Tag Archives: restaining a bowl and rim

New Life for a Ser Jacopo Delecta Octagonal Bent Billiard with a Black Acrylic Saddle Stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

A few weeks ago I was contacted from a fellow in Montana who was selling his pipes as they had not been used for quite a few years. I asked him for a picture and he sent me the one to the left. It included the following brands (from the top to the bottom of the photo): Savinelli Autograph 5 Freehand, Mastro de Paja Ciocco 0C Bulldog, Mastro de Paja Media 1B Bent Billiard, Ser Jacopo Delecta Octagonal Bent Billiard, Caminetto Business KS 118 Canadian, Radici Rind Rhodesian, Dunhill Bruyere ODA 836 Panel Billiard, Barontini Straight Grain B3 Freehand and a Ben Wade Martinique Hand Made in Denmark Freehand.

Almost all of them were higher end pipes and all were hand made pipes. They were a mix of finishes – smooth, sandblast and also rusticated. They were a mix of shapes as well and the majority of them were Italian Made other than the Dunhill and the Ben Wade Martinique. They were beautiful pipes and after exchanging quite a few photos of the pipes from various angles to get a sense of what was there we struck a deal. We sent him the payment and the pipes arrived in Idaho a few days after I left for Vancouver.

Jeff cleaned them all and this week I received them in Vancouver. I am impressed with the way they cleaned up and the beauty of the brands. They truly are some beautiful pipes. I just need to put the final touches on each of them and address minor issues on the bowl rims and the stems and they should be good to go. I am really looking forward to working on each of them in the days ahead.

This evening after work I decided to continue working on the lot. I chose to work on the smooth octagonal bent Billiard with a silver ferrule and tip on the stem. It has a classic Large Bent Octagonal Billiard shape with an Italian twist. The is smooth and well shaped.  There is a silver ferrule round the shank end as well as a silver band around the tenon end of the stem. The pipe is stamped on three sides of the shank. On the left side it Ser Jacopo [over] Fatta A Mano (made by hand). On the underside of the shank it is stamped Delecta. The stamping on the right side of the shank it read Per Aspera [over] Ad Astra. The silver ferrule is stamped on the top left side and reads Ser [over] Jacopo [over] Delecta. On the underside it is stamped 925 in an oval as the silver quality designation. There is a coral dot logo is on top side of the stem. The stamping is clear and readable. The reddish stained finish was very dirty with grime ground into the smooth briar. The bowl had a moderate cake and the rim top/inner edge had some lava flowing up from the bowl. The inner edge of the bowl was covered with some lava so it was hard to know its condition with certainty. The stem is black acrylic fancy saddle stem and was dirty with tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. The silver ferrule and tenon end were oxidized and dirty. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on it. Jeff took photos of the bowl and rim top to show what they looked like before the clean up. You can see the cake in the bowl overflowing on the inner edge rim top. He also took some photos of the stem to show the condition of both sides. You can see the tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside next to the button. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show the grain around the bowl and shank. The stain adds depth finish on the pipe. Even under the grime it is a real beauty. The stamping on the sides of the shank and on the silver ferrule is shown in the photos below. It is clear and readable as noted above. I turned to Pipephil (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-s5.html) to remind myself of the background of the brand. I also wanted to see what the single Coral dot meant on the stem. I knew that the Coral dot was on the older pipes but that was all I knew. I include a screen capture of the section on the brand below. The third photo below shows a similar Coral dot on the stem.I am also including the information that I found there in the sidebar on PipePhil. I quote that below. I have highlighted the R2 designation below in red.

Founder of the brand in 1982: Giancarlo Guidi (1943 – †2012). Production (2006): ~ 6000 pipes/year. Ser Jacopo seconds: Gepetto.

Finish mark: Rusticated pipes: R1 (dark brown) R2 (light brown); Sandblasted pipes: S (black), S1 (dark brown), S2 (light brown), S3 (tanshell); Smooth pipes: L (red), L1 (acceptable grain), L2 (nice grain), L3 (exceptional grain).

I then turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Ser_Jacopo) to read some more about the brand and see if there were more details regarding the single Coral dot. I quote below.

Ser Jacopo (provided by Marble Arch Ltd., US importer and distributor of Ser Jacopo)

Smokingpipes.com has an excellent concise history available on their website Ser Jacopo History at Smoking Pipes.com

Ser Jacopo, better to say Ser Jacopo dalla Gemma, was started by Giancarlo Guidi in 1982 upon leaving Mastro de Paja.

Giancarlo Guidi and Bruto Sordini broke away from Mastro de Paja in 1981 in pursuit of their own company. Ser Jacopo was named after an Italian nobleman. Guidi and Sordini, having taken part in creating the now infamous Pesaro “school” of pipe making, wanted to expand further. To accomplish this, Ser Jacopo focused their efforts on the pairing of the briar with a seemingly endless variety of mounts. Through the use of precious metals and stones, horn, and exotic woods Ser Jacopo pipes are given unique characters that many collectors find quite aesthetically pleasing. Although Ser Jacopo pipes borrow heavily from classical shapes, they are indeed quite unique in style.

In addition to creative mountings, Ser Jacopo is also well known for making themed pipes, and the most famous of these themes is perhaps the Picta Series, where pipes are modeled after pipes seen in pictures by and of famous artists, such as Vincent Van Gough.

Ser Jacopo makes multiple grades of pipes, with the “entry” level being the Geppetto brand, and the highest grade being the “Gem” series.

The small Ser Jacopo shop produces approximately 6000 pipes per year. The pipes are known for using outstanding Italian briar, which is well seasoned. The pipes have earned a well-deserved reputation for having excellent smoking qualities, equal or better than any other fine Italian pipe maker (or, for that matter, any other pipe maker in the world).

Giancarlo Guidi passed away on August 6, 2012, leaving behind a great legacy. He was 64 years old.

Nomenclature – the section on the nomenclature helps understand the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is helpful and really quite interesting.

The standard nomenclature found on Ser Jacopo pipes is as follows:

Ser Jacopo Fatta A Mano In Italia Per Aspera Ad Astra – Fatta A Mano translates to “Made By Hand”. Per Aspera Ad Astra is a Latin phrase found on Ser Jacopo pipes and is the Ser Jacopo motto. It translates to “To the Stars Through Travails”, meaning that success comes through hard work. In the Summer 1997 Pipes and Tobaccos article Giancarlo Guidi translated this as “through a difficult way until the stars are reached”.

Ser Jacopo Pipes are generally found in one of three finishes (rusticated, sandblast, smooth) designated by a letter and number code:

R1: Rusticated, dark brown or plum finish.

R2: Rusticated, light brown finish.

S:  Sandblast, black

S1: Sandblast, dark brown

S2: Sandblast, light brown

S3: Sandblast, tanshell

L:  Smooth, red, usually with silver trim

L1: Smooth, flame grain, various finishes

L2: Smooth, straight grain, various finishes

L3: Smooth, straight grain extra, discontinued

Dating Pipes

In the photo to the left you can see the development of the stem inserts on the pipes.

Top: Early Red Coral Logo Middle: Coral Logo with Silver Ring Bottom: Modern Day Silver J Logo – Courtesy of Mike Ahmadi

Ser Jacopo pipes is somewhat difficult, because Ser Jacopo does not generally use date codes (the exception being the Diamond Gemma series pipes, which are dated coded). Early pipes (from 1983 to 1997) featured a red coral dot on the mouthpiece, sometimes found encircled in a silver ring. This was discontinued and changed to a sterling silver letter “J”. On the Gemma series of pipes, the mouthpiece logo is a precious stone surrounded by an 18k gold ring.

The pipe I am working on is one of the early pipes (1983-1997) with a coral dot in the top of the saddle stem. It is a lovely pipe with an L Red finish and silver trim. Now it is time to work on the pipe and bring it back to life.

Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe itself. Before he sent it to me, Jeff had done an amazing job cleaning the pipe. It almost looked like a different pipe after his work. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife.  He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. The finish looked very good and the rugged finish felt good in the hand. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and then rinsed it off with warm water. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and a tooth brush and rinsed it off with warm water. It looked good when I took it out of the package of pipes he shipped me. There were some shiny spots on the finish where the shellac coat had not all come off. It would need to be removed to even it out. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration work.  I took close up photos of both the rim top and the stem. Jeff had been able to get the grime and lava off of the rim top and it looked very clean. You can see the spotty shellac coat that still remains on the bowl and rim top. The stem looked very clean. The tooth marks and chatter were much less than on the previous pipes in this collection and they were predominantly near the button. They should be easy to remove. The stamping on the sides of the shank was readable as noted above. I took photos of the stamping on each side to show the condition and readability. I also took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to give an idea of the perspective and design of the pipe. To deal with the spotty coat of shellac on the bowl and shank I used a cotton pad and alcohol to wipe down the briar. I was able to remove the shellac coat completely and the grain really showed through. Here is what it looks like at this point in the process. I polished the smooth bowl and rim top with micromesh sanding pads using 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and wiping it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust and debris. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the bowl and shank with my fingers. I want the product to go deep into the finish because it works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. Once I was confident that it was deeply worked into the finish I wiped it off and buffed it with a soft cloth to polish it. The pipe really began to have a rich shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The grain really stands out on the pipe in the photos below. I set the bowl aside and turned to work on the stem. I sanded out the tooth marks in the acrylic surface of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and started the polishing with a folded piece of 600 grit wet dry sandpaper.I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad.I polished it with Before & After Pipe Polish – both the Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry. This Ser Jacopo Delecta Octagonal Bent Billiard with Silver Ferrule and an acrylic saddle stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The beautiful finish really highlights the grain and the polished finish is stunning. The Silver Ferrule and Silver tenon space is also a great addition. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Ser Jacopo Delecta Octagonal Bent Billiard fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 87 grams /3.03 ounces. I will be adding the pipe to the Italian Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store. If you are interested in purchasing this pipe send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

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

New Life for a Radice Rind Rusticated Rhodesian Style Freehand

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Blog by Steve Laug

A few weeks ago I was contacted from a fellow in Montana who was selling his pipes as they had not been used for quite a few years. I asked him for a picture and he sent me the one to the left. It included the following brands (from the top to the bottom of the photo): Savinelli Autograph 5 Freehand, Mastro de Paja Ciocco 0C Bulldog, Mastro de Paja Media 1C Bent Billiard, Ser Jacopo Delecta Octagonal Bent Billiard, Caminetto Business KS118 Canadian, Radice Rind Rhodesian, Dunhill Bruyere ODA 836 Panel Billiard, Barontini Straight Grain B3 Freehand and a Ben Wade Martinique Hand Made in Denmark Freehand.

Almost all of them were higher end pipes and all were hand made pipes. They were a mix of finishes – smooth, sandblast and also rusticated. They were a mix of shapes as well and the majority of them were Italian Made other than the Dunhill and the Ben Wade Martinique. They were beautiful pipes and after exchanging quite a few photos of the pipes from various angles to get a sense of what was there we struck a deal. We sent him the payment and the pipes arrived in Idaho a few days after I left for Vancouver.

Jeff cleaned the all and today I received them in Vancouver and I am impressed with the way they cleaned up and the beauty of the brands. They truly are some beautiful pipes. I just need to put the final touches on each of them and address minor issues on the bowl rims and the stems and they should be good to go. I am really looking forward to working on each of them in the days ahead.

This evening after work I decided to start on the lot. I chose to work on the Radice Rind Rhodesian. It is a rusticated classic shaped Rhodesian with an Italian twist. The rustication is very dirty with grime and grit. It is a unique and well executed rustication that is a hallmark of the line. The pipe has twin smooth rings around the cap of the bowl. Under the thick coat of lava there appears to be a smooth rim top with an inward bevel. The bowl has a very thick cake that overflows on to the rim top. The shank end also has a smooth band around it and a smooth shank end with beautiful grain on it. The pipe is stamped on a smooth panel on the underside of the shank. It reads RADICE [over] RIND followed by Hand Made in Italy (in lower case) in two lines. The stamping is clear and readable. The rim top was dirty and had a burn on the right front of the inward bevel and what appeared to be some darkening around the inner edge of the bowl. The stem is acrylic and was dirty with light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button and on the button itself. There two brass dots inlaid vertically on the topside of the fancy saddle stem. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on it.Jeff took photos of the bowl and rim top to show what they looked like before the clean up. You can see the darkening and light lava on the inner edge and top of the rim. He also took some photos of the stem to show the condition of both sides. You can see the light marks on the top and underside next to the button. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show the style of the rustication around the bowl and shank. The stain adds depth finish on the pipe. Even under the grime it is a real beauty. The stamping on the underside of the shank is shown in the photo below. It is clear and readable as noted above. The Radice two dot stack on the stem is clean and readable.I started my search on the brand by looking on Pipephil’s site to see if there was any information on the Radice Rind line (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-r1.html). The line was not included there but there was some information in the side bar on the dot position on the stem and how to interpret them. I have included that portion below.I turned to Pipedia to the article on Radice pipes and the birth and development of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Radice). I have included the information that I found there below.

Luigi Radice, born 1939, took a piece of briar in his hands for the first time in 1961, when he was employed at Carlo Scotti’s Castello in nearby Cantu.

After lengthy experience, he founded, together with Peppino Ascorti, the famous “Pipa del Baffo”, the “Caminetto” which through 1974 and 1975 made wealth with the precious cooperation of Gianni Davoli, Milanese distributor.

In 1980 Luigi undertook a new adventure, founding his own brand: the Pipa Radice. From the beginning his son, Gianluca, joined the workshop, together with Luigi’s father, Paolo Radice, who helped in some basic steps of production.

Only later my brother and I started working together with our father, trying to learn the secrets and the mastery to be able to create a pipe which could join artisanal estrus(?) to functionality.

We have always trusted the professionalism of Italian briar cutters to obtain the raw material. We season the briar in our workshop for at least three years. We believe that it is enough to produce a perfect pipe.

Our shaping is pretty diversified. A distinguishing feature is the use of various options, like the faux-bamboo shank or silver band or save-rim, hand engraved by Luigi.

About pipes for completely dedicated collectors, we would like to mention the several variations of pieces made using buffalo, moufflon, deer or roe horn.

The creative idea and the study of the technical side, lead us to invent pipes with a twin bore mouthpiece, coupled with a special production of oil cured pipes, taking inspiration from old English skills.

We have recently introduced the use of ebonite(vulcanite) mouthpieces, to satisfy the requests of our fellow pipesmokers.

Radice is a pipe which is continually evolving, keeping alive the treasured experience of 50 years of pipemaking of our father Luigi.

Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had cleaned up the pipe with his usual thoroughness. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife.  He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe once I received it. I took close up photos of both the rim top and the stem. Jeff had been able to get the grime and lava off of the rim top and it looked pretty incredible. Even the darkening and marks on the rim top on the right side look much better. The stem looked very clean. The tooth marks and chatter were minimal and predominantly on the underside near the button. They should be easy to remove. The stamping on the shank side was readable as noted above. I also took a photo with the stem removed to give an idea of the perspective and design of the pipe.I started my work on the pipe by addressing the slight darkening on the top and the edge of the bowl with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to remove the damage and the darkening. Over all the rim top and edges looked much better. I polished it with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and wiped off the debris. I touched up the stain on the rim top with a Cherry and a Mahogany stain pen to blend it into the surrounding bowl colour and particularly the smooth shank end. It worked very well. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the bowl and shank with my fingers and a horsehair shoe brush. I want the product to go deep into the finish because it works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. Once I was confident that it was deeply worked into the finish I wiped it off and buffed it with a soft cloth to polish it. The pipe really began to have a rich shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The finish on the pipe is beautiful in the photos below. I set the bowl aside and turned to work on the stem. I sanded out the tooth marks and chatter on the surface of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper. I started polishing it with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper.I polished the acrylic stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Polish – both the Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I gave it a final coat of oil and set it aside to dry.This Radice Rind Hand Made in Italy Rhodesian Freehand with an acrylic saddle stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The beautiful rusticated finish really works well with the shape and the polished finish is stunning. The flared shank and smooth freehand style shank end is a great addition. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the smooth portions of the bowl and the stem 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 on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Radice Rind Rhodesian fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 66 grams /2.33 ounces. I will be keeping this one here for awhile. I have been wanting a Radice Rind and this one ticks all my boxes. I am looking forward to enjoying it. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

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

Dipping a Toe into the Murky Waters of the BP Jum

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by Kenneth Lieblich

Next on the chopping block is a robust, rugged, rusticated pipe which I acquired in a lot of pipes from a gentleman living on Vancouver Island. He had quite an assortment of pipes and they ranged from the ridiculous to the sublime. This is not a Custom-Bilt – it is a BP Jum. They could easily be mistaken for one another. This is a very handsome pipe and promises to be a great smoker. It’s a bent pot (or a “War Club”, as Steve calls it), with a vulcanite, wide saddle stem. And what a wonderful rustication on this one! On the left side of the shank, the markings read BP Jum [over] Imported Briar. These are the only markings.The history of BP Jum, like many pipes of the same era, is shrouded in some mystery. The brand name has no mention on either Pipedia or Pipephil. Some pipe folks have proposed that BP Jum pipes are, in fact, Custom-Bilt seconds, but there is no direct evidence to support this. In previous restorations that Steve has done, he wrote the following: “There was a lot of conjecture as to whether the brand was made by Tracy Mincer of Custombilt fame. There is no definitive proof other than the common shapes, sizes and look of the pipes. Bill Unger, of Custombilt fame and author of a history of the brand, mentions BP Jum but cannot definitively connect the two. So the maker remains a mystery that is still unsolved.”

Well, I’ve taken up the mantle to see what else could be found. A gentleman who commented on one of Steve’s restorations said “BP Jum pipes are shown in a 1971 Kentucky club premiums [sic] catalog I have. They are not labeled in the text but I can see it stamped on shank of the picture of the pipe. The rustication on these is also very telling and looks the same on most of them.” I took it upon myself to see if I could find photos of the 1971 Kentucky Club Premium Catalog. I did find some online, but the images did not include the page with the BP Jums that were mentioned. Alas.Another potential source is a fellow named Tom, who goes by the handle, NWPipesmoker, on YouTube. As a devoted fan of both Custom-Bilt and BP Jum pipes, he has a few videos speculating on the origins of BP Jum pipes. In one video, he quotes from an unnamed correspondent of his who says that the BP Jum name comes from “Bilmore Pipes Jumbo”. Now, it is important to stress that there is only circumstantial evidence to support this. The information is enticing, but no more than indirect. The advertisement below (for Biltmore) displays some drawings of pipes that are very close (or identical) to BP Jum pipes. We don’t see the words “BP Jum” anywhere on the pipes or in the ad, but I am still impressed with this.As an aside, the connection between Tracy Mincer’s Custom-Bilt and Biltmore is circuitous, to be sure, but it exists. Briefly, both Bilmore pipes and Mincer pipes (specifically the Doodler) were either owned by or produced by National Briar Pipe Co. of New Jersey. In Bill Unger’s book, As Individual as a Thumbprint: The Custom-Bilt Pipe Story, he writes: “Apparently, both Tracy Mincer and the National Briar Pipe Co. continued to produce Doodlers concurrently until Mincer was no longer able to make pipes, sometime before his death in 1964. Bill Mincer then sold all rights to the Doodler to the National Pipe Co. in 1966.”Finally, NWPipesmoker has another video where he compares two pipes that he owns: one marked “Custom-Bilt” and the other marked “BP Jum”. He has entitled this video, “CustomBilt and BP Jum connection confirmed”. I think that’s overstating it a bit, but I am including the link to this video here, for your examination: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdsBYoydYu8

It is certainly possible (and perhaps even likely) that Custom-Bilt and BP Jum pipes are related in some way – even if we are not able to make a definitive statement about it. I feel comfortable in saying that there is a connection between the pipes, but this connection is not ironclad. To put it colloquially, they may be brothers but they are not twins.

Let’s move on…

This pipe had been well-loved and well-smoked, as it arrived with some marks and general wear. The stem was dirty and had lots of dents and tooth marks. Most of the stummel was in decent shape, but the rim was pretty nasty – the were burns and lava, and the rustication grooves were full of gunk. I took up the stem and cleaned it off with Murphy’s Oil Soap. It was quite dirty and needed some scrubbing. Following that, I used pipe cleaners and lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol to clean out the internals of the stem. As you can see, there was much muck to be removed! Next, I wiped down the stem with some SoftScrub cleanser and then put the stem in my container of deoxidizing fluid. This works to draw the oxidation to the surface of the stem, so that it can be cleaned off again with more SoftScrub. With the stem nice and clean, I needed to address the damage to the stem. To achieve this, I applied a type of black cyanoacrylate adhesive (impregnated with carbon and rubber) to the damaged area. I sprayed these areas with an accelerant to cure the adhesive immediately. I then had to shape these repairs so that they would look great! I began by taking a needle file and shaping the hardened adhesive. Continuing, I used 200- and 400-grit sandpapers on the repairs to smooth them out. I finished up by using all nine of my MicroMesh pads to sand the entire stem. I also used some pipe stem oil to assist with the sanding and protect the vulcanite.Having put aside the stem, I moved on to the charming, chunky stummel. First on the agenda was to ream out the bowl, as it was full of cake. The PipNet reamer made short work of this, and I followed up by sanding the walls down with some 220-grit sandpaper attached to a wooden dowel. This revealed a tiny bit of damage to interior wall – but this would be easily fixed.Next on the list, I thoroughly cleaned out the shank. Using a combination of Q-tips and pipe cleaners dipped in lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol, I removed all the awful filth in there. The photo shows a mere portion of the cotton used. As the girls in the 80s used to say, grody to the max!I always like to ameliorate the cleaning of the stummel by performing a “de-ghosting” on the stummel. I placed some cotton balls in the bowl and the mortise of the shank, then saturated them with straight isopropyl alcohol. I let this sit overnight while the oils and tars (and evil spirits) leeched into the cotton.I broke out the Murphy’s again and wiped down the outside with some cotton rounds. Once I felt the outside was clean, I then took out my two brushes and castile soap and washed both the inside and outside. The internals were lovely and clean after that – but there were still some issues on that rim.Even though I’d used both a toothbrush and a wire brush on the rim, there was still some filth to be dealt with – not to mention some burning. I began by “topping” the pipe – in other words, I placed the top of the pipe, level and flat, on a piece of 220-grit sandpaper and gently ground it down to smooth and even out the rim. The rim still required a bit more beautification. I took a small piece of sandpaper and evened out some rough parts that topping wasn’t able to address.I then went “next level” insane. I took a dental tool and individually excavated each groove on the rim to remove the crud. It took awhile, but the results were worth it.In order to address the burns, I dissolved some oxalic acid crystals in some hot water. Then, taking a Q-tip and tipping it in the acid, I rubbed and rubbed and rubbed until it removed most of the burning that was there. It didn’t all come off (it rarely does), but was much improved. Once I was satisfied with that, the finishing sanding was next, so I took all nine of my MicroMesh pads and sanded the whole stummel until it was super-smooth and handsome. The pipe had benefitted from a lot of work, but this wore out the colour of the wood. I decided to restain the pipe. First, I brought out my heat gun and spent a couple of minutes thoroughly heating the wood, so it would be as receptive as possible to the stain. I wanted the stain to penetrate well into the wood, to give the best results. I applied Fiebing’s Light Brown Leather Dye with a cotton dauber. I flamed it with my Bic lighter, let it set, then coated it again with dye, flamed it again, and let that set too. I decided to let the pipe sit overnight. This dye is alcohol-based, so I used isopropyl alcohol to wipe down the pipe and remove excess stain. I am very happy with the results.Earlier, I referred to a little hairline crack emanating from the draught hole. Steve recommended repairing it some pipe mud. This is made by mixing cigar ash (not pipe ash) with the merest bit of water to create a paste. I then applied the paste with a tiny spatula and let it set until dry. I then gently sanded it down. Later, I added some Before & After Restoration Balm to the stummel. This does good things to wood, enhances the grain, and brings out some lustre. Then it was off for a trip to the buffer. I applied a few coats of Conservator’s Wax and the pipe really popped. The lovely shine made the wood very attractive. This is a very handsome pipe and will provide many years of smoking pleasure.This BP Jum is much improved and is ready to be enjoyed again by the next owner. I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the American 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 5⅜ in. (137 mm); height 1⅝ in. (41 mm); bowl diameter 1⅞ in. (48 mm); chamber diameter ⅞ in. (24 mm). The weight of the pipe is 2⅛ oz. (61 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.

Pipe Gods Smiled And I Got Not One But Three Les Wood Pipes….Restoring Second Of The Three Les Wood Pipes; A Bark Silver Spigot

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Blog by Paresh Deshpande

I had purchased three Les Wood pipes from a gentleman and had restored the first of the three pipes and have added it to my personal collection. Given below is the link to the write up posted on rebornpipes and is a recommended read to know how I came to be in possession of this lot and brief research on husband wife duo of Leslie Wood and Dolly and the pipes they make.

https://rebornpipes.com/2022/08/05/pipe-gods-smiled-and-i-got-not-one-but-three-les-wood-pipes-restoring-a-les-wood-poker/

The second pipe that is now on my work table is a beautifully rusticated paneled Apple Half bent Silver Spigot. It is stamped on the bottom smooth surface of the shank as “FR LOUIS HESTON” over “FERNDOWN” in a slight arc over “BARK”. The sterling silver ferrule at the shank end bears the stamp “L & JS” in a rectangular cartouche over “.925”. The sterling silver mounting at the tenon end of the stem also bears similar stampings as seen on the ferrule. The vulcanite stem is stamped on the left side as “L J S”. Now this stamping varies significantly from the one that I had worked on earlier in that this pipe does not bear the stamping LES WOOD, HAND MADE IN ENGLAND and star (*) marking to denote the size. I referred back to pipedia.org to understand the variation in stamping. Here is what I found out and also the link to the write up is given below.

https://pipedia.org/wiki/Ferndown

Due to the vagaries of international trademark law, he sold his earlier pipes as ” L.&J.S Briars”, “Ellwood”, “Les Wood” or “L. Wood”. Until recently, an average of 1500 – 2000 pipes a year were sold as “Ferndown” — named for the mansion he lives in — in the UK and US, but as “L. Wood” pipes in Germany.

From the above, I assume that this pipe is from the recent past while the poker was from the earlier period. Truth be told, I am not 100% convinced on this and would really appreciate input, clarifications and detailed information on this variation in stampings observed from learned readers of rebornpipes.

There was not much that I could find about Fr. Louis Heston. An internet search of the name threw up data about Rev. Edward Louis Heston who left for heavenly abode in 1973. This period definitely does not coincide with the time period when Leslie Wood started making pipes under the FERNDOWN! Well, this too then is a grey area and would request readers to fill us all on this name and establish a relation between the name Fr. Louis Heston and this Les Wood pipe.

Initial Inspection
As observed with the Les Wood Poker that I last restored, this half bent Apple Silver Spigot too is in excellent condition. There is an even layer of cake of medium thickness in the chamber that is very hard and completely dry. The smooth rim top is sans any crusting of lava over flow but darkened towards the front. The eight panelled rusticated stummel appears in good condition with no signs of hot spots or cracked surfaces. The stummel has a lot of dirt, dust and grime grounded in to the crevices of the rusticated surface. The black and dark brown stain is faded at places giving the stummel is dull appearance. The fishtail vulcanite stem is deeply oxidized with some tooth chatter on either surface of the stem in the bite zone. The stampings on the shank, silver spigot and stem are all crisp and easily readable. The following pictures will provide a visual description to supplement the description given above. I like the feel and heft of this large stummel in my hand. The rusticated panelled surface with it prominent ridges feels tactile in the hand and very comfortable to hold. There is a lot of dirt, dust and grime trapped in to the crevices of rusticated surface giving it a dirty grayish appearance. The entire stummel looks dull, dirty and lifeless. Heavy accumulation of dried oils, tars and gunk is seen clogging the mortise. The dark stain has faded in couple of spots further adding to the sorry appearance of the stummel. The sterling silver ferrule is oxidized and dull looking. However, once the stummel surface is cleaned up and rejuvenated, this will be one beautiful looking pipe. I like the feel and heft of this large stummel in my hand. The rusticated paneled surface with it prominent ridges feels tactile in the hand and very comfortable to hold. There is a lot of dirt, dust and grime trapped in to the crevices of rusticated surface giving it a dirty grayish appearance. The entire stummel looks dull, dirty and lifeless. Heavy accumulation of dried oils, tars and gunk is seen clogging the mortise. The dark stain has faded in couple of spots further adding to the sorry appearance of the stummel. The sterling silver ferrule is oxidized and dull looking. However, once the stummel surface is cleaned up and rejuvenated, this will be one beautiful looking pipe. The beautiful sterling silver mounted vulcanite stem is hand cut and oozes very high quality of material use and also craftsmanship of highest quality. The stem is heavily oxidized to an extent that it appears dirty green. Dark coloration and calcification is seen on either surfaces of the stem in the bite zone from prolonged use of rubber bit. Very minor tooth chatter and bite marks can be seen in the bite zone on both the upper and lower surfaces of the stem. These tooth chatter and tooth indentation should be easily addressed by heating the affected areas to raise the vulcanite and thereafter sanding it down to match the rest of the stem surface. The tenon end and the horizontal slot end shows accumulation of dried gunk and grime. The sterling silver mount is oxidized but shows no signs of any damage whatsoever.The Process
I started the refurbishing of this Les Wood by working the stem first. Since there were other stems that were ready to be put into the stem deoxidizer solution, I decided to clean the internals of this stem first so that it could be put in the solution with other stems. I cleaned the stem airway with a thin shank brush and anti oil soap. It took considerable time and elbow grease to get the stem airway clean. I used a sharp dental tool to clean the horizontal slot and further cleaned the internals with regular and bristled pipe cleaners dipped in alcohol.The stem was immersed in the Deoxidizer solution, a product that has been developed by Mark Hoover. This solution raises the oxidation to the stem surface and helps in easy removal and imparting a nice shine to the stem after polishing. The pipe is indicated with a red arrow. The stem is allowed to soak into this solution overnight.Now it was time for me to work on the stummel. I did this by first reaming the chamber with size 2 followed by size 3 and 4 PipNet reamer heads. I further scraped the chamber walls with my fabricated knife to remove the remaining carbon deposits where the reamer head could not reach. Once the cake was reamed back to the bare briar, I used a 220 grit sand paper to remove all the traces of remaining cake and also to smooth out the inner walls of the chamber surface. Finally, to remove the residual carbon dust, I wiped the chamber with a cotton pad wetted with 99.9% pure isopropyl alcohol. The huge pile of carbon dust that was reamed out is an indication enough to the amount of carbon that had accumulated in the chamber. The chamber walls are solid without any heat lines or fissures. However, the hard cake was getting increasingly difficult to dislodge. I shall try and remove residual the hard cake after it has been moistened during the salt and alcohol soak. I further cleaned the mortise by scrapping out the dried gunk with a dental tool. I ran a few pipe cleaners dipped in alcohol to moisten the dried gunk and assist in its removal. I shall further continue the internal cleaning of the chamber and mortise with cotton and alcohol soak.I continued the cleaning of the chamber and shank internals with a salt and alcohol bath. I use cotton balls which is an at par substitute to Kosher salt as I have realized over the years. I draw out a wick from the cotton and along with a folded regular pipe cleaner; insert it in to the mortise and through the draught hole in to the chamber. Thereafter, I packed the chamber with cotton balls to about quarter of an inch below the inner rim edge and 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 morning, the cotton and alcohol had drawn out all the remaining oils and tars from the chamber and mortise, fulfilling its intended task. I removed the cotton balls and ran pipe cleaners through the mortise to clean out all the loosened tars and gunk and further cleaned it with alcohol and q-tips.The cotton and alcohol soak had softened the hard and stubborn cake in the chamber and the mortise. Using my fabricated tool, I scrapped out all the hardened cake from the chamber and gunk from the mortise. The chamber now smells clean and fresh.Once the internals of the shank were cleaned, I cleaned the external surface of the stummel with Murphy’s Oil soap and cotton swabs followed by scrubbing the rusticated surface with a toothbrush and dish washing soap. This rid the nooks and crevices of all the accumulated dust, dirt and grime from the rusticated stummel. With a copper soft wired brush, I cleaned the rim top surface of all the crud that had accumulated over it. I wiped the stummel with a soft cotton cloth and set the stummel aside to dry out naturally. The charred inner rim edge (encircled in red) is now clearly visible and would need to be addressed. I simultaneously cleaned the shank internals with dish washing soap and shank brush.Next, I decided to address the issue of charred inner rim edge and getting the chamber back to round. I topped the rim top over a 220 grit sandpaper to reduce the charred surface. I checked the progress frequently to ensure that the topping is just adequate. I addressed the darkened inner edge by running a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper pinched between my thumb and index finger along the inner edge and crated a smart bevel. This bevel also helped to get the chamber back to round.I polished the smooth rim top surface by dry sanding with 1500 to 12000 grit micromesh pads.The polished rim top looks much lighter than the rest of the stummel because of the topping process to remove the charred rim edge. To match the dark browns and black stains over rest of the stummel surface, I decided to re-stain the rim top surface using dark brown stain pen. I applied a coat of brown stain using a stain pen and set it aside for some time. I wiped the rim top using a soft cotton cloth to check the stain color and found it to be a bit lighter. I repeated the process till I had requisite color match and set it aside for the stain to set in.I rubbed a small quantity of “Before and After Restoration Balm” into the briar with my finger tips and let it rest for a few minutes. The balm almost immediately works it’s magic and the briar now had a nice vibrant appearance with the beautiful rustication patterns on full display. I have been using this balm ever since I embarked on this journey and it is this part of restoration that I always look forward to. I further buffed it with a horse hair shoe brush. This pipe really oozes of a very high quality, in fact similar to the Les Wood Poker that I had worked on earlier. The consistent quality is awesome, to say the least. The rim top appears lighter hued, but that’s due to the lighting when I took pictures. Now that the stummel refurbishing was nearly done and also the stem had now been soaking for more than 24 hours, I removed the stem from the solution. I first scrubbed the stem surface with a Scotch Brite pad, always being mindful of the stem logo on the left side. I followed this scrubbing with a nice cleaning of the surface using a 0000 grade steel wool. I rinsed the stem under running water to rid the stem of the thick deoxidizer solution. I ran a couple of pipe cleaners to remove the deoxidizer solution from the airway. The beauty of a high quality vulcanite hand cut stem in shining black can now be appreciated once the heavy oxidation has been eliminated. There are spots/ areas where oxidation is still visible, but that will be eliminated once the stem is subjected to sanding and polishing using sand papers and micromesh pads. The beauty of this stem will be enhanced once it has been all polished and waxed. A polish by wet sanding using all 9 micromesh pads (1500 to 12000 grit pads) brought out the deep black shine of the vulcanite. I rubbed a small quantity of EVO to hydrate the stem and deepen the shine.This was followed by removing oxidation from over the sterling silverware seen on the pipe using a locally made compound that Abha, my wife, uses to polish her silver and gold jewellery and silver cutlery. This compound is a very fine powder and is least abrasive with fantastic results. The silver ferrule at the shank end and the silver spigot are now nice shining pieces of silver and provides a nice contrast to the shining black stem and the dark brown and black stummel. I painted the stem logo L J S using a Gold paint glitter pen and wiped off the excess paint. The stem logo is now nice and prominently visible.I have reached that stage in this project which can be considered as the home run. I polished the rim top and the entire stem with blue diamond using a cotton wheel mounted on to my hand held rotary tool. The blue diamond compound helps to eliminate the minor scratches that remain after the use of micromesh pads. I completed this project by hand polishing the stummel with Halcyon II wax. I rubbed this polish deep into the rustications and after a couple of minutes, vigorously hand buffed the stummel with a microfiber cloth to a deep shine. I polished the stem with carnauba wax using my hand held rotary tool. This is a gorgeous looking spigot and I consider myself fortunate to have the opportunity to work on this beauty and, as my Guru Steve says, carry forward the trust in this pipe till it is time to pass it on to the next pipeman or pipewoman. Here are a few pictures of the completed pipe for you to appreciate while I take the opportunity to thank you each of you for sparing your valuable time in joining me on this journey.

Restoring a French Made Loewe & Co. 015 Dublin with a Saddle stem

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is one that a fellow sent me from England (I have since found out that he is in Scotland not England). He had written to me earlier this week about an old pipe that he had that needed some work. Here is his first email.

Hello. I have an old pipe I would like restored. Its not something I feel I could do myself. I was wondering if you provide a restoration service, and if so how I would go about sending you the pipe to work on. –  Leo

I replied to him as follows:

Hello Leo, I do restoration but I am located on the west coast of Canada. Send photos of the pipe so I can have a look and we will go from there. Thanks. – Steve

He did not waste anytime and sent me an email with the first three pictures below. It is an interesting looking long, oval shank, sandblast Dublin with a vulcanite saddle stem. After viewing the photos and emailing back and forth with Leo about the pipe I asked him to mail it to me so I could work on it. It is an interesting sandblast, long oval shank Dublin. The bowl had a thick cake inside and a lot of lava overflow on the rim top. The finish is quite dirty with a lot of grime in the sandblast valleys. It was worn on the left side of the bowl and dark finish was light there. The photo of the underside of the shank shows scratches and marks on the surface that had all but eliminated the stamping. There is a shape number at the stem/shank junction that reads 015. Below that it is stamped Made in France. The stem is dirty with oxidation, calcification and deep scratches and marks on both sides. There are tooth marks ahead of the button on both sides that are quite deep.  There is a brass square on the top of the saddle that has an L in it. There are no other identifying marks on the pipe. It will be fun identifying it and the brass L square will tell me a lot. It is a uniquely shaped pipe that I really like the looks of and I think that once it is cleaned up it will be a real beauty.

The pipe arrived this week while I was travelling. I took photos of the pipe once I brought it to the work table. I always include the pre-clean up photos to confirm what I saw in the photos that were sent to me. In this case the condition matched what I saw in the photos. The pipe was a real mess and would take some work to clean up and restore. I took photos of the bowl and rim top as well as the stem. The rim top shows the thick lava coat on the top and the inner edge of the bowl. It is heavier on the back side than the front. You can also the lava fill on the rim top almost completely hiding the rustication. You can see the oxidation around the stem sides, the scratches on the surface and the deep tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It reads as noted above. The hash marks and scratching on the smooth surface have obliterated the stamping and it is unreadable. The shape number 015 and the Made in France stamping is still readable at the shank/stem junction. The pipe is quite nice with the stem removed. You can see the flow of the design and the look of the parts.Before I started my cleanup work on the pipe I decide to do a bit of digging on the brass square L logo on the stem. I scrolled through all of the pipe brands that started with an”L” on Pipephil until I came across the listing for Loewe pipes (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-l5.html). The third pipe down in the screen capture below has the same logo on the stem as the one I am working on. Now I knew that the pipe was a Loewe and that it was a French Made one at that. I have included the screen capture of the section below.I then turned to the article on Loewe pipes on Pipedia for more information and to see if I could find anything on the French made Loewe pipes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Loewe_%26_Co.). There was a passing note in the article in the fourth paragraph that I have marked in red. It states that French Loewes appeared in the early 1980s and are a sign that the pipes were made in more than one location before the Cadogan Era.

Loewe is one of the haunting old names of British pipe-making, characteristic of an almost vanished “upper middle class” of the trade, which also incorporated makes such as BBB, Orlik, Comoy’s and GBD. Along with these brands, Loewe has long dwindled into pseudo-existence, becoming little more than a logo occasionally used by the Cadogan factory in Southend-on-Sea. But owners of older Loewes treasure them as superb, featherweight smokers, excellently crafted and with grain characteristics superior to those of many contemporary Dunhills.

The Frenchman Emil Loewe founded the company, both shop and workshop, in 1856 at the Haymarket 62, London. He is said to have been the first to make briar pipes in England. Richard Hacker maintains that theatre people from the West End were among the shop’s heyday aficionados. Loewe’s spigots are especially well regarded by lovers of elegance today – they were originally introduced for practical reasons, to facilitate the production of replacement stems for customers abroad.

The firm and its facilities were later taken over by Civic, well before becoming a fully integrated part of the Cadogan group sometime in the final quarter of the twentieth century. As with other brands belonging to this group, it is not easy to pinpoint a date marking the end of Loewe’s independence and singularity. This is partly due to Cadogan’s own development from a cooperative to a monolithic entity.

In 1979, a German paperback said that the Loewe brand had been discontinued two years previously, but that the pipes themselves were due to reappear as high-end GBDs. Interestingly, the year of publication coincided with the year in which the Loewe trademark became Cadogan’s, who by this time already owned GBD. From today’s point of view, the author appears to have been working on confused, but partly true information. If there were ever really plans to fully amalgamate the two lines, they were dropped. Also, a two-year break at this time seems impossible, since we have hallmark evidence of Loewes made in 1978 and 1979. However, there are firm indications that Loewe shapes were later marketed as Comoy’s (another Cadogan brand). There may also have been a phase of dissolution regarding location. The reported appearance of French Loewes in the early 1980s is a sign that Loewes were being produced in more than one place at some stage before the Cadogan-era proper.

From what I can gather, Cadogan’s various brands continued to be made in separate facilities throughout the1970s. It was the purchase of Orlik in 1980 that enabled the Cadogan group to consolidate all manufacturing in that company’s new factory in Southend-on-Sea. Whether or not this transferral was a gradual process and when it affected Loewe is unclear. We hear that, as a company, Loewe was not formally wound up by Cadogan (the successor to Civic) until the late 1980s. Of course, today’s ‘Loewes’ are definitely made in Southend – though, according to Cadogan, the trademark is no longer used very much.

Now I knew for certain that I was working on a French made Loewe & Company pipe and that it was made in the early 1980s. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

I started my work on this pipe by reaming the bowl. I started with a PipNet reamer to clean out the cake in the bowl. I cleaned up the remnants of the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I finished by sanding the walls of the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel to smooth out the interior of the bowl. I cleaned out the internals of the bowl, shank and the airway in the stem. I started the clean up by scraping the shank with a pen knife to remove the tars that lined the shank. I cleaned out the mortise and airways with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners until they were clean. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I worked on the bowl and rim top as well as the inner and outer edges of the bowl. The exterior of the bowl and shank cleaned up really well. I rinsed it with warm water to remove the soap and the grime from the briar. I dried it off with a cotton towel. I took photos of the bowl at this point in the process. The rim top still showed a lot of build up filling in the blast valleys. I would need to used other tools to clean that up. I used a dental pick to scrape out the lava deep in the sand blast. It took some detailed picked to remove it. I followed up on that with a brass bristle wire brush to further clean up the surface of the rim top. I worked over the bevelled inner edge with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage on the inner edge. It certainly looks much better at this point. I used a walnut and a black stain pen to touch up the worn spots on the bowl side and the rim top sanded areas. It looked much better at this point.I sanded out the scratches in the flat bottom of the shank. They were several and they were quite deep. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth the majority of them out. When finished the pipe looked better.I rubbed down the bowl and shank with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar. The product works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips. I let it sit for 10 minutes then wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine and the grain shines through. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. It is a gorgeous pipe. I set the bowl aside and turned to the stem. It was in rough condition with the gummy tape on the end fitting into the shank and deep tooth marks. I painted the surface of the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter to try and lift them. I lifted them but they were still distinctly present. I filled in the marks with Black CA glue and set it aside to cure. Once cured I flattened the repair with a file and then followed that up with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper and started the polishing with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. It looked much better. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pads. I know that many say Obsidian Oil does nothing for acrylic stems, but I find it does two things – first it gives some protection to the stem from buildup and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the vulcanite. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the Extra Fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection. The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the light scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I follow up the wax buff with a buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished stem. It turned out to be a nice pipe. The sandblast finish around the bowl sides and shank looks great. The oval vulcanite saddle stem works well with the pipe. The Loewe & Co. French Made 015 Oval Shank Dublin feels great in my hand. It is a well-balanced pipe. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.59 ounces/44 grams. It is a beautiful pipe that I will soon be going back to Leo who sent it to me for restoration. I am sure he will enjoy it and it will give many more years of service to him.

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 Sandblast Charatan’s Make London, England tall Dublin 75X

1 Reply

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a nice looking smooth Canadian with a vulcanite taper stem. We picked it up on 04/09/2022 from a seller in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. The stamping on the underside of the shank is faint but still readable. It read L in a circle followed by Charatan’s Make [over] London England. That is followed by the stamping of the shape number 75X. The black vulcanite saddle stem stamped with a CP on the left side. The pipe has a medium reddish brown finish that shows the grain patterns through the sandblast on the bowl sides and shank. It is light weight and comfortable pipe to hold. Jeff sent me the following photos of the pipe to show the condition it was in before he worked on it. This is what I saw when I looked over the pipe.

  1. The sandblast finish had thick grime ground into briar around the sides. The stain is dull and the grain patterns though visible under the grime are obscured around the bowl sides and shank. There are oil stains from the previous smokers hands around the sides of the bowl.
  2. The rim top was very dirty with a heavy lava coat on it. It is heavier on the back side. The inner edge of the bowl and top show damage though it is hard to see the extent through the thick build up of cake that has overflown the bowl top.
  3. There was a thick cake in the bowl. The bowl itself was very dark and dirty. Once the bowl was cleaned up we could confirm the condition of the bowl walls.
  4. The vulcanite saddle stem was filthy, oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks and chatter on both sides and on the button surface.
  5. There is a Charatan CP logo stamped on the left side of the stem. It is faint but readable.

To summarize what I saw – this Charatan’s Make Sandblast 75X is a well-made pipe. The bowl and stem are very dirty which says to me that the pipe was once again someone’s favourite pipe. The look and feel of the pipe in the hand is great. It should clean up very well. Here are photos of the pipe taken before Jeff started the clean up.  Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl, rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is thick – covering the walls of the bowl. The rim top has thick lava coat overflowing and covering the inner edge. It is heavier toward the back of the bowl. It is hard to know the condition of the inner edge in this condition. There appears to be some damage on the top and inner edge on the front and the back but I would not know for sure until it was reamed. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. I look forward to viewing it in person after the clean up work.The vulcanite saddle stem is dirty, oxidized and calcified. There are light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Instead of telling you what I see in the next photos of the sides of the bowl and the heel I want to hear from you. Tell me what you see? What does the finish look like to you? Are there any visible problems or issues that stand out to you? Are there cracks or scratches in nooks and crannies of the sandblast finish of the bowl? Are there visible flaws or fissures in the briar? What does the finish look like? Is there a pattern to it? Any visible issues on the heel of the bowl? These questions should help you to see what I am looking for when I see these photos. He took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is stamped as noted above. The vulcanite stem shows a CP stamp on the left side. What stands out for you in the photos of the stamping? What do you look for in the stamping? It is dirty but what do you see underneath the grime on the surface of the briar? I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-charatan.html) to look up information on the pipe but there was nothing specific.

I also turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dating_of_Charatans) to help with dating it. I quote the section of the article that applies to this pipe below.

Identification of a third era pipe (First Lane era, 1961-1965)

Pipes of this period are quite common.

1) The mouthpiece is frequently double comfort, rarely saddle without the double comfort, never tapered. If the stem is not a double comfort but a saddle one, it is characterized by the letter X on the right of the shape code (e.g. 2502X), naturally in this case the letters DC are not displayed.

2) In the CP logo, the C enters the P

3) Presence of £ on the shank (note that from 1955 all the pipe imported in the USA by Lane has it, however that stamping is not synonymous of the Lane era)

4)Presence of the letter DC just after the shape number (e.g. 2502 DC) or of the letter X only if the stem is not a double comfort one

5) Presence in some models of the stamp “MADE BY HAND” on the shank (introduced for the first time in 1958)

6) Presence of the writing “CHARATAN’S MAKE LONDON ENGLAND” on 2 lines

7) The CP logo is thicker then in previous eras

From the clues listed above regarding the stamping on the shank underside, I am fairly confident it is a First Lane Era pipe made between 1961-1965. Knowing that it is time to work on it.

Jeff did a major clean up job on this one and the pipe I received when it arrived in Vancouver looked far better than the one pictured above. Here is what I saw when I brought the pipe to the table.

  1. The sandblast finish is clean and the oils and grime are gone from the bowl. The finish shows the beautiful contrast in the stains in the sandblast finish around the bowl and shank.
  2. The rim top was clean of the thick lava. The top and the inner edge of the bowl showed burn damage on the front and back top and edges of the bowl.
  3. There cake in the bowl has been removed and the bowl is very clean. The walls of the bowl are smooth and appear to be undamaged and show no checking or burn damage.
  4. The vulcanite saddle stem looks better though there is still some oxidation and light tooth marks and chatter on both sides.
  5. The Charatan CP logo stamped on the left side of the stem looks very clean and readable.

Hopefully the steps above show you both what I look for when I go over the pipe when I bring it to the work table and also what I see when I look at the pipe in my hands. They also clearly spell out a restoration plan in short form. My work is clear and addressing it will be the next steps. I took photos of the whole pipe to give you a picture of what I see when I have it on the table. This is important to me in that it also shows that there was no damage done during the clean up work or the transit of the pipe from Idaho to here in Vancouver. I carefully went over the bowl and rim top to get a sense of what is happening there. In this case once the rim top and edges were cleaned the rim top looked better. The inner edge was in good condition and looked good with the rusticated plateau style rim top. I also went over the stem carefully. The fit of the replacement to the shank is snug and the transitions are smooth. There were some tooth marks and chatter on the surface of the stem and the button on the underside. The acrylic stem surface was clean and looked better. I took photos of the rim top and stem sides to show as best as I can what I see when I look at them. I always check to make sure that the clean up work did not damage the stamping on the shank sides in any way. It is in faint as it was earlier but it is readable. I love just looking at the lay of the pipe and the proportion of the hand made pipes. I took the pipe apart to get a sense of what was in the mind of the pipe maker when he crafted the pipe. The photo shows its beauty in flow and shape.I decided to start my work on the pipe by addressing the damage to the rim top and inner edge of the bowl. The burn damage is quite wildly spread. The rim top had a light bevel so I would need to give it a deeper bevel to remove the damage and blend it in better. The top itself had some darkening but it was sandblast so I had to try to minimize it as best as possible.I used a Maple stain pen to touch up the inner edge of the bowl and the rim top and blend it into the surrounding briar. It looked much better once it was restained. The burn damage is less prevalent and visible. I rubbed down the bowl and shank with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar. The product works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips and a horsehair shoe brush. I let it sit for 10 minutes then wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine in the briar and the sandblast showed depth. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. It is a great looking pipe.   I set the bowl aside and turned to the stem. I decided to deal with the residual oxidation first. I wiped the stem down with Soft Scrub cleanser to remove the remaining oxidation on the stem surface. It looked much better. I touched up the faint CP stamping on the left side of the stem with White Acrylic Fingernail Polish. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pads. I know that many say Obsidian Oil does nothing for acrylic stems, but I find it does two things – first it gives some protection to the stem from buildup and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the acrylic. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the Extra Fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection. The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the light scratches in the vulcanite. I don’t buff a sandblast bowl with Blue Diamond as it can easily clog the valley and crannies in the blast. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I follow up the wax buff with a buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished stem. It really is a nice pipe. The smooth finish around the bowl sides and shank looks great. The vulcanite saddle DC stem works well with the pipe. The sandblast Charatan’s Make London England 75X feels great in my hand. It is a well-balanced pipe. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.41 ounces/40 grams. It is a beautiful pipe that I will soon be adding to the rebornpipes store in the British Pipemakers Section. If you would like to add it to your collection let me know. It should be a great smoking pipe.

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.

Breathing New Life into a Hilson S2 Stronghold Nosewarmer

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on is a nice looking sandblast taper to oval shank Nosewarmer Billiard with a taper vulcanite stem. We picked it up on 11/14/2022 from a seller in Copenhagen, Denmark. The stamping on the underside of the shank read S2 on the heel of the bowl. That is followed by HILSON [over] Stronghold. The black vulcanite oval taper stem has a Hilson H logo stamp on the topside of the stem. The pipe is a nice looking pipe with medium and dark brown finish that gives depth to the blast on the bowl sides and shank. It is light weight and comfortable pipe to hold. Jeff sent me the following photos of the pipe to show the condition it was in before he worked on it.

This is what I saw when I looked over the pipe.

  1. The finish on the bowl and shank has some oils darkening the side from the smoker’s hands. There is also some grime ground into sandblast nooks and crannies around the bowl and shank. The stain is dull and the grain patterns in the blast though visible under the grime are obscured around the bowl sides and shank
  2. The rim top was very dirty with a heavy lava coat on it. It is heavier on the front right and backside. The inner edge of the bowl is hard to see under the thick build up of cake that has overflown the bowl top.
  3. There was a thick cake in the bowl. The bowl itself was very dark and dirty. Once the bowl was cleaned up we could confirm the condition of the bowl walls.
  4. The vulcanite stem was filthy, oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks and chatter on both sides.
  5. There is a Hilson H logo stamped on the topside of the stem. It is faint and dirty but still readable.

To summarize what I saw – this sandblast Hilson Stronghold is a well made and uniquely shaped pipe. The bowl and stem are very dirty which says to me that once again this pipe was someone’s favourite pipe. The look and feel of the pipe in the hand is great. It should clean up very well. Here are photos of the pipe taken before Jeff started the clean up.  Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl, rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is thick – covering the walls of the bowl. The rim top has thick lava coat overflowing and covering the inner edge. It is heavier on the right front and toward the back of the bowl. It is hard to know the condition of the inner edge in this condition. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. I look forward to viewing it in person after the clean up work.The vulcanite taper stem is dirty, oxidized and calcified. There are light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. The white stamped Hilson logo is readable but worn. Instead of telling you what I see in the next photos of the sides of the bowl and the heel I want to hear from you. Tell me what you see? What does the finish look like to you? Are there any visible problems or issues that stand out to you? Are there cracks or scratches in nooks and crannies of the sandblast finish of the bowl? Are there visible flaws or fissures in the briar? What does the finish look like? Is there a pattern to it? Any visible issues on the heel of the bowl? These questions should help you to see what I am looking for when I see these photos. He took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is stamped as noted above. The vulcanite stem shows a Hilson “H” stamp on the topside of the taper. What stands out for you in the photos of the stamping? What do you look for in the stamping? It is dirty but what do you see underneath the grime on the surface of the briar?I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-h3.html) to look up information on the Hilson brand. It did not have any pipes stamped Stronghold. I have included the screen capture below that gives some information. I have also included the sidebar information that gives a brief history of the brand.In 1846 a German named Jean Knödgen started to produce clay pipe in Belgium. In the late 19th century Jean Hillen who married into the Knödgen family took over the company and changed the firm in order to manufacture briar pipe. Jean Hillen had 2 sons: Jos Hillen was responsible for sales and Albert Hillen was responsible for the production. After WWII Albert founded the HILSON brand (Hillen and Son) and exported his pipes all over the world.

In 1980 after having gone bankrupt, the Belgian brand from Bree (Limburg) was taken over by the Royal Dutch Pipe Factory.

I also turned to Pipedia for a bit more information (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Hilson). I am including the information I found there below.

Jean-Claude Hillen (other sources: Jean-Paul) founded a trading company in the City of Bree in 1846. He soon turned his main interest on pipes and other tobacco related goods.

Particularly in the 1960’s and still throughout the 1970’s the brand Hilson of Broers Hillen B.V. (Hillen Bros. Co.) was quite successful in many European countries. They produced large numbers of machine made pipes covering the whole range of shapes and finishes. The pipes were well respected for good quality and craftsmenship at very moderate prices.

Rarely seen there are also nice freehands from this era stamped MASTRO and signed by A.M. Sanoul, who is otherwise completely unknown as a pipemaker.

All the same, in 1980 Hillen faced major financial problems. At this time there was only a second manufacturer of briars pipes in the Benelux countries, the Elbert Gubbels & Zonen B.V. in the Netherlands. The Belgian competitor being in trouble, Gubbels used the favour of the hour and bought up the company. The reason is plausible: in some countries, particularly in Germany, Hilson held larger market shares than Gubbels’ mainstay brand Big Ben.

The Hillen plant in Bree was closed down shortly after and ever since then Hilson pipes are manufactured in Roermond, NL.

There was an advertisement in the side bar that included the same shaped pipe that I am working on. From that I found that the shape is a 510. The blast on the one I have is similar to the blast of the other pipe in the ad. The taper on the stem, the flow of the bowl and the stem is identical.Jeff did a major clean up job on this one and the pipe I received when it arrived in Vancouver looked far better than the one pictured above. Here is what I saw when I brought the pipe to the table.

  1. The finish is clean and the oils and grime are gone from the bowl. The finish shows the beautiful contrast in the stains in the sandblast finish around the bowl and shank. There is a portion of the stain on the right side of the bowl toward the top that is washed out and will need to be touched up.
  2. The rim top was clean and the top and the inner edge of the bowl look very good. There was no damage to the outer edges as well.
  3. There cake in the bowl has been removed and the bowl is very clean. The walls of the bowl are smooth and appear to be undamaged and show no checking or burn damage.
  4. The vulcanite taper stem looks better though the light tooth marks and chatter on both sides are visible.
  5. The Hilson H logo stamped on the topside of the stem looks very clean and readable.

Hopefully the steps above show you both what I look for when I go over the pipe when I bring it to the work table and also what I see when I look at the pipe in my hands. They also clearly spell out a restoration plan in short form. My work is clear and addressing it will be the next steps. I took photos of the whole pipe to give you a picture of what I see when I have it on the table. This is important to me in that it also shows that there was no damage done during the clean up work or the transit of the pipe from Idaho to here in Vancouver. I carefully went over the bowl and rim top to get a sense of what is happening there. In this case once the rim top and edges were cleaned the rim top looked better. The inner edge was in good condition and looked good. I also went over the stem carefully. The fit to the shank is snug and the transitions are smooth. There were some tooth marks and chatter on the surface of the stem and the button on the underside. The vulcanite stem surface was clean and looked better. I took photos of the rim top and stem sides to show as best as I can what I see when I look at them. I always check to make sure that the clean up work did not damage the stamping on the shank sides in any way. It is in excellent condition and is very clear and readable. I love just looking at the lay of the pipe and the proportion of the hand made pipes. I took the pipe apart to get a sense of what was in the mind of the pipe maker when he crafted the pipe. The photo shows its beauty in flow and shape.I touched up the stain on the right side of the bowl with a Mahogany stain pen to blend it into the surrounding briar. I applied it and buffed it off with a clean paper towel. The look of the area matches the rest of the briar.I rubbed down the bowl and shank with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar. The product works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips. I let it sit for 10 minutes then wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine in the briar and the sandblast showed depth. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. It is a gorgeous pipe. I set the bowl aside and turned to the stem. I touched up the faint H stamping on the topside of the stem with White Acrylic Fingernail Polish. Once it dried I scraped it off and polished that area with a 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad. It is quite readable.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pads. I find it does two things – first it gives some protection to the stem from buildup and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the vulcanite. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the Extra Fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection. The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the light scratches in the vulcanite. I don’t buff a sandblast bowl with Blue Diamond as it can easily clog the valley and crannies in the blast. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I follow up the wax buff with a buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished stem. It really is a nice pipe. The smooth finish around the bowl sides and shank looks great. The vulcanite saddle DC stem works well with the pipe. The sandblast Hilson S2 Stronghold Nosewarmer feels great in my hand. It is a well balanced pipe. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 4 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 3/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.41 ounces/40 grams. It is a beautiful pipe that I will soon be adding to the rebornpipes store in the Pipes from Various Makers Section. If you would like to add it to your collection let me know. It should be a great smoking pipe.

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.

New Life for Tired Looking Charatan’s Make London England 90 Sandblast Dublin

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe is a beautiful sandblast Dublin shaped pipe. The sandblast is quite rugged and it is a very tactile pipe. I thought this would be another chance to walk you through my process of working on each pipe that we purchase. Jeff has set up a spread sheet to track where the pipe came from, the date of purchase and what we paid for it so that we know what we have invested in the pipe before we even work on it. This takes a lot of the guess work out of the process. This particular pipe was purchased on 09/18/2020 from a seller in Los Angeles, California, USA. I also want you to understand why we take the photos we do. If you have followed for a while then you will see the familiar pattern of the photos we include both in the before and midstream process of working on a pipe. It is not accidental as the photos have been taken to help me make an assessment of the pipe Jeff sees before he starts his clean up work. The photos of this pipe has some extra photos. We do this to record the condition that the pipe was in when received it and to assess what kind of work will need to be done on. When I look at these photos this is what I see.

  1. The first thing I see is great looking Dublin shaped pipe with a rugged classic Charatan pipe.
  2. The finish is dirty and there is grime and grit ground into nooks and crannies on the sides of the bowl. The blast highlights some interesting grain in the swirls and ridges of the finish.
  3. The rim top has some lava and debris on the top and the inner edge is coated with the thick cake from the bowl. There are some nicks on the outer edge of the bowl. I think cleaning will reveal a real beauty.
  4. The bowl has a thick cake and debris on the walls that hides the walls and the inner edge of the bowl but once it is clean we will know what the bowl and edges really look like. The outer edges look good and there does not appear to be any obvious burn damage to the top or bowl edges.
  5. The vulcanite taper stem is in good condition – dirty, calcified, oxidized and has tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of button. There is a CP logo left side of the stem that is readable but missing the colour that is usually in it.

Overall my impressions of this pipe is that it is a great looking pipe a very rugged and tactile sandblast around the bowl sides. I think that once cleaned up it will look pretty amazing. The shape looks like it will be comfortable to hold. The photos below confirm the assessment above.Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl, rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is thick with tobacco debris stuck on the walls. The rim top has lava, grime and wear around the top and edges in the sandblast surface. You can also see the condition of the outer edge and the inner edge is in great condition. The bowl seems to be round and other than being in a used condition it is in great shape. The photos of the vulcanite stem surface from various angles confirmed my assessment of its condition. You can see that it is dirty in the first photo below. The stem has some tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside near the button.     Instead of telling you what I see in the next photos of the sides of the bowl and the heel I want to hear from you. Tell me what you see? What does the finish look like to you? Are there any visible problems or issues that stand out to you? Are the cracks or scratches in the valleys of the rustication or the high spots? Are there visible fills, flaws or fissures in the briar? Any visible issues on the heel of the bowl? These questions should help you to see what I am looking for when I see these photos.    He took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is stamped with a cursive L in a circle followed by Charatan’s Make [over] London, England. Next to that is stamped the shape number 90. The stem is faintly stamped with a CP logo on the left side of the taper. What stands out for you in the photos of the stamping on the pipe? What do you look for in the stamping? I know it is dirty but what do you see underneath the grime on the surface of the briar?An added part of pipe restoration for me is to try to gather as much background on a brand and maker as I can find. With Charatan that is an enjoyable web to untangle. There is a lot of information and it can lead to understanding what era a pipe was made in. To try to figure out the era of the Charatan’s pipe I was working on I turned to the Pipephil website, Logos and Stampings (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-charatan.html). There is some really helpful information on each of the lines of Charatan’s Make pipes that entered the market. There was not a sandblast stamped like the one in hand. The site did give a short history of the brand. I quote the portion that is most pertinent.

The brand was founded in 1863 by Frederik Charatan. When his father retired in 1910, Reuben Charatan took over the family business. All the pipes were handmade until 1973. The brand name has been overtaken by Dunhill in 1978 and sold in 1988 to James B. Russell Inc.(NJ, USA). During the period 1988-2002 Charatans were crafted by Butz Choquin in St Claude (France). Dunhill re-purchased Charatan brand name in 2002 and Colin Fromm (Invicta Briars, Castleford) followed up on freehand production.

Next I turned to Pipedia to see if I could find more information on the brand and possibly a link to a sandblast finished Dublin (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Charatan) but once again in the general article it was not listed. It did give a little more historical information. I quote the pertinent parts that give information on this particular pipe.In 1950 Herman G. Lane, striving to expand his business in Great Britain, made contacts with the Charatan family. Apparently Lane got a certain influence soon, but it was not until 1955 that Lane Ltd. became the sole distributor for Charatan’s in the United States superseding Wally Frank. This can be documented in a “biography” written for Herman G. Lane titled “Leaves from a Tobaccoman’s Log”.

Thanks to Herman G. Lane’s dedicated labor Charatan became hugely popular in the States. As reported by Ken Barnes in an interview with Rick Newcombe, Reuben Charatan passed away in 1962, and his widow sold the firm to Herman Lane 1 or 2 years after his death.[1] In the early 1960s Charatan pipes were the first to overstep the $100 Dollar line in US pipe sales. In 1978 Lane’s heirs sold the Charatan company to Dunhill. The Prescot Street factory was closed in March 1982. Thereafter the fame and quality of the make declined.

The pre-Lane period (prior to 1955) and the Lane era pipes (1955 to until sometime between 1979 – 1984) are of primary interest the collector. The Lane era is often quoted as beginning about 1950.

Charatan records are almost non-existent before Lane due to a factory fire, making it difficult to date pre-Lane pipes. Charatan used 4 basic grades prior to 1950: Supreme, Selected, Executive, and Belvedere. After 1950 Herman Lane’s influence began, and the grades started to expand. In 1955 Lane took over sole distributorship of Charatan in the US. In 1957 he introduced the Supreme S. Most of his other introductions were from the 1960s and early 1970s.

From this I am fairly certain I am dealing with a Lane pipe made after 1955. There is also a circle L script mark that is a Lane stampings on the pipe which also supports this.

I continued digging further into the dating of the pipe, but what I had found above was a good start for me. If some of you would like to try your hand at dating it more accurately as to the time period it came out you might want to check out the article on Pipedia on Dating Charatans (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dating_of_Charatans).

I also reread the article on Pipedia by the Italian fellow who contributed some really helpful information on the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Charatan_-_Milan_2014). I quote the section on the Second period: Reuben Charatan 1910 – c. 1962. I have highlighted a portion of the section on the shank in red to point out some more helpful dating information.

– In 1962 Herman Lane took over the business from the Charatan family, although he had already influenced production from the 1950s.

– The pipes were mostly larger than the previous ones and corresponded in size to Dunhill group 5. These are slightly less rare, but still difficult to find.

– Stem: Usually in ebonite, saddle shaped or tapered, bearing a fine “CP” stamp, underbore system (see below) used when necessary.

– Shank: The shape code is stamped on it together with the nomenclature “CHARATAN’S MAKE LONDON ENGLAND” arranged in two lines. From 1955 onward on the models marketed for the USA there is also a serif and circled capital “L” (but not all models bear this) which resembles the pound sterling symbol. The “L” is for Lane, the importer.

From 1958, Lane changed the nomenclature for models marketed for the US to clarify the message: “MADE BY HAND”.  In this period the underbore was introduced. Its manufacturing period ranged between 1920 and c.1930. This model was equipped with a duralumin plunger trap fitted in the stem, which served to clean the residue more easily. This particular model bore a special stamp on the stem, and also had its own catalogue…

QUALITY GRADES…The stem did not only display the stamps mentioned above. Another stamp that can help dating is the one referring to the quality of the pipe. Until Herman Lane arrived on the scene there were four quality grades. Starting with the lowest: Belvedere, Executive, Selected, and Supreme. Lane went on to add higher grades from time to time: Supreme S, Supreme S100, S150, S200, S250, S300, Coronation, Royal Achievement, Crown Achievement, and Summa Cum Laude; these last three are extremely rare and almost impossible to find. He also invented other, different grades, even changing the previous pipe classification standards. We will not go into detail here, but it means that if we find an S100 or Coronation the pipe was manufactured following Herman Lane’s acquisition. In particular, the FH mark, or Freehand pipe was commissioned to the famous Danish craftsman, Preben Holm.

Nomenclature

The Lane Trademark serif and circled L indicates the pipe is from the “Lane Era” (approx. 1955 to 1979 -1984?), however it appears that both the English factory or Lane themselves sometimes, or perhaps even often forget to stamp the L on a pipe. The Charatan factory was known for inconsistencies, especially in stampings. Therefore, although an L on the pipe definitely defines it as a Lane Era pipe, the lack of it could simply mean the pipe missed receiving the stamp from the factory. The lack of the trademark could also mean the pipe was destined for the European market.

Charatan pipes were not well distributed prior to the Lane Era, so very few pre-Lane pipes exist today. Herman Lane greatly grew the brand in the U.S., which caused corresponding growth in Europe.

Generally, when the pipe is stamped with the BLOCK letters “MADE BY HAND” it means the pipe was probably made between 1958 and 1965”

Generally, block letters “MADE BY HAND” and some of the other nomenclature in script (i.e. City of London or Extra Large next to the MADE BY HAND) means the pipe was made sometime between 1965 and the mid 1970s. The total script nomenclature “Made by Hand in City of London” evolved over this period of time, so many pipes had variants, such as Made By Hand in block letters and City of London in script, or some other variation of the terms or stampings.

It is believed the FH was used on Charatan pipes between 1957 and 1967-68. Three different sizes were used. The Charatan Logo (CP) on the pipe bit was changed over the year

Now I knew I was working on Lane pipe which actually means it was between 1955 and 1988 as shown by the stamping.

Now it was time to work on the pipe.

I am sure many of you will shake your head and ask maybe even out loud, “Why is he including this again?” However, please remember that the point of these blogs is not to wow your with the work or make you shake your heads but I want you to know the details of the work we do so you can do your own. Back in 2020 Jeff wrote a blog about his cleaning process. I am including a link to that now so you can see what I mean about his process. Do not skip it! Give it a read (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/20/got-a-filthy-estate-pipe-that-you-need-to-clean/). Here is the introduction to that blog and it is very true even to this day.

Several have asked about Jeff’s cleaning regimen as I generally summarize it in the blogs that I post rather than give a detailed procedure. I have had the question asked enough that I asked Jeff to put together this blog so that you can get a clear picture of the process he uses. Like everything else in our hobby, people have different methods they swear by. Some may question the method and that is fine. But it works very well for us and has for many years. Some of his steps may surprise you but I know that when I get the pipes from him for my part of the restoration they are impeccably clean and sanitized. I have come to appreciate the thoroughness of the process he has developed because I really like working on clean pipe!

For the benefit of some of you who may be unfamiliar with some of the products he uses I have included photos of three of the items that Jeff mentions in his list. This will make it easier for recognition. These three are definitely North American Products so you will need to find suitable replacements or order these directly on Amazon. The makeup pads are fairly universal as we were able to pick some up in India when we were with Paresh and his family.

In the blog itself he breaks his process down into two parts – cleaning the stem and cleaning the bowl. Each one has a large number of steps that he methodically does every time. I know because I have watched him do the work and I have seen the pipes after his work on them. He followed this process step by step and when the pipe got to me it was spotlessly clean and ready for my work. The inside of the stem, shank and bowl were clean and to me that is an amazing gift as it means that my work on this end is with a clean pipe! I cannot tell you how much difference that makes for my work.

  1. The first thing I see is great looking Dublin shaped pipe with a rugged classic Charatan pipe. It is clearly stamped and is a shape 90.
  2. The finish is clean and the grime and grit have been removed from the finish on the bowl. The sandblast looks very good as well. There are some great patterns in the sandblast.
  3. The lava, grime and dust on the rim top has been removed and it has revealed that the inner edge is clean and burn free. The outer edge of the bowl is also in good condition. The nicks turn out to be spots where the stain has lightened.
  4. With the thick cake reamed out the walls of the bowl are clean and they look very good with no checking or burn damage to the walls. The inner edge also looks very good with no damage.
  5. The vulcanite stem is in excellent condition – it is clean and has light tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of button. The fit of the stem to the shank looks good. The CP logo on the left side of the stem is faint but the stamping is very deep and should hold some whitening very well.

Hopefully the steps above show you both what I look for when I go over the pipe when I bring it to the work table and also what I see when I look at the pipe in my hands. They also clearly spell out a restoration plan in short form. My work is clear and addressing it will be the next steps. I took photos of the whole pipe to give you a picture of what I see when I have it on the table. This is important to me in that it also shows that there was no damage done during the clean up work or the transit of the pipe from Idaho to here in Vancouver. I carefully went over the bowl and rim top to get a sense of what is happening there. In this case once the rim top and edges were cleaned the rim cap and edges showed no damage. There was also no damage to the inner edge of the bowl. The top of the rim is washed out and missing some stain in spots. I also go over the stem carefully. The fit to the shank is snug and the transitions are smooth. There were some light tooth marks and chatter on the surface of the stem and the button. I took photos of the rim top and stem sides to show as best as I can what I see when I look at them. I always check to make sure that the clean up work did not damage the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is in excellent condition and is very clear and readable. The stamping on the stem though washed out is deep and very readable. I love just looking at the lay of the pipe and the proportion of the hand made pipes. I like to remove the stem from the shank to get a sense of what was in the mind of the pipe maker when he crafted the pipe. The photo shows its beauty in flow and shape.   I started my work on the clean bowl by addressing the fading of the stain on the rim top. I used a Walnut stain pen to blend it into the colour of the surrounding briar. It looks very good.I rubbed down the bowl and shank with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar. The product works to deep clean the nooks and crannies of finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips and into the rustication with a horse hair shoe brush. I let it sit for 10 minutes then wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine in the sandblast. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. It is a gorgeous pipe. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the stem surface at the button with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the tooth marks. I was able to lift them all quite well. I sanded out what remained with 220 grit sandpaper and the starting the polishing with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I touched up the stamp on the side of the stem with white acrylic fingernail polish. I let it dry and then sanded the stem with a worn 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pads. But I find it does two things – first it gives some protection to the stem from oxidation and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process. After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the vulcanite. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the Extra Fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection. The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the light scratches in the vulcanite. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I follow up the wax buff with a buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished stem. It really is a nice pipe. The mix of smooth and rusticated finishes around the bowl sides and shank looks great with the rich black and brown stains. The Charatan’s Make Sand Blast 90 Dublin feels great in my hand. It is a well balanced pipe. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.34 ounces/38 grams. It is a beautiful pocket sized pipe that I will soon be adding to the rebornpipes store in the British Pipemakers section. If you would like to add it to your collection let me know. It should be a great smoking pipe.

Hopefully the style of writing of this blog is helpful to you in some way. In it I wanted to show both what I am looking for and how I move forward in addressing what I see when work on a pipe. Let me know if it is helpful to you. It is probably the most straightforward detailed description of my work process that I have done. 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.

Making a Brigham Voyageur Just a Bit Spiffier

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Blog by Kenneth Lieblich

Next on the chopping block is a good-looking 1-dot Brigham Voyageur. I acquired it (with some other stuff) from a local gentleman and, subsequently, a friend of mine said he wanted me to clean it up for him. No problem – the pipe was in good shape to begin with. This pipe really feels good in the hand. It has that look – no one could mistake it for anything but a Brigham. This is one of the newer Brigham system pipes – one can tell it’s newer because of the Delrin tenon (the old ones were aluminum). The markings on the pipe are as follows: on the left side of the shank are the words Brigham [over] Voyageur. Beside that is the shape number: 129. Also, on the left side of the stem is the classic dot of the Brigham company.I read through the article on Pipedia on Brigham Pipes. You can read it here. It’s a good article and contains lots of helpful information. I have included the chart below from the site as it shows the Standard (1 Dot) pipes and includes the Voyageur and the shape number, 29. The one dot pipes identify the pipe as part of the 100 series and the series shape is #29. Therefore, the shape number stamping is 129.As Steve has done in his restorations of Brighams, I am including information below from Charles Lemon’s website on the dating etc. of Brigham pipes. Check it out here. I quote from both Charles’ article below:

The Transition Era (2001 – 2006). The biggest change to hit Brigham since the advent of the Rock Maple filter occurred in 2001 when Brigham moved production from Toronto to Italy. The product lineup was, not surprisingly, heavily impacted, with the most obvious change a sharp decrease in the number of pipe shapes available.

Daniel More, President of Brigham Enterprises Inc. explains the move to the EU: Admittedly the hardest decision we ever needed to make. With an aging skilled work force we were losing the skills required at an alarming rate. We made attempts to bring in new people but we were not effective in staving off the atrophy. We were fortunate though to be able to move by increments allowing us control and comfort throughout the process. For example, instead of turning our own bowls we began to purchase turned bowls; then we had stems added with sanding at 100-grit ; then sanding to finer degrees; then staining and so on. The last bit of control was grading.

 I still visit the manufacturing facility in the EU at least once a year to discuss QC and pick shapes and designs. The shift [to the EU] resulted in fewer shapes. However, one of the biggest benefits was access to a wider variety of finishes. We had never been able to offer a sandblasted pipe and the access to accessories like rings and different colours, I think, allowed us to make the line more interesting

Coincidental with shifting production to the EU was the move from the original aluminum tenon/filter holder to one made of a composite material. Daniel More provides insight into the switch:

Principally there were two catalysts for the change. We were using a very specific OD for our Aluminum Tenons. In fact, we were one of only two companies in North America using this OD, the other being an aircraft manufacturer in California. When this aircraft company shifted to an alternative, it left us and us alone purchasing this specific size. To stay with Aluminum, our only alternative was to purchase an oversized OD and tool this down to our requirements results in significant expense due to the wasted material costs.

We had, for many years, experimented with a number of composite materials for both the tenons and Distillator Tips. The issue was always heat resistance. Technology having advanced as it did by the 1990’s presented us with a selection of alternatives. We tested 10 different compositions before landing on the formula we still use today.

Cost saving aside, the Composite Tenon virtually eliminated the breaking of shanks. That is, when a pipe shank would break due to leverage (think, in the pocket and sitting down), we could not repair this. The Composite Tenon would now break away rather than the shank allowing for an inexpensive repair versus having to throw out “an old friend”. Without a doubt, there were many cries about the inferior Composite Tenon breaking but with our offer to provide no cost tenon repairs we assuaged this concern. We still offer to this day no charge repairs for broken Composite Tenons – no questions asked.

During the Transition Era, the 100 – 300 series pipes looked very similar to Canadian-made pipes and continued to be recognized by their traditional brass pin patterns. These lower series pipes were offered in 9 shapes. The 400 series disappeared temporarily, while the 500 to 700 series pipes, available in only 8 shapes, lost their brass pins and were identified only by their 3-digit shape numbers.On the whole, the pipe was in very nice shape. It didn’t appear to have been smoked too much.
The stem had a few tooth marks/scratches – nothing too serious. The stummel had some lava on the rim, small marks on the rim, and some light caking in the bowl.
I began by wiping the outside down with Murphy’s Oil Soap on some cotton pads. I then took some lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol and pipe cleaners, and cleaned out the internals. Fortunately, the pipe had been well-maintained, so this wasn’t too dirty.I managed to address the tooth scratches with some 220- and 400-grit sandpaper. 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. Then to the stummel. Firstly, I decided to ream out the bowl. I used the KleenReem 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. I then proceeded to clean out the insides of the shank with Q-tips, pipe cleaners, and lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. There was a bit of filth inside this stummel and it took some 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 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.Having completed that, I was able to address the lava and small nicks on the rim and the bowl. I used a piece of tool steel to gently scrape away the burn residue. I then took a solid wooden sphere, wrapped a piece of 220-grit sandpaper around it, and sanded the inner side of the chamber. This removed the lava on the inner edge of the rim, smoothed out the nicks.I then sanded the smooth parts of the stummel with all nine Micromesh pads. Naturally, I added a light application of Before & After Restoration Balm. This made the wood shine beautifully. I let it sit for about fifteen minutes and then buffed it with a microfibre cloth. In sanding the rim, some of the lovely burgundy colour was removed, so I next set about correcting that. I opted for two aniline dyes: Fiebing’s Black and Fiebing’s Oxblood. I had to approach this mix carefully, to ensure that it matched the pre-existing colour. As usual, I applied flame from a BIC lighter in order to set the colour. What a difference that made! It looked so much better with a fresh coat of stain.I applied some more Before & After Restoration Balm and then it was off for a trip to the buffer. A very precise use of White Diamond and a few coats of Conservator’s Wax made all the difference. The lovely shine made the wood very attractive. This is a very handsome pipe and will provide many years of smoking pleasure for my friend. I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe as much I as I did restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Restoring a Patent Pending Sepra-Bol Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe is a very unique one both in terms of design and shape. I have never seen anything like it. It is called a Sepra-Bol pipe. I thought this would be another chance to walk you through my process of working on each pipe that we purchase. Jeff has set up a spread sheet to track where the pipe came from, the date of purchase and what we paid for it so that we know what we have invested in the pipe before we even work on it. This takes a lot of the guess work out of the process. This particular pipe was purchased on 10/27/2022 from an Antique Shop in Seaside, Oregon, USA. I also want you to understand why we take the photos we do. If you have followed for a while then you will see the familiar pattern of the photos we include both in the before and midstream process of working on a pipe. It is not accidental as the photos have been taken to help me make an assessment of the pipe Jeff sees before he starts his clean up work. The photos of this pipe has some extra photos. We do this to record the condition that the pipe was in when received it and to assess what kind of work will need to be done on. When I look at these photos this is what I see.

  1. The first thing I see is very unique looking pipe with a raised shank and a U-shaped double bowl – front one is larger than the back one. There is a Bakelite on the top of the second bowl and a Bakelite clean out cover on the lower part of the rear bowl. It has a vulcanite saddle stem. It is well proportioned and interesting old pipe.
  2. The finish is dirty and there is grime and grit ground into sides of the bowl. There seems to be a coat of varnish on top over the briar. It barely hides the many fills in the bowl sides. There seems to be some interesting grain amidst the fills.
  3. The rim top has some light lava and debris on the back rim top and the inner edge is coated with cake from the bowl. There is some darkening around the inner edge and top of the bowl. I think cleaning will reveal a real beauty.
  4. The bowl has a thick cake and debris on the walls that hides the walls and some grime on the inner edge of the bowl but once it is clean we will know what the bowl and edges really look like. The outer edges look good and there does not appear to be any obvious burn damage to the top or bowl edges. The cap on the second bowl is dirty and inside it is dirty as well.
  5. The vulcanite saddle stem is in good condition – dirty, oxidized and has tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of button. There is no logo on the stem sides.

Overall my impressions of this pipe is that it is a great looking pipe even with the putty fills around the bowl sides. I think that once cleaned up it will look pretty amazing. The shape looks like it will be comfortable to hold. The photos below confirm the assessment above.Jeff took close up photos so that I could have a clearer picture of the condition of the bowl, rim edges and top. The rim top photos confirm my assessment above. The cake in the bowl is thick with tobacco debris stuck on the walls. The rim top has light lava, grime and darkening around the top and edges in the rusticated surface. You can also see the condition of the outer edge and the inner edge is in great condition. The back bowl with the Bakelite cap shows dirt and grime as well. This is what I look for when assessing a pipe. There is no visible burn damage at this point. The bowl is still round and other than being in a used condition it is in great shape. The photos of the vulcanite stem surface from various angles confirmed my assessment of its condition. You can see that it is dirty in the first photo below. The stem has some tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside near the button.    Instead of telling you what I see in the next photos of the sides of the bowl and the heel I want to hear from you. Tell me what you see? What does the finish look like to you? Are there any visible problems or issues that stand out to you? Are the cracks or scratches in the valleys of the rustication or the high spots? Are there visible fills, flaws or fissures in the briar? Any visible issues on the heel of the bowl? These questions should help you to see what I am looking for when I see these photos. Jeff took photos of the Bakelite bowl cap on the second bowl and the clean out cap in place in the bowl. He took them from the bowl and took photos of them to show what they look like when removed. It is an interesting set up. Jeff took photos of the fills around the bowl sides. They look swollen and enlarged. They are very visible in the photos below. They well need to be cleaned up, sanded and repaired to try to hide them in the surrounding briar. As the pipe stands at the moment the fills really are a mess.He took photos of the stamping on heel of the bowl. It reads Imported Briar [over] Sepra Bol. Underneath that it is stamped P.O Box 18202 [over] Houston 23, Texas USA. Stamped under that it reads Pat. Pending. On the underside of the shank at the shank/stem union it is stamped ITALY. What stands out for you in the photos of the stamping on the pipe? What do you look for in the stamping? I know it is dirty but what do you see underneath the grime on the surface of the briar? When I am working on pipes I like to get a sense of the history of the brand of the pipe and try to get a feel for the pipe maker. I turned to Pipephil’s site and to Pipedia to see what I could learn about Sep-ra Bol pipes. There was nothing listed for the brand there.

I googled the Sep-ra Bol pipe to see what I could find out about the brand. One of the links took me to imgur.com (https://i.imgur.com/0LjqtVQ.jpg). There was a great advertisement for the pipe included there. I have done a screen capture of the advert and included it below. Give it a read as it a fascinating description of the specialty pipe.
I love the description of the pipe as “a new, exclusive two bowl principle protects your health…adds to the rich tobacco flavor… and is easy to clean. No wasteful, gummy heel. No unpleasant odors…no metal. Doesn’t cause heart-burn or upset digestion. A fine briar pipe endorsed by smokers everywhere… The smoke is filtered through your favourite tobacco so it is always cool and dry.”

I have included a blown up photo of the diagram describing the function of the pipe. It is much as I expected.The Imgur site also had another advertisement on the pipe. I have included it below. It give a clear photo of the pipe with tobacco inserted in the second bowl to act as a filter and says that it is easily replaceable. It also connects the pipe to the maker – International Allied Industries – Hialeah, Florida. With that collection of information and advertisements digested it was now time for me to work on the pipe.

I am once again including the link to Jeff’s clean up process blog. Please remember that the point of these blogs is not to wow you with the work or make you shake your heads but I want you to know the details of the work we do so you can do your own. Back in 2020 Jeff wrote a blog about his cleaning process. I am including a link to that now so you can see what I mean about his process. Do not skip it! Give it a read (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/20/got-a-filthy-estate-pipe-that-you-need-to-clean/). Here is the introduction to that blog and it is very true even to this day.

Several have asked about Jeff’s cleaning regimen as I generally summarize it in the blogs that I post rather than give a detailed procedure. I have had the question asked enough that I asked Jeff to put together this blog so that you can get a clear picture of the process he uses. Like everything else in our hobby, people have different methods they swear by. Some may question the method and that is fine. But it works very well for us and has for many years. Some of his steps may surprise you but I know that when I get the pipes from him for my part of the restoration they are impeccably clean and sanitized. I have come to appreciate the thoroughness of the process he has developed because I really like working on clean pipe!

For the benefit of some of you who may be unfamiliar with some of the products he uses I have included photos of three of the items that Jeff mentions in his list. This will make it easier for recognition. These three are definitely North American Products so you will need to find suitable replacements or order these directly on Amazon. The makeup pads are fairly universal as we were able to pick some up in India when we were with Paresh and his family.

In the blog itself he breaks his process down into two parts – cleaning the stem and cleaning the bowl. Each one has a large number of steps that he methodically does every time. I know because I have watched him do the work and I have seen the pipes after his work on them. He followed this process step by step and when the pipe got to me it was spotlessly clean and ready for my work. The inside of the stem, shank and bowl were clean and to me that is an amazing gift as it means that my work on this end is with a clean pipe! I cannot tell you how much difference that makes for my work.

  1. This very unique looking pipe with a raised shank and a U-shaped double bowl – front one is larger than the back one. There is a Bakelite on the top of the second bowl and a Bakelite clean out cover on the lower part of the rear bowl. It has a vulcanite saddle stem. It is well proportioned and interesting old pipe. It is clean and smells fresh.
  2. The finish is clean and the grime and grit have been removed from the finish on the bowl. The smooth briar looks very good thought the fills on the sides of the bowl are numerous and quite ugly.
  3. The darkening, lava, grime and dust on the rim top has been removed and it has revealed that the inner edge is clean and burn free. The outer edge of the bowl is also in good condition. The edges of the second bowl under the cap also look very good. The Bakelite caps on the second bowl and the clean out look very good.
  4. With the cake reamed out the walls of the bowl are clean and they show no checking or burn damage to the walls.
  5. The vulcanite saddle stem looks very good and cleaned up well. The light tooth marks an chatter will be easily polished out. There is no logo on the sides of the stem.

Hopefully the steps above show you both what I look for when I go over the pipe when I bring it to the work table and also what I see when I look at the pipe in my hands. They also clearly spell out a restoration plan in short form. My work is clear and addressing it will be the next steps. I took photos of the whole pipe to give you a picture of what I see when I have it on the table. This is important to me in that it also shows that there was no damage done during the clean up work or the transit of the pipe from Idaho to here in Vancouver.  I carefully went over the bowl and rim top to get a sense of what is happening there. In this case once the rim top and edges were cleaned the rim top and inner edge showed no damage. The darkening on the rim top and edges was also gone. The varnish coat is spotty on the rim top and edges. The second bowl cap and clean out cap look very good. I go over the stem carefully. The fit to the shank is snug and the transitions are smooth. There were some light tooth marks and chatter on the surface of the stem and the button. I took photos of the rim top and stem sides to show as best as I can what I see when I look at them. I always check to make sure that the clean up work did not damage the stamping on the heel of the bowl and the underside of the shank in any way. It is in excellent condition and is very clear and readable.I love just looking at the lay of the pipe and the proportion of a pipe. I took the pipe apart to get a sense of what was in the mind of the pipe maker when he crafted the pipe. The photo shows its beauty in flow and shape. Even with the ugly fills in the bowl sides it is still a beauty. It was time to go to work on seeing what I could do with the fills in the bowl. They were so ugly that they cannot remain the way they are so I will need to do a bit of work to blend them into the surface of the surrounding briar. I started the process of reworking the shrunken fills. I stained the sunken fills with an Oak stain pen and then filled them in with clear CA glue. I spread the glue and flattened out the repairs areas using a dental spatula. I set it aside to cure. Once it had cured I sanded the repaired areas smooth with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surrounding briar. I polished out the sanding on the bowl sides with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and wiped it down after each pad with a damp cloth. I stained the briar with an Oak stain pen and it looked much better. I restained the bowl with a medium brown aniline stain. I applied it with a cotton dauber and then flamed it with a lighter to set the stain in the briar. I repeated the process until I was happy with the coverage.Once the stain cured I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding lightly with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the briar down after each sanding pad to trace the progress in the polishing. It definitely took on a shine with each successive pad. I rubbed down the bowl and shank with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that is rubbed into the surface of the briar. The product works to deep clean the nooks and crannies of finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips. I let it sit for 10 minutes then wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine in the briar and the rustication showed depth. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. It is a gorgeous pipe.  I polished the bowl cap and clean out cap with micromesh sanding pads. I used 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped the caps down with Obsidian Oil. The caps took on a shine.  I put the caps in place on the bowl and took some photos of the bowl at this point in the restoration process. It is a beauty and while the fills are still present they are less intrusive. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the stem surface at the button with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the tooth marks. I was able to lift them all quite well. I sanded out what remained with 220 grit sandpaper and the starting the polishing with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and water to wet sand the stem. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil on a cotton rag after each sanding pads. I know that many say Obsidian Oil does nothing for acrylic stems, but I find it does two things – first it gives some protection to the stem from buildup and second it give the sanding pads bite in the polishing process.   After finishing with the micromesh pads I rub the stem down with Before & After Fine and Extra Fine stem polish as it seems to really remove the fine scratches in the vulcanite. I rub the Fine Polish on the stem and wipe it off with a paper towel and then repeat the process with the Extra Fine polish. I finish the polishing of the stem down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set the stem aside to let the oil absorb. This process gives the stem a shine and also a bit of protection. The final steps in my process involve using the buffer. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the light scratches in the acrylic. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I have found that I can get a deeper shine if I follow up the wax buff with a buff with a clean buffing pad. It works to raise the shine and then I hand buff with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is always fun for me to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished stem. It really is a nice pipe. The finish around the bowl sides and shank looks great with the rich brown stains. The stain hides the fills quite well. The Sepra Bol Imported Briar Two Bowl Billiard feels great in my hand. It is a well balanced pipe. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 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 1.69 ounces/48 grams. It is such an interesting Sepra Bol Twin Bowl pipe that I will be keeping it here in my own collection. I look forward to enjoy a bowl in it soon. It should be a great smoking pipe.

Hopefully the style of this blog is helpful to you in some way. In it I wanted to show both what I am looking for and how I move forward in addressing what I see when work on a pipe. Let me know if it is helpful to you. It is probably the most straightforward detailed description of my work process that I have done. 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.