Tag Archives: restemming

Restemming a Beautiful, Sandblast WDC Milano Ripple Briar Hesson Apple

by Steve Laug

Time for another break from the repairs that I am working on for Rob. I had a couple of bowls in my box that needed to be restemmed. I chose to work on the first of them which is a beautifully sandblasted Apple bowl. The blast is very deep the rim top is thin and flows directly down the sides. The pipe was stamped on the underside of the shank and read WDC in a triangle followed by Milano [over] Ripple Briar [over] Hesson [over] Patd. Dec. 22, 192(6?). The last digit of the date is covered with a Sterling Silver band on the well repaired shank that is cracked on the left side. The bowl had been reamed and cleaned and was in great shape. There were a few worn spots on the top of the rim on the front and the right side. The shank on the left side had a long crack that had been repaired and banded with a sterling silver band. The band was clean with just a few scratches and the words Sterling curved on the topside. The shank was threaded but the threads were worn and it was missing a stem so I needed to find another one. I took photos of the bowl and have included them below. It shows the pipe before I started my work on it. I took a photo of the underside of the shank to show the stamping. It is quite clear and readable as noted above. I also tried to capture the Sterling Silver stamp o the band.I went through my stems and found one that was close to the right diameter to the shank and had a small diameter tenon. It would need some adjusting but it would fit very well. I took photos of it showing the look with the bowl.I started work on this pipe by polishing the bowl. The bowl was very clean and had little wear on it. The cracked shank had been banded and repaired somewhere in its journey. The silver band was very clean with some small scratches in the surface. It was in great condition so I started by staining the rim top faded and marks spots with a Walnut stain pen to blend them in and clean up the damage. It looked very good.After the touch up stain cured, I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips to make sure that it covered every square inch of the pipe. I set it aside for 10 minutes to let it do its work. I buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem I had chosen for the pipe. I cleaned up the tenon and shortened it slightly to fit the shank of the pipe. I sanded the diameter with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to fully match the shank diameter. I sanded out the tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem.I put the stem on the shank and took photos of the fit of the stem to the bowl and the new look of this deeply sandblast pipe. I am liking the looks of the new stem. I removed the stem from the shank and sanded it further with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. By the time I finished with the 3500 grit pad the stem really looked good. I also sanded out the rough spot on the underside of the silver band to smooth it out.I polished the stem with 1500-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with each pad. I wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil cloth. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish and wiped it down a final time with the oil cloth. The finished WDC Milano Ripple Briar Hession Apple looks great with its new stem. The taper stem brings out the contrast of the silver band and dark nooks and crannies of the sandblast. I buffed the pipe with a light coat of White Diamond on the buffing wheel and then 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 wheel and it is a real beauty. The dimensions of this WCD Milano Ripple Briar Apple are length: 5 ½ inches, height: 1 ½ inches, outside bowl diameter: 1 inch, chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is .67 ounces/19 grams. This is a beauty that will be going on the American Pipemakers Section of the rebornpipes store shortly. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for giving the blog a read.

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

Restemming and restoring a Comoy’s Made Town Hall Made in England 19 Military Bit Billiard

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by Steve Laug

I decided to restem another bowl that I had here in the box. Jeff and I purchased on 11/23/2020 from a seller in Brazil, Indiana, USA. It is a nice bowl with a silver ferrule on the shank end. The left side of the shank is stamped at and angle and reads Town Hall [over] Made in England. The right side has the shape number 19 next to the bowl/shank junction. The ferrule is stamped with an arched Sterling Silver. The bowl is quite clean with no cake and no lava overflow on the rim top or the bevelled inner edge. The briar is dry but clean – just a bit lifeless looking but there is some great grain hidden by the dullness. The silver ferrule is not oxidized but there are some dents on the shank end on the underside. The ferrule is a bit ragged looking around the entrance to the mortise. I took some photos of the pipe before I started my work on restemming and restoring it back to its former glory. I tried to capture the stamping on the shank sides. It is readable but faint in spots. It reads as noted above.The ferrule was loose so I removed it and took a photo to show the dents and the condition of the opening on the ferrule end.I went through my stems and found this partially shaped stem that would work quite well. It would need to be reduced in diameter and cleaned up. There were some gouges on both sides ahead of the button that looked like someone had started shaping a dental bit. Before I started working on the pipe I wanted to get an idea of the maker of the Town Hall brand. Something about the shape and the number reminded me of the Guildhall by Comoy’s but I was not sure. I turned first to Pipephil’s site and found a link that gave a good summary of the information and confirmed the Comoy’s connection (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-t7.html) that I suspected. I have included a screen capture of the pertinent section and the side bar information below the photo.Other Comoy’s seconds with a one bar mouthpiece logo: Carlyle, Charles Cross, St James, The Golden Arrow, Trident,

I turned to Pipedia for more information (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Comoy%27s). Other than the great history of the brand there was a note in the section entitled “Seconds made by Comoy’s” that had a listing for Town Hall. I scrolled down the page and found some interesting photos that I have included below including an original box for the pipe. The second and third photos show similar stamping though horizontal on this pipe. At the very bottom of the article I found perhaps to me, the most exciting connection – a Town Hall – same shape, same silver ferrule as the one I was working on. The stamping on it was clearly a Comoy’s Town Hall Pipe, Made in England. The thing I am glad for is that the photos show the type of stem I would need to fit on the pipe. The one I had chosen would work quite well with some shaping.I started my work on this one by fitting the newly chosen stem first. If you have followed me you will note the departure from my normal pattern of working on the bowl first. But in this case, I really wanted to see if I could duplicate the stem shown above for this pipe. I shaped the conical end with my Dremel and a sanding drum to get it close to the look I was shooting for. The rough shape was done but I would need to fine tune it by hand.I carefully sanded the conical portion with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and blended it into the rest of the stem. I reshaped it in the process and sanding out the gouges in the button end on both sides. I was able to remove the roughening left by the Dremel and the shape was beginning to look right. I worked on the silver ferrule to try to smooth out the dents and damage to the opening on the stem end. I was able to remove some of the dents and minimize the others. It looked better. I pressed it onto the shank and fit the stem. I took photos of the stem in place to give a sense of how it was beginning to look. The fit of the stem still needed adjusting and the scratches needed to be sanded out from the surface. It was beginning to look much better. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to polish out the scratches in the surface. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the dust and debris on the surface of the stem. It began to take shape and look better.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry 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 wiped down again with Obsidian Oil and set it aside while I worked on the stem. I sanded the briar with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to remove the scratching and nicks in the rim edge and the side of the bowl. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris. It is starting to look very good at the end of the process. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The grain really began to sing. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. This Comoy’s Made Town Hall 19 Military Bit Billiard was one I was looking forward to seeing come together. The brown stains highlight the grain around the bowl – sides, top and heel. The polished silver ferrule and the black vulcanite military bit that I fit to the shank works very well with the look of the pipe. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and 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. I polished the silver band with a jeweller’s cloth. The finished Town Hall 19 Billiard is quite nice and feels great in the hand. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¾ 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 1.20 ounces/34 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This pipe will be added to the British Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store soon. If you want to add it to your collection send me an email or a message! Thanks for your time.

Putting together the pieces to Craft a Gourd Calabash with a Maplewood Bowl

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by Steve Laug

One of the things I enjoy doing is putting together varied and assorted pipe parts and crafting a pipe. Sometime the pieces are sitting here for a long time waiting for either the inspiration or the proper parts. This old calabash gourd sitting here for a few years now. It was cleaned and did not have either a cork gasket to hold a bowl or stem to fit the briar shank extension on the shank end. It just languished in a box of old bowls that I have here. (They say confession is good for the soul so I will tell you that box is full of probably over 100 bowls. Did I tell you I have a problem throwing pipe parts away?). In this case I did not have any meerschaum or porcelain cups that would fit the size of the gourd and I had not bothered to look through my stems to find one that fit the shank. So the old gourd just sat here waiting. In October I visited a fellow pipe repairer in Vancouver, Washington, USA and he gifted me a lot of pipe parts. Included in the mix were two turned wooden cups for a gourd calabash and one porcelain cup. Yesterday I remembered them and took them out to try. Like Goldilocks in the childhood fairy tale checking out the beds at the tree bears house I tried each one. The “baby bear” porcelain cup was far too small for the gourd and the “papa bear” cup was too large. But like Goldilocks found, the “mama bear” middle wooden cup one fit just right! While I was at it I also pulled an acrylic stem out from my collection of stems that I thought would work with this pipe. Now it was time to put it all together. Here is a picture of the parts. I decided to work on the gourd portion of the pipe first. I cut some cork to fit a gasket in the inset area around the top of the calabash. I used a white all-purpose glue and coated the gourd edge and pressed the cork against it. It took a bit of holding it in place to get the glue to harden. But it worked well. Once the glue cured is used a knife blade to trim the cork flush with the top of the gourd. I smoothed it out with a Dremel and sanding drum to make for a snug fit for the cup to the cork but not too snug and have it pull away.I greased the cork with Vaseline Petroleum Jelly. I worked it into the surface of the cork before I called it a night last evening and then once again this morning. I find that it softens the cork and make it more pliable when the bowl is pressed into place.While the cork/glue was curing I drilled the airway in the bottom of the wooden insert. It was undrilled. I marked the centre and then drilled the airway in the bottom of the cup. I drilled it with a cordless drill and a small bit from the inside of the bowl rather than the outside. I pressed it against a piece of wood and drilled it through. My concern in doing it from the outside was the pressure on the cup and the potential of cracking it.I started sanding the wood cup (which I think is Maple) with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris.I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the debris. I worked on the inner edge of the bowl to smooth that out and the slight bevel on the inner edge. It really began to take on a rich glow. With cup polished and the cork gasket set in the gourd I pressed the cup into the gourd calabash and it went in snugly and looked great. I took photos of the fit to show you all. I sanded the gourd with 320-1500 grit sanding pads to smooth out the nicks in the surface and minimize the two dark spots on the curve of the shank. I also sanded the briar shank extension to reveal the grain. It looked better and the rich grain began to shine through. I polished the gourd with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 sanding pads. I wiped the gourd down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris and dust. It really began to take on a shine. I rubbed the gourd and the maple cup down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface with my fingertips. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the pipe. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The gourd came alive with the balm. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem I had chosen. The acrylic orange/amber stem would look good once I finished.The fit of the stem to the shank was quite good. The briar shank extension on the gourd is canted slightly and the shank extension follows the angles. With that the stem fit tight against the left side of the shank but not on the right side. I had an idea of fitting a brass band/cap on the end of the stem to compensate for the angels on the shank end. It fit very well and the band/cap was snug on the stem. I sanded the tooth chatter on both sides of the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to smooth it out and blend it into the surface of the acrylic. I started the polishing of the brass stem cap on the shank end at the same time. It started looking very good.I polished the Lucite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. It really took on a shine and once buffed it would look amazing. I carefully polished the parts – the cup, the gourd and the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave each piece of the pipe multiple coats of Carnauba Wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the parts with a microfibre cloth. Once it was finished I put the parts back together. The Maple cup looked beautiful with the darkened gourd calabash. The polished briar shank extension was deeply shined. The brass stem adornment went well with the orange acrylic stem. The large Gourd Calabash with its wooden cup is beautiful. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 7 inches, Height: 4 ½ inches, Diameter of the cup: 2 ¾ inches, Diameter of the chamber: 1 ½ inches. The weight of the pipe 95 grams/3.35 ounces. It should be a great smoker once it is loaded with a favourite tobacco and fire is put to the blend. It will definitely be a cool dry smoke. Thanks for walking through this reconstruction with me. I appreciate your patience in reading through the steps.

Restemming and Restoring a Citation 614 Rusticated Meerschaum Lined Oom Paul

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by Steve Laug

In November I received an email from Mario about working on some of his Dad’s pipes. Here is what he wrote to me.

I am desperately seeking help restoring and repairing some of my dad’s smoking pipes. I have tried reaching out to the only two known pipe repair establishments I could find in the entire country but one is not currently taking repair orders and the other said she didn’t want to try to repair these pipes without having even seen them. Would you be willing to take on the repairs or can you recommend anyone? Thank you much!!!—Mario

I wrote him back and asked him to send me photos of the pipes. He sent some single photos of the meerschaum bowl and stem, several of the leather clad Canadian and the photo of the rack and six pipes shown below. I looked through the photos and this is what I saw. There were two leather clad pipes a Canadian and a Pot. Both of them were cracked on the shanks and had been self-repaired with wire to hold the cracked shank together. The leather cladding was torn and the stitching was rotten and broken around the bowl. To me they were both irreparable. There was a lovely older Meerschaum with a horn stem that needed a good cleaning and repairs to the horn stem. There were two Knute Freehand pipes with original stems that were dirty but fixable. The plateau on the smooth one had a large chunk of briar missing. There was a Wilshire Dublin with a chewed and misfit stem. Finally, there was a billiard that had been restemmed with a fancy GBD saddle stem on it. They were a messy lot but I told him to send them on to me. They arrived yesterday and the condition of the pipes in the photos was confirmed. They were a mess and needed much work. I have included Mario’s group photo below to show the lot.This afternoon I decided to start working on the Oom Paul next. It was the one on the left centre on the bottom of the rack in the photo above. It was an Oom Paul shape with a bent round shank and the saddle stem had a huge bite through on the topside of it. The bowl had a thick cake on the walls and a heavy lava coat in the rustication on the rim top. It was internally a mess. The finish was dirty and had grime ground into the sides of the bowl. There seemed to be line around the bowl top that hinted at the bowl being lined with meerschaum. The shank was in good shape with no nicks or cracks. The pipe was stamped on the underside of the shank and read Citation in script (followed by) the shape number 614 [over] Italy. The shape number and Italy stamp tell me the pipe was made by Savinelli. There was no other stamping on the shank sides. The stem was correct but chewed beyond repair and would need to be replaced. I took photos of the pipe when I unpacked it to examine it. I have included those below. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition and the interesting ring on the rim top. I also took photos of the heavily damaged stem. I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took a photo of the bowl with the stem removed to give a sense of the proportion and appearance of the pipe without the stem. You can see the damage on the stem top so it is no question that it needs to be removed.I remember having worked on a Citation before but could not put my finger on what I knew about it. I did a quick search on rebornpipes and found a blog I had restored and restemmed a Citation that had been meerschaum lined (https://rebornpipes.com/2015/12/24/a-surprise-when-working-on-the-citation-812-canadian/). Fortunately, I could see what looks like a smooth ring around the inside of the bowl. As I examined it I found that ring around the inside edge of the bowl was a meerschaum lining. I knew that I was working on a Meerschaum lined Oom Paul.

I carefully reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe Reamer remove from the bowl leaving bare meerschaum. I cleaned up the remnants of cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and removed the remaining debris. I sanded the bowl walls smooth with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I scraped the lava coat off the rim top – both the rusticated portion and the smooth ring of the meerschaum bowl top with the Savinelli Pipe Knife and removed all of it. I cleaned out the internals of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, shank brushes and 99% isopropyl alcohol. It was very clean and it looked and smelled far better.I scrubbed the externals of the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I worked over the bowl, shank and rim top with the soap and then rinsed it off warm water. The bowl looked extremely good. There were some significant burn marks on the rim top and inner edge but the bowl itself was very clean. Once the bowl had dried I touched up the stain on the rim top to match bowl colour. I used a Walnut Stain Pen to colour the briar and leave the meerschaum rim clear for polishing.I rubbed 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 shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out. I went through my can of stems and found one that was the right taper for the pipe bowl I was working on. It had the right look and would need shaping. The stem is very similar to the original that came on the pipe and should look very good.I cleaned out the internals of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. There was some tars and oils in the airway and it took some work but it was clean. One of the odd things on this pipe was that the inside of the shank had a piece of black electrical tape stuck in it that had come off the tenon sometime along the way.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to reduce the overage in diameter on the top and the left side of the saddle (forgot to take photos). I smoothed out the sanded portions and the sanded tooth marks with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil cloth. It was beginning to look very good.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This restored and restemmed Savinelli Made Citation 614 Rusticated Oom Paul with a new vulcanite saddle stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The beautiful rusticated finish stands out and gives depth to the bowl and shank sides. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The rim top shows Meerschaum Lining and other than darkening it was in great shape. The finished Savinelli Citation 614 Meerlined Oom Paul is a beautiful pipe, but it fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 58 grams /2.01 ounces. This is the third of six pipes that I am restemming and restoring for Mario from his Dad’s collection. I look forward to hearing what he thinks of this newly restemmed pipe. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

Restemming and Restoring a Wilshire Dublin

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by Steve Laug

In November I received an email from Mario about working on some of his Dad’s pipes. Here is what he wrote to me.

I wrote him back and asked him to send me photos of the pipes. He sent some single photos of the meerschaum bowl and stem, several of the leather clad Canadian and the photo of the rack and six pipes shown below. I looked through the photos and this is what I saw. There were two leather clad pipes a Canadian and a Pot. Both of them were cracked on the shanks and had been self-repaired with wire to hold the cracked shank together. The leather cladding was torn and the stitching was rotten and broken around the bowl. To me they were both unrepairable. There was a lovely older Meerschaum with a horn stem that needed a good cleaning and repairs to the horn stem. There were two Knute Freehand pipes with original stems that were dirty but fixable. The plateau on the smooth one had a large chunk of briar missing. There was a Wilshire Dublin with a chewed and misfit stem. Finally, there was a billiard that had been restemmed with a fancy GBD saddle stem on it. They were a messy lot but I told him to send them on to me. They arrived yesterday and the condition of the pipes in the photos was confirmed. They were a mess and needed much work. I have included Mario’s group photo below to show the lot.I decided to start working on the Dublin second. It was the one on the far left leaning against the left end of the rack in the photo above. It was a Dublin shape with a straight round shank and the stem did not fit in the shank correctly and it had a huge bite through on the topside of it. The bowl had a thick cake on the walls and a heavy lava coat on the rim top. It was internally a mess. The finish was dirty and had grime ground into the sides of the bowl. The shank was not cracked like the previous one and was in good shape. The pipe was stamped on the left side of the shank and read Wilshire in script. There was no other stamping on the shank sides. The stem was the wrong one. The diameter was less than the shank. I would need to fit it with a new stem. I took photos of the pipe when I unpacked it to examine it. I have included those below. I took a photo of the bowl and rim top to give you and idea of what I see. You can see the thick cake in the bowl and the thick lava overflow on the rim top and inwardly bevelled inner edges of the bowl. There also appears to be damage on the inner edge toward the back of the bowl. I also included photos of the stem. You can see that the stem is not correct. It does not fit the shank and is chewed a long way up the stem top. I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took a photo of the bowl with the incorrect stem removed to give a sense of the proportion and appearance of the pipe without the stem. You can see the damage on the stem top so it is no question that it needs to be removed.I turned to Pipephil’s site to see what I could find out about the Wilshire brand and was not disappointed (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-w3.html). I did a screen capture of the section below. It was good to know that the pipe was made by Comoy’s.Knowing that the pipe was made by Comoy I turned to the article on Comoy on Pipedia to see what I could learn (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Comoy%27s#Seconds_made_by_Comoy’s). Beside the great history article there was a section with photos toward the end of the article entitled Seconds Made by Comoy’s. There were no photos of the pipe but there was a list of these pipes and the last entry in the list was the Wilshire. The screen capture below shows the list as a whole and I have taken the last two columns and enlarged them below. The last item in the list is this brand of pipe.Now that I knew that I was working on a Comoy’s made second pipe and I had a bit of background on it I was ready to start on the pipe itself

I reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe Reamer to take the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the remnants of cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and removed the remaining debris. I sanded the bowl walls smooth with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I scraped the lava coat off the rim top with the Savinelli Pipe Knife and removed all of it. I scrubbed the externals of the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I worked over the bowl, shank and rim top with the soap and then rinsed it off warm water. The bowl looked extremely good. There were some significant burn marks on the rim top and inner edge but the bowl itself was very clean. I cleaned out the internals of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, shank brushes and 99% isopropyl alcohol. It was very clean and it looked and smelled far better. I really liked the look of the shank band on the shank end.I lightly topped the bowl on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper. I wanted to remove the dips and burned areas from the rim top and flatten it for the next step in the process. I used a half sphere and some 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the inner bevel on the rim edge and smooth out that part of the bowl. It was far from perfect but it was smooth and it was flat. I used 320-3500 grit sanding pads to smooth out the scratches and nicks in the surface of the briar. There were many small scratches and nicks in the briar. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust and debris. It really began to look very good. The grain is quite lovely. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped it down the bowl after each sanding pad. I rubbed 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 to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out. I went through my can of stems and found one that was the right taper for the pipe bowl I was working on. It had the right look and would need shaping. I was not sure that the original stem had been bent so I was uncertain about doing that with this new stem. I may just do it because Mario’s Dad had done it to the pipe when he had it! I cleaned out the internals of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. It was surprisingly clean so it was ready to work on it to make a proper fit.I sanded the stem to smooth it out with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil cloth. It was beginning to look very good.I used the lighter to soften the stem enough to bend it the same bend as the other stem had. It looked very good.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This restored and restemmed Comoy’s Made Wilshire Dublin with a new vulcanite taper stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The beautiful finish really highlights the grain. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The rim top shows some burns marks that I could not remove as they were very deep. The finished Wilshire Dublin is a beautiful pipe, but it fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 38 grams /1.31 ounces. This is the second of six pipes that I am restemming and restoring for Mario from his Dad’s collection. I look forward to hearing what he thinks of this newly restemmed pipe. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

Restemming and Restoring a Lou’s Tobacco Row Billiard

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by Steve Laug

In November I received an email from Mario about working on some of his Dad’s pipes. Here is what he wrote to me.

I wrote him back and asked him to send me photos of the pipes. He sent some single photos of the meerschaum bowl and stem, several of the leather clad Canadian and the photo of the rack and six pipes shown below. I looked through the photos and this is what I saw. There were two leather clad pipes a Canadian and a Pot. Both of them were cracked on the shanks and had been self-repaired with wire to hold the cracked shank together. The leather cladding was torn and the stitching was rotten and broken around the bowl. To me they were both unrepairable. There was a lovely older Meerschaum with a horn stem that needed a good cleaning and repairs to the horn stem. There were two Knute Freehand pipes with original stems that were dirty but fixable. The plateau on the smooth one had a large chunk of briar missing. There was a Dublin with a replacement stem that had been chewed through the topside. Finally, there was a billiard that had been restemmed with a fancy GBD saddle stem on it. They were a messy lot but I told him to send them on to me. They arrived yesterday and the condition of the pipes in the photos was confirmed. They were a mess and needed much work. I have included Mario’s group photo below to show the lot.This morning I decided to start working on the Billiard first. It was the one on the far right on top of the rack in the photo above. It was a billiard – not a GBD and the stem did not fit in the shank correctly and was a fancy saddle stem that had a huge bite through on the topside of it. The bowl had a thick cake on the walls and a heavy lava coat on the rim top. It was internally a mess. The finish was dirty and had a sticky coat on the right side of the bowl. There was a large fill on left side of the bowl near the top that had fallen out. There was a large crack in the shank on the right side that extended almost ¾ of an inch up the shank. The pipe was stamped on the left side of the shank and read Lou’s Tobacco Row. There was no other stamping on the shank sides. The stem was the wrong one. The diameter was less than the shank. The tenon was a bit large and when it had been used the shank had cracked. It would need to be banded and a new stem fit to the shank. I took photos of the pipe when I unpacked it to examine it. I have included those below. I took a photo of the bowl and rim top to give you and idea of what I see. You can see the thick cake in the bowl and the thick lava overflow on the rim top and inner edges of the bowl. I also included one photo of the stem. You can see that the stem is not correct. It does not fit the shank and it is going to need to be replaced.I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took a photo of the bowl with the incorrect stem removed to give a sense of the proportion and appearance of the pipe without the stem. You can see the damage on the stem top so it is no question that it needs to be removed.I could not find any information on Lou’s Tobacco Row either as a pipe or a pipe shop. I googled and a Lou’s Tobacco Bar in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA but nothing with the stamp on this pipe. It remains a bit of a mystery to me.

I decided to addressed the cracks on the right underside of the shank first. I took a photo of the cracks on the underside of the shank. There seems to be several cracks in the briar. The crack extended a depth of over ¾ inches on the shank. I went through my bands to find one that had the depth to pull together the cracks up the depth of the shank. I found a nice Sterling Silver Band that was the right depth to pull together the damage on the shank. It was a snug fit. I heated it with a lighter to soften the silver and pressed it on to the shank end to bind the breaks together. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe Reamer to take the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and removed the remaining debris. I sanded the bowl walls smooth with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I scraped the lava coat off the rim top with the Savinelli Pipe Knife and removed all of it. I cleaned out the internals of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, shank brushes and 99% isopropyl alcohol. It was very clean and it looked and smelled far better. I really liked the look of the shank band on the shank end.I scrubbed the externals of the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I worked over the bowl, shank and rim top with the soap and then rinsed it off warm water. The bowl looked extremely good. There was one spot near the top left side of the bowl that would need to have a fill repaired. The briar looked very good with the sterling silver band on the shank. I cleaned up the inner edge of the bowl and the rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. It took a bit of work but I was able to remove the darkening on the edge, the nicks and damage and also some of the marks on the rim top.I applied some clear CA glue in the damaged fill on the left side of the bowl. I worked it into the space on the briar with a tooth pick. I pressed some briar dust into the fresh glue repair. Once it cured I sanded it smooth with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I used 320-3500 grit sanding pads to smooth out the scratches and nicks in the surface of the briar. There were many small scratches and nicks in the briar. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust and debris. It really began to llok very good. The grain is quite lovely. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped it down the bowl after each sanding pad. I rubbed 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 to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out. I went through my can of stems and found one that was the right taper for the pipe bowl I was working on. It had the right look and would need a little adjustment to the bottom half of the stem to make the fit against band end equal all the way around the shank end.I cleaned out the internals of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. It was surprisingly clean so it was ready to work on it to make a proper fit.I worked over the diameter of the stem at the band junction to reduce it to fit against the shank end. I used the Dremel and sanding drum to start the process and then finished the fit with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the sanding marks on the vulcanite. I also sanded over the tooth marks in the stem on both sides ahead of the button.
There were some small tooth marks on each side of the stem that remained after my sanding. I filled them in with clear super glue and used a tooth pick to flatten them out (I forgot to take a photo of the stem at this point). Once the repairs cured I flattened them with a small file. I sanded them smooth with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the stem to smooth it out with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil cloth. It was beginning to look very good.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This first of Mario’s Dad’s pipes, a banded, restored and restemmed Lou’s Tobacco Row Billiard with a new vulcanite taper stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The beautiful finish really highlights the grain and the polished finish is stunning with the Sterling Silver Band. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Lou’s Tobacco Row Billiard is a large pipe, but it fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 52 grams /1.87 ounces. This is the first of six pipes that I am restemming and restoring for Mario from his Dad’s collection. I look forward to hearing what he thinks of this newly banded and stemmed pipe. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

Finding a Stem for a Bjørn Thurmann Hand Made

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by Kenneth Lieblich

Steve’s recent foray into re-stemming pipes inspired me to try the same. In my box of various-and-sundry pipes, I was drawn to a nifty Danish freehand – but it was missing its stem. The beautifully rugged and chunky stummel has a real charm to it. The grooves and trenches are quite remarkable. This is a pipe that deserves a new stem. Let’s take a deeper dive into Thurmann’s pipes. The pipe was made by the esteemed pipemaker, Bjørn Thurmann. Unfortunately, I am not able to date the pipe, as the photo below shows all of the markings to be seen. On the underside of the stummel were some identifying markings. They read Thumann [over] Hand Made [over] Denmark [over] 3.Thurmann passed away a few years ago, but his company, Thurmann Piber, is still well known in Copenhagen for the fine quality of his work. The reference book, Scandinavian Pipemakers by Jan Andersson, provides us with a nice overview of his background and work. I will quote a bit of it here:

Bjørn Thurmann was born in 1946 – some would say, born into the tobacco trade. In 1953, his parents opened a pipe shop in central Copenhagen and Bjørn helped them there from the beginning, mainly by sorting pipes. Initially, the pipes were bought from a firm called Larsen & Stigart, but eventually they decided to start their own production.

Bjørn’s parents thought that their son ought to widen his views and get some international experience, so, in 1968, he was sent to London to work in different tobacconists shops, a period of learning that ended at Dunhill’s famous shop on Duke Street. After returning home, he almost immediately received an offer to work for Iwan Ries & Co. in Chicago, an offer that was hard to resist, so off he went.

In 1976, Bjørn established himself as an independent pipemaker, and since then he has had shops in several places in Copenhagen. Bjørn has also written a book called Pibemagerens Handbog (The Pipemakers Handbook), which tells how to make pipes using simple tools most people have at home.Clearly, Thurmann was a vastly experienced and talented pipe man. One can not only see, but also feel, the quality of the briar. Here is a screenshot from Pipephil:Let’s get working! The first step for me is to ream out the bowl – that is to say, remove all the cake inside the bowl. This accomplishes a couple of things. First (and most obviously), it cleans the bowl and provides a refurbished chamber for future smoking. Second, when the old cake is removed, it allows me to inspect the interior walls of the bowl and determine if there is damage or not. I used a reamer, a pipe knife, and a piece of sandpaper taped to a wooden dowel. Collectively, these ensure that all the debris is removed. I’m pleased to report that the inside of the bowl looks good.My next step was to remove the lava on the rim. For this, I took an old butter knife and gently scraped the lava away. This provides an edge that is sharp enough to remove what I need, but not so sharp that it damages the rim.The inside of the stummel needs to be cleaned thoroughly. So I then cleaned it with both pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in 99% lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. It took some work to get clean!I then decided to ‘de-ghost’ the pipe – that is to say, exorcize the remaining filth from the briar. I filled the bowl and the shank with cotton balls, then saturated them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummel sit overnight. This caused any remaining oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton.To tidy up the briar, I also wiped down the outside with some oil soap on cotton rounds (and a toothbrush). This does a good job of cleaning any latent dirt on the surface of the briar. The last step of the cleaning process is to scour the inside of the stummel with some all-purpose cleanser and tube brushes. This is the culmination to a lot of hard work in getting the pipe clean.Before picking a stem and slapping it on, there is quite a bit of prep work required. First, the flat face of the shank obviously once had a shank extension. A few years ago, I worked on another Thurmann pipe that also had a shank extension, so this didn’t surprise me. However, there was no shank extension anymore, so I had to improvise.After pondering the situation, I decided to carve the shank face in a style similar to the rest of the pipe. I took my Dremel and a couple of different burrs, and carved a trench that matched those on the bowl. I think it came out really well.The edge of the shank face was quite sharp. This makes sense when one considers that the extension would have butt up against it. However, it didn’t look right anymore. Instead, I very carefully sanded this sharp edge to match the rim’s edge. After that, I used some of my furniture pens (which is just dye in pen form) and matched the colours. Looks great.I rubbed some Before & After Restoration Balm into the briar and left it to sit for 20 minutes or so. I also had to use my horsehair brush and a cotton swap to get into the nooks and crannies. The balm moisturizes the wood and gives a beautiful depth to the briar. I then buffed it with a microfibre cloth. Now, I had to find a suitable stem and make it work with the stummel. I quickly found a stem in my stores that worked perfectly. It matched the style and shape of the pipe, and I felt that it was a great choice. First, I reduced the thickness of the tenon until it fit snuggly in the stummel’s mortise. I used all nine of the micromesh sanding pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to sand out flaws, even everything out, and provide gentle polishing of the finished surface. I also applied pipe-stem oil while using the last five micromesh pads. There was a wonderful, deep black shine to the stem when I was done. The final step is buffing. I took the pipe to my bench buffer and carefully polished it – first with a white diamond compound for the stem, then with three coats of conservator’s wax for the stummel. Naturally, this procedure makes the pipe look its best – the stummel sings and the stem glows.All done! This Bjørn Thurmann Hand Made was a pleasure to work on. It looks fantastic and is ready to be enjoyed again by its next owner. I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the ‘Danish’ section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 5⅝ in. (12 mm); height 1¾ in. (44 mm); bowl diameter 1⅔ in. (43 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (19 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅞ oz. (54 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I did restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

A Fine Tale of a Union for this older WDC Wellington Bent Billiard

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a bit of a change of pace. I have had this old WDC Wellington bowl in the box here for a very long time and never had a stem for it. Somewhere in its long journey the stem had been displaced and when we received it the pipe was a sad bowl with no stem. I held onto it in hopes that one day I would find a stem that would be the right one. Every so often I would come across a large Wellington stem and dig out the bowl to see if it would fit only to be disappointed and drop it back in the box of bowl. Well, that lonely bowl was about to meet its correct stem! I was looking through a new batch of stems I picked up and I could not believe what I saw there. It was the exact stem I had been waiting for – a smaller Wellington stem with their version of the P-lip. In fact, my guess is that it is an older stem as the airway entrance on the stem is on top of the P exactly like Peterson’s. I know that later it was moved to the end of the stem with a lot of legal wrangling. Leaving all of that aside a union was about to happen. The lonely bowl would be meeting its mate.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First let’s meet the main characters of the union. The first player in this budding romance is the old and lonely bowl that is quite a beauty. The finish is shiny with a varnish coat. The stamping on the left and right side of the shank are stamped with gold leaf. On the left it reads The [over] Wellington and on the right side is the WDC triangle logo. On the tarnished nickel ferrule were the expected faux hallmarks identifying it as an American Pipe and underneath those is the WDC triangle logo. The bowl had been reamed somewhere along the way and other than having a very light cake and dust was in decent condition. The rim top had a light coat of lava that would need to go. The internals would need a refresh. Nevertheless, the pipe really was quite a beauty and I hope you can see why I held onto it so long. Here are some photos of the bowl before I started my work on it. I also took some photos of golden finery and identifying marks. She really is quite a beauty and for her age in excellent condition. There is no wear on her jewellery. She is ready to dance.
The second character in the romance is the late to the scene stem. It is clear that he had been around a long time. It is older solid rubber so there was no oxidation on the surface. There were scratches and some tooth chatter near the button. But thankfully no one had left their tooth marks for posterity on its surface. It actually looked pretty good for an old timer. The gold stamped jewellery on the stem top was faded over time but it was still visible. It was still a handsome stem. The gold jewellery read Wellington arched over the WDC triangle logo and matched the bowl. It was going to be fun to prepare them to meet each other. Come with me for the preparations.For those of us who can’t wait for the final reveal (and that does include me by the way!) I introduced the stem and the bowl for the first time and took a series of photos. I think it is going to look quite amazing once they both clean up a bit and meet each other in their a renewal of their former glory. Like any older romance you want to as much about the lovely pair as you can. You want to know their history and what they were like years ago! To get that kind of background information on the pair I turned to Pipedia’s article on WDC (William Demuth) pipes and to reintroduce myself to the Wellington Family of pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/William_Demuth_Company). I have included one of the advertising flyers on the Wellington Family below. Look at the price of this pipe when it was sold.Look at the lovely “youngins” in the photos of the advert. They were quite stunning. Now it was time to work on the pair individually in preparation for their union. I decided to work on the bride first – preparing the bowl. It was not too bad but it needed some attention. I cleaned up the light cake in the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and took it back to bare briar all the way down the bowl. I ran my finger over the bowl walls and there were no issues that I could see or feel. I sanded the walls of the bowl with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. It felt and looked much better.I cleaned up the rim top, scraping off the thick lava coat with the edge of the Savinelli Knife. I sanded it with a 320 grit sanding pad to finish the cleanup. There was some nice grain underneath the debris. I also found a small fill on the back-left side of the rim top that went down the side of the bowl for a little way. No issues as the fill was solid.I cleaned up the finish on the bowl and removed the nicks and marks on the finish by carefully sanding it with the 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I took off the shiny finish very well and revealed some nice grain below the surface. I sanded the nickel ferrule with the higher grit pads – 2000-3500 to remove the oxidation and some of the pitting on the topside of the ferrule. I cleaned out the internals of the bowl and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. It was surprisingly dirty. The airway in the bowl was clogged with tars so it took a bit to open it back up but the airflow is restored and the pipe is clean again after many years. I decided to “deghost” the bowl with cotton bolls and 99% isopropyl alcohol. I pressed cotton bolls into the sump on the shank and into the bowl completely filling in the openings with the cotton. I then used an ear syringe to transfer the alcohol into the bowl and shank opening. I find that this gives me more control than pouring and also saves the finish on the bowl from any damage by the alcohol. I set the bowl aside for a few hours to let the cotton and alcohol do its work wicking the oils and tars out of the bowl. I let it sit for 4-5 hours them took photos of the bowl and cotton. I pulled the cotton out of the shank and the bowl with a dental pick. It had drawn out a lot oils and tars from the bowl and shank. While the bowl air dried after removing all the cotton bolls I turned my attention to the other partner in the union – the stem. I touched up the stamping on the top side of the saddle stem. I used some Rub’n Buff Antique gold to touch up the stamping. I worked it into the letters with a tooth pick. I buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth. The stamping is looking much better.I sanded the scratching on the tenon end of the stem and the tooth chatter on the bit end with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I quickly made short order of these blemishes on the old stem. I was one step closer to being ready to meet the bowl. I polished the old hard rubber 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. I rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. Now it was time to reintroduce the lovely pair. The music was playing… you can almost here the sound of “First Time Every I saw your Face” flowing in the background. The restored bowl and stem step out to meet one another. Once united the briar bowl and the stem back together this WDC Wellington Bent Billiard revealed its stunning beauty. The union brought the old pair together – the polished briar, the nickel ferrule and the hard rubber were a winning combination. The grain that shone through the polished finish is stunning. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad which really brings the shine out with the wax. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The lovely newly joined Wellington Bent Billiard fits nicely in the hand and feels great and will truly be a pipe to be smoked any time really – while sitting and reading or listening to music. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 54 grams/1.87 ounces. I will be adding it to the American Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store soon. 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. I appreciate your time to spend reading this one. Thank you.

Restemming and Restoring a Well Used Republic Era Peterson’s Kildare 408 Apple

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by Steve Laug

In January Jeff found out about an estate sale in Pocatello, Idaho, USA. It turned out that the sale was for a fellow Jeff and I had purchased pipes from in the past, Gene. He had been the owner of Outwest Tobacco in Pocatello (long closed now) and I bought tobacco and other smoking items from him in the past. As I think about it now, it seems that I had known Gene for over 30 years Jeff and I had been to his home and enjoyed coffee and a few pipes together. I have no idea how many pipes we bought on those visits as well as to the antique shop of his daughter. I know that there were many pipes. When we heard that it was Gene’s personal collection that was for sale and that he had passed away we decided for Jeff to go to the house and have a look. He went on January 25, 2024 to scope it out as we had seen his personal collection of pipes and there were definitely some among those well smoked old warriors that would be great to pick up. Perhaps there would even be one that could join my own collection in memory of Gene.

Jeff went to the house and looked through the racks, pipe bags, tobacco both bulk and tinned as well as a variety of pipes. All the pipes were well smoked and needed serious cleaning. One the pipes he picked up was this Peterson’s Kildare 408 Apple with a black vulcanite replacement fishtail stem. It was very dirty and was a natural coloured pipe when it started. The smooth finish around the bowl was dirty and had hand oils ground into the grooves. The bowl had a thick cake that overflowed in lava onto the rim edge and top of the bowl. The stem was a replacement vulcanite one that was very dirty and had the marks of a rubber Softee Bit on the end. It had become discoloured and there was a line where the debris from smoking had accumulated along the edge and under the bit protector. The good news was that there were no tooth marks or chatter. The rest of the stem was dirty and had lost the characteristic shine. I really did not matter as I would be replacing it with a P-lip stem. The pipe was stamped on the left side of the shank and read Peterson’s [over] Kildare and on the right side it read Made in the [over] Republic [over] of Ireland (in three lines) and next to that was the shape number 408 next to the shank/bowl joint. Jeff took photos of the pipe so I could have a sense of what it looked like before he started his work on it.Jeff took photos of the stem surfaces and the bowl and rim to give a sense of condition of the pipe. You can see the thick cake in bowl and the lava overflow on the edges and rim top of the bowl. It is had to know if there is any damage as the cake and lava is quite thick. The stem surface is very dirty and you can see the area on the end of the stem where the Softee Bit had protected it from chewing but had left it dirty and discoloured. He also took photos of the sides of the bowl and the heel to show the interesting grain that went around the bowl. The grain is beautiful. You can see the oils and debris ground into the finish of the bowl. He took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is faint but still is readable as noted above. I reread Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson). I am quoting nothing specifically from that article but recommend you take time to read it.

I turned to “The Peterson Pipe” by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg to get some background on the Peterson’s Kildare Line. It has become my go to any time I want information on the brand. On page 314 it had the following information on the Kildare Line.

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

The information given above identifies the pipe as a First Issue of the line with a matte-finish. It would have been issued between 1965 and 1979. This line was issued is a brown finish with either a P-lip or a fishtail mouthpiece. This means that the pipe is an older issue Kildare. The 408 shape number is attached to a ¼ bent Apple.

Now it was my turn to work on the pipe. Jeff had done an amazing cleanup of the pipe. It was a real mess and I wondered what it would look like after his work. He reamed the heavy cake with a PipNet reamer and cleaned up that with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the bowl and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs, shank brushes and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the externals with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and rinsed the bowl off with running water. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe stem Deoxidizer and once it had soaked rinsed it off with warm water to remove the residual solution. He dried it off and rubbed it down to remove any oxidation that was still on the stem. The scratches in the briar stood out once clean. There were some on the left side toward the top of the bowl that appear in the first photo below. Overall the pipe looked good when I received it. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition. You can see the clean bowl. The bowl is in excellent condition and the rim top shows some darkening and some damage on the inner edge of the bowl and the outer edge as well. The misfit stem came out looking quite good, but since I would replace it in the restoration process I will add it to my cans of stems once I fit a new one to this pipe. I took photos of the sides of the shank to show the stamping. The photo clearly shows the faint stamping though it is actually more readable in person. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe parts to show what I was working with. The very short tenon is visible in the photo and was only one of the issues with this replacement stem. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I had decided to replace the stem so I went through my stems for fine one. I wanted a straight P-lip style stem for the Peterson’s Apple. I went through my many stems and did not find one that would work with the diameter of the shank. I contacted Kenneth with the dimensions of the shank and he found several that were close. He graciously dropped them by on Sunday afternoon. In the bag he brought were several new Peterson replacement P-lip stems. I chose the taper stem below as my first choice. It had the right diameter and after the tenon was turned should work well. You can see the casting marks on the button area and tenon showing it as new stock.I have a tenon turning tool here that I often use to do this job. But for this one I decided to use the Dremel and a sanding drum to reduce the diameter of the tenon. It actually worked very well and I cleaned up the tenon with a file to remove the ridges of the sanding drum. The diameter was correct and the fit to the shank was perfect. Once the fit in the shank was right I used a lighter to heat the stem to give it the proper bend for the angle of the shank on this apple.I fit the stem on the shank and took photos of the new stem to give a sense of the new look. Personally, I like doing this as it gives me a chance to see it apart from a lens or on my desk top and assess the bend and the fit. I was happy with what I say. Now I needed to sand and shape the stem. I worked on the stem to remove the casting marks from the sides and the P-lip end with 220 grit sandpaper. I also removed some of the excess diameter on the top and underside of the stem to make the transition smooth. It definitely looked better at this point. Still lots to do.I started the polishing process on the pipe by sanding the stem and tenon with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. Each successive pad brought smoother shape and definition to the stem and tenon surface. It was starting to look very good.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped them down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I gave it another coat of Obsidian Oil and set aside for the product to absorb into the vulcanite. I set the stem aside finished with all but the buffing and turned my attention to the bowl. I cleaned up the inner edge bevel with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I lightly topped the bowl on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper to minimize the damage on the top and outer edge of the bowl. Once finished it definitely looked better. I wiped the bowl down with cotton pads and acetone to remove the darkening on the bowl sides and begin the process of cleaning the surface in my check for damage and cracks to the bowl. It actually looked very good. I used a Cherry stain pen to restain the inner edge and rim top to match the rest of the briar before I started sanding it. Once it had been sanded the match should be perfect.I sanded the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to remove the scratching and marks on the bowl surface and top and underside of the shank. I wiped it down after each pad with a damp cloth and by the end the bowl really began to show some promise. I carefully avoided the stamping on the shank sides. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded it with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth. By the final pads the briar really had a shine. I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips to work it into the finish. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm. I decided at the last minute to add a cosmetic thin brass band to the shank end. There was no need to do this in terms of damage to the stem or shank end. I just thought it would add a touch of bling to the pipe and give it a good interruption between the briar and the vulcanite. I heated the band and pressed it in place on the shank.It was great to finish this older (1965-79) Republic Era Peterson’s 408 Apple. I put the bowl and the newly fit stem together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with deep sandblast all around it. Added to that the polished black vulcanite stem was beautiful. This Peterson’s Kildare 408 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 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 56 grams/1.98 ounces. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will soon be on the rebornpipes store in the Irish Pipe Makers Section of the store. If you want to add it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Restemming an Unsmoked Stanwell Made in Denmark 7451 Tiny Stack

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by Steve Laug

I had this tiny Stanwell sandblast pipe in my box of bowls to be restemmed as the stem on it was snapped off at the end at an angle. It appeared to be unsmoked and if not, it was very clean. I wonder if it was one of the early Ladies Pipes that many companies made to cater to what they assumed the female market wanted. The pipe was a beautiful sandblast with a smooth panel on the underside of the stem that was stamped and read Stanwell by the shape number 7541 [over] Made in Denmark. The stamping was clear and readable. The stem had an S stamp (without the crown) on the side and it looked like the button and stem had been snapped when someone grabbed the end of it and tried to turn it to remove the stem. It also had a small brass band that was held on the tenon of the pipe. It was inlaid with cut glass beads. The stem would need to be replaced and the band with beads installed on the new one. I took photos of the pipe before I started working on it. I took a photo of the rim top and bowl to show the condition of the bowl when I started working on it. It was clean and appeared to be unused/unsmoked. I did not bother taking photo of the stem as its condition was obvious in the above photos and I would need to replace it. I also took a photo of the bowl without the stem to give a sense of what the pipe looked like. It is also clear that the band with glass “jewels” was on the tenon not the shank.I went through the can of stems here and found a thin stem that was a saddle stem with a flared blade in a fishtail style. The tenon actually was very close to the original and would take very little adjusting to get a solid fit.I used a Dremel and sanding drum to reduce the diameter of the saddle to fit the diameter of the shank. I also used a flat file to further shape and reduce the fit to the shank size. I fit it to the shank to do the work on the fit. It did not take too much work to get the fit correct. The slot in the stem was small and thin. I sued a flair and an oval needle file to open the slot. I also used a slot saw to give it angle /Y shaped slot opening. When I was finished a pipe cleaner easily slid in and out.I sanded the saddle portion of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the file and Dremel marks on the saddle and also to remove the casting marks on the sides of the stem blade. I slid the brass/jewelled band on the tenon so that it fit against the saddle. I put the stem on the shank and took a photo of the look of the newly restemmed pipe. I took the stem off the shank and turned my attention to the bowl. I rubbed the stem down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the sandblast surface of the bowl with my fingertips and a shoebrush. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 15 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm. The bowl was finished and now I needed to go back to polishing the stem. I sanded it with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I dry sanded it and wiped it down with Obsidian Oil to protect and clean it. I sanded out the casting marks and the scratches in the surface. It looked much better with each sanding pad.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it 1500-12000 pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the dust and polishing debris. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I placed the brass ring with the inlaid glass gems on the tenon. It was made to slide on the tenon easily and stopped against the saddle of the stem. I took photos before and after.I am really happy with the way that this Small Sandblast Stanwell 7451 Tiny Stack turned out. It really is a beautiful looking pipe with a great shape sandblast finished bowl and rim. The new vulcanite saddle stem is really nice. The brass band on the tenon is inlaid with cut glass jewels. The briar really came alive with the buffing. The rich dark brown stains of the finish gave the pipe a sense of depth with the polishing and waxing. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Stanwell 7451 Lady’s Pipe really is a beauty and feels great in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¼ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: ¾ of an inch, Chamber diameter: ½ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 17 grams/.56 of an ounce. The pipe will be going on the rebornpipes store soon. It will be in the section on Danish Pipe Makers if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on!