I just finished cleaning up another of the old pipes I found on my trip. It is a petite pot shaped pipe with a pencil shank. The overall length is barely over 5 inches and the weight is negligible. It is stamped on the left side of the shank in arc – Old Pal, over an Eagle with spread wings and then underneath Made in France.

On the right side of the shank it is stamped 5 which I assume is the shape number. The stem is also stamped with the words OLD PAL on the left side of the saddle portion. On this particular pipe it is faint. In checking on the background information on “Who Made That Pipe” I found that it had two French makers for Old Pal listed. The first of those is Marechal Ruchon and Cie. (Incidentally it is the company that owned the GBD brand). The second maker listed is Rubinovich & Haskell Ltd. The bird emblem is probably the key, but I can find no reference to it. My own thinking is that the brand was made by Marechal Ruchon & Cie. I was able to dig up this brief summary of the MR&C brand. Ganeval, Bondier and Donninger began making pipes in 1850 and rapidly gained prominence in briar pipe making. Of the three, Bondier survived the others by 30 years, but new partners took their places. The name of the company changed to Bondier Ulrich & Cie, then Bine Marechal & Cie and finally to A Marechal, Ruchon & Cie. August Marechal and Ferdinand Ruchon saw the firm into the 20th century, their names being used for the company for well over 50 years.

Prior to 1899, Marechal, Ruchon & Co. became A. Oppenhiemer’s sole agent for cigarette papers but still remained in the pipe making business. Then in 1902, Marechal, Ruchon & Co.. owners of GBD and referred to as French pipe makers, merged with A. Oppenhiemer. In the 1915 London Directory of briar pipe makers one will find: “”Marechal, Ruchon & Co. – 38 Finsbury Sq. E.C.; London works, 15 & 16 Featherstone St. E.C. and Oppenhiemer, A. & Co. – 38 Finsbury Sq. E.C. listed separately.

With that background information I worked on this old pipe to clean it up and restore it. When I picked it up the bowl was badly caked and packed full. The rim was dirty and tarred with what appeared to be a fill on the top of the rim right side. The entire right side of the pipe was full of fills of various sizes and shaped. There was one fill on the left side as well. The grain on the bowl was mixed and the finish was pretty beat up. The fills were shrunken and they left small pits in the surface of the pipe. The stem was oxidized and had tooth chatter on both sides near the button. The shank and airway were dirty and tarry. When the stem was removed there was an interesting flared tube that extended into the shank from the end of the tenon. The end looked like the bell of a horn. This was badly tarred and the inside of the tube was packed with debris.

I separated the stem and the bowl. The bowl was reamed with a PipNet pipe reamer back to a thin cake. Then I dropped the bowl in an alcohol bath to soak away the grime and to soften the fills. I drop the stem in an Oxyclean bath to raise the oxidation and soften it. I scrubbed both while in their respective baths to loosen the grime and buildup on the surfaces. I removed the bowl from the alcohol bath after two hours of soaking. I cleaned out the inside of the shank and the bowl as well as the inside of the stem. The trumpet like tube came out of the tenon and I cleaned it inside and out and reset it in the tenon. It is an interesting contraption as it is flared and the flared end rests against the end of the mortise directing the smoke directly into the mouthpiece. I have not seen that design before (see the photo below after the stem cleanup paragraph).

I used a dental pick to dig out the fills that had softened in the bowl. My objective was to remove them altogether and replace them with a briar dust and superglue fill that turns black and gives a different look than the red putty fills.

After removing the fills I wiped down the bowl with acetone on a cotton pad to remove the finish from the bowl and to remove extraneous dust from the holes where the fills used to be. I repeated this process until the bowl was clean. Once finished I used a drop of superglue in each pit and then pressed briar dust into the holes using a dental pick. I repeated the process until the fills were repaired. I then sanded the bowl to remove the excess briar and superglue fill material with 220 grit sandpaper, medium grit sanding sponges and a fine grit sanding block.

The black marks on the right side of the bowl highlight the fills in the bowl. I have often used a permanent black marker to blend in the fills to the grain. I decided to try that with this pipe as well.

I gave the bowl several coats of dark brown aniline stain mixed 1:1 with alcohol. I applied the stain, flamed the bowl, reapplied and reflamed until the colour was even over the entire surface. I then took it to the buffer and buffed the bowl with red Tripoli and White Diamond to polish the stain. I also wanted to see how well the fill material was working. I have found that as it dries it can still shrink.

I brought it back to the work table and gave it a coat of linseed oil.

The fills had shrunk and left divots in several spots so I reapplied the superglue and briar dust (less this time around). I sanded the bowl with a sanding sponge and a fine grit sanding block to smooth out the surface. I reapplied the stain and the linseed oil and then buffed the bowl.

I took the stem out of the bath and wiped it down. The majority of the oxidation wiped off with a damp cloth and then I polished it with Meguiar’s Scratch X2.0 and wiped it off the stem. I wiped the stem down with a polishing cloth and buffed it with White Diamond.

I applied a coat of Obsidian Oil and when dry rubbed it off. I reinserted the stem and buffed the stem with multiple coats of carnauba wax. I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed the entirety with carnauba wax and a soft flannel buff to a shine. The following pictures show the finished pipe.

In the bright flash of the camera the fills on the right side of the bowl appear to stand out more than they do in the natural light. They tend to look dark spots in the birdseye of the grain. They do not stick out as badly as they appear in the photo below.

The final picture I have included is one of the Old Pal pipe with a package of Old Pal Pipe Cleaners that I picked up at an antique shop in Edmonton. The two form a nice complement to one another.