Tag Archives: Kirsten Regent RX pipe

Restoring a Lovely Generation 3 Kirsten RX Brass Tone ¼ Bent Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

I bought my first Kirsten – a Mandarin in the early 80s from a pipe shop that specialized in them in Idaho Falls, Idaho. That shop is long since gone but there is still something about Kirsten pipes that attracts my attention. It may be the design look of the pipe and it may be the stubborn resolve that gave birth to it when Kirsten invented it after getting word from his doctor that he had to stop smoking. I don’t what it is but I like the boxy look of the base and shank, the grooves in the machined metal, the beautiful grain on the smooth bowls and the gentle curves of the stem. They always catch my eye. This one is no exception. We purchased it at an estate sale on 09/16/2023 in Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA. It has O rings on the stem and the end valve and a base on the bowl so I know that it is one of the more modern renditions. It also has the same kind of thick marbled acrylic stems that the one I purchased had. The pipe is a large one with a brass tone barrel. The smooth Bulldog style bowl has some great grain on it under the grime on the surface. The bowl was thickly caked with a thick lava overflow pouring over the inwardly beveled rim top. It was hard to know the condition of the inner edge and rim top underneath the lava but cleaning that up will tell the story. The acrylic stem had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. The internals were heavily tarred and the metal tube and intake to the stem was also very dirty. The valve on the front of the bowl was tight but it was not frozen.  Jeff took photos of it before he worked his magic in the cleanup process. The exterior of the pipe was very dirty – grime and grit ground in from years of use and sitting. The rim top was covered with a coat of thick lava that overflowed the bowl. There was also some darkening and lava on the rim top. The bowl itself had a thick cake with flecks of tobacco stuck in the cake on the sides. The acrylic stem surface was dirty and had some tooth marks and chatter on both sides. Jeff took a photo of the sides of the bowl to give a better feel for the condition of the bowl. You can see the interesting grain on the bowl sides and front.He took photos of the pipe taken apart to show the constituent part s of the pipe. It really was a well-made piece of engineering from the Kirsten factory. I was looking forward to working on it. The next photos show the stamping on the sides of the barrel shank and it is very readable. It reads Kirsten on the left side of the barrel and on the underside Made in USA RX.Before doing cleanup work on the pipe I decided to do some research on the pipe. I have a catalogue for Kirsten pipes in my files and found this pipe in the catalogue. It is shown in the photo below in the bottom of the photo. The pipe I am working on is in the Regent Shape. I also have several Kirsten catalogues on the site and turned to the 1993-94. Here is the link to that catalogue (https://rebornpipes.com/2022/11/17/1993-94-kirsten-pipe-catalogue/). I have included several of the pages below. The first shows the bowl shape and the Radiator barrel. The bowl is the Bulldog shape bowl below at the bottom of the drawings of bowl shapes. The stem is shown in the second catalogue page below. It is a bronze coloured Italian Lucite with a ¼ bent. With that information in hand I went over the details of the stamping on a previous blog that I had posted by Dave Whitney who wrote Old Briar. He gave a helpful guide to dating a Kirsten pipe by the stamping and component parts. He separated them into generations – 1, 1.5, 2, 3. Going over the details I concluded that what I was dealing with a Generation 3 pipe that was made between 1958 and 1985. Here is the link and a portion of the blog. I have italicized the portions that pertain to this particular pipe (https://rebornpipes.com/2012/11/03/kirsten-generation-1-1-5-2-3/).

Generation 3 – 1985 to the present                                                                         

All current models stamped “Made in U.S.A.” and all have O rings on both the valve and stem. They come in the following models:

Straights

JX Jewel Brass

M Mariner

L Lancer

Quarter-Bents

RX Regent Brass

H Horizon

Full bents

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EX Esquire Brass

DX Designer Brass

FOOTNOTE ON VARIATIONS IN LETTER DESIGNATIONS:  Generally speaking, the X added to a model letter like “S” stands for brass tone finish, i.e., “SX.” There is one exception to this: In the 1960s Kirsten made a brass tone model with an “Eternalum” finish that gave the brass tone an antiqued look. They were marked with a “X” designation following the model letter. The B added to a model letter like “M” stands for black finish, i.e., “MB.”

He ended his answer to the questions with this great note: “Now the fun part….this is how they came from the factory. What people did to them after they got them is what makes it an inexact science. Parts for the different sizes are not interchangeable, except for the bowls. I have a Gen 1 – M and -S…nothing interchanges but the bowls. If you get a Gen 1 that has been badly abused, you can end up losing either the bit or metal insert, or both, no matter what you do or how long you try.”

References used:

Whitney, Dave (2009) Old Briar – Pipe smoking on a budget. Pipesbywhitney http://www.kirstenpipe.com/

I now knew that the pipe I was working on was a Generation 3 made between 1985 and the present. It was a Quarter-Bent and the RX made it a Regent Brass Version. The R is for the Regent shape and the X stamp refers to the Brass finish. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the remaining cake in the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish looks very good with good looking grain around the bowl and shank. The rim top had some significant damage on the back part of the bowl. It had been burned from repeated lighting with a torch lighter. Jeff took the pipe apart and cleaned the barrel, the adjustable valve and the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and soaked it in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer to remove the grime on the acrylic. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour it looked a lot better. I took photos before I started my part of the work. I took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show how well it had cleaned up. There is some rim damage on the back of the beveled rim top from the outer edge to the inner edge. It was burned from repeated lighting from a torch lighter and the charring seemed quite deep but sanding would make that clear. The rest of the rim top had some darkening but it was very clean. The stem tooth marks and chatter are very light.I remove the stem from the barrel and took a photo. I removed the bowl from the barrel and took another photo.I started my work on the pipe by dealing with the burn damage on the beveled rim top, the inner edge of the rim and the general darkening on the rim top with a wooden bowl and some 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around it.Once it was finished it looked very good. The burn damage was minimized and the darkening around the top and edges was mostly removed. I restained the rim top and edges with an oak stain pen to match the rest of the bowl.I polished the bowl and rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl with a damp cotton pad after each sanding pad. The surface began to take on a nice shine. I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the smooth finish to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I hand rubbed it with my fingers and worked it into the finish and used the shoe brush to get in the twin rings. I set it aside to dry for 10-15 minutes. 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. The grain on the bowl stands out with interesting lines moving across the sides of the bowl and the shank. I set the bowl aside and sanded the stem with the 2 inch square 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped down the stem after each sanding pad. I was able to remove the tooth marks and chatter on both sides with the pads. The stem looked very good.I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry.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.I put the Kirsten Regent Brass (RX) Bulldog back together and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to lightly polish the bowl and the acrylic stem. I buffed the bowl and stem to raise the gloss on the briar and the acrylic. I gave the pipe 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 the Kirsten Regent Brass Bulldog is shown in the photos below. The medium brown stains on the smooth Bulldog shaped bowl works well with the rich bronze Italian acrylic stem. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside Diameter: 1 ½ inches, Diameter of the chamber: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 59 grams/2.08 ounces. This is an interesting piece of briar, cross grain and birdseye on the bowl and shank. I really like how the briar and the vulcanite work well together. This one will soon be on the rebornpipes store. If you are interested in adding a House of Robertson to your collection this may well be the one for you. Thanks for walking with me through the restoration process.

Restoring a Kirsten RX System Pipe from Bob Kerr’s Estate

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Blog by Steve Laug

The first of the Kirsten pipes I have chosen to work on from Bob Kerr’s Estate is an RX Anodized Brass coloured Barrel  system pipe with a saddle stem. It is the first of Bob’s Kirsten pipes. (Bob’s photo is to the left). If you have not “met” the man and would like to read a bit of the history of the pipeman, his daughter has written a great tribute that is worth a read. Because I have included it in most of the restorations of the estate to date I thought that I would leave it out this time. Check out some of the recent Dunhill restoration blogs (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/01/restoring-the-last-of-bob-kerrs-dunhills-a-1962-dunhill-bruyere-656-f-t-bent-billiard/).

When I think of Kirsten pipes this is the shape that sticks in my mind because it is similar to the first Kirsten that I purchased in the late 70s. On the left side of the shank it is stamped with Kirsten in script. On the underside of the anodized barrel it is stamped Made in U.S.A. followed by RX. X107. It is a bent with large Dublin bowl. Metal base is dented and worn. The pipe has gaskets. Stem is oxidized, tooth marks, chatter near the button. Button is damaged. There is a cake in the bowl and lava overflow on the rim. The pipe is very dirty.  Jeff took photos of the pipe to show its general condition before he did his cleanup. The exterior of the pipe was very dirty – grime and grit ground in from years of use and sitting. The rim top was covered with a coat of thick lava that overflowed the bowl. There was also some darkening and lava on the rim top. The bowl itself had a thick cake with flecks of tobacco stuck in the cake on the sides.  It also appeared that there was some mold on the surface of the cake in the bowl. Jeff took a photo of the side and the heel of the bowl to give a better feel for the condition of the bowl. You can see the interesting grain on the bowl side and front.The next photos show the stamping on the sides of the barrel shank and it is very readable. It reads as noted above. The stem was dirty and extremely oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button. It was not nearly as chewed the other pipes in Bob’s estate. Before doing cleanup work on the pipe I decided to do some research on the pipe. I have a catalogue for Kirsten pipes in my files and found this pipe in the catalogue. It is shown in the photo below in the bottom of the photo. The pipe I am working on is in the Regent Shape.I am really glad that Jeff helped me work through this estate of over 125 pipes to clean from Bob’s estate. I would in no way be this close to finishing the estate without his help. Jeff cleaned the pipes with his usual penchant for thoroughness that I really appreciate. He had reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the remaining cake in the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish looks very good with good looking grain around the bowl and shank. Jeff took the pipe apart and cleaned the barrel, the adjustable valve and the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and soaked it in Before & After Deoxidizer to remove the oxidation on the rubber. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour it looked a lot better. I took photos before I started my part of the work.  I took some close up photos of the rim top and also of the stem surface. I wanted to show what cleaned bowl and rim top looked like. The rim top and edges of the bowl looked very good. The screw in the bottom of the bowl looks very good with no damage to the slots. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the light tooth marks and the remaining oxidation on the stem surface.I took the pipe apart and took photos of the parts of the pipe to give a picture of what it looked like.Now, on to my part of the restoration of this Kirsten RX pipe. I decided to start by polishing the bowl and rim top with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping the briar down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bark on the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. I rubbed the valve on the metal base with some Vaseline Petroleum Jelly. I have found that it keeps the valve from sticking in the base end. I screwed the bowl on the top of the metal barrel. This part of the restoration is finished and the pipe is looking really good at this point in the process. All that remains is the stem and push rod that goes in the end of the base.  I set the bowl and metal barrel aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded out the stem surface with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth marks and chatter. I started to polish it with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper.I polished the vulcanite 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. This Kirsten RX Made in USA ¼ pipe from Bob Kerr’s estate turned out to be another great looking pipe. The finish on the pipe is in excellent condition and works well with the polished vulcanite saddle stem. I put the pipe back together and carefully buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. If you are interested in carrying on Bob’s legacy with this pipe send me a message or an email.  I have 2 more of Bob’ pipes to go, perhaps one of those will catch your attention. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. This is an interesting estate to bring back to life.