Tag Archives: restaining a bowl and rim

What a mess – a Georgetown Made in London, England Canadian

Blog by Steve Laug

The grain on this old Georgetown Canadian really spoke to me when I took it out of the box of pipes from my brother. The mix of diagonal cross grains on the sides of the bowl and the birdseye on the front and back of the bowl and the top and bottom of the bowl and shank are really quite stunning. The bowl itself was incredibly dirty and the finish had rubbed and baked in grime all over. The rim was thickly caked with an overflow of lava the came from a bowl that was so caked that there was hardly room for any more tobacco. The stem was oxidized and there was a thick white build up of what I call calcification that comes from saliva and use. The slot in the end of the button was almost closed off with merely a small space mid slot. It was truly a mess that caused me to wonder what I would find once I cleaned and reamed the bowl. I took some close up photos of the rim and bowl as well as the stem to show the extent of work that would have to be done to clean it up. I also took a photo of the stamping on the shank to try to capture how it looked. It read MADE IN LONDON on the top line and under that ENGLAND. Stamped high and touching the bottom of the letters of the England stamp is the GEORGETOWN stamp.I reamed the bowl with the PipNet reamer starting with the smallest cutting head and working up the third head. The cake was harder toward the bottom of the bowl so I worked on smoothing it out with the Savinelli Pipe Knife and finished with the third cutting head of the reamer. You can see the rim damage on the inner edge of the rim at the back of the bowl in the photo below.I topped the bowl on the topping board until the damaged areas were minimized on the rim surface and the thick hard lava build up was gone. You can see the out of round areas on the inner edge of the rim in the second photo below.I scrubbed the surface of the bowl with acetone and cotton pads to remove the grime and the waxes on the finish. If you look closely at the pipe you will see a multitude of fills that are well placed in the grain of the pipe and barely visible. I worked on smoothing out the damage to the inner rim by beveling it with the Dremel and sanding drum and then sanding it with a folded piece of 180 and 220 grit sandpaper. I smoothed out the scratches with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads.I started cleaning out the shank and the airway with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol but found that I would need to use too many of them to be effective. I put the stem in place on the shank and set up the retort to boil alcohol through the pipe. I used five test tubes of alcohol before finally I was able to get one that was clear after boiling it through. I cleaned out the airway in the shank and the stem as well as the mortise with a few pipe cleaners and cotton swabs to remove the remnants of alcohol and debris left behind by the retort. I used the light brown stain pen to touch the area on the rear side of the bowl where I had done some light sanding and repair as well as the area around the shank stem junction that was lighter.I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 micromesh sanding pads and gave the stem a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads, gave it another coat of oil and finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and then gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and then hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I am still trying to figure out who made the pipe. I know that the Made in London, England stamp was used by Barling and in the pre-Cadogan era by GBD. If anyone can give me more definitive information regarding the maker of these pipes for the Georgetown Tobacconist please contact me in the comment section. Thanks ahead for your help and thanks for journeying with me on this refurb.

Sofia Hole in the Wall #3: A Butz-Choquin Rocamar with a Cumberland stem

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Blog by Dal Stanton

This is my third restoration from what I called the ‘Bag of 4’ that Steve and I saw at the ‘Hole in the Wall’ antique store during his visit to Sofia, Bulgaria. Thanks again for indulging my ‘newbie’ offerings. My favorite of the bunch was a Savinelli Tortuga (https://rebornpipes.com/2016/06/18/sofia-hole-in-the-wall-find-savinelli-tortuga/). The second, which I didn’t write up, was a beautiful Danske Club Vario, which I discovered on Pipedia is a Stanwell second. Behind the Tortuga, the Vario was a close second. It is now next to my Tortuga in regular rotation – a great addition to my growing collection. Take a look at a few pictures of the finished Danish Danske Club Vario. I’m drawn to the blended smooth and sandblasted briar finishes on this pipe: The markings I found on pipe #3 on the left side is Butz-Choquin over Rocamar with a ‘Filter 9’ diagonal imprint. On the right side, St. Claude, France 1333, which I assume is the BC shape or series number. The Cumberland stem has the BC imprinted marking. From Pipedia I discovered a bit of the early history of the name from Pipedia:

“Jean-Baptiste Choquin of Metz started out as a tobacconist. This enterprise was prosperous; he had several employees. Among those, there was a certain Gustave Butz who was its first workman and who became his son-in-law by marrying Choquin’s daughter Marie in 1858. In 1858 Jean-Baptiste Choquin created, in collaboration with Gustave Butz, the Choquin pipe. This bent pipe with a flat-bottomed bowl was finished with an albatross-bone mouthpiece, fixed with silver rings. In 1858, still in Metz, Gustave Butz built an establishment for the manufacture of the Choquin pipe which took the name of -. In 1951, the Berrod-Regad company bought the trademark, continuing manufacture until 2002. Departing from Metz, the workshop was relocated to Saint-Claude, then also called ‘the world capital of the briar pipe,’ under the Berrod-Regad group.”

I could find nothing specific about the series name Rocamar so I decided to send an email to Butz-Choquin using their info contact from their current website which is under construction (http://www.butzchoquin.com/). We’ll see where that goes.

The BC Rocamar has an attractive fiery grain and the bent billiard chimney is tall and elegant to me – perhaps tending toward an egg shaped bowl. What I’m drawn to also is the bent Cumberland stem – my first to work on. Not quite knowing what kind of stem it was I did a bit of research and discovered pipesmokersforum.com a thread discussing this stem:

“Cumberland proper is a vulcanite rod made up from red and black rods, melted and swirled together for the brown/red marble effect. It is very soft, and oxydizes fairly quickly if the protective wax coating is scraped off. There is a harder version in ebonite, which has a higher sulfur content if I understand these things correctly, but the color combos are not quite as subdued as the vulcanite version. It’s a bit more “brick” colored.” Another comment I read was that if one found a Cumberland stem it was most likely hand cut – to me that is cool. Helpful information. Here are pictures of the BC Rocamar when it arrived home from the Hole in the Wall: The briar is in great shape and will need basic clean-up. The rim shows a burn scar about 2 o’clock and lava build up. As the comments about Cumberland stems and oxidation stated, this one had its share. The bit has significant teeth chatter and some significant divots that will need repair. Yet, I see the potential of the color swirl of the Cumberland being a very nice augmentation to the fiery briar stummel. The filter casing had dislodged from the stem and that will need to be reattached. I decide to drop the stem in an Oxyclean bath to start working on the oxidation while I turn my attention to the bowl – whoops, that is after I retrieved the stem from underneath the bed – I forgot it was on my lap when I stood to head for the Oxyclean! I took a close-up of the rim and bowl before I go to work. I moved from the bedroom work table to the 10^th floor balcony mobile work station with Pipnet reaming kit in hand. I want to minimize pipe soot being released into the bedroom atmosphere resulting in a happier wife. I use only the two smallest blades from the reaming kit to take the cake down to the wood. I finish the fire chamber by rubbing it with 120 then 240 grit sanding paper to smooth and clean the chamber walls even more. Turning to the rim, I clean it with isopropyl 95% and a brass brush which will not scratch the surface of the bowl. I want to see the rim wood clearly before I top the bowl to repair the burn scar and reveal the briar. With the sunshine helping I can see the rim (and holding tightly not to lose it over the edge!). I note that the rim circumference is small as the sloping shape of the bowl culminates. I move to top the bowl but with a view to take off as little as possible to preserve the dimensions of the slender egg-peeked chimney of the bowl. With the stem soaking in the Oxyclean bath I’m not able to reattach it to the stummel to help make sure I’m maintaining a true perpendicular top and not leaning into the softer burned area. Before rotating the bowl to top it, I let it free stand and gently rotated the pitch of the bowl so that I could ‘feel’ the low spot where the rim was burned. By doing this I was able to acclimate to the ‘healthy’ flat part of the rim during the sanding rotation. It worked well! I took a picture after only a few rotations on the topping board. It revealed that I wasn’t fudging into the low spot as it was not yet impacted by the sanding but the other ¾ of the rim was. I’m careful to keep eyeballing the progress. I use 240 grit paper on a chop board as my topping table. Moving in a circular, even motion I remove only what is needed. Satisfied with the topping, I made a small bevel on the inside of the rim using 120 and 240 grit paper. I did this to take out a bit of inner rim damage and a small bevel is always nice and gives a classy touch. I followed this by using micromesh (1500-12000) on the rim to remove all scratches. The pictures tell the story. I decided to wait on staining the rim using a stain-stick and move to the cleaning of the internal and external of the bowl. The reason I did this was I was able to differentiate the actual unstained color of the briar by looking at the newly repaired rim and compare it to the bowl color. The rim briar leaned brown whereas the bowl, to the reds. With cleaning with Murphy’s Soap of the external bowl, I expect there to be a slight change in the color of the bowl briar. At that point I would go to work again on the color of the rim aiming for the best match. I decided at this point to move to cleaning the internals of the stummel with Q-tips and pipe cleaners dipped in isopropyl 95%. I found the internals to be amazingly free of muck and it was not long before Q-tips and pipe cleaners were coming out clean. Turning to the external cleaning, I used Murphy’s Soap undiluted with cotton pads to remove the wax and grime on the bowl. The bowl itself is in great shape – no significant scratches or fills. At this point, I came to a road block which necessitated a quick email to ‘Master Obi-wan Steve’ for his input. After the Murphy’s Soap cleaning I was expecting/hoping the high gloss finish on the bowl to have been dulled – getting to a more natural grain look not competing so much with the bared rim – at least this is what was in my mind. My hesitations were not wanting to be too aggressive with the bowl finish and mess up the patina that is under the gloss…. With the time difference between Sofia and Vancouver, I put the stummel aside and turn to the much anticipated work on the Cumberland stem – what to me is the unique part of this BC stummel/stem ensemble. After I extract the stem from the Oxyclean bath, I take some pictures to chronicle the progress. After an initial buff with 000 steel wool to remove the surfaced oxidation, I take a closer look at the significant teeth divots on the bit and decide to apply super glue to the top and bottom to be able to redefine the button and cover the chatter damage. I want the superglue patches in place before beginning the sanding of the stem. With the superglue curing, Steve’s reply came about my bowl conundrum and it is now decision time. He suspects that I’m dealing with a urethane finish much like he just dealt with in a Jobey restore (https://rebornpipes.com/2016/06/29/i-thought-this-one-would-be-easy-boy-was-i-wrong/) that was a bear to remove. The options before me are to either come up with a high gloss finish for the rim seeking to match up with the bowl or to aggressively remove the plastic, gloss finish and rescue the beautiful briar beneath. The close-up picture below revealing the bare briar in rim repair sealed my decision – I put the bowl in an overnight alcohol bath hopefully to soften the glossy finish to be revisited tomorrow. The time had come to watch some European football – Portugal and Poland – on my widescreen HDTV in my favorite recliner.The next day, with Poland and Portugal playing to a 1-1 tie the night before, I was anxious to see if the alcohol bath made a dent on the glossy finish. Upon inspection (picture 1) it was still pretty shiny so I took a light grit sanding sponge to loosen the finish. I was careful to lightly work around the nomenclature. This did the trick. The alcohol bath undoubtedly softened things up. After the sponge sanding, I followed with rubbing the bowl with acetone with cotton pads to draw the stain out of the grain. I finished with wiping down the stummel with isopropyl 95% to make sure all was cleaned and no grit left behind. I feel like I’m on a roll and I’m anxious to see the grain of this piece of briar unveiled. I use micromesh pads from 1500 to 2400, 3200 to 4000, and 6000 to 12000. The pictures below show the progress. I have to be honest, this is perhaps my favorite part of the restoration process – each set of micromesh pads brings out more of the grain revealing the profoundly unique ‘fingerprint’ of each piece of briar we handle. I euphemistically think of micromesh pads as ‘magicmesh’ pads – they bring the wood to life. In my opinion, the grain that I’m now enjoying is much more satisfying than looking through the plastic shiny sheen of the original Butz-Choquin design. I decide to put the bowl aside and focus now on completing the Cumberland stem clean up and restoration. I want to have an idea of the colors of the finished stem before I decide on the best finish for the stummel. I like working on a clean stem so I first clean the airway using pipe cleaners and Q-tips dipped in isopropyl 95%. During the cleaning, I saw something that I had missed before. The button airway opening has a divot – I’ll need to add that to the list. The superglue applications on the bit and button have had plenty of time to dry. I use 240 grit sanding paper and needle files to work on the bit and button repair. The bit repair looks good so I move to micromesh and the homestretch. I wet sand using 1500-2400 and then apply Obsidian oil to the stem. At this point, I inspect the repair work on the bit to make sure there are no scratches that I’ve missed before proceeding. I’ve learned that often scratches are covered by the rough vulcanite. With the Obsidian oil on the stem I dry-sand using micromesh pads 3200-4000 and apply more Obsidian oil. I do the same with the last set of three – 6000-12000 and give a good coat of oil and put it aside to dry. The pictures show the progress rejuvenating the Cumberland stem. I like what I’m seeing. I had one undone job – re-attach the filter casing to the stem. My assumption is that it was initially glued and after inspecting the inside of the stem, I detected residue that I assume was the glue previously used. I clean the old gunk off the housing and the inside of the stem with alcohol and cotton pad and reattach the housing with superglue. To get the job done I used my Winchester pocket knife and a dental pick to dig out the old glue. With the filter housing reattached, the stem is complete. I really like the rich color of the Cumberland stem. After allowing the filter housing glue to dry I want to see the lay of the land, I rejoin the Cumberland stem to the stummel (picture #1 below). I decide to stain the bowl with a new stain I found at the German owned ‘Mr. Prakteker’ – like Home Depot in the US. Finding alcohol-based stains in Bulgaria has been a challenge so I’ve been mixing my own batches up to this point. The brand is Italian and the cost was a bit more – I’m hoping that translates into better quality. When I opened the tin, a whiff of the stain revealed alcohol. With the help of Google Translate, the flavor of the stain is Dark Nut. The Bulgarian stick-on information tag said Dark Walnut. My thinking is to aim for a darker stummel to blend with the darker hues of the stem. If this succeeds, then I’m hoping the reds of the Cumberland stem ‘pop’ more instead of competing with the stummel. We’ll see! I can use alcohol-dipped cotton pads to lighten the stain after application if I choose. After setting the stummel up on the cork/candle stand I apply the stain undiluted with a cotton swab to see how it goes. I liberally allow stain to move over the inverted stummel – making sure of coverage over the inverted rim. After a good covering I use a lighter to fire the stain which is a quick-combustion of the alcohol leaving the stain to set well into the grain. The Italian stain ‘fired’ as hoped! I repeated the procedure and then used the alcohol dipped pads to clean off the burn layer of the stain revealing how the grain received the stain – it’s never the same! I take a picture to do a quick compare of stummel and stem. After comparing I’m thinking that I like the dark hue but it needs some reds so I decide to add a layer of Cheren stain – red which I will mix with alcohol as it is a water based stain. In my mind I’m thinking of the ‘Ox Blood’ depth that Steve uses – which is not found in Bulgaria! I think the addition of the red stain does the trick (last picture) though it’s difficult to see the difference comparing the last two pictures. Next, I apply several layers of carnauba wax to the stummel and stem with Dremel and cotton wheels. I’m careful to keep the Dremel wheel moving in rotation over the wood and use the lowest speed so not to overheat the wood. The buffing brings out the grain and the luster of the Cumberland stem. I continue the buffing with a clean cotton wheel over the entire stummel and stem surface. I finished with a thorough vigorous buffing with microfiber cloth to bring out the grain depth while watching Germany and Italy’s World Cup match. The recommissioning of this Butz-Choquin Rocamar was more of a project than I was expecting. I prefer the finish now before me to the shiny finish I started with. I like the new color scheme for the bowl and Cumberland stem – I believe it works well. The reds in the Cumberland stem match the grain amazingly well and the grain swirl in the rim has the appearance of continuing in the stem – a neat effect. I’m very pleased with the color blends. Another project done with new things learned to draw upon for the next candidate brought back to life! Thanks for joining me!

Restoring a Kirsten Generation 1 Medium Straight Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

My brother continues to look for Kirsten estate pipes. He picked up this Kirsten because it looked like an old-timer. When I received it I could see that he was right about it being an older one. All the signs were there. The bowl was threaded directly on the barrel of the pipe and bottom cap that is on new models was not present. When the stem was removed there were no O rings on the end of the insert. The valve cap was stuck in the end of the shank and it could not be turned. The rim had a lava overflow on it and there was a heavy cake in the bowl. The screw mount in the bottom of the bowl was caked over to the point that it was stuck in the bowl. The metal barrel was oxidized and pitted. It had no shine left but looked like a well-worn pipe. The stem was oxidized and a dirty brown colour. There were tooth marks next to the button on the top and the bottom sides of the stem. The rod that ran through the barrel was dirty and coated with tars and oils that had hardened. The left side of the barrel is stamped Kirsten in script. The underside is stamped Pats. & Pats. Pend. USA M. The stamping along with the absence of O rings, the bowl screwed directly on top of the barrel pointed to a Generation 1 Kirsten which dated it between the years 1936-1958. In a previous blog I spelled out the features of each generation of Kirsten pipes that were released. https://rebornpipes.com/2012/11/03/kirsten-generation-1-1-5-2-3/ I quote the following from there: The wooden bowl on this generation connects directly to the metal barrel and there is no metal cup spacer. It is a pretty flush fit that goes flat against the barrel. On the underside of the metal barrel it is stamped with one or more of the following “Pat. Appl. For” (1936-38) and “Pats. & Pats. Pending” (1938-1958) over “Made in USA” – S” (or applicable size – S, M, L). There are no O-rings on the bit or metal shank insert. The M stamp on the pipe identifies it as a Medium sized pipe.

So I armed with that information I knew that the pipe I had, came from the time period of 1936-1958 and the lack of O rings on the mouthpiece and I assumed on the valve once I was able to remove confirmed that. I was ready to get to work on the pipe. I heated the valve insert with a heat gun to loosen the tars that held the cap in place. It did not take too long and I was able to insert a screw driver in the barrel and tap on the valve.The next photo shows the pipe taken apart. The condition of all of the parts is clear – dirty but functional. The knurled edges on the valve were damaged by previous attempts by someone else to remove the valve with pliers. In the photo above there are pliers present but I did not use them on the end cap.The screw in the bottom of the bowl was held in place by the cake in the bowl. The photo also shows the condition of the bowl and the rim. The other close-up photos show the stem and the tooth marks on both sides near the button. I sanded the stem with 180 and 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and the tooth marks. I was able to blend the tooth damage into the flow of the stem because fortunately they were not deep.I lightly topped the bowl on the topping board to remove the damage to the rim and the build-up.I reamed the bowl with the Savinelli Pipe Knife and took the cake back to bare briar. I sanded the inside of the bowl with a piece of sandpaper to clean out the remaining cake.I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with cotton pads and acetone to remove the grime and the remaining finish. I scrubbed the rod on the stem unit with acetone to remove the tars and oils. I did the same with the exterior of the valve.I cleaned out the tarry build-up in the valve/end cap with cotton swabs and alcohol.I cleaned out the barrel with cotton swabs and rolled cotton pads and alcohol pushed through the opening with a screw driver. I also pushed a rolled piece of 0000 steel wool through the barrel to polish the inside. I used pipe cleaners to clean out the threads in the opening on the top of the barrel.I cleaned up the screw and the airway through the screw with a dental pick, pipe cleaners and alcohol. I cleaned the threads on the screw with cotton swabs and alcohol.I polished the aluminum barrel with Meguiar’s Scratch X2.0 and cotton swabs.I restained the bowl with a dark brown stain pen. I put the bowl on the barrel buffed them with Blue Diamond on the wheel to polish the stain and even out the coat on the bowl as well as polish the aluminum. The next photos show the bowl and barrel at this point in the process. I cleaned out the airway in the stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol and then worked on the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. I set the stem aside to dry. I gave the pipe and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed the barrel, bowl and stem with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to add depth to the shine. The photos below show the finished pipe. This one will also go on the store soon. If you are interested in it let me know. Thanks for looking.

Cleaning up the last of the Sofia, Bulgaria Finds – a Heibe Dublin 430

I thought this one would be easy – boy was I wrong

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Blog by Steve Laug

I wanted a bit of a breather so I went through my box of pipes for repair and picked this multi-finish Jobey Asti Classic Bent Billiard to clean up. The stamping on the left side reads Jobey Asti Classic and on the right side France and the shape number 470. At first glance it looked like it would be a simple restore and clean. The bowl looked decent in the box and the stem was okay as well. When I got back to the table and did a closer examination I was surprised by what I saw. The bowl rim was in bad shape with the outer edge knocked and damaged. There were dent and score marks in the top of the rim. The lava had flown over the top and it looked as if someone had thrown a coat of Urethane on top of the bowl, grime and all. I looked at the exterior and found that even the grooves in the rusticated bottom of the bowl were thickly coated with the plastic stuff. The stem looked good at first but as I examined it I found that it had been cut off and the button recut and a slot fashioned that was not clean or even. The surface of the stem on the top and bottom next to the button was heavily built up with what appeared to be black epoxy and it was bubbled and full of pin prick like holes. It also was not bent correctly to the shape of the bowl. Truly it would need a lot more work than originally thought. (As an aside don’t use Urethane on bowls it is a bear to clean off and if you have to at least clean them before you dip them in that awful plastic stuff.) I took the pipe apart and unscrewed the Jobey Link from the bowl and took a picture of the parts. I wanted to see how dirty the internals were and if the Link would come out easily. For those of you who don’t know the Link system one of the nice perks is that the end of the tenon that sits in the stem are slotted so you can insert a slot or blade screwdriver to loosen and remove the Link. It is a great piece of forethought on the part of the designer.Because of the coat of Urethane over the lava I needed to top the bowl to remove the grime and also to clean up the outer edges of the bowl. I topped it with 220 grit sandpaper on my topping board.I sanded the finish on the smooth portion of the bowl with a medium grit sanding block and then wiped the bowl down with acetone to try to break the plastic finish. I was partially successful in removing it but more work would need to be done.I reamed the bowl with the PipNet reamer and also with the Savinelli Pipe Knife to remove the remnants of cake that still were deep in the bowl. I reamed it back to bare briar so that the new owner could build a cake of their own choosing. You can also see the top and outer edge of the rim in these photos that show it after the topping of the bowl.In the next photo you can see the film of the plastic stuff still on the bowl with the scratches from the sanding block visible. I decided to let it soak in the alcohol bath for a day and a half to see if the finish would break down some more now that it had been broken through with the sanding blocks.When I took it out of the bath the finish was pretty smooth. The plastic stuff was gone. I sanded the bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads to remove some of the scratching and was careful around the stamping on the sides of the shank. I washed the bowl down with some acetone on cotton pads and then stained it with a dark brown aniline stain. I flamed it and repeated the process to make sure I got and even coverage.While the bowl dried I turned to work on the stem. I heated it with the heat gun to soften the Lucite enough that I could bend it to the proper angle. It did not take too much to get the angle correct but the heat caused the epoxy patch to bubble. The perk of that was that the airhole pin prick marks disappeared.I wiped the bowl down with alcohol on cotton pads to remove some of the dark stain and bring the grain to the forefront.I cleaned out the interior of the stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and alcohol. I cleaned out the area where the Jobey Link sat in the stem and the airway to ensure good fit and draw.Now it was time to work on repairing the stem repairs! The next photos show what the patches looked like when I started. They stood out clearly and the heat of the gun made them raise and bubble. To me they looked like overkill in terms of a repair. It was almost if the person who did the patch was trying to build up the thickness of the stem at the button to give it strength. It would take some work to make it blend in. I sanded the surface of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth things out and try to match the stem surface. Of course I forgot to take photos of the process but the ones shown below with the micromesh sanding pads will show the change. The third photo below shows the slot in the button. I worked on it with needle files to clean it up and shape it and again forgot to take photos of the process.I rubbed the bowl down with some Conservator’s Wax so that when I cleaned out the shank and Jobey Link System with would not damage the finish that I had done. (I know I should have done this before staining but this one irritated me and I forgot to do so.) I cleaned the link and then put a little Vaseline on the threads and turned it into the mortise. I adjusted it with the screwdriver to set it into the shank. I buffed the bowl lightly with Blue Diamond on the wheel and gave it a light coat of olive oil. I took the following photos to show what the pipe looked like at this point in the process. You can also see the state of the stem in these photos. Overall the pipe is looking pretty good at this point. It is far better than I expected when I started. The contrast of the dark stain on the rustication and the lighter stain on the smooth briar makes this pipe look quite “classic” matching its name. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads. I finished sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond. I avoided the rusticated portion so as not to get polishing compound in the crevices and pits of bottom half of the bowl. I waxed the bowl and the stem with multiple coats of carnauba. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The grain is quite beautiful and the contrast between the smooth and the rusticated portions gives a unique look to the pipe. Thanks for looking.

An Interesting Churchill’s Volcano Brought to Life

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next out of the box of pipes from my brother is the one below. It is stamped Churchill’s on the smooth underside of the shank. The shape number 882 is along the shank stem junction on the underside. I have refurbished several Churchill’s pipes from their pipe shop in Norwich. I wrote a bit about that shop when I did a refurbish on a Churchill’s Bent Pot. The link to that article is as follows: https://rebornpipes.com/2013/09/08/churchills-bent-pot/. This pipe had a rustication that is very similar to those I have seen on Lorenzo pipes. The stem on this pipe is stamped Italy on the underside. The finish was tired and dirty but the rustication was in good shape. The rim was solid with no damage to the inner or outer edge but it was thick with tars. The bowl was reamed while I was visiting in Idaho. The stem was in good shape at first glance. It was oxidized but there were no tooth marks. As I examined it I found that the stem had been cut off and a new button was cut into the surface. The slot was also reshaped. The button itself was very thin as the stem was also thin at this point. I took a close up photo of the rim and the stamping on the underside of the bowl. The rim is dirty but the rustication is in good shape with no burn marks or damage. The stamping is also very clear.I scrubbed the rim with a brass bristle wire brush to remove the tars and oils that had built up there. Once it was loosened I scrubbed it with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to clean off the grime in the finish. I rinsed the bowl with warm running water to remove the grime and soap. The next photos show the cleaned finish on the pipe. I used the dental spatula to scrape out the inside of the shank and break the tars and oil build-up away from the walls of the shank and mortise. I cleaned out the mortise and airway in the shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation. I built up the button with black super glue to add thickness and enable a grip on the button. I used a file to shape the button and recut the sharp edge against the stem surface. I sanded it with 180 grit sandpaper to smooth out the areas in front of the button on the top and the bottom sides. I continued to shape the stem surface and the button with 220 grit sandpaper and also used the needle files to open up the slot in the button and reshape that.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to clean off the oxidation. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded the stem with 3200-4000 grit sanding pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding the stem with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. I let the stem dry. I stained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain and flamed it. I repeated the process until the coverage was good. I hand buffed the bowl with a shoe brush. I gave it a light coat of olive oil and hand buffed it again. I rubbed the surface down with some Conservator’s Wax and then hand buffed it with the shoe brush for a final shine. I buffed the pipe lightly with Blue Diamond polish on the wheel and then gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad and then hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The rustication has depth and textures both visually and tactilely. It feels great in the hand. The shape of the bowl and the faux military stem give the pipe a classic look with a flair that is almost Danish looking. I like the finished look of this one. Thanks for looking.

Restoring a Comoy’s The Guildhall Twin Bore Long Shank

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I brought to my table to work on was stamped on the left side of the shank The Guildhall over London Made and on the right side Twin Bore over Made in England. The stamping was readable with a light and a magnifier but it was faint. It was a nicely shaped long shank billiard or some would call it a Lumberman. I have worked on many Comoy’s The Guildhall pipes but never have seen one stamped like this. The stem indeed is a twin bore. It was in decent shape but it did not bear testimony to the point of the twin bore “bite proof” stem. It had a lot of tooth marks and chatter on the top and the bottom side of the stem. The tooth marks were quite deep but did not enter the airway in the stem. So I guess in that way the stem was “bite through proof”. The finish was quite nice. The pipe was in good shape with just some grime on the surface of the briar. The rim had been topped and restained sometime in its history as the stain is quite a bit lighter than the rest of the pipe. The outer and inner edges of the rim were darker than the surface of the rim. The bowl had been reamed but the cake was left uneven on the walls of the bowl. I took a close-up photo of the rim to show the previous topping and the darkening of the inner and out edges. You can see that it had been touched up and the rim edges not cleaned up. I also took some close-up photos of the damage to the stem in terms of tooth marks and chatter. I sanded the top and bottom sides of the stem to remove the tooth chatter on the surface and to clean up the area around the deeper tooth marks. I wiped the areas down with alcohol and then used black super glue to fill in the deep marks.While the stem repairs were drying I reamed the bowl with the Savinelli Pipe Knife. I took the cake back to bare briar.I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the bevel on the inner edge of the bowl. I worked slowly to make sure that the bevel maintained the roundness of the bowl. Once I had it finished I stained the rim and inner edge with a medium brown stain pen to match the colour with the rest of the pipe.I used a dental spatula to scrape out the inside of the mortise as there was a ridge of tar and oil part way down the shank. I scraped out the grime and then scrubbed the inside of the mortise and the airway in the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until it was clean.By the time I worked on the twin bore stem the repairs were dry. I lightly sanded them and then cleaned out the twin bore airways.I sanded the repairs on the stem with 220 grit sandpaper until the surface of the repairs was blended into the surface of the stem.I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I rubbed down the stem with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I sanded it with the last set of three micromesh sanding pads – 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond and worked over the scratches that still showed up on the top surface of the stem. It did not take much to remove them and get a deep shine on the stem. I buffed the bowl as well, being careful around the stampings on the shank of the pipe. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine on the briar and vulcanite. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It shines and has depth to the finish. The stamping is faint but is my only example of a Twin Bore Comoy’s The Guildhall Pipe. It is a beauty in my opinion. Thanks for looking.

My brother has an eye for unusual pipes – A Mastercraft Sea Slug

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Blog by Steve Laug

When I visited my brother a few months ago one of the pipes that he had picked up for me to restore is one that I probably would never have picked up myself. In fact to me it was ugly and there was nothing redeeming about it. It looked like a giant sea slug to me and even the striations looked like the wrinkles in the slug’s body as it crawled. But I have to say that my opinion changed as I worked on this old pipe. I know that Mastercraft actually made few pipes but had the pipes jobbed by other pipe companies globally. This one was made in Italy and has all the marks of a Lorenzo pipe to me. I doubt I will ever know for sure but that is my take on it. As you look at the photos you may have your own take on it and that is totally fine – just take the time to post what you think in the comments at the end of the post.

This old pipe was pretty rough when it came to my work table. The rim was battered and the reaming that had been done did not account for the angled bowl. There gouges of briar missing on the rim edge that extended into the bowl. The cake was soft but generous. The finish was tired and worn but underneath the grime the wire striations on the briar had something about them that drew me to them. The pipe is stamped on a semi-smooth portion of the bottom of the bowl/shank (on this pipe I am not sure where each of those terms ends). It reads Mastercraft in the classic shield of the logo. Next to that is stamped COLOSSALS or COLOSSAL S with the S slightly bigger perhaps referring to the Satin Grain. Under that is it stamped Imported Briar and Italy. There are some deep gouges in the briar on that smooth portion that obviously were there when the pipe was stamped as the stamping goes through them but does not show up in the deeper areas. The stem is Lucite and it was covered with tooth chatter on the top and the bottom sides near the button as well as some deep tooth marks on both sides and on the button surface. The slot in the airway was clogged and dirty. (The first picture below is a little out of focus but it gives and idea of the shape of the pipe.) I cleaned up the reaming angles with the Savinelli Pipe Knife and was able to get the bowl clean and smooth back to briar.I decided to try to bevel the rim to remove the gouges on the right top side. I worked on it for quite a while before I gave up on that and topped the bowl. In the photo below the largest gouge is the light brown portion of the rim on the top of the photo toward the back of the bowl.I took some photos of the stem to show the damage that needed to be worked on to recondition and rework it to bring it back to new. The first photo is the top of the stem and the second the underside.I was able to sand out the tooth marks on the top side of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and also reshape the button a bit. I did the same on the underside but there was one deep tooth mark that I would need to fill.Giving up on trying to reshape the rim or repair it I topped the bowl on my topping board and took of the damaged area on the right side of the rim and the back of the left side as well. The gouges were just not something I wanted to try to fill in. I also decided that I would flatten the rim and give the inner edge a slight bevel. I would stain the rim to match the smooth portion on the underside of the pipe.I used the Dremel and sanding drum to bring the bowl back into round and then lightly beveled the inner rim edge with the sanding drum (first picture below). I cleaned up the Dremel work with a folded piece of 180 grit sandpaper followed by 220 grit (second picture).I cleaned the mortise and airways in the bowl and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol (I have always used 99% isopropyl).I restained the rim with a dark brown stain pen and blended in some black from a Sharpie pen. I wiped down the exterior of the bowl with alcohol on a cotton pad to remove the grime and to blend the rim colour with the bowl.I built up the tooth mark on the underside of the stem and the deep marks on the button surface with black super glue. Once it dried I sanded the repairs with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surface and sharpened the button edge with a needle file. I sanded the stem with 400-600 grit wet dry sandpaper to remove the scratches. I wet sanded it with 1500-3600 grit micromesh sanding pads and dry sanded it with 4000-12000 grit pads. I buffed it quickly with Blue Diamond and gave the stem a light coat of carnauba wax. I gave the bowl several coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush and a microfibre cloth to give it a shine. I gave the stem several more coats of carnauba wax. I lightly buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad and then again with the microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. What started out as an oddball pipe to me somehow in the process of restoration took on a beauty of its own. I like the smooth rim and the contrast it gives with the wire finish on the bowl and shank. Together they work for me. I know in the box of pipes I have sitting to refurbish that Jeff has sent me some others that cause a raised eyebrow but I have to say he has an eye for seeing beauty where I would walk by it and leave the pipe to molder away.

An Interesting Antique Store Stummel

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have a routine when I visit in Bellingham. I take the ladies in my life to the mall and leave them to shop and I set out on my circuit of pipe haunts to see if I can find some likely object of my attention to repair. I rarely come home empty handed, though I don’t know if that is because I will work on many kinds of pipes or if it is because I generally find something. It may be hard for the observer to discern the difference, I know it is for my wife and daughters. I visited several of my haunts and finally in the last one I did a quick walk through and found nothing… this time it looked like I would come home empty handed. Just to make sure I asked at the counter if there were any old pipes in the shop. The seller pointed directly behind me and there in a case that I had totally missed were four pipes. I bought them all. They had a look of age about them so I jumped and paid the price. It turned out that one of them had a cracked bowl but I was able to cannibalize a sterling silver band for an old KBB Yello Bole from the 20s. Two of them were also older – one a GBD and one a Dr. Plumb. The fourth, a Canadian had a gold coloured band and was missing the stem. It looked pretty dirty and the finish was gone. I figured that it too might be one I cannibalized for parts. I paid for them and went out to my car. I went through them and looked them over. The first three showed no surprises. But the stemless bowl was a real surprise. There on the shank was the arced Barlings stamping and under that was the stamping Ye Olde Wood over 237 on the left top side of the shank and Made in England on the right top side. There is also a remnant of the word EXEL. Boy was I surprised. Suddenly it went from a potential victim for cannibalization to one that had some interest for me. It turned out to be the best of the lot. I took a close-up photo of the rim to show the extent of the damage to that area. The cake in the bowl had flown over the top of the rim. There were also dings and dents that were quite deep. The outer edge was compromised and rounded over and the inner edge was out of round. I also included a photo of the stamping and the crack in the shank. This is the stamping that I saw in the bright daylight when I left the basement antique shop.I went through my can of stems and found one that would work on this shank. I had to go with a bit of an oversized stem in terms of diameter as the shank was thinner on the top than on the bottom. I would have to hand fit the stem to accommodate that idiosyncrasy.I used a microdrill bit to put a tiny pin hole at the end of the crack and then filled in the crack with super glue. The drilled hole would keep the crack from spreading and the glue would fill it in. The integrity of the shank was stabilized by the band as well.Once I had a good fit of the stem to the shank I used the Dremel and sanding drum to remove the excess vulcanite on the diameter of the stem. The fine tuning and flow of the stem would be done by files and hand sanding. I reamed the bowl with the PipNet reamer and took out the majority of the cake. I cleaned it up and took it back to briar with the Savinelli Pipe Knife. I topped the bowl on a topping board using 220 grit sandpaper. I removed the damaged surface of the rim until the outer edges were sharp and there was no rounding.I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with acetone on cotton pads to remove the grime and wax that had built up and made the exterior dull and lifeless. I reworked the inner edge of the bowl to bevel it and bring it back to round using a folded piece of 180 grit sandpaper and then a piece of 220 grit sandpaper.I wiped the bowl down again with acetone to remove any remaining grit and also the sanding dust from the rim repairs.I put the stem in place and took some photos to be able to see what still remained to remove from the diameter of the stem and what shaping still needed to be done. There was some width to be removed from the top and bottom sides at the band and then the taper needed to be reduced as well to remove the slight hip. The width on the right and left side also needed a bit more work to make the flow seamless. I sanded the stem with 180 grit sandpaper to further shape it and clean up the flow from the shank to the button. It took a lot of sanding to get the angles and flow just right.I scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the stem and the shank with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners.I sanded the rim with a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge to remove the scratches left behind by the topping and then stained it with a light brown stain pen to match the colour of the bowl.I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished the sanding with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of oil. I set it aside to dry. I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond and gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. The colour darkened slightly with the wax. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad and then by hand with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown below. I am pleased with the way the fit and finish of the stem came out and also the overall look of the pipe. Thanks for looking.

Restoring a Stanwell Handmade Danish Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

The second pipe I picked up from Charles Lemon of Dadspipes was a nice little Stanwell Bulldog that captured my attention. It is another one that I have added to my own collection. I loved the shape of it when I saw it in the photos that Charles sent me of the estate pipes he had purchased recently. It came in the mail through our ‘ultra quick’ Canada Post Express Mail on Friday. I cleaned up the W.O. Larsen and already wrote about that on the blog. This one looked amazing and came in its own Stanwell pipe pouch. It was stamped on the left underside of the diamond shank with the number 33 and next to that Stanwell Regd. No. 969-48 over Handmade in Denmark.When I removed the packing material and took the pipe out of the bag it was indeed a beauty. The colour was lighter than what was shown in the original photo that I had of the pipe. That does not matter too much to me as the lighter colour allows the grain to show through. This pipe has some amazing birdseye grain on the bowl sides. The diamond shank culminating in a vulcanite shank extension looks stunning. The finish was quite clean on the pipe and it still had a shine. The vulcanite shank extension was lightly oxidized. The shank stamping was very clear and sharp. The double rings on the bowl were in perfect condition. The finish on the bowl and shank was in excellent condition. The rim was another story. It had some tar and oil (lava) build-up that flowed over from the cake in the bowl. The cake, though uneven, was hard. The rim also had a burned area on the middle of the rim top on the right side. It impacted the condition of the bowl and the roundness of the inner rim edge. The stem was oxidized and the stamping of the Crown S was worn and the gold stamping was gone. There was tooth chatter on the topside of the stem and tooth marks on the underside. I took some close-up photos of the stem to show the tooth chatter and tooth mark on the underside near the button.I took a close-up photo of the rim to show the condition of the rim with the burned area (top left toward the front of the bowl) and the thickness of the cake.I reamed the cake back to bare briar with the Savinelli Pipe Knife. The carbon cake came out nicely and left the bowl quite clean. This reaming also gave me a clear picture of the condition of the burned area on the rim. The next series of photos tell the story. I reamed the bowl and then topped it. I took a photo after I had topped it lightly to show the extent of the burn mark on the right side of the rim. I finished topping the bowl using 220 grit sandpaper on the topping board. I sanded the rim with a medium and fine grit sanding block to smooth out the scratches. I used the light brown stain pen to touch up the rim surface. The inside rim edge needed some more work but I wanted to see what the rim looked like at this point.I sanded the inner edge of the rim with a folded piece of sandpaper – beginning with 180 grit and then progressing to 220 grit sandpaper and then on to 1500-3200 grit micromesh sanding pads. I beveled the edge slightly to remove the rim damage and darkening. The second photo below shows the finished rim after sanding. I touched up the inner bevel with a light brown stain pen. I wet sanded the vulcanite shank extension with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads and gave it a coat of micromesh between the 4000 and the 6000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I cleaned out the inside of the mortise and the airways in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners until they came out clean.I scrubbed the stem with Meguiar’s Scratch X2.0 to begin removing the oxidation on the surface.Most of the oxidation came off so I used some Antique Gold Rub n’ Buff to highlight the Stanwell Crown S on the stem top.I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and gave the stem a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads (I forgot to take the photo) and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. I set it aside to dry. I buffed the stem and bowl with Blue Diamond carefully working over the stem and the shank extension to polish the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect and preserve it. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to add depth to the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I am looking forward to giving it an inaugural smoke soon. I really like the finished look of the pipe. The slightly beveled rim took care of the burn so that it can no longer be seen. The smooth finish shows off the birdseye grain and the swirls of cross grain. It is a beautiful pipe and I am glad to have it grace my pipe rack. Thanks for looking.