repair cured I sanded it smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. It was now smooth to the touch. It would be interesting to try to blend it into the surrounding briar once I was staining it. I sanded the entire bowl with 1500 grit micromesh at the same time.I cleaned out the airway in the shank and the stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. It took quite a few to get the tars and oils out of the airways.I buffed the pipe on the buffer with Blue Diamond and then stained it with a light brown stain. I applied the stain and then flamed it to set it. I used a black and brown Sharpie pen to stain the pinkish fill on the front of the bowl.I set the bowl aside for the stain to cure and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded out the tooth chatter and marks on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and started the polishing with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. It is actually beginning to look much better. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth to give the pads a little more bite. I polished it with Before & After Stem Polish both Fine and Extra Fine and gave it a final rub down with Obsidian Oil. I set the stem aside to dry and worked on the bowl again. By this time the stain was dry and I was able to tackle the bowl again. I wiped it down with alcohol on paper towels to make the stain more transparent. Because of the fills in the bowl I decided to leave it dark as it did a good job masking them. I buffed the bowl on the wheel with Blue Diamond to further aid the transparency. It is hard to see in the photos but in person the grain is there and not terribly hidden. The fills are hidden and other than the large one on the front of the bowl they look good. I put the stem on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I was careful when buffing around the stamping and the logo on the stem. I had decided to leave some of the nicks and marks in the briar as they were a part of the story of the pipe and its owner. I wanted it to still bear his definitive marks so that when it was in the shadow box those who knew him would remember the story of the pipe. I did not want the pipe to look brand new as that would remove the story from it. The nickel band worked well to bind together the crack in the shank. The aluminum spacer on the stem sits up against it and looks quite nice as a joint with the band. It almost gives the band the look of a ferrule. The pipe came out quite well. The darker stain is very similar to what was originally on the pipe when it was new. It also did a good job of masking the fills around the bowl. I will soon be packing it up and sending it back to the pipeman’s daughter so she can build her tribute to her Dad. Thanks for reading the blog.

A Singularly Interesting Restoration of a Full Bent Peterson

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

My friend Ken wrote and asked me if I take this older Peterson’s Full Bent to clean up and restore for him. Today it arrived in the mail. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Peterson’s [arched over] System [over] 2 in a circle (which I believe is the grade stamp). There is no stamping on the other side of the shank or on the underside. The silver ferrule is stamped on the left side K&P [over] three hallmarks – the seated woman, the harp and a letter “P”. To the right of that it is stamped Peterson [over] Dublin. The pipe looks to be an old timer. The bowl was quite dirty with a moderate cake in the bowl, some tobacco bits and a spot of what looked like moldy tobacco stuck on the wall. The sump was filled with tars, oils and some spots of mold as well. The pipe reeked of old wet and moldy tobacco. It was a mess. The rim top had a build up of lava on the top and edges. The inner and outer edge looked good with no nicks. The finish was very worn and scratched. The silver ferrule was oxidized and dirty. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. I took photos of the pipe before I started my clean up work on it. I took a close up photo of the rim top and the bowl to give a clear idea of what I was working on. It had a light lava coat that is hard to see in the photo. The bowl had a moderate cake that is not very visible and moldy particles on the back wall and in the sump and mortise. The stem had straightened quite a bit and there was oxidation, calcification and tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the side of the shank and the silver ferrule – it reads as noted above. It is clear and undamaged. The second photo gives a clear photo of the hallmarks on the silver. They read as noted above.I am including the link to the Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson).

I always like to date the year a pipe was made while I am working on it. In the process of working on a pipe if I can pin down a date that it was made that it adds another dimension to the restoration process. Once I have identified the hallmarks on the pipe then I use a Hallmark chart to pin the date down. In the case of Peterson’s pipe with a silver band I use a hallmarking chart that Peterson included in their catalogs and on their website

I have a copy of the hallmark charts in one of the Peterson catalogs that I have uploaded to the blog on rebornpipes. I turned to that chart to lock down the date letter for the Sterling Silver System that I am working on. Here is the link to the site (https://rebornpipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/peterson-cataloguecomp_page_27.jpg).

The chart defines the meaning of each hallmark on the silver band. The first one is of a seated woman with a harp is known as the Hibernia stamp and identifies the pipe as made in Ireland. The second stamp is a crowned harp which is a fineness mark denoting the high quality of silver that was used. The third stamp in this case is an uppercase “P” in a cloverleaf rectangle. I have included a larger screen capture of the chart in the photo below. Following that I have included a blown up capture of the chart with the “P” in a red box. That dates it to 1930/31. It is interesting to note that there is an asterisk after the date under the boxed “P” stamp above. The note at the bottom of the page is hard to read in the above photo. I looked it up on another chart and found out that it read as follows:

“Up to and including 1931, the date letter was changed on June 1 each year. From 1932 on it was changed on January 1.”

It is thus interesting to note that the date was a significant change in the dating methods came about the year after this pipe was made.

Now that I had the date pinned down to 1930/31 it was time to work on the pipe itself. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and cut the cake back to bare walls. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and then sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl looked very good on the inside. With the inside cleaned out I turned my attention to the exterior of the bowl. I scrubbed it with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I worked on the rim top, the bowl and shank and the inside of the bowl itself. I was able to remove the grime and tars with the soap and rinsed it off with running water to remove the tars and soap. The bowl looked very clean. While I scrubbed it the glue that held the band in place loosened and the band came off in my hands. The glue was a mess underneath, it was uneven and chipping. I would need to be replaced to hold the band firmly in place.I cleaned out the internals of the bowl, shank and sump with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. It was filthy and I wanted to make sure to kill whatever was lurking in the bit of tobacco in the bowl and sump. It smells and looks much better now.I cleaned of the old glue on the shank end, sanded it to smooth out the surface and reglued the ferrule with an all purpose white glue. I adjusted the ferrule to the angle of the shank end and set it aside to dry.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the briar down after each sanding pad to remove the debris from the surface. The briar began to take on a shine. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my finger tips. I works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes and then buffed it off with a soft cloth. With these older pipes I try to keep the old patina in tact so I was glad to see that the finish looked very good with the Balm. I polished the silver ferrule with a jewelers cloth to remove the tarnish, polish and preserve the silver. The silver looks very good and the hallmarks are clear and readable as noted above. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I cleaned it out with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and 99% isopropyl alcohol. It took quite a few cleaners to get the grime and debris out of the stem, but it smells sweet now. I loaned my heat gun to my daughter so I had to resort to old methods to bend the stem to correct angles. I heated it with the flame of a Bic Lighter until the vulcanite was pliable then carefully bent it to the angle I wanted. I cooled it with water to set the bend.I sanded out the tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside of the stem near the button with 220 grit sandpaper. I started the polishing process with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down between sanding pads with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I am excited to finish this 1930/31 Peterson’s System Circle 2 Full Bent. I put the pipe back together and buffed it lightly with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to deepen the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to further raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with deep sandblast all around it. Added to that the polished black vulcanite stem was beautiful. This sandblast Peterson’s System Circle 2 is great looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 66 grams/2.33 ounces. It is a beautiful pipe and one I am working on for my friend. I will be sending it back to him soon. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Restoring a Republic Era Peterson’s System Standard Bent 307 Billiard

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen is another smooth finished Peterson’s System – this time a System Standard shape 307. It was the fourth of four pipes that came to me from a friend for work. This one also had very loose stem that did not seem to hold on in the shank that he wanted me to have a look at as well as cleaning and freshening it up. The stem had also straightened out a bit over time and needed to be rebent. The finish was smooth with some nice grain around the sides and shank. There was one noticeable fill on the left side near the rim top. The pipe was stamped on the left side of the shank and read Peterson’s [arched over] System [over] Standard. On the right side it was stamped Made in the Republic of Ireland in three lines over the shape number 307. It was in good condition when I brought it to the table. There was a heavy cake in the bowl and some light lava and darkening on the rim top. The nickel ferrule was in good shape but had some scratches that would need to be polished. It is stamped as well and reads K & P [over] Peterson on the left. The vulcanite stem was unstamped and in good condition. There was some oxidation, calcification and light chatter near the button that would polish out. It also was in need of being bent again. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work. I took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is heavily caked and the rim top and edges have a thick lava overflow. The stem looks good but it has tooth marks on the top and underside near the button. I took photos of the stamping on the left shank side. It reads as noted above. I also tried to capture the stamping on the ferrule and it is clear and readable. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to have a look at the parts and overall look.I am including the link to the Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson).

I turned to work on the pipe itself. I started my clean up by reaming the bowl with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. I cleaned up the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I finished the cleaning of the bowl with a piece of dowel wrapped in 220 grit sandpaper. I smoothed out the bowl walls and checked for cracks and flaws. All looked very good. I scrubbed the interior of the bowl, shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. It was full of tars and oils that with a bit of work came clean. I cleaned up the rim top and the beveled inner edge with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I removed the burn damage and darkening on both and it looked better. I stained the pink putty fill with a Brown and Black Sharpie Pen. It blended in much better than the pink had before.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each pad. I used it to clean off the rim top at the same time. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I polished the nickel ferrule with a jewelers cloth give it a shine and to remove the oxidation. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I decided to bend it to the correct angle so I heated it with a heat gun to soften it and then bent it so that it sit correctly in the shank. It looked much better. I sanded out the tooth marks on the button and ahead of the button with 220 grit sandpaper and adjusted the fit of the tenon end to the taper of the shank. I started the polishing with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry before buffing. I am excited to finish this Peterson’s System Standard 302 Bent Apple. I put the pipe back together and buffed it lightly with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to deepen the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to further raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with deep sandblast all around it. Added to that the polished black acrylic stem was beautiful. This System Standard 302 Bent Apple is great looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 63 grams/2.26 oz. It is a beautiful pipe and the fourth of the four I am working on for my friend. Now that they are all finished they will be sent back to him. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Restoring a Peterson’s System Standard Bent 302 Apple

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen is another smooth finished Peterson’s System – this time a System Standard shape 302. It was the third of four pipes that came to me from a friend for work. This one had very loose stem that did not seem to hold on in the shank that he wanted me to have a look at as well as cleaning and freshening it up. The stem had also straightened out a bit over time and needed to be rebent. The finish was smooth with some nice grain around the sides and shank. It was stamped on the left side of the shank and read Peterson’s [arched over] System [over] Standard followed by the shape number 302. It was in great condition when I brought it to the table. There was a heavy cake in the bottom half of the bowl and some light lava on the rim top. The nickel ferrule was in good shape but had some scratches that would need to be polished. It is stamped as well and reads K & P [over] Peterson on the left. The vulcanite stem was unstamped and in good condition. There was some oxidation, calcification and light chatter near the button that would polish out. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work. I took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is heavily caked and the rim top and edges have a thick lava overflow. The stem looks good but it has tooth marks on the top and underside near the button. I took photos of the stamping on the left shank side. It reads as noted above. I also tried to capture the stamping on the ferrule and it is clear and readable. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to have a look at the parts and overall look.I am including the link to the Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson).

I turned to work on the pipe itself. I started my clean up by reaming the bowl with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. I cleaned up the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I finished the cleaning of the bowl with a piece of dowel wrapped in 220 grit sandpaper. I smoothed out the bowl walls and checked for cracks and flaws. All looked very good. I scrubbed the interior of the bowl, shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. It was full of tars and oils that with a bit of work came clean. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each pad. I used it to clean off the rim top at the same time. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I polished the nickel ferrule with a jewelers cloth give it a shine and to remove the oxidation. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I decided to bend it to the correct angle so I heated it with a heat gun to soften it and then bent it so that it sit correctly in the shank. It looked much better. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry before buffing. I am excited to finish this Peterson’s System Standard 302 Bent Apple. I put the pipe back together and buffed it lightly with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to deepen the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to further raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with deep sandblast all around it. Added to that the polished black acrylic stem was beautiful. This System Standard 302 Bent Apple is great looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 63 grams/2.26 oz. It is a beautiful pipe and the second of the four I am working on for my friend. Once the other two are finished it will be sent back to him. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Restoring a Peterson’s System Bent Dress Black B42

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen is another smooth finished Peterson’s System – this time a B42 (Brandy) in Dress Black. It was the second of four pipes that came to me from a friend for work. This one had very loose stem that did not seem to hold on in the shank that he wanted me to have a look at as well as cleaning and freshening it up. The finish was smooth and painted with a dress black. It was stamped on the left side of the shank and read Peterson’s [arched over] System. On the right side of the shank it is stamped with the shape number B42. It was in great condition when I brought it to the table. There was a heavy cake in the bowl and some lava on the rim top. The nickel ferrule was in good shape but had some scratches that would need to be polished. It is stamped as well and reads K & P [over] Peterson on the left. The stem appears to be acrylic (perhaps a replacement) and was unstamped and in good condition. There was some light chatter on and near the button that would polish out. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work. I took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is heavily caked and the rim top and edges have a thick lava overflow. The stem looks good but it has tooth marks on the top and underside near the button. I took photos of the stamping on the shank sides. It reads as noted above. I also tried to capture the stamping on the ferrule and it is readable but the photo just could not capture it well. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to have a look at the parts and overall look.I am including the link to the Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson).

I turned to work on the pipe itself. I started my clean up by reaming the bowl with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. I cleaned up the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I finished the cleaning of the bowl with a piece of dowel wrapped in 220 grit sandpaper. I smoothed out the bowl walls and checked for cracks and flaws. All looked very good. I cleaned off the build up on the rim top with damp cotton pads and was able to remove all of the lava on the rim. It actually looked very good.I scrubbed the interior of the bowl, shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. It was full of tars and oils that with a bit of work came clean. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I polished the nickel ferrule with a jewelers cloth give it a shine and to remove the oxidation. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the acrylic stem. I sanded out the tooth marks in the surface of the stem on both the top and underside with 220 grit sandpaper and started the polishing process with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I also sanded the area on the shank end for the first inch to clean it up and make the taper match the shank taper. I polished it as well with the 400 grit wet dry sandpaper.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I am excited to finish this Peterson’s System B42 Dress Black Bent Brandy. I put the pipe back together and buffed it lightly with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to deepen the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to further raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with deep sandblast all around it. Added to that the polished black acrylic stem was beautiful. This Dress Black System B42 is great looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 83 grams/2.93 oz. It is a beautiful pipe and the second of the four I am working on for my friend. Once the other two are finished it will be sent back to him. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Restoring a Peterson’s of Dublin System Standard 2 XL315 Bent Calabash

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen is a Peterson’s System Standard 2 XL315 sandblast bent Calabash. It was one of four pipes that came to me from a friend for work. This one had very loose stem that did not seem to hold on in the shank that he wanted me to have a look at as well as cleaning and freshening it up. The finish is deeply sandblasted and tactile with some grim in the finish and some lava on the rim top. It was stamped on the underside of the shank and read Peterson’s [arched over] of Dublin [over] System Standard followed by a 2 [over] the shape number XL315. It was in great condition when I brought it to the table. There was a heavy cake in the bowl and some lava in the sandblast on the rim top. The nickel ferrule was in good shape but scratches that would need to be polished. It is stamped as well and reads K & P [over] Peterson on the left. The stem was unstamped and was in good condition. There was some light chatter near the button that would polish out. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work. I took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is heavily caked and the rim top and edges have a thick lava overflow. The stem is lightly oxidized and has tooth marks on the top and underside near the button. I tried to take photos of the underside of the shank to show the stamping but the stamping is quite faint though readable with a lens. It reads as noted above. I also tried to capture the stamping on the ferrule and it is readable but the photo just could not capture it well. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to have a look at the parts and overall look.I am including the link to the Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson).

I turned to “The Peterson Pipe” by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg to get some background on the Peterson’s Of Dublin pipes. On page 298 it had the following information.

Dublin 1906-2003 Although Dublin appears under Peterson’s on many pipes over the decades, it has served mostly as part of the brand name. The word first appeared on pipes hallmarked 1906-11 Stamped Peterson’s over Patent over Dublin. The simpler Peterson’s over Dublin first appeared on pipes hallmarked 1912 after the expiration of the patent. Illustrations of pipes in the ’37 catalogue show a random dispersion of the stamp Peterson’s over Of Dublin together with the ordinary Peterson’s over Dublin on every model offered. Specimens of the former will either bear an Irish COM or London Made over England COM and almost certainly date from 1945-62. It was first mentioned in print as part of a model name in ’68 price list, as K&P Dublin, in ’92 for a Danish market line and in 2017.

The stamping of Peterson’s Of Dublin is very broad and cannot really help pin down the date on the pipe. However, XL315 shape came out in 1998 so the pipe is definitely post 1998.

I started my clean up of the pipe by reaming it with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. I cleaned up the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I finished the cleaning of the bowl with a piece of dowel wrapped in 220 grit sandpaper. I smoothed out the bowl walls and checked for cracks and flaws. All looked very good. I cleaned off the build up in the sandblast on the rim top with a brass bristle brush. I was able to leave it absolutely clean.I scrubbed the interior of the bowl, shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. It was full of tars and oils that with a bit of work came clean. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I polished the nickel ferrule with micromesh sanding pads – using 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a jewelers cloth to polish it and remove the oxidation. I sanded the area on the shank end of the stem for the first inch to clean it up and make the taper match the shank taper.

I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I am excited to finish this Peterson’s Of Dublin System Standard 2 XL315 Bent Calabash. I put the pipe back together and buffed it lightly with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to deepen the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to further raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with deep sandblast all around it. Added to that the polished black vulcanite stem was beautiful. This sandblast System Standard 2 XL315 is great looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 54 grams/1.90 oz. It is a beautiful pipe and the first of the four I am working on for my friend. Once the other three are finished it will be sent back to him. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Replacing a tenon and restoring a House of Robertson Rusticated Dublin

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a House of Robertson Rusticated Dublin with a tapered, vulcanite Bite Through stem. The rustication on the briar is very tactile and deep. There are grooves around the bowl and shank and those have been deeply rusticated. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the diamond shank and reads House of [over] Robertson. It really is a beautiful pipe and the rustic finish works very well with the diamond twin bore saddle stem. The fellow who sent it to me is a previous customer and in his box were two pipes with a snapped tenon – the Radice (which I have repaired already) and this House of Robertson. This one was quite dirty with a thick cake in the bowl and overflowing onto the rim top. There was some burn damage on the inner edge of the rim around the bowl and the pipe was dull and dusty. The tenon had snapped off cleanly at the shank end with no damage to the briar. The stem had tooth marks on both the top and underside ahead of the button and was also dirty. I took some photos of the pipe before I started my work on it. I took a close up photo of the rim top to show the condition of the bowl and inner edge. You can see the damage on the inner edge of the rim. It will become more evident once the bowl has been reamed and cleaned. The photos of the stem show the tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button.I took photos of the stamping on the left side of the diamond shank to capture how the classic House of Robertson signature looked.House of Robertson pipes were made by Thayne Robertson in Boise, Idaho. He did some beautiful work and all had the etched stamp on them. I have worked on many of these pipes over the years and done the research on the brand previously. Here is a link to one of the pipes where I have included background information (https://rebornpipes.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=60954&action=edit&classic-editor).

“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. https://pipedia.org/wiki/Robertson

I began my work on this pipe by pulling the broken tenon from the shank. I generally use a dry wall screw and twist it into the airway of the broken tenon and wiggle it free. This one was stuck. I put it in the freezer while I had lunch and afterward it came out quite easily. I went through my replacement tenons and found one that would work on this stem. I sanded the broken end of the tenon remaining on the stem with a sanding drum on my Dremel. I also sanded the diameter of the new tenon at the same time to get a good fit in the shank. I took photos of the tenon in the shank at this point to show the fit. I drilled out the airway on the stem with successively larger drill bits to accommodate the tenon. The last bit was ¼ inch which is perfect for the tenon. I slipped the stem over the tenon and took photos of the pipe at this point. It looks very good. With that done I turned my attention to the bowl. I reamed it with a PipNet reamer and took the cake back to briar. I cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife. I sanded the bowl walls with a piece of dowel wrapped with 220 grit sandpaper. I cleaned up the rim top with a brass bristle wire brush to remove the lava in the sandblast and a bit of the burn damage on the inner edge of the bowl.I cleaned out the internals on the stem and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they were clean.I rubbed down the bowl with Before & After Restoration Balm to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the blast with a horsehair shoe brush. I let it sit and do its magic for 10 minutes and then buffed it off with a soft cloth.I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the vulcanite stem. I glued the new tenon in the shank with black super glue. While it cured, I “painted” the surface of the vulcanite stem with the flame of a lighter to lift the tooth chatter and marks. Many of them lifted significantly with the heat. Those that remained I filled in with black super glue and set the stem aside to cure. Once it had cured I flattened out the repairs with a small flat file. I sanded them with 220 grit sandpaper to further flatten them out and blend them into the surrounding area. I started polishing the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the vulcanite bite through stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. I finished the polishing with Before & After Stem Polishes – both Fine and Extra Fine. I wiped the stem down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil to protect and give the deep shine to the stem. I was happy to be finished with this beautiful House of Robertson Rusticated Diamond Shank Dublin. The vulcanite stem fit well and looked good with the rich finish of the rusticated bowl and shank. I lightly buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and gave the bowl and shank multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax. I buffed it with a clean buffing wheel to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The House of Robertson’s Dublin is a great looking pipe that has an amazing looking rustication. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outer Diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Diameter of the chamber: ¾ of and inch. The weight of the pipe is 42 grams/1.48 ounces. I will be packing it up to send back to my friend in Idaho along with the first pipe – the Radice Silk Cut Billiard. Thanks for reading the blog.

Breathing New Life into a 1906 Peterson’s Patent System Shape 14

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe is the second of four Peterson’s that came to me for work from a friend of mine. It is another older, nice looking Peterson’s System Pipe that was quite a mess. The finish was worn and dirty. The rim top was lightly damaged, darkened and had a lava build up. The inner edges of the rim were worn but looked okay. The silver ferrule was tarnished but the stamping was readable. The stamping on the shank sides was readable with a lens. It is stamped across the shank horizontally on the left side and reads Peterson’s [over] Patent [over] Dublin. There is no stamping on the right side of the shank. The silver ferrule is stamped K&P [over] three hallmarks -1. Hibernia seated on a throne (represents Ireland) 2. Crowned harp (signifying the quality of the silver) 3. The letter “L” (giving the year of manufacture). All are in square shaped cartouches. Under these it is stamped Peterson’s [arched over] Dublin. I will need to confirm the date stamps and the stamping to confirm the dating of the pipe. There appears to be a split in the silver ferrule under the tarnish on the right top side. The stem is also stamped and reads Peterson’s arched over Patent. I have included the pictures of the pipe that my friend sent to me early on in our conversation. My friend also sent along a page out of the 1906 Peterson catalog that one of his friends has a copy of. I have included the photo below. His pipe is the second one down in the photo below. It is a shape 14. He also included a photo of the stamping on the shank and the silver ferrule. It reads as noted above. The ferrule has turned downward over time. It took nearly a month for the pipes to arrive in Canada for me to work on. I took photos of them to have an idea of what I was dealing with. You can see from the photos what I saw. The finish is really worn and dirty almost obscuring the amazing grain that is on the bowl sides. Rim top showed darkening as noted above and there were cuts or marks on the top of the rim. The inner edge and outer edge of the bowl was in surprising good shape. There was a build up of lava on the rim top and a thick cake in the bowl. The airway in mortise is very constricted and clogged and will need to be opened once again. The silver ferrule had a split on the top right side but it did not go from top to bottom It was very tarnished but readable. The original style patent stem is present and in remarkable good condition. There were light tooth marks and a lite calcification at ahead of the button on both sides. I took some photos of the rim top and bowl to capture the condition of the pipe. You can see the cake in the bowl. There is a light lava coat and some darkening. There was damage all around the outer edge of the bowl that was heavy on the right front edge. You can see the marks of a crack in the ferrule on the right side in the first photo. The older style P-lip system stem is in good condition with some calcification on the top and underside of the stem near the button. There were light tooth marks and chatter on both sides.I took photos of the stamping on the shank sides and the silver ferrule to try and capture them as best as I could. They were weak but they are readable with a lens. They read as noted above.I removed the stem from the bowl and took a photo of it to show its appearance. The tenon end of the stem has some calcification (or possibly some dried silver polish) where it sat against the silver.Before I started the restoration process on the pipe I wanted to confirm the date that my friend had sent to me for this pipe. I turned to Peterson’s Hallmark Chart that I have on rebornpipes to pin down the date (https://rebornpipes.com/tag/peterson-hallmark-chart/). I have include a copy of that chart below. I drew a red box around the date stamp that matches the one on the pipe. It is a 1906 Peterson Patent System Pipe Shape 14.I expanded the chart above and captured the section that included the section from 1906-1933 below. It confirms that the date is indeed 1906.Now I knew that I was working on a Peterson’s Patent System pipe made in 1906 and the Dublin stamp tells me it was made in Dublin.

I turned to Peterson’s Dublin in the book, The Peterson Pipe by Mark Irwin & Gary Malmberg. I quote from that section below:

Dublin (1906-2003) Although DUBLIN appears under PETERSON’S on many pipes over the decades, it has served mostly as part of the brand name. The word first appeared on pipes hallmarked 1906-11, stamped PETERSON’S over PATENT OVER DUBLIN. The simpler PETERSON’S over DUBLIN first appeared on pipes hallmarked 1912 after the expiration of the patent. Illustrations of pipes in the ’37 catalogue show a random dispersion of the stamp PETERSON’S over OF DUBLIN together with the ordinary PETERSON’S over DUBLIN on every model offered. Specimen of the former will bear either an Irish COM or LONDON MADE over ENGLAND COM and almost certainly date from 1945-62. It was first mentioned in print as part of a model name in the ’68 price list, as K&P DUBLIN, in ’92 for a Danish market line…

Armed with this information I started working on the pipe. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer to remove the cake from the bowl. I cleaned up the remaining cake with a Savinelli Fistall Pipe Knife. I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel to smooth out the inside of the bowl. The walls looked very good with no checking or heat damage. I cleaned out the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and 99% alcohol to remove the oils from the walls. It was filthy and when I was finished it smelled clean and fresh. I cleaned out the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners.I scrubbed the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap to clean off the thick oils and grime ground into the surface of the briar. When the warm water hit the ferrule it slipped off into my hands. (Great news as it had turned and needed to be reset correctly). I scrubbed it on undiluted and rinsed it off with warm water to remove the soap and the grime. The bowl looked much better and the grain really began to stand out clearly. I also used some small shank brushes to try to open the airway into the bowl. With a little bit of work the draught is perfect. I ran some more pipe cleaners and cotton swabs through the shank and airway to remove the tars that had loosened by scrubbing. Once finished I aligned the stamping on the ferrule and carefully slid it in place on the shank. I also ran a light bead of CA glue along the split in the ferrule to stop it from going further. My friend would need to take it to a jeweler to have it soldered with silver for a proper restore.I worked over the top and the inner edge of the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the burned edge and the rim top. I also worked a bit on the outer edge damage on the front o the bowl at the same time. It definitely came out looking much better. The trick on these old pipes is not to go overboard on the repairs but to leave a bit of the story behind as it changes the shape and feel of the pipe. I polished the briar (carefully avoiding the areas where the pipe is stamped on the shank sides) with micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded it with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the smooth briar with my finger tips. The product is amazing and works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let it sit on the briar for 10 or more minutes and then buff it off with a soft cloth. It really makes the grain sing. I polished the silver ferrule with a jewelers cloth to remove the remaining tarnish/oxidation and protect it against further tarnishing. There are a few dings in the silver but I chose to leave them as part of the story of the pipe. I carefully buffed the briar and avoided the silver. I did not want to further damage it or cause it to loosen so I chose to wax it by hand with Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a soft cloth. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I examined it closely and saw the Peterson’s Patent stamp on the stem. The frustrating thing is that it was intermixed with the deep scratches on the shank end of the stem. I carefully sanded the scratched areas, avoiding the stamping on the stem. I used a small piece of 220 grit sandpaper and polished it with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper.I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped down the stem with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I have an oil impregnated piece of cloth that I use after each pad. I polished it further with Before & After Stem Polish both Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I gave it a further coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I put the pipe back together – the bowl with its new stem. This smooth finished 1906 Peterson’s Patent System Pipe Shape 14 is a real beauty with great grain around the bowl. The thin P-lip style vulcanite stem works very well with silver ferrule and the medium brown briar. This Irish made System pipe is a very collectible part of Peterson’s history. The grain on the bowl is quite beautiful and came alive with the buffing. I used Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel on both the bowl and stem. I gave both multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel then buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The Peterson’s Patent System feels great in the hand. It is lightweight and the contrast in the browns of the briar, the sterling silver ferrule and the polished vulcanite stem is quite amazing. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outer diameter of the bowl: 1 1/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.19 ounces/62 grams. It really is a beauty. I have two more pipes left to work on from my friends collection and then I will send them all back to him. Thanks for walking through the restemming and the restoration with me. Cheers.

Restemming & Restoring a Stanhope Genuine Imported Briar Smooth Bullmoose

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

I continue on a restemming binge with stummels (bowls) that I periodically go through and see if I have a potential stem that would fit. This is the final bowl of the three stummels that took out to restem last week. The first one was the Malaga Second, the second was a Yorkshire Bullmoose. (https://rebornpipes.com/2022/01/20/restemming-restoring-a-malaga-second-long-shank-billiard/; https://rebornpipes.com/2022/01/21/restemming-restoring-a-yorkshire-imported-briar-bullmoose/). This particular bowl is a smooth Bullmoose style pipe. The grain on the bowl was quite nice with a mix of straight and birdseye. The rim top had some darkening but the inner and outer edges were in good condition. The interior of the bowl was clean and there were not any chips, cracks or checking on the walls. The mortise was clean and well drilled with no issues. The finish was clean and the grain stood out against the light background. It is worn and tired looking. The stamping was clear and readable. On the left side it read Stanhope [over] Genuine [over] Imported Briar. I took photos of the bowl before I started to work on it. I took a photo of the stamping on the side of the shank. It reads as noted above and is clear and though the Stanhope stamp is faint it is still readable.I went through some of stems and found this nice looking saddle stem blank that would work with the bowl. It had already been turned with a tenon tool so that portion of the work was finished. I would need to reduce the tenon diameter slightly for a snug fit. The stem was significantly larger in diameter than the shank. I decided to see what Pipephil’s site had on the brand (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-s11.html). I found that the pipe was made by LHS (L.H. Stern). I did a screen capture of the particular brand. I have included it below. Now it was time to work on the stem and fit it to the shank of the pipe. The diameter of the tenon was close. I used a flat file that I have here that works well for me to do the fine tuning of the fit. I used it to straighten out the sides of the tenon next to the surface that face the shank. It worked well and fit the shank. I used a Dremel and sanding drum to reduce the diameter of the stem as much as possible before I proceeded. I ran the sanding drum around the diameter of the saddle portion and stem sides to reduce it the also worked it lengthwise to remove more of material. The photos below show the fit at this point. Looking better but still a long ways to go. I continued to reduce the diameter of the stem with a flat file. It was taking quite a bit of time to finish the fit but it was getting there. I think that the stem would look very good once it was properly fit. The fit against the shank was better. There were spots where the stem diameter and the shank diameter did not match were greatly reduced. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the transition even more between the two. I left a slight Danish style flare to the flow of the saddle. I 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 cloth and Obsidian Oil. I finished the polishing with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. I set the stem aside and turned my attention to the bowl. I started by cleaning up the rim top and edges with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to remove the darkening on the rim top and the inner edge of the bowl.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-120000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth. The grain began to stand out and the briar took on a shine. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the smooth briar with my finger tips and a horsehair shoe brush. The product is amazing and works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let it sit on the briar for 10 or more minutes and then buff it off with a soft cloth. It really makes the grain sing. Now it was time to bent the stem to fit the flow of the pipe. I heated the stem with a heat gun on the low setting until the vulcanite was pliable. I bent it to proper angle and then set it with cool water. I put the pipe back together – the bowl with its new stem. This smooth finished Stanhope Genuine Imported Briar Bullmoose is a real beauty and the chosen stem works well with it. It is an American made pipe with connections to L.H. Stern. The grain on the bowl is quite beautiful and came alive with the buffing. I used Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel on both the bowl and stem. I gave both multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel then buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The Stanhope Bullmoose feels great in the hand. It is lightweight and the contrast in the browns of the briar and the polished vulcanite stem is quite amazing. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outer diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.69 ounces/48 grams. It really is a beauty. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the American (US) Pipe Makers section shortly if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Thanks for walking through the restemming and the restoration with me. Cheers.