Tag Archives: removing tooth marks

Restoring a Thayne Made in Denmark Acorn 123 B

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by Steve Laug

It may seem I have endless choices of pipes to work on. While we do have a lot of pipes that are in the queue to be restored it is far from endless. This next pipe I chose to work on was one that we purchased a few years ago on 05/10/2022 from an antique shop in Astoria, Oregon, USA. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Thayne [over] Made in Denmark. This one is a unique beauty with a smooth rim top and cap down the first third of the bowl. There was a smooth band around the shank end and a smooth patch on the left side of the shank for the stamping. The rest of the shank and 2/3 of the bowl from the smooth section to the heel of the bowl has a deep, rugged well grained sandblast. The stem is a fancy saddle stem with a T logo on the left side of the saddle stem. The exterior of the pipe was covered with dust and debris in the blast. There was a thick cake in the bowl and some lava and darkening on the rim top flowing down the outside curve of the rim. The vulcanite stem is a fancy turned saddle stem that is comfortable. It was oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. Jeff took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is heavily caked and there was lava on the rim top and down the edges. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had some tooth marks and chatter. It should cleanup very well. Jeff took photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the smooth bowl cap and the beautiful blast that was around this bowl even though the grime on the finish hides it some. The pipe had obviously been well loved and cared for by the previous pipeman. He took photos of the sides of the shank to show the stamping. The stamping is clear and readable in the photos below as noted above. This is a new brand for me to work on. It is a Thayne pipe which is a brand I have not worked on before. It is similar in style and shape and stamping to a Jarl, I turned to Pipephil’s site to get an overview of the brand (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-t4.html). I did a screen capture of the site’s information and have included that below.I turned then to Pipedia to see if there was more information (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Thayne)

Thayne pipes are apparently made by the same maker as made Jarl pipes, who was reportedly Niels Mogens Jørgensen.

What I learned from the research is that the pipe is a pipe possibly made by the same carver that does the Jarl pipes. It is likely made by Niels Mogens Jorgensen. It is a beautiful pipe in both shape and finish.

Jeff did a great job cleaning up the pipe. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, shanks brushes, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl, rim and shank with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to the oils and tars on the bowl, rim and shank. He removed the light lava coat on the top of the rim. He rinsed the bowl under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. Once the grime was removed the finish underneath was in good condition. The stain and the look of the finish was very well done. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub and rinsed it with warm water. He wiped the bowl and stem down with a light coat of olive oil and buffed it with a soft cloth. The pipe really was quite stunning. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. I took a close up photo of the rim top and edges to show how well it had cleaned up and the edges around the bowl. There was some darkening around the back top and inner edge of the bowl. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the light tooth chatter on the surface ahead of the button on both sides.I took a photo of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to show the proportions of the pipe. It is a beauty.I polished the briar on the rim cap and the smooth shank end with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the briar down with a damp cloth after each pad. It really looked very good. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I filled in the tooth marks on both sides of the stem with clear CA glue. I set it aside to cure. Once it cured, I flattened the repaired areas with needle files. I further smoothed them out with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surface. I touched up the T logo stamp with white acrylic fingernail polish. Once it cured I scraped off the excess. I sanded it carefully with 220 grit sandpaper. The logo looked much better and was very legible.I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads and wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. The stem began to take on a shine.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it another coat of Obsidian Oil. I am really happy with the way that this Thayne Danish Made 123B Mix Finish Acorn turned out. It really is a beautiful looking pipe with a unique shape and combination of a smooth rim cap and shank end with a rich and rugged sandblast finish. The fancy vulcanite saddle stem is really nice. The briar really came alive with the buffing. The rich brown and black stains of the finish gave the pipe a sense of depth with the polishing and waxing. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Thayne Danish Made 123B Acorn really is a beauty and feels great in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 41 grams/1.48 ounces. The pipe will be going on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipe Makers Section if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on!

Life for a W.O. Larsen Handmade Danish Sandblast Freehand Dublin

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by Steve Laug

It may seem I have endless choices of pipes to work on. While we do have a lot of pipes that are in the queue to be restored it is far from endless. This next pipe I chose to work on was one that we purchased a few years ago on 10/17/2022 from our contact in Copenhagen, Denmark. The pipe is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads W.O. Larsen [over] Handmade [over] Made in Denmark. This one is a unique beauty with a shallow sandblast on a stylized bent Dublin shape flowing up a curved shank and fancy saddle stem. The briar bowl and shank were sandblasted as was the rim top. The exterior of the pipe had a shiny coat of varnish that covered some of the dust and debris in the blast. There was a moderate cake in the bowl and some lava and darkening on blast of the rim top. The acrylic stem is a fancy turned saddle stem that is comfortable. There is no logo on the stem. As it is acrylic there is no oxidation and had minimal tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. Jeff took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is moderately caked and there was some light lava on the sandblasted rim top. The stem looked good under the dirt and grime. There was light tooth marks and chatter. It should cleanup very well. Jeff took photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the beautiful blast that was around this bowl even though the grime on the finish hides it some. The pipe had obviously been well loved and cared for by the previous pipeman. He took a photo of the underside of the shank to show the stamping. The stamping is clear and readable in the photos below as noted above.I have worked on quite a few W.O. Larsen pipes that are well made Danish takes on classic shapes. Several of them have been Brandy shaped pipes. This sandblast Canadian has a bowl that is almost a Brandy shape. Here is a link to the blog describing the background and history of the brand (https://rebornpipes.com/2021/10/25/restoring-a-sandblast-canadian-hand-made-designed-by-w-o-larsen-super-tan-65/). I quote from that blog in information that follows.

I turned to Pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-l2.html) to get a quick view of the brand once again. I did a screen capture of the site’s information and have included that below. The pipe I am working on is a W.O. Larsen as it is stamped similarly to the ones in the photos. I quote from the sidebar below:

In the 1960s Ole Larsen, owner of the Copenhagen tobacco store, retails pipes carved by Sixten Ivarsson, Poul Rasmussen, Sven Knudsen or Peter Brakner. Faced with the success and urged by Sven Bang (store manager), Sven Knudsen and Former (Hans Nielsen) are successively hired to carve pipes in the basement of the shop at the beginning and in the old Larsen cigar factory afterwards. Carver like Teddy Knudsen, Tonni Nielsen, Jess Chonowitch, Peter Hedegaard work a while in this context. When Nils, son of Ole Larsen, succeeds his father he acquires the Georg Jensen pipe factory to focus on less expensive pipes. This turns out to be an error ending with the sale of W.O. Larsen trademark to Stanwell. The famous tobacco shop at Strøget, Amagertorv 9 closed down for good on Dec 31, 2004. Do not confuse W.O. Larsen with: Jorgen Larsen

I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/W.%C3%98._Larsen) for a quick read. The site is worth reading the history of the shop and the brand and its influence on Danish pipe carving. I quote a portion of the article below:

The workshop of W.Ø.Larsen

W.Ø.Larsen is Denmark’s oldest and probably most famous pipes and tobacco store, placed in the center of Copenhagen on the main pedestrian street, Stroget. If you visit Copenhagen and do a “pipe crawl” this store is a must. In the beginning of the 1960’s the store began to sell Danish hand-made pipes, especially those of Poul Rasmussen. This went very well and Poul Rasmussen could not keep up with the demand. W.Ø.Larsen, with their dynamic business manager Svend Bang (who later started his own pipe business), decided to establish their own workshop in rooms next to the store.

The first manager of the pipe workshop was Sven Knudsen, but he soon left to make pipes under his own name. The next manager was Hans Nielsen, also known as “Former” (named after the late British actor George Formby, whom he was said to resemble. Coincidentally, in Danish, “Former” means “shapes”). Under the management of Former the workshop grew and W.Ø.Larsen pipes became a prominent name abroad. Among the prominent pipemakers educated here were Else Larsen (Denmark’s first female pipemaker),Poul Ilsted, Ph. Vigen, Teddy Knudsen, Tonni Nielsen, and Peter Hedegaard.

Typical for the W.Ø.Larsen School were semi-classic shapes, meaning classic shapes, but with slight differences, often bring a little more full or round. The pipes often had lower center of gravity. A typical billard would have a bowl shaped more like a pear and the connection between the bowl and the shank would be clearly distinguished. Yellow and orange were colors more widely used for the finishes.

What I learned from the research is that the pipe is a W.O. Larsen pipe made by one of the famous carvers who worked in the shop. It is a beautiful pipe in both shape and finish.

Jeff did a great job cleaning up the pipe. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, shanks brushes, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl, rim and shank with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to the oils and tars on the bowl, rim and shank. He removed the light lava coat on the top of the rim. He rinsed the bowl under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. Once the grime was removed the finish underneath was in good condition. The stain and the look of the finish was very well done. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub and rinsed it with warm water. He wiped the bowl and stem down with a light coat of olive oil and buffed it with a soft cloth. The pipe really was quite stunning. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. I took a close up photo of the rim top and edges to show how well it had cleaned up and the edges around the bowl. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the light tooth chatter on the surface ahead of the button on both sides.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to show the proportions of the pipe. It is a beauty.I used a brass bristle wire brush to go over the rim top and knock off the remaining lava and debris in the sandblast. It looked much better. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it another coat of Obsidian Oil. I am really happy with the way that this W.O. Larsen Handmade Freehand Dublin turned out. It really is a beautiful looking pipe with a unique shape and shallow sandblast finish. The fancy acrylic saddle stem is really nice. The briar really came alive with the buffing. The rich brown and black stains of the finish gave the pipe a sense of depth with the polishing and waxing. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished W.O. Larsen Handmade Dublin really is a beauty and feels great in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ½ inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 51 grams/1.80 ounces. The pipe will be going on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipe Makers Section if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on!

Restoring a Fine Peterson Kildare 405S

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by Kenneth Lieblich

This is another in a series of pipes I cleaned up for a local family. Today, it’s a handsome Peterson Kildare 405S Prince with a P-lip saddle stem. It was a pleasure to work on this pipe, as it didn’t require too much elbow grease. In my research, I was interested to learn that this shape is apparently uncommon. The markings are as follows: on the left shank, we read Peterson’s [over] “Kildare”; on the right shank, we read Made in the [over] Republic [over] of Ireland. Immediately to the right of that is the shape number, 405S. Finally, on the stem, we see the stylized P of the Peterson Pipe Company.In looking up this pipe shape, I came upon a page from Mark Irwin’s blog, Peterson Pipe Notes. It had some useful information on the 400 series in general and this very pipe in particular:

The 400-shape group has come to the forefront with Peterson’s recent reboot of the 406 “Large Prince”. It’s an interesting and usually overlooked group, comprised of straight shapes influenced by the classic English chart. Insofar as the catalogs are concerned (which are never, of course, identical with actual production dates), the shape group begins quite understandably shortly after Peterson opened its London factory in the Bradley Buildings in 1937—England at the time being one of Peterson’s “Big Three” markets (the other two being the US and Germany). As a group, the shapes reflect the smoking styles of the mid-twentieth century—the 1940s, 50s and 60s—the decades that produced most of them. That is, they are smaller pipes than most pipemen (and women) use today and they’re lighter, designed for the comfort of constant clenching in an office or factory environment where both hands were needed, and for the shorter, probably more frequent smokes that the interruptions of the workday entails. While I’ve been able to document 21 shapes, probably no more than 8 to 10 were ever offered at one time, and for most decades considerably less. Once in a while Peterson, being the counter-cultural wags they are, will subvert the English aesthetic by giving a shape a “bit of the Irish,” adding what they call an “S/B” or “Semi-Bent” mouthpiece—a piece of Peterson lore that even Peterson has forgotten!

The 405s was first announced in the 1979 update to the 1975 catalog and released in the various Classic Range lines, documented in the Kildare, Kildare Patch and Sterling. It was extremely short-lived, however, and is not found in any subsequent Peterson catalogs. Whether it was slightly larger or smaller than the 406 and 407 is hard to say, especially when the 406 and 407 almost seem to be interchangeable.

I also understand that the 405S most closely resembles the modern-day 408. The two are not identical, but pretty close. Let’s look at the condition of the pipe. As mentioned, the condition is really quite good. There’s a bit of wear and tear on the rim of the bowl, but nothing serious – and it looks like the inside of the bowl was cleaned out at some point. The stem also has a few tooth marks, but no significant calcification and only a bit of oxidation.To begin, I used oil soap on a few cotton rounds and wiped the stem down to provide an initial cleaning of filth before moving on to the next steps. 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 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 an 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.Now that the stem is clean and dry, I set about fixing the very minor 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.After this, I painted the logo on the stem with some nail polish. I restored the logo carefully and let it fully set before proceeding.The penultimate step for the stem is sanding. First, with my set of needle files, I reduce the bulk of the cyanoacrylate repairs. I want to remove the excess adhesive as near to the surface as possible, without cutting into the vulcanite. Following that, 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 was a wonderful, deep black shine to the stem when I was 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. In this case, the bowl was clean enough that I only used a a piece of sandpaper taped to a wooden dowel to remove the little debris.Similar to the stem, I then cleaned the stummel with both pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in 99% lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol.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 rounds (and a toothbrush). 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 the work of getting the pipe clean.I then 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 the stem glows.All done! This Peterson Kildare 405S looks fantastic again and is ready to be enjoyed by its new owner. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 5½ in. (139 mm); height 1½ in. (37 mm); bowl diameter 1⅝ in. (40 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (19 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1¼ oz. (36 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I enjoyed restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

New Life for an Armellini Elite DAL 1960 Saddle Stem Billiard

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By Steve Laug

The next pipe I chose to work on was one that we purchased on 12/09/2024 from a seller in Wellsville, Kansas, USA. The pipe came with an Armellini pipe sock and is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Armellini [over] Elite. On the right side of the shank it is stamped DAL 1960 which I believe signifies the year the pipe was made – DAL = From and the date is 1960. This is the second Armellini I have worked on and like the previous one it is well made pipes following the grain on the smooth briar. The pipe what some would call a Lovat but to me it is a saddle stem Billiard as the stem and shank are more proportionally billiard. However, call it what you would like. The briar bowl and shank were smooth and well grained. The rim top is also smooth and quite clean. The exterior of the pipe had some oils and grime ground into the bowl sides. It has a moderate cake in the bowl and some lava/darkening on the inner edge of the bowl. The stem is a thin bladed saddle stem that is comfortable. It is lightly oxidized and had some light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. Jeff took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is moderately caked and there was some light lava/darkening on the rim top and inner edge. I am hoping that once the lava is removed the edge will be okay. The stem looked good under the dirt and grime. There was light oxidation and had some light tooth marks or chatter. It should cleanup very well. Jeff took photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the beautiful grain that was around this bowl even though the grime on the finish hides it some. The pipe had obviously been well loved and enjoyed by the previous pipeman. He took photos of the sides of the shank to show the stamping. The stamping is clear and readable in the photos below as noted above. The stem had a large Armellini white Dot on the topside.I decided to hunt down a bit of background on the brand before I started my clean up on the pipe. I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-a7.html). It had a great summary listing and photos. I did a screen capture of the section and the side notes and have included them below.After Mauro Armellini passed (1936 – † 2004), his daughter Vilma Armellini answered for the brand’s destiny. Seconds: Mauro, Converti

For more detail on the brand than the notes above gave me about Armellini, I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Armellini). I quote:

Mauro Armellini and Vilma Armellini. Courtesy of italianpipemakers.com

Mauro Armellini factory has born in 1960. When he was 24, my father decided to begin this business and after several difficult years, he was able to produce freehand pipes for foreign markets. Our factory has always been on the surf(?) because it has solid bases: quality and price.

I have always worked with my father and when I lost him, back in 2004, I had to learn to “walk on my own two legs”.

Someone called me “white fly” because I am probably the only women in Italy making pipes. I only work with briar which has been seasoned for at least one year; I think that after one year of seasoning the briar becomes old and dark. I prefer hand crafting, using only very few machines: in this way I am able to extole my predilection for freeforms.

Over the sale of pipes, I think that this work should transmit the genuineness and love for the pipe and for those who smoke it; The philosophy of the factory is the same that moves my work: quality and price

Mauro Armellini stands for the true meaning of self-made and self-taught pipe makers. He started his pipe making career back in the early 1960s, working at the famous Italian pipe factory “Rossi”. Years later, and when the Rossi factory shut its door, Armellini moved to Savinelli where he stood out immediately. He perfected the rustication technique and till today some of the most famous rusticated finishes, such as the “Roccia” and the “Corallo” exist only thanks to him. He worked for Savinelli for several years and till the day he realized that he decided to create his own workshop and make pipes under his own name. At those times, and in spite of the fact that the pipe market was huge, it was a big risk to start his own pipe brand, due to the costs involved and the difficulty of obtaining the right equipment and tools.

Once the name Armellini found its rightful place on a piece of briar, Armellini never looked back. Thanks to his friend and neighbor, Alberto Paronelli, he was able to attract foreign markets, such as the US one and that of other European countries. Armellini’s four daughters slowly and gradually became involved in the business by lending their dad a helping hand whenever possible. However, it was Wilma that became truly interested in the business and gradually became her father’s right hand, not only in the administrative aspect of the business, but also, and above all, the actual pipe making in all its various stages. Indeed, and many years later, Armellini retired from full-time pipe making, and it was Wilma who took over.

When Armellini passed away recently, it was natural, and yet very difficult, for Wilma to decide and continue the Armellini production, according to her father’s own standards and vision. What encouraged her is the fact that for over 20 years she had been making pipes, from A to Z, and so, she knew that the quality Armellini has always been known for could and would continue.

Today, in the small town Barasso, in northern Italy, Wilma and her 20-year-old son are running the workshop and producing all of the Armellini pipes. Matteo, Wilma’s son, is an enthusiastic young man with a love for pipes and pipe making that he could have only inherited from his grandfather. He’s determined to carry on and keep alive his grandfather’s pipe making tradition while creating new shapes and finishes that he is confident his grandfather would be proud of.

Today the name Armellini bears the dreams, the dedication, the passion, and the pipe making talent and expertise of three different generations, united by one objective: Offering the best pipes possible, out of the best material possible, at the lowest price possible.

The legacy lives on …

Jeff did a great job cleaning off the debris and grime on this old pipe. He reamed it with a PipNet reamer and smoothed the walls of the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife. 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 and shank with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to the oils and tars on the bowl, rim and shank. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. Once the grime was removed the finish underneath was in stellar condition. The rich patina of the older briar was a variegated finish of smooth and sandblast looked great. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub then soaked it in a bath of Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. He rinsed off the deoxidizer with warm water and wiped the bowl and stem down with a light coat of olive oil to rehydrate both. The pipe really was quite stunning. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. I took a close up photo of the rim top and edges to show how well it had cleaned up and the edges around the bowl. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the light tooth chatter on the surface ahead of the button on both sides.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is readable as noted above. I took a photo of the white spot on the top of the stem. I removed the stem and took a photo of the parts to show the proportions of the pipe. It is a beauty. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The grain really began to sing. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I used a shoe brush to work the balm into the plateau on the rim top. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it another coat of Obsidian Oil. As usual at this point in the restoration process I am excited to be on the homestretch. I look forward to the final look when it is put back together, polished and waxed. I put the Armellini Elite DAL 1960 back together. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The grain really pops with the wax and polish. The shiny black vulcanite stem is a beautiful contrast to the reddish, browns of the bowl. This Armellini Elite 2009 Straight Bulldog was a great pipe to spruce up. It is a very comfortable pipe to hold in the hand. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 46 grams/1.62 ounces. This pipe will be going on the Italian Pipe Maker section of the rebornpipes store if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. This is an interesting estate to bring back to life.

Restoring a Beautiful Panel Bjarne

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe I chose to work on was one that we purchased on 10/20/2022 from and Antique Store in Vancouver, Washington, USA. This one is stamped Bjarne [over] Handmade [over] In Denmark. I have worked on quite a few Bjarne pipes over the years and found them to be well made pipes following the grain on the smooth and unique sandblast on the others. So, when I saw this one I was excited to work on it. The pipe is kind of a shape I would call a combination of a Freehand and a Panel Brandy. The briar bowl and shank were smooth and well grained. The rim top had a plateau finish. The exterior of the pipe is dirty from use with oils and grime on the bowl sides. It has a thick cake in the bowl and an overflow of lava on the plateau rim top and inner edge of the bowl. The stem is a oval taper stem that is comfortable. It is oxidized but free of tooth marks and chatter on the surface. Jeff took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is thickly caked and seems to have a thick dottle in the bottom of the bowl. There was some thick lava on the rim top and inner edge. I am hoping that once the lava is removed the edge will be okay. The stem looked surprisingly good under the dirt and grime. There was oxidation, calcification on the surface of the vulcanite. It looked like it had a rubber Softee Bit on the stem. There did not appear to be any tooth marks or chatter. It should cleanup very well.Jeff took photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the beautiful grain that was around this bowl event though it was lost in the grime the finish. The pipe had obviously been well loved and enjoyed by the previous pipeman. He took a photo of the underside of the shank to show the stamping. The stamping is clear and readable in the photos below as noted above. The stem had a faint Bjarne logo on the topside. In a previous blog I had researched the brand quite a bit. I have included it in full below for information on this pipe (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/03/07/another-pipe-from-the-eastern-canada-lot-a-hand-carved-bjarne-freehand/). I quote:

I turned my favourite go to sites on background of brands. The first is Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-b5.html). There I looked up the Bjarne brand. I have copied the pertinent information below.

Bjarne Nielsen (1941 – † 2008) distributed his own “Bjarne” brand and pipes carved by Danish pipemakers (Mogens Johansen, Tonni Nielsen or Ph. Vigen). High grade pipes were stamped “Bjarne Nielsen” without any logo on the mouthpiece and graded A, B, C and D. Bjarne second brand: Viking.

I have included a screen capture of the section on the brand below.I turned to Pipedia and looked up the brand for a bit more information on the pipes that were stamped like the one that I am working on (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Bjarne). Toward the end of the article I found what I was looking for. I quote:

Among the pipemakers that worked for Bjarne were Johs (for the lower priced high volume pieces), and makers like Ph. Vigen, Ole Bandholm and Tonni Nielsen for high grade pieces. The cheaper line was stamped “Bjarne” while the highest grades were stamped “Bjarne Nielsen” (never with the pipemakers’ name) and graded, from highest to lowest, by the letters: AX, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and J.

Now I knew that I was dealing with the cheaper line of pipe made by the company. It was stamped Bjarne while the higher grade pipes were stamped Bjarne Nielsen with a grade stamp.

Jeff did a great job cleaning off the debris and grime on this old. He reamed it with a PipNet reamer and smoothed the walls of the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife. 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 and shank with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to the oils and tars on the bowl, rim and shank. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. Once the grime was removed the finish underneath was in stellar condition. The rich patina of the older briar was a variegated finish of smooth and sandblast looked great. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub then soaked it in a bath of Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. He rinsed off the deoxidizer with warm water and wiped the bowl and stem down with a light coat of olive oil to rehydrate both. The pipe really was quite stunning. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. I took a close up photo of the rim top and edges to show how well it had cleaned up and the edges around the bowl. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the light tooth chatter on the surface ahead of the button on both sides.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is faint but readable as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the faint stamping on the top of the stem – BJ. There is not enough depth in the stamp to recolour it.I started my work on the pipe by going over the rim top with a wire brush to remove the remnants of debris and lava on the plateau of the rim top. I sanded the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to remove the scratches and marks on the sides of the bowl and heel. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris. It began to really take on a shine.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The grain really began to sing. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I used a shoe brush to work the balm into the plateau on the rim top. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded out the tooth marks and dents in the vulcanite with 220 grit sandpaper until it was smooth.  I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to remove the remnants of oxidation and the sanding marks in the vulcanite. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it another coat of Obsidian Oil. I am really happy with the way that this Bjarne Hand Made Freehand Brandy Panel turned out. It really is a beautiful looking pipe with a unique shape and smooth and plateau finishes. The vulcanite oval taper stem is really nice. The briar really came alive with the buffing. The rich brown and black stains of the finish gave the pipe a sense of depth with the polishing and waxing. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Bjarne Brandy Panel Freehand really is a beauty and feels great in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 50 grams/1.66 ounces. The pipe will be going on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipe Makers Section if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on!

We picked up an estate and it included an Early Rad Davis Hand Made USA Freehand Apple

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe I chose to work on was one that we purchased on 12/28/2024 from as part of an estate that belonged to a pipeman and carver, Byron Harwood from Missoula, Montana, USA. This one is stamped Rad Davis [over] Hand Made [over] USA. I have a few of Rad’s pipes in my own collection and all are amazing smokers and well laid out pipes following the grain on the smooth and unique sandblast on the others. So, when I saw this one in the lot I was excited to work on it. The pipe is kind of a shape I would call a combination of a Freehand Apple or maybe even a Prince. The briar bowl and shank were smooth and well grained. There are a couple of flaws – one on the underside of the shank at the spot it joins the bowl and the second one on the backside of the bowl. The rim top was smooth and there was a plateau finish on the shank end. The exterior of the pipe is dirty from use with oils and grime on the bowl sides. It has a thick cake in the bowl and an overflow of lava on the rim top and inner edge of the bowl. The stem is a fancy saddle stem that is often used on Freehand pipes. It is oxidized but free of tooth marks and chatter on the surface. Jeff took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is thickly caked with some lava on the rim top and inner edge. I am hoping that once the lava is removed the edge will be okay. The stem looked surprisingly good under the dirt and grime and light oxidation on the surface of the vulcanite. It should cleanup very well. Jeff took photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the beautiful grain that was around this bowl. There was some light grime in the finish but otherwise it was quite clean. He took a photo of the underside of the shank to show the stamping. The stamping is clear and readable in the photos below as noted above. The stem did not have any stamping or logo on it.I turned to Pipephil to get a quick overview of the brand. I have done a screen capture of the section on the site that was pertinent (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-r1.html#raddavis). I also included the sidebar notes on the page. Artisan: Robert (Rad) Davis began making and selling freehand pipes in 2003.

I turned to Pipedia where Rad had written the entry about himself and his pipemaking work (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Davis,_Rad). It a great read and I have included it in its entirety.

I have been smoking (off and on) and collecting (continuously) pipes since the early 1970’s. They have always fascinated me. My very first pipe was a Pioneer Calabash that I bought in a department store in the early 70’s while I was in college in Sacramento, California. My second pipe during that same period was a Nording free hand that I got for $20.00 plus a coupon from the back of an Amphora Pipe Tobacco package. The coupon was introducing this new young Danish pipe maker to the U.S. market. I still have both pipes.

I met Mark Tinsky several years ago in the internet when I was in need of a pipe repair, and from his site I found that he was a fly fisherman. I am a fly fishing guide in Montana and a commercial fly tier, and we ended up trading some flies for pipe repair. Last spring, I was in need of a pipe repair again, and when I found Mark’s site, I saw that he had a new address in Helena, Montana, where I live and guide during the summer! We got together after I arrived for the season and did some fishing together, and he showed me his shop, and even made me a nice bent Rhodesian pipe while I watched. It’s become one of my favorite pipes, dedicated to Mac Baren Navy Flake.

When I expressed an interest in trying to make a pipe, Mark was much more than helpful. He gave me a couple of pipe kits that he couldn’t sell for one reason or another, cut the basic shape out on the band saw, and let me go to work making free hand pipes. My first few pipes left a lot to be desired, but I was starting to see what I was doing wrong and concentrated more on getting the proportions and flow of the shape right until I was turning out some decent work. I also learned to cut and drill pipes and turn tenons on stems during this time. I discussed with Mark the possibility of my actually selling my pipes, and he said that he thought there was a definite need for quality hand made pipes at reasonable prices.

And here is the result. All my pipes are free hands, made from the same high quality Grecian Briar used by Mark. There are no fills in my pipes. Some may have small flaws, but they are not hidden, and they are priced accordingly.[1]

I sent Rad Davis a message on Facebook regarding the pipe to see if I could learn about when he made it. Rad kindly answered me. Here is his answer:

Hi Steve, I can’t remember that one in particular, but I can tell you that it was early on in my pipe making career, back when I was making freehands with premade stems.

This confirmed my thinking that it was an early pipe. It was also good to know that the stem was original and not a replacement. Now it was time to work on the pipe itself.

Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. He cleaned up the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. Surprisingly the walls looked unscathed from the heavy cake. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub and then soaked it in Briarville’s Deoxidizer. He washed it off with warm water to remove the Deoxidizer. When I examined the stem, it looked very good. The pipe looked far better when it arrived. I took some close up photos of the rim top and edges to show how well it had cleaned up and the edges around the bowl. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the light tooth chatter on the surface ahead of the button on both sides.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to have a look at the parts and overall look.I started my work on the pipe by cleaning up the darkening on the inner edge of the bowl and the spots on the rim top. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth and shape them. It looked much better.I sanded the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris. It began to really take on a shine. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The grain really began to sing. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. II worked it in to the plateau shank end with a shoe brush. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it another coat of Obsidian Oil. I am excited to finish this early Rad Davis Hand Made Freehand Apple. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with beautiful mixed grain all around it, looks great with the polished black vulcanite stem. This smooth Rad Davis Freehand Apple is great looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 54 grams/1.90 ounces. It turned out to be a beautiful pipe. I will be putting on the rebornpipes store in the American (US) Pipe Makers Section. Let me know if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Thanks for your time as I walked through the restoration.

Breathing Life into a Lightly Smoked Posella RN Fatta A Mano Rusticated 1/4 Bent Apple

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by Steve Laug

I have always been intrigued by heavily rusticated pipes – the look, the weight and the tactile feel of each one is a story in itself. In a conversation with a seller in Ogden, Utah, USA via zoom Jeff and I were able to see this beauty and make a deal. The date we picked it up was 12/12/2024. It is a short compact apple with a full-sized bowl. It is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads Posella RN [over] Fatta A Mano. There is also a stamped crossed horizontal “P” logo on the left side of the fancy saddle stem. The finish was a nicely heavily rusticated with an acrylic thin saddled stem. The pipe had been lightly smoked and there no cake in the bowl and no lava on the rusticated or the smooth portions of the rim top. The stem was dirty with what looked like grime from a softee bit on the stem. You can see the line where the bit had ended. The beauty was that there were not any tooth marks or chatter on the stem surface. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work on it. I have included them below. Jeff took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is very clean with some slight darkening in the bowl showing that it may have been smoked only once or twice. The stem looked surprisingly good under the dirt and grime on the surface of the acrylic. It should cleanup very well. Jeff took photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the unique and beautiful rustication that was around this bowl. There was some light grime in the finish but it was quite clean. He took a photo of the underside of the shank to show the stamping. The stamping is clear and readable in the photos below as noted above. He also captured the “crossed horizontal Ps” logo on the left side of the saddle. It in excellent condition. I turned to Pipephil’s site to get a sense of the brand as it is a new brand to me. I had no sense of the details other than it is an Italian pipe (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-p4.html). The photo of the pipe that is included is very different than the one I am working on. The logo on the stem and the shamping on the shank is similar. It was also helpful to see the explanation of the grading on the pipe. In this case the pipe in hand is an “R” meaning rusticated. The “N” is for Natural finish. There were no tier numbers or stars. I have also included the side bar information below the photo below.Artisan: Vitaliano Posella is the son of Salvatore Posella who was a briar cutter. He started making pipes with his brother-in-law, Tonino Jacono and established on his own when Jacono moved to Jesi. Address: Via Umberto I, 183. 88067 San Vito sullo Ionio (Calabria)

I turned to Pipedia to gather some more information on the Posella brand and some history (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Posella). I have included a short piece of information from the site below.

Vitaliano Posella is a pipemaker in San Vito sullo Ionio (Provincia di Catanzaro, Regione Calabria). He found to the handicraft art of pipemaking after having acquired a lot of experience in the briar industry. His pipes are exclusively produced with Calabrian briar.

There was also a link to an article on the Posella Grading system. However, the link is not functioning and locks down. I will include below it as I hope that it will become available soon http://www.theitalianpipe.com/infowell/guides/posella.htm.

I googled for further information and found a link to a site that sells Posella pipes. It also gave a great bit of background to the brand and the pipemaker. Here is the link to the site and the information (https://tabaccherialentofumo.com/en/brand/posella-pipes-en/). I quote that information below.

The Posella family has a long history of sawing on their backs, dedicating themselves to the production of briar for pipes in Calabria, one of the most famous lands for the raw material of our precious products.

Vitaliano Posella has been making pipes for several decades, obviously using briar from the family. For this reason, their pipes are seasoned for at least 10 years, for a high quality in the mechanics and a greater fragance when smoking.

The Posella pipes have a great reception also abroad, in places like China or America. These pipes are manufactured entirely by hand, perforated with great precision, with 100% attention to details to offer a product who lives up the expectations of the demanding and expert smokers.

In hand-made mouthpieces, Posella uses methacrylate for its luster in time and resistance to scratches. In addition, from this material is made the tenon, with a custom work for each pipe.

The way to rustic a pipe is unique and captivating, with a long and meticulous process, making it very particular and valuable, being its baseline. Its forms are classic but with its own interpretation, being a recognizable and suitable style for any type of interested person in the subject.

Now it was time to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. He cleaned up the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. Surprisingly the walls looked unscathed from the heavy cake. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub and then soaked it in Briarville’s Deoxidizer. He washed it off with warm water to remove the Deoxidizer. When I examined the stem, it looked very good. The pipe looked far better when it arrived. I took some close up photos of the rim top and edges to show how well it had cleaned up and the edges around the bowl. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the light tooth chatter on the surface ahead of the button on both sides. I took a photo of the stamping on the heel of the bowl. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to have a look at the parts and overall look.I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a cloth containing some Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and buffed it off with a cotton cloth. This Posella RN Fatta A Mano Rusticated Apple was a pipe I was looking forward to seeing what it looked like when I put it back together. With the grime and debris gone from the finish and the bowl it was a beauty and the depths of the rustication just pop at this point. I put the acrylic stem back on the bowl and lightly buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I carefully avoided the stamping on the shank and stem during the process. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax 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 quite beautiful and is a lovely large bowl apple shaped pipe. The natural colour of the rusticated briar is very well chosen and shows depth in the finish. Give the finished Posella RN Rusticated Apple 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: 5 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 63 grams/2.22 ounces. I really like the unique rustication around the bowl and shank. This is a great looking pipe in great condition. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. I may hold onto this one – at least for awhile! Thanks for your time.

Restoring an Unusual Freehand Dublin

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by Kenneth Lieblich

Today, for your viewing pleasure, I have a charming – almost whimsical – pipe from the Shalom Pipe Company of Israel. This pipe came to me in an auction lot of various and sundry things. I thought the shape was quite peculiar, with it’s large, deep bowl and sandblasted exterior. It’s light and handsome – and it looked to be in good condition, so I chose it for my next restoration. There’s only one mark on the pipe – and that is the word Shalom on the left of the shank. I was familiar with the company, but went to Pipedia to see what they had to say.

Not much is known about Israel’s sole pipe factory though it’s reported to have operated quite successfully on international markets. Beside the brand “Shalom” the mainstay brand was Alpha – especially well known in the USA. Alpha was popular for a range of fresh and unusual shapes. Series (afaik): Caprice (s), Citation (s), Classic (b), Pedestal (s), Regent, Region (b), Rex (s). (1) (1) (b) = blasted, (s) = smooth. Alpha also produced at least one of its Citation forms for Carey’s “Magic Inch” series. Mentioned in context with Shalom Pipe Factory was a Danish pipemaker named ‘Muki Liebermann’, who later lived and worked in the USA. Muki is known for his unique briar bending technique and his original shapes that gave inspiration to many of the most praised Danish pipemakers. Shalom was taken over by Robert L. Marx of New York City, later Sparta, NC, then of Mastercraft. Mastercraft continued the Alpha pipes introducing new lines.This made me wonder if this pipe was, in fact, made by Muki Liebermann – I have no evidence of that, but it certainly fits. Anyway, nothing here gave me any information about this specific pipe, but I clicked on the Alpha link to see if I could find further information. Indeed, I found that the same shape of my pipe was also released by Alpha (slightly different stem, but the stummel is the same). See below…Let’s take a closer look at the pipe itself. The stummel was in good shape. Dirty, of course, but nothing looked damaged or overly worn. The stem was also generally ok – it had the usual wear and tear. The only thing that gave me pause was a couple of tooth dents. But I felt confident that I could resolve that. I used oil soap on a few cotton rounds and wiped the stem down to provide an initial cleaning of filth. 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 clean.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 didn’t work too well – but no big deal.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 an 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.Now that the stem is 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. First, with my set of needle files, I reduce the bulk of the cyanoacrylate repairs. I want to remove the excess adhesive as near to the surface as possible, without cutting into the vulcanite. Following that, 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 was a wonderful, deep black shine to the stem when I was 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 and a piece of sandpaper taped to a wooden dowel. Collectively, these ensure that all the debris is removed. Pleasingly, the walls of the bowl looked to be in good condition.Similar to the stem, I then cleaned the stummel with both pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in 99% lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. With a pipe this dirty, it took quite a while and much cotton to get 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 rounds (and a nylon-bristle brush for the rim). 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 hard work in getting the pipe clean.I used a few of the smoother micromesh pads – but just on the flat section where the logo is. After that, there were a few spots that needed to be tinted in the same colour as the rest of the stummel. I used some of my furniture pens (which is simply dye in pen form) to match the colour. 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 the stem glows.

All done! This Shalom freehand Dublin looks fantastic again and is ready to be enjoyed by its next owner. I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the ‘Various Makers’ section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 6⅛ in. (155 mm); height 2⅛ in. (54 mm); bowl diameter 1½ in. (37 mm); chamber diameter 1 in. (24 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1¼ oz. (38 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I enjoyed restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Cleaning up an Ascorti Oak Sandblast Apple

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by Steve Laug

I have always been intrigued by Morta pipes – the look, the weight and the sense of age that each one carries as a block of bog oak. In a conversation with a seller in Ogden, Utah, USA via zoom Jeff and I were able to see this beauty and make a deal. The date we picked it up was 12/12/2024. It is a short compact apple with a full-sized bowl. It is stamped Ascorti followed by Oak on the heel of the bowl and the shank. There is also an inlaid Ascorti “A” logo on the left side of the saddle stem. The finish was a nicely grained sandblast apple with an acrylic saddle stem. The pipe had been smoked and there was a moderate cake in the bowl and some lava on the inward bevel of the rim top. The stem was dirty with what looked like grime from a softee bit on the stem. You can see the line where the bit had ended. The beauty was that there were not any tooth marks or chatter on the stem surface. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work on it. I have included them below. Jeff took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is moderately caked and there is a light lava overflow on the rim top. The stem looked surprisingly good under the dirt and grime on the surface of the acrylic. It should cleanup very well. Jeff took photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the sandblast grain that was around this bowl. You can see the grime but the grain showing through the sandblast bowl is beautiful. He took a photo of the heel of the bowl to show the stamping. The stamping is clear and readable in the photos below as noted above. He also captured the “A” logo on the left side of the saddle. It in excellent condition.I did a Google search on the Ascorti Oak line and came up with very little. They seemed to sell between $285 – $375 new though I found only one currently for sale at Mars Cigars and Pipes (https://www.marscigars.com/ascorti-oak.aspx). Further searching came up with a single line in the search on the Ascorti Oak came up with a simple sentence that gave information concerning the “Oak”. I quote: The former is a variety of oak, felled and fossilized over thousands of years in peat bogs (hence its other common name, bog oak).

All of that is helpful information. There were not many Ascorti Oak pipes readily available. The pipes were made of a variety of “felled and fossilized oak over 1000s of years in a peat bog” which accounts for the name bog oak.

From there I turned to the Ascorti section on Pipephil’s site to see if there was any information on the Oak line (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-a8.html). There was nothing shown on that in section on Ascorti but the information on the brand and short summary of history was helpful. I have included a screen capture of the section and the side bar information below.Brand established in 1980 by Roberto Ascorti (born 1958), son of Giuseppe aka Peppino. See Caminetto. Production (2007): ~ 1500-2000 pipes/year

I turned from there to Pipedia for more information (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Ascorti). I have included pertinent sections of the article as well as a photo of the Ascorti brothers. It is interesting and helpful.

Roberto Ascorti, now 49, son of Giuseppe Ascorti, best known as “Peppino”, “met” the pipe when he was 10 years old, back in 1968, when his father started the new adventure as pipemaker.

He attended the Art Institute, but he continued with his passion for the pipe and decided to assist his father more and more. In 1980, when he was 22, Roberto decided to devote himself completely to creating pipes, but there was no room in his father’s factory; so he started by himself with his own name, ASCORTI, supported and helped by his father, his brother Pierangelo and by his girlfriend, Silvana. Then, when the historic Caminetto factory closed, its artisans entered the newborn Ascorti which had all the tradition, the experience, the power and quality that Peppino Ascorti had built in several years, but with innovations in the model making and in the technical solutions, brought by the young Roberto.

During those years Roberto suffered the early passing of his father and his brother. But with the help of his wife, Silvana, always by his side, he continued with love and experience to compete with a market which is extremely variable and ruled by accelerations(?) of the changes. Roberto is able to change the style of his design by revising old shapes, personally checking the progress and working side by side with his precious artisans.

Briar is personally selected by Roberto who controls the quality, dimensions, weight and the first seasoning, which is very important and done in the area where it is collected and cut. After the first scrupulous control, the briar is then aged for two years, to reach the seasoning that he thinks is perfect to create a pipe. Each pipe is designed by Roberto and it is initially crafted with small machines, made by hand by his father Peppino, with the help of his son, back in the 70’s. They are perfect to allow different processes as the artisanal tradition requires.

After the drilling of the bowl and shank, the pipe passes through an interminable series of handmade steps done only by Roberto and the irreplaceable Cesare (already aside of Peppino in 1968).

The mouthpiece, made in methacrylate (acrylic) is also completely handmade, obtained in sheets which are cut into bars, then drilled and shaped with files and sandpaper. There are 90 steps to the procedure, small or large, but everyone important, that Roberto requires before he considers his creations finished and ready to be shown to the customer.

I think that the love that Roberto flows into his pipes, absorbed by the workers and relatives, is perfectly understood by smokers all around the world, who never fail to give us satisfaction with praise and public or private lauds.

Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. He cleaned up the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. Surprisingly the walls looked unscathed from the heavy cake. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub and then soaked it in Briarville’s Deoxidizer. He washed it off with warm water to remove the Deoxidizer. When I examined the stem, it looked very good. The pipe looked far better when it arrived. I took some close up photos of the rim top and edges to show how well it had cleaned up and the edges around the bowl. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the light tooth chatter on the surface ahead of the button on both sides.I took a photo of the stamping on the heel of the bowl. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to have a look at the parts and overall look.I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the bog oak. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a cloth containing some Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and buffed it off with a cotton cloth. This Ascorti Oak Sandblast Straight Apple was a pipe I was looking forward to seeing what it looked like when I put it back together. The pipe was a beauty and the grain of the bog oak and the sandblast depths just pop at this point. 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 and stem 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 quite beautiful and is a lovely large bowl straight apple shaped pipe. The dark colour of the Morta/Bog Oak and the sandblast give it depth. 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: 5 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 63 grams/2.22 ounces. I really like the way that Ascorti follows the grain in the bog oak with the sandblast. This is a great looking pipe in great 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 Italian Pipe Makers Section soon. If you want to add it to your collection send me an email or a message! Thanks for your time.

Restoring an Odd, Old Genuine French Briar Slug Style Pocket Pipe

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is one that has always interested me. Jeff called it a Slug and we purchased it on 07/27/2019 from a seller in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, USA. The stamping on the left side of the pipe reads Genuine French Briar at an angle on the short shank. On the underside at the stem shank union it is stamped Made in France. It is clear and readable. The hard rubber stem has a crown stamped on the left side of the taper. The finish on the pipe did not have a shiny varnish coat but it was very dirty and had oils ground into the bowl sides. There were a lot of nicks and scratches in the briar. The rim was darkened and hard to tell whether it was burned or just tarry. The bowl was nicked and out of round but it also had a cake that would need to be reamed out before addressing the out of round inner wall of the rim. The hard rubber stem had nicks and gouges on both side that looked liked someone had used pliers to try to remove it. There was light tooth chatter on the top and underside ahead of the button, however, it was clean and sharp as was the slot in the in the end of the button. Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on it. You can see what I have pointed out above in the photos. Jeff took some close-up photos of the damage to the rim and the stem. Looking closely at the photos of the rim top of the photo you can see the damage to the rim itself and the scratches in the top. The bowl also has a thick cake with some lava on the top and edges. The photo of the underside of the stem shows the nicks and gouges in the rubber. The top side also mirrors that though there is no photo of it. Jeff took photos of the grain around the bowl sides and the heel. It is interesting to note the also foot like bottom of the bowl which looks like the tread of a slug. The bowl is very dirty and oily on the outside and there are many nicks and scratches in the finish. The next photos show the stamping on the sides of the shank and the logo on the stem. It is clear and readable as noted above. Jeff removed the stem to show the damaged and corroded stinger that was in the shank. It appeared to me to have corroded a portion off the end as the bottom of the bowl showed a trough where it extended into the bowl.I knew that there were several blogs on rebornpipes about this style of pipe and in the middle of the night it hit me that they had horn stems so I did a quick search on the blog for horn stems and found two articles. The Mokin is an article on a restoration by Anthony Cook and is very helpful. The second is one I did on a Bruyere Garantie Pocket pipe and it is also a help in solidifying what I knew about the shape and the pipe. Here are the links:

https://rebornpipes.com/2015/10/20/ship-shape-refurbishing-a-mokin-corsaire-7087/

https://rebornpipes.com/2015/11/09/cleaning-up-a-bruyere-garantie-pocket-pipe-with-a-horn-stem/

Since this pipe is stamped Genuine French Briar I did a quick search on the blog for both Genuine French Briar and GFB pipes. I have restored a few of those over the years so I have included those links as well to try to pin down the history of the brand.

I went back and reread the posts on the GFB pipes I had refurbished to remind myself of their history. There I described the process of hunting down information on the brand. I summarize that here for those may not have read the posts. I quote below from the articles the pertinent information on the brand.

(https://rebornpipes.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/restemming-and-reclaiming-an-older-unsmoked-gfb-briar-calabash/ , https://rebornpipes.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/restoring-a-gfb-bent-billiard-another-reclamation-project/, https://rebornpipes.com/2013/11/21/restoring-an-older-gfb-three-star-horn-stem-bent-bulldog/#)

The first thing I found was information that the GFB brand was an older French Trademark and that it came from Saint Claude, France. A more focused search for GFB French Briar Pipes led to information that the stamping GFB stood for Great French Briar – something about that did not seem right to me so I continued to look and finally came across the following advertisement from a Sears Catalogue that I have included below. It shows a full page of GFB pipes and the header says GENUINE FRENCH BRIAR. That made much more sense to me, and all three of the GFB pipes I had worked on match the pipes in the catalogue. It was good to be reminded of the old brand. I am pretty sure that all three of my GFB pipes come from either the late 1890’s or the early 1900’s.Judging from the description above, the pipe I am working on is an older French Made pipe by the GFB company – Genuine French Briar. The best I can tell the pipe was made in the early 1900s. I have worked on horn stem examples of this but this is one of the first with  a hard rubber stem. Now it was time to work on the pipe itself.

Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. He cleaned up the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. Surprisingly the walls looked unscathed from the heavy cake. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub and then soaked it in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. He washed it off with warm water to remove the Deoxidizer. When I examined the stem, it looked very good. The pipe looked far better when it arrived. I took some close up photos of the rim top and edges to show how well it had cleaned up and the edges around the bowl. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the gouges, scratches and light tooth chatter on the surface ahead of the button on both sides.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to have a look at the parts and overall look. I worked on the out of round bowl with a folded piece of sandpaper to smooth out the damaged areas and bring it back to as close to round as I could get it. I smoothed out the rim top at the same time to remove damage on the surface.I sanded the scratching and marks around the bowl sides with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the briar down after each sanding pad. I was able to smooth out most of the marks and the bowl looked much better. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The grain really began to sing. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I set the bowl aside and filled in the deep nicks and gouges with black CA glue. Once it cured I sanded out the chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button with 220 grit sandpaper.I sanded the stem surface with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. The repairs were blended in and the chatter was gone on both sides ahead of the button looked very good. The stem began to shine.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I went through my collection of stingers and found one that was probably much like the broken one that was in this tenon. It extended into the bowl the correct distance judging by the bowl bottom. It would work well. I fit it in the stem after polishing it.I am excited to finish this GFB Genuine French Briar Pocket Pipe. Jeff called it a slug and that certainly fits the shape. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with beautiful mixed grain all around it, looks great with the polished black hard rubber stem. This smooth Old GFB Pocket Pipe is both ugly and great looking at the same time. The pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 35 grams/1.23 ounces. It turned out to be a beautiful pipe. I am not sure what I am going to do with it at the moment. I have it on my desk and keep picking it up and looking at it. Thanks for your time as I walked through the restoration.