Tag Archives: Millville Pipes

Restoring a Millville Unique Made by Hand in London City Acorn

by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the worktable is a beautiful cross grain Bent Acorn. We bought it from a friend in Barrington, Rhode Island, USA. It is a truly beautiful piece of briar that is stamped Millville [over] Unique on the left side of the shank and Made by Hand [over] in [over] London City on the right side. The City stamp is slightly different that the stamping on Made in London. I have had a few Millville pipes come across my table over the years but this one is stunning. The cross grain on it is beautiful. When Jeff received it the bowl had been reamed and the pipe was quite clean. The stem was lightly oxidized and there was some chatter and tooth marks on the top and bottom of the stem near the button. The fit of the stem is perfect to the shank and there is a very faint characteristic M that graces this brand of pipe. It is almost gone from over-buffing but I am hoping it will still show when we have finished cleaning up the pipe. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his work on it.Jeff took close up photos of the bowl and rim to capture the condition of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. The crowned rim top was very clean with a slight bit of darkening on the back inner edge. The outer edge looked to be in decent condition. The stem showed some oxidation and light tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button. He also took a photo of the side and bottom of the bowl and shank to show the beautiful grain around the bowl. The photos show the general condition of the bowl and it is quite clean and another beautiful pipe. Jeff took photos to capture the stamping on the sides of the shank and the stem. The photos show the stamping Millville [over] Unique on the left side and Made by Hand [over] in [over] London City on the right side. He also captured the M stamp on the stem side.I wanted to know more about the brand so I did a bit of searching on the web to see what I could find out about Millville pipes. I turned first to Pipephil’s site to see what he had for information (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-m5.html). I did a screen capture of the section on the brand and have included that below. I also included the sidebar information below the picture. The pipe I am working is stamped like the second one below and is a Unique.Artisans: Dennis and John Marshall (father and son). They formerly worked at Charatans factory.

I turned to Pipedia for more information (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Millville). I have summarized what I found below:

Dennis Marshall started the brand in 1980. He had worked for Barling and Charatan for many years. His son John now makes all of the Millville pipes as Dennis is retired. Their pipes still very closely follow the artistic, freeform designs and grading of the old Charatan lines. The pipes are sold almost exclusively in Piccadilly, London in a stall in the market in front of St. James’s Church. Though you can sometimes find them online at British pipe sellers such as Bond’s of London. According to Pipedia the prices of their pipes “start at about 20 £ – hardly the price of a cheapish Stanwell. These were made from pre-turned bowls. The better pipes, entirely hand-made freehands in the old Charatan style, are made from a stock of very old briar, as John stresses. They use several grades like “Unique” or “Executive”. A “Bamboo” can make it up to 500 £.”

Jeff cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs, shank brushes and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl, rim, shank and stem with a tooth brush and undiluted 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 was able to remove the on the back side of the inner edge. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. The stem also looked better. I took close up photos of the bowl and rim top as well as the stem. You can see the condition of the rim top and bowl in the first photo. Jeff was able to remove the darkening on the back inner edge of the bowl and any remaining grime. It looked very good. The stem looked very good. The oxidation was all removed and the light tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button were less visible and would polish out.I took photos of the stamping on the shank to show their condition. They are clear and readable. The M stamp on the left side of the stem is faint but readable and I am hoping to be able to touch it up with white acrylic to make it stand out. I removed the stem from the shank to give a sense of the look of this Unique. I polished the rim top and the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded the bowl with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar 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. The following photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I am very happy with the results. I touched up the faint M stamp on the left side of the stamp with white acrylic fingernail polish. I worked it into the stamp and scraped it off with my nail. I cleaned up the excess with a 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad. It looked quite good though faint in spots.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad Obsidian Oil. I finished by polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish both fine and extra Fine and then wiped it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil. This is a beautiful Millville Unique Hand Made in London City Bent Acorn with a vulcanite tapered stem. It has a great look and feel. The shape of the bowl, the rim top and the cut of the briar work well to highlight the grain around the bowl sides. I polished stem and the bowl with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The grain took on life with the buffing. The rich oil cured colour works well with the polished vulcanite stem. The finished Millville Unique Bent Acorn has a rich look that is quite catching. Have a look at it with the photos below. The shape, finish and flow of the pipe and stem are very well done. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.48 ounces/43 grams. It is a beautiful pipe. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store shortly in the British Pipemakers Section if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Thanks for walking with me through the restoration.

Restoring a Millville Premiere Large Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the worktable is another that will be for sale for the benefit of Smokers Forum online community. It is a truly beautiful piece of briar that is stamped Millville Premier on the left side of the shank and Made in London over England on the right side. I have had a few Millville pipes come across my table over the years but this is by far one of the most stunning. The grain on it is beautiful. When I got it the finish was dirty and the grain did not stand out clearly. The stem was rough and porous feeling and was oxidized. There seemed to have been a softee bit in place at one time on the stem as it had left behind the characteristic calcification on the vulcanite. There were two light tooth marks on the top and bottom of the stem near the button. The fit of the stem is perfect to the shank and there is a very faint characteristic M that graces this brand of pipe. It is almost gone from over-buffing but I am hoping it will still show when I have finished cleaning up the pipe. The finish was lightened at the shank stem junction and would need to be darkened. The rim had what appeared to be a gouge across the top surface at the backside of the bowl.

I wanted to know more about the brand so I did a bit of searching on the web to see what I could find out about Millville pipes. Dennis Marshall started the brand in 1980. He had worked for Barling and Charatan for many years. His son John now makes all of the Millville pipes as Dennis is retired. Their pipes still very closely follow the artistic, freeform designs and grading of the old Charatan lines. The pipes are sold almost exclusively in Piccadilly, London in a stall in the market in front of St. James’s Church. Though you can sometimes find them online at British pipe sellers such as Bond’s of London. According to Pipedia the prices of their pipes “start at about 20 £ – hardly the price of a cheapish Stanwell. These were made from pre-turned bowls. The better pipes, entirely hand-made freehands in the old Charatan style, are made from a stock of very old briar, as John stresses. They use several grades like “Unique” or “Executive”. A “Bamboo” can make it up to 500 £.”

Below are some photos of the pipe when I received it. It is a beauty that needed some TLC but it would soon be shining again.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer to take the cake back to the briar. I wanted to clean up the inner edge of the rim before I worked on the mark on the surface.

I took the next photo to show what appeared to be a gouge in the top of the rim. It went at an angle from the inside of the bowl across the back surface of the rim. I used some alcohol on a cotton pad to scrub down the surface of the briar. Once the grime was removed you can see the stunning grain on this beauty!

I spent some time examining the rim with a loupe to check how deep the gouge went and if I could steam it or if I would need to sand it to repair it. To my surprise I found that it was not a gouge at all but rather a fill. Somehow along the way the fill had shrunken and left the divot in the surface of the rim. I decided to top the bowl and see if I could minimize the divot. I started with a medium grit sanding sponge to see if that would do the job. I hate to use the extreme of topping the bowl with a full topping.

While it worked to some degree it did not remove the dip in the surface of the bowl. I decided to lightly top the bowl with the sandpaper on the topping board. In the next photo you can clearly see the fill in the rim. I was able to flatten the surface of the rim so that it is smooth to touch. I sanded the inner edge of the rim with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the nick in the rim. Then it was time to clean out the bowl, shank and stem. I used pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils in the pipe. It did not take a lot of scrubbing before the pipe was clean.

To smooth out the rough texture of the stem and remove the oxidation I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. For a change of pace, I turned my attention to the bowl finish. I used a stain pen to touch up the lighter areas of the finish at the stem shank junction and on the rim that I had topped. I blended two of the stain pens – the medium and the dark stain pen – to get the colour to match the bowl. I then buffed the bowl with White Diamond on the wheel to smooth out the blend. I would also need to use the micromesh sanding pads in the higher grits to bring the finish to a nice blend.

I worked on the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit 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. This time I let the oil dry on the stem before I took it to the buffer.

I buffed the bowl and stem with White Diamond and then finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads. I gave the stem a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad and then hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to add depth to the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.