Tag Archives: reshaping a rim top and edge

A Second Pipe from the Old Gentleman’s Estate – A Cracked Shank Whitehall 1B Rustic Apple

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Blog by Steve Laug

I decided I needed a change of pace in my restoration/clean up work. I went through my pipes waiting in the queue and chose pone from a group of four pipes that were given to us by a woman in Columbus, Ohio, USA. It had belonged to her Grandfather who lived from 1882 to 1977. There were four pipes that she sent us from his estate – the metal bowled apple, a cased meerschaum with a broken shank and an amber stem, a Whitehall rusticated apple and a BBB Glokar Fraternity Pipe.Even though I generally pass on Whitehall pipes I decided to work on this one because it came with a great back story. The older pipe man who had used it obviously had enjoyed it beyond measure. Since he passed away in 1977 I knew that the pipe was much earlier than that. It was well smoked, reamed with a knife. And it had continued to be smoked even after the shank crack. I am guessing from the marks on the stem that the crack happened when he tried to remove the stem with a pair of pliers. The stamp on the left side of the shank read Whitehall 1B [over] Imported Briar. The pipe was dirty and well used. The finish had deep grime ground into the rustication around the bowl. The bowl had tobacco debris in it and a very thick cake overflowing as lava onto the rim top. The rim top looked to be in rough condition with damage from reaming and burns particularly on the back side of the edge and top. The stem was vulcanite and fit the cracked shank well. It had oxidation, calcification and deep gouges from pliers just behind the saddle. There were light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work.Jeff took photos of the rim top and bowl to show the condition. You can see the thick cake int eh bowl and the lava coat on the top of the rim. The inner edge of the bowl is a mess and very out of round. It was obviously her grandfather’s favourite pipe even though some of his others were nicer. The vulcanite saddle stem was oxidized, calcified and had deep nicks at the saddle end from what appeared to be pliers. It too was going to take some work. Jeff took photos of the cracked shank to show the condition of the crack. He also took photos of the damage to the stem surface just behind the saddle on both sides where it looks like the stem was twisted with pliers. Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the composition of the pipe. The combination of smooth and rustication is quite nice. There are Custom-bilt like channels from top to bottom of the bowl and horizontal rustication around the bowl between the channels. The rim top and top half of the bowl are smooth. The shank has horizontal rustication all around leaving a smooth panel on the left side for the stamping. It is quite nice looking. He took a photo of the stamping on the smooth panel on the left side of the shank. You can see that it is readable as noted above.I knew that there was a connection between Block Brothers Tobacco and Whitehall as I have had pipe coupons in boxes of Kentucky Club tobacco but I wanted to verify that and get the details. I turned to the listing on Pipedia for Whitehall and read it (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Whitehall). I quote from the site below.

Whitehall pipes are frequently misunderstood to be a model rather than an actual pipe company, which has led collectors to mistakenly ascribe their manufacture to Civic and Ben Wade (Who Made That Pipe; Wilczak & Colwell, 1997).  In fact, Whitehall refers to the pipe company (not a model), which itself produced models such as the Hialeah, Jumbos, London Hall, and Thermofilter.  The history of the Whitehall Pipe Co., Inc. (Richmond Hill, NY), is a complicated one, involving several parent companies and subsidiaries including Whitehall Products, Inc. (Helmetta, NJ), The Bloch Bros. Tobacco Co. (Wheeling, WV), Helme Products, Inc., apparently all subsidiaries of Culbro Corp. (owner also of General Cigar).  The “Imported Briar” stamp on many of the pipes, and the unmistakable Whitehall logo bearing resemblance to the American-made tobaccos of that brand strongly suggest that these are products made for the Whitehall Pipe Co., Inc., an American company.  There is furthermore no evidence that Civic or Ben Wade outsourced any manufactory of pipes to Italy; nor did Ben Wade manufacture pipes with aluminum screw tenons, paper filter inserts and molded acrylic stems.  For irrefutable proof that the American company Whitehall Pipe Co., Ltd., was, in fact, responsible for these brands, one need only consult the University of California, San Francisco “Truth Tobacco Archives” which clearly links these brands to the company (see image below) [on the Pipedia site]…

When the pipe arrived in Vancouver it was very clean. The briar and stem were spotless. The vulcanite stem looked much better and you can see the gouges in the top and underside behind the saddle. The crack in the shank was also very clean and ready to repair. Jeff had reamed the bowl with a Pipenet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the bowl walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the airway in the stem and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl and shank with Murphy’s Oil Soap (undiluted) and a tooth brush. He rinsed the exterior with warm running water and dried. He polished the briar and stem with a small drop of olive oil. The pipe really looked very good. It was going to be a fun one to work on for my part.  I took photos of the pipe when I brought it to the table for my work. This is what I saw. I took photos of the bowl and the rim top to show the condition. It is clean and the damage is quite extensive. The bowl is very clean and there were nicks, burn damage and cuts all around the inner edge and top. The bowl was out of round due to the damage. The crack on the top left of the shank is also visible in the photo below. The vulcanite stem is clean and the damage visible at the blade where it joins the saddle portion. The button and stem surface ahead of the button is clean and undamaged. I took a photo of the left shank side to capture the stamping on the briar. It is faint but it is still readable. I took a photo of the bowl and shank separated to show the condition of the pipe. It really is a great looking pipe.I started my work on the pipe by addressing the cracked shank. I smoothed out the end of the shank so that the band would fit smoothly and not be hampered by the rustication. I used the Dremel and a sanding drum to get it prepared for the band. I heated the band and pressed it onto the shank end. It fit well and bound the crack tightly together. With the shank repair complete I turned to address the issues with the rim top and edge. I started by smoothing out some of the damage with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I topped the bowl on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper to flatten on the damage on the rim top. I used a wooden ball and a piece of sandpaper to give the rim edge an inward bevel and smooth out the top. It looked much better! I filled in the damaged back inner edge of the bowl with clear CA glue and briar dust. The edge was damaged but it did not go deeply into the bowl. I sanded out the inside of the edge with a piece of 220 sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. I smoothed out the rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and bevelled the rim a bit more with the sandpaper. I stained the rim top with a Maple Stain Pen to match the smooth portions of the bowl. It was looking good. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I dry sanded the briar and then progressively brought a shine to the pipe. It looked really amazing – the combination of rustic and smooth portions of the briar. It is a beauty! I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the finish with my fingertips and a shoe brush. The product works to clean, preserve and protect the briar. I let it sit and absorb for 10 minutes. I buffed it off with a soft cloth and then gave it a rigorous buff to raise the shine. It looks good at this point. I filled in the gouges in the stem surface on both sides by the saddle with black CA rubberized glue. Once it cured I sanded it smooth with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing it with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper.I polished out the scratches left behind by the sandpaper on the stem surface with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil on a cloth after the sanding pads. I finished the hand polishing of the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both the Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian oil and set it aside to dry. I am really happy with the way that this Whitehall Rusticated Imported Briar 1B Apple turned out. It really is a beautiful looking pipe with a great shape and smooth finished on the upper half of the bowl and rusticated on the lower portion of the bowl and shank. The vulcanite saddle stem turned out very nice. The polished stem works well with the briar both the smooth and rusticated finish. The briar really came alive with the buffing. The rich brown stains of the finish gave the pipe a sense of depth with the polishing and waxing. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Whitehall Rusticated Saddle Stem Apple really is a beauty and feels great in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 27 grams/ .95 ounces. I will be putting the pipe on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipemakers Section. If you would like to add it to your collection let me know. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on!

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

Restoring a Sumptuous Davidoff

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by Kenneth Lieblich

Next on the chopping block is a bent Dublin sitter from the Swiss luxury brand, Davidoff. I acquired it from an older gentleman in Vancouver. He said he got this (and the other pipes I got from him) “fifty years ago” – his words. That would put it in the early to mid-seventies, which fits with the style of the pipe and with Davidoff’s history in pipes.To be honest, I was more familiar with Davidoff in the context of high-end cigars than I was with their pipes per se, so I did some digging. First, I went to Pipedia. They paraphrase (and don’t quote exactly) from José Manuel Lopes book:

Davidoff started in 1911 as a family run tobacconist located in Geneva. Henri Davidoff, a Russian emigrant, was the founder. The shop was located in Geneva. His son, Zino Davidoff (1906-1994), concentrated on the tobacco business, starting in 1924, and revolutionized the conservation of quality cheroots throughout Europe. Davidoff became world famous, and the company was acquired in 1970 by the Oettinger group, and expanded into numerous accessories for men. For Zino, the pursuit of pleasure was a constant, two of his maxims being: “Take pleasure from everything in life, without excess” and “the pipe is a valuable companion, the essence of tranquility and must be smoked with respect”. Davidoff’s first pipes date from 1974 [emphasis mine] and were commissioned by various companies, notably Butz-Choquin and the Cuty-Fort Group. The brand offers 14 classic shapes, in three finishes and with acrylic stems.According to Pipedia, Davidoff has this to say on their website about their own (current) pipes:

Creation of the Davidoff Pipe entails a meticulous, detailed process performed by only the most skilled Italian pipemakers. This dedication is why the Davidoff Pipe upholds a standard of quality and design found in no other pipe in the world. Made of the finest and carefully selected briar, each Davidoff Pipe features a flawless, hand-finished bowl and perfectly fitted, hand-cut acrylic stem. The Davidoff Pipe is available in three beautiful designs and finishes — sandblasted black, red brilliant and natural light brown.I also had a look at Pipephil, who confirmed that Davidoff pipes were carved by pipemakers of the Cuty-Fort group (Chacom, Jeantet, Vuillard, Jean Lacroix, Ropp, etc.).Davidoff is big enough and famous enough to be known outside the world of pipes. It has more than one website of its own, given that the company has been split up into different ranges. It also has a Wikipedia page, which I recommend reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davidoff. I quote just a bit here:

Davidoff is a Swiss premium brand of cigars, cigarettes and smoker’s accessories. The Davidoff cigarette brand has been owned by Imperial Brands after purchasing it in 2006. The non-cigarette portion of the Davidoff tobacco brand is owned by Oettinger Davidoff AG, which is based in Basel, Switzerland. Oettinger Davidoff AG manufactures a broad portfolio of cigars, cigarillos, pipe tobaccos and smoker’s accessories under the brands Davidoff, Camacho and Zino Platinum.

And this little nugget:

In 1972, the first Davidoff pipe tobaccos were released.

Taking all this information into account, the gentleman from whom I acquired this pipe must have purchased it right at the start of Davidoff’s production of pipes. This makes it an interesting piece of pipe history. Furthermore, it was possibly made by Butz-Choquin. I say only “possibly”, as I have some reservations about the BC connection.

Anyway, let’s take a closer look at the pipe – and it’s a real beauty. The left side of the shank has the word “Davidoff”. On the underside of the shank reads the number “32”, and the stem has the stylized “D” of the Davidoff company. Overall, the state of the pipe was good. It had clearly been sitting around for years and showed signs of wear and tear, but nothing major. The stem had some tooth dents and some kind of scraping, as if someone had tried to clean it in the past and done more harm than good. The button was dented too. This pipe must have been a great smoker and well-loved. It had some bangs and dents, but most of the damage was on the rim, including a notable gouge. The stem was first up. 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. Then I cleaned out the inside with pipe cleaners and lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. After that, I wiped down the stem with SoftScrub cleaner to remove surface oxidation. Once this process was done, the stem went for an overnight soak in the Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. This allows me to clean the oxidation off in a couple of ways: by applying a mild cleaner to the surface and sanding the stem. The next day, I used SoftScrub again with some cotton rounds and more oxidation came off. After this, I built up the dents on the stem with black cyanoacrylate adhesive and let the repairs fully cure. I used some nail polish to restore the logo on the stem. I painted the area carefully and let it set before proceeding. I then sanded the adhesive down – first with a small file – then with 220- and 400-grit sandpapers to meld seamlessly into the stem. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to bring out the lovely black lustre on the stem. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing.Moving on to the stummel, I started by reaming 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 I could. I took the chamber down to bare briar, as I wanted to ensure there were no hidden flaws in the wall. Fortunately, there were none. Due to the damage on the inside edge of the rim, I took some 220-grit sandpaper and tried to smooth some of that out too.Down in the shank, I noticed it was especially grungy, so I took a dental tool and dislodged some chunks of debris. After dealing with that mess, I proceeded to clean out the insides of the shank with Q-tips, pipe cleaners, and lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. It was pretty darn dirty 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 used cotton rounds and some Murphy’s Oil Soap to scrub the outside of the stummel and a toothbrush with Murphy’s for the lava on the rim of the pipe.I decided to de-ghost the pipe 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.I used cotton rounds and some Murphy’s Oil Soap to scrub the outside of the stummel and a toothbrush with Murphy’s for the lava on the rim of the pipe. I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some dish soap and tube brushes.Now with the stummel nice and clean, I could do a closer inspection of the pipe’s problems. In this image, you can see a couple of stains or burns on the front side of the stummel. Those would need to be dealt with. On the back, some scratches needed addressing. Again, back to the rim, there was some light burning and a notable gouge that I’d have to fill in. Having completed that, I was able to address the small nicks on the bowl. I dug out my iron and a damp cloth to try to raise the nicks. The hot and moist steam can often cause the wood to swell slightly and return to shape. To my joy, this worked wonderfully. The repair was not perfect, but the remaining scratches would be improved by sanding.A few tiny fills were addressed with cyanoacrylate. For the gouge on the inside edge of the rim, I made a mixture of briar dust and CA glue and applied it. This also came out well. I took a solid wooden sphere, wrapped a piece of 220-grit sandpaper around it, and sanded the inner side of the chamber. This achieved two things: first, it removed some of the burn marks on the inner edge of the rim; and second (and more importantly), the motion of the sphere gradually returned the edge to a perfect circle. I took quite a bit of time to ensure that the crown of the rim was maintained in its shape, and also beautified. Finally, I used all nine micromesh pads to smooth and polish it up. After that, a light application of Before & After Restoration Balm brought out the best in the stummel’s grain. This is a very elegant pipe. A dose of White Diamond and a few coats of carnauba wax were applied with my bench polisher and – wow – we have a real looker! This Davidoff looks magnificent again and is ready to be enjoyed again by the next owner! I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the “Various Makers” 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 5 in. (1247 mm); height 2⅛ in. (54 mm); bowl diameter 1½ in. (38 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (20 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅜ oz. (41 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.

This Old CPF French Briar Rhodesian was in rough shape

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I chose to work on from the lot of the lot of pipes my brother and I picked up on our virtual pipe hunt in Montana is another C.P.F. French Briar. This one is a Rhodesian shape with a chubby shank. It is an interesting shape and the carving around the band separating the cap from the body of the bowl. The band on the shank is loose and has turned so that the C.P.F. stamp on the band is on the other side. The finish is very dirty and the rim cap and top is heavily damaged. The horn stem is worn and there is tooth chatter on the top and underside of the stem near the button. There is a wrinkle in the horn on the underside mid stem. The stem looks like someone has either wrapped it or there is a gasket to keep it in place. The photos below show what it looked like before my brother did his clean up on it. If you would like to read about some of the others I have restored I have written about them in individual blogs. They include a CPF horn stem bulldog, a CPF French Briar bent billiard and a CPF Remington French Briar military mount billiard. (You can access them by clicking on the CPF Name above for a hyperlink to the blog). Just a reminder – CPF stands for Colossus Pipe Factory. The brand was made in the late 1880s and 1890s.Jeff took the above photo and the photos that follow to show the condition of the pipe before he cleaned it up. This sad little Rhodesian comes from the same era as the other pipes in this find – the late 1880s – early 1890s. If I thought the silver mount billiard was in bad shape this one was in worse condition than any of previous pipes I had worked on from this lot. It was worn and was in rough condition. The finish was worn off and appeared to be flaking in place. There were a lot of nicks, scratches around the outside of the bowl. The outside of the bowl was covered with grime, grit and was peeling. The rim of the bowl and top edge of the pipe were in abysmal condition. The rim had been knocked out on hard surfaces and burned. There were huge chunks missing all around the rim top. The front of the bowl was in worse condition than the back and sides. The height of the top cap was different all the way around. Once again there was a thick, crumbling cake buildup in the bowl and the lava from the bowl overflowed onto the damaged top of the rim. The band on the shank end was oxidized and the stamping on it was almost illegible. The horn stem had tooth marks on the top and underside near the button. There is a wrinkle in the horn on the underside mid stem.Jeff took close up photos of the rim top to show how bad it looked before he started the clean up. The thick cake and lava overflow on the rim filled in a lot of the damage. The full extent of the damage would be revealed once the cake was removed and the lava was cleaned. The third photo below shows the rim from one side and you can see the damage on that side. The next two photos show the condition of the bowl sides and the flaking finish. The damage on the rim edge also can be seen in the pictures.The stamping on the left side of the shank was readable – it had the C.P.F. logo in an oval with the words French Briar above and below the oval. The band on the shank end had the faux hallmark stamps that I was familiar with as well as the C.P.F. oval. The second photo shows something in between the shank and the stem. The first photo below shows the stem and the wrapping or gasket between the shank and stem. It is followed by photos that Jeff took when he removed the stem showing the wrapping – a thread of twine wrapped around the tenon to hold it in place in what appeared to be worn out threads in the mortise itself.The horn stem showed some tooth chatter, bite marks and what looked like wrinkles on the underside, but it was in better condition than the other previous horn stems I had worked on.Following his usual pattern, Jeff thoroughly cleaned the pipe. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and tidied up with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime and grit on the bowl. He scrubbed the damaged rim top with a tooth brush and the oil soap. He scrubbed the band and stem at the same time to clean it. I took photos of the pipe to show the condition it was in when it arrived in Vancouver. You can see the damaged rim top and edges and the fill on the right side of the bowl. The condition of the briar is rough and the stem is oxidized. The band was loose so I removed it from the shank to clean it. I took a photo of the pipe parts.I took a close up photo of the rim top to show how great a job my brother did on it but also the extent of the damage that would need to be addressed in the repair.The stem was clean in decent shape. Very few tooth marks were on the top and bottom sides and those would be easy to deal with. The button was in excellent condition.I mixed a putty of super glue and briar dust to use for rebuilding the rim on the bowl and the top edge. The damage was quite significant so the repair would be extensive. I was hoping that it would work. Once it dried I topped the bowl on the topping board with 220 grit sandpaper and worked the inner edge with a folded piece of the same sandpaper. The repair came out quite well and gave me something to work with in the finished pipe. I polished the band with 1200-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads to remove the tarnish and corrosion from the surface. It worked really well and left behind a polished brass band. When I finished polishing the band I used an all purpose glue to glue it in place on the shank with the stampings aligned with those on the briar. I wiped down the bowl with alcohol on a cotton pad to remove the remaining sanding dust from the bowl and any grit that had accumulated in the carvings from my sanding. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cotton pad to remove the dust after each set of pads. I stained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain mixed with isopropyl alcohol in a 50/50 ratio. I flamed it and repeated the process until I was happy with the finish. I wiped the bowl down with cotton pads wetted with isopropyl to thin the stain and give it more transparency. When I finished that I buffed it with red Tripoli and sanded it down with 1500-12000 grit micromesh pads to polish it and give it the look that I was aiming for. The pictures tell the story. With the bowl done, except for the final buffing I turned my attention to the stem. The first thing I had to deal with was the worn threads in the mortise. I decided to fill in the threads on the tenon with super glue and make the stem a push stem. I could have removed the threaded tenon and inserted a new push tenon like those on meerschaum pipes but I wanted to keep the original look of the tenon and mortise so I figured that I could convert the stem to push status by simply building up the threads. I layered on clear super glue until I had the build up shown in the photos below. I still needed to sanded it smooth and reapply a final coat but you can see the process.I sanded out the tooth marks in the stem and worked on the “wrinkles” in the underside of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper until they were smooth. I worked on some of the marks at the tenon end of the stem at the same time as it seemed rough to touch.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each pad to give the horn some needed oil to help with the dry feel that it had after over a hundred years of smoking. You can follow the development of the shine in the photos that follow. I love the feel and look of polished horn. There is nothing quite like it for translucency and feel. I had forgotten to touch up the gold leaf in the stamping on the shank up to this point so I applied some Rub ‘n Buff European Gold to the stamping with a cotton swab and rubbed off the excess. The stamping on this pipe was in excellent condition so it came out really readable.I buffed the pipe and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish out the scratches that remained and to give it a shine. I was careful to avoid damaging the gold stamping on the shank. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect the horn and the briar. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine on the horn and the stem. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown below. I am pretty happy how it came out considering what I started with. The rim and cap look the age of the pipe but the damage is gone and the pipe is ready for another 100 years. Thanks for going through the process with me on this challenging restoration.