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De Profundis: Rescuing a Peterson 301

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Blog by Kenneth Lieblich

If this pipe could talk, surely it would say, “Out of the depths I have cried unto Thee, O Lord…”. This great pipe has truly come from the depths of … who knows where. It’s a handsome, rugged Peterson 301 System rusticated bent pot with a P-lip. As is often the case, this pipe (and the others in the photo below) came from an old gentleman, now deceased, who lived on Vancouver Island. The first two pipes below are both 301s and the third is perhaps/maybe a 317 (not sure yet). I have no idea what he did with these pipes (dropped them down the mines perhaps), but boy-oh-boy, these are pretty rough. No problem – it’s my job to sort things out.The only markings to be found on this pipe are the 301 found on the underside of the stummel, the K&P [over] Peterson on the nickel ferrule, and the double-stamped, stylized P on the stem. That’s annoying! Mark Irwin of Peterson Pipe Notes has written a few good articles about the 301s on his blog and I recommend reading one here and another one here. Of course, Steve has also written restoration blogs about the 301, including this one and it contained an important tidbit of information that I quote here:

I learned previously that the shape 301 was not introduced until 1975. Considering the Republic stamp, this one would likely date between 1975 and 2000.

This was significant because, due to the markings being almost entirely worn on this pipe, there was nothing on the wood other than the number 301 – and I couldn’t tell an age from that. Charles Lemon from Dad’s Pipes also has a post about a 301, which he describes as coming from the “1970’s era”. Now, what’s interesting about Steve and Charles’ pipes is that the patch of briar which shows the marks is quite different from mine. Below are Steve’s, Charles’, and my pipes, respectively. The first two are sort of freeform oval-ish shapes. Third (mine) is a rectangle and I wonder if that indicates a different era. I don’t know, but any of you reading this do, please let me know!  This pipe is filthy beyond description – but must have been smoked frequently and with great affection. The stem has dirt everywhere, severe toothmarks aplenty, and calcification as I have seldom seen. Meanwhile, the stummel looks as though oily dirt has been rubbed into the surfaces of the rustication. The rim is coated in lava, the front edge of the rim is bashed, and the bowl is clogged with cake. Some spots on the rustication are really worn – the old fellow must have really loved his pipes. I began by cleaning some of the calcification on the outside of the stem. I took a blade (an old butter knife, actually) and began gently scraping at all that build-up. Obviously, I took it easy, as I did not want to damage the stem’s vulcanite any further. The butter knife worked quite well and I got a good amount loose. I followed that up with some Murphy’s on some cotton rounds to try and scrub the rest away. I broke out the isopropyl alcohol and pipe cleaners, and got to work on the inside of the stem. Predictably, it was unbelievably dirty and I went through a good number of pipe cleaners in order to clean it up.As I mentioned, there were quite a few dents in the stem. Some were obviously tooth marks, but other dents looked like blunt force trauma! Time to break out the BIC lighter to see if it could raise some of them. Quite frankly, it did not do much – this repair was going to require some considerable sanding etc. Before that, however, the stem went for an overnight soak in the deoxidizer. The following day, the oxidation had migrated to the surface and would be fairly straightforward to remove. I scrubbed vigorously with SoftScrub to remove the leftover oxidation. At this point, I painted the accidentally-duplicated P on the stem, as it was pretty rough – just like everything about this pipe.

Once clean, I set about repairing the dents. Before I moved on to the Micromesh pads, I built up the dent damage on the stem with black cyanoacrylate adhesive and let it fully cure. It turned out that this was not as straightforward as I had hoped. It took more than one application of adhesive to sort this problem out. I sanded the lumps down with my needle files and my grey pads, to make the stem look sort of normal. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to bring out the lovely black lustre on the stem. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each of the last five pads. On to the stummel – this is where the lion’s share of the work was. The insides (both bowl and shank) were overwhelmed with cake and tar and anything else you’d care to mention. The bowl really needed to be reamed, so I used the KleenReem to scrape off as much built-up cake as possible. Generally, I prefer to sand the chamber down to bare briar. When restoring, it is important to ensure that there is no damage to the briar under the cake. There are a few situations when I might leave some cake in the bowl, but not today. There were definitely some craze lines in the briar on this pipe. I’ll come back to that later. Just like the bowl, the shank was absolutely disgusting. It had never been cleaned – or, not for many decades. I started cleaning the inside with isopropyl alcohol, Q-tips, and pipe cleaners. This took a while. The inside was very dirty and required and extraordinary number of Q-tips and pipe cleaners. Eventually some cleanliness came to it.I threw the stummel in my alcohol bath in the hope that it would loosen some of the ground-in filth on the outside of the bowl. After 24 hours, this worked a bit, but not enough. I added some scrubbing with Murphy’s and a toothbrush. This made things much better, but it’s a case of two steps forward and one step back: sure, it’s clean, but lots of the stain in now gone too. I decided to de-ghost the pipe despite what I had just done with the alcohol bath. I thrust cotton balls into the bowl and the shank and saturated them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummel sit overnight. This caused even more oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton. The bowl was nice and clean after this.On to the ferrule – which was bashed and discoloured from years of mistreatment. Somewhat to my surprise, the ferrule came off very easily and required no special effort. I began by cleaning the metal with some SoftScrub on cotton rounds. This was quite good at removing the unsightly bits. I used some of my MicroMesh pads (only 3,600-12,000) to eliminate some of the minor scratches on the metal. It also gave a nice shine which clearly hadn’t been seen for decades. I used a jewelry cloth to give the final polish to the nickel. This ferrule would always retain some small dents etc. from its hard life, but it looks much improved. And this is where I stopped for a looooong time. It occurred to me that the amount of work involved in this pipe was tremendous. I was torn about how invasive I wanted to be in my pipe surgery. What about the damage to the rim? What about rematching the stain? What about the heavily worn sections of the rustication? Perhaps my temperament didn’t suit this pipe too well. I freely admit that I set aside the pipe for nearly six months before coming back to it. That sounds absurd, I know, but it was either that or chucking it in the fireplace.

Back in the present day, I began by working the rim back into shape. I sanded it down on my topping board so that it was level (it wasn’t before). I used some tools, including my Dremel and some modified screwdrivers, and re-rusticated the rim. It looked great, but too sharp. So, I sanded the sharp bits to add some softness to the rim. At this point, six months on, I couldn’t remember what cleaning I had and had not done to the pipe. I dragged out some soap and some tube brushes and scrubbed the insides. I’m glad I did – it still needed it.I wanted to have another look at the underside of the stummel for any sign of markings. I used a piece of chalk and pretended this was an old gravestone rubbing. The 301 came out more clearly, but, sadly, nothing else was revealed. It was worth a shot.I knew I had to stain the stummel, but I wanted to address the heat crazes inside the bowl first. I prepared some heat-resistant epoxy and filled the cracks and gouges, ensuring that the epoxy was evenly spread throughout the bowl. Of course, I did plug the draught hole with a folded pipe cleaner (coated in petroleum jelly) to make sure none of the epoxy made its way up there. Once done, a good 24 hours was needed to ensure that the epoxy was properly set.Having completed that, it was time for staining. This would require more than one colour and some finessing to get right. I applied black leather dye with a cotton dauber to colour the recesses (or valleys, if you like) of the rustication. I flamed it with my BIC lighter and let it set. This dye is alcohol-based, so I used isopropyl alcohol to wipe down the pipe and remove excess stain. This wasn’t sufficient, so I also used some 0000-grit steel wool. I coated it again with cordovan leather dye, flamed it again, and let that set too. As before, I wiped it down with alcohol to provide depth, nuance, and variation to the colour. I was pleased – and would be more pleased soon. At long last, I was off to my bench buffer to put the final touches on this pipe. I first gave it a thorough going-over with Red Tripoli. This may seem strange, but I needed to lighten the colour of the high points of the stummel. Then I used the White Diamond compound. Following that, several coats of conservator’s wax created a beautiful, glossy seal on the pipe and moved closer to closure for this long and involved repair.At this point, I glued the ferrule back in place. Then I gently sanded the inside of the bowl to provide a rough surface for what was to come next. I thinly coated the entire inside of the bowl with a mixture of activated charcoal and my wife’s homemade yogurt. Once hardened, this provided a good, slightly rough surface for a new cake to build.This rugged and handsome Peterson 301 System rusticated bent pot has come out of the depths and is back to life. 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 “Ireland” pipe 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 5¾ in. (145 mm); height ¾ in. (45 mm); bowl diameter 1½ in. (38 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (20 mm). The weight of the pipe is 2 oz. (60 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this 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.

Restoring a beautiful Bari Select Mandarin Made in Denmark 7824

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is a beautifully grained Bari Oval Shank Acorn. It is stamped on the topside it reads Bari [over] Select [over] Mandarin. On the underside it reads Made in Denmark [over] the shape number 7824. It came from a lot we purchased from a seller on eBay on 01/22/2024 from a seller in Jordan, Minnesota, USA. It is very nicely shaped Danish style acorn shaped bowl with a vulcanite saddle stem. The bowl has a thick cake and some lava overflow on the crowned rim top and bevelled inner edge. It was hard to know for certain if there was any damage on the top or rim edges because of the debris covering them both. Only cleaning would make that very clear. The vulcanite saddle stem had a worn Bari logo stamp on the topside of the saddle. It is dirty and has tooth chatter and tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup. Jeff took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the condition of both. It was heavily caked with a lava overflow on the rim top. The inner and outer edges look very good. He took photos of the top and underside of the stem showing the oxidation and tooth marks on the stem surface and button. Jeff took photos of the heel and the side of the bowl and shank to show the grain on the pipe. It is a beauty. Jeff took photos to capture the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. He also took a photo of the faint Bari stamp on the topside of the stem. I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-b1.html) to see if I could find a listing for the Bari Select Mandarin with this four digit number. There was nothing specifically listed for this line of Bari pipes. There was also good info on the brand as a whole and that it was founded by Viggo Nielsen in 1950 and he ran it until 1978 when Age Bogelund managed the production for them. In 1993 it was sold to Helmer Thomsen. I have included a screen capture of the section below.Pipedia gives a great history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Bari) that is well worth reading. There were also photos of the Bari stamping on the Select Mandarin line of pipes.

Jeff reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals of the shank and stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish on the bowl looked really good when I got it. The rim top and edges looked very good. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer bath to remove the oxidation. The stem looked better and the deep tooth marks and chatter on the surface were also visible. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour it looked much better than when he found it. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work on it. I took photos of the condition of the rim top and stem before I started working. The rim top looks very good and the bowl is spotless. The stem still shows some light oxidation remaining and some tooth chatter and marks on both sides near the button. I took photos of the stamping on the top and underside of the shank. The stamping was faint in spots but still readable. It reads as noted above. I took the bowl and stem apart and took a photo of the pipe to show the look of the pipe. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the bowl, rim top and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I find that the balm really makes the briar come alive again. The contrasts in the layers of stain really made the grain stand out. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The bowl really looks good at this point. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks on the surface of the stem and was able to lift all of them other than the one deep one on the underside. I filled in the mark with clear super glue. Once the repairs cured I flattened them out with 220 sandpaper to blend them into the surface. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads and wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil saturated cloth to remove the grime and protect the stem.I touched up the Bari white logo on the stem with acrylic white fingernail polish. Once it dried I buffed off the excess with a cotton pad. The BA are too faintly stamped to take in the acrylic so the stamp is incomplete. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil once more.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both fine and extra fine. Once again, I am the part of the restoration that I always look forward to – the moment when all the pieces are put back together. I put the pipe back together and buffed the bowl and the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the smooth finish and the black vulcanite stem. This richly stained Bari Select Madarin 7824 Acorn is light weight and ready for you to load up a tobacco of preference and enjoy breaking it in. Have a look at it in the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 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/1.76 ounces. This is one that will go on the Danish Pipemakers Section of the rebornpipes online store shortly. Let me know if you are interested in adding it to your rack. 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 the next generation.

A Pipe Hunt Find in Bellingham – A WDC Royal Demuth Imported Briar Root 25 Apple

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Blog by Steve Laug

On our recent Victoria Day Weekend (5/18/24) my family met Jeff and his wife in Bellingham for breakfast, a visit and a bit of pipe hunting. We visited three of my favourite antique malls and worked out way through the aisles of wares for sale. Jeff and I tend to divide and conquer, each walking through the aisles of the shop looking for pipes. The rest of the family moves through looking for their own treasures. We left the second shop and using Google maps worked our way to a new shop that I had not visited before. We walked into a nicely laid out shop and I asked the clerk if there were any pipes available. He walked us back to a display case and took out a circular pipe rack. There in the rack were two pipes remaining in it. The first was a square shank Irwin’s (GBD made) London Made London England 9487 shape and the second was an older WDC Royal Demuth Imported Briar Root 25. Both were great and were added to the hunt bag. Here is the link to the blog on the hunt and a photo of the pipes we added (https://rebornpipes.com/tag/bellingham-pipe-hunt/). I decided to take a break from the pipes in my queue of pipes to work on and deal with the Royal Demuth 25 Apple. It is the bottom pipe in the two photos above. It was an interesting shape that has some great grain under the grime on the bowl and shank. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads WDC in a triangle [followed by] Royal [over] Demuth. On the right side it is stamped Imported Briar [over] Briar Root [followed by] the shape number 25. On the underside of the shank it is stamped FILTER PAT’D [over] 1934. The stem has the WDC white triangle on the left side of the taper. The stem was an older style vulcanite with a narrow taper from shank to button. It was lightly oxidized and has some tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem near the button. The bowl had a thick cake in it and some bits and bobs of tobacco stuck to the walls. There was a thick lava coat on the rim top and edges. The finish had been varnished sometime in its life and it was peeling and there was a lot tars ground into the surface of the bowl. I took some photos of the pipe before I started working on it. I took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is heavily caked and the rim top and edges have a heavy coat of lava overflowing on to them. It is hard to know with certainty the condition of the bowl at this point but clean up will reveal all. The stem is lightly oxidized and has light tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button end. I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. You can see that it is faint in spots but it is still very readable. It reads as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts to show how the pipe looks. I looked on Pipephil’s site and though there were many WDC pipes there was nothing stamped Royal Demuth and nothing with any of the other stamping on the shank sides of this pipe. I turned then to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/William_Demuth_Company). As always there is a great history of this American brand. If you are interested be sure to turn there and take time to read about it.

Royal Demuth example with box and filters, courtesy of Doug Valitchka

There was an interesting example of the Royal Demuth provided by Doug Valitchka that has identical stamping to the one that I am working on. It is a different shape but it identical in terms of the stamping. It also looks like it takes a filter that is similar to the Medico filter but I will doulbe check that once it is thoroughly cleaned.There was also an advertisement for the WDC Changeable Filter Pipes that included the Royal Demuth. I have included that below.There is also a great article by Ben Rappaport on the Demuth – Dunhill Connection that is an enjoyable read (https://pipedia.org/wiki/A_Demuth%E2%80%94Dunhill_Connection%3F).

I now knew that the pipe was part of a line of Filter Pipes that WDC put out and that the filter system was patented in 1934. The stamping that the Filter was Pat’d 1934 tells that it came out after the patent was granted. However, I could not fine tune the date more than that. I also knew that the pipe I was working on was an older one because of the style of the stem – straight taper and smaller profile at the button ends.

I started my work on the pipe cleaning up the bowl and the shank. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer to take the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the remnants of the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the bowl walls with sandpaper wrapped around a piece of briar to smooth them out. The inside walls were clean and there was no sign of burning or checking on them. Note the spotty varnish coat peeling on the bowl sides that would need to be removed. I decided to clean the internals before scrubbing the externals. I scrubbed the shank and the airway in the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. Once it was clean it smelled much better. To get rid of the peeling and spotty varnish coat on the bowl I wiped it down with some acetone (fingernail polish remover) on cotton pads until the shine was gone and the finish was quite smooth and clean. I scrubbed the externals of the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime in the finish. I rinsed the bowl off with warm water. I scrubbed the internals with a shank brush and soap to remove the remaining tars and oils inside both the stem and the shank. I was able to remove a lot of the lava on the rim top as well. The bowl was beginning to look much better at this point. The pipe really smelled strongly of the aromatic tobacco (perhaps Half & Half) that had been smoked in it before so it needed some work. I deghosted the bowl with 99% isopropyl alcohol and cotton bolls. I stuffed it and twisted a plug for the shank. I used an ear syringe to load it with alcohol and set it in a pipe rest to let it do its job. I would let it sit for several hours while I was at work today. In the evening I removed it and it was dark with tars and oils. I recleaned the bowl and shank afterwards and the pipe is smelling better! I sanded the bowl (rim top and shank) with sanding pads – sanding with 320-3500 grit pads and wiped down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The bowl began to take on a real shine. It was going to be a beautiful pipe. I wiped down the sanding dust with a damp cloth and restained the pipe with some Fiebing’s Cordovan alcohol based stain. I applied the stain and flamed it with a lighter to set the stain deep in the grain. It was a rich colour that I knew would look better with a little more work and buffing. I wiped the bowl down with alcohol on cotton pads to make the stain more transparent. I wanted to be able to see the grain. I wiped it down further with some 100% acetone to get even more transparency. It is beginning to look very good at this point. I followed that by polishing the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping the bowl down after each sanding pad. The grain really began to shine through. It is a beautiful pipe. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar to clean, preserve and polish the wood. The product works to really give new life to the briar and in this case the briar looked much better. I sanded out the scratches and marks in the stem surface with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. It looked much better and really started to take on a shine.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. With the pipe cleaned up and ready to go I fitted the filter stem with a Medico Paper Filter and it fit precisely like the original WDC paper filters. I am excited to put the final touches on this interesting piece of American Pipe History found in Bellingham, Washington. It is a beautiful WDC Royal Demuth Filter Pat’d 1934 Shape 25 Apple shaped pipe. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with beautiful grain on the bowl sides, top and bottom. The polished black vulcanite stem combined with the bowl to make a stunning pipe. This older WDC Royal Demuth Filter Pipe is great looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ¾ 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 40 grams/1.41 ounces. I will be adding it to the American Pipemakers Section of the rebornpipes store shortly. If you want to add it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Bowl – finishing, Bowl – refinishing, bowl topping, Bowls – refinishing, buffing, finishing, fitting a new stem, micromesh sanding pads, WDC Pipes, WDC Royal Demuth apple 25, Royal Demuth Filter Apple 25 Pipe, pipe refurbishing, polishing, polishing a stem, polishing stems, refinishing, refurbishing,  stem work, vulcanite, waxing, waxing a stem, removing tooth marks, repairing bite marks, sanding a stem, stem work, polish a vulcanite stem, waxing, waxing a stem

A Pipe Hunt Find in Bellingham – An Israeli Made Pedestal Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

On our recent Victoria Day Weekend (5/18/24) my family met Jeff and his wife in Bellingham for breakfast, a visit and a bit of pipe hunting. We visited three of my favourite antique malls and worked out way through the aisles of wares for sale. Jeff and I tend to divide and conquer, each walking through the aisles looking for pipes. The rest of the family moves through looking for their own treasures. The second shop we visited is a treasure trove of items from the past and one that I could spend a lot of time working through. As we went through the aisles of treasures I found a case with carved animal pipes and a Ropp Cherrywood, really none of them captured my interest this time around. I looked them over and set them aside. Then I saw an interesting pipe standing in the back of the case. It was called The Pedestal Pipe and was made in Israel – presumably by the Shalom Pipe Manufacturing company. We left the shop with this addition to the hunting bag (https://rebornpipes.com/tag/bellingham-pipe-hunt/).I decided to take a break from the pipes in my queue of pipes to work on and deal with the Pedestal Pipe shown above next. It was an interesting shape stands on its own – like a pipe on a pedestal. It had some nice grain under the grime and varnish coat on the bowl and shank. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads The Pedestal [arched over] Pipe. On the right side it is stamped and reads Mediterranean [over] Briar Israel. Here is what I saw. The bowl had a thick cake in it a thick lava coat on the rim top and edges. The finish was spotty with varnish or some shiny coat that was peeling around the bowl. The stem was fancy and there was a round saddle portion that sat against the shank end. The blade of the stem was flattened and had panel sides. It was dirty and had tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. I took some photos of the pipe before I started working on it. I took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is heavily caked and the rim top and edges have a heavy coat of lava overflowing on to them. There is some burn or reaming damage on the inner edge of the bowl. The stem is oxidized, calcified and has tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. You can see it is readable and in person looks much better with a light and lens. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts to show the look of the pipe. I decided to do some digging on the net about the brand. I turned first to Pipephil’s site to see what I could find. I could not find any link to the Pedestal line from Israel but I turned to the section on the site for Alpha pipe (also made by Shalom Pipe Factory). Here is the link to the Alpha section (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-a4.html). I did a screen capture of the section on the pipes. The third pipe in the photo below has an identical stem to the Pedestal Pipe that I am working on. This ties the brand to Alpha at some level and even more to Shalom Pipe Factory.With that information I turned to Pipedia and looked up the information on the Shalom Pipe Factory (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Shalom_Pipe_Factory). I quote the information from the site below. I have highlighted the Pedestal link in the article.

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.

I did a Google search for the The Pedestal Pipe and came up with a few links that I followed up on. The best of them was a link to a thread on Pipesmagazine forum to a discussion on a pipe very much like this one (https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/threads/unique-original-sitter-pipe-designs.25944/). I quote the starting post in the thread below:

I liked this pipes unique design as a sitter and the briar doesn’t look too shabby. I’m guessing this came from the Shalom Pipe Factory and made by Muki Liebermann since he was known for his unique briar bending technique and original shapes.

The only stamping found is ‘THE PEDESTAL PIPE’ and ‘Mediterranean Briar Israel’. I’ve searched the internet and cannot find any information on this pipe other than what I have mentioned. Been smoking it for the past week and it’s an excellent smoker.
Feel free to post images of your sitters!! Love to see them.

Now I was ready to start the work on the pipe. I wiped the bowl down with acetone to remove the spotty shiny coat on the pipe. It took a few wipe downs to remove it but once finished it definitely was better. Interestingly there was some red dye under the shiny coat that came off as well. I moved on to work on the internals of the pipe. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer to take the cake back to bare briar. I took the cake back to bare briar and cleaned up the remnants of the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the bowl walls with sandpaper wrapped around a piece of briar to smooth them out. The inside walls were clean and there was no sign of burning or checking on them. I scrubbed the inside of the shank and the airway in it and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. Once it was clean it smelled much better was ready for the next steps in the process.I scrubbed the externals of the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime in the finish. I rinsed the bowl off with warm water. I scrubbed the internals with shank brushes and soap to remove the grime inside. I was able to remove a lot of the lava on the rim top as well. The bowl was beginning to look much better at this point. I sanded the bowl with sanding pads – sanding with 320-3500 grit pads and wiped down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The bowl began to take on a real shine. It was going to be a beautiful pipe. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping the bowl down after each sanding pad. The grain really began to shine through. It is a beautiful pipe. The polishing of the rim top and inner edge brought the rim top colour to match the rest of the bowl. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I set the bowl aside and turned to address the stem issues. I “painted” the surface of the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter. I was able to lift the marks on the stem top leaving light marks but the ones on the bottom side were much deeper and the flame lifted them slightly but they still remained. I filled in the marks that remained with clear CA glue. Once the repair cured I flattened the repair with small files. It looked much better. I cleaned up the repairs with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to flatten them and blend them in very well with the surface of the vulcanite. Before continuing with the sanding process, I heated the stem with my lighter to soften the vulcanite and bent it to match the flow of the bowl. It looked much better with the proper bend.I sanded out the scratches and marks in the stem surface with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. It looked much better and really started to take on a shine.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I am excited to put the final touches on this interesting Israeli Made pipe by Muki Liebermann of the Shalom Pipe Factory. It is a beautiful and uniquely shaped pipe called The Pedestal Pipe. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with beautiful grain on the bowl sides, top and bottom. The polished black vulcanite, newly fitted stem combined with the bowl to make a stunning pipe. This smooth The Pedestal Pipe is great looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 56 grams/1.98 ounces. I will be adding it to the Pipes By Various Makers Section of the rebornpipes store. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Restoring a 1976 Dunhill Shell 341 Apple – a beautiful sandblast pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is a lovely Dunhill small sandbast apple shaped briar pipe. We purchased it from our contact in Copenhagen, Denmark on 02/02/2024. It is a classic Dunhill Sandblast Apple shaped bowl. It has a sandblast, rich brown stained bowl that really highlights the grain in the briar. The bowl is dirty with grime in the finish. There is a moderate cake in the bowl and a light lava overflow on the rim top and edges. The stamping on the pipe is clear and readable and on the under side it reads 341 the shape number [followed by] Dunhill Shell [over] Made in England the date number 16 is stamped after the D in England. The stem had a white spot on the top side of the taper. It is oxidized, calcified and has tooth chatter and deep tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup. He took photos of the pipe’s bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the lava coat overflowing onto the top. It is another dirty pipe. He also took photos to capture the tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem near the button. He took photos of the sides and the heel of the bowl to give a sense of the sandblast finish on this one. Even under the grime in the grooves the blast is quite beautiful. Jeff took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable though it is faint in some spots. I wanted to unpack the Dunhill stamping on the shank and work to understand each element of the stamp. I generally use the Pipephil site to gather as much initial information as possible (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/shell-briar1.html). The stamping is interpreted as follows: The number 341 is the shape number for a taper stem Apple. The Shell Briar stamp refers to the finish. The number 16 following the D of England would give the date the pipe. The photo below is of the stamping on a Don shape but the stamping is similar on this one.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 16 following the D in England. There was no patent number 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 under “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 second column (suffix 1…4) or (11…39) led me to the section with 16 after the D in England. There was a directive for dating the pipe spelled out as follows: 1960 + suffix 16 which gives the pipe a date of 1976.I then turned to Pipedia’s section on Dunhill Shell Briar to get a bit of background on the Dunhill finishes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill#Root_Briar). I quote:

Shell

A deep craggy sandblast with a black stain finish (usually made using Algerian briar) – the color of the stain used has varied over the years. Although there is some doubt as to them being the first to sandblast pipes, Dunhill’s Shell pipes, and the sandblasting techniques developed to create them are considered one of Dunhill’s greatest and most lasting contributions to the art of pipe making.

The documented history of Dunhill’s inception of the Shell is largely limited to patent applications — there are no catalogue pages or advertisements promoting blasted pipes at the time. The preliminary work on the English patent (No. 1484/17) was submitted on October 13, 1917. The patent submission was completed half a year later, on April 12, 1918, followed by the granting of the English patent on October 14, 1918. This was less than a month before the end of The Great War on November 11th.

In 1986 Dunhill released a line of premium Shell finish pipes – “RING GRAIN”. These are high-quality straight grain pipes which are sandblasted. Initially only Ring Grain, but now in two different finishes. In 1995 the “Shilling” was introduced with Cumberland finish – it is an extremely rare series. These pipes exhibit a deeper blast characteristic of that of the 1930’s – mid-1960’s (and the limited ‘deep blast’ pipes of the early 1980s) and show a fine graining pattern. These are considered the best new Dunhills by many enthusiasts today and are very rare. The finish is sometimes described as tasting like vanilla at first, with the taste becoming more normal or good as the pipe breaks in.

I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had done an amazing cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the cake with a PipNet reamer and cleaned up that with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the bowl and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and shank brushes. He scrubbed the externals with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and rinsed the bowl off with running water. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe stem Deoxidizer and once it had soaked rinsed it off with warm water to remove the residual solution. He dried it off and rubbed it down to remove any oxidation that was still on the stem. The pipe looked very good when I received it. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition. It looks good with the tars and oils removed from the rim top. The inner edge of the bowl was in excellent condition. The bowl itself was very clean. The aluminum inner tube can be seen extending into the bowl in the first photo. The stem came out looking quite good with deep tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. I took a photo of the underside of the shank to show the stamping. The photo shows the stamping and is actually more readable in person. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe parts to show what I was working with. It is a nice looking pipe.I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface 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 pipe really comes alive with the balm. I set the bowl aside and turned to address the stem issues. I “painted” the surface of the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter. I was able to lift the marks on the stem top leaving light marks but the ones on the bottom side were much deeper and the flame lifted them slightly but they still remained. I filled in the marks that remained with clear CA glue. Once the repair cured I flattened the repair with small files. It looked much better. I cleaned up the repairs with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to flatten them and blend them in very well with the surface of the vulcanite. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth. By the final 3500 grit sanding pad the stem had a had a shine.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. This 1976 Dunhill Shell Briar 341 Apple with a vulcanite taper stem has a beautiful, unique Dunhill Sandblast finish that is very deep and craggy. The Shell Briar mixed brown finish highlights some great grain around the bowl and shank. It has a unique sandblast that Dunhill specialized in making. The polished 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 Shell Briar 341 Apple 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 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.06 ounces/.30 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This one will be going on the rebornpipes store in the English Pipe Makers Section. Thanks for your time.

Restoring a Beautiful Savinelli Punto Oro

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by Kenneth Lieblich

Next up on my restoration adventures is this Savinelli Punto Oro 915 KS. I acquired it from an older gentleman in Vancouver. He said he bought this (and the other pipes I got from him) more than “fifty years ago” – his words. That would date it to the early seventies, which fits with the style of the pipe. This is an unusual shape, to be sure. Savinelli calls it a Dublin – and so it is – but it has a luxurious, hourglass look to it as well. It has an elegant, elliptical shank and tapered, vulcanite stem. Perhaps I’ll call it a clessidra di Dublino. It’s a wonderful pipe and it deserves to be part of someone’s collection again. This pipe promises to be a great smoker. Let’s look at the markings. The top side of the shank reads Savinelli [over] Punto Oro. Savinelli, of course, is an Italian company, and the words Punto Oro mean literally, “gold point”. On the underside of the shank is the lovely Savinelli crown, next to which are the marks 915 KS [over] Italy. Naturally, the number refers to the shape and KS means “King Size”. Finally, there is a gold-coloured dot on the stem (made of brass) – a very nice touch.Savinelli is one of the most recognized names in pipe smoking and they have a long and storied history. You can read about them from their own website or from Pipedia’s article about them. However, I was particularly interested in learning more about the Punto Oro line. Sadly, Pipedia had nothing on this subject. I checked with Pipephil and they did have a bit of information, which I display below.I also found a bit of information on the Punto Oro line from Savinelli’s own website. They write:

PUNTO ORO pipe was the first pipe created by Achille Savinelli after the opening of the factory in 1958; a pipe that has always distinguished the Savinelli brand, its elegance, reliability and tradition. It is a top quality pipe with a wonderful grain. It is important to know it is very difficult to find a briar piece suitable to become a PUNTO ORO: just 1,2% of the whole choice is selected for this series, therefore not all our shapes are always available for these pipes.This was a well-loved pipe – and it shows in the best way. The stem on this pipe definitely shows signs of use. There were quite a few scratches in the vulcanite. There was also some calcification and oxidation. The stummel looked elegant, but tired. There were indications of lava on the rim and plenty of cake in the bowl. Also, the briar had a few little nicks along the rim from the years of love of its previous owner. Most concerning though, was a field of nicks on one side of the briar. Eek! More on that later. Well, the usual cleaning procedures were in order for this pipe. I started on the stem by wiping it down with some Murphy’s on a cotton round. Then, I cleaned out the insides of the stem with pipe cleaners and lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. It wasn’t too dirty.Once that was done, the stem went for an overnight soak in the Before & After Hard Rubber Deoxidizer. After soaking, I cleaned off the de-oxidizing fluid with alcohol, pipe cleaners, et cetera. The oxidation had migrated to the surface and I used SoftScrub to work it off.Before I moved on to the Micromesh pads, I built up the tooth damage on the stem with black cyanoacrylate adhesive and let it fully cure. I used my miniature files to take down the majority of the dried glue. I then sanded it down with 400-grit sandpaper to meld seamlessly into the stem. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to bring out the lovely black lustre on the stem. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing. This also really made the brass dot pop! Putting the stem aside, I moved on to the stummel. I used both the PipNet Reamer, the KleenReem, and some sandpaper taped to a wooden dowel to take the bowl down to bare briar, as I wanted to ensure there were no hidden flaws in the walls of the bowl. Fortunately, there were none.I then proceeded to clean out the insides of the shank with Q-tips, pipe cleaners, and isopropyl alcohol. There was an enormous amount of nastiness inside this stummel and – boy-oh-boy – it took a lot of cotton to get this thing clean! A de-ghosting session seemed like a good idea. This de-ghosting consisted of thrusting cotton balls in the bowl and the shank, and saturating them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummel sit overnight. This caused the oils, tars and smells to leech out into the cotton. Finally, a relatively clean and fresh-smelling bowl emerged. I then moved on to cleaning the outside of the stummel with Murphy’s Oil Soap and some cotton pads. What a difference that made! I also cleaned the insides with some soap and tube brushes. I examined the vast range of bumps in the briar. I dug out my iron and a damp cloth to try to raise them. The hot and moist steam can often cause the wood to swell slightly and return to shape. This worked incredibly well – I was absolutely delighted with the results. I took a close look at the rim. In order to save as much of the rim as possible, I used a piece of machine metal to very delicately scrape away as much lava as I could. I do this before automatically jumping to my topping board. This worked well and the topping board was not needed. Instead, I filled in a couple of nicks and used a wooden sphere and some pads to even out the top side and make it beautiful. After this, I used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to make everything smooth. I applied some Before & After Restoration Balm and finally saw the beauty of my work. Off to the bench polisher I went. I applied some White Diamond and a few coats of carnauba wax and they added the finishing touch. This Savinelli Punto Oro 915 KS clessidra di Dublino was in need of a new lease on life. 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 “Italy” pipe 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 5⅞ in. (150 mm); height 2 in. (51 mm); bowl diameter 1⅝ in. (39 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (20 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1½ oz. (46 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this 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.

Breathing New Life into a Republic Era Petersons Mark Twain

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is a lovely Peterson’s style briar pipe. We purchased it from a seller in Spring Branch, Texas, USA on 02/29/2024. It is a classic Peterson’s De Luxe style Bent Billiard. It has a smooth, rich brown stained bowl that really highlights the stunning grain in the briar. The bowl is dirty with grime in the finish. There is a moderate cake in the bowl and a heavy lava overflow on the rim top and edges. The stamping on the pipe is clear and readable and on the left side it reads Peterson’s [over] Mark Twain. On the right side it reads Made in the Republic of Ireland (three lines). The Sterling Silver Ferrule is stamped Peterson’s [over] Dublin followed by Sterling [over] Silver and three hallmarks. The stem had a P logo stamped on the topside of the taper. It is oxidized, calcified and has light tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the P-lip button. Mark Twain has always been one of my favourite authors. I love his wit and style of humour. The fact that this is a classic Mark Twain pipe is part of the fascination of working on pipes for me. I have seen only a few of these from the line so this is going to be a pleasure to work on. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup. Jeff took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is moderately caked and the rim top and edges have a heavy coat of lava overflowing on to them. The stem is oxidized, calcified and has light tooth chatter and tooth marks on the top and underside near the button. The “P” logo stamp on the top of the stem is faded and dirty. Jeff took photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the condition of the finish around this bowl. It has some great straight grain on the sides and birdseye on the top and heel. The silver ferrule is oxidized and dirty. He took photos of the stamping on the shank sides. You can see that it is clear and reads as noted above. He also captured the stamping on the sterling silver ferrule on the shank end. It is also very clear and reads as noted. The P logo is faded but readable on the topside of the stem. As is my habit before I start working on a particular pipe I want to know more about the pipe and the line. I turned to Pipephil (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-peterson-ser.html) to get a quick overview of the Mark Twain pipe. I have included a screen capture of the pertinent section below. When I clicked on the photo of the second pipe above it took me to a photo of the hallmarks that looked identical to the ones on the pipe I am working on. It made me question the date mark and dig further. The note below the photo said, “Peterson Mark Twain (not from the two numbered editions). That photo has a red arrow pointing to the P date stamp. Now to dig a little deeper.The band on the pipe I am working on has the three hallmarks noted in the photo above. They are as follows. The first is Hibernia seated, arm on a harp (for the country of manufacture – Ireland). Next to that is a Crowned Harp designating the sterling quality. Finally, it is followed by the date stamp which in this case is Celtic style capital T. I have included information on the hallmarks below:Date letters of Assay Office Dublin
Twenty letters of the alphabet of different fonts together with the shape of the escutcheon identify the year in which the piece was verified by the assay office. I have circled the matching letter T in the chart below which dates the pipe as a 1984.I turned to Pipedia and there was nothing specific about that stamping. I am including the link to the Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson).

I turned then to the definitive pipe book, The Peterson Pipe by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg to find more information on the pipe and the stamping on it. I turned first to the short entries and on page 308 found the following information.

Mark Twain (1981-) System pipe design copied from a photograph of Samuel L. Clemens’s pipe held at the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum in Hannibal, Missouri. Arguably Peterson’s most famous and widely known commemorative, it was first introduced as a limited edition 400 numbered pipes in 1981 and offered in smooth and rusticated finishes to this day. Based on shape 14 from 1906 catalog…

There was also a note to turn to another chapter for further information. There is a section in the book on page 174-176 on the Mark Twain variations. There on page 176 in a paragraph entitled, “The Mark Twain System” I found some helpful information which I quote below.

The Mark Twain System. Usually known as the De Luxe, 2400 unnumbered pipes were originally released in 1981 with the hallmark P, and available in smooth as well as rusticated finishes. It is stamped PETERSON’S in script over Mark Twain on the obverse of the shank. The front side of the mouthpiece is stamped with a white P. The pipe retailed for $75 in a red oversized gift box and sometimes included a reproduction of the John Adams etching. De Luxe Quality models were released several times over the years, with later documented examples bearing hallmarks from 1982, 1984-1987, 1990-1991, 1994 and 1997.

This section was extremely helpful in that it described the pipe I was working on to a T. So, I knew that the pipe was a Mark Twain System known as the De Luxe. It was one of 2400 pipes that were released in 1981 with the hallmark on the silver ferrule – exactly like the one I was working on. Since my pipe was dated to 1984 I knew it was part of the original run of pipes as noted in the last paragraph above.

Lastly, I remembered that the late Jim Lilley had written a very interesting piece on Mark Twain pipes on Pipedia. I quickly turned to that article to read through it again. I highly recommend that you take time to read it as it is full of great information and is a fascinating read  (https://pipedia.org/wiki/A_Closer_Look_at_the_Mark_Twain_Original_and_New_Pipes). I have included a pertinent portion of the article and a portrait of Mark Twain and his pipe below.

Peterson started production of the Mark Twain Series in 1980 with a numbered production run from 1 – 400. Then again in 1981 with a numbered production run from 1 – 1000. In 1983, Peterson started producing Mark Twains without numbers, (except the 1985 limited Gold issue), until about 1989. However, they must have had another production run later as there is evidence of Mark Twains with 1998 silver marked bands.

The pipes are typically large, full bents, with P-lip tapered stems, and a hallmarked silver collar. They are akin in quality to Deluxe System pipes, and as such, are also available in the smooth, sandblast, and rustic finishes. The Mark Twains have legendary high-quality smoking, with good draw and excellent with Virginia and flake blends.
Cost/Value: $250 – $1000 plus, depending on which series and precious metal finish. The originals are regularly available on eBay and with offerings hotly contested at auction.

Now it was time to work on the pipe. 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. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, shank brushes and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He worked on the rim top lava and darkening with the soap and tooth brush. It looked much better. The silver ferrule looked better and the tarnish was reduced. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. When the pipe arrived here this week I took photos of it so you can see what I see. It is a beautiful pipe. I took some close up photos of the rim top and also of the stem surface. I wanted to show how well it had cleaned up. The rim top and edges looked very good. It should polish up really well. I also took photos of the stem to show the condition. The tooth marks and chatter are present but hard to see in the photos which is good. It means that none of them are too deep. The stem was clear of oxidation.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. You can see that it is stamped as noted above. It is clear and readable. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to have a look at the parts and overall look. The new stem looked really good with the bowl. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping the bowl down after each sanding pad. The grain really began to shine through. It is a beautiful pipe. The polishing of the rim top and inner edge brought the rim top colour to match the rest of the bowl. 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 polished the silver ferrule with a jeweller’s cloth to remove the tarnish and further protect the silver from the intrusion of more tarnish. I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I touched up the white P stamp on the topside of the stem with some White Acrylic Nail Polish. I pressed it into the stamp with a tooth pick and polished it off once dry with a worn 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad.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 am excited to put the final touches on this 1984 Made in the Republic of Ireland Peterson’s Mark Twain System Pipe. 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 straight and birdseye grain on the bowl sides, top and bottom. Added to that the polished black vulcanite stem combined with the bowl and the Sterling Silver ferrule made a stunning pipe. This smooth Classic Peterson’s Mark Twain System is great looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 70 grams/2.47ounces. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Irish Pipe Makers Section shortly. Let me know if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Resurrecting a Brigham Made in Canada 625 Bulldog with a Frozen Stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

On Saturday, April 27 Kenneth and I went to an antique and collectible sale at an arena in New Westminster, BC, Canada. I wrote about the adventure and posted it in a previous blog last weekend (https://rebornpipes.com/2024/04/28/you-have-to-join-kenneth-and-me-on-a-great-morning-pipe-hunt/). On the hunt I picked up four pipes that I have listed below:

  1. Jeantet Fait Main Bent Freehand Dublin 4 with a diamond shank
  2. Jeantet Fait Main Bent Apple 9 with a uniquely shaped shank and stem
  3. Republic Era Peterson’s System Pipe 1307 Bowl sans stem
  4. Brigham Made in Canada 625 Squat Straight Bulldog

I have included photos of the foursome below. They are in the order of the list above. I chose to work on the final pipe in the above photos. It is shown in the photos below and is stamped 625 next to Brigham [over] Made in Canada on a smooth panel on the left underside of the diamond shank. There are three vertical brass dots that are corroded and dark on the left topside of the diamond stem. It is squat straight Bulldog shape with a smooth cap, twin rings below the cap and a rusticated bowl and shank. The pipe has some great grain around the rim cap. The rim top is clean and shows some darkening on the back topside. The inner edge of the bowl is damaged and slightly out of round. The bowl had a light to moderate cake on the walls and some spots of lava on the rim top. The briar is dry and lifeless with some grime and grit ground into the briar. The stem was oxidized and had some tooth marks on the top and underside ahead of the button. The stem was frozen in place in the shank and was not removable. From my experience I would guess that the aluminum tube in the shank had begun to oxidize and that combined with the tars and oils had bound the tenon apparatus to the briar in the shank. I had a feeling it was going to be a real pain to separate the stem and the shank. The photos below show what I saw when I examined the pipe. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the condition of the bowl. The rim top has some darkening and scratches in the smooth surface. There was some damage around the inner edge of the bowl and there is a moderate cake in the bowl. The stem is oxidized and is very dirty from the shank to the button. There are tooth marks and chatter on the stem on both sides ahead of the button. Remember the stem is not removable at this point.I took photos of the stamping on the topsides of the shank. It reads as noted above. It is faint in spots but is still very readable. There are three brass dots stacked vertically on the top left side of the diamond stem. They are oxidized but are present.The next best thing to talking with Charles Lemon of Dad’s Pipes is to read the article he wrote on dating Brigham pipes on Pipedia. Charles has done a magnificent job of collating the material on the brand into this article and giving a historical flow of the eras of the Brigham pipe since its beginning in 1906. Thank you Charles for you work on this as it is a one of a kind resource. (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Pipes_%E2%80%93_A_Closer_Look_at_Dots,_Dates_and_Markings).

Around the late 1960s or early 1970s, at the beginning of what I’ve called the Canadian Era (roughly 1970 – 1980), the stampings changed again as Brigham moved to modernize its logo. Pipes are stamped with the 3-digit shape number and “Brigham” over “Made in Canada”. Note these two variants of this stamping.

Canadian Era StampsI then turned to Charles Lemon’s book, “Brigham Pipes A Century of Canadian Briar” to confirm the meaning of the 625 shape number and the placement of the three dots on the stem side. I have collated the information I found there below.

The shape # 625 indicates a 600-series shape 25. The shape 25 is a Medium Squat Bulldog. The text in the list of shapes in the back of the book says it has a taper stem but the photo shows the same pipe I have with a saddle stem. The saddle stem on this one is the original stem so I believe the photo in the list is correct rather than the description. The block letter “Made in Canada” stamp was used in the Canadian Era, approximately 1970 through 1979. The stamp on the pipe I am working on is like the first one above so I believe it was made in 1978. The stem carries the vertical 3-Dot pattern of the Brigham Executive grade, which pairs with the 600-series shape number.

Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe. I decided to tackle the stuck stem first. It was actually the first of the four pipes that I worked on. I used all the tried and true methods for removing stuck stems and I have to tell you that none of them worked. I left it in the freezer for increasingly longer times – starting with 15 minutes and finally leaving it in overnight. Nothing worked. It did not budge at all. I heated the shank and stem with a heat gun working it carefully over the surface so as not to burn either the briar or the vulcanite. Again, no amount of heat or time made any difference at all. I put the pipe in the microwave and heated it carefully with no success. I was not going to give up on it. I would beat this stuck stem one way or another. But, do understand that all of these procedures took me from the day I found the pipe on April 27 until May 10th. In between all the other methods I used a pipe cleaner to apply alcohol at the joint of the stem and shank with no success. I used the same method with acetone and again no success.

Finally, I inserted a folded pipe cleaner in the slot and pushed it as far as it would go into the stem. I wanted to block off the button and the inside of the hard maple filter that Brighams have in the elongated aluminum tenon. Once it was inserted I filled the bowl with acetone (fingernail polish remover) and let it sit until it evaporated. I repeated the process morning, noon and night before bed. Nothing was working to beat the frozen stem. Finally, this morning I was on the phone with my brother and the fill of acetone had evaporated so I decided to wiggle it while we talked. Low and behold, shiver me timbers, be still my beating heart, whatever phrase you want to you it moved just slightly! With a cry of exhilaration, I knew I was going to beat this stuck stem situation. I wiggled the stem all the way through the conversation and just before we closed the Facetime call the stem turned and was able to turn it free. The amount of sludge (I don’t know what else to call all the white build up in the shank and on the tube) was absolutely awful. I don’t know if I have ever seen it this thick. It was pitting the aluminum and the inside of the briar had a thick coat that filled in the gap between the tube and the walls. It was a huge mess.But that was not the end of the stuck tenon and parts! The maple hard wood filter with an aluminum cap was absolutely stuck in the tube. I could not remove it with pliers. I heated it with a lighter and tried it once more with no success. So… I resorted to an old alcohol bath I have here and have not used for over a year or more. I took the cap off the container that held the darkened alcohol and dropped the stem into the mix tenon down. It sat in the mix for at least and hour before I got back to it. I removed it from the container and used the pliers to grab the aluminum end and turn it. Sounds easy right? Wrong… I have had these aluminum tips snap off and leave the hardwood stuck in the tenon. I gingerly wiggled the end while carefully pulling on it and low and behold it let loose and the entire tube and tip was free! Once again the inside of the tube was a mess but the acetone had done a bit of work softening the goop on the aluminum walls.I was excited to say the least. It took literally 10 days short of a month to get this stem removed from the shank. You don’t even know how many times I was tempted to pitch the pipe in the trash and move on to other pipes. I even buried it on a corner of the desk that I don’t use much for daily work but it had a bit of a siren call and I could not ignore it. Today I beat it! Today I won this seemingly insignificant battle. But to me it felt epic to win. I took photos of the parts in celebration of the win. You can see the corrosion on the aluminum tip of the hard wood insert. You can also see the slight thinning of the tube just ahead of the tip – it could easily have snapped leaving me with yet another mess! The aluminum tenon is also corroded and has some of the white “aluminum oxide” build up around the length. The inside of the mortise is also thickly coated with a furry white insulation. Now that it was apart it was time to do a bit of cleaning before I could even begin working on it. I wanted to remove as much of the white fuzzy oxide on the inside of both the shank and the aluminum tenon tube as possible before going further. I pitched the hard wood filter in the garbage as it would be replaced when the work was finished. I cleaned out the shank with a pen knife to scrape away the debris then clean it with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol until they came out significantly cleaner. I did the same with the aluminum tube tenon. Remember this was step one of the clean! I would do much more before this pipe was actually finished.I guess one of the benefits of the bowl soaking with acetone for two weeks is that the cake absolutely dissolved and I was able to wipe it out after each evaporation and refill of the bowl. It was surprisingly clean. I cleaned up the remnants of the cake on the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the bowl sides with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl walls showed no heat damage or checking and were almost bare briar in the bottom half of the bowl.I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the inner edge to remove the damage and nicks in the surface. It did not take too much to smooth out the damage on the inner edge and make it look much better.I scrubbed the externals bowl and shank with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I rinsed it off with warm water to remove the grime and debris from the scrubbing. I scrubbed the inside of the shank and the aluminum tenon tube with Murphy’s as well using a set of shank brushes. The white is all gone and the pipe actually smells amazing!I cleaned out the internals of the bowl, mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem a second time with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs to make sure it was clean inside. I was not expecting a lot of dirt and debris after the double scrubbing it had already received but I wanted to make sure. Because of the length of the tube I had to strategically fold the pipe cleaners to scrub the tube. Shining a light through it now shows it just shines… whew.I sanded the surface of the briar with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. It took on a real shine on the briar as I worked through the pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust and debris left behind. The pipe had cleaned up so well that I turned to polish the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded it with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth. By the final pads the briar really had a shine.  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 really came alive with the balm. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. To help remove the oxidation I scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub Cleanser and cotton pads. It took some elbow work but the stem definitely looked better and the sulphur smell of the oxidation is gone!I “painted” the tooth marks on the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift them. I was able raise them some. I filled in what remained with some clear CA glue and set it aside to cure. In the morning I used some small files to flatten the repairs into the surrounding surface of the stem. I sanded the repaired areas with 220 grit sandpaper to further flatten them. The stem was beginning to look good. I sanded the surface with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to further clean up the spots of oxidation on the surface of the stem. I wiped it down with a soft damp cloth following each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris. I also worked on the aluminum tube tenon with the pads. I was able to remove debris and smooth out the pits in the aluminum. There is some staining on the tube that I was not able to remove.I polished out the scratches with micromesh sanding pads – dry 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 a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. I also used the pads on the aluminum as well and made some more progress. I found my box of Brigham Rock Maple Distillators and took a clean one from the box to replace the one that was stuck in the pipe when I received it. The beauty of these is that they can easily be rinsed out with alcohol or warm water to remove the tars and oils and reused. I put the bowl and stem back together. I buffed 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 Brigham Squat Bulldog with the rusticated bowl and shank and smooth bull cap is quite beautiful and it has some beautiful grain around the rim cap. The contrast of swirling grain looked good with the polished black vulcanite. This Brigham Squat Bulldog 625 is really a beauty. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.27 ounces/36 grams. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. With it I have finished the Antique Show finds and am on to other pipes in the queue.