Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe in the queue came from a pipe that Jeff purchased from a fellow in New York who picks up some nice pipe for us on his “treasure hunting adventures”. This one was a Pipa 2005 Savinelli Made bent billiard. It is stamped on the underside of the heel and shank and reads Pipa 2005 over Savinelli Product followed by Italy. It is a bent billiard shaped pipe with a flat bottom on the heel and part way up the shank. With the stem it is too heavy to be a sitter but it is a beauty. The finish looks sandblasted but upon observation it was rusticated before sandblasting. It is what I call a “blasticated” finish. The rim top was smooth and had a beveled inner rim edge. There was some light tars and oils on the bevel and rim top. The pipe was dusty but the finish looked like it was rich and would clean up well. The stem is striated grey Lucite saddle with a polished brass spacer as an integral part of the stem. There is a Savinelli Shield S on the top of the saddle. The stem has some light tooth marks and chatter on both sides at the button edge. The photos below tell the story and give a glimpse of the pipe before clean up. Jeff took photos of the bowl and rim to show the condition of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. There was a light coat of lava on the bevel and rim top toward the back side and a thin cake in the bowl. It appeared that the beveled inner edges were in good condition. The outer edges actually appeared to be in excellent condition.He also took a photo of the right and underside of the bowl and shank to show the “blasticated” finish on the bowl and the smooth panel on the underside. The dark and medium brown stain looked really good.Jeff took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank and the Savinelli Shield S on the stem top. It reads as noted above. The stamping is legible and very readable.The next two photos show the stem surface. They show the light tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. The stem is otherwise clean. Once again, Jeff did his usual thorough clean up job on the pipe so that  when it arrived here in Vancouver it looked really good. Jeff reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and followed up with a Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife to remove the cake. He scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl, rim, shank and stem with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the oils and tars on the rim and the grime on the finish of the bowl of the pipe. He rinsed it off under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. He was able to remove all of the lava build up on the beveled rim top of the pipe. The rim top looked very good. The grain was beautiful and the pipe looked new. The stem looked very good with its striations of silver and grey with some light tooth marks and chatter. Overall the pipe looked almost new. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work. I took close up photos of the bowl, rim and stem surfaces to capture the condition of the pipe before I started my simple restoration of the pipe. The rim top was clean and the beveled inner edge was in excellent condition. The stem was quite clean with some light tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside near the button. The tenon was Delrin and drilled out for a 6MM or a Savinelli Balsa filter system.I took a close up photo of the stamping on the bottom of the bowl. It read as noted above in the earlier paragraphs. The rim top was in excellent condition so I polished it with 6000-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads. I wiped it off with a damp cotton pad after each sanding pad.I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I worked it into the grooves with a horsehair shoe brush. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The following photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. The bowl and the rim top look really good and the grain really stood out on the smooth rim. The finish looks very good with the combined dark and medium brown stain on the bowl and rim. I sanded out the tooth marks with 220 grit sandpaper and then started polishing the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I was able to remove all of the scratches and tooth marks and chatter from the surface of the stem. I polished the stem and brass spacer with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding it with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with a damp cloth after each pad. I further polished it with Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. Since I had finished both the bowl and stem I put them together and polished the stem lightly with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. I 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 pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The smooth rim top and the “blasticated” finish on the bowl really looks good polished and buffed. The rich dark brown was polished off the high points on the briar and works well with polished striated silver and grey Lucite stem. The finish on this pipe gives it a great feeling pipe in the hand and I am sure that it will be an amazing smoker. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 1/2 inches, Height: 1 3/4 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/4 inches, Chamber diameter: 3/4 of an inch. I will be putting this beauty on the rebornpipes store shortly and it can be added to your collection. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me on this Savinelli Made Pipa 2005 Bent Billiard.