Longchamps Pigskin Covered billiard

Guest Blog by Robert M. Boughton
Member, North American Society of Pipe Collectors
http://www.roadrunnerpipes.com
http://about.me/boughtonrobert
Photos © the Author

“Nothing is so perfectly amusing as a total change of ideas.”
— Laurence Sterne, 18th century Irish born English novelist and humorist

INTRODUCTION
Imagine it, the idea of covering a nice, good briar pipe in pigskin, or, as is more realistic, decent briar but pocked with so many problematic blemishes that conventional pipe-making wisdom would have it rusticated or coated with high quality varnish of some color and buffed to a high sheen. Yet some clever Frenchman, tired of the norm, cogitated on the puzzling problem until, in 1945, he came up with the idea of wrapping the bowl and shank in pigskin. And thus Longchamp, a brand of Forestier & Cie, was born to be the first maker and sole distributor of the new innovation, at least until other brands got with the program.

This particular leather-clad pipe came to me from the Internet, as so many subjects of my recent and future blogs did, because I spotted it in a lot and looked up Longchamp online. That is how I learned that the French company’s shop in St. Claude, renowned for so many other fine examples of the craft, fashioned the wooden shapes and sent them off to Paris where the actual pigskin coats were made and sewn on by local artisans.

I already bought two pigskins, both bulldogs, by other makers. The green Versailles, an export brand of Ropp, sold a few weeks ago. The tan Derby, an Italian make, remains available. The dark brown Longchamp, a billiard, makes a nice alternative as a different shape and color.

RESTORATION
In a façade of good upkeep, the pigskin itself was impeccable, needing only polishing. The real victims of the previous owner were the rim, chamber and stem. I’m getting plenty of experience with rim and chamber restoration, and as the photos above show, this is no exception. Don’t ask me how it’s possible, but when I finished reaming this one and sanding it with 150-grit paper, there was more carbon than bowl space. If it were tobacco, there would be enough to fill at least three bowls.But the finished wood, including the rim from which I was able to remove with super fine steel wool all of the burns that appeared to be so serious I suspected someone had used a cigar torch on it, makes the labor of love worth it.Just a little patient work with 1500 micromesh brought back the nice grain and took away the small nick. I re-did the rim with brown boot stain, flamed it and removed the resulting light layer of black flakes with gentle use of 2400 micromesh, going with the grain.

Reading the instructions on the label helped me avoid following my impulse to squeeze out a huge gob of the Cadillac Boot and Shoe Care polish I bought for the purpose of restoring the shine to the pigskin. I would have smeared it all over the leather and was amazed that so little of the stuff went so far. Like Dippity-do, just a dab will do you.

Now, the scrapes and discoloring of the stem took some time to undo with 220-grit paper followed by 1500 micromesh. I polished it with the usual red Tripoli (several turns on the buffer) and White Diamond.

The one thing about this restore that seemed wrong as far as the briar was concerned was not being able to remove the pigskin to get to the wood and at least clean it up. I suppose my innate curiosity would have compelled me to take this step if I possessed the skill to sew the leather back together! But as it was, the rim being the sole part of the wood that showed, it was all I needed to buff. I gave it the works, of course, with white Tripoli, White Diamond and carnauba waxes.

The final touch was returning the Longchamp galloping horse and rider logo on the stem with a white crayon marker. And of course, somewhere in there I cleaned and sanitized the pipe. CONCLUSION
Although I am not a big football fan, I was pretty good at running with the ball whenever I got it back in the day during my childhood. Something in me hated to be taken down, and so I became quite good at twisting and squirming my way out of the grips of opposing players when they got their hands on me, or dodging them altogether.