Tag Archives: repairing tooth marks

New Life for a Pipe Pub France 1985 297/350 Bent Billiard

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a great looking Bent Billiard with great grain around the bowl. It has a well shaped vulcanite taper stem. We purchased it from an estate sale in Spring Branch. Texas, USA on 02/29/2024. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads 1985 [over] 297/350 setting this pipe aside as #297 out of 350 Pipes made in 1985. On the right side it is stamped Pipe Club (separated by a pipe) [over] France. There was a thick cake in the bowl and some darkening and lava on the inner edge of the bowl and some spots of lava on the rim top. It was hard to know for certain the condition of the inner edge though it appeared to be in good condition. There were oils and grime ground into the bowl sides gives the finish a flat look though there is some great grain. The shank has a slight curve to it giving the pipe a Bent Billiard shape. The taper stem matches the curves of the bowl and shank. It has what looks like a pair of bands on the end of the stem – green acrylic and brass. The vulcanite stem is a dirty with some calcification, oxidation, grime, grit on the surface and also light tooth marks on both the top and underside of the stem just ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. I have included them below. He took photos of the pipe’s bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl, the darkening on the inner edge and the spotty lava coat overflowing onto the top. It is another dirty pipe. He also took photos of the stem to capture the oxidation, calcification and the light tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem near the button. He took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the rich grain around the bowl and the amount of grime ground into the surface of the briar. He took photos of the stamping on the sided of the shank. It is clear and quite readable. It reads as noted above. He also took a photo of the twin bands on the stem end – the brass and green acrylic band. I remembered that Dal had worked on a Pipe Pub pipe so did a quick search of my site and found the blog (https://rebornpipes.com/tag/pipe-pub-pipes/) that I remembered that Dal had written on the brand. What was fascinating was a conversation that he and I had via email that led him to some helpful information. I quote the majority of his research section from the blog below:

To learn more about the provenance of the Pipe Pub name I started my search in my regular go to sites – Pipedia.com and Pipephil.eu and came up with absolutely nothing. I broadened my search on the internet by simply searching ‘Pipe Pub’ and ‘Pipe Pub Brigade’. My initial findings had more to do with bagpipers, bagpipe brigades, Irish pubs and pipes…, all of these go well together! Yet, I wasn’t finding anything that helped me with the Canadian looking back at me on my worktable. I looked in my copy of Wilczak and Colwell’s ‘Who Made that Pipe?’ and found nothing giving me a direction. Usually, when I face the brick wall my response is to send Steve an email. With all his vast rebornpipes experience, surely, he’ll know something. Steve’s response was quick and helpful:

Hi Dal

I have heard of it. Here is a link to one on Smoking pipes.com

https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/england/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=200834

I would try to ferret out the shape number. For instance, on the one from Smoking pipes it is a 124… which interestingly is a GBD shape number for a Billiard. I wonder if the brand was not made by special order for pipe shops and stores. — Steve

I looked at the link and saw my first example another Pipe Pub pipe – a very nice classic Billiard. I immediately looked again to see if I missed a shape number on the Canadian – I still saw no number. But the other piece of information that Steve gave was helpful – the brand was perhaps a special order for pipe shops and stores. I went back to Google not looking for pipes but for places named ‘Pipe Pub.’ I hit pay dirt and the dirt was surprising! With the COM of the Canadian stamped indicating London, England, I had been expecting to find something that was UK based but instead, I found a reference for Pipe Pub that was based in the great US state of Texas – who would have thought? Through several iterations of search parameters, I came across a Google Group chat stream that started in 1998 entitled, “Pipe Pub?” . The question posed was about a Pipe Pub “almost Canadian” pipe that had the same nomenclature and stem ‘PP’ as mine, but the COM was stamped, ‘Italy’. The questioner in the stream proposed a correlation with the Italian Savinelli name wondering if Pipe Pub might be a second of that well-known Italian pipe house?

The next response to Bro. R from Larry introduced the Texas connection:

Bro. R,

Back in the 70’s the mall tobacconists here in Austin, TX, were named Pipe Pub; they became Pipe World a little later. I don’t know if, then or now, these businesses were strictly local or part of a larger chain. I’m pretty sure they sold a store brand with their name on the pipes. Today, Pipe World’s store brand pipes *are* made by Savinelli.

Larry

With these two entries, I knew that we were talking about the same pipe name – the ‘PP’ on the stem was the clincher. Pipe Pub is a local Texas tobacconist which had pipes manufactured with the Pipe Pub name. But there was more information that perhaps should be submitted to Pipedia! The next entry I’m including in its entirely because it brings in much of the historical context with much color and the source of the information is a Jon Carter, who is described by Don Schram as a manager of Pipe Pub in the 80s.

Here’s the skinny on Pipe Pub, as related to me by Jon Carter, former manager of Pipe Pub from 1983 to 1987, who isn’t online as of yet. (Messages will be relayed to him through me at: dsc…@bigfoot.com ,however.)

Pipe Pub was started in the Houston area of Texas in the early 70’s with a single downtown store. It was joined a short time later by a store located in the Austin, TX, area, which was owned and operated by a brother-in-law of the original founders (whose name escapes Jon for the moment). While Pipe Pub wasn’t nationwide, they owned approx. 14 stores throughout Texas, primarily in the Houston area, and were much in competition with Tinderbox. (Comparable to Churchill’s in the S.E. Michigan area.)

The Pipe Pub pipe in question was confirmed by Jon to be a pipe from this chain. The letters ‘PP’ in script on the stem indicate that the bit is original, and you are correct in that it stands for Pipe Pub. As far as the age, there is no definite method of dating this pipe, however; Pipe Pub only carried their own line of ‘Private Label’ pipes between the early 70’s and 1983 when they were phased out in favor of higher grade (and higher priced) pipes, to coincide with the Texas oil boom of the 80’s. Jon was not able to confirm positively that the pipe is indeed of Savinelli make (second or otherwise), however, he did point out that Pipe Pub did have an excellent relationship with the Savinelli company, as they were allowed to carry and sell the rare Savinelli 0000 (Quadruple-ought) Autograph, of which only 3 have been produced in the last century. Jon also pointed out that he and another manager sold it to a gentleman who worked for the telephone company to complete a collection of Savinelli Autographs. (He went to the bank and took out a $5000 loan for it. The bank, initially thought he was purchasing ‘oil drilling pipe’, but gave him a personal loan for the tobacco pipe anyways. He kept it in a lock box for a while, then finally broke it out and smoked it for the first time during the 1986 or 1987 Superbowl.)

To round out the history of Pipe Pub, the chain was bought out, save one store, in 1985 by a family, by name of Kowalski, who turned the tobacco chain into a chain of mall knick-knack stores. (Sound all-too familiar Churchill’s customers?) The one store, Pipe Pub in Austin, run by the brother-in-law, was not included in the deal, but it was agreed that he would change the name of the store. Jon commented that the lone store may have changed its name to Pipe World, but wasn’t really privy to such information, as it was, more or less, operated as a renegade store. The Kowalski’s opened one additional store in Louisiana, their home state, and promptly ran the chain right into the ground after one Christmas season, due to poor ownership and product focus. Jon pointed out, “They carried vibrating pillows, for God’s sake!” Forcing the company into bankruptcy, the Kowalski’s sold the chain back to the original owners, whom to his knowledge, still own it today.

For more information, Jon recommends calling down to Houston and asking information for their main office, which was on Mitchelldale. [A search of Yahoo Yellow Pages came up empty, however there is a Carol’s Pipe Pub in Bacliff, TX, a suburb of Houston. Phone (281) 488-7300. It’s unknown if they’re related.]– DS (Don Schram.)

This information-filled post is dated, 1998. On a hunch, I google the name of the offshoot store characterized as the ‘renegade’ store that wasn’t part of the reported 1985 Pipe Pub acquisition described in stream above. As part of the legal agreement this store was required to change the name without further association with the Pipe Pub name. Pipe World, based in Austin, and run by a “brother-in-law” family member came into existence – or, more accurately, carried on the original legacy of Pipe Pub under a different name because it seems that the new owners of Pipe World ran the company off the rails. I found http://pipeworld.com/ with different locations in Texas and wondered if this was the same ‘Pipe World’ referenced above.

As I’ve done in the past with surprising success, I go directly to the front door and knock. I went to the ‘Contact Us’ section on the Pipe World site and sent an email asking if anyone had been around long enough to know something about the history of the former, Pipe Pub Tobacconist out of which Pipe World came. You never know what will happen!

I received a reply to my email the same day from Pipe World – from Kyle who asked me to call directly if I had any questions. Thankfully, I have an internet phone from Bulgaria and I called Kyle in Texas. Kyle answered the phone and was extremely helpful. His grasp of the history was amazing – he had been there during the whole transition. I was totally taken off guard when I discovered through our conversation, that he was the owner of Pipe World. His name is Kyle Haas. He was the ‘brother-in-law’ referenced above who opened the new Pipe World and held firm to the values that had been true historically of Pipe Pub.

I enjoyed talking with Kyle, his recall of the events and his grasp of all the many moving parts of the tobacco industry fascinated me. He was able to answer the primary question I had about the origin of the Pipe Pub pipes. Definitively according to Kyle, during the 70s and early 80s, GBD/Comoy’s was producing the English line of pipes with the Pipe Pub name out of the London factory. Pipe Pub pipes marked ITALY were all produced by the well-known Italian house of Savinelli. He said that he doubted that Savinelli continued to do sub-contract work because they sell enough of their own pipes today to make it worthwhile. He said that they had to order a lot of each shape as part of the requirements – I believe he said that they introduced a new shape each year. He mentioned that the pipes that were produced in England and Italy with the Pipe Pub label were done with higher quality in mind. I said that I could attest to this as I looked at the GBD/Comoy’s factory made Pipe Pub Canadian on my worktable.

Armed with Dal’s helpful information I now knew that my pipe was made for Pipe Pub as one of the yearly pipes for the shop. In this case it is a 1985 pipe and was #297 of 350 pipes which also fits the information above. In the last paragraph above Dal mentions that Kyle said that during the 70s and early 80s GBD/Comoy’s which I assume is Cadogan produced the English line of Pipe Pub pipes out of the London Factory. The Pipe I am working on definitely looks like a Comoy’s shape and I would bet that the France Stamp ties it to the Chacom factory (Chapuis-Comoy) in France.

Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He cleaned up the inside of the bowl with a PipNet reamer and a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. The bowl walls looked very good. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with shank brushes, pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He worked on the rim top lava and darkening with the soap and tooth brush. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior with Soft Scrub and then soaked it in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. He washed it off with warm water to remove the deoxidizer. The pipe looked far better. I took photos of the pipe when I received it before I started working on it. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to show how clean it was. The top and the inner edge of the rim show some darkening, nicks and scratches. The stem looks clean of debris and grime. There are light tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of shank. The stamping is clear and readable (much clearer in person than the photos show). I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to show the overall look of stem, tenon and profile of the pipe. I polished the briar bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the debris. The bowl took on a rich glow. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for 10 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. Mark Hoover’s Balm is a product that I have come to appreciate and one I use on every pipe I have been working on. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem issues. I painted the surface of the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the tooth marks. I was able to lift all of them enough that sanding would finish blending them. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to further blend them in and smooth out the surface of the stem. I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I put the stem back on the Pipe Club 1985 Bent Billiard France and took it to the buffer. I worked over the smooth portions with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches. I gave the bowl and the stem several coats of carnauba wax on the wheel and 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 really well and the rim top and edge looked good. I was happy with the look of the finished pipe. The photos below show what the pipe looks like after the restoration. The oxblood stained Bent Billiard that is a beautiful and unique take on a classic shape. The polished vulcanite taper stem with the twin bands of brass and green acrlyic looks really good with the rich reds of the briar. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.94 ounces/55 grams. This is another pipe that I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipe Making Companies Section shortly, if you are interested in adding it to your collection. This Bent Billiard looks and feels great in the hand. This one should be a great smoker. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me on this beauty!

Restoring a Huge Cellini Original Pickaxe Freehand

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a Freehand with some rustication at the shank/bowl joint and plateau on the rim top. It has a well shaped thick vulcanite taper stem. We purchased it from an estate sale in Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA on 09/16/2023. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Cellini [over] Original. There is no other stamping on the bowl or shank. There was a thick cake in the bowl and some darkening and lava on the inner edge of the bowl and the first part of the plateau rim top. It was hard to know for certain the condition of the inner edge though it appeared to be in good condition. There were oils and grime ground into the bowl sides gives the finish a flat look though there is some great grain. The shank is thick and has a slight curve to it giving the pipe the appearance of a pick axe. The shape of the taper stem also matches the curves of the bowl and shank. It is a dirty stem with calcification, oxidation, grime and grit on the surface. There were also light tooth marks on both the top and underside of the stem just ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. I have included them below.He took photos of the pipe’s bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl, the darkening on the inner edge and the lava coat overflowing onto the top. There are some oil stains on the rim top in various spots among the plateau finish. It is another dirty pipe. He also took photos to capture the oxidation, calcification and the light tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem near the button. He took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the grain around the bowl and the amount of grime ground into the surface of the briar. He took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank. It is clear and quite readable. I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c3.html) for a summary of the information he had gathered on the brand and perhaps some photos. I have included both the information from the sidebar as well as a screen capture of some photos. I quote:

The shop in Chicago, Illinois, USA (opening: April 27, 1929) was exclusively devoted to pipes. These generally were imported and Brebbia was the most important supplier. The shop closed down on February 28, 1991.From there I turned to Pipedia where as usual there was a great history of the brand to read about (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Cellini). I quote several pertinent paragraphs to whet your interested. Make sure to go to the site and read it in its entirety.

Cellini, or better, the Cellini Pipe Shop as it became known for its brand “Cellini” from its company name, Victory Pipe Craftsmen, was located in the heart of downtown Chicago, Illinois: 170 N. Franklin St, Chicago IL, 60606. Ideally for those who liked short ways, one of Cellini’s locations was across the street from Zimmerman’s Liquor Store. The company got it’s start in 1927 aided by a friendship between Arthur (Art) Silber and Tracy Mincer(??) who went for Custom-Bilt fame in 1934.

Art Silber (also known as the “Art” of pipe smoking) made Cellini a full service Pipe and Tobacco Shop offering tobacco blends and a complete line of accessories as well as an extensive and varied line of pipes ranging from Indian Peace Pipes to porcelain, cherrywoods, meerschaums and hefty sculptured freehands. The Catalogues were nearly 100 pages long – including some cigars, but absolutely NO cigarettes! – primarily pipes and pipe-related products! Cellini Pipes have Good Collectible value of their own commanding good prices on auctions today, developing somewhat of a Cult Following among Collectors.

Art was joined by his wife Ruth, daughter Bobbe (short for Barbara, also an established artist) and his 2 sons Stuart (who created the Cigar Pipe, crafted various Cellini pipes and freehands, became a cigar aficionado, was an antique and Meerschaum repair expert and more),and Elliot (who also worked as a physicist and an organic chemist).

Victory Pipe Craftsmen became the largest pipe repair shop in the country (probably in the world), repairing up to 2000 pipes per week for some 1200 pipe shops in the U.S., from replacing and customizing stems (mouthpieces) to Meerschaum and antique repair. Art Silber innovated many developments in the pipe industry. He invented a keyless 4-jaw chuck for nearly instant mounting of almost every shape mouthpiece. The result was finely crafted, custom-fitted complete stem replacement (including sanding with 3 grades of sandpaper, proprietary custom staining to match, bending if needed, and polishing on 2 different polishing wheels) in 8 1/2 minutes!! Cellini was famous for while-u-wait pipe repairs, which of course allowed the customer to browse the thousands of Cellini pipes on display…

…Although Cellini offered a very small variety of brands by other makers, their primary business was selling their own pipes made in their Chicago factory. Art Silber (also known as the “Art of pipe smoking”), who made pipes himself once upon a time, employed his own pipemakers (with “Primo Polidori”, former factory supervisor of the Chicago Dr. Grabow/Linkman factory, being the most recognizable name). The company was Victory Pipe Craftsmen, (Victory Pipe Craftsmen Inc. was the actual corporate name for “Cellini of Chicago”) The most experienced pipemaker there was Primo Polidori…

After the death of it’s founder Art Silber, The Cellini Pipe Shop survived until the late 1980’s, run by Art’s oldest son Stuart, Bobbe and Elliot, ending a significant chapter in American pipemaking history. Art Silber’s sons Stuart (sometimes called “The Legend”) and Elliot are still liquidating the residue of the shop’s inventory. The charismatic Bobbe and their mother Ruth Silber have since passed on. All those interested should be aware that some of the Cellini Pipes seen on today’s online auctions may be flawed or rejected pipes that were not offered for sale while the company was in operation. Be sure to ask the seller to distinguish their pipes. Cellini specialized in natural finish, no lacquer, no varnish, no fills or wood putty. If flaws were found, the shape was changed, carving was done, or the pieces were used for repair of broken pipes…

From that information I knew that the pipe that I was working on was carved by one of the in house carvers at Cellini Pipe Shop in Chicago. I also knew that it was made before their closing in 1991. I had no idea how old it was as the shop started in 1929. Now it was time to work on the pipe on my end.

When I received it from Jeff this past week it did not look like the same pipe. It was clean and the finish had life. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and got rid of the cake. He cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife so that we could see the walls of the bowl and assess for damage. It was in good condition. He cleaned the internals of the shank and stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol. He scrubbed the exterior with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. He rinsed the pipe under warm water. He dried it off with a cloth and then let it air dry. The stem was scrubbed with Soft Scrub and soaked in Briarville’s Stem Deoxidizer. It came out looking very good. The finish on the bowl and the rim top cleaned up nicely. I took pictures of the pipe to show how it looked when I unpacked it. I took some photos of the rim top and stem to show the condition of them both when the pipe arrived. Overall it looked good. There is some darkening and damage to the inner edge of the bowl. The stem had some light tooth chatter and marks ahead of the button and on the button surface on both sides.I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank. It is readable and in great condition. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe to show the look of the pipe.I started my work on the pipe by addressing the stain spots and darkening on the rim top. I decided to stain the rim top with a black stain pen. I worked the stain into the valleys of the plateau as much as possible. Once it dried I would sand off the stain on the high spots giving a real sense of contrast.I polished the briar on the bowl as well as the high spots on the plateau top with the 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I worked over the rim top and bowl with each pad and then wiped it down with a damp cloth. The pipe really began to take on a shine and the rim top began to match the rest of the briar. I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the briar down after each pad with a damp cloth. The bowl is starting to look very good. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I “painted” the stem surface with the flame of a lighter to lift the tooth marks. I was able to lift the majority of the marks but there was a deep one that remained on the to on the right side of the bit ahead of the button and on the underside. I filled them in with clear CA glue and set it aside to cure. I flattened the repairs with a small needle file and then sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surface of the stem. I sanded it with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth. By the final 3500 grit sanding pad the rim top had a shine.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with some Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and buffed it off with a cotton cloth. This is a large hand made Cellini Original Freehand Pickaxe with a plateau rim top made by the Cellini Pipe Company with a bent vulcanite stem. It has a great look and feel. The shape fits well in the hand with the curve of the bowl and shank junction a perfect fit for the thumb around the bowl when held. I polished stem and the bowl with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The rich combination of browns in the smooth finish and the black and brown of the plateau rim top and rusticated patches on the shank bowl union took on life with the buffing. The rich colour of the briar works well with the polished hard rubber stem. I like the grain and finished look of this Cellini Bent Plateau Freehand. Have a look at it with the photos below. The shape, finish and flow of the pipe and stem are very well done. The dimensions are Length: 7 ½ inches, Height: 3 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 2 ¼ wide, Chamber diameter: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 86 grams/ 3.03 ounces. This Danish style Freehand is a real beauty. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This one will be going on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipe Making Section shortly if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for your time.

Restoring a Classic Peterson System 359

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Blog by Kenneth Lieblich

What a handsome pipe! I found this PRE-republic-period Peterson System 359 at a local antique shop and I was charmed by it right away. It’s a handsome devil and the look of it gives one a feeling of comfort. It is satisfying and comfortable in the hand – like a mug of tea. There was a lovely patina on this old timer and I really wanted to get this into the hands of Peterson lover. Let’s have a closer look. This Peterson 359 pipe has the classic “System” look: bent shape, nickel mount, and tapered, army-style stem. Of course, it also had the traditional Peterson P-lip stem. The markings on the left side of the shank are Peterson’s [over] System [over] ③ [over] 359. The underside of the shank showed Made in Ireland in a circle. The nickel mount on the shank had K&P (in shields) [over] Peterson [over] Dublin. There were no markings on the stem. The Peterson System pipes are well-storied among Peterson collectors/admirers. I took the opportunity to read the article on Pipedia, specifically about the System pipes, by Jim Lilley. There is lots of good information there and I encourage you to read it: https://pipedia.org/wiki/A_closer_look_at_the_famous_Peterson_Standard_System_Pipe.Having seen that the words “Made in Ireland” were in a circle, I knew that I was dealing with an older pipe. Precisely how old would require some elementary research. The main Pipedia article on Peterson included a few interesting lines:

“Charles Peterson applied for a patent for an improved tobacco pipe on the 8th of August 1890. He was awarded patent number 12393 on the 16th of June 1891 for Great Britain and Ireland. This came to be known as the famous ‘System Pipe’ patent.”

“Later they stamped their pipes with “Made in Ireland” in a circle format 1945-1947…”

This is awfully helpful in dating this pipe. I can comfortably say that this pipe dates from 1945 through 1947, that is to say, just short of 80 years (at the time of writing).

As usual, I also owe a debt of gratitude to Mark Irwin of Peterson Pipe Notes. He has a very interesting article on the various System shapes and I highly recommend having a look: https://petersonpipenotes.org/146-a-guide-to-system-shapes-1896-2019-part-1-the-300-shape-group/. Here is a screenshot of the relevant bit:In addition, Mark has an article on an older 359 that he picked up: https://petersonpipenotes.org/tag/peterson-359-system/.

On to the pipe itself: the stem was in average condition – not especially dirty, but it had been well used. It had a few dents. The bowl was moderately dirty and had quite a bit of lava and plenty of cake. Aside from some small fills, the outside of the bowl was very nice. The nickel mount was in good shape – only some very slight dents. To work! The stem was first on my list – and I couldn’t get it out of the mortise! I grabbed the heat gun and gently warmed up the goo inside until it had softened enough to let go of the stem. I wiped the outside down with Murphy’s Oil Soap on some cotton pads. I also took a BIC lighter and ‘painted’ the stem with its flame to lift the few bite marks and dents. Sadly, however, this did not do much. Then I cleaned out the inside with pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. I used some SoftScrub on the outside of the stem to remove some oxidation. Then, the stem went for an overnight soak in the Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. The following day, I cleaned the de-oxidizing mess off with alcohol, pipe cleaners, et cetera. The oxidation had migrated to the surface and would be fairly straightforward to remove. I scrubbed again with SoftScrub on some cotton pads to remove the leftover oxidation. I built up the dents on the stem with black cyanoacrylate adhesive and let them cure. I then sanded the adhesive down with some sandpaper to level out with the stem. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to polish it and highlight the black lustre. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing. Moving on to the stummel, I first decided to ream out the bowl. I used the PipNet Reamer to remove the built-up cake and followed that with 220-grit sandpaper taped to a dowel to eliminate as much as possible. I took the chamber down to bare briar to ensure there were no hidden flaws in the wall. Fortunately, there were none.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 pipe’s rim. I took a close look at the rim. In order to save as much of the rim as possible, I used a piece of machine metal to very delicately scrape away as much lava as I could. I do this before automatically jumping to my topping board. This worked well.I then proceeded to clean out the insides of the shank with Q-tips, pipe cleaners, and lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. There was quite a bit of filth inside this stummel, and it took a fair amount of cotton to get it clean. I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some dish soap and tube brushes. 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.There were a couple small fills and nicks around the bowl. I opted to leave them as they are – they are minor and are part of the history of this pipe. I felt that I had interfered enough and didn’t want to interfere anymore. Then, I used most (but not all) of my Micromesh pads on the stummel to finish it off. This included buffing up the nickel mount to a beautiful shine with my jewelry cloth. I also applied some Before & After Restoration Balm and let it sit for 20 minutes to do its magic. It adds that certain je ne sais quoi to the wood. Then it was off to the bench polisher! A dose of White Diamond and a few coats of carnauba wax were just what this pipe needed. Boy-oh-boy, this is one good-looking pipe! I’m pleased with the results. This Peterson Standard System 359 looks fantastic again and is ready to be enjoyed by its next owner. I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the Ireland pipe section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 5⅞ in. (149 mm); height 4⅛ in. (105 mm); bowl diameter 1⅓ in. (33 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (19 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅞ oz. (55 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.

Repairing a Broken Tenon and Cracked shank on a Rusticated Kriswill Bernadotte Design 1210

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Blog by Steve Laug

I decided to put my hand to something different this afternoon. I have been working on a lot of pipes that Jeff and I have purchased. The one on the table this after was a pipe that I received for repair from a fellow in Toronto. We had been chatting via email and phone about a nice Kriswill Handmade Bernadotte that he had purchased. When it arrived in Toronto the stem was stuck in the shank and in trying to remove it he had managed to snap the tenon in the shank. He wanted me to repair the tenon for him so I told him to ship it my way. He did a thorough cleaning of the bowl, shank and stem so it was in good condition. It arrived this week and I brought it to the work table and looked it over and put it back in the box. Today, Sunday afternoon I was ready to tackle the task. I took some photos of the bowl and the stem to give a sense my first impression as I looked at quickly.

Here are my thoughts as I turned it over in my hands. The pipe has a conical shaped bowl that is pretty clean. There was little or no cake on the walls. The rim top was rusticated and quite clean. There was an inward bevel on the rim edge that was also clean and excellent condition. The shank was triangular with a smooth band on the shank end. There was a smooth panel on the underside of the shank that was stamped Kriswill [over] Handmade [over] in Denmark. That is followed by Bernadotte in script [over] Design in block letters. There is the shape number 1210 stamped on the end of the shank right along the edge. The tenon was snapped evenly in the shank leaving just a little bit of debris on the stem end. The tenon was stuck and I would need to do the freezer trick to remove it. The stem was lightly oxidized and there was debris and sticky marks from price tags on the stem surface. There were light tooth marks on both sides just ahead of the button. It really is a beautiful little pipe. I took a photo of the stamping on the smooth panel on the underside of the shank. It is clear and really readable as noted above.To start my work on the pipe I decided to pull the broken tenon from the shank. I used a screw and tuned it into the airway and it was very tight. I put the bowl in the freezer for 30 minutes and when I took it out the screw easily removed the broken tenon from the shank. I took photos of the process. Before I went any further in the process I decided to do a bit of background work on the pipe. I turned to Pipephil’s site first (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-k3.html). I did a screen capture of the section on the Kriswill Bernadotte Handmade in Denmark pipe. I have included it below and the pertinent sidebar information below that.Kriswill is a brand of Kriswork Briar Trading, in Kolding (Denmark) established about 1955.

Some of Kriswill pipes were designed by Sigvard Bernadotte, Swedish prince and brother to the late Queen Ingrid of Denmark. He collaborated with his Danish partner Acton Bjørn.

At the end of the quote above there was a link to the photo below. It is a series of portraits of Sigvard Bernadotte the designer of the pipe that I am working on.

I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kriswill) for more detailed information. There is a great writeup there on the history of the brand that is fascinating. I have quoted the pertinent section below. I have also highlighted the connection to Sigvard Bernadotte in red in the last paragraph. He is one who designed his own series of pipes for Kriswill.

Kriswill began immediately after World War II. Karl Robert Kris, an engineer for the shipping company AP Møller at the time, was in port (undoubtedly in the Mediterranean) when he encountered a shipment of briar. The briar blocks awakened his curiosity and he took some home. About this time the the shipping trade become difficult due to the war, causing Kris to consider other business opportunities. In 1947, Kris (then 47 years old) established himself as a pipe maker in his hometown of Kolding.

Kriss started his pipe making operation in a house located at Haderslevvej 115 in Kolding, and was soon joined by 3-4 employees. The pipes were sold under the name Rocky and supplied the domestic market. Within 6 months the company had grown, more employees hired, and their sales expanded to markets abroad.

Due to increasing production and marketing, Karl Robert Kris decided in the mid-1950s to expand. An entirely new factory was built at Sdr. Ring road on the outskirts of Kolding. At that time the pipes were branded Kriswell. That name did not last long, however, as Stanwell believed that name was too close to theirs. The compromise was to change the name to Kriswill. Kriswill soon grew to become a serious competitor to Stanwell, especially in the export markets. The Kriswill factory logo, stamped on the stem, became the stylized compass rose – as a reference to the manufacturer’s maritime background.

Kriswill pipes excelled in design and craftsmanship. Karl Robert Kris was not afraid of new designs and had a good eye on the US market, where larger and more innovative designs were increasingly popular. Craftsmanship was given top priority throughout Kriswill’s production. A local designer / architect had designed the first models. Later, the famous architects Sigvard Bernadotte (Swedish prince and brother of Queen Ingrid) and Acton Bjørn designed their own series, which were known as Bernadotte designed.

There was also a catalogue page on the Bernadotte Design line that shows the various pipes in the line. The second pipe down is the Hand carved 1210 which was made in black and in brown.I repaired chip and crack in the underside of the triangle shape stem with black CA glue. I wanted to do this prior to drilling the airway and opening it up for the new tenon end. I set the stem aside to let the repair cure.While I waited for the stem repair to cure I went through my tenons and found one that was very close in diameter to the shank. I reduced the diameter of the portion that would go into the stem with a Dremel and sanding drum. I repeated the process on the end of the tenon that would go in the shank. It was ready for the fit once the repair on the stem had cured and I was able to drill out the airway.I was a bit nervous drilling out the thin walled stem with the repair on the underside. I envisioned it splitting and ruining everything. I used a thin pen knife to begin the process of opening up the airway. I opened it to be large enough to take the first of the drill bits. I put the drill bit in my cordless drill and slowly turned it into the airway. I opened it up with several drill bit until the new tenon end fit in the stem. I cleaned up the airway with a set of needle files to make the airway the same diameter the depth of the drill. The fit in the stem was perfect. I painted the end of the tenon with black CA glue and pushed it in place in the airway. I set it aside to let the glue cure.I set the stem aside to allow the glue to cure. I wanted the tenon to be set in the stem so that once I put it in the shank it would not come out of the stem. I turned my attention to the bowl and shank. The shank had two small hairline cracks in in on the right side of the triangle. It would need to be glued and banded to accomplish a tight repair. I shaped a round brass band into a triangle and sanded it against a sanding board to thin the depth of the repair band. I fitted on the shank and put the stem in place to get a sense of what it would look like. I sent a few picks to the trustee in Toronto to show him what was going on. He approved of the repair.
I glued the band on the shank with some all purpose white glue. I painted the surface of the shank with the glue making sure to get into the cracks. I pressed the band on the shank and wiped off the excess glue with a damp cloth.I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to work it into the nooks and crannies of the rusticated 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 to finish the stem. To address the scratches and marks in the surface of the vulcanite I sanded it with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth. By the final 3500 grit sanding pad the rim top had a shine.I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I always look forward to this part of the restoration when all the pieces are put back together. I put the Kriswill Bernadotte 1210 pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the new brass band on the shank end. The combination of grain and the thin band add some elegance to the pipe when combined with the polished black vulcanite stem. This royalty designed Kriswill Bernadotte 1210 Skater is nice looking and feels great in my hand. The pipe is another light weight that could be clenched and smoked while doing other things as it is very well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.06 ounces/30 grams. This one will be heading back to Toronto soon. I am looking forward to what the pipeman who sent it thinks of this restoration. Lots more to do in this lot! Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of the next pipeman or woman.

Restoring a Beautiful Ropp Pneumatic Brevete S.G.D.G # 9105

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Blog by Paresh Deshpande

This pipe now on my work table came to me from a lot of 40 pipes that I had purchased from a French seller on etsy.fr just before the outbreak of the pandemic. It’s a beautiful classic billiard shaped pipe with a bone stem and beautiful flame grains along the sides of the stummel and bird’s eye grain over the rim top and the foot of the stummel.

This perfectly proportioned light weight pipe has a medium sized bowl, equivalent to a size 4 Dunhill. The piece of briar is without a single fill and oozes very high quality. The copper band at the shank face adds a classy bling to the appearance of the pipe. The stampings on this pipe is one of the most elaborate that I have come across with “PNEUMATIC” over “BREVETE S.G.D.G” stamped across the left side of the shank at an upward angle. This is followed by “ROPP” in an oval towards the shank end. The right side of the shank is stamped as “RACINE” over “DE VIEILLE SOUCHE” in a downward incline. The shape code “9105” is stamped at its end on the right surface of the shank. The shank opening is lined by a metal ring that extends inside the mortise and is stamped on the metal face as “ROPP” over the upper portion and the lower surface bears the stamp “BREVETE S.G.D.G.”.I had worked on ROPP pipes before and had a fair idea of this French marquee. But it was the stampings which intrigued me and I also knew that I was working on a very early era ROPP and had to know more specific details of this line from ROPP.

I searched the internet and came across this site that had the exact same pipe for sale. The information I got from the description with a link to the website is reproduced below:

https://www.delcampe.net/en_US/collectibles/tobacco-related/pipes-accessories/heather-pipes/tres-rare-pipe-ropp-pneumatic-brevete-s-g-d-g-virole-en-argent-date-1897-ou-1898-a-loccasion-de-linstallation-a-baume-1103869216.html

VERY RARE PIPE ROPP PNEUMATIC patented S.G.D.G silver ferrule dates 1897 or 1898, on the occasion of the installation in Baume

This “Pneumatic” model dates from the very last years of the 19th century: 1897 or 1898, on the occasion of the installation in Baume.

I decided to break down my search parameters to get a better understanding of the stampings as seen on the pipe. I searched for BREVETE S.G.D.G and this is what Wikipedia revealed:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brevet%C3%A9_SGDG

Breveté SGDG was a French type of patent that ceased to exist in 1968. The name was a common abbreviation for “Breveté Sans Garantie Du Gouvernement“ (patent without government guarantees).

In France, the law of 1844 states that patents are issued “without prior examination, at the risk of the applicant and with no guarantee of function, novelty and merit of the invention also in terms of precision or accuracy of the description”.

I also visited various forums to know more about this line of pipes from ROPP. Here is an interesting conversation that I chanced upon on placedelours.superforum.fr and contained a thread discussing a ROPP pipe with similar stampings that were stamped in the exact same way as seen on the pipe currently on my worktable. I have reproduced an English translation of the thread below:-

http://placedelours.superforum.fr/t33004-pipe-ropp-pneumatic

vidu52
Hello to all of you,
For a long time I have been looking for this ROPP brand pipe, marked : PNEUMATIC patented S.G.D.G and with a diamond-shaped punch.

The ROPP brand I find many, but not a single marked “PNEUMATIC” ??
Long : 14 cm approx High 4.5 cm approx, Weight: 42 Grams
I turn to you to try to help me identify this pipe and if possible its degree of rarity.
In advance Thank you….

Nucingen
Very nice pipe, with silver ferrule

this “Pneumatic” model dates from the very last years of the XIXe century: 1897 or 1898, on the occasion of the installation in Baume.
You will know everything about the “Pneumatic” by reading pages 21, 29 and 34 of this very beautiful and interesting book :
https://issuu.com/romainbassenne/docs/ropp_livre_maquette_issuu

However, the link is either no longer active or may not be accessible from my location. In any event, if anyone is able to access it, it is requested to share the information therein on Pneumatic line of pipe from ROPP for info of readers.

https://pipedia.org/wiki/Ropp

Eugène-Léon Ropp (1830 – 1907) had acquired a patent for a cherrywood pipe (wild cherry, lat.: Prunus avium) in 1869. In 1870 he established a workshop to manufacture such pipes in Büssingen (Bussang, Vosges mountains). Around 1893 the business moved into the former mill of Sicard (part of the community of Baume-les-Dames – Département Doubs, Upper Burgundy – from 1895 on).

The pipes were a big success in the export as well. Shortly before 1914 Ropp designated A. Frankau & Co. (BBB) in to be the exclusive distributor in the UK and it’s colonies.

Probably in 1917 a workshop in Saint-Claude in the Rue du Plan du Moulin 8 was acquired to start the fabrication of briar pipes. In 1923 a small building in the environment of Saint-Claude, serving as a workshop for polishing, was added.

Circa 1920’s 1930’s catalog in PDF, courtesy, Joseph Morris: Early Ropp Catalog

Even though cherrywood pipes were the mainstay of Ropp until the company finally closed down in September 1991. The company was taken over by Cuty-Fort Entreprises (Chacom, Jeantet, Vuillard, Jean Lacroix…) in 1994.

I was still not satisfied with the research of this pipe. This pipe has some of the most detailed stampings that I have seen on any pipe. I have deciphered the stampings of ROPP, PNEUMATIC and BREVETE S.G.D.G. The stampings of RACINE, DE VIEILLE SOUCHE yet remains to be understood. Now, my French is what my mother tongue Marathi is to you. I searched the internet for translation and this is what I found.

(a) RACINE: – Root.

(b) DE VIEILLE: – Old stock.

These stampings together do make sense implying that the briar used to carve this pipe is an old stock briar root stump.

Though the discussion thread and description of the similarly stamped pipe stated above places this pipe to be from the period 1897/ 98, the lack of pictures of the tenon on that pipe and being unable to access the link leading to the book on the PNEUMATIC line of ROPP, I cannot conclusively place the pipe on my work table to be from the period 1897/ 98.

The aluminum tenon in a bone stem with an elliptical slot makes me inclined to place this pipe from during the WW II era, which is from 1940 to 1945/ 6.

That said this pipe is definitely an old timer and is being added to my personal collection.

Initial Visual Inspection
The pipe, as it sits on my work table, is dirty with a thin layer of cake in the chamber, a stummel that is covered in dust and grime and a tapered bone stem that has tooth indentations on either surface in the bite zone. Here are a few pictures of the pipe before I proceed with a detailed visual inspection of each part of the pipe. Detailed Visual Inspection
A thin layer of cake lines the walls of the chamber. There is no accumulation of overflowing crud over the rim surface but slight darkening is seen to the aft of the rim surface. The rim edges, both outer and inner, are sans any dents and dings. The rim top surface, however, shows a number of dents and dings likely caused due to either strikes against a hard edge or due to uncared for storage of the pipe.The stummel surface has attracted dust and dirt giving it a dull lackluster and lifeless appearance. There are a few scrub marks over the surface but these should be easily addressed during the polishing process. The briar wood has taken on a nice dark patina from the years of handling and smoking. It will be my endeavor to preserve and highlight this aspect. The stampings on the shank surface are all crisp and clearly discernible. The shank end of the stummel is adorned with a copper band. The unique feature of this pipe is a metal spacer that is stamped on the face as BREVETE and S.G.D.G as mentioned above. This spacer extends in to the mortise and is lined with cork extending up to an inch or so. The mortise is relatively clean with minor traces of residual ash and oils/ tars. The horn stem has a nice light and bright appearance with bite marks and tooth indentations on either surface in the bite zone. There are a couple of superficial cracks over the stem surface and should be addressed once the stem is sanded and polished. I think these superficial cracks are primarily the result of drying of the bone material. The long aluminum tenon is tapered and cinched at the tenon end to match the mortise opening. The tenon surface is clean but would benefit from some cleaning and polishing. The elliptical slot and tenon end shows traces of old residual oils and gunk. The button edges show a couple of minor teeth marks and would need to be sharpened. The Restoration Process
Whether to start with stem or the stummel refurbishing has always being a source of conflict for me as stem repairs and refurbishing almost always takes the longest time and efforts and hence prudent to be worked on first while the allure of unrevealing the beautiful grains of the briar weighs in favor for its refurbishing first. Well in ibid case, the lovely patina and straight grains won and I decided to start working on the stummel.

I started the process of refurbishing by reaming the chamber first. Using reamer head sizes 1 and 2 of the PipeNet pipe reamer, I took the cake down to the bare briar. The amount of carbon that was dislodged from the chamber was really surprising as I had appreciated a thin layer of carbon and the quantity of carbon that was removed was anything but a thin layer. With my fabricated knife, I removed all the cake and took it down to the bare briar. I further sand the chamber wall with a folded piece of 180 grit sandpaper to smooth out the wall and remove the last bit of stubborn carbon that remained stuck to the chamber. To finish the reaming process, I wiped the chamber walls with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol to clean the last traces of residual carbon dust. I was happy to note a clean and well seasoned solid chamber.Next, I cleaned out the shank internals. Early on, I realized that I could not pass a pipe cleaner trough the draught hole due to blockages in the shank airway. I used a modified poker tool to push through and dislodge this block of dried oils and gunk. I further scraped out all the dried and crumbly oils and tars from the walls of the mortise with my dental tool. I cleaned out the mortise and shank walls with pipe cleaners dipped in alcohol. I shall continue further cleaning of the shank and mortise while going through the other processes.Now on to de-ghosting the pipe…. I packed the chamber with cotton balls 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 and mortise. I removed the cotton balls and 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 and mortise. The chamber and mortise now smelled clean, fresh and looked it too. I set the stummel to dry out naturally.With the night still being young and not wanting to break the momentum of work as the stummel soaked in cotton and alcohol bath, I decided to use the time to address the stem issues. I first ran a few pipe cleaners dipped in alcohol through the stem airway and they came out very dirty. To conserve pipe cleaners, I put off further cleaning of the airway and would continue the internal cleaning using shank brushes and oil soap under warm water. With a sharp dental tool, I scraped out the dried oils and gunk from the slot end and tenon face. I also cleaned the aluminum tenon surface with a cotton swab wetted with isopropyl alcohol.Continuing with the stem cleaning, I followed the internal cleaning of the stem with cleaning the airway using thin shank brushes and anti oil dish cleaning soap. I ran a couple of pipe cleaners to clean and dry out the airway. Using Scotch Brite pad and oil soap; I cleaned out the entire gunk from the aluminum tenon, elliptical slot end and the stem surface.The last agenda for the day before I turned in for the night was to address the bite marks on either surface in the bite zone. I cleaned the surface with alcohol on a cotton swab in preparation of the surface for a fill. I filled the deep tooth indentation in the bite zone on the upper stem surface with clear medium CA superglue. Once the fill had hardened sufficiently, I similarly filled the tooth indentation in the lower stem surface. I set the stem aside for the fills to cure.By the time I again sat at my work table the next evening, the alcohol and cotton had leached out all the old oils from the chamber walls and the stem fills had cured too.

Next, I proceeded to clean the exterior of the stummel. I used a hard bristled tooth brush, Scotch Brite pad and Murphy’s Oil soap to scrub the stummel and rim top. For this stummel cleaning, I used Murphy’s Oil soap as I wanted to preserve the old patina that had developed on the stummel and this product really helps in cleaning the briar surface. After the scrub with oil soap, I washed the stummel under running warm water with anti oil dish washing detergent till the stummel surface was clean and dried it using paper towels and soft cotton cloth. I simultaneously cleaned the shank internals with the detergent and hard bristled shank brush and set the stummel aside to dry out. That the shank end is internally lined with cork is now apparent after the cleaning and this further restricts the cleaning process, adding caution to the equation while further cleaning the shank internals. I was fortunate that the alcohol bath has not loosened and removed this cork lining. To aid in the drying process, I heat the stummel under a 100 watt filament bulb as it is very important that the briar is completely dry as presence of slight moisture leads to growth of fungus over the surface subsequently.With the stummel set aside for drying, I used a needle file to sand the stem fill to achieve a rough match of the filling with the rest of the stem surface. To achieve a better blend, I sand the fill with a folded piece of 180 grit sandpaper. I also worked the button edges to a crisp edge with the file. By no means is the blending complete and shall be continued with during the sanding and polishing process.To bring a deep shine to the horn stem, I went through the complete set of micromesh pads, wet sanding with 1500 to 12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem with moist cloth after each pad and rubbed it down with Extra Virgin Olive oil to rejuvenate the horn which is very prone to drying and developing cracks over the surface. The finished stem is shown below.Remember the stummel that had been set aside to dry out under the bulb? Well, in the while that I completed the repairs and initial polishing of the stem, the briar had completely dried out and was ready to be worked on further.

The issue that needed immediate attention was the number of dents and dings over the rim top surface. To address it, I topped the surface over a piece of 220 grit sandpaper till these damages all but disappeared. I am quite pleased with the appearance of the rim top at this stage.I followed it by wet sanding the entire stummel with 1500 to 12000 grit micromesh pads, wiping frequently with a moist cloth to check the progress. I really like the looks of the stummel at this point in restoration. The grains and the clean lines of this piece of briar is really appreciable. Next, I rubbed a small quantity of “Before and After Restoration Balm” deep in to the briar with my finger tips and let it rest for a few minutes. The balm almost immediately works its magic and the briar now has a nice vibrant appearance with the beautiful grain patterns displayed in their complete splendor. I further buffed it with a horse hair brush. The contrast of the dark browns of the Bird’s eye and straight grains with the dark natural patina of the rest of the stummel adds an interesting dimension to the appearance of the stummel that cannot be insufficiently described in words and be rather seen in person. I have now reached the homestretch in this restoration project. To complete the restoration, I mounted a cotton cloth buffing wheel on to my hand held rotary tool and polished the stummel and stem with Blue Diamond compound. This compound helps in polishing and also in removing the minor scratch marks that remained from the sanding process. I mounted another cotton buffing wheel that I have earmarked for carnauba wax and applied several coats of the wax. I finished the restoration by giving the entire pipe a rigorous hand buffing using a microfiber cloth to raise the shine further. The finished pipe looks amazingly beautiful and is ready to join my collection. I only wish it could share with me its life story of the past years while I enjoy smoking my favorite Virginia blend in it or maybe an English blend or maybe just keep admiring it!!!! Big thank you to all the readers who have joined me on this path by reading this write up as I restored and completed this project. P.S.: I came across an interesting flyer/ advertisement bearing the stamp “RACINE, DE VIEILLE SOUCHE” in French language. I have included the same here and would be happy to receive any information on the pipe in English for the sake of enhancing my knowledge on this pipe.Thank you once again for your time and assistance.

ADDENDUM – Pages 21,29 and 34 of the French Ropp Book (Ropp, ça ne fume plus). Kenneth Lieblich scanned the pages and translated them for Paresh.

Translation of the highlighted parts of page 21

Trademarks were registered for each of his creations: La Cosaque, La Pneumatic and La Norvégienne appeared at the beginning of the century, between 1904 and 1908. According to the INPI records, these brands were intended to be affixed to the pipes, smoking accessories and other handmade items as well as cases, boxes, packaging of pipes… The reasons for choosing most of these names are unknown.

Regarding La Pneumatic, we can see a link with current events. In fact, the tire was invented in 1888 by Irishman John Boyd Dunlop and the removable tire by Michelin in 1891. Its use became widespread at the beginning of the 20th century. Another pipe was named Pipe des aviateurs (1909) when, on July 25, 1909, Louis Blériot succeeded in crossing the Channel by plane for the first time.

Each pipe had several varieties of shapes, sizes and ornaments. La Pneumatic could be fitted with a fancy band: gold, silver or other metal; in straight or bent models; of medium to very large size; and with oval or round bowls. Then, the types of briar evolved with the appearance in 1910 of Cum-mer root, Cum-mer briar, blood briar and blood root, recalling both the raw material used and its particular red grain.Translation of the highlighted parts of page 29

To explain the changes, Ropp cited three main reasons: moving towards thinner pipes, the choice of raw materials and the improvements made to the different systems. These developments had made the pipe a “clean, practical and elegant” accessory. The fact that the brand sought to constantly modernize itself, while paying attention to consumer demand, was also an important selling point. The ads spoke of “the important technical research” which allowed the factory to frequently employ new manufacturing processes or new models. La Pneumatic system, developed when the company set up in Baume-les-Dames, was one of the manufacturing processes most appreciated by smokers.Translation of the highlighted parts of page 34

At the start of the 20th century, system pipes and other inventions aimed at better health were very popular with French smokers. Concerns about the harmful effects of tobacco and nicotine were in vogue, as were concerns about hygiene: pipes were sometimes difficult to clean and maintain. These were different from filter pipes since the piece inserted into the stem did not absorb the condensation but only stopped it. These system pipes, with different variations, appeared healthier and more hygienic. La Pneumatic is one of the system pipes that Ropp put on the market and patented. A separate ferrule was housed inside the stem while a piece of cork, providing friction, made it easier to separate the stem from the stummel and also made cleaning easier.

Restoring a Lovely Frasorteret Hand Made in Denmark Freehand

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a rugged, sandblast Freehand with a smooth rim and plateau shank end. It had a fancy, turned saddle vulcanite stem. We purchased it from a seller on eBay from Jordan, Minnesota, USA on 01/22/2024. The pipe is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads Frasorteret [over] Hand Made [over] In [over] Denmark. The rim was in good condition other than lava overflowing from the thick cake in the bowl onto the smooth rim top. It is hard to assess the condition of the inner edge of the rim due to the cake and lava overflow. There may be some darkening or damage at the back of the bowl but I cannot be sure. There were oils and grime ground into the bowl sides gives the finish a flat look. The fancy saddle stem is dirty, with grime and grit on the surface. There were also tooth marks on both the top and underside of the stem just ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. I have included them below. He took photos of the pipe’s bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the lava coat overflowing onto the top. It is another dirty pipe. He also took photos to capture the tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem near the button. He took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the grain around the bowl and the amount of grime ground into the surface of the briar. He took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is faint but still quite readable. I had a memory that Frasorteret pipes came from the creative carving of Preben Holm so I wanted to do some checking. I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-f4.html). It tied the line to Preben Holm but there was not too much more information at this point.I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Frasorteret) to gather further information. There the information was a bit clearer about the tie. Here is the information.

The Frasorteret line of pipes were made by Preben Holm and were nearly identical to his normal line of pipes but for fills and pits and the like. The pipes were stamped Frasorteret Made in Denmark. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition. You can see the clean bowl. The bowl is in excellent condition and is clean. The rim top and the inner edge shows a lot of damage and burn marking on the bowl. The stem came out looking clean. There were definitely deep tooth marks and chatter on both sides. I took photos of the stamping on the shank. It is faint but still very readable. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe parts to show what I was working with.I started my work on the pipe by addressing the damage on the inner edge of the rim. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the roughness. I then used 220 grit sandpaper and a wooden ball to give the inner edge of the bowl a slight bevel. It looked much better at this point in the process. I sanded the briar rim top and the sides of the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad. By the time I finished with the 3500 grit pad the briar had taken on a rich glow.I went over the sandblast finish on the bowl and shank with a brass bristle wire brush to knock off the debris in the grain. Once finished it looked much better. It was ready for the next work on the rim and shank end. I worked over the plateau shank end with the wire brush to prepare it for the traditional black stain. I touched it up with a black stain pen making sure that all the grooves and surfaces were evenly stained. Once the stain cured I sanded it with a 320 grit sanding pad to knock the stain off the high spots on the plateau to give a sense of contrast to the plateau. It looked very good once I had finished doing that. I polished the smooth rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the debris. The crowned rim top took on a rich glow. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for 10 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth and shoe brush to raise the shine. Mark Hoover’s Balm is a product that I have come to appreciate and one I use on every pipe I have been working on. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the stem surface with the flame of a lighter. I was able to lift the tooth marks significantly. There were still some deep marks. I filled them in with a coat of clear CA glue and spread it across the surface with a dental spatula.Once the repairs cured I flattened them with a small file. I started the process of blending them into the surface of the surrounding vulcanite. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the file marks and smooth out the surface of the stem. I moved on to further smooth out the surface of the vulcanite. I sanded it smooth with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to further blend them into the surface of the stem.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. It really took on a shine and I knew that once it was buffed it would look amazing. I put the stem back on the Preben Holm Hand Made in Denmark Frasorteret Sandblast Freehand and took it to the buffer. I worked it over with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches. I gave the bowl and the stem several coats of carnauba wax and 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 really well and the rim top looked good. I was happy with the look of the finished pipe. The photos below show what the pipe looks like after the restoration. The Frasorteret Sandblast Smooth Rim Top Freehand is a beautiful and very Preben Holm take on a Freehand shape. The polished vulcanite fancy saddle stem looks really good with the browns of the briar. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 7 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1¾ inches x 2 inches, Chamber diameter: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.26 ounces/64 grams. This is another pipe that I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipe Makers Section shortly, if you are interested in adding it to your collection. The long shank and tall bowl look and feel great in the hand. This one should be a great smoker. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me on this beauty!

Restoring a Stanwell Sandblast 1993 POY Huber Nobleman Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a sandblast finish Billiard with a silver rim cap, band on the shank and a vulcanite stem. We purchased it from a seller on eBay from Jordan, Minnesota, USA on 01/22/2024. The pipe has a silver plaque identifying it as a 1993 pipe. It is stamped below that plaque and reads Huber [over] Nobleman. The shank has a silver, decorative band on it. The rim was in good condition other than a lot of lava overflowing from the thick cake in the bowl onto the smooth rim top It is hard to assess the condition of the inner edge of the rim due to the cake and lava overflow. There may be some darkening or damage at the back of the bowl but I cannot be sure. There were oils and grime ground into the beautiful sandblast on the bowl sides gives the dull, flat look. The vulcanite taper stem is a dirty stem with grime and grit on the surface. There were also tooth marks on both the top and underside of the stem just ahead of the button. It appears that there may be some small pin hole bite through marks on the underside ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. I have included them below. He took photos of the pipe’s bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the lava coat overflowing onto the top. The silver rim cap/edge is also oxidized and dirty. This really is another dirty pipe. He also took photos to capture the tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem near the button. The stem is also oxidized and calcified. He took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the interesting sandblast grain around the bowl and the amount of grime ground into the surface of the briar. He took photos of the stamping on the silver plague and the stamping below that on the left side of the shank. It is clear and quite readable. I knew from other pipes that I have worked on with the HUBER stamp (Peterson’s, Oldenkott and other) that the pipe was made for the Pfeifen Huber 1863 pipe shop in Munich, Germany. I found a great photo of the shop on Yelp. I have included that below. It is definitely a shop that I want to visit soon (https://www.yelp.ca/biz_photos/pfeifen-huber-m%C3%BCnchen-2?select=Fs5BlKOLDYfhjIM-3lhiAw).I turned to the Pfeifen Huber website (https://www.pfeifen-huber.de/pfeifen-ratgeber/chronik-pfeifen-huber-jahrespfeifen-teil-1). On the site was a section, written in German, regarding the annual pipe, made for Huber by various pipe making companies. I translated it with Google and have included it below.

The idea of an annual pipe in limited quantities was not really new in 1988. Dunhill was considered a pioneer, followed by Stanwell and Georg Huber in Munich at the end of the eighties. The idea came to him to produce a small, fine series of pipes in limited quantities, only in “First Quality”. The problem was finding a suitable manufacturer who was prepared to implement the high quality requirements in the desired quantities. This idea began to take shape with the German importer for Peterson and Savinelli, Detlef Seiffert. They hit it off straight away and at the end of 1988 the first annual pipe saw the light of day in Tal 22 in Munich. At that time it was a Hungarian from Peterson, with a silver top and ribbon on the handle. The edition of 300 copies was quickly sold out and the idea became reality. In order to be able to offer something for smaller budgets, Huber also launched a second series, the Nobleman. This series continues to this day. It is priced below the annual pipe and has no consecutive numbering, but is also limited. While the first models were still available with a normal bore, the 9mm filter bore became popular over the years. Today’s Nobleman are consistently designed for 9mm filters; an adapter for filterless smoking can be used if desired.

The portion in red above is very pertinent to the pipe I am working on. It is part of the second series by Huber designed for smaller budgets and was priced at less than the annual one. It is also a limited edition pipe issued in 1993. It has a stem made for a 9mm filter and is also fitted with an adapter making it a normal bore. It can be smoked either way.

Smokingpipes has several Stanwell pipes made for the Georg Huber Pipe Shop in Munich, Germany on their webstore. Here is a link if you would like to have a look at a similar pipe (https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/denmark/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=602399).

There was also an interesting post on Facebook made by a fellow using the handle Pipe & Lighter in Hanoi, Vietnam. He posted this in 2019 and it is in Vietnamese. I translated it on Facebook and quote that below.

Huber München : Is an old pharmaceutical company in Munchen, Germany founded by Georg Huber in 1863 and is a major supplier of Pharmaceuticals & Cigars in Germany. Every year to celebrate, Huber München has hired some of the famous brands on TG exclusively for limited and finest products. In companies that were hired like Paul Winslow. Peterson…. Stanwell

The pipe featured today is a Huber München model that made by Stanwell’s finest workers as a commemorative edition in 1996. The shank with 9mm airway diameter is typical of the German market…. Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He cleaned up the inside of the bowl with a PipNet reamer and a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. The bowl walls looked very good. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He worked on the rim top lava and darkening with the soap and tooth brush. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior with Soft Scrub and then soaked it in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. He washed it off with warm water to remove the deoxidizer. The pipe looked far better. I took photos of the pipe when I received it before I started working on it. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to show how clean it was. The top and the inner edge of the rim show some darkening, nicks and scratches. The inner edge of the bowl is thinner toward the front. There was some debris in the gap between the silver rim edge and the briar. The stem looks clean of debris and grime. There are tooth marks and chatter on both sides. There are also tooth marks on the underside of the stem.I took photos of the stamping on the left side of shank. The stamping is clear and readable (much clearer in person than the photos show). I took two photos of the pipe with the stem removed to show the overall look of stem, tenon and profile of the pipe. The first photo shows the stem with the adapter removed and the second photo with it in place in the tenon. I started my work on the pipe by addressing the damage on the inner edge of the rim. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the roughness. I then used 220 grit sandpaper smooth out the damage to the rim top of the bowl.I polished the smooth rim top and the smooth parts of the briar bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the debris. The smooth portions of the bowl took on a rich glow. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for 10 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth and shoe brush to raise the shine. Mark Hoover’s Balm is a product that I have come to appreciate and one I use on every pipe I have been working on. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem issues. I painted the surface of the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the tooth marks. I was able to lift them significantly. I filled in the remaining one with clear CA glue. Once the repairs cured I smooth them out with a small to start blending them into the surface. I sanded the file marks and smoothed out the surface with 220 grit sand paper. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to further blend them in and smooth out the surface of the stem.I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I put the stem back on the Stanwell 1993 Huber Nobleman Billiard and took it to the buffer. I worked over the smooth portions with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches. I gave the bowl several coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem several coats of carnauba wax on the wheeland 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 really well and the rim top and silver rim edge looked good. I was happy with the look of the finished pipe. The photos below show what the pipe looks like after the restoration. The long shank tall Canadian is a beautiful and unique take on a classic shape. The polished vulcanite taper stem looks really good with the browns of the briar. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.83 ounces/52 grams. This is another pipe that I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipe Making Companies Section shortly, if you are interested in adding it to your collection. This sandblast billiard looks and feels great in the hand. This one should be a great smoker. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me on this beauty!

Restoring one of Gene’s Favourite Pipes – A Savinelli Made Bings Favorite Italy

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Blog by Steve Laug

In January Jeff found out about an estate sale in Pocatello, Idaho, USA. It turned out that the sale was for a fellow Jeff and I had purchased pipes from in the past, Gene. He had been the owner of Outwest Tobacco in Pocatello (long closed now) and I bought tobacco and other smoking items from him in the past. As I think about it now, it seems that I had known Gene for over 30 years Jeff and I had been to his home and enjoyed coffee and a few pipes together. I have no idea how many pipes we bought on those visits as well as to the antique shop of his daughter. I know that there were many pipes. When we heard that it was Gene’s personal collection that was for sale and that he had passed away we decided for Jeff to go to the house and have a look. He went on January 25, 2024 to scope it out as we had seen his personal collection of pipes and there were definitely some among those well smoked old warriors that would be great to pick up. Perhaps there would even be one that could join my own collection in memory of Gene.

Jeff went to the house and looked through the racks, pipe bags, tobacco both bulk and tinned as well as a variety of pipes. All the pipes were well smoked and needed serious cleaning. Another one of the pipes he picked up was this Savinelli Made Bings Favorite pipes with a poorly fit replacement black vulcanite taper stem. It was very dirty and was a reddish, brown coloured pipe when it started. The smooth finish around the bowl was dirty and had hand oils ground into the grooves. The bowl had a thick cake that overflowed in lava onto the rim edge and top of the bowl. The bottom of the bowl was flattened so the pipe could be set on a desktop. The stem was vulcanite that was very dirty and had the marks of a rubber Softee Bit on the end. It had become discoloured and there was a line where the debris from smoking had accumulated along the edge and under the bit protector. The good news was that there were some deep tooth marks and chatter under the calcification and grime. The rest of the stem was dirty and had lost the characteristic shine. The pipe was stamped on the left side of the shank and read Bings Favorite. On the right side of the shank it is stamped Italy. On the underside of the shank it was stamped Savinelli Product. Jeff took photos of the pipe so I could have a sense of what it looked like before he started his work on it.Jeff took photos of the stem surfaces and the bowl and rim to give a sense of condition of the pipe. You can see the thick cake in bowl and the spots of lava overflow on the edges and rim top of the bowl. It is had to know if there is any damage as the cake and lava is quite thick. The stem surface is very dirty and you can see the area on the end of the stem where the Softee Bit had protected it from chewing though there were some previous deep tooth marks covered by the dirt and debris. I am pretty sure the stem was a replacement and it did not fit the diameter of the shank properly. It was larger than the shank and would need to be fitted. He also took photos of the sides of the bowl and the heel to show the interesting grain that went around the bowl. The grain is beautiful and you can see the oils and debris in the surface of the briar. He took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable on all the shank sides as noted above. I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-savinelli1.html) to get a sense of the Bing’s Favorite. It is a Savinelli Product and it is listed in the Savinelli pipe section. I did a screen capture of the section and included it below. The stamping on the stem confirms that the stem I have is a replacement.I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Savinelli) and after reading through the history I focused on a section entitled Editions in the “Favorite” line. I have included that section below.

We are compiling a sub-list of known editions in the “Favorite” line of Savanelli pipes, starting with those in Fred Huening’s collection. If you know of others, or have additional information about this line of pipes, please add it here, or send them to sethile.pipes@gmail.com and we can add them for you:

Bing’s Favorite
Byron’s Favorite
Clark’s Favorite
Ginger’s Favorite
Achille’s Favorite (apparently, I, II, and III)

Now it was my turn to work on the pipe. Jeff had done an amazing cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the cake with a PipNet reamer and cleaned up that with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the bowl and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the externals with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and rinsed the bowl off with running water. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe stem Deoxidizer and once it had soaked, rinsed it off with warm water to remove the residual solution. He dried it off and rubbed it down to remove any oxidation that was still on the stem. The pipe looked very good when I received it. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition. You can see the clean bowl. The bowl is in excellent condition and is clean. The rim top and the front inner edge was in great condition. The stem came out looking clean. There were definitely deep tooth marks and chatter on both sides. I took photos of the stamping on the shank. It is faint but still very readable. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe parts to show what I was working with. The pipe had cleaned up so well that I turned to polish the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded it with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth. By the final pads the briar really had a shine. I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips. 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 aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the stem surface with the flame of a lighter. I was able to lift the tooth marks significantly. There were still some deep marks. I filled them in with a coat of clear CA glue and spread it across the surface with a dental spatula. Once the repairs cured I flattened them with a small file. I started the process of blending them into the surface of the surrounding vulcanite.Once I finished that work I addressed the diameter of the stem. I needed to take off the excess so that the flow between the shank and the stem were smooth. I used a flat rasp to quickly remove the excess then sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the file marks and smooth out the surface of the stem. I moved on to further smooth out the surface of the vulcanite. I sanded it smooth with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to further blend them into the surface of the stem.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. It really took on a shine and I knew that once it was buffed it would look amazing. I put the stem back on the Bings Favorite ¼ Bent Vulcanite Stem Long Billiard and took it to the buffer. I worked it over with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches. I gave the bowl and the stem several coats of carnauba wax and 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 really well and the rim top looked good. I was happy with the look of the finished pipe. The photos below show what the pipe looks like after the restoration. The Bings Favorite Savinelli Product is a beautiful and unique take on a classic shape. The polished, reshaped vulcanite taper stem looks really good with the browns of the briar. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.23 ounces/35 grams. This is another pipe that I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Italian Pipe Makers Section shortly, if you are interested in adding it to your collection. The long shank and tall bowl look and feel great in the hand. This one should be a great smoker. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me on this beauty!

An Interesting Project : Resurrection Of a Pre-1920 KB&B Pembroke

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Blog by Paresh Deshpande

The next pipe is stamped as “PEMBROKE” over KB & B” on the left shank surface and came to me as part of inherited pipes that predominantly constituted pipes from various English brands, most notably LOEWE, BBB, COMOY’S, PETERSON’S, BARLING’S etcetera. However, this lot did also contain many pipes from American pipe makers like WDC, KB & B/ KAYWOODIE and others. I have researched and worked on a few of the KAYWOODIE pipes from this collection and recollect that KB & B changed their name to KAYWOODIE in 1920s to promote their Kaywoodie line of pipes or was it for some other reason? For clarification and recollection of history of this renowned brand from USA, I re-read the history from https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kaufmann_Bros._%26_Bondy#Brands and have only reproduced that information that helps to date the pipe:-

Early History

Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy (KB&B), Kaywoodie has been making pipes since well before the Civil War – around 1851. They peaked in the late 1950’s along with most American Briar works. In the early 20th century, their pipes were the standard others were measured by, along with Sasieni, Charatan and Comoy’s. There were few other world-class American pipe-crafters (William Demuth Company, early L & H Stern). Their pipes were as good as any of the renowned British firms. Kaywoodie just did not merely produce quantity, they provided quality: in the 1920’s they bought the exclusive rights to some of the choicest briar fields in history, hauling out 250 year-old roots the size of 27″ TVs and fashioning masterpieces out of this spectacular-grained ancient briar.

Early KB&B (non Kaywoodie)

Kaywoodie was the name a pipe offered by Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy Company (KB&B), first appearing in February of 1919.

The origin of the name Kaywoodie is a combination of the K from Kaufmann and wood, as in briar. Not much is known of the original KB&B company other than it was started in 1851 by the German born Kaufmann brothers when they opened a small pipe shop in the Bowery section of New York City.

When one of the men from the New York office got “gold fever” he carried a large supply of pipes with him to California that he sold along the way. This early “national distribution” did much to build the reputation of KB&B. By the late 1800’s, branches of KB&B were opened in Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco and St. Louis with family and friends acting as agents. The trademarks, for the inlaid cloverleaf and the cloverleaf with the KB&B initials inside, were issued in 1881.

Pre-Kaywoodie KB&B

According to Hackert, the firm of Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy (KB&B) began producing the Kaywoodie Pipe in 1915.

Business thrived and in 1854 the Kaufmanns took in a partner named Bondy. … The three partners retired in 1898, but their relatives continued on with the firm, which had begun to manufacture their own briar pipes under the KB&B trademark. In 1915 the Kaywoodie brand was created as a marketing umbrella for a new briar pipe which the KB&B Company introduced. …”

Hacker concludes his history of Kaywoodie Pipes by noting that: “The KB&B briar pipe brand existed from 1900 until just after World War I (with some overlapping with the Kaywoodie from 1915 — 1917), and collectors refer to the KB&B as a Kaywoodie transition pipe.

The pre-Kaywoodie KB&B pipes were marked on the shank with a cloverleaf around KB&B.

In March of 1955, when S.M. Frank & Co. Inc. bought Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy, The Kaywoodie Company, Reiss-Premier Corp., The New England Briar Pipe Co. and – of course – Yello-Bole.

Thus, comparing literature notes with the stampings as seen on the pipe that I am working on, I am certain that it dates as to being pre- 1920. Another pointer is the orific slot which was gradually replaced by more elliptical slot from 1920 and progressed further to the horizontal slot that we see on pipes today.

Here are the pictures of the stampings as seen on the PEMBROKE: Initial Visual Inspection
The PEMBROKE, currently on my worktable, is a medium sized classic bent billiards with a decent sized bowl in dark reddish brown color. The well seasoned briar is covered in dirt, dust and grime from decades of use. There are a couple of deep scratches on the stummel surface. There is a thick cake in the chamber with heavy overflow of cake, oils and tars over the rim top surface. The inner rim edge is uneven and charred. The outer rim edge, likewise, is peppered with dents and dings. The high quality hard rubber stem is oxidized with flattened bite zone on either surfaces of the stem. The tenon has a narrow extension at the end and is covered in dried oils and tars. The round orifice slot is similarly clogged with dried gunk. The stem does sit flush with the shank face and the seating is too damn tight within the mortise. Following pictures will give the readers a general idea of the condition of the pipe before I start to work on the pipe. Detailed Inspection
The chamber has a thick hard cake that has spilled over the rim top surface. The cake is thicker around the upper half of the chamber. The outer rim edge has dents and dings all around but is most severely damaged along the front half portion (encircled in yellow), a damage that can result only due to repeated strikes against a hard edged surface. The inner rim edge, prime facie, is sans any damage. The condition of the inner walls of the chamber can be commented upon after the cake has been taken down to the bare briar. There is a strong ghost smell in the chamber which is all pervading. There are remnants of un-burnt tobacco at the bottom of the chamber.The stummel surface is covered in dust, dirt and grime giving a dull, lifeless and lackluster appearance to the pipe. However, the briar has taken on a nice dark patina which has been a result of more than 100 years of usage and would be worth preserving. However, eliminating/ addressing the deep scratches (encircled in green) on both side of the stummel and the few dents and dings would entail sacrificing the patina. This is a call that I would need to take at some stage in the restoration process. The mortise is chock-a-block with old oils, tars, ashes and grime making for a laboured draw. The thick cake and blocked mortise hides the draught hole from the view. These issues need to be addressed. The high quality hard rubber stem is deeply oxidized. The unique feature of the stem is that the stem surface is flattened in the bite zone on either surface with defined cut edges. Now, the question that came to my mind was if these flattened surfaces were original to the stem or carved out by the piper who owned it, probably for ease of clenching? Well, to me it appears that this unique carving of the bite zone is machined and not handmade since the edges are too well defined and sharp to be handmade using home tools. But that the flattening of the bite zone makes it comfortable for clenching is unquestionable. There are no significant bite marks or chatter in the bite zone or over the button edges. The orifice slot shows dried accumulated oils and tars that would need to be cleaned. The tenon has a stepped hard rubber (?) extension similar in shape to the ones seen on Peterson’s Deluxe line of pipes. The tenon and extension too is covered in a thick layer of dried crud. The stem does not seat flush in the mortise and is fit is very tight. I think the seating issues would address itself once the tenon and mortise is cleaned.The Process
I began the repair and refurbishing process with reaming of the chamber. I reamed the chamber with head sizes 1 and 2 of the PipNet pipe reamer. I removed the carbon from the areas where the reamer head could not reach with my fabricated knife. To completely remove the residual carbon from the walls of the chamber and smooth out the walls, I sanded the chamber walls with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper followed by cleaning the chamber with a cotton swab wetted with isopropyl alcohol. The chamber walls are in pristine condition. I gently scrapped off the lava build up over the rim top using a sharp knife to avoid damage to the surface. I cleaned the mortise and shank walls of the pipe using dental tool. I scraped out the dried oils and tars from the walls of mortise and shank walls. The pile of crud that was scraped out is indicative to the amount of gunk that was lodged in the mortise and shank internal. At the end of this step, I still was not able to pass a pipe cleaner through the mortise. Out came one of the many modified tools in my arsenal and after some deft use of this poker, I was able to dislodge the blockage from within the mortise. I ran a bristled pipe cleaner and q-tip dipped in alcohol through the mortise and out through the draught hole further clearing the passage. I will continue this further cleaning during the course of refurbishing of this pipe.Next, I decided to subject the chamber and mortise to cotton and alcohol bath. I packed the chamber 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 into 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 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. 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 and mortise. The chamber and mortise now smelled clean, fresh and looked it too. I set the stummel to dry out naturally.Once the internals of the chamber and shank were cleaned, I cleaned the external surface of the stummel with Murphy’s Oil soap and cotton swabs followed by scrubbing the surface with a toothbrush and dish washing soap. This rid the stummel surface of all the accumulated dust, dirt and grime. Using a piece of Scotch Brite scrub, I deliberately cleaned the rim top and removed the crud from the surface. The damage to the rim edges is now amply evident.Simultaneously, I also cleaned the shank internals with dish washing soap and a shank brush. I set the stummel aside to dry out naturally while I worked the stem.I began the process of refurbishing the stem by first scraping off the dried gunk from the tenon and tenon end extension using a sharp thin knife. I was careful not to damage or break the extension or the stem face. I cleaned the tenon extension with a cotton swab moistened with alcohol and ran a pipe cleaner through the airway to check if the airway was clear of any blockage. Fortunately, it was.Using thin shank brushes and anti-oil dish washing soap, I cleaned the stem airway. I have modified this process of cleaning the stem airway by doing away with pipe cleaners and alcohol as it saves me a ton of pipe cleaners, which is a precious commodity for me here in India. I continued this cleaning till only white clean foam came out of the stem airway, indicating that the airway was nice and clean. I ran a couple of pipe cleaners dipped in alcohol through the airway to dry it out and make sure that there are no traces of soap and gunk hidden in the airway. I also scrubbed the stem surface to remove surface oxidation and rubbed a small quantity of EVO in to the stem surface. Since there were no damages to the stem, I set it aside and shall return to polishing the stem after I am done with the stummel repairs.Next, I got around to addressing the rim top damage. The extent of the damage to the outer edge, caused due to banging against a hard surface, would necessitate heavy topping off of the rim surface, and I for one, absolutely wish to avoid any loss of briar. Also topping to the extent that was required to eliminate the dents/ dings and chipped areas would completely alter the original shape and symmetry of this pipe. So, I planned on first filling up these dents and dings on the rim edge using briar dust and superglue to roughly match the surrounding intact rim surface and some more and then topping it to achieve a smooth even surface. Theoretically, this sounds logical.

I resorted to the layering method again; first I layered superglue along the damaged surfaces of the rim followed by sprinkling of briar dust, another layer of superglue followed by a final layer of briar dust. This final layer of briar dust reduces the probability of air pockets (or so I thought). In the second picture, you can see that the layering has not been done to the level of the rim surface but above the surrounding intact rim surface as I would be sanding the rim subsequently. I set the stummel aside to cure. I revisit the stummel the next evening after the repairs are completely cured and hard. Using flat needle files, I sand the repairs to achieve a rough match with the surrounding briar surface. Once I had achieved a rough match, I top the rim surface over a 220 grit sandpaper to even out the surface and achieve a perfectly even rim top surface. The inner and outer rim edges are still slightly uneven and shall be addressed next.To get the inner and out rim edges back to round, I created a bevel over the edges with a folded piece of 220 grit sand paper. I am pretty pleased with the progress being made thus far. It was now that I decided to address the numerous scratches over the stummel surface and the process of steaming these out is the best way forward. I assembled the items that are essential to this process; a wet Turkish towel, a knife and a candle. I heated my fabricated knife over the flame of the candle till it was really hot. I covered the scratched surface with the wet towel and placed the hot knife over it. The steam that is generated expands the briar raising the scratches to the surface. I repeated the process over the areas till the issue of scratches was addressed over the entire stummel surface. Though these scratches were pulled to the surface, I would still need to sand the stummel to eliminate them.Using a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper, I sand the scratched surfaces till these were completely eliminated. I followed the 220 grit sandpaper by sanding the surface with a piece of 800 grit sandpaper. However, here I also realized that this also resulted in losing the patina that I so dearly wanted to preserve. You win some and lose some, that’s how it always is!To further clean and highlight the grains, I sand the stummel with micromesh pads, wet sanding with 1500 to 12000 grit pads. I wiped the stummel after each wet pad with a moist cloth to remove the resulting dust and note the progress being made. I rub a small quantity of “Before and After Restoration Balm” in to briar and let it rest for a few minutes. The balm almost immediately works its magic and the briar now has a nice vibrant appearance. I further buff it with a horse hair shoe brush. I set the bowl aside and took to working on the stem. I once again cleaned the stem surface using the Scotch Brite sponge and followed it up by a scrub with 0000 grade steel wool. This helps in further removing the oxidation from the surface. I also ran a thin shank brush through the stem airway to ensure that it was clean and clear of all the soap deposits. I rubbed the stem with some EVO to hydrate the surface.To impart a deep black shine to the stem while getting rid of the oxidation from the stem surface, I wet sand the stem surface with 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit sand papers. I again rub the surface with some EVO to hydrate the stem and prevent oxidation from again creeping over the surface due to exposure to natural elements and set the stem aside.To bring a deep shine to the hard rubber stem, I polished the stem, wet sanding with 1500 to 12000 grit micromesh pads. I rubbed it down with Extra Virgin Olive oil to rejuvenate the hard rubber. The finished stem is shown below.With the stem refurbishing nearly completed, I took a long hard look at the stummel now bereft of the patina and the original dark reddish brown stain. I discussed with Abha about the difference in the appearance of the stummel at this stage in restoration from the way it appeared at the start. The unanimous decision was to stain the stummel to its original color or as close to it as possible and with the decision made; I decided to stain wash the stummel using Feibing’s Cordovan leather dye.

Using a heat gun, I warm the stummel to open the pores in the surface to accept the stain. I mix a small amount of alcohol with the dye to dilute it and apply it over the heated surface with a folded pipe cleaner. I set the stain by flaming it with the flame of a lighter as I went ahead to different self designated zones of the surface. This helps in the setting of the stain into the grain of the briar and set the stummel aside. The next evening, approximately 18 hours later, as Dal describes, I began to unwrap the stain in the hope to see beautiful grains. I mount a felt cloth buffing wheel on my hand held rotary tool and setting the tool at its slowest speed, I began to peel off the stain from the stummel surface first using Red compound. The stain was peeled out gradually revealing a nice shining surface and grains underneath the stain.Next, I mount a fresh felt cloth buffing wheel and polish the stummel with White Diamond compound. This further lightens the stain, highlighting the grains while imparting a nice shine to the stummel surface. The similar coloration achieved at this stage to the original color, uplifted my spirits sky high. I shall continue the polishing regime further using Blue diamond and finish off with carnauba wax polish.I have now reached the homestretch in this restoration project. To complete the restoration, I mount a cotton cloth buffing wheel on to my hand held rotary tool and polished the stummel and stem with Blue Diamond compound. This compound helps to remove the minor scratch marks that remain from the sanding while further highlighting the grain and lightening the stain. I mount another cotton buffing wheel that I have earmarked for carnauba wax and applied several coats of the wax. I finished the restoration by giving the entire pipe a rigorous hand buffing using a microfiber cloth to raise the shine further. The finished pipe looks amazingly beautiful and with the Cordovan stain, as good as original. In fact, the pipe looks much more endearing and beautiful in person than it does in the pictures below. It shall find a place of pride in my “American pipe makers” section of my personal collection. P.S. – This then is one project which has given me greatest of satisfaction that I have experienced after it’s completion.

I am not too concerned with successes or failures of any project. What matters to me is the journey.

A Rather Sad, Well Used Peterson March 17, 2009 B2 Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

Jeff went to the house and looked through the racks, pipe bags, tobacco – both bulk and tinned as well as a variety of pipes. All the pipes were well smoked and needed serious cleaning. Another one of the pipes that he picked up was this Peterson March 17 2009 with a black vulcanite taper fish tail stem. It was very dirty and was a reddish, brown coloured pipe when it started. The smooth finish around the bowl was dirty and had hand oils ground into the grooves. The bowl had a thick cake that overflowed in lava onto the rim edge and top of the bowl. The bottom of the bowl was flattened so the pipe could be set on a desktop. The stem was vulcanite that was very dirty and had the marks of a rubber Softee Bit on the end. It had become discoloured and there was a line where the debris from smoking had accumulated along the edge and under the bit protector. The good news was that there were only light tooth marks or chatter. The rest of the stem was dirty and had lost the characteristic shine. The pipe was stamped on the polished nickel band on the shank and read Peterson [arched over] a Shamrock with March 17 2009 arched underneath. On the right side of the shank it was stamped with the shape number B2. Jeff took photos of the pipe so I could have a sense of what it looked like before he started his work on it.Jeff took photos of the stem surfaces and the bowl and rim to give a sense of condition of the pipe. You can see the thick cake in bowl and the lava overflow on the edges and rim top of the bowl. It is had to know if there is any damage as the cake and lava is quite thick. The stem surface is very dirty and you can see the area on the end of the stem where the Softee Bit had protected it from chewing but had left it dirty and discoloured. The stem no longer fit in the shank correctly. He also took photos of the sides of the bowl and the heel to show the interesting grain that went around the bowl. There were a few spots on the right side of the bowl that seemed to have a flaw or a shrunken fill. The grain is beautiful and you can see the oils and debris in the grooves of the rim cap. He took photos of the stamping on the nickel band on the left side of the shank. He did not capture shape number on the right side. The stamping on the band is clear and readable as noted above.I did a bit of searching on the internet to see what I could find. Interestingly turning to Peterson’s Pipe Notes I found the pipe I have in my hand (https://petersonpipenotes.org/tag/st-patricks-day-pipe-2009/). Note that in Mark Irwin’s information below the date he gives for the shape I have is 2010 but the band on mine is definitely marked 2009. Ah well another Peterson anomaly. Either way it is a nicely shape Irish Bulldog.Now it was my turn to work on the pipe. Jeff had done an amazing cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the light cake with a PipNet reamer and cleaned up that with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the bowl and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the externals with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and rinsed the bowl off with running water. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe stem Deoxidizer and once it had soaked rinsed it off with warm water to remove the residual solution. He dried it off and rubbed it down to remove any oxidation that was still on the stem. The pipe looked very good when I received it. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition. You can see the clean bowl. The bowl is in excellent condition and is clean. The rim top has a small burn mark on the front inner edge and darkening on the back of the rim top and edges. The stem came out looking good. There were definitely light tooth marks and chatter on both sides. I took a photo of the stamping on the shank. The first photo shows that there is no stamping on the briar but the nickel band stamp is very clear. The shape number, B2 on the right side of the shank is also very clear. There was a faint remnant of the P stamp on the left side of the stem. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe parts to show what I was working with. I also took photos of the pipe with the longer Churchwarden stem in place. It is a nice looking pipe. I started my work on the pipe by addressing the damage on the inner edge of the rim. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the roughness. I then used 220 grit sandpaper and a wooden ball to give the inner edge of the bowl a slight bevel. It looked much better at this point in the process. I touched up the stain on the rim top with a Cherry Stain Pen and the match to the rest of the bowl is perfect. Once the bowl is finished it will blend very well.I sanded the briar rim top and the sides of the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad. By the time I finished with the 3500 grit pad the briar had taken on a rich glow. The pipe had cleaned up so well that I turned to polish the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded it with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth. By the final pads the briar really had a shine. I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to work it into the nooks and crannies of the sandblast finish. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe really comes alive with the balm. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the stem surface with the flame of a lighter. I was able to lift the tooth marks significantly. Those that remained were more like waves in the stem surface. I filled them in with a coat of clear CA glue and spread it across the surface with a dental spatula. Once the repairs cured I sanded it with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to flatten it further. I sanded it with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to further blend them in and smooth out the surface of the stem.The P stamp on the left side of the stem was faint but I thought I would give it a shot and see how it work. I painted the stamp with white acrylic fingernail polish and let it dry. Once it had dried I scraped off the excess and polished it with a worn 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad. It was faint though it is still readable.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. I put the stem back on the Peterson March 17 2009 B2 Bulldog and took it to the buffer. I worked it over with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches. I gave the bowl and the stem several coats of carnauba wax and 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 really well and the rim top looked good. I was happy with the look of the finished pipe. The photos below show what the pipe looks like after the restoration. The Peterson St. Patrick’s Day March 17, 2009 Irish Bulldog is a beautiful and unique take on a classic shape. The polished vulcanite taper stem looks really good with the browns of the briar. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.08 ounces/60 grams. This is another pipe that I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Irish Pipe Makers Section shortly, if you are interested in adding it to your collection. The long shank and tall bowl look and feel great in the hand. This one should be a great smoker. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me on this beauty!