Tag Archives: Italian Made Briar folding pipe

Cleaning up an Interesting Italian Made Folding Pocket Pipe

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the worktable is another interesting piece of pipe history that comes from the bag of old unsmoked and lightly smoked pipes that I have been working on intermittently. It is a folding Pocket Pipe with an oval bowl. The bowl is lightly smoked. Surprisingly it is in better shape than many of these old timers. The pipe is dirty but there is some amazing grain around the sides and wedges of rustication look good as well .The stem is hard rubber which makes me think is a bit older than some similar pipes with vulcanite stems. It has a push tenon from the same material that is part of the stem. Other than some tooth chatter on the stem surface the stem is in really good shape. A short description would be that it is an Italian made lightly smoked Folding Pocket Pipe with a hard rubber stem. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Imported Briar [over] Made in Italy. I would guess that the pipe was made by Savinelli as I have seen several very similar pipes shaped like this one made by them. The rim top was dirty and the inner edge had some lava. The exterior of the bowl was dirty and dusty and band was oxidized. Grain stood out in the smooth portions around the bowl sides and bottom and the interesting rustication wedges worked well. There was tooth chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button but nothing deep. I took some photos of this interesting Pocket Pipe extended and folded to show the condition when we received it. It was dusty, dirty and had some grime worked into the surface of the briar from being shuffled around a lot since it was made. I took close up photos of the bowl and rim top and the stem to show their condition. You can see the thin cake on the bowl sides and the thin lava on the rim top. The stem looks good with light chatter and tooth marks on both sides. I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank. You can see that it is somewhat faint but still readable.I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts to give a sense of the beautiful proportions of this nice little pipe. It is going to take a little work but I think it will be quite stunning once it is restored.I reamed the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to deal with the oval shape of the chamber. I scraped out the thin and uneven cake until the walls were clear. They looked very good. There was no heat damage or checking present. I cleaned out the mortise and the airway in the shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. The stem was an interesting challenge due to the right angle bend but it is now clean.I scrubbed off the shiny varnish coat on the bowl and shank with alcohol and a cotton pad. It came off quite easily and the grain really stood out. It is a nice piece of briar.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad to check and make sure there was progress. By the end the there was a rich shine to the bowl.I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 10 minutes, then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and my colours worked well.I set the bowl aside and addressed the tooth chatter in the hard rubber stem. I sanded it out with 220 grit sandpaper and started the polishing with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper.I polished out the scratches in the surface of the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I was able to remove the tooth chatter on both sides. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to cure.This interesting Italian Made Folding Pocket Pipe was fun to work on. I love the final touches that make it sing. I put the bowl and stem back together to have a look at the whole with the newly fit band on the shank. I carefully buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel. I gave it 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. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished shank band and the black, hard rubber stem. This richly finished Pocket Pipe is light weight and it is clean and ready load up with a favourite tobacco. Have a look at it in the photos below. When extended its measurements are Length: 4 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 inch x 1 ¼ inches, Diameter of the chamber: ½ inch x 1 inch. The folded measurements are Length: 3 inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Diameter of the outside and the chamber remain the same. The weight of the pipe is 33 grams/1.13 oz. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Italian Pipe Makers section if you wish to add it to your collection. 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 the next generation.

New Life for an Italian Made Folding Pocket Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

This is the second pipe from on the estate pipes from the pipe shop that had closed here in Vancouver. The entire lot came to me from the estate of an older pipeman whose wife dropped them off at a pipe shop to be cleaned and sold. When the shop closed they came to me. The pipe on the table now was another Italian made rusticated folding pocket pipe. It is stamped ITALY on the end just below the spot where the stem is inserted. There is no other stamping on the bowl. The briar has an interesting rustication pattern to it that flows vertically around the bowl. The bowl had hardly been smoked but the briar was dull and dirty looking. The folding stem is vulcanite and is oxidized. Other than the oxidation it was a clean stem. I took photos of the pipe when I received it. I sent about twenty of the pipes to my brother Jeff in Idaho to work over and clean up. He cleaned up the pipes with his usual thoroughness – reaming the bowl and scrubbing the internals with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior with Murphy’s Oil Soap to clean off the dust and grime on the finish. When he sent it the pipe was ready to restore. I took photos of the pipe when I unpacked it. The briar was clean and the finish dull. The oxidation on the stem had come to the surface. The first four pictures show the pipe with the stem open and ready to smoke. The next set of photos show the pipe with the stem folded over the top of the bowl for easy stowage in a pocket or a vest pocket. I took a close up photo of the rim top after Jeff had cleaned it up. The look of the rim top and edges is very good. The carved finish on the plateau top is clean and undamaged. He had been able to remove the cake and the lava very well. The bowl looked very good. The plateau on the shank end is also very clean. The stem is also shown and was very clean. The tooth marks on both sides near the button are visible in the photos.The pipe is similar to the Brebbia Version of the Rolex pocket pipe that Paresh posted recently on the blog (https://rebornpipes.com/2018/12/12/sprucing-up-a-sparingly-used-rolex-vest-pipe/). This one is stamped solely Italy so it is not clear who made it.

I worked Before & After Restoration Balm into the briar and the plateau on the rim top and the shank end. I worked it into the surface with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the wood. I let the balm sit for about 20 minutes and buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth. I took photos of the pipe at this point in the process to show what the bowl looked like at this point. I sanded the tooth marks and the surface of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to minimize the tooth damage and to remove the oxidation. I was able to remove the majority of the tooth damage other than a few small spots along the button on the top side and the underside. I began the polishing of the stem with with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 and dry sanding them with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each pad. When I finished I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. The following photos show the stem at this point. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and rubber. 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 original patina on the bowl came alive with the buffing and worked well with the polished vulcanite stem. The pipe has a rich look. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The shape, finish and flow of the pipe and stem work give the pipe a very classic pocketpipe look. The dimensions of the pipe when folded are Length: 2 ½ inches, Height: 2 ¾ inches, oval bowl that is 1 inch wide x 2 ½ long, Chamber width: 1/2 of an inch, Chamber Length: 1 inch. With the stem unfolded the pipe is Length: 3 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches. The bowl dimensions are the same. Thanks for reading this while I worked on it. It was interesting and unusual piece to restore and I really enjoyed the work.