Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is a sandblast Peterson’s Rusitcated Pot shaped pipe that we purchased from an auction in Manorville, New York, USA on 07/28/2022. It was stamped on the underside of the shank and read Peterson’s [over] “Donegal” Rocky [over] Made in the Republic of Ireland (in three lines) followed by the shape number 608S. There is a band on the shank that is stamped on the left side and reads K&P in shields [over] Sterling Silver. Under those stamps there are three hallmarks – Hibernia seated, Crowned Harp for country of manufacture and a date letter in this case an oddly shaped upper case “S”. It has a rusticated finish around the bowl and shank that has a lot of oils, debris and grime in the finish. There was a thick cake in the bowl and a heavy lava overflow in the rustication on the rim top. The inner edge of the bowl looks to have significant damage on the left front under the tars and lava. There was a very beautiful pipe underneath all of the buildup of years of use. The stem was a Peterson’s style P-Lip Saddle Stem. It had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work on it. Jeff took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the thick cake in the bowl and the heavy lava build up on the rusticated rim top and the edges of the bowl. The rim top and edges looked rough but a proper clean up would tell the full story. At this point the inner edge of the left side of the bowl looked to be out of round. Jeff took photos of the top and underside of the stem showing the tooth chatter, scratching, calcification and oxidation on the stem surface and wear on the edges of the button. More would be visible once Jeff cleaned it up. Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the condition of the finish. You can see the grime and what looks to be white paint around the sides of the bowl and shank in the rusticated finish. It seems to fill in the grooves in the rustication. Jeff took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. The stamping was faint but readable as you can see from the photos. It read as noted above. The Sterling Silver ferrule is actually clearly stamped and readable. The hallmarks are light but readable.

I am including the information from Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson). I have included a bit of the pertinent history here.

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

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

I turned to the hallmarking chart on one of the blogs on rebornpipes to lock down the date for the pipe (https://rebornpipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/peterson-cataloguecomp_page_27.jpg). The chart defines the meaning of each hallmark. The first one of the seated woman with a harp is known as the Hibernia stamp and identifies the pipe as made in Ireland. The second stamp is a crowned harp which is a fineness mark denoting the high quality of silver that was used. The third stamp is an oddly shaped S. I have included a larger screen capture of the chart in the lower left of the photo below.

I have drawn a RED CIRCLE around the date letter below. What appeared to be an upper-case S actually is a very stylized G as seen in the circled letter below. It identifies the date of this Peterson’s pipe to 1974.I knew that I was dealing with a Republic Era pipe made between 1950 and the present. The hallmarks date the pipe to 1974. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. He cleaned up the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He worked on the rim top lava and darkening with the soap and tooth brush. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub and then soaked it in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. He washed it off with warm water to remove the Deoxidizer. The pipe looked far better when it arrived. The silver tarnished once again and would need to be polished because it had been sitting here for awhile. I took some close up photos of the rim top and also of the stem surface. I wanted to show how well it had cleaned up. The rim top and edges look quite good though the bowl was very out of round with damage to the left side toward the front of the bowl. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the light tooth marks on the surface near the button. I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank and the band. You can see that it is stamped as noted above. It is faint but still readable. I took the pipe apart and took a photo of the pipe. It is a good-looking pipe and has a rugged rustication around the bowl. I started my work on the pipe by addressing the damage on the inner edge of the rim and the top. I built up the damaged edge with clear CA glue and briar dust. The initial start looks pretty awful but follow through the photos. I used a brass bristle brush to clean up the rusticated rim top. I worked over the inner edge of the rim with both a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and a piece of dowel wrapped with 220 grit sandpaper. The rim top and edges looked significantly better after the clean up. I touched up the inner edge and the rim top with a Walnut stain pen to match the stain on the briar around the bowl. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 10 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I polished the Sterling Silver band on the shank with a jeweller’s cloth to remove the tarnish and polish it. I “painted” the surface of the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the light tooth marks on both sides. I was able to lift all of them. I followed that by sanding it with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I started the polishing of the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I wiped it down with some Obsidian Oil. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil. It works to protect the stem from oxidizing. I set it aside to dry. I am excited to finish this Republic Era Peterson’s “Donegal” Rocky 608S Pot. 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 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 the rugged rustication all around it. Added to that the polished Sterling Silver band and the black vulcanite stem was beautiful. This rusticated Classic Peterson’s “Donegal” Rocky Pot is nice looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 29 grams/1.06 ounces. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be on the Irish Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store soon. If you are interested in adding 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.

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.