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Is this what you would call an English Walnut Shape on this House of Robertson Pipe?

By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is a unique House of Robertson pipe we picked up. It was purchased from a seller on eBay from Long Beach, California, USA on 07/13/2024. It is a Billiard or maybe an Egg with a rusticated finish that makes it look like the shell on an English Walnut. The name House of Robertson is roughly hand-etched with an engraving tool on the underside of the shank on a smooth panel. This pipe is shaped somewhere between and Egg and a Billiard but really does capture the shape of a Walnut. As you look at the following photos you will see why I am not sure what to call it. The pipe has a unique rustication on the sides of the bowl and shank. The bowl is thickly caked with some lava overflow on the rim top. The outer and inner edges of the rim look to be in good condition. There is some darkening and nicks on the inner edge but nothing horrible. The pipe was dirty but underneath all of the grime it appears to be in excellent condition. It had an oxidized silver band on the shank that is stamped Sterling but I am certain it is cosmetic as there are no cracks showing on the shank end. It is definitely an interesting pipe and should clean up very well. The fit of the stem to the shank was good. The vulcanite taper stem was oxidized and calcified. There are light tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started the cleanup. Jeff took photos show the condition of the bowl and the stem. The photos of the bowl and rim show the cake in the bowl and the lava overflowing onto the rim top. The rustication on the top of the bowl and the inner and outer edge of the rim are pretty well covered in lava. It was hard to know what the inner edge and top really looked like until we cleaned it. The silver cosmetic band was heavily oxidized and almost black. The taper stem was oxidized, calcified and had tooth chatter and marks on both sides of the stem near the button. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show some stunning and unique rustication all around the pipe. The finish makes the bowl and shank have an almost walnut texture. The next photo shows the etched or engraved with a name on the underside of shank. It reads House of Robertson. The silver band has a faint Sterling Silver stamping on it.I am including the information that I found when I received my first of the House of Robertson Pipes. I found a link on Pipedia that gave me the only information I could find on the brand. I include that in total as it is interesting to read.

“House of Robertson” was in business for many years, but alas, closed their doors in 1999. They were located in Boise, Idaho. They are noted for making rather large and interesting pipes. Thayne Robertson was a Master Mason, AF & AM, and started the shop about 1947 and his son Jon started working there in 1970 when he finished college, along with Thayne’s daughter. Thayne and his son started making the big pipes at that time, and made them together until 1987 when Thayne passed away. Jon kept the store and his sister moved on to other things. The House of Robertson appears to have closed around 1999 (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Robertson).

Since then I have worked on a lot of House of Robertson pipes and have been able to track down more information. I am including a link to a Catalogue that I picked up on eBay. Click on the link and have a look at this interesting book of information on the brand and the pipe maker himself (https://rebornpipes.com/2022/12/11/a-house-of-robertson-catalogue-filled-with-great-examples-of-thayne-robertsons-work/).

I am also including a biography of Thayne Robertson that I found on Facebook from a fellow in Boise, Idaho. It is an interesting read into the mind of the pipe maker. Make sure to take time to read it (https://rebornpipes.com/2021/10/31/house-of-robertson-pipes-boise-pipe-carver-thayne-robertson/).

Now it was time to work on the pipe itself. When it gets to Vancouver it my turn to contribute to its restoration. Jeff did a great job cleaning the pipe on the inside and outside. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the remnants with the Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the dust in the rustication on the bowl and shank as well as the smooth portions. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. Once the dust and debris were removed the finish was dull but appeared to be in excellent condition. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it under warm water to remove the deoxidizer gel solution. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. I took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show how well it had cleaned up. There is some rim darkening but you can see the rustication on the top of the bowl. The stem tooth marks and chatter are very light.I took a photo of the engraving on the underside of the shank. It is clear and reads as noted above. I also took the stem off the pipe and took a photo of the parts to give a sense of the proportions of the pipe. It is a beauty.I started my work on the pipe by dealing with the darkening on the inner edge of the rim and the darkening on the rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. It looked much better when finished. However, there was still some darkening in the rustication on the back of the rim top. I scrubbed it with Mark Hoover’s Before & After Briar Cleaner and was able to remove a lot more of the darkening. I put it on the area with my finger tips and worked it into the surface with a tooth brush. I worked over the area with a brass bristle wire brush and then rinsed it off with warm water. The end result is far better than when I started though there is still a bit of darkening. I used an Oak stain pen to touch up the rim top and the cleaned area and the finish look good. I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the smooth finish to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I hand rubbed it with my fingers and a shoe brush to work it into the finish then set it aside to dry for 10-15 minutes. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to polish it. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. The rim top is looking much better. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The rustication on the bowl stands out with interesting lines moving across the sides of the bowl and the shank. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the vulcanite surface with the flame of a lighter – constantly moving the flame over the tooth marks and was able to lift many of them. I filled in those that remained with black rubberized CA glue. Once it cured I flattened the repairs with needle files. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to blend the repairs into the surface. I sanded the stem with the 2 inch square 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped down the stem after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished out the scratch marks left behind by the sandpaper. The stem looked very good.I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Polish – using both the Fine and Extra Fine Polishes. I gave it a rubdown with Obsidian Oil one last time and set it aside. I put the House of Robertson Rusticated Walnut with a taper stem back together and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to lightly polish the stem. I buffed the bowl and stem to raise the gloss on the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished the House of Robertson Walnut is shown in the photos below. The medium brown stains on the rusticated walnut shaped bowl works well with the rich black of the vulcanite stem. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside Diameter: 1 ½ inches, Diameter of the chamber: ¾ inches. The weight of the pipe is 42 grams/1.45 ounces. This is an interesting piece of briar with a rustication that looks like a walnut shell on the bowl and shank. I really like how the briar and the vulcanite work well together. This one will soon be on the rebornpipes store. If you are interested in adding a House of Robertson to your collection this may well be the one for you. Thanks for walking with me through the restoration process.

Restemming and Restoring an Astley’s Sandblast Cherrywood

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by Steve Laug

Not too long ago I received and email from Nick, a fellow up the coast of British Columbia. He was not too far away and had gotten my information from City Cigar, a pipe and cigar shop that I do a lot of repairs for. He wrote the following email about two pipes he want me to restem for him.

Dear Steve,

I have a couple of pipes in need of new stems. City cigar suggested you might be able to help.

One is a diplomat, the other a cherrywood. Are you able to make new ones if I get the bowls to you?

I asked him to send me some photos of the pipe so I could see what he had and what I would be working with. I have a pretty good idea of the stems that I have and could tell him quite quickly once I saw the pipe if it was something I could work on.

He wrote back and sent me another brief email and included two photos of his pipes. This email made me think twice about the pipe because of what he wrote.

In trying to pull the tenon in the silver collared pipe, the diplomat I broke off a brass screw. It will need drilling I think. Best NickThe pipes arrived this week and I was surprised to find that they were both Astley’s pipes. I chose to work on the Cherrywood first. It had a lovely sandblast finish what was dirty and was stamped on a smooth panel on the underside of the shank. It read Astley’s [over] 109 Jermyn St. [over] London. The stamping was clear and readable. The bowl of the pipe had a moderate cake with some dust and debris in the sandblast of the rim top. The inner and outer edges of the bowl looked good. The pipe was missing the stem but Nick had sent along the snapped tenon in the bag with the pipes. I took photos of the stem to get a sense of what it looked like before I started my clean up. I took a photo of the rim top to capture the condition of the bowl and rim top. I like to capture that condition before I started my work on the pipe. You can see the dust in the sandblast on the rim top and the cake in the bowl. It is a nice looking pipe.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank and it is much clearer than the photo shows. It reads as noted above. Interestingly there was no shape number on the shank so it was a bit of a mystery pipe.Before I started my work on the pipe I did a bit of reading. I knew that I had work on an Astley’s Cherrywood previously and done a blog on it. A quick search on the blog took me to it. Here is a link (https://rebornpipes.com/2014/09/27/breathing-new-life-into-an-astleys-48-cherrywood/). I quote a portion of the blog below on the pipe. I found that it was a pipe that had a similar shape and had a shape number. I am also including some photos of the pipe when I had finished the restoration. The finish was not a sandblast but a rustication pattern that was very tight. The shape was the same as the one I was working on. This pipe was stamped on the heel of the bowl rather than the shank but it was the same. What was good about it was that it showed me the kind of stem that was originally on the pipe. That would guide me in fitting a new stem.This bowl had been stamped on the smooth bottom and read Astleys over 109 Jermyn St. Under that was stamped London over 48. I looked up the shape in an old Astleys catalogue (page pictured below) and found the 48 was a Round Cherrywood Briar. The description stated that it was a copy of an old English Cherrywood with a flat base. The bend on the stem can also be seen in the photo below from the catalogue.I started my work on the pipe by reaming it with a PipNet reamer using the second cutting head to take the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls of the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel to smooth out the walls. There was no checking or burn marks on the bowl walls it looked very good. I used a brass bristle wire brush to clean out the debris in the sandblast finish on the rim top. It looked much better at this point.I cleaned out the inside of the pipe – airway into the shank, the mortise and shank walls with pipe cleaners, alcohol and cotton swabs. I worked on it until it was very clean.I scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I rinsed it off with warm running water and dried it off with a soft towel. The bowl looked good. The rim top had some fading that I would need to restain. I restained the faded rim top with a Mahogany stain pen to match the rest of the bowl and shank. The match to the rest of the bowl is quite perfect and it really makes the grain pop in the sandblast.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 it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The following photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I am very happy with the results. With the bowl completed it was time to pick out a stem to fit the shank of the pipe. I wanted it to be the same diameter as the shank and fit snug in the shank. I went through my stems and found one that looked a lot like the Astley’s stem on the Cherrywood in the photos above. It is a saddle stem with a thin blade. It is used but it should clean up very well.
I cleaned out the airway in the stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol. The internals cleaned up very well. I also cleaned up the externals at the same time.I created a slight step down on the end of the tenon to secure a snug fit in the shank. I started the process with files and finished the shape with a Dremel and a sanding drum. Once it was finished it looked very good. It was similar in shape to the tenon on the Heritage pipe. It was going to work very well.I filled in the tooth marks along the edge of the button with some rubberized black super glue. By this time the repairs on the stem had cured so I flattened them out with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I worked over the button edge. It was beginning to shape up well.I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads and wiped the stem down after each pad to remove the sanding debris. It began to take on a deep shine.I polished the vulcanite 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 wiped it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside. The sandblast Astley’s 109 Jermyn St. London Cherrywood is a real beauty and the finish and shape are well done and have a classic English look. The newly fit vulcanite saddle stem polished up on the buffing wheel with Blue Diamond and had a rich glow. 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 the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Astley’s Cherry with a saddle stem 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: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.48 ounces/42 grams. I have one more pipe of Nick’s to restem and then I will be sending them back to him. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. There are many more to come!

Third of Five Peterson’s in for restoration that are in rough condition

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by Steve Laug

Yesterday afternoon I was visited by a pipe man here in Vancouver named Sergey who had five Peterson’s pipes that he wanted me to work on. They are shown in the photo below. In the left column from top to bottom: Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL17, Peterson’s of Dublin Filter 68, Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL16 Rusticated Pipe. In the right column from top to bottom Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL16 and the bottom pipe is a Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL14. All five pipes were all thickly caked and had thick lava on the rim top. The cake is so thick that I could not put my little finger in the bowl it was so heavily caked. My guess was that the bottom of the bowl was lower than the entrance of the airway into the bowl. The Rusticated Kinsale XL17 also had a burn out in the front bottom of the bowl that would take a lot more time than just a simple clean up. I would know more about the condition of each of the bowls once I had reamed and cleaned them. Sergey was travelling in two weeks and he chose at least two of them that he wanted to take with him on his trip so those would be first. My hope is to try to finish four of the five. The third of these that he wanted is the next one I chose to work on. It was the Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL14.I took photos of the Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL14 before I started working on it. The finish is very dirty with oils and dirt ground into the briar. There are some nicks and flaws around the bowl sides and at least one fill. The rim top is thickly covered with tarry lava overflowing from the heavy cake in the bowl. It had some burn damage on the front outer edge of the bowl and the bowl was very out of round on the inner edge. The cake was thick and heavy all the way to the bottom of the bowl. The vulcanite stem is also very dirty. There was oxidation, calcification and tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button and lip edge. The P stamp on the left side of the stem is a gold P that is faint and faded. It also has some damage on the surface around the P. I took closeup photos of the rim top and bowl to give a sense of the dirty condition of the pipe and the thickness of the cake and lava on the bowl top. The damage to the rim top and edges is very clear in the photos as well. I also took photos of the stem to show the top and underside ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the shank sides. It was faint but readable through the grime and debris. It read as noted in the above paragraphs. I also took the stem off the shank and took a photo of the look and proportion of the pipe. I started my work on the pipe by reaming the thick cake in the bowl. I used a PipNet pipe reamer with the first cutting head to take back the cake. I followed that with the second and the third cutting head. I was able to remove all of the cake. The cake in the bottom third of the bowl was incredibly hard and took a repeated reaming of that portion. I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to scrape the remainder of the cake out of the bowl and clean up the bottom of the bowl. I sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. With the bowl cleaned out I was able to determine that the bowl bottom was in better condition than the first or second pipe. I would need to build up the bottom of the bowl slightly to the entrance of the airway. It would be further protection for the bottom of the bowl and help it from burning out. The issues with the rim top and inner edge would also need to be addressed. At this point I decided to address the rim top and edge damage. There was serious damage to the inner edge. The front of the rim top had been burned and had a slight dip in it. The outer edge in front of the burned rim top was also damaged. I wanted the top to be smooth once again and also wanted to bring the bowl back to round. I started by topping the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board to smooth out the damage on the rim surface and clean up the outer edge damage. I was able to significantly clean up the damage. The Kinsales that I have worked on for Sergey have all had a slightly bevelled inner edge so I would need to do that with this pipe as well. It would also clean up the out of round bowl a bit more.I used a wooden sphere and a piece of 220 grit sandpaper to work on the edge and give it a slight bevel. Once finished it looked much better.I scrubbed out the internals with 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I worked them through the airway in the shank and stem, the mortise. It took a few cleaners and swabs to really clean it but it is looking and smelling much better.I scrubbed the externals of the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I rinsed it with warm running water and repeated the scrubbing and rinsing process until the pipe was clean and looked better. I used a Cherry stain pen to touch up the rim top to match the rest of the bowl. I did this before sanding the bowl as I would also sand the top at the same time. I think the match was going to be perfect. We would see.I sanded the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to remove some of the darkening around the bowl. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. It really began to look very good. I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. Each pad gave it more of a shine. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth. By the end the bowl looked very good. Once I had I polished the bowl I addressed overly deep bowl bottom. I filled in the bottom with a mix of cigar ash and water to make a pipe mud. I pressed it into place with a tamper to flatten it. I put a pipe cleaner in the airway so that I would only fill it to the bottom of the pipe cleaner. I set it aside to dry and harden. It looks much better. It will take awhile to harden but it should deal with the damage. If it shrinks when it cures I will need to fill it in a bit more. At this point I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips to work it into the finish. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks on both sides with the flame of a Bic lighter. I filled in the two deeper marks on the underside of the stem that remained with black rubberized CA glue and set it aside to cure. Once it had hardened I sanded the with 220 grit sandpaper and smoothed them out. The P logo on the left side of the stem was so faint and damaged but I tried to touch it up with some Rub’n Buff Antique Gold. I worked it into the remaining stamp with a tooth pick. It worked better than I expected but it was not flawless. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to take out the scratching and remaining oxidation. I wiped it down after each pad with some Obsidian Oil. It is looking much better now.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. Once again I wiped it down between each pad with Obsidian Oil. I further polished it with Before and After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. It looked very good. This Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale X14 Rhodesian with a Taper Stem has a beautiful smooth finish that was slightly worn. The reddish brown finish highlights some great grain around the bowl and shank. It has a classic look of a Peterson’s pipe. The polished black vulcanite taper stem adds to the mix. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel being careful to not buff the stamping. 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. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL14 is quite nice and feels great in the hand. 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 ¼ inch, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.36 ounces/67 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. I have two more pipes to finish but these three are ready to pick up and Sergey can take them on his travels. The last two I will give back when he returns. Thanks for your time.

Second of Five Peterson’s in for restoration that are in rough condition

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By Steve Laug

Yesterday afternoon I was visited by a pipe man here in Vancouver named Sergey who had five Peterson’s pipes that he wanted me to work on. They are shown in the photo below. In the left column from top to bottom: Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL17, Peterson’s of Dublin Filter 68, Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL16 Rusticated Pipe. In the right column from top to bottom Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL16 and the bottom pipe is a Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL14. All five pipes were all thickly caked and had thick lava on the rim top. The cake is so thick that I could not put my little finger in the bowl it was so heavily caked. My guess was that the bottom of the bowl was lower than the entrance of the airway into the bowl. The Rusticated Kinsale XL17 also had a burn out in the front bottom of the bowl that would take a lot more time than just a simple clean up. I would know more about the condition of each of the bowls once I had reamed and cleaned them. Sergey was traveling in two weeks and he chose at least two of them that he wanted to take with him on his trip so those would be first. My hope is to try to finish four of the five. The second of these that he wanted is the next one I chose to work on. It was the Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL17.I took photos of the Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL17 before I started working on it. The finish is very dirty with oils and dirt ground into the briar. The rim top is thickly covered with tarry lava overflowing from the heavy cake in the bowl. The cake was thick and heavy all the way to the bottom of the bowl. The vulcanite stem is also very dirty. There was oxidation, calcification and tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button and lip edge. The P stamp on the left side of the stem is a gold P that is faint and faded. I took closeup photos of the rim top and bowl to give a sense of the dirty condition of the pipe and the thickness of the cake and lava on the bowl top. I also took photos of the stem to show the top and underside ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the shank sides. It was faint but readable through the grime and debris. It read as noted in the above paragraphs. I also took the stem off the shank and took a photo of the look and proportion of the pipe. There is also some glue around the band that makes me think it has been reglued. I started my work on the pipe by reaming the thick cake in the bowl. I used a PipNet pipe reamer with the first cutting head to take back the cake. I followed that with the second and the third cutting head. I was able to remove all of the cake. The cake in the bottom third of the bowl was hard. I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to scrape the remainder of the cake out of the bowl and clean up the bottom of the bowl. I sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. With the bowl cleaned out I was able to determine that the bowl bottom was in better condition than the first pipe. I would build up the bottom of the bowl slightly to the entrance of the airway. It would protect the bottom from burning out. I scrubbed out the internals with 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I worked them through the airway in the shank and stem, the mortise. It took a few cleaners and swabs to really clean it but it is looking and smelling much better.I scrubbed the externals of the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I rinsed it with warm running water and repeated the scrubbing and rinsing process until the pipe was clean and looked better. I sanded the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to remove some of the darkening around the bowl. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. It really began to look very good. I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. Each pad gave it more of a shine. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth. By the end the bowl looked very good. Once I had I polished the bowl I addressed overly deep bowl bottom. I filled in the bottom with a mix of cigar ash and water to make a pipe mud. I pressed it into place with a tamper to flatten it. I put a pipe cleaner in the airway so that I would only fill it to the bottom of the pipe cleaner. I set it aside to dry and harden. It looks much better. It will take awhile to harden but it should deal with the damage. If it shrinks when it cures I will need to fill it in a bit more.At this point I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips to work it into the finish. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks on both sides with the flame of a Bic lighter. I filled in the two deeper marks with black rubberized CA glue and set it aside to cure. One it had hardened I sanded the with 220 grit sandpaper and smoothed them out. I touched up the P logo on the left side of the stem with Rub’n Buff Antique Gold. I worked it into the stamp on the stem with a tooth pick and worked it in. Once it had been sitting I rubbed it off with a cloth and polished the area with a 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. Once again I wiped it down between each pad with Obsidian Oil. I further polished it with Before and After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. It looked very good. This Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale X17 Bent Rhodesian with a Taper Stem has a beautiful smooth finish that was slightly worn. The reddish brown finish highlights some great grain around the bowl and shank. It has a classic look of a Peterson’s pipe. The polished black vulcanite taper stem adds to the mix. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel being careful to not buff the stamping. 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. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL17 is quite nice and feels great in the hand. 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: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.75 ounces/78 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. I have three more pipes to finish before I give them back to Sergey. Thanks for your time.

New Life for an old Estate 1966 Dunhill Tanshell 35 FT Billiard

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is one that came to us from the group of pipes that Jeff and I purchased from a fellow selling an estate collection in Long Island, New York, USA on 04/16/2024. It is another Dunhill sandblast that is in good condition. It is stamped on a smooth panel on the underside of the shank with the shape number 35F/T followed by Dunhill [over] Tanshell. Next to that it is stamped Made in [over] England by the date number 6. After that it is stamped with a 3 in a circle [followed by] T for Tanshell. The stamping is clear and readable as noted above. The pipe has a mix of brown stains on a sandblast finish and some amazing grain that the shape follows well. The finish was dusty and oily around the nooks and crannies of the sandblast but otherwise fairly clean. There was some wear on the rim top and the front outer edge of the bowl where it had been knocked. The bowl had a thick cake and there was lava on the sandblasted rim top or edges. The taper stem was oxidized, calcified, dirty and had scratches, tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button. I took photos of the pipe to show what it looked like before I started working on it. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to show their condition and of the stem to show the condition of both sides of the stem.The stamping on the underside of the shank is shown in the photo below. It looks very good and faint but readable. It reads as noted and explained above. I captured the detail in the photos below. I removed the stem and took a photo to give a sense of what the pipe looked like.One of the first things I like to do is to unpack the stamping and understand each element in it. I turned to Pipephil helpful site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/tanshell1.html). The stamping is interpreted as follows: The number 35 is the shape number for a Billiard. The F/T signifies a Fish Tail stem. The Tanshell stamp refers to the finish which is corroborated the T at the end of the stamping. The size of the pipe 3 in a circle is a Group 3. The 6 following the D of England gives the date the pipe. Pipephil also has some helpful dating keys on the site that are basically flow charts that you can walk through to date your pipe (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1.html). I turned to Part 1 of the Dating Key and followed the chart. This pipe has a 6 following the D in England. It is the same size as the D so that took me to the section on the chart below (column one) which instructed me that the pipe could be dated as being made posterior to 1954. I followed the link following the “Your pipe is posterior to 1954. Narrow down your dating”. That took me to Page 2 of the dating key (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1a.html). The third column (suffix 5…9) led me to the section with a 6 after the D in England that is the same size as the D. There was a directive for dating the pipe spelled out as follows: 1960 + suffix which gives the pipe a date of 1966.I then turned to Pipedia’s section on Dunhill Root Briar to get a bit of background on the Dunhill finishes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill#Root_Briar). I quote:

Tanshell

The first lot was distributed in 1952 (usually made using Sardinian briar). The prototype was called “Root Shell “, produced in 1951. The Tanshell is a light tan sandblast. Sardinian briar was used for this sandblast. There is a distinct contrast in the sandblasts using Sardinian as opposed to Algerian briar. The Sardinian is much denser and much harder. The resulting pattern, when blasted, is far more even and regular both in terms of the surface texture and the finish.

The TanShell was Dunhill’s fourth finish and its first major post-war line addition. Introduced in 1951/1952 the TanShell was a naturally stained sandblasted pipe made exclusively from Sardinian briar through the 1960s. The TanShell apparently was not simply a light stained Shell but rather was also the product of “certain processes [unrevealed] not previously employed.” Initially, it appears that the pipe was to be named the Root Shell and a stamp to that effect was ordered and received by Dunhill in May 1951. Ultimately, however, the name TanShell was settled upon but the stamp for the TanShell name was not received by Dunhill until the beginning of December. Thus while the Tanshell was in production in 1951 it appears that most if not all TanShells made in that year did not enter into retail distribution until 1952 and were given a 1952 date code. Loring, J. C., The Dunhill Briar Pipe, The Patent Years and After (self-published, Chicago, 1998).

See more examples here: Dunhill Tanshell
See more about the patents applied here: Shellbriar & Tanshell, Patents 1917-1954

I have also included a chart from the site from Dunhill spelling out the Standard Pipe Finishes and giving short information and a timeline. I turned to work on the pipe itself. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the second cutting head. I took the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and then sanded the bowl walls with a piece of dowel wrapped with 220 grit sandpaper. The bowl looked very good at this point there were no burn marks and only light checking on the walls. I cleaned out the inside of the shank, mortise and airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to remove the tars and oils in them both. I used a lot of both pipe cleaners and cotton swabs to clean them as they were both very dirty.Before I scrubbed the externals of the bowl I decided to smooth out some of the roughness on the front and the back side of the outer edge. I cleaned up the outer edge with a brass bristle wire brush. I put a few drops of clear CA glue in the roughest areas of the damaged edges on the front and the back and added some briar dust to the finish. My goal was not to rebuild the edges but to rather smooth out the damage and remove the torn and rough edges. I worked it over again with a wire brush to knock of the excess. I would do some more of that after I cleaned the exterior. I scrubbed the surface of the briar with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I worked over the rim top and the damaged areas on the front and back of the bowl. I rinsed off the bowl with warm running water to remove the grime. Once it was finished it looked much better. I worked over the surface of the bowl and the rim top with the brass bristle wire brush once again. That included the rim top and the sides of the bowl and shank. It looked much better at this point. At this point I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to work it into the nooks and crannies of the sandblast finish. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I scrubbed the oxidation, calcification and debris off the surface of the vulcanite with Soft Scrub on cotton pads. It looked much better once it was finished. I sanded out the majority of the tooth marks with 220 grit sandpaper. I filled in the light tooth marks that remained with black CA glue. I set the stem aside to let the repairs cure. Once they cured I sanded them smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. I started the polishing process with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. I let it soak in.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. Once again I wiped it down between each pad with Obsidian Oil. I further polished it with Before and After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. It looked very good. This 1966 Dunhill Tanshell 35F/T Group 3 Billiard with a Taper Stem has a beautiful, unique Dunhill Sandblast finish that was deep and craggy but now slightly worn. The reddish brown finish highlights some great grain around the bowl and shank. It has some great rugged sandblast that Dunhill specialized in making. The outer edges are a bit worn but I have chosen to leave them as part of the pipe’s story. The polished black vulcanite taper stem adds to the mix. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel being careful to not buff the stamping. 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. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Dunhill Tanshell 35F/T Billiard is quite nice and feels great in the hand. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/8 inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is .95 ounces/27 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. If you are interested in adding it to your collection I will be adding it to the British Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store. Thanks for your time.

Having Some Fun with a Hilson Bolero Bulldog

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by Kenneth Lieblich

Greetings, one and all! It’s been a little while since my last blog post, but, to my chagrin, life intervened in some challenging ways. Now I’m back with a nifty pipe that put a smile on my face and I’m sure it’ll do the same for you. It’s a charming, whimsical Hilson Bolero 40, partially sandblasted straight bulldog. Normally, when I think of Hilson, my mind meanders to resin (or ‘pipenite’, as they called it) stylings from the Fantasia line – but not today! This is a pure briar pipe, with a lovely vulcanite stem. I acquired it in a lot from FB Marketplace, but I don’t know the pipe’s individual history. It certainly was a favourite smoker for the fellow who previously had it. It showed all the hallmarks of a much-loved pipe.

What do the markings say? The underside of the shank shows, first, the shape number, 40, and to the right, Hilson [over] Bolero. Again, to the right of that are the words Made in Belgium. There are no other markings to mention.Let’s check Pipedia to see what they have to say about the Hilson brand:

Jean-Claude Hillen (other sources: Jean-Paul) founded a trading company in the City of Bree in 1846. He soon turned his main interest on pipes and other tobacco related goods. Particularly in the 1960’s and still throughout the 1970’s the brand Hilson of Broers Hillen B.V. (Hillen Bros. Co.) was quite successful in many European countries. They produced large numbers of machine-made pipes covering the whole range of shapes and finishes. The pipes were well respected for good quality and craftsmanship at very moderate prices. Rarely seen there are also nice freehands from this era stamped MASTRO and signed by A.M. Sanoul, who is otherwise completely unknown as a pipemaker. All the same, in 1980 Hillen faced major financial problems. At this time there was only a second manufacturer of briars pipes in the Benelux countries, the Elbert Gubbels & Zonen B.V. in the Netherlands. The Belgian competitor being in trouble, Gubbels used the favour of the hour and bought up the company. The reason is plausible: in some countries, particularly in Germany, Hilson held larger market shares than Gubbels’ mainstay brand Big Ben. The Hillen plant in Bree was closed down shortly after and ever since then Hilson pipes are manufactured in Roermond, NL.Likewise, there is a bit more to be found from our friends over at Pipephil:

In 1846 a German named Jean Knödgen started to produce clay pipe in Belgium. In the late 19th century Jean Hillen who married into the Knödgen family took over the company and changed the firm in order to manufacture briar pipe. Jean Hillen had 2 sons: Jos Hillen was responsible for sales and Albert Hillen was responsible for the production. After WWII Albert founded the HILSON brand (Hillen and Son) and exported his pipes all over the world. In 1980 after having gone bankrupt, the Belgian brand from Bree (Limburg) was taken over by the Royal Dutch Pipe Factory.It’s also worth noting that I’ve seen several posts over at the PipeMagazine forums that state that the older (and better) Hilsons are marked “Made in Belgium”, as this one is.

The pipe is in very nice shape and was well-loved. The stem had some tooth scratches and dents, plus it was coated with a lot of oxidation – a LOT. There were no significant issues with the stummel, although it did have a bit of lava on the rim and the bowl was choked with cake. I started out by cleaning the inside of the stem with 99% isopropyl alcohol and some pipe cleaners. It was dirty, but not too bad. I also wiped the stem with some Murphy’s on some cotton rounds. As you can see, the stem was pretty filthy.This was going to take some work, so I went to the sink and scrubbed the stem with some cleanser on a few cotton pads. The photos testify to the icky oxidation that came off.After that, the stem went for a dip in the stem oxidation remover. I let it sit overnight, to allow all the oxidation to rise to the surface of the stem. The next day, I cleaned up the stem again with more cleanser on some cotton pads. This took some serious scrubbing, but, in the end, worked very nicely.Once complete, I filled the tooth marks with my carbon and rubber enhanced cyanoacrylate adhesive. Once cured, I took down the excess with my needle files. After that, I took my nine Micromesh pads and sanded the whole stem until it was shining like new. I also used my pipe stem oil in between the pads (from 3600 on) to bring out some extra lustre.This pipe comes with an innertube, so I cleaned that too. I used rubbing alcohol to remove all the tars and oils of the past, then scrubbed with some 0000 steel wool to make the tube shine.Onto the stummel. In order to clean out the massive amount of cake in the bowl, I used the Pipnet reamer and followed that up with a piece of sandpaper taped to a wooden dowel. I sanded down the cake until I hit the briar walls, so that I could inspect them for potential damage. Everything looked good on the inside, which is great. I proceeded to clean out the inside of the shank with 99% isopropyl alcohol and pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. It was surprisingly dirty in there! But I got it clean in the end.When that was done, I set up to de-ghost the pipe. I put some cotton balls into the bowl and the shank and soaked them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let that sit overnight so that any remaining smells and/or filth would leach out into the cotton. I also scrubbed the insides with some soap and tube brushes. It was beautifully clean after that!The stummel was in very nice shape, although the rim did have some lava on it, as previously mentioned. I soaked the rim in some Murphy’s to loosen this up, then used more Murphy’s to clean the whole stummel. This removed any external dirt and oils, and it was much improved.Most of the pipe was sandblasted, but there were three areas of smooth briar: the two shield-shaped patches on the sides of the bowl, and the underside of the shank where the markings were. On those smooth areas, I sanded down with the Micromesh pads to make it beautiful. I then took my restoration balm, rubbed it in the wood with a horsehair brush and let it sit for about 20 minutes. This balm is fantastic stuff and does wonderful things to nourish the wood. After letting it sit, I used a microfibre cloth and buffed it. Off to the bench polisher to put the final touches on this pipe. I first gave the smooth sections (only) a thorough (but light-handed) going-over with White Diamond compound. Following that, several coats of conservator’s wax created a beautiful, glossy seal on the pipe.All done! This Hilson Bolero 40 straight bulldog looks fantastic and is ready to be enjoyed again by the next owner. It promises to be a great smoker and conversation piece. 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” 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 5⅔ in. (145 mm); height 1⅝ in. (41 mm); bowl diameter 1½ in. (37 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (18 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅛ oz. (35 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.

Cleaning up a Brian McNulty Anima Wax Drip Sandblast Billiard

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By Steve Laug

This is another of the four pipes that Sonny in Salmon Arm, BC sent to me for refurbishing. He put them in the mail and I received them on Monday this week. I took a photo of the box of four pipes once I unwrapped them. There were 4 interesting and very unique pipes – a Vauen Solitaire 148 Freehand Filter Pipe that is huge, an older cased meerschaum with an overclocked stem, a Dunhill Wanghee Sandblast Dublin with a Bamboo shank and short saddle stem and finally an Anima wax drip sand blast Billiard carved by Brian McNulty. All needed varying degrees of restoration. I chose to work on the Brian McNulty Anima Wax Drip Sandblast Billiard next. It is faintly stamped on the underside of the bowl with a single cross in a circle or what is known as a Medicine Circle. There were other faint stamps on the shank and heel of the bowl but they were not readable even with a lens. My guess is that they read Anima and possibly the date the pipe was made. There is a wax drip finish around the rim top and down the sides of the bowl. The wax drip and the bowl have a sandblast finish was dirty but had some nice grain showing through the blast. The bowl was quite clean and if it had been smoked at all it was minimal as there was no real darkening on the lower half. The precast freehand style stem was oxidized and there were tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button. I took these photos before I started my work on the pipe. I took a photo of the rim top and bowl to show the condition of both of them. There is a light cake in the bowl and it is clean. The rim top is very clean with a light sandblast. There is no damage on the top or the inner edge. The photos of the stem show the oxidation and tooth marks/chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the underside of the bowl and shank. The stamping was faint and hard to read as noted above. You can see the Medicine Circle (single one) stamped near the bowl shank transition in the photo below. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to show the beauty of the pipe.Before I started my clean up work on the pipe I turned to my usual sources to see what I could learn about the brand. I turned first to PipePhil’s site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-a6.html). I did a screen capture of the section on Anima Pipes. From that I reexamined the underside of the bowl and shank to see fi I could clarify some of the faint stamps. There was a small C on the shank that tells me the briar is from Calabria. It also seems to bear a 04 03 stamp that tells me that the pipe was made in April of 2003 from the information below. That was information that I did not have until I read this on PipePhil.The site also had a small photo of Brian McNulty. The side bar identified him as the artisan that made the pipes. It also noted that the dot inlaid in the stem is of red clay (Catlinite) used by Indians for their pipes. The clay is the soul (Anima) of the pipe.

Sonny had told me that Brian is a Cherokee and all of this information was quite interesting to note.

From there I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Anima_Pipes). Generally, I find more information on the site that fills in the blanks a bit for me on the maker and the company. That was the case this time as well. I am including the information below.

Anima Pipes are all handmade in the USA by carver Brian McNulty utilizing the highest quality, well aged briar from many regions to bring out the free flowing forms which lie in each ebacheon. Cut to maximize the beautiful grain of the wood, these pipes provide a beautiful aesthetic and a cool and satisfying smoke to all whom have had the pleasure of packing up and lighting one of these “smokable works of art” which is undeniably Anima. With a basis in traditional styling, accentuated by artistic expression, these extremely fine smoking articles each come with an exact matching tamper to compliment each pipe. Carver Brian McNulty’s sharp eye and flair for form, symmetry, sleek lines, fine attention to detail, and uniquely inspired shapes coupled with “soul” within the craftsmanship are what set Anima pipes apart from many others. Know that smoking an Anima pipe will provide you with a dry and satisfying smoke every time as you view a truly one-of-a-kind work of art! You might also enjoy listening to Brian Levine’s interview of Brian McNulty on the Pipes Magazine Radio Show

I turned to work on the pipe itself. I reamed the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls of the bowl with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The walls of the bowl are undamaged and smooth.

I scrubbed internals of the shank and airway in both the shank and the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. The pipe began to look much better. To remove the grime from the sandblast ridges and valleys I scrubbed the surface with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I rinsed the briar with warm water to remove the soap and debris. I dried it off with a soft towel. I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a shoe brush. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar comes alive with the balm. I set the bowl aside and turned to address the tooth marks and chatter in the stem surface. I “painted” the tooth marks on the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter. I was able to lift the tooth marks significantly. I filled in what remained with black rubberized CA glue. Once the repairs had cured I sanded them with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surface of the stem. I sanded the stem surface with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I dry sanded with each pad and wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth.I polished the vulcanite 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. Once I finished with the 2003 Brian McNulty Anima Wax Drip Sandblast Billiard I put the stem back on the shank and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond polish using a lightly loaded pad and a soft touch. I wanted the shine but not the grit filling in the crevices of the sandblast bowl. I buffed it lightly with Blue Diamond so as not to get it in the grooves and crevices of the blast. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad and hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is a great piece of pipe history and looks better than when I began the process. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outer Bowl Diameter: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber Diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.45 ounces/ 41grams. One more of Sonny’s pipes to work on before I send them all back to him. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I working on it. As always, I encourage your questions and comments as you read the blog. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

A Unique Jobey Rusticated Florentine 360 Diamond Shank Billiard with a Tortoise Shell Stem

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By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table was one we purchased on 01/22/24 off eBay from a seller in Jordan, Minnesota, USA. It is a uniquely rusticated Jobey that I have never seen before. I have worked on a lot of Jobey rusticated pipes but this is a unique one. It has almost a tree bark rustication on the higher parts and the deep areas are carved like leaves. The stem is a saddle stem that is tortoise shell amber acrylic with a Jobey brass oval inlaid on the left side of the stem. The pipe is stamped on smooth panels on the left and right top sides of the diamond shank. The left side reads Jobey in script [over] Florentine. The right side has the shape number 360 stamped. Both are clear and readable. The finish is quite dirty with darkening in the deep rustication in spots where the hand held the bowl on both sides. It looks like burn marks but I don’t believe that they are. The rim top is also dirty with darkening and also lava in the rustication on the edges as well. There is a thick cake in the bowl with some tobacco debris stuck on the walls and in the heel. The stem has tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button that are a bit deep and will need to be addressed. The tenon is the Jobey Link System as you will see in the photos. Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. It is unique and certainly one that we are looking forward to seeing once it is cleaned up. Jeff took closeup photos of the bowl and rim top to clearly show the condition of both. The match what I described above. He also took photos of the stem to show the tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. He took photos of the finish around the sides of the bowl and the heel. You can see the tree bark rustication on the high parts and an almost leaf like pattern in the lower spots. It is a unique finish that is hard to clean but well worth the effort. The next photos of the stamping on the smooth panels on the sides of the shank show that it is clear and readable as noted above. The third photo shows the Jobey brass logo on the left topside of the saddle stem. Now it was time to look at it up close and personal. Jeff had removed the cake and the lava on the rim top. He had reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He took the cake back to bare briar so we could check the walls for damage. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime on the bowl and rim and was able to remove the lava and dirt. He cleaned out the interior of the bowl and shank with shank brushes, pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they came out clean. He cleaned the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the grime on the exterior. He cleaned out the airway with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I took some photos of the pipe before I started my work on it today. I took a close up photo of the cleaned up rim top. The rim top and the inner edge look good. The bowl is clean and the walls are undamaged. There was still some darkening in the rustication but it was much better. The stem looks good with some tooth chatter and marks along the top and underside ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the shank sides. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took the stem off the pipe and took a photo. The diamond shank billiard is an attractive looking pipe with nice lines. The saddle stem shows tooth damage on the top and undersides of the stem. I went over the rustication with a brass bristle wire brush to knock off any of the darkening on the grooves of the rim top and on the spots on both sides. It looked better. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and with a shoe brush to get deep in the rustication where it works to clean, restore and preserve the briar. I let it do its magic for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The pipe looks incredibly good at this point in the process. I filled in the deep tooth marks ahead of the button on the top and underside of the stem with clear CA glue. I like this particular glue (KM Tools) as it is transparent and the colour underneath the repair comes through. It is also not brittle like other glues can be once it cures. I sanded the cured repairs flat with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and the tooth marks and dents are taken care of. I started polishing out the scratch marks and smoothing the repairs 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. The tooth marks and dents were invisible.Following my usual process in restoration 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 further with Before & After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to absorb the oil. The Jobey Florentine 360 Diamond Shank Billiard is finished other than the final waxing and buffing. I polished the stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches and gave it several coats of carnauba. I polished the bowl and shank with Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush. 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 finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 43 grams/1.48 ounces. I will be adding it to the rebornpipes store shortly in the American Pipemakers section. If you are interested in adding it to your collection email me at slaug@uniserve.com or send me a message on Facebook. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this uniquely rusticated Jobey Florentine Billiard.

Restoring a Danish Made Barling Make International 911 Brandy

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is a pipe that we picked up from an eBay seller in Jordan, Minnesota, USA on 01/22/2024. This one was a nice looking sandblast Brandy that has a classic Barling look. It is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads Barling in script [over] Make [over] International [over] Made in Denmark. On the shank end at the joint of the stem it is stamped with the shape number 911. On the top of the saddle stem it is stamped with the Barling cross logo. It has some smooth panels mid bowl on the left and right side. The sandblast around the bowl shows some nice grain patterns. There was lot of grime and oils ground into the finish around the bowl and the shank. The pipe was dirty but the contrasting dark and medium brown stains highlighted the grain of the briar. There was a thick cake in the bowl. The rim top had a thick coat of lava overflowing from the bowl. The edges looked good but a clean up would tell the story. The rim top was crowned. The stem is a vulcanite saddle shape that has the Barling cross on the top of the saddle. It was oxidized, calcified and had some tooth chatter and tooth marks on the top and underside ahead of the button. The pipe showed a lot of promise but it was a mess. Jeff took pictures of the pipe before he did his clean up work. He took photos of the rim top and bowl as well as the stem surfaces to show the condition of the well smoked pipe. You can see the cake in the bowl and the lava on the inner edge and rim top. The outer edge of the bowl is in good condition. It appears to have a nicely rounded crown on the rim top. The stem was lightly oxidized, calcified and had scratches, tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took some photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to give a sense of the sandblast finish and the grain around the bowl. It should clean up very well. He captured the stamping on the sides of the shank and stem. It reads as noted above and is clear and readable. He also took photos of the Barling cross on the top of the saddle stem. The stem also has a white acrylic spacer that fits between the shank end and the stem face. I like to do background research on the pipes I am working on. I did a quick search on the rebornpipes blog and found a blog written by Paresh that gives some great background information (https://rebornpipes.com/2019/09/16/a-fresh-lease-on-life-for-a-barling-t-v-f-911-made-in-denmark/). I quote from it below:

I had previously worked on a couple of Barling pipes from my inherited pipe collection; here are the links to both the write up, https://rebornpipes.com/2019/03/26/a-simple-restoration-of-an-early-transition-era-barling-2639/, https://rebornpipes.com/2018/12/10/decking-out-my-grandfathers-battered-pre-transition-barling-1354/ and had researched this brand then. To refresh my memory, I revisited the write ups and also pipedia.org. Here is an interesting excerpt from pipedia.org (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Barling)

In the late 1970’s production of Barling pipes was shifted to Denmark where Eric Nording manufactured Barling pipes for Imperial. There may have been other factories, but as of this writing, none has been identified. Nording stated that he made approximately 100.000 pipes for Imperial.

Despite these attempts to diversify the line, Barling lost its market. These pipes just weren’t equivalent to the family era pipes. Finally, Imperial decided to close down the Barling operations entirely by 1980.

Paresh discerned from the above information that the pipe currently on his work table is from the period between late 1970’s to 1980 and most likely carved by master craftsman Eric Nording!! For me the fascinating thing is that the pipe I am working on is from the same master and the same carver.

Now it was time to look at it up close and personal. Jeff had removed the cake and the lava on the rim top. He had reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He took the cake back to bare briar so we could check the walls for damage. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime on the bowl and rim and was able to remove the lava and dirt. He cleaned out the interior of the bowl and shank with shank brushes, pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they came out clean. He cleaned the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the grime on the exterior. He cleaned out the airway with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I took some photos of the pipe before I started my work on it today. I took a close up photo of the cleaned up rim top. The rim top and the inner edge look good. The bowl is clean and the walls are undamaged. The stem looks good with some tooth chatter and marks along the top and underside ahead of the button. The Barling Cross is faded with the cleaning.I took a photo of the stamping on the shank side. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took the stem off the pipe and took a photo. The thick shank billiard is an attractive looking pipe with nice lines. The taper stem shows tooth damage on the top and undersides of the stem. I started my work on the pipe by working over the rim top and the bowl and shank with a 320 grit sanding pad. I wiped the bowl down after sanding pad. The rim top began to take on a shine.I polished the rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the rim top down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth. It really took on a shine. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips where it works to clean, restore and preserve the briar. I let it do its magic for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The pipe looks incredibly good at this point in the process. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I touched up the stamping on the topside of the saddle stem with white acrylic fingernail polish. I pointed it on with the applicator and scraped off the excess and lightly sanded it with a 1500 grit micromesh pad.I “painted” the surface of the stem with the flame of a lighter. I was able to raise all of the tooth marks. I sanded out the light remnants that remained with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. Once finished I wiped it down with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It looked much better. I continued to polish the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it further with Before & After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to absorb the oil. I am excited to finish this Made in Denmark Barling Make International 911 Brandy made by Eric Nording. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and then by hand with a microfibre cloth to deepen it. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with beautiful sandblast grain all around the bowl and shank and the smooth well grained crowned rim top. The polished grain on the pipe looks great with the black hard rubber stem. This Danish Barling Make International 911 Brandy 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: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 44 grams/1.55 ounces. It turned out to be a beautiful pipe. I will soon be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipemakers Section. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Remember we are the next in a long line of pipe men and women who will carry on the trust of our pipes until we pass them on to the next trustee. Thanks for your time reading this blog.

Restoring the third of 5 pipes for an old pipeman – a Large Ed Burak Connoisseur Bent Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

Earlier in June I received an email regarding restoring some pipes for her husband. Here is here email.

I have one Calich and one Dunhill pipe which my husband destroyed using a torch lighter on. I am wondering if it is possible to get them restored somehow. If you want to have a look I can send pics.

I wrote and asked for photos of the pipes. She wrote that there were actually 5 pipes not two and included photos of all five. I asked her if she was wanting to sell them or just repair them. Here is her response.

No… I don’t want to sell (yet) he’s 86 and has taken up smoking his pipes again. He was using a torch lighter until I discovered and replaced with proper pipe lighters. For now, I’m wondering if it’s possible or even wise to restore them. – Kathleen.

I replied to Kathleen and invited her to send the pipes to me in Vancouver. They arrived just before I left for my visit with my Dad in Idaho. Here is what I found when they arrived. There were three Caliches, a Dunhill, and an Ed Burak Connoisseur. The Calich Pipes included a rusticated straight Opera, a bent Rhodesian with an octagonal rim cap and an acrylic stem. The Dunhill was a sandblast Billiard with a repair band on the shank. The Ed Burak Connoisseur was a bent Bulldog. All had rim top damage from being lit with a torch lighter. Some were in worse condition than others. The worst were the Calich Opera and the Dunhill Billiard which had torch damage on the left side of the rim and down the bowl side. The others had varying degrees of burn damage. I set them aside until I returned home from my visit. Here are the photos that Kathleen sent me of the third pipe – a large Bent Bulldog. I took the pipes out of the box and laid the group out on my worktable. I took some photos of the group to show their condition. The photo of the left side of the shank shows the damage I mentioned in the earlier paragraphs. The right-side photo looks very good. The photos from the rim top show a lot of damage and the overall condition of the pipes very clear. After looking through the remaining group of three pipes I decided to work next on the Burak Connoisseur. This one is a smooth Bent Bulldog with a single ring below the rim cap. It is stamped Connoisseur on the left side of the shank. On the right side it is stamped with the signature of Ed Burak in script. The smooth finish Bulldog had a very thick cake in the bowl and there was a lava overflow on the top. There was heavy burn damage under the lava like the other two pipes I have worked on. There was one on the front edge of the bowl toward the front right as well as much heavier burn damage on the left back edge. The bowl was out of round. The finish had a lot of oils and tars built up on the sides and the cap. It was oily and sticky to the touch while I held it. The shank had a thick coat of tars and oils and the stem had a thick tar build up as well so its fit in the shank was very sticky and dirty. The stem is a vulcanite saddle without any stamping on it at all. It was oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks on the stem ahead of the button. There were overflowing tars on the smooth shank end around the fit of the tenon in the mortise. A lot would be revealed once I had cleaned it. I took photos of the pipe before I started my cleanup work. I took a close-up photo of the bowl and rim top to show its condition. The inside of the bowl was heavily caked with a wet oily tobacco. The rim top had damage on the front right in the photo below as well as on the back left. The back left side is the worst as it is quite thin and the bowl is out of round. It left a mess for me to clean up. The stem was also is a mess. There was some tooth marks and dents on the top and underside ahead of the button. There was a thick coat of calcification and oxidation on the stem.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 from the shank and took a photo of the pipe showing the shape and flow of the pipe. It is a nice looking pipe that shows a lot of damage from burning. I decided to have a look at the history of the brand. Over the years I have had a few Connoisseur pipes but none of them were stamped like this one with the Ed Burak signature on the left side. I wondered about the stamping. It was my guess that it somehow helped with dating the pipe to a particular time in Ed Burak’s pipe making career but I did not know for sure. I decided that before working on this particular pipe I would do a little research on the brand and the maker on Google. I always check Pipedia to see what they might have on a maker. In this case I was not disappointed. There as a great article on the site. The link to that is: http://pipedia.org/wiki/Burak.

On that site I found not only some history on Ed Burak and the brand. I also found some great information on the site regarding Ed Burak. I quote from that article below. If you should wish to read it in its entirety click on the link noted above. The article is entitled, The Art of Edward F. Burak, Dean of American Pipe Designers.

“Ed Burak is the dean of American pipe designers whose work has had a worldwide influence on the thinking and the work of contemporary pipe makers.”

“…he met and subsequently began working with Meerschaum master Paul Fisher, with whom he stayed 5 years. During that time he produced a small number of Meerschaum pipes, a few of which are still extant in collections. He also worked for Wally Frank as a pipe designer. In 1968 he bought the Connoisseur Pipe Shop, where he was able to concentrate on his own designs. Burak’s pipes have been carved by a number of well-regarded pipe makers, among them Joe Corteggione and Tony Passante. Several of his freehands are in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and have been part of a traveling exhibit of the American Craft Museum.”

“Burak’s work is best known as pipe design as fine art. He admires pays tribute to the classic English designs of the old Barlings and Comoy’s and offers a line of “Classics” which begin with these traditional values yet reflect his own interpretations.”

“Because these pipes are different, so carefully crafted, they not only please the eye, but educate it. Most pipe makers will start with an idea and work the wood toward that goal, but will change their original design to accommodate the briar. Burak does not allow the medium to modify the intent. Minor surface flaws are left on the pipes. No staining is permitted; all Connoisseurs have a natural finish, with only carnauba was added.”

“As a significant footnote, the reader should note that Ed Burak’s pipes are NOT made by Paul Perri, nor Weber, nor Jobey, as erroneously stated in Lopes’s book “Pipes: Artisans and Trademarks.” Burak prefers not to disclose the name of his current pipe carver.”

I also learned on Pipephil’s website, http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/about-en.html that the stamping did indeed give some information that helped in identifying the period that a particular pipe was made. There I found that one may generally separate Connoisseur pipes date of manufacture into three periods.

From late 1960’s until 1974: no stampings
From 1974 until 1981: CONNOISSEUR over N.Y.C.
From 1981 on: CONNOISSEUR over N.Y.C. and Ed Burak’s signature

The pipe I was working on was stamped like the photo below. It had the Connoisseur stamp on the left side and Ed Burak’s signature on the right side. That dated the pipe to the time period from 1981 to the time that the Connoisseur Pipe Shop in Manhattan closed in 2009 on Ed’s retirement.

I did some further searching and foun that on the Puff.com Pipe Forums was a thread on Connoisseur pipes that confirmed how the pipes were finished when they were originally made. http://www.puff.com/forums/vb/general-pipe-forum/299824-ed-burak-pipes-man.html. There in the latter part of a post by a member identified as Mr. Rogers was the information that I was seeking confirmation about.

“His premium pipes were like nothing I had seen before. He finished all of his pieces with only wax, no stain. He incorporated blemishes into his designs and made no attempt to hide these flaws with fillers. I frequented the CPS (Connoisseur Pipe Shop) as a high school, college, then grad school student, never really having the funds to purchase his premium pieces. As luck would have it, once I became established in my work/field, the CPS was long gone…”

Now that I had a pretty good idea of when the pipe was made and what the stamping meant, it was time to go to work cleaning up this beauty. I knew that the pipe in hand was made between 1981- 2009. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe reamer using the first cutting head. I took the cake back to bare briar so that I could check out the inside walls. I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to scrape back the remaining cake. I finished my cleanup of the walls by sanding it with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I scraped off the lava buildup on the rim top with the edge of a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I was able to remove the majority of the build up leaving the burn damage very clear.I worked on the internals next. I cleaned out the airway to the bowl, the mortise and the airway in the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. When I finished the pipe smelled very clean.I scrubbed the briar with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush and rinsed it off with warm running water. I scrubbed the rim top with a tooth brush and warm running water at the same time. I dried the bowl off with a soft microfiber cloth and gave it a light buffing. I also cleaned out the shank, mortise and airway in the stem and shank with Murphy’s Oil Soap and shank brushes to clean out the oils and tars on the inside. You can see the darkening or burn damage on the top of the rim and the outer edge of the rim cap. I am hoping it is removable. Once it was clean I turned my attention to the rim top. To smooth out the damage on the cap I topped the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the top. I took a photo of the rim top at this point. The burn damage on the back left is very visible and will need to be rebuilt.I rebuilt the back left inner edge up to match the rest with briar dust and clear CA glue. I put a drop of glue on the briar and pressed some briar dust onto the edge with a dental spatula. I carefully topped the repaired rim top with 220 grit sandpaper and took a photo of the rim at this point in the process.I worked over the inner edge of the bowl with a wooden ball/sphere and 200 grit sandpaper to give the inner edge a slight bevel that would help blend in the repair that I had made to the top and inner edge. It began to look much better at this point. I touched up the rim top with a Cherry Stain Pen to match the colour on the bowl. It looked pretty good considering where it started.I sanded the bowl and cap with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to smooth it out and blend in the restained cap. I wiped the bowl down between each pad with a damp cloth. When I finished it wiped it down with a cotton pad and alcohol. I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp alcohol cotton makeup pad after each sanding pad. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for ten minutes then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. Mark Hoover’s Balm is a product that I have come to appreciate and one I use on every pipe I have been working on. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. The stem had tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Before I could work on them I needed to remove the oxidation and the calcification on the surface. I scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub on cotton pads to remove them both.Once it was clean, I painted the tooth marks and chatter with the flame of a lighter to try to lift the marks. Many of them were lifted thanks to the memory of vulcanite. I filled in the remaining marks with black super glue and set it aside to dry.Once the repairs cured I used two small files to flatten them and started process of blending them into the surface. I sanded the repairs with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and they were removed. The surface was smooth. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to smooth out the remaining marks and begin polishing the stem. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a soft cloth. It began to look good. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. Once I had finished the polishing I gave it final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. This is the third of five pipes from Kathleen that I am working on. It is a beautifully shaped Ed Burak Connoisseur Bent Bulldog. It has the kind of beauty I have come to expect from other pipes of Ed’s I have worked on. I put the bowl and stem 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 smooth finish is well done and the reshaped rim cap look really good with the variegated acrylic stem. This Burak Connoisseur Bent Bulldog was a fun pipe to bring back to life. It is a 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: 2 inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 61 grams/2.12 ounces. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. Once I finish the other three pipes in the lot I will be sending them back to Kathleen for her husband to enjoy once again.