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New Life for a Sixten Ivarsson Designed Stanwell Regd. No. 969-48 Hand Made Ukulele 91

By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table to work on is one that was purchased on 09/18/2020 from a seller in Los Angeles, California, USA. This is a oval shank ukulele with a smooth finish and an oval shank, vulcanite saddle stem. It is another Made in Denmark Stanwell. The smooth finish on this pipe, around the bowl and shank has a mix of grain highlighted by the brown stain. The pipe is stamped on the topside of the shank and reads STANWELL [over] Regd. No. 969-48 [over] Hand Made. On the underside of the shank the shape number 91 is stamped [over] Made In Denmark. The pipe was a well used pipe when Jeff received it. There was dust and grime ground into the finish on the sides of the bowl. The brown stain highlights some mixed grain under the dirt. The bowl was thickly caked and there was an overflow of lava on the smooth rim top. The condition of the inner edge was hard to know due to the lava coat but there appeared to be some nicks in the edge. The saddle stem is vulcanite and was dirty, oxidized and had light tooth marks, chatter and scratches on both sides ahead of the button and on the button itself. There is a stamped Crown S logo on the topside of the saddle stem. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on it. He took photos of the bowl and rim top to show what they looked like before his clean up. You can see the cake in the bowl and the spattering of lava on the rim top and inner edges. You can see the nicks in the inner edge of the rim. He also took some of the stem to show the condition of both sides. It is heavily oxidized and calcified and very dirty. There appear to be tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button and on the button surface itself. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show the grain around the bowl and shank. The grime hides the grain in many ways. The finish on the pipe is worn but the grain stands out. The stamping was on the top and underside of the shank as noted above. It is clear and readable as noted above. The Crown S stamp on the top of the saddle stem can partially be seen in the first photo below. Before I started my work on the pipe I wanted to see if I could find any information that would help me get a sense of the background on the pipe. I turned to Pipephil to see if there was any listing on the

I then turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Stanwell) for more information. The article is great and gives a lot of history on the brand. There was a category of pipe call Pre-regd. 1945-1948 where all the photos of pipes had the same stamping as the one I am working on. That gave me a clue as to the dating on this particular pipe – it was made between 1945-1948.

There were also links to a shape article by Bas Stevens that I originally published on rebornpipes. I looked up the 91 shape number to see who had designed that shape (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Stanwell_Shape_Numbers_and_Designers). I quote the information below.

Slightly bent wide, flattened volcano with an oval shank and a short, standard saddle, trapezoidal saddle, or tapered stem, by Sixten Ivarsson. Nicknamed the ‘Ukelele’ (pictured, right, in its reissued design).

Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants 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, pipe cleaners and shank brushes. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the grime and calcification. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. The pipe looked very good when it arrived here. I took close up photos of the bowl, rim and the stem. You can see the nicks on the thin inner edge of the bowl. The vulcanite saddle stem is in good condition with light tooth marks and some chatter as noted above.I took photos of the stamping on the top and underside of the shank. It is readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to give a sense of the proportions of the pipe. The briar is quite beautiful and I think that polishing it will make the grain stand out. I worked on the damage to the inner edge of the rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the chips in the finish. By the end it looked much better.I sanded the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to smooth out the finish and bring some life back to the briar. I wiped the briar down after each sanding pad to wipe off the debris left behind by sanding. I polished the bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad to remove the grit. The bowl began to take on a rich shine. It is a beauty. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips. I let it sit for 10 minutes and the Balm did its magic. It enlivens, cleans and preserves the briar. It certainly brought this bowl back to life. I buffed it off with a clean cloth and took the following photos. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I touched up the “Crown S” stamp on the topside of the saddle stem with some white acrylic fingernail polish. I worked it into the stamp with a tooth pick. I scraped off the excess with piece of 320 grit sanding pad and buffed it off with a soft cloth and some Obsidian Oil. It looked very good. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This Sixten Ivarsson Designed Stanwell Regd. No. 969-48 Ukulele 91 with a vulcanite saddle stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The stain really highlights the grain and the polished finish is stunning. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel 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 Stanwell Regd. No. 969-48 Ukulele 91 fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 65 grams /2.33 ounces. I will be adding the pipe to the Danish Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store. If you are interested in purchasing this pipe send me a message or an email.

As always, I encourage your questions and comments as you read the blog. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipe men and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Restoring a Terrific Handmade Oversize Kaywoodie

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by Kenneth Lieblich

Next up is this interesting, rugged pipe from Kaywoodie. It is from the handmade Oversize Kaywoodie line and has wonderfully thick walls. When I first saw it, this nifty pipe reminded me, in style, of a Custombilt pipe. It is not that, but it is reminiscent of that. This was a bizarre and challenging restoration, but the results are terrific. Let’s examine the markings on the pipe. The left side of the shank shows HandMade [over] Kaywoodie. The right side of the shank shows, merely, Imported Briar. Finally, the stem has the famous cloverleaf logo on the top. As you can see, it is a white circle with a black leaf inside. Unfortunately, there was no shape number, no shape name, nor any other markings. Hmm… Dating this Kaywoodie is a bit of a head-scratcher. I think I’ve figured it out, but the historical details of many a pipe have been lost in the mists of time. This is an Oversize Handmade Kaywoodie and it doesn’t help that, as I mentioned, there isn’t any shape number on the pipe. Perhaps the cloverleaf logo on the stem can help. Pipephil says:

The cloverleaf logo: the round logo (black cloverleaf in white circle or white cloverleaf in black circle) was first used in 1937. Up until the late 40’s this logo was used on all of the upper-grade pipes. The concomitant use of the plain white cloverleaf and the disk inlaid logo continued until the early 80’s. Up until the late 1940’s/early 50’s, the logo was on top of the stem. After that the logo was moved to the side of the stem (exceptions exist).So, perhaps this is a better-quality pipe! From what little I understand, this was, indeed, considered to be a better pipe. Pipedia laid this information out:

Throughout much of the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s, the Kaywoodie family of pipes consisted of 11 basic grades of briar pipes; though new grades were frequently added to the line and some older grades were discontinued or downgraded. These 11 basic grades of pipes, listed in ascending order of quality, were:
Drinkless
Hand-made Super Grain
Super Grain
Relief Grain
Flame Grain
Silhouette
Oversize Kaywoodies
Meerschaum Inlaid Kaywoodies
Connoisseur
Ninety-fiver
Centennial

Given how singularly rare the last two were (Ninety-fiver and Centennial), this would indicate a very good quality pipe. Pipedia gave me reason to think this particular pipe was from 1947. Part of the article entitled “Collector’s Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes”, states:

The 1947 Kaywoodie catalog shows 12 grades of briar pipes and introduces the Kaywoodie Block Meerschaum. The briar pipes were available in 69 shapes. In addition to these individual pipes, the 1947 catalog shows two- and seven-pipe matched grain sets. The Oversize Kaywoodies were, as the name implies, “Giants”. Lowndes notes that these pipes were stamped simply, “Hand-Made”. The pipes were all roughly “bulldog-ish” in appearance and were available in the following styles and grades:

Hand-carved “Colossus” ($10)
Walnut finish, banded “Hercules” ($20)
Hand-carved “John Henry” ($10)
Virgin finish, specimen grain “Paul Bunyan”
($25) Virgin finish, banded specimen grain “Goliath”
($25) Walnut finish “Atlas”
($20) Hand-carved, Meerschaum-Inlaid “Samson” ($15)Now, there is no model number or name on my pipe, so it’s not clear to me if this pipe one of the model names mentioned above or some other.

Let’s get on with restoring the pipe. The stummel was in good shape. The main issue with this pipe was the stem. The photos demonstrate that the bit had a small bite through. No big deal, I thought. I’ve repaired those before. Alas, this ended up being much more challenging than I had expected.I worked on the stummel first. In order to clean out the cake in the bowl, I used the Pipnet reamer and followed that up with a piece of sandpaper taped to a wooden dowel. I sanded down the cake until I hit the briar walls, so that I could inspect them for potential damage. Everything looked good on the inside, which is great.I proceeded to clean out the inside of the shank with 99% isopropyl alcohol and pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. It was a bit dirty in there, but I got it clean in the end.When that was done, I set up to clean the pipe’s insides with soap and some tube brushes. The pipe was beautifully clean after that.As I was cleaning, I noticed that there were a few minor dents on the rim. I wet a piece of cotton cloth with water, heated up my iron, and set about trying to raise the dents. Often, the hot, moist air created by the cloth and iron can lift the wood back into shape. This technique worked really well on this occasion.After this, I used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to remove the scratches in the wood (especially on the rim) and make everything smooth. Then a light application of Before & After Restoration Balm brought out the best in the stummel’s grain. The grain on this pipe is pretty great! Moving on to the stem – I started out by cleaning the inside of the stem with lemon-infused 99% isopropyl alcohol and some pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. It was dirty, but not too bad. I also cleaned the stem with some Murphy’s on some cotton rounds. As you can see, the stem wasn’t too dirty and won’t need a soaking.Now it was time to fix the bite-through. Obviously, one option here would be to get another stem from my stock and replace the broken one, but I always try to use original materials wherever possible. I noticed that a repair had already been attempted on this stem at some point in the past. Someone had used some soft rubber (from one of those stem bits) to bridge the gap in the stem.I figured that adding my black carbon and rubber infused cyanoacrylate adhesive to this existing repair would be a good idea. I first plugged up the stem’s draught hole with a pipe cleaner coated in petroleum jelly. This ensured that any of the cyanoacrylate would not accidentally plug up the air passage in the stem.I then used a miniature file to shape the button and make it suitable for sanding. Uh oh – big problem. The soft rubber repair was not nearly good enough and broke off completely while I was sanding. Sigh. I repeated the process of building up the bit with black cyanoacrylate glue. This time I used a piece of cardboard coated in petroleum jelly (rather than a pipe cleaner). I then sanded the stem down with 220- and 400-grit sandpapers to meld seamlessly into the stem. I also used a sanding sponge to ensure that it keeps its shape and looks like it should. I won’t bore you by repeating myself, but I had to add black cyanoacrylate adhesive two more times until it was satisfactory. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) on the stem to make it look as good as possible. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing. It is worth noting that a repair this big on a stem will never be invisible or perfect, but I was pleased with how the stem finished up. Off to the bench polisher to put the final touches on this pipe. I first gave it a thorough (but light-handed) going-over with White Diamond compound. One doesn’t want to use too much for fear of gumming up the rustication. Following that, several coats of conservator’s wax created a beautiful seal on the pipe.All done! This Handmade Oversize Kaywoodie looks fantastic and is ready to be enjoyed again by the next owner. I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the “American” section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 6 in. (152 mm); height 2 in. (51 mm); bowl diameter 1½ in. (39 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (20 mm). The weight of the pipe is 2¼ oz. (64 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I did restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Spiffing Up a Rare Caminetto Masterpiece

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by Kenneth Lieblich

Roll up! Roll up! Come and see the amazing Ascorti Radice Caminetto New Dear Chimney! What a stunning pipe! I picked up this pipe while I was visiting the historic town of Bellingham, Washington. I wish I knew some of this pipe’s individual history, but – alas! – the shop purveyor had no information. It is a remarkable pipe – with the recognizable rustication of the New Dear line and an astonishing chimney elevation. This is your chance to get your hands on an extraordinary pipe – one of the original Caminettos. The markings on this pipe were just what one would hope for. They read Ascorti [over] Radice [over] Cucciago [over] Cantu-Italy. Next to that is a little shield symbol. Further to the right are the words “Caminetto” [over] New Dear. Finally, at the end, is a letter G. There is also, of course, the moustache logo on the stem. This information is worth its weight in gold, as it will help us to get a reasonably accurate date on this beauty.First, let’s talk about Caminetto. There is quite a bit of information to be had on Pipedia about the company and I won’t attempt to reproduce it all here. However, I enthusiastically recommend reading the general Caminetto article here, the Caminetto history article here, the Ascorti article here, and the Radice article here. If you’re really keen, you could even read the Castello article here.

Phew! After all that reading, I would like to quote a bit of the history from Pipedia:

Caminetto’s history started in 1959 when Guiseppe Ascorti, from Cucciago, and known to his friends as “Peppino”, was hired by Carlo Scotti to work at Castello, located in nearby Cantu. Since it’s foundation in 1947 Castello had contributed substantially to regained glory for Italian pipemaking.

Talent and assiduity soon made Ascorti one of Scotti’s most notable pipemakers – a man he counted on for the future. But, Ascorti had his own far reaching plan: He wanted to work as a self-employed pipemaker! After his wife, Paola, had taken over her parent’s small greengrocery in the early 1960’s this plan became more concrete. The additional income from the shop enabled him to buy tools and machines little by little to furnish his own workshop. By the end of 1968 he was ready and left Castello. Ascorti also persuaded his co-worker, the young and highly-talented pipemaker Luigi Radice (born 1939), to join him – the two were neighbors in Cucciago. Carlo Scotti, whom is known as a perfect gentleman, is reported to have spoken unreservedly about this development.

Ascorti & Radice started to manufacture pipes on their own. One of the first who agreed to market their pipes was Gianni Davoli, proprietor of a tobacco shop in Milan. The situation was perfect–two pipemakers in search of a distributor, and a pipe merchant in search of a mainstay brand to market. Davoli – via friends and relations in the States – had made flourishing contacts with US pipe wholesalers and traders. He shipped some pipes across the pond for inspection and received excellent feedback for the very high quality of the pipes. He, shortly after, offered to be the sole distributor worldwide, and Ascorti & Radice happily accepted.

Then came the legendary evening when Ascorti, Radice and Davoli gathered around the fireplace after a hard day’s work enjoying their pipes, a glass of wine, and humorous conversation. Davoli is said to be the one who associated the pipes with the fireplace or chimney, which is “camino” in Italian. Hence “Caminetto”, the diminutive (smaller) singular version of camino, was coined as the brand’s name.

It is, of course, so fitting, so appropriate that this pipe is, itself, in a chimney shape. Fantastic! Reading on, I learned more about the time period in which this was made. This history was originally provided by a fellow named joshoowah on brothersofbriar.com. It is now on Pipedia. I’ve actually taken a screenshot of the relevant information so that it is easiest for you to see and understand.So, based on the above information, I can safely state that this pipe is from the earlier time period of 1968/9-1974/5.

Let’s take a closer look at the condition of the pipe. It’s actually in great shape, all things considered, and must have been greatly loved by its owner, as it was well smoked. The beautiful acrylic stem had some very minor tooth marks, but nothing of concern. The stummel was heavily caked inside the bowl and there was some definite darkening on the rim. I’d have to inspect that more closely after cleaning. Stem first. To be precise, it was stem and shank extension first. They are both acrylic, and the shank extension came off with ease, so they could be cleaned up together. I cleaned the insides with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, and isopropyl alcohol. It was pretty dirty, and I went through a good number of pipe cleaners and swabs. A lot of debris was trapped in there and I needed to do some significant scrubbing. I also tried using some cleanser with tube brushes on the inside and that did help. I gave it a thorough rinse and moved on.I filled the few tooth marks in the stem with some black cyanoacrylate adhesive (the shank extension didn’t need any). After allowing that to cure, I sanded the glue down with some sandpaper, then the whole stem with my Micromesh pads. For the last few pads, I also added some pipe stem oil. I forgot to take pictures, but I restored the moustache in gold too. On to the stummel, and there was some work to be done here! I needed to get the darn thing clean. I reamed out the stummel and removed all the cake. Fortunately, there was no damage to the interior walls.I used a dental tool to mine some chunks of gunk out of the mortise – yuck! Just like the stem, I also used pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to scrub the insides. It was quite dirty – much cotton was expended.I decided to de-ghost the pipe in order to remove any lingering smells of the past. I thrust cotton balls into the bowl and the shank and saturated them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummel sit overnight. This caused any remaining oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton. The bowl was nice and clean after this. But, just to make sure, I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some dish soap and tube brushes. Then it was really clean. I used cotton rounds and some Murphy’s Oil Soap to scrub the outside of the stummel and a toothbrush with Murphy’s for the lava on the rim of the pipe. Once complete, I took a closer look at the darkness on the rim. It wasn’t too bad, but I thought it could use a little help. I mixed up a little oxalic acid and rubbed the dark spots with cotton swabs. This worked really well in removing a lot of the dark. I was pleased. I then rubbed some Before & After Restoration Balm into the wood. I gently brushed it into the rustication grooves and let the balm sit for twenty minutes or so. The BARB works so well at bringing out the best in the wood. I brushed it with a horsehair brush and buffed it with a microfibre cloth. Beauty! Later, I went to the bench buffer and applied some White Diamond to the stummel and stem. Then the final polish! The rusticated surface meant that I didn’t use carnauba wax – it gets gummed up in the grooves. Instead, I used Conservator’s Wax which worked like a charm.This Ascorti Radice Caminetto New Dear Chimney was a nifty restoration and I had fun with it. I think the result is terrific and it’s a stunning pipe once again. I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the “Italy” pipe section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 6 in. (152 mm); height 2½ in. (65 mm); bowl diameter 1⅓ in. (33 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (18 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅝ oz. (49 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this restoration as much as I enjoyed restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

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

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By Steve Laug

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

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

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

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

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

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

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by Steve Laug

Yesterday afternoon I was visited by a pipe man here in Vancouver named Sergey who had five Peterson’s pipes that he wanted me to work on. They are shown in the photo below. In the left column from top to bottom: Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL17, Peterson’s of Dublin Filter 68, Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL16 Rusticated Pipe. In the right column from top to bottom Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL16 and the bottom pipe is a Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL14. All five pipes were all thickly caked and had thick lava on the rim top. The cake is so thick that I could not put my little finger in the bowl it was so heavily caked. My guess was that the bottom of the bowl was lower than the entrance of the airway into the bowl. The Rusticated Kinsale XL17 also had a burn out in the front bottom of the bowl that would take a lot more time than just a simple clean up. I would know more about the condition of each of the bowls once I had reamed and cleaned them. Sergey was travelling in two weeks and he chose at least two of them that he wanted to take with him on his trip so those would be first. My hope is to try to finish four of the five. The third of these that he wanted is the next one I chose to work on. It was the Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL14.I took photos of the Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL14 before I started working on it. The finish is very dirty with oils and dirt ground into the briar. There are some nicks and flaws around the bowl sides and at least one fill. The rim top is thickly covered with tarry lava overflowing from the heavy cake in the bowl. It had some burn damage on the front outer edge of the bowl and the bowl was very out of round on the inner edge. The cake was thick and heavy all the way to the bottom of the bowl. The vulcanite stem is also very dirty. There was oxidation, calcification and tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button and lip edge. The P stamp on the left side of the stem is a gold P that is faint and faded. It also has some damage on the surface around the P. I took closeup photos of the rim top and bowl to give a sense of the dirty condition of the pipe and the thickness of the cake and lava on the bowl top. The damage to the rim top and edges is very clear in the photos as well. I also took photos of the stem to show the top and underside ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the shank sides. It was faint but readable through the grime and debris. It read as noted in the above paragraphs. I also took the stem off the shank and took a photo of the look and proportion of the pipe. I started my work on the pipe by reaming the thick cake in the bowl. I used a PipNet pipe reamer with the first cutting head to take back the cake. I followed that with the second and the third cutting head. I was able to remove all of the cake. The cake in the bottom third of the bowl was incredibly hard and took a repeated reaming of that portion. I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to scrape the remainder of the cake out of the bowl and clean up the bottom of the bowl. I sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. With the bowl cleaned out I was able to determine that the bowl bottom was in better condition than the first or second pipe. I would need to build up the bottom of the bowl slightly to the entrance of the airway. It would be further protection for the bottom of the bowl and help it from burning out. The issues with the rim top and inner edge would also need to be addressed. At this point I decided to address the rim top and edge damage. There was serious damage to the inner edge. The front of the rim top had been burned and had a slight dip in it. The outer edge in front of the burned rim top was also damaged. I wanted the top to be smooth once again and also wanted to bring the bowl back to round. I started by topping the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board to smooth out the damage on the rim surface and clean up the outer edge damage. I was able to significantly clean up the damage. The Kinsales that I have worked on for Sergey have all had a slightly bevelled inner edge so I would need to do that with this pipe as well. It would also clean up the out of round bowl a bit more.I used a wooden sphere and a piece of 220 grit sandpaper to work on the edge and give it a slight bevel. Once finished it looked much better.I scrubbed out the internals with 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I worked them through the airway in the shank and stem, the mortise. It took a few cleaners and swabs to really clean it but it is looking and smelling much better.I scrubbed the externals of the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I rinsed it with warm running water and repeated the scrubbing and rinsing process until the pipe was clean and looked better. I used a Cherry stain pen to touch up the rim top to match the rest of the bowl. I did this before sanding the bowl as I would also sand the top at the same time. I think the match was going to be perfect. We would see.I sanded the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to remove some of the darkening around the bowl. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. It really began to look very good. I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. Each pad gave it more of a shine. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth. By the end the bowl looked very good. Once I had I polished the bowl I addressed overly deep bowl bottom. I filled in the bottom with a mix of cigar ash and water to make a pipe mud. I pressed it into place with a tamper to flatten it. I put a pipe cleaner in the airway so that I would only fill it to the bottom of the pipe cleaner. I set it aside to dry and harden. It looks much better. It will take awhile to harden but it should deal with the damage. If it shrinks when it cures I will need to fill it in a bit more. At this point I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips to work it into the finish. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks on both sides with the flame of a Bic lighter. I filled in the two deeper marks on the underside of the stem that remained with black rubberized CA glue and set it aside to cure. Once it had hardened I sanded the with 220 grit sandpaper and smoothed them out. The P logo on the left side of the stem was so faint and damaged but I tried to touch it up with some Rub’n Buff Antique Gold. I worked it into the remaining stamp with a tooth pick. It worked better than I expected but it was not flawless. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to take out the scratching and remaining oxidation. I wiped it down after each pad with some Obsidian Oil. It is looking much better now.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. Once again I wiped it down between each pad with Obsidian Oil. I further polished it with Before and After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. It looked very good. This Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale X14 Rhodesian with a Taper Stem has a beautiful smooth finish that was slightly worn. The reddish brown finish highlights some great grain around the bowl and shank. It has a classic look of a Peterson’s pipe. The polished black vulcanite taper stem adds to the mix. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel being careful to not buff the stamping. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL14 is quite nice and feels great in the hand. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inch, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.36 ounces/67 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. I have two more pipes to finish but these three are ready to pick up and Sergey can take them on his travels. The last two I will give back when he returns. Thanks for your time.

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

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By Steve Laug

Yesterday afternoon I was visited by a pipe man here in Vancouver named Sergey who had five Peterson’s pipes that he wanted me to work on. They are shown in the photo below. In the left column from top to bottom: Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL17, Peterson’s of Dublin Filter 68, Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL16 Rusticated Pipe. In the right column from top to bottom Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL16 and the bottom pipe is a Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL14. All five pipes were all thickly caked and had thick lava on the rim top. The cake is so thick that I could not put my little finger in the bowl it was so heavily caked. My guess was that the bottom of the bowl was lower than the entrance of the airway into the bowl. The Rusticated Kinsale XL17 also had a burn out in the front bottom of the bowl that would take a lot more time than just a simple clean up. I would know more about the condition of each of the bowls once I had reamed and cleaned them. Sergey was traveling in two weeks and he chose at least two of them that he wanted to take with him on his trip so those would be first. My hope is to try to finish four of the five. The second of these that he wanted is the next one I chose to work on. It was the Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL17.I took photos of the Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL17 before I started working on it. The finish is very dirty with oils and dirt ground into the briar. The rim top is thickly covered with tarry lava overflowing from the heavy cake in the bowl. The cake was thick and heavy all the way to the bottom of the bowl. The vulcanite stem is also very dirty. There was oxidation, calcification and tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button and lip edge. The P stamp on the left side of the stem is a gold P that is faint and faded. I took closeup photos of the rim top and bowl to give a sense of the dirty condition of the pipe and the thickness of the cake and lava on the bowl top. I also took photos of the stem to show the top and underside ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the shank sides. It was faint but readable through the grime and debris. It read as noted in the above paragraphs. I also took the stem off the shank and took a photo of the look and proportion of the pipe. There is also some glue around the band that makes me think it has been reglued. I started my work on the pipe by reaming the thick cake in the bowl. I used a PipNet pipe reamer with the first cutting head to take back the cake. I followed that with the second and the third cutting head. I was able to remove all of the cake. The cake in the bottom third of the bowl was hard. I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to scrape the remainder of the cake out of the bowl and clean up the bottom of the bowl. I sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. With the bowl cleaned out I was able to determine that the bowl bottom was in better condition than the first pipe. I would build up the bottom of the bowl slightly to the entrance of the airway. It would protect the bottom from burning out. I scrubbed out the internals with 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I worked them through the airway in the shank and stem, the mortise. It took a few cleaners and swabs to really clean it but it is looking and smelling much better.I scrubbed the externals of the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I rinsed it with warm running water and repeated the scrubbing and rinsing process until the pipe was clean and looked better. I sanded the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to remove some of the darkening around the bowl. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. It really began to look very good. I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. Each pad gave it more of a shine. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth. By the end the bowl looked very good. Once I had I polished the bowl I addressed overly deep bowl bottom. I filled in the bottom with a mix of cigar ash and water to make a pipe mud. I pressed it into place with a tamper to flatten it. I put a pipe cleaner in the airway so that I would only fill it to the bottom of the pipe cleaner. I set it aside to dry and harden. It looks much better. It will take awhile to harden but it should deal with the damage. If it shrinks when it cures I will need to fill it in a bit more.At this point I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips to work it into the finish. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks on both sides with the flame of a Bic lighter. I filled in the two deeper marks with black rubberized CA glue and set it aside to cure. One it had hardened I sanded the with 220 grit sandpaper and smoothed them out. I touched up the P logo on the left side of the stem with Rub’n Buff Antique Gold. I worked it into the stamp on the stem with a tooth pick and worked it in. Once it had been sitting I rubbed it off with a cloth and polished the area with a 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. Once again I wiped it down between each pad with Obsidian Oil. I further polished it with Before and After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. It looked very good. This Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale X17 Bent Rhodesian with a Taper Stem has a beautiful smooth finish that was slightly worn. The reddish brown finish highlights some great grain around the bowl and shank. It has a classic look of a Peterson’s pipe. The polished black vulcanite taper stem adds to the mix. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel being careful to not buff the stamping. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Peterson’s of Dublin Kinsale XL17 is quite nice and feels great in the hand. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inch, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.75 ounces/78 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. I have three more pipes to finish before I give them back to Sergey. Thanks for your time.

Having Some Fun with a Hilson Bolero Bulldog

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by Kenneth Lieblich

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

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

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

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

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

Cleaning up a Brian McNulty Anima Wax Drip Sandblast Billiard

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By Steve Laug

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

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

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

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

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

I scrubbed internals of the shank and airway in both the shank and the stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. The pipe began to look much better. To remove the grime from the sandblast ridges and valleys I scrubbed the surface with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I rinsed the briar with warm water to remove the soap and debris. I dried it off with a soft towel. I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a shoe brush. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar comes alive with the balm. I set the bowl aside and turned to address the tooth marks and chatter in the stem surface. I “painted” the tooth marks on the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter. I was able to lift the tooth marks significantly. I filled in what remained with black rubberized CA glue. Once the repairs had cured I sanded them with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surface of the stem. I sanded the stem surface with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I dry sanded with each pad and wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth.I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. Once I finished with the 2003 Brian McNulty Anima Wax Drip Sandblast Billiard I put the stem back on the shank and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond polish using a lightly loaded pad and a soft touch. I wanted the shine but not the grit filling in the crevices of the sandblast bowl. I buffed it lightly with Blue Diamond so as not to get it in the grooves and crevices of the blast. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad and hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is a great piece of pipe history and looks better than when I began the process. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outer Bowl Diameter: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber Diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.45 ounces/ 41grams. One more of Sonny’s pipes to work on before I send them all back to him. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I working on it. As always, I encourage your questions and comments as you read the blog. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

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

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By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table was one we purchased on 01/22/24 off eBay from a seller in Jordan, Minnesota, USA. It is a uniquely rusticated Jobey that I have never seen before. I have worked on a lot of Jobey rusticated pipes but this is a unique one. It has almost a tree bark rustication on the higher parts and the deep areas are carved like leaves. The stem is a saddle stem that is tortoise shell amber acrylic with a Jobey brass oval inlaid on the left side of the stem. The pipe is stamped on smooth panels on the left and right top sides of the diamond shank. The left side reads Jobey in script [over] Florentine. The right side has the shape number 360 stamped. Both are clear and readable. The finish is quite dirty with darkening in the deep rustication in spots where the hand held the bowl on both sides. It looks like burn marks but I don’t believe that they are. The rim top is also dirty with darkening and also lava in the rustication on the edges as well. There is a thick cake in the bowl with some tobacco debris stuck on the walls and in the heel. The stem has tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button that are a bit deep and will need to be addressed. The tenon is the Jobey Link System as you will see in the photos. Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. It is unique and certainly one that we are looking forward to seeing once it is cleaned up. Jeff took closeup photos of the bowl and rim top to clearly show the condition of both. The match what I described above. He also took photos of the stem to show the tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. He took photos of the finish around the sides of the bowl and the heel. You can see the tree bark rustication on the high parts and an almost leaf like pattern in the lower spots. It is a unique finish that is hard to clean but well worth the effort. The next photos of the stamping on the smooth panels on the sides of the shank show that it is clear and readable as noted above. The third photo shows the Jobey brass logo on the left topside of the saddle stem. Now it was time to look at it up close and personal. Jeff had removed the cake and the lava on the rim top. He had reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He took the cake back to bare briar so we could check the walls for damage. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime on the bowl and rim and was able to remove the lava and dirt. He cleaned out the interior of the bowl and shank with shank brushes, pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they came out clean. He cleaned the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the grime on the exterior. He cleaned out the airway with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I took some photos of the pipe before I started my work on it today. I took a close up photo of the cleaned up rim top. The rim top and the inner edge look good. The bowl is clean and the walls are undamaged. There was still some darkening in the rustication but it was much better. The stem looks good with some tooth chatter and marks along the top and underside ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the shank sides. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took the stem off the pipe and took a photo. The diamond shank billiard is an attractive looking pipe with nice lines. The saddle stem shows tooth damage on the top and undersides of the stem. I went over the rustication with a brass bristle wire brush to knock off any of the darkening on the grooves of the rim top and on the spots on both sides. It looked better. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and with a shoe brush to get deep in the rustication where it works to clean, restore and preserve the briar. I let it do its magic for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The pipe looks incredibly good at this point in the process. I filled in the deep tooth marks ahead of the button on the top and underside of the stem with clear CA glue. I like this particular glue (KM Tools) as it is transparent and the colour underneath the repair comes through. It is also not brittle like other glues can be once it cures. I sanded the cured repairs flat with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and the tooth marks and dents are taken care of. I started polishing out the scratch marks and smoothing the repairs with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It removes the dust and also gives the sanding pads some bite. By the final pad it was looking quite good. The tooth marks and dents were invisible.Following my usual process in restoration I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it further with Before & After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to absorb the oil. The Jobey Florentine 360 Diamond Shank Billiard is finished other than the final waxing and buffing. I polished the stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches and gave it several coats of carnauba. I polished the bowl and shank with Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 43 grams/1.48 ounces. I will be adding it to the rebornpipes store shortly in the American Pipemakers section. If you are interested in adding it to your collection email me at slaug@uniserve.com or send me a message on Facebook. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this uniquely rusticated Jobey Florentine Billiard.

A Kennett No.1 Billiard Another Brilliant Attempt at a Cool Dry Smoke

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By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is a pipe that we picked up from a seller in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, USA on 02/02/2022. This one was a unique fluted, pinched shank take on classic Billiard. It is stamped on the topside of the shank and reads Kennett [arched over] No 1. On the underside of the shank it is stamped London Made [over] Made in England [over] Reg’d 731096. The smooth, fluted finish around the bowl shows some nice grain patterns. There was grime and oil ground into the finish around the bowl. The fluted carving on the bowl sides and the holes around the rim go down the ridges to the bottom of the bowl. There was a moderate cake in the bowl and tobacco debris on the walls and heel. The rim top had lava overflowing from the bowl. It was thicker on left back of the rim top. The edges looked good but a clean up would tell the story. There was some thinning around the inner edge of the bowl affecting the holes in the rim top. The vulcanite taper stem was oxidized and had some tooth chatter and tooth marks on the top and underside ahead of the button. The interesting pipe showed a lot of promise but it was a mess. I took pictures of the pipe before I started my clean up work. I took photos of the rim top and bowl as well as the stem surfaces to show the condition of the well smoked pipe. You can see the thick cake in the bowl and the lava on the inner edge and rim top. There is also some roughening on the inner edge but the out edge looked good. There was a small nick in the outer edge on the left backside. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had scratches and light tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank and stem. The stamping is clear and readable as noted above. Before I started working on the pipe I wanted to do a bit of research and see what I could learn about it. First, I looked on Pipephil for The Kennett London Made No 1 and was unable to find any information there. There was no logo on the shank or the stem to help identify the brand.

I turned then to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kennett) and found a very short entry there. I quote it below. There were photos of several pipes, a Kennett Box and a pamphlet that gave some information. I quote it below:

J.A. Kennett, LTD. in London were the makers of the Kennett pipe (photos thank to Doug Valitchka). I also Googled and was able to find a link to a Kennett for sale on smokingpipes.com (https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/england/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=372529). There was also a photo that are worth look in at. I have included the description that was written about the pipe below.

This 1930s Billiard from Kennett is really unique, with its vertical, fluted channels opening up into tiny, hollow holes on the rim, resulting in an intriguing aesthetic. But wait: There’s more. Paired to the pert, tall bowl is a tapered, pinched, paneled shank that is unusual and is complemented by the bowl’s ridges. The jet-black vulcanite stem is also tapered. This smooth piece is dressed in a warm, chestnut stain that accentuates all of the above, and the fluting certainly provides entertainment for nimble fingers. -Angela Robertson

I also found a link on Google for an auction on Worthpoint for an unsmoked Kennett that was for sale there (https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/kennett-briar-unsmoked-air-cooled-469502789 . I have included the description that seller included with the item.Here’s an auction for sale. A The Kennett Briar “Air Cooled” Briar Pipe made in London England in the 1950’s or earlier. The bowl has 10 holes drilled down thru the bowl wall on the ribs on the bowl. The pipe will be very cool to touch and to smoke because of the air cooled circulation in the holes and around the rib cuts. The Kennett Briar pipe is Air-Cooled, Cool as a Cucumber, Light as a Feather, Sweet as a Nut says J. A. Kennett, Ltd.9/11 Tottenham Street London, W. The Kennett Guarantee says every care has been used in selecting well seasoned Briar Root for making of this Pipe, and it is guaranteed with fair usage not to crack or burn. The stem is English Vulcanite.

Now I knew that the pipe was made between the 30s and 50s. The Reg’d number on it makes me think that is an older one – possibly from the 30s. I would not be able to further pin the date down on the pipe. Now it was time to work on it.

I started my work on the pipe by cleaning up the lava on the rim top. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean it up. I carefully cleaned the darkening on the inner edge at the same time. I scraped the cake around the bowl sides with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife and then sanded the walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The walls were smooth and showed no burn damage. I cleaned out the interior of the shank, mortise and airway in the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. It was a dirty pipe.I scrubbed the externals of the pipe with Mark Hoover’s Briar Cleaner (extra strength). I cleaned the surface of the briar with my fingertips working product into the surface of the briar. I scrubbed it with a tooth brush working it over. I rinsed off the Mark’s Briar cleaner with warm water to remove the debris and grit that it had collected. I dried it off with a soft cotton cloth and took some photos of the pipe at this time. There was burn damage on the rim top that was going to remain. The holes down the sides of the bowl from the rim top were thin so I did not want to remove any of the briar. I chose to leave the burn marks as they are. I used a Maple stain pen to touch up the rim top. It matched the colour of the stain on the rest of the bowl. Once it was polished it would blend in very well. I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cotton pad after each sanding pad. The briar really took on a patina that began to look better with the polishing. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I work it into the briar with my finger tips to make sure that it covers every square inch of the pipe. I set it aside for 10 minutes to let it do its work. I wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine. The photos I took of the bowl at this point in the restoration. You see the shine that the briar has taken on and the way grain pops with the light buffing. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I worked on the oxidation on the stem with Soft Scrub and was able to remove it. Lots of elbow grease and working over the surface but it started to look much better.I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to break up the remaining oxidation. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It was looking good.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. Once I had finished the polishing I gave it final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I am glad to be on the homestretch on what was a mystery pipe when I started. I really am looking forward to the final look when I put a pipe back together, polished and waxed. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The grain pops with the wax and polish. The shiny black vulcanite stem is a beautiful contrast to the browns of the bowl and shank. This The Kennett No1 Reg’d 731096 Billiard was interesting pipe to work on. The pipe is comfortable pipe to hold in the hand. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.45 ounces/41 grams. This Kennett pipe is a great piece of history of the ongoing search for the cooler and drier smoke. I will be adding it to the British Pipe Making Companies Section on the rebornpipes store shortly. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I working on it.

As always, I encourage your questions and comments as you read the blog. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.