Tag Archives: restaining

Brothers in Arms

Leave a reply

Blog by Kenneth Lieblich

Next on the chopping block is a lovely pair of pipes, formerly belonging to an old gentleman from Winnipeg. I acquired them in a lot of pipes from a relative of his here in Vancouver. The two pipes are both sub-brands of the famous Savinelli factory. The slightly bent Dublin is a Gulden Dansk; the stylized poker/sitter is a Silveren Dansk. They are really handsome pipes and clearly well-loved by their previous owner. The markings on these pipes are quite interesting. On the Dublin, the markings on the underside of the pipe read Gulden Dansk, followed by a model number which is obscured by the rustication. The number might be 4130, but it’s difficult to tell. On top of the stem are engraved the two letters GD, obviously referring to Gulden Dansk. Meanwhile, the Silveren Dansk’s underside shows the words Silveren Dansk, next to the model number 33 [over] Italy; the ‘s’ and ‘i’ have vanished into the rustication, however. Like its sibling, the top of the stem has the initials SD for Silveren Dansk, of course. These pipes were evidently cut from the same cloth (or block of wood?), as you can see in the pictures. The rustication and colour are the same on both. The rustication is actually quite well done, and there is a combination of both black and brown colour on the wood, which I will attempt to replicate.

The brands Gulden Dansk and Silveren Dansk are ones about which there is very little information. I cobbled together as much information as I could, and I will do my best to record that here. Both brands are sub-brands of Savinelli, according to smokingpipes.com. You can see in the photo below that smokingpipes.com states this clearly, and they are quite knowledgeable.Pipedia had no information at all regarding these brands. Meanwhile, pipephil.eu had precious little info (see below). One small clue is their reference to Italy in the Gulden Dansk image. Comments from some old pipe forums suggest that the brand(s) might be made for the Canadian market and came to full prominence in the early 1980s. See below.The newspaper ad above (sorry for the poor quality) is taken from the Montreal Gazette, November 1st, 1980. It shows that, in addition to pipes, they also sold tobacco.Furthermore, I found Canadian trademark registrations for both brands. I have shown some of that information below. For reasons unknown, the Silveren Dansk trademark is still active, whilst the Gulden Dansk one has expired. I also found an Australian trademark registration for the same, but it was noted on the Australian site that the origin of the application was Canada. In short, we can say a few things about both Gulden Dansk and Silveren Dansk. They were both made by Savinelli, probably for the Canadian market (and perhaps other markets). The Canadian connection obviously fits with the gentleman in Winnipeg. They made pipes and tobacco, and all the comments I could find on the quality of the pipes were very positive. If you have any further details on these brands, I would love to hear from you.

On to the pipes: both were in decent condition — they just looked a little shabby. Both pipes’ stems were dirty and had some oxidation, but the damage from tooth marks was minimal on both. Similarly, the bowls were dirty and definitely needed a cleaning, but there wasn’t any notable damage. The stems were first on my list. I wiped down the outside of the stem with Murphy’s Oil Soap on some cotton pads. I also took a BIC lighter and ‘painted’ the stems with its flame in order to lift the few bite marks and dents. Then I cleaned out the insides with pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. They were fairly dirty, but not too bad and I only went through a handful of pipe cleaners to finish each one. Once this process was done, the stems went for an overnight soak in the Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. The following day, I cleaned all of the de-oxidizing mess off with alcohol, pipe cleaners, et cetera. The oxidation had migrated to the surface and would be fairly straightforward to remove. I scrubbed with SoftScrub on some cotton pads to remove the leftover oxidation on each stem. After this, I used some nail polish to restore the two letters on each stem. I painted the area carefully and let it fully set before proceeding. It’s worth noting that the GD ultimately emerged from the restoration far better than the SD. Presumably, the SD had been rubbed more over time and lost some of its groove (literally, not figuratively).Then I sanded the stems down with 220-, 400-, and 600-grit sandpapers. Finally, I used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to bring out the lovely black lustre on the stems. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing.On to the stummels, and the usual cleaning procedures were in order for these two. Firstly, I decided to ream out the bowls. I used the PipNet Reamer on Gulden and the KleenReem on Silveren to remove the built-up cake and followed that with 220-grit sandpaper to eliminate as much as I could. I took the two chambers down to bare briar, as I wanted to ensure there were no hidden flaws in the walls. Fortunately, there were none. I then proceeded to clean out the insides of the two shanks with Q-tips, pipe cleaners, and isopropyl alcohol. There was quite a bit of filth inside these stummels, and it took a lot of cotton to get them clean. I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some dish soap and tube brushes. I used a wire brush and some Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the lava on the rims of the two pipes. This worked very well. I then moved on to cleaning the rustication on the outside of the stummels with Murphy’s and a toothbrush. That removed any latent stains that blighted the wood. A de-ghosting session also seemed in order, so I thrust cotton balls into the bowls and the shanks and saturated them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummels sit overnight. This caused the oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton. The bowls were nice and clean after this.I wanted to redo the finish on the pipes: it may have looked good once upon a time, but no longer. So, I opted to soak the stummels in isopropyl alcohol overnight. This will usually remove some of the deteriorating finish I was faced with. When I took the stummels out of the alcohol bath, I scrubbed the wood with a brush (to remove any remnants) and left it to dry. At this point, I rubbed some Before & After Restoration Balm into the briar and left it to sit for 10 or 15 minutes. It really does wonderful things to the wood. On to the staining. This turned out to be an unnecessarily laborious and error-strewn procedure. As I don’t want to bore you with the details of my minor blunders, I will simply give you the quick and dirty version of the staining procedure. I began by applying a layer of Fiebing’s Black Leather Dye to both pipes. After applying the dye, flaming it with a BIC, and letting it set for a few hours, I wiped the stummels down with isopropyl alcohol to remove much of the dye. I wanted to achieve a two-tone effect of black and brown to replicate what had been there originally. Then it was time for the second round of staining. To do this, I applied some of Fiebing’s Medium Brown Leather Dye over both stummels. As before, I applied flame from a BIC lighter in order to set the colour. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) on the stummels to polish the surface. I then added a second coat – just to make sure. It looked so much better with a richer colour. Once again, I wiped the stummels down with isopropyl alcohol to remove any excess. After that, a light application of Before & After Restoration Balm brought out the best in the stummels’ grain. These siblings are a good-looking pair and they feel great in the hand!  Then it was off for a trip to the bench polisher. A dose of White Diamond and a few coats of Conservator’s Wax (from Lee Valley) were just what these two pipes needed. Boy – that wax really makes these pipes pop! The lovely shine made the wood look absolutely beautiful. The Gulden Dansk and Silveren Dansk look fantastic and are ready to be enjoyed again by the next owner. I am pleased to announce that these pipes are for sale! You can buy them either individually or as a set (as you wish). If you are interested in acquiring them 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 Gulden Dansk Dublin are as follows: length 5⅛ in. (130 mm); height 1¾ in. (45 mm); bowl diameter 1⅜ in. (35 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (19 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1¼ oz. (35 g). The approximate dimensions of the Silveren Dansk poker/sitter are as follows: length 5⅝ in. (143 mm); height 2 in. (51 mm); bowl diameter 1⅛ in. (29 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (19 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1½ oz. (44 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this restoration as much as I did restoring them. 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.

Restoring an Pre-Republic Era Peterson’s System House Pipe

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

Jeff and I have been picking up pipes from an older Eastern European Professor who lives in the LA area. Over the past few years we have picked up a large number of pipes from him. Included in the last lot was a Peterson’s System pipe that intrigued us. We had no idea how big the pipe was until it arrived. It is a huge rusticated pipe. To me it is a house pipe but not sure. It is 9 inches long and the bowl is 2 1/2 inches tall. Rim diameter is 1 3/4 inches and chamber is 1 inch diameter. It is stamped on the left side and reads Peterson’s (with a forked tail P) over System. Below that and to the right it is stamped Made in Ireland in a circle. The ferrule is sterling silver and rounded. It is stamped with K&P each in its own cartouche over Sterling Silver. That is followed by Peterson over Dublin. The Professor and his friend included the following photos for us to have a look. You can see why we had no idea of the size of the pipe. He also included photos of the bowl and rim top as well as the sides to show the general condition of this pipe. I was well smoked and showed wear and tear of the years of the Professor’s travels and use.The pipes arrived in Idaho after some time spent negotiating a price and then waiting for the shipping. When they arrived in April he took photos of the pipe before he cleaned it up. You can see the style of the rustication on the bowl – rugged and really a lot like the finish on a Rocky Donegal. It is dirty with dust and debris deep in the rustication on the rim top, bowl sides and shank. The bowl has a remnant of cake in the bowl and shows signs of being recently reamed. The finish has some worn spots on the sides and rim top. The silver ferrule is oxidized and dark from tarnish. The stamping on the silver and the briar is very readable. The stem is oxidized but does not appear to have any tooth marks or chatter. Jeff sent me photos so I could have a sense of the pipe.He took close up photos of the rim top and stem to give a clear idea of the condition of the pipe. He took photos of the bowl from various angles to show the condition of the briar and the style of the pipe. It is a beautiful old pipe under the grime and grit of the years.   Jeff captured the stamping on the shank side. It is clear and readable as noted above. There are some spots on the stamp that are more faint than others but it is still clear. The silver stamping is very clear. I turned to the Pipedia article for confirmation of my thinking about it being a Pre-Republic Period pipe (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson#1950_-_1989_The_Republic_Era). I quote the section on the Pre-Republic Period that confirms my thoughts. I have highlighted the portion in red regarding the COM stamp on this pipe.

1915 – 1949 The Pre Republic Period — This was a turbulent period for the company with the outbreak of World war 1 and the start of the Easter uprising in 1916. The K&P shop was extensively damaged during the military action at this time ( see attached newspaper report). Following quote by Kapp & Peterson.-

“Kelly’s, the well known Dublin landmark at the corner of Sackville Street and Bachelor’s Walk, one of the most shot at and fully punctured premises in Dublin, was in our possession practically before the smoke ceased over the ashes of our fine shop under the Metropole Hotel. This was one of the most sensational business captures arising out of the Rebellion.”

Around 1916, Peterson began stamping their pipes “Made in Ireland” in what is referred to as a block format. Charles Peterson died shortly after retiring and moving to Hamburg in Germany in 1919 where he is buried.

The original 1890 ‘system’ pipe patent expired at around this time. The Irish free state came into being in December 1922. The Free State Era was from 1922 through to 1937.

Peterson followed with a stamp of “Irish Free State” in either one or two lines, either parallel or perpendicular to the shanks axis and extremely close to the stem. Ireland was a republic in all but name. Eventually the Irish people voted for a new constitution in 1937 and Ireland then formally became Eire (Ireland in Irish). The Made in Eire era stamps were from 1938 through till 1941. Peterson now stamped their pipes with “Made in Eire” in a circle format with “Made” and “Eire” in a circle with the “in” located in the centre of the circle. This was used during the years of 1938 – 41. Later they stamped their pipes with “Made in Ireland” in a circle format 1945-1947 and still later with “Made in Ireland” in a block format 1947-1949. The “Made in Ireland” block format came in either one line or two lines.
The Republic of Ireland was formed on 17 April 1949.

Further down in the article there was some more interesting information on the brand and the time period of this particular pipe.

The pre-republic Peterson’s are often considered to be rather special by Peterson pipe smokers. They hark back to a time when quality briar was in abundance and craftsmanship was of the highest level.

Like all collecting desirables, pre-republic pipes are now relatively hard to come by, with availability declining with each passing year. The amazing thing that I find with pre-Republic’s is the consistently high smoking qualities that they show, regardless of being a high or low grade issue. No it is not that I am looking through rose tinted glasses and being sentimental, they really were very well made. I base my judgement on owning and smoking quite a few of them.

For the purpose of this exercise and bearing in mind the eccentric vagaries of Peterson nomenclature, I am suggesting that an acceptable criteria or starting point for when the Pre- Republic era begins and ends, requires a short historical resume.:-

The Irish Free State came into being in December 1922. The British sovereign, as King of Ireland, was nominal head of state, but Ireland was a republic in all but name.

An entirely new constitution was voted by the Irish people in 1937, with provision for a President Of Ireland as head of state. Therefore, Ireland became a republic in 1937, but was not called that. It was called simply EIRE (Ireland in Irish.)

When, in 1945, the British government inquired of prime minister Eamon de Valera whether he intended to proclaim a republic, his answer was: “we are a republic”, having refused to say so before for eight years. This was news to the British: when George VI ascended the British throne in 1936, he had been crowned King of Ireland, as well, little knowing that there no longer was a Kingdom of Ireland!

As usual when trying to get accurate facts in regard to Peterson history, something will jump up and get in the way. They are missing many of their records. The following is the best that we can do for a guide to the myriad markings during the period 1922 – 1949.

Prior to 1920 it was rare for a country of origin to be stamped on the pipe, just Peterson’s Dublin on the band. After 1921/22,If it is stamped “MADE IN IRELAND” and the “Made in” is stacked over “Ireland” or “MADE IN EIRE” or several other forms, it was made between 1922 and 1938. A considerable number of Peterson pipes were stamped “Irish Free State”. From about 1930 to 1949, most of the pipes (those which were stamped) were stamped “Made in Ireland”.” If the stamp reads “MADE IN IRELAND” in a circle, the pipe was made between 1939 and 1948. These are all “pre republic” pipes. I can tell you that the mark “Irish Free State” was adopted in 1922;and replaced by “Eire” in 1937 and then by “Republic of Ireland” in 1949…

The site also had a photo of the exact stamping that was on the ferrule of this pipe so I am also including that photo below.There was also a section in the Pipedia article on House Pipes. I include that below as I am pretty certain that the pipe I have is one of them. I have highlighted a section in red below that gives a sense of finishes and costs of these large pipes.

House pipes: Another popular Peterson system pipe variant, is the huge House Pipe. I believe the term house pipe, has come from the fact that they are just too big to carry around for some and too heavy to hold in one’s mouth. The pipes are so large that you’ll want to smoke them at home, settled into a comfortable chair for a very long session with a good book! I remember seeing them referred to as ‘systems on steroids’!

These large hand made pipes normally retail for around $200 $ 400 depending on shape and finish. Varying from Smooth, Sandblast and Rustic finishes and Straight Billiard and Bent shapes. Extra large bowls. All with sterling silver bands. Finishes include terracotta and oak colours.

Over the years there have been a few large System pipes Produced by Peterson which could be considered to be included as ‘House’ pipes. In the early Peterson catalogues, circa 1900,they were advertising XXL systems which were similar in size to the modern ‘House’ pipes. Around 1990 Peterson were asked by a large UK retailer, i.e. Bonds of Oxford St. London, to commission the making of a special giant classic bent pipe, with dimensions of, length 17cms, bowl height,6.1cm, bowl chamber depth 5.5cms, internal bowl diameter 2.1cm. This is a classic shaped Peterson with hallmarked silver ferrule in smooth and rustic finishes, plus options of tapered and saddle stems. In the early 1990s Kapp & Peterson made this giant, classic full bent, smooth pipe exclusively for Bonds of Oxford Street London. Bonds seem to have an endless source of New Old Stock Peterson pipes. I am always intrigued by these pipes when they arrive by post. Inevitably they come in their original packaging and to my mind, are a window back in time. I enjoy the box and contents as much as the pipe.

I had seen this pipe on many occasions when I had previously visited Bonds E bay site. I have always been attracted to it and admired the classic shape ,size and finish. They were offering the same pipe in various finishes and stem fittings. However I preferred the smooth tapered fishtail. I am a sucker for large bent Pete’s. Just my taste. However it was not cheap at around $355. Having had the opportunity to see the pipe ‘in the flesh’, I am amazed at the quality, feel, looks and the smoking performance. Yes you heard right I smoked it! Normally with the newer unsmoked high grades that come into my collection, they remain unsmoked. However I made an exception with this beauty and boy it was worth it.

I wrote to Mark Irwin and sent some photos of the pipe to see what he could tell me. Unfortunately in my first email the photos did not include any profile shots. I sent him those in subsequent emails and also order a copy of the 1896 K&P Catalog from Smokingpipes. Here is what Mark wrote in the emails.

FIRST

Hey Steve,

Without seeing a perfect flanking shot, I can’t be 100% sure here, but I can tell you it is either the shape 1 or shape 3 straight-sided (“dutch billiard”) from the 1906 and 1896 catalogs. Not seen in K&P catalogs after 1906, like other magnums it remained in the shadows but surfaced from time to time. The rustication is excellent, dating it to the late 1940s or early 1950s when this type of work was routine at the factory. The sterling mount was given to it because of the unusual size as well as the good blast. With a flanking shot, I can determine whether it is the 1 or the 3.

I just thought of something: if you have the restoration of the 1896 K&P catalog I released not long ago through Smokingpipes, you can simply lay your bowl on top of shape 1 and shape 3 and *presto* you’ll know. The original scaled illustrations are quite useful in this way.

Happy Smokes,

Mark

SECOND

It’s the 1. How very cool. Is this pipe going in your collection, is it someone’s your working on or do you intend to sell it? Great piece!

Yes, I think with your enjoyment of the history of pipes you’d love the catalog and the historical commentary.

Mark

Mark’s information confirmed what I had learned from my research and gave me additional information. Mark notes that the rustication dates it to the late 1940s or early 1950s. The COM stamp had helped me date it between 1945-1947 so that fits!  He also confirms that it a Shape 1, straight-sided (“Dutch Billiard”).

Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe itself. Before he sent it to me, Jeff had cleaned up the pipe with his usual procedure. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife.  He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and then rinsed it off with warm water. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and a tooth brush and rinsed it off with warm water. It looked amazing when I took it out of the package of pipes he shipped me. So much so that it is the first of those pipes that I chose to work on. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration work.   The rim top and the inner and outer edges of the bowl all look very good. The stem surface looked good with the oxidation gone and no visible tooth marks and chatter on either side of the stem. The stamping on left side of the shank and on the silver ferrule is clear and readable as noted above.I took a photo of the pipe with a regular sized Peterson System 312 to give a sense of the size of this pipe. It really is a big pipe. I then removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. It is a proportionally pleasing pipe.I started my work on the pipe by addressing the fading of the finish on the rim top and edges. I used a Walnut Stain Pen to match the color of the rest of the bowl. The finished rim top and edges look better. The bowl looked very good at this point so I rubbed it down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl and shank with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for about 10-15 minutes and buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned to work on the stem. I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This Beautiful Rustic Peterson’s Pre-Republic System House Pipe Shape 1 “Dutch Billiard” is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The style of rustication that is used around the bowl is highlighted by the dark, rich stain application and works well with both the polished Sterling Silver ferrule and vulcanite stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Rustic Peterson’s System House Pipe is a large pipe that will be great for sitting and reading on the porch. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 9 inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 101 grams/3.56 ounces. This is a pipe that I am adding to my own collection for now. I hope to enjoy it many times on the front porch over the summer ahead. I take a moment to remind myself and each of us that we are trustees of pipes that will outlive us and the lives of many other pipe men and women who carry on the trust of their care and use. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

Sidle Up to the Bari

1 Reply

by Kenneth Lieblich

Next on the chopping block is a charming Danish pipe, likely by Bari. I say “likely” because it does not specifically name Bari on the pipe, but Steve assured me that he has seen other Bari pipes like it. He feels comfortable calling it a Bari and that is more than good enough for me. His imprimatur is worth its weight in gold!   There was only one marking on the pipe – the underside of the stummel read Made in [over] Denmark. There was no shape number or any other identifying marks.This freehand pipe is quite beautiful and many of its curves are reminiscent of ski slopes from my youth. It is a pretty pipe and feels light and comfortable in the hand.

From Pipedia, here is a very brief history of the Bari company:

Bari Piber was founded by Viggo Nielsen in Kolding around the turn of 1950-51. Viggo’s sons Kai Nielsen and Jørgen Nielsen both grew into their father’s business from a very young age and worked there till 1975. Bari had very successfully adapted the new Danish Design that had been started mainly by Stanwell for its own models. When Viggo Nielsen sold Bari in 1978 to Joh. Wilh. von Eicken GmbH in Hamburg, Bari counted 33 employees. From 1978 to 1993 Åge Bogelund and Helmer Thomsen headed Bari’s pipe production. Thomsen bought the company in 1993 re-naming it to Bari Piber Helmer Thomsen. The workshop moved to more convenient buildings in Vejen. Bari’s basic conception fundamentally stayed the same for decades: series pipes pre-worked by machines and carefully finished by hand. Thus no spectacular highgrades but solid, reliable every day’s companions.On to the pipe: it was in decent shape, but there were a few issues. The stem had a bit of oxidation and a LOT of calcification, though fortunately, very few bite marks. The stummel also had a few issues. The outside of the bowl had some dings and a couple of fills that needed to be addressed. The wood also had some stains and paint splatter. There was lava and debris on the rim, and a small burn mark. Most significantly, there was a chunk missing from around the mortise end of the shank. Some serious repair work was needed there! The stem was first on my list. I wiped down the outside of the stem with Murphy’s Oil Soap on some cotton pads. There was so much calcification on the stem that I decided to take a blade and gently scrape it all off. You can see in the photos how much came off! I also took a BIC lighter and ‘painted’ the stem with its flame in order to lift the few bite marks and dents. This was moderately successful in raising the damage. Then, I cleaned out the insides with pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. It was pretty dirty and required quite a few pipe cleaners. Once this process was done, the stem went for an overnight soak in the Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. The following day, I cleaned all of the de-oxidizing mess off with alcohol, pipe cleaners, et cetera. The oxidation had migrated to the surface and would be fairly straightforward to remove. I scrubbed with SoftScrub on some cotton pads to remove the leftover oxidation on the stem. I built up the dents on the stem with cyanoacrylate adhesive and let them fully cure. Then I sanded the adhesive down with 220-, 400-, and 600-grit sandpapers to meld seamlessly into the stem. Finally, I used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to bring out the lovely black lustre on the stem. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing.On to the stummel, and the usual cleaning procedures were in order for this pipe. I first decided to ream out the bowl. I used both the PipNet Reamer and the KleenReem to remove the built-up cake and followed that with 220-grit sandpaper to eliminate as much as I could. I took the bowl down to bare briar, as I wanted to ensure there were no hidden flaws in the walls of the bowl. Fortunately, there were none. I used a small butter knife to gently chip away at the lava on the rim and used more Murphy’s with a scrub brush to remove any remainder. This actually worked quite well. I then moved on to cleaning the outside of the stummel with Murphy’s Oil Soap and some cotton pads. That removed any latent dirt that blighted the wood. I then proceeded to clean out the insides of the shank with Q-tips, pipe cleaners, and isopropyl alcohol. There was some filth inside this stummel and it took quite a bit of cotton to get it clean. I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some dish soap and tube brushes.A de-ghosting session also seemed in order, so I thrust cotton balls into the bowl and the shank and saturated them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummel sit overnight. This caused the oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton. Now it was time for the serious work: to fix the large gouge in the mortise, at the end of the shank. There were several problems to be addressed: to ensure that the repair was structurally sound, so it could withstand the wear and tear of the tenon going in and out; to ensure that the repair looked reasonably consonant with the surrounding wood, and to ensure that the inside of the mortise was smooth and conformed perfectly to the shape of the tenon. The repair was made with a mixture of briar dust and cyanoacrylate adhesive. This ensures a strong repair and one that looks similar to the surrounding wood. As it turned out, I had to build up the repair more than once to achieve the results I wanted. It was fairly straightforward to sand down the flat end of the shank, but it was very difficult to ensure that the inside of the mortise matched perfectly with the tenon. Honestly, it took a bit of trial and error to get it right. I sanded the repair down with a file and 200- and 400-grit sandpaper until it was level with the surrounding briar. Having completed that, I was able to address the small nicks on the rim and the bowl. I dug out my iron and a damp cloth to try to raise the nicks. The hot and moist steam can often cause the wood to swell slightly and return to shape. There was some movement – not a lot, but it was better than doing nothing. The repair was not perfect, but the remaining scratches would be improved by sanding. Now I could address the burn on the rim. I took some oxalic acid, used several Q-tips, and rubbed. The burn improved quite a bit. The burn was very superficial and did not affect the integrity of the wood at all.After removing the burn and checking in on the mortise repair to ensure its integrity, I used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) on the stummel to finish it off. After that, a light application of Before & After Restoration Balm brought out the best in the stummel’s grain. This is a very elegant Danish pipe. At this point, I checked in with Steve to see what he thought of the restoration so far. He made the excellent suggestion of applying a layer of Fiebing’s Black Leather Dye to the rim and the mortise-end of the shank. After applying the dye, flaming it, and letting it set, I wiped those areas down with isopropyl alcohol to remove most of the dye. The goal here was to accentuate the grain on those particular areas of the pipe with only residual amounts of black dye. In order to further the external beauty of this pipe, I applied some of Fiebing’s Medium Brown Leather Dye over the entire stummel. As usual, I applied flame from a BIC lighter in order to set the colour. I then added a second coat – just to make sure. It looked so much better with a richer colour. I then used some isopropyl alcohol to wipe down the pipe and remove some excess dye. At this point, I chose to re-sand the stummel with all of the micromesh pads. I followed up with some more Before & After Restoration Balm. What a wonderful result! Then it was off for a trip to the buffer. A dose of White Diamond and a few coats of carnauba wax were just what this pipe needed. The lovely shine made the wood look absolutely beautiful. In fact, it turned out so well that this pipe has already sold! I know that the new owner will enjoy smoking it for many years to come. I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe as much I as I did restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Breathing Life into a Custom-Bilt Long Shank Pot

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table came to us on 10/14/2017 from now closed antique shop in Pocatello, Idaho, USA. The pipe is a classic Custom-Bilt piece – a rusticated long shank Pot shaped pipe with some deep carving around the bowl. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Custom-Bilt. On the heel of the bowl it is stamped Imported Briar. On the right side of the shank there is an “O” stamped at the shank/stem junction. There was a lot of grime ground into the smooth and rusticated portions of the finish on the briar. The bowl was heavily caked with a heavy overflow of lava on the rusticated top and inner edge of the rim. The inside edges looked to be in good condition. The finish was dirty and there appeared to be a burn mark on the right side toward the top that looked like the pipe have been set in an ashtray with cigarettes and suffered the consequences. The stem was dirty and lightly oxidized. It had tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside near the button. There were no markings or a logo on the saddle stem. It had promise but it was very dirty. Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. He took photos of the rim top and bowl to give a clear picture of the thickness of the cake and tobacco debris as well as the lava on the rim top rustication. He also took photos of the top and underside of the stem to show the light oxidation and the chatter and tooth marks. Jeff took a photo of the heel of the bowl to give a picture of what the briar looked like. The rustication pattern around the bowl is instantly recognizable as done by Custom-Bilt.He took a photo of the burn mark on the right side of the bowl. The inside of the bowl is clear so it is not a burn through. It is an obvious burn from being laid in an ashtray.The stamping on the left side of the shank, the heel of the bowl and the right side at the shank/stem joint is clear and readable and read as noted above. I turned to Pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c8.html) to get a quick view of the brand once again. I knew that I was working with one of the older pipes and probably made by Tracy Mincer himself. He stopped making the Custom-Bilt pipes in the early 1950s. The screen capture I included below shows a brief history of the brand. I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:CustomBilt_Stamp1.jpg) for a quick read. The majority of the information there included two book reviews of the “Custom-Bilt Story” by Bill Unger.

The one line I culled was the following: “Tracy Mincer started the original Custom-Bilt pipes it appears in 1934”.

I did a screen capture of the stamping that matched the stamping on the pipe that I am working on. What I learned from that is that the stamp was used by Tracy Mincer in Indianapolis in the US from 1938-1946 and possibly in Chicago before 1938 as well. So now I had a possible date for this pipe. It was an old timer and it was well worth working on.Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had cleaned up the pipe with his usual penchant for thoroughness. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and a tooth brush and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration work. The rim top cleaned up really well. The inner edge had some darkening and wear that would need to be addressed. The outer edge of the bowl look very good. The stem surface looked good with a few small tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. The stamping on left side of the shank is clear and readable. I failed to take photos of the stamping on the heel and right side but they to are clear. It is stamped as noted above.I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. It is a proportionally pleasing pipe.I started my work on the pipe by addressing the dark burn mark on the right side of the bowl in the worm trail toward the back. I worked over the burn mark the darkening on the rim top with a brass bristle wire brush. I was able to clean it up nicely and it looked better. I scrubbed the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the debris I had loosened with the wire brushes.   I filled in the burned spot on the right side with briar dust and super glue. Once the repair cured I worked over the area with the brass bristle wire brush to remove the excess. With that repair done the burned spot looked much better.    Next I worked on the damaged and darkened inner edge of the rim with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. It looked much better.   With all the repairs and shaping finished I decided to stain the pipe to mask the darkening where the burn mark had been as well as on the rim top. I chose a light brown aniline stain, though once it was on the bowl it looked very dark to me. I would have to deal with that shortly.   To lighten the stain and make it more transparent I wiped the bowl down with alcohol on paper towels and cotton pads. I took a lot of the stain off the bowl but it still was too dark to my liking.  I sanded the high spots around the bowl with a 1200 grit micromesh pad to remove some more of the dark stain. I liked the overall effect of the new stain and the pattern the sanding created.    The bowl was in excellent condition so started by rubbing the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for about 10-15 minutes and buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine.    I set the bowl aside and turned to work on the stem. I sanded out the tooth chatter and light tooth marks with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surface of the vulcanite. I started polishing it with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper.  I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This Custom-Bilt Long Shank Pot is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The style of rustication that is used around the bowl is highlighted by the stain application and works well with both the shape and the polished vulcanite saddle stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Custom-Bilt is another pipe that fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 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 39g/1.38oz.  I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipemakers Section shortly. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your collection send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. There are many more to come!

Labour Intensive Restoration of a Peterson’s Sherlock Holmes Series Professor

2 Replies

The next blog is one that has been submitted by Clint Stacey. We “met” via email to have a look at a pipe he was working on. It was a real challenge and one that demanded a lot of labour intensive work. Give his blog a read. He did a remarkable job on the pipe. Welcome to rebornpipes Clint and I hope this is the first of many blogs that you send to us.

Blog by Clint Stacey

I grew up around all sorts of stuff- from furniture and brick-a-brac to collectables and oddities coming into the house in all states of disrepair and leaving having been restored and reborn. My dad had a good eye and a passion for salvaging lost treasures sometimes it was his job, sometimes it supplemented his job, often it helped put food on the table.

I have followed in his footsteps, in terms of picking up all sorts of bits and bobs sometimes keeping them, other times passing them on to make room for the next thing. I don’t exactly remember when I first started picking pipes up – possibly about twenty five years ago. At that time, old pipes were plentiful at car boot sales, flea markets and junk and charity shops. Whilst I have picked up one or two nice examples I dread to think of the gems I’ve missed…

Now a days finding old or estate pipes is much trickier. The internet has educated people and quite often I will pick up some over priced wreck and be given chapter and verse of what it is by the seller.

As I have learnt more about pipes and become more discerning my real interest is in Petersons. I now have about forty.

Over the years I have picked up enough know how to do basic cleaning / tidying but little beyond that. I was seriously impressed when I discovered, about eighteen months ago, ‘rebornpipes’ and I saw some of the restoration work that was being carried out.

It had been a long time aim of mine to put together the Sherlock Holmes series of Petersons. I’ve started with the first series and having picked up three I was delighted to see a ‘Professor’ going cheap on EBay. It looked a bit rough but I thought it would clean up okay. There wasn’t much bidding (perhaps others knew more than me.)

When it arrived, I saw the real extent of the damage. It looked like somebody had taken great umbrage with the pipe and had attacked it with a carving knife before setting fire to it. I put it to one side uncertain of what I intended to do with it.About eighteen months ago I had come across rebornpipes. Having an interest in both pipes and restoration I was clearly in my element. How I hadn’t come across this before I don’t know. I decided to email Steve in the hope he could give some guidance with the Peterson.

I wasn’t sure if I would get a reply – after all we’re all busy people – and I wasn’t sure what he would be able to suggest. I was more than surprised by an almost instant response asking for photos. I sent these and Steve informed me that the pipe had been the victim of a torch lighter hitting the same point.

I had already given the pipe a clean – actually it wasn’t too bad beyond the lighter damage. Either it had been previously cleaned or possibly not actually smoked that much. A few cotton buds/pipe cleaners with some alcohol gave it a basic clean and the stem I scrubbed with warm water.

Steve suggested topping out the pipe armed with 220 sandpaper, a board and patience. I took it slowly at first carefully checking at points that I was keeping the pipe level. Working on it off and on I soon began to see some progress. I continued to take it down to a point where I had something to work it and began seeing some sign of hope. I kept checking in with Steve who continued to advise working slowly and patiently and keeping the pipe flat to the board in order to keep the top level.Although at this point it was greatly improved there was still a degree of difference in the thickness of the original and the pipe is well out of round. Steve asked for some side pictures just to check the height and suggested I kept going a bit further.Eventually I reached a point where I felt I had gone down as far as possible. Whilst I was pleased with the improvement it still didn’t look quite right. Steve had suggested that once I had got it sanded down I then used the technique of a ball in sand paper. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing at first but as I started to use this technique I saw both a bevel and shape starting to appear. Heartened I began working on smoothing out the inside as well as the top edge using fine grade sand paper. Finally, I reached a point where I was happy and felt that I could do little better. It had reached the point of staining the pipe to get the sanded area back to match the original colour. Steve’s advised a medium brown aniline stain. I used Feibing’s leather dye and was really pleased with how well this matched in with the original.I gave the pipe two coats and allowed it to dry. I then gave it a good polish with a carnauba wax. The stem had some oxidization so I worked on this with a fine grade wet and dry paper and then finished it with some carnauba wax. This will need a couple of coats to create a nice sheen. Throughout the process of working on this pipe Steve has been on hand offering help and guidance and I am really appreciative of both his time and knowledge. Often you come across pipes that are in a poor state through being ‘well loved’. Unfortunately, this one had just been abused. From the Hallmark H design, it appears to have been issued only in 2018. I amazed at how a pipe of such little age, and one that would have been expensive to buy, ended up in such a state. I am really happy to have been able to restore it and save it!

I have really enjoyed working on this and armed now with some knowledge and know how I intend to tidy up a few of the other pipes that I own.

New Life for a Chunky Arlington Imported Briar Bent Rhodesian

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is another pipe that has been here for over 5 years. Sad that there are some that have sat this long or longer before I got to them. But on the other hand I get to look through my boxes and pick out what turns my crank at the moment. This one was a nice looking bent Rhodesian with interesting rustication patterns. We picked it up back in May, 2017 off EBay from a seller in Lewisburg, Ohio, USA. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Arlington in script [over] Imported Briar. The rustication is rugged but has a smooth spot on each side of the bowl, a panel on the front and each side of the shank and a smooth band around the shank end. It is dirty but is quite nice with the reds and browns of the briar and the black vulcanite stem. The pipe was another one that had obviously been someone’s favourite and must have been a grand smoker. The finish is very dirty with dust in the rustication. The bowl is heavily caked with a thick lava overflow on the rim top. The inner edge was also thickly caked with lava. The stem is lightly oxidized, calcified and had some tooth chatter on the top and underside ahead of the button. The pipe showed a lot of promise but it was a mess. Jeff took pictures of the pipe before he did his clean up work. He took photos of the rim top and bowl as well as the stem surfaces to show the condition of the well smoked pipe. You can see the thick cake in the bowl and the heavy lava on the inner edge and rim top. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had tooth chatter on both sides ahead of the button. He removed the stem from the shank and revealed a very tarry and dirty stinger apparatus that in the tenon.Jeff took some photos of the heel of the bowl and the side to give a sense of the rustication style around this pipe. He captured the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is readable as noted above. I turned to Pipephil to get a quick overview of the background information on the Arlington brand (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-a7.html). The side bar stated that it was a brand of the Arlington Briar Pipe Corp. I have included a screen capture of the pertinent information below.I turned to Pipedia for more information (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Arlington). I quote the article below.

Arlington Briar Pipes Corporation was founded in 1919 in Brooklyn, New York, and produced the Arlington, Briarlee, Firethorn, Kimberly, Krona and Olde London brands among dozens of others, primarily acting as a subcontractor making pipes to be sold under other brand names. Among others, in the 1950’s, Arlington turned pipes for the famed Wilke Pipe Shop in New York City. The corporation was dissolved by the State of New York as inactive on December 6, 1978. Arlington Briar Pipe Corporation, located at 200 Kosciusko Street, Brooklyn, New York, registered only a single brand trademark, the Arlington brand, the trademark for which was applied for on November 13, 1962 and granted on February 25, 1964. Jack Kaye, of Arlington Briar, was also granted a patent for a combined mirror and stand in 1967.

According to José Manuel Lopes, “North American brand that belonged to Arlington Briar Pipes Corp., Brooklyn, New York, founded in 1919. In the 1940s, Ludwig Rosenberger gave the company new life, and it continued until the 70s. His son, Mel Rosenberger, has recently launched the DiMonte brand. Jack Uhle was also linked to Arlington.” Arlington, as far as known, mainly operated as a sub-contractor for other brands. The Jobey pipes are said to be made by Arlington at an unknown point of time. Arlington’s own pipes are seldom seen.

The article also included the following photo from an RTDA catalog. It is a great addition to the information above.Now it was time to look at it up close and personal. Jeff had done an amazing job in removing all of the cake and the lava on the rim top. He had reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He took the cake back to bare briar so we could check the walls for damage. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime on the bowl and rim and was able to remove the lava and dirt. He cleaned out the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they came out clean. He cleaned the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the grime on the exterior. He cleaned out the airway with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I took some photos of the pipe before I started my work on it today. I took a close up photo of the cleaned up rim top. The rim top and the inner edge look good. The bowl is clean and the walls are undamaged. The stem looks good with light tooth chatter along the top and underside ahead of the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the shank side. It is clear and readable as noted above.I took the stem off the pipe and took a photo. The Rhodesian is a chunky looking pipe with nice lines.I started my work on the pipe with a simple first step. I touched up the stain on the inner edge of the rim with an Oak Stain pen. It matched well and would work very well once I polished the rest of the rim top. I chose to do this at this stage as the polishing would served to blend it in and make it unnoticeable.I polished the smooth rim top and areas on the bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. After each pad I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. It really took on a shine by the last three sanding pads. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips where it works to clean, restore and preserve the briar. I let it do its magic for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The pipe looks incredibly good at this point in the process. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I heated the tenon with the flame of a lighter and was able to pull it out quite easily. I double checked the cleaning on it now that it was out of the tenon and found that it was very clean.I scrubbed the surface of the stem with Soft Scrub cleanser to remove the oxidation on the surface. Once I was finished it looked significantly better.I sanded the tooth chatter and remnants of oxidation on both sides with 220 grit sandpaper and started the polishing with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. Each step took it closer to the finished look.I continued to polish 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 polished it further with Before & After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to cure. I am excited to finish this Arlington Imported Briar 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 then by hand with a microfibre cloth to deepen it. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with beautiful grain on the smooth portions and the rustication depths all around it. The polished grain on the pipe looks great with the black vulcanite stem. This Arlington Rhodesian is great 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 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 54 grams/1.90 ounces. It turned out to be a beautiful pipe. I will soon be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipemakers Section. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Remember we are the next in a long line of pipe men and women who will carry on the trust of our pipes until we pass them on to the next trustee. Thanks for your time reading this blog.

New Life for a Hard Ridden Sasieni 4 Dot Ruff Root Dark 8 Bent Apple

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table has been here for over four years. Sad that there are some that have sat this long or longer before I got to them. But on the other hand I get to look through my boxes and pick out what turns my crank at the moment. This one was a nice sandblast bent apple. We picked it up back in January of 2018 from a seller on EBay from Los Fresnos, Texas, USA. It is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads Sasieni 4 Dot [over] Ruff Root Dark [over] London Briar followed by the number 8 which appears to be the shape number. The poor pipe had obviously been someone’s favourite and must have been a grand smoker. The finish appears to be light brown but the grime and debris in the sandblast lend to that thought. The bowl is heavily caked with a thick lava overflow on the rim top filling in the sandblast. The stem fits with a gap showing that the shank is also heavily tarred. The stem has some oxidation and deep tooth marks on the top and underside near the button. It really was a mess and a stinky one at that! Jeff took pictures of the pipe before he did his clean up work. He took photos of the bowl and rim top to give an idea of the thickness of the cake and the lava on the top. It was quite thick and hard. He took photos of the stem surface to show the oxidation and the tooth marks on them. There was a deep tooth mark on the top of the stem near the button. He took photos of the sandblasted grain around the bowl sides and heel of the bowl. It is a very nice looking blast. Jeff captured the stamping and the placement of the four dots on the stem side. The stamping is clear and readable. You can also see several issues with the pipe in these photos. First, to the left of the stamping (next to Ruff) there is a flaw in the briar. It looks like a crack but it follows the grain of the blast. Second, the fit of the stem to the shank is off which says to me that the tenon is crooked not allowing a fit to the shank end.I remembered that I had worked on a Sasieni Ruff Root Dark in the past – a Canadian if my memory served me right. I did a quick search on rebornpipes and found the Canadian I was remembering and the blog I had written (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/04/19/an-easy-restoration-of-a-sasieni-4-dot-ruff-root-dark-13-canadian/). I had done some research on the stamping and brand for that blog and I am including it below.

When the pipe arrived I turned to Pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-sasieni.html) to see if he included not only information on this Sasieni 4 Dot Ruff Root Dark Canadian. Sure enough there was some quick information that identified the time frame of this pipe. He dates it as a Post Transition piece 1986-today. The Ruff Root name is what they call a sandblasted finish. He points out that the 4 Dot has replaced the Four Dot from 1986.I turned to Pipedia for more information on 4 Dot line of Sasieni pipes and any information that was added there (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Sasieni). I quote a pertinent paragraph:

…The nomenclature changed again in 1986, with the sale of the company to the Post-Transition firm. The three line nomenclature was changed to two lines, with the first reading “Sasieni 4 Dot” and the second identifying the finish, e.g. Natural, Walnut, or Ruff Root. Note how 4 Dot is spelled, using an Arabic numeral 4, as opposed to spelling out the word “four”. This is the easiest way to spot a Post-Transition Sasieni, as the new company has used both script and block lettering to spell the word “Sasieni” on the shank…

So I knew that I was dealing with a Post Transition 4 Dot Sasieni that was made after 1986. Now it was time to look at it up close and personal. Jeff had done an amazing job in removing all of the cake and the lava on the rim top. He had reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He took the cake back to bare briar so we could check the walls for damage. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime on the bowl and rim and was able to remove the lava and dirt. He cleaned out the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they came out clean. He cleaned the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the grime on the exterior. He soaked it in Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it with warm water. He cleaned out the airway with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I took some photos of the pipe before I started my work on it today. I took a close up photo of the cleaned up rim top. You can see the smoothing out of the top on the right front and the left rear of the bowl. The rest of the rim top has some great sandblast. The inner edge has a slight bevel that should clean up well. The stain is faded on the top. The bowl is spotless. The stem is clean and you can see the tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button. After Jeff had cleaned it the stem fit more snug against the shank end.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above.I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to give a sense of the part of this pipe. I think it is going to be a beauty.I put on a magnifying headlamp and traced the flaw in the briar from the edge of the Ruff stamp on the underside of the shank. I filled it in with a thin line of clear CA glue. It was more of a cosmetic fix than a concern about a crack. Once it cured I used several brass bristle brushes I have to blend in the repair to the rest of the sandblast finish.With that cosmetic fix done I decided to address the smooth portions of the rim top. The first photo shows what I am referring to. I have used a series of burrs on my Dremel in the past to rusticate the smooth portions of the damaged top and match the sandblast pattern as much as possible. I have found that it works very well. Once I finished I used a brass bristle brush to knock off the debris and some of the roughness. I stained it with a Walnut stain pen to match the rest of the bowl colour. What do you think? Did it work?I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my finger tips and a horsehair shoe brush. The product works to clean, restore and preserve the briar. I let it do its magic for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The pipe looks incredibly good at this point in the process. With that finished I set the bowl aside and turned to work on the stem. I “painted” the surface of the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the tooth marks on both sides. I was able to lift them significantly but deep marks still remained on each side. I filled those in with black CA glue and set the stem aside to cure. Once the repair cured I flattened the repair with a small file to start the process of smoothing it out and blending it into the surrounding vulcanite. I sanded the file marks and repairs with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. It is starting to look very good. I continued to polish 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 polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to cure. This Sasieni Ruff Root Dark 8 Bent Apple is a beauty. I put the pipe back together and lightly 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 hand buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with beautiful mixed grain all around it. The polished dark Walnut coloured sandblast has depth and lends to a variation in colour as the bowl is turned. It looks great with the black vulcanite stem. This smooth Sasieni Ruff Root Dark Bent Apple is great 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 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 46 grams/1.59 ounces. It turned out to be a beautiful pipe. I will be putting this pipe on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipe Makers Section. Let me know if you are interested in adding it to your rack and carrying on the trust of this well traveled pipe. Thanks for your time reading this blog and as Paresh says each time – Stay Safe.  

New Life for a Vintage Stanwell 86 Regd. No. 969-48 Handmade in Denmark Freehand

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

I have sold a few pipes to a fellow in Israel over the past year and he is great to work with. He has great taste in pipes and the ones he has purchased from me have been beautiful. Not long ago I received and email from him about a pipe he was interested in purchasing EBay. He sent me the link and wanted my opinion on it. I believed that it was a design by Sixten Ivarsson made for Stanwell and one that I really like the flowing shape and broad bowl. I remembered that with the Reg. No. it was made between the late 1960s and early 1970s so it was a bit of an old one. The pipe appeared to be in decent condition. Not too many days after that he wrote me to say he had won it and wondered if he could have it shipped to me rather than to him in Israel. We chatted back and forth about it via email and the decision was made and the pipe was on its way to me. Here are the pictures that the seller included with the advertising.  The seller took a large photo of the rim top to show the condition. Though it is dark you can see the cake in the bowl and the burn damage to the inner edge and the top front of the bowl. I am hoping I can reduce that mark some but time will tell. He also included a photo of the top of the stem showing the oxidation and the tooth marks on that side of the stem. The photo of the underside of the bowl and shank is dark but you can seek the grain peeking through the grime on the finish. I think that it will have some nice grain once I clean it up.He also took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It was faint but readable with a light. It read as noted above.He took the stem off the shank and took a picture of the mortise and the tenon to show the condition of those parts of the pipe. It was dirty but it looked solid.The pipe arrived this week and sadly I had forgotten that it was on its way from the seller. When I opened the box I remembered it. I examined it carefully to assess both the condition of the pipe and what I needed to do with it. There was a moderate cake in the bowl with lava on the rim top and what looked like a burn mark on the top front of the bowl. There was darkening around both the inner and the outer edges of the bowl. The pipe was stamped on the underside of the shank and read Stanwell [over] Regd. No. 969-48 [over] Handmade [over] in Denmark. To the left of the stamp it bore the shape number stamp – 86. The finish was dirty and dark so it was hard to see too well but you could see some interesting grain underneath. The stem had the Crown S stamp on the top of the saddle and was fade. The vulcanite was oxidized and there were tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside. It was going to take some work to clean up but I thought it would work out fairly well. My only concern was the burn mark on the front top of the rim. Even with that though it would look pretty amazing. I took some photos of the pipe before I started my work on it. I have included them below. I took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show the thickness of the cake in the bowl and the damage to the top and edges of the bowl. You can see the darkening on the inner and outer edge of the rim – how much is lava and how much is burn damage remains to be seen. You can also see the burn mark on the top of the bowl at the front. It does not appear to have charred the surface as it is hard. I took photos of the stem surface to show the oxidation and tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. There are also scratches on the surface running from the tenon end to the button on both sides. The Crown S stamp on the top of the stem is visible but all the colour is gone.I took a photo of the stamping on the shank underside. It is faint but readable. I also took a photo of the Crown S on the top of the saddle stem.I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe parts. It is really going to be quite a stunning piece.I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and took the cake back to bare walls. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I examined the walls with a lens and they were solid and undamaged. I cleaned out the airway in the shank and the stem as well as the mortise with isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. It was quite dirty and now smells much better.I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish of the bowl and rim top. I rinsed off the bowl with warm water and then dried the bowl with a cotton cloth. The grain that came to the surface once it was clean is quite stunning. I worked over the darkening and burn damage on the inside edge of the bowl and the rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. It began to look a lot better.I mixed up a batch of oxalic acid and warm water and used it to scrub off the rim darkening and the burn mark on the top. I dried it off with a paper towel. The burn on the edges of the rim were much better and the burn mark on the front top was definitely lighter.I sanded the rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and then sanded it with a medium and a fine grit sanding block. The grain on the rim top began to stand out. The rim edges look much better and the burn mark is much reduced.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. After each pad I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. It really took on a shine by the last three sanding pads. I stained the polished rim top with an Oak stain pen. It matched the colour around the rest of the bowl and hid the burn mark a bit. Though it is still visible it is nowhere near as big as it was when I started.I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar where it works to clean, restore and preserve the briar. I let it do its magic for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The pipe looks incredibly good at this point in the process. With that the bowl had come a long way from when I started working on it. I set it aside and turned my attention to the stem. I put the stem for an overnight soak in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. In the morning I removed it from the bath and rubbed it down with a coarse paper towel to remove the oxidation that was on the surface. I cleaned out the airway in the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners.I “painted” the surface of the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the tooth marks on both sides. I was able to lift them significantly but one remained on each side that would need to be filled with superglue.I scrubbed the remnants of oxidation with Soft Scrub All Purpose Cleanser. I removed a lot more of the remaining oxidation. It is finally starting to look better.I filled in the remaining tooth marks on both sides of the stem with black super glue. I set it aside to cure. Once the repair cured I flattened the repair with a small file to start the process of smoothing it out and blending it into the surrounding vulcanite. I sanded the file marks and repairs with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. It is starting to look very good.I continued to polish 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. The light oxidation that remained on the top of the saddle portion of the stem was hard to deal with due to the stamping on the top. I cleaned it as much as possible and repaired the white colour of the Crown S logo with White Acrylic fingernail polish. I applied it and when it hardened I scraped off the excess with my fingernail. Once finished I continued to polish the stem with the last three micromesh sanding pads. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and wiped it down with Obsidian Oil one more time. I am excited to finish this Ivarrson Designed Stanwell 86 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 hand buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with beautiful mixed grain all around it. The polished grain on the pipe looks great with the black vulcanite stem. This smooth Classic Ivarrson Designed Stanwell 86 is great 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 ¼ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 42 grams/1.48 ounces. It turned out to be a beautiful pipe. I will be packing it up and sending it to my friend in Israel. I think he will enjoy this beauty once it is in his hands. Thanks for your time reading this blog and as Paresh says each time – Stay Safe.

Restoring a Brigham Made in Canada (1Dot) 189 Bent Acorn

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

Not too long ago my wife and I had dinner with some good friends here in Vancouver – first time since COVID-19 so it was good to see them. At the beginning of the meal he handed me a box that he said was for me. In it were some pipes that he was giving to me and a bunch of cigars. The pipes included two Brigham rusticated pipes that I have included photos of below. The two pipes in the photo were clean but well smoked. The bowls had light cake and some lava and darkening on the rim top. The stems were lightly oxidized and had tooth chatter on both sides ahead of the button. I decided I would work on them next. I finished the Sportsman Dublin first and now turned my attention to the second pipe. It is a classic Brigham Shape I call an acorn. It is well carved with a rusticated finish and a smooth rim top. It is stamped on the underside and reads 189 followed by Brigham [over] Made in Canada. There was one dot on the stem side and tooth chatter and oxidation. It was going to be a beauty once cleaned up. I took photos of the pipe when it brought it to the desk top. There was a moderate cake in the bowl in the bowl with lava overflowing into the rim top. There were some dark spots on the top of the rim on the front and the back sides. There was also some damage on the inner edge of the rim that would need to be dealt with. The shank and airways were dirty with tars and oil. The finish was dirty and would need scrubbing. I was hoping to bring it back to the natural finish. There was no Hard Rock Maple filter in the tenon and the pipe smelled of stale tobacco. The stem was lightly oxidized and there was some light tooth chatter to the top or underside of the stem. The button had no damage. Overall the pipe looked good even though it was a dirty one. I took photos of the rim top and the bowl to show the condition. The rim top was smooth with some nicks and dents in the surface. It also had some darkening around the top and damage to the inner edges. I also took photos of both sides of the stem to show the tooth marks and chatter. Over all the pipe was in okay condition.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and t it reads as noted above.I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to give an overall picture of the pipe. It really is quite beautiful.For historical background for those unfamiliar with the brand I am including the information from Pipedia on Brigham pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history and background on the pipes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Pipes). Charles Lemon (Dadspipes) is currently working on a book on the history of the brand. Until that is complete this article is a good summary. I have included it below.

Roy Brigham, after serving an apprenticeship under an Austrian pipesmith, started his own pipe repair shop in Toronto, in 1906. By 1918 the business had grown to include five other craftsmen and had developed a reputation across Canada for the high quality of workmanship. After repairing many different brands of pipes over the years, Roy noted certain recurring complaints by pipe smokers, the most common referred to as “tongue bite”. Tongue bite is a burning sensation on the smoker’s tongue, previously thought to be due to the heat of the smoke (i.e. a “hot smoking pipe”).

He soon began manufacturing his own pipes, which were lightweight, yet featured a more rugged construction, strengthening the weak points observed in other pipes. The problem of tongue bite intrigued him, and he decided to make overcoming it a future goal.

About 1938, Roy’s son Herb joined him to assist in the business. The business barely survived the great depression because pipes were considered to be a luxury, not a necessity, and selling pipes was difficult indeed. In approximately 1937 [1], after some experimentation, Roy and Herb discovered that tongue bite was in fact a form of mild chemical burn to the tongue, caused by tars and acids in the smoke. They found that by filtering the smoke, it was possible to retain the flavour of the tobacco and yet remove these impurities and thereby stop the tongue bite.

Just as Thomas Edison had searched far and wide for the perfect material from which to make the first electric light bulb filaments, Roy & Herb began experimenting with many materials, both common and exotic, in the quest for the perfect pipe filter. Results varied wildly. Most of the materials didn’t work at all and some actually imparted their own flavour into the smoke. They eventually found just two materials that were satisfactory in pipes: bamboo and rock maple. As bamboo was obviously not as readily available, rock maple then became the logical choice.

They were able to manufacture a replaceable hollow wooden tube made from rock maple dowelling, which when inserted into a specially made pipe, caused absolutely no restriction to the draw of the pipe, yet extracted many of the impurities which had caused tongue bite. The result was indeed a truly better smoking pipe…

Interestingly the pipe I have in hand is a 1 Dot grade but very well done. It is stamped with the shape number 189 followed by Brigham [over] Made in Canada.

Charles Lemon has also written a great article on the stampings and marking on the Brigham pipes that fit into a time line that he has drafted. It is well worth a read and is fascinating. (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Pipes_%E2%80%93_A_Closer_Look_at_Dots,_Dates_and_Markings). I quote from the pertinent section on the time frame for this pipe.

Around the late 1960s or early 1970s, at the beginning of what I’ve called the Canadian Era (roughly 1970 – 1980), the stampings changed again as Brigham moved to modernize its logo. Pipes are stamped with the 3-digit shape number and “Brigham” over “Made in Canada”. Note these two variants of this stamping.

This solidly places the pipe I am working on in the period of Brigham production that Charles calls the Canadian Era (1969/70-1980). It is a great looking pipe with the classic rusticated style of finish.

The Original Brigham Dot System 1938 – 1980

Brigham pipes are renown in the pipe world for their famous “Brigham Dots”, a system of brass pins inset in the stem to denote the grade of each pipe. The original 8-grade pinning system, used for 42 years between 1938 and 1978 (spanning the Patent, Post-Patent and Canadian Eras) looked like this:I knew that I was dealing with a pipe made between 1969-1980 from Canadian Era. It sports 1 dot making it Brigham Standard pipe. There is a 189 shape number on the pipe. Now to do a bit of spiffing with the pipe itself.

I reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer to remove the light cake from the bowl walls. It was uneven and needed to be removed so I took it back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and then sanded the bowl with a dowel wrapped with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the walls. I worked on the damage to the rim top and the inner edge of the rim with 220 grit sandpaper. It looked much better.I scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with a tooth brush with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I scrubbed it to remove the build up on the rim top. I rinsed it with warm water and dried it off with a soft cloth. I cleaned out the internals with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to remove the debris and the oils from the shank and tenon as well as the airway into the stem and bowl.I polished the darkening on the rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads to remove as much of the darkening as I could. Once it was complete I stained the rim top with an Oak stain pen to match the smooth portions of the finish on the shank end and underside. I rubbed the bowl down with some Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush. The product works to clean, renew and protect briar. I let it do its work for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a soft cloth. The pipe is really quite a beauty. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I scrubbed it with Soft Scrub All Purpose cleaner to remove the oxidation as much as possible. It needed to be clean before I could address the tooth marks.Once it was clean I “painted” the tooth marks and chatter with the flame of a lighter. I was able to raise all of the damage on the underside of the stem and the majority on the topside. I lightly sanded the topside with 220 grit sandpaper to prepare for the repair. I filled in the tooth marks that remained with black superglue and set the stem aside to cure. Once it cured I flattened out the repaired area with a small file to start the process of blending it into the surrounding briar. I sanded the surface with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the remaining oxidation and also finish blending in the repair. I started polishing it with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. It is beginning to look quite good. I polished the surface of the stem on both sides using micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded the stem with the 1500-12000 grit pads, then wiped it down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After stem polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I fit the clean and polished stem with the Brigham Rock Maple Distillator and took photos to show what it looked like. This is in essence a hollow Maple wood tube that serves to filter out the moisture and deliver a clean and flavourful smoke. I am excited to finish this 1969-1980 Brigham Made in Canada Acorn 189 – 1 Dot from the Canadian Era. 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 bowl looks like with the rusticated finish. Added to that the polished black vulcanite stem with the shining brass pins was beautiful. This mixed grain on the rusticated Brigham Standard 1 Dot 189 Acorn 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: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.45 ounces/41 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be on the rebornpipes store in the Canadian Pipe Makers Section soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the cleanup with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Restoring a Brigham (1 Dot) Rusticated 184 Bent Volcano

Leave a reply

Blog by Steve Laug

Not too long ago a fellow in Eastern Canada was selling a foursome of Brigham rusticated pipes on Facebook. Jeff contacted him and we became the new owners of the pipes. He sent us some photos of the pipes that I have included below. It did not take long for them to arrive here in Vancouver. When they did I was amazed at how good they looked. Two of them were relatively clean and two were used. The top two pipes in the photo were clean and the bottom two were still dirty with cake and debris in the bowls. I decided I would work on them next. I turned to the final pipe of the lot a Bent Volcano shape – the second from the bottom in the photos below as marked by the red box outlining it. It is stamped on the underside with the shape number 184 on the shank followed further down the shank by Brigham. It was by far the most used of the four pipes. It had the thickest cake in the bowl, lava on the rim top and some damage to the end of the metal tenon/keeper for the Brigham Rock Maple Distillator. It was also probably the newest of the lot of four but I would figure that out as I worked on it. I took photos of the pipe when it arrived. There was some damage on the inner edge with the bowl being out of round. There was a moderate cake in the bowl in the bowl with lava overflowing into the rustication of the rim top. The shank and airways seem to be dirty with tars and oil. It did not have the Hard Rock Maple filter in the shank but the interior smelled strongly of tobacco. The stem was very clean and shiny without any tooth damage to the top or underside of the stem. The button was clean with no damage. Overall the pipe looked good even though it was a dirty one. I took photos of the rim top and the bowl to show the condition. The rim top was rusticated and covered in lava heavily at the back of the bowl. You can see the damage on the inner edge of the bowl making it out of round and the thick cake that is present. I also took photos of both sides of the stem to show the lack of tooth marks and chatter. Over all the pipe was in okay condition.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is faint but it reads as noted above.I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to give an overall picture of the pipe. It really is quite beautiful.I took a photo of the rim top to show how out of round the bowl was and of the damage on the end of the aluminum Distillator holder/tenon. I have included them below. The red arrow shows one of the spots where the damage is visible.For historical background for those unfamiliar with the brand I am including the information from Pipedia on Brigham pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history and background on the pipes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Pipes). Charles Lemon (Dadspipes) is currently working on a book on the history of the brand. Until that is complete this article is a good summary. I have included it below.

Roy Brigham, after serving an apprenticeship under an Austrian pipesmith, started his own pipe repair shop in Toronto, in 1906. By 1918 the business had grown to include five other craftsmen and had developed a reputation across Canada for the high quality of workmanship. After repairing many different brands of pipes over the years, Roy noted certain recurring complaints by pipe smokers, the most common referred to as “tongue bite”. Tongue bite is a burning sensation on the smoker’s tongue, previously thought to be due to the heat of the smoke (i.e. a “hot smoking pipe”).

He soon began manufacturing his own pipes, which were lightweight, yet featured a more rugged construction, strengthening the weak points observed in other pipes. The problem of tongue bite intrigued him, and he decided to make overcoming it a future goal.

About 1938, Roy’s son Herb joined him to assist in the business. The business barely survived the great depression because pipes were considered to be a luxury, not a necessity, and selling pipes was difficult indeed. In approximately 1937 [1], after some experimentation, Roy and Herb discovered that tongue bite was in fact a form of mild chemical burn to the tongue, caused by tars and acids in the smoke. They found that by filtering the smoke, it was possible to retain the flavour of the tobacco and yet remove these impurities and thereby stop the tongue bite.

Just as Thomas Edison had searched far and wide for the perfect material from which to make the first electric light bulb filaments, Roy & Herb began experimenting with many materials, both common and exotic, in the quest for the perfect pipe filter. Results varied wildly. Most of the materials didn’t work at all and some actually imparted their own flavour into the smoke. They eventually found just two materials that were satisfactory in pipes: bamboo and rock maple. As bamboo was obviously not as readily available, rock maple then became the logical choice.

They were able to manufacture a replaceable hollow wooden tube made from rock maple dowelling, which when inserted into a specially made pipe, caused absolutely no restriction to the draw of the pipe, yet extracted many of the impurities which had caused tongue bite. The result was indeed a truly better smoking pipe…

Charles Lemon has also written a great article on the stampings and marking on the Brigham pipes that fit into a time line that he has drafted. It is well worth a read and is fascinating. (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Pipes_%E2%80%93_A_Closer_Look_at_Dots,_Dates_and_Markings). I quote from the pertinent section on the time frame for this pipe.

I have dubbed the decades between 1980 and 2000 the Late Canadian Era, a period that saw several changes at Brigham that are of note to the collector. First, the traditional 8-grade pinning system (the famous Brigham “Dots” which denoted the quality of the pipe) was changed to a 7-grade system to simplify pinning (more on this below), and the Norsemen and Valhalla series were merged to form the President Series, which represented the very finest pipes coming out of the Toronto factory. Early pipes from this era (left, below) are stamped with a shape number and “Brigham” over “Canada”; later pipes (late 1980s+, on right below) are stamped simply with a shape number and the Brigham logo.

This solidly places the pipe I am working on in the period of Brigham production that Charles calls the Late Canadian Era (1980-2000). It is a great looking pipe with an older style rustication pattern than the later Brighams that I have worked on.

Charles also put together a chart that helps the restorer to understand the Brigham dot system. I quote from the same link on Pipedia as noted above.

Revised Dot System 1980

Brigham changed the Dot system in 1980, adding a 7 Dot at the top of the line, dropping the names of each series and eliminating the confusing vertical and horizontal 3 Dot configurations. The Norsemen and Valhalla series were combined to form the President series of freehand pipes, which adopted a 3 Dot pattern with a larger dot on the right as shown below. The 7- grade pinning system stayed in place from 1980 to 2001. I knew that I was dealing with a pipe made between 1980-2000 from the Late Canadian Era. It sports 1 dot making it Brigham Series 100 pipe with a 3 digit shape number 184. Now to do a bit of spiffing with the pipe itself.

I reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer to remove the light cake from the bowl walls. It was uneven and needed to be removed so I took it back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and then sanded the bowl with a dowel wrapped with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the walls. I cleaned up the damage to the inner edge of the rim with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and made the bowl edge both smooth and round.I scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with a brass bristle wire brush and a tooth brush with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I scrubbed it to remove the build up on the rim top. I rinsed it with warm water and dried it off with a soft cloth. I touched up the stain on the rim top and edges with a Maple Stain Pen to match the surrounding colour of the briar. Once it is buffed and polished I think it will look good.I cleaned out the internals with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to remove the debris and the oils from the shank and tenon as well as the airway into the stem and bowl. I rubbed the bowl down with some Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush. The product works to clean, renew and protect briar. I let it do its work for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a soft cloth. The pipe is really quite a beauty. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished out the surface of the stem ahead of the button on both sides using micromesh sanding pads. I also polished out the damaged end of the aluminum tube. I was not perfect but it was smooth and held the filter in place. I dry sanded the stem and tenon with the 1500-12000 grit pads, then wiped it down with a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. I finished polishing it with Before & After stem polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry.  I fit the clean and polished stem with the Brigham Rock Maple Distillator and took photos to show what it looked like. This is in essence a hollow Maple wood tube that serves to filter out the moisture and deliver a clean and flavourful smoke.  I am excited to finish this Late Canadian Era Made in Canada Brigham 184 Bent Volcano. 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 bowl looks like with the rusticated finish. Added to that the polished black vulcanite stem with the shining brass pin was beautiful. This mixed grain on the rusticated Brigham 184 Volcano 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: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.55 ounces/44 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be on the rebornpipes store in the Canadian Pipe Makers Section soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the cleanup with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.