Tag Archives: micromesh sanding pads

Restoring an Old Sea Slug or an Old River Chubby Bent Apple

Blog by Steve Laug

My brother Jeff picked up a pipe that is in one of my favourite shapes – the chubby apple. I love the feel of this pipe shape in the hand. It just fits perfectly and sits right in my opinion. This one was stamped on the underside of the shank with the words OLD RIVER. There is no shape number or country of origin stamped on the pipe. The rusticated finish is very tactile and feels great in the hand. To me it has the look and shape of a sea slug. Living in Vancouver, near on the ocean I have seen a lot of sea slugs and always found something endearing in their sheer ugliness. The finish on this one reminds me of those ugly sea slugs and yet the look captures me. The stem is a solid rubber of high quality as it was only minimally oxidized and it was very hard. I took the following photos when the pipe arrived to show you its condition. The finish is unique to my mind. It is almost a combination of sandblast and rustication. The deep grooves on the pipe were dirty with dust and debris lodged in them. The high spots were quite shiny and clean. The stem had mild oxidation on the surface but nothing deep. The shape of the stem was old style with a slot in the button but highly tapered as it made its way to the button. The rim was clean with nothing more than the same dust as the sides of the bowl. There was no build up on the flat surface of the rim and the inner and outer edges were in good shape. Someone had reamed it out and it looked to have been sanded clean. They did well in terms of keeping the inner edge of the bowl round and the distance between the inner and outer wall of the rim equidistant all the way around the bowl. I searched on the internet to see if I could find any information on the brand or the maker of the pipe. I found many pictures of virtually the same pipe I had but little or no information. Finally looking at one photo of a pipe that is the obvious brother of the one I have on Smokershaven.com I found some information. I was dubious about the information as the pipe I have is certainly an older pipe and one that has an older style stem but the connection was worth checking out. Here is the link: https://www.smokershaven.com/old-river-estate-pipe-carved-chubby-bent-apple/. In the description of the pipe on the site it says that the Old River brand was made by Oliver Camphausen. Because of the uncertainty I wrote to Mr. Camphausen in Germany and asked him directly if he made that brand. His response is below.

Dear Mr. Laug,
No you’ re gone wrong. I’ m sorry but I never carved this pipe. Also never used this brand stamping my pipes.
Best regards
Oliver Camphausen

With that answer my sole clue as to the identity of the pipe was gone. Not only do I not know any information on the maker but I am not even certain if there were other shapes made under this name. Every picture of the brand that I have seen on the web was virtually identical in shape to the one I have. There is variation of course in the bend and shape of the stem (some had a replacement stem). There is also variation in the rustication pattern as all were done individually by hand but the overall bumpy chubby look of the pipe is the same. So the mystery remains and I will just enjoy the pipe.

I took two close-up photos of the pipe. The first is a photo of the underside of the shank with the stamping. The second is of the bowl and the rim. The pipe was filthy inside the shank and airway in both the bowl and the stem. I cleaned out both with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners until they were spotless and the pipe smelled sweet once again. I scrubbed down the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap, rinsed and dried it to give it a good cleaning and remove the dust and debris from the crevices. I gave the bowl several coats of Conservator’s Wax and then buffed it by hand with a shoe brush.I sanded the stem with some 600 grit sandpaper to remove the surface oxidation and marks on the surface. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished by dry sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it sit until it was absorbed then hand buffed it. I buffed the pipe lightly with Blue Diamond and gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I gave the bowl several more coats of Conservator’s Wax and then buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad on the wheel. I gave it a final hand buff with a microfibre cloth to raise a deeper shine. The finished Sea Slug is shown in the photos below. There is just something endearing about the sheer ugliness of the slug. I like it! Thanks for looking.

Restoring a Lovely Rhodesian by John Calich

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have had a thing for Calich pipes since John made a new stem for a bowl I bought on Ebay for one of his pipes. It was a labour of love and one which led to several phone conversations and correspondence with John. He was a great guy and a definite loss to the Canadian pipe smoking community. Whenever I come across one of his pipes in need of work I try to purchase it and restore it. The pipe I am writing about at this time is a Calich Hand Made Rhodesian that is stamped that way on the underside of the shank. It also has a 04 stamping. The photos below were shown by the eBay seller. The bowl appears to be in great shape. The stem is slightly oxidized and the seller noted that there was a hole in the top side of the stem at the button. I knew what I was getting into when I purchased this pipe – or so I thought.I have written several blogs about Calich pipes that help give an idea of the age of the pipe. While I waited for the pipe to arrive I reread those pieces to refresh my memory on the stamping. I have included the links to the blogs below.

https://rebornpipes.com/2015/03/03/one-of-my-john-calich-pipes-a-calich-ee-billiard/

I summarize the dating information from those blogs now: From my research and conversations I learned that John’s pipes were graded 3E – 8E. The retail prices for them ranged from $145.00 to $500.00. Each pipe was stamped “CALICH” and given an E grade. His earlier pipes were graded from 3-14 and had a single, tiny silver dot applied to the top of the stem. More information can be found at the Pipedia website by clicking on this link. http://pipedia.org/wiki/Calich This information told me as expected that the pipe I had was an earlier one.

I vaguely remembered that I had found further information but could not remember it so I read the next blog I wrote. https://rebornpipes.com/2014/03/21/reflecting-on-my-collection-of-john-calich-pipes/ There the information honed in on the date more closely. I quote from that blog now: I did find out some further information on the dating of Calich pipes as the information on Pipedia was not complete. What I found was very helpful. His early pipes were graded with numbers from 3 – 14. By the late 1980’s Calich introduced 15, 16, and even one 17. In the mid-90’s the grade system changed employing a number of E’s. The more EE’s the higher the grade. From that information I knew that the pipe I had was not only an earlier one but came from early in the 1980s.

When the pipe arrived I took some photos of it to give a clear picture of what I was going to have to deal with in the restoration of this pipe. The stem was more oxidized than the seller’s photos showed and the finish also showed more debris in the rustication and the double rings around the bowl cap than had appeared in the photos. The rim top looked about the same – there was a thin build up of lava on the flat surface but the inner and outer edges were undamaged. The bowl had a light cake in it and would be easy to deal with. There was no damage to the inner bowl. As I looked over the surface of the bowl it was clear that under the grime the pipe was in pretty decent shape. The big issue was the hole in the top side of the stem at the button. I took a photo of the bite through to show the extent of the damage. The edges of the bite through were also pushed down into the airway on the stem constricting the airway so that a pipe cleaner would not pass through. The topside of the button was also thinned down considerably and would need to be built up. I used needle files and a dental pick to open up the airway and clean up the crushed edges of the bite through. It enlarged the hole but the airway was wide open when I finished. I also roughed up the edges of the cleaned up hole with the needle files to give a rough surface for the repair to bond to. With the stem hole cleaned up I was ready to begin the repair. I cut a wedge of cardboard and covered it with clear tape to make a surface that the glue would not stick to. I inserted it into the airway under the hole and wedged it in place. I mixed a batch of activated charcoal powder and black super glue to make a patching mortar and using a dental spatula applied the material to the hole and the top of the button to build it up. I sprayed it with some accelerator to harden the surface so I could continue to work on the pipe and removed the cardboard wedge. I reamed the bowl with the Savinelli Pipe Knife to clean out the thin cake. You can see from the photo that there was not much of a build up so it was quick job.I set the stem aside and used a dental pick to clean out the rings around the bowl cap. I scrubbed the rustication with some Murphy’s Oil Soap to clean up the dust in the grooves and crevices of the finish.I scrubbed the top of the rim with saliva and cotton pads and was able to remove the lava on the surface without harming the finish on the bowl top. I cleaned out the inside of the mortise and shank with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol.By that time I was also able to clean out the inside of the stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol. The pipe cleaners went through with little issue and the stem was clean.The next morning after the glue had cured overnight I worked on the stem. I needed to reshape the slot to facilitate easy cleaning so I used needle files to clean up the entrance of the airway.I sanded the stem repair and the surface of the button top with a sanding board to begin the process of reshaping the surfaces of both.I cleaned up the edge of the button and shaped the surface of the button with needle files until the edge was sharp the surface matched that of the underside of the button.With all of the hard shaping done it was time to begin the tedious process of sanding the repairs. I started with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the surface and the transition to the rest of the stem.There were still some small holes around some spots on the fill. I used a clear super glue to fill these in and smoothed out the patch with a spatula. When the repair had dried I sanded it with some finer grit sand papers until the surface was smooth. I moved on to sand the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and then giving it a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished by sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads and giving it a final coat of oil. I let the oil dry before buffing the pipe. I buffed the pipe and stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel and then gave the stem several coats of Carnauba wax. I buffed the stem with a clean buffing pad. I gave the bowl several coats of Conservator’s Wax and hand buffed it with a shoe brush. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The stem repair is solid and though visible to me as I have looked at it so long, it is not obvious. The pipe is useable and looks as close to what it must have looked like when John shipped it out from his shop in the 80s. Thanks for looking.

Restoring a Unique Kaywoodie Flame Grain 23C

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Blog by Bill Hein

Today I have an interesting Kaywoodie on the bench. This particular pipe is an early Flame grain. It has a shape number of 23C. This is interesting because 23C was used for two different pipes in the same era. 23C is a two panel apple shape. One is half bent, the other is a square shank. The one on my bench is a square shank. I imagine it is quite rare as this style was only made in 1947. This still has its 4 hole stinger. Below are the before pictures. Starting off I disassembled the pipe and tossed the stem into a oxiclean bath. While the stem was soaking I reamed out the bowl and filled it with salt and alcohol. After a few hours I removed the stem from the oxiclean bath and rinsed it off. To my surprise there wasn’t much oxidation. I knocked the salt out of the bowl and gave it a good rinse before setting it aside to dry.

While the bowl was drying out I ran alcohol soaked pipe cleaners through the stem until they came out clean. This can be tricky with Kaywoodie pipes as quite a bit of sludge builds up inside the stinger. The ball on this pipe wasn’t too nasty but I found a very narrow pipe cleaner, a piece of wire, or even a toothpick can come in handy cleaning out the holes. I took some heat and 500 grit wet sandpaper to remove the oxidation and lift the few tooth marks near the bit.

I buffed the stem, stinger, and metal shank insert with white diamond. I then buffed the bowl and stem with carnauba wax. I finished the pipe up by buffing by hand with a microfibre cloth until I achieved a near mirror like shine. Below is the finished pipe.

Taking a Minimalist Approach on Restoring a Comoy’s Blue Riband 340 Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

A reader and friend in Texas and I had been corresponding about this pipe for a long time. When he picked it up and sent it to me for a restoration I was excited to see it. The Comoy’s Blue Riband has long been a favourite pipe of mine and I looked forward to seeing what the one he was sending looked like. From the photos I could see that it was dirty and tired with an oxidized stem but otherwise in decent shape. When I arrived I took it to the shop and opened the box. The next photos show the condition of the pipe before I started the clean up process. The stem was oxidized as well as having some calcification around the button end that someone had scraped off. It did not have any tooth marks and minimal tooth chatter. The rim was dirty and sported a coat of lava that hid the inner beveled edge and the top but it did not seem to have been burned or damaged. The bowl had an uneven cake build up inside that would need to be reamed. The finish was dirty but in really good shape. The grime on the surface obscured the stellar grain that showed on all sides of this pipe. I took some close up photos of the rim and the stem to give a better idea of the condition of the pipe. I decided on a minimalist approach to cleaning this stem. I did not want to remove too much of the surface of the vulcanite or change the fit to the shank in any way. I scrubbed the stem with Meguiar’s Scratch X2.0, a plastic polishing compound. The second photo below shows the stem after one application of the polish. I used the Savinelli Pipe Knife to clean out the uneven cake from the bowl.I cleaned out the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until it was fresh. I did the same with the stem.I scrubbed the rim with saliva on cotton pads to remove the lava build up without damaging the finish. It took some elbow grease but I was able to remove all of the grime.I gently cleaned off the briar with Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime and make the grain stand out once again. I use the soap undiluted and in this case very sparingly. I applied it with a cotton pad and quickly wiped off the surface. I did not want to remove the stain just clean the surface. The photos below show the bowl after the scrubbing. With the bowl clean I took some photos of the stamping on the shank. The first photo shows the left side of the shank with the Blue Riband stamping. It is sharp and clear. The second shows the right side of the shank with the Made in London stamp and the shape number. I continued to scrub the stem with the Meguiars polish until the vulcanite began to shine with a rich black glow. I sanded it with 1500-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads and rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. It took a lot of elbow grease but it worked and the stem shone. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond and then gave the full pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed with a clean buffing pad and then by hand with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I mailed it out to my friend in Texas and look forward to hearing what he thinks of the pipe now. Thanks for looking.

An Interesting Multi-Finish Stanwell Buffalo Sitter 606

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Blog by Steve Laug

This pipe came to me in the last box of pipes that my brother sent me. It is a Stanwell as can be seen from the shape and finish. From my research I came to understand that it came from the Stanwell Buffalo line. It is stamped on the smooth underside of the shank with the words Stanwell Made in Denmark and the shape number 606. The shape number is very visible and I was unable to locate that number on the internet shape charts.The front of the bowl was smooth and there was an acrylic horn-like material as a shank extension. The bowl had a light cake and looked as if it had been reamed recently. The rim of the pipe was really dirty with lava overflow from the bowl but underneath I could see that it was originally smooth like the front of the bowl and the portion where the stamping was on the underside of the shank. There was some burn damage on the outer and the inner edges of the rim that would need to be addressed. The pipe was a mix of medium and dark brown stains and the finish had a light sand blast on the surface of the sides, back and bottom of the bowl and the top and sides of the shank. The finish was dirty with lots of grime in the grain of the blast. The stem is a military style stick bit. The stem was in good shape with only one tooth mark on the underside toward the right side of the pipe. The fit in the shank was snug. The stamping on the stem showed the Stanwell Crown and S and it was faint but visible. I took a close up photo of the rim to show the state of things when I started. You can see the buildup on the surface and the burn damage on the front inner edge of the rim.I cleaned up the reaming with the Savinelli Pipe Knife and then cleaned out the internals of the bowl, shank, mortise and airway in the stem. I used pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove all of the oils. I scrubbed the stem with Meguiar’s Scratch X2.0 plastic polish to remove the oxidation. I sanded the tooth marks on the underside of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper until the stem was smooth. I lightly topped the bowl on the topping board. I wanted to remove the damaged surface and clean up rim edges. I also wanted to expose the burn marks so that I could address them.I sanded the rim top with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to smooth out the scratching. I then stained it with a medium brown stain pen to match the smooth portions of the pipe. You can see the burn damage on the inside edge of the front of the bowl.I folded a piece of sandpaper and worked on beveling the inside edge all the way around the bowl to minimize the damaged area on the right front edge. While the damage is still visible it is much more subtle than it was before the beveling. I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to clean up some of the oxidation and then worked on it with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and then rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of oil. I set it aside to dry. I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond (lightly on the bowl except for the smooth areas and the rim top and more concentrated on the stem). I gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed with a clean buffing pad. I hand waxed the bowl with Conservator’s Wax. I hand buffed the bowl with a shoe brush. I finished buffing the pipe with a microfiber cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I am still debating rusticating the rim to match the bowl and stain it darker to blend with the sandblast but not sure… time will tell. Thanks for looking.

Restemming and Restoring a Potpouri Author

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have a growing box of bowls that came to me without stems. It seems each time I clean it out and restem the pipes I inherit more of them. This is not a complaint as I actually enjoy restemming pipe bowls. It is always a challenge to get a new stem to align properly with the shank and to deal with cracks or damages to the bowl or the shank. This bowl came to me and I immediately fell for the rustic rocklike features of the rustication. It was gnarled and rough looking and felt great in the hand. The bowl was dirty and the deep grooves of the rustication had a lot of dirt and grime build up in them. The rim was caked and the rustication pretty much filled in the grooves making the rim surface smooth. The bowl had a rough cake in it and looked as if someone had started reaming the bowl but did not finish. There were some small fissures like cracks in the sides of the bowl near the entrance of the airway and on the bottom and the top of the airway. Someone had cleaned out the shank so it was not too dirty. There was a small crack on the top of the shank that was about 1/8 long. I could open it slightly with a wedge so it would need to be glued and banded. The pipe showed a lot of promise though and I could see it come alive if I had the correct stem for it. In the photo below there is a small crack barely visible in the middle of the shank end between my fingers. I have circled it with red to focus your eye on it. The tip of the red arrow is on top of the crack in the shank. It extends about 1/8 to ¼ inch. I took a close-up photo of the bowl and rim to give you an idea of the state of things when I started. It is hard to see but at this point I could see some small cracks around the entrance of the airway to the bowl.I went through my can of stems and found a green acrylic stem that would do the trick on this pipe. It would go well with the rustication and the length and width of the stem would carry through the thickness of the bowl. I sanded the tenon with the Dremel and sanding drum until it was a close fit to the shank. I finished sanding by hand with 220 grit sandpaper. It fit well in terms of the width of the shank but it was slightly thicker on the top and the bottom where it met the shank. I was careful inserting it as I did not want to crack the shank further. I used the Dremel and sanding drum to remove much of the excess thickness on the top and the bottom of the stem at the shank junction. I do this carefully with the stem in place in the shank so that I can get it as close as possible without damaging the finish on the shank. You can see in the next two photos that the junction is pretty smooth now and the thickness is almost a match. I finished the fit with a file and took off the remaining thickness that had to go. I also used the file to remove the tooth indentations on both sides of the stem near the button. With the fit nearly perfect it was time to sand out the filing marks and smooth out the stem. I have a medium grit sanding stick that works perfect for this application and I sanded with it until all of the file marks were gone and the transition between the shank and the stem was smooth. With the stem fit roughed in I turned my attention to the bowl and shank. I wanted to have the shank and bowl clean so I could deal with the repairs to the airway in the bowl and the crack on the top of the shank. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the largest cutting head. I cleaned up the remaining cake with the Savinelli Pipe Knife. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush on the sides, shank and the bowl of the bowl. I scrubbed the rim with a brass bristle brush until all of the lava that filled the rustication was gone.I rinsed off the soap with warm water and dried the bowl with a soft towel. The cleaned and reamed pipe is shown in the photo below.With the bowl reamed and the finish clean I turned to the internals. I cleaned out the mortise and airway into the bowl with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. It did not take too much to clean out the pipe. I cleaned the stem the same way and used a dental pick to clean up the slot in the end of the button. I lightly sanded the crack on the top of the shank and spread it open with a dental pick. I used a tooth pick to push super glue into the crack and then held the crack together until the glue set. Once it was dry I found a round band that had the right circumference to fit the shank and heated it with a lighter and pressed it onto the shank of the pipe. With shank repair complete and the bowl cleaned and ready I put the stem in place in the shank and took some photos of the pipe. I really liked the look of the band breaking up the rustic bowl and the smooth green stem. The band fit perfectly and did not cover the stamping on the underside of the shank. I still needed to sand the stem some more to get a shine but you can see what the pipe will look like at this point. I mixed a batch of pipe mud (cigar ash and water) and used a dental spatula to apply it to the bottom of the bowl. I inserted a pipe cleaner in the airway and used the spatula to apply the mud to the small cracks and fissures around the airway. Once the mud cured the pipe bowl would be in good shape until a new cake was built.I heated the stem in a cup of water in the microwave until it was pliable and then put a gentle bend in it to give it a more elegant look and comfortable feel. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to remove the scratches. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and then finished with 6000-12000 grit pads. I rubbed away the sanding dust with a damp cloth. I gave the pipe a light buff with Blue Diamond on the wheel to bring some deep shine to the stem. I then gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad. I finished by hand buffing it with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The green acrylic stem works well with the rough finish on the bowl. I like the finished look. What do think? Thanks for looking.

An Amazing Find – A Corsica Cavalier with a Horn Stem and End Cap

3 Replies

Blog Steve Laug

This is yet one more of my brother’s amazing finds. It is a beautiful Cavalier with a horn stem and end cap. It is stamped in classic late 19th Century fashion with gold leaf on the left side of the shank. It reads CORSICA in and arch over two stars around a capital V with what looks like an elongated 0 in the middle of the V. Underneath the *V* is VIEILLE RACINE stamped in a reverse arch. The words form and oval. It is my understanding that the Vielle Racine stamp translates literally as Old Root. The band is stamped 14K and is almost a rose gold. It is fitted to the shank and also is beveled inward covering the shank end. The horn end cap has a threaded short bone tenon that screws into the briar. It has a large bowl.

When the pipe came to me it was dirty but the bowl had been reamed. The rim had a slight build up and the inner edge had been slightly damaged when it had been reamed. The gold band was tarnished. The finish was dirty and spotted with sticky dark spots on the end cap and in the bend at the top of the shank bowl junction. The bowl had been coated with shellac that was spotty and cloudy in places. The stem looked really good at first glance but I would have to examine it more closely once I started cleaning it up. The grain on the briar was beautiful and I could not wait to clean it up and see what lay beneath the grime and the shellac. I took several close-up photos to highlight different aspects of the pipe. The first of these is the state of the rim and bowl. The rim photo is a bit blurry but gives a pretty good idea nonetheless of the state of the bowl and the tars on the rim. The second photo is of the stamping on the left side of the shank. It still had the gold leaf in the stamping to highlight it. I took the pipe apart and photographed the parts. I also took a photo of the end cap so that the bone tenon in visible. The horn stem looked really good but looking at it up close I could see a crack along the top of the stem following the curve and a small group of them on the right side of the stem. There were also a few chips missing on the underside of the stem near the shank junction. The tenon had a unique look to it – almost a nipple on the end of it. It was coated with a little varnish as well so it much have someone’s attempt to tighten it as it was currently quite loose in the shank. Before I started to work on it I decided to do a bit of research to fill in the gaps on another pipe brand that had not heard of before seeing this one. I was familiar with briar coming from Corsica but had not run across the pipe brand of that name. I resorted to the pipephil site to see if he had any information on the pipe and who may have made it. The site did have the brand listed. It turns out that Corsica is a brand of Henri Vuillard of Saint Claude, France. This Vuillard was not to be confused with E. Vuillard & Cie also of Saint Claude. Reading that information helped me to make sense of the large *V* in the centre of the stamping on the pipe that I am working on. Here is the link to the information: http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/infos/hvuillard-en.html. The site included the following photos of several pipes in this line. The cursive form of the Corsica stamp is very similar to the stamping on my pipe.The link also included a sub link to a secondary page on the history of the brand. The following is an abstract of the information that I found regarding the maker of this pipe. At the end of the 19th century the Vuillard house managed by Paul Vuillard and established at Chemin de la Coupe (Saint Claude) produced match boxes and cases for spectacles. At the beginning of the 20th century on Henri’s (son of Paul Vuillard) initiative the factory is converted to the production of briar pipes which were marketed under the “Corsica” brand.

From that information along with the materials and the design of the pipe I am pretty confident in saying that it was made in the early 20th century when the company was managed by Paul Vuillard who took the initiative to start making pipes. An interesting note is that from 1914-1918 The Henri Vuillard Factory produced pipes for the French Army. The article says that at that time they had between 170-180 employees.

Armed with this new knowledge and an estimate of the age of the pipe I began to clean it up. The cake had been reamed already so I just cleaned up the walls of the bowl with the Savinelli Pipe Knife. I had removed the stem and the end cap so it was easy to hold the bowl and ream it.I cleaned the shank from the mortise to the end cap with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. The oils and tars that came out were not very dark and they did not smell like tobacco. It was almost as if they were the stain from the outside of the bowl. It did not matter though it took quite a few before the shank was clean all the way through.I cleaned the airway in the stem as well. It also was dirty. But as I cleaned off the exterior the cracks became more noticeable, particularly the one on the topside.I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the shellac coat. I was careful around the gold leaf in the stamping as I did not want to damage that area of the bowl. I put Vaseline on the threads of the bone tenon on the end cap and carefully turned it into the end of the shank. I polished the bone of the end cap with 1500-4000 grit micromesh sanding pads to smooth it out. I rubbed it down with some Obsidian Oil and let it dry. In the photo below you can see the fine cracks in the stem near the tenon end. This is also where the chips were. I drilled a tiny hole at each end of the crack on the top of the stem with a micro drill bit. I filled the holes and the crack with clear super glue. I used the clear super glue to also stabilize the other cracks on the sides of the stem and to build up the chipped areas on the underside of the stem. When the glue dried I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the repairs and to begin to polish the stem. Once the repairs were smooth I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and gave the stem a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I know the oil is made for vulcanite but I wanted to bring a little life to the horn. I finished sanding the stem with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of oil. I polished the gold band on the shank end with a jeweler’s cloth until it shone. I gave the briar several coats of Conservators Wax and hand buffed the bowl with a shoe brush when it dried. I decided not to buff this pipe on the wheel because I did not want to damage the gold leaf or the horn. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth and polished it until it shone. The finished pipe is shown in the photos that follow. It truly is a beautiful old pipe. I only wish that the horn was more perfect. The stem glows but I see the repaired cracks. Ah well it is better than having the stem splinter apart while using it. It should be good for another hundred plus years now. Thanks for looking.

Introduced to a Bamboo Briar of Spain Oval Shank Billiard

6 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

I don’t know why but I keep taking out some unique pipes from the box my brother Jeff sent me. He has an uncanny ability to find the unusual and interesting pipes for me to restore. This one is one I had never heard of before. I have seen other bamboo rusticated pipes but not one that had the stamping that this one does. It is stamped on the underside of the bowl with the words BAMBOO BRIAR in an arch over the word Spain. The carver did a marvelous job of replicating the look of bamboo in the briar. The nodules, lines and grooves that he/she put in the briar really look like bamboo. To give it even more of an interesting look they left the briar natural to highlight the subdued grain of the briar coming through the smooth areas of the bamboo and the carved nicks in the surface. It is really beautiful.

When I took it out of the box the bowl had a thick cake of carbon built up in the bowl. The rim was thickly caked as well with lava. The outer edges of the bowl had some nicks in it and there was a small burn mark on the front right inner edge of the bowl. The stem did not fully seat in the mortise because of the tars and oils there. The exposed portion of the tenon and the stem were badly oxidized. There was some light tooth chatter on the stem but overall it was in decent shape underneath the oxidation. I took some close up photos of the rim and the bottom of the bowl. The picture of the rim shows the thickness of the cake and the state of the top of the rim. This old pipe was pretty clogged up with cake and tars. The picture of the bottom of the bowl shows the stamping. It reads Bamboo Briar over Spain. I removed the stem and dropped in a jar of Oxyclean to soak the heavy oxidation for several hours. Before working on the bowl I did a little research on the brand and found that on my go to site, Logos and Stampings, or pipephil there was a notation. Here is the link: http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-b1.html#bamboobriar.

On that site the pipe is described as follows: The bamboo like decorative carving was typical of Valencia’s manufacturers since the early 20th century. However it’s difficult to say who exactly the maker was.

With that information in hand I went to work on the bowl. I reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer beginning with the smallest cutting head and working up to one that was the same diameter as the bowl. I removed the cake and took it back to bare wood. I finished the reaming and cleaned up the bowl walls with the Savinelli Pipe Knife. The outer edge of the rim was rough and the top had some nicks in the briar that made topping the bowl necessary. I topped it to remove the damaged areas of the rim using a topping board and 220 grit sandpaper. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with acetone (fingernail polish remover) on cotton pads to clean up the dirt and oils from the natural finish of the briar. I sanded the topped rim with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then used a light brown stain pen to stain it to match the patina on the bowl. I used a black Sharpie pen to touch the “root nodules” of the simulated bamboo. I hand applied some Conservators Wax to the bowl and once it dried hand buffed it with a shoe brush.I took photos of the pipe after buffing it. The colour of the rim and the patina that came out on the bowl with the wax gives it an aged bamboo look that I really like. I cleaned out the shank with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to remove the tars and oils. I was quite surprised by how little came out of the shank with the cleaning. I expected it to be far worse.The stem had been soaking in Oxyclean for about four hours so it was time to work on that. I set the bowl aside and removed the stem from the Oxy soak. The soak had softened and removed much of the oxidation from the surface. It had also brought the deeper oxidation to the surface.I rubbed the stem down to remove the softened oxidation and then used needle files to clean up and define the edges of the button.I used pipe cleaners and alcohol to clean out the inside of the stem and again was surprised by the lack of real oils and tars.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the file marks and to remove the oxidation on the surface. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. I buffed the stem on the buffer with Blue Diamond and then gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. I used a light touch on the bowl and shank so as not to clog up the nodules or grooves in the bamboo carving with too much wax. I raised the shine with a clean flannel buff on the buffer and then gave it a hand buff with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I really like the way the patina of the briar and the carvings on the bowl and shank give the pipe a look of aged bamboo. The unknown Spanish carver did a great job on this one in my opinion. Now I have to decide whether to keep this one or not. It is so unique that I think it deserves a place in my collection. Thanks for looking.

A Challenging Yello-Bole Chesterfield

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Blog by Aaron Henson

Although this is a standalone write up, it is also part 2 of an adventure I started with the rustication of a bent billiard about a month ago.

I found this Yello-Bole Chesterfield at a local flea market in town. It was part of a large estate collection, most of which were unsmoked uniquely carved pipes. My eye, however, was immediately attracted to the Peterson-like shape with military bit and P-lip stem and I was surprised to see that it was a Yello-Bole. The pipe was a bit grimy and oxidized with burn marks but after some talking we agreed on a price and I took it home.The stampings on the bowl were very clear and deep, some of the nicest I have seen on an estate pipe that is as well used as this one. The left side shank read YELLO-BOLE over HONEY CURED BRIAR over CHESTERFIELD with the KBB inside the clover leaf on the left. The band was stamped with KB&B inside the clover leaf over NICKEL PLATED. The right side shank was stamped with shape number 2816C. The stem had the Yello-Bole yellow circle inset in the top and SOLID RUBBER stamped deep into the underside of the stem.

A quick search online and I was able to use the markings to date the pipe to the 1933-1936 time manufacturing period.

The briar was in great shape with beautiful bird’s eye pattern. The pipe was dusty and grimy and after wiping down with an alcohol soaked cotton pad I continued with my assessment. The rim was coated with a heavy crust of tar and there was a deep burn mark on the outside of the rim (major issue number 1). The bowl did not have a large amount of cake so I had to assume that the previous owner had reamed out at some point. And perhaps it had been over reamed, because the air hole entered the bowl about 2/3 the way down the chamber wall. This would lead to a mouth full of hot ash when you were half way through the bowl (major issue number 2). There were some minor bumps and scratches in the surface of the bowl but nothing that could not be buffed out. The stem was in great shape. It was heavily oxidized with some minor tooth chatter but the airway was clear and the stinger was intact and in great condition.I set the stem to soak in a Oxiclean solution and turned to the stummel. First I reamed the chamber back to bare wood. Next, I tried to clean the rim with Oxiclean on a wet green pad but the tar was just too stubborn so I resorted to a topping board and lightly sand away the tar build up. This is where I made my first mistake: I scuffed off a bit of the nickel plating when topping the bowl (I still don’t have a fix for this!). I have thought about taking the ring off and having it re-plated but several attempts to remove the ring with heat have not been successful.

To address the burn mark on the rim I used a worn piece of 220 grit sand paper I removed the burned wood trying not to remove any of the sound briar under the burn. I was surprised to see how deep the burn went and was at a bit of a loss on how to address it. As you can see below, a significant amount of wood as damaged.I figured I had two options: 1) replace the burned material with glue/briar dust or 2) sand the rest of the rim to match and change the shape of the pipe. In either case I was going to need to refinish the briar so I wiped it down with acetone to remove as much of the finish as I could while I decided what I was going to do.

Looking into the chamber again, I listed out my options for addressing the air way issue. Again I came up with two options; 1) fill in the bottom 1/3 of the bowl with pipe mud, or 2) drill a new airway that comes out at the bottom of the chamber. I didn’t like either option. The first would have been a very large fill and volume change for the pipe and the second was fraught with potential problems – chiefly aligning the drill bit to come out at just the right point in the bottom of the bowl

So I figured it was time for some consultation. I outlined the issue in an email and included some picture and sent them off to Steve – our worthy “Professor of Pipe-ology” and blog host.

While I waited for Steve’s response I cleaned the inside of the shank and with alcohol soaked cotton swabs and pipe cleaners until then came out as clean as they went in. I also took the stem from the Oxiclean bath and removed the loose oxidation with a magic eraser. I cleaned the internals of the stem then polished it with micromesh pads 1500 – 12000. I used mineral oil every three pads to freshen the vulcanite and give the pads some traction. There was only one minor tooth mark that didn’t raise with heat and I filled it with a dab of black super glue and sanded it smooth with the 1500 mirco-mesh pad. Steve responded with the recommendation of building up the burn spot with super glue and briar dust confirmed that I had the right idea. I was hoping that he had another trick up his sleeve because I knew that the repair would have to be covered up with either a very dark stain or rusticated. I applied three separate layers of clear super glue and briar dust to build up the rim then carefully sanded the repair to blend it into the shape of the rim. I came across and older post where Kirk Fitzgerald rusticated a Peterson that looked very similar to my Chesterfield. Taking some note, I decided to try a similar type rustication. I lightly mark a ½” band around the top of the bowl with a pencil and corresponding area on the bottom of the bowl to balance the appearance. Using the 1/8” carving tool on a Dremel I added a dimpled texture in offset rows. I was glad I had tried using this tool on the previous project because the carving tool did have a tendency to skip on the harder grain. The final texture hid the repair and was not so extensive as to hide the grain. I sanded the outside of the bowl with micro mesh pads 1500 – 3600 to smooth out the scratches.

Instead of drilling a new airway, which posed the risk of additional misalignment, Steve recommended using a needle file to elongate the opening so it extended to the bottom of the bowl. The excess space could then be filled with plaster creating a new airway. This proved to be tedious work. Below are two rough cross-section of the pipe. On the left is the airway as it was and on the right is the revised airway (in theory).Filing was a slow process and it took some effort to keep the elongated hole from drifting off course. I went slow and checked the progress often. Once the hole was about where I thought it should be I used the stick of a cotton swab as the place holder for the new airway. It was the rolled paper type stick that could be bent to match the curve of the bowl. Holding stick in place with a rubber band around the rim I mixed a batch of thick plaster and pushed it into the elongated hole with my finger. When plaster came out the top of the hole I removed the excess from inside the bowl and set it aside to dry for 24 hours. In my first attempt at this repair, I did not have plaster so I used pipe mud (a slurry of cigar ash and water). This did not work at all. It is great for filling in the bottom of a bowl but it was too loose to stand on its own as a fill/patch. I removed the pipe mud and started over with the plaster.

The next evening, I used 100 grit sand paper wrapped around a ¼” dowel to remove the excess plaster and smooth out the repair. I carefully twisted the swab stick and it came free without damage to the patch. The next time I do this I will coat the stick with wax before securing it in place. The wax should help the stick pull free without bonding to the plaster.

It was time to finish the bowl. I chose to use straight Fiebing’s dark brown stain on the rusticated areas and then wiped it down with alcohol pad. Next I applied straight light brown to the rest of the bowl. After setting the color with heat I wiped the entire bowl with an alcohol pad to blend the colors. Happy with the results I took the pipe to the buffing station. I buffed the stem and stummel separately so I could get to all the area a little more easily. I started with white buffing compound then finished with multiple coats of carnauba wax.

With the outside of the pipe complete I wanted to cover up the plaster patch inside the bowl so I applied a bowl coating. Using my finger I spread a thin coat of maple syrup evenly over the inside of the bowl then poured in the contents of a dietary charcoal capsule. I put my palm over the top of the pipe and shook the pipe so the charcoal powder covered the inside of the bowl. I set the pipe aside to dry for 5 days before emptying out the loose powder.

I want to say “Thank you” to Steve for his advice on this one… and thank you for reading.

Refreshing a Beautiful and Unusual Clairmont Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

Once again my brother Jeff scored a beautiful and unusual pipe. It is stamped Clairmont on the left side of the shank. On the underside it is stamped MY PIPE and Handmade Italy. On the right side it bears the stamping 810 (it appears to be double stamped). The briar is naturally finished with no stain. There are some small fills on the shank extension and one on the left side of the bowl on the underside of the outer rim lip. They are small but visible at this point. The bowl had a slight cake in it that was uneven and there were some tobacco remnants on the bottom of the bowl. The top of the rim was dirty as was the rest of the finish. The Cumberland stem was in good shape but there were some light tooth marks on the top and underside next to the button edge. The slot in the end of the stem was rough and uneven. There was some red (maybe Tripoli) in the edges of the slot. I took the pipe apart and photographed the parts. The shank insert is pressure fit in the mortise of the bowl. It is a good snug fit with no looseness. The stem fit in the other end is also very snug and clean. The green dot on the Cumberland stem looks good. The tenon on the stem is integral to the stem. The finish on the stem is dull. While I really liked the looks of the pipe and knew it was Italian handmade I had no idea who made the brand. The stamping MY PIPE on the underside still has me mystified. I don’t know if the maker stamped it that way or if the first owner had it stamped that way. I will probably never know that but I wanted to know who made this pip as I had never seen this brand. Like always I begin the hunt for information at one of my favourite websites Pipephil’s Logos and Stamping site. It did not take long and I found the information at this link: http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c5.html.

The site showed a nice looking full bent pipe with a Lucite stem that had the green dot on the top side just as the stem I had did. The stamping was the same in terms of the script Clairmont. The Sardinian Briar * stamp was not present on mine. I found out that the brand was created by Alberto Paronelli in the 1970’s. I found that the pipes were usually crafted by Tom Spanu. Both of those names were familiar to me so that help. I have one of Tom’s Olivewood pipes and love it. The link gave information on the name. It turns out that “Clairmont” is a Francization of “Chiaramonti” which is the birthplace of Tom Spanu.Now I knew that I was dealing with a 1970’s era pipe made by Tom Spanu and named after his birthplace. For me this solidified the connection to Spanu. It was time to work on his pipe. As I worked on it I wondered if the MY PIPE stamp on the bottom was stamped by Tom and this was one of his own pipes. I cleaned up the internals of the pipe, reaming the bowl with the Savinelli Pipe Knife and scrubbing out the airways from button to bowl with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I scrubbed down the exterior of the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the grime and oils that were dirtying the natural finish of the bowl and shank extension. I was able to get quite a bit of the rim darkening off this way. The crowned rim top is beautiful. I thought it was fitting to rub down an Italian natural finish pipe with a light coat of olive oil. I rubbed down each of the briar parts of the pipe and put it back together. The olive oil brought life back to the briar and the grain began to shine through. This is a beautiful piece of briar. I set the bowl and shank aside and worked on the stem. I sanded the surface of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth marks and smooth out the flat surfaces. I sanded the end of the button to clean up some of the nicks and damage there. I also used a needle file to clean up the inside of the slot and smooth out the lines.I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to smooth out the scratches. I dry sanded with 3200-12000 grit micromesh pads to progressively polish the stem and bring the depth of the Cumberland back to life. I buffed the pipe and stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel and then gave the entire pipe several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to add depth to the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I like this one a lot so I think it will probably stay in my collection. Thanks for looking!