Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on is a nice looking sandblast reddish brown apple with a vegetable ivory shank band/adornment that I picked up in a lot of 10 pipes from a fellow on Vancouver Island who was selling his collection. The stamping on a smooth patch on the underside of the shank reads ICARUS [over] U.S.A. The amber coloured saddle stem has no stamping or marks. The pipe is a nice looking sandblast and I wonder if it is not made of  Strawberry bush or Arbutus. It is very light weight and comfortable to hold. The pipe came in a pipe sock stamped Icarus Pipes. I took the pipe out of the sock and turned it over in my hands. It was in pretty good condition. This is what I saw when I took it out of the pipe sock.

1. The finish was dusty in the grooves and valleys of the sandblast finish. Otherwise it looked very good.
2. The sandblast rim top showed some slight darkening on back and some grime in the sandblast. There was no lava build on the top and the edges were clean and undamaged.
3. There was a light cake in the bowl. It held the aroma of the tobaccos smoked in it – fortunately not aromatic. The walls looked to be undamaged but once I removed the light cake I could confirm that.
4. The amber acrylic saddle stem had no identifying logos or stamping. There was light tooth chatter and marks on both sides.

To summarize what I saw – this Icarus Sandblast Apple is a well made pipe. It is dusty but otherwise in good condition. The acrylic stem is lightly marked but otherwise undamaged. The look and feel of the pipe in the hand is great. It is going to clean up very well. Here are photos of the pipe before I started my clean up.  The bowl of the pipe looked very good. The sandblast rim top is clean other than a little darkening on the top and in the blast toward the back of the bowl. The edges of the bowl were undamaged and looked very good. I see no warning signs in the rim top or the edges of the bowl. I took photos of the acrylic stem to show its condition. Though hard to see there are light tooth marks and chatter on the surface of both sides ahead of the button but it should clean up easily with sandpaper.The next photo captures the stamping on the underside of the shank. They read as I have noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of it to give a sense of proportion.For me, as you know, the background information on a brand and line of pipes is an important part of the restoration. I Googled the brand and found a large variety of sellers who were selling the pipes. The first of these was a seller called Cigarworld and they had a great description of the pipe and the background on the brand (https://www.cigarworld.de/en/pfeifen/pfeifen/briarworks-icarus-90015964). I quote in full below:

Briar Works pipes from the USA in Europe? How does that happen? Sometimes you are lucky and find such beautiful pipes as “bycatch” from a cigar deal on an inventory list. Of course, you have to take action, not only for us, but also for you. Because with a probability bordering on certainty we will not be able to get any new “Briarworks” anytime soon.

The pipes are well made, all without a filter and with an acrylic mouthpiece.

The sandblasted pipes have an incredibly deep relief and are made from strawberry bushes (arbutus). The material has the same properties as briar, but is a little lighter.

The surfaces of the “CS models” are natural and thus contribute to the excellent smoking behavior. Every now and then, however, there is an untreated spot. But no putty!

The “N5” models are incredibly well made, have a great finish and are wax-polished.

Only while supplies last!

The site included a sandblast apple that was identical in shape, shank band and stem. The one I have is reddish in colour rather than black and the shank band is more yellowed and aged looking. The stem is also amber rather than black acrylic.From this listing I could see that pipes were made in limited numbers and that they were made by Briarworks – a company that I have bought a pipe from in the past. It was a company run by Todd Johnson and Pete Provost. I have several of Todd’s earlier pipes and really enjoy them and I have a nice Briarworks pipe that I also enjoy.

I followed some of the other links and found a listing on Pipes and Cigars that also listed the brand and gave some background information (https://www.pipesandcigars.com/shop/icarus-pipes-brand/1702038/). I quote:

Icarus pipes are the brain child of Todd Johnson and Pete Prevost. They have spent over a year building their pipe factory in Nashville, TN and are now ready to show the world what their hard work has achieved, an affordable pipe that smokes as good if not better then pipes costing hundreds of dollars. Their shapes are innovative and their engineering is precise. We love these pipes at P&C.

The was also information on smokingpipes.com. Some of the same information is given but there is also additional information (https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/new/Icarus/). I quote

Icarus is the brain-child of Todd Johnson, master pipe artisan and President/CEO of BriarWorks International, and was conceived with the simple goal of creating a brand of pipes which would deliver a combination of exacting engineering and superlative smoking qualities heretofore unseen in factory produced briars. In order to realize this lofty ambition, Johnson, along with the talents of Pete Prevost, brought to bear new methods of tenon adhesion, bits which are cut thinner than many produced by some of the most famous artisans of today, as well as continuously tapered, 18-22mm tobacco chambers. Not satisfied with merely having perfect interiors, Icarus features shapes which were designed by some of the world’s most famous and talented pipemakers, and are often accompanied by beautiful and well thought out accent materials.

The elfumador.com site has a great description that summarizes all the information that I have found on the various sites (http://elfumador.com/Icarus.html). I quote:

BriarWorks’ goal with Icarus Pipes was to create a serially produced pipe containing all of the elements present in a handmade pipe, but at a price point attainable by nearly every pipe smoker. Each pipe is precisely engineered and finished by hand. All of the pipes in the Icarus line are fitted with a custom designed, acrylic mouthpiece and often feature silver or acrylic embellishments.

Now it was time to work on the pipe itself. I started my work on the pipe by cleaning the internals. The cake was quite thin but it can hold residual oils from previous tobaccos and I wanted to check the bowl walls for burn damage or checking. I reamed it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife and took the cake back to bare briar. I sanded the walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I worked on them until they were smooth. There was no checking or burn damage to the bowl walls. It was quite clean. I cleaned out the internals of the shank and the airway in the stem with 99% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I worked them over until they were clean. I scrubbed the externals of the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I worked the soap into the grooves and valleys in the finish. I rinsed it off with warm running water. I dried it with a soft cotton towel. The bowl looks much better at this point in the process of recovery. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the rusticated finish on the bowl and shank and the smooth rim top. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the wood. I used a horse hair shoe brush to work it into the crevices and keep from building up in the valleys and crevices of the finish. Once the bowl was covered with the balm I let it sit for about 15 minutes and buffed it off with a soft cotton cloth and the shoe brush. I polished it with a microfiber cloth. I took photos of the pipe at this point in the process to show what the bowl looked like at this point. I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. It has a Delrin tenon in the stem that is in perfect condition and has a chamfered entrance to the airway in the tenon/stem. I dry sanded both sides of the stem with 1500-12000 grit pads to polish it further. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The shine grew deeper with each sanding pad. I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine polishes. I wiped the stem down with a damp cotton pad afterwards and buffed it with a soft microfiber cloth. I put the Icarus Apple back together. I don’t buff the sandblast bowl on the wheel as it leaves a lot of grit in the deep grooves of the finis. I gave the bowl and shank multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush to raise the shine. The wax is great protection and I love using it on sandblast finishes because it does not build up in the grooves and valleys like carnauba wax does. I buffed it by hand with a microfiber cloth to finish the shine. I polished the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish out the scratches in the acrylic. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The contrast of the browns and reds of the stain on the briar with the shine of the polished vulcanite stem is quite stunning. The rich sandblast around the bowl and shank is quite remarkable and gives the pipe an incredible tactile presence. The Icarus Sandblast Apple beautiful pipe and one that will be a great smoking pipe. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 4 ½ 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 a light and comfortable, 39 grams/1.38 ounces. This is the first Icarus pipe that I have worked on but not my first BriarWorks pipe. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipemakers Section shortly. If you want to add it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me. Cheers.