Blog by Steve Laug

Two pipes left to clean up from the estate sale pipe lot that my brother picked up. The first of them is a beautiful Savinelli. It is stamped on a smooth spot on the bottom of the bowl with the words – Oscar in script over Aged Briar. Next to that is the Savinelli S shield followed by 316KS over Italy. Looking at the pipe I am not quite sure what to call it in terms of the shape. It is an incredibly unique shape to Savinelli. The walls are flared like a Dublin, bowl short like a Pot and highly beveled and polished rim, this shape is beautiful. The rusticated finish on the Aged Briar is a lot like it is sandblasted over the top of the rustication. I looked up a similar pipe on smokingpipe.com and found the description there helpful. I quote it in full: “Somewhere in between a Pear, Dublin, and a Pot, there’s Savinelli’s signature “316” shape. It features a wide chamber perfect for enjoying the intricacies of more complex blends. Presented here in the rugged rustication of the Oscar Aged Briar line, it’s a handsome composition for a price that simply can’t be beat.” http://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/italy/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=183082 I looked up the Savinelli Shape Chart and copied it below. I circled the shape in red in the chart below. You can see it in the second column.Jeff took the first photo and the remaining ones on the black background. They show the condition of the pipe before my brother cleaned it.The top of the rim was in rough shape. The cake in the bowl had overflowed in lava on the rim top. It was thick and hard. It would be interesting to see what would be underneath once the bowl was reamed the rim top cleaned. The finish on the rest of the bowl was in excellent condition as can be seen in the second photo below. The next photos show the stamping on the bowl bottom as noted in the opening paragraph of the blog. The stamping was sharp and readable. The third photo shows the stamping on the top of the stem. It is the classic Savinelli Oscar shooting star. The stem showed the now familiar tooth chatter and marks that were on each of the pipes in this estate lot. There was some light oxidation on the surface of the stem as well.My brother did a stellar job of cleaning up the pipe. He reamed the bowl with the PipNet pipe reamer and took the cake back to briar. He scrubbed the rim top and the finish with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to clean out the debris and dust in the grooves of the finish. He was able to remove the buildup on the rim top and leave the finish intact. The stem was soaked in Oxyclean and the oxidation came to the surface. He cleaned out the inside of the mortise and the airway in the shank and stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. When I got the pipe it was clean. I took the following photos to show the condition of the pipe before I restored it. The next photo shows the crowned rim top. It was amazingly clean with no residue left behind from the lava build up that had been present before he cleaned it.I took close up photos of the stem surface on both sides. The tooth chatter and marks are more distinct on the underside of the stem at the button than those on the topside.I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and the tooth marks and chatter. It did not take too much sanding to remove all the damage and oxidation. I worked on it until it was clean. I rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil and let it soak in. I wiped down the area around the shooting star stamp with alcohol on a cotton pad and touched up the stamp with white acrylic paint. Once the paint dried I rubbed off the excess paint and left only the paint in the stamp itself.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-2400 grit pads. I rubbed it down with oil between each of the pads. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads and rubbed it down with oil after each pad. I buffed the stem with red Tripoli on the buffing wheel and then finished polishing it with 6000-12000 grit pads.  I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil after the 12000 grit pad and set it aside to dry. I put the stem back in place in the shank and buffed the bowl and stem lightly with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and the bowl several coats of Conservator’s Wax. I buffed the pipe and stem with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the bowl with a shoe brush and then with a microfibre cloth to deepen the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outer diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 inches. This contrast between the smooth, crowned bowl rim and the patch on the underside of the bowl are reddish brown and the contrast of the dark brown/black top coat over the reddish brown showing through give the pipe an intriguing contrast look. The bowl has been cleaned and the entire pipe is ready to smoke. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection email me at slaug@uniserve.com or send me a message on Facebook. Thanks for looking.