Tag Archives: restaining

The Last Filthy and Messy Pipe – a Worn and Repaired No Name Rhodesian

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I chose to work on came is another one from the lot of 11 pipes I purchased from a lady in Regina, Saskatchewan. She had found them in a house she bought and wanted to know if I wanted them. We struck a deal, I paid for the pipes and shipping and the box arrived while I was traveling in Europe. In the box were 4 Stanwells, 1 Danmore Bowl, 1 Soren Freehand, 1 Calabash with a Briar Bowl, 1 Nording Freehand, 1 Italian Made Bertenetti, 1 Rhodesian with a banded cracked shank, and 1 Brigham. I have restored the Nording, the snapped Stanwell, the Brigham, the Gourd Calabash with the briar bowl, restemmed the Danmore bowl, cleaned the Lorenzetti, restored the Stanwell Made in Denmark 11 Pot, the Stanwell Antique 25 Scoop and the Danish Sovereign Stanwell Second 64 Dublin. There are blogs on each restoration available. I now am down to one remaining pipe. The next pipe on the table is the last of the dirty pipes in a box full of very dirty pipes. There appears to be some stamping on the shank sides but it is so worn that it is utterly unreadable. The pipe was obviously someone’s favourite. The Rhodesian is one of my favourite pipe shapes. This one had not only been smoked to a point of heavy damage on the rim top and inner edge but the band on the shank held together a repair of three branched cracks on the shank. The stem fit well but there was a lot of grit and grime built up in the shank. There was a thick cake in the bowl, debris in the bottom and on the bowl walls and some remnants of tobacco. The airway was plugged and there was no draught on the pipe. There was a heavy lava overflow on the rim top and down the sides of the bowl and shank. The inner edges of the bowl were heavily damage, particularly on the right front side. The outer edge actually looked quite good under the grime. The rim cap was worn at an angle with more briar at the back of the bowl and on the left side than on the front side and the right side. The finish was dirty and there was lava on the sides and heel of the bowl. The stem was in rough shape in appearance but underneath the calcification and oxidation the tooth marks and chatter looked minimal. I took photos of the pipe before I started my cleanup work on it. I took a close-up photo of the bowl and rim top to show the thick cake in the bowl. The rim top shows the thick lava on it and the edges. The inner edge of the bowl is so thickly coated lava that it is hard to know the condition. The outer edges of the bowl were very worn. You can also see how poorly the stem seats against the end of the mortise. There is a gap between the shank end and the saddle stem. I took photos of the top and underside of the stem surface and button to show its general condition. It looked very good under the calcification and oxidation.I took a photo of the underside of the shank to show the cracks in the shank. There is one long crack with two branches off of it. It had been repaired and banded. I also took a photo of the shank end to show the crack and the gummy tars in the shank. It was a mess. I took the stem off the pipe and took a photo to give a sense of the proportion of the pipe. Now it was time to work on the pipe. I removed the stem and turned my attention to the bowl clean up. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer using the fourth (and largest) cutting head to take the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls with a piece of 180 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel to smooth them out.  I scrubbed the exterior of the briar with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I rinsed it off with warm water to remove the grime and soap. It looked much better and the dust and debris was gone. I dried it with a cotton towel. I scrubbed out the internals of the shank, mortise and the airway in the stem with 99% isopropyl alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. There was a lot of tar and oil in the shank and airway. It was a mess.Once I had cleaned the shank with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs I topped the bowl on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper. You can see the repaired cracks in the shank under the band. Once the rim was topped the right side or the rim top and inner edge were very thin and work. The bowl was out of round and a real mess. What was I going to do with the mess? Leave it be or fuss with it? I chose to fuss and rebuilt the inner edge with clear CA glue and briar dust until the bowl was back in round. I cleaned up the inner edge of the rebuilt portion of the rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and my Dremel and sanding drum. I was actually pretty happy with the finish… it seems I made a good choice.I filled in the deep flaws in the briar with clear CA glue and briar dust. Once they cured I sanded the repaired areas smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. I used a dark Cordovan aniline stain to give the bowl an undercoat. I applied it with a wool dauber and flamed it to set it in the grain. I rusticated the finish with a home made rustication tools. I wanted to dig deep enough in the briar to mask the many fills in the wood and the repaired cracks in the shank. It would also give the pipe a tactile finish. I rusticated the bowl and shank but left the bull cap and rim top smooth. The twin rings around the cap are clean and still very visible. I used a light brown aniline wash to restain the bowl. I applied it to the briar and flamed it with a lighter. That set the brown on the top of the rustication. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish with a horsehair shoe brush and my finger tips to clean and enliven the briar. If you have read my blogs for a while you know that I do this religiously every time as it really works magic! With that done, the bowl was finished other than the final buffing. I set it aside and turned my attention to the stem. I wiped it down with some Soft Scrub on cotton pads to remove the oxidation and calcification. I was able to remove most of the oxidation and the calcification. It looked much better when I finished.I “painted” the stem surface with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the tooth marks. I was able to lift all of the marks on the top surface and all but three small deeper marks. I filled in those with black CA glue. I flattened the repair with a small file and further blended it into the surface with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing it with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. It really was taking on a shine. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Stem polish (both Fine and Extra Fine) then wiped the stem down with another coat of Obsidian Oil. I am excited to finish the reconstruction of this No Name Rhodesian. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and hand buffed it with microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished reworked bowl looks like with the polished black, saddle vulcanite stem was beautiful. This No Name Rhodesian turned out very well and feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches long, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.80 ounces/51 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that I am not sure what I am going to do with at the moment. It is unique and rebuilt but looks like new. Thanks for walking through the cleanup with me as I worked over this 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.

Resurrecting a Savinelli Dry System

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by Kenneth Lieblich

Next on the old chopping block is a wonderful Savinelli Dry System 3621 Bent Dublin. It’s a really good-looking pipe and I understand that this is a popular and well-loved series. I got it recently in a lot of pipes and it called out to me for some help. I suppose this pipe is meant to be reminiscent of the Peterson system pipes – it even has a sort of P-lip button! It’s a terrific-looking pipe, with a bit of a rough history. The main markings of the pipe are on the underside of the stummel. On the left it reads Savinelli [over] Dry [over] System. Next to that is the Savinelli crown and “S” logo. And next to that is 3621 [over] Italy.  The shank has a nickel cap with Savinelli stamped on it. Finally, the stem has a worn, but still readable, stylized “S” on the top.Savinelli is one of the most recognized names in pipe smoking and they have a long and storied history. You can read about them from their own website or from Pipedia’s article about them. However, I was particularly interested in learning more about the Dry System. Sadly, Pipedia had nothing on this subject. I checked with Pipephil and they did have a bit of information which I provide here below:However, the definitive word on the Dry System comes from Savinelli’s own website. It provided some very useful information.

In 1981, after several years of research, Savinelli launched the “Dry System”, combining trap and filter. The name “Dry” comes from the introduction of the balsa “filter” into the traditional system pipe – the “System” being the presence of the built-in moisture trap in the shank. The balsa mops up the moisture in the smoke hence the term “Dry” system, and if the pipe is smoked without the balsa all that will happen is that this moisture will condense and collect in the trap. It can then either be mopped up with a folded pipe cleaner, or flicked out.

Finally, here’s an image of the pipe from an old Savinelli shape chart:This was obviously a terrific smoker, as the wear and tear on this pipe shows. The stummel was quite dirty – both inside and out – and even appeared to have some dust-bunnies inside the bowl (not to mention all the cake). The finish was well worn and would need to be addressed. The nickel cap had some mess on it too. The stem, however, was from another planet. Have you ever seen such oxidation on a pipe stem? In fact, my wife asked me if the stem was actually meant to be brown. “No” was my emphatic answer! Aside from that, the stem had some tooth marks and nicks. I could tell that this stem was going to be a bear to deal with. This pipe is always going to retain some marks from its hard life, but it is my job to make sure this pipe looks as good as possible. It’s a wonderful pipe and it deserves to be part of someone’s collection again.

The stem is going to take a lot of work, so let’s get started. I took up the stem and cleaned it off with Murphy’s Oil Soap. It was quite dirty and needed some scrubbing. I then cleaned out the insides of the stem with pipe cleaners and lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol, and, as you can see, if was pretty dirty inside. I also took a BIC lighter and ‘painted’ the stem with its flame in order to lift the tooth marks. This was only moderately successful in raising the dents.Now to tackle the epic oxidation. Next, I scrubbed (and scrubbed and scrubbed) the stem with some SoftScrub cleanser and then put the stem in my container of deoxidizing fluid overnight. This works to draw the oxidation to the surface of the stem, so that it can be cleaned off again with more SoftScrub. As you can see, this worked in the sense that it drew out the oxidation, but there remained a lot of labour ahead. In fact, I repeated the process of scrubbing and soaking overnight, because the situation was so dire. Eventually, I got to a point where the stem was something I could work with. Before I moved on to sanding, I built up the tooth marks on the stem with black cyanoacrylate adhesive and let them fully cure. I then sanded them down with sandpapers to merge a bit better into the stem. I also added some nail polish to the ‘S’ on the stem. At this point, it was clear that more than the ‘usual’ sanding was going to be required here. I took two sanding sponges (220- and 320-grit) and worked the stem hard. I needed to sand out the remaining oxidation to get this stem the best chance of looking decent again. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to bring out the lovely black lustre. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing. As I mentioned before, there are still hints of its past life, but I’m pretty pleased with how the stem came out. On to the stummel and the usual cleaning procedures were in order for this pipe. I used the KleenReem to remove the cake in the bowl and I followed up by sanding the walls down with some 220-grit sandpaper attached to a wooden dowel. I took it down to bare briar, as I wanted to see if there were any issues in the walls of the bowl. There was some charring and some slight fissures, but nothing serious. I then proceeded to clean out the insides of the shank with Q-tips, pipe cleaners, and isopropyl alcohol. There was some nastiness inside this stummel and it took a lot of cotton to get this thing clean. I decided to de-ghost the bowl to be on the safe side. I thrust some 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. I then moved on to cleaning the outside of the stummel with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a toothbrush. What a difference that made! I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some dish soap and tube brushes. As I mentioned earlier, there were some minor issues to fix inside the bowl. The solution to this problem is an excellent one: epoxy. I prepared some J.B. Weld epoxy and smeared the walls, ensuring that the epoxy was evenly spread. Once done, a good 24 hours was needed to ensure that the epoxy was properly cured. After that, I gently sanded the inside of the bowl to provide a rough surface for what was to come later. I coated the entire inside of the bowl with a mixture of activated charcoal and my wife’s homemade yogurt. Once hardened, this provides a good, slightly rough surface for a new cake to build. Due to the pipe’s hard life, it was clear to me that the pipe needed to be stained. I applied some Fiebing’s Dark Brown Leather Dye. I flamed it with a BIC lighter and let it set. I then removed the excess with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton round. It looked so much better after this. I then rubbed some Before & After Restoration Balm into the wood. I gently brushed it into the rustication grooves and let the balm sit for fifteen minutes or so. The BARB works so well at bringing out the best in the wood. I brushed it with a horsehair brush and buffed it with a microfibre cloth. Beauty! I rubbed the nickel band with 0000 steel wool. This is the least abrasive grade of steel wool and I wouldn’t use anything harsher than that. I then used a few MicroMesh pads to make the metal shine. Later, I went to the bench buffer and applied some White Diamond to the stummel and stem. Then the final polish! The rusticated surface meant that I didn’t use carnauba wax – it gets gummed up in the grooves. Instead, I used Lee Valley Conservator’s Wax which worked like a charm. This was a nifty restoration and I had fun with it. I think the result is terrific and it’s a very handsome pipe once again. 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 “Italy” 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 Savinelli Dry System 3621 Bent Dublin are as follows: length 5 in. (126 mm); height 4 in. (101 mm); bowl diameter 1⅜ in. (36 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (19 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅛ oz. (35 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this restoration as much as I enjoyed 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.

Yet Another Filthy and Messy Pipe – a Danish Sovereign Made in Denmark 64 Freehand Dublin

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I chose to work on came is another one from the lot of 11 pipes I purchased from a lady in Regina, Saskatchewan. She had found them in a house she bought and wanted to know if I wanted them. We struck a deal, I paid for the pipes and shipping and the box arrived while I was traveling in Europe. In the box were 4 Stanwells, 1 Danmore Bowl, 1 Soren Freehand, 1 Calabash with a Briar Bowl, 1 Nording Freehand, 1 Italian Made Bertenetti, 1 Rhodesian with a banded cracked shank, and 1 Brigham. I have restored the Nording, the snapped Stanwell, the Brigham, the Gourd Calabash with the briar bowl, restemmed the Danmore bowl, cleaned the Lorenzetti, restored the Stanwell Made in Denmark 11 Pot, and the Stanwell Antique 25 Scoop. There are blogs on each restoration available. I now am down to two remaining pipes. The next pipe on the table is another one of the dirtiest pipes in a box full of very dirty pipes. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Danish [over] Sovereign (a Stanwell second). There is a shape number 64 on the right side of the shank. On the underside of the shank and reads Made in Denmark. There is a fill in the shank underside which confirms the Danish Sovereign stamping on the shank. It is a great shape for a pipe – a freehand style Dublin that is another Ivarsson design. There was a thick cake in the bowl, debris in the bottom and on the bowl walls and some remnants of tobacco. The airway was plugged and there was no draught on the pipe. There was a heavy lava overflow on the plateau rim top and down the sides of the bowl and shank. It was hard to know the condition of the inner edges of the bowl because of the cake. The outer edge actually looked quite good under the grime. The finish was dirty and dusty and there was lava on the sides and heel of the bowl. The stem was in rough shape in appearance but underneath the calcification and oxidation the tooth marks and chatter looked minimal. I took photos of the pipe before I started my cleanup work on it. I took a close-up photo of the bowl and rim top to show the thick cake in the bowl. The rim top shows some thin lava filling in the plateau. The inner edge of the bowl is so thickly coated lava that it is hard to know the condition. The outer edges of the bowl look quite good. You can also see what appears to be damage to the edge of the shank. The stem seats against the end of the mortise but there is still a gap between the shank end and the saddle stem. I took photos of the top and underside of the stem surface and button to show its general condition. It looked very good under the calcification and oxidation.The stamping on the sides of the shank are faint but readable as noted above. It was very hard to capture them in the light for the photos but they are present. I took the stem off the pipe and took a photo to give a sense of the proportion of the pipe. I turned first to Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-d2.html) to see what information I could find there. On the site was a pipe similarly stamped to the one that I am working on. It is clearly identified as a Stanwell second that was marketed only in the USA and Canada. I turned to Pipedia to read more about the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Danish_Sovereign). There was nothing definitive there only a statement that it may be a Stanwell second line. It looks I am dealing with a pipe made especially for the American and Canadian market by Stanwell.

I recognized the shape as being a Sixten Ivarsson design but Icould not remember the shape number associated with it. I turned to Pipedia’s article on shapes that Bas Stevens originally worked on to check it out (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Stanwell_Shape_Numbers_and_Designers). I am including a shape chart below. It identifies the shape as a 64 (bottom right side of the fourth column in the photo below).I also have included information the site regarding the shape 64. The pipe I am working on is 64a in the list below. Stanwell’s “64” shape number actually corresponds to two different designs. The first is a larger version of the “64,” a Freehand, plateau top, saddle stem and designed by Sixten Ivarsson. This vintage “64” is of the first type, really showcasing flowing Dublin shape and the plateau rim top.

  • 64. Two versions of this shape number
  1. a) Freehand, Plateau top, saddle mouthpiece, by Sixten Ivarsson.
  2. b) Bent billiard, medium size, full mouthpiece.

List by designer

  • Sixten Ivarsson: 01 (Nefertiti), 01 (Pick Ax), 02, 06, 07, 09, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 20 (Boat), 20 (Bent Dublin), 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30, 32 (Free Hand), 33, 34, 35 (Bent Free Hand), 37, 38, 41, 43, 48, 55, 59, 62, 63, 64, 70 (Free Hand Volcano/Sitter), 75 (Billiard w/oval shank), 79, 82, 85 (Bent e), 86, 87, 90, 91R, 95, 96, 105, 110, 119, 124, 2606, POY 1993.

Now I knew it was an Ivarsson Design shape 64 with a saddle stem. Now it was time to work on the pipe. I removed the stem and turned my attention to the bowl clean up. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer using the fourth (and largest) cutting head to take the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls with a piece of 180 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel to smooth them out.  I scrubbed the exterior of the briar with a brass bristle wire brush, a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I rinsed it off with warm water to remove the grime and soap. It looked much better and the dust and debris was gone. I dried it with a cotton towel. I worked over the plateau rim top and the bowl some more with a brass bristle wire brush to further knock off the debris in the valleys of the finish.I scrubbed out the internals of the shank, mortise and the airway in the stem with 99% isopropyl alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. There was a lot of tar and oil in the shank and airway. It was a mess.Once I had cleaned the shank with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs I tried the fit of the stem in the shank. It fit tightly against the mortise end but the gap between the shank end and the stem saddle was still open. I examined the fit and found that the shank end was not even – in fact it was slightly wavy. I heated the brass band and pressed it onto the end of the shank and then checked the fit of the stem and it was perfect. The band created a smooth shank end for the saddle stem. I also really like the look of the thin band. I decided to deghost the bowl so I stuffed it with cotton bolls and rolled one into the shank end. I used a ear syringe to fill the bowl with isopropyl alcohol. I set the bowl aside overnight to let it leech out the tars and oils from the bowl and shank. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 git sanding pads. I worked on the high spots on the plateau top along with the bowl and shank. As I finished the last of the micromesh it looked much better. With the briar polished smooth I decided to stain the bowl with a Light Brown aniline wash. I used a wool dauber to apply the stain. I lit it with a lighter to set the stain in the grain. I repeated the process several time until I was happy with the coverage. I buffed the bowl with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish the newly stained briar. I like the way the wash made the grain stand out and blended in some of the darkened spots. It looked very good.

I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. With that done, the bowl was finished other than the final buffing. I set it aside and turned my attention to the stem. I wiped it down with some Soft Scrub on cotton pads to remove the oxidation and calcification. I was able to remove most of the oxidation and the calcification. It looked much better when I finished.I “painted” the stem surface with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the tooth marks. I was able to lift all of the marks on the top surface and all but three small deeper marks. I filled in those with black CA glue. I flattened the repair with a small file and further blended it into the surface with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing it with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. It really was taking on a shine. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Stem polish (both Fine and Extra Fine) then wiped the stem down with another coat of Obsidian Oil.I am excited to finish this Ivarsson Design Danish Sovereign Made in Denmark 64 Freehand. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and hand buffed it with microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished black, saddle vulcanite stem was beautiful. This Danish Sovereign Made in Denmark 64 Freehand is nice looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. 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 ¾ inches long, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.83 ounces/52 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that I will be putting in the Danish Pipemaker Section on the rebornpipes store. Thanks for walking through the cleanup with me as I worked over this 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.

Yet Another Filthy and Messy Stanwell Antique Made in Denmark 25 Scoop

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I chose to work on came is another one from the lot of 11 pipes I purchased from a lady in Regina, Saskatchewan. She had found them in a house she bought and wanted to know if I wanted them. We struck a deal, I paid for the pipes and shipping and the box arrived while I was traveling in Europe. In the box were 4 Stanwells, I Danmore Bowl, 1 Soren Freehand, 1 Calabash with a Briar Bowl, 1 Nording Freehand, 1 Italian Made Bertenetti, 1 Rhodesian with a banded cracked shank, and 1 Brigham. I have restored the Nording, the snapped Stanwell, the Brigham, the Gourd Calabash with the briar bowl, restemmed the Danmore bowl and cleaned the Lorenzetti. There are blogs on each restoration available. The next pipe on the table is another one of the dirtiest pipes in a box full of very dirty pipes. It is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads Stanwell [over] Antique [over] Made in Denmark. There is no visible shape number stamped on the pipe. There was a thick cake in the bowl, debris in the bottom and on the bowl walls and some remnants of tobacco. The airway was plugged and there was no draught on the pipe. There was a heavy lava overflow on the rim top and down the sides of the bowl and shank. It was hard to know the condition of the inner edges of the bowl because of the cake. The outer edge actually looked quite good under the grime. The finish was dirty and dusty and there was lava on the sides and heel of the bowl. The ruby coloured acrylic shank extension was filthy and loose on the shank. The stem was in rough shape in appearance but underneath the calcification and oxidation the tooth marks and chatter looked minimal. I took photos of the pipe before I started my cleanup work on it. I took a close-up photo of the bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl. The rim top shows some thin lava spots on the smooth finish. The inner edge of the bowl is pretty rough with some nicks and lava buildup. The outer edges of the bowl are worn. I took photos of the top and underside of the stem surface and button to show its general condition. It looked very good under the spotty oxidation.The stamping on the underside of the shank is faint but readable as noted above. You can barely make out the Stanwell stamp on the smooth panel near the shank extension but it is present. There appears to be a burn mark on the shank in the flat spot. I took the stem and the shank extension off the pipe and took a photo to give a sense of the proportion of the pipe.I recognized the shape as being a Sixten Ivarsson design but Icould not remember the shape number associated with it. I turned to Pipedia’s article on shapes that Bas Stevens originally worked on to check it out (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Stanwell_Shape_Numbers_and_Designers). I am including a shape chart below. It identifies the shape as an 25 (second from the bottom of the second column in the photo below).I also have included information the site regarding the shape 25. The pipe I am working on is 25b in the list below. Stanwell’s “25” shape number actually corresponds to two different designs. The first is a larger version of the “24,” a Freehand with an oval shank; the second is a rather gestural Danish Scoop of sorts with an oval bowl and a slight saddle-like bevel to the rim. Designed by Sixten Ivarsson. This vintage “25” is of the latter type, really showcasing its cupping gesture in profile and is seen here as part of the Antique series. It wears a dark sandblast and is accented by a ruby-hued ferrule, which matches the smoothly polished patch of briar along the bowl’s fore. (typically saddle, but can also be military mount, tapered, faux spigot saddle etc.), by Sixten Ivarsson.

  • 25. Three versions of this shape number:
  1. a) Footed cutty with a long tapered stem (early 1950s – see catalog)
  2. b) Same as 24(a) but larger, by Sixten Ivarsson.
  3. c) Bent squat-apple with a rounded rim and a saddle stem, by Sixten Ivarsson.

List by designer

  • Sixten Ivarsson: 01 (Nefertiti), 01 (Pick Ax), 02, 06, 07, 09, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 20 (Boat), 20 (Bent Dublin), 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30, 32 (Free Hand), 33, 34, 35 (Bent Free Hand), 37, 38, 41, 43, 48, 55, 59, 62, 63, 64, 70 (Free Hand Volcano/Sitter), 75 (Billiard w/oval shank), 79, 82, 85 (Bent e), 86, 87, 90, 91R, 95, 96, 105, 110, 119, 124, 2606, POY 1993.

Now I knew it was an Ivarsson Design shape 25 with a military style saddle stem. Now it was time to work on the pipe. I removed the stem and turned my attention to the bowl clean up. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer using the fourth (and largest) cutting head to take the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls with a piece of 180 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel to smooth them out.  I scrubbed the exterior of the briar with a brass bristle wire brush, a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I rinsed it off with warm water to remove the grime and soap. It looked much better and the dust and debris was gone. I dried it with a cotton towel. I worked over the sandblast rim top and the bowl and shank sides with a brass bristle wire brush to further knock off the debris in the valleys of the blast. I worked over the damage on the inner edge of the bowl and the rim top. I also smoothed out the damage on the outer edge with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. It looked much better after I sanded the damaged areas smooth.  I worked over the rim top and the heel of the bowl with a dry brass bristle brush to remove some of the darkening. It is looking better.

I scrubbed out the internals of the shank extension with 99% isopropyl alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I wiped down the tenon on the shank extension with some white all purpose glue and the shank end and extension end with the glue and pressed it onto the shank. I aligned the shank and extension and held it in place until the glue set. I used my Dremel and a dental burr to retrace the lines of the sandblast on the sides of the bowl and the heel. I also used it to recut the lines of the blast on the rim top as well. I stained the bowl and shank with a light brown stain wash. I applied it to the surface of the briar with a wool dauber. I flamed it with a lighter flame to set it in the grain. I repeated the process until I was satisfied with the coverage. I polished the acrylic shank extension and the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 git sanding pads. I worked on the smooth front of the bowl and on the high spots on the sandblast. I wanted to make the new stain coat a bit more transparent. As I finished the last of the micromesh it looked much better. I cleaned out the shank now that the extension was attached with alcohol and pipe cleaners. It was not too bad in the shank end but the short briar to the from there to the bowl was dirty. I probably should have done the clean up earlier but I did not do so until now. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. With that done, the bowl was finished other than the final buffing. I set it aside and turned my attention to the stem. I cleaned out the airway in the stem with pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol.I wiped it down with some Soft Scrub on cotton pads to remove the oxidation and calcification. I was able to remove most of the oxidation and the calcification. It looked much better when I finished.I sanded out the light tooth marks and chatter along with the remaining oxidation with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing the stem with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Stem polish (both Fine and Extra Fine) then wiped the stem down with another coat of Obsidian Oil.I am excited to finish this Ivarsson Design Stanwell Antique Made in Denmark 25. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and hand buffed it with microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished black, fancy turned vulcanite stem was beautiful. This Stanwell Antique 25 Made in Denmark Scoop is nice looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. 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 ½ inches wide x 1 ¾ inches long, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.66 ounces/47 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that I will be putting in the Danish Pipemaker Section on the rebornpipes store. Thanks for walking through the cleanup with me as I worked over this 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.

Restoring a Filthy Lorenzetti 3200 – 20 Bent Egg Filter Pipe

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I chose to work on came is another one from the lot of 11 pipes I purchased from a lady in Regina, Saskatchewan. She had found them in a house she bought and wanted to know if I wanted them. We struck a deal, I paid for the pipes and shipping and the box arrived while I was traveling in Europe. In the box were 4 Stanwells, 1 Danmore Bowl, 1 Soren Freehand, 1 Calabash with a Briar Bowl, 1 Nording Freehand, 1 Italian Made Bertenetti, 1 Rhodesian with a banded cracked shank, and 1 Brigham. I have restored the Nording, the snapped Stanwell, the Brigham, the Gourd Calabash with the briar bowl, restemmed and restored the Danmore bowl, a Stanwell Ivarsson design 11 Pot and Soren Hand Carved Freehand. There are blogs on each restoration available. The next pipe on the table is an extremely dirty pipes in a box full of very dirty pipes. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Lorenzetti [over] Italy. On the right side it reads 3200 [over] 20 which could be the shape number of the pipe. There was a thick cake in the bowl, debris in the bottom and on the bowl walls and some remnants of tobacco. The airway was plugged and there was no draught on the pipe. There was a heavy lava overflow on the rim top flowing down the sides of the bowl and covering much of the shank. There appears to be some varnish or topcoat that is damaged and the grime is both on top of and underneath. It was hard to know the condition of the inner or the outer edge of the bowl for sure because of the cake. There was an acrylic shank extension sandwiching a briar ring. The shank end is also covered in a thick tar and oil residue flowing out of the mortise on to the stem and shank end. The acrylic stem had a briar ring next to the tenon and looked to be in decent condition underneath the thick oils and tars. There were minimal tooth marks and chatter on the shank. I took photos of the pipe before I started my cleanup work on it. I took a close-up photo of the bowl and the inwardly bevelled rim top to show the cake in the bowl. The rim top shows the thick lava on the inner edge of the bowl. The outer edges of the bowl also showed the lava flowing down the bowl sides. The shank end had an acrylic extension sandwiching a briar ring. I took photos of the stem surface and button to show its general condition. There was a briar ring around the stem surface near the tenon. The stem was a 9mm filter stem. The inside was filthy. It looked very good under the tars and oils that coated the surface.The stamping on the sides of the shank are covered with tars and oils but are readable as noted above. I took the stem off the shank and took a photo to give a sense of the proportion of the pipe. I have worked on a few Lorenzetti pipes over the years but have little memory of the background of the brand. I turned to Pipephil to get a quick overview (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-l6.html). I have included a screen capture of the information on that site for quick reference. I learned that the brand was created in 1934 by Otello Lorenzetti. As of (2009) the company was managed by Alessandro Lorenzetti.I then turned to Pipedia and found a great historical survey of the founder Otello Lorenzetti. It is a great read regarding the history of the brand and its development from small beginnings with Otello selling pipes from his bicycle around his community to a brand that is available around the world today (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Lorenzetti).

The site also had a photo of a pipe that has the same finish as the one that I am working on. You can see from the photo what the one I am working on must have looked like when it sold. Here is the photo courtesy SmokersHaven.com.From that I knew that the pipe in my hands looked like when it came out. It was a real beauty that gave me the impetus to work on it. Armed with that information I turned my attention to restoring the pipe.

I decided to start my work on the pipe by reaming the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer using the first and second cutting head to take the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls with a piece of 180 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel to smooth them out. I wiped the bowl down with acetone to remove the tarry build up and the varnish on the briar. There was a lot of grime that came off with the varnish. It still needed a lot of work but it was looking better. I scrubbed the exterior of the briar with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I rinsed it off with warm water to remove the grime and soap. It looked much better and the dust and debris was gone. I dried it with a cotton towel. Next, I worked on the rim top of the bowl to clean up the bevel and the inner edge. I also worked on the marks around the bowl that needed work. It took some work but it cleaned up well. I used a folded piece of sandpaper to clean up the inner edge of the rim and to sand the darkening off around the bowl sides. I scrubbed out the internals of the pipe with 99% isopropyl alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I cleaned out the airway in the stem as well. The airway into the bowl was a little different. It was in the bottom of the bowl toward the back. It has some wear on the top edge of the airway entrance. I worked on these areas repeatedly until the shank and the airway in all the parts was clean.I stained the bowl and shank with a light brown stain wash. I applied it to the surface of the briar with a wool dauber. I flamed it with a lighter flame to set it in the grain. I repeated the process until I was satisfied with the coverage. I polished the  shank extension and the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 git sanding pads. I wanted to make the new stain coat a bit more transparent. I wiped it down with a cloth and some Obsidian Oil. The bowl had a very fowl tobacco ghost that hung over the pipe and the desk top where I was working on it. I stuffed the bowl with three cotton bolls and twisted one into the shank end. I used an ear syringe to fill the bowl with alcohol. I let the bowl sit for several hours to work on the stem. Once I came back to it the cotton boll was filthy. Once it was removed I ran pipe cleaners through and the pipe smelled much better. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. With that done, the bowl was finished other than the final buffing. I set it aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished the oxidation and tooth chatter on the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Stem polish (both Fine and Extra Fine) then wiped the stem down with another coat of Obsidian Oil.I polished finished Lorenzetti Italy 3200-20 Bent Egg Sitter with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The smooth briar shows the effect of the brown stain wash and works very well with the black acrylic stem. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I have worked on several Lorenzetti’s over the years and I have always been impressed by his ability to a craft a comfortable and functional smoking pipe. The Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 inches. The weight of the pipe is 64 grams/ 2.26 ounces. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Italian Pipemakers Section if you would like to add it to your rack and carry on the previous pipeman’s legacy. This is an interesting estate to bring back to life.

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 Republic Era Peterson’s System Standard 309 Bent Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a customer, Ted about some pipe work for him. He had three pipes that he said needed different things and offered to send some photos. He also sent a second email with a description of what each pipe needed. I have included that email and the photos he sent below.

Peterson 309 needs stem restoration and bowl cleaned out. Rhodesian needs full restoration – my English teacher from high school gave it to me a little over two years ago. The Comoy’s Canadian needs a new bit I broke it… I have finished the Comoy’s Restem and the restoration of the Andre pipe. This third pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and read Peterson’s [arched over] System [arched over] Standard. On the right side it is stamped Made in the Republic of Ireland (three lines) and next to that is the shape number 309. The nickel ferrule is stamped K&P Peterson over the three common hallmarks on System pipes with Nickel ferrules – a shamrock, a wolf hound, and a tower. There was a moderate cake in the bowl with lava on the rim top. The finish was in decent condition but there was a varnish coat that was spotty. There was dirt and debris ground into the finish on the bowl sides and around the edges of the rim. Under the grime is a coat of varnish that was spotty and worn. The nickel ferrule is oxidized and dirty. The stem was oxidized and there were light tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem. I took photos of the pipe before I started work on it. I took a close-up photo of the bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl. The rim top shows some lava on the smooth finish. The inner edge is quite dirty and is covered with a coat of lava but the outer edges of the bowl looked good. The stem photos show the oxidation and the light tooth marks and chatter next to the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the pipe. It is stamped on both sides and reads as noted above. It was clear and readable as noted above. The stamping on the ferrule is also very clear and readable. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe parts to give a sense of proportion of the pipe. It is quite nice. I am including the information from Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson). I have included a bit of the pertinent history here.

1950 – 1989 The Republic Era – From 1950 to the present time, the stamp for this era is “Made in the Republic of Ireland” in a block format generally in three lines but two lines have been used with or without Republic being abbreviated.

During the 1950’s and 60’s the Kapp & Peterson company was still in the ownership of the Kapp family. However 1964 saw the retiral of the company Managing Director Frederick Henry(Harry) Kapp.

Pipedia also included a section of information on the System pipes including a diagram of the systems look (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson#Republic_Era_Pipes). I quote a section of the article in part and include a link to another article on Pipedia on the System pipe.

The Peterson System pipes are the standard bearers of the Peterson pipe family, famous for the excellent smoking pleasure they provide. Often imitated but never equaled, the Peterson System smokes dry, cool and sweet, thanks to the scientific effectiveness of the original design. The heart of the System is the unique graduated bore in the mouthpiece. This makes the suction applied by the smoker 15 times weaker by the time it reaches the tobacco chamber. The result is that all the moisture flows into the reservoir and, thus cannot reach the smoker’s mouth. The Peterson Lip further enhances the effectiveness of the graduated bore by directing the flow of smoke upwards and away from the tongue. This achieves a uniquely even distribution of smoke and virtually eliminates any chance of tonguebite or bitterness. Furthermore, the shape is contoured so that the tongue rests comfortably in the depression under the opening. Each “PLip” mouthpiece is made from Vulcanite. For the Peterson System pipes to work properly, the stem/tenon has to have an extension, the tip of which will pass by the draft hole from the bowl and into the sump. Upon the smoker drawing in smoke, this extension then directs the smoke down and around the sump to dispense a lot of the moisture before the smoke enters the extension and stem. On the System Standards and other less expensive systems, this extension with be made of Vulcanite turned integrally with the stem. On the more expensive System pipes this extension will be made of metal which screws into the Vulcanite stem. This extension on the earlier pipes will be of brass and the newer pipes will be of aluminum. Most smokers not knowing this function of the metal extension, assumes that it is a condenser/stinger and will remove it as they do with the metal condensers of Kaywoodie, etc. Should you have a System pipe with this metal extension, do not remove it for it will make the System function properly and give you a dryer smoke (https://pipedia.org/wiki/A_closer_look_at_the_famous_Peterson_Standard_System_Pipe).

I have included the information on the shape number on this pipe that I picked up on researching the previous pipes. I have included a page from a Petersons Catalogue that I have on rebornpipes (https://rebornpipes.com/tag/peterson-hallmark-chart/). There is no shape 309 shown in the catalogue page of rusticated shaped shown below. I wonder if it is an older or a newer shape. But I am uncertain of that. I knew that I was dealing with a Republic Era pipe made between 1950-1989. It was a Peterson’s System Standard 309 Bent Billiard with a great rustication. The bowl was stained with a combination of reddish-brown stains. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

I started my work on the pipe by reaming the bowl with a PipNet reamer to remove the cake from the bowl and take it back to bare briar. I cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the bowl walls with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper. The bowl was very clean. I removed the shiny varnish coat and grime with a cotton pad and acetone. Once it was finished it looked much better. I worked on the rim top and the bowl edges with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper and a worn 1550 grit micromesh sanding pad to remove the tars and oil damage.I scrubbed the exterior of the briar with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I rinsed it off with warm water to remove the grime and soap. It looked much better and the dust and debris was gone. I dried it with a cotton towel. I scrubbed out the internals of the pipe with 99% isopropyl alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I cleaned out the airway in the stem as well. I worked on these areas repeatedly until the shank and the airway in all the parts was clean.I polished the smooth briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each pad. The bowl began to take on a rich shine. Between the 2440 grit pad and the 3200 grit pad, I stained the rim top with both a Maple and a Cherry stain pen. It was a close match to the rest of the bowl. With the remaining micromesh and the buffing it would be a good match. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I polished the nickel ferrule on the shank end with a jewellers cloth to remove the tarnish, polish the nickel and protect it from further tarnish. It looks very good. With that done, the bowl was finished other than the final buffing. I set it aside and turned my attention to the stem. I worked on the oxidation on the stem with Soft Scrub Cleanser. I worked it into the vulcanite with a cotton pad and was able to remove much of the oxidation.  I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Stem polish (both Fine and Extra Fine) then wiped the stem down with another coat of Obsidian Oil.Once again at this point in the restoration process I am excited to be on the homestretch. I look forward to the final look when the Smooth Peterson System Standard 309 is put back together, polished and waxed. I put the bowl and stem back together. I lightly polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The depths of the rustication really pop with the wax and polish. The shiny black vulcanite stem is a beautiful contrast to the browns of the bowl and thick shank and nickel ferrule. This Republic Era Peterson’s System Standard 309 Bent Billiard was another fun pipe to work on. It really is a quite stunning piece of briar whose shape follows the flow of the briar. The pipe feels great in the hand will be better when warmed up while smoking. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.80 ounces/51 grams. It is the last of the three pipes that were sent to me by Ted for refurbishing. Now that it is complete I will be boxing up the threesome and sending them back to him. I am sure he will enjoy them and build even more memories with them. This was another interesting estate to bring back to life.

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 well repaired Soren Hand Carved Made in Denmark Freehand

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I chose to work on came is another one from the lot of 11 pipes I purchased from a lady in Regina, Saskatchewan. She had found them in a house she bought and wanted to know if I wanted them. We struck a deal, I paid for the pipes and shipping and the box arrived while I was traveling in Europe. In the box were 4 Stanwells, 1 Danmore Bowl, 1 Soren Freehand, 1 Calabash with a Briar Bowl, 1 Nording Freehand, 1 Italian Made Bertenetti, 1 Rhodesian with a banded cracked shank, and 1 Brigham. I have restored the Nording, the snapped Stanwell, the Brigham, the Gourd Calabash with the briar bowl, restemmed and restored the Danmore bowl and a Stanwell Ivarsson design 11 Pot. There are blogs on each restoration available. The next pipe on the table is one of the dirtiest pipes in a box full of very dirty pipes. It is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads Soren [over] Hand Carved [over] Made in Denmark. There is no visible model name or shape number stamped on the pipe. The shank had been snapped through the last line of the stamp but it was faint. There was a thick cake in the bowl, debris in the bottom and on the bowl walls and some remnants of tobacco. The airway was plugged and there was no draught on the pipe. There was a heavy lava overflow on the plateau rim top. It was hard to know the condition of the inner edges of the bowl for sure because of the cake. The outer edge actually looked quite good under the grime. The finish was dirty and dusty and there was glue from the shank repair along the repaired shank. The vulcanite shank extension was filthy and oxidized. The stem looked to be in decent condition underneath the calcification and oxidation. The tooth marks and chatter looked minimal. I took photos of the pipe before I started my cleanup work on it. I took a close-up photo of the bowl and the plateau rim top to show the cake in the bowl. The rim top shows some lava on the smooth area around the inner edge of the bowl. The outer edges of the bowl looked good. I took photos of the vulcanite shank extension and the top and underside of the stem surface and button to show its general condition. It looked very good under the spotty oxidation.I took some photos of the repaired crack around the shank. You can see it clearly in the photos below. In spots the glue is higher than the repair and in spots it is lower. I will need to rework the repair surface but the repair itself is very well done. The stamping on the underside of the shank is faint but readable as noted above. You can barely make out the third line of the stamp on underside of the shank but it is present. I took the stem off the shank and took a photo to give a sense of the proportion of the pipe.I needed to refresh my memory on the history and background of the Soren pipes so I went to a previous blog and reread what I had written. https://rebornpipes.com/2016/09/12/repairing-and-rejuvenating-a-soren-danish-freehand/. I quote from that blog post: I looked up the brand on pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-s10.html) and found that the brand was carved by Søren Refbjerg Rasmussen. Pipes that he made for the European market were mostly stamped “Refbjerg” while those made for the US market were stamped “Soren”. Thus I knew that one I was working on was imported into the US market.

It looked like I was once again working on a pipe made by Soren Refbjerg Rasmussen for the US market as it was stamped Soren. I continued to do reading on another of my go to websites, Pipedia. Here is the link for the article there. https://pipedia.org/wiki/Refbjerg. I quote some of the more pertinent information.

Søren Refbjerg Rasmussen founded a company in 1969, which employed an average of 8 – 12 craftsmen in the 1970’s. The semi-freehands they produced were traded under his prename Søren. Rasmussen himself finished only the very best pipes. So his way of pipemaking closely resembled the ways of Preben Holm, Karl Erik Ottendahl or Erik Nørding. Altogether more than 1,000,000 pipes were sold.

There was also a note from Soren himself regarding the Danbark line of pipes that he made. I think that it is interesting to note that even on these he used the finest Corsican and Grecian briars. I assume that is also true of his other lines as well. I quote the note in full.

“A note from the carver:

I am very proud to introduce my new (!) series of hand-carved Danbark Pipes by Søren. These pipes are crafted from the finest Corsican and Grecian briars. I take a great deal of pride in crafting the Danbark Pipes to be highly functional and so they will provide the smoker with many years of dedicated service. The Danbark Pipes by Søren are available in several different styles and finishes with my personal touch and inspirations. At this time I favor making classic shaped pipes with a slight touch of my own hands and feelings. I do not produce many pipes today but the pipes that I do make available are individually crafted from the finest Corsican and Grecian Briars available to me. I still make free-hand pipes but not as many as I once made. For the past 35 years I have always tried to make good smoking pipes in my workshop located near Copenhagen, Denmark. I have always tried to craft my pipes in such a way as they will be long lasting and best friends with the owners. I take great pride in the shape of my pipes, the drilling of the pipes, and the overall dimensions of the pipes. I enjoy spending my spare time on the very long, rugged coasts of Denmark. I derive much relaxation from being on the coast while angling for Sea Trout with my own hand-tied flies. I find this environment is a great inspiration to me for making pipes. Many times I think to myself, “Inspired by nature, made by me”.  — Happy puffing, Søren”

From that I knew that the pipe in my hands came from the 1970s. It bears the Soren signature stamp which also says that it was made for sale in the American pipe market. Armed with that information I turned my attention to restoring the pipe.

I decided to start my work on the pipe by working on the shank repair issues. I filled in the repair area with clear CA glue and pressed some briar dust into the glue. It took a few layers to smooth it out but the touch up on the repair was effective. I sanded the repaired area on the shank smooth with 220 grit sandpaper to blend it into the surrounding briar. I also sanded the burn mark on the side of the bowl. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer using the third cutting head to take the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls with a piece of 180 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel to smooth them out. I used a brass bristle wire brush to knock off the debris in the plateau on the rim top. It took some work but it cleaned up well. I used a folded piece of sandpaper to clean up the inner edge of the rim and to sand the darkening off the smooth area around rim top. I sanded the vulcanite shank extension at the same time to break the oxidation on the surface. I scrubbed the exterior of the briar with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I rinsed it off with warm water to remove the grime and soap. It looked much better and the dust and debris was gone. I dried it with a cotton towel. I touched up the sanded areas on the shank and the bowl spots using a Maple Stain Pen to start the process of blending them into the rest of the bowl. The colour is very close and once I restain the bowl it will work very well. I stained the bowl and shank with a light brown stain wash. I applied it to the surface of the briar with a wool dauber. I flamed it with a lighter flame to set it in the grain. I repeated the process until I was satisfied with the coverage. I polished the vulcanite shank extension and the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 git sanding pads. I wanted to make the new stain coat a bit more transparent. I wiped it down with a cloth and some Obsidian Oil. I scrubbed out the internals of the pipe with 99% isopropyl alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I cleaned out the airway in the stem as well. I worked on these areas repeatedly until the shank and the airway in all the parts was clean.I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. With that done, the bowl was finished other than the final buffing. I set it aside and turned my attention to the stem. I wiped it down with some Soft Scrub to remove the oxidation.I touched up the “S” stamp on the top of the stem with white acrylic nail polish. Once had dried I sanded out the excess with a worn 1500 micromesh sanding pad.I polished the oxidation and tooth chatter on the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Stem polish (both Fine and Extra Fine) then wiped the stem down with another coat of Obsidian Oil. I polished finished Soren Hand Carved Danish Freehand with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The plateau on the rim top and shank end and the smooth Dark and Medium brown contrast finish work very well with the black vulcanite stem. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I have worked on several Soren pipes by Soren Refbjerg Rasmussen and several Refbjerg pipes over the years and I have always been impressed by his craftsmanship and ability to work a pipe to follow the grain of the briar. He does great work and is quite innovative in terms of shapes, flow and finishes on his pipes. The Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 2 inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 inches. The weight of the pipe is 73 grams/ 2.57 ounces. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipemakers Section if you would like to add it to your rack and carry on the previous pipeman’s legacy. This is an interesting estate to bring back to life.

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.  

Another Filthy and Messy Stanwell Made in Denmark Pot on the table

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I chose to work on came is another one from the lot of 11 pipes I purchased from a lady in Regina, Saskatchewan. She had found them in a house she bought and wanted to know if I wanted them. We struck a deal, I paid for the pipes and shipping and the box arrived while I was traveling in Europe. In the box were 4 Stanwells, I Danmore Bowl, 1 Soren Freehand, 1 Calabash with a Briar Bowl, 1 Nording Freehand, 1 Italian Made Bertenetti, 1 Rhodesian with a banded cracked shank, and 1 Brigham. I have restored the Nording, the snapped Stanwell, the Brigham, the Gourd Calabash with the briar bowl and restemmed the Danmore bowl. There are blogs on each restoration available. The next pipe on the table is one of the dirtiest pipes in a box full of very dirty pipes. It is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads Stanwell [over] Made in Denmark. There is no visible model name or shape number stamped on the pipe. There was a thick cake in the bowl, debris in the bottom and on the bowl walls and some remnants of tobacco. The airway was plugged and there was no draught on the pipe. There was a heavy lava overflow on the rim top and down the sides of the bowl and shank. It was hard to know the condition of the inner edges of the bowl because of the cake. The outer edge actually looked quite good under the grime. The finish was dirty and dusty and there was lava on the sides and heel of the bowl. The vulcanite shank extension was filthy and oxidized. The stem was in rough shape in appearance but underneath the calcification and oxidation the tooth marks and chatter looked minimal. I took photos of the pipe before I started my cleanup work on it. I took a close-up photo of the bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl. The rim top shows some thin lava spots on the smooth finish. The inner and outer edges of the bowl looked good. I took photos of the top and underside of the stem surface and button to show its general condition. It looked very good under the spotty oxidation.The stamping on the underside of the shank is faint but readable as noted above. You can barely make out the Stanwell stamp on the smooth panel near the shank extension but it is present. I took the stem off the shank and took a photo to give a sense of the proportion of the pipe.I recognized shape as being a Sixten Ivarsson design but Icould not remember the shape number associated with it. I turned to Pipedia’s article on shapes that Bas Stevens originally worked on to check it out (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Stanwell_Shape_Numbers_and_Designers). I am including a shape chart below. It identifies the shape as an 11 (bottom left corner of the photo below).I also have included two screen captures regarding the shape 11. The pipe I am working on is 11b in the list below. It is a slightly bent large, wide pot with a concave rim and various possible stem configurations (typically saddle, but can also be military mount, tapered, faux spigot saddle etc.), by Sixten Ivarsson.Now I knew it was an Ivarsson Design shape 11 with a military style saddle stem. Now it was time to work on the pipe. I removed the stem and turned my attention to the bowl clean up. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer using the fourth (and largest) cutting head to take the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls with a piece of 180 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel to smooth them out. I scrubbed the exterior of the briar with a brass bristle wire brush, a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I rinsed it off with warm water to remove the grime and soap. It looked much better and the dust and debris was gone. I dried it with a cotton towel. I worked over the damage on the inner edge of the bowl and the rim top. I also smoothed out the damage on the outer edge with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. It looked much better after I sanded the damaged areas smooth. I worked over the rim top and the heel of the bowl with a dry brass bristle brush to remove some of the darkening. It is looking better.I scrubbed out the internals of the pipe with 99% isopropyl alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I cleaned out the airway in the stem as well. I worked on these areas repeatedly until the shank and the airway in all the parts was clean. I polished the vulcanite shank extension with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-12000 git sanding pads. I wiped it down with a cloth and some Obsidian Oil.I stained the bowl with a light brown aniline stain to blend the lighter and darker portions into each other. I applied it with a wool dauber and then flamed it with a Bic lighter to set it in the grain. I repeated the process until the coverage on the bowl was what I wanted. I wiped the bowl down with isopropyl alcohol on cotton pads to make it more transparent and show the other colour underneath. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. With that done, the bowl was finished other than the final buffing. I set it aside and turned my attention to the stem. I wiped it down with some Soft Scrub to remove the oxidation and calcification. I sanded out the light tooth marks and chatter along with the remaining oxidation with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing the stem with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Stem polish (both Fine and Extra Fine) then wiped the stem down with another coat of Obsidian Oil.I am excited to finish this Ivarsson Design Stanwell Made in Denmark 11. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and hand buffed it with microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the polished black, fancy turned vulcanite stem was beautiful. This Stanwell Large Pot 11 is nice looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.69 ounces/48 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that I will be putting in the Danish Pipemaker Section on the rebornpipes store. Thanks for walking through the cleanup with me as I worked over this 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 a Comoy’s Sandblast Squat Straight Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

This Comoy’s Sandblast on my work table has a rugged, swirling sandblast finish with lots of nooks and crannies in the briar. It is a beauty! The straight Bulldog is clearly stamped on a smooth panel on the left underside of the diamond shank and reads Comoy’s [over] Sandblast. Underneath that it is stamped Made in London [over] England in two lines. There is no shape number stamped visibly though it could possibly be underneath the gold band. I received an email a few weeks ago from Alec,  a reader of the blog about the pipe. Here is what he wrote…

I have an old Comoy’s straight, sandblasted, squat bulldog pipe which I got from an antique store. From what I can tell, it is from the 60s or 70s, pre-Cadogan. The stem is vulcanite and has some deoxidization [sp]. I was wondering if you would be able to do some restoration work for me? I am not looking to sell it, but don’t have the time to go about doing it myself.

We wrote back and forth and he sent the pipe to me. It came yesterday and when I looked at it this morning this is what I saw. The valleys and ridges of the sandblasted grain showing through the grime and dirt are a mixture that leaves a rich texture. It had a rich dark and medium contrasting brown stain that does not look too bad. There was a moderate cake in the bowl with remnants of tobacco stuck on the walls. There was a light lava overflow in the blast on the rim. The edges of the rim and top are dirty but look pretty pristine under the grime. There was a scratched gold band on the shank end that upon examination showed a crack on the lower right underside. It was a beautiful pipe that was dirty and tired looking. The stem was oxidized and calcified with what appeared to be marks from a rubber Softee Bit toward the end. It had some tooth marks on the top and underside of the button. I took photos of the pipe before I started my cleanup work on it. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the lava build up on the edges of the bowl. It was thick and hard but hopefully it had protected the rim and edges from damage. The edges look pretty good.I took a photo of the stamping on the smooth panel on the underside of the shank. The stamping was readable as you can see from the photo below. It read Comoy’s [over] Sandblast and underneath Made in London [over] England.  The second photo shows the C logo on the left side of the saddle stem is formed by three circles working to make the C.  I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of proportion. Before my work on the pipe began, I wanted to see where it fit in the Comoy’s timeline. I looked on Pipedia to pin down a date for the pipe. Since the pipe is stamped Made in London England I decided to use that to see what I could find. Pipedia has a great article on dating these pipes (https://pipedia.org/index.php?title=Comoy%27s_Dating_Guide#Made_in_London_England). I found the information below. I have highlighted the pertinent portion in red in the paragraph below. The stamping matches the pipe I am working on.

Appears in two versions. This is again stamped in two straight lines “MADE IN LONDON” on the top and “ENGLAND” beneath. It can be assumed that this stamp was first used in the export drive in the early 1950s. On a Bulldog Sandblast from the early 50s the Comoy name has slightly more fancy block letters with serifs and the apostrophe. (It seems that some grades carried different stamps, or at least that the stamping changed in different years for some grades.)] was used together with “MADE IN LONDON” over “ENGLAND”. There are no known examples of pre-WW II Comoy’s stamped in this way. The second version is the same as above but in a “rugby ball” shape. This shape is verified on Comoy´s “Extraordinaire” pipes.

From that I knew that I was working a Comoy’s Sandblast Bulldog Made in London England from the early 1950’s.

I have also included two catalogue pages from Pipedia as well to show the line for sale at several time periods in Comoy’s history (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Comoy%27s). The first page is from the 1922 Catalogue and the second one is from a later date. Read the description that highlights how they did their sandblasting combining heat and sand to bring out the grain. I started my work on the pipe by reaming the bowl. I reamed it back with a PipNet pipe reamer using the first two cutting heads to take off all of the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and then sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I cleaned out the interior of the pipe with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. It was not as dirty as I expected. I was able to remove all of the grime and tars that were in the mortise, shank and airway in the stem.I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl and shank with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. It looked surprisingly better and the dust and lava filling in the sandblast was gone. The pipe had a strong aromatic smell remaining in the bowl and shank even after cleaning thoroughly so I filled the bowl with cotton bolls and a cotton plug in the shank. I used an ear syringe to fill the bowl with 99% isopropyl alcohol to deghost it and remove the smell of the aromatic. I let it sit overnight. In the morning the cotton was dark with tars and oils. I removed it from the bowl and ran pipe cleaners and alcohol through it. I used some alcohol thinned light brown aniline stain as a wash on the briar. I applied it to the briar with a wood dauber and flamed it with a Bic lighter to set the stain in the wood. I set it aside to let the wash dry. I rubbed Before & After Restoration Balm on the pipe, working it into the grooves and deeper areas of the sandblast. The balm enlivens, cleans and protects the briar was it is worked into the finish. I let it sit for a short time and then buffed it off with a soft cloth. I took photos of the bowl to show the condition at this point. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I scrubbed the surface with Soft Scrub and cotton pads to remove some of the oxidation on the surface. While it worked it left behind some very deep oxidation. I “painted” the stem surface with a lighter flame and was able to raise them quite a bit. I cleaned up the stem end with 220 grit sandpaper and then filled in the remaining marks on the button edge and the surface with black CA glue. Once it cured, I used a file to shape the button edge and also smooth out the fill. I sanded the remaining marks with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surface of the surrounding vulcanite. I started polishing the stem surface with 600 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the stem surface with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and buffed it off with a cotton cloth. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil to preserve and protect the stem.  I put the stem back on the bowl and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to lightly polish both the bowl and the stem. I buffed the bowl and stem to raise the gloss on the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl a lighter buff than I did on the stem to keep the polishing material from clogging the deep grooves of the blast. There is a little remaining oxidation around the C logo which I am leaving as I do not want to damage it. There was also some water damage (lightening) just ahead of the button on both sides that remains after much work! I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The contrasting brown stain – both medium and dark brown goes well with the rich black of the vulcanite stem. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 5 1/2 inches, Height: 1 3/4 inches, Outside Diameter: 1 1/4 inches, Diameter of the chamber: 3/4 inches. Now that the pipe is finished I will soon pack it up and mail it back to Alec. I know he is looking forward to loading it up and smoking it. Thanks for walking with me through the restoration.

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 Republic Era Petersons “Kildare” 87 Apple

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen is smooth finished Peterson’s “Kildare” Apple shaped pipe that had a very dirty/grimy finish but had some good looking grain around the bowl sides and shank. It came to us from an Antique Store on 10/20/2022 in Vancouver, Washington, USA. This Lightweight Apple was stamped on the left side of the shank and read Peterson’s [over] “Kildare”. It was stamped on the right side and read Made in the Republic of Ireland (three lines) followed by the number 87 near the shank/bowl junction. The pipe was in filthy condition when he brought it to the table. The finish was dirty with grime ground into the briar sides and rim. There was a thick cake in the bowl and a coat of lava on the rim top but the edges of the bowl. The inner edge of the bowl was thickly coated in lava and it was hard to know how the rim top and edges looked underneath. The stem was dirty with oxidation and calcification on it. There were tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside on and near the button and on the button edges as well. The P lip portion of the stem was bent downward putting the airway on the end of the stem. There was no “P” stamp logo on the taper stem. Jeff took photos of the pipe before his cleanup work. They tell the story and give a glimpse of the promise that we see in this pipe. Jeff took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is thickly caked and the rim top has a lava coat flowing down the outside of the bowl and the inner edge. The finish on the bowl is rough but I will know more once it is cleaned up. The photos of the stem show the oxidation, calcification and the tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. The P-Lip has been heated and turned downward making the airway enter at the bend end! Jeff took some photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the amazing grain that is peeking out from underneath that overflow of lava and grime on the surface around this bowl. It is appears to have a nice looking pipe hidden underneath it all! He took photos of the sides of the shank to show the stamping. The stamping is faint but readable in the photos below and is as noted above. I am including the information from Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson). I have included a bit of the pertinent history here.

1950 – 1989 The Republic Era – From 1950 to the present time, the stamp for this era is “Made in the Republic of Ireland” in a block format generally in three lines but two lines have been used with or without Republic being abbreviated.

During the 1950’s and 60’s the Kapp & Peterson Company was still in the ownership of the Kapp family. However, 1964 saw the retiral of the company Managing Director Frederick Henry (Harry) Kapp.

I turned to “The Peterson Pipe” by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg to get some background on the Peterson’s System Line. On page 314 it had the following information.

Kildare (1965-) First issue of line with matte-finish in Classic Range shapes, P-Lip and fishtail mouthpiece. Second issue C.1979 as Kildare Patch, with rusticated patches on pipe surface. Third issue 2010, matte-brown, P-Lip or fishtail mouthpiece, no band. Fourth issue 2011-, burgundy sandblast finish, nickel army mount, fishtail mouthpiece, exclusive to smokingpipes.com.

Judging from the description above I believe that I am working on a First Issue of the line in the time period of 1965-1979. It is a late Republic Era Classic Shaped pipe with a matte-finish and a P-Lip stem. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

With that information at hand I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. 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. There were portions of the bowl sides where the tars had stained the briar but it was clean! He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub to remove as much of the oxidation and calcification as possible. He soaked the stem in Before & After Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe once I started to work on it. I took some close-up photos of the rim top, bowl front and heel as well as the stem surface. I wanted to show what an amazing job Jeff did in the cleanup of the rim top. The rim top and inner edge had darkening and damage. There was damage to the inner edge on the front and back of the bowl. The bowl front and heel had some darkening from the tars staining the briar. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the condition of the vulcanite. It was quite clean and the light tooth marks on the stem ahead of the button that do not show up well. The button was also bent downward and the airway was at the stem end. One of the things I appreciate about Jeff’s cleanup is that he works to protect and preserve the nomenclature on the shank of the pipes that he works on. The stamping on this one was very faint to start with so I was worried that it would disappear altogether with the cleanup. He was not only able to preserve and maintain its condition in the process. I took some photos to show the clarity of the stamping. I have noticed that many restorers are not careful to protect the stamping in their cleaning process and often by the end of the restoration the nomenclature is almost destroyed. I would like to encourage all of us to be careful in our work to preserve this as it is a critical piece of pipe restoration! I took the stem off the shank and took a photo of the pipe. I decided to start my work on the pipe by cleaning up the rim top, inner edge of the bowl and the darkening on the front of the bowl. I worked over the edge with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I minimized the damage on the inner edge and rim top. It looked significantly better. I used a medium grit sanding sponge and 220 grit sandpaper to sand the darkening on the bowl front. It looked better but still was too dark to my liking. I mixed a batch of oxalic acid and wiped down the darkened areas to see if that method would lighten it more. Each step took more of the darkening away. I sanded it again with the sanding sponge and 220 grit sandpaper and finally it was as good as it would get. Some of the darkening remained but it was still a big improvement. I stained the bowl with a light brown aniline stain to try to cover and blend in the darkening on the rim top and front of the bowl. I applied the stain with a wool dauber and flamed it with a Bic lighter to set it in the grain. I set it aside to let the stain coat cure. I wiped the bowl down with alcohol on cotton pads to lighten the opaque stain and make it more transparent. I like the way the pipe looked at this point in the process. I still needed to use micromesh on it but it was looking better. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad to remove the dust. The briar was really shining by the final pad. I rubbed the bowl and rim down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for 10 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. I really like watching the Balm do its magic and bring the briar alive. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. Someone had heated the tip of the button and bent it down to bring the airway on the top of the P-lip down to form a straight opening in the stem end. I heated the tip with a heat gun and carefully bent it back up and straight once again. The airway opening is certainly closer to the original than it was when I started. A bit more shaping is going to be necessary but it is better. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil. It works to protect the stem from oxidizing. I set it aside to dry.    Once again at this point in the restoration process I am excited to be on the homestretch. I look forward to the final look when the Republic Era Peterson’s “Kildare” 87 Apple with a taper stem is put back together, polished and waxed. I put the bowl and stem back together. I lightly polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The depths of the rustication really pop with the wax and polish. The shiny black vulcanite stem is a beautiful contrast to the browns of the bowl and thick shank. This Republic Era Peterson’s “Kildare” 87 Apple was another challenging pipe to work on. It is a nice piece of briar that cleaned up really well. The pipe feels great in the hand will be better when warmed up while smoking. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.13 ounces/32 grams. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Irish Pipemakers Section if you would like to add it to your rack and carry on the previous pipeman’s legacy. This is an interesting estate to bring back to life.

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.