Tag Archives: removing oxidation

Weber Imported Briar Rusticated Campaign Calabash Pipe

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a rugged looking the Campaign style pipe with a deep rustication. It was one purchased on 01/20/2026 from a Facebook seller in Quaker Town, Pennsylvania, USA. The bowl and the shank are heavily rusticated. The top of the bowl insert, base of the calabash and the end of the shank band are smooth. It is a great looking pipe. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Weber in an oval [over] Imported Briar. The finish was dirty and had a lot of grime and grit ground into the rustication and the smooth portions. The rim top and inner edge of the bowl is dirty with a thick overflow of lava the edge and the top that was heavier toward the back of the bowl. The bowl insert was stuck in the calabash base and had no give. There is a thick cake in the bowl. The vulcanite taper stem is dirty and has light tooth marks and chatter on the surface ahead of the button. There were no logo stamps on either side of the stem. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. It showed a lot of promise. Jeff took photos of the briar bowl insert in the calabash base. It is stuck but you can see the thick lava coat on the rim top, heavier toward the back. The cake in the bowl is quite thick and overflows over the top. It is a dirty pipe. I am curious what the bowl of the calabash underneath looks like. He took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the finish around the bowl and the condition of the pipe. You can see the grime ground into the surface of the briar. The stain combination really makes the grain and the depths of the rustication stand out. I look forward to seeing it once it is clean and polished. He took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. Jeff put the bowl in the freezer to try and loosen the insert from the calabash base. After some time, there he was able to remove the insert. He took photos of the parts to show the dirty condition. There was crumbling cork gasket around the inner edge of the calabash base. It will need to be replace. I checked on Pipephil and though there was great information on the Weber brand of pipes. There was nothing in the list there that showed a Campaign pipe or referred to it. I turned to Pipedia’s article on Weber and it was a great on the history of the brand. There was nothing there on the Campaign pipe. From there I turned back to the various Campaign pipes on rebornpipes that I have worked on before.

I am attaching the link to one of the blogs and some of the information that I found in researching the brand at that time. (https://rebornpipes.com/tag/wdc-campaign-calabash-pipe/). The information is all on the WDC made Campaign pipe but the information is helpful.

In my online research I found a brief interchange on a Google group. I include the link if you would like to read it in context and its entirety. It gives some helpful information regarding this particular pipe. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.smokers.pipes/kpkpd3zXoiwExcerpt from pipedia.org

To a request for information regarding the WDC Campaign pipe on the Google Group there was quite a long string of answers. I am quoting two of those in full…

Respondent 1: While I can’t say anything about this pipe specifically, I have a hazy memory of that shape listed in a book about pipes; (I may be totally misremembering this, but here goes) the shape being called the “Dawes”, named after Harding’s Vice President?  Anyone else remember this? Sounds like an interesting pipe, whatever it’s called…

Respondent 2: From Weber’s Guide to Pipes: “The Dawes Pipe (more correctly named the Lyons, after its inventor, Charles Herbert Lyons) happened to be the favorite pipe of General Charles G. Dawes, Vice-President of the USA from 1925 to 1929. General Dawes smoked the curious pipe incessantly and it became popularly known as the Dawes Underslung, because the shank joined the bowl near its rim.”

I looked on Pipedia, (https://pipedia.org/wiki/The_Lyon_Pipe) for information on the Dawes Underslung pipe or what was known as a Lyons Pipe. It is a fascinating read regarding the shape and the build of the pipe. I have also included a copy of the Patent page that was on that link.

General Charles G. Dawes (August 27, 1865 – April 23, 1951) was an American banker and politician, as well as the 30th Vice President of the United States. He was a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925, and later in life the Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He also, of interest to pipe smokers, so incessantly smoked a Lyon pipe that his party used it as a campaign emblem and the pipe took on his name, now being referred to as the Dawes Pipe. In fact, this pipe was invented by Charles H. Lyon (February 17, 1861 – January 1, 1947).

The Lyon pipe, now more commonly known as the Dawes pipe, was characterized by an inner bowl which was threaded into an outer bowl, with smoke traveling through the bottom of the inner bowl to reach the airway much as in a traditional gourd calabash. On September 11, 1924, the Ellensburg Daily Record reported from Chicago that Mr. Lyon worked from a small tin shanty on the outskirts of Chicago, but upon Dawes’ nomination for the Vice Presidency became swamped by orders for the pipe, with 75,000 orders received at that time, and a factory struggling to produce 1,000 pipes a month.

The Lyon pipe was invented by Charles H. Lyon (1862-1947) while working in his workshop in the Chicago area in the early 1920’s. In late 1920, the inventor, a former millwright, was without his right arm due to a factory accident he suffered during World War I, without a job, and at 60 contemplating a start in the real estate business to feed his family. While considering his options, he thought up the pipe that bears his name, and applied for a patent for its design on September 23, 1920. The following year, having seen him smoking a pipe, Lyon sent a pipe to the General as a sampler and the General began ordering the pipes by the dozen.

The two became friends, and General Dawes used the pipe as a campaign giveaway in his 1924 campaign for the Vice Presidency, making the pipe famous. In the meantime, Lyon had been granted a patent for the pipe on September 18, 1923. It is reported in Lyon’s obituary on January 2, 1947 in the Oakland Tribune that Dawes and Lyon had become partners in the production of the pipe. Jeff carefully reamed this Weber Imported Briar Campaign Insert bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and then cleaned up the inside of the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the inner bowl and the exterior of the briar with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime on the rim top and bowl sides. He scrubbed the internals of the shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, shank brushes and alcohol until the airways were clean and the pipe smelled fresh. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the oxidation and then let it soak in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. He rinsed it with warm water when he took out of the soak. The pipe looked much better once the bowl and stem were clean. Before I started my part of the work I took photos of the pipe. It is a pretty pipe. I took close up photos of the bowl and the rim top to show the condition. It looked better and the inner edge and top were in very good condition. There were some scratches in the top and on the inner edge that will need to be cleaned up. I also took photos of both sides of the stem to give a sense of the condition of both sides at the button. There were light tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button. On the underside there was also a deeper mark on the button itself.I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank.. It reads as noted above and is very clear and readable. I took the briar inner bowl out of the outer bowl and took some photos of the various parts of the pipe. You can also see the inset on the top edge of the base where a cork gasket was fit to hold the insert in place. It is an interesting piece of pipe history and it is in excellent condition for a pipe of its age. I worked on the damage on the rim top and inner edge with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the rough areas smooth and smoothed out the rim edge. It began to look better.I sanded the smooth rim top of the insert with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris and dust. It looked very good.I polished the smooth rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped down the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. To achieve a snug fit of the insert in the base I cut a piece of cork from a thin sheet of cork to make a gasket for the base bowl. The cork had a sticky back on it and I pressed two layers or the cork in place and trimmed the excess off the top of the bowl with a knife. Once finished I gave it a light coat of Vaseline to soften and preserve it. I pressed the two parts together and it fit snugly into the outer bowl. I hand buffed the bowl with a microfibre cloth and took photos of the pipe at this point in the process. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips and a shoe brush to get it into the depths of the rustication. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out. I filled in tooth marks that were present with Extra Strength CA glue – strengthened with rubber. Once it cured I used a small flat file to flatten the repairs and recut the button edge. I blended the repairs further with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads. I wiped the stem down with a damp cloth after each pad. By the last sanding pad it began to take on a deep shine.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. I am excited to put the final touches on this interesting piece of American Pipe History a beautiful Weber Imported Briar Campaign Calabash Pipe with a double bowl. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with beautiful grain on the bowl sides, top and bottom. The polished black vulcanite stem combined with the bowl to make a stunning pipe. This older Weber Imported Briar Campaign Calabash Pipe is great looking and the 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: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 39 grams/1.41 ounces. I will be adding it to my own collection for now to enjoy and experiment with. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Restoring a King Erik Custom Made Denmark 713 Stack

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a great looking rusticated Stack with a smooth rim top and band on the top and shank end as well as a smooth patch on each side of the bowl. It was one purchased on 01/20/2026 from a Facebook seller in Quaker Town, Pennsylvania, USA. The bowl and the shank are tightly rusticated. It is a great looking pipe. It is stamped on a smooth panel on the left side of the shank and reads King Erik [over] Custom Made [over] Denmark. On the smooth shank band it was stamped on the underside with the shape number 713. The finish was dirty and had a lot of grime and grit ground into the rustication and the smooth portions. The rim top and inner edge of the bowl is dirty with a light lava flow on the edge and the top that was heavier toward the back of the bowl. There is a thick cake in the bowl. The stem is dirty and has light tooth marks and chatter on the surface. It had the KE logo stamped on the left side of the taper stem. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. It showed a lot of promise. Jeff took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the lava on the inner edge of the top. The lava is quite thick on the inner edge. He also took photos of the stem to show the oxidation and the light tooth marks and chatter on the stem. He took photos of the bowl and heel to show the condition of the finish. The combination of rustication – tight pattern – and smooth portions look very good and are a great contrast to the vulcanite stem. Jeff took photos of the stamping on the shank sides and the logo on the stem. They read as noted above and were in excellent condition. Before I started working on the pipe I wanted to know more about the background of the brand. I turned first to Pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-k2.html) to gain some background on the brand. There was not much information other than the screen capture I have included below.From there I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/King_Erik). There was a short paragraph on the brand that I have included in full below.

King Erik pipes were advertised as “Hand Made by Danish Craftsmen” and as made in Denmark. Primarily offered in a two tone combination smooth and sandblasted finish, the pipes were marked with a KE on the stem. While the maker is unknown, it seems likely that these pipes were sold to the American market as intended competition for the popular pipes made by Erik Nørding, Karl Erik Ottendahl and others, especially given that the pipes are Danish, and the “King Erik” for which the pipes are named would seem to be Swedish, namely Erik Jedvardsson, King Eric IX of Sweden.

Jeff carefully cleaned up this King Erik Danish Stack with a vulcanite taper stem with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime on the rim top and bowl sides. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and then cleaned up the inside of the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until the airways were clean and the pipe smelled fresh. The pipe looked much better once the bowl and stem were clean. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the oxidation and then let it soak in Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. He rinsed it with warm water when he took out of the soak. Before I started my part of the work I took photos of the pipe. It is a pretty pipe. I took close up photos of the bowl and the rim top to show the condition. It looked better and the inner edge and top were in very good condition. I also took photos of both sides of the stem to give a sense of the condition of both sides at the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank and stem. It reads as noted above and is very clear and readable. The stamping on the shank is faint but readable. I took the stem off the shank and took photos of the pipe to give a sense of its beauty and proportions. I polished the smooth patches on the bowl and smooth rim top and edge with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped down the bowl after each sanding pad. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. Because it was quite clean I decided to touch up the KE stamp on the left side of the taper. I filled in the stamp with Antique Gold Rub’n Buff. I buffed off the excess material and the markings looked very good.The stem was in good condition and the light marks and chatter should polish out easily. I polished the stem 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. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I put the parts of the King Erik 713 Custom Made Danish Stack back together and I lightly buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and gave several coats of Carnauba Wax to seal and protect it. I polished it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and then with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really looked good with the wax highlighting the grain around the panels on the bowl. The thin shank and taper stem gave additional beauty to the pipe. It was an interesting looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outer Diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Diameter of the chamber: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 36 grams/1.27 ounces. The photos below show the finished pipe. If you would like to add it to your collection I will be adding it to the Danish Pipe Makers section of the rebornpipes store. Send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading the blog. It was an interesting restoration.

Restoring a Jeantet Bon-Cout Billiard with an acrylic taper stem

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a great looking rusticated Billiard with a smooth rim topo and band on the top and shank end. It was one purchased on 01/20/2026 from a Facebook seller in Quaker Town, Pennsylvania, USA. The bowl and the shank are tightly rusticated. The top of the bowl and the end of the shank band are smooth. It is a great looking pipe. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Jeantet [over] Bon-Cout. The finish was dirty and had a lot of grime and grit ground into the rustication and the smooth portions. The rim top and inner edge of the bowl is dirty with a light lava flow on the edge and the top that was heavier toward the back of the bowl. There is a thick cake in the bowl. The stem is dirty and has light tooth marks and chatter on the surface. It had the Jeantet J logo on the left side, Hand [over] Cut on the right side, and France on the underside. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. It showed a lot of promise. Jeff took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the lava on the inner edge of the top. The lava is quite thick on the inner edge. He also took photos of the stem to show the tooth marks and chatter on the oxidized stem. He took photos of the bowl and heel to show the condition of the finish. The combination of rustication – tight pattern – and smooth portions look very good and are a great contrast to the marble, almost tortoise stem. Jeff took photos of the stamping on the shank and the logo on the stem. They read as noted above and were in excellent condition. I turned to Pipephil’s site to see what I could learn about the Bon-Cout line of Jeantet pipes (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-jeantet.html). There was nothing specific about that line though was a brief summary of the history. I quote from the top bar below:

The company joined the Cuty-Fort Entreprises group (Chacom, Ropp, Vuillard, Jean Lacroix…) in 1992. In 2010 it dropped out and the brand isn’t part of the group any more. The label is owned by the Jeantet family (Dominique Jeantet) again. The pipe production is discontinued. Dominique Jeantet retired in 2000. See also: Antidote, Duke of Kent, Grand Duke, Hermes, Sir Bruce, Sir Duke

I turned to Pipedia to get a more detailed history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Jeantet). There as a short history there that I have reproduced below.

The firm of the Jeantet family in Saint-Claude is first mentioned as early as 1775. By 1807 the Jeantets operated a turnery producing in particular wooden shanks for porcelain pipes and wild cherry wood pipes. The firm was named Jeantet-David in 1816, and in 1837 the enterprise was transformed into a corporation as collective name for numerous workshops scattered all over the city.

The manufacturing of briar pipes and began in 1858. 51 persons were employed by 1890. Desirous to concentrate the workers at a single site, the corporation began to construct a factory edifying integrated buildings about 1891 at Rue de Bonneville 12 – 14. This took several years. In 1898 Maurice Jeantet restructured the business. He is also presumed to enlarge Jeantet factory purchasing a workshop adjoining southerly. It belonged to the family Genoud, who were specialized in rough shaping of stummels and polishing finished pipes. (In these times it was a most common procedure to carry goods from here to there and back again often for certain steps of the production executed by dependant family based subcontractors. Manpower was cheap.)

Jeantet was transformed to a corporation with limited liability in 1938. By that time a branch workshop was operated in Montréal-la-Cluse (Ain), where mainly the less expensive pipes were finished. 107 employees – 26 of them working from their homes – were counted in Saint-Claude in 1948 and 18 in the Ain facility.

The Saint-Claude factory was considerably modernized by ca. 1950 installing (e.g.) freight elevators. In 1952 the southern workshop was elevated. 80 workers were employed in 1958. The factory covered an area of 2831 m²; 1447 m² of the surface were buildings.

The climax of the pipe production was reached around 1969, when thirty to thirty five thousand dozens of pipes were made by 72 workers (1969). But then the production continuously dwindled to only six or seven thousand dozens in 1987 and only 22 workers were still there. Even though, around 1979 a very modern steam powered facility for drying the briar had been installed in the factory’s roofed yard.

Yves Grenard, formerly Jeantet’s chief designer and a great cousin of Pierre Comoy, had taken over the management of Chapuis-Comoy in 1971. Now, to preserve the brand, the Jeantet family went into negotiations with him, and resulting from that Jeantet was merged in the Cuty Fort Group (est. 1987 and headed by Chacom) in 1988 along with the pipe brands of John Lacroix and Emile Vuillard. Chacom closed the Jeantet plant, and the City of Saint-Claude purchased it in 1989. After alternative plans failed, the buildings were devoted to wrecking. The southerly workshop was wrecked before 1992.

Today Jeantet pipes were produced as a sub-brand by Chapuis-Comoy who’s mainstay is Chacom of course.

Jeff carefully cleaned up this Jeantet Bon-Cout Billiard with a variegated brown/orange acrylic taper stem with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime on the rim top and bowl sides. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and then cleaned up the inside of the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until the airways were clean and the pipe smelled fresh. The pipe looked much better once the bowl and stem were clean. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the debris on the surface. He rinsed it with warm water when he took out of the soak. Before I started my part of the work I took photos of the pipe. It is a pretty looking pipe. I took close up photos of the bowl and the rim top to show the condition. It looked better but there was burn damage on the inner edge on the front and the back side of the bowl. I also took photos of both sides of the stem to give a sense of the condition of both sides at the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank and stem. It reads as noted above and is very clear and readable. The stamping on the shank is faint but readable. I took the stem off the shank and took photos of the pipe to give a sense of its beauty and proportions. I worked on the damage from burning on the inner edge of the bowl on the front and the back side. It was damaged but not too deeply burned. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up and reshape the edge. It looked significantly better.I worked over the rim top and edges with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads. I wiped the rim top down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the sanding debris. It looked significantly better. I polished the rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped down the bowl after each sanding pad. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. Because it was quite clean I decided to touch up the Jeantet J stamp on the left side of the saddle. I filled in the stamp with Antique Gold Rub’n Buff. I did the same with the Hand Cut stamp on the right and France on the underside of the stem. I buffed off the excess material and the markings looked very good. The stem was in good condition and the light marks and chatter should polish out easily. I polished the stem 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. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I put the parts of the Jeantet Bon-Cout Billiard back together and I lightly buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and gave several coats of Carnauba Wax to seal and protect it. I polished it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and then with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really looked good with the wax highlighting the grain around the panels on the bowl. The thin shank and saddle stem gave additional beauty to the petite looking pipe. It was an interesting looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outer Diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches x 1 ¼ inches, Diameter of the chamber: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is is 53 grams/1.87 ounces. The photos below show the finished pipe. If you would like to add it to your collection I will be adding it to the French Pipe Makers section of the rebornpipes store. Send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading the blog. It was an interesting restoration.

Comet Resurrection!

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by Kenneth Lieblich

It’s Eastertide and so, only too fitting that a veritable pipe resurrection is next up. Friends and family often accuse me of taking on some crazy pipe projects. Well, if ever there was a quixotic pipe restoration, it is this one. I found this pipe at an antique shop in our local Fraser Valley and it was in sorry shape. Honestly, I probably should have left it – but then I wouldn’t have this crazy blog to post. This was a very challenging restoration – showing, once again, that any pipe can be restored. Whether any pipe should be restored is quite a different question. This is an uncommon pipe and it deserves respect. But this may be a pipe for your collection, rather than for your regular rotation. So, what on earth is this thing? Good news! It’s not from earth – it’s called the Comet. This pipe has no markings, but I already knew the general family this pipe was from. It is related to the Thoro-Kleen, made by the Greenwich House Corporation of New York. When Steve last restored one of these, he described it as reminding him of the Jetsons from Saturday morning cartoons! It certainly does have a futuristic, out-of-this-world look. To me, it is a good example of mid-twentieth-century design.

Our friends at Pipedia have a brief writeup on the Thoro-Kleen, which I copy here in its entirety:

The Greenwich House Thoro-Kleen was a metal pipe system sold with both a metal outer bowl with a briar insert and a full briar bowl. They are from the same family as the Roybrooke, Comet, and Original Gridiron pipes, and parts from all are believed to be interchangeable. The pipes were sold by the Greenwich House Corporation, located in 1947 at 939-M 8th Avenue, N.Y. 19, N.Y. The pipe set sold for $2.50 in 1947.

Similarly, Smoking Metal (a website dedicated to metal pipes) also has a short writeup:

This family of pipes have been seen as Knowles Air Lite (believed to be Canadian version), Roybrooke, Comet, Original Gridiron and the Greenwich House Thorokleen. Seemingly sold in sets that comprised a normal briar bowl as well as the metal outer with a briar insert. The body of the pipe can be hexagonal, square (Thoro Kleen only seen this shape) or circular in cross section. Regardless of variant all parts are interchangeable. The unmarked version tends to be regarded as the COMET, all the others being stamped with a name.

Some instances of this pipe appeared with an entirely briar bowl, and some came with a metal bowl and briar insert. Some sources indicate that the pipes came with both bowls, and you could take your pick, but the one I have has only the metal bowl and briar insert. Here’s a photo of an original:This pipe was a mess from every perspective. The vulcanite stem had some dents in it and was oxidized. The briar bowl insert was broken in half (literally) The metal components were dirty, dull, and scratched. The insides were filthy. There were nicks in the metal and – most significantly – the end of the shank had tiny cracks. This was going to be a tall order. The first thing I did was glue the two halves of the bowl insert back together. I liberally applied some wood glue and let it set overnight in a bar clamp.While the wood glue was drying, I moved on to the stem. I used isopropyl alcohol on a few cotton rounds and wiped down the stem to provide an initial cleaning of filth before moving on to the next steps. The primary cleaning came next. I disinfected the inside of the stem with pipe cleaners dipped in lemon-infused 99% isopropyl alcohol. I scrubbed thoroughly to make sure the interior was very clean.The goal of the next step is the removal (or minimization) of oxidation. Going to my sink, I used cream cleanser, cotton rounds, and a toothbrush, and scoured the stem to remove as much surface oxidation as possible. As the photos show, the result was a hideous mess – but better off the stem than on it.As the stem was now clean and dry, I set about fixing the marks and dents in the vulcanite. This was done by filling those divots with black cyanoacrylate adhesive, impregnated with carbon and rubber. I left this to cure and moved on.The penultimate step for the stem is sanding. First, with my set of needle files, I reduced the bulk of the cyanoacrylate repairs. I removed the excess adhesive as near to the surface as possible, without cutting into the vulcanite. Following that, I used all nine of the micromesh sanding pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to sand out flaws, even out the vulcanite, and provide gentle polishing of the finished surface. I also applied pipe-stem oil while using the last five micromesh pads. There was a wonderful, deep black shine to the stem when I was done.Since most of the pipe was made of aluminum, the cleaning procedures were different than usual. The inside of the shank was much more ‘cavernous’ than normal, too. I started with pipe cleaners and cotton swabs for the inside, but that only worked so well. I ended up using both acetone and isopropyl alcohol (separately) to clean the metal shank, especially the interior – and I made extensive use of some metal tube brushes because the gunk was really tough. The metal bowl was also cleaned with acetone and isopropyl alcohol, but it wasn’t so bad, as it hadn’t been in contact with the burning tobacco. I also soaked the smaller components overnight in acetone. It took a very long time, but I eventually got all of the metal clean. Back to the briar bowl insert. I scraped and sanded off the excess wood glue. I then reamed out the bowl – that is to say, removed all the cake inside the bowl. This accomplished a couple of things. First (and most obviously), it cleaned the bowl and provided a refurbished chamber for future smoking. Second, when the old cake was removed, I could inspect the interior walls of the bowl and determine if there was damage or not. I used a piece of sandpaper taped to a wooden dowel and got the thing clean.To tidy up the briar, I wiped down the outside, using a solution of a pH-neutral detergent and some distilled water, with cotton rounds. This did a good job of cleaning any latent dirt on the surface of the briar. The damage to the rim was significant. In order to lessen the burns and nicks on the rim, I ‘topped’ the pipe – that is to say, I gently and evenly sanded the rim on a piece of 400-grit sandpaper. This effectively minimized the damage, without altering the look of the pipe.

Given the state of the inside of the briar bowl insert, I used an epoxy adhesive that is extremely hard, resistant to high temperatures, and completely inert when cured. It worked superbly. I lined the affected area with the epoxy and let it cure for a full 24 hours. The next day, I roughened up the epoxy’s surface with my rotary tool for the next step. I thinly coated the inside of the bowl with a mixture of my wife’s homemade yogurt and activated charcoal. Once hardened, this provided a good, faintly rough surface for a new cake to build. I used all nine micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to sand the outside of the bowl insert and finish it off. This sanding minimizes flaws in the briar and provides a beautiful smoothness to the wood. This piece was never going to be easy on the eyes, but I did manage to make it look so much better.Back to the shank – the main body of the pipe. The end of the pipe had tiny cracks, as I mentioned, but was also slightly out of round. So, I gently adjusted it with pliers to close the gap in the cracks and return the circular shape. To repair the cracks, I decided to try something new: a different kind of epoxy, one specifically formulated for metal repairs and impregnated with steel. For the first step, I applied it on the inside of the shank and held everything tight with a hose clamp lined with duct tape. I used duct tape to protect the metal from scratches and in case the epoxy oozed out. This worked well and I let it cure overnight.I then moved on to applying the same epoxy to the outside of the shank. Same formulation, just different location. However, a problem then manifested itself. When the epoxy had cured, and I started sanding the metal, a couple of other micro-cracks also appeared. These were not visible before the sanding. Giant sigh. So, I had to repeat the metal epoxy procedure from the beginning to factor in these new, incredibly small marks. Eventually, I got it done. Once the epoxy had cured again, I sanded it again with my micromesh pads. This time everything looked good. The gleam on the metal was very satisfying. I polished the grooves in the bowl with some pipe cleaners that had been rubbed with red Tripoli compound, then cleaned it up. In preparation for final buffing, I filled those grooves with new, clean pipe cleaners so that compound didn’t get stuck in there. For the final step, I took the pipe to my bench polisher and carefully buffed it. The stem was done with a blue diamond compound. The metal bowl and shank were done, first, with red Tripoli and then with the blue diamond too. This procedure makes the pipe look its best – the metal really shines and the stem glows.

This Greenwich House Comet metal pipe looks fantastic again and is ready to be enjoyed by its next owner. I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the ‘American’ section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 5⅓ in. (136 mm); height 1½ in. (38 mm); bowl diameter 1½ in. (38 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (19 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅝ oz. (48 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I enjoyed restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

 

Duncan Sandblast Drysmoker England Peterson 40 style with brass ferrule

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by Steve Laug

This Sandblast Peterson’s Style Bent Billiard with brass ferrule and a modified Peterson’s stem is a beauty. It was one of a lot purchased on 01/20/2026 from a Facebook seller in Quaker Town, Pennsylvania, USA. It is a Sand Blast Bent Billiard System Pipe with a smooth panel on the underside of the shank. The stem is a fancy vulcanite system style similar to a P-lip but with the airway exiting at the end of the button. The bowl is stained with a contrast of browns that give depth to the blast around the bowl and shank. It is stamped on the smooth panel on the underside of the shank and reads Duncan [over] Drysmoker. This second word under Duncan is faint in the middle but with Jeff’s help it is definitely a Drysmoker. Underneath it is stamped England [over] the shape number 40. It is definitely Duncan’s version of a Peterson’s System Standard pipe. The shape, the drilling, the ferrule and the stem style are similar. The button on the Peterson’s has the airway on the top while the Duncan has it on the stem end. The bowl had a thick cake and some tobacco debris on the walls. There was an overflow of lava and debris in the inwardly bevelled rusticated finish of the rim top. There was grime ground into the finish which left the bowl and shank dirty and dull. The vulcanite saddle P-lip style stem has light tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his work on it.   Jeff took photos of the rim top and bowl to show the condition. It had a thick cake and there was darkening on the inner edge and lava in the sandblast rim top. The photos of the stem also show the light tooth chatter and marks on both sides. Jeff took photos of the sides of the bowl and the heel to show the condition and the debris in the low places of the sandblast. It also shows the oils that are ground into the finish. The brass ferrule looked good and was also oxidized. Jeff also took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank and it was faint in the middle of the stamp but the top line and the bottom line were very clear. The shape number is also a clear stamp. With some help from Jeff the middle word is identified as Drysmoker. The pipe came from Jeff clean and the finish had life. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and got rid of the cake. He cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife so that we could see the walls of the bowl and assess for damage. It was in good condition. He cleaned the internals of the shank and stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol. He scrubbed the exterior with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. He rinsed the pipe under warm water. He dried it off with a cloth and then let it air dry. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and soaked it in Briarville’s Stem Deoxidizer. He rinsed it with warm water and dried it off with a soft cloth. It came out looking very good. The finish on the bowl and the rim top cleaned up nicely. I took pictures of the pipe to show how it looked when I unpacked it. I took some photos of the rim top and stem to show the condition of them both when the pipe arrived. Overall it looked good. The rim top had some faded spots that would need to be restained to match the bowl sides but it was good. The stem looked much better and should polish up very well. I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank. The top line and two bottom lines are readable. The middle line under Duncan is Drysmoker. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe to show the look of the pipe.The bowl was in great condition. I touched up the rim top with a Cherry Stain pen to match the surrounding colour of the briar. The match worked very well.I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and into the deeper parts of the sandblast with a horsehair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads to remove the remnants of oxidation and the scratches from sanding it. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It began to look better.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with some Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and buffed it off an Obsidian Oil cloth. This beautiful mixed finish Duncan Drysmoker 40 Sandblast System Pipe, that is an obvious take on a Peterson’s System Pipe with a bent vulcanite stem has a great look and feel. I polished the stem and the bowl with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. 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 blacks in the smooth, rusticated and plateau finish took on life with the buffing. The rich colour of the briar works well with the polished vulcanite stem. I like the sandblast grain and finished look of this Duncan Drysmoker 40 Sandblast System Pipe. 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: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ wide, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 60 grams/2.12 ounces. This Duncan English Made Drysmoker System pipe is a real beauty. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This one will be going on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipes Makers Section shortly if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for your time.

Freehand Israel Mixed Finish Freehand with a plateau on the rim top and shank end.

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a great looking mixed finish Freehand and a Freehand saddle bit. It was one purchased on 01/20/2026 from a Facebook seller in Quaker Town, Pennsylvania, USA. The bowl and the shank is smooth, straight and flame grain with a rusticated patch on each side of the bowl midbowl and up each side of the shank. The top of the bowl and the end of the shank is plateau. It is a great looking pipe. It is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads Freehand and on at the shank/stem junction it reads Israel. The finish was dirty and had a lot of grime and grit ground into the rustication and the smooth portions. The rim top and inner edge of the bowl is dirty with a light lava flow on the edge and the top that was heavier toward the back of the bowl. There is a thick cake in the bowl. The stem is oxidized and has light tooth marks and chatter on the surface. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. It showed a lot of promise. Jeff took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is heavily caked with some lava on the top and in the plateau. It was heavier toward the back of the bowl. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks on the top and underside. Jeff took photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the grain that was around this bowl. You can see the mix of grain in the finish in the photos below. Even so, it is a nice looking pipe. Jeff took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank to capture it. It was clear and readable as noted above. I turned to both Pipephil and Pipedia to see if I could find any information on the stamping on the pipe. There was nothing stamped with both Freehand and Israel. I am pretty convinced that the pipe was made by the Shalom Pipe Company in Israel and the makers of Alpha pipes. The shape and the conformation of the pipe remind me of Alpha pipes. While I will never know the maker for certain I am fairly confident it as noted above. It is a neat looking pipe.

The pipe came from Jeff clean and the finish had life. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and got rid of the cake. He cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife so that we could see the walls of the bowl and assess for damage. It was in good condition. He cleaned the internals of the shank and stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol. He scrubbed the exterior with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. He rinsed the pipe under warm water. He dried it off with a cloth and then let it air dry. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and soaked it in Briarville’s Stem Deoxidizer. He rinsed it with warm water and dried it off with a soft cloth. It came out looking very good. The finish on the bowl and the rim top cleaned up nicely. I took pictures of the pipe to show how it looked when I unpacked it. I took some photos of the rim top and stem to show the condition of them both when the pipe arrived. Overall it looked good. The stem looked much better and should polish up very well. I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank (though I forgot to take a photo of the Israel stamp on the underside). It is readable and in great condition. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe to show the look of the pipe.I polished the bowl and the high points on the plateau with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the briar down after each pad with a damp cloth. The bowl is starting to look very good. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and into the plateau rim top and shank end with a horsehair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded out the tooth chatter on the stem near the button on both sides. I also sanded the diameter of the tenon so that it would fit more deeply in the shank.I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads to remove the remnants of oxidation and the scratches from sanding it. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It began to look better.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with some Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and buffed it off an Obsidian Oil cloth. This beautiful mixed finish Israeli Made Freehand, probably made by the Shalom  Pipe Company with a slightly bent vulcanite stem has a great look and feel. I polished the stem and the bowl with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. 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 blacks in the smooth, rusticated and plateau finish took on life with the buffing. The rich colour of the briar works well with the polished vulcanite stem. I like the grain and finished look of this Israeli Made 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 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ wide, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 62 grams/2.19 ounces. This Israeli Made Freehand is a real beauty. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This one will be going on the rebornpipes store in the Pipes from Various Makers Section shortly if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for your time.

Cleaning Up a Handsome Gourd Calabash

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by Kenneth Lieblich

A friend of mine recently returned from a local gun show and, as it so happened, someone was selling a few pipes there too. So, my buddy found this very nice (and very dirty) gourd calabash and bought it for a good price. He asked if I could bring some ‘vim and vigour’ back to this old boy. No problem, I said. Happy to help. No markings at all on this pipe, but no matter. Let’s take a closer look at the condition of the pipe. The bowl is beautifully-shaped meerschaum. It has some minor signs of wear, but nothing serious. Similarly, the gourd is in lovely condition. No external wear to speak of and the cork gasket is in good shape. The gourd also has an acrylic shank extension in nice shape. However, the inside of the gourd was filthy beyond words! Finally, the vulcanite stem is also in good nick (as my English friends would say). It has some oxidation and some tooth marks, but nothing to worry about. First things first. For the life of me, I could not remove the meerschaum bowl from the gourd. It was like concrete. I didn’t want to cause any damage, so I stopped and grabbed my heat gun. This softened some of the interior goo and – finally – allowed me to unscrew it.The stem’s calcification was quite substantial. I used an old butter knife and gently scraped some of the thicker accretion off. Doing this now helps later in removing the oxidation. I used isopropyl alcohol on a few cotton rounds and wiped down the stem to provide an initial cleaning of filth before moving on to the next steps. The primary cleaning came next. I disinfected the inside of the stem with both pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in lemon-infused 99% isopropyl alcohol. I scrubbed thoroughly to make sure the interior was very clean.The goal of the next step is the removal (or minimization) of oxidation. Going to my sink, I used cream cleanser, cotton rounds, and a toothbrush, and scoured the stem to remove as much surface oxidation as possible. As the photos show, the result was a hideous, ochre-coloured mess – but better off the stem than on it.Once the stem was reasonably clean, I soaked it overnight in some Briarville Stem Oxidation Remover. This solution works to draw oxidation in the stem to the surface of the vulcanite. This is a major aid and an important step in ensuring a clean stem. The following day, I drew out the stem from its bath and scrubbed the lingering fluid with a toothbrush.As the stem was now clean and dry, I set about fixing the marks and dents in the vulcanite. This was done by filling those divots with black cyanoacrylate adhesive, impregnated with carbon and rubber. I left this to cure and moved on.The penultimate step for the stem is sanding. First, with my set of needle files, I reduced the bulk of the cyanoacrylate repairs. I removed the excess adhesive as near to the surface as possible, without cutting into the vulcanite. Following that, I used all nine of the micromesh sanding pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to sand out flaws, even out the vulcanite, and provide gentle polishing of the finished surface. I also applied pipe-stem oil while using the last five micromesh pads. There was a wonderful, deep black shine to the stem when I was done. As the stem was (nearly) complete, I moved on to the bowl. The inner side of it was caked with old tobacco filth, so I grabbed a piece of machine steel and gently scraped the lava away. The metal’s edge is sharp enough to remove what I need, but not so sharp that it damages the meerschaum. I then had to ream it out – that is to say, remove all the cake inside the bowl. This accomplished a couple of things. First (and most obviously), it cleaned the bowl and provided a refurbished chamber for future smoking. Second, when the old cake was removed, I could inspect the interior walls of the bowl and determine if there was damage or not. Meerschaum is too fragile for a proper reamer, so I used 220-grit sandpaper on the end of a wooden dowel to clean out the bowl and it turned out very well. One of the frustrations of cleaning meerschaum is that once smoked, the stains never go away. However, I did what I could and it definitely improved. I sanded down the entire piece of meerschaum with my micromesh pads. I also rubbed some Clapham’s Beeswax into the meerschaum. Then I let it sit for 20 minutes, buffed it with a microfiber cloth and then repeated the beeswax process. Worked like a charm! Next, I had to do something about the incredible amount of filth inside the gourd. The photos don’t quite do it justice. This was no easy task, as the gourd is relatively thin and fragile. To use an oxymoronic term, I was aggressively delicate in my work. I used several items: pipe cleaners, a wire brush attached to my rotary tool, my pipe knife, and some dental and scraping tools. I had to use all of my experience and judgement here – I wanted to remove as much as possible, but not at the risk of any damage to the pipe. Fortunately, I managed to walk that fine line. I wiped down the outside of the gourd, using a solution of a pH-neutral detergent and some distilled water, with cotton rounds. I was pleased with the results.I sanded down the acrylic shank extension (but not the gourd) with only the finest of the micromesh pads. I also cleaned out the inside with cotton swabs and alcohol. It wasn’t very dirty. I then coated the gourd with LBE Before & After Restoration Balm and let it sit for 30 minutes. After that, I buffed it with the microfibre cloth. Finally, I applied some light lubricant to the cork gasket. Even though the gasket was in perfect shape, it’s a good idea to lubricate it in this way in order to maintain its elasticity. I set it aside to absorb and moved on.

Before I went off to the buffer, I gave the meer and the gourd another going over with Clapham’s beeswax rub. This really worked well. I only took the stem to the buffer, as meerschaum and gourds don’t tolerate those high speeds very well!

All done! This gourd calabash looks fantastic again and I am delighted with the results. I’m sure my friend will be too. Stupidly, I forgot to take measurements of the pipe before I returned it to him. However, I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I enjoyed restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Restoring a Shamrock Billiard made in Ireland 105 Billiard with a Maltese Cross on the shank

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe was a mess and one that obviously had been “ridden hard and put away wet”. The finish and condition were filthy. It was definitely a stranger to any cleaning! This one is a smooth Billiard that has a rich coloured finish around the bowl sides and shank under the grit and grime of years. This pipe was purchased from an antique mall on 08/31/2024 in Hillsboro, Oregon, USA. The finish is dark and dull, so dirty that it obscures the grain in the finish. It was stamped on the left side of the shank and read SHAMROCK. It was stamped to the right of the shank and reads MADE IN IRELAND (in a circle) with the shape number 105 preceded by what looks like a Maltese Cross. Together they are next to the bowl. It was filthy when Jeff brought it to the table. There was a thick cake in the bowl and lava on the rim top and the inner edge of the bowl. There were nicks in the inner edge all the way around. The polished nickel band was stamped with a Shamrock [over] three faux hallmarks – a shamrock, an Irish Wolfhound and a tower with a door. The vulcanite stem was oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before his cleanup work.
Jeff took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is heavily caked so it is hard to know the condition of the edges under the lava overflow. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks on the top and underside. Jeff took photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the grain that was around this bowl. You can see the mix of grain and the small sandpits in the finish in the photos below. Even so, it is a nice looking pipe. He took a photo of the sides of the shank to show the stamping. The stamping is clear and readable as noted above. He also captured the stamping on the polished nickel band on the shank. It is also very clear. I always try to research the brand and the stamping on a pipe so I can better understand its background and history before I start my work on it. The stamping on this pipe have a rich history that I wanted to understand. I am including the link to the Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson).

I turned to “The Peterson Pipe” by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg to get some background on the Peterson’s Shamrock Pipe. On page 312 it had the following information.

Shamrock (c1941-2009) Originally stamped SHAMROCK with no brand name, an inexpensive line first described in George Yale (New York) mail order booklet in 1941, imported by Rogers Import. The line was actively promoted beginning in ’45, aggressively promoted in US by Rogers from early ‘50s when they registered the Shamrock logo with US Patent Office, claiming propriety since ’38. Over the years offered with P-lip or fishtail mouthpiece, with or without nickel band, with or without Shamrock logo on the band, with or without S stamped in white or later in gold on mouthpiece. Appearing in 2008 as unstained smooth and rustic, fishtail mouthpiece with gold impressed P on the stem. COMS of MADE IN over IRELAND (C1945-1965), MADE IN IRELAND forming a circle (c1945-1965), “A PETERSON’S PRODUCT” over MADE IN IRELAND (c1945-1965), MADE IN THE over REPUBLIC over OF IRELAND9c1948-1998). Model is always difficult or impossible to date.

Judging from the description above, the pipe I am working on is stamped with the stamp noted in red above. Made in Ireland in a circle which narrows the date to between approximately 1945-1965. It is just stamped SHAMROCK with no brand name and no stamping on the stem.

From there I turned to page 302 in the above book to unpack the stamping on the nickel band on the shank. There was a listing on the nickel mounted markings such as those used on the band on the shank of this pipe. I quote:

Nickel-Mount Markings. Often called faux hallmarks or faux marks by Peterson collectors, this set of three little images of a shamrock, an Irish wolfhound and a round tower appear within rectangular shapes as decorations on nickel mountings. Very early nickel mounts (1891-c. 1920) had no such decorations, only the same stamps used on sterling but without the hallmarks. As a stamp, the set of decorations began to appear at the beginning of the Irish Free State era, sometimes alone but often under K&P and over block lettered PETERSON over DUBLIN, although the  three emblems appeared on K&P’s Irish Carving Shamrocks pipes since 1896. The stamp was used until about 1963, when hand soldered nickel bands and ferrules were replaced by pressed ferrules and premade bands…The shamrock is the emblem of Ireland; the Irish wolfhound has long been used for both hunting and protection, and is an emblem of strength; the round tower a symbol of Ireland’s early religious power. These decorations were stamped at the factory on non-sterling mounts only, and the assay office has nothing to do with them…

I have also included the following photo of the stamping on the nickel band below. It is as described above.That still not cover the Maltese Cross on the right side of the shank ahead of the shape number 105. I have seen these before but I wanted to document what I had found on Peterson’s Pipe Notes blog. I have included that below (https://petersonpipenotes.org/276-kps-pipes-for-the-illuminati-na-heireann/). I quote:

Two of the foremost researchers among the P.G. (Peterson Geeks) Irregulars are Lance Dahl and Scott Forrest, who independent of one another came up with compelling evidence regarding an unknown stamp on a number of pipes in their collections. The stamp looks like a Maltese cross and appears either singly or doubled on pipes from the Patent era through the Éire and Early Republic. Because pipemen can sometimes be quite dogmatic about what they read in a forum or imagine the case to be (“don’t confuse me with the facts, my minds made up”), I should let everyone know that Scott’s background is in historical research and Lance worked in government intelligence before his retirement, giving them that “Thinking Man” spirit we routinely find in our fellow CPGs…

… SCOTT: It’s crazy to speculate on the such scanty information, but since that’s what pipe smokers do almost every day regarding the origin of their pipes, here’s my take. This wasn’t an auxiliary of the Irish republicans. The Maltese cross is always thought of first as a symbol of protection, although to be sure numerous religio-political military organizations attached themselves to its use (like the Order of St. John, but there’s dozens of them). I say that because of what we know Charles Peterson’s own political views. But his cousin Conrad wasn’t adverse to using violence to bring about political change and neither was his own wife, right? So who knows? But it’s interesting that the Maltese cross pops up in these “Peace” advertisements in the 1910s, isn’t it?

… LANCE: I think I’d have to agree with Scott’s theory, based on the text at St. Patrick’s. The motives and purpose of the group seem outside the normal purview of the Irish republicans. While the book is about anti-Papal groups, but the two paragraphs on this group don’t say they were anti-Catholic per se so much as suggest they should be considered anti-Catholic because they were motivated by some kind of tolerance or pacificism like we find in the Mennonites of Ukraine, the Moravians, Quakers, Molokons or whoever. But the use of the Maltese crosses (three), the all-seeing Eye and the shamrock is interesting, isn’t it? Obviously the “watching” thing is there, the idea of enlightenment or secret understanding. Then there’s the symbol of Ireland, which is also a symbol of the Trinity used in the St. Patrick legend. The last line of the text from the seminary reads Hic coetus doctrinam suam non a Patriciis, sed a Sanctis Celticis habere videtur, something like “the society takes its spiritual doctrine not from Patrick but the Celtic saints before him.” So I don’t know, at least not until something more turns up.

The blog also includes a lot more information on the Maltese Cross or Crosses on Peterson’s Pipes. Give it a read as it very interesting. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

I was utterly surprised when I took this pipe out of the box and compared it to the before photos. Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. He cleaned up the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. Surprisingly the walls looked unscathed from the heavy cake. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, shank brushes and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He worked on the rim top lava and darkening with the soap and tooth brush. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub and then soaked it in Briarville’s Deoxidizer. He washed it off with warm water to remove the Deoxidizer. The pipe looked far better when it arrived. The cleaned up rim top revealed very damaged inner edge and the top. There were nicks in the surface of the rim and the edges. I took some close up photos of the rim top and the stem to show the condition of both. You can see the deep tooth marks and damage to the button edges on both sides.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is faint but still readable. It reads as noted above. I took a photo of the stamping on the shank. It is clear and readable. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to have a look at the parts and overall look. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the inside edge of the bowl and smooth out the damage on the rim top. I gave it a slight bevel to minimize the damage.I sanded the bowl and rim with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the sanding debris. It began to take on a shine by the final pad. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The bowl developed a rich shine. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I set the bowl aside and turned to the stem. I “painted” the stem surface with the flame of a lighter to lift the tooth marks. I was able to lift some of them. I filled in the remaining marks in the surface with extra strength, rubberized CA glue. I set it aside to cure. I sanded the marks smooth with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to further blend the repairs into the stem. I wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil cloth. It began to look much better.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I am excited to finish this Older Made in Ireland Shamrock 105 Maltese Cross Billiard. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with beautiful mixed grain all around it, looks great with the new black vulcanite stem. This smooth Classic Shamrock 105 Maltese Cross Billiard is great looking and the 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 42 grams/1.48 ounces. It turned out to be a beautiful pipe. I will be putting on the rebornpipes store in the Irish Pipe Makers Section. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me. Any questions or observations are always welcome.

A Lovely Ropp Cherrywood Carre France 841 Octagonal Panel Poker Sitter

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by Steve Laug

This rusticated Bent Cherrywood with a fancy saddle stem and square bit is quite lovely and lightly smoked. It was one of a lot purchased on 01/20/2026 from a Facebook seller in Quaker Town, Pennsylvania, USA. It is a smooth Bent Cherrywood with octagonal panels on the of the bowl. The saddle stem is vulcanite and has the Ropp logo on the left side of the stem. The bowl is four smooth panels on the front, back and two sides. The remaining panels of the octagon and the shank still have the Cherry back. It is stamped on the smooth panel on the underside of the bowl and reads Ropp in an oval [over] Carre [over] France [over] the shape number 841. The bowl had a thick cake on the lower half of the bowl while the top half was clean. The rim top and the bevelled inner edge were quite clean. There was grime ground into the finish which left the bowl and shank dirty and dull. The vulcanite saddle stem has light tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his work on it.   Jeff took photos of the rim edges and top to show the condition of the bowl and rim. It was surprising how clean it was. He took photos of the stem surface as well to show the condition as noted above.Jeff took photos of the bowl sides, heel and front of the bowl and the shank to give a sense of the condition of the bark around the sides of the pipe. It is a unique one. He took a photo of the stamping on the heel of the bowl and the inset Ropp oval logo on the left side of the stem. Both are readable and clear as noted above. I turned to Pipephil (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-ropp.html) to get a bit more background on the brand before I did my work on the pipe. No matter how many I have worked on I seem to forget the history of the cherrywood pipes. I quote:

Brand created by Eugène-Léon Ropp (1830 – 1907) and continued throughout 3 generations. “GBA Synergie” run by Bernard Amiel (†2008) bought back Ropp in 1988 and owned it until 1991. The company was taken over by Cuty-Fort Entreprises (Chacom, Vuillard, Jean Lacroix…) in 1994.

I have also included a screen capture of a Cherry wood pipe. The one I am working on is significantly different that this but it has he bark left on the pipe as noted below. Below the photo is the side bar information. The stamp on the stem on this one is different it is a silver oval with the name ROPP stamped in it.Cherry wood pipe with bark. Ropp stamped a cursive R on the stems of some of their export pipes.

I turned to Pipedia for a bit more detailed history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Ropp). I quote below.

Eugène-Léon Ropp (1830 – 1907) had acquired a patent for a cherrywood pipe (wild cherry, lat.: Prunus avium) in 1869. In 1870 he established a workshop to manufacture such pipes in Büssingen (Bussang, Vosges mountains). Around 1893 the business moved into the former mill of Sicard (part of the community of Baume-les-Dames – Département Doubs, Upper Burgundy – from 1895 on).

The pipes were a big success in the export as well. Shortly before 1914 Ropp designated A. Frankau & Co. (BBB) in to be the exclusive distributor in the UK and it’s colonies.

Probably in 1917 a workshop in Saint-Claude in the Rue du Plan du Moulin 8 was acquired to start the fabrication of briar pipes. In 1923 a small building in the environment of Saint-Claude, serving as a workshop for polishing, was added.

Even though cherrywood pipes were the mainstay of Ropp until the company finally closed down in September 1991. The company was taken over by Cuty-Fort Entreprises (Chacom, Jeantet, Vuillard, Jean Lacroix…) in 1994.

Reminded about the background on the Ropp Family and their Cherrywood pipe it was now time to turn to the pipe itself and do my part of the work.

As usual Jeff had done a thorough cleanup on the pipe. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and followed up with a Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife to remove the cake. He scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs, shank brushes and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl, rim, shank and stem with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the oils and tars on the rim and the grime on the finish of the bowl. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub and a cotton pad. Once finished he soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water and cleaned out the airway in the stem with alcohol. Other than the damaged rim top the pipe looked good. I took a photo of the rim top and stem to show the condition. The rim top and the inner edge of the bowl had some damage and darkening on the front and the back of the bowl. The vulcanite saddle stem had light tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button.The stamping on the heel of the bowl is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. It is a nice looking octagonal panel with a slight bend in great condition.I polished the bark and clean cherrywood with micromesh sanding pads, dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and wiping it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank both (smooth and bark covered) with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for about 10 minutes then buffed it with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out. I polished the vulcanite stem 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. The photo below shows the polished stem. This nice Cherrywood finished ROPP Carre France 841 Octagonal Panel with a black vulcanite saddle stem is a great looking pipe. The rugged bark finish on four of the octagonal sides and the smooth panels on the other four highlight the grain on the cherrywood bowl front, back and sides. The black saddle stem works really well with the pipe as a whole. The wood is clean and really came alive. The rich medium brown of the wood gave the grain a sense of depth with the polishing and waxing. The grain really popped. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished ROPP Carre 841 Cherrywood is a beauty and feels great in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.05 ounces/58 grams. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. There are many more to come!

Rescuing an Old, Enigmatic Bamboo Meerschaum Sitter

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by Kenneth Lieblich

This is an odd pipe, to be sure – but a charming one. A few years ago, I acquired it in a large batch of very old French pipes. There was a mix of lovely and dreadful in that batch – and this pipe was a part of it. It had a meerschaum bowl and rim, with a bamboo stummel (holding the meerschaum) and a bamboo shank. I could see a bone tenon emerging from the shank, but – alas – the stem was missing. I could tell just by sight that the bamboo was old and beautifully worn. I always had this pipe in the back of my mind and it sat in my boxes for a long time. Finally, I came up with a plan to restore it and give it a new lease on life. I think the results are terrific. I hope you will too. The markings on this pipe are intriguing, if somewhat unhelpful. On the underside of the bamboo bowl, we see the words JAVA [over] ECUME. I searched extensively for these words in a pipe context, but found nothing specific. However, I think we can figure it out. Let’s work backwards. The French word, écume, most generically, means ‘foam’. However, in this instance, it is also the French word for meerschaum. That makes sense. As I’m sure you know, meerschaum is a German word which literally means ‘sea foam’ (meer = sea and schaum = foam). Incidentally, schaum is also where we get the English word scum from. But where did the Germans get the meerschaum word from? Obviously, meerschaum is so called because it is white and light, but the Oxford Dictionary of Etymology further explains that the term is itself a translation of the Persian word kef-i-daryā – literally meaning ‘foam of sea’. Now you can impress friends at your next cocktail party.Meanwhile, the word Java made me think immediately of the Indonesian island, but I wasn’t sure if there was ever an Indonesian pipe company with that name. I certainly couldn’t find any evidence of one. There have been pipe makers in Java, but I don’t think this pipe was made there. Having said that, however, I don’t think the reference is too mysterious. The island of Java is replete with bamboo – in fact, there are approximately sixty species of bamboo on the island. I think it stands to reason that the use of the name Java is simply a reference to the origin of the bamboo or an attempt to provide an oriental name to the pipe.

Last year, I restored a meerschaum and bamboo pipe, and I mused about that particular mixture of materials – and I will muse about it again now. Meerschaum and bamboo pipes are certainly not unprecedented, but it isn’t that common either. Here is an example of an unbranded bamboo meer found on eBay. Not only does the pipe have no identifying marks, but the seller had no information about it either.One can find some spectacular examples of meerschaum and bamboo in pipes from Walt Cannoy, Ryan Alden, and the famous Turkish maker, Said Altınay. Here is a beautiful example from him:As a side note, Altınay’s website includes an interesting note on the history of bamboo in pipe-making. I provide a brief quotation:

Bamboo began appearing in briar pipe construction in the early 20th century. The earliest known pioneer of this style is believed to be Sixten Ivarsson, the Danish pipe-making legend, who introduced bamboo shanks in the mid-1900s as both an aesthetic and practical innovation. The concept soon spread, embraced by artisans such as Tom Eltang, Tokutomi, and Takahiro Hibi, who elevated the use of bamboo into a form of fine art. Its appeal was twofold: the natural lightweight strength and the distinctive, organic appearance. While traditional briar offered durability and familiarity, bamboo introduced character, contrast, and subtle resilience — giving each pipe a unique signature.

Obviously, the pipe I have is not on the order of a Cannoy, Alden, Altınay, or Ivarsson! But I also feel comfortable in saying that this pipe is a lot older than those fellows’ pipes. I would be interested in hearing from you if you know more about the marriage of meerschaum and bamboo in pipe-making. Thank you kindly.

Let’s examine the condition of this pipe. The bone tenon is soiled and cracked, so that will have to be changed. The shank’s bamboo is sound – and very attractive. It’s quite dirty inside, but I am confident that we can resolve that. The bamboo part of the stummel is equally sound and beautiful. The meerschaum is very nice, but – wow – the cake on the inside of the bowl is thick and oppressive. Meanwhile, there is some nice staining to the meerschaum and that adds character. First things first. I couldn’t get the tenon out of the shank, so I took my heat gun and warmed them both. After a while, the goo inside loosened up sufficiently for me to extract it. As I mentioned, it was cracked – so I will find another one in my boxes. Later.Next, I removed the cake from the inside of the bowl. I cannot adequately express how challenging this was. The cake seemed as hard as granite – and I had to be so careful with the extraction because the meerschaum is comparatively fragile. I used a pipe knife and some dental tools, and cautiously, agonizingly scraped and chipped away at the cake. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that it took me 45 minutes to empty the bowl properly. Once complete, I gently separated the shank from the bowl. The photos show how dirty everything was. Obviously, if the bowl was as bad as indicated, you can just imagine what the inside of the shank was like.I disinfected the inside of the shank and the mortise entrance to the bowl with pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in lemon-infused 99% isopropyl alcohol. I scrubbed thoroughly to make sure the interior was very clean. I used a ton of pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I did this carefully because too much soaking can cause meerschaum to soften. I worked quickly, nothing softened, and everything turned out well.To tidy up the bamboo, I delicately wiped down the outside, using a solution of a pH-neutral detergent and some distilled water, with cotton rounds and cotton swabs (in the crevices). This did a good job of cleaning any latent dirt on the surface of the bamboo.I used all nine micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to sand the meerschaum part of the bowl and finish it off. This sanding minimizes flaws in the meerschaum and provides a beautiful smoothness to it. As the photos show, I masked the bamboo portion of the bowl with tape so as not to damage it while sanding.I only sanded the bamboo with the three finest micromesh pads. Then I rubbed it all with some LBE Before & After Restoration Balm and let it sit for 30 minutes or so. The balm moisturizes the bamboo and gives a beautiful depth to it. I then buffed the whole thing with a microfibre cloth. Next step was to reattach the bowl and shank. I carefully applied some wood glue into the mortise and replaced the shank precisely. As a measure of caution, I also stuck a pipe cleaner in the draught hole to prevent any glue getting in there.On to the stem and bone tenon. I found a stem in my workshop drawers that worked well with this pipe. I should point out that the stem is actually horn. I know that it looks like vulcanite in the photos, but it is dark horn. After settling on that, I dug through my boxes of bone tenons and found one that fit both ends. Then I set about sanding down the stem to ensure that it fit.I took my rotary tool to take off the bulk of the excess material. Then I sanded and sanded and sanded with my various micromesh pads. I neglected to photograph this process, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. As I was nearing completion, I applied pipe-stem oil with the last few micromesh pads. There was a wonderful, deep black shine to the stem when I was done. I also glue the tenon into the stem for safety’s sake. For the final step, I took the stem (only) to my bench polisher and carefully buffed it – first with a blue diamond compound, then with carnauba wax.

All done! This bamboo meerschaum sitter looks fantastic after a lot of hard work, and is ready to be enjoyed by its next owner. I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the ‘Meerschaum’ section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 6 in. (153 mm); height 1⅞ in. (47 mm); bowl diameter 1¼ in. (32 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (19 mm). The weight of the pipe is ⅞ oz. (26 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I enjoyed restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.