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Restoring the fourth Classic Find – a Jost’s Supreme Diamond Shank bent billiard

Blog by Steve Laug

I written about the estate lot that my brother and I purchased from an estate sale in Pocatello, Idaho. There were a lot of great pipes in the lot. I have written about the pipes we picked up in a previous blog: (https://rebornpipes.com/2016/10/07/a-good-day-hunting-orchestrated-between-british-columbia-and-idaho/). I also wrote of how my brother had stopped at an antique shop and found four amazing pipes. These included a Four Dot Sasieni Pembroke with a patent number, Pat.No. 150221/20, a Dunhill Root Briar Canadian EC 4R, a Charatan’s Make Canadian Sandblast 0121 and finally a Jost’s Supreme Diamond Shank bent billiard. I have restored and written blogs on three of the four pipes he found – Sasieni, Dunhill and the Charatan’s Make. Here are those links: (https://rebornpipes.com/2016/11/05/restoring-a-classic-find-a-sasieni-four-dot-london-made-pembroke/ ; https://rebornpipes.com/2016/11/06/restoring-another-classic-find-a-dunhill-4r-root-briar-canadian-ec/ ; and https://rebornpipes.com/2016/11/06/restoring-the-third-classic-find-a-charatans-make-0120-canadian/. I am now finished with the fourth pipe that – the Jost’s Supreme diamond shank bent billiard.

In earlier blogs I have written about restoring another Jost’s pipe that I found. When I restored that pipe it was a brand I had heard of but was unfamiliar with. I researched the web to find some information about the brand. Here is a link to the blog I wrote on the Jost’s Olde English Deluxe: https://rebornpipes.com/2016/09/03/josts-olde-english-de-luxesupreme-overstamped-j214-bent-billiard/. I am quoting several of the paragraphs that summarize what I learned about the brand.

“I looked up Jost’s pipes on the pipephil site and found a pipe that had the same stamping on the left side of the shank as the one I was working on. The right side had slightly different stamping in that it had the classic COM stamp circle where the one I had was two lines Made in over England. It also had a picture of the circle J stamp on the stem. There was a note there the tobacco shop proprietor was Mrs. Henry A. Jost. Her resident carver was Harvey Raspberry.”

I also found a blog that is called ClassicPipeShop that even had a catalogue of the pipes made by the Jost’s Shop or were imported by them for their store. I quote that blog once more as it places the new pipe that I am working on now.

“I did some more hunting online and I found a blog that did a great write up on Jost’s Pipe Shop and gave some definitive information on the brand and grades of the pipes. Here is the link if you wish to read a well written history of the brand and also some interesting details about shop blends of tobacco. http://classicpipeshop.blogspot.ca/2015/03/josts-pipe-shop-201-north-6th-street-st.html”

“I have included the section of the blog on the pipes. It covers a lot of information regarding the source of the pipes and the levels/grades of pipes. Remember that the one I am working on is a De Luxe/Supreme. I quote:”

“Jost’s Pipes are closely tied to Comoy’s. Many of Jost’s pipes have the standard Comoy’s shape number and the “Made in England” in a circle. If the Jost’s pipe doesn’t have the “Made in England” it is probably made by Harvey Raspberry.”

“If the pipe has a shape number that is preceded by a “J” that is a Comoy’s product without question. Typically these will have the words “Made in London England” on the reverse side of the shank from where the Jost stamp is made. There are always exceptions to the rule but 95% of the time, this is accurate.”

“Many different levels of pipes were offered by Jost’s Pipe Shop. From a 1950s catalog I have the following available:”

Jost Old English De Luxe: $85.00

These were typically of the highest… Grain is stunning and the briar is flawless. These are the grade you should look out for as they are great smokers.

*Jost Old English Supreme: (no pricing available)

The majority of the Old English version pipes you see are marked Supreme. These are stained in a darker color and are presumably from the same Algerian aged Briar as the De Luxe brothers. These are also of the highest quality available. *(The current pipe I am working on is stamped Jost’s Supreme on the left side of the shank with no shape number and no Made in London England stamp. If I read the information correctly it was one that was made by Harvey Raspberry, who was the shop pipe maker.)

Jost Virgin Briar Supreme: $35.00

Don’t see too many marked as Virgin Briar Supreme but you will often find “Supreme” Jost pipes on the second hand market (see above). Excellent quality briar and displays the lighter toned finish of the De Luxe above. Grain is not as flashy or desirable as the De Luxe model.

Jost Thames Briars: $25.00

I’ve seen these offered as blasted / rusticated pipes and look quite nice. Most of the smooth finish Thames pipes are riddled with fills. Good smokers but not much to look at (smooth).

Jost Sandblast Briars: $25.00

These are a great value. The shop made sand-blasted pipes are usually quite large and snapped up very quickly by collectors. The Comoy’s versions (with J shape #s) are of excellent quality and typically rather small compared to the shop-made variety.

Dukes Briars: $15.00

These come up very rarely. The two I’ve seen in recent years are rather small in size. Smooth finish with light / honey stain color. Not sure what the story is behind these.

From my research and rereading of the information on the brand it appears that my brother had found yet another good pipe. Using the information from the blog and the web I was able to learn a lot about the particular pipe I had in my hands. The stamping told me it was a pipe made by the Jost’s Pipe Shop in-house pipe maker, Harvey Raspberry. The pipe was stamped Jost’s Supreme on the left side of the shank. In all likelihood it is a Jost’s Old English Supreme. The majority of the Old English version pipes are marked Supreme. The pamphlet quoted above from the blog said that these pipes were stained in a darker color and were presumably from the same Algerian Aged Briar as the De Luxe. The pipes were of the highest quality available. I was not able to determine the age of the pipe.

My brother took the photos that follow. They show the pipe before he cleaned it up and sent it to me. It has some nice looking briar under the grime and dirt of the years. It looks to me like it had a natural finish on the bowl rather than the dark stain mentioned above.The next photos clearly show the stamping on the shank. The left side is stamped Jost’s over Supreme. The right side is stamped Imported Briar.The bowl and shank had a sticky black substance on the top of the grain. It looked as if it may have come from sticky labels used by the antique shop where the pipe was sold.The next close up photo shows the state of the cake in the bowl and the thick lava overflow on the top of the rim. It is hard to tell if the inner edge of the rim is damaged or not because of the thick cake. The second photo shows the nicks and cuts in the front top edge of the bowl and extending onto the rim. The stem was badly oxidized and there were a lot of tooth marks and chatter that had rounded the sharp edge of the button. The tooth marks and chatter were covered with calcification. The vulcanite was pitted and worn.My brother did an amazing job cleaning up the pipe. He scrubbed the sticky surface and all of the tars and oils on the bowl and the rim. He scrubbed it with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap and removed the soiled finish on the bowl and much of the rim top lava. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and took the cake back to bare briar. He scrubbed the mortise and the airway in the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. I took the following photos when the pipe arrived in Vancouver before I started refurbishing it. I took a close up photo of the rim top. He had gotten almost all of the lava off of the rim and all that remained was some slight rim darkening. I also took photos of the stem to show how much of the buildup had been removed before I got the pipe. There was a deep oxidation in the vulcanite. I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to clean up the reaming of the bowl. I smoothed out the remaining cake at the bottom edges of the bowl and smoothed out the inner edge of the rim.I used a dental pick with a slight spatula to scrape out the hard deposits of tar on the inside of the mortise. It took a little extra work but it cleaned up the buildup and made the stem fit against end of the mortise snugly.I scrubbed out the mortise and the shank and stem airways with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the debris from my scraping work in the mortise. It did not take too many before the pipe was clean on the interior.I sanded the rim with 1500-4000 grit micromesh sanding pads to remove the slight rim darkening that remained. I was able to polish the rim. I used clear super glue and briar dust to fill in the deep nicks and gouges in the front face and top edge of the bowl. I sanded the bowl front with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth the surface and to blend it in with the surrounding briar. I polished bowl at the same time as I did the rim with the micromesh sanding pads.I used a needle file to sharpen the edge of the button and make it more defined. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the scratches on the stem left behind by the file and the oxidation in the surface of the vulcanite.I sanded the bowl and the stem with a medium and a fine grit sanding pad to remove the scratches and to polish the briar and the stem. With the majority of the oxidation removed and the scratches in the briar I worked on polishing the stem. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each set of three pads. After rubbing the stem down with a final coat of oil after the last set of pads I set it aside to dry. I buffed the stem with red Tripoli to further remove the light oxidation that remained in the vulcanite. I buffed both the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing pad to polish it. I gave them multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it to a shine with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the finished pipe with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I really like the way it turned out. The grain of the briar really stood out. The natural finish looked really good and the contrast in the flame and straight grain with the underlying briar is quite stunning. Thanks for walking through this journey with me.

Restoring the third Classic Find – a Charatan’s Make 0120 Canadian

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Blog by Steve Laug

The Charatan pipe also had a replacement stem as there was no sign of a CP logo stamp on the top side. The stamping was on the smooth underside of the shank and it read Charatan’s Make and underneath it read London, England. At the end of the brand stamping was the number 0120 which is the shape number of a Canadian. I did some searching online and read the Charatan’s entry in Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dating_of_Charatans). I quote from there: “Pipes that belong to eras till the 1960 have the engraving ‘CHARATAN’S MAKE LONDON, ENGLAND’ in two lines, the shape code is composed by numbers only. The X and the DC appear only on pipes after 1960.”

My brother had found another good one. The stamping gave me information about the time frame it was made. I knew that it was made prior to 1960 by the style of the stamping. It came from what the article identified as the Reuben era of Charatans that went from 1910-1960. Like the Dunhill the only thing that would have been better was if it had come with the original stem. My brother took the photos that follow. They show the pipe before he cleaned it up and sent it to me. It had a nice sandblast that deep and craggy on the bowl and shank. From mid shank back to the stem it appeared that the pipe had been rusticated to match the blast pattern. He took some photos of the pipe to give a feel for the overall look of it when he received it. These photos show the pipe before he cleaned and reamed it.He took some close up photos of the bowl and sandblast on the bottom of the bowl. The bowl had a thick cake that had flowed over the top of the rim in hard tarry lava. It was thick but it appeared that the outer rim was undamaged and with any luck the inner one would be as well. The blast is interesting in that it also has a rustication pattern on the bowl bottom and also on the shank. It follows the pattern of the grain on the bowl.The next photo shows the clear and sharp stamping on smooth underside of the shank. It reads as noted above – Charatan’s Make over London England with the shape number 0120 on the stem end of the shank.The stem had a lot of tooth chatter and some shallow tooth dents. There was oxidation and also calcification.My brother did his normal thorough job of cleaning the pipe. He scrubbed it with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap. He cleaned out all of the dust and debris in the grooves and crevices of the “blastication”. The stem does not fit tightly against the shank at this point. The next photos below show the pipe as it looked when I brought it to my work table. I took some close up photos of the rim to show how well it cleaned up. My brother was able to get the lava out of the grooves on the rim and also on the underside of the shank. The stamping was still very clear.He cleaned out a lot of the gunk in the shank but the stem still did fit tightly against the shank end. He did get the calcification and some of the oxidation off the stem. You can clearly see the tooth chatter and the tooth dents now that the stem was clean.I scraped out the inside of the mortise with a dental pick with a flattened blade end. I scraped the stepped down area of the mortise as it entered the airway in the shank. I took a lot of tar and gunk out the shank area.I scrubbed the mortise, the airway in the shank and the stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol. Once it was clean the stem fit more closely against the end of the shank.I scrubbed down the bowl and shank with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish that remained on the pipe. I restained the pipe with a dark brown aniline stain thinned 50/50 with isopropyl alcohol. I flamed the stain and repeated the process until the coverage was even.I put the stem in the shank and took the pipe to the buffer. I buffed it to polish the stain. When I was just about finished I could not believe what happened. It is that moment when you are buffing a pipe where you get a sick feeling. The wheel grabbed the pipe out of my hand, off my finger and threw it against the table top under the buffer. It was not far – a mere 2 inches but I heard the snap as the tenon broke. I was sick to my stomach. I was almost finished with the pipe and then this had to happen. I took a photo of the broken tenon once I had pulled it from the shank. It was almost a clean break at the end of the stem. Oh the frustration.

I used a Dremel to flatten the broken edge of the tenon against the face of the shank. It took a few moments to smooth out the broken part. I used the topping board with 220 grit sandpaper to face the end of the stem. I went through my box of threaded tenons and actually had one left in the box that was not a Jobey Link system tenon. It was the same diameter as the broken tenon.I chucked a drill bit in the cordless drill that was just a little larger than the air way in the stem. I turned the stem onto the drill bit the length of the threaded portion of the replacement tenon. I put two more drill bits in the drill and turned the stem onto the bits. Once it was the same diameter as the threaded portion I shortened the threaded end slightly so that it would fit tight against the stem. I roughed up the threads with the Dremel and a sanding drum. I left the threads in place so that I could turn it into the stem.I screwed it into the stem as far as it would go by hand and then used a pair of pliers to finish turning it tight against the stem face.I put the stem in place in the shank and the fit was tight against the shank. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil after each set of three pads. After the final set I rubbed it down with a last coat of oil. I set the stem aside to dry. (In the photos below of the shank and stem I did not push the stem in against the shank so it shows a small gap at that point. You will notice in the final photos that I pushed it back in place.) With fear and trepidation I took the pipe back to the buffer. I did not want to repeat the broken tenon so I was very careful. I worked the pipe against the buffing wheel that had been charged with Blue Diamond polish. I buffed it until the stem shone. I lightly buffed the bowl with the polish as well – being careful to not let it build up in the grooves. I polished the stem with carnauba wax and put Conservator’s Wax on the sandblast finish of the bowl and shank. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The fit of the stem against the shank was better than when I started. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me and also through the frustrating need to replace the tenon.

Cleaning and Restoring a Stanwell Antique 56 Canadian

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Blob by Steve Laug

One of the first pipes I chose to restore from the estate lot my brother and I purchased in Idaho from an older pipeman, Gene was this Stanwell Canadian. It was a nice looking contrast stained pipe that was sandblasted over most of the surface area – the shank and ¾ of the bowl. The underside of the shank and the front of the bowl were smooth and stained a medium brown. The rim top was also smooth and had a matching stain. The stem was a replacement and while it fit the mortise well it did not fit against the shank. It was well chewed by what Gene called a beaver. The tooth marks were deep and many. Fortunately the stem did not match the shank of the pipe so it would not be a loss. I would need to look for a stem in my can of stems and see if I could find one that matched the stem. Maybe I would even find one that bore the Stanwell logo and worked with the pipe. My brother Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he cleaned it up. The next photos show the pipe when he received it.Jeff took close up photos – the first shows the cake in the bowl and the overflow of tars and lava over the top of the rim. The outer and inner rims were in great shape. The bowl was still in round and the outer edge is smooth where the smooth portion is and rougher where the sandblast portion of the bowl was. The underside of the shank was stamped Antique in script over Made in Denmark. Next to that it was stamped Stanwell. Next to the shank/stem junction it bore the shape number 56 which is the shape number for a long Canadian. He also took some photos of the stem top and bottom. I have included them as they show the chewed surface of the stem on the top and the bottom side. It was a mess and the button was chewed down as well.When the pipe arrived in Vancouver I took a photo of the pipe with the stem that came with it. I went through my can of stems and found a stem that bore the silver Stanwell logo on the top side of the saddle. It fit the shank well and with a little cleanup it would work very well. It was oxidized and had some light tooth chatter on both sides. It was almost straight from the shank to the edge of the button.I removed the stem and took photos of the bowl without a stem to give you an idea of the condition of the bowl and shank of the pipe. You can see from the photos that my brother had cleaned up the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush and removed the grime that was in the grooves and crevices of the sandblast finish. There was also a small fill on the front of the bowl on the smooth portion of the bowl front. He was also able to remove much of the tars and lava on the rim top. I took a close up photo of the stem – both top and bottom sides in order to show the general condition. You can see the crown S on the top of the saddle portion of the stem.The tenon was the perfect size to fit the mortise on the Canadian. The width of the stem was the same as the shank. The height was slightly larger than the height of the shank. It would need to be sanded lightly to bring about a match. The photos show what the pipe looked like with the new stem. I took a close up photo of the bowl rim and the underside of the shank. It was in great shape. The stamping on the shank underside was clear and readable. I also took a close up photo of the stem top and underside with it in place in the shank. You can see from the photos that the stem fit nicely in the shank and looked like it belonged on the pipe.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth chatter and the tarnishing to the crown S logo. I worked on the height of the stem so that it was more in line with the thickness of the shank.Once I had the stem fit better I polished it with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit sanding pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit sanding pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each set of three sanding pads. I gave it a final coat of oil after the last set of three pads and set it aside to dry. I rubbed the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil and hand buffed it with a shoe brush. I gave it several coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with the shoe brush. I buffed the smooth portions on the bowl and rim with Blue Diamond and buffed the stem as well to polish it. I gave the stem and smooth portions of the bowl with carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The shine and the contrast finish and stains make the pipe a unique looking pipe. The new stem looks right with the pipe. Together they combine to make a good looking pipe. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me.

Restoring another Classic Find – a Dunhill 4R Root Briar Canadian EC

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Blog by Steve Laug

When my brother was cleaning up the pipe he called me and let me know that he had found a Dunhill on his recent hunt. He was excited and surprised by the find. The pipe obviously had a replacement stem as there was no white dot. The stamping had been buffed so much that it was unreadable except with a bright light and a lens. He read me the stamping on the shank. Near the bowl on the left side of the top of the shank it was stamped EC and mid shank on the left it read Dunhill over Root Briar. On the top right side mid-shank it read Made in over England with a 6 next to the D. That would make it a 1966 pipe if I am not mistaken. Next to the bowl shank junction on the same side it read circle 4R. The EC stamping told me that I was dealing with a Canadian. The R following the circle 4 told me that the pipe was a Group 4 sized Root Briar. He had found a good one. The only thing that would have been better was if it had come with the original stem. My brother took the photos that follow. They show the pipe before he cleaned it up and sent it to me. It had some nice grain on the bowl and shank.He took some close up photos of the bowl and stem. The first one below shows the condition of the rim. It had some tars on the surface but otherwise appeared to be in great shape. The inner and outer edge both looked good. There was a light cake in the bowl as well. The second and third photos show the oxidized and calcified stem. There was some light tooth chatter on both sides near the button. The replacement stem appeared to be well made. The next two photos show the condition of the stamping on the top of the shank from both the left side and the right side. It was faint and over buffed but with a light and lens still readable.My brother carefully cleaned the externals of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and was careful in the process to not further damage the stamping. He reamed the bowl and scrubbed the rim to remove the tars and oils. He cleaned out the interior of the pipe with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol leaving the mortise and the airways in the shank and the stem clean. The next photos show what the pipe looked like when it arrived in Vancouver. While the rim was free of debris there was still a lot of darkening and thin coat of tar on it. It would not take too much to clean off the surface. He had been able to remove much of the calcification on the stem and clear up some of the scratches on the stem. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and removed the oxidation and the tooth chatter. There were some light tooth marks as well that I was able to sand out and leave the surface of the stem smooth.I gave the stem a light buff with Tripoli to polish it lightly and then drill it for a replacement dot on the top side. I used an ivory/white coloured knitting needle that I trim down to fit as a dot. I chose to make the dot larger than the normal white dot on these pipes to make it clear that it was a replacement. I marked the spot on the top of the stem with an awl and started the hole. I drilled it with a Dremel.I painted the shaped end of the knitting needle with clear super glue gel and then inserted it in the drilled hole in the top of the stem. I cut it close to the stem with a pair of nippers and then sanded it with the Dremel to get as close as I could to the surface of the stem and then finished sanding it with 220 grit sandpaper to blend it in with the stem surface. You can see from the second photo that it is slightly larger than the standard Dunhill dot. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each set of three pads. After the final set of three pads I gave it a final rub down with the oil and set it aside to dry. In the photos below the dot looks like it has a blue tint but in person it is a bright white. I sanded the bowl and the shank with the micromesh sanding pads, avoiding areas where the stamping resided so as not to further damage it. I worked on the rim with the pads to further remove the darkening and light oils that still remained. I gave the bowl a light rubdown with olive oil to bring some life back to the natural finish of the Root Briar.I carefully buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel and gave them both several coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad and hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. While the stem obviously cries out that it is a replacement and the white dot says the same the overall look of the pipe is beautiful. The warm glow of the root briar finish looks really good. This old classic should be good to deliver a great smoking experience for many years to come. Thanks for walking with me through the process.

Restoring a Classic Find – a Sasieni Four Dot London Made Pembroke

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Blog by Steve Laug

My brother and I recently purchased some pipes from an estate sale from an old pipeman named Gene in Pocatello, Idaho. There were a lot of great pipes in the lot. I have written about the pipes on a previous blog: https://rebornpipes.com/2016/10/07/a-good-day-hunting-orchestrated-between-british-columbia-and-idaho/ . On his way home my brother stopped at an antique shop and found pipes that were by far the most prestigious of the finds. These included a Charatan’s Make Canadian Sandblast 0121, the Four Dot Sasieni Pembroke with a patent number, Pat.No. 150221/20, a Dunhill Bruyere Canadian EC 4R and a Jost’s Supreme Diamond Shank bent billiard. My brother took the photos that follow. They show the pipe before he cleaned it up and sent it to me.He took some close up photos of the rim top. The top and the inner beveled edge of the bowl had a thick cake of tars and oils that had overflowed from the cake in the bowl. The outer edge of the rim appeared to be in good shape but the inner edge was hard to assess because of the lava buildup on the top.The finish was very dirty but underneath the soiled grain there was some nice flame grain and birdseye that flowed around the bowl and on bottom and up the sides of the bowl and shank. The shank was stamped on the left side near the bowl Made in England in a rugby ball shaped circle. Also on the left side next to that it reads Sasieni in clean and not a flowery script over FOUR DOT over LONDON MADE over PAT.N^o. 150221/20. On the right side of the shank it is stamped “Pembroke” (enclosed in quotation marks).The stem was badly oxidized and was calcified from the button forward about an inch. I have seen this on pipes that generally had a softee bit. There were light tooth marks and tooth chatter on the both sides of the stem near the button. The four dot pattern is clear on the left side of the tapered stem. It may well be a light blue in colour but at this point in the process it was very hard to be sure.I wanted to try to establish a date for the pipe based on the Patent Number stamping, the style of the stamping of Sasieni on the shank and the pattern of the four dots. I went to my go to source of information Pipedia and looked for the article on Sasieni pipe. Here is the link: https://pipedia.org/wiki/Sasieni. There I found some helpful information. I quote the relevant paragraphs in full: “All Sasieni One, Four, and Eight Dot pipes made before W.W.II and destined for the U. S. market carried a patent number on the shank which usually started with the numbers “15″, with 150221/20 and 1513428 being representative of the group. Also, the name “Sasieni” was stamped on the shank in a very florid manner, with the tail of the last “i” sweeping underneath the name forming a shape which has been compared to a fish by more than one collector. This script was discontinued by Alfred almost immediately after he took over the company, so this alone tells you your pipe is pre W.W.II. Underneath in block lettering are the words “London Made”, with the patent number making the third line…”

The pipe I had in hand had the 150221/20 stamping which told me that my pipe had been made for the American market. I also learned that the florid script Sasieni with tail of the last “i” sweeping underneath was discontinued after WWII. The arrangement of the stamping however is identical to the description above. The only difference was the stamping of the script Sasieni. My pipe did not have the florid “i” at the end. I read further in the article and found what I was looking for.

“Once Alfred took over the company in 1946, these elements changed in fairly rapid succession. The first thing to be changed was the nomenclature itself. In place of the elaborate “Sasieni” stamp of pre-war pipes, a simpler, though still script style, “Sasieni” was used. This can be seen on patent pipes which have the small, old style dots.”

I learned that Alfred Sasieni changed the script of the Sasieni stamp from the older florid stamp after 1946 to the simpler script. The paragraph says that it can be seen on patent pipes which had the small, old style dots. Now I knew that the pipe I had was made for the American market after WWII and after 1946. I had the window for the age of my pipe and knew that I had a pre-transition period pipe made during the time in which the Sasieni family still owned the business.

I turned to the Pipephil website to have a look at the time chart that is shown there with the time frames of the Sasieni pipes. Here is the link: http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/infos/sasieni-timechart.html. I use a screen capture to copy the relevant section regarding the dating of my pipe. The red box around the years 1941-1947 shows the features that make up my assessment of the date of this pipe.

The passing of Joel Sasieni and his replacement by his son Alfred Sasieni in 1946.
The reissue of Four Dot pipes that had previously stopped during the war years.
The increase of the dot size and the rearrangement of the dots into an equilateral triangle. (While the one I have is in the same arrangement of dots, the size of the dots is small as noted above for pipes bearing the patent numbers.)
The simplified Sasieni stamping.

My brother scrubbed down the bowl ad removed grime on the finish. He reamed the bowl with PipNet reamer and took the cake back to bare briar. The stem was stuck in the shank so he was unable to remove it and clean out the inside of the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem. There was still some darkening and build up on the rim. The stem damage, oxidation and calcification still remained. I took photos of the pipe when it arrived in Vancouver and I brought it to my work table. sas9 I took a close up photo of the rim. There were still some chips of tar and some stain remaining on the rim of the pipe. The beveled inner edge was still dirty and caked.The stem was worn and dirty. The oxidation and calcification were quite thick on top and bottom of the stem.I was able to remove the stem from the shank by carefully twisting it slowly. It came out and left behind a thick tar that held it in place in the shank. I think that the change of altitude and humidity from Idaho to here made the stem removable. Once it was out of the shank I worked on the bowl. I scrubbed the rim of the pipe with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the remaining finish. I sanded the top with 1500-2400 grit pads to smooth out the damage. I wiped down the bowl with the acetone as well. The photos below show the pipe after scrubbing. I cleaned up the remnants on cake on the inside walls of the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I scraped the remaining cake completely out of the bowl.I worked on the inside of mortise with a dental spatula and scraped away the tarry buildup that had held the stem in place. I scrubbed the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until the inside was clean and the cleaners came out without more darkening. It took a lot of cleaning and scrubbing.I sanded the stem to remove the oxidation and the calcification with 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to sand out the tooth marks and blend them into the surface of the stem. I worked on the button edge with needle files and sandpaper to sharpen the look of the button.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. After each set of three pads I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I gave the stem a final coat of the oil after using the last set of pads. I set the stem aside to dry. (There was still a light oxidation around the stem at the shank junction but the buffing would take care of that.) I gave the bowl a light coat of olive oil and buffed it with a soft cloth. I took the following photos to show the look of the pipe before I buffed it with Blue Diamond or gave it coats of carnauba. I lightly buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel being careful around the stamping on the shank. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad. I finished by hand buffing it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It really is a well-made pipe that is laid out well with the pattern of the grain. It certainly came out looking better than its age for a pipe made in around 1946. Thanks for walking through the restoration process with me.

A Pair of Rainy Day Pipes – More Adventures in Oddities

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Blog by Steve Laug

Have you ever heard of Bartlett Pipes? They are rather strange upside down looking pipes in my opinion. My brother sent me this link to a youtube video on the Bartlett pipes. We were both searching for information on the brand as neither of us had heard of them or seen them close up before. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyFfLidMmws&feature=youtu.be

What made the hunt for information regarding this oddity necessary was that my brother had bid on two of these and won both of them on eBay. One of them was NOS (new old stock) and one of them was smoked and well used. In the past I had seen photos and read on the online forums about these pipes but had never really done any research to figure out what they were. They were always a bit of an oddity to me. Either way the stem sat they did not look right and when you removed the cap at the top the airway was almost at the top of the bowl (if the screw on lid was to be considered the top). The angles of the shank and the curve of the stem leads me to think that the capped surface was the top of the bowl. The bottom side of the bowl was a screen that allowed for airflow through the bowl. I am still trying to figure out if you light the pipe from the bottom or the top of the bowl. From what I read on the various online forums and in the articles that I could find I was able to piece together how the pipe functioned. The pipe bowl was open at the top and the bottom. The airway into the shank was near the top opening and led directly to the pipe stem. A polished aluminum cover is screwed onto the threaded briar bowl top and is left in place when the pipe is smoked. At the other end of the bowl there is a screen that covers the bottom opening that keeps the tobacco in the bowl while permitting access to the tobacco to light it. The screen is supposedly fine enough that the ash does not fall out of the bowl into the lap of the smoker. With the cover in place on the top opening, the tobacco is ignited via the screen on the bottom, causing the tobacco to burn from the bottom up. New tobacco may be added at any time by removing the cap from the top of the pipe. It is said that the burning the tobacco from the bottom reduces the moisture that usually collects and thus makes it unnecessary to dry out the bowl between pipes. The bottom lighting also makes lighting the pipe in the wind or rain much simpler.

The next photos show the screened bottom of the two pipes that I was going to work on. The smooth pipe is new and unsmoked the sandblasted pipe is used and you can see some charring around the inner edges on the bottom of the bowl. The bowl bottom on the unsmoked pipe was stained black to minimize the darkening that occurs when the pipe is lit.Both pipes were stamped with the name Bartlett over a Patent Number – 4235252. The stamping on the sandblast version was on the right side of the shank and the one on the smooth was on the left side of the shank. Both stampings were very sharp and legible. The smooth briar pipe was also stamped on the right side of the shank with the work Imported Briar.At this point I wanted to know more about the pipe. It was a brand that I was unfamiliar with. In usual unhelpful fashion I found that the Bartlett Pipe was made by the Bartlett Pipe Company Inc. of Bartlett, NH (which I assume is New Hampshire).

On the Pipesmokers Forum I found some interesting information from a friend of the inventor of the pipe. Here is the link to the conversation on that website. http://pipesmokersforum.com/community/threads/an-interesting-surprise.46690/

Adam Hirshan comments: “A friend of mine invented and patented a revolutionary smoking pipe that lights from the bottom. A major manufacturer saw the promise and bought the idea 15 years ago, but it never took off. My friend got the patent back a few years ago and we’ve developed a new rock maple version that we call The Freedom Smoking Pipe.”

“It smokes cool and easy. A stainless steel screen holds the tobacco and ash in place – nothing falls out. No moisture or resin accumulate in the bowl. A cork and leather top makes it wind and rain proof.”

“We had initial success wholesaling through a well-known distributor. We were in about 100 tobacco shops nationwide, and appeared in the Levin catalog. Response from our early customers was strong – most loved it, some hated it. Then interest dropped off and left us wondering what happened.”

I did some more digging and found some information on the Dr. Grabow Collectors Forum. Here is the link: http://drgrabows.myfreeforum.org/viewcardtopic.php?t=1236

I quote: “I was asked what I thought about my Bartlett pipe and figured I’d start a new topic. If you don’t know what it is, it’s the ‘Upside down pipe’. The history as I know it is there have been 3 variations. It was invented in the 70’s. Sparta picked up the rights and produced them in the 80’s for 8-10yrs. Didn’t take off. Rights were returned to the inventor. Seems they are no longer produced. (ed. This seems to go along with the information from Adam Hirshan in the above comment).”

The quote goes on with an interesting reference to the Sparta example of the pipe: “Mine has a red stain, and the chain to hold the cap. My stem is from a junk pipe I had. The weirdest thing is not seeing the baccy burn. First smoke required a tamp halfway through and the bowl got dang hot! Second time out, the pack was perfect. One light, no tamp. Just weird not tending the bowl like normal…….Guess this is why the never went anywhere.”

I was also able to find the patent information for US Pat.4235252. Interestingly it read much like an earlier paragraph that I pieced together regarding the pipe. Here is the document in full. First the written description and then the drawings of the pipe. It read that “the patent was for a smoking pipe having improved smoking characteristics. The smoking pipe includes a bowl having top and bottom openings and a breather hole near the top opening and in communication with a pipe stem. A cover assembly is attached to the bowl adjacent to the top opening and covers the top opening when the pipe is to be smoked. A retainer having a screen cooperates with the bottom opening for retaining smoking tobacco within the bowl while permitting access to the tobacco for the ignition thereof. The retainer may also be removed from its position relative to the bottom opening for the removal of ashes. Tobacco is inserted into the bowl via either opening, but preferably via the top opening and to a level just below the breather hole. With the cover assembly covering the top opening, the tobacco is ignited via the screen of the retainer, causing combustion of the tobacco in a bottom-to-top fashion. New tobacco may be added to existing tobacco via the top opening and ashes may be removed via the bottom opening, even as the smoking process takes place. The bottom-to-top combustion minimizes puddling of tobacco juices or the requirement of drying out periods and facilitates lighting the pipe in the presence of wind, rain, etc. The lack of obstruction of the breather hole by the presence of tobacco results in a smooth draw with the generation of a substantial, satisfying volume of smoke.” (ed. On the two pipes I have the screen on the bottom is not removable and the top is a threaded aluminum cap.) My brother took some photos of the sandblast version of the pipe that shows the shape but also interestingly shows a hidden benefit. When he removed the cap from the top of the bowl the bowl was already filled with a broken flake tobacco. Unfortunately it was dry and crumbled to dust when he cleaned out the bowl. My brother cleaned and reamed the smoked sandblast pipe and cleaned out the dust from the unsmoked smooth one. He scrubbed the briar with Murphy’s Oil Soap and cleaned out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem. The stems on both pipes were lightly oxidized and on the smoked pipe there was a small tooth dent on the top of the stem near the button. I took the following photos to show what the pair looked like when I brought them to my work table. He did a great job cleaning up the aluminum caps on both the inside and the outside. He also cleaned up the thread on the top of both bowls allowing the caps to screw on easily.He cleaned the screen on the smoked pipe with cotton swabs and alcohol until it looked as good as the unsmoked pipe. The inner edge of the rim on the bottom of the bowl was charred and showed some wear and tear from lighting the pipe from the bottom. I think one of the draw backs on this pipe is not being able to see the flame hitting the tobacco. The rim on this bowl shows significant rim damage.I took close up photos of the stems to show the light oxidation – it is not deep in the vulcanite and the overall condition of the stems. The stem on the sandblast pipe had a small pinprick tooth mark on the top of the stem. I have circled it in red on the first photo below.I took some photos of each of the pipes before I cleaned them up. They really were in pretty decent shape. There were some rough spots on the bottom of the bowl around the inner edge of the rim but it looked to be original. The smooth briar is new and has a shiny varnish coat that I decided to leave as the pipe is NOS. It was interesting to me to note that the bottom of the bowl was stained with a flat black stain on the new pipe so when I restored the smoked version I would match them. The sandblast is also in really good shape other than the inner edge of the bottom rim on the bowl. On both pipes the aluminum cap was in perfect condition on both the inside and the polished outside of the cap. I took photos of the pipes with the covers removed and the bowl tilted to give some idea of what the inside of the bowl looked like. It really is no more than a tube with a cap on one end and a screen on the other end. I used the topping board on the damaged bottom of the bowl. I topped it (or maybe bottomed it is more appropriate) until the damage was removed.The small crevices that had opened around the inner edge of the bowl were not really cracks but rather areas that had burned with the heat of the flame. I filled them with briar dust and super glue to make them smooth and then retopped the bowl to smooth them out. I stained it with a black aniline stain and touched it up after sanding the repairs.I sanded the two stems with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation on the surface of both stems. I used a spot of clear super glue to fill in the tooth mark and sanded the repaired area smooth to match the surface of the stem. I polished both stems with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each set of three pads. After the last pad I gave it a final rubdown with the oil and set it aside to dry. I took a photo of the pipes and stems before I took them to the buffer to show what they looked like at this point in my restoration.Here are some photos of the bowls from a variety of angles. There is a nice blasé and some pretty grain – they are a nice pair of pipes. I buffed the pipes with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and then gave the stems several coats of carnauba wax. I gave the sandblast bowl several coats of Conservator’s Wax and left the varnish coat alone on the smooth briar bowl. I buffed both pipe with a clean buffing wheel to raise a shine. I hand buffed them both with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is a unique piece of pipe and tobacco history. It certainly speaks of the inventiveness of pipesmokers who are perpetually looking for the better and drier smoke. Thanks for taking this journey through the restoration and the history of the Bartlett pipe.

A Bit of Bizarre & Interesting – Restoring a Lenox Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

My brother found this extremely unusual looking pipe and sent it on to me. It is stamped Lenox on the top of the barrel. It appeared to be made of briar – the bowl and the barrel matched each other in terms of stain colour and possibly materials. He took the following photos of the pipe before he sent it to me. It looks a lot like a Kirsten at least externally.The stinger apparatus was made out of Bakelite and was hollow. The smoke was drawn through the bowl into the barrel and then through the stinger up the mouth piece. The stem was in excellent shape and the stinger sat in the end of the tenon.He took a close up photo of the stinger. It is an interesting looking piece of “plumbing” and I looked forward to seeing close up.He also took close up photos of the bowl. The first two photos show the damage to the side of the bowl – some dents in the briar. The third and fourth photos show the darkening of the rim top and the nicks in the outer edge of the bowl. The final photo shows the stamping on the left side of the barrel. It reads LENOX. I was not familiar with the Lenox brand so I did some research to see what I could find out. There was not much information on the brand online until I turned to one of my favourite sites for information on odd and unusual metal pipes – smokingmetal.com

I found the brand listed in three variations. The first of them was a Lenox made of Lucite (ed. By Lucite I assume that barrel is actually made of Perspex so in the information below I have edited it to read that). The link for the brand is: http://smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=82. The site has this to say about the Perspex version of the pipe. I quote: “Hard to see the purpose of this one. There would be no significant extra cooling and there is no end plug to remove for ease of cleaning. It is stamped LENOX in the perspex top of barrel. (ed. I have included two photos from the site on the Lucite version of the pipe.) Centre image shows two colour versions. The dark version does not appear to be the result of discolouration by tar etc. These pipes were certainly on sale in 1951. The overall length 5 5/8 inch (143 m/m).The site also had photos of the Lenox with a metal barrel and wooden bowl. The metal barrel is stamped LENOX on the top of the barrel and a threaded bowl was screwed onto the top. The bowl had a brass insert in the bottom and it threads onto the nipple on the barrel. The following link has photos of the pipe: http://smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=150.My brother did his usual excellent job of cleaning the barrel, bowl and stem of the old pipe. When it came to me it was very clean. He also let me know that surprisingly the wooden looking barrel was actually not wood but was Bakelite. I unscrewed the bowl from the barrel and took the stem out of the end. The next three photos below show the “exploded” view of the pipe. The rim darkening in the first photo needed to be cleaned up. I took another close up photo of the stamping. It is a clean and sharp stamp with no damage.I pulled the pressure fit stinger out of the tenon and ran a pipe cleaner through the stem. It came out very clean – yet another testimony to the great job my brother does in his clean up.I put the stinger in the tenon and took two close-up photos of the stem to show the really clean condition the stem was in. All that needed to happen was to polish it.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil between each set of three pads. I set the stem aside to dry after the final rub down. I sanded the top and the sides of the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 and then dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I buffed the bowl and stem on the buffer with Blue Diamond polish to bring a shine to the surface. I gave them several coats of carnauba wax. I gave the Bakelite barrel multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax by hand. I buffed the bowl, barrel and stem with a clean buffing pad to polish the wax coats. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finish unique pipe is shown in the photos below. The Bakelite barrel and the bowl really do match and look like they have come from the same piece of briar. The pipe is a beauty. It is a brand that I have never seen and one that is a collector’s piece. Thanks for looking.

Restemming and Restoring a GBD Speciale Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

I decided to take a break from working on restoring the estate lot that I was given and turned my attention to one of the pipes I found on my recent trip to Southern Alberta. I have written about that pipe hunt previously. You can read about it at this link: https://rebornpipes.com/2016/10/07/a-great-day-pipe-hunting-in-southern-alberta/. The pipe was an older GBD billiard with a sterling silver band bearing hallmarks. They were hard to read through the oxidation. I found this pipe in a small antique shop in Nanton, Alberta. The clerk/owner lifted a cased pipe from a shelf – a nice black leather case with a dark blue lining. She opened the case and on the inside of the case top there was a GBD in an oval logo over Speciale stamped in gold. The bowl in the case also bore the same stamping. The stem was missing and the clerk told us the sad story of how someone had stolen the stem and left the pipe behind. The pipe was marked at $35 but since the stem was missing I asked her what her best price was for the pipe. She let it go for $25 and said to have fun fitting a new stem on the bowl. I added my second pipe to my hunt kit. It is shown circled in red in the photo below – the first pipe on the left side of the photo.When I started working on it I took some photos of the pipe when I started the cleanup. The finish was actually very good. The rim had a thick coat of tars and oil built up flowing out of the bowl and onto the top. The bowl had a thin cake in it. The left side of the shank was stamped GBD in an oval with Speciale below. It matched the stamping on the inside lid of the case. The silver band was oxidized but I could see the GBD logo in and oval over Speciale. The band was original. There were also some hallmarks that would have to be read once I removed the oxidation. There was no other stamping on the pipe or band. The inside of the case was undamaged but had a lot of dust and specks of debris in it.I took the bowl from the case and took photos of it before I cleaned it up. I had a yellow Bakelite stem that would work with the pipe both in terms of age and also in terms diameter matching the shank. I would need to replace the tenon in the stem as it was too small in diameter to fit in the shank. I had a Delrin tenon that would work once I had removed the metal tenon from the stem. I used a drill bit to clean up the inside of the shank. I twisted the shank onto the drill bit by hand and cleaned it out.I heated the metal threaded tenon with a lighter and was able to unscrew it from the stem. I drilled out the mortise in the stem to fit the threaded end of the Delrin tenon. Once I had it drilled out I used a tap to thread the inside of the mortise in the stem. I painted the stem with slow drying super glue and twisted it into the stem. The stem was in decent shape other than tooth marks in the surface at the button and the edge of the button was worn. I filled in the tooth dents with some amber super glue that I recently purchased from Stewart MacDonald. Once it had dried I used a needle file to redefine the sharp edge of the button and sanded the surface of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the stem until the surface matched the surrounding stem area. The repairs show in the photos as slightly darker than the yellow of the stem.I scrubbed the rim with cotton pads and saliva to soften the tars and oils. I scraped it with a pen knife to remove the buildup and scrubbed it again. I was able to remove all of the rim build up without damaging the finish on the rim top.To clean off the band I scrubbed it with a tarnish remover and polish on cotton pads. I was able to clean off all of the tarnish and bring the hallmarks to light on the band. Using a small penlight and a lens I was able to clearly read them. They read as follows GBD in an oval over Speciale over the following hallmarks in shields: [anchor] [lion] [l], AO (assay office Birmingham). The AO on the front of the stamp was the Assay Office; the Anchor identifies the city as Birmingham, England; the lion passant is the symbol for 925 Sterling Silver and the “l” giving the date of the pipe. The silver shone brightly and distinctively on the shank end. I looked on-line for the hallmarks and found a great chart. It showed the hallmarks for silver work made from 1883-1949. The date hallmark “l” on the pipe I had matched the one in the chart below for 1910. I have circled it in red. I now knew that the pipe I had was made in 1910.After the glue dried on the new tenon on the stem I pushed it in place in the shank and took the following photos. I liked the look of the pipe. The only thing that would have made it better would be to have an amber stem to use. This will do while I keep an eye out for an amber one that fits well. I cleaned out the mortise and the airway in the shank and stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol until it was clean. The pipe cleaners and alcohol cleaned out a lot of the black darkening in the airway in the stem.I sanded the stem repairs with 220 grit sandpaper to further define the button and try to blend the repairs. I wet sanded it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit sanding pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I used a black Sharpie pen to touch up the scuff marks on the surface of the case. The clasp on the side of the case is a brass GBD logo that when pressed allows access to the inside of the case.I cleaned out the inside of the case with a damp cloth and was able to remove all of the debris from the inside of the case. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel taking care to not overheat the Bakelite stem as that would cause it to melt and be disfigured. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is one that will stay with me while I look for an amber stem that fits the pipe. Thanks for looking.

A Graceful Swan-Necked Tania Billiard

Using the Dremel for Polishing – An Addendum

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Blog by Dal Stanton

I leave Bulgaria Monday, to join my family as we celebrate the wedding of my youngest daughter, who will be married to my future son-in-law in Nashville, November 6^th! I decided to give my future son-in-law a wedding gift – not just my beautiful daughter!, but also his choice from among the pipes that I’ve restored. I sent him a picture of pipes that all have been published on rebornpipes.com and encouraged him to look at the write-ups by searching my name and to choose the pipe he favored. His choices were (from top to bottom), the No-name from Sozopol that was just published as my Dremel Polishing Techniques essay; Horn stem throw-away Pipe; a Butz-Choquin Rocamar with a Cumberland stem, a Jeantet Fleuron and, at the bottom, a Denicotea Deluxe Curling.He chose well. He was drawn to the Butz-Choquin Rocamar (center, above) with its eye-catching Cumberland stem. After I received the text message with his choice solidified, I picked up the BC Rocamar and took a closer look at it. The thought that ran through my mind was that somehow the finish had dulled and I wanted to spruce it up a bit before wrapping it and packing it to the US. Then on a hunch, I decided to look back at the write up that was published on rebornpipes in July and see if the finish had indeed dulled or was it the way I had finished it? After a quick look at the BC’s restoration, I realize that I’m looking at the same finish that I gave the pipe then. In that restoration, I did the full micromesh phase (9 pads) and followed with staining the stummel. Then I by-passed Tripoli and Blue Diamond compounds and went directly to carnauba wax with a cotton cloth wheel, then a buff with a clean cotton cloth wheel, concluding with a microfiber cloth rub down. Since I had just completed the Dremel Polishing Technique essay for Steve, I find myself comparing the finishes of the later pipes with the BC and there was a distinct difference. The luster and depth of the briar grain was much more distinct in the more recent pipes that I’ve restored. A wonderful thought came to mind – the Dremel technique and process that I’ve been honing in on really DOES work! I’m not just blowing pipe smoke up to people reading these blogs and who use a Dremel! J The next thought was to write an addendum to the Dremel Technique essay and run the BC through the polish process again – as I’m doing it now, and see if I can detect and record a substantive advance in the finish of the BC Rocamar (by the way, the BC Rocamar is a pipe of Saint Claude, France). My approach is to reverse time with the BC by applying both Tripoli and Blue Diamond with felt wheels, at the lowest RPMs available, and work it to the end of the process as fully described in detail in the Dremel Technique essay (Link). After completing the process again with the BC, I retook pictures as closely as I could to mimic the pictures of the BC’s restoration in July. I did this to compare the effectiveness of the Dremel approach I’m using now to what I did before. Here’s what I found:

July:
Today:
July:
Today:
July:
Today:
July:
Today:
Disclaimer: This definitely was not a scientific test, but I will let you judge stem and stummel! I’m pleased with the results that I see before me today compared to July. I’m not sure the pictures do full justice to the view the naked eye enjoys of the rich briar grain, but I will be very happy and pleased indeed to wrap this reborn pipe and bring it to my future son-in-law as a gift from his future father-in-law. This special gift from my hands and prayers from my heart entrust this soon-coming marriage into God’s able hands. Thanks for joining me!