Tag Archives: removing oxidation

Refurbishing a Pipe for a New Pipe Smoker – A Straight Grain Apple

This past weekend I was in Lethbridge, Alberta as the speaker at a retreat for a friend of mine. As usual I took along my pipe and some tobacco and planned to sit on his front porch and enjoy a few bowls during the course of the weekend. We were sitting one night in his living room enjoying good conversation and a pint when he commented that he had been thinking of smoking a pipe. He wanted to know if I would teach him the ropes. Of course I agreed and the next afternoon we visited a couple of antique shops in search of a pipe for him. My experience in helping a newbie start is to find a seasoned pipe that is in good shape and use it to introduce the art of pipe smoking. The seasoned or estate pipe is already broken in and if it has been cared for is not too difficult to clean up and restore. We found just the pipe at the third shop we visited. It is a nice apple shaped pipe that was in fairly decent shape. He paid the $9 price on the pipe and we took it home.

I asked him for some isopropyl alcohol, some cotton swabs, cotton makeup pads, and a sharp knife. I had some pipe cleaners with me so that we could field dress the pipe and clean it enough that he could smoke a bowl with me. The pipe had a slight burn on the front right of the bowl toward the bottom from having laid it in an ashtray and having it come in contact with a cigarette. The rim was caked and dirty with buildup but undamaged. The bowl was caked and had some burnt tobacco in it. The stem was lightly oxidized and there was light tooth chatter near the button. There was a stinger apparatus in the tenon of the stem. The stamping on the pipe was on the left side and read Straight Grain over Imported Briar. There was no other stamping on the pipe.

I carefully reamed the bowl with the pocket knife to remove a large portion of the cake. I scrubbed the top of the rim with the cotton pads and saliva until I removed the buildup on the rim. I cleaned out the inside of the shank with the pipe cleaners and the cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. I removed the stinger, threw it away and scrubbed the exterior and the interior of the stem to make it ready for him to smoke. Once finished we loaded a bowl of tobacco – a light English blend and headed to his front porch to have a bowl. It took some work to get the hang of lighting and keeping the bowl lit but it worked well after several tries. We enjoyed the visit and the smoke and then headed back inside.

When I headed back to Vancouver I took the pipe with me to give it a more thorough cleaning and polish. The photos below show the pipe when I put it on the work table to give it a thorough work over.

The next photo shows the cigarette burn mark on the bowl. It was not too deep and did not char the wood but it was deep enough that it could not be sanded out without damaging the shape of the bowl.

I sanded the burn mark and the rim to clean up the burn on the front inner edge. I used 220 grit sandpaper to start with and followed that with a medium grit sanding sponge.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the finish from the bowl and to prepare it for new staining.

The slot in the stem was tight and hard to get a pipe cleaner to pass through easily so I decided to open the slot open with needle files. I shaped it and opened it and then sanded it with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper.

I reamed the bowl and cleaned out the shank with isopropyl alcohol and then used pipe cleaners. I used the drill bit in the KleenReem pipe reamer to open up the airway into the bowl from the shank. The tars had clogged the airway so the drill bit opened it and cleaned up the buildup on the sides of the airway.

I decided to do a cotton boll and alcohol soak on the bowl. I stuffed the bowl with cotton and used an ear syringe to fill it with Everclear. I set the bowl in an old ice cube tray to let it soak while I was at work. The alcohol leaches out the tars in the bowl into the cotton and leaves the pipe fresh inside.

It sat in the tray for about 10 hours soaking. The cotton boll was soaked and brown coloured from the tars that leached out of the bowl.

I took the cotton out of the bowl and then lit the alcohol remaining in the bowl with a lighter. It quickly burned the alcohol out and left the bowl dry. I used a folded piece of sandpaper to work on the inner edge of the rim to remove the burned spot on the front inner edge. I also used a PipNet reamer to remove the remaining cake that I had missed earlier. I wiped the bowl down a final time with acetone on cotton pads to remove the grit and grime that came out with the cleaning of the bowl.

I stained the bowl with an oxblood stain as an undercoat. I applied it and then flamed it. I hand buffed the bowl once the stain was dry.

For the second coat of stain I used a dark brown aniline stain thinned 2:1 with isopropyl alcohol. I hand buffed the bowl with a soft cloth and then took the pipe to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond.

Once the staining of the pipe was finished I worked on the stem with my usual array of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and let it dry.

I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I finished by buffing it with a clean flannel buffing pad. The pictures below show the finished pipe. It is ready to send back to my buddy in Lethbridge. I think I will put a few samples of tobacco in the package with the “new pipe”. I think he will enjoy the improved version of his pipe.

Repairing and Restoring a Lumberman Deluxe Canadian by Comoy’s

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In a batch of pipes I was gifted by Andrew there was a pipe to repair. It is pictured below. The stamping on it was new to me. It is stamped LUMBERMAN over DELUXE on top of the shank and on the underside it is stamped Made and London arced in a circle with “in” at the center of the circle. It is also stamped 309X. I do not see an L after the X in the stamping of the shape number. The shank was cracked and looked like it had been taped from the sticky substance left around the shank and crack. It also was without a stem. Looking it over it appeared that the shank had also been cut off slightly and the cut was crooked. There was a chipped out portion at the end of the crack. All of that would need to be evened out in the repair. The bowl was caked toward the bottom and dirty with a buildup of carbon on the rim and the inner bevel of the rim. The finish was dirty and there were remnants of sticky tape that had been used to repair the shank on both the bowl and the end of the shank. It needed some TLC and work if it was going to be brought back to life.

The close up photo below shows the extent of the caking and the buildup on the rim. Note that the inner bevel was intact and the rim itself was undamaged – no nicks or dings on the outer edge and no burn marks. This one would clean up nicely.

The Lumberman stamping was new to me. I had not heard of it before but it looked interesting in the photos that Andrew sent along. I asked him about the brand so he included some interesting information on the stamping that he had gleaned from a Mr. Can EBay listing. It certainly sheds some light on the brand. Here is how the listing read:

“This Collectible Briar pipe is unique, extremely rare Comoy’s 309XL – a classic Canadian Shape. It has the arched Comoy’s nomenclature stamped over Deluxe (just as it appeared in the early 1930’s) both of which were stamped over Lumberman. For anyone already familiar with the stamping of Comoy Canadians that is enough to recognize that this is a rare and collectible Comoy.”

It appeared that the pipe was made by Comoy’s and well worth the effort to restore it. Andrew also sent along three pages of background information that he had found on the brand. I believe that Mr. Can was also the source of this information. I have included some of it here as it is interesting to those of us who are curious regarding the history of the pipes we collect:

“During its history, Comoy’s has had three distinct sets of nomenclature, though they became somewhat blended in later years. The earliest Comoy nomenclature either had no Comoy stamping or a scripted, signature like forward leaning Comoy’s beneath which were featured names instead of shape numbers. Few of those names (Like Leman, Naval, Adelaide, and so on) are recognized even by the most ardent collectors. Then after World War I when Comoy began introducing what is sometimes called their Old Nomenclature (featuring the Prima, as the Top of the line with other lines like the Old Bruyere, Grand Slam, Lions Head, Lumberman, Lumberman Special and so forth) and arched Comoy’s stamping was used. In the 1930’s the Prima gave way to the Deluxe as the top of the line Comoy. Then just before World War II newer nomenclature started to appear (like Blue Riband, Specimen Straight Grain, and so on) and the Deluxe was replaced by the Royal Comoy. That New Nomenclature expanded dramatically after the War and blended with the modern nomenclature today.”

“The use of the arched Comoy’s ended with World War II and was replaced after the War with a straight line Comoy’s (along with the now famous country of origin stamping of a circular “Made In London” over a straight line “England”.”

“Prior to World War II with manufacturing facilities in both France and England, Comoy had pipes made in both locations. Most were easily identifiable by their country of origin stamping. There were several versions of Comoy’s Lumberman made in France and/or England. (They might have been the dame pipe but with different nomenclature.) “The Lumberman” and “The Lumberman Special were made in both factories. But none had the arched Comoy’s stamping.”

“After WWII Comoy’s reintroduced the Deluxe, discontinued the arched Comoy’s and continued various versions of the Lumberman. Perhaps Comoy’s best graded Lumberman was stamped Lumberman Deluxe – but it had no Comoy stamping. Lumber was always stamped over Deluxe.”

“Normally Comoy offered to Canadian sizes designated by shape numbers 296 and 309. The difference was in the length of the Canadians. The 309 shape was Comoy’s longest Canadian and the 296 was shorter. However, the extra long Canadians were upgraded with the additional stamping of XL and the very longest were sometimes stamped XXL. Either upgrade was rare.” – the above was taken from correspondence Andrew included when he sent the pipe to me.

Armed with that information I was ready to work on the pipe. I have included a series of photos below to show the cracked shank and the repair I did to it. In the first photo I inserted a dental pick in the shank to open the crack so that I could clean it out. Also included in that photo is the band that I would use to band the cracked shank.

I wiped down the shank with acetone on a cotton pad to clean off the grime and build up of material left behind by the tape that had been used to repair the shank. Once it was clean I dripped some superglue into the crack of the shank and held it tightly together until the glue had dried. Once it had dried I inserted the end of the tenon of the stem I was going to fit to the shank of the pipe for the photos.

I sanded the repair and removed the excess glue from the surface of the top of the shank and wiped the area down with Everclear on cotton pads to clean up after sanding.

I decided to ream the bowl and clean the rim before I went on to band the pipe. I cleaned the inside of the shank as well as I did not want the grime and build up to run when I heated the shank and the band for the pressure fit. I reamed it with a PipNet reamer and scrubbed the rim with saliva on a cotton pad and good old fashioned elbow grease.

I turned the tenon down to get a good fit in the mortise and against the end of the shank. I wanted to see what I was working with in terms of the cut off shank. I knew that it was not straight but I wanted to see how far off it was. I also wanted to see the damage to the shank from the crack. The next series of four photos shows the damage to the shank. I was able to smooth out some of the damage but the band would certainly help in making the end of the shank smooth. I did not want to cut off any of the length after reading the information that Andrew provided. From photos I looked at on the net the stem was the right shape, taper and angles to fit this age of pipe. The old stem I chose was one that had the BBB diamond stamped on the top of it. The stamping was faint so it was a good one to sacrifice for this Lumberman.

I removed the stem once it fit well and pressed the band onto the shank. I then heated it with a heat gun rotating the shank to evenly heat the band and keep the heat from burning the briar.

I pressed the band in place while it was still hot. I use a flat board and press down evenly until the band slides into place. This takes repeated heating until the fit is tight and straight against the end of the shank. In the case of this pipe after I pressed it in place I sanded the damaged end of the shank until it was even and then used a knife to cut a slight bevel on the inside edge of the mortise so that the stem would fit properly.

Once the band was in place I needed to sand down the tenon so that it would fit in the newly constricted airway. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to sand down the excess vulcanite on the tenon so that the fit would be snug. The next three photos show the new stem in place with the band. The stem had been sanded with 220 grit sandpaper to match the lines of the shank and give a proper taper to the stem from the band to the button. I also sanded it with a medium grit sanding sponge.

I sanded the area on the top of the shank where the repair extended slightly ahead of the band with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium grit sanding sponge. I followed that by sanding with micromesh sanding pads to smooth out the spot. I wiped down the bowl with acetone on a cotton pad until the surface was clean and free of debris and dust. I stained it with medium brown aniline stain that was thinned 2:1 with Isopropyl alcohol. I wanted the colour to match the tones that were present on the other Comoy’s that I had from this era and the photos I had seen on line. I applied the stain and flamed it. In the photos below the shine is from hand buffing the pipe with a soft cotton cloth.

I reinserted the stem and worked on the band and the stem with 1500 grit micromesh to begin the process of removing scratches and polishing. I took the pipe to the buffer and gave it a quick buff with red Tripoli and White Diamond.

I worked on the stem with my usual array of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads.

I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil to protect it and when it had dried took the pipe to the buffer. I buffed the stem with White Diamond and gave the bowl and shank a light buff as well. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and finished by buffing it with a clean flannel buff. The finished pipe is picture below.

James Upshall Bark (Unsmoked) Restoration

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As my screen name for this blog implies, I’m a pretty big James Upshall fan. To this point, all of my Upshalls are smooth pipes of the various grades (P, S, B and ungraded). This pipe, my 8th Upshall, was advertised as “unsmoked”. The Ebay pictures were lousy, but the price was right and the seller took refunds, so I rolled the dice. I was pleasantly surprised with a beautiful Bark finish pipe and in perfect, unsmoked condition. Of course the stem was oxidized, which proved to be more stubborn than it appeared.

I didn’t want to soften or damage any of the stem edges on the saddle stem, so I started with a relatively fine, 2000 grit wet paper. I used a combination of popsicle stick and small, flat needle file to get the oxidation out of the creases. That took considerable effort, but I’m pleased with the results. I followed next with 8000 and 12000 grades of micromesh, also utilizing the sticks. Working around the small, stamped logo, was challenging. The stem was then buffed with white diamond and then plastic polish.

I worked in some Halycon II wax on the bowl, which was in mint condition. I used an old toothbrush to work the wax into the rough finish and then buffed it with a clean cloth.

I’m very excited to smoke this one, as it is my first unsmoked James Upshall. I’ve handled other Bark finish Upshalls in the past and some of the stem work was not to my liking. This one looks to have a good grade of vulacanite and has the feel I’m accustomed to on my polished Upshalls. The button is particularly appealing and has perfect mouth feel. I’m not a real clencher, so smaller profile buttons are to my liking. The Bark finish feels superb in my hand and it is a bit similar to the Sea Rock on my Castello. After the Rhodesian and Bulldog shapes, the classic Bent Billiard is next on my preferred shapes list.

I have several large Upshalls in my collection and I’m focusing on obtaining only smaller pipes now. Fortunately, this one isn’t too far out of my comfort zone at 60 grams. It is also about the same size as my Castello 4k pipe (also a bent billiard).

Topping a Badly Damaged Georg Jensen Bent Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

In the process of going through the box of pipes for the Vancouver Pipe Club to put back the ones I had worked on, I found another that really needed attention. I just could not leave it in the box as the damage looked awful and I knew it could look so much better. It is an oddly shaped bent billiard to me but it had a quaint quality about it that I liked. It is stamped Georg Jensen over Made in Denmark Pipes on the left side and Zenta on the right side. On the underside of the shank it is stamped 525. I am assuming that is a shape number. The stem was oxidized around the shank. The bowl had been coated with varnish – even over the grit on the surface. There were also finger prints in the varnish. The worst part of the pipe was the rim. It was worn down on the front side and the varnish had covered the rough surface of the beat up briar. It was also burned on the back inner edge of the rim and onto the rim surface. The inner edge of the rim was also damaged and nicked and gouged out of round. The stem had one tooth mark on the topside near the button.

I have included the next two close-up photos to show the rim damage. The front edge is very worn, the back inner edge is burned and the inner edge of the rim is clearly gouged and marked. Fortunately the damage did not extend deeply into the bowl was limited to the top 1/8th inch of the bowl top. The bowl had also been coated with a black rubbery bowl coating. I chose to leave it as the bowl also had some gouges in the bottom from the knife that someone used to ream the bowl.

I set up my board and sandpaper that I use for topping pipe bowls and sanded the top of the rim. This one was a little tricky in that the front slope was lower than the rest of the rim. I worked the back half of the rim first to bring the height down to the same place as the highest portion of the front slope. Once I had that done it was an easy matter to proceed with topping the rest of the rim. I worked until I had removed the burn damage and the rough front edge and had a flat, smooth and rim with an even circumference.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the varnish coat and the rest of the finish so that I could blend in the stain on the freshly topped rim with the rest of the pipe.

I used MinWax Red Mahogany stain to restain the pipe. I rubbed it on and then wiped it off several times until I had the even coverage I wanted on the bowl. I had buffed it with a cotton cloth to give it a slight shine and get a feel for the overall look of the stain on the bowl. I retouched the stain on the rim to darken it slightly. I lightly buffed the bowl with White Diamond and gave it an initial coat of carnauba wax.

The tooth mark on the top of the stem needed to be heated to lift it as much as possible and then I used some superglue to finish the repair. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to feather it into the surface of the stem. I followed that with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. I finished the stem with my usual array of micromesh sanding pads – wetsanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and then buffed the pipe with White Diamond. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax to finish. The completed pipe is shown in the photos below. I also included a photo of the top of the rim to show the repair. The pipe is now ready to join the rest of the ones heading to the Vancouver Pipe Club. It should provide years of service to the pipeman who takes it home.

Reworking a Peterson’s Kildare X105

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I picked up this old pipe primarily for the shape. It has the chunky look I like in a pipe. The bowl has some nice grain on it and that was attractive as well. The stamping was too faint to read in the shop but when I got home with a bright light and a loupe I was able to see the stamping more clearly – though it is very faint. The left side of the shank says Peterson’s over Kildare and the right side says Made in England and the shape number of X105 (at least that is what the stamping of the number looks like). The pipe was in decent shape and would clean up quite nicely. The finish was not too bad though the previous restorer had given it a coat of varnish or something that was quite heavy. There were finger prints still in the varnish coat. The bowl was reamed and clean and the shank quite clean. The rim had some buildup that had been varnished over which gave it a damaged appearance. The stem seems like a replacement but I cannot be sure as the fit is very well done. It was in great shape with minimal oxidation and slight pitting on the surface of the vulcanite. There were not any tooth marks or chatter.

I decided to remove the varnish coat (it seems like I have had to do that a lot lately with the pipes I am reworking for the pipe club). I wiped down the bowl with acetone and cotton pads until I had removed the varnish and the stain. I scrubbed the rim with the acetone and pads as well to remove the buildup under the varnish. It came of quite easily and turned out to be undamaged. There was a slight darkening of the rim on the left side toward the front but no damage to the area.

While I was working on it I remembered that I had picked up a Peterson sterling silver band that would probably fit this pipe very well. I dug it out of my box of bands and gave it a try on the shank. It fit perfectly on the shank. I like the look of the bling and the added perk of it being a Peterson stamped sterling silver band was bonus!

I put wood glue on the shank to anchor the band (no repairs were necessary and the band was purely adornment) and pressed the band into place. I rotated it so that the Peterson engraving was on the top of the shank.

I stained the bowl with MinWax Medium Walnut and Red Mahogany stain to get a reddish brown tint to the briar. I rubbed it on the pipe and then off again. I did the same with both colours. When it was dry I hand buffed it with a soft cotton cloth.

The stem was lightly oxidized and slightly pitted so I decided to work it over with the micromesh sanding pads. I used the usual method I have developed as a habit over the years and wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I buffed the stem with White Diamond and rubbed in some Obsidian Oil to preserve the vulcanite.

When the stem was done I reinserted it into the shank and buffed the entire pipe with White Diamond. I avoided buffing the silver as I find that it darkens the wheels and also the wood and vulcanite on both sides of the band. So once I had finished buffing the pipe I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax and then buffed it with a clean flannel buff. I took it back to the work table and polished the silver band with a jeweler’s cloth and then applied some wax on the band to slow down the oxidation of the silver. The finished pipe is pictured below. I also have included a picture of the finished rim to show the cleanup results. The pipe is cleaned and ready to be smoked. The addition of the silver band worked well in my opinion and I like the finished look of the old timer quite a bit.

A Renovation of a Good Companion London Made Billiard

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My wife and I went out for lunch on Saturday and there was an antique shop across the street from the restaurant. After eating we brave torrential downpours and ran across the street check out a shop we had not visited before. We looked through the various display cases and I found the pipe below along with a chewed up Yello-Bole billiard. The pipe was a small group 3 sized billiard. The finish was a dark brown stain on a sandblasted pipe. The left side had great grain pattern and showed deep grooves. The right side was a tight birdseye grain and the blast was shallow and close. The shank was rusticated to look like a sandblast. The stem had a slight bend but seemed be from sitting in the heat rather than intention. There was a bite through on the top surface of the stem that was large enough that it could not have been patched. The rim was originally smooth and beveled inward but the bevel had been damaged and needed to be reshaped and cleaned up. The stamping on the pipe is what ultimately made me spend the $10 to make the pipe mine. It read Good Companion over London Made on the underside of the shank. I just finished reading a new book by Mark Irwin called Pipe Companions. In it he wrote of the relationship between the pipe and the pipeman. I think it was a great coincidence to walk into a pipe stamped Good Companion. I wanted to clean it up and make it my own.

When I got home from the visit to the shop I took the pipe apart. The stem had a large spiral stinger apparatus in the tenon. The stem itself was badly chewed. I found a new stem for the pipe in my can of stems and worked on the tenon to make the tapered stem fit the shank.

I pushed the newly fitted stem into the shank to have a look at the shape with a taper stem. I liked the overall look of the pipe with the new stem. I sanded the stem to remove the calcification and the oxidation on it. I also worked on the fit of the stem to the shank. I wanted the transition to be smooth and seamless. I took the stem in and out several times while I worked on it. The last time I pushed it into the shank there was a crack! I don’t know if that has happened to you but when it happens there is a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Here the pipe was almost ready to refinish and the stem fit well and then crack. The frustration at that moment is high level. I laid the pipe down and had a coffee while I thought about my next steps.

I went through the box of nickel bands that I have here and I did not have any the correct size for the shank. All of them were either too huge or too small. I did remember however that I had some brass plumbing pressure fitting pieces that would make a great band on the pipe and create a totally different look on this old pipe. Before fitting the band I worked on the bevel of the inner edge of the rim. I used a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth out the rim damage and reshape the bevel.

I used a Dremel and sanding drum to sand back the shank so that the band could be pressure fit against the cracked shank. I took back the rustication until the finish was gone and the shank area was smooth. When the band fit tightly on the shank I heated the brass band with a heat gun and then pressed it into place on the shank.

I pressed the band into place on the shank and then hand sanded the area in front of the band smooth so that I could rework the taper of the shank and the finish to match the rest of the pipe.

I used the two Dremel diamond cutting heads pictured below to rusticate the finish on the shank. I used the cylinder first and then the ball. I worked it into the briar to make the smooth area match the rest of the bowl.

After rusticating the shank I stained it with a dark brown aniline stain and flamed it to set it deep within the grain. I stained the rest of the pipe as well and the rim with multiple coats of the dark brown.

Once the stain was dry on the bowl I hand buffed it with a cotton cloth and then stained it a second time with MinWax Red Mahogany stain. I rubbed it on and then rubbed it off. I repeated the process until I had the colour that I wanted.

I buffed the bowl on with White Diamond and to evenly distribute the stain coat and give the pipe a rich shine. When I had finished I worked on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper, a medium grit sanding sponge and micromesh sanding pads. I used my usual array – wet sanding with the 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with the 3200-12,000 grit pads. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the vulcanite.

I sanded the bevel on the bowl and the brass band on the shank with the 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads.

I buffed the pipe with White Diamond and then gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I used Halcyon II wax on the sandblast finish of the bowl. I buffed the pipe with a clean flannel buff. I have to say though I would have liked to keep the pipe unbanded and pristine, the crack that happened in the shank made me try something a little different. I actually like the finished look of the pipe with the brass band. The combination of the two stains give the blast finish depth that changes with different lighting and the tapered stem adds some panache to this Good Companion.

Looking at the photos I decided to do a bit more work shaping the brass band. I sanded the band with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the ridges in the brass. I followed that by sanding with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. I finished sanding the band with micromesh sanding pads from 1500-3200 grit polish it.

With the band finished I will give the pipe another buff to polish the handling that it received working over the stem.

Comoy’s St. James Shape 62 Restored

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This oddly shaped Comoy’s came to me in a lot that was donated years ago to the Vancouver Pipe Club. It has been sitting for a long time needing a bit of care to bring it back to life before going to the Club to be sold or given away. It is stamped on the top of the shank, St. James in an arc over London Made in a straight line. On the underside of the shank it is stamped Made in England by Comoy’s followed by 62. The finish was rough on this one; the top of the rim had been beaten against something hard and had damaged the outer edge to the point that it was no longer sharp. The inner edge of the rim was not too bad but the bowl had been coated with a black rubbery bowl coating that was grim. There was one rather large fill on the right side of the bowl near the shank/bowl junction. The stem had some oxidation next to the button and some small tooth chatter there as well. The stem also had one silver bar inset in the vulcanite on the left side. It is not a logo that I have come to associate with Comoy’s but rather with Savinelli. I am not certain the stem is original. Perhaps someone here can shed some light on the stem logo and this particular line of Made in England by Comoy’s Pipes.

I decided to top the bowl and try to repair the outer rim damage. It was truly a mess. In the next photos you will see the set up for topping and also several photos of the bowl rim as I began to sand it out. The sanding dust stuck to the bowl coating.

When I finally got the topping done to the point where the rim was more smooth and crisp I also sanded the outer edge to minimize some of the deeper chips and rough areas that I left because I did not want to top too much of the bowl. I then cleaned out the bowl and the shank and wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the varnish coat that had been put on the bowl. I reamed out the bowl coating with a PipNet reamer as I wanted to remove the sticky black substance and wanted to see what the walls of the bowl looked like underneath the ooze.

I sanded the bowl and rim with a medium grit sanding sponge and then with a 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad to remove the scratching that was present under the finish and that left behind by the sanding sponge. I wiped it down a final time with acetone on a cotton pad to clean and prepare it for restaining.

I used a black permanent marker to bring grain lines into the fill area and minimize the way it stood out. In the second photo you can see the effect of the marker and stain on the fill near the bowl/shank junction. Previously it had stood out and now it was muted. I restained the bowl with MinWax Medium Walnut stain. I rubbed it on with a cotton pad and wiped it off with a cloth and repeated the process until the stain had given the bowl a good coverage. I sanded the oxidation and tooth marks near the button on the top and the bottom of the stem with the medium grit sanding sponge.

I took the next photo to show the improvement to the damaged rim and the clean edges that were now present. The stain did a great job in bringing out the grain on the rim. It follows the pattern of the grain on the shank.

I buffed the stem with red Tripoli and then sanded it with my usual array of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1200-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I buffed the stem with White Diamond and rubbed in a coating of Obsidian Oil to protect against further oxidation.

I buffed the pipe with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I finished by buffing it with a soft flannel buff. The finished pipe is shown below. Soon it will go the Pipe Club for their benefit.

A Great Piece of Briar – Restored Square Shanked GBD New Era 9489 Billiard

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I am generally not a fan of square shanked pipes. I am not sure why but there is just something about them that has never caught my eye… that is until I saw this GBD New Era Billiard. It has stunning grain – cross grain on the back of the bowl and the top and bottom of the shank and the bowl. There is also some cross grain off centre on the front of the bowl. The left side has stunning birdseye and the same is also true on the right side of the bowl. The rim of the bowl is beveled inward and is also cross grain. The finish on the bowl was in excellent shape other than a heavy build up on the rim of tars and carbon. The stem was long, oxidized and had a huge bite through on the underside of the stem. It is stamped GBD in an oval over an arced New Era on the left side of the shank and London England over 9489 on the right side.

I have included the photo below of the underside of the stem. The size of the hole made it unpatchable with my usual methods.

I used the Dremel and sanding drum to cut off the end of the stem and remove the damaged portion of the stem. I would then recut a button on the end of the stem and rework the airway opening in the slot.

I took the pipe back to my work table and used a file to cut the line for the button. For this initial part of shaping the new button I leave the stem on the shank as the bowl provides a good “handle” to hold on to when reworking the stem.

I used a flat needle file to carve down the slope of the stem toward the button. I find that reworking the slope of the stem gives a smoother transition between the new button and the blade of the stem. I think we have all seen poorly cut buttons where the button looks pinched on the end – almost like someone squeezed the button out of the stem. I want the transition to move gently toward the new button and then have clean angles on the button.

At this point I usually remove it from the shank as I have much more carving to do on the stem with needle files and I want to be able to turn it at various angles to get things the way I want them. I continued to work on the stem with various needle files and 220 grit sandpaper to shape and contour the stem. I sanded the rest of the stem as well carefully working around the GBD roundel to make sure not to damage it. When I had finished the shaping of the button I sanded the entirety with a medium grit sanding sponge to smooth out the scratches and further remove the oxidation. I probably could have soaked it in Oxyclean but since I was working the button over with sandpaper and files anyway I just sanded the stem.

I set the stem aside for a bit and scrubbed the bowl rim down with saliva on cotton pads scraping and rubbing until I got to the clean surface of the rim. I did not intend to restain this pipe so I was careful not to remove the finish in the process.

I took it to the buffer after I had it cleaned up as shown above. I buffed the edge with White Diamond to remove the last of the detritus of the carbon on the rim. The first photo below shows the clean bowl rim. The three photos following that one show the bowl after it had been buffed with carnauba wax to polish it and protect it.

I put the stem back on just to have a look at the work so far. Sometimes I need to get a bit of perspective on the stem work so I will stop and put things back together, take a few photos and study them to see what I need to do. Somehow the photos show things that my eye does not pick up as I work on the pipe.

The pipe was looking good and the areas that needed work on the oxidation and scratches showed up clearly in the flash. I used micromesh sanding pads to work on the finish. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads.

When I finished sanding I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and when it as dry buffed it with White Diamond once again. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean flannel buffing pad to give it a shine. It is important when buffing to not press to hard around the nomenclature. I generally use a very light touch in those areas and then hand polish them with a soft cotton cloth. The finished pipe is pictured below. The stem came out quite nicely There is a bit of oxidation around the roundel that still remains. I will continue to work on that with the micromesh pads and see what I can do but it is ready to load a bowl and smoke.

A Quick and Easy Cleanup on A GBD Prehistoric 9457?? Maybe Not!

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Blog by Steve Laug

This is the fifth of the six pipes that I picked up recently. It is a GBD Prehistoric that has a great sandblast. The stamping on the pipe is on the underside of the shank and reads as follows: GBD in an oval followed by Prehistoric in Germanic script. Next to that is London England over 9457. While it looked like it was originally a billiard, I have learned that initial looks can be deceiving. I checked out the shape number on the web at http://www.perardua.net/pipes/GBDshape.html and found out that the shape was not a billiard at all but that it is supposed to be a Lovat.

It truly was a quick and easy cleanup. The bowl was slightly caked and needed to be reamed. The beveled rim was dirty and had a thick tarry buildup on it. The finish was good but dusty. The stem was oxidized and had a bit of tooth chatter but was not hard to clean. The catch in this one is that the stem is a replacement. A common theme is coming through on this lot. I am pretty certain they all came from the same pipeman. The stems either have a large bite through on the underside or they have twin bore bite proof replacement stems. Two of the lot had twin bore stems and three had serious bite throughs. This one is a twin bore bite proof stem. I decided to clean it up for now while I am on the hunt for a GBD stem for it. I am also going to look through my stems and see if I can find a Lovat style stem that will work for the pipe.

I have included the next photo to show the state of the rim and the bowl before I cleaned it.

Next is a photo of the bite proof twin bore stem. It is a bit different from others I have seen in that it seems to have a white bar inserted between the two airholes in the button. It give the end view a striped appearance.

I scrubbed the rim with saliva and cotton pads until it was clean. It took a lot of scrubbing and scraping to remove the tarry buildup but eventually it came off without damaging the finish on the rim. I really like the inward bevel on some of these GBD Prehistoric pipes because of the nice contrast it adds to the dark finish on the blast of the rest of the pipe. Typically the rim and the underside of the shank match in terms of smoothness and colour.

The rim is clean and ready to buff. In the first photo below the rim is shown after the scrubbing. In the second photo it is shown after I took it to the buffer and buffed it with White Diamond.

The stem was oxidized but I found that the oxidation was on the surface and not very deep into the vulcanite. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and the tooth chatter on the top and bottom sides of the stem. I then gave it my usual regimen of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. It did not take too long before the stem shone. Once I had finished with the pads I gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil and rubbed it into the stem.

I scrubbed the bowl down with a soft bristle tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil soap and then rinsed it with warm water. I dried it and gave the bowl a coat of Halcyon II wax as I find it works well on these sandblast finishes. I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed the stem with White Diamond once again and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the bowl and stem with a soft, flannel buff to give it a shine. The finished pipe is pictured below. It was finished by I still was not happy with the stem and the look of the pipe. It just was not quite right. A true GBD stem for a Lovat would be nice but I am going to try a couple of other tricks while I am waiting to find one. I set the pipe aside over night to think it through.

Anyone have an extra GBD stem kicking around? Do you want to sell or trade it? Drop me a note.

This morning when I got up I thought about using a Lovat stem on the pipe and looked through my can of stems for one. While doing that it occurred to me that rather than turn a tenon and refit a stem to the shank that I could just as easily cut back the existing stem – it already fit the shank. The majority of the cleanup work has been done and I could rid myself of the bite proof twin bore stem. I know from past experience that the twin bore is like a Y and when cut back it will end in a single airway in the shortened stem. I can then open that into a slot and cut a new button and I will be in business. I decided to take that tact.

I trimmed the stem back until the two airways merged. I had to significantly shorten the stem to get to that point. I cut a new button and inserted it in the shank… problem – the stem was now too short for the look of the bowl. So… I have to cut a new stem for it. I have included a couple of photos of the short stem I cut so that you can see what I mean about the length being wrong.

With the stem being too short I started over. I found another stem in my can – longer than the previous one and turned the tenon to fit the shank. I stair stepped the tenon to make a good snug fit in the shank. I used the Dremel and the sanding drum to take off the excess vulcanite and fit the stem to the diameter of the shank. I purposely chose a stem that was slightly larger than the shank diameter because the shank on the pipe was slightly out of round. I fit the stem as close as possible to the shank with the sanding drum and then took it back to the worktable to shape by hand.

I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to bring the shape into line with the shank. It took quite a bit of hand sanding. I also shaped the stem with the sandpaper flattening the blade of the stem and smoothing and thinning the edges as well. I wanted the diameter of the stem to match from the shank to the saddle and then have straight lines back to the tip. This was all done by hand sanding with the 220 grit paper.

Once I had the lines straight from front to back I used a medium grit sanding sponge to smooth out the surface of the stem and reduce the scratches left by the sandpaper. I opened up the button with needle files to make it easier for a pipe cleaner to go in and out of the pipe.

I sanded the stem with my usual run of micromesh sanding pads – wetsanding with 1500-2400 grit and then dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I buffed the stem with red tripoli between the wet and dry sanding and then when finished I buffed it with White Diamond. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil to protect it and when it was dry hand buffed it.

When I finished with the stem I lightly buffed the whole pipe with White Diamond and then gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I used Halcyon II wax on the bowl as I had above and then hand buffed the bowl and shank with a shoe brush. The finished pipe is picture below. I think that the Lovat style stem is an improvement to the look of the pipe. The new stem is approximately ¾ of an inch shorter than the stem that came with the pipe. I also am much happier with a regular slotted stem in place of the twin bore that I pictured earlier.

This pipe is really quite symbolic of what can happen when refurbishing a pipe. In many ways it is a bit of the story of some of my pipe refurbishing. It sometimes takes two or three tries to get the pipe to where I want it to be. Thanks for hanging in there with me in the process of this refurb!

Steps Toward Solving a Pipe Mystery – 2 More One Blue Dot Billiards

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On October 26, 2013, I wrote about a pipe I found and my questioning whether it was a Sasieni Blue Dot billiard. I refurbished the billiard and wrote about it in this blog post https://rebornpipes.wordpress.com/2013/10/26/when-i-saw-it-i-thought-it-was-a-sasieni-one-dot-billiard/ . I was never satisfied with my conclusions regarding the manufacture of this particular pipe. Last weekend (December 28, 2013) I went pipe hunting again and stopped at the same location. There were two more of the blue dot pipes in his case. One of them had been smoked quite a lot and one of them was pretty clean. The one had a cracked shank and the other was clean. The clean one had a stinger apparatus in it while neither the earlier find or the other one this time had one present. The interesting thing to me was that on both of these pipes there was a single line stamped on the bottom of the shank. On the relatively clean pipe the stamping was gold filled and read ATLAS POWDER CO. On the other pipe it had the same stamping though the gold was long gone. I checked the previous pipe and sure enough the same stamping, though fainter was present. Suddenly I had in my possession a trio of billiards. All had the single blue dot on the stem, all were stamped Genuine Briar. All had the same English style tapered stem. All were nice pieces of briar with no fills or flaws. All were stamped ATLAS POWDER CO.

Now I had some work to do – not just restoring these two old pipes to the same state as the other one but really digging into the ATLAS POWDER CO. to find out who they were. Was it possible that what I had were three specialty pipes, stamped with the Company name in gold lettering were made as gift pipes or award pipes? That raised a second question that to me was at least as important. Who made the pipes for the company? Is it possible that they were made by Sasieni, specially stamped with the name of the company to be given out to executives or share holders as gifts? Being able to read the stamping on the bottom of the shank gave me an important clue regarding what to look for on the web. With my questions clearly in my I began to do research on the company. I quickly found out that in 1912, Atlas Powder Company was created in Wilmington, Delaware, when DuPont Company sold two explosives divisions, as mandated by “trust busting” enactments during the Theodore Roosevelt presidency. In the 1960s, Atlas Powder Company changed its corporate name to Atlas Chemical Industries. I wanted more details on that formation and the other companies that may have been included in the process.

I found a facsimile of an old stock certificate that had some corporate information on it as well as the back side of a mailing envelope with the name and products that were produced by the Atlas Company.

Further research took me to the company archives at this site http://beta.worldcat.org/archivegrid/collection/data/776641025 There I found information and company minutes from a variety of their meetings and activities. I also found information on lawsuits and actions pending against them at various times in their history. There were corporate memos and data that was marginally interesting but nothing that definitively spoke of pipe being made, purchased or given away. Quoting from the site:

“… The Atlas Powder Company was incorporated in Delaware on October 18, 1912 as part of the court-ordered breakup of the explosives monopoly of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. As part of the settlement, parts of DuPont’s black powder and dynamite business were spun off to two new companies, the Hercules Powder Company, capitalized at $13 million, and the Atlas Powder Company, capitalized at $6 million. Atlas functioned as an independent explosives and chemicals company until July 21, 1971, when it was purchased by Imperial Chemical Industries Limited (U.K.) and became its American affiliate under the name ICI Americas Inc.

Atlas began business on Jan. 1, 1913, with four former DuPont black powder plants at Ooltewah, Tenn., Belleville, Ill., Pittsburg, Kan., and Patterson, Okla., and three ex-DuPont dynamite plants at Landing, N.J., Hancock, Mich., and Webb City, Mo. Later that year, it purchased the Reynolds Works near Tamaqua, Pa. from the Potts Powder Company, where it manufactured electric exploders, blasting caps, nitric and sulphuric acids, dynamite, and blasting detonators. In 1915, Atlas purchased The Giant Powder Company, Consolidated, which held the first U.S. rights to the Nobel dynamite patents, giving it a presence on the West Coast.

Following the lead of DuPont and Hercules, Atlas began diversifying from explosives into other chemical lines with the 1917 acquisition of Richards & Co., Inc., of Connecticut, and its sales subsidiaries Zapon Leather Cloth Company and Celluloid Zapon Company, manufacturers of lacquers and artificial leather. In 1925, the Pacific Lacquer & Bronze Company was added to the Zapon family. In 1921, Atlas contracted with the Darco Corporation to build an activated carbon plant in Marshall, Tex., and in 1928 Richards & Co., Inc., purchased the Duratex Corporation, a manufacturer of pyroxylin and rubber coated fabrics which also brought a controlling interest in Darco. Atlas bought the assets of the Brevolite Lacquer Company of North Chicago in 1933 and combined it with the Midwest business to the Zapon Company as the Zapon-Brevolite Lacquer Company. Traditional explosives capacity increased with the 1932 purchase of the Peerless-Union Explosives Company. The Atlas Research Laboratory was established at the Reynolds Plant in 1930, and Atlas de Mexico, S.A., was organized as a sales company in 1937.

Atlas devoted all of its plants to military needs during World War II and operated three ordnance plants under contract from the government. However, despite a second surge during the Korean War, the post-World War II years brought a major restructuring. The Duratex line of coated fabrics and plastics was discontinued in 1948, and the Zapon-Darco industrial finishes business was sold in 1955. The following year, Atlas bought the Thermaflow Chemical Corporation of Pennsylvania, makers of high-impact reinforced plastic molding compounds, and the Aquaness Corporation of Houston, Texas, a maker of chemical compounds used in the petroleum industry. In 1959, Atlas formed Solar Nitrogen Chemicals, Inc., as a joint venture with the Standard Oil Company (Ohio) to manufacture ammonia fertilizers. At the same time, explosives plants were being closed. As a consequence, Atlas changed its name to Atlas Chemical Industries, Inc., on May 31, 1961, and the next day completed a merger with The Stuart Company, a Pasadena pharmaceuticals maker. In 1997, after numerous spinoffs and restructurings, the pharmaceuticals business of Atlas became AstraZeneca LP, which has its headquarters in the former Atlas facilities in the Wilmington suburbs.”

Armed with that information and information gleaned by looking at sales of gift memorabilia on EBay it became at least a real possibility that these pipes were given to stock holders as gifts. I was not able to find definitive information regarding the gifting of the pipes or who made them the implications were strong that they were made for that purpose.
The question still remained regarding the pipes. That took me to a search on the history of Sasieni pipes and any potential connections between the companies. The first article that I turned to was a definitive piece on the history of the brand by Stephen Smith entitled, “Connecting the Dots: A Concise History of the Sasieni Pipe”. http://murderofravens.org/my-sasieni-pipe-article/

From the article I learned a brief review of the history of the brand. I learned that the Sasieni Company began in 1919 and continued in the family until 1979 when it was sold (this period is the Pre-Transition Period). The Transition period lasted from 1979 to 1986. The company had been bought by Ian Chase and a group of South African investors. In 1986, the company was once again sold to James B. Russell and after him to Cadogan Investments Ltd (Oppenheimer & Co. Ltd.). This Post-Transition period has continued since 1986 to the present. The time period of the pipe and the ATLAS POWDER CO. overlap. However interesting that may be there is still no proof of the connection at this point in my search. I included the above advertisement photo from Stephen’s article because the shape of the billiard in the photo is virtually identical to the three that I have that are the cause of this research.

I am on holiday so I had the time to spare and I spent several hours tracing down leads and dead ends on the links between the two companies. There are no links that I can find. So I am left with just a hunch, a supposition that the pipes were made for the Atlas Powder Co. as gift pipes and that they were potentially made by Sasieni. I may never know more than that but it still leaves more room for digging in the future.

Leaving the mystery to stew for a bit longer I will walk through the refurbishing of the two additional one dot pipes. Here is the pair of bowls in question. The one on the left is solid and less used than the one on the right. It had very little cake in the bowl and the shank and stem were in good shape. The one on the right was more heavily smoked and had a cracked shank. The stem was in fairly decent shape on this one as well. I began my refurbishing on this pair with the pipe on the right.

I use a dental pick to remove the scotch tape that held the shank together. It was not clear how bad the crack was until I could get the tape completely removed. I wetted a cotton pad with acetone and wiped down the scotch tape to facilitate its removal.

The next photo is horrible and for that I apologize. I would not have included it if it did not still show the damage to the cracked shank on the first pipe. I glued the cracked piece in place with superglue and then found a band that I could pressure fit on the shank. The combination of gluing the damaged shank and banding it would make it useable once more. I heated the band on the shank over a heat gun and then pressure fit it onto the shank.

The next series of three photos show the newly banded shank. The repair is finished and with the band in place the rest of the refurbishing of the bowl can take place.

With the band in place on the shank the tenon had to be reduced slightly for a comfortable fit. I cleaned out the shank before I sanded the tenon as I wanted a clean surface for the tenon to sit against. I used cotton swabs and Everclear to clean out the shank. Once it was done I sanded the tenon with 220 grit sand paper to remove enough of the tenon for it to have a snug fit in the shank. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to remove the carbon build up in the bowl. I lightly topped the bowl to remove the tars and buildup on the rim and to remove some of the slight burn marks on the rim top. Fortunately these were shallow and I was able to remove them completely without dramatically affecting the height of the bowl.

I wiped the bowl down with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the finish that remained on the pipe. There was a light varnish coat that came off easily with the acetone. Underneath was some very nice grain and no fills or fissures.

The airway in the stem was clogged and I was not able to blow air through it so I used a dental pick to reach into the airway at the tenon end and through the slot in the button. Fortunately the blockage was near both of these openings and I was able to remove the hardened tars and oils that were present. The tenon end also seemed to have some metallic pieces remaining from the stinger apparatus that was originally in the tenon (I know that it had a stinger as the other pipe still had one in place). It took many pipe cleaners and much Everclear to get the grime deposits removed from the airway of the stem. The photo below shows just a few of them toward the end of the process.

I stained the pipe with a Minwax Medium Walnut stain. It has a nice patina and goes well with the age of these older pipes. I rubbed it on with a cotton pad and rubbed it off with a soft cotton cloth. I reapplied the stain until I had the coverage that I wanted. My goal was to let the grain show through the stain and highlight the beauty of this old pipe.

I buffed the pipe with White Diamond once the stain was dry to bring out a shine to the finish.

The next photo shows the pipe lying next to the other one. I wanted the stamping on the unrefurbished pipe to highlight the stamping on this pipe. The golden colour of the other stamp is very clear and the stamping on the newly stained one is still visible yet not golden. Before I finished this one, the golden stamping was missing and a black stamping was present in its place.

I worked on the stem with my usual regimen of micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I buffed the stem with White Diamond after using the 12,000 grit pad and then rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I hand buffed it before putting it back in the shank of the pipe. I also used the micromesh pads to polish the nickel band before I buffed the pipe. I used 2400-4000 grit pads to polish the nickel and then rubbed it down with a silver polishing cloth.

The first of the two pipes was finished. I buffed the entirety with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the newly waxed pipe with a soft, clean flannel buff to give it a shine and set it aside while I worked on the second pipe. The next four photos show the finished pipe.

The second pipe looked worse for wear when I started on it but it was merely surface wear. The bowl itself was not even broken in and the slight cake on the top portion of the bowl was very thin. The shank and the inside of the stem were very clean. The original stinger apparatus was still in place and was slightly discoloured. The ATLAS POWDER CO. stamping on the bottom of the shank was still embossed with gold in the letters. The varnish coat on the finish was disintegrating on the surface of the briar but the briar itself was in great shape. There was no damage to the rim or the edges of the rim. The bowl had no visible fills or dents. It just needed a major cleanup.

I have included the next photo to show the ATLAS stamping on the shank more clearly.

I followed the same process on this pipe as the one above and wiped the bowl down with acetone on cotton pads. I was careful to not wipe down the bottom of the shank as I wanted to leave the gold stamping intact. With the varnish coat removed the grain on this pipe was also very nice. There is a mix of cross grain, birdseye and a swirl of mixed grain.

I removed the stinger apparatus which was pressed into the tenon of the pipe by twisting it free. Once it was removed I cleaned up the interior of the slot on the stinger and the grooves around the end of the spoon portion of the piece. I reinserted it in the stem.

I used the same regimen on the stem as noted above to polish the oxidation away. I have found that the combination of wet and dry sanding with micromesh sanding pads works well for me and gives the stem a deep shine. When I finished sanding I buffed it with White Diamond and rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I hand buffed the stem and set it aside while I worked on the bowl.

I used the same Minwax Medium Walnut stain on this pipe as the last. I applied it, rubbed it off, and reapplied it until I had the coverage I wanted. As before, I wanted the grain to shine through the stain and give depth to the finish of the pipe.

I inserted the stem in the shank and buffed the whole pipe with White Diamond and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below.

With both of the new additions finished I put them together with the previous ATLAS POWDER CO. pipe and took the following photos. The first pipe has a shorter stem because when I found it the stem had a large bite through. I shortened the length on it and reshaped the button. Other than that and the added band on the middle one the pipes are much the same. All bear the same stamping and the same blue dot. Who knows who the maker of these pipes was? I am still inclined to believe that they may have been made by Sasieni for the ATLAS POWDER CO. to be given to share holders or executives. Whatever the case may be they are smooth smoking pipes and will last another lifetime.

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