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This Gorgeous Sunrise Amber Grain 299 Vintage Briar Canadian Came Alive

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table came to us from a group of pipes that Jeff and I picked up from an auction from Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, USA. The pipe is beautifully grained Canadian shaped pipe with a mix of medium brown stains back in 2019. Jeff cleaned it up in 2020 and now I am finally getting to it is 2021. The pipe is stamped on the topside of the shank and reads Sunrise [over] Amber Grain. On the underside of the shank it reads Vintage Briar [over] the shape number 299 near the bowl end. The pipe was dirty with a lot of grime ground into the bowl but the grain was still visible. The bowl was moderately caked with a light lava coat flowing onto the rim top and beveled inner edge toward the left front of the bowl. The stem was lightly oxidized and dirty with light tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside near and on the button. It had promise but it was very dirty. Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. He took photos of the rim top and bowl to give a clear picture of the thickness of the cake and well as the lava and darkening on the front side of the rim top and inner edge. He also took photos of the top and underside of the stem to show the light oxidation and the chatter and tooth marks. Jeff took a photo the sides and heel of the bowl to give a picture of the beautiful grain around the bowl and shank. The stamping on the sides of the shank are clear and readable and read as noted above. The Sunrise pipe was a Comoy’s made pipe and the France stamp on the shank pointed me to the connection between London and St. Claude (England/France). I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-s13.html) to get some background information on this beauty. I have included a screen capture of the pertinent section. The first pipe listed bears the same stamping as the one I am working on.The side bar includes this interesting piece of information. I quote:

The Sunrise brand perfectly illustrates the split pipe production of a same label between Saint Claude (FR) and London (GB) during the period Chapuis Comoy and Comoy closely collaborated (prior to early 1970s).

I turned to Pipedia and looked under the French makers and the brand was not listed. Under the English makers it was listed as a Comoy’s Sub-brand or second. I turned to the Comoy’s listing and at the bottom of the article was a list of these pipes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Comoy%27s). I have included the list in its entirety and highlighted the Sunrise in red.

Seconds made by Comoy’s

Ace of spades, Ancestor, Astor, Ayres, Britannia, Carlyle, Charles Cross, Claridge, Coronet?, Cromwell, Dorchester, Dunbar, Drury Lane, Emerson, Everyman, Festival of Britain, Golden Arrow, Grand Master, Gresham, Guildhall, Hamilton (according to Who Made That Pipe), Kingsway, Lion’s Head, Lord Clive, Lumberman, Hyde Park, Lloyds, Mc Gahey, Moorgate, Newcastle, Oxford, O’Gorman, Rosebery Extra, Royal Falcon, Royal Guard, Royal Lane, Scotland Yard, St James, Sunrise, Super Sports, Sussex, The Academy Award, The Golden Arrow, The Mansion House, The Exmoor Pipe, Throgmorton, Tinder Box Royal Coachman, Townhall, Trident, Trocadero, Westminster, Wilshire

Now it was time to turn my attentions to the pipe itself. Jeff had cleaned up the pipe with his usual penchant for thoroughness. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe once I received it. The rim top cleaned up really well. The rim top and outer edge of the bowl appear to be in good condition other than some slight darkening on the front. The stem surface looked very good and the chatter on the stem on both sides near the button could easily be sanded out. The tooth marks on the button surface would need to be addressed. The stamping on the top and underside of the shank is readable and reads as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. The bowl looked very good and once I cleaned up the stem the pipe would look very good.Now it was time to do my work on the pipe. I topped the bowl lightly and sanded the beveled inner edge and top of the rim with 200 grit sandpaper to lighten the darkening that was there. There was also a spot on the front outer edge of the bowl that I needed to sand. I stained it with a Maple stain pen to match the colour of the bowl. The finished product looked better. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The bowl was in such good condition that I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for ten minutes then buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. I filled in the deep tooth marks on the button surface and the deeper ones on the stem itself with clear super glue. I let it cure and once it had hardened I reshaped the button and sanded the repairs smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. I started polishing the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This Comoy’s Made Sunrise Amber Grain Vintage Briar 299 Canadian is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The brown stained finish around the bowl is quite beautiful and highlights grain very well. The finish works well with the polished vulcanite oval taper stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the 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 Sunrise Amber Grain Vintage Briar Canadian sits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inch. The weight of the pipe is 31 grams/1.09 ounces. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store shortly. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your collection send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. There are many more to come!

Breathing Life into a French Made Royal Ascot Deluxe Oom Paul

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table was purchased form an online auction in Columbia, Missouri, USA. It is an Oom Paul shape that is stamped Royal Ascot [over] Deluxe on the left side of the shank and Algerian Briar [over] France on the right side. The shape is well done but I was not familiar with the brand. Jeff and I took a risk in purchasing it based on the shape alone but it looked to be worth it. The briar was mixed grain with birdseye on the sides and cross grain on the front and back of the bowl and shank. The finish was quite dirty with grime ground into the bowl sides and bottom. There was a thick cake in the bowl and an overflow of lava on the rim top and inner edges. There appeared to be some burn damage on the top and inner edge toward the rear of the bowl but only clean up would determine that with certainty. The stem seemed to be older hard rubber and had some mild oxidation and tooth chatter and marks on both sides at the button. There was a faint Crown logo stamped on the left side of the taper. Jeff took photos of the pipe before his clean up work started. He took photos of the rim top and bowl to give a clear picture of the cake and the condition of the rim top and bowl. He included photos of the stem as well to capture what it looked like pre-cleanup. It is a very graceful looking piece. Jeff took photos of the sides of the bowl to capture some of the grain that is visible through the grime coat and what also looks like a varnish coat on the briar. The stamping on the sides of the shank was readable and read as noted above. You can also see what appears to be some varnish on the shank sides – kind of a crackly shine coat over the letters.To find out more about a brand which I was ignorant of I turned to Pipephil’s site for a quick overview (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-r6.html). The Algerian Briar stamp on the shank led me to believe I was dealing with a pipe made for the American Market. The France stamp seemed odd to me with the very British sounding brand name “Royal Ascot” so I was intrigued to find out what I could learn about it. I have included a screen capture of the section on the site on the brand. There seems to have been a link to Duncan pipes.The side bar on the site included some interesting information. I quote

Pipes with this brand were manufactured in France for Duncan (according to J.M. Lopes, op. cit. and Wilczak & Colwell, op. cit.). They were destined to US market and sold by Mastercraft.

So there was the French/British connection and the connection to the US market and Mastercraft. There seems to always be a tie to the British or French houses with these odd brands and often a link to Mastercraft!

I turned then to Pipedia to see if there was further information as there often is when I use the two sources (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Ascot). Interestingly Pipedia quotes Pipephil’s site. There is a bit of additional information and some photos on the article as well.

According to PipePhil pipes with this brand were manufactured in France for Duncan (according to J.M. Lopes, op. cit. and Wilczak & Colwell, op. cit.). They were destined to US market and sold by Mastercraft. They are made in France and many are marked Algerian Briar. The logo is a crown on the stem. Some pipes of the same name with a horseshoe logo also exist that were made in England, but may not be the same company.

Jeff had done his usual clean up on the pipe – reaming it with a PipNet reamer and cleaning up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He cleaned out the shank and the airway in the mortise and stem with isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to break through the grime. He was able to remove most of the varnish coat at the same time. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub cleanser and cotton pads to remove the grime and light oxidation. He soaked it in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. He rinsed it off and wiped the entire pipe down with a light rub of EVO to enliven both. When I received it I put it away for awhile. I am just getting to work on it now in the summer of 2021 almost a year later. Here is what I saw when I took it out of the box of pipes to work on. I took photos of the damage to the rim top and inner edges of the bowl. Fortunately it appeared to be on the surface and not to deep on the rim top. The inner edge showed more damage to the front of the bowl. The stem was clean but was pitted and had tooth marks on both sides ahead of and on the surface of the button.The stamping looked very good. It was clean and readable. The faint logo on the stem is visible with a lens but otherwise it is gone. It is a crown like the one shown in the photos from PipePhil.I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts to give a sense of the proportion of this Royal Ascot Oom Paul.I decided to start my work on the pipe by scrubbing it down with acetone on cotton pads to remove the remnants of the varnish coat. It was surprising how much came off and how much better the bowl looked once it was finished. I decided to deal with the inner edge of the rim and the rim top damage next. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the slight bevel on the inner edge and remove the burn damage. I sanded the top as well and was able to make it look much better.There were a couple of rough spots – one on the right side at the shank/bowl junction and one on the heel – where the fills had shrunk. I filled them both in with clear super glue. When the repairs cured I sanded the smooth with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surrounding briar. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads to further blend in the repairs and the sanded rim top. I dry sanded with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped the briar down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the debris. I paused the polishing to touch up the repaired areas and rim top with an Oak Stain Pen. The colour was the closest match to the rest of the bowl so once it was polished and buffed it would blend in well.I resumed the polishing with 6000-12000 grit micromesh and found that the areas on the bowl that I had stained blended in very well.I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm and worked it into the briar. The product cleans, enlivens and protects the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes to do its work then buffed it off with a soft cloth. The pipe is shown below as it looks at this point in the process. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the surface of the hard rubber stem with the flame of a lighter to lift the tooth marks as much as possible. I was able to lift them significantly. I filled in the remaining one on the top side next to the button and on the underside in the same place with clear super glue. Once it cured I sanded it smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil to help protect and preserve the rubber. I polished with Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil to finish. I finished the stem and put the pipe back together again. I buffed the Royal Ascot Deluxe French Made Algerian Briar Oom Paul with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing wheel. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe is a real beauty. The dimension of the pipe are – Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 60 grams/2.12 ounces. The pipe will be added to the rebornpipes store in the French Pipe Makers section soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me. Cheers.

A Labour of Love – Repairing a Badly Damaged, Cracked Karl Erik Grade A Hand Made

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Blog by Steve Laug

I am pretty sure that I am a sucker for both a good story and a badly damaged pipe. The next pipe on the table came with both. I received an email from Dewey in Iowa about a pipe he bought over 20 years ago. It was one of his favourite pipes and it had a serious crack in the exterior of the bowl. He wrote asking what he could do about it. Here is what he wrote:

Dear Steve,

I have owned a Karl Erik pipe for over 20 years. Bought it from the National Cigar Store in Waterloo, Iowa…..it is my favorite pipe…

just yesterday I found a large crack has appeared on the bottom of the pipe. It still smokes fine but is there anything that can be done to stop it from cracking further and can the crack be filled? …The crack does extend up the front of the pipe into a small design where a short second crack is present…wow…

I was going to send pics but don’t know how to add them here

Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

I wrote him back and asked him to send the photos to my email account. He sent three photos of the pipe. I think that the first two are teasers to get my interest before he hits me with the photo of the damage to the bowl. He obviously took photos mid smoke. It is a uniquely shaped pipe and one that he really loves to smoke. You can see from the photos above what I saw. The pipe was obviously heavily caked and the plateau on the rim top was filled in with lava overflow. The stem was chomped and had deep tooth marks visible on the topside. But so far it looked no different than any other pipes that I have worked on. It was a nice looking Karl Erik pipe that had been thoroughly enjoyed for over 20 years. Then came the next picture of the damage in question. Wow!He also added that there was more damage. I have included our further email conversation below.

Steve, the crack does extend up the front of the pipe into a small design where a short second crack is present…wow…

…there is also a very small crack extending below the stem hole…but it has been there for quite a while now and doesn’t seem to be growing larger.

Thanx, Dewey

So now I knew what we were talking about. A crack in the heel of the bowl and up the front into the carved design with a second smaller crack in the design itself. There was also a small crack on the shank end extending downward from the mortise. I wrote Dewey back about what he could do with the crack in terms of self repair. His response was to ask if I would do the repair. We wrote back and forth for a while and finally I agreed to take on the project. I wanted to make sure that he understood that the repair would be solid but that it could possibly crack again. He was fine with that and reiterated that he was in no hurry with the pipe. Several weeks went by and the pipe arrived in Vancouver. Here is what I saw. The pipe was far dirtier than I could see from the photos. When the package arrived and my wife brought it in I could smell the sweet, smoky aroma of the pipe through the padded envelope. My wife handed it to me we the short declaration “IT STINKS”. I had to admit that it did. The bowl had a lot of oils and grime ground into the surface of the briar that all but hid the grain on the bowl. The plateau rim top was almost smooth with the filled in lava overflow and there was a thick cake in the bowl. The stem was oxidized, calcified and chomped with heavy tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button. When I removed the stem the mortise and airway were reduced from the tars and the airflow through the shank and stem were restricted. The pipe would need a serious ream and clean before I could assess the damage from the crack. I would need to ream it back to bare briar to see if the cracks went into the chamber. It was impossible to see the condition of the chamber.

I took close up photos of the rim top and bowl and the stem before I started my clean up work so that I could document the condition of the pipe when I started my work on it.The stamping on the underside of the shank is quite filled in with the grime but reads Karl Erik [over] Hand Made in Denmark [over] A which is the grade stamp.I took photos of the crack in the heel of the bowl and up the front side into the carving. It is quite long and large and the crack is singular. It has not taken off in other directions. That is the good news with this damaged bowl.I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the look of the pipe. It is an interesting shaped pipe with a jutting chin on the front.In order to move forward with the examination of the bowl I needed to clean it up. To inspect the inside walls of the chamber and the base of the chamber to see if the crack goes into the chamber I needed to remove all of the cake. It needed to be smooth if I was going to be able to examine it properly. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the remnants in the chamber with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I wrapped a dowel with 220 grit sandpaper and sanded the walls and bottom of the bowl to further clean it up.At this point I examined the bowl with a flashlight and a dental probe and I could not see any cracking on the bottom of the bowl or the sides parallel to the crack on the heel and the front of the bowl in the carving. That was a wonderful discovery! I knew now that I was dealing with a crack on the exterior of the bowl that had not proceeded inside. I am wondering at this point if Dewey had dropped the pipe on a hard surface as that would explain what we were dealing with.

I decided to clean up the exterior of the bowl next. I scrubbed it with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap, a tooth brush and a brass bristle brush for the plateau. I scrubbed it with the soap and the brushes until it was a mess and rinsed it off with warm running water. I repeated the process until I was convinced I had removed the thick grime coat and lava on the rim top. I took photos of the cleaned bowl at this point. It is nice to see the grain poking through. It is a really nicely grained pipe. I am thinking that the characteristic carved patterns around the bowl and shank were done to deal with flaws in the briar. I wonder if the crack started in the carved area and proceeded downward? I focused some of the cleaning on the crack on the front carving where it appeared that there were two cracks. I have circled the crack in the second photo and have red arrows pointing to the damaged spots. I also cleaned the crack down into the heel of the bowl. I wanted it to be free of grime and oils so that the repair would be solid.With the externals clean and the bowl reamed it was time to clean out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem. I scrubbed them with 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners until they came out clean. The pipe was finally beginning to smell less sour.With the pipe clean it was now time to work on the cracks. I drilled a small micro pin hole at each end of the crack to stop it from spreading further. I filled in the pin holes and the crack with briar dust and clear super glue. I layered the repair using a dental spatula to pressed the dust deep in the cracked area. I did the same thing with the small hairline crack on the shank end.Once the repair had cured I sanded the heel of the bowl, the front of the repair and the chin edge with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the repaired area and blend it into the surrounding briar.I used a black stain pen to fill in the crevices of each of the carved areas around the bowl and shank sides as well as those in the plateau areas on the rim top and shank end. It appeared that this is what it looked like originally and I like the sense of contrast and depth that it gives those areas once the bowl is polished.I stained the repaired areas with a Maple stain pen to match the surrounding briar. It involved staining the heel of the bowl, the nose and carved area on the front of the bowl, the rim top high points on the plateau and the high points on the plateau on the shank end. The pipe is beginning to take shape and look better.With the staining finished I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down between the pads with a damp cloth to remove the debris. By the end o f the process the bowl began to take on a rich shine. The repairs, while still visible were less so than when I started the polishing. I rubbed the bowl down with some Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips to clean, preserve and protect the briar. I let it sit for 10-15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and cotton pads to remove the oxidation and calcification which seemed to reside on the surface of the vulcanite. I scrubbed out the tooth marks at the same time working the scrub deep into them. I was amazed at how clean it was when I had finished. I “painted” the tooth marks with the flame of a lighter to lift them to the surface. The heat raised them significantly but not completely. I filled in the remaining marks with clear super glue and once it had cured flattened the repairs with a file and also recut the button edges. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to blend the repairs into the surface and started polishing the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil which cleans and protects the vulcanite. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final wipe of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. It was good to be finished with this labour of love. I would be glad to pack it up and send it back to Dewey. It looks amazingly good considering where it was when I started. Some may not agree with my method of repair but it has worked for me for many years. The cracks in the exterior of the briar were repaired and filled in. The bowl been restained and polished. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and the bowl began to shine. The Karl Erik A Hand Made Freehand looked almost like new (minus the dark line of the crack repair). The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 7 inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outer diameter of the bowl:1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. I know Dewey will be excited to get this back when I send it out next week. It is a beautiful pipe and with the repair and restoration it should continue to serve Dewey for a long time to come. Thanks for walking through this repair with me.

Refreshing A Guildhall 250 Straight Stemmed Dublin by Comoy’s

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Post by Mike Belarde

Hello. Thank you for taking the time to read this post, and walk with me through a fun and enjoyable restoration project.

Pipe restoration has become a recent hobby for me, and I’ve been restoring estate pipes for my personal collection over the last year and a half. Most of the techniques I use, I have gleaned from the Reborn Pipes and The Pipe Steward websites. Both Steve and Dal have been a great source of info. Steve has also been very gracious, and has let me share a post on the site.

I have had this nice Dublin for several months now, and am finally getting a weekend to work on it and clean it up. I purchased it through an online auction from a seller out of Minnesota. What caught my eye with this pipe was the interesting looking grain, and the shape. I have several bent Dublins, but did not own a straight stemmed version. The fact that the pipe was a Guildhall also caught my attention. I own several Everyman Pipes, which are also Comoy’s seconds, and seem to be of good quality.

This pipe is marked with the Guildhall, and made in England stamps, and a shape number of 250.

I have provided a link to the Comoy’s article from Pipedia here, which lists Guildhall as a Comoy’s second. https://pipedia.org/wiki/Comoy%27s. Also, on the Pipedia site there is an interesting example of a Comoy’s advertisement briefly describing the Guildhall line, and I have included it below.According the Pipedia site’s shape chart reference, the shape number 250 corresponds to a straight stemmed, oval shanked, Dublin. This matches the pipe that I’m working on. When I received the pipe, it was in fairly good condition. The stummel had a light shine, but still looked slightly grimy. The rim had a light coating of carbon/lava overflow, and the chamber was lightly caked. From what I could see, the shank and draft seemed to be in good condition without a lot of tar and carbon build up. As you can see from the pictures, the pipe has some interesting cross grain and perhaps small birds’ eyes. Once the cleanup process is complete, I’m expecting that this will be a very attractive pipe, and a nice addition to my collection. The stamping on the pipe was in good condition and easily legible. The stem looked to also be in great condition. The stem was only lightly oxidized. There didn’t seem to be any tooth marks or chatter, but there was a small area of calcification around the button portion of the stem. Perhaps the prior owner had utilized softy bits? All in all, the pipe looked to be in great shape! The first step in the process is to address the internals of both the briar and stem, and then clean up the grime on the stummel, and the carbon build up on the rim. Recently, I’ve been trying to clean the shank with a shank reamer and nylon shank brush dipped in alcohol first in order to save on the amount of pipe cleaners that I have been going through. My first step is to ream the bowl and clear as much of the cake that I can. I used two head sizes on the reamer, and gently cleared out the majority of the carbon. I transitioned next to a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a small dowel to further sand out the chamber.I then turned my attention to the shank. I first run the shank reamer through the shank and gently turn it in a clockwise motion to remove any of the buildup in the airway. This particular reamer is 3.5mm in diameter. I only want to remove the build up without removing any of the actual briar. I don’t want to alter and widen the draft on this pipe. On Steve’s advice, I have also attached a similar sized drill bit to a cordless drill and have gently turned other stummels by hand to clear the airways.I run a shank brush several times through the shank and rinse it under running water, then dip the bristles about half way up the brush. I found out the hard way that if you dip the entire brush in alcohol, you can inadvertently sprits the stummel with alcohol on the backstock, potentially damaging a good stain and finish.

Once that shank brush starts to come out only lightly soiled, I move on to cleaning the shank with bristled pipe cleaners, and then soft pipe cleaners. Thankfully this pipe was fairly clean, and I only ran through a handful of cleaners on the stummel and stem.Once that step is completed, I moved on to cleaning the shank and the chamber with cotton swabs dipped in alcohol. As you can see by the swabs, the pipe cleaners still left some tar in the shank. With the internals cleaned, I scrubbed the stummel with Oil Soap and an old toothbrush. I gently sanded some of the lava build up on the rim with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper, and removed the rest of the build up with a green scouring pad. Now that everything is clean, it looks like the rim and chamber are in great shape! I decided to de-ghost and clean the stummel further. I inserted two tapered fluffy pipe cleaners through the shank and down into the chamber to act as a wick. I have found using the fluffy pipe cleaners is easier for me than trying to fish an elongated cotton ball down the shank. I then placed a cotton ball in the chamber and saturated it with isopropyl alcohol. I resaturated the cotton ball every couple of hours and then left the stummel to sit overnight.

While the stummel was de-ghosting. I placed the stem in a small Tupperware container to soak overnight in Briarville’s Oxidation Remover solution. After soaking overnight more of the tar build up was removed from the stummel. The stem also looked good. The light oxidation and calcium build up was removed, and this revealed a few light toothmarks on the underside of the stem. I decided to work on the stem first. I tried lifting some of the toothmarks with a Bic lighter. It raised the indentations some. I sanded the rest of the marks out with a small piece of 320 grit sandpaper. After the toothmarks were dealt with I began to polish the stem. I took the stem through the progression of micromesh pads. After each pad I wiped down the stem with a cotton pad soaked in Obsidian Oil. In the last step I polished the stem with Before and After’s Extra Fine Polish. The stem seemed to have come out pretty well. I moved on to the stummel. I started to polish the stummel with the micromesh pads and about halfway through the process decided that the stain looked a little worn and washed out. So, I decided to touch up the stain.

I mixed a one-to-one ratio of Cordovan Leather with alcohol to thin the leather dye down a bit. Recently I have been finding that my dye jobs have been darkening the briar too much, and hiding a lot of grain. I wanted to see how this would turnout. I like to apply the stain with a small hobby brush. I find it helps me to coat the stummel evenly. Once the stain was applied, I used a small tea candle to fire the briar and set the dye. I let the stummel sit for a couple of hours and then removed some of the excess stain with a cotton pad soaked in acetone. After removing some of the excess stain with acetone I began to polish the stummel with the micromesh pad series. I wiped the briar down with a damp paper towel between each pad.Once I was finished with the micro pads, I worked some Before and After Restoration Balm into the stummel. It is always encouraging to see the grain come to life after applying the balm! I let the balm sit for about 10 minutes and then buffed the stummel with a cotton cloth. The last step in the process, I buffed both the stummel and stem with Red Tripoli and Blue Diamond. I then gave both several coats of Carnauba wax and buffed them with a cotton cloth.

I am pretty please with how the pipe turned out. Thanks for taking the time to read this post!

Resurrecting a Tired Warrior – a Butz-Choquin Casino 1575 Spigot Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a Butz-Choquin Spigot style pipe with a polished nickel ferrule and a polished nickel stem end. The pipe had classic shape and at first glance looked very good. We purchased this from an online auction late in 2020 in Elgin, South Carolina, USA. It had a rich finish somewhere underneath all of the debris, grime and damage to rim edges and sides. There was a thick cake in bowl and lava on the rim top. The rim top was uneven with dips and burns on the top. The front of the bowl had significant burn damage from the rim top down into the surface of the briar on the front. The left side had the same issue and had been worn away over time so that it was canted inward making that part of the bowl thinner on the side. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank Butz-Choquin at an angle [over] Casino and on the right side it was stamped St Claude in an arch over France [over] the shape number 1575. The nickel ferrule and stem end were oxidized and scratched. The stem was oxidized but had deep tooth marks on the top and underside near the button. The deepest marks were on the underside with one that was almost a bite through. The BC logo on the topside was faded and needed to be touched up. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. I like to have an idea of how the pipe was smoked before we got it and what the bowl and rim top looked like. Jeff always takes some photos of the bowl and rim from various angles to show what it looked like. This bowl and rim top were in rough condition. The stem was a real mess with deep tooth marks and damage on both sides. He took a photo of the nickel ferrule and stem end to give a picture of their condition when we received the pipe. It definitely needs work. He took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to give a sense of the grain on the pipe. You can also see the damage around the top front and sides in the photos. Jeff captured the burn damage on the front of the bowl in the next photo and some of the nicks and gouges in the sides of the bowl in the second photo. There is work to do on this one!The next photos show the stamping on the left and right side of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. Jeff also captured the BC stamp on the topside of the stem. I turned to Pipephil.eu and read through the listing on the brand. It is always a quick reminder to me of the basics of a brand. The Casino line was not listed there. I include the short summary of the history below.

The origin of the brand reaches back to 1858 when Jean-Baptiste Choquin in collaboration with his son-in-law Gustave Butz created their first pipe in Metz (France). Since 1951 Butz-Choquin is a brand of the Berrod-Regad group (Saint-Claude, France).

Jean Paul Berrod managed the company from 1969 to 2002 when he retired and sold the corporate to Mr Fabien Gichon. Denis Blanc, already owner of EWA, took over the S.A. Berrod-Regad in 2006.

I could not find anything specific in Pipedia about the Casino line, but a simple search on the internet will show many different shapes available in the Casino line from Butz-Choquin. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had done a great cleanup on the pipe. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and followed up with a Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife to remove the cake. He scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the bowl exterior with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime on the finish of the bowl and the lava from the rim top. He rinsed it under running water. One of the benefits of this scrub is that it also tends to lift some of the scratches and nicks in the surface of the briar. He dried it off with a soft cloth. He cleaned the internals and externals of the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water and cleaned out the airway in the stem with alcohol. When I received it the pipe looked very good. I took a photo of the rim top and stem to show the condition. The rim top and the inner edge of the bowl were in rough shape. The outer edge had a lot of burn damage on the front and the left side. The rim top and inner edge also has significant burn damage and was not flat. The stem was vulcanite and there were some deep tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. The stamping on the pipe is clear and readable as noted above. The BC logo on the stem is deep and needs to be repainted with white (as seen in the photo of the top of the stem above).I started my work on this pipe by dealing with the damage to the outer edge of the bowl and rim top. I topped the bowl first on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper. I flattened out the rim top and made the top of the rim consistently flat. I removed much of the burn damage to the bowl top. I worked on the damaged areas on the left side and front of the bowl by building them up with briar dust and clear super glue. I built up the left side of the inner edge with super glue and briar dust as well. There the burn damage was shallow but it made the bowl out of round. I topped it once again to smooth out the repair on the rim top. I used a piece of dowel wrapped in sandpaper to sand the inner edge of the rim and smooth out the repair in that area. It worked well.I smoothed out the repairs on the left and front of the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper and blended them into the surrounding briar.I gave the inner edge of the bowl a slight bevel with 220 grit sandpaper to help reshape it and bring it back to round. The rim top and edges looked good at this point in the process.I restained the pipe with a light brown aniline stain. I applied it with a dauber and flamed it with a Bic lighter to set it in the grain. I repeated the process until I was happy with the coverage.Once the stain had dried I wiped the bowl down with 99% isopropyl alcohol to make it a bit more transparent. I find that doing a wipe down at this point evens the finish before I start polishing it with micromesh.I polished the briar with 1200-1500 micromesh sanding pads and wiping it down with damp cloth after each sanding pad. As I worked through the cycle of pads the shine developed with each change of pad. The damage on the rim sides looks better. I left some of the nicks and sandpits as they really are a part of the pipe’s story. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 10 minutes, then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out on the briar. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I decided to address the tooth marks on the stem. They were ragged, with sharp edges and heat did not lift them at all. I filled them in with clear super glue. I let the repairs cure and once they hardened I flattened and shaped them with a small file. I sanded them with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surface of the stem. I started the polishing of the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I touched up the BC stamp on the left side of the stem with white acrylic nail polish. I worked it into the stamp with a tooth pick and then sanded off the excess once it had dried with a 1500 micromesh sanding pad.I polished it with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. The photos below show the polished stem. This Butz-Choquin Casino 1575 Spigot Billiard with a polished nickel ferrule and stem cap on a vulcanite stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. It was a lot of work and I took a decision to leave some of the journey of the pipe in the finish so it is far from flawless but it is a beauty. The rich browns of the stain made the grain come alive with the polishing and waxing. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel 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 BC Casino 1575 Spigot really is a beauty and fits nicely in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ¼ 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 1.87oz./53grams. This beauty will be going off to its new trustee in Michigan along with several other nice pipes. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. There are many more to come!

Helping A Fellow Piper With His Dream Pipe…A Peterson’s System Pipe

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Blog by Paresh Deshpande

A very warm Namaste to all the followers of Reborn Pipes! It’s been a while since I posted any write up on rebornpipes.com and those that were posted have been projects which I had worked on prior to December 2020! The main reason being my relocation to a new place of work, numerous quarantine periods, waiting for allotment of house followed by shifting of family from Pune to my place of work, setting up the new house (only to up stake and move to a new place in 2 years!) and amidst these hectic activities, jostle with the kids and Abha, my wife, for a small corner where I could set up my work table. Thus, with everything well settled and having got back to our day to day routine, it was back to restoring pipes! Oh how I missed handling these pieces of art and history!

Through this time, I came to appreciate the reach of Reborn pipes and the yeoman service it provides in getting like minded pipers closer to each other. Now I am saying this because of the first hand experience I had when one fine day, I received a message from Steve that a gentleman piper from India wants to get in touch with me and that he had shared my email address. Soon enough, I received a mail from Karthik and since then our friendship has only been growing. Karthik was keen to start his own restoration work and was especially interested in a Peterson’s System pipe. Now, here in our part of the world, these are very difficult to come by and when they do, the cost is in INR five figures! When I told Karthik that the many Peterson’s System pipes that he read about on Reborn pipes were from my personal collection, I could sense his disappointment. Readers who have been following my write ups are well aware that one of my set goals has been to make available high quality restored pipes at reasonable price to fellow pipers from India and thus began my hunt for a Peterson’s System pipe in a reasonably good condition at an acceptable price point. A couple of months later, Chris from England (I have purchased a number of pipes from him earlier) had a Peterson’s System pipe that ticked all the right boxes and soon the pipe made its way to Pune and Abha, my wife, shared pictures of the received pipe. Karthik was mighty pleased with the way the pipe looked and so was I. Before I could get to work on this pipe, my move came about and the rest I have described above…

I had requested Karthik to introduce himself to all the readers of Reborn pipes and I am sanguine that we shall soon get to know and see his work. I received his mail and have reproduced it below (I have edited a very tiny portion of the mail though! Sorry Karthik, I too am still in the process of learning and hence the edit, hope you understand).

Hi Paresh sir,

Here’s my intro, hope it’s not too long:

Hello world! I’m Karthik, an engineer in India. I picked up pipe smoking last year as a way of staying off cigarettes, but have since fallen in love with the hobby itself. Living in India, I don’t have easy and immediate access to great pipes. So the idea of buying antiques and restoring them piqued my interest and I stumbled upon Reborn Pipes. As I read through post after post, I happened upon one of Paresh’s posts and both his name and his mention of Pune made me fall over myself in my rush to get in touch with him. I immediately emailed Steve, who graciously put me in touch with Paresh. Since then Paresh has been a great guide in my pipe smoking journey. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to start restoring any pipes myself, but I hope to get to that soon. In the meantime, Paresh generously showed me some of his collection and kept me in mind when he found something of interest. I hope to start down the path of restorations in the near future myself, with his guidance.

Regards,

Karthik

Definitely Karthik, together we shall learn and progress further.

And Now On To Restoring Karthik’s Pipe…
I have researched and worked on a few vintage as well as new Peterson’s and at first glance I knew this pipe to be a new era Peterson’s. The stummel has a spread of mixed grains all around and a nice feel in the hand thanks to its medium sized bowl. It is stamped vertically on the left side of the shank as “PETERSON’S” without a forked ‘P’ over “SYSTEM” over “STANDARD”. The right side of the shank close to the edge of the ferrule bears the COM stamp “MADE IN THE” over “REPUBLIC” over “OF IRELAND” while model/ shape code “# 314” is stamped below the COM stamp. The nickel ferrule bears the trademark Kapp & Peterson’s official logo of “K&P” followed by “PETERSON’S” over the three usual cartouche with first having Shamrock, the second a Prone Fox and lastly a Stone Tower.While dating a Peterson’s pipe, I always fall back to my under mentioned favorite site; http://thepetersonpipeproject.blogspot.com/2007/07/dating-petersons-pipes.html

I quote from the above site:-

Stamping of Bowl:
During the years of Kapp and Peterson’s business operations, the country of Ireland has undergone several name changes and K&P’s stamping on their pipes reflects these changes. Knowing these changes, a Peterson pipe can be roughly dated and placed in “eras.”

The Republic Era is from 1949 until the present. The Republic of Ireland was formed on 17 April 1949. From 1949 to present the stamp for this era is “Made in the Republic of Ireland” in a block format generally in three lines but two lines have been used with or without Republic being abbreviated.

With the provenance of the pipe thus established, I moved ahead with the initial visual inspection of the pipe.

Initial Visual Inspection
The chamber has a thin layer of cake signifying either limited usage or that it had been recently cleaned. The rim top surface has several scratch marks and darkening which would need to be addressed. The inner edge of the rim is charred in 3 o’clock direction (encircled in yellow). Nicks and dings are also seen along the outer rim edge (indicated with green arrows) and deep gouges on the right (encircled in yellow). Chamber has strong odors of sweet smelling tobaccos. The condition of the inner walls of the chamber appears solid and also going by the solid feel of the external surface, I do not foresee any serious issues/ surprises with the chamber walls. The stummel surface is clean but appears dull and lackluster. A number of minor dents and scratches are seen over the stummel, notably towards the front, foot and the bottom of the shank. There is not a single fill over the entire stummel surface. The mortise and the sump shows traces of dried out oils and tars. The pipe smells are too strong. The bent P-lip vulcanite stem is in a relatively good condition with light tooth chatter on either surfaces of the stem. The bite zone of the upper surface has deep tooth indentations with the button edge nearly obliterated and bite marks over the upper P- lip portion causing the slot edges to deform. These will need to be rebuilt and sharpened. The lower surface of the P-lip has distinct deep bite marks and the button edge is completely deformed. The stem is heavily oxidized with minor scratches towards the tenon end. The Process
I decided to work the stummel first as I was keen to see how the stummel shaped up and so was Karthik on appreciating the grains on this piece of briar. I carefully and gently scrapped out the thin layer of cake with a sharp knife followed by sanding the chamber walls with a folded piece of 220 grit sand paper. I checked the chamber walls closely and was happy to note that the walls were pristine and without any issues. With the chamber now clean, I moved ahead with the internal cleaning of the shank and the sump. Using my sharp fabricated knife, I scraped out all the dried tars and gunk from the walls of the mortise. I used q-tips and pipe cleaners with alcohol to clean out the sump and the draught hole. I shall continue deep cleaning of the mortise and the sump when I will clean the internals using salt and alcohol treatment.Next I decided to address the issue of strong ghost smells in the chamber. To eliminate the ghost smells from the pipe, I decided to treat it with salt and alcohol. I packed the sump with cotton and drew out a wick from the cotton and along with a folded regular pipe cleaner, inserted it into the mortise and through the draught hole into the chamber. I tightly packed cotton balls in to the remaining portion of the mortise. Thereafter, I soaked the cotton balls with isopropyl alcohol up to the brim. About half an hour later, the level of alcohol had gone down, having being absorbed by the cotton. I topped it up once again and set it aside overnight. By next afternoon, the cotton and alcohol had drawn out all the remaining oils and tars from the chamber, sump and mortise. I removed the cotton balls and the dirt can be gauged by the appearance and coloration of the cotton balls and the pipe cleaner. With my fabricated knife and dental tools, I spent the next hour scrapping out the entire loosened gunk from the mortise and the sump. I ran pipe cleaners through the mortise and draught hole to clean out all the loosened tars and gunk that was lodged in the draught hole, sump and mortise. The chamber now smelled clean, fresh and looked it too. I set the stummel to dry out naturally. To clean the exterior of the stummel surface, I applied “Briar Cleaner”, a product that has been developed by my friend Mark Hoover, to the external surface of the bowl. It works similar to Murphy’s oil soap and needs to be applied to the stummel surface and set aside for 5- 10 minutes. The product pulls out all the dirt and grime to the surface making further cleaning easy. I am quite happy with this product. I used a hard bristled tooth brush to scrub the stummel with the gel like product, wiped it clean with a moist cloth and dried it using paper towels and a soft cotton cloth. I deliberately cleaned the rim with a piece of Scotch Brite. I thoroughly cleaned the mortise and draught hole with a shank brush. I set the stummel aside to dry out naturally. The clean stummel had revealed a few more scratches which would need to be erased. Once the stummel had dried, aided by the extreme hot weather conditions prevalent here, I addressed the issues of numerous scratches and nicks by sanding the stummel smooth with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. The sanding marks that are visible in the pictures below were obliterated once the stummel was subjected to the complete cycle of micromesh sanding and subsequent polishing and waxing. Having addressed the issues of scratches and nicks over the stummel surface, I moved on to address the numerous dents and dings and charred edges over the rim top surface. I topped the rim over a piece of 220 grit sand paper by slowly rotating the rim over the sand paper. I hate to lose briar any more than absolutely necessary and so frequently checked the progress I was making. I was quite pleased with the appearance of the stummel at this stage in restoration.The time I was working on the stummel, my wife Abha was busy cleaning the stem. She cleaned the stem internals with q-tips, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. She further cleaned the stem airway with shank brush and dish washing soap. It feels really nice to have her around to help with the project. Once the stem internals were cleaned up to her exacting standards, she handed me the stem to address the issue of tooth indentations and chatter over the stem surface.The next stem issue to be addressed was that of the damage over the P-lip end of the stem. I heated both the surfaces with the flame of a lighter to raise the tooth chatter and bite marks to the surface and sanded the entire stem surface with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to even out the surface as well as loosen the oxidation and handed over the stem to Abha for further process. She dropped the stem in to “Before and After Deoxidizer” solution developed by Mark Hoover. The solution helps to draw out heavy oxidation to the surface, making its further removal a breeze, while the minor oxidation is eliminated to a very great extent. The initial sanding helps to draw out the complete oxidation as the sanding opens up the stem surface that has been initially covered with oxidation. By next afternoon, the deoxidizer solution had worked its magic. Abha fished the stem out and cleaned it under warm while scrubbing the stem surface with a Scotch-Brite pad. She ran a couple of pipe cleaners through the stem’s airway to completely remove any remnants of the solution.I mixed clear superglue and activated charcoal and applied it over the both button edges, upper P-lip surface and lower surface of the P-lip. I set the stem aside for the fills to cure.Next afternoon, I worked the stem fills which had hardened considerably. With a flat head needle file, I sanded these fills to achieve a rough match. I further fine tuned the match by sanding the filled area with a folded piece of 220 grit sand paper pinched between my thumb and forefinger. I followed it up by sanding the entire stem surface using 320, 400, 600 and finally with a piece of 800 grit sand paper. This serves to remove the deep seated oxidation and also reduces the sanding marks of the more abrasive sand papers. I also sharpened the button edges while sanding. I wiped the stem with a cotton swab and alcohol to remove all the oxidation and sanding dust from the surface. I applied a little Extra Virgin Olive oil over the stem and set it aside to be absorbed by the vulcanite.Next, I wet sand the stem with 1500 to 12000 girt micromesh pads to bring a deep black shine to the vulcanite. I rub a small quantity of extra fine stem polish that I had got from Mark and set it aside to let the balm work its magic. After about 10 minutes, I hand buffed the stem with a microfiber cloth to a nice shine. I rubbed a small quantity of olive oil into the stem surface to hydrate it and set it aside.While I worked the stem, Abha polished the stummel with micromesh pads, wet sanding with 1500 to 12000 pads. She polished the freshly topped rim surface to a nice luster, wiping the surface with a soft cloth at the end of the micromesh cycle. The stummel looks amazing with a deep shine and beautiful grains popping over the stummel surface. I am surprised that the rim top surface has the same deep brown coloration as the rest of the stummel surface and that the use of a stain pen was not required.She massaged a small quantity of “Before and After Restoration Balm” with her fingers into the briar. The immediate and incredible transformation that takes place is a worthy reward for all the efforts!! She let the balm sit on the surface to be absorbed in to the briar for about 20 minutes. The bowl now looks fresh and attractive with the grains popping out any which way you look at the briar. She polished off the balm with a soft cloth to a lovely shine.Now on to the polishing cycle…I mounted a cotton cloth buffing wheel on to my hand held rotary tool and applied a coat of Blue Diamond to the stummel and the stem to polish out the minor scratches.With a cotton buffing wheel that I use for carnauba wax, I applied a coat of carnauba wax and continued to work on it till the complete coat of wax had been polished out. I mounted a clean cotton cloth buffing wheel and gave the pipe a once over buff. I finished the restoration by giving the entire pipe a rigorous hand buff using a microfiber cloth to raise the shine further. The finished pipe looks beautiful and will soon be on its way for Karthik to enjoy his dream pipe!!Sincere gratitude to all the readers who have shared this part of my journey in to the world of pipe restoration……Cheers!!!

This Opera pipe is a traveler – France to Utah, USA and now to Vancouver, Canada

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on my work top is an interesting piece that is well traveled. It was made in France and somehow ended up in Ogden, Utah, USA and now it is residing here in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. We picked up from a fellow who bought it at and estate sale in Utah back in early 2019. Jeff cleaned it up in 2020 and now I am working on it in 2021. It has been sitting for awhile in our backlog of pipes. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank in script and reads P. Viou underlined with a flourish. At an angle underneath that it is stamped in uppercase and reads SUPER. On the right side of the shank it is stamped Bruyere [over] Extra followed by the shape number 3030. It has some interesting grain around the bowl and shank that shines through the grime on the finish. The bowl had a moderate cake and some overflow of lava on the top inner edge. The original stem was lightly oxidized at the back end and had tooth marks on both side near the button. The shoulders of the shank or stem seem to be slightly rounded from the photos. Jeff captured the look of the pipe in the photos he took before his work. The moderate cake in the bowl and the lava on the rim edge and top is visible in the next photos. There also appears to be some darkening or perhaps burning on the inner edge. It will be clearer once the pipe is cleaned. The stem shows some oxidation and calcification on the button end with tooth marks and chatter visible on both sides. There was an oily corkscrew style stinger in the tenon when the stem was removed. The bowl had some nice cross grain and birdseye grain around the sides. The unique oval shape really followed the grain well. The next photos show the stamping around the sides of the shank. The first two photos show the left side of the shank. The third photo shows the stamping on the right side of the shank.You can see the rounding on the edges of the briar in both photos below. The fit of the stem to the shank is off. Earlier this morning Kenneth stopped by for a visit and I was working on this P. Viou pipe. Kenneth has a developed a love for French pipes and a growing knowledge of the brands so I asked him some questions and we chatted about that. Later this after I wrote him and asked him for information on the brand. Here is his response with a few links as well.

Paul Viou was the brand and fictional name of a French artisan who sold his pipes by correspondence and then he was a pipe supplier for military institutions. He also made sculpted pipes and sometime used horn stems. The brand is currently sold by Jacques Craen and made by Genod in Saint-Claude, after having also belonged to Paul Guilland and Vuillard. They are stamped P. Viou, and made primarily for export.

He included the following links for me to read a bit of history. I ran the French articles through Google translate and got a good idea of the brand. The first article ties Genod under Jacky Craen to a younger carver he trained named Sebastien Beaud.

https://www.fumeursdepipe.net/pipiersCcraen.htm?fbclid=IwAR2SpMLdFREZh_WyOLuwZsTUTSUx5Ohoyr6cl3JChpTYk-U1lUgZflFG4Aw

Jacques (Jacky) Craen was born in 1944, and learned the trade with his grandfather at the age of 15. Eleven years later, once his “classes” are over, he became the owner of the Genod house.

He produces around 8,000 pipes in the year, of which 500 are unique pieces. He works by smoking red Amphora and listening to classical music.

In the summer of 2001, he welcomed a young boy of 21 who enjoyed woodworking. His name was Sébastien Beaud. He returned the following summer, spent a few years with Ewa, until May 2005. At the beginning of 2006, he returned as a worker, finally succeeding Jacques Craen.

You can visit the workshop, and watch this young man work who “emphasizes the pleasure of smoking”. In 2011, Sébastien offered the brand “Sébastien Beo”, only in the USA, from heads that he reworked.

The second and third articles are the same and they tie Sebastien Beaud to Genod, Jacques Craen (Jacky) and to the Paul Viou mail order business. Once again I used Google translate to get a fair read on the article. I include it below.

http://lapipedesaintclaude.com/genod-et-viou-l-aventure-continue-p-27.htm?fbclid=IwAR09q_bVkuPvIG0Qc8DA1ClM2BNntfAPOMgZ8rv5vLe67k5K2sw4jAKqomA

https://www.amagalerie.com/artisan/paul-viou-maitre-pipier-a-saint-claude/?fbclid=IwAR1kErCvYY98vcJ6kh8c72SGf5pW5NcPZ6f8pjHlVLZYfeKChOlDRl0pBR4

Genod and Viou, the adventure continues –

Sébastien Beaud, a young Saint Claude pipe maker. After working in the Genod boutique during the summer of 2001, the idea of becoming a master pipe maker slowly matured in Sébastien Beaud’s mind. With the help of many Saint Claude Pipe Masters, Jacques Craen, and mainly Denis Blanc, as well as Roger Vincent, he was able to learn the passes necessary for the complete making of a pipe.

Thus prepared, he decided to take over the Genod business in 2006. Today, he continues to develop the tourist activity initiated by Jacques Craen, opening his workshop to the public to show him the making of the noble bouffarde, as well as the mail order sale inherited from Paul Viou.

The pipe makers of Saint Claude tirelessly seek to make better pipes. Sébastien Beaud is refining his techniques to the delight of fellow pipe smokers.

Thanks Kenneth for the links and the information. It looks like I am working on one of those mail order pipes that was made primarily for export. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had cleaned up the pipe very well as usual. He has detailed his process other places so I will summarize it here. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl and rim top with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub to loosen the oxidation and remove the grime. Then he soaked it in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe once I received it. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition of the bowl. The cake has been cleaned out and the lava is gone. There is still some darkening and damage to the inner edge of the rim that I will need to deal with. The photos show that the stem looks really good. There is light chatter and some tooth marks on the underside but it is quite clean. The photos of the stem show the rounded shoulders on the briar at the stem/shank junction. I really dislike that look on a pipe. On the left side of the stem there is a faint P. Viou stamp. It is not deep enough to repaint but it is present.I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts of the pipe. You can see the corkscrew stinger in the tenon. It is quite a contraption. It is also removable.I started my work on the pipe by dealing with the damage on the inside edge of the rim. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage and to remove the darkening. It looked better once it was finished.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the briar down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the debris. The bowl really began to shine. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The product brought the briar to life and gave some depth to the finish. Now it was time for me to deal with the rounded shoulders on the shank and clean up the stem/shank fit. The damage that had been done to the shank end made it impossible to change the diameter of the shank or the stem and maintain the integrity of the shank. I decided to band it with a thin brass band that I would reduce the depth on so as not to cover too much of the stamping on the shank. I would lose a little bit of the R on SUPER but to me the fit of the stem to the shank was worth the loss. I used a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper to reduce the depth of the band. I was able to remove over half of the depth. I placed the band on the end of the shank lightly and carefully heated it with a Bic lighter. Once it was hot the metal had a little play in it and I was able to press it onto the shank for a tight fit. You can see the depth of the band is greatly reduced and it did not cover any of the stamp on the right side of the shank and only the R on SUPER.I put the stem on the shank and took photos of the fit against the band. The fit was perfect and the gaps and rounded shoulders were a thing of the past. To me the band also added a touch of “Opera” bling to the pipe that made it look great.With the rounded shoulders of the shank taken care of it was time to deal with the tooth marks on the stem. I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I “painted” the stem surface with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the tooth marks. I was able to lift all of them on the topside and all but one deeper one on the underside. I filled in the tooth mark on the underside with clear CA glue and let it harden. Once it had hardened I sanded it smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. I also smooth out the coarseness of the topside of the stem at the same time. I started polishing the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil as I find that it enlivens and preserves the vulcanite. In the polishing process it also give the micromesh pads some bite. I finished polishing it with Before & After Stem Polish – both fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry.With the stem finished I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I noticed that some think I use White Diamond but I have not used it for quite awhile opting instead for a finer polish called Blue Diamond. It give the bowl and stem a rich polish. I gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. Do not skip these steps as they add depth to the shine. The finished P. Viou Super Bruyere Extra Opera 3030 pipe is a lovely pipe with great cross grain and birdseye. The thin brass band took care of the poorly fit stem and rounded shoulders and the rich polish make it quite elegant. The dimensions of the finished pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outer bowl diameter: 1 ½ inches long X 1 inch wide, Chamber diameter (oval) 7/8 of an inch long X 5/8 of an inch wide. The weight of the pipe is 1.09 ounces/31 grams. It is a lightweight and great looking pipe that should be a pleasure to smoke. I will be putting on the rebornpipes store in the French Pipe Makers section if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Thanks for walking with me through the restoration!

Resurrecting a Beat up Warwick Sandblast Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

We picked up this next pipe back in 2017 from an auction in Rochester, New York, USA. It has been around a long time. Jeff cleaned it up in 2017 and I have had it sitting here since then. I am finally getting around to working on it. It is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads Warwick [over] Made in London England. There is a shape number 1 next to the stem/shank junction. It is a sandblast billiard. The stamping and the shape name and number make me wonder about a connection to Sasieni but I am not certain of that. The bowl was heavily caked and the sandblast on the rim top was almost filled in with the lava overflow. It appeared that there was damage on the rim top as it was no longer flat looking. That would become more clear as it was cleaned up. The sandblast around the bowl and shank was dirty and filled with debris and dust. There was also darkening around the briar from hand oils. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks on the top and underside near the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started the clean up work. He took photos of the rim top and stem to give a feel for the overall condition of the pipe before he started. You can see the thick lava coat filling in the rim top but you can also see the unevenness of the top of the bowl and the edges. There is some definite damage under the grime. The stem is oxidized, calcified and has tooth chatter and marks on the top and the underside of the stem near the button. He took some photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to capture the deep and craggy sandblast around the bowl. It really has some beauty to the blast.He captured the stamping on the underside of the shank in the next photo. It is readable though the left side of the stamping is more faint that the rest of the stamping toward the right. It reads as noted above. Now we would need to make a connection to the maker. I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-w1.html) to see what I could learn about the brand. What I found was a pipe stamped Warwick but the font was slightly different. This one was made in Italy and said so. The one I was working on was stamped Made in London England.On the side bar it had a note that I copy as follows: A sub brand of Comoy or Singleton & Cole. Not to be confused with Warwyck. I turned to the section on Comoy’s to see if there was any note for this stamping. There was not. I also turned to the section on the site on Singleton & Cole (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-s7.html). I have included a screen capture of the section that shows a Singleton Warwick that is stamped Made in England. The Warwick stamp is similar but the one on the pipe I am working on is heavier. So the hunt continues.I searched on Google and found a link on a sale site The Collection Hero that linked Warwick to a BBB pipe. https://pipes.collectionhero.com/view_item.php?id=43025&ekeywords=BBB. I have included that photo as well. The sale site says that the pipe is stamped BBB Own Make “Warwick”. It has a deep rugged sandblast but the finish is quite different from the one that I am working on. There also were no photos showing the stamping on the shank so I had nothing to compare my pipe with.

I was not convinced. So far I have seen the name attached to Comoy’s, Cole & Singleton and now BBB and none of them are conclusive. I still needed to do some more digging.

I did a bit more digging and found the name Warwick attached to Sasieni on a pipe on smokingpipes.com (https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/england/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=89779). It is described as follows:

…An old Sasieni pipe like this on an update. Named after a town, Warwick, this piece is a true part of English charm, stained beautifully, and a lovely example of a Sasieni patent.

I looked up Sasieni seconds on Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/images/e/e4/Sasieni_Seconds.jpg) and found a chart that listed the various names. At the bottom of the alphabetical list is the name Warwick.Now I had all of the options in front of me and I was still no further ahead than when I started. I seemed to be able to link it to either Singleton & Cole or Sasieni. I would probably never know for certain but at least I knew it was an old English made pipe. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had cleaned up the pipe very well as usual. He has detailed his process other places so I will summarize it here. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl and rim top with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He soaked the stem in Briarvilles Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe once I received it. The rim top had some damage and darkening on the top. The front right and left sides were almost smooth and the sandblast was gone. The sandblast on the back side was deeper and also had some damage. The inner edge of the bowl was damaged at the front. The stem surface looked good with light tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. The stamping was faint on the left side of the stamp and the stamping on the right side was more readable as noted above. You can see the shape number 1 near the shank/stem union. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. The stem is tapered. I started my work on the pipe by cleaning up the sandblast with a brass bristle wire brush. I worked it over the rim top and the blast on the sides and underside of the bowl until I cleaned up the blast. It looked much better once I finished with the brush. The rim top had other issues that I would need to address as well. I took some photos of the rim top to try and capture the damage to the rim top. It is no longer flat and the top from the back is at an angle and the sides have dips and valleys – it is a real mess.I would need to flatten the rim top on a topping board to get things flat again. Then I would need to try to duplicate the sandblast finish on the rim top. I topped the bowl on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper. I started the rustication process with the tool for rustication that I made from a Philips screwdriver. I followed that up with a Dremel and burrs to rusticate the rim top and give it the appearance of a sandblast. I restained it with a Maple and Walnut stain pen to approximate the colour of the bowl.To deal with the darkened areas around the bowl sides and the washed out stain on the rest of the bowl I restained it with a light brown aniline stain. I applied it with a dauber and then flamed it with a lighter to set it in the briar. I repeated the process until I was happy with the coverage.I buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the sandblast finish my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The product brought the briar to life and gave some dimensionality to the sandblast. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks with the flame of a lighter and was able to lift them significantly. I filled in the remaining marks with clear CA glue. Once it cured I used a small file to recut the edge of the button and to flatten out the repairs. I sanded out the repairs with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and then started polishing it with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down between pads with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing using Before & After Stem polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I rubbed the stem down a final time with Obsidian Oil. The Warwick Sandblast 1 Sandblast Billiard is a beautiful pipe with an great looking, rugged sandblast finish. The blast is very nice and the rich brown stain on the briar goes amazingly well with the polished black vulcanite taper stem. The combination works to create a pipe that is a pleasure to look at and is comfortable in the hand. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Bowl diameter: 1 ¼ inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.13 ounces/35 grams. Considering what the pipe looked like when we started, the now resurrected pipe is quite amazing looking. I will be adding it to the British Pipe Makers section of the rebornpipes store shortly. If you are interested in adding it to your collection send me a message on Facebook or an email. Thanks for walking through the process with me. Cheers.

A Stunning Comoy’s Made The Guildhall London Pipe 9 Straight Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe is a really neat looking tall Comoy’s Made Stack with a vulcanite taper stem. The classic Bulldog bowl with twin rings and the diamond shank was made to hold in your hand. The flat bottom on the bowl and shank make it a sitter as well. It is quite light weight for its size and the saddle stem is thin and looks comfortable. We picked up this The Guildhall London Pipe from the same antique dealer in 2018 from Naples, Florida, USA as The Everyman London Pipe that I restored earlier (https://rebornpipes.com/2021/07/10/a-truly-stunning-comoys-made-the-everyman-london-pipe-188-stack/). Like that one we have also had this one a long time. Jeff cleaned the pipe in 2019 and now I am working on it in 2021. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads The [over] Guildhall [over] London Pipe. On the right side it is stamped with the Comoy’s circular COM Stamp – Made in London[over] England, followed by the shape number 9. The exterior of the bowl looked surprisingly clean and shiny. There was a heavy cake in the bowl and an eruption of thick lava on the rim top and beveled inner edge of the bowl. It was hard to know the condition of the rim top and rim edges because of the grime and thickness of the cake and lava. The cleaning would make it very clear! The stem was oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks and chatter on both sides but nothing like what I was expecting from the condition of the bowl. Jeff took photos of the pipe to give a clear picture of what we were up against with this pipe. He captured the cake in the bowl and the thick eruption of lava on the rim top and edges exceptionally well in the next photos. It was very clear that it was an exceptional smoker! The stem is oxidized, calcified and shows the tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff captured some of the beauty of the shape and the grain in the next photos. The mix of grains and the way in which the stain highlights them is quite stunning. He took a photo of the stamping on the top left side of the diamond shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. You can also see the three silver bars on the top left side of the stem. There is not a photo of the right side of the shank but it reads Made In London in a circle over England (Comoy’s COM stamp) followed by the shape number 9. I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-g6.html) to confirm what I knew about the brand being made by Comoy’s. It did but did not give a whole lot of other information.I turned then to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/images/d/d7/Shape_Chart_1975_1.jpg). I found a shape chart that had the shape 9 listed. I have drawn a box around it on the picture below. It is identified as a Flat Bottom Bulldog with a saddle stem.There was also a catalogue that had a page including The Guildhall London Pipe and describing it (https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:Comoy%27s_Sunrise.jpg). I quote from the page: “Many smokers say the Guildhall is amongst the most beautiful pipes in the world. Guildhall pipes are especially selected for distinctive grains.”Now it was time to work on the pipe. It is really a beautiful piece. Jeff had done a great cleanup on the pipe. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and followed up with a Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife to remove the cake. He scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the bowl exterior with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime on the finish of the bowl and the lava from the rim top. He rinsed it under running water. One of the benefits of this scrub is that it also tends to lift some of the scratches and nicks in the surface of the briar. He dried it off with a soft cloth. He cleaned the internals and externals of the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water and cleaned out the airway in the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I took photos of the pipe as I saw it when I put it on the table. I took photos of the rim top and stem to show the condition. The rim top and beveled edge looked amazing. The stem was vulcanite and there were tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. The stamping on the left and right sides of the shank are clear and readable. It reads as noted above. The three silver coloured inset bars on the left side of the taper stem are also visible.I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the proportions of the bowl and stem.I started my work on pipe by polishing the briar with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down between pads with a damp cloth to remove the debris. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 10 minutes, then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out on the briar. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks with the flame of a lighter and was able to lift them significantly. I filled in the remaining marks with clear CA glue. Once it cured I sanded out the repairs with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and then started polishing it with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I finished the polishing with Before & After Polishes – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final rub down with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. This Comoy’s Made The Guildhall London Pipe 9 Straight Bulldog with a vulcanite saddle stem is a beautifully grained pipe with a flowing shape that looks great . The rich browns and blacks of the contrasting stain makes the grain come alive with the polishing and waxing. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel 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 The Guildhall London Pipe Bulldog really is a beauty and fits nicely in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¼ 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 1.27oz./36 grams. This pipe will soon be on the British Pipe Makers section of the rebornpipes store if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. There are many more to come!

The 2nd of a Pair of Interesting Flea Market Finds – a Polo Sport Bruyere Bent Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is the second of a pair of pipes that I picked up when my daughters and I went to the Vancouver Flea Market not too long ago when the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted some here. We walked through all the stalls in the market and talked to vendors. We were chatting with an English chap about pipes and he took a bag out from under the table and in it were two pipes. The first pipe was petite Bent Bob’s sandblast pipe that I restored and wrote a blog about earlier. The second pipe was worn and had varnish peeling off. It was stamped Polo [over] Sport on the left side of the shank and Bruyere on the right side. On the underside near the stem/shank junction it is stamped with the shape number 21. The rim top had some darkening and some lava build up and there was a light cake in the bowl. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had some deep tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. button. It was another good find and I was able to negotiate a good price for the pair of pipes that I picked up. I took photos of the rim top and bowl to give a sense of what I saw. There was a thin cake in the bowl and there was lava on the rim top and the inner edge of the bowl. I also took photos of the top and underside of the stem to show the oxidation, calcification and the deep tooth marks and chatter next to the button on both sides. I took a photo of the stamping on the left, right and underside of the shank. It captured the stamping well in the photos and you can see that they are clear and readable as noted above.I turned to Pipephil’s and to Pipedia to see what I could find out about the brand. I also googled the brand name of the pipe. It appears that quite a few companies in several countries made pipes that were stamped Polo. Savinelli in Italy, Vauen in Germany, Imperial Tobacco Company and Cadogan in England. I have eliminated the Savinelli connection as well as the Vauen connection by the stamping on those pipe versus this one. It may well be an Imperial or a Cadogan after the merger. I am not sure I will ever know for certain.

It was now time to work on the pipe. I had a decision to make. Should I scrub it with Murphy’s or skip that step and scrub it with acetone to remove the peeling varnish coat? I opted to go with the acetone scrub. I scrubbed the rim top and sides of the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the grime and the peeling varnish. I was very happy with the outcome. The bowl had some interesting grain around the top and sides. I cleaned up the inside of the bowl and removed the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I took the cake back to bare briar and cleaned it up so that I could examine the bowl walls carefully. They were clean and undamaged.I heated the stinger with a lighter to loosen the tars that held it firmly in the tenon. I find that these really restrict the airflow and it did in this case significantly.I scrubbed out the internals of the shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I worked until both the shank and stem were clean.I filled in the damaged areas on the rim top and the lower left side of the bowl/shank with clear CA glue. Once the repairs cured I wetsanded those areas of the bowl and rim with a 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad. I sanded the entirety of the bowl with micromesh pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad to remove the sanding debris. The bowl began to take on a deep sheen. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. The product works to revitalize, protect and polish the briar. I let it sit on the bowl for 10 minutes and then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks with the flame of a lighter and was able to lift them significantly. I filled in the remaining marks with clear CA glue. Once it cured I used a small file to recut the edge of the button and to flatten out the repairs. I sanded out the repairs with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and then started polishing it with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down between pads with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing using Before & After Stem polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I rubbed the stem down a final time with Obsidian Oil. This is the first of this brand that I have worked on and one that I can find no detailed information. I believe it is an English Made pipe perhaps Imperial or Cadogan. The Polo Sport Bruyere 21 Bent Billiard is a beautiful pipe underneath that thick and peeling varnish coat. The grain is very nice and the colour of the briar goes amazingly well with the polished black vulcanite taper stem. The delicate curves of the bowl and stem work together to create a pipe that is a pleasure to look at and is comfortable in the hand. With the stinger apparatus removed the pipe has a great draught (I put it back to let the new owner keep or remove it). The dimensions of the petite pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Bowl diameter: 1 ¼ inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.13 ounces/35 grams. It is a great looking pipe that feels great in the hand and is light weight in the mouth. The light weight of the pipe, the bend in the stem and shank should make it another perfect clencher. I will be adding it to the British Pipe Makers section of the rebornpipes store shortly. If you are interested in adding it to your collection send me a message on Facebook or an email. Thanks for walking through the process with me. Cheers.