Tag Archives: polishing an acrylic stem

What a Lovely Castello Sea Rock Briar 93 Bent Egg

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Blog by Steve Laug

I thought it might be helpful to take you through my process of working on each pipe that we purchase. Jeff has set up a spread sheet to track where the pipe came from, the date of purchase and what we paid for it so that we know what we have invested in the pipe before we even work on it. This takes a lot of the guess work out of the process. This particular pipe was purchased on 09/18/2020 from a seller in Los Angeles, California, USA. I also want you to understand why we take the photos we do. If you have followed for a while then you will see the familiar pattern of the photos we include both in the before and midstream process of working on a pipe. It is not accidental or chance as the photos have been taken to help me make an assessment of the pipe Jeff sees before he starts his clean up work. We do this to record the condition that the pipe was in when received it and to assess what kind of work will need to be done on. When I look at these photos this is what I see.

  1. The first thing I see is a classic Italian Made Castello Sea Rock Briar Bent Egg with a acrylic ferrule/shank extension and a military mount stem. It is well proportioned and well made with a Bent Egg shape.
  2. The finish is dirty and there is grime and grit ground into the rugged rustication on the sides of the bowl and shank. It is dusty and dull looking but under the grime the pipe looks good.
  3. The rim top has some lava and debris in the valleys of the rustication on the top and the edges. It is dirty looking but cleaning will reveal a real beauty.
  4. The bowl has a thick cake and debris on the walls that hides the walls and some grime on the inner edge of the bowl but once it is clean we will know what the bowl and edges really look like. The outer edges look good and there does not appear to be any obvious burn damage to the top or bowl edges.
  5. The acrylic military mount acrylic stem is in good condition – dirty and has light tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of button. There is a crinkled/Diamond insert logo on the left side of the stem.

Overall my impressions of this pipe is that it is a beauty that once cleaned up will look pretty amazing. I love the tactile rustication on the Sea Rock Briars and have found nothing that comes close to it. The photos below confirm the assessment above. Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl, rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is moderate with tobacco debris stuck on the walls. The rim top has some lava, grime and debris in the rusticated surface. You can also see the condition of the outer edge and the inner edge is in great condition. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. There is no visible burn damage at this point. The bowl is still round and other than being in a used condition it is in great shape. The photos of the acrylic stem surface from various angles confirmed my assessment of its condition. You can see the dirty/sticky substance on the stem in the first photo below. Fortunately the stem does not appear to have deep tooth marks – chatter yes, but no deep marks. The stem is quite dirty but otherwise undamaged. Instead of telling you what I see in the next photos of the sides of the bowl and the heel I want to hear from you. Tell me what you see? What does the finish look like to you? Are there any visible problems or issues that stand out to you? Are the cracks or scratches in the valleys of the rustication or the high spots? Are there visible flaws or fissures in the briar? How random does the deep rustication look? Is there a pattern to it? Any visible issues on the heel of the bowl? These questions should help you to see what I am looking for when I see these photos. He took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. On the heel of the bowl is stamped the shape number 93. That is followed by the Made in Cantu [over] Italy stamp (two lines) Next that it is stamped Castello [over] Sea Rock Briar. The acrylic ferrule is stamped on the underside and reads HAND MADE [over] Castello [over] the number 3. What stands out for you in the photos of the stamping on the pipe? What do you look for in the stamping? I know it is dirty but what do you see underneath the grime on the surface of the briar and the acrylic? As a part of the restoration of the pipe that I work on I love to research the background information on the stamping of this pipe to get an idea of the time period it was carved and a sense of when it left Italy for the export to the US. I turned to Pipephil’s site for a quick overview of the brand (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-castello.html). I have included a screen capture of the brand below as well as the sidebar notes below the photo.Rhinestone logo was originally on pipes for the US market. It is occasionally used now.

I knew now that the pipe was made for export to the US Market as noted above by the rhinestone or faux diamond logo on the stem side.

I quote further the introductory information at the top of the Pipephil page regarding the brand as I find it quite helpful to set a context.

Castello PIPA CASTELLO di Carlo Scotti & C. was founded in 1947 by Carlo Scotti (†1988). Franco Coppo (AKA “Kino”) who married Carlo Scotti’s daughter Savina, manages (2012) the corporate since 1985.

The site also gave a good summary of the grading and sizes of the pipes. I quote that in full so you can see where the Sea Rock Briar fits in the scheme of things Castello.

Sizes (ascending):

1K to 4K, G (Giant) and GG (Extra large)

Rusticated grading: SEA ROCK, OLD SEA ROCK, NATURAL VIRGIN,

Sandblasted grading: ANTIQUARI, OLD ANTIQUARI

Smooth grading (ascending): TRADEMARK, CASTELLO, COLLECTION

Other stampings: Great Line (Non-standard or freestyle) Fiammata (Straight grain)

Production (2012): ~4000 pipes / year

I turned then to Pipedia for more information on the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Castello). The majority of the information was what was already quoted above in abbreviated form. However there was a link to an article by Bob Hamlin that gave some interesting bits of information that I found helpful (http://www.pipes.org/BURST/FORMATTED/196.016.html). I quote in part from that article.

SEA ROCK [Carved Black or dark brown]:  This 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. The Natural Vergin carved finish is left unstained and unwaxed as a rule, although we have seen waxed and partially waxed “Vergins”.

All carved Castello pipes are graded by the number of K’s that are stamped on each piece and are K-graded by SIZE.  1K is the smallest and fairly rare, 2K is small to medium, with 3K or 4K being the most common and ranges from medium to medium large. Large pieces are stamped “G” for giant and extra large pieces are stamped “GG” for double giant.  In addition to the number of K’s on a carved Sea Rock piece the shape number is almost always added. As a rule a Sea Rock Castello is stained Black, although recently there have been quite a few coming in stained deep brown and still stamped “Sea Rock”.  American Logo’d Sea Rocks are all priced the same to the consumer, although most are 2 or 3 K’ed models.  G/GG models are charged at a higher price on American pieces and are basically the same as their European counterparts.

The Castello Sea Rock briar I was working on did not have any K designation in terms of the size of the pipe. It definitely was made for the American Market with the Rhinestone in the stem. It had the dark finish. The shape number still needed to be determined.

Pipedia also gave a link to Mike’s Briar Blues site for help in dating and determining shapes (http://www.briarblues.com/castello.htm). I quote a section on the shape numbers.

Shape numbers. Shape numbers are all 2 digits. A 2 in front indicates a “fancy” interpretation, a 3 in front means that the carving is somehow unique. I don’t know when the change was made, but currently, a π symbol is used instead of the 3xx. I’ve only seen this on Sea Rocks, but that doesn’t mean anything…

Now I had more information to work with. The Castello Sea Rock in my hands that probably came out in the late 1960s onward. The number 93 makes it a bent egg.

I am sure many of you will shake your head and ask maybe even out loud, “Why is he including this again?” However, please remember that the point of these blogs is not to wow your with the work or make you shake your heads but I want you to know the details of the work we do so you can do your own. Back in 2020 Jeff wrote a blog about his cleaning process. I am including a link to that now so you can see what I mean about his process. Do not skip it! Give it a read (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/20/got-a-filthy-estate-pipe-that-you-need-to-clean/). Here is the introduction to that blog and it is very true even to this day.

Several have asked about Jeff’s cleaning regimen as I generally summarize it in the blogs that I post rather than give a detailed procedure. I have had the question asked enough that I asked Jeff to put together this blog so that you can get a clear picture of the process he uses. Like everything else in our hobby, people have different methods they swear by. Some may question the method and that is fine. But it works very well for us and has for many years. Some of his steps may surprise you but I know that when I get the pipes from him for my part of the restoration they are impeccably clean and sanitized. I have come to appreciate the thoroughness of the process he has developed because I really like working on clean pipe!

For the benefit of some of you who may be unfamiliar with some of the products he uses I have included photos of three of the items that Jeff mentions in his list. This will make it easier for recognition. These three are definitely North American Products so you will need to find suitable replacements or order these directly on Amazon. The makeup pads are fairly universal as we were able to pick some up in India when we were with Paresh and his family.

In the blog itself he breaks his process down into two parts – cleaning the stem and cleaning the bowl. Each one has a large number of steps that he methodically does every time. I know because I have watched him do the work and I have seen the pipes after his work on them. He followed this process step by step and when the pipe got to me it was spotlessly clean and ready for my work. The inside of the stem, shank and bowl were clean and to me that is an amazing gift as it means that my work on this end is with a clean pipe! I cannot tell you how much difference that makes for my work.

When the pipe arrives here in Vancouver I have a clean pipe and I go over it keeping in mind my assessment shared in the opening paragraph above. Now that I have it in hand I am looking for confirmation of what I saw in the photos as well as any significant structural changes in the bowl and finish as I go over it.

  1. The classic Castello Sea Rock Bent Egg looks amazing. The rustication is beautiful and the acrylic ferrule and stem work very well on the pipe. It is probably a Castello version of an Oom Paul.
  2. The finish is clean and the grime and grit have been removed from the finish on the bowl. The rustication and depth in the valleys has just come alive around the bowl sides.
  3. The lava, grime and dust on the rim top has been removed and it looks to be in good condition on the top and edges of the bowl.
  4. The walls of the bowl are clean and I do not see any checking or burn damage. The inner edge of the bowl looks good. The outer edges look good and there does not appear to be any obvious burn damage there.
  5. The acrylic military mount stem is clean and has very light tooth chatter and marks on both sides. The Rhinestone/Diamond logo on the side of the stem looks very good.

Hopefully the steps above show you both what I look for when I go over the pipe when I bring it to the work table and also what I see when I look at the pipe in my hands. They also clearly spell out a restoration plan in short form. My work is clear and addressing it will be the next steps. I took photos of the whole pipe to give you a picture of what I see when I have it on the table. This is important to me in that it also shows that there was no damage done during the clean up work or the transit of the pipe from Idaho to here in Vancouver.  I carefully went over the bowl and rim top to get a sense of what is happening there. In this case once the rim top and edges were cleaned, they looked very good. There was no damage on the edges or the top of the rim. It is clean should come back to its original beauty quite easily. I also go over the stem carefully. There were just some faint tooth marks chatter on the surface of the stem. I took photos of the rim top and stem sides to show as best as I can what I see when I look at them. I always check to make sure that the clean up work did not damage the stamping on the shank in any way. It is in excellent condition and is very clear and readable. I really like the way that the carvers at Castello do the Sea Rock Briar rustication. To me it stunning and very tactile. I love just looking at the beauty of the lay of the pipe and the proportion of the hand made pipes. I like to remove the stem from the shank to get a sense of what was in the mind of the pipe maker when he crafted the pipe. It is a beauty in flow and shape. When a rusticated finish is in as nice a condition as this one is immediately apply Before & After Restoration Balm to the briar. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar and the plateau. The product works to deep clean the nooks and crannies of finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips and a horse hair shoe brush. I let it sit for 10 minutes to 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 in the briar and the grain shone through. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. It is a gorgeous pipe. I set the bowl aside and turn to work on the stem. Because the marks and chatter are so light I use micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pad even though people say it does nothing for acrylic stems. But I find it does two things – first it gives some protection to the stem and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the acrylic. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the extra fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection.  The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I don’t buff a rusticated pipe with Blue Diamond as it can build up in the deep grooves of the finish. I used it on the stem and find that it works very well to polish out the light scratches in the acrylic. I finished with the Blue Diamond and moved on to buffing the pipe – I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. Once I have a good shine in the briar and acrylic. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I following up the wax buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I follow that up with a hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished acrylic stem. It really is a beautiful pipe. The rusticated finish around the bowl sides and shank has some amazing depth and contrast with the rich black and dark brown stains. Castello Sea Rock Briar 93 Bent Egg with a military bit 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 ¼ inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.32 ounces/41 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and a Castello shape I have been looking for to add to my own collection. I plan on loading it up and enjoying a bowl in it.

Hopefully the style of writing of this blog is helpful to you in some way. In it I wanted to show both what I am looking for and how I move forward in addressing what I see when work on a pipe. Let me know if it is helpful to you. It is probably the most straightforward detailed description of my work process that I have done. 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 pipe men and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Restoring a Italian Made Savinelli Sistina 606 Bent Billiard with a Filter Stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on is a nice looking smooth brown bent Billiard with a brass and orange acrylic band/adornment on the acrylic stem that I picked up in a lot of 10 pipes from a fellow on Vancouver Island who was selling his collection. The stamping on the left side of the shank reads Savinelli [over] Sistina. On the right side it was stamped with a Savinelli Shield followed by the shape number 606 [over] Italy. The twin brass bands sandwiching a piece of golden acrylic on the stem has no stamping. The acrylic taper stem has a stamped gold shooting star on the left side. The pipe is a nice looking pipe with a black understain on the grain and a medium brown finish. It is light weight and comfortable pipe to hold. I picked up the pipe and turned it over in my hands. It was in good condition.

This is what I saw when I over the pipe.

  1. The finish was very good with only some light dust and grime ground into the finish around the bowl sides. The matte brown/black stain is dull but the it really highlights the grain around the bowl sides and shank
  2. The smooth rim top looked very good and the beveled inner edge and outer edges look very good. There was no lava build on the top and the edges were clean and undamaged.
  3. There was a light cake in the bowl. It held the aroma of the tobaccos smoked in it – fortunately not aromatic. The walls looked to be undamaged but once I removed the light cake I could confirm that.
  4. The band on the stem is twin brass bands sandwiching an amber/orange yellow piece of acrylic and looks to be good condition. It is undamaged and clean. The band looks really good with the finish on the bowl and the black acrylic taper stem.
  5. The acrylic taper stem has a gold shooting logo stamped on the left side that identifies it as a Savinelli pipe. It is in excellent condition with just some light tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside ahead of the button.

To summarize what I saw – this Savinelli Sistina 606 Bent Billiard is a well made pipe. It is a little dusty but otherwise in good condition. The acrylic stem is lightly tooth marked but otherwise undamaged. The tenon has a converter taking it from a 9mm to a standard unfiltered stem. There does not appear to be any calcification on the stem surface. The look and feel of the pipe in the hand is great. It is going to clean up very well. Here are photos of the pipe before I started my clean up.   The bowl of the pipe looked very good. The rim top is clean does not seem to have any damage to the smooth finish. The edges of the bowl were undamaged and looked very good. I see no warning signs in the rim top or the edges of the bowl. I took photos of the stem to show the condition of each one. Though hard to see there are light tooth chatter on the surface of both sides ahead of the button but it should clean up easily with polishing. The next photos capture the stamping on the shank. It read as I have noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of it to give a sense of proportion. Now it was time to work on the pipe itself. I started my work on the pipe by cleaning the internals. The cake was quite thin but it can hold residual oils from previous tobaccos and I wanted to check the bowl walls for burn damage or checking. I reamed it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife and took the cake back to bare briar. I sanded the walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I worked on them until they were smooth. There was no checking or burn damage to the bowl walls. It was quite clean.I cleaned out the internals of the shank and the airway in the stem with 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I also cleaned the adapter that had come with the pipe. I worked them over until they were clean. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I choose to dry sand the briar rather than wet sand it. Again it is a matter of personal preference. I prefer to use the pads dry and find they work very well on the briar. I sand with each pad (9 in total) and group them by threes for ease of reference. I wipe the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris and check the briar. I love seeing the developing shine on the briar as I move through the pads which is why I include so many photos of this step.   I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish on the bowl and shank. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the wood. Once the bowl was covered with the balm I let it sit for about 15 minutes and buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth and the shoe brush. I polished it with a microfiber cloth. I took photos of the pipe at this point in the process to show what the bowl looked like at this point. The light sandblast finish looks very good and has a real touch of beauty. I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I dry sanded both sides of the stem with 1500-12000 grit pads to polish it further. I wiped it down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. Though I know that it does not do much with the acrylic I find that it still adds depth to the final shine on the stem which grew deeper with each sanding pad.   I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I wiped the stem down with some Obsidian Oil afterwards and buffed it with a soft microfiber cloth.   I took the Savinelli Sistina 606 Bent Billiard to wax and polish. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond polish on the wheel to polish out the scratches in the acrylic. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel and then 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 contrast of the dark understain on the briar brings out the grain and the medium brown stain looks excellent with the shine of the polished acrylic stem is quite stunning. The rich finish around the bowl and shank is quite remarkable and gives the pipe an incredible presence. The Savinelli Sistina Bent Billiard is a beautiful pipe and one that will be a great smoking pipe. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below with each of the stems. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the large pipe is a light and comfortable 53 grams/1.87 ounces. This is a great looking Bent Billiard. I will be adding it to the rebornpipes store in the Italian Pipe Makers Section. If you want to add it to your rack let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me. Cheers.

Restoring a Stubby Italian Made Savinelli Pocket 106 Billiard with a Filter Stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on is a nice looking smooth black and brown Billiard with a thin silver band/adornment on the acrylic stem that I picked up in a lot of 10 pipes from a fellow on Vancouver Island who was selling his collection. The stamping on the left side of the shank reads Savinelli [over] Pocket. On the right side it was stamped with the Savinelli Shield followed by the shape number 106 [over] Italy. The thin silver band on the stem has no stamping. The acrylic taper stem has a stamped silver Savinelli S shield. The pipe is a nice looking dark finish. It is short, light weight and comfortable to hold. I picked up the pipe and turned it over in my hands. It was in good condition.

This is what I saw when I over the pipe.

  1. The finish was very good with only some light dust and grime ground into the finish around the bowl sides. The dark brown/black stain is dull but the it really highlights the grain around the bowl sides and shank
  2. The smooth rim top looked very good with some spots on the inner bevel and the out edge where the finish had lightened. There was no lava build on the top and the edges were clean and undamaged.
  3. There was a light cake in the bowl. It held the aroma of the tobaccos smoked in it – fortunately not aromatic. The walls looked to be undamaged but once I removed the light cake I could confirm that.
  4. The band on the stem is silver in colour and looks to be good condition. It is undamaged and clean. The thin band looks really good with the finish on the bowl and the acrylic taper stem.
  5. The acrylic taper stem has a silver Savinelli Shield logo stamped on the topside that identifies it as a Savinelli pipe. It is in excellent condition with just some light tooth chatter on the top and underside ahead of the button.

To summarize what I saw – this Savinelli Pocket 106 Billiard is a well made pipe. It is a little dusty but otherwise in good condition. The acrylic stem is lightly marked but otherwise undamaged. The tenon has a converter taking it from a 9mm to a 6mm stem. There does not appear to be any calcification on the stem surface. The look and feel of the pipe in the hand is great. It is going to clean up very well. Here are photos of the pipe before I started my clean up. The bowl of the pipe looked very good. The rim top is clean does not seem to have any damage to the smooth finish. The edges of the bowl were undamaged and looked very good. I see no warning signs in the rim top or the edges of the bowl. I took photos of the stem to show the condition of each one. Though hard to see there are light tooth chatter on the surface of both sides ahead of the button but it should clean up easily with sandpaper.The next photo captures the stamping on the shank. It read as I have noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of it to give a sense of proportion.Now it was time to work on the pipe itself. I started my work on the pipe by cleaning the internals. The cake was quite thin but it can hold residual oils from previous tobaccos and I wanted to check the bowl walls for burn damage or checking. I reamed it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife and took the cake back to bare briar. I sanded the walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I worked on them until they were smooth. There was no checking or burn damage to the bowl walls. It was quite clean. I cleaned out the internals of the shank and the airway in the stem with 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I worked them over until they were clean.     I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I choose to dry sand the briar rather than wet sand it. Again it is a matter of personal preference. I prefer to use the pads dry and find they work very well on the briar. I sand with each pad (9 in total) and group them by threes for ease of reference. I wipe the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris and check the briar. I love seeing the developing shine on the briar as I move through the pads which is why I include so many photos of this step. I used a Walnut stain pen to touch up the faded spots on the rim top and edges. I set it aside to let the stain cure. It matched the rest of the stain on the bowl top and sides. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish on the bowl and shank. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the wood. Once the bowl was covered with the balm I let it sit for about 15 minutes and buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth and the shoe brush. I polished it with a microfiber cloth. I took photos of the pipe at this point in the process to show what the bowl looked like at this point. The light sandblast finish looks very good and has a real touch of beauty. I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I dry sanded both sides of the stem with 1500-12000 grit pads to polish it further. I wiped it down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. Though I know that it does not do much with the acrylic I find that it still adds depth to the final shine on the stem which grew deeper with each sanding pad. I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I wiped the stem down with some Obsidian Oil afterwards and buffed it with a soft microfiber cloth. I took the Savinelli Pocket 106 Billiard to wax and polish. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond polish on the wheel to polish out the scratches in the acrylic. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel and then 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 contrast of the dark stain on the briar with the shine of the polished acrylic stem is quite stunning. The rich finish around the bowl and shank is quite remarkable. The Savinelli Pocket 106 Billiard is a beautiful pipe and one that will be a great smoking pipe. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below with each of the stems. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the small pipe is a light and comfortable 35 grams/1.23 ounces. This is a great looking Savinelli Pocket Billiard. I will be adding it to the rebornpipes store in the Italian Pipe Makers Section. If you want to add it to your rack let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me. Cheers.

Restoring a Lightly Smoked Joe Case 2013 Hand Made Poker

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on is a nice looking rusticated Joe Case Poker that I picked up in a lot of 10 pipes from a fellow on Vancouver Island who was selling his collection. The stamping on the smooth heel of the bowl reads JC interlocked [over] the signature of Joe Case [over] 2013 followed by USA. The variegated silver acrylic saddle stem has no stamping or marks. There is a silver coloured (Stainless?) band on the shank that is decorative. It has four thin silver bands with the space between the final two painted black. The heel of the bowl and the rim top were smooth while the rest of the pipe is rusticated. The pipe came in a no name pipe sock. I took the pipe out of the sock and turned it over in my hands. It was in pretty good condition. This is what I saw

  1. The finish was dusty and dirty in the grooves and valleys of the bark like rusticated finish. Otherwise the finish looked very good.
  2. The smooth rim top showed some light darkening on the crowned top. There was no lava build on the rim top and the inner and outer edges of the bowl were clean and undamaged.
  3. There was a light cake in the bowl. It held the aroma of the tobaccos smoked in it but fortunately they were not aromatic. The walls looked to be undamaged but once I removed the light cake I would know more about that.
  4. The variegated grey/black acrylic saddle stem had no identifying logos or stamping. There was light tooth chatter and marks on both sides but nothing deep.

To summarize what I saw – this Joe Case Poker is a well made pipe as to be expected. It is dusty but otherwise in good condition. The acrylic stem is lightly marked but otherwise undamaged. The look and feel of the pipe is great in the hand and the rustication is well done. It is going to clean up very well. Here are photos of the pipe before I started my clean up. What do you see when you examine it?  The bowl of the pipe looked very good. The crowned rim top is clean other than a little darkening toward the back of the bowl. The edges of the bowl were undamaged and looked very good. I see no warning signs in the rim top or the edges of the bowl. I took photos of the acrylic stem to show its condition. Though hard to see there are light tooth marks and chatter on the surface of both sides ahead of the button but it should clean up easily with sandpaper.The next photo captures the stamping on the heel of the bowl. They read as I have noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts to give a sense of proportion.Joe Case made some of the most sought after, hand-crafted, custom pipes in America. They are truly works of art if you can find them. Joe died 12/22/21 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. It is fascinating to me that he was not only a pipe maker but also a pastor who specialized in planting new churches (some thing we have in common as that is what I did for many years). He made beautiful pipes that are all on the larger size. The one I am working on is a large one – both tall and big. His pipes still come up now and again on eBay and other online sales sites and command a good price as they are limited in number since his death.

I found and interesting interview with Joe Case on Tobaccopipes.com that gives a great introduction to Joe and his philosophy of pipe carving. It also gives a good clue to the influences that moved him as a pipemaker. Here is the link – take time to give it a read (https://www.tobaccopipes.com/blog/joe-case-leads-a-wave-of-exciting-southern-pipe-makers-interview/).

I have also included a YouTube video that I found on the sight with Joe himself speaking with regard to his pipe making design and concepts. Give it a watch.

Armed with that information and renewing my knowledge of the brand it was time to work on the pipe. I started my work on the pipe by cleaning the internals. The cake was quite thin but it can hold residual oils from previous tobaccos and I wanted to check the bowl walls for burn damage or checking. I reamed it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife and took the cake back to bare briar. I sanded the walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I worked on them until they were smooth. There was no checking or burn damage to the bowl walls. It was quite clean.I cleaned out the internals of the shank and the airway in the stem with 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I worked them over until they were clean.  I scrubbed the externals of the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I worked the soap into the grooves and valleys in the finish. I rinsed it off with warm running water. I dried it with a soft cotton towel. The bowl looks much better at this point in the process of recovery. The band was loose on the shank so I gave the shank end a few drops of Weld Bond all purpose glue. I pressed it into place wiped off the excess.I polished the smooth crowned rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit  pads. I wiped the briar down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The rim top began to take on a rich shine. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the rusticated finish on the bowl and shank and the smooth rim top. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the wood. I used a horse hair shoe brush to work it into the crevices and keep from building up in the valleys and crevices of the finish. Once the bowl was covered with the balm I let it sit for about 15 minutes and buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth and the shoe brush. I polished it with a microfiber cloth. I took photos of the pipe at this point in the process to show what the bowl looked like at this point. I polished the silver band with a jewelers cloth. It is impregnated with an anti-tarnishing compound and polish. I rubbed the shank end band down with the cloth to polish and protect the band. It came out with a rich glow and shine. I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I dry sanded both sides of the stem with 1500-12000 grit pads to polish it further. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The shine grew deeper with each sanding pad. I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I wiped the stem down with a damp cotton pad afterwards and buffed it with a soft microfiber cloth. I put the bowl and stem back together. I don’t buff the rusticated bowl on the wheel as it leaves a lot of grit in the deep grooves of the rustication. I gave the bowl and shank multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush to raise the shine. The wax is great protection and I love using it on rusticated and sandblast finishes because it does not build up in the grooves and valleys like carnauba wax does. I buffed it by hand with a microfiber cloth to finish the shine. I polished the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish out the scratches in the vulcanite. 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 contrast of the blacks, dark browns and reds of the stain on the briar with the shine of the polished vulcanite stem is quite stunning. The dark and shallow rustication around the bowl and shank is quite remarkable and gives the pipe an incredible tactile presence. The smooth rim top is a great addition. This is truly a beautiful pipe and one that will be a great smoking pipe. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is a light and comfortable pipe for its size: 78 grams/2.75 ounces. This is the first Joe Case pipe that I have worked on. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipe makers Section of the store. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me. Cheers.

Is this BBB a Football Pipe? Cleaning a BBB Arsenal 746 Billiard with an acrylic stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

I thought I would take you through my process of working on each pipe that we purchase. Jeff has set up a spread sheet to track where the pipe came from, the date of purchase and what we paid for it so that we know what we have invested in the pipe before we even work on it. This takes a lot of the guess work out of the process. This particular pipe was purchased on 01/26/2023 in a group of pipes from a fellow in Copenhagen, Denmark. I also want you to understand why we take the photos we do. It is not accidental or chance as the photos have been taken to help me make an assessment of the pipe Jeff sees before he starts his clean up work. We do this to record the condition that the pipe was in when received it and to assess what kind of work will need to be done on. When I look at these photos this is what I see.

  1. The finish is shiny but dirty with dust ground into the finish around the bowl. There are some tars and lava on the inner edge. Underneath there appears to be some excellent grain.
  2. The rim top is dirty. There is some lava overflow from the cake in the bowl on the rim top though it is light. There is also some darkening on the inward rim top.
  3. The bowl has a thick cake in it but the inner edge of the bowl actually looks to be undamaged from what I can see at this point. There does not appear to be any burning or reaming damage to the edges of the bowl.
  4. The stem is acrylic and has a BBB in a Diamond logo stamped into the acrylic on the taper stem. It has been painted with a white coloured paint that fills in the stamp.
  5. The acrylic stem had no oxidation but was dirty. There was tooth chatter ahead of the button visible in the photos below. Nothing to deep but nonetheless present.

Overall my impressions of this pretty little Billiard was that it was in solid shape with no significant damage to the briar on the bowl sides and rim. The cake does not seem to hide any burns or checking and the exterior of the bowl does not show any hot spots or darkening. The photos below confirm the assessment above. Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl and rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is quite thick and the rim top has a light coat of lava and debris on it that will need to come off. You can also see the lava on the inner edge of the rim. You can also see the condition of the inner and outer edges of the rim and down the outside of the bowl. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. While there is lava and darkening there is no visible burn damage at this point and the previous reamings has not left damage either. The bowl is still round. His photos of the stem surface confirmed and heightened my assessment of the condition. You can see that the stem is good condition and that other than light scratches and tooth chatter on the surface. From the photos of the stamp on the top of the saddle stem have the appearance of a decal but I know that it is a stamp like the Chelsea Bulldog that I did earlier.  I always ask Jeff to take photos of the sides and heel of the bowl. While this definitely shows the grain patterns around a bowl it also allows me to do a more thorough assessment of the condition of the briar and the finish. I look at the finish around the twin rings to make sure there are no nicks and damage. The stain on the bowl highlights the grain.There were no cracks or splits following the grain or coming down from the rim edges. There were no cracks in the shank. I also look for flaws in the grain as those can also hide cracks or damage. In this case the bowl exterior is sound and should clean up very well. I love the flame and straight grain patterns. I also ask him to take photos of the stamping so I can see if it is faint in any spots or double stamped or unclear. It often takes several photos to capture what I am looking for. The stamping on the left and underside of the shank are clear and readable in the pictures below. On the left it reads BBB [over] Arsenal. The stamping on the underside reads 746 which is the shape number for a Billiard. Jeff also included a photo of the stamped stem logo – BBB in a Diamond. Not too long ago I finished restoring a newer BBB Chelsea 403S Bulldog and wrote about it on the blog. It is a great looking pipe (https://rebornpipes.com/2023/04/08/refreshing-a-newer-bbb-chelsea-403s-bulldog/). When I picked up this one a thought crossed my mind. I can’t find any proof of the thought but it appears that both of these newer BBB pipes are name for Football (soccer) Clubs in the UK. The first one was Chelsea and this one is Arsenal. Is it a coincidence? I have a hard time believing that is the case here when I have two pipes stamped with Football Club names. I did a bit of searching on the Football Clubs on Google and found this link the Club names.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022%E2%80%9323_Premier_League). I have included the following chart below.I also looked up the Arsenal Football Club and read about them. Here is the link to that site for you to have a read (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenal_F.C.).

I did not take time to do work on the brand as it is a well known brand. If you would like to do some reading on it you can check both Pipephil’s site and Pipedia for a great write up on the history of the brand. I decided instead to just get to work on the pipe.

I am sure many of you skip my paragraph on the work Jeff has done before the pipe gets here in my many blogs but it is quite detailed in its brevity. I know some laugh at my opening line Jeff did a thorough cleaning of this pipe. However, I want you to know the details of the work. Back in 2020 Jeff wrote a blog about his cleaning process. I am including a link to that now so you can see what I mean about his process. Do not skip it! Give it a read (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/20/got-a-filthy-estate-pipe-that-you-need-to-clean/). Here is the introduction to that blog and it is very true even to this day.

Several have asked about Jeff’s cleaning regimen as I generally summarize it in the blogs that I post rather than give a detailed procedure. I have had the question asked enough that I asked Jeff to put together this blog so that you can get a clear picture of the process he uses. Like everything else in our hobby, people have different methods they swear by. Some may question the method and that is fine. But it works very well for us and has for many years. Some of his steps may surprise you but I know that when I get the pipes from him for my part of the restoration they are impeccably clean and sanitized. I have come to appreciate the thoroughness of the process he has developed because I really like working on clean pipe!

For the benefit of some of you who may be unfamiliar with some of the products he uses I have included photos of three of the items that Jeff mentions in his list. This will make it easier for recognition. These three are definitely North American Products so you will need to find suitable replacements or order these directly on Amazon. The makeup pads are fairly universal as we were able to pick some up in India when we were with Paresh and his family.

In the blog itself he breaks his process down into two parts – cleaning the stem and cleaning the bowl. Each one has a large number of steps that he methodically does every time. I know because I have watched him do the work and I have seen the pipes after his work on them. He followed this process step by step and when the pipe got to me it was spotlessly clean and ready for my work. The inside of the stem, shank and bowl were clean and to me that is an amazing gift as it means that my work on this end is with a clean pipe! I cannot tell you how much difference that makes for my work.

When the pipe arrives here in Vancouver I have a clean pipe and I go over it keeping in mind my assessment shared in the opening paragraph above. I am looking for any significant structural changes in the bowl and finish as I go over it.

  1. The finish cleaned up really well and the dust and grime in the finish were gone. It was very clean and was undamaged. With all the grime removed there was some excellent grain.
  2. The rim top is very clean and there was no damage or darkening on the top.
  3. The bowl was very clean and the top and inner edge of the bowl show no damage. The bowl walls are also very clean and smooth with no checking or burn marks on the inside or out of the bowl. The walls were undamaged.
  4. The acrylic stem with the BBB in a Diamond logo stamped into the acrylic on the top side of the taper looks much better. I wonder if it is gold instead of white. It is definitely stamped and is clean and undamaged.
  5. The acrylic stem had a rich shine. There was light tooth chatter ahead of the button that is visible in the photos below. Nothing to deep but nonetheless present.

Hopefully the steps above show you both what I look for when I go over the pipe when I bring it to the work table and also what I see when I look at the pipe in my hands. They also clearly spell out a restoration plan in short form. My work is clear and addressing it will be the next steps. I took photos of the whole pipe to give you a picture of what I see when I have it on the table. This is important to me in that it also shows that there was no damage done during the clean up work or the transit of the pipe from Idaho to here in Vancouver. I then spent some time going over the bowl and rim top to get a sense of what is happening there. The bowl looked very good and the walls were smooth. There was no damage internally. The rim top was clean. There is some scratching that I noted earlier that is present but hard to see on rim top. The inner edge had some damage on the right side that would need to be smoothed out but otherwise looked good as did the outer edge. I also went over the stem carefully. The stem was in excellent condition with no tooth marks and very light chatter. I took photos of the rim top and stem sides to show as best as I can what I see when I look at them.I always check to make sure that the clean up work did not damage the stamping on the shank in any way. I take a photos to show what I see when I examine it. In this case it has not changed at all from the pictures I included above. I also remove the stem from the shank and check the tenon and lay the parts of the pipe out to get a sense of the proportion that was in the mind of the pipe maker when he crafted the pipe. It is a beauty in flow and shape. The question of where to begin the restoration work is always a matter of personal preference. I start with the bowl because it gives me hope that this pipe is really a beauty. So if you are restoring your pipes choose where you want to start and go from there. Just know that it all will need to be done by the end. The encouragement of seeing a rejuvenated bowl is the impetus I need to attack the stem work.

Knowing that about me you can guess that I started working on this pipe by turning to the bowl. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the inner edge and smooth out the damage to the edges and rim top.From there I moved to polishing the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I dry sand the briar rather than wet sand it. Again it is a matter of personal preference. I prefer to use the pads dry and find they work very well on the briar. I sand with each pad (9 in total) and group them by threes for ease of reference. I wipe the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the sanding debris and check the briar. I love seeing the developing shine on the briar as I move through the pads. I include the many photos of various angles of the bowl so you can see the change. Pay attention to the changes in the briar in these photos as you work through them. When I get the bowl to this point in the process I use 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. Once the time has passed I wiped it off with a soft cloth then buff it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. You see the shine that the briar has taken on and the way the grain just pops. It is a gorgeous pipe. Now it was time to address the part of the restoration I leave until last. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. The stem was in quite good shape. I polish the stem to remove the light chatter and scratches. Over the years I have developed my own process for this. It is all preparation for the buffing that will come last. I use micromesh sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pad as I find it does two things – first it protects the stem and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I always rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the acrylic. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the Extra Fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem by wiping it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil dissipate. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection for the stem surface.The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I first buff the stem and the briar with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. Blue Diamond is a plastic polish but I find that it works very well to polish out the light scratches in the acrylic and the briar. I work the pipe over on the wheel with my finger or thumb in the bowl to keep it from becoming airborne. It works well and I am able to carefully move forward with the buffing. I finished with the Blue Diamond and moved on to buffing with carnauba wax. Once I have a good shine in the briar and acrylic I always give the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I following up the wax buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I follow that up with a hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished stem. It really is a beautiful pipe. The smooth finish around the bowl sides and shank show the grain shining through the rich brown stains of this BBB Arsenal 746 Billiard and the polished acrylic stem is a great addition. The finished 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: 5 ½ 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 1.13 ounces/32 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that I will be putting on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipe Maker section.

Hopefully this tack of writing this blog is helpful to you in some way. In it I show both what I am looking for and how I move forward in addressing what I see when work on a pipe has been helpful to you. It is probably the most straightforward detailed description of my work process. 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.

Refreshing a Newer BBB Chelsea 403S Bulldog

1 Reply

Blog by Steve Laug

I thought I would continue with the same tack I took on the Wenhall and Comoy’s Christmas 1990  pipes and take you through my process of working on each pipe that we purchase. Jeff has set up a spread sheet to track where the pipe came from, the date of purchase and what we paid for it so that we know what we have invested in the pipe before we even work on it. This takes a lot of the guess work out of the process. This particular pipe was purchased on 01/26/2023 in a group of pipes from a fellow in Copenhagen, Denmark. I also want you to understand why we take the photos we do. It is not accidental or chance as the photos have been taken to help me make an assessment of the pipe Jeff sees before he starts his clean up work. We do this to record the condition that the pipe was in when received it and to assess what kind of work will need to be done on. When I look at these photos this is what I see.

  1. The finish is dirty with dust in the twin rings around the bowl. There are some tars and lava flowing down the edges of the rim cap. Underneath there appears to be some excellent grain. The finish is also dull and quite lifeless looking.
  2. The beveled rim top is dirty. There is some lava overflow from the cake in the bowl and some darkening on the inwardly beveled rim top.
  3. The bowl has a thick cake in it but the inner edge of the bowl actually looks to be undamaged from what I can see at this point. There does not appear to be any burning or reaming damage to the edges of the bowl.
  4. The stem is acrylic and has a BBB in a Diamond logo stamped into the acrylic on the left side of the saddle portion. It has been painted with a white coloured paint that fills in the stamp.
  5. The acrylic stem had no oxidation but was dirty. There were tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button that are visible in the photos below. Nothing to deep but nonetheless present.

Overall my impressions of this pretty little Bulldog was that it was in solid shape with no significant damage to the briar on the bowl sides and rim. The cake does not seem to hide any burns or checking and the exterior of the bowl does not show any hot spots or darkening. There appears to be a slight flare to the shank, widening at the end where it joins the stem. The photos below confirm the assessment above. Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl and rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is quite thick and the rim top has heavy lava and debris on it that will need to come off. You can also see the lava on the inner bevel of the rim. You can also see the condition of the inner and outer edges of the rim and down the outside of the bowl. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. While there is lava and darkening there is no visible burn damage at this point and the previous reamings has not left damage either. The bowl is still round. His photos of the stem surface confirmed and heightened my assessment of the condition. You can see the scratches in the middle top of the stem surface. Note also the tooth marks on the stem surface ahead of the button on both sides. From the photos of the stamp on the saddle portion of the stem have the appearance of a decal but I am hoping that I am wrong and that it is stamped and painted. I always ask Jeff to take photos of the sides and heel of the bowl. While this definitely shows the grain patterns around a bowl it also allows me to do a more thorough assessment of the condition of the briar and the finish. I look at the finish around the twin rings to make sure there are no nicks and damage to the rings. The stain on the bowl highlights the grain. There was some dark grime on the surface but the cleaning easily remove that. There were no cracks or splits following the grain or coming down from the rim edges. There were no cracks in the shank. I also look for flaws in the grain as those can also hide cracks or damage. In this case the bowl exterior is sound and should clean up very well. I love the grain patterns that appear to have birdseye on the sides and cross grain on the front and back of the bowl. I also ask him to take photos of the stamping so I can see if it is faint in any spots or double stamped or unclear. It often takes several photos to capture what I am looking for. The stamping on the left and underside of the shank are clear and readable in the pictures below. On the left it reads BBB [over] Chelsea. The stamping on the underside reads 403S which is the shape number for a Bulldog. Jeff also included a photo of the stamped stem logo – BBB in a Diamond. I was concerned that the logo on the stem may have been a decal rather than a stamp but it appears to be a stamp in the first photo below.I did not take time to do work on the brand as it is a well known brand. If you would like to do some reading on it you can check both Pipephil’s site and Pipedia for a great write up on the history of the brand. I decided instead to just get to work on the pipe.

I am sure many of you skip my paragraph on the work Jeff has done before the pipe gets here in my many blogs but it is quite detailed in its brevity. I know some laugh at my opening line Jeff did a thorough cleaning of this pipe. However, I want you to know the details of the work. Back in 2020 Jeff wrote a blog about his cleaning process. I am including a link to that now so you can see what I mean about his process. Do not skip it! Give it a read (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/20/got-a-filthy-estate-pipe-that-you-need-to-clean/). Here is the introduction to that blog and it is very true even to this day.

Several have asked about Jeff’s cleaning regimen as I generally summarize it in the blogs that I post rather than give a detailed procedure. I have had the question asked enough that I asked Jeff to put together this blog so that you can get a clear picture of the process he uses. Like everything else in our hobby, people have different methods they swear by. Some may question the method and that is fine. But it works very well for us and has for many years. Some of his steps may surprise you but I know that when I get the pipes from him for my part of the restoration they are impeccably clean and sanitized. I have come to appreciate the thoroughness of the process he has developed because I really like working on clean pipe!

For the benefit of some of you who may be unfamiliar with some of the products he uses I have included photos of three of the items that Jeff mentions in his list. This will make it easier for recognition. These three are definitely North American Products so you will need to find suitable replacements or order these directly on Amazon. The makeup pads are fairly universal as we were able to pick some up in India when we were with Paresh and his family.

In the blog itself he breaks his process down into two parts – cleaning the stem and cleaning the bowl. Each one has a large number of steps that he methodically does every time. I know because I have watched him do the work and I have seen the pipes after his work on them. He followed this process step by step and when the pipe got to me it was spotlessly clean and ready for my work. The inside of the stem, shank and bowl were clean and to me that is an amazing gift as it means that my work on this end is with a clean pipe! I cannot tell you how much difference that makes for my work.

When the pipe arrives here in Vancouver I have a clean pipe and I go over it keeping in mind my assessment shared in the opening paragraph above. I am looking for any significant structural changes in the bowl and finish as I go over it.

  1. The finish cleaned up really well and the dust and grime in the finish and the twin rings around the bowl were gone. It was very clean and was undamaged. The rim top and the beveled inner edge looked very good. With all the grime removed there was some excellent grain. The finish is also dull but should polish up nicely.
  2. The beveled edge and the rim top is very clean and there was no damage or darkening.
  3. The bowl was very clean and the top and inner edge of the bowl show no damage. The bowl walls are also very clean and smooth with no checking or burn marks on the inside or out of the bowl. The walls were undamaged.
  4. The acrylic stem with the BBB in a Diamond logo stamped into the acrylic on the left side of the saddle portion looks much better. I wonder if it is gold instead of white. It is definitely stamped and is clean and undamaged.
  5. The acrylic stem had a rich shine. There were tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button that are visible in the photos below. Nothing to deep but nonetheless present.

Hopefully the steps above show you both what I look for when I go over the pipe when I bring it to the work table and also what I see when I look at the pipe in my hands. They also clearly spell out a restoration plan in short form. My work is clear and addressing it will be the next steps. I took photos of the whole pipe to give you a picture of what I see when I have it on the table. This is important to me in that it also shows that there was no damage done during the clean up work or the transit of the pipe from Idaho to here in Vancouver. I then spent some time going over the bowl and rim top to get a sense of what is happening there. The bowl looked very good and the walls were smooth. There was no damage internally. The rim top was clean. There is some scratching that I noted earlier that is present but hard to see on rim top. I also went over the stem carefully. There were dents in the stem that are visible in the photos. But the good news is that the tooth marks were not deep and did not seem to puncture the airway. They would clean up well. I examined the button edge and was happy to see that the marks there were not too bad and should be able to be sanded out. I took photos of the rim top and stem sides to show as best as I can what I see when I look at them.I always check to make sure that the clean up work did not damage the stamping on the shank in any way. I know Jeff is cognizant of this but I do it anyway and take a photo to show what I see when I examine it. In this case it has not changed at all from the pictures I included above. I also remove the stem from the shank and check the tenon and lay the parts of the pipe out to get a sense of the proportion that was in the mind of the pipe maker when he crafted the pipe. It is a beauty in flow and shape.As I pointed out in a previous blog, the question of where to begin the restoration work is always a matter of personal preference. If you read this blog much you will see that each of the restorers who post here all start at different points. Kenneth always starts with the stems, others as well do that. I personally like to start with the bowl because it gives me hope that this pipe is really a beauty. I said previously that I truly do not like the tedious work of stem repairs and stem polishing. I have been thinking about that and I think it is more it takes longer for slower results. I think that is why I always leave that until last even though I know that it needs to be done. So if you are restoring your pipes choose where you want to start and go from there. Just know that it all will need to be done by the end but for me the encouragement of seeing a rejuvenated bowl is the impetus I need to attack the stem work.

Knowing that about me you can guess that I started working on this pipe by turning to the bowl. The bowl was in great condition I decided to move immediately to polishing the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I chose to dry sand the briar rather than wet sand it. Again it is a matter of personal preference. I prefer to use the pads dry and find they work very well on the briar. I sand with each pad (9 in total) and group them by threes for ease of reference. I wipe the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the sanding debris and check the briar. I love seeing the developing shine on the briar as I move through the pads. I include the many photos of various angles of the bowl so you can see the change. Pay attention to the changes in the briar in these photos as you work through them. When I get the bowl to this point in the process I use a product developed by Mark Hoover called Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar. The product works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked 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. Once the time has passed 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 mark the progress in the restoration. You see the shine that the briar has taken on and the way the grain just pops. It is a gorgeous pipe. Now it was time to address the part of the restoration I leave until last. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. The stem was in quite good shape. Jeff had been able to remove the oxidation so that when it came it looked pretty good. It was time to address the tooth marks. When the damage is quite shallow and not imposing I flatten it out with 220 grit sandpaper and start polishing it with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper to remove the scratches. This process makes the repairs almost invisible when polished and also takes care of scratching in the surface of the acrylic. That is what I did in this case and it worked well. This stem was quite painless so I guess I could have started with it but ah well old habits are hard to change. Here are photos of the stem after the sandpaper work.It was the time now to polish the stem and bring back a shine. Over the years I have developed my own process for this. It is all preparation for the buffing that will come last. I use micromesh sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pad as I find it does two things – first it protects the stem (even though it is acrylic it still helps preserve it from the grime) and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I always rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the acrylic. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the Extra Fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem by wiping it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection from oxidizing quickly. The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I first buff the stem and the briar with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. Blue Diamond is a plastic polish but I find that it works very well to polish out the light scratches in the acrylic and the briar. I work the pipe over on the wheel with my finger or thumb in the bowl to keep it from becoming airborne. It works well and I am able to carefully move forward with the buffing. I finished with the Blue Diamond and moved on to buffing with carnauba wax. Once I have a good shine in the briar and vulcanite I always give the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I following up the wax buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I follow that up with a hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished vulcanite stem. It really is a beautiful pipe. The smooth finish around the bowl sides and shank show the grain shining through the rich brown stains of this BBB Chelsea 403S Straight Bulldog and the polished acrylic stem is a great addition. The finished 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: 5 ½ 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 1.52 ounces/43 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that I will be putting on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipe Maker section.

Hopefully this tack of writing this blog is helpful to you in some way. In it I show both what I am looking for and how I move forward in addressing what I see when work on a pipe has been helpful to you. It is probably the most straightforward detailed description of my work process. 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 Rusticated House of Robertson Bulldog with a Clear Acrylic Stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

My brother Jeff and I visited an older gentleman near Vancouver, Washington recently and enjoyed a few bowls with him and views many of his pipes. After some viewing and conversation he showed me this House of Robertson Bulldog with a clear acrylic stem and gave it to me as a gift. It is a great looking pipe with a smooth rim top and shank end band. When Jeff and I returned to his home I took photos of it to capture what it looked like when I received it. The finish on the pipe was quite clean and had a great rustication around the bowl and shank. The smooth rim top and edges of the bowl had some wear and tear but was redeemable. There were scratches and nicks around the top and edges on the bowl. The pipe had been topped somewhere in its journey and the front of the cap was lower than the back side of the cap. There was a thin cake in the bowl and the inside was dirty with tobacco debris. The pipe had the House of Robertson etching on the left underside of the diamond shank. The clear acrylic stem fit to the shank very well. The tenon fit well in the mortise. There was some tobacco staining in the airway that would need to be dealt with. There were tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button. I took the following photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my clean up. I took a photo of the House of Robertson etched on the left underside of the diamond shank. It is clear and readable.The pipe has the name House of Robertson roughly hand-etched on the left underside of the diamond shank with an engraving tool. I am including the information that I found when I received my first House of Robertson Pipes a few years ago now. I found a link on Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Robertson) that gave me the only information I could find on the brand. I include that in total as it is interesting to read.

“House of Robertson” was in business for many years, but alas, closed their doors in 1999. They were located in Boise, Idaho. They are noted for making rather large and interesting pipes. Thayne Robertson was a Master Mason, AF & AM, and started the shop about 1947 and his son Jon started working there in 1970 when he finished college, along with Thayne’s daughter. Thayne and his son started making the big pipes at that time, and made them together until 1987 when Thayne passed away. Jon kept the store and his sister moved on to other things. The House of Robertson appears to have closed around 1999.

If you would like to read more about the carver, Thayne Robertson I am including a link to a blog I have included on the site. It is fascinating to read and gives some information on the brand.

https://rebornpipes.com/2021/10/31/house-of-robertson-pipes-boise-pipe-carver-thayne-robertson/

I am also including a scanned version of a House of Robertson catalogue that I have in my collection. Give it a read for more information.

https://rebornpipes.com/2022/12/11/a-house-of-robertson-catalogue-filled-with-great-examples-of-thayne-robertsons-work/

I thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. I reamed it with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the inside of the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. The bowl was clean. I cleaned up the damage to the inner edge of the bowl with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. Once finished it was better. I worked on the back side of the rim top with 220 grit sandpaper followed by a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. I wanted to bring the back of the rim cap down to the same thickness as the front of the rim cap to level out the top. Once it was even it looked much better.I scrubbed the exterior of 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. I cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I was able to remove a lot of tars and oils from the shank and some of the darkening in the stem and slot.I polished the smooth rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the top down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. It had a rich shine once I had finished. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm to deep clean the nooks and crannies of the rusticated finish, enliven and protect the briar. I hand rubbed it with my fingers, worked it into the rings with a cotton swab and into the finish with a horsehair shoe brush. I let it sit for 10 minutes to let it do its work. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded out the tooth marks with 220 grit sandpaper and started the polishing of the stem with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper.I polished out the sanding scratches and marks in the clear acrylic with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Polish – using both the Fine and Extra Fine Polishes. I gave it a rubdown with Obsidian Oil one last time and set it aside to dry. I put the House of Robertson Bulldog back together and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to lightly polish the stem. I buffed the bowl with a light touch so as not to get any of the buffing compounds in the grooves of the rustication. I buffed the stem to raise the gloss on the vulcanite. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished HOR Bulldog pipe is shown in the photos below. The medium brown stains on the rusticated Straight Bulldog with a smooth rim top works well with the clear acrylic stem. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside Diameter: 1 ¼ inches, Diameter of the chamber: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 36 grams/1.27 ounces. This one will be joining my pipe rack as yet another example of House of Robertson Pipes. I thank my friend in Vancouver, Washington for the gift and will certainly enjoy smoking it very soon. Thanks for following my work on this blog.

Restoring a Beautiful Karl Erik Made in Denmark Bent Egg Freehand Filter Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

After work today I decided to work on the another one of the pipes that I have still to work on from a variety of places. This pipe was another one that was purchased on 10/03/2022 in a lot of pipes that came to us from Copenhagen, Denmark  It is an interesting pipe with a bowl that combines beautiful straight and flame grain with a Plateau rim top and an egg shape. The pipe is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads Karl [arched over] Erik [over] Hand Made in Denmark. The latter portion of the stamping is faint but readable. The pipe was a well used pipe when Jeff received it. There was dust and grime ground into the finish. The mixture of brown and black stains highlights some beautiful grain under the dirt. The bowl was heavily caked and there was an overflow of lava on the plateau rim top. The inner edge appeared to be in good condition. The filter stem was made for a 6MM filter is vulcanite and was not oxidized. It was dirty with light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button and on the button itself. I wonder if the stem is not one made at a later time for the pipe, however the fit to the shank is like and original fit. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on it.He took photos of the bowl and rim top to show what they looked like before his clean up. He also took some of the stem to show the condition of both sides. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show the uniquely stained grain around the bowl and shank. The mixture of black and brown stains adds depth finish on the pipe. Even under the grime it is a real beauty. The stamping on the underside of the shank is shown in the photos below. It is faint but is still clear and readable as noted above.Before I started my work on the pipe I wanted to see if I could find any information that would help me date this pipe and get a sense of the line. I turned to Pipephil to get a quick review of the brand (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-k1.html). The stamp on the stem shown in the photo below is different than the one I am working on. It includes a K and an E while this one is just an E stamp. I have included a screen capture of the brand info there as well as a note in the side bar about Karl Erik Ottendahl along with a small picture.Brand created in 1965-66 by Karl Erik Ottendahl (1942 – 2004 †). In the best years he employed up to 15 craftsmen among which Bent Nielsen (see Benner) and Peder Christian Jeppesen. Former grading (ascending): from 4 to 1, and “Ekstravagant” (entirely hand made)

I then turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Erik) for more information. I am including just the opening remarks but would encourage you to give the link a read for a very interesting history of the brand. I quote:

Karl Erik Ottendahl (1942 – 2004) was born in Aalborg (Jutland), just a few miles from the very northernmost tip of Denmark. He began smoking a pipe when he was 14 and upon leaving school he started an apprenticeship in the craft as a lithographer at the age of 16.

While working as an apprentice he began hand carving pipes as a hobby. Many were given as gifts to his more senior colleagues. Upon completion of his apprenticeship he moved to Nairobi, Kenya to work as a lithographer during the 1962 war. While in that war torn country, he was unable to procure pipes for himself. In the face of such a predicament, he chose to continue to make pipes for his own use rather than go without.

Returning to Denmark after three years he couldn’t find a well paid occupation in his job, and so he began making a few pipes on the side to boost his income choosing his prenames “Karl Erik” – logo “KE” – for his label. When he managed to find some major Copenhagen pipe stores willing to sell his pieces his reputation grew little by little and he was finally able to purchase more and better machinery and began working full time as a pipe maker.

With that information in hand I knew what I was dealing with in terms of the stamping and the age of this pipe. I knew from the information that the pipe was made sometime between 1965 and 2004. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants 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 sump in the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub to remove as much of the oxidation and calcification as possible. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. (I only remembered to take these photos after I had restained the plateau and polished the bowl.) I took close up photos of the bowl, rim and the stem. You can see how clean the bowl and rim top and edges are. The stem is in good condition with light tooth marks and some chatter as noted above.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to give a sense of the proportions of the pipe.I started my work on the pipe by touching up the valleys and crevices in the plateau rim top with a black stain pen. It looked much better.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each  pad to remove the grit. The bowl began to take on a rich shine. It is a beauty.   I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips. I let it sit for 10 minutes and the Balm did its magic. It enlivens, cleans and preserves the briar. It certainly brought this bowl back to life. I buffed it off with a clean cloth and took the following photos.  I sanded out the tooth marks and some scratches in the stem sides with 220 grit sandpaper and started the polishing process with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper.I set the bowl aside and turned to work on the stem. I was able to polish out the tooth marks and chatter with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I fit the filter stem with a 6MM Medico Paper Filter. It fit well in the shank and the draw on the stem was clear and easy.This Karl Erik Ottendahl Made in Denmark Freehand Egg with a 6mm filter stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The beautiful finish really highlights the grain and the polished finish is stunning. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and 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 Karl Erik Freehand 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: 6 inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 60 grams / 2.12 ounces. I will be adding the pipe to the Danish Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store. If you are interested in purchasing this pipe send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

Restoring a Beautiful Karl Erik Freehand “Rhodesianish” Short Churchwarden

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Blog by Steve Laug

This afternoon I decided to work on a pipe from the lot that I have still to work on from a variety of places. This pipe was purchased from a friend on 06/05/21 in Brazil, Indiana, USA. It is an interesting pipe with a bowl that combines the twin rings of a Bulldog or Rhodesian with a Plateau rim top and a Freehand Flair. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Karl [arched over] Erik. The pipe was a well used pipe when Jeff received it. There was dust and grime ground into the finish. The mixture of brown stains highlights some beautiful grain under the dirt. The bowl was heavily caked and there was an overflow of lava on the plateau rim top. The inner edge appeared to be in good condition. The stem is acrylic and therefore was not oxidized. It was dirty with light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button and on the button itself. There is a fancy E stamp in the top of the stem that is in good condition. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on it. He took photos of the bowl and rim top to show what they looked like before his clean up. He also took some of the stem to show the condition of both sides. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show the uniquely stained grain around the bowl and shank. The mixture of black and brown stains adds depth finish on the pipe. Even under the grime it is a real beauty. The stamping on the left side the shank is shown in the photos below. It is clear and readable as noted above. He also took a photo of the fancy E logo on the top of the acrylic stem.Before I started my work on the pipe I wanted to see if I could find any information that would help me date this pipe and get a sense of the line. I turned to Pipephil to get a quick review of the brand (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-k1.html). The stamp on the stem shown in the photo below is different than the one I am working on. It includeds a K and an E while this one is just an E stamp. I have included a screen capture of the brand info there as well as a note in the side bar about Karl Erik Ottendahl along with a small picture.Brand created in 1965-66 by Karl Erik Ottendahl (1942 – 2004 †). In the best years he employed up to 15 craftsmen among which Bent Nielsen (see Benner) and Peder Christian Jeppesen. Former grading (ascending): from 4 to 1, and “Ekstravagant” (entirely hand made)

I then turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Erik) for more information. I am including just the opening remarks but would encourage you to give the link a read for a very interesting history of the brand. I quote:

Karl Erik Ottendahl (1942 – 2004) was born in Aalborg (Jutland), just a few miles from the very northernmost tip of Denmark. He began smoking a pipe when he was 14 and upon leaving school he started an apprenticeship in the craft as a lithographer at the age of 16.

While working as an apprentice he began hand carving pipes as a hobby. Many were given as gifts to his more senior colleagues. Upon completion of his apprenticeship he moved to Nairobi, Kenya to work as a lithographer during the 1962 war. While in that war torn country, he was unable to procure pipes for himself. In the face of such a predicament, he chose to continue to make pipes for his own use rather than go without.

Returning to Denmark after three years he couldn’t find a well paid occupation in his job, and so he began making a few pipes on the side to boost his income choosing his prenames “Karl Erik” – logo “KE” – for his label. When he managed to find some major Copenhagen pipe stores willing to sell his pieces his reputation grew little by little and he was finally able to purchase more and better machinery and began working full time as a pipe maker.

With that information in hand I knew what I was dealing with in terms of the stamping and the age of this pipe. I knew from the information that the pipe was made sometime between 1965 and 2004. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants 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 sump in the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub to remove as much of the oxidation and calcification as possible. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took close up photos of the bowl, rim and the stem. You can see how clean the bowl and rim top and edges are. The stem is in good condition with light tooth marks and some chatter as noted above.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. All are clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to give a sense of the proportions of the pipe. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each  pad to remove the grit. The bowl began to take on a rich shine. It is a beauty.   I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips. I worked it into the twin rings and the plateau rim top with a shoe brush. I let it sit for 10 minutes and the Balm did its magic. It enlivens, cleans and preserves the briar. It certainly brought this bowl back to life. I buffed it off with a clean cloth and took the following photos.  I set the bowl aside and turned to work on the stem. I was able to polish out the tooth marks and chatter with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This Karl Erik Ottendahl Rhodesian/Bulldog/Freehand with a long acrylic stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The beautiful finish really highlights the grain and the polished finish is stunning. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and 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 Karl Erik Freehand 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: 8 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 72 grams/ 2.54 ounces. I will be adding the pipe to the Danish Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store. If you are interested in purchasing this pipe send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

Restoring a Unique Savinelli Autograph 4 Freehand

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is one that was sent to me for a restoration. I am not taking on too many more pipes from outside Canada but the shape and finish of this one caught my eye. It is a Savinelli Autograph 4 with an unusual shape and a great sandblast finish. It is dirty but still very eye catching. It is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads Savinelli [over] Autograph [over] 4. The shank is round but has a flat bottom that allows the pipe to be a sitter. The bowl had been partially reamed and the top half had scraped away some briar on the inner edge of the bowl. The bottom half was very full of a thick cake that had not been touched with the reamer. The pipe smelled of old tobacco but did not seem to be a heavy aromatic. The shank was dirty with oils and tars. The acrylic stem is almost certain a replacement. It does not have the characteristic autograph/signature on the side of the saddle though it is very well made and the fit to the shank is perfect. There were light tooth marks and chatter in the surface on both sides. The button surface was clean but the slot had been filled in with debris leaving a very small airway. I am including the photos of the pipe that were sent by the person who is the steward of the pipe below. I think that you can see what attracted me to this one. The email also included photos of the rim top to show its condition. There was some damage to the finish on the rim top and some damage to the inner edge of the rim. The acrylic stem photos show the scratches, chatter and tooth marks. Overall the pipe looked impressive even in its unrestored state. I wanted to remind myself a bit about the Autograph line from Savinelli so I reread a blog I had written on a previous Autograph restoration (https://rebornpipes.com/2019/01/05/restoring-a-savinelli-autograph-3-rhodesian-dublin-long-shank/). I quote that portion of the blog now:

I turned first to the Pipephil website (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-savinelli1.html) to get a brief overview of the Autograph line. There I found out that the Autographs were hand made and unique. The Autograph Grading system is ascending: 3, 4, … 8, 0, 00, 000.

I turned then to Pipedia to get a more background on the Autograph line. I had the outline I needed from pipephil for the pipe but wanted more (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Savinelli). I quote in part from the article on that site.

While Savinelli’s serially produced pipes account for around 98% of annual production, the marque also creates a number of artisanal, handmade pieces as well. The Autographs, the Creativity line, and the Mr. A. line are all the result of Savinelli’s unique handmade process, with the Autographs reflecting the larger Freehand aesthetic, the Creativity line delving into more complex hand carving, and the Mr. A. line sidestepping the standard shape chart for remarkable and unusual pipes.

All of the briar for Savinelli’s Autographs and other freehand pipes is sourced specifically for those pieces. While the majority of the marque’s serial production is made from extra grade ebauchon blocks, Savinelli keeps a separate supply of Extra Extra plateau blocks for Freehands. This variety of briar is much larger, and of a higher quality, which explains why so many Autographs and Savinelli handmades are naturally larger designs.

These handmade pieces are shaped much like traditional Danish Freehands: they are shaped first and drilled second. Using this method, Savinelli’s team of artisans is able to showcase their own creativity, as it maximizes flexibility and facilitates a more grain-centric approach to shaping. The resulting Freehand designs are at once both a departure from the marque’s classical standard shapes, yet very much still “Savinelli” in their nature—i.e. proportioned so that the bowl is the visual focus when viewed from the profile, juxtaposed by the comparatively trim lines of the shank and stem. To provide a little more insight into the differences between Savinelli’s standard production and freehand lines, Luisa Bozzetti comments:

“When we choose to make Freehand pipes we must stop production on the standard shapes. The process for Freehands is much more involved and takes much more time. Finding the best people from the production line and pulling them to make Freehands is challenging since it’s not an assembly line, but rather a one or two man operation.

After the rough shaping of the stummel, we must get together and brainstorm which style of stem will be paired before the pipe can be finished since we do not use pre-shaped stems. All accents and stems for the Freehands are cut from rod here in the factory. A lot of care goes into the few pieces lucky enough to make the cut; to end up with a certain number of Autographs, for instance, means that many, many more will be made, and only the few will be selected.”

The quality control process for Savinelli handmades is even more rigorous than that employed in the standard lineup. Many blocks are started and later discarded because of pits or defects. While Savinelli’s briar sourcing is a constant process, working with some of Italy’s top cutters to ensure only the finest and most suitable blocks make their way to the factory, it’s impossible to source plateau briar that’s completely free from flaws. That’s just nature. Savinelli creates the standard for quality by working through the rough (a very high-quality rough, mind you) to find that shining diamond with the potential to become a Savinelli handmade.

It looks like the Autograph 4 I am working is pretty high in the hierarchy of the line. Like other autographs I have worked on in the past this one has a unique twist to the stem.

I started my work on the pipe by reaming it with a PipNet pipe reamer and got rid of the cake. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife. I then sanded the walls smooth and wiped it down with a cotton pad so that I could see the walls of the bowl and assess for damage. I scraped the mortise walls with a pen knife and was able to remove a lot of tarry/oily buildup. Once I had scraped it clean, I scrubbed the internals of the shank, mortise and the airway in the shank and stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and alcohol. It smelled considerably cleaner at this point in the process. I scrubbed the exterior with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to get into the grooves and valleys of the sandblast. I worked on the rim top and edges of the bowl to remove some of the tars and darkening there. I rinsed the pipe under warm water. He dried it off with a cloth and then let it air dry. I decided to address the damage to the inner edge of the rim. I used a wooden ball and a piece of 220 grit sand paper to give the inner edge a slight bevel to take care of the damage and burn marks. I cleaned it up lightly with a folded piece of 220 grit to smooth out the notches from the reaming work done before it arrived here. I was able to minimize the damaged area. Before I called it a night I stuffed the bowl with some cotton bolls, plugged the shank end and filled it with 99% isopropyl alcohol to leach out the oils and tars in the bowl and shank that gave it a bit of a funky smell. I set it aside for the night to do its magic. When I came back to the work table in the morning the cotton had darkened all the way down the bowl and the plug. The pipe smelled considerably better.I ran some pipe cleaners through the shank and dried the bowl edges. I used a black stain pen to stain the inner edge of the bowl to blend it into the bowl and give definition to the rim top. I like the way this looks on a cleaned pipe.I polished the rim top with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth. The grain really began to pop and stand out on the polished briar. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the briar with my finger tips and a horsehair shoe brush. The product is a great addition to the restoration work. It enlivens, enriches and protects the briar while giving it a deep glow. It is a product I use on every pipe I work on. I set the bowl aside and turned to address the stem issues. I sanded out the tooth marks and chatter on the acrylic stem with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surface of the stem. I polished out the scratching and marks left behind from the 220 grit sandpaper by wet sanding it with a 600 grit wet dry sandpaper.I polished the acrylic 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. This Savinelli Autograph 4 Sitter with a Fancy Acrylic Stem has a beautiful sandblast finish around the bowl and shank and a smooth rim top that has some great grain. The polished light briar highlights some great grain around the pipe. The polished black acrylic fancy stem adds to the mix. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel being careful to not buff the stamping. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Savinelli Autograph 4 Sitter is quite nice and feels great in the hand. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ½ inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches x 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.43 ounces/70 grams. I will be boxing it up and shipping it to its current steward to enjoy and care for. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe.