Tag Archives: Malaga Seconds M-2

Restoring an Old Malaga Canadian

by Kenneth Lieblich

Next on the chopping block is a beautiful and unusual, long, partially-rusticated, Canadian-shaped pipe from the old Malaga Pipe Shop in Royal Oak, Michigan. I acquired it from eBay for a reasonably good price because it is technically a Malaga “second” – although I know from Steve that Malaga “seconds” are frequently indistinguishable in quality from their firsts. Truth be told, I’m not a fan of the rustication on this pipe, but the actual shape of the pipe itself was so charming to me that I knew I had to add it to my collection. The slightly-canted, apple-shaped bowl, attached to the long oval shank is particularly beautiful. The only markings on the pipe are on the underside of the shank. They read “Malaga” M-2. The M-2 indicates that this is a second, as I mentioned above. Steve has worked on quite a few Malaga pipes and blogged their restorations over the years, so rather than repeat previous blogs, I am including the link to one that gives some of the history of the Malaga brand and the Malaga Pipe Shop in Royal Oak, Michigan in the USA from a catalogue: https://rebornpipes.com/2013/02/09/george-khoubesser-and-malaga-pipes/. I assume (but don’t know) that the name from comes from the Spanish port city of Málaga – a place I visited in my youth. The founder of the company, George Khoubesser, is of Turkish ancestry and, given Málaga’s importance to the ancient Caliphate of Córdoba, I wonder if there is a distant connection. But I digress…

My pipe is very similar, but not identical, to the one in the image below from the Malaga catalogue. The pipe must have been a favourite of the previous owner, as it was heavily and lovingly smoked. The stem had little oxidation but was well-chewed and dented. It would require some considerable attention. The stummel was in good shape, albeit dirty; there was the odd scratch and nick, but nothing problematic. The rim of the pipe had a substantial burn. We’ll see how much of that can be repaired. The insides of both the stem and the stummel were pretty filthy, and STUNK very badly of some sort of aromatic tobacco. As usual, I wiped the stem down with Murphy’s Oil Soap on some cotton pads. Then I cleaned out the inside with pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. As you can see, this one had a lot of filth in it! I also took a BIC lighter and ‘painted’ the stem with its flame to lift the few bite marks and dents. This was quite successful in raising the dents, but the tooth damage was significant enough to need more work. I then wiped down the stem with SoftScrub cleaner to remove surface oxidation. Once this process was done, the stem went for an overnight soak in the Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. This allows me to clean the oxidation off in a couple of ways: by applying a mild cleaner to the surface and sanding the stem. The next day, I used SoftScrub again with some cotton rounds. I built up the dents on the stem and repaired the button with black cyanoacrylate adhesive and let them fully cure. I then sanded the adhesive down with 220- and 400-grit sandpapers to meld seamlessly into the stem. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to bring out the lovely black lustre on the stem. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing. Moving on to the stummel. Firstly, I decided to ream out the bowl. I used the PipNet Reamer to remove the built-up cake and followed that with 220-grit sandpaper taped to a dowel to eliminate as much as I could. I took the chamber down to bare briar, as I wanted to ensure there were no hidden flaws in the wall. As it turns out, there were several heat fissures which I’d have to deal with later. I started to do my normal cleaning procedures on the shank, but the shank was completely blocked with debris and filth. I resorted to using a drill bit (by hand) and a dental tool to clear it out. Just look at the debris! Then I carried on cleaning out the insides of the shank with Q-tips, pipe cleaners, and lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some dish soap and tube brushes. I thrust some cotton balls into the bowl and the shank and saturated them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummel sit overnight. This caused any remaining oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton. After this, it was clean alright, but most certainly not de-ghosted. I mentioned earlier that the ghost in this pipe was quite disgusting and very strong. This step turned out to be only one of several steps to remove the smell.Leaving the ghost for the moment, I used cotton rounds and some Murphy’s Oil Soap to scrub the outside of the stummel and a toothbrush with Murphy’s for the lava on the rim of the pipe. At this point, it seemed sensible to set up a retort and further clean this whole pipe out – in hope of scaring out the ghost. I put the stem and stummel back together and used my pipe retort system. This system uses boiling isopropyl alcohol and a vacuum (a void, not the household appliance) to clean the interior of a pipe. I forgot to take photos of this, but the retort worked. I managed to improve the state of the pipe.

Back to this obstinate Ghost of Tobaccos Past. I was frustrated. The stench still lingered and was really getting on my nerves. I remembered some time ago that Steve told me about a technique that Greg Pease used to remove especially stubborn ghosts. One might call this the exorcism technique. The procedure is as follows: First, warm your oven to its lowest baking temperature (in my case, 170° F). Second, place the stummel (no stem) in the oven for three hours to warm up and allow the pores of the wood to open. Third, pull the stummel out, fill it with activated charcoal and place it back in the oven for another three hours. This will (hopefully) remove the remaining smells into the charcoal. Once the three hours are up, dump out the activated charcoal and you’re done. Here is a link to the original article by Greg Pease: http://glpease.com/Articles/Spot.html.With all that done, I could address the burn on the rim. I took some oxalic acid, used several Q-tips, and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed. The burn improved quite a bit, though there are still some signs of it left.Alas, as I mentioned earlier, there were some small cracks inside the bowl. The solution to this problem is always a tricky one: epoxy. I prepared some J.B. Weld epoxy and filled the cracks, ensuring that the epoxy was evenly spread. Once done, a good 24 hours was needed to ensure that the epoxy was properly cured. After that, I gently sanded the inside of the bowl to provide a rough surface for what was to come next. I coated the entire inside of the bowl with a mixture of activated charcoal and my wife’s homemade yogurt. Once hardened, this provided a good, slightly rough surface for a new cake to build. I took a solid wooden sphere, wrapped a piece of 220-grit sandpaper around it, and sanded the inner side of the chamber. This achieved two things: first, it removed some of the burn marks on the inner edge of the rim; and second (and more importantly), the circular shape and motion of the sphere gradually returned the edge to a perfect circle. Then, I took my entire set of Micromesh pads to finish off the sanding of the stummel. After that, a light application of Before & After Restoration Balm brought out the best in the stummel’s grain. Finally, it went off to the bench polisher. In the photograph, I show White Diamond and carnauba wax, but after taking the photo, I realized that Conservator’s wax would be better suited to the purpose. So that’s what I used. This is a wonderfully crafted pipe and has a very handsome feel to it. It took some work, but I am proud of it and the final product suits me to a T. It retains some wounds from battle, but, as Steve would say, they are part of this pipe’s story. This is one pipe that I am keeping for myself and adding to my collection. I am sure that I will be enjoying this one for many years to come. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 6⅝ in. (168 mm); height 1⅞ in. (48 mm); bowl diameter 1⅝ in. (41 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (20 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1¾ oz. (53 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe as much as I did restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

New Life for a Malaga Second M-2 Author

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table came to us from a fellow in Michigan, USA. It is a nicely shaped author. It has a taper vulcanite stem and beautiful grain showing through the grime around the bowl. It has the usual Malaga Oil Curing. I have worked on quite a few Malaga pipes throughout the years and have always found the fit and finish very well done. This pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads M-2 which is the stamp or a Malaga Second. There is a thick cake in the bowl and a thick overflow of lava on the back rim top. It appears that there is some damage to the inner edge of the rim in that area as well. The outer edge of the bowl looks very good. The taper vulcanite stem was oxidized, calcified and had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem near the button. The pipe looks to be in decent condition under the grime. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup. He took photos of the rim top to show the cake and the lava coat. It is another dirty pipe. He also captured the shape of the stem and the deep tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside of the stem near the button. He took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the beautiful grain around the bowl and the amount of grime ground into the surface of the briar. He took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank and it is clear and readable as noted above.I am also including the link to a blog that I wrote that gives some of the history of the Malaga brand and the Malaga Pipe Shop in Royal Oak, Michigan in the USA. I have written an earlier blog to give a little history of the Malaga Brand and the pipemaker, George Khoubesser. Here is the link – https://rebornpipes.com/tag/malaga-pipes/. That blog also includes links to a catalogue and the history of the pipemaker George Khoubesser. Follow the link to get a feel for the brand and the pipemaker.

Jeff had done his usual thorough cleanup on the pipe. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and followed up with a Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife to remove the cake. He scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl, rim, shank and stem with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the oils and tars on the rim and the grime on the finish of the bowl. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. He cleaned the internals and externals of the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water and cleaned out the airway in the stem with alcohol. The pipe looked very good. I took a photo of the rim top and stem to show the condition. They cleaned up really well and the top of the rim looked very good. The inner edge of the bowl showed chipping and burn damage on the back inner edge. The vulcanite stem had light tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button and on the button edges. I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank. It read as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. It is a well shaped Author that looks great. Now it was time to do my work on the pipe. I started by working over the damage from the burn on the inside rim. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to give the inner edge a bevel to take care of the burn and clean up the edges of bowl. I topped the bowl on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage to the rim surface. (I took a photo of the cleaned up rim top but it was too blurry to include. The bevel will be very visible in the polishing photos.) I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped down the bowl after each sanding pad. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. The photo below shows the polished stem. This nicely grained Malaga Second M-2 Author with a vulcanite taper stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The rich oil cured finish came alive with the polishing and waxing. The grain really popped. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished M-2 Author is a beauty and fits nicely in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. There are many more to come!

Cleaning up a Mysterious Pot Shaped Pipes stamped only M-2

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Blog by Steve Laug

The seller of this pipe identified it as a Malaga made pipe but in all of my searching on the web I was unable to find verification for that. There was nothing to suggest that it was made by Malaga Pipes. The only stamping that the pipe bore was M-2. I just finished restoring a Malaga Pipe and wrote about it in a previous blog https://rebornpipes.com/2016/02/27/a-beautiful-malaga-lovat-came-my-way/. In the comments that were posted in response to this blog there was an exchange of comments between me and John Lawitzke. In them he gave a lot of information on the brand. I figured John might well be able to solve my mystery pipe. I wrote a comment in that blog and asked him about the M-2 stamping. He wrote back with the following information.

Yes, M-2 is a Malaga second. Malaga seconds were marked either M-2 or MALAGA SECOND. Some Malaga seconds, you look at and really wonder why they are a second. A single fill or bad pit was enough to make it a second. Some seconds are really seconds. I have one Malaga second with a severely misdrilled airway. It was drilled half way at a bad angle and then re-drilled at the correct angle.

I have included the photos included by the Ebay seller. They give a pretty clear picture of the condition of the pipe and show the stamping on the side of the shank. Some pretty nice grain shown through the grime that covered the bowl. The M-2 stamping is also clearly visible in the photos.

You can see the rim damage in the photo below. The inner edge is out of round. It looks like the pipe has been reamed with a knife somewhere along the journey of its life.

Given the state of the pipe in the photos I could not wait to get it in hand and give it a closer examination. When it arrived, I put is in the refurbishing waiting box and it sat for a few weeks. This morning I took it out of the box and gave it a closer look. The pipe was in decent shape though dirty. The grain shown through the grime but it was pretty muted. There was a thicker cake than I had imagined and the lava on the rim thickly covered the inner edge hiding damage that certainly lay beneath. There were several nicks or gouges on the right side of the bowl – almost a road rash that can happen from dropping the pipe on concrete. There was also what appeared to be a spot on the right side of the bowl where a sticker had been left and left behind its imprint in the finish. The overall finish was worn to the point of not being visible. In my earlier post I found that Malaga rarely stained their pipes so this one wore the patina of age under the grime. The stem was oxidized and the button had a few tooth marks on the top and bottom. The next four photos show the pipe before I started working on it this morning.

The next photo shows a close-up of the rim to highlight the damage and the thickness of the cake in the bowl. The second photo gives a close-up of the M-2 stamping.

I reamed the bowl with the largest cutting head on the PipNet reamer. I wanted to get a clean bowl so that I could work on the damaged inner rim edge.

To prepare for my beveling work on the inner edge of the rim I topped the bowl on the topping board to remove the damage to the rim top. Once I had done that I found the only fill on the entire bowl that I can find. It was on the rim top at the left rear. It is right on the outer edge of the rim. I worked on beveling the inner edge of the rim with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. My goal was to work on that edge until the bowl appeared to be round once more. I think it worked pretty well from the photos below.

I scrubbed the bowl and the end of the shank with acetone on cotton pads to remove the grime and the wax on the bowl. From what I read Malaga did not stain their bowls but oil cured them. I wanted to get this one back to natural with the patina of age still in place.

The stem was very tight in the shank and with a little scrubbing with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs I could see why. There were a lot of tars and oils lining the walls of the mortise. I also cleaned out the stem and found that it was nowhere near as dirty as the shank.

With all of the internals cleaned it was time to begin working on the oxidized stem. This particular style of stem is a hard clean up. The beveled edges on the blade from the saddle to the button on the right and left, upper and lower are hard to clean up without rounding them. I worked the stem over with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and the build-up around the button. These stems take more time than others so once I had the oxidation beat, I decided to work some more on the bowl. I wanted to address the road rash on the right side of the bowl. I cleaned out the area with alcohol and then filled the many sharp edged nicks and gouges with clear super glue.

From the photo above you can see how many of these there were on this side of the bowl. Once the glue dried I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper. The sanding removed some of the darkening on the bowl and I liked the way the grain showed through the sanded areas. I sanded the entire bowl with 1500 grit micromesh sanding pads. I wanted to smooth out the repaired area and blend it in and also remove more of the darkening on the rest of the bowl. A benefit of sanding the bowl was being able to really see the beautiful grain and contrast on this pipe.

I sanded the bowl with 1800-3200 grit micromesh sanding pads. I then gave it a rub down with olive oil and hand buffed it.

I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and then dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads. I gave it another coat of oil and then finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of oil and let it dry.

I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the wheel and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad and then with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. Not a bad looking pipe for a Malaga second. Thanks for looking.