Tag Archives: removing oxidation

The Nameless Pipe has a Name

by Kenneth Lieblich

I recently had the pleasure of meeting with a family – and nine of the male family members each wanted a pipe! I was only too happy to help them out. The youngest member of this throng was 18 years old and picked out the pipe you see here. It is a charming and beautifully curved Zulu. I decided to work on it first because I liked it so much. Not only is it handsome, but it is well made too. However, there were no pipemaker’s marks on the pipe at all. No name of any sort – kind of. The only thing to be seen was that the previous owner carved his own name into the shank: Ray. I’m afraid I don’t know who Ray is, but he had a nice pipe. So, the nameless pipe has a name after all. It’s now being passed on to a fine young man with a good head on his shoulders. When I was talking to him about the pipe, I commented that I could investigate sanding off the name if he wished. He said no – it was part of the pipe’s history and he wanted to leave it. Smart kid. Alas, no markings mean no history. However, I can report that the pipe was well smoked in its past. The stummel was in good shape, but there was evidence of lots of smoking once upon a time. As you can see, there appears to be some burning on the rim, but I’ll have to take a closer look for damage. The stem was pretty worn – lots of tooth marks and scratches. Also, a bit of calcification and oxidation.

As a first step, I used oil soap on a few cotton rounds and wiped the stem down to provide an initial cleaning of filth before moving on. I used a disposable lighter and ‘painted’ the stem with its flame. The gentle heat of the flame can cause the dents in the vulcanite of the stem to expand back into shape. In this case, it actually worked fairly well and I got some improvement. The primary cleaning comes next. I cleaned the inside of the stem with both pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in 99% lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. I scrubbed thoroughly to make sure the interior was really 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 is a hideous brownish mess – but better off the stem than on it.Once the stem was reasonably clean, I soaked it overnight in some de-oxidation fluid. This solution works to draw oxidation in the stem to the surface. This is a major aid and important step in ensuring a clean stem. The following day, I drew the stem out from its bath and scrubbed the lingering fluid with a toothbrush. Once clean and dry, I set about fixing the marks and dents in the vulcanite. This is 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. I use 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 apply pipe-stem oil while using the last five micromesh pads. There is a wonderful, deep black shine to the stem when I am done.Now that the stem is (nearly) complete, I can move on to the stummel. The first step for me is to ream out the bowl – that is to say, remove all the cake inside the bowl. This accomplishes a couple of things. First (and most obviously), it cleans the bowl and provides a refurbished chamber for future smoking. Second, when the old cake is removed, I can inspect the interior walls of the bowl and determine if there is damage or not. I used a reamer, a pipe knife, and a piece of sandpaper taped to a wooden dowel. Collectively, these ensure that all the debris is removed. My next step was to remove the lava on the rim. For this, I took 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 rim. This work revealed that – Deo gratias – the burning was superficial and the underlying wood was totally intact.The inside of the stummel needs to be cleaned thoroughly. Similar to the stem, I then cleaned the stummel with both pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in 99% lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. With this pipe, it didn’t take too long to get it clean. I then decided to ‘de-ghost’ the pipe – that is to say, exorcize the remaining filth from the briar. I filled the bowl and the shank with cotton balls, then saturated them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummel sit overnight. This caused any remaining oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton.To tidy up the briar, I also wiped down the outside with some oil soap on cotton. This does a good job of cleaning any latent dirt on the surface of the briar. The last step of the cleaning process is to scour the inside of the stummel with some soap and tube brushes. This is the culmination of a lot of work to get the pipe clean.The charring on the rim is notable. I took a solid wooden sphere, wrapped a piece of 220-grit sandpaper around it, and sanded the inner edge of the rim. This achieves two things: first, it removes some of the burn marks; and second (and more importantly), the circular shape and motion of the sphere gradually returns the edge to a perfect circle.

I used all nine micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) on the outside of the stummel to finish it off. This sanding minimizes flaws in the briar and provides a beautiful smoothness to the wood. I rubbed some Before & After Restoration Balm into the briar and let it sit for 20 minutes or so. The balm moisturizes the wood and gives a beautiful depth to the briar. I then buffed it with a microfibre cloth. For the final step, I took the pipe to my bench buffer and carefully polished it – first with a white diamond compound, then with three coats of carnauba wax. This procedure makes the pipe look its best – the stummel sings and stem glows.This is a very handsome pipe and will provide many years of smoking pleasure for my friend. I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe as much I as I did restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 5⅝ in. (142 mm); height 1¾ in. (44 mm); bowl diameter 1⅓ in. (33 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (19 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1 oz. (31 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I did 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.

Restoring and Repairing a Cracked Bowl on a Knute of Denmark Sandblast Freehand

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by Steve Laug

In November I received an email from Mario about working on some of his Dad’s pipes. Here is what he wrote to me.

I am desperately seeking help restoring and repairing some of my dad’s smoking pipes. I have tried reaching out to the only two known pipe repair establishments I could find in the entire country but one is not currently taking repair orders and the other said she didn’t want to try to repair these pipes without having even seen them. Would you be willing to take on the repairs or can you recommend anyone? Thank you much!!!—Mario

I wrote him back and asked him to send me photos of the pipes. He sent some single photos of the meerschaum bowl and stem, several of the leather clad Canadian and the photo of the rack and six pipes shown below. I looked through the photos and this is what I saw. There were two leather clad pipes a Canadian and a Pot. Both of them were cracked on the shanks and had been self-repaired with wire to hold the cracked shank together. The leather cladding was torn and the stitching was rotten and broken around the bowl. To me they were both irreparable. There was a lovely older Meerschaum with a horn stem that needed a good cleaning and repairs to the horn stem. There were two Knute Freehand pipes with original stems that were dirty but fixable. The plateau on the smooth one had a large chunk of briar missing. There was a Wilshire Dublin with a chewed and misfit stem. Finally, there was a billiard that had been restemmed with a fancy GBD saddle stem on it. They were a messy lot but I told him to send them on to me. They arrived yesterday and the condition of the pipes in the photos was confirmed. They were a mess and needed much work. I have included Mario’s group photo below to show the lot.This afternoon I decided to start working on the fourth of the pipes – a sandblast freehand. It was the one on the left top held in the hand in the photo above. It was a Freehand Shape with a plateau rim top and a smooth shank end. It had a fancy turned saddle stem that was oxidized, calcified and had lots of tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. The bowl had a thick cake on the walls and a heavy lava coat in the plateau on the rim top. It was internally a mess. The finish was dirty and had grime ground into the sides of the bowl. There a crack running from the heel of the bowl half way up the bowl on both sides mid bowl. The shank was in good shape with no nicks or cracks. The pipe was stamped on the underside of the shank and read Knute [over] Of Denmark. There was no other stamping on the shank sides. I took photos of the pipe when I unpacked it to examine it. I have included those below. I took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show the condition of both. You can see the debris in the bowl and lava in the plateau surface of the rim top. I also took photos of the heavily oxidized and calcified stem showing the tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took a photo of the bowl with the stem removed to give a sense of the proportion and appearance of the pipe without the stem. I took photos of the crack in the bowl sides before I started my clean up and repairs. It looks like the kind of crack that come from a bowl being dropped on a hard surface.Before I started my work on the pipe I wanted to remind myself of the provenance of the pipe. I remembered that it was linked to Karl Erik as I have worked on quite a few Knute Freehands. I wanted to know where this pipe fit into the Karl Erik lines so I turned to the first of two sites that I always check to gather information on a brand. I turned to the first source of information site – Pipephil’s (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-k3.html) got a quick overview on the brand once again connecting it to Karl Erik. I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Erik). Pipedia had this great picture of Karl Erik Ottendahl and I decided to include it here as a reminder of the artisan who first carved and released this pipe. Reminded of the tie to Karl Erik, I knew a bit about the pipe at hand. I turned to address the pipe itself. There it is clearly identified and linked to Karl Erik Ottendahl. It is designated as a second and frequently having rustication. The interesting thing is that his pipe does not look like a second at all and I wonder if the Knute is a line of Karl Erik’s rather than a second. Who knows? This one is a very well done sandblast pipe. Now it was time to work on the pipe and bring it back to life. The crack needed to be repaired and the bowl brought back to life.

I started my work on the pipe by starting the process of cleaning the pipe. I carefully reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe Reamer remove from the bowl leaving bare briar. I cleaned up the remnants of cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and removed the remaining debris. I sanded the bowl walls smooth with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I scraped the lava coat off the rim top – both the rusticated portion and the plateau rim top with the Savinelli Pipe Knife and removed all of it. I cleaned out the internals of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, shank brushes and 99% isopropyl alcohol. It was very clean and it looked and smelled far better. I also cleaned out the internals in the stem with the same tools and alcohol.I scrubbed the externals of the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I worked over the bowl, shank and rim top with the soap and then rinsed it off warm water. The bowl looked extremely good. The cracks around the bowl heel and sides were clean. The plateau top had some darkening and burn marks. I worked over the rim top with a brass bristle wire brush to clean up the rim top. I sanded the rim top high spots in the plateau with a 320 grit sanding pad. The clean high spots would provide a great contrast.Now it was time to address the crack in the bowl running up both sides from the heel. The inside of the bowl is clean and no cracks run through from the outside of the bowl. I am pretty confident that the cracks came when the pipe was dropped on the ground. I used a micro drill bit and drilled small pilot holes at the end of the crack on each side of the bowl. I have circled the drill holes on both sides of the pipe in red for quick reference. I filled in the cracks with clear CA glue and briar dust and used a dental spatula to press the material into the crack.I worked over the repaired areas with a brass bristle wire brush. I followed the flow of the sandblast finish with the brush and was able to clean up the debris from the repairs in the grain of the crack. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the sandblast finish and the plateau rim top. I worked it in with my finger tips on the smooth portions of the finish and with a shoebrush on the plateau and the sandblast. I let the Balm do its magic for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The rich colours of the finish on this Knute looked amazing. I painted the walls of the bowl with a mixture of sour cream and activated charcoal powder. The mixture works to provide a bowl coating. I applied it with a folded pipe cleaner. I put a pipe cleaner in the airway to close the entry into the bowl. The bowl coating would give the bowl some initial protection as it is broken in through smoking. The natural buildup of carbon will further protect the bowl. I set the bowl in a pipe rest to let the mixture harden and cure. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the badly oxidized stem. I scrubbed the stem surface with Soft Scrub cleanser to break through the oxidization and calcification. It took a lot of scrubbing and scraping of the grime from the surface but it finally began to show black. There were deep tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem ahead of the button. I filled them in with black CA glue strengthened with rubber and carbon. It dries hard but it still is a bit flexible. I flattened the repairs with small flat file. I sanded the repaired areas and the rest of stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to smooth it out and remove remaining oxidation. I wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil cloth. It was beginning to look very good. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I put the stem back on the Knute of Denmark Sandblast Freehand pipe and took the pipe to the buffer. I carefully buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish the briar and the vulcanite. Blue Diamond does a great job on the smaller scratches that remain in the vulcanite. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem several coats of carnauba wax and 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 really nicely with a great contrasting stain look to the briar. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. This is a beautiful Karl Eric Made Knute of Denmark Freehand – the fancy turned stem and plateau rim top give the pipe a great look. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches wide x 2 inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.26 ounces/64 grams. This is the fourth of six pipes that am restoring for Mario from his Dad’s collection. I look forward to hearing what he thinks of this newly restored pipe. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it!

Restemming and Restoring a Citation 614 Rusticated Meerschaum Lined Oom Paul

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by Steve Laug

In November I received an email from Mario about working on some of his Dad’s pipes. Here is what he wrote to me.

I wrote him back and asked him to send me photos of the pipes. He sent some single photos of the meerschaum bowl and stem, several of the leather clad Canadian and the photo of the rack and six pipes shown below. I looked through the photos and this is what I saw. There were two leather clad pipes a Canadian and a Pot. Both of them were cracked on the shanks and had been self-repaired with wire to hold the cracked shank together. The leather cladding was torn and the stitching was rotten and broken around the bowl. To me they were both irreparable. There was a lovely older Meerschaum with a horn stem that needed a good cleaning and repairs to the horn stem. There were two Knute Freehand pipes with original stems that were dirty but fixable. The plateau on the smooth one had a large chunk of briar missing. There was a Wilshire Dublin with a chewed and misfit stem. Finally, there was a billiard that had been restemmed with a fancy GBD saddle stem on it. They were a messy lot but I told him to send them on to me. They arrived yesterday and the condition of the pipes in the photos was confirmed. They were a mess and needed much work. I have included Mario’s group photo below to show the lot.This afternoon I decided to start working on the Oom Paul next. It was the one on the left centre on the bottom of the rack in the photo above. It was an Oom Paul shape with a bent round shank and the saddle stem had a huge bite through on the topside of it. The bowl had a thick cake on the walls and a heavy lava coat in the rustication on the rim top. It was internally a mess. The finish was dirty and had grime ground into the sides of the bowl. There seemed to be line around the bowl top that hinted at the bowl being lined with meerschaum. The shank was in good shape with no nicks or cracks. The pipe was stamped on the underside of the shank and read Citation in script (followed by) the shape number 614 [over] Italy. The shape number and Italy stamp tell me the pipe was made by Savinelli. There was no other stamping on the shank sides. The stem was correct but chewed beyond repair and would need to be replaced. I took photos of the pipe when I unpacked it to examine it. I have included those below. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition and the interesting ring on the rim top. I also took photos of the heavily damaged stem. I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took a photo of the bowl with the stem removed to give a sense of the proportion and appearance of the pipe without the stem. You can see the damage on the stem top so it is no question that it needs to be removed.I remember having worked on a Citation before but could not put my finger on what I knew about it. I did a quick search on rebornpipes and found a blog I had restored and restemmed a Citation that had been meerschaum lined (https://rebornpipes.com/2015/12/24/a-surprise-when-working-on-the-citation-812-canadian/). Fortunately, I could see what looks like a smooth ring around the inside of the bowl. As I examined it I found that ring around the inside edge of the bowl was a meerschaum lining. I knew that I was working on a Meerschaum lined Oom Paul.

I carefully reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe Reamer remove from the bowl leaving bare meerschaum. I cleaned up the remnants of cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and removed the remaining debris. I sanded the bowl walls smooth with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I scraped the lava coat off the rim top – both the rusticated portion and the smooth ring of the meerschaum bowl top with the Savinelli Pipe Knife and removed all of it. I cleaned out the internals of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, shank brushes and 99% isopropyl alcohol. It was very clean and it looked and smelled far better.I scrubbed the externals of the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I worked over the bowl, shank and rim top with the soap and then rinsed it off warm water. The bowl looked extremely good. There were some significant burn marks on the rim top and inner edge but the bowl itself was very clean. Once the bowl had dried I touched up the stain on the rim top to match bowl colour. I used a Walnut Stain Pen to colour the briar and leave the meerschaum rim clear for polishing.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 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 went through my can of stems and found one that was the right taper for the pipe bowl I was working on. It had the right look and would need shaping. The stem is very similar to the original that came on the pipe and should look very good.I cleaned out the internals of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. There was some tars and oils in the airway and it took some work but it was clean. One of the odd things on this pipe was that the inside of the shank had a piece of black electrical tape stuck in it that had come off the tenon sometime along the way.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to reduce the overage in diameter on the top and the left side of the saddle (forgot to take photos). I smoothed out the sanded portions and the sanded tooth marks with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil cloth. It was beginning to look very good.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This restored and restemmed Savinelli Made Citation 614 Rusticated Oom Paul with a new vulcanite saddle stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The beautiful rusticated finish stands out and gives depth to the bowl and shank sides. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The rim top shows Meerschaum Lining and other than darkening it was in great shape. The finished Savinelli Citation 614 Meerlined Oom Paul is a beautiful pipe, but it fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 58 grams /2.01 ounces. This is the third of six pipes that I am restemming and restoring for Mario from his Dad’s collection. I look forward to hearing what he thinks of this newly restemmed pipe. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

Fresh Life for a Savinelli Extra 802 Italy Canadian

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table came to us from a group of pipes we purchased on 03/21/2024 from a seller in Oregon City, Oregon, USA. It is a nice looking natural Canadian shaped pipe with a taper stem. The bowl has a natural or light colour stain that highlights grain. It has an interesting mix of grain around the bowl and long shank. The pipe is stamped Savinelli in an oval [over] Extra. On the underside of the shank it is stamped with a Savinelli S Shield logo followed by the shape number 802 [over] Italy. The bowl had a thick cake with some lava overflow on the top and bevelled inner edge of the rim top. The stem is black vulcanite and was lightly oxidized with some tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. The pipe looks to be in good condition under the grime. This is a nice looking pipe and in a well-loved shape. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup. He took photos of the rim top and bowl to give a clear picture of the thickness of the cake and tobacco debris as well as the lava on the top and the bevelled inner edge of the rim. There was also some burn damage on the right outer edge toward the front. He also took photos of the top and underside of the stem to show its overall condition. Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to give a picture of what the briar looked like. It truly has some nice grain – birdseye, swirls and cross grain around the bowl and shank. The stamping on the top and underside of the shank is clear and readable as noted above. I turned to Pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-savinelli2.html) to get a quick view of the Extra Line. I did a screen capture of the site’s information and have included that below. I am also including a screen capture of the Shape and code chart introduction that is link in the above capture. The 802 is in the bottom left corner.
I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Savinelli) for a quick read. The site is worth reading the history of the Savinelli brand and it philosophy of pipemaking. There was a photo of a brochure that included the Extra (https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:Sav_Extra.jpg) that came from Doug Vliatchka.Jeff had cleaned up the pipe with his usual methods. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs, shank brushes and pipe cleaners. He soaked the stem in a Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer bath and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration work. The rim top cleaned up really well. The rim top, inner and outer edge of the bowl is in excellent condition there is darkening on both. The stem surface looked very good with a few tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. The stamping on the shank top and underside is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to show the proportion of the stem and shank. It is a beauty. I removed the stem started working on the darkening on the rim top and edges. I worked them over with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. Once it was finished it looked better. I sanded the rim top and bowl sides with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to remove the scratching and shiny spots on the finish. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the debris from sanding. I polished the rim top and bowl with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad to remove the debris and dust. 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 15 minutes and buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The grain came alive and the pipe looked great. I set the bowl aside and turned to work on the stem. I “painted” the stem surface with the flame of a lighter and was able to lift out all of the marks on both sides. I used 220 grit sandpaper to blend it into the surface of the vulcanite and the stem looked better.I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to smooth out the marks and it is looking quite good at this point in the process.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. This Savinelli Extra 802 Canadian is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The smooth finish gives the shape an elegant look. The flow of the bowl, shank and short stem make for a great looking pipe. 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 and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Savinelli Extra 802 Canadian fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 40 grams/1.41ounces. It is a great looking and light weight pipe. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Italian Pipe Makers Section shortly. If you are interested in adding the pipe to your collection send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

Restoring a thin shank small LHS Purex Pat. No. 1587048 Real Briar Root Dubiln

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table came to us from a group of pipes we purchased on 01/22/2024 from a seller on eBay from Jordan, Minnesota, USA. It is a nice looking tiny pencil shank Dublin shaped pipe with a taper stem. The bowl has a rich reddish brown colour combination that highlights grain. This pipe is stamped on the left and right sides of the shank. On the left it reads LHS in a Diamond followed by Purex [over] Pat.No.1587048. On the right side it is stamped Real Briar Root. On the underside of the shank it bears the shape number 20. The threaded aluminum tenon/stinger taper stem has two dots – a red and a white on the topside. There is a moderate cake in the bowl and an overflow of lava on the inner edge of the rim top. The varnish coat was flaking and peeling. The stem was lightly oxidized, calcified and there were some light tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the vulcanite stem near the button. The pipe looks to be in good condition under the grime. This is a nice looking pipe and in a well-loved shape. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup. He took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show their general condition. You can see the lava on the rim top and the thick cake in the bowl. There is damage on the inner edge of the bowl. The stem is oxidized, calcified and has tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. Jeff took some photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to give an idea of the grain around the bowl as well as the peeling varnish coat. I cannot wait to see what it looks like once it is cleaned and polished. He took a photo of the stamping on the sides of the shank to capture it for me. It is clear and readable.Before I started working on the pipe I turned to Pipephil to get a feel for the history of the brand and have included a screen capture of the pertinent section on the site below (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-lhs.html). I quote:

The L&H Stern Inc. was established by Ludwig Stern (1877-1942) in 1911. His brother Hugo (1872-?) acted as vice-president & secretary. The firm moved to 56 Pearl St. Brooklyn in 1920. It closed down in the 1960s. LHS was one of the main pipe suppliers for US soldiers during WWII.I turned to Pipedia for any additional information (https://pipedia.org/wiki/LHS). The article gave and expanded history of the brand and a list of the grades of pipes in 1944. The Purex stamp like the one I have was not shown in the list so I have left the link but not included the list.

Additional notes: Some models were made before, during, and after WWII. LHS was one of the main pipe supplier for US soldiers during WWII.

Pre-war pipes were stamped Real Briar Root, or Briar Root. Some war time pipes were made from domestic briar, or “American” briar and were void of any briar stampings. Many American pipe makers lost their over seas supply of Mediterranean briar shortly before and during the war. Post war pipes were stamped Imported Briar to assure customers that they were buying premium briar once again.

I also researched the patent number on the left side of the shank and it led me to the following diagram and patent information. It was filed in 1924 and awarded on June 1, 1926. The interesting thing is that it combines some of the concepts from a later patent filing on July 1, 1932 and granted on May 9, 1933. The stamping places it as a 1926 pipe. The shape of the stinger and the threaded mortise make me think of the 1926 pipe in many ways. I cannot see deep enough into the pencil shank to see if there is a metal cup insert in the shank behind the mortise. Maybe that will become clear in the cleanup. The smooth portion of the tenon after the threads and the metal disk that is threaded into the stem make me think of the 1933 patent pipe. The threaded mortis is the same in both but if it ends in the shank without the cup then it has a lot of similarity to the 1933. The 1926 patent gives me a start date for this pipe and the 1933 patent gives me an end date. The fact that the metal works combine both makes me wonder if the pipe did not come out of the factory with the new patent release in 1933. I am including the two different patents for you to see the interesting combination in this pipe. I have screen captured the insert in the shank and the stinger apparatus from the 1926 patent drawings. Figure 2 shows the stinger. It is identical in both the 1926 and the 1933 patent drawings. Figure 3 shows a metal cup that is inserted in the shank. The mortise end is threaded to receive the threads on the tenon. Figure 4 shows the end of the stem looking at the head on the stinger. The slot is at the top. Figure 5 shows the inside of the shank looking at it from the end. The mortise end is threaded and the cup has an airway hole in the centre of the rounded end. That end sits against the airway from the bottom of the bowl as seen in Figure 6. When I started cleaning out the shank I was unsure of the interior. Once I was cleaning it I was certain it was the later stinger.I have also included a screen capture below of Figure 2 from the 1933 patent drawings. The insert in the shank is shorter than the 1926 version and does not include the cup. The tenon is the same though it has a longer smooth portion. It also has a plate that rest against the face of the stem when inserted. This tenon system is identical to the one that I am working on. That dates the pipe after 1933. Jeff carefully cleaned the pipe. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and then cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals of the shank, stem and shank extension with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and lava on the rim top. The finish looks much better and has a deep richness in the colour that highlights grain of the briar. The peeling varnish is gone. The rim top had some darkening and there was some damage to the inner edge of the bowl. The aluminum on the shank end and on the stem were slightly oxidized but clean. Jeff soaked the stem in bath of Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer to remove the oxidation on the rubber. He worked it over with Soft Scrub All Purpose Cleaner to remove any remnants of oxidation. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver and I finally started my work on it I was amazed it looked so good. Here are some photos of what I saw. I took some photos of the rim top and stem. The rim top and inner edge of the bowl shows damage and burned areas. It is out of round and will need some work. The close up photos of the stem shows that the surface of the stem is pitted. There are tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside of the stem near the button. I took a photo of the stamping on the sides and the underside of the shank to show the condition after the cleanup. This stamping is readable and looks good. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe at this point. You can clearly see the condition, size and shape of the pipe.I started my part of the restoration work on this pipe by addressing the damage and darkening on the edge of the rim, particularly on the front and rear of the inner edge. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damage to the bowl. I sanded out the scratches in the briar around the bowl sides and rim top with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. The sanding really brought the grain to the front. This is a great piece of briar. And once it is waxed and polished it should really be a beauty. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping 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 sanded out the light tooth chatter and roughness on the stem surface with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil cloth. The stem began to shine.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 LHS Purex Pat.No.1587048 Real Briar Root Dublin with a pencil shank and stem is a nice looking pipe. The finish looks very good and the grain stands out. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I carefully avoided the stamping on the shank sides during the process. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing it with a clean buffing pad on the buffer. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is an excellent example of the Purex line of pipes that were made by LHS Stern. The flow of the grain and the way the shape follows it is very well done. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. I can only tell you that it is much prettier in person than the photos capture. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 0.81 ounces/24 grams. This interesting LHS Purex Pat.No.1587048 Dublin is a great looking pipe in excellent condition. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. I will be adding it to the rebornpipes store in the American Pipe Makers Section soon. If you want to add it to your collection send me an email or a message! Thanks for your time.

Fresh Life for a GBD Century Matt 234 Billiard London, England

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table came to us from a group of pipes we purchased from Oregon on 03/21/2024 from a seller in Oregon City, Oregon, USA. Jeff regularly visits shops along the coast hunting for pipes and though there are less of them there are still a lot available. It is a nice looking large straight Billiard shaped pipe with a taper stem. The bowl has a rich reddish brown colour combination that highlights grain. This pipe is stamped on the left and right sides of the shank. On the left it reads GBD in an oval [over] Century Matt. On the right side it is stamped London, England followed by the shape number 234. The taper stem has a GBD Brass roundel on the left side. There is a moderate cake in the bowl and an overflow of lava on the inner edge of the inwardly bevelled rim top. There were some light tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the vulcanite stem near the button. The pipe looks to be in good condition under the grime. This is a nice looking pipe and in a well-loved shape. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup. He took photos of the rim top to show the cake and the lava coat. The inner edge of the bowl looks good under the grime. The top and outer edge also look okay. It is an incredibly dirty pipe but obviously one that was a great smoker. He also captured the condition of the stem and the oxidation, calcification, tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside of the stem near the button. He took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the grain around the bowl and the condition of the pipe. You can see the grime and scratches on the surface of the briar. He took a photo of the stamping on the top and underside of the shank and stem. It is clear and readable as noted above. The stem has the typical GBD Brass roundel stamp. I looked up the Century Model on Pipedia and found a little information. There was not a lot of info there but I have included it below (https://pipedia.org/wiki/GBD_Model_Information).

Century — England, unknown if also made in France: Introduced 1950.

I also turned to a blog written by Upshallfan on his restoration of Century Matt pipe (https://rebornpipes.com/2015/05/18/gbd-century-matt-9606-restoration/). It is helpful to a point in pinning down potential dates. However, there is no specific information on the Matt though I am figuring it has to do with this particular finish. I quote:

I’ve had a few “Century” finish GBD’s cross my work bench, but this is the first time I’ve seen a “Century Matt”. The Century line was introduced in 1950 and is described as:

Century – “A golden finish created to celebrate over a century of manufacturing the
finest briar pipes.” – (quote courtesy of Jerry Hannah’s GBD webpage)

It was time to work on the pipe. 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 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. One of the benefits of this scrub is that it also tends to lift some of the scratches and nicks in the surface of the briar. He dried it off with a soft cloth. He cleaned the internals and externals of the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners, shank brushes and cotton swabs. He soaked the stem in Before & After 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 looked very good. The inner edge of the bowl showed also looked good. The vulcanite taper stem had light tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button and on the button edges.The stamping on the left and right sides of the shank 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. The removable stinger in the tenon is a bit of a surprise but it can be “lost”. The pipe is a large Billiard that should be very nice once it is all cleaned up. I sanded out the scratches in the briar around the bowl sides and rim top with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. The sanding really brought the grain to the front. This is a great piece of briar. And once it is waxed and polished it should really be a beauty. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping 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 sanded out the light tooth chatter and remnants of oxidation with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil cloth. The stem began to shine.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 nicely grained GBD Century Matt 234 Billiard, London England with a vulcanite taper stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The briar around the bowl is clean and really came alive. The rich brown stains of the matt finish gave the briar a sense of depth with the polishing and waxing. I put the vulcanite 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 GBD Century Matt 234 Billiard is a beauty and feels 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 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.98 ounces/56 grams. I will be adding it to the British Pipe Maker Section of the rebornpipes store soon. Let me know if you wish to add it to your collection. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. There are many more to come!

A Fine Tale of a Union for this older WDC Wellington Bent Billiard

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a bit of a change of pace. I have had this old WDC Wellington bowl in the box here for a very long time and never had a stem for it. Somewhere in its long journey the stem had been displaced and when we received it the pipe was a sad bowl with no stem. I held onto it in hopes that one day I would find a stem that would be the right one. Every so often I would come across a large Wellington stem and dig out the bowl to see if it would fit only to be disappointed and drop it back in the box of bowl. Well, that lonely bowl was about to meet its correct stem! I was looking through a new batch of stems I picked up and I could not believe what I saw there. It was the exact stem I had been waiting for – a smaller Wellington stem with their version of the P-lip. In fact, my guess is that it is an older stem as the airway entrance on the stem is on top of the P exactly like Peterson’s. I know that later it was moved to the end of the stem with a lot of legal wrangling. Leaving all of that aside a union was about to happen. The lonely bowl would be meeting its mate.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First let’s meet the main characters of the union. The first player in this budding romance is the old and lonely bowl that is quite a beauty. The finish is shiny with a varnish coat. The stamping on the left and right side of the shank are stamped with gold leaf. On the left it reads The [over] Wellington and on the right side is the WDC triangle logo. On the tarnished nickel ferrule were the expected faux hallmarks identifying it as an American Pipe and underneath those is the WDC triangle logo. The bowl had been reamed somewhere along the way and other than having a very light cake and dust was in decent condition. The rim top had a light coat of lava that would need to go. The internals would need a refresh. Nevertheless, the pipe really was quite a beauty and I hope you can see why I held onto it so long. Here are some photos of the bowl before I started my work on it. I also took some photos of golden finery and identifying marks. She really is quite a beauty and for her age in excellent condition. There is no wear on her jewellery. She is ready to dance.
The second character in the romance is the late to the scene stem. It is clear that he had been around a long time. It is older solid rubber so there was no oxidation on the surface. There were scratches and some tooth chatter near the button. But thankfully no one had left their tooth marks for posterity on its surface. It actually looked pretty good for an old timer. The gold stamped jewellery on the stem top was faded over time but it was still visible. It was still a handsome stem. The gold jewellery read Wellington arched over the WDC triangle logo and matched the bowl. It was going to be fun to prepare them to meet each other. Come with me for the preparations.For those of us who can’t wait for the final reveal (and that does include me by the way!) I introduced the stem and the bowl for the first time and took a series of photos. I think it is going to look quite amazing once they both clean up a bit and meet each other in their a renewal of their former glory. Like any older romance you want to as much about the lovely pair as you can. You want to know their history and what they were like years ago! To get that kind of background information on the pair I turned to Pipedia’s article on WDC (William Demuth) pipes and to reintroduce myself to the Wellington Family of pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/William_Demuth_Company). I have included one of the advertising flyers on the Wellington Family below. Look at the price of this pipe when it was sold.Look at the lovely “youngins” in the photos of the advert. They were quite stunning. Now it was time to work on the pair individually in preparation for their union. I decided to work on the bride first – preparing the bowl. It was not too bad but it needed some attention. I cleaned up the light cake in the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and took it back to bare briar all the way down the bowl. I ran my finger over the bowl walls and there were no issues that I could see or feel. I sanded the walls of the bowl with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. It felt and looked much better.I cleaned up the rim top, scraping off the thick lava coat with the edge of the Savinelli Knife. I sanded it with a 320 grit sanding pad to finish the cleanup. There was some nice grain underneath the debris. I also found a small fill on the back-left side of the rim top that went down the side of the bowl for a little way. No issues as the fill was solid.I cleaned up the finish on the bowl and removed the nicks and marks on the finish by carefully sanding it with the 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I took off the shiny finish very well and revealed some nice grain below the surface. I sanded the nickel ferrule with the higher grit pads – 2000-3500 to remove the oxidation and some of the pitting on the topside of the ferrule. I cleaned out the internals of the bowl and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. It was surprisingly dirty. The airway in the bowl was clogged with tars so it took a bit to open it back up but the airflow is restored and the pipe is clean again after many years. I decided to “deghost” the bowl with cotton bolls and 99% isopropyl alcohol. I pressed cotton bolls into the sump on the shank and into the bowl completely filling in the openings with the cotton. I then used an ear syringe to transfer the alcohol into the bowl and shank opening. I find that this gives me more control than pouring and also saves the finish on the bowl from any damage by the alcohol. I set the bowl aside for a few hours to let the cotton and alcohol do its work wicking the oils and tars out of the bowl. I let it sit for 4-5 hours them took photos of the bowl and cotton. I pulled the cotton out of the shank and the bowl with a dental pick. It had drawn out a lot oils and tars from the bowl and shank. While the bowl air dried after removing all the cotton bolls I turned my attention to the other partner in the union – the stem. I touched up the stamping on the top side of the saddle stem. I used some Rub’n Buff Antique gold to touch up the stamping. I worked it into the letters with a tooth pick. I buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth. The stamping is looking much better.I sanded the scratching on the tenon end of the stem and the tooth chatter on the bit end with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I quickly made short order of these blemishes on the old stem. I was one step closer to being ready to meet the bowl. I polished the old hard rubber 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 rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. Now it was time to reintroduce the lovely pair. The music was playing… you can almost here the sound of “First Time Every I saw your Face” flowing in the background. The restored bowl and stem step out to meet one another. Once united the briar bowl and the stem back together this WDC Wellington Bent Billiard revealed its stunning beauty. The union brought the old pair together – the polished briar, the nickel ferrule and the hard rubber were a winning combination. The grain that shone through the polished finish is stunning. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad which really brings the shine out with the wax. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The lovely newly joined Wellington Bent Billiard fits nicely in the hand and feels great and will truly be a pipe to be smoked any time really – while sitting and reading or listening to music. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 54 grams/1.87 ounces. I will be adding it to the American Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store soon. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your collection send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. I appreciate your time to spend reading this one. Thank you.

Breathing Life into a Jobey Sterling Square Shank Panel 460 Billiard

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by Steve Laug

I picked some older pipes to work on next. The next of these is a Jobey Panel Billiard. We purchased this one on 01/22/2024 from an online seller in Jordan, Minnesota, USA. This square shank Panel Bent Billiard is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Jobey in script [over] Sterling and on the right side it is stamped Imported Briar [over} the shape number 460. The Sterling Silver Band is also stamped and reads STERLING with three hallmarks – an anchor (Birmingham, England) a letter T (date) and a rampant lion (signifying the .925 Sterling quality). The pipe was well used. The finish was dirty with dust and debris ground into the finish. There were some dark marks on the sides of the bowl that looked to be on the surface. The bowl had a thick cake in it and some lava on the rim top and the inner edge. There was some roughening to the inner edge and darkening on the top of the bowl. The Sterling Silver band was oxidized. The vulcanite stem was oxidized, calcified and had some tooth marks on the surface ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. He took some closer photos of the rim top and bowl to show the condition. You can see the thick cake in the bowl and the lava on the rim top and inner edge. It is hard to know for certain but it looks like there is some roughening and damage to the right side of the inner edge. He also took photos of the stem to show its condition. You can see the oxidation, calcification and tooth marks and chatter on the stem at the button. Jeff took some photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the smooth finish and the grain around the bowl and shank. He captured the stamping on the left and right sides of the shank. It is clear and faint in spots and reads a noted above. The brass inset Jobey oval logo on the top side of the saddle stem is clear and undamaged. On the right side of the stem it appears to be stamped English Para. He took a photo of the stamping on the sterling silver band. As noted above it is stamped and reads STERLING with three hallmarks – an anchor (Birmingham, England) a letter T (date) and a rampant lion (signifying the .925 Sterling quality). The anchor is easily identifiable as the assay mark and giving the location of the silver maker. In this case the location signifies Birmingham, England. The rampant lion at the end of the three hallmarks is knows the indicator of the quality of the silver. In this case it is .925 which is the normal amount for Sterling Silver. That leaves us with the T hallmark in the centre of the threesome.To figure out the date of the stamp I turned to several silver Hallmarks lists for Birmingham. I have included the link below to the chart that I regularly use to help identify the date on pipes with this(https://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/Dates/Birmingham/Date%20Letters%20T.html). The helpful thing about this chart is that it is organized by letter and you can click on a letter and get all of the hallmarks with that letter – in this case T. This where it gets a bit tricky to me. If you look at the hallmark in the photo above the “T” stamp clean and straight with no tail on the base or the cross bar of the “T”. It is similar to a non-italic T in 1968. None of the other ones (1943 or 1993) with the capital T work so that is the mystery to me. So the date is not clearly identifiable from the charts.I reread several of the blogs I have written on the brand in the past restorations of Jobey pipes and decided to include the material on the brand before I write about the cleanup of the pipe. I wanted to spell out the link from the hallmarks above to British made Jobeys. Here is the link to the blog (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/04/03/restoring-jennifers-dads-jobey-asti-245-pot/). I quote:

I turned to Pipephil’s site for a quick review of the brand (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-j3.html). I quote a section of the post on the Jobey brand: These pipes are made in St Claude (France) by Butz-Choquin (Berrod-Regad group) since 1987. Before this date some were manufactured in England and Denmark (Jobey Dansk).

I turned then to Pipedia to gather further information regarding the brand and quote the first part of the article (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Jobey).

English – American – Danish – French… Sadly, solid information about Jobey is scant…

Probably established in England around 1920(?) the brand hiked into the USA later. In the course of time owner, distributor and manufacturer changed repeatedly. As far as is known the following companies have been involved with the brand:

George Yale Pipes & Tobacco, New York (1942), Norwalk Pipe Co., New York (1949), Arlington Briar Pipes Corp., Brooklyn (when?), Hollco International, New York (1969), Weber Pipe Co., Jersey City, NJ (1970’s), The Tinder Box, (1970’s – 80’s).

Throughout decades Jobey pipes were mainly sold in the USA, Canada and England but remained almost unknown in continental Europe. The bulk of Jobeys was predominantly made according to classical patterns and mainly in the lower to middle price range. The predominant judgment of the pipe smokers reads: “A well-made pipe for the price.” So, there is hardly anything very special or exciting about Jobey pipes although a flyer from ca. 1970 assures: “The briar root Jobey insists upon for its peer of pipes is left untouched to grow, harden and sweeten for 100 years. […] Jobey uses only the heart of this century old briar and only one out of 500 bowls turned measures up to the rigid Jobey specifications.” 99.80% of cull… that makes the layman marveling!

Now to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had cleaned up the pipe and it looked very good. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs, shank brushes and pipe cleaners. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. It removes the oxidation, grime on the stem. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration work. The rim top and outer edge of the bowl look good. The inner edge and spots on the top have some darkening and light damage. The stem surface was still lightly oxidized and there were tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button.The stamping on sides of the shank is faint in spots but readable. It is stamped as noted above. The stamping on the stem side is pretty clear and reads English Para. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. The panel saddle stem is nice and the photo shows the step down tenon. I cleaned up the top and the inner edge of the bowl with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage to the edge and the darkening on the rim top. I sanded the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to smooth out the nicks and marks in the briar around the sides of the bowl. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. It was looking pretty good once I finished. I polished the bowl and the rim top with micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded it with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. By the final pad it was starting to real take on a great shine. 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. It works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The grain came alive. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks with the flame of a lighter to lift them. The heat did a great job lifting most of them. The marks and chatter that remained I filled in with black CA glue strengthened with carbon and rubber. Once cured I flattened them and redefined the button edge with a file and blended them into the surface by sanding with 220 grit sandpaper. I polished the sanding and scratch marks and smoothed the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It removes the dust and also gives the sanding pads some bite. By the final pad it was looking quite good.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. I rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. This English Made Jobey Sterling 460 Panel Billiard is a real beauty. I buffed the bowl and the vulcanite saddle stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel and was amazed at how the grain popped and the stem began to shine. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed them with a clean buffing pad. I finished by hand buffing the pipe with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I think you will agree that it is a great example of a Jobey Sterling. The grain and the stem work really well together. The finished Jobey Sterling 460 Panel Billiard fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 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 38 grams/1.34 ounces. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipemakers Section shortly. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your collection send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. I appreciate your support and time!

Restoring a Well Loved GBD Prestige London England 508 Bent Billiard

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by Steve Laug

I picked some older pipes to work on next. The next of these is a GBD Bent Billiard. We purchased this one on 03/21/2024 from a seller in Oregon City, Oregon, USA. Jeff regularly visits shops along the coast hunting for pipes and though there are less of them there are still a lot available. The is a Bent Billiard that is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads GBD in an oval [over] Prestige and on the right side it is stamped London, England over the shape number 508. The pipe was well used. The finish was dirty with dust and debris ground into the finish. There were some dark marks on the sides of the bowl that looked to be on the surface. The bowl had a thick cake in it and some lava on the inwardly bevelled rim top and the inner edge. There was also some roughening to the inner edge and darkening on the top of the bowl. The vulcanite stem was oxidized, calcified and had some tooth marks on the surface ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. He took some closer photos of the rim top and bowl to show the condition. You can see the thick cake in the bowl and the lava on the rim top and inner edge. It is hard to know for certain but it looks like there is some roughening on the back inner edge. He also took photos of the stem to show its condition. You can see the oxidation, calcification and tooth marks and chatter on the stem at the button. Jeff took some photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the smooth finish and the grain around the bowl and shank. He captured the stamping on the left and right sides of the shank. It is clear and faint in spots and reads a noted above. The brass inset GBD oval logo on the left side of the saddle stem is clear and undamaged. I looked on the Pipephil logos site for information on the Prestige line and found nothing there. I turned to Pipedia’s general article on the GBD brand looking for any information on the Prestige line and once again found nothing. The history article is a great read. Be sure to have a look at it.

The article included link to other articles on Pipedia and one of those was to an article on the GBD Model Information (https://pipedia.org/wiki/GBD_Model_Information). I turned there and found what I was looking for. There was a short description of the line and I have included it below:

Prestige — England, unknown if also made in France: Matt natural finish, Perspex mouthpiece.

That was helpful in terms of the finish which matches the pipe in my hand other than it has a vulcanite mouthpiece. I read further and in a short note from GL Pease I found the information below. I quote:

…In a circa 1973 chart which I have, here are the descriptions of the higher grades:

Virgin — “Only the finest of closely grained briar is utilized for this exceptional pipe. Natural finish”
Century — “A golden finish created to celebrate over a century of manufacturing the finest briar pipes.”
New Era — “The beauty of this pipe’s perfect briar is accentuated by the richness of the ‘take-off’ dual finish.”
Prestige — “This pipe features a black handcut perspex mouthpiece which precludes discoloration and ‘bad taste’ after continual smoking. Only the finest of the fine-grained bowls are selected for this handsome matt virgin finished briar.”
Prehistoric Perspex — “The deep sandblasting silhouettes the grain in bold relief. The crystal clear mouthpiece creates an attractive contrast to the deep dark finish.”

From that I now knew that the pipe was a higher grade GBD that is described as having a black handcut Perspex mouthpiece and a matte finished, fine grained virgin briar. The pipe I have on the table has a bent vulcanite stem rather than the Perspex otherwise the description is perfect.

I turned to another link on the site to look at shape numbers and see if I could identify further information regarding the shape (https://pipedia.org/wiki/GBD_Shapes/Numbers). I quote what I found below:Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had cleaned up the pipe and it looked very good. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs, shank brushes and pipe cleaners. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. While it does nothing for the finish on the stem as it is Perspex it is worth the effort in that it removes the grime on the stem. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration work. The inwardly bevelled rim top cleaned up really well. The rim top and outer edge of the bowl look very good. The inner edge and spots on the top have some darkening and light damage. The stem surface was still lightly oxidized and there were tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button.The stamping on sides of the shank is faint but readable. It is stamped as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. The thin taper stem is nice and the photo shows the step down tenon. I cleaned up the top and the inner edge of the bowl with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage to the edge and the darkening on the rim top. I sanded the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to smooth out the nicks and marks in the briar around the sides of the bowl. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. It was looking pretty good once I finished. I polished the bowl and the rim top with micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded it with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. By the final pad it was starting to real take on a great shine. 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. It works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The grain came alive. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks with the flame of a lighter to lift them. The heat did a great job lifting most of them. The marks and chatter that remained I filled in with black CA glue strengthened with carbon and rubber. Once cured I flattened them and redefined the button edge with a file and blended them into the surface by sanding with 220 grit sandpaper. I polished the sanding and scratch marks and smoothed the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It removes the dust and also gives the sanding pads some bite. By the final pad it was looking quite good.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. I rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. This GBD Prestige 508 Bent Billiard is a real beauty. I buffed the bowl and the Perspex saddle stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel and was amazed at how the grain popped and the stem began to shine. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed them with a clean buffing pad. I finished by hand buffing the pipe with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. While there are some small brown stains in the button area it is clean. I think you will agree that it is a stunning example of a GBD Prestige. The grain and the stem work really well together. The finished GBD Prestige 508 Bent Billiard fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 3/4 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 3/4 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 39 grams/1.38 ounces. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipemakers Section shortly. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your collection send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. I appreciate your support and time!

Restoring a Conway Aristocrat Made in England Bulldog

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by Steve Laug

I picked some older pipes to work on next. The next of these is a Classic, Smooth Straight Bulldog with a Saddle Stem. We purchased this one on 09/20/2023 from a seller in Portland, Oregon, USA. The is a large straight Bulldog that is stamped on the top left side of the shank and reads Conway [over] Aristocrat. On the left side it is stamped Made in England. On the top left side of the saddle stem the Circle C logo of Conway was stamped. The pipe was well used. The finish was dirty with dust and debris in the smooth briar and in the twin rings around the rim cap. The bowl had a thick cake in it and heavy lava on the rim top and the inner edge. There was some damage on the left back of the rim top and om the bevelled inner edge of the bowl. The vulcanite stem was oxidized, calcified and had some tooth marks on the surface ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. He took some closer photos of the rim top and bowl to show the condition. You can see the thick cake in the bowl and the lava on the rim top and inner edge. You can see the chip on the outer edge at the back of the rim top. It is hard to know for certain but it looks like there is some roughening on the back inner edge. He also took photos of the stem to show its condition. You can see the oxidation, calcification and tooth marks and chatter. Jeff took some photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the condition of the finish on the bowl. The twin rings and bowl cap are quite well done and you can see the nicks and damage in the briar. He captured the stamping on the left top and right top side of the diamond shank. It is faint in spots but reads as noted above. It is interesting to note the nicks on the shank. The circle C logo stamped on the left side of the saddle stem is faded but the stamp is quite deep. I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c6.html) to see what I could find out on the brand. I did a screen capture of the section on the site on the Conway label. It is a pipe that bears the same stamping as the one in hand here other than the shape number. I also copied the sidebar information below the screen capture.Conway pipes were most probably made by Singleton & Cole. If the pipe is stamped with a shape number this probability almost becomes a certitude. According to Wilczak & Colwell (op. cit.) Loewe had a line named Conway.

I turned to a link on Pipedia hoping for more information (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Conway). Sadly the only information was a mention of the information on Pipephil’s site. There were some amazing photos of the brand on the site. There was one that included an unsmoked Apple with a box and pipe sock as well as a brochure. The interesting point is that it was also an Aristocrat.Armed with that information that pipe was probably made by Singleton & Cole in London, England. I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had cleaned up the pipe and it looked very good. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs, shank brushes and pipe cleaners. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration work. The rim top cleaned up really well. The rim top had some damage on the back left side of the top. The outer edge of the bowl look very good. The inner bevelled edge was clean but had some darkening all around the bowl. The stem surface was clean but the oxidation was still visible and calcification was gone. Overall it looked very good with a few tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button.The stamping on top left side of the shank and the top right side is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above. It is faint in spots but still clear. The logo on the left topside of the saddle is also clear. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. The wide taper stem is nice and the photo shows the proportions of the pipe. I used a wooden half sphere and a piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the rim top and the bevel on the bowl. Once finished the inner edge looked better. I then topped the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damage to the left side of the rim top. I took a photo of the top after this part of the work as well.I washed the bowl with cotton pads and acetone to remove some of the opaqueness of the stain. Once I washed it down it looked much better. The grain really stood out and I was able to add a bit of colour to the sanded rim top. I touched up the stain on the rim top with a Walnut stain pen to match the rest of the bowl colour. It matched well and once it was polished and buffed it would be perfect.I sanded the bowl and shank with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad to remove the debris. The pipe was beginning to look much better. I polished the smooth briar around outside of the bowl and the rim top with micromesh sanding pads. I sanded it with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. 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 horsehair shoe brush to get it into the rings and rustication. It works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The grain and the rustication came alive. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks with the flame of a lighter to lift them (forgot to take photos). The heat did a great job lifting all of them. The marks and chatter that remained I filled in with black CA glue strengthened with carbon and rubber. Once cured I flattened them with a file and blended them into the surface by sanding with 220 grit sandpaper. I touched up the Circle C logo on the left side of the stem with white acrylic nail polish. Once it cured I scraped off the excess and polished the stem.I polished the roughness, scratch marks and smoothed the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It removes the dust and also gives the sanding pads some bite. By the final pad it was looking quite good.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. I rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. This Conway Aristocrat Straight Bulldog is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The style of rustication that is used around the bowl is quite beautiful and works well with both the shape and the polished vulcanite taper stem. 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 wheel and followed by buffing the pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Conway Aristocrat Bulldog fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 47 grams/1.66 ounces. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipemakers Section shortly. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your collection send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. I appreciate your support and time!