by Steve Laug

There is something almost electric about handling and working on a pipe designed and carved by Preben Holm. I can’t describe adequately the feeling I have when I turn the bowl and stem over in my hands even before I start working on the pipe. There is an energy that flows through the way he carved and shaped the pipes of his making. It calls me to clean up and restore even the worst wrecks of his pipes that come across my table. This filthy Ben Wade Deluxe was in the box of bowls with snapped tenons that I have here. It is number 6 of the recent rash of tenon replacements I have been doing.

In the title I call the pipe a wreck because of some serious issues that stood out on the pipe. It had some visible repairs on the shank at the bowl and on the plateau on the shank end. The shank had been broken off somewhere along its journey. It had been well repaired with a stainless tube inside the shank. The repairer left a lot of glue all around the repaired crack – I say around because it went well beyond just the crack. It was a mess. The shank end plateau had what looked like a crack but surprisingly turned out to be a repaired chunk of briar that had been expertly fit and rusticated on the top right side along the mortise. The vulcanite stem had a snapped tenon and was oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks ahead of the button on both sides.

The grain on the bowl was present but almost a ghost. Preben Holm always chased the grain so it must be there under the dirt, messy glue and heavy oils on the surface. The plateau on the rim top was worn and heavily filled in with lava and debris on both the top. The shank end plateau was dry and spotty looking from the grime. While the pipe was a wreck all of the repairs pointed to the fact that it was well loved. It had continued to be smoked until the tenon snapped in the shank. The thick cake in the bowl and the lava on the rim top point to the fact that it was always in use. The cake is quite sticky and stinky and makes me wonder what was smoked in the pipe. Was it a heavily cased aromatic or something more nefarious? I am not sure, maybe both! I took these photos before I started my work. I took close up photos of the bowl and rim top to show the condition of both the bowl and plateau finish. You can see the lava and build up on the rim top and the lava flowing over the inner edge of the bowl. It is hard to know if there is damage or if the lava protected it. The bowl has a thick cake that lining the walls and overflowing into lava. The plateau surface is duty and also has some lava overflow in the valleys and crannies of the surface. The stem is oxidized, calcified and has tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Add to the mix the snapped tenon and you have a mess!I took a photo of the shank end to show the snapped tenon in the shank. It is snapped off quite smooth so it should be a relatively easy fix.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank, It is clear and readable. It reads Ben Wade [over] Deluxe [over] Hand Made [over] In [over] Denmark.I remembered a bit of history on the brand that included the thought that the Preben Holm pipes were marketed under the Ben Wade label in the US and imported through Lane Ltd. I turned to Pipedia and read the listing on the brand to refresh my memory and flesh out the knowledge of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Wade). I have included a photo from that site that was taken from a Tinderbox advertisement.Ben Wade Ad in a Tinder Box catalog, courtesy Doug Valitchka 

I quote the portion of the article that summarizes the history of the brand.

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Young Copenhagen master pipemaker Preben Holm had made a meteoric career heading a pipe manufacture employing 45 people at the age of 22! But around the turn of 1970/71 he was in major financial difficulties. His US distributor, Snug Harbour Ltd. in New York City, left him in the lurch. Holm had three unpaid invoices on his desk and another large shipment was ready for the USA, when Snug Harbour’s manager told him on the phone that there was no money at all on the account to pay him.

So the Dane went to New York for an almost desperate search for a new distribution partner. He made contacts with Lane Ltd. and met Herman G. Lane in February 1971. Lane Ltd. had no interest in Holm’s serial pipes produced at that time but so much the more in the hand-carved freehands because the hype for Danish freehands and fancies in the States was still on its way to the climax then. The meeting resulted in an agreement to start a cooperation. Lane insisted to improve the quality considerably and in return he assured to be able to sell essentially larger quantities.

Holm went back home to work on new samples with all-new designs and altered finishes for Lane. Both, Lane and Holm, agreed that it would be unwise to sell the pipes under Preben Holm’s name as long as Snug Harbour had a considerable stock of Preben Holm pipes and might sell them pipes at very low prices just to bring in some money.

So on Mr. Lane’s proposal it was determined to use the name Ben Wade belonging to Lane Ltd. Lane spent considerable amounts of money for advertising the new brand in the big magazines– the centerpiece being whole-page ads showing a very exclusive Seven Day’s Set.

The cooperation with Lane Ltd. proved to be an eminent business success for both partners. Within a very short time Ben Wade Handmade Denmark sold in much larger quantities and at higher prices than they had ever dreamed of. And the hype these freehands and fancy pipes caused went on unbroken long after Herman G. Lane deceased. Preben Holm – obviously much more brilliant in pipe making than in pipe business – was in major troubles again in 1986 and had to sack most of his staff. The Ben Wade production was significantly lowered but continued until his untimely death in June of 1989.

Up to now Preben Holm made Ben Wade pipes are cult and highly sought for on the estate markets.

With that information I knew that this pipe was a Preben Holm made Freehand for distribution in the US by Lane Ltd under the name Ben Wade. The freehand rage occurred in the late 70s and the pipes were made until Preben’s death in 1989. My guess would be that this pipe was made sometime during that time period and potentially in the late 70s.

I started my work on the pipe by pulling the broken tenon from the shank. I used a dry wall screw turned into the airway in the broken tenon. I wiggled the tenon until it came free. It was tight so it took a bit of fiddling to get it to pop free.I took photos of the repaired crack on the shank. It had a heavy coat of glue all around the shank. It was smeared around the crack and also on the curved where the shank joined the bowl. It was messy but it was a strong bond. I sanded the area around the repair and the surrounding briar with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to smooth out the repair and remove all of the glue spread around the briar. I decided to ream the bowl and do some internal clean up work before further polishing the briar. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer using the 2^nd and 3^rd cutting heads to remove the cake in the bowl. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and finally sanded the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel to clean up the walls of the bowl. The walls appeared to be in good condition. It still needed a lot of cleaning as the sticky debris was still on the walls. I cleaned out the shank and airway into the bowl and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. I cleaned out the airway in the stem at the same time. I scrubbed the bowl and rim top with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime. I rinsed it with warm water and dried it off with a cotton towel. I drew a box around the repair on the shank end. There was a square plug of briar that had been glued into the shank end and rusticated to look like plateau. I stained the shank end and the rim top with a black stain pen to blend the surfaces together. I used a brass bristle wire brush to work over the plateau on the top and shank end. I used a sanding pad to remove the black stain from the high spots on the plateau and it looked better. There was a strong stink of the previous tobacco (?) in the pipe so I stuffed the bowl with cotton bolls and filled it with alcohol using an ear syringe. I rolled a cotton boll and plugged the shank with it. I set it aside to draw out the tars and oils for the afternoon.While the cotton and alcohol were doing there work deghosting the bowl I turned my attention to working on the new tenon. I flattened out the tenon end of the stem with a Dremel and sanding drum and cleaned up the area on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper.I drilled the home for the new tenon using airway in the stem as a guide. I drilled it several times with increasingly larger drill bits until I had the opening the same size as the threaded portion of the new tenon.I fit the tenon in the stem to make sure it was straight everything aligned straight. At this point the stem and new tenon looked very good. I took a break at this point and went out on the porch and enjoyed a few bowls in my new Castello. I came in late afternoon once it got cooler and checked on the deghosting of the bowl. I could not do any more work fitting the stem until I had removed the cotton bolls and cleaned out the shank and bowl once more. The cotton had darkened and once I removed it the bowl smelled much better. I cleaned up the bowl and shank with alcohol cotton swabs and pipe cleaners a second time. It smelled much cleaner and looked that way too. Now I could fit the new tenon to the mortise. I took a photo of the repair to the shank. There is a stainless steel tube in the shank that gives it more strength. It is a well done and solid repair. [The photo is from an earlier moment before I stained the shank end.]
I used the Dremel and sanding drum to reduce the diameter of the new tenon to fit in the mortise. I fit it in the shank to make sure it would work well. I put it in the stem to show the fit as well. I put the tenon in the shank and slipped the stem over it to see what the pipe looked like with the stem fit in place. I liked what I saw and new that it would clean up very well and polish up nicely. Now that everything fit well I glued the tenon in the stem with black CA glue. I set the stem aside to let the glue cure. I sanded the bowl and shank with sanding pads – 320-3500 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad to remove grime and check the progress. It was looking very good by the time I finished with the final pad. I polished the rim top and bowl with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad to remove the dust and debris. The grain stood out more with each set of pads. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the bowl, rim top and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I find that the balm really makes the briar come alive again. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The bowl really looks good at this point. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention back to the stem. I rubbed the stem down with Soft Scrub and cotton pads to remove the oxidation in the grooves. It looked much better once I had removed the oxidation.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the tooth marks and remove the stubborn oxidation in the grooves and against the button edge. Once finished it began to look better.I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads and wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil saturated cloth to remove the grime and protect the stem.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both fine and extra fine. This once wreck of a pipe turned out to be a beautiful Preben Holm made Ben Wade Deluxe with a fancy, turned, black vulcanite stem. It has a great look and feel. The shape fits well in the hand with the curve of the bowl and shank junction a perfect fit for the thumb around the bowl when held. I polished stem and the bowl with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. I gave the plateau on the rim top and shank end multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The rich combination of browns and black in the smooth and plateau finishes took on life with the buffing. The rich colour of the briar works well with the polished stem. I like the grain and finished look of this Preben Holm Ben Wade Deluxe Freehand. Have a look at it with the photos below. The shape, finish and flow of the pipe and stem are very well done. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.12 ounces/60 grams.This Danish Freehand is a real beauty. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipe Makers Section shortly if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for your time.