Tag Archives: pipe refurbishing

Restoring a Monster KBB Yello Bole Imperial Rusticated Billiard

Blog by Troy Wilburn

I picked up this huge pipe from a friend of mine on the Dr. Grabow Collectors Forum. This pipe isn’t a magnum it’s a howitzer! It is 7 ½ inches long and has an almost 2 ½ inch tall bowl. The pipe was nice but had some issues. The top of the rim and the inner edge had been hacked up. The stem also has some heavy nicks and dings in it. It was really clean though and I had very little to do as far as getting the inside clean.

Here are some photos of the pipe before I worked on it.

As I stated above the top of the rim and the inner edge were badly hacked. I began by working on the rim. I topped it and made a large concave inner rim. I don’t know if it came like this from the factory or not but it has one now. I took it down with 80 grit sandpaper and then a lot of sanding with 120 grit sandpaper.

After I had finished rough shaping the rim I did LOTS and LOTS more sanding from 400 grit sandpaper all the way up to 2000 grit sandpaper. I used mineral oil as a lubricant for the sandpaper and also to bring out the colour of the natural wood.

I soaked the stem in alcohol and then scrubbed it with a green scouring pad. I cleaned it out with pipe cleaners. The stem had several tooth marks and gouges on the top and the bottom side next to the button.

I filed out the tooth marks and reshaped the button. Here is a little trick that some of you may know, but I came up with it in working on the last few pipes. I thought I would share it here. After filing the stem I take a lighter and work the flame back and forth across the file marks. The heat from the lighter helps to blend in the file marks and makes it easier to sand them out.

Here is a photo of the stem before I used the lighter. Here is a photo of the stem after using the lighter. I buffed the rim with Brown Tripoli a few times to get rid of the fine sanding marks. I could not get the pads into the concave inner rim so I waxed it by hand with paste wax several times. With the initial sanding and cleaning of the stem done, I still had a lot more sanding to do. There were lots of scratches and dings in it. I began sanding with 400 grit sandpaper and worked my way up to 2500 grit sandpaper. I put the stem back on the bowl and got it ready for the final buffing and waxing. Here are photos of the pipe after it had been buffed and polished.

To give an idea of the size of this pipe and put it in perspective here is a photo of it next to a Yello Bole Hand Made Poker I have. As most of you would know, a Hand Made is not a small pipe by any means. This billiard almost dwarfs it.

Rejuvenating an Italian Sitter stamped MAT

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Blog by Steve Laug

I am finally working on the last of the pipes that I picked up on craigslist – a sitter that is stamped MAT and Italy. It was my least favourite shape in the lot. I left it to the very end to work on. It is shown in the photo below in the middle of the left column. It was a bit of a mess. The stem was stuck in the shank and was oxidized. It also had some tooth chatter. Once again there was the calcification on the stem that comes when a softie is left in place on the stem. The bowl had a shiny varnish finish but that was dulled with a lot of tars and oils. The rim was caked with a very hard, thick coat of tars and oil – lava over flow from the bowl. The bowl itself was caked. There were quite a few fills in the bowl on bottom and on the back side of the bowl near the shank. There was also an area of fills on the top of the rim and a small crack that had been filled on the back side of the bowl near the rim.

I put the pipe in the freezer for an hour to loosen the stem. After an hour of cooling I was able to twist the stem out of the shank. I was a little surprised to find a very short – ½ inch stinger in the end of the tenon.

I heated the stinger with a lighter and then twisted it out of the tenon with a pair of pliers on which I had wrapped tape around the jaws. This tape prevented the jaws from damaging the aluminum stinger. I set the stem aside and reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer. I used three of the four cutting heads to remove the cake from the bowl. With the small crack on the back edge of the bowl I wanted to expose the interior of the bowl and check out the interior for cracks.

To remove the hard lava from the rim I used a sharp blade pressed flat against the rim to scrape away the buildup. I scraped and then wiped it down with alcohol to soften the tars. I continue until I had removed the cake. In doing so I found that just above the crack on the back of the bowl was an area of several small fills that were on the rim. I scrubbed the surface of the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the varnish that was on the finish. I wanted to get underneath that finish so that I could do a repair on the small crack and also get to the surface of the briar. I personally do not like the thick varnish coats that are on some pipes.

I cleaned out the small crack with a dental pick and alcohol. I drilled a tiny hole at the bottom of the crack to stop it from spreading. Once it was clean I stuffed briar dust into the crack and then dripped some super glue on to the rim and the side of the bowl to fill in the crack.

I sanded the rim and the repaired area with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to smooth out the surface. I cleaned out the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth chatter and light tooth marks. I also sanded it to remove the oxidation. I followed that by sanding with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge.

I buffed the stem with red Tripoli to break through the oxidation. I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then buffed it a second time. I dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads.

I used some dark cherry stain that I had on hand – this stain is a water based stain and matched the colour of the original bowl. I applied the stain with a folded pipe cleaner and once I had covered the bowl I let it sit for a few moments before wiping it off.

I wiped down the pipe with a cotton cloth to remove the excess stain and give it a light hand buff.

I buffed the pipe and stem on the buffing wheel using pads charged with red Tripoli and with Blue Diamond. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax and then buffed it with a clean flannel buffing pad to give it a shine. The finished pipe is shown below.

Saving a Pipe – Restoring a Royal Danish 33 Bulldog that had seen better days.

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Blog by Steve Laug

I am in the midst of a particularly labour intensive restoration of a Royal Danish 33 Bulldog. It was in very rough shape but having met the old timer who it originally belonged to I decided to make the extra effort to bring it back to life. It was obviously a favourite pipe of his and he as much as said so. I think it was the only one of the lot that he felt bad about letting go of when he sold me the lot. Often I will take time to read some of my favourite blogs during lunch break at work or even when I come home to help me unwind from a long day. I read before I pick up a pipe to work on or restore and find that it helps focus my attention. Yesterday at lunch I came across an article by Alan Chestnutt on his blog on his website Reborn Briar Estate Pipes that really resonated with what I was feeling as I worked on the particular pipe. He called the work he does as a pipe restorer – “saving the pipes”. I think that is a particularly poignant description of the work on this Royal Danish 33 Bulldog that I picked up in the lot from craigslist. It is shown in the first photo below at the bottom middle of the photo. In the second photo it is in the right hand column at the bottom of the photo.

The old timer was a well loved pipe and obviously a good smoking pipe. It was in rough shape. In fact it was in the roughest shape of the lot. The photos below show the state of the pipe when I brought it to the work table. The finish was rough and dirty with lots of scratches and dents in it. The rim was shot. The front side was worn down from beating out dottle when the smoke was finished. The drop from the height at the back of the bowl to the height at the front was over ¼ inch and the surface was chewed up. The outer edge of the bowl on the front was obliterated. The rim surface was beat up as well. There were thick marks of tar or oil on the sides of the bowl and rim that were sticky. The bowl was heavily caked. The double ring around the bowl was damaged. Over ½ of the briar between the rings was broken and missing. The stem was oxidized and chewed. The topside of the stem had deep dents near the button that went up almost a half an inch. On the underside the tooth marks were even deeper and there was a hole in the stem where it had been gnawed through. Around the stem was calcification that is common pipes that have had a softie bit on the stem. I think the old timer who had this pipe slipped the softie bit over the damage so he could keep smoking his favourite pipe.

The next series of photos show the thickness of the cake, the extent of the damage to the rim and the missing pieces of the briar between the double rings around the cap of the bowl.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer starting with the smallest cutting head and working up to a head that was almost the same diameter as the bowl. I took the cake back to a very thin layer on the bowl.

I decided to sacrifice some of the height of the bowl to give back some dignity to the tired bowl. I topped the bowl in stages on a topping board. The back side of the rim was significantly higher than the front of the bowl so I started by leveling out the bowl height all the way around the bowl. I brought the back side down to the same height as the damaged portion.

Once the height was even all the way around the bowl it was time to work on the front edge damage. At this point in the topping process I pressed the bowl down on the topping board with even pressure front and back and moved it on the sand paper in a circular motion. I continued sanding until the damage on the front top of the rim was minimized. There was still damage on the front of the bowl that would need to be addressed to smooth out the damage to the bowl. I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the sticky oils and tars spots on the bowl sides. I also cleaned up the damaged area on the front of the bowl so that I could repair it.

I dripped some super glue into the damaged surface and then pressed briar dust into the glue. I then gave it a top coat of super glue as well. In the photo below you can see the repaired edge and the repair to the gouges and damage on the bowl front. I sanded the repaired area with 220 grit sandpaper and then with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to blend the repair into the surface of the briar. The next photo shows the same spot on the bowl after sanding the repair. The second photo below shows the top view of the rim repair. The dark/shiny edge at the bottom of the photo is the super glue repair.

I tried to fill in the damaged briar between the double rings around the bowl. I filled in the areas with briar dust and super glue but when I tried to re-score the two lines the fills fell out of the ring. After several failed attempts to build up the centre I finally decided to remove the centre from between the two rings. I used a sharp knife to lift out the centre portion all the way around the bowl. With that gone I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to sand the surface smooth in the groove. I also sanded it with the sanding sponges to remove the scratching.

I decided to stain the groove to highlight it rather than hide it. I used a black aniline stain and applied it, flamed it and repeated the process until I had the coverage in the groove that I wanted.

I sanded the bowl sides around the groove to remove the spillage of the stain. I worked on the bowl until the black was confined to the groove and the top and bottom edges. The more I sanded the bowl the more I liked the grain that I was seeing come through. There was some great flame grain, birdseye and mixed grain on the bowl and shank.

I decided to do a contrast stain on the rest of the bowl to highlight the grain and contrast with the black stain in the groove. I heated the briar and stained it with a black aniline stain. I applied it and flamed it, and repeated it a second time. Once it was dry to touch I wiped the bowl down with alcohol and then with acetone on cotton pads to remove the black stain from the surface of the briar and leave it in the grain.

I set the bowl aside to dry for awhile so I could work on the damage to the stem. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and to clean up the calcification around the damaged areas of the top and underside of the stem.

I wiped the stem down with alcohol to clean the surface of the stem so I could apply the superglue patch. I used a dental pick to remove debris and damage vulcanite. I greased a pipe cleaner with Vaseline and inserted it in the button underneath the hole in the stem. I built up the area around the hole with black super glue. I sprayed it with an accelerator to allow me to add a second and third coat to the repair to the hole. I then flipped the stem and repaired the deep tooth marks on the top of the stem. I filled them and also sprayed them with the accelerator.

Once the stem patch was dry to touch I put the stem back in place on the bowl and sanded the bowl with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove more of the black stain. I also used a fine grit sanding block. The next four photos show the bowl with the black removed and the grain patterns highlighted.

I set the pipe aside for the night and let the stem repairs cure over night. In the morning I sanded the patched areas with 220 grit sandpaper and with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. I rubbed the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil to see what contrast would look like. I really liked the overall look of the bowl with the contrast. Seeing this I knew what contrast stain colour I would use on the next stain coat.

There were still small pits in the patches on the top and bottom repairs. I find that when I use an accelerator the spray causes these bubbles that once dry pop and leave pits in the surface of the finish. I sanded the stem surface some more with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth it out and then added another coat of black super glue. When it dried I sanded it again to bring it smooth. In the next two photos you can still see some small pits in the finish.

I repeated the process of filling in the pits and then finished by using some clear super glue which dries more quickly and brushing it over the pitted areas on the stem. Once I had that done I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads. The surface was significantly smoother but the patches still showed through the finish.

I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit micromesh pads and rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. Once it dried I repeated the sanding with the same pads. The patches are still visible but are gradually blending into the surface of the vulcanite.

I buffed the stem with red Tripoli to remove the scratches in the rubber and to further blend the patches. I then took it back to the work table and dry sanded it with 6000, 8000 and 12,000 grit micromesh pads. I rubbed it down with another coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside until it was absorbed. I rubbed the stem down with Scratch X2.0 to polish the scratches. It is a plastic polish and blemish remover that is used on acrylic/plastic headlamps. It worked wonders in removing the remaining scratches in rubber stem material. I then buffed the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and gave it several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean flannel buff to raise the shine shown in the next two photos.

After finishing the stem it was time to give the bowl its contrast coat of stain. I used an oxblood aniline stain. I applied it with a folded pipe cleaner to keep it out of the groove around the bowl. I flamed it, reapplied it to the briar and flamed it again.

I buffed the stem and bowl with Blue Diamond and then gave the entire pipe several more coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean flannel buff. The finished pipe is shown below. I think that Alan Chestnutt’s definition of the restoration process as Saving the Pipe accurately describes the work that went into restoring this beauty. The finished pipe ready to fire up and be enjoyed for many more years to come.

A Bachelor’s Soliloquy for a Lovely French Camelia Bulldog

Another Pre-War Yello Bole

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Blog by Andrew Selking

In my quest to corner the market on pre-war Yello Bole pipes, I snagged this nice little oval shank Dublin. It’s between a group one and group two size, my smallest reamer head only fits about half way into the bowl. The best part is the pipe had not suffered serious abuse. It had some tar on the rim, along with a few nicks and a small tooth mark on the back of the stem. Here is what it looked like when I got it. You will notice the varnish, in a lot of cases a finish like that is to cover up imperfections in the briar. So it was with a little trepidation that I dropped the bowl into the alcohol bath. While the bowl marinated, I soaked the stem in Oxyclean. Next I reamed the bowl. As I mentioned earlier the reamer head didn’t fit all the way down, so I carefully removed the remaining cake with a small pen knife (which you can see in the corner of the picture) and a dental pick. Next up the retort. Judging from the stinger I didn’t expect a dirty pipe.

The stem was a little dirtier, but a second retort cleared it up nicely.

With the internals sorted, I could now see what lurked under the varnish. I used 0000 grit steel wool and acetone to remove the tar on the rim and the varnish. I was pleased to only find a single fill. It was the pink putty though, and I hate pink putty, so it had to go. I’ve tried as many different techniques for fixing fills as I can think of. My current technique is to use a push pin to spread a small amount of CA glue into the hole, next I pack it full of briar dust, followed by a drop of CA, followed by a drop of accelerator. The nice thing about using accelerator is you can work the repair right after drying off any remaining accelerator. Here is what the repair looked like before sanding. Next I tackled the oxidation on the stem. I used 400 grit wet/dry with water followed by 1500, 1800, and 2400 grit micro mesh pads with water. I always hold a washer over the tenon to prevent rounding the shoulders of the stem. Here is the stem after removing oxidation. I still had the tooth mark on the bottom of the stem to fix, so I mixed up some clear CA and finely ground charcoal dust and applied it with my push pin. You may notice the yogurt container, I use that to mix the glue and charcoal. When it gets too dirty I throw it away and get a new one. I used 400 grit sand paper to shape the fill, followed by 1500-2400 grit micro mesh. I usually don’t use water when sanding down fills. I removed the top coat of finish on the bowl with a progression of 1500 to 2400 grit micro mesh pads. Next I used 3200 to 12,000 grit micro mesh pads to polish the entire pipe. You will again notice the washer on the stem. Here is the pipe ready for final polish. I used my rotary tool with white diamond and carnauba wax on the stem. I took the bowl to the buffer and used white diamond and carnauba wax on it as well. Just a word of caution when using a buffer, hold onto whatever you’re buffing with both hands.

Here is the final result. Thanks for looking.

Restoring an old Peterson Canadian – the old pipe in the craigslist lot

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Blog by Steve Laug

The fourth pipe I took on for repair from the craigslist lot was a small Peterson Canadian with a silver band and p-lip stem. It is the second pipe down on the right side of the photo below. The stamping on this old Peterson was unique enough that I wanted more information. It was different from any of the other Petersons that I have worked on. When I need specific information on a Pete I drop an email to Mark Irwin and he never fails to give the details I need. I sent him the following email:

“Mark, the Peterson that I need information on is a Canadian shape with a silver band. It has the p-lip stem in quite remarkable shape under the oxidation. The stamping on the pipe is interesting. On the top of the shank it is stamped K&P over DUBLIN and on the underside of the shank it is stamped Made in Ireland in a circle with the “in” in the centre of the circle. The silver band was black with oxidation but after a light cleaning I can see that it is stamped STERLING SILVER horizontally to the shank. Over that are the K & P in three shields. Underneath there are hallmarks stamped vertically to the shank. It looks to be the typical stamping. The first two shields are worn but seem to have the Ireland figure, the 925 silver stamp and a third that looks to be a P. Any information would help. Thanks Mark.” Mark got back to me fairly quickly with this response:

“Peterson made a number of Canadian shapes back in the day, although the standard is now the 264. The Made in Ireland in a circle suggests tells us it what made before 1949, the lack of a hallmark (aside from the K&P in 3 shields) means it was made after 1938, as they quit hallmarking from 1938-1968. No shape number stamp would seem to confirm the 1938-1949. As they made very few pipes from 1942-1945, it probably fell on either side of 42-45. If you’ll measure the length of the pipe and bowl height and width for me, I’ll check it against the 1937 catalog, which featured full scale illustrations. The ‘37 catalog doesn’t list all the Canadian shapes, however, just the more popular ones. If you want to remove the band, you might find a number scratched in the wood—we think this has to do with the band, however, and not the shape number. GT&C were Peterson’s sole importer in Canada from about 1910-1960, and after the war, they primarily carried unbanded Petes. They also had their own shape numbers stamped by Peterson—the System pipes always carry a “1” in front of the Peterson numbers—“1307,” etc. Almost every Peterson System estate for sale from Canada on eBay will have that “1” on the Systems.”

I sent Mark some photos of the unrestored pipe so he could see the stampings and the marking on it and assess its date. He responded with the following email: “Okay, what you’ve got is a Kapet, the line between the DeLuxe and the lower K line. It’s a Kapet because of the Sterling. It’s not a DeLuxe because of the “special aluminum inner tube for easy cleaning” (1937 catalog, p. 1). The K also had the inner tube, but would not have the sterling mount. The bowl itself is the same size as the current 264, although the shank is a bit shorter than the current 264. I am surprised there is no Kapet stamp on the pipe, as the ‘37 catalog engravings plainly show line stamps. But it’s a pipe, and of course subject to the vagaries of production.”

When I saw the pipe I was not too excited about it because I had not cleaned it up at all or looked at it. It was in rough shape. The finish was worn and it had dents and dings. The rim was dirty and caked with tars and oils – the lava of use. The bowl was dirty and had a light cake and a raw briar bottom of the bowl. It had not been smoked to the bottom of the bowl. The band was dark and oxidized and unreadable. The stem was oxidized and had evidently sported a softie bit like all the other pipes in this collection. I cleaned up the band enough to send Mark the information. I was more excited by the pipe once I knew its potential age. His initial response put it before 1949 and after 1938. After seeing the photos of the pipe his dating changed to potentially 1937. Thus it was the oldest pipe in the craigslist lot. It was a decent piece of briar with mixed grain and no visible fills.

After cleaning up the silver a bit I took the following photos. These are the ones that I sent Mark to help date the pipe and give me as much information as he could.

I took some close up photos of the stem to show the inner tube more clearly as well as the state of the stem. As can be seen from these photos, under the oxidation the stem is in great shape with no tooth marks or chatter that needed to be address. The P-Lip was in great shape with no tooth damage to it either. The stem should clean up very well.

I used a silver polishing cloth and silver polish to further remove the oxidation from the band. I also scrubbed it with some cigar ash and found that it worked extremely well to remove the tarnish on the sterling silver band.

I sanded the oxidation and calcification off the stem with 220 grit sandpaper. I then sanded the stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and took it back to a very thin cake. I also scrubbed the rim with isopropyl alcohol to remove the tarry buildup that had accumulated there. It took a lot of elbow grease and hard scrubbing but it all came off. There was some darkening on the inner and outer edge of the rim. I also scrubbed the bowl down with the alcohol on cotton pads to remove the grime and dirt on the finish.

I scrubbed out the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol until it was clean. The pipe even smelled fresh! I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil as usual between each set of three pads. Once it was finished I buffed the stem with Red Tripoli to get some of the stubborn oxidation off at the tenon end and the Blue Diamond. I took it back to the work table and repeated the dry sanding with 4000-12,000 grit pads.

I buffed the finished pipe with Blue Diamond and then gave the stem and bowl several coats of carnauba wax to protect the finish and stem and give it a shine. I then buffed it with a clean soft flannel buff to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown below. It is ready to load with a bowl of my favourite Virginia and be reintroduced to what it was made for.

ADDENDUM – I find I need to correct this post. Instead of rewriting it and changing it I decided to add this to the end of the story.

After doing a bit more research and receiving another email from Mark I took the pipe out into bright light and used a jeweler’s loop to see if I could read the faint hallmarks on the band. Mark sent along an older Peterson Hallmark chart and I compared the faint stampings to the chart. I could see a cartouche with a P in it that led me to amend my original post – the pipe is not a 30s era Pete but rather a Pete from 1981. Ah well. The thrill of having an old one lasted for at least a day…

You Got To Know When To Hold ‘Em – Pap’s Pipes

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Blog by Patrick Russell

“On a warm summer’s eve, on a train bound for nowhere, I met up with a gambler; we were both too tired to sleep…” – All italicized quotes are from the Gambler by Kenny Rogers (used without permission).

Last summer I was presented with a wonderful challenge by my good friend Dave. Dave, like me, is a younger pipe man. Okay, he’s almost ten years younger than me… but who’s counting. Dave pulled me aside during a pipe club meeting and said, “Pat, can you do something with these?” Dave put four pipes into my hands, “These are my grand-dad’s pipes. He always had one of them in his mouth. Pap loved these pipes.” Like lots of you folks who clean up estate pipes, I often do resto work for free for friends. More often than not, the friend will dash me a tin of ‘baccy or will send me a tip on an estate lot. But that’s not why I do it. I do free resto work for friends for the same reason you do, because you like the person, and they asked for help. My only rule with this kind of work is that the friend has to be on no timeline. When your wife is pregnant, or you have a seven month old, this is an important rule.

Dave put those pipes into my hand last July, before we had our beautiful baby girl, and before I fell out of the pipe cave and into the blue eyes of my daughter. But I digress. The pipes…

Pap loved those pipes. He really, really, loved those pipes. Dave said that Pap was a stuff ’em and puff ’em guy and a cursory look at the pipes backed up the story. All four airways blocked. Cake thick enough to require the smallest reamer head. There was enough oil on the outside of the pipes that grain was impossible to find, and I’m pretty sure that most of the pipes started with a button. “I’ll do it,” I said.

Dave loved his Pap, and really wanted these pipes in good working order. I really wanted to be the guy to make that happen for Dave.

“He said, ‘Son I’ve made a life out of readin’ people’s faces, knowin’ what the cards were by the way they held their eyes…”

Estate pipes tell you a lot about what can, and can’t, be done to them if you know where and how to look. The first thing I do when I’m cleaning up a pipe is to soak the stems in an Oxyclean bath while I ream the tobacco chamber and then do a surface clean of the rim and stummel. This, generally, lets me investigate the pipe well enough to know what kind of work the resto of it is going to need to get the pipe back into a smoking rotation. I have limits to my skill, some of which I’ll press so I can learn new skills, but never will I do this with pipes that aren’t mine. I sure as hell wasn’t going to go beyond my skill level with Pap’s pipes.

“And the night got deathly quiet, and his face lost all expression. He said, ‘If you’re gonna play the game boy, you gotta learn to play it right…”

Did you see what I saw when I was cleaning those pipes? Let me give you a closer look…

Reamed out of round, with a nasty gouge. That wasn’t me… that looks to me like a pocket knife. Rim badly gouged from knocking out on… life. And the coup de grace… a bad split on the top of the shank.

Rim charring doesn’t cover it, this is rim charred. Any more smokes without the cake that I’d just removed and this prince was going to be a cinder. Fills the size of Manhattan… I know, they are cosmetic only, but look closely at what lies in the fill on the second pic.

Um… Yep. That’s a burnout, with the Grand Canyon in the middle of it.

“Every gambler knows that the secret to survivin’ is knowing what to throw away, and knowin’ what to keep…”

I had to stop. I had cleaned the tars off the surface of the pipes. I had cleared the airways and sanitized the stems. I had reamed the tobacco chambers and done three salt and alcohol treatments… and I still hadn’t broken through the collected dottle and juice which had petrified in the draught holes of the stummels. But if I did any more work on these pipes there was every likelihood that Dave wouldn’t have Pap’s pipes anymore.

“And somewhere in the darkness, the gambler he broke even, but in his final words I found an ace that I could keep.”

I returned Pap’s pipes to Dave last month at our pipe club night. Was he disappointed? He would have loved to have smoked them, but I think he’s happiest to still have them.

One of the surprises found in the craigslist lot – A Castello Sea Rock 15AF

9 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

One of the surprises in the craigslist lot I purchased was a Castello Sea Rock 15FA military mount billiard. When I saw the photos in the seller’s advertisement I only saw a rusticated billiard and in the way it laid in the pipe rack it was unclear it was a military mount or a Castello. When I got it home and looked at the assortment I was surprised to see that it was indeed a Castello Sea Rock. It is shown in the photo below – the third pipe down on the right side. I think this must have been a pipe the seller loved as it was well smoked. There was still a bowl of tobacco unlit in the depths of the bowl. The cake was quite uneven but was thick around the top of the bowl. The rim was overflowing with tars and oils to the point that it had clogged the rustication on the top. It was higher in some places than others from the buildup. The outer edges of the rim were knocked about to the degree that it was work and there were scratches and stain missing from the edges. The stem was dirty on the end like it had sported a softie bit and had some calcification on it. There were also tooth marks on the topside and underside of the stem near the button. The button itself had some damage and scratches. The tenon end was also covered with a buildup of calcium on the end around the insert in the end cap. The stem had the “diamond” inset on the side that showed that it was originally made for the North American Market. I did a bit of research and found some information on the stem logo. I quote: “American logo’d Castello pipes use a small round “Diamond” (referred to and looking like, but it is NOT actually a diamond) inlaid into the mouthpiece. This was originally done so that the standard Castello white bar logo did not conflict with another brand and logo that was sold by Wally Frank called the “White Bar Pipe” (in the 1950’s).” I also found that “The SEA ROCK [Carved Black or dark brown] is the lowest grade of the Castello line and is the most common in the USA. Sea Rocks are produced by taking a smooth bowl that has not been “final finished” and surface carving the finish with tools. This “carved” finish is then evened out using a steel wire brush, stained and then waxed.” This information was found and condensed from the PCCA Castello Grade & Style Guide – by Robert C. Hamlin (c) 1988, 1992, 1994.

The two photos below show the buildup on the rim more closely. The thick tars and oils over flowed on the top of the rim. You can see that the rustication is buried under the lava.

The next two close up photos show the stem with the bite marks on the top and the bottom side and the calcification on the surface of the stem. In the second photo there is also buildup around the insert end of the stem.

I reamed back the cake to bare wood to remove the uneven surface with a PipNet reamer. I started with the second cutting head and finished with the third cutting head.

I used a brass wire brush and a dental pick to work on the tars on the rim. I scrubbed it and then used a tooth brush to put Murphy’s Oil Soap on the rim. It softened the tars enough that I scrubbed it again with the wire brush and picked at it with the dental pick. I rinsed off the soap with running water and then dried the bowl.

I restained the worn areas on the top of the rim and the outer edges with a Guardsman Stain pen. I used the dark stain pen as it matched the rest of the bowl. Once I had touched up the stain I rubbed the top of the rim with a cotton cloth to blend the stain into the rest of the rim colour.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth chatter and the tooth marks. I also sanded the stem to remove the calcification. I then sanded it with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to reduce the scratching.

I sanded the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads.

I also polished the edges of the end cap to remove the worn areas on the surface. I fit the stem back into the shank and hand polished the stem with a cotton polishing cloth. I gave the bowl a coat of Halcyon II wax and buffed it with a shoe brush. The photos below show the pipe after the buff with the brush.

The next close up photo shows the stamping on the pipe. It is stamped CASTELLO over SEA ROCK BRIAR on the flat portion of the shank bottom. To the left of that stamping it reads MADE IN CANTU over ITALY and to the left of it is the number 15 over AF. The end cap is also stamped HAND MADE over CASTELLO over 5. The next series of photos shows the finished pipe. I lightly buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad. It raised the shine on the briar. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond and then gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe lightly with the clean soft buff.

After looking at the finished photos I decided to give it a light rubdown with olive oil. I wanted to enliven the finish and what better way than to add some Italian Olive Oil to and Italian briar.

ADDENDUM: I wrote this while wondering about the 15 AF stamping. I knew that the 15 was the shape stamp but the AF threw me for a loop. I posted on both Smokers Forums and Pipe Smokers Unlimited Forum and asked for help. Many offered suggestions. Several said to write Mike Glukler of Briarblues so I did that. Mike replied fairly quickly that he had no idea about the mystery stamp but sent it on to Marco at Novelli, and Castello collector Dave Peterson. Dave replied that he believes that it stands for Army Fitment. He went on to say that the newer army fit pipes that he has have the letter (SC) size designation and have no AF suffix so he assumes the AF stamp was discontinued in the early 60’s. He also said he would check with some others. So it seems I have a tentative answer regarding the stamping.

ADDENDUM 2: Bill on Pipe Smokers Unlimited wrote to Castello and asked them what the stamping meant. He posted their response this morning:

“Steve here is the Castello response and I think you will be quite pleased and surprised.

Dear Customer,
thank you for your inquiry,
the number stands for the shape 15, the billiard. Then “A” stands for
“amici” = friends, “F” stands for flock.
That is a pipe given to friends (read “not for sale”) with a flock. I
hope it helps.”

You got to love the pipesmoking community and the wealth of information available to us if we ask.

JPL Tomato restored and given a new look

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

When I first saw the pipe lot on craigslist Vancouver the pipe that caught my eye was the squashed tomato that is shown in the photo below on the top right. I had no idea who the make was but it was obviously a large pipe and a unique shape that made me want to know more. It is actually the pipe that pushed me to make the phone call to the seller. I have a Rad Davis that is similarly shaped but nowhere near as large. When I got to the seller’s home and looked at the pipe I could see that it was stamped JPL over Bruyere over St. Claude France on the shank. The pipe was well smoked. The finish was pretty well dried out – I think originally it had been an oil finish over the natural briar and that was gone and in its place was a lot of grime. The top of the bowl was in the roughest shape. It had a thick coat of tar/oil that I call lava flowing over the rim. The bowl had a cake that was hard and there were remnants of tobacco stuck in the walls and bottom of the bowl. The top also had what looked like road rash on the front. There were many pin prick nicks and dents that made me think that the pipe had been dropped on concrete. The redeeming feature was that the briar had some stunning flame grain around the sides and top portion of the bowl and featured great birdseye grain on the bottom. The stem was oxidized and there were two deep tooth marks on the top and bottom sides of the stem near the button. There was also a lot of tooth chatter and it looked as if the stem had been covered at one time with a softie bit.

I took the next series of three photos to show the damage to the top of the bowl and the tooth marks in the stem.

I was unfamiliar with the stamping on the pipe as I had not seen it before. Once Googled it on the web I found that JPL stood for Jean Pierre Lacroix. That was a name I was familiar with in previous reading on St. Claude pipe making families. I looked on Pipedia and found the following information:

“Lacroix Pipes have a rich history of pipe making tradition and the brand was started in 1962. Eugine Lacroix began making pipes for the Delacour factory in the 19th century; his sons founded their own factory in 1921. Two of the grandsons (including Jean) continued on in the business, but parted ways and struck out on their own in 1962. At that time, Jean set up Jean Lacroix pipes, coincidentally in the old Delacour building his grandfather started in 85 years prior. Today, Jean Lacroix, Chacom, Jeantet, and Vuillard are all pieces of the larger Cuty-Fort Enterprises, and Jean is actively involved with the prestigious Confrerie des Maitres-Pipiers de Saint-Claude. Jean still makes pipes; his spectacular freehands are known throughout the world. The model named “Nizza” De Luxe is made by him with scripted stamp showing his name (hard to read!). Jean Pierre Lacroix sometimes marked Maitre Pipier a Saint-Claude.” Quoted from Pipedia http://pipedia.org/wiki/Lacroix

More information is available on PipePhil’s website. http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/infos/lacroix-en.html#split

I began cleaning up the pipe by scrubbing the rim with acetone on a cotton pad. Since the pipe was unfinished and was so dirty I used acetone rather than alcohol. I scrubbed the bowl top until I had removed all of the tars and oils. I also wiped down the remainder of the bowl to remove the oils and dirt from the years of being held in the hand. Once I had the bowl top cleaned I removed the stem to see what I was dealing with. I found that the stem and the shank was drilled for a 9MM filter but that somewhere along the way someone had inserted an ill fitting stinger apparatus in the tenon. It was pressed in place deep in the tenon and there was a lot of wiggle room around it. It did not extend very far into the shank and as such the shank was filthy. The first photo below shows the stinger in place. The second shows the length of the stinger once I removed it from the tenon.

I sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damage on the top of the bowl. I sanded until I had removed the road rash on the front edge and the damage to the back of the bowl. I sanded it further with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge to minimize the scratches left behind by the sandpaper.

While I had the sandpaper out I also sanded the tooth chatter and tooth marks on the stem. You can see that after sanding I still had a fairly large tooth dent on the underside of the stem and a small one on the top near the left edge.

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer starting with the largest cutting head that would fit and working my way up to the largest head in the set. I took the cake back completely to leave the bare briar exposed and ready to build a new cake of my liking.

I did some more sanding on the stem and was able to remove the damage from the top side near the button completely. The mark on the underside was still deep. I cleaned the surface of the stem with alcohol and picked the tooth mark clean with a dental pick. I filled it with black super glue and set it aside to dry. I sanded the bowl with a medium and a fine grit sanding block and worked over the damaged area on the top front and some of the more minor damage on the sides and back of the bowl. I sanded it and then wiped it clean with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton pad. After wiping it down the grain really began to show. The final photo in this series shows the birdseye on the bottom of the bowl.

I scrubbed out the shank of the pipe with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol until it was clean and the swabs came back white. I may well use a retort on it later but at this point I stopped with the swabs. I sanded the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads in preparation for staining the bowl. Though the pipe was originally unstained when it was made I decided to use a contrast stain to highlight the beautiful grain on the bowl. I heated the briar and then applied several coats of black aniline stain. I flamed the stain to set it in the grain. I wiped the briar down with alcohol on cotton pads to remove the topcoat of black stain.

I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed it with red Tripoli to further remove the topcoat of stain. I sanded it with a medium grit sanding sponge and the fine grit sanding block.

Once I had the surface stain removed and the remaining black stain highlighted the grain I wiped the bowl down a final time with alcohol and prepared to stain it with the contrast stain. I decided to use a rich mahogany aniline stain for the contrast coat. I applied the stain and then flamed it to set it in the briar.

When it had dried I buffed it with White Diamond and took the following photos to show where it stood at this point in the process.

The grain really stood out on the pipe at this point. I still needed to sand it with micromesh to develop a richer sheen.

I wet sanded the bowl with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads.

I dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit micromesh sanding pads.

After sanding with the 12,000 grit micromesh pad I buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and then gave it a coat of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a soft flannel buffing pad to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and went to work on the stem. I cleaned out the 9MM tenon with alcohol and cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I worked until the stem was clean.

I sanded the stem with a medium grit sanding sponge and then rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I had a box of 9MM filters so I took one out of the box to try in the stem. It fit well and made the draw less open.

I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then buffed the stem with red Tripoli to remove the stubborn oxidation. I resanded it with the micromesh before moving on and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit sanding pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. After sanding with the 12,000 grit pad I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond and polished until the stem shone. I then gave it a coat of carnauba wax and buffed it with a soft flannel buff.

I put the stem back on the pipe and buffed the whole pipe with carnauba wax. I gave it multiple coats of wax and then a final buff with a soft flannel buffing pad.

The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I really like the new look that the contrast stain gives the pipe. The colour makes the grain pop and stand out very well.