Blog by Greg Wolford

This GBD pot shaped pipe came with the Edwards Algerian Briar that I restored recently. Most of the stem work and clean-up done on this pipe was done at the same time as the Edwards and in the same manner, so I won’t go into that process in this article but you can read it here.

The stem was, upon closer inspection, a replacement; there are no markings, the tenon is a tad short, and you can see the tool marks from the turner. The nomenclature was very faint and I needed good light and some magnification to read it accurately. The right side of the shank has the GBD in an oval and the model Century stamped on it. The left side has the London England in a straight line, meaning it is a pre-Cadogan pipe that should’ve had an inlaid rondel on the stem, over the shape number 9486. Since the stamping was so faint already I didn’t want to risk any sanding or buffing and make it worse, or remove it. I decided to only top the bowl and sand nowhere else on this pipe. These photos are post-alcohol bath, cleaning and most of the stem work.

I used 320 grit wet/dry paper to top the bowl, which was badly dinged and burned. I worked it in circles on my bench, checking every so often on the progress. I worked out a smooth, flat rim with much of the charring gone. But the edges had a few sharp dings that I ended up leaving rather than trying to take the bowl down much farther or bevel off the nice edge I’d gotten. The finish now was non-existent on the rim and my options were pretty limited on how to match it up again; I decided that the stain markers I’d recently bought were the best choice and started with them. I “drew” on the finish with the marker one “round” at a time, blending it with my finger, and letting it set for a minute of so before continuing. When I got the rim to a point I was okay with I moved on to that last of the stem work.

I micro meshed the stem from 1500-4000 grits. The stem wasn’t ultra shiny but the pipe was not going to be a prize so I was happy with the level of shine and removal of oxidation I had and stopped there.

Since I didn’t want to buff the pipe I opted to wax it by hand. Before any wax, I polished the stem and the stummel with plastic polish, not something I’ve ever done before and actually by accident this time; I was polishing the stem and absentmindedly applied the polish to the wood before I realized it. I recalled someone reviewing another polish somewhere saying “an abrasive is an abrasive, no matter what it’s intended purpose” and I hoped I hadn’t made anything worse. It actually made the wood look better, and also the stem, to my surprise without harming the nomenclature.

After I buffed the entire pipe clean by hand with an old t-shirt, I applied some paste wax by hand and let it set up for about 10 minutes before hand buffing it back off, to a fairly nice shine. This is the completed pipe:

I’m not a big fan of the pot shape, though I do like GBDs in general. The pipe’s poor condition that I received it in made it hard to do a restoration on without re-stemming it and possibly reshaping the bowl and loosing the stamping altogether. I don’t know what I’ll end up doing with this one yet – I may still re-stem it when I get a square stem to do it with – but I do believe this reclaimed briar will still make someone a good smoker, just not a stunning looker.