Tag Archives: Oxidation

A Simple Cleanup – NOS Simpsons Scotland Billiard 382

Blog by Steve Laug

A pipe my brother picked up quite awhile ago on Ebay was a nice vintage Simpsons 382. The seller said that they thought it had been lightly smoked. From the photos that were included in the sale I can see why they thought the pipe was smoked. It looked rough. The finish was dirty with dirt in grooves of the sandblast. There are parts of the blast that are deep and those had dust and grime in them. The rim appeared to be flawless and clean the inner and outer edges are undamaged. The dimensions of this petite pipe were given and it appeared to be proportional and attractive. The bowl is 1 5/8″ tall and measures about 1 1/8″ across the top. The chamber is ¾”. The length is 5 ½”. The saddle stem has some oxidation and scratches from sitting around and never being used. It has a faintly stamped and peeling M on top of the stem but I have no idea what that refers to. The pipe is marked as follows “Simpsons Scotland 382 “. The seller said that from their research that the 382 is a Comoy’s shape number. The photos below are the ones included in the advert on Ebay. When the pipe arrived it was actually in much better condition than the photos portrayed it. The finish was dirty but it was also a dark brown with light undertones coming through. The stem was oxidized but there were no tooth marks or chatter. The pipe looked like it had been sitting a very long time in a cupboard or on a shelf and the dust had settled into the crevices and the sunlight had done its work on vulcanite but it indeed was unsmoked. In my opinion it is New Old Stock or NOS. The bowl has a carbon bowl coating but the airway is absolutely clean. There is no debris or tar in it. All those things combined make think that it has never been smoked. I took a few photos of the pipe when I brought it to the work table. I was due for one that was an easy clean up and this looked like it might be the one. I took a close-up photo of the rim and bowl to give you a look at what I see. The carbon coating in the bowl is untouched by fire. The rim is flawless.I also took a close-up of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It read SIMPSONS over SCOTLAND and below Scotland and to the right (almost on the side of the shank) was the number stamp 382.With the interior pretty clean I decided to run a couple of pipe cleaners through the mortise, airway and into the bowl and the airway in the stem. The only thing that came out was the carcass of a small bug that fell out of the stem ahead of the pipe cleaner. I scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the dust and grime in the crevices and grooves of the bowl. I rinsed it off with warm water and dried off the bowl with a soft cloth. I hand buffed the bowl with a shoe brush and you can see the state of the cleaned bowl – it has a deep shine.I sanded the stem with 220-600 grit sandpaper to break up the oxidation. In the process of cleaning it the M decal came off and the stem was unmarked. I decided not to worry about it as it was not clear what it meant anyway. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then buffed it with red Tripoli. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and then dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit micromesh pads. I gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of oil. I let it dry. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I gave the bowl several coats of Conservator’s Wax and hand buffed it with a shoe brush. I buffed the bowl and stem with a clean flannel buffing pad and then with a microfibre cloth to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is a beauty. Thanks for looking.

Restoring my Paris Finds – A Pair of Hilson Double Ecume Sandblast Pipes

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

As I wrote earlier in another blog, I found these two pipes on an evening walk to dinner in the Latin Quarter of Paris (https://rebornpipes.com/2016/06/10/some-good-pipe-finds-on-a-recent-work-trip-to-europe/). The pair of Hilson pipes was stamped in block letters Hilson over Double Ecume with the word Sandblast following. The delicate canted Dublin was stamped with the shape number 5 just before the stem shank union, while the stack with the saddle stem was stamped with the shape number 95/S on the bottom of the bowl. The finish on both pipes was dirty and worn but not ruined. The bowls were meerlined and the top of the Dublin had a heavy build up of tars and cake that overflowed the bowl. The stack/billiard was less dirty but the cake overflowed onto the rim as well. The meer lining was darkened. The bowl in the Dublin had a thick cake that extended to the bottom of the bowl and reduced the size of the already petite bowl. The bowl on the stack was less thick but it nonetheless reduced the diameter of the bowl as well. The stems on both pipes had some tooth chatter and light oxidation but would easily clean up. Both stems bore a stylized capital H on the left side. As I looked at them I was glad I had picked them up for small sum of 10 Euros or slightly over 14 dollars Canadian.

I remember when I purchased them I took them back to the hotel in Paris and used a wooden coffee stirrer to scrape away some of the cake and debris in the bowls to check the meerlinings. I was hoping that they were intact all the way to the bottom of the bowl. I breathed a sigh of relief when I found that they were uncracked as far as I could see.

I was curious as to the stamping on the pipes. I have cleaned and restored quite a few Hilson pipes over the years – many of them meerschaum lined – and I do not recall seeing the Double Ecume stamping before. First I wanted to know what the name Ecume meant so I looked it up in a French/English dictionary and found that it meant Foam. Thus the pipe name was Hilson Double Foam. I liked the French far better! It sounded more elegant. I used Google and found out that the pipes were made when Hilson was still a Belgian Company. This dates them as pre 1980 as the company was then purchased by Gubbels in Holland. I checked on Pipedia and found an advertisement for Hilson Elan pipes. The sandblast looks like the one on my Ecume pipes. The interesting thing that came from this Wally Frank Catalogue advertisement was the description of the tube in the shank. It is described as Hilson’s special tubular dry smoking condenser. You can see a line drawing of that in the photo below marked as FIG. A (circled in red in the photo below).From that link I checked out Chris Keene’s Pipe pages site for more information and found the following catalogue page. http://pipepages.com/2wf14.htm. Even thought the advertising page is for Hilson Fantasia Pipes it confirmed several facts for me that I had not previously known. First was that the meerschaum lined bowl was cut from block meerschaum and not a pressed meerschaum. That is probably why it had survived intact through the years. Second, that all Hilson Belgian pipes had the condenser tube in the shank. I also found a page from an Iwan Ries Catalogue from 1962 that showed meerschaum lined briar pipes. Sadly I could not view the page as the link was not functional.I carefully reamed out the cake in both pipes with the Savinelli Pipe Knife to take it back to the meerschaum lining. I did not want to gouge or chip the meerlining so I proceeded with caution. I sanded the interior of the bowl with a piece of 229 grit sandpaper around the cutting head of the PipeNet pipe reaming tool to take out all of the cake in the bowls. Once I cleaned the bowls I decided to top the two pipes to remove the build up on the rim surfaces. Since both pipes appeared to have smooth rims topping them would not damage the original look of the pipe and would allow me to smooth out the top of the meerschaum bowl insert. I topped both bowls on 220 grit sandpaper on the topping board.When I finished topping them the meerschaum was clean the surface of the rim was smooth.I sanded the rims with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to remove the scratches left behind by topping the bowls. The polished rims looked really smooth and ready to be stained. I stained the rim of the briar outer bowl with a dark brown stain pen and a Sharpie black permanent marking pen to get the dark brown colour of the bowl.I scrubbed out the inside of the stem and the shank of the pipes with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. There was a lot of grime in both pipes. The condenser tubes on both were coated with tars and oils that I removed with 0000 steel wool. I had to reshape the open end of the tube in the Dublin stem as someone had tried to remove it with pliers. It was crushed and there were some marks from the jaws of the pliers. I reshaped it with an ice pick inserted and heated the tube with a lighter. I was able to bring it back to round. I was also able with the heating to remove both tube inserts and clean the stems before putting them back in place. I scrubbed the briar with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap and rinsed them with tap water. I dried them off and both bowls were clean.I sanded the tooth marks and chatter on the stems with 220 and 380 grit sandpaper and a medium grit sanding stick. I was able to remove all of the marks. I wet sanded the stems with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and rubbed them down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded the stems with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave them another coat of oil. I finished sanding them with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave them a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let them dry. I buffed the stems with Blue Diamond on the wheel and gave them both multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand waxed the bowls with Conservator’s Wax and a shoe brush. I hand buffed both the bowls and stems with a microfibre cloth to add depth to the shine. The finished pair of Hilsons is shown in the photos below. They are a beautiful set of pipes and serve as a reminder of my recent Paris trip. Thanks for looking.

Restoring a Kaywoodie 61 Circus Pipe

8 Replies

Blog by Lance Leslie

My grandfather was a pipe smoker up until the 80’s. I can remember him plowing the field with his pipe and tractor smoking. His favorite pipe was a Kaywoodie shape 61. He called it his “Circus Pipe”. He called it that because of the odd shape of the bowl opening. It was an oval bowl opening and I have never seen one before and I had yet to find one after years of searching. That is until two weeks ago.

I was scoping out eBay one night and found the elusive shape no. 61 in an auction with 12 minutes left. I put in a ridiculous bid and then it was a waiting game. Twelve minutes later, the pipe was mine!! The bidding did not get too out of hand, so that was a plus, but it did go for a hefty price considering the shape it was in.

I remember my papa gouging out the cake with an old hawkbill knife. The oval bowl could not be reamed with a reamer due to the oval shaped bowl. This led to there being chunks carved out of the top of the bowl. This pipe looked to have the same problem. Here is the pipe as it arrived. BTW, it turned out to be a Super Grain!!!! Bonus! The pipe was in pretty bad shape. The bowl’s top was gouged just like my grandpa’s. I decided to top the bowl and use my Dremel stone sanding tool and put the bowl back in round. This was real nerve-racking because I could really ruin this pipe. But I bit the bullet and went for it.I then used some rolled up sandpaper to bevel the edges. I then lightly wet sanded the outside of the stummel to get rid of the surface scratches and gave the pipe a rub down of Murphy’s Oil Soap. After the oil soap bath, I gave the pipe a wipe of Watco Danish Oil Dark Walnut and then let that dry.While the Danish Oil was drying, I took the stem down sanding pad lane using 1500 through 12,000 to bring the stem to a showroom shine. I reamed the pipe with a pin knife and uncovered some gouges inside the interior of the bowl. I mixed up some pipe mud using activated charcoal and sour cream. I mixed the two together into a creamy grey paste. I applied it liberally inside the pipe and let that dry. Then with the pipe clean on the inside and out, I shined the pipe using carnauba wax and my buffer. Here are the final results. This is one of my Holy Grail pipes!!!

I Believe I Found an Undercover Lorenzo of Some Sort

2 Replies

Guest Blog by Robert M. Boughton
Member, International Society of Codgers
Member, North American Society of Pipe Collectors
http://www.naspc.org
http://www.roadrunnerpipes.net/ (Opening soon)
http://about.me/boughtonrobert
Photos © the Author

INTRODUCTION
In late October of 2014, I wrote a blog here about a Lorenzo second with the name Spitfire Mille (Italian for thousand, just as Starbuck’s large drinks are designated by Venti, meaning 20 – for the number of ounces, including the ice in my With Room Raspberry Iced Americano right now). Lorenzo, an Italian brand that has been around since 1946, makes an assortment of traditional shapes and styles but is, among my local pipe friends at least, best known for its lines of, well, enormous proportions. Take this Spitfire, not all versions of which are so large. You can’t tell by these pictures, but although the length was near the limit of the norm at about 6”, the chamber diameter was something like 1” x 2” when I checked before adding the Spitfire to my old business website. That’s about 6/8 (¾”) x 1” larger than usual. Then I measured less common specifications, including the diameter of the entire rim across, bowl height and the top half of the shank leading into the bit. Here is where the numbers became astounding: from one side of the rim to the other was a little under 2”; the height of the bowl was close to 3”, and the shank was 1” across.

If those numbers don’t sound impressive, consider three of my largest pipes, the Peterson 150^th Anniversary smooth bent billiard, the Digby Six-Panel and the Soborg Danish Panel. The Pete’s length is 7”; chamber diameter is ⅞” x 1¾”; the full rim is 1⅜”; the bowl height is 2¼”, and the shank is 1½”. The Digby’s length is 5¾”; chamber 1” x 1¾”; rim 1½”; bowl height 2½” and square shank 1” at the halfway point. The Soborg’s length is 7”; the chamber is ¾” x 1½”; total rim is 1¼”; bowl height is 2”, and the shank is 1”.

And so, it seems, not counting the length, the Spitfire is the overall “winner,” if size really counts. All of this is to introduce the no-name Italian Dublin XM (by way of indicating extra monster, for lack of a better description). This pipe without a name, perhaps the more so for that most unfortunate social status, has all the earmarks of a Lorenzo reject. It looks like a Lorenzo; comports itself like the portlier brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and so on and on of its fertile familia, and as it was stamped with the single word “Italy” to boot, so it must be a Lorenzo by birth if not legitimacy.

RESTORATION Once again the troubles the marvelous pipe faced before it could be presented to a new owner who would cherish it were greater than met the casual eye. The rim was just a tad crusty and therefore offered itself as the place to begin. I chose super fine 0000 steel wool to commence the task. Most times now I have at last embraced more popular techniques such as the wet micro mesh method, but on this occasion I did it with steel wool before I performed a little sanding with 320-grit paper with the goal of ridding the fair and rounded rim of scratches attendant to burning. There are still other means to this end. Yet with gentle ministration, I have found the finest steel wool an excellent first step in the process in some situations. This was one of them.At that juncture of the growing adventure, I considered the dull state of the bit and the small but numerous scratches and dings through the original stain to the excellent Mediterranean briar beneath. Perceiving an unusual thickness to the lovely red coating, I arrived at the clear and positive efficacy of an OxiClean bath for the bit and a concurrent but somewhat longer soak of the stummel in Everclear. I slipped the bit and stummel into their respective Tupperware containers and the sequel to the prequel of the not only continuing but never-ending adventures of the Starship Enterprise (“Into Darkness”) in the desktop PC’s DVD player to watch – once again for me – with my new roommate. He had somehow managed never before to see the movie, and we had some time to relax and smoke our pipes. The roommate, Darren, became convinced by someone that he could give up the doubly negative costs of cigarettes with the far lesser expenses and greater merits of a good tobacco pipe. Of course, he will gladly pay me tomorrow, figuratively speaking, for the pipe he savors today.

Furthermore, no less, his eyes became misty and enamored at the sight of the Albertson Belgian black rustic small bent billiard that is scheduled to be the culmination of my seven part series on ladies pipes and, despite his professions to the opposite, I knew he had to have it – oh, how I know that dewy look! Picture this: a guy who looks and dresses and has tats like a gang banger, getting misty for a tiny little pipe that, although not specifically made for ladies, certainly fits the bill! The fantastic sci-fi epic aside, I could only imagine what Darren must have thought of the no-doubt perplexing acts I surely appeared to be perpetrating against the once whole but weathered Dublin XM.

Here is the bit following its bath and then after sanding with 220-grit paper and wet micro meshing all the way from 1500-12000. The stummel had the thickest stain I have ever encountered other than with some Chinese pipes on which I’ve labored. It took longer than the 2 hr. 12 min. movie, with Darren or me (he’s decided he wants to learn about this esoteric occupation) flipping the big piece of briar over in the alcohol now and then to keep it soaking evenly, for the Everclear to eat through the barrier enough to sand the stummel lightly, also with 220. I only found one small spot where a hole was filled. In an email later, Steve, who had expressed some doubt that the pipe was a Lorenzo reject but suggested it might be a second, wrote that Lorenzo seconds are known for fills. To me, given the similarity of style, stain and huge proportions of the ostensible Italian no-name (the single word ITALY was stamped almost flush with the steel band, on the underside), my theory of a Lorenzo connection was cinched in my mind at least. By a stroke of good luck, as I always see it, the band came off at the end of the sanding, and I was able to make the area under it match the rest. I got on with the next step, micro meshing from 1500-12000. This is where the real challenge came. Forced to strip the stummel of its original stain to get at the scratches without creating more damage using sandpaper, I wanted to re-stain the wood as close as possible to the bright reddish tone it had, knowing that was impossible with the stains I had on hand. I opted to mix Lincoln Marine Cordovan about three-to-one with Fiebing’s Brown alcohol-based boot dyes. When flamed with a lighter or matches, the stain is fixed to the stummel without running as the light char is micro meshed off and again later with waxes and compounds buffed on.I also knew this combination, or even using only the burgundy color, would be so dark that none of the grain would show through. Applying the mix liberally, I used a couple of good strong wooden kitchen matches from a box of 250 I bought at Walmart for about a dollar to flame the pipe, but the result was not the usual impressive blue flash I expected. Still, it did the trick. I think the alcohol in my liquid stains is evaporating with age. I told Victor Rimkus, a successful pipe crafter/engineer here, how I needed to buy a new supply as well as other colors. He said I could mix what was left with alcohol, which sadly only struck me as obvious when I heard the idea, or, as he does, buy the powder and mix it as needed with alcohol. I had never heard of this powder stain before but found it online at a very affordable price. There are even some great discounts for buying the complete kit with every color made – and the variety of colors and shades is staggering. You know I can’t pass up a good discount.The light coat of residual char came off with 2400 and 3200 micro mesh. Super fine 0000 steel wool gradually lessened the dark combination of stains until I concluded the color mix was still a bit off. I deliberately took the stain down a notch lighter to add another quick layer of the brown, and when it cooled after flaming again I wiped off the char as before. The result was much better. I used a couple of dabs of Super Glue spread thin around the inside of the band to reattach it. In one of the emails I exchanged with Steve regarding the chance of this pipe being a Lorenzo relative, he pointed out that in the photo of the band I attached with a plea for help in identifying the hallmarks, the band had been placed unevenly. Trying first to determine the meaning of the marks on my own, I had found a site that was clearly not the best. The closest I came was a reference to a pair of brothers named Edwin and John Power, known naturally as Power Brothers, who ran a tobacconist shop and seem to have made pipes in 1900. They marked their bands with an EP in an oval which, given the site’s other shortcomings, I considered might be – but given the year, likely was not – a misnomer for the diamond on this band. Steve identified it as an Electro-Plate band that he thought could be an after-addition. Studying the band and the one item of nomenclature on the bottom side of the shank – the block lettered word ITALY near the opening but above the band – I was doubtful it was indeed an afterthought.

But by that time, the restoration had progressed to the point where I had already corrected the problem.

The time to retort the odd Dublin had come, but looking at the wider than wide mouthpiece of the bit, I knew that of the three rubber tubes I have, none would work. And so, as I have done in past situations like this, I rummaged around my spare bits until I found one from a Ropp natural cherry wood that matched the tenon size – at least halfway in. As always, I was happy I retorted the pipe thoroughly, as this one had more than usual use on it. I had to run six alcohol soaked regular cleaners through the shank before the last came out clean. After buffing the bit with red and white Tripoli, White Diamond and carnauba, and the nice smooth reddish-brown wood with the same progression (I laid on a heavy coat of the red Tripoli to approximate the original color somewhat closer), here is the result.
CONCLUSION
I have to say, this was nowhere near the most difficult restore I’ve ever done, but the research into Lorenzo, in my attempt to establish whether or not it is one of their rejects or a second of some sort, made the process one of the most exciting of my projects. In my mind now, there is no doubt this conundrum of a pipe, is in fact a Lorenzo reject. This conclusion is not based on an overwhelming desire to make the pipe more than it may be. It is based on the evidence: the undeniable similarity of design between the Spitfire by Lorenzo Mille second; the identical color of each that has the appearance of being created specially by the maker, and the presence of somewhat erratic grain and even the single fill I found after stripping the original stain, given that Steve wrote of Lorenzo seconds tending to be known to present these defects. Although, with due respect to Steve, I doubt this is a second because of the lack of any such nomenclature, the same standards would apply to outright rejects. I did my best to make it once more the beautiful pipe it was when first created, but the grain certainly is less than perfect, and there is one place where briar shavings were mixed with some clear bonding element to fix a ding. But now, neither of these facts detracts from the pipe’s allure and good fit in a large hand, which its new owner certainly has.

The Spitfire awaited a new home for months after I finished the restoration, and in the end was purchased by a New World gentleman, from Raymore, Missouri to be specific, who read my blog of another pipe and found the massive Lorenzo (second) on my site. The lovely example of Italian flair and craftsmanship in this blog, on the other hand, was reserved prior to its restoration by a visitor to my pipe club’s monthly meeting. His name is Evan, and here he is at the tobacco shop with his “new” pipe. See how snug it is in Evan’s big mitt. When Evan, who resides in the much smaller town of Placitas about a half-hour’s drive from the relative metropolis of Albuquerque (close enough to commute to and from where he works here), talked to me alone in the big back room of the Moose Lodge where our official monthly pipe meeting is held, I asked if he had seen any of my pipes he found interesting. I assumed he had not located one he wished to buy but also wanted to get an idea of what he looks for in a pipe, other than the Dunhill with its distinctive dot on the bit he enjoyed for the meeting. I admit to thinking I might have something I put off restoring that I could perhaps expedite.

Evan was courteous enough to tell me the truth: none of the pipes I had displayed was big enough for his general taste. That remark turned out to be the exact sort of intelligence I hoped to receive from my question, for I knew I had just what he was looking for, at my humble home and small business, waiting to be cleaned up. I inquired if he had heard of Lorenzo pipes and added that I had restored and sold one but had another pipe like it that I believed was a reject by that company, although there was nothing wrong with its looks or quality. Evan had not heard of Lorenzo but was intrigued by my description of the large pipe.

After getting a look at the photos I emailed to him showing the restored Spitfire and the no-name as it was before cleaning up, the good man replied with considerable enthusiasm. In fact, considering the low price I offered him, he asked me to name the time and place he could pick it up! I had the pleasure of presenting Evan with the finished Lorenzo or second or whatever it is Monday morning at the tobacconist shortly after the comfortable little shop opened at 10. With any sale, online or in person, and in particular when the buyer has requested a pipe that was not yet restored, I always wonder if it – or, rather, I – will match the new owner’s expectations. I observed at once that Evan had pondered his reverse version of the same scenario from his reaction of unconcealed surprise. In short, the pipe was just the kind he loves most – big enough to fit in his large hand, solid, possessed of an unusual shape and beautiful to behold. I add the last part not to pat myself on the shoulder but due to Evan’s appraisal. To my way of thinking, pipe restoration is very much the same as newspaper editing, with which I have had more experience than working on pipes: the flaws in the pipe or article are unimportant so long as all of the necessary information is there to put in order. The best word to describe Evan’s reaction to his latest acquisition – which went on for close to a half-hour – is effusive.

SOURCES
https://www.smspipes.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/catalog.listProducts/catId/4/Lorenzo_Pipes.htm
http://vermontfreehand.com/product/powdered-dye/
http://www.pipes.ws/Lorenzo
http://www.silvercollection.it/DICTIONARYTOBACCONISTE.html Power Bros. hallmark

A Mystery Bent Apple Pipe Turned out to be an Oldenkott

Dunhill White Dot Repair

12 Replies

Lance Leslie

I received an email from Lance this afternoon with a blog submission. In his email he states that he thought that this would make a good blog for the site. He has been restoring pipes for a few years and has learned some valuable tips on rebornpipes. He sent along a restoration he completed that had a repair tip he had not seen addressed on the blog. While I have inserted dots on Dr. Plumb pipes and an odd variety of others I have not dedicated a blog to this repair so I agreed that it would be good to have his process spelled out here. Welcome to rebornpipes as a contributor Lance. It is good to have you here. Hopefully this will be the first of many contributions that you bring to the site. — Steve

I have been restoring pipe for a few years now and have learned some valuable tips from rebornpipes. I have a restoration to share and unless I have missed it, I have not seen this issue addressed on this blog. The issue being, adding the infamous white dot to new replacement stem. Or…in my case, a blank replacement stem.

I recently won this Dunhill on eBay and noticed that the White Dot was missing. After asking all the right questions to be sure I WAS bidding on a Dunhill, I made my offer and won. The owner did not know much about pipes so he did not know if it was a replacement stem. I have seen the white dot covered by soot only to be revealed during the cleaning, but this was not the case. This was listed as a 1982 Dunhill Bruyere but it turned out to be a 1977. Here is the pipe as it looked when it arrived.The rim was covered with lava and the bowl was thick with cake. There were some dings in the bowl that would need to be addressed. The stem had some dents and would need a White Dot added. What is a Dunhill without the White Dot? The stem was also heavily oxidized. I placed the stem in an Oxyclean bath and let the stummel soak in an alcohol bath to loosen the lava. After I removed the lava I saw significant damage to the rim of the piped and the rim was scorched in two places. This could only be fixed by topping the bowl. Rats! I removed the stem for the Oxyclean bath and polished it with Meguiar’s scratch X 2.0. I didn’t want to go too far with the stem because I would be adding the dot later. I then took the bowl and my sanding bit and topped the bowl. As you can see, it is now clean and sharp. The scorching was also gone. Thank goodness it was not too deep. Next I wanted to address the dents in the sides of the bowl. Thanks to rebornpipes I knew a simple way to do this. And yes, my wife is missing a dish towel. With said dish towel wet, I heated a kitchen knife with a lighter. I pressed the knife against the dish towel and steamed the dent right out. Works every time. Now I needed to stain the top of the bowl. I mixed up some leather dye to match color of the bowl and gave the top several coats until it matched.Now the fun part!! It was time to add the White Dot to the stem. I had recently acquired a quad copter (Syma X5SW) and remembered the propeller protectors that came with the copter.
These are added for beginners to help protect the blades while you learn to fly. I no longer needed these so I checked the size and knew it would be a perfect match. BTW, you can order these blade protectors off of Amazon. Just type in replacement parts for Syma X5SW. They are cheap! See photos below… The ends of the blade protectors would do nicely. They are even conical shaped!!! I clipped off one end and sat it to the side. I then took some old stems and did a practice run before trying it on the Dunhill. It worked like a charm. I did not take pictures of my practice run, sorry. I then went to my drill bits and chose the correct size. I lined up another Dunhill beside this one to get the proper distance for the White Dot on the stem. After I found the distance and center, I carefully drilled about 3 mm down. (Start your drill out slow if you use a hand-held drill. I would suggest a drill press if you have one.) I added some black super glue to the hole and placed the little white rod into the hole. Then using a rubber hammer, I hammered it into the hole.Then I clipped the plug as close as I could using scissors, and sanded down the rest with my sanding bit. The rest of the plug was sanded down with 220 sandpaper.Then it was a trip through the micro-mesh sanding/polishing pads. The pipe was married to its stem once again and polished with carnauba wax. Here is the finished pipe.

This one was just plain ugly it was such a mess

9 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

When my brother sent me the link for this one and I scrolled through the pictures the seller included, I almost said to pass on it. It was such a mess that the ugliness made me not want to even deal with this one. But there was something challenging about the pipe and through the gunk it looked like it might have some interesting grain. I know in the early days of my estate buying on EBay I did not pay attention to the measurements on the pipe. I figured it would be a moderately sized Banker or Author with an oval shank. I also ignored the brand stamping on the pipe. It read La Strada Forte on the top of the shank which also should have been a bit of a giveaway. Even the photos below that the seller included of the pipe in a rest should have been a clue. But I missed the clue because I was blown away by the sheer disaster of the pipe. As you look at it below try to catalogue the issues that you see. Let me tell you what, no matter how much I prepared myself by cataloging the issues I saw in the pictures they in no way captured the reality of the mess this pipe was in. It was actually quite unbelievable. First off, I should have read the measurements. This pipe was huge. The length was average really, at 5 ½ inches long. The width of the shank was a bit bigger at 1 1/8 inches wide. The diameter of the bowl exterior was 2 1/8 inches. The chamber appeared to be an inch in diameter but the cake in it reduced it to about ¾ inch. The cake was thick and it was hard. It overflowed onto the top of the bowl and part way down the sides. The inner edge of the rim looked like someone had hacked at it with a knife so underneath the thick cake I could see the chop marks of the knife in the edges of the bowl. The finish was more than shot – it was gone and in its place was thick oily grime ground into the briar. The stamping was black with the oils. It was thick enough that the grime was flaking off on the bottom of the bowl. The stamping was readable and said LA STRADA over FORTE on the top side. On the underside was the shape number 538 and next to the shank stem junction was stamped Italy. The stem was not only oxidized but really worn. The top edge of the button was almost flattened and there were tooth marks in the top of the stem. The underside was another story – there was a chunk of vulcanite missing and the button was gone. The airway was collapsed and the inside surface was gouged with file marks. This poor pipe was looking pretty desperate and I thought about cannibalizing it for briar and parts.Then I looked at the briar through the grime. The bottom of the bowl had some really nice grain – a few fills popping through – but still really nice. The sides of the bowl also had some promise under the grime. And, I liked the shape of the pipe even though it was a war club. Maybe…just maybe…I took a close-up photo of the top of the bowl and the cake inside. I still shake my head when I see the state of the bowl and the damage to the inner rim. It was really in bad shape. Just look at the hack job that had been done to that inner edge.I also took a couple of close-up photos of the stem to show the extent of damage that had been done to it as well. It was in very rough shape.I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer starting with the smallest cutting head to clean up the walls of the bowl slowly. I worked through all four reaming heads ending with the largest one. I used the Savinelli Pipe Knife to do some clean up to the edges and try to smooth out some of the rim damage. Between the largest PipNet cutting head and the pipe knife I was able to do a lot of redeeming work on the inner edge of the rim.I topped the bowl on the topping board to remove the damaged finish and to reduce the damage to the inner edge of the rim.I scrubbed the surface of the briar with acetone on cotton pads to remove the dirt and grime in the grain as well as the oils. It was amazing how much grit came off the bowl. Once the surface was clean I worked on the inner rim. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to bevel the edge inward and clean up the cuts and nicks in the edge. I did not take a picture at this point but you will see the cleaned up rim in the pictures that follow the work on the stem.

I set the bowl aside to work on the stem. To take care of the damaged stem I made a wedge out of cardboard and covered it with clear strapping tape so that the super glue mixture I was going to use would not stick to it. I wanted it thick enough to leave an airway/slot in the stem. I mixed up a paste of charcoal powder and black super glue. The glue has a slow drying time so I was able to mix a thick paste with the combination. I used a dental pick and spatula to put the mixture in place on the top and the bottom of the stem and build up the area that would become the button on the top side and the repair and button on the underside. I also built up a slope on the stem underside to give me a bit more thickness over the airway. At this point I sprayed the repair with an accelerator to harden the surface of the glue. I set it aside to let the glue repair cure/harden.Once the repair had hardened I used the sanding drum on the Dremel to smooth out the repair. I would still need to sand it by hand but the Dremel took a lot of the heavy spots out of the mix and also allowed me to rough shape the button.The next photos show the repairs after a lot of filing and sanding. The shape is very clear and distinct. The repair is rock solid. You can also see the inner rim bevel on the rim of the bowl in the first photo.The slot was really tight in the button. It was partially closed off and need to be reopened. I used different shaped needle files to open the slot and to reshape it. I also reshaped the button with the needle files. The three photos below show the development of the slot and the button.I reshaped the button edges with needle files and reshaped the taper of the stem from the saddle to the button. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to blend it into the surface of the vulcanite stem. The photos show the progression in the shaping. There is still a lot of sanding to do to finish the shaping and polishing of the stem but I set it aside and worked on the bowl for a while. I cleaned out the inside of the mortise and the airway in the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. It took a lot of scrubbing to clean out the airway and mortise.I heated the briar with a blow dryer and then stained it with a dark brown aniline stain mixed 50% with isopropyl. I used a black Sharpie to darken the fills on the bowl and shank then applied the stain with a cotton swab and flamed it with a lighter to set it in the grain.I wiped the bowl down with alcohol cotton pads to blend the stain and to make it more transparent. The photos below show the bowl after the wipe down. The scrubbed bowl looks quite a bit lighter but once it is waxed it will darken again. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 micromesh sanding pads and rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of oil and let it dry. (The photos below show both sides of the stem with each set of micromesh pads.) 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 to polish the wax. I buffed it by hand with a microfibre cloth to add depth to the shine. I am pleased with the overall look of the pipe and considering what it was like when I first looked at it the improvement is vast. The stem repair is quite extensive. It has cured and is hard now and I am curious as to how it will hold up over time. The pipe looks good and should have a long life ahead of it. Thanks for looking.

Rough Texture of a Jobey Shellmoor combined with Yellow Lucite

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

As I said before I never paid much attention to Jobey pipes. My brother has given me a new appreciation for them. The pipe he sent me that I chose to work on next is stamped Jobey Shellmoor on the underside of the shank. There is no shape number or other stamping on the pipe. There is a Jobey logo stamped on the yellow acrylic/Lucite stem. When I first saw the pipe I was pretty certain that the stem was a replacement. Now that I have it in hand I have to admit I was wrong it is the original. When I first picked it up I thought it would be a pretty straightforward repair. I could not have been more wrong but that would come out in the process of the restoration. The rustication was very dirty on the sides of the bowl but it had that rough rustication that I have come to expect on Shellmoor pipes. The rim was in rough shape with lava in all of the grooves. That would have been easily remedied but there was also a burned area on the top of the rim at the front that had left a deep groove. The bowl was thickly caked (I removed much of it in Idaho when I was there). When I brought it to the work table and tried to finish reaming the bowl I was reminded of the rock hard cake. It took two different reamers to take out the cake. The stem had some tooth marks and the airway was black with tars. When I removed the stem the Jobey Link was stuck in the stem. Not a big deal but it would make getting the black out of the airway. When I examined the rim more closely I saw that it was actually quite damaged. I took two close-up photos of it to show the thick lava and the burned area on the front of the bowl. It is a little hard to see in the second photo (forgive the slightly out of focus photo) but it extends down the front of the bowl about ¼ inch. I worked on the Jobey Link and was able to dribble alcohol down the stem to soften the tars that held it in the stem. I wiggled it free. The photo below shows the pipe taken apart.I started working on the bowl by reaming it completely. The cake was exceptionally. I hard I used the PipNet reamer with the first three cutting heads to take the cake back to bare briar. I used a Savinelli Pipe Knife to complete the job at the bottom of the bowl. When I had finished reaming the bowl I noticed that the airway into the bowl was absolutely invisible. I could not see it on the back wall of the bowl. I used the drill bit from the KleenReem pipe reamer to hand drill out the airway from the shank into the bowl. The tars in the shank were almost as hard as the cake in the bowl. It took a lot of elbow grease and pressing the bit into the airway. I was finally rewarded with it popping through into the bowl. With the rough cleaning done on the bowl and shank I decided to work on the rim surface. I topped it with 220 grit sandpaper on the topping board. (If you look closely at the shank end in the photo it appears that there is a crack in the shank. It is merely a scratch in the top surface of the briar at that point.)After topping it for a while I took a photo to show the extent of the damage to the rim. This photo clarifies what I saw in the original scan of the bowl.I continued topping the bowl until I got to solid wood under the burned area. The rim surface was darkened but the briar was hard. I picked the burned area on the front of the bowl clean of soft burned wood with a dental pick.I was not too worried about the rim darkening as I intended to rusticate it again to match the rough finish of the bowl. I filled in the burned area with clear super glue to build it up. I also intended to rusticate the burned area on the front of the bowl at the same time. The next series of photos show the process of rustication and the different burrs I used on the Dremel to get the pattern on the rim I wanted. I also worked on the front of the bowl to remove the damage of the burned area with the same burrs. I tried to match the pattern on the rest of the bowl. The success of that will be seen in later photos. Once I had the work down with the Dremel and burrs I took it back to the worktable and used a brass bristle brush to knock of the sharp edges and the loose pieces of briar from the rim and the bowl front. The second and third photos show the bowl front and the work that I did to match the pattern in that area. I scrubbed the briar with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime so that I could restain the bowl. I rinsed it with warm running water to remove the soap from the grooves and crevices along with the loosened grime.I used a black Sharpie to colour in the depths of the rustication on the rim and the repaired area at the front of the bowl. I wanted to approximate the contrast in the rest of the finish.I restained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain and flamed it to set it in the grain. I repeated the process until the coverage was what I wanted.I wiped down the bowl with alcohol on cotton pads to remove some of the dark brown stain from the high spots on the bowl and add some contrast and depth to the finish. I took another close-up photo of the rustication on the rim to show what it looked like with the stain coat.I cleaned out the mortise threads and the airway with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol.Once it was clean I greased the threads on the Jobey Link with Vaseline and turned it in place in the shank with a small screwdriver.The stem turned out to be another issue that I had not taken into real consideration. The dark stain of tars and oils in the airway turned out to be a real pain. I used cotton swabs and alcohol to clean out the portion of the stem that slid over the Link. That was the easy part. I then scrubbed out the airway with alcohol and pipe cleaners. I used a dental pick to clean out the slot in the button. The tars in the airway were stubborn. I mixed a batch of Oxyclean, inserted pipe cleaners in the airway to wick the mixture up the stem and then dropped the pipe in the mixture to soak overnight. I took it out in the morning and scrubbed it with several different brushes and pipe cleaners. I removed about 50% of the black in the stem but not all of it. I put it back in the Oxy soak for another night.I buffed the bowl by hand with a shoe brush to see what the finish would look like. The following photos give a good picture of where things stand with the bowl at this point. I took the stem out of the Oxy bath and cleaned out a bit more of the darkened area. I used pipe cleaners dipped in Bar Keepers Friend scouring powder and was able to get out more of the tars and darkening. I stopped for a little while and worked on the externals. There were several deep tooth marks in the stem near the button on the top and bottom sides. I sanded and cleaned the stem then filled the tooth marks with clear super glue. When the glue set I sanded the repairs smooth to match the surface of the stem. I went back to scrubbing the airway. I remembered reading about someone using soft scrub successfully so I ran upstairs and asked my wife if she had any I could use. I push it through the airway in the stem with thick, fluffy pipe cleaners and rotated them to scrub. It took out some more of the darkening but still not enough to my liking. Finally I set up a retort on the stem alone. I boiled alcohol through the stem to remove more. Finally I used an ear syringe to shoot boiling water through the stem. I gave up after using all of those methods. I think I had removed as much of the darkening as I was going to get out of the stem. The stem definitely looks better than it did when I started. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and wiped it down. I dry sanded with 3200-12000 grit pads and wiped it down. I lightly buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel and then gave the stem several coats of carnauba. I polished the stem and bowl with a clean buffing pad and then by hand with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown below. The first photos show the areas of the rim and the front of the bowl that I cleaned up and re-rusticated with the burrs and Dremel. The remaining photos are of the pipe in its entirety. I have never seen a Jobey Shellmoor pipe with a Lucite stem but this golden stem goes really well with the dark brown stain. The finished pipe is 6 ½ inches long and looks rather dapper and stylish. It has come a long way from when I started on it. I picked this pipe to work on while I was restoring the La Strata because I thought it would be easy. I could not have been more wrong. But I am glad it is finished. Thanks for looking.

What grain under the Candy Apple Red Paint –- A Television Churchwarden

3 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

This Churchwarden is stamped Television on the left side of the shank and Imported Briar over Italy on the right side. From two earlier Television pipes I had restored and restemmed I remembered that Jose Manuel Lopes – Pipes Artisans and Trademarks had helped me identify the original manufacturer. Here is what Lopes says: The brand was sold by A. Grunfield Co. and was produced by Gasparini. They were known to be an English brand with long stems. I have written more about the brand at the following links: https://rebornpipes.com/2014/08/04/restoring-and-restemming-the-first-of-two-television-pipes-a-pot/
https://rebornpipes.com/2014/08/05/restoring-and-restemming-a-second-television-pipe-a-prince/

I took some photos of the pipe before I started working on it. The pipe was in decent shape – no dings or burn marks on the bowl. I just have never really liked candy apple red pipes. This was no exception, as it was almost a painted surface. The combination of a very opaque stain and a urethane topcoat left the bowl looking almost plastic. The rim was dirty and had some lava on it so I knew that in removing that I would not be able to keep the thick red coat on the rim so it would look different from the rest of the bowl. The bowl had a light cake inside. The stem was oxidized and had light tooth chatter near the button on the top and the bottom sides. Through the opaque stain and the urethane coat I could see some interesting grain on the pipe. I also was well aware that this kind of heavy stain and topcoat often hid a multitude of fills.I reamed the bowl with the Savinelli Pipe Knife to scrape out the light cake.I weighed my next move with fear and trepidation wiped down the bowl with acetone to see if I could dent the urethane coat. No such luck with that. I sanded the bowl with a medium grit sanding block and in some spots with 220 grit sandpaper. The finish was hard as rock and it took quite a while to remove the finish. The urethane and the stain coat came off together. It was almost as if it was not in the grain but rather sat on top. I wiped it down with acetone on cotton pads. The results of stripping the bowl can be seen in the next photos. To my amazement the number of fills was not as bad as I expected. There were actually two – yes just two. Now the bad news was that they were both larger than the average ones I deal with. The first was on the front of the bowl and was centered over the two rings around the bowl. The second was on the back side of the cap. The front one was visible but I could live with it. The putty was brown and was tight and smooth. The one on the back was well blended into the grain on the bowl. It too was tight. I would not need to pick them out and repair them. I cleaned out the shank and airways in the bowl and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. It was actually quite clean.I buffed the bowl with red Tripoli on the wheel and was able to remove some of the stubborn paint/stain spots on the bowl cap and the shank. I then gave the bowl a light rub down with olive oil to get a feel for the grain on the pipe. You can see from the photos below that the mix of grain is quite stunning. The right side of the bowl has some tight birdseye. The rest of the bowl is a mix of grains. I gave the bowl several coats of medium cherry Danish Oil to raise the level of red from the briar. I let it dry and buffed it between coats. I gave it a final coat and let it dry while I worked on the stem. When the stain coat was dry I buffed the pipe with a coat of carnauba wax. I worked on the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the light oxidation and tooth chatter and then with a medium grit sanding sponge to smooth out the scratches. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of oil. I set it aside to dry. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond to finish the polishing. I gave the bowl and the stem several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean 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. I like the transparent stain on this one far better than the heavy urethane coated pipe I started with. The pipe is going with me to Bulgaria on an upcoming trip I am making there. The pipe man in Sofia is looking forward to adding this to his collection. Thanks for looking.

Spotlight: Ladies Pipes, Part 4/7, a Real Briar Bounty

1 Reply

Guest Blog by Robert M. Boughton
Member, International Society of Codgers
Member, North American Society of Pipe Collectors
http://www.naspc.org
http://www.roadrunnerpipes21.com
http://about.me/boughtonrobert
Photos © the Author

And old Boughton, if he could stand up out of his chair, out of his decrepitude and crankiness and sorrow and limitation, would abandon all those handsome children of his, mild and confident as they are, and follow after that one son whom he has never known, whom he has favored as one does a wound, and he would protect him as a father cannot, defend him with a strength he does not have, sustain him with a bounty beyond any resource he could ever dream of having.
— Marilynne Robinson (b. 1943), U.S. novelist and essayist, in “Gilead” (2006). She is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, both this year.

BLOGGER’S NOTE: ALTHOUGH I READ AN EVELYN WAUGH NOVEL WHEN I WAS 17 AND COULDN’T HELP NOTICING THE MENTION OF A VILLAGE CALLED BOUGHTON, WHICH YEARS LATER I CONFIRMED EXISTS IN DEVENTRY, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, “GILEAD” IS THE ONLY WORK OF FICTION IN WHICH I HAVE SEEN A CHARACTER WITH MY LAST NAME. BUT THE PART THAT TRULY GAVE ME THE WILLIES WAS FINDING WE (THE FICTIONAL PASTOR BOUGHTON AND I) SOMEHOW SHARE THE SAME GIVEN NAME AS WELL! I ALSO LIKE THE USE OF “BOUNTY.” ALL OF THE NAMES AND EVENTS IN “GILEAD” ARE FICTIONAL, AND NO RESEMBLANCE TO ACTUAL PERSONS, LIVING OR DEAD, IS INTENDED.

INTRODUCTION
The Real Briar Bounty billiard marks the over-the-hump point of my series on ladies pipes, and a cursory examination of the well-crafted implement of exquisite pleasure as it looked when it came in the mail shows it appears almost good to go. But everyone knows the frequent truth about appearances. I bought the pretty, shiny little Bounty, light in the hand and with a corresponding semblance of fragility, in 2014 among one of the many pipe lots I snatched up that single year. The brand name itself was an excellent use of the adjective, whether in the more plausible sense of a generous gift or bestowal, or the bigger mouthful, “Goodness shown in giving, gracious liberality, munificence, usually attributed to God, or to the great and wealthy….” [Oxford English Dictionary.]

I still have more than a few of those pipes in need of restoration, although I’ve made quite good headway. Most of the 2014 parade of pipe lots, selling for an average of about $20 per pipe, included one, or more, good looking big brand names. For the most part the rest were nice or odd enough to warrant the purchase. There were, to be sure, a few total losses, with fatal cracks or burnouts, but little more than I could count on a hand. Take, for examples of both name brand and just plain interesting pipes, the following picture of 11 I acquired together, containing a Kaywoodie Rustic Silhouette bent apple [top row left] and a Spitfire by Lorenzo Mille [Italian for a thousand, appropriate considering its massive size, third row left). Then there’s the gigantic no-name Lorenzo pretender [by itself at the bottom], which may in fact be a reject from that Italian maker known for outrageous sizes. As I sit here editing the text of the finished blog, I hear a chime on my laptop and check the email. There is a new message from a gentleman I met last night who visited our monthly pipe meeting. I gave him a couple of samples of excellent new flakes I had and asked if he saw any of my restored pipes he likes. Alas, none of them was big enough for his taste! And so I recalled the Spitfire and its look-alike and described both to him, promising to send email photos for his information or consideration. Well, the gentleman just replied and accepted my bountiful offer of a very low price for the no-name. That, to my way of thinking, speeds past any notion of coincidence and stops on the dime at downright mysterious. We have arranged to meet Monday morning for the transaction.This photo is extraordinary to me on several levels more appealing than its dingy back-drop and utilitarian lack of artfulness. Have a gander at it yourselves, ladies and gentlemen, and if you have read the prior parts of this set of blogs you will hopefully recognize two of the pipes restored in them.

When you’re finished looking, they are, in order of their appearance in the photo: the Clinton Real Briar straight oval [top row, right] that sold to a young lady overcoming the social and medical blight known as cigarettes; the Real Briar Bounty billiard [fourth row, left] that I put on reserve for one genuine character of an older woman who belongs to a non-pipe related club of which I am a member and informed me in a Dr. Lecter sort of voice that her husband “used to smoke them all the time – but not anymore,” as well as how she quit cigarettes with the aid of her old misplaced pipe that she “also” learned to live without except for missing the feel of it in her mouth. The rather Faulknerian run-on segment of this passage begs the questions of whether the poor husband is not among the living at all and if not, why, or just not with the good lady, and other issues I dare not approach in this medium. And there is the Frasa, or FRASA as an acronym, French bent billiard [next to the Bounty], which I sold to my pipe club friend, Ashley. Another lady I caught smoking cigarettes was persuaded to purchase the Medico straight natural tiny acorn.

Wow! I just had a thought, the kind that makes me feel like an utter fool. Here I have been, wracking my brain to track down and interview unknown lady pipers in addition to Liz, and all along the obvious has been right in front of me: Ashley, the first female pipe smoker I met, in my own pipe club! Not that I don’t still need to collect some data that will allow me to get a handle on any patterns of experiences and difficulties faced by women who dare presume to invade one of the last existing perceived instances of a traditional male bastion; it’s just that now I understand I can simply post a thread on Liz’ Facebook forum asking for the input I seek from women, and then sit back and let it all pour in – or even chat with a few of the undaunted freedom fighters.

None of the ladies pipes in these blogs was picked by me for this project by looking at old photos, but rather by tunneling through the chaotic clutter on my work desk in search of diminutive pipes. Still awaiting restorations are a Willard Aristomatic rustic pot with U.S. Patent No. 2,461,905 issued in 1949, a Dr. Grabow Duke six-sided rustic panel and, last and least (in terms of length), la pièce de résistance, an Albertson Belgian bent black billiard. Try that five times fast.

Unconsidered by me at the moment of conception of the underlying theme of these blogs was any idea of ever writing such a series as this concerning the presence of women around the world who enjoy pipes every bit as much as men do, including the all-important contemplative aspect of the deeply personal experience. And so, while the details of inner visions of our most inviolate thoughts as we puff a pipe and tobacco may differ somewhat between the genders, the basic dynamic is a twin.

I do have a few words about Real Briar Bounty pipes. There are, in fact, few words I can write about the maker of these beautiful and varied works, samples of which I have found all over the Internet, for the most part members of sundry forums asking for information on the Bounty’s pedigree and receiving no coherent answer. [See Sources.] This omission of mine is not for lack of research but because of the apparent utter dearth of information. Based on the designs available for sale online, many were made for 9mm filters and some have originals included with the purchase. Then there are the references to separate ships in English history, both called The Bounty, each of which met with disastrous ends.

The few but important clues (9mm filters, an unusual number of the sources being in Europe – particularly several ebay.uk sellers – and the name itself, Bounty) embolden me to go out on a limb and suggest that the maker of this pipe is British.

A TEASER OF THINGS TO COME IN THE FINAL THREE BLOGS
For various reasons about which nobody still reading this would care to hear, I have yet to chat with any of the New Jersey Ladies of the Briar concerning their no doubt varied introductions to the wonderful world of pipes, but as I noted earlier I now have the solution to that I promise to get on it while preparing my fifth blog on the topic. To be more accurate, I should amend my previous statement with the note that my Smokers Forums U.K. friend, Liz, who founded the group, has been my sole source of information related to feminine tastes in the choices of pipes and tobaccos.

Our first few email exchanges were a bit odd. While Liz was open to my idea, at first proposing a single blog I soon knew would either turn into a New Yorker-length piece much longer even than my “The Young Man and the Pipe” tribute to Ernest Hemingway involving the restoration of a Thinbite. And so I decided upon a series. In those early emails, I remember describing, several times in different ways, the kind of information I wanted and any ideas how to go about getting it.

My mistake, a common one but inexcusable of someone with a reporter’s experience, was not asking specific questions of Liz. And so I at last understood and re-commenced with three questions.

The reply I received from Liz was candid, and also revealing of double standards and injustices I could never have dreamed up. My interests are eclectic, but there are certain areas to which I find myself constantly drawn. They include history, political science, law and, it goes without saying, everything related to pipes. I consider myself well versed in the real atrocities Mankind has committed against itself and the rest of the planet and the everyday varieties of rudeness and general foul play that abound daily. I just never considered the possibility that such attitudes had infiltrated our beloved pipe world to a real extent. Here is that first, ice-breaking, bare bottoms basic email Q&A.

Q: I know you have a penchant for minis, but what are some of your favorite pipes that you smoke regularly?
A: Currently, my go to pipe is a Dr. Plum mini Prince which I only smoke Lakelands in. Other pipes I tend to stick with are a huge Savinelli 320, Savinelli Lollo, Jirsa horn shape, Brebbia author shape and a no-name bent meer and corn cobs.

Q: What kind of pipe blends do you like?
A: I will smoke anything! But I love Lakelands and latakia blends the most. Aro[matic]s that I favor are mocha/coffee blends (McClelland 620 mocha black is my favorite) and also maple blends (Wilki Vermont Maple is my favorite). I tend to shy away from perique because it gives me a scratchy throat but I will smoke one bowl occasionally.

Q: When did you start smoking a pip? Were there any special circumstances?
A: I always wanted to smoke a pipe even when I was a child. I had seen photos of my dad smoking a pipe but he had quit smoking by the time I was born. I started smoking cigarettes in my early teens and the desire to smoke a pipe became stronger once I became an adult and started to do a lot of camping. I thought it would be very nice to sit by the campfire and smoke a pipe. But as a woman, I never felt comfortable or confident enough to go in a store and buy one. Finally in 2004 I got the nerve to go in the tobacco shop and buy a pipe. I used the excuse that I was buying it for my brother. I selected a 3/4 bent no-name Italian briar. I still have that pipe today although I don’t smoke it often since my taste is pipe shapes have changed. I had no one to teach me anything about smoking the pipe so what I learned I found on the internet. [Emphases added.]

RESTORATION
Earlier, I alluded to the smooth, fairly clean pipe with its nice glossy finish and unusually good though not thorough cleanliness. I also noted, during my first critical examination of the pipe, the bad gash on the rear of the bowl and other small scratches over the surface area. Out of nowhere, I had a bad feeling about the possibility that something other than a conventional alcohol-based stain might have been used, such as the bad habit in China of laying on Earl Scheib applications of regular varnish and – it hurts me to write this – even Shellac and, I’ve heard, paint! These coatings cause various serious damages, some of them being the destruction of the pipe’s ability to breathe, or to take in air, not to mention the inhibition of the wood’s natural expansion when it heats from use. The bit was freckled with discoloration.The obvious starting point was tossing the bit in an OxiClean bath and the stummel in Everclear.Then again, without the bit or the stummel, I had nothing whatsoever to do except to partake of a nice bowl of Mac Baren Bold Kentucky Flake in my Peterson’s silver band orange meerschaum Dublin. These are the times when pipe restoring can be so trying.

But I weathered the next half-hour with the stoic determination of an ancient mariner awash with kelpy brine, and got back to work. The bit was every inch a fright to behold, as I expected after its bath.Nevertheless, I made it better with a bit of a makeover using 320-grit paper and the full progression of micro mesh.About that time, I removed the stummel from the Everclear and stuck a pair of small soft cotton cloth squares into the chamber to twist and shout out some of the loosened mess there. I ran two more cotton cloth squares over the stummel, sanded the outside with 220-grit paper taking care to avoid the nomenclature and micro meshed all the way. The chamber was too small to fit a reamer, and so I sanded it (using a pinkie) with 150- and 320-grit paper before using a tiny edge of 0000 steel wool to finish smoothing. I put a touch of Everclear on a two-ply cotton cloth square and scrubbed out the remaining soot. Micro meshing with my full set of pads was fun as usual and gave the wood a very nice natural shine. But as you can see, part of the big ding on the back side of the bowl remained. I spot-sanded the ding with little pieces of 320- and 500-grit paper and a lot of elbow grease, re-micro meshed it, then micro meshed the little light but smooth spot all the way again. The time to re-stain had arrived, but what color? Why, Lincoln Marine Cordovan! I flamed the quickly drying alcohol-based boot treatment and set it aside to cool.With 2400 and 3200 micro mesh, I removed enough of the stain-concealed grain to make out faint lines, but the pads could not do more than that. Several light applications of four-ought steel wool brought out the grain where I wanted it. After an easy but necessary retort, the time to repair to the electric buffers had come. I used the red and white Tripoli, White Diamond and carnauba on the bit, and all but the red Tripoli on the stummel. The last step was to touch up the circle B bit imprint with a white grease pencil as well as I could.

CONCLUSION
Close your eyes for a moment. I want you to imagine yourself standing just outside your favorite neighborhood tobacconist. You know there’s a pipe inside that you’ve always wanted. A pipe with your name, as it were. You may never have seen the pipe, but you know it’s in there. Waiting for you to buy it. For your own use. Whispering, “Come save me. I’ll be yours forever.” Maybe you remember your father or grandfather with it, relaxed and comfortable between his teeth. He’s smiling, laughing, and in his mirth has to take the pipe from his mouth for a moment. You watch as the beautiful pipe in his hand moves down in front of his chest, where the smoke subsides, but there are still faint wisps curling gently upward. And your eyes are still glued to the mysterious object of art when the hand moves up again and almost magically, without the man even looking at it, the pipe finds its way back between his happy, content lips. You reach for the doorknob to go inside.

Now, imagine you’re a woman.

SOURCES
http://www.pipetrader.de/artikelauswahl.php?kat=Estate+Pfeifen~Bounty
http://www.bestsmokingpipes.com/beautiful-real-briar-bounty-meerschaum-lined-smokers-smoking-estate-pipe-8-39
https://www.willhaben.at/iad/kaufen-und-verkaufen/d/pfeife-real-briar-bounty-157047822/
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/026-bounty-real-briar-bent-estate-463731513 9mm
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/12/us/hms-bounty-tall-ship-sinking-investigation/
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mutiny-on-the-hms-bounty
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Bounty/bountyaccount.html The true story of the 1789 mutiny on the Bounty
http://globalnews.ca/news/1390913/hms-bounty-sinking-coast-guard-blames-owners-captains-decisions/

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: