Tag Archives: Oxidation

Restoring a Custombilt Imported Briar taper stem Rhodesian

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By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table was one we purchased on 01/22/24 off eBay from a seller in Jordan, Minnesota, USA. It is a uniquely rusticated Custombilt Rhodesian that really looks good. I have worked on a lot of Custombillt rusticated pipes and enjoy working on them. The stem is a vulcanite taper stem with no markings on the sides. The pipe is stamped on a smooth panel on the left side of the shank. The left side reads Custombilt [over] Imported Briar. The stamping is clear and readable. The finish is quite dirty with grime and dust in the deep rustication where the hand held the bowl on both sides. The rim top is also dirty with darkening and also lava on the smooth surface on the edges as well. There is a thick cake in the bowl with some tobacco debris stuck on the walls and in the heel. The stem is oxidized, calcified and has tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button that are a bit deep and will need to be addressed. Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. It is unique and certainly one that we are looking forward to seeing once it is cleaned up. Jeff took closeup photos of the bowl and rim top to clearly show the condition of both. The condition matches what I described above. He also took photos of the stem to show the oxidation, calcification and tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. It also appears that the stem had a Softee Bit at some time in the past. Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to give a picture of what the briar looked like. The rustication pattern around the bowl is instantly recognizable as done by Custombilt. The stamping on the left side of the shank is clear and readable and read as noted above.I turned to Pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c8.html) to get a quick view of the brand once again. I knew that I was working with one of the older pipes and probably made by Tracy Mincer himself. He stopped making the Custom-Bilt pipes in the early 1950s. The screen capture I included below shows a brief history of the brand. I quote from the side bar in the above screen capture and have highlighted in red the pertinent part of the article.

Chunky bowls with rough carving or gouges.

Tracy Mincer stopped making Custom-Bilt pipes in the early 1950s. The trademark was successively bought by Leonard Rodgers (1953), Consolidated Cigars (1968) and Wally Frank Co. (early 1970s). The later began to produce again his version of the pipe in 1974 or 1975 at Weber pipe factory (NJ). In 1987, the pipes were made out of the Butz-Choquin factory (France) and then Mexico until the late 1990s. Currently (2010), the Custombilt name is owned by Tobacalera of Spain which is part of Altadis.

It is generally admitted (but not proved) pipes stamped “Custom – Bilt” (with the hyphen) are from the Mincer era. The name might have changed from Custom-Bilt to Custombilt (without the hyphen) in 1946.

I turned to Pipedia and found the following advertisement for the Custombilt line that I am working on (https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:Custombilt_Shapes.jpg). The logo on the advertisement is the same and the shape I have circled in red in the advert below is the same shape number as the one that I am working on.  The majority of the information on the rest of the site was two book reviews of the Custom-Bilt Story by Bill Unger. I did a screen capture of the stamping that matched the stamping on the pipe that I am working on. The stamping on the one I have might be example of Stamp #2 of the Wally Frank Era pipes (shown in the screen capture below). This stamp has the top arch of “C” extend to the top of “t”. The bottom arch of the “C” also curves into the leg of the “u” as in a cursive signature. I have also included the information on Stamp 3 as it mentions two stamps from this Wally Frank Era.In the early 1970s, Wally Frank Co. bought the Custombilt trademark and began to produce their version of the pipe in 1974 or 1975. Hollco Rohr owned the Weber pipe factory, located in New Jersey, and produced the Custombilt pipes there.

Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe itself.  Jeff had cleaned up the pipe with his usual penchant for thoroughness. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife.  He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration work. The rim top cleaned up really well. The rim top and outer edge of the bowl look very good. The inner edge has some damage on the front of the bowl. The stem surface was rough but the oxidation and calcification was gone. Overall it looked very good with a few small tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. The stamping on top left of the shank is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. The wide saddle stem is nice and the photo shows the step down tenon.I cleaned up the inner edge of the bowl with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage. Once I had smoothed out the edge the bowl was ready. I polished the smooth briar around outside of the bowl and the rim top with micromesh sanding pads. I sanded it with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to get it into the rings and rustication. It works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The grain and the rustication came alive. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished the roughness, scratch marks and smoothed the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It removes the dust and also gives the sanding pads some bite. By the final pad it was looking quite good.I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. This Custombilt Imported Briar Bent Rhodesian is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The style of rustication that is used around the bowl is quite beautiful and works well with both the shape and the polished vulcanite taper stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel and followed by buffing the pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Custombilt Rhodesian fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 47 grams/1.66 ounces. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipemakers Section shortly. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your collection send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. I appreciate your support and time!

Cleaning up another one of my GBD 9438 restorations from many years ago

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by Steve Laug

I have always liked the GBD 9438 shaped pipe and this one was one that I picked up many years ago when I first started working on pipes. I found it at an antique shop. It was in the early days when I picked up most every pipe I found. I believe that like others I found in the early days this pipe cost me about $6CDN. Just remembering that reminds me how much things have changed over the years. It became a favourite shape of mine and over the years I have purchased many more 9438 pipes made by GBD for their main and their seconds lines such as Irwin and Dr. Plumb. I have added them to my collection. Here is a link to a blog I did on my collection back in 2013 (https://rebornpipes.com/2013/12/12/my-gbd-9438-saddle-stems-and-tapered-stem-rhodesians/). I have 12 – some were in rough shape and others not so bad. I have been sorting through my pipe collection and thinning out pipes that I am willing to part with. I have sold many already and others are currently on the store. For the most part these pipes have been early restorations and all needed a bit of work to bring them up to my current standard. I have set aside three 9438 pipes that I decided to rework. This is the third of them. It is one I restored twice in 2012 (https://rebornpipes.com/2012/09/15/a-beatup-gbd-9438-given-a-new-look/, https://rebornpipes.com/2012/09/14/irwin-943810-by-gbd-a-makeover/). It is one that I did a lot of work on at that time – both refinishing and restoring. It was a real mess that picked up off eBay. The stamping is very faint on the shank sides. It is stamped on the left side and it looked like there was a faint brand name Irwin (maybe) [over] London Made (faint but still readable with a lens). On the right side it is stamped with the faint six-digit shape number 943810. I have seen that shape number on Dr. Plum and on Irwin Rhodesians, both made by GBD. While it was very workable and I had not smoked it much over the years. I knew that the original restoration on it was less rigorous than my current standards. So, before I listed it for sale I wanted to work it over again. I took photos of the pipe to give a sense of the beauty.
I took photos of the pipe’s bowl and rim top to show the light cake in the bowl and the rough inner edge of the bowl. The outer edge of the bowl looks very good. The rim top is also nicked and damaged slightly. I also took photos to capture the condition of the stem. It had some light oxidation and tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on each side of the shank. It is faint and I was unable to capture it with the photos below. There is no logo or inlaid stamp on the sides of the saddle stem. I took the stem off the shank and took a photo of the look of the pipe. It a nicely grained 9438 shape pipe. There is some beautiful grain around the bowl and shank.I decided to address the damage to the rim top and inner edge of the bowl. To deal with the rough inner edge of the rim and the rim top damage I worked on the edge with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I used a piece of 220 grit sandpaper on a wooden ball to further clean up the bevel. It took a bit of work to smooth out the damage and the darkening on the inner edge of the bowl. It looked much better at this point. I reamed the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to take out the cake. I removed ti back to bare briar. I sanded the bowl walls with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel to smooth out the walls. It looked very good. No burn damage or checking on the bowl walls.I scrubbed out the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. The shank was dirty though the stem airway was not too bad. It cleaned up well. I touched up the rim top and lightened areas on the shank end with an Oak Stain pen. I was able to blend it into the surrounding briar around the bowl and rim top. It looks mch better than when I started.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris on the surface. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I used a shoe brush to work it into the twin rings around the bowl cap. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth and shoe brush to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned to address the stem. I sanded the stem surface with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to remove all the marks remaining from the tooth damage. I wiped the stem down after each pad with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. It looked much better.I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. This GBD Made Irwin London Made 943810 Bent Rhodesian cleaned up much better this time around and looks very good. The Before & After Restoration Balm brought the colours and grain out in the finish on the pipe. It works well with the polished vulcanite saddle stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Irwin London Made 943810 Rhodesian fits nicely in the hand and I think it feel greats as it heats up with a good tobacco. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.87 ounces/53 grams. It is time to move it on to someone who will give it proper attention. I will be adding this one to the British Pipemakers Section of the rebornpipes store shortly. If you want to add it to your collection let me know. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

Reworking another trade, a Borlum KB&B Italian Briar Unbreakable Stem Bent Billiard

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by Steve Laug

A month or so ago I received an email from a fellow in Japan who had some pipes he wanted to sell. We came to an agreement and he sent me a few. One of them was this interesting smooth finish Bent Billiard. This pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank with the words BORLUM in an arc over KB&B in a cloverleaf. Underneath that it is stamped ITALIAN BRIAR in a reverse arc. On the right side of the shank it is stamped UNBREAKABLE BIT. The stamping was clear and readable. The band on the shank is cosmetic and original and reads KB&B in a cloverleaf [over] Nickel Plated. The bowl had been reamed and the pipe cleaned. The shank is very clean inside and the pipe smelled very clean. It was so clean that I don’t think the pipe had been smoked since the fellow in Japan picked it up. The rim top was clean though there were some scratches and darkening and the inside edge of the rim showed some nicks. There was no damage to the outer edges. The finish around the bowl was in decent condition with great grain under some of the grime and scratching. The stem looked good, though it was not centred on the shank. The diameter of the stem extended beyond the band on the right side and a little above the top and underside. I would need to reduce the stem diameter to fit the shank band. There were some light tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside ahead of the button. Overall, I am happy with it but I will need to rework the stem fit to the shank and clean up the rim top and edges. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work on it.  I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition of the bowl and the top. You can see clean bowl and marks on the rim top. The inner edge is slightly out of round. The stem looks good with light tooth damage and no oxidation on the surface of the hard rubber. It will look much better once I trim down the top, underside and the right side of the stem.I took photos to show the stamping on the sides of the shank and the nickel band. It is clear and readable as noted above. You can also see the fit of the stem to the shank on the top and the right side. I took the stem off and took a photo of the pipe to show its condition.

From an earlier Borlum pipe that I had refurbished back in 2014, I had learned a lot about the background of the manufacturer of the brand. I quote from that blog to summarize the historical background of the pipe (https://rebornpipes.com/tag/kbb-borlum-pipes/). The italicized portions of the text come from the blog with minor edits.

I already knew that Kaufmann Brothers and Bondy was the oldest pipe company in the USA, established in 1851. The Club Logo predated Kaywoodie with the “KB&B” lettering stamped within the Club, and a multitude of KB&B lines were in production long before “Kaywoodie” first appeared in 1919. Therefore, I knew that the pipe I had was a pre-1919, pre-Kaywoodie KB&B Made BORLUM.

As noted above, this particular pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank with the words BORLUM in an arc over KB&B in a cloverleaf. Underneath that it is stamped ITALIAN BRIAR in a reverse arc. On the right side of the shank it is stamped UNBREAKABLE BIT. As stated above it was made before Kaywoodie became the flagship name for pipes from Kaufman Brothers & Bondy (KB&B). It was made before the Kaywoodie invention of the “Stinger” was added, and even before shank logos, model stamps and other features invented by Kaywoodie came to be standards of the pipe making industry. It comes from a time when names like Ambassador, Heatherby, Melrose, Suez, Rivoli, Cadillac and Kamello dominated the pre-Kaywoodie scene. Borlum is one of those names.

I learned while researching for that blog and rediscovered while working on this one that the Borlum pipe featured some innovations that were new for the time but commonplace to us. These included (1) a solid rubber bit (vulcanite, ebonite), (2) an aluminum inner-tube construction in the stem that stabilized and strengthened the stem explaining the stamping of “Unbreakable Bit” on the right side of the shank, (3) a standard nickel-plated band (marked KB&B) to strengthen the shank connection for the stem. The stem features the older style more rounded bit tip/orific button, and you can see the aluminum inner-tube fitting just inside the tip.

I have included several pictures that I found on the internet that show the unique stem tube in the Borlum that gives rise to the claim that it has an Unbreakable Bit. The first photo shows the bent stem, third from the left with the same metal tube showing at the button. The second photo shows the other end of the tube in the tenon in the Borlum stem. That told me that the pipe I had was made after 1851 and before 1919. I am guessing that because of the other pipes in this lot dating in the late 1890s to about 1905 this one is probably from that same era. Not too bad for a 100+ year old pipe. During the hunt for information, I also found the next photo of a Borlum display and sales card. What is particularly interesting to me is the diagram at the top of the card showing the interior of the stem in place in the shank. It also includes the claim, “Guaranteed against Breakage”. I love the advertisements and sales brochures of these old pipes. The descriptive language that promises so much and the prices the pipes sold for are a nostalgic journey to the past. Note the $1 and up price tag on the sales card. The pipe that I am working on presently is identical to the bottom pipe on the right side of the photo. I have circled it in red. It has the identical shape, curved shank but has a nickel-plated band like mine. It has the hard rubber stem with an orific button. It is more rounded than the modern flat stem but it is still a comfortable feeling stem in the mouth.Now it was time to work on the pipe. I decided to deal with the diameter of the stem against the shank first. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to take off the extra diameter of the stem on the right side and the top and bottom. I also sanded the tooth marks and chatter on the stem surface. It was a lot of handwork and fussing to get the fit correct. Once finished it looked much better. I worked over the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to smooth out the scratches left in the hard rubber surface of the stem. Once finished the stem had a deep shine and really looked much better.I polished the stem surface with micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down between pads with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. It looked much better. I set the stem aside and turned my attention to the bowl. I smoothed out the damaged inner edge of the bowl with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. It looked much better. I started polishing out the damage on the rim top with the 220 grit sandpaper. It looked much better.I wiped the bowl down with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton pad to remove the shiny wax or shellac coat on the bowl surface. It cleaned up very well. There was a deep sandpit/flaw on the lower front left side of the bowl. I filled it in with a combination of CA glue and briar dust. I sanded the repair with 220 grit sandpaper and smoothed it out into the surrounding briar. I touched up the sanded spot on the bowl front with a Walnut stain pen. It matched the rest of the bowl surface. Once I polished it some it would blend in very well.I polished the bowl and the shank with 1500-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded with each pad and wiped the briar down with a damp cloth after each pad. I paused the polishing and touched up the stain on the bowl front and the rim top. It really was looking much better at this point. Once it cured I went back to polishing with the micromesh. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the bowl, rim top and shank with my fingertips and a shoe brush to get it in to the crevices and valleys. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I find that the balm really makes the briar come alive again. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The bowl really looks good at this point. I polished the nickel ferrule on the shank end with a jeweller’s cloth. It works to polish and protect the metal from further oxidation. It is a great looking addition to the pipe. With the bowl and the stem finished I put the Borlum KB&B Italian Briar Bent Billiard with an unbreakable stem back together and buffed it on the wheel using Blue Diamond to give it a shine. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It really is a great looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are – Length: 4 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of this large pipe is 1.20 ounces /33 grams. This Borlum KB&B Italian Briar Bent Billiard is another great looking pipe. It is much more beautiful in person than these photos can capture. I will be putting it in my older American Pipe Collection to enjoy in the future.  This is another pipe that has the possibility of transporting the pipe man or woman back to a slower paced time in history where you can enjoy a respite. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me.

Restoring one more pipe for an old pipeman – a 1990 Calich Hand Made Grade 10 Apple

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by Steve Laug

Earlier this month I received an email from Kathleen regarding one more Calich pipe for her husband. Here is here email.

… another abused Calich pipe that he had shamefully squirrelled away…

…About the poor abused Calich… a lovely pipe but he has two torch burned damage areas on a rusticated band around the top of the bowl… it might make more sense to cut it down below the rusticated band but I absolutely defer to your wisdom in the matter.

All Calich pipes deserve to be saved. — Kathleen

I agreed with her and I replied to Kathleen and invited her to send the pipes to me in Vancouver. They arrived just this week. I put on the Billie Holiday Disc and went through the package. Next to the four CDs there was a carefully bubble wrap bag with a pipe inside. It is by far the worst of the damaged pipes that I have worked on for this fellow. This one is an oval shanked apple shape pipe. It is stamped on the underside of the shank and read G followed by CALICH [over] Hand Made [over] 10 and above that 90. The rim top and the first ¼ down is rusticated in typical Calich style. The rest of the bowl was smooth as was the shank. The pipe had a very thick cake in the bowl and there was a lava overflow and burn damage on the top. There was some major burn damage under the lava on the mid-front edge of the bowl as well as a deep burned area on the left side toward the back of the left side. The burn marks on both were like a large bite out of the briar as can be seen in the photos. The shank had a thick coat of tars and oils and the stem had a thick tar build up as well so its fit in the shank was very sticky and dirty. The saddle stem itself is vulcanite with a single silver dot on the topside. It was heavily oxidized and had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem just ahead of the button. There were overflowing tars on the smooth shank end around the fit of the tenon in the mortise. There was a nickel repair band on the shank end that was oxidized and looking at the shank end there were some cracks in the shank. The finish was very dirty and oily but the grain I could see through the grime and tars appeared to be quite nice. A lot would be revealed once I had cleaned it. I took photos of the pipe before I started my cleanup work. I took a close-up photo of the bowl and rim top to show its condition. The inside of the bowl was heavily caked with a wet, oily tars up the sides and over the rim top. The rim top had damage on the front and on the back-left side. It is the worst as it is quite thin and is like a deep bite mark down the sides of the bowl. It left a mess for me to clean up. The stem was also is a mess. There was some light tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside ahead of the button. There was a thick coat of calcification and oxidation on the stem. The silver dot on the stem top was tarnished but very visible. I took a photo of the bowl with the stem removed to show the look of the pipe.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I am once again including information about John Calich the pipemaker as I have loved John Calich’s pipes for over 25 years now and have collected a few of them. I have restored quite a few of them and written blogs about them that can be read if you are interested in seeing the kind of pipes that John made. They are unique and beautiful. Each of his pipes are a work of art to me. I am including the links to the previous blogs that have written about his pipes.

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

https://rebornpipes.com/2019/01/23/i-am-the-happy-owner-of-an-unsmoked-pipe-by-the-late-john-calich/

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

https://rebornpipes.com/2014/03/21/reflecting-on-my-collection-of-john-calich-pipes/

Each of the blogs reflects on John’s pipes if you want to get a feel for them take a few minutes and read them.

When John was living I spoke with him several times via phone and had him make some new stems for some of his pipes that I picked up off eBay. He was a very kind gentleman and was always helpful when I spoke with him. He was always ready with encouragement and when I needed to know how to do something when I was first learning to repair pipes he was willing to help. He was one of the old guard of Canadian Pipe makers. I miss him. I am including a short piece from Pipedia on John to give details on his work and the grading of his pipes. The second paragraph below is highlighted in blue as it gives some information on the Grade 10 Apple that I am working on with the single silver dot now. I am also including a photo of John Calich, courtesy Doug Valitchka

John Calich was one of Canada’s finest carvers. He died in July 2008. John was a full-time pipe maker for the last 40 years. Calich pipes were mostly traditional shapes. His signature style is rustication and smooth on the same pipe along with his unique skill to stain a pipe in contrasting colors. He used only top-quality Grecian and Calabrian briar. The mouthpieces are hand finished Vulcanite “A”. Each pipe was entirely made by hand. John Calich was featured in the summer 2005 issue of Pipes & Tobacco.

His pipes are graded 3E – 7E. Retail prices range from$ 145.00 to $ 500.00 Each pipe is stamped “CALICH” 3-8E, his earlier pipes were graded from 3-14, and a single, tiny silver dot is applied to the top of the stem (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Calich).

I summarize the dating information from those blogs now: From my research and conversations I learned that John’s later 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 article above. All of this information told me as expected that the pipe I had was an earlier one.

Armed with the information about John’s grading system I knew that the pipe in hand was an earlier Calich Hand Made Grade 10 Oval Shank Apple pipe and the 90 told me it was made in 1990. Now it was time to work on the pipe. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the 2 and 3rd cutting heads to remove the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to scrape back the remaining cake. I sanded the bowl with some 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel to smooth out the walls of the bowl. Once it was clean I turned my attention to the rim top. There was so much damage to the rim top that I decided to use Kathleen’s suggestion and trim off the damaged areas. I flattened out the damaged areas with a wood rasp to take it down so the sides were even. I used a Dremel and sanding drum to even it out and then topped the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board to give the rim top a smooth surface. It looked better but the inner edge is rough on the left side and the outer edge is bad on the front side.I built up the outer edge damaged area on the front of the bowl with clear CA glue and briar dust. I did the same on the left side inner edge and rim top. Once finished it really looked like a mess.I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and a medium grit sanding sponge to flatten the repaired areas on the exterior of the bowl. I also used the folded 220 sandpaper to smooth out the inner edge a bit. Later I would do a better job on that but I was just trying smooth it out for the next step.I scraped the shank with a penknife to remove the thick build up of tar and oil. The knife let me take it back to the briar without damaging the walls of the shank and mortise. I scrubbed the inside of the mortise, shank and airway in the shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. Before I called it a day I stuffed the bowl with three cotton bolls until it was almost even with the rim top. I used a rolled cotton boll to plug the shank end. I used an ear syringe to fill the bowl with isopropyl alcohol. I set it aside in a pipe rest to let the alcohol leach out the oils into the cotton. I turned out the lights and let is sit overnight. In the morning I turned on the lights and this is what I found. The cotton was a dark brown both in the bowl and shank end. I removed it and took photos of the cotton with the tars. I used a piece of 220 grit sandpaper and a wooden sphere to give the inner edge of the bowl a bevel. Once it was finished it looked much better. Last evening I had come to a decision to rusticate the rim top and down the bowl side about ¼ inch around the sides. But to start I wanted it smooth.With the rim top smooth I used a series of burrs on my Dremel to rusticate the surface of the bowl and edge. It began to take on shape. I used a black stain pen to stain the rusticated portion of the bowl and rim top. The rustication was very similar to what I have seen on a lot of Calich pipes. The contrast was going to be nice once I finished working on the smooth portion of the bowl. I worked over the rustication with a brass bristle wire brush to clean off the burrs and debris on the rustication. Once I knocked it off I took photos of it to show the look of the bowl at this point. I polished the smooth bowl sides and shank with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each pad. It looked very good with the rusticated portions. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the smooth and the rusticated briar with my fingertips and a shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for ten minutes then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. Mark Hoover’s Balm is a product that I have come to appreciate and one I use on every pipe I have been working on. I polished the nickel band on the shank end with a jeweller’s cloth to remove the oxidation and protect the metal from reoxidizing as quickly. It took on a good shine.  I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the stem surface of the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the tooth marks and chatter on the surface. I was able to remove them all.I scrubbed the oxidation on the stem surface with Soft Scrub and cotton pads and was able to remove the majority of it. The cleaning was progressing and it was looking better.I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to break up the remaining oxidation. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a soft cloth. It began to take on a shine. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. Once I had finished the polishing I gave it final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. This is another pipe from Kathleen that I am working on. It is another beautifully shaped 1990 John Calich Hand Made Grade 10 Apple Pipe. It has the kind of beauty I have come to expect from John’s pipes with a rusticated rim top and first ¼ inch of the bowl side. I put the bowl and stem back together. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. 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 rusticated finish is well done and the polished smooth finish on the shank end and rim top look really good with the black vulcanite stem. This Calich Hand Made Apple was a challenging pipe to bring back to life. It is a comfortable pipe to hold in the hand. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 42 grams/1.48 ounces. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. I will be sending it back to Kathleen later this week for her husband to enjoy.

Cleaning up another one of my restorations from many years ago

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by Steve Laug

I have always liked the GBD 9438 shaped pipe and this one was one that I picked up many years ago when I first started working on pipes. I found it at an antique shop. It was in the early days when I picked up most every pipe I found. I believe that like others I found in the early days this pipe cost me about $6CDN. Just remembering that reminds me how much things have changed over the years. It became a favourite shape of mine and over the years I have purchased many more 9438 pipes made by GBD for their main and their seconds lines such as Irwin and Dr. Plumb. I have added them to my collection. Here is a link to a blog I did on my collection back in 2013 (https://rebornpipes.com/2013/12/12/my-gbd-9438-saddle-stems-and-tapered-stem-rhodesians/). I have 12 – some were in rough shape and others not so bad. I have been sorting through my pipe collection and thinning out pipes that I am willing to part with. I have sold many already and others are currently on the store. For the most part these pipes have been early restorations and all needed a bit of work to bring them up to my current standard. I have set aside three 9438 pipes that I decided to rework. This is the second of them. It is stamped on the left side GBD in the oval [over] Gold Label [over] Made in France. On the right side it is stamped with the shape number 9438. While it was very workable and I had actually smoked it quite a bit over the years I knew that original restoration on it was less rigorous than my current standards. So, before I listed it for sale I wanted to work it over again. I took photos of the pipe to give a sense of the beauty, the French take on the 9438 shape and the work that needed to be done. I took photos of the pipe’s bowl and rim top to show the moderate cake in the bowl and some darkening on the bevelled rim top and a nick on the front outer edge of the bowl. I also took photos to capture the condition of the stem. It had some light oxidation and tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on each side of the shank. It is readable and clear as noted above. The oval GBD brass rondel is visible on the left side of the saddle stem.I took the stem off the shank and took a photo of the look of the pipe. It an interesting take on a 9438 shape. Unique and beautiful.I decided to address the damage to the rim top and inner edge of the bowl. To deal with the burned inner edge of the rim and the rim top damage I worked on the edge with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I used a piece of 220 grit sandpaper on a wooden ball to further clean up the bevel. It took a bit of work to smooth out the damage and the darkening on the bevelled inner edge of the bowl. It looked much better at this point. I reamed the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to take out the cake. I removed ti back to bare briar. I sanded the bowl walls with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel to smooth out the walls. It looked very good. No burn damage or checking on the bowl walls.I scrubbed out the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. The shank was dirty though the stem airway was not too bad. It cleaned up well.I sanded the bowl and rim top to start smoothing out the rim top and start the polishing of the bowl. I also worked on the burn mark on the lower right of the bowl/shank union. I used 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad. It really began to take on a shine. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris on the surface. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it 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 and shoe brush to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned to address the stem. I “painted” the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the remnants of tooth marks that remained in the stem from the last time I worked on it. It worked very well and the dents lifted so that sanding the marks that remained removed all the remnants.I sanded the stem surface with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to remove all the marks remaining from the tooth damage. I wiped the stem down after each pad with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. It looked much better.It was in good condition other than the light tooth chatter so I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. This GBD Gold Label Made in France 9438 Bent Rhodesian cleaned up much better this second time around and looks very good. The Before & After Restoration Balm brought the colours and grain out in the smooth finish on the pipe. It works well with the polished vulcanite saddle stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished GBD Gold Label 9438 Rhodesian fits nicely in the hand and I think it feel greats as it heats up with a good tobacco. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.08 ounces/59 grams. It is time to move it on to someone who will give it proper attention. I will be adding this one to the French Pipemakers Section of the rebornpipes store shortly. If you want to add it to your collection let me know. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

A Kennett No.1 Billiard Another Brilliant Attempt at a Cool Dry Smoke

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By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is a pipe that we picked up from a seller in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, USA on 02/02/2022. This one was a unique fluted, pinched shank take on classic Billiard. It is stamped on the topside of the shank and reads Kennett [arched over] No 1. On the underside of the shank it is stamped London Made [over] Made in England [over] Reg’d 731096. The smooth, fluted finish around the bowl shows some nice grain patterns. There was grime and oil ground into the finish around the bowl. The fluted carving on the bowl sides and the holes around the rim go down the ridges to the bottom of the bowl. There was a moderate cake in the bowl and tobacco debris on the walls and heel. The rim top had lava overflowing from the bowl. It was thicker on left back of the rim top. The edges looked good but a clean up would tell the story. There was some thinning around the inner edge of the bowl affecting the holes in the rim top. The vulcanite taper stem was oxidized and had some tooth chatter and tooth marks on the top and underside ahead of the button. The interesting pipe showed a lot of promise but it was a mess. I took pictures of the pipe before I started my clean up work. I took photos of the rim top and bowl as well as the stem surfaces to show the condition of the well smoked pipe. You can see the thick cake in the bowl and the lava on the inner edge and rim top. There is also some roughening on the inner edge but the out edge looked good. There was a small nick in the outer edge on the left backside. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had scratches and light tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank and stem. The stamping is clear and readable as noted above. Before I started working on the pipe I wanted to do a bit of research and see what I could learn about it. First, I looked on Pipephil for The Kennett London Made No 1 and was unable to find any information there. There was no logo on the shank or the stem to help identify the brand.

I turned then to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kennett) and found a very short entry there. I quote it below. There were photos of several pipes, a Kennett Box and a pamphlet that gave some information. I quote it below:

J.A. Kennett, LTD. in London were the makers of the Kennett pipe (photos thank to Doug Valitchka). I also Googled and was able to find a link to a Kennett for sale on smokingpipes.com (https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/england/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=372529). There was also a photo that are worth look in at. I have included the description that was written about the pipe below.

This 1930s Billiard from Kennett is really unique, with its vertical, fluted channels opening up into tiny, hollow holes on the rim, resulting in an intriguing aesthetic. But wait: There’s more. Paired to the pert, tall bowl is a tapered, pinched, paneled shank that is unusual and is complemented by the bowl’s ridges. The jet-black vulcanite stem is also tapered. This smooth piece is dressed in a warm, chestnut stain that accentuates all of the above, and the fluting certainly provides entertainment for nimble fingers. -Angela Robertson

I also found a link on Google for an auction on Worthpoint for an unsmoked Kennett that was for sale there (https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/kennett-briar-unsmoked-air-cooled-469502789 . I have included the description that seller included with the item.Here’s an auction for sale. A The Kennett Briar “Air Cooled” Briar Pipe made in London England in the 1950’s or earlier. The bowl has 10 holes drilled down thru the bowl wall on the ribs on the bowl. The pipe will be very cool to touch and to smoke because of the air cooled circulation in the holes and around the rib cuts. The Kennett Briar pipe is Air-Cooled, Cool as a Cucumber, Light as a Feather, Sweet as a Nut says J. A. Kennett, Ltd.9/11 Tottenham Street London, W. The Kennett Guarantee says every care has been used in selecting well seasoned Briar Root for making of this Pipe, and it is guaranteed with fair usage not to crack or burn. The stem is English Vulcanite.

Now I knew that the pipe was made between the 30s and 50s. The Reg’d number on it makes me think that is an older one – possibly from the 30s. I would not be able to further pin the date down on the pipe. Now it was time to work on it.

I started my work on the pipe by cleaning up the lava on the rim top. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean it up. I carefully cleaned the darkening on the inner edge at the same time. I scraped the cake around the bowl sides with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife and then sanded the walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The walls were smooth and showed no burn damage. I cleaned out the interior of the shank, mortise and airway in the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. It was a dirty pipe.I scrubbed the externals of the pipe with Mark Hoover’s Briar Cleaner (extra strength). I cleaned the surface of the briar with my fingertips working product into the surface of the briar. I scrubbed it with a tooth brush working it over. I rinsed off the Mark’s Briar cleaner with warm water to remove the debris and grit that it had collected. I dried it off with a soft cotton cloth and took some photos of the pipe at this time. There was burn damage on the rim top that was going to remain. The holes down the sides of the bowl from the rim top were thin so I did not want to remove any of the briar. I chose to leave the burn marks as they are. I used a Maple stain pen to touch up the rim top. It matched the colour of the stain on the rest of the bowl. Once it was polished it would blend in very well. I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cotton pad after each sanding pad. The briar really took on a patina that began to look better with the polishing. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I work it into the briar with my finger tips to make sure that it covers every square inch of the pipe. I set it aside for 10 minutes to let it do its work. I wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine. The photos I took of the bowl at this point in the restoration. You see the shine that the briar has taken on and the way grain pops with the light buffing. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I worked on the oxidation on the stem with Soft Scrub and was able to remove it. Lots of elbow grease and working over the surface but it started to look much better.I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to break up the remaining oxidation. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It was looking good.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. Once I had finished the polishing I gave it final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I am glad to be on the homestretch on what was a mystery pipe when I started. I really am looking forward to the final look when I put a pipe back together, polished and waxed. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. 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 pops with the wax and polish. The shiny black vulcanite stem is a beautiful contrast to the browns of the bowl and shank. This The Kennett No1 Reg’d 731096 Billiard was interesting pipe to work on. The pipe is comfortable pipe to hold in the hand. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.45 ounces/41 grams. This Kennett pipe is a great piece of history of the ongoing search for the cooler and drier smoke. I will be adding it to the British Pipe Making Companies Section on the rebornpipes store shortly. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I working on it.

As always, I encourage your questions and comments as you read the blog. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Restoring a Danish Made Barling Make International 911 Brandy

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is a pipe that we picked up from an eBay seller in Jordan, Minnesota, USA on 01/22/2024. This one was a nice looking sandblast Brandy that has a classic Barling look. It is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads Barling in script [over] Make [over] International [over] Made in Denmark. On the shank end at the joint of the stem it is stamped with the shape number 911. On the top of the saddle stem it is stamped with the Barling cross logo. It has some smooth panels mid bowl on the left and right side. The sandblast around the bowl shows some nice grain patterns. There was lot of grime and oils ground into the finish around the bowl and the shank. The pipe was dirty but the contrasting dark and medium brown stains highlighted the grain of the briar. There was a thick cake in the bowl. The rim top had a thick coat of lava overflowing from the bowl. The edges looked good but a clean up would tell the story. The rim top was crowned. The stem is a vulcanite saddle shape that has the Barling cross on the top of the saddle. It was oxidized, calcified and had some tooth chatter and tooth marks on the top and underside ahead of the button. The pipe showed a lot of promise but it was a mess. Jeff took pictures of the pipe before he did his clean up work. He took photos of the rim top and bowl as well as the stem surfaces to show the condition of the well smoked pipe. You can see the cake in the bowl and the lava on the inner edge and rim top. The outer edge of the bowl is in good condition. It appears to have a nicely rounded crown on the rim top. The stem was lightly oxidized, calcified and had scratches, tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took some photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to give a sense of the sandblast finish and the grain around the bowl. It should clean up very well. He captured the stamping on the sides of the shank and stem. It reads as noted above and is clear and readable. He also took photos of the Barling cross on the top of the saddle stem. The stem also has a white acrylic spacer that fits between the shank end and the stem face. I like to do background research on the pipes I am working on. I did a quick search on the rebornpipes blog and found a blog written by Paresh that gives some great background information (https://rebornpipes.com/2019/09/16/a-fresh-lease-on-life-for-a-barling-t-v-f-911-made-in-denmark/). I quote from it below:

I had previously worked on a couple of Barling pipes from my inherited pipe collection; here are the links to both the write up,  https://rebornpipes.com/2019/03/26/a-simple-restoration-of-an-early-transition-era-barling-2639/, https://rebornpipes.com/2018/12/10/decking-out-my-grandfathers-battered-pre-transition-barling-1354/   and had researched this brand then. To refresh my memory, I revisited the write ups and also pipedia.org. Here is an interesting excerpt from pipedia.org (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Barling)

In the late 1970’s production of Barling pipes was shifted to Denmark where Eric Nording manufactured Barling pipes for Imperial. There may have been other factories, but as of this writing, none has been identified. Nording stated that he made approximately 100.000 pipes for Imperial.

Despite these attempts to diversify the line, Barling lost its market. These pipes just weren’t equivalent to the family era pipes. Finally, Imperial decided to close down the Barling operations entirely by 1980.

Paresh discerned from the above information that the pipe currently on his work table is from the period between late 1970’s to 1980 and most likely carved by master craftsman Eric Nording!! For me the fascinating thing is that the pipe I am working on is from the same master and the same carver.

Now it was time to look at it up close and personal. Jeff had removed the cake and the lava on the rim top. He had reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He took the cake back to bare briar so we could check the walls for damage. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime on the bowl and rim and was able to remove the lava and dirt. He cleaned out the interior of the bowl and shank with shank brushes, pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they came out clean. He cleaned the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the grime on the exterior. He cleaned out the airway with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I took some photos of the pipe before I started my work on it today. I took a close up photo of the cleaned up rim top. The rim top and the inner edge look good. The bowl is clean and the walls are undamaged. The stem looks good with some tooth chatter and marks along the top and underside ahead of the button. The Barling Cross is faded with the cleaning.I took a photo of the stamping on the shank side. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took the stem off the pipe and took a photo. The thick shank billiard is an attractive looking pipe with nice lines. The taper stem shows tooth damage on the top and undersides of the stem. I started my work on the pipe by working over the rim top and the bowl and shank with a 320 grit sanding pad. I wiped the bowl down after sanding pad. The rim top began to take on a shine.I polished the rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the rim top down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth. It really took on a shine. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips where it works to clean, restore and preserve the briar. I let it do its magic for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The pipe looks incredibly good at this point in the process. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I touched up the stamping on the topside of the saddle stem with white acrylic fingernail polish. I pointed it on with the applicator and scraped off the excess and lightly sanded it with a 1500 grit micromesh pad.I “painted” the surface of the stem with the flame of a lighter. I was able to raise all of the tooth marks. I sanded out the light remnants that remained with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. Once finished I wiped it down with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It looked much better. I continued to polish the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it further with Before & After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to absorb the oil. I am excited to finish this Made in Denmark Barling Make International 911 Brandy made by Eric Nording. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and then by hand with a microfibre cloth to deepen it. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with beautiful sandblast grain all around the bowl and shank and the smooth well grained crowned rim top. The polished grain on the pipe looks great with the black hard rubber stem. This Danish Barling Make International 911 Brandy is great looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 44 grams/1.55 ounces. It turned out to be a beautiful pipe. I will soon be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipemakers Section. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Remember we are the next in a long line of pipe men and women who will carry on the trust of our pipes until we pass them on to the next trustee. Thanks for your time reading this blog.

Reworking another newly acquired trade, a Pipe by Lee Limited Edition Dublin

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Blog by Steve Laug

A month or so ago I received an email from a fellow in Japan who had some pipes he wanted to sell. He sent me a few and one of them was this interesting smooth finish Dublin. The pipe was clearly stamped on the left side and read Pipes by Lee [over] Limited Edition. On the right side it was stamped An Authentic [over] Imported Briar. The stamping was clear and readable. The bowl has been reamed and the pipe cleaned. The shank is very clean inside and the pipe smelled very clean. It was so clean that I don’t think the pipe had been smoked since the fellow in Japan picked it up. The rim top was clean though there was some scratches on the rim top and the inside edge of the rim showed damage on the right side. There was no damage to the outer edges. The pipe had been given a shiny top coat. The stem looked good. It was polished and there appeared to be a repair on the underside ahead of the button. There was probably a bite through that had been repaired and it was very well done. Overall, I am happy with it but I will need to remove the shiny varnish coat. I will need to polish the repair on the underside of the stem to bring the shine out. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work on it.   I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition of the bowl and the top. You can see clean bowl and marks on the rim top. The inner edge is slightly out of round. The stem looks very good with no tooth damage and no oxidation on the surface of the vulcanite. The repair on the underside of the stem is visible but is solid and very hard. It looks like an epoxy putty repair.I took photos to show the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took a photo of the stinger apparatus in the stem and the three gold stars on the top of the taper. I took the stem off and took a photo of the pipe to show its condition. I remembered that Aaron Henson had written about the restoration of a Pipes By Lee 3 Star Rhodesian he had restored in the past so I turned there first to read about it. I am including the link to the blog if you wish to check it out on your own. (https://rebornpipes.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=37004&action=edit&classic-editor).

Aaron had included pic of the flyer to the left that gives a sense of the hierarchy of the brand. I know that even though the flyer says it goes up to 5 stars I have seen 7 star pipes in the past.

I reread Aaron’s blog and when I finished I turned to Pipedia for any additional information but did not find anything new. I have included the link in case some of you might want to check it out (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Lee).

I checked also on Pipephil’s site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-l3.html). I have included a screen capture of the material below. I also included the information from the sidebar below the screen capture. It is helpful information.This brand was distributed by Stewart-Allen Co, Inc. NY. Grading (ascending): 1 to 5 stars. Early pipes have seven pointed brass stars, middle run have five points and later pipes are stamped with coloured gold stars. Lee seconds: Briar Lee , Gold Coast.

Now I had a pretty good idea of how the pipe was stamped and made. With that information I turned to work on the pipe itself. I started my work on the pipe by cleaning up the inner edge of the rim. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage on the front left side. I gave the edge a slight bevel to minimize the damage. It looked much better when finished. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads to remove the uneven coat of varnish or shellac on the briar. I used 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the bowl, rim top and shank with my fingertips. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I find that the balm really makes the briar come alive again. The contrasts in the layers of stain really made the grain stand out. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The bowl really looks good at this point. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. The stem looked quite good but as I noted above there was a rather large repair on the underside of the stem near the button. My guess is that there was a bite through that was repaired. The repair looked quite good and was solid. It looks like a two-part epoxy repair. It is solid and slightly lighter in colour than the stem. I sanded the repaired with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to polish that area. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each pad. I applied some black CA glue to the top of the repair to darken it and in doing so found another repair on the topside – a hairline crack in the surface of the stem ahead of the button. I covered that with black CA glue at the same time. Once that cured I sanded it smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads -dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. I finished this stage in the polishing with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine Polishing Compound to protect and deepen the shine. The repairs were less visible but still present. With the bowl and the stem finished I put the Lee Limited Edition 3 Star Dublin back together and buffed it on the wheel using Blue Diamond to give it a shine. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It really is a great looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are – Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of this pipe is 1.02 ounces /29 grams. This Pipes by Lee Limited Edition 3 Star Dublin is another great looking pipe. It is much more beautiful in person than these photos can capture. The repairs on the stem are solid and the pipe will be a great deal for someone. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the American (US) Pipemakers Section soon. If you would like to add it to your collection let me know. This is another pipe that has the possibility of transporting the pipe man or woman back to a slower paced time in history where you can enjoy a respite. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me.

Restoring an Old NEBPC Bent Billiard with an old-style vulcanite stem

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on is one that we picked up 04/16/2024 from a seller on Facebook Marketplace in Tacoma, Washington, USA. The pipe is an older style bent billiard with narrow vulcanite stem. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank with NEBPC in a pie shaped circle with a letter in each section. That is followed by Flagship in script [over] Algerian Bruyere. On the right side it is stamped with the shape number 14 at the bowl shank junction. The brand and stamping are the mystery to me. It is one I had not heard of before and had no idea of what the initials stand for. The smooth finish had some very nice grain but there was a lot of grime and oils ground into the finish around the bowl and the shank. The pipe was dirty but the rich stain highlighted the grain. There was a thick cake in the bowl overflowing in thick lava on the rim top. The inner edge looked quite good though the lava covered it. The outer edge was in good condition other than a nick on the left backside of the bowl. The stem is vulcanite and the shape and cut of the button leads me to think it is an older pipe. It has a stamp on the topside of the taper that is very hard to decipher with the oxidation and grime on the surface. It was oxidized and had tooth chatter and tooth marks on the top and underside ahead of the button. The marks on the stem next to the button lead me to wonder if the stem had been cut off and a new button cut. I am uncertain but probably will never know. The pipe showed a lot of promise but it was a mess. I took pictures of the pipe before I did my clean up work. I took photos of the rim top and bowl as well as the stem surfaces to show the condition of the well smoked pipe. You can see the thick cake in the bowl and the lava on the inner edge and rim top. There is also some roughening on the inner edge but the out edge looked good. There was a small nick in the outer edge on the left backside. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had scratches, tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank and stem. On the left side it reads as noted above. On the right side it is stamped with the shape number 14. There is also some mark on the top of the tapered stem that I cannot decipher. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe to show its flow. I looked on Pipephil for both the circular pie shaped logo and the NEBPC Flagship stamping and found nothing. I also looked on Pipedia and again came up emptyhanded. I just felt like I was missing something in the search. I tried various interpretations of the NEBPC letters – Nebraska Pipe Club, New England Briar Pipe Club for two attempts and came up empty. I wrote to John Young who also does restoration and asked if knew of a Nebraska Pipe Club and he knew of nothing like that in his state. That left me still mystified.

I decided to do a search for the NEBPC on Google to see if I could interpret the meaning of the letters. I wondered what they stood for so I searched and came up with a thread on the brand on the pipesmagazine forums (https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/threads/i-love-this-pipe-but-who-made-it.48662/). There was quite a long discussion that gave some good information. Like the quote below by samcoffeeman on Apr 6, 2015

I got a hit! Was thinking it was NEBPC because of the order and PC meant pipe club perhaps. It actually means New England Briar Pipe Company. Another example here with some great info: LINK (link is disconnected)  Kaywoodie also has a Canadian pipe shape #71 so there you go!

buroak replied the following:

The NEBPC made the Yello Bole line for KBB. That “Algerian Bruyere” stamp looks like the same one used on Yello Boles, too. What is strange is the two-digit code. Nice find!

misterlowercase added some more information regarding the brand. He included links to the old factory where that pipe was made in Penacook New Hampshire, is still in use today,

http://pipedia.org/wiki/Yello-Bole

I turned to the second link first to have a look at the large photo first. It showed the large older building. Here is the link (https://debralavalley.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/dsc_0024sm.jpg).

I then turned to the pipedia article (http://pipedia.org/wiki/Yello-Bole) and found a great article on the history of the KBB/Yello-Bole pipe company.

History

In 1932 Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy (KB&B), est. 1851, expanded their program consisting of KB&B pipes, Reiss-Premier and Kaywoodie as the mainstay brand by introducing the Yello-Bole line. Yello-Bole was designed as an outlet for lower grade briar not used in Kaywoodie production.

At that time KB&B produced their brands in Union City and in West New York, both New Jersey. Deviating from that, Yello-Boles were manufactured by The New England Briar Pipe Company in Penacook, New Hampshire to use this KB&B subsidiary to capacity.

As briar was hardly had during World War II, the KB&B Company embarked on a project of domestically grown briar wood, called Mission Briar or manzanita early in 1941. The Pacific Briarwood Company, a subsidiary founded for this purpose, began harvesting the burls growing on the slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. Though this wood is botanically the same as briar form the Mediterranean countries, the smoking characteristics were not quite as good and the project was abandoned after the war.

Was it for that reason? Advertising from the 1940’s pictures the Yello-Bole “Honey Girl”, who gently urges the pipe smoker to smoke the pipe with “a little honey in every bowl.” In fact, honey was an ingredient of the material used to coat the inside of the bowl. It was said to provide a faster, sweeter break-in of the pipe.

In 1952, 101 years after the Kaufmann brothers had opened a small pipe shop in the Bowery section of New York City, Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy Company with all subsidiaries was purchased by an unknown company strange to pipe industry. (At least, the new owner was economical because the KB&B managers had to leave their luxurious bureaus on 630 Fifth Avenue, New York – the Rockefeller Center – for new rooms in the factory on 6400 Broadway, West New York.) This interlude ended after only 3 years in March of 1955, when S. M. Frank & Co. bought Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy, The Kaywoodie Company, Reiss-Premier Corp., The New England Briar Pipe Co. and – of course – Yello-Bole.

From the time of S.M. Frank’s purchase in 1955 until 1972 Yello-Bole was run as a separate company, as division of the parent. Through this period, Yello-Bole, same as Kaywoodie, had its own officers, sales force and maintained the production facilities in West New York. These 17 years were probably the most glorious years in Yello-Bole’s history.

I also found a listing in the business directory for the New England Briar Pipe Co. I have included that information below.I used the hints above to check on the shape number 14 in the Pipedia listing of Kaywoodie shape numbers (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kaywoodie_Shape_Numbers). That gave me the information that the number 14 was a Full Bent Medium Billiard with a Taper Stem that was made between 1927-1972.

That information gave a range that the shape was made for Kaywoodie pipes. However, since the pipe made by the New England Briar Pipe Co., a company that ceased to exist in 1955, the pipe in hand was made prior to that time period. The pipe was made by the company in Penacook, New Hampshire. Now it was time to work on this old pipe that was no longer a mystery.

I started my work on the pipe reaming the bowl. I started by doing the work with a Pipnet Pipe Reamer and took the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the remnants around the bowl sides with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife and then sanded the walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The walls were smooth and showed no burn damage.  I scraped the lava build up on the rim surface with the Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I was able to remove all of the thick lava. It still needed some thorough cleaning but it was looking better.I scraped out the mortise with a small pen knife to remove the thick tars and oils. I cleaned out the interior of the shank, mortise and airway in the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. It was a dirty pipe.I scrubbed the externals of the pipe with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I worked over the inside of the bowl at the same time. I rinsed it with warm water to remove the grime and debris. I dried it off with a soft cotton cloth and lightly buffed it with the cloth. It smelled very clean. I used a 320 grit sanding pad to remove the remaining tars and oils on the rim top. I worked it over to clean up the top and prepare it for polishing with micromesh sanding pads. I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cotton pad after each sanding pad. The briar really took on a patina that began to look better with the polishing. I paused the polishing and used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage on the inner edge of the rim. It looked much better. Then I stained the rim top with a Cherry Stain pen. It matched the rest of the briar very well. With polishing it would be unrecognizable. I went back to the polishing process with the remaining micromesh sanding pads from 3200-12000 grit pads. The briar began to take on a rich shine. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I work it into the briar with my finger tips to make sure that it covers every square inch of the pipe. I set it aside for 10 minutes to let it do its work. I wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine. The photos I took of the bowl at this point in the restoration. You see the shine that the briar has taken on and the way grain pops with the light buffing. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. There was some damage on the stem top next to the button on both sides. I was not sure if it was tooth marks or file marks. The were deep cuts but the stem is quite thick at this point on both sides. I filled the spots in with black CA rubberized glue. I set the stem aside for the repairs to cure.While it cured I touched up the blurry stamp on the top of the stem with white acrylic fingernail polish. Then I scraped away the excess white acrylic with a 320 grit sanding pad. It was fascinating to see that underneath the white acrylic the stamp was a train engine. It was very well stamped but faint in spots.Once the repairs on the stem cured I used a file to flatten them and reshape the button on both sides. It was showing promise. I sanded the surface of the repair smooth with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I also sanded the oxidation on the stem surface at the same time. By the time I finished wit the reshaping and sanding the stem looked much better. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to break up the remaining oxidation. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It began to look good. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. Once I had finished the polishing I gave it final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry.  I am glad to be on the homestretch on what was a mystery pipe when I started. I really am looking forward to the final look when I put a pipe back together, polished and waxed. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. 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 pops with the wax and polish. The shiny black vulcanite stem is a beautiful contrast to the browns of the bowl and shank. This NEBPC – New England Briar Pipe Company Flagship Algerian Bruyere Billiard was another fun pipe to work on. The pipe is comfortable pipe to hold in the hand. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.45 ounces/41 grams. This NEBPC pipe was a fun one to work on with a great piece of history and connection with KB&B Yello-Bole. I will be adding it to the American (US) Pipe Making Companies Section on the rebornpipes store shortly. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I working on it.

As always, I encourage your questions and comments as you read the blog. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Restoring a Beautiful Imperial Old Bruyere 188 Chunky Billiard

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By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is another pipe is another pipe that we picked up from the estate in Oregon City, Oregon, USA on 03/21/2024. This one was a nice looking thick shanked Billard that reminds me of Dunhill LB pipes. It has some nice grain patterns. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Imperial in script [over] Old Bruyere [over] Made in England. To the right of that is stamped the  which is the symbol for a Registered Trademark. On the right side of the shank it is stamped next to the bowl with the shape number 188. The smooth finish had some very nice grain but there was a lot of grime and oils ground into the finish around the bowl and the shank. The pipe was dirty but is quite nice natural tones of the briar. There was a moderate cake in the lower portion of the bowl. The inner edge looked quite good. The outer edge was rounded and damaged giving the rim top a crowned look. The stem seems to be hard rubber rather than vulcanite that leads me to think it is an older pipe. It has a stamp on the left side of the taper that reads Imperial with the tail of the “l” curving under the rest of the stamp in the same script as the stamp on the shank. It had some light oxidized and had some tooth chatter and tooth marks on the top and underside ahead of the button. The pipe showed a lot of promise but it was a mess. Jeff took pictures of the pipe before he did his clean up work. He took photos of the rim top and bowl as well as the stem surfaces to show the condition of the well smoked pipe. You can see the light cake in the bowl and the light lava on the inner edge and rim top. There is also some roughening on the outer edge at the front and back of the bowl. It appears to have been rounded over giving the rim top a bit of an artificial crown. The stem was lightly oxidized, calcified and had scratches, tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took some photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to give a sense of the grain and the shiny varnish or shellac coat on the exterior of the bowl. It is definitely an addition that will need to be removed. He captured the stamping on the sides of the shank and stem. On the left side it reads as noted above. On the right side it is stamped with the shape number 188. To capture the stamping on the left side Jeff had to take a few extra photos. I turned to Pipephil to get a quick overview of the background information on the Imperial brand (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-i.html). There was no background information on the site this time but the photos below are helpful in terms of the stamping on the shank and the stem.I turned to Pipedia for more information (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Tobacco_Co.). I quote the article below.

From Pipes, Artisans and Trademarks, by Jose Manuel Lopés’

The Imperial Tobacco Co. (Imperial Tobacco Ltd.) was founded in 1901 through the merger of several British tobacco companies. In 1902 it went into partnership with the American Tobacco Company to found the British American Tobacco Company.

See also: Civic. Brands involved: Comoy’s, Bewlay, Nording, Ogden’s, Salmon & Gluckstein, and Steel’s

There was a great older advertisement on the link as well that highlighted the age of the brand. I have included that below.Now it was time to look at it up close and personal. Jeff had removed the cake and the lava on the rim top. He had reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He took the cake back to bare briar so we could check the walls for damage. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime on the bowl and rim and was able to remove the lava and dirt. He cleaned out the interior of the bowl and shank with shank brushes, pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they came out clean. He cleaned the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the grime on the exterior. He cleaned out the airway with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I took some photos of the pipe before I started my work on it today. I took a close up photo of the cleaned up rim top. The rim top and the inner edge look good. The damage on the outer edge of the bowl shows up as rounding on the front and the back of the bowl. The bowl is clean and the walls are undamaged. The stem looks good with some tooth chatter and marks along the top and underside ahead of the button. The stem is hard rubber which makes the work more difficult on the tooth marks.I took a photo of the stamping on the shank side. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took the stem off the pipe and took a photo. The thick shank billiard is an attractive looking pipe with nice lines. The taper stem shows tooth damage on the top and undersides of the stem. I started my work on the pipe by working over the rim top and the bowl and shank with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad. The bowl began to take on a shine. I used a Cherry stain pen to restain the rim top and edges to match the colour of the rest of the bowl. The match will be perfect once I finish the next stage of polishing.I polished the smooth rim top and areas on the bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. After each pad I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. It really took on a shine and the fills were less noticeable by the last three sanding pads. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips where it works to clean, restore and preserve the briar. I let it do its magic for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The pipe looks incredibly good at this point in the process. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter. I was able to lift all of them to the point where sanding the stem with 220 grit sandpaper should smooth the rest of them out.I touched up the faint stamping on the left side of the taper stem with white acrylic fingernail polish. I pointed it on with the applicator and scraped off the excess and lightly sanded it with a 1500 grit micromesh pad. I sanded out the remnants of the tooth marks with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and was able to remove all of the remaining marks. Once finished the stem looked very good.I sanded the stem surface with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped down the stem after each pad using a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. It started looking better as each step took it closer to the finished look.I continued to polish the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it further with Before & After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to cure. I am excited to finish this Imperial Old Bruyere  Made in England 188 Billiard. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond 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 and then by hand with a microfibre cloth to deepen it. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with beautiful straight grain all around it. The polished grain on the pipe looks great with the black hard rubber stem. This Imperial Old Bruyere Billiard is great looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 53 grams/1.87 ounces. It turned out to be a beautiful pipe. I will soon be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipemakers Section. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Remember we are the next in a long line of pipe men and women who will carry on the trust of our pipes until we pass them on to the next trustee. Thanks for your time reading this blog.