Tag Archives: polishing aluminum

I have always wanted to see one up close – an Aristocob

Blog by Steve Laug

Over the years I have spent quite a bit of quiet time scanning through the smokingmetal.co.uk website reading over all of the various metal pipes that have been made. I love reading and looking at the inventive creations made to capture that illusive grand smoke. One of the pipes that stood out to me on the site was the Aristocob metal bowl that came with two corn cobs that fit inside the bowl, held in place by the screw on metal cap. I wanted to see one of those but somehow always missed them on eBay at the last minute or at an antique shop by a matter of minutes. I included two of the photos from the website. The first one showed a plastic box with a form fitted purple velvet nest for the pipe and the pair of cob inserts that came with it. The pipe had a black nylon stem that held a Medico paper filter in place in the metal shank of the pipe. The second photo showed the pipe taken apart with a pretty good descriptive view of the metal bowl and cap, the cob insert, the filter and the stem with an O-ring on the tenon to keep it in the metal shank.I remember first reading this description years ago when I looked up the pipe on the site. I was struck then as I am now that I could not have described it any better. I have included it here in full with a link for you to look it up should you desire to do so:

The ARISTOCOB is an American made system pipe with corn cob bowl inserts. Originally the AL-COB CORPORATION out of Grand Haven, Michigan, which later became ARISTOCOB INCORPORATED from Caledonia, Michigan. Later still they were bought out by Missouri Meerschaum Company

Apparently available in the first place in a plastic case containing one pipe, 2 replacement corn cob bowl inserts and instructions for use. The cob inserts were made for some time by The Missouri Meerschaum Company, manufacturer of corn cob pipes in Washington, MO. The box shown is their box. They made the inserts from the early 1970’s until 1983. They are no longer available from that source but do appear on eBay at times

The top of the vaned outer bowl unscrews to enable easy replacement of the bowl insert. An inline filter can be used in the stem. The mouthpiece has been seen in two version, with and without an ‘O’ ring. The patent was filed on 20 Dec 1966 with the US patent # 3,292,639. The inventor was Joesph W. Zarikta of Grand Haven, Michigan USA – the assignor was the Al Cobb Corp. (http://smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=56).

I mentioned to my brother to keep an eye open for one of these never expecting him to find what he did. I have not seen a cased version of the pipe in my hunts but have only found the pipe with the inserted cob bowl if I was lucky. He happened to find a boxed set and bought it. He sent me the following photos of the pipe. The next set of photos are the ones that the seller posted on the eBay sale. When the pipe arrived in Idaho my brother took some photos before he cleaned it up. I have included a few of those photos next. The pipe was quite dirty. The rim cap had a buildup of tars and oils on the top. The cob insert was dirty and crumbling on the top edge. The aluminum pipe body was oxidized and dirty as well.When he took it apart, the inside of the aluminum body had also built up tars in the bottom and on the inside walls.The inner edge of the insert was in rough condition. The rest of the bowl appears to be solid. The aluminum disk on the bottom of the bowl was dirty but undamaged.The stem was darkened on the tenon end. The O-ring was still in good condition. The paper Medico Filter in the tenon was dirty and would need to be replaced. The top and undersides of the nylon stem had some tooth chatter on the surface near the button. The inside of the shank was dirty and there was some tarry buildup on the walls of the aluminum. My brother cleaned up the cap and the interior of the aluminum bowl holder and shank. He cleaned the aluminum with Murphy’s Oil Soap inside and out. He scrubbed out the airway in the shank and stem. He cleaned up the damaged edge of the cob insert. When it arrived in Vancouver, I brought it to the work table and took some photos of the condition it was in before I started. Inside the plastic box there was a pamphlet that explained the function of the pipe and all of its parts. The description of the pipe and how to use it was a marketing document that sold the pipe and all of its design as the best smoking pipe available. I polished the aluminum with micromesh sanding pads. I started polishing with 1500-2400 grit pads and wiped it down with a damp cotton pad. I continued to polish it with 3200-12000 pads and the finish began to shine. I sanded the stem to remove the tooth marks and chatter from the top and bottom sides of the stem. I ran a pair of bristle pipe cleaners and alcohol through the airway in the stem to remove the residue that still remained in the stem. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cotton pad after each set of three pads. Because the stem was nylon I decided not to use the buffing wheel. I gave it several coats of Conservator’s Wax and hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. I lightly buffed the aluminum on the Blue Diamond wheel and then with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It makes a great piece of pipe history in the ongoing search for the illusive perfect smoke. It will hold a place in my collection of tobacciana. Thanks for walking through this restoration with me.

The box said it was a BBB Peacemaker

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Blog by Steve Laug

I learned something this afternoon as I worked on a Peacemaker. The stem bears the Dr. Plumb stamp and red dot but the box says BBB. So who made this pipe? What I found inside the box may well explain that question. The brochure reads The Peacemaker Pipe. There is no Dr. Plumb or BBB on the brochure. This got me thinking that the pipe was probably made by a third manufacturer and sold under a variety of labels. Somewhere along the way a Dr. Plumb version got placed in a BBB box. The interesting thing about the box was that it had peal and stick logos on circular marked areas. It was missing a sticker on one side. I looked on-line and found a BBB version of the pipe. It was stamped identically to mine with the only difference being on the top of the stem. Where my pipe had the Plumb and red dot it had the BBB Diamond on the top. I tried to find out who made them but everything pointed to them being made by Peacemaker. I am wondering if they were not made by the Cadogan Group after they had bought out both GBD and BBB. Maybe some of you know some of the history about the brand. Don’t be shy let us all know.

When my brother received the pipe and opened the box it was an interesting discovery. The pipe definitely did not read BBB and it was in pretty decent condition. The metal was in great shape as was the stem. There was some minor tooth chatter on the top and bottom sides of the stem. The finish on the bowl was in good condition. There was a cake in the bowl and the rim top was dirty and the inner edge of the bowl had some nicks that made it slightly out of round. The box had a Peacemaker brochure inside and a pipe cleaner sleeve for the Smokin’ Bowl, a pipe shops in Charleston, Beckley and Vienna West Virginia. My brother took the above photos and also some close-up photos to show the condition of the pipe before he cleaned it up.The bottom of the metal base is stamped Peacemaker England in a Circle and the number 1 in the centre of the circle.He took a close up photo of the rim top and bowl. It shows the chips and nicks on the inner edge of the rim.He took the bowl off of the base and took a photo of the bottom of the bowl and the inside of the base that both reveal the tars and oils built up in both places.When the pipe arrived here it was in the BBB box. I took some photos of the box because I had not seen one of them before. It is an interesting box. The BBB logo is a sticker on the top and on one side of the box. I opened the box and inside was the pipe and a brochure for Peacemaker pipes. It shows the various bowl shapes and finishes that are provided. The pipe looked pretty good. My brother had done the hard work of cleaning up the bowl and the base. He had reamed it and scrubbed the finish and rim. He had also washed the base to remove the hardened oils and tars.I took the pipe out of the box and took some photos of it showing where it stood when I started my clean up. I took a close up photo of the rim and bowl. I still needed to do some light reaming with the Savinelli pipe knife and the bowl would need to be topped to remove the damage to the inner edge of the bowl.I took the bowl off the base to see what I would need to do to clean out the inside of the base. The threads and the entry of the airway into the shank needed to be cleaned up. I removed the stem from the shank and used pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to clean out the base and the entrance of the airway into the base. I cleaned out the airway in the stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol. I took a photo of the cleaned up parts of the pipe. It is a simple and yet effective design that is very similar to the Falcon pipe in basic concept.I topped the bowl on the topping board with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damage to the rim and the inner edge. I sanded until the rim was smooth and the rim was round once again.I cleaned up the inside of the bowl with a Savinelli Pipe Knife to remove the light cake that still was in the bowl. I smoothed out the walls and the base of the bowl.The stem had tooth chatter on the top and the bottom sides near the button. These plastic stems are not too hard to sand smooth but it is an issue to get the shine back. It takes a lot of sweat equity investment to bring a shine back to the stem. I sanded it with 220 grit sand paper and then with a series of 400-600 grit wet dry sandpaper to smooth out the scratches. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I gave it a rub down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads, gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. I sanded the rim with 1500-4000 grit micromesh sanding pads to smooth out the scratches left behind when I topped the bowl. I used a dark brown stain touch up pen to restain the rim to match the sides of the bowl. I touched up the outer edge of the rim as well making sure that all the stain matched the bowl. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and then used a shoe brush to buff it. I also buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine (The second photo was taken when I had coated the bowl with the third coat of wax).I lightly buffed the aluminum base and the stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel. I put the pipe back together and then buffed the pipe with a light touch giving it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad and then with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is a great example of the Peacemaker Pipe. I have several of these so I will not be keeping this one either. If any of you want to have a Peacemaker for your metal collection, contact me and this one can be yours. Thanks for looking.