Tag Archives: Stem repairs

Breathing New Life into a Dunhill Root Briar 710 Silver Banded Billiard

by Steve Laug

Early February I received an email from Blake regarding two pipes he wanted me to have a look at. I have included that email below

Hello, I have two pipes that are in need of restoration. I was just curious if you take on projects from others. One is a Charatan Perfection Dublin, the other is a Dunhill 710 Group 4 Root Briar Billiard. Both pipes need the standard ream/clean/deoxidize, however they also have small cracks. The Charatan has two cracks in the bowl, which I do not believe go all the way through (also the previous owner tried to put wood glue over them). The Dunhill has a crack in the shank, however it has been banded so I do not know if it needs any additional work on it. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.

Sincerely, Blake

As I usually do, I wrote him back and asked for photos of the pipes. He sent a few photos of them both. I have inserted the photos below of the Dunhill he sent. The bowl was typical of older pipe finds, thick cake, lots of grime in the finish, oxidized silver band and stem. The shank had a crack in the top left side that extended from the shank end up the shank about an inch. The silver band was the repair that had been done to the pipe quite a few years back. This Dunhill had some rugged beauty under all the grime. To me it was worth a restoration to see what was happening internally and externally under the grime of the years. I wrote and told him to send them to me. It took a while but they arrived yesterday afternoon. I unpacked them and took a photo of the pair to show what they looked like when they arrived. I would take more photos of each pipe as I worked on it but this one gives you a sense of what I saw as I took them out. I chose to work on the Dunhill Root Briar next. It is a Group 4 sized Dunhill Billiard with a vulcanite taper stem. It is in dirty condition and has a repaired crack on the top left side of the shank. It is stamped on the left side of the shank next to the bowl/shank union with the shape number 710. That is followed by Dunhill [over] Root Briar [over] Perfection. On the right side of the shank it bears the stamping Made In [over] England followed by 4 in a circle and an R. There is what looks like an underlined 1 at an angle under and to the right of the D in England. The pipe was dusty, scratched and dirty with grime ground into the finish. The bowl had a thick cake. The rim top had a lava coat on the top and inner edge. There was some damage on the inner edge of the rim and some heavy lava on the smooth rim top. The original Dunhill White Spot Taper stem was dirty and oxidized with light tooth marks and chatter on both sides. The crack in the top of the shank on the left side is bound together with a very tarnished silver band. I took photos of the pipe to show what it looked like before I started working on it. I took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show the thickness of the cake and the condition of the rim top. You can see the band of hard cake mid bowl. The stem photos show the condition of the stem ahead of the button.The stamping on the sides of the shank is faint in spots. I took a photo with the band and with the loose band removed. Overall it is clear and readable as noted above. I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to give a sense of the proportions of the pipe. Under the grime it is a real beauty. One of the first things I like to do is to unpack the stamping and understand each element in it. I turned to Pipephil’s helpful site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/shell-briar1.html). The stamping is interpreted as follows: The 719 is the shape of the pipe which is a Billiard. The Dunhill Root Briar is the finish. Following the Made In England there does not appear to be any date number. Below the D and to the right there is an underlined 1which gives the year that the pipe was made.

From there I wanted to pin down the date stamp 1. I have included Page 2 of the Dunhill Dating Key (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1a.html). Following that it takes me to the box with 1960+suffix. That tells me that the pipe is a 1961 pipe.I wanted to know more about the Root Briar finish and when it was introduced by Dunhill. I turned to a listing on Pipedia that gave me the information I was looking for (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill).

Root Briar

Dunhill introduced its third major pipe finish, the Root Briar, in 1931. The new line was developed specifically to showcase briar with a particularly beautiful and pronounced grain. To this end, it was made exclusively from Corsican mountain briar, a wood characteristically prized for its fine grain, a practice that continued into the 1960s.

The pipe was finished with a light, natural stain to allow the beauty of the wood to show through. A particularly distinctive feature of the early Root Briar was its unique mouthpiece — a marble-grained, brown vulcanite bit — that became known to collectors as the ‘bowling ball’ bit. This style, however, was discontinued with the onset of the Second World War.

Because the Root Briar finish requires a perfectly clean bowl with exceptional graining, it has always been one of Dunhill’s rarer and more expensive lines, typically available only at the company’s own stores or through its principal dealers. Its nomenclature was identical to that of the Bruyère, except for the use of an ‘R’ stamp instead of an ‘A’. Straight-grained versions were graded on various scales over the years, evolving into the modern ‘DR’ one-to-six-star system.^[122]^[123]

Now I knew that I was working on a Dunhill Root Briar 710 Billiard with a taper stem that was probably made in 1961.

I turned to work on the pipe itself. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer using the cutting heads 2 and 3. I finished the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls of the bowl with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and both bristle and regular pipe cleaners.I removed the Sterling Silver Band from the shank and scrubbed the bowl and shank with a tooth brush and some undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I rinsed it off with warm water to remove the dust and soap from the finish. I dried it off with a soft cloth and it looked much better. Once I cleaned up the externals of the bowl and shank I found a metal repair piece pressed into the top of the shank to repair what must have been another crack in the shank.I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the inner edge of the bowl and the rim top and minimize the damage. It looked significantly better.I sanded the exterior of the bowl with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads to remove the scratching in the finish. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. It really began to look much better. I polished the briar with 1500-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads to develop the shine. It began to look very good. It had a rich shine in the finish. I paused the polishing of the bowl and shank after the 4000 git sanding pad. I repaired the crack in the top left side of the shank with clear CA glue and a tooth pick. I ran it the length of the crack and pressed it back together. I held it until the repair cured. Once it cured I ran the other sanding pads over the surface to smooth out the patch. I started sanding it again with the 6000 grit sanding pad. Once it was solid and the polishing with micromesh was finished I gave the shank end a light coat of white all purpose glue and pressed the band onto the shank.I polished the Sterling Silver (Faintly stamped on the topside Sterling in an arch) with micromesh sanding pads to remove the tarnish and polished further with a jeweller’s cloth to give it a final shine and protect it. I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips to work it into the finish. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really comes alive with the balm. I set the bowl aside and worked on the stem. I “painted” the tooth m arks in the stem with the flame of a lighter to lift them. I was able to lift them significantly. I figured that sanding the surface would blend them into the surrounding vulcanite.I scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and a paper towel to loosen and remove the oxidation. Then I sanded the button surface and edges along with the remaining oxidation with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to blend in the tooth marks and chatter as well as remove the oxidation and spots on the surface of the stem. It was a lot of work and hard sanding to get rid of it. It felt like I would never win the battle.I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch pads. I wiped the stem down with an Obsidian Oil cloth after each sanding pad.I polished the vulcanite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I the polished vulcanite saddle stem and the 1961 Dunhill Root Briar 710 Billiard bowl with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches and raise the shine. I gave the vulcanite stem and the bowl several coats of Carnauba Wax then 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. This turned out to be a beautiful Dunhill Root Briar 710 Taper Stem Billiard. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ¾ 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 1.48 ounces/43 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked this beautiful little Dunhill Root Briar. I will be packing it up with the Charatan’s Make Perfection that I repaired and send it back to Blake later this week. Thanks for following the work on the pipe.

Who Carved this Caveman Century Old Briar Italy 8546 Pocket Pipe

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by Steve Laug

This smooth finish, beautifully grained pocket pipe, that is similar to a Savinelli Made Lollo or pocket pipe. It was purchased on 01/20/2026 from a Facebook seller in Quaker Town, Pennsylvania, USA. It is unique shaped pipe with a rich brown smooth finish on the bowl and shank. The stem is a short vulcanite saddle stem. The bowl is stained with a mix of browns that highlight the grain around the bowl and shank. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Caveman. On the right side of the shank it is stamped Century Old [over] Briar Italy. On the underside is the shape number 8546. The bowl had a thick cake and some tobacco debris on the walls. There was an overflow of lava on the rim top that was heavier toward the back left side of the bowl. There was grime ground into the finish which left the finish looking quite dull. The vulcanite had some light oxidation on the surface and tooth chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his work on it. He took photos of the rim top and bowl to give a clear picture of the thickness of the cake and the lava and dust ground into the finish of the rim top and edges. There is dust and debris stuck to the walls of the bowl clearly visible in the photos. He also took photos of the top and underside of the stem to show the oxidation, chatter and light tooth chatter. Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to give a picture of what the briar around the pipe looked like. There is some stunning grain under the grime. He took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It read as noted above and is clear and readable. The manufacturer of the Caveman Century Old Briar 8546 pipe is a mystery that is twisted and complicated. I thought maybe it was one of the may lines crafted by Savinelli but I would have to see.

The Caveman pipe was typically a meerschaum pipe made of Tanganyika meerschaum. This was not a meerschaum so I am certain this connection is tenuous at best.

I did some more digging to try to identify the maker. I thought there might be a link between the Caveman pipe I was working and the Ice Age pipe. The Ice Age pipe was noted as being made by Savinelli so maybe there was a link here.

I did a quick google search of the Ice Age brand and came up with this information. It definitely links Savinelli to Ice Age but there is nothing linking it to the Caveman that I am working on. I am including the Facebook link (https://www.facebook.com/gerardo.benz.1/posts/ice-age-668-w-faux-plateaux-by-savinelli-nos-esta-pipa-es-un-hallazgo-fascinante/10242750087989992/) and some of the pertinent information below.

Ice Age 668 w/ Faux Plateaux (by Savinelli) (Nos)

This pipe is a fascinating find that allows us to travel back to the golden age of pipe tobacco popularity, an Ice Age 668 specimen with a Faux Plateaux finish, whose manufacturing takes us directly back to Savinelli’s Italian mastery. Although some historical confusion often arises due to the intervention of Oppenheimer Pipe Group—that British giant who articulated the distribution of so many brands during the 20th century—, the “Made in Italy” stamp and shape numbering reveal its true artisanal origin. This is a commercial line probably born for the export market, combining the solidity of a historic house founded in the 19th century with a bold and modern aesthetic not always found in Savinelli’s more classic series.

The pipe is presented under the silhouette of a Bent Egg, where the fluidity of the design is absolute: the reed is born organically from the tub, continuing its line in a harmonious curve that culminates in an eye-catching acrylic extension. This detail not only brings an elegant visual contrast, but also tops it off in a military mount, giving it a technical and sophisticated character. The brezo has been treated with brown dyes that enhance the natural beauty of the vein, while the top of the casserole exhibits that rustic finish that mimics the natural bark of the brezo (the plateaux), creating a play of textures that are exquisite to the touch and to the look. It is essentially a pipe that balances the avant-garde of its time with an impeccable manufacturing base, making it a necessary exception within any New Old Stock (NOS) collection.

There was no link to the Caveman pipe I have so far. I decided to come at it from another angle. I did a search on the Old Briar and Italy link and came up with a link to Nino Rossi pipes on Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-n1.html#ninorossi). That connection took me nowhere so I did further digging.

I also did a search for Caveman Century Old Briar 8546 and found one on eBay for sale (https://www.ebay.com/itm/326285537872). It had the same shape but was rusticated.I followed another link listing a Caveman 8546 shaped sandblast pipe for sale on Worthpoint (https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-italian-rusticated-1981585956). It is described a I attach with the photo below.

Vintage Italian Rusticated Sandblasted Briar ‘Caveman’ 8546 Estate Tobacco Pipe is in very nice condition. It has been used not abused. It should draw pleasure from smoking or from the replies it will bring to its oddity shape. Marked on the underside – Caveman 8546 Product of Italy. The CM is on the pipe stem. Length – 5 1/4 in Outside diameter – 1 3/8 in Inside diameter – 3/4 in,I followed the leads on the google search and found a tie to Lorenzo being the maker of the pipe (https://picclick.co.uk/VINTAGE-LORENZO-CAVEMAN-No8546-USED-SMOKING-332598667470.html).

I checked the four digit shape number and it also pointed to Lorenzo as the manufacturer. I found a link to an 8769 pipe on Dal’s blog (https://thepipesteward.com/2021/05/02/breathing-new-life-into-an-elegant-lorenzo-eleganza-8769-of-italy-bent-dublin/). I know the digits are different but the four numbers points to a similarity.

With that information I have run out of links. Perhaps one of you can help further identify the pipe for me. For now, I am going to say that I believe it is made by Lorenzo as the information below pointed out. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He worked over the debris on the rim top and was able to remove it. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs, shank brushes and pipe cleaners. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and cotton pads to remove remaining oxidation on the stem. He rinsed it with warm water and dried it off. I took photos of the pipe once I received it. It really looked good. The rim top and the inner edge looked good but there was some roughness to the surface. The stem had some light chatter on both sides near the button. The bowl was very clean and the stem looked good.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It was clear and read as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping it down after each pad with a damp cloth. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This unique and beautiful in its own way Lorenzo Made Caveman Century Old Briar 8546 Pocket Pipe with a taper saddle stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel to polish it. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Caveman Century Old Briar 8546 fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 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 55 grams/1.98 ounces. I will be adding it to the rebornpipes store shortly in the Italian Pipe Makers Section. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. There are many more to come!

Fresh Life for a Stanwell Danish Star 02 Scoop

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by Steve Laug

I am enjoying an evening free to work on a few pipes. The next pipe on the table came from an a seller in Ogden, Utah, USA. Even though the finish was a dirty and worn it had some amazing grain showing through the grit and grime of the years. On the left side of the shank it was stamped Stanwell [over] Danish Star. On the right side it is stamped with the shape number 02. On the underside it is stamped Made in Denmark. The pipe is a bent egg and as the shape number identifies. The finish is filthy with grime and oil ground into the briar of the bowl and shank sides. The bowl had a thick cake and there was an overflow of lava on the inner edge of the thin rim. The stem was a bent vulcanite taper stem that fit snugly in the shank. It had the Stanwell Crown S faintly stamped on the left side of the stem. The vulcanite was oxidized, calcified and had light chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took some photos of the pipe to show its overall condition before he started his cleanup work. He took photos of the rim top and bowl to give a clear picture of the thickness of the cake and the lava and dust ground into the finish of the rim top and edges. There is dust and debris stuck to the walls of the bowl clearly visible in the photos. He also took photos of the top and underside of the stem to show the oxidation, chatter and light tooth chatter. Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to give a picture of what the briar around the pipe looked like. There is some stunning grain under the grime. He took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It read as noted above and is clear and readable. I am always curious for more information on the pipes that I work on. Sometimes I have some history of the previous pipeman and sometimes not. This time I knew next to nothing of where the pipe came from so I turned ferret out information the Danish Star Line if I could find it.

I turned first to Pipephil’s site to get a quick idea of when this pipe line was made and where it stood in the Stanwell hierarchy. I found nothing (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-stanwell.html).

I also turned to Pipedia’s article on Stanwell but it did not add any further information. There were a series of photos from Doug Valitchka of the Danish Star but it was a different shape number – a 138. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Stanwell).

From there I turned to the section on Stanwell shapes and numbers on Pipedia to see if I could identify the designer (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Stanwell_Shape_Numbers_and_Designers). Finally, I found a bit of help there. It stated that the shape number 02 came in two versions – a Freehand, oval bowl and stem designed by Sixteen Ivarsson and a Bent Egg Shaped Bowl sloping top and full mouthpiece. Now I knew that I was dealing with the second. There was also a catalogue photo that I have included below that shows the shape 02 at the top left of the photo.

With that information in hand I knew what I was dealing with in terms of the shape of the pipe. I am pretty sure it is a pipe that was made in the 80s or 90s. I was not certain but that is my educated guess. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He worked over the debris on the rim top and was able to remove it. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and cotton pads to remove remaining oxidation on the ferrule and the stem. He rinsed it with warm water and dried it off. I took photos of the pipe once I received it. It really looked good. The rim top and the inner edge of the rim showed some nicks and marks after the cleaning. The stem had some light chatter on both sides near the button. The bowl was very clean and the stem looked good.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. I left out the Made in Denmark photo that is shown above. It was clear and read as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. I decided to address the nicks on the inner edge of the bowl first. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage and clean up the edge. I was pleased with the smoothed out rim top and edge.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping it down after each pad with a damp cloth. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. I touched up the stamping on the top of the stem. It was a Stanwell Crown S logo. Parts of it were faint but I was able to get some of the stamping to show up with some white, acrylic fingernail polish. Once it had hardened I scraped off the excess and sanded it lightly to remove the remaining excess. It certainly looks better. I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This beautiful Stanwell Danish Star 02 Sloped Bent Egg with a taper vulcanite stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Stanwell Danish Star Bent Egg fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 46 grams/1.62 ounces. I will be adding it to the rebornpipes store shortly in the Danish Pipe Makers Section. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. There are many more to come!

Restoring A Great Looking The Doodler Imported Briar Pot with a filter stem

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by Steve Laug

This darker beautifully grained saddle stem pot was purchased on 08/10/2025 from a seller in Livingston, New Jersey, USA. It is a great looking Pot with a rusticated finish on the bowl and shank. The stem is a vulcanite saddle stem made for a Medico style filter. There is also a nickel band on the shank for decorative purposes. The bowl is stained with a contrast of various browns that highlight the grain around the bowl and shank. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads The Doodler [over] Imported Briar. The bowl had a thick cake and an overflow of lava on the inner edge and rim top the unique Doodler bowl. There was grime ground into the grooves and bands around the bowl sides which left the finish looking quite dull. The vulcanite saddle stem was oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem at the saddle area and ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his work on it. He took photos of the rim top to show the condition of the top and edges of the bowl. It is dull but quite clean with no lava. It is uniquely a beautiful pipe. The stem had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. He took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the finish around the bowl and the condition of the pipe. You can see the grime ground into the surface of the briar. The stain combination really makes the grain stand out. I look forward to seeing it once it is clean and polished.He took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. The Doodler pipe designed and made by Tracey Mincer of Custombilt/Custom Bilt fame has always intrigued me. It may be the oddity of the design that first caught my attention. The rusticated bowl with one, two or three grooves around the circumference of the bowl and then holes drilled vertically connecting the rim to the bottom of the last ring just had my attention. I continue looking for them, both on eBay and on my treasure hunts through antique malls and thrift shops. When I had seen the drawings and photos in Bill Unger’s book on Custombilt pipes I picked up some of them. I enjoy the look and the smoking of them. If you are a pipeman you should at least give one a smoke and see what you think.

Jeff carefully reamed this Doodler with a PipNet pipe reamer and then cleaned up the inside of the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the briar with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime on the rim top and bowl sides. He scrubbed the internals of the shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, shank brushes and alcohol until the airways were clean and the pipe smelled fresh. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the oxidation and then let it soak in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. He rinsed it with warm water when he took out of the soak. The pipe looked much better once the bowl and stem were clean. Before I started my part of the work I took photos of the pipe. It is a pretty pipe. I took close up photos of the bowl and the rim top to show the condition. It looked better and the inner edge and top were in very good condition. I also took photos of both sides of the stem to give a sense of the condition of both sides at the button. There were light tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank and stem. It reads as noted above and is very clear and readable. The circle B logo on the stem is faded but should be easy to repair. I took the stem off the shank and took photos of the pipe to give a sense of its beauty and proportions. I worked over the darkening on the rim top and rings on the bowl with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. It cleaned it up and it looked much better.I sanded the smooth parts of the bowl and rim with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads. I wiped the briar down after each pad to remove the sanding debris. It looked much better. I polished the bowl and rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped down the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The finish looked very good (forgot to take photos). I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips to get it into the grain. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out. I sanded the stem to remove the chatter and tooth marks with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. There were marks on the top and underside against the button and also against the saddle stem. There were also marks on the bevelled edges of the stem surface.I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads to start the blending process. It looks significantly better at this point. I wiped it down with an Obsidian Oil cloth after each sanding pad.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry 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 another coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I used some white acrylic fingernail polish to touch up the faint star logo on the left side of the saddle stem. I scraped off the excess white acrylic and buffed it clear. It is faint but slightly visible on the left side.I fit the metal tenon with a Medico paper filter and put the pipe back together. It looks quite good at this point. I am excited to put the final touches on this interesting piece of the Tracer Mincer story. It is a beautiful Three Ring The Doodler Imported Briar Billiard shaped pipe with a vulcanite filter stem. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl 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 beautiful grain on the bowl sides, top and bottom. The polished black vulcanite stem combined with the bowl to make a stunning pipe. This Three Ring The Doodler Imported Briar Billiard is great 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: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 42 grams/1.45 ounces. I will be adding it to the Americsn Pipemakers Section of the rebornpipes store shortly. If you want to add 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.

Rebirth of a Hilson Epoque Largo 170/S Belgian Made Sandblast Dublin

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by Steve Laug

This Sandblast Dublin with a Saddle stem was purchased on 01/20/2026 from a Facebook seller in Quaker Town, Pennsylvania, USA. It is a great looking Dublin with a blast that shows the flow of the grain. The stem is a vulcanite saddle stem. The bowl is stained with a contrast of blacks and browns that highlight the grain around the bowl and shank. It is stamped on the flat underside of the bowl and shank. It reads 170/S the shape number on the heel of the bowl followed by Hilson [over] Epoque [over] Largo. That is followed by Made in Belgium. The bowl had a thick cake and some tobacco debris on the walls. There was an overflow of lava on the rim top that was heavier toward the back of the bowl. There was grime ground into the finish which left the finish looking quite dull. The slightly oxidized saddle vulcanite stem has a Hilson H logo on the left side. There are light tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his work on it. He took photos of the rim top to show the condition of the top and edges of the bowl. It is dull and has the lava on the rim top and bevelled edge of the rim. It is uniquely a beautiful pipe. The stem had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. The pipe has some nice grain that is highlighted by the stain and the sandblast. The difference adds a visual and tactile variation on the pipe. The pipe is stamped in a smooth section on the underside of the shank. On the left end it reads 170/2 which is the shape number. That is followed by the brand name Hilson over the line name Epoque [over] Largo. To the right end of the shank near the shank/stem junction it reads made in Made in Belgium. The photos below show that the stamping is very clean and readable. Before I started the refresh of the pipe, I did a quick review of the history of the brand because I like having that information in mind when I work on a pipe. I remembered at some point Hilson had been sold to Gubbels who made the Big Ben pipe. At that time, it moved from being a Belgian made pipe to being made in the Netherlands.

I turned first to Pipephil’s site to read what he had for information on the Hilson’s Epoque (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-h3.html). There were not any photos of the line on the listing. However, it is an interesting piece and I have included the sidebar information below the screen capture.In 1846 a German named Jean Knödgen started to produce clay pipe in Belgium. In the late 19th century Jean Hillen who married into the Knödgen family took over the company and changed the firm in order to manufacture briar pipe. Jean Hillen had 2 sons: Jos Hillen was responsible for sales and Albert Hillen was responsible for the production. After WWII Albert founded the HILSON brand (Hillen and Son) and exported his pipes all over the world.

In 1980 after having gone bankrupt, the Belgian brand from Bree (Limburg) was taken over by the Royal Dutch Pipe Factory.

From there I turned to Pipedia and read the entry on Hilson (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Hilson). It is a great read on the history of the brand. I am including it below.

Jean-Claude Hillen (other sources: Jean-Paul) founded a trading company in the City of Bree in 1846. He soon turned his main interest on pipes and other tobacco related goods.

Particularly in the 1960’s and still throughout the 1970’s the brand Hilson of Broers Hillen B.V. (Hillen Bros. Co.) was quite successful in many European countries. They produced large numbers of machine made pipes covering the whole range of shapes and finishes. The pipes were well respected for good quality and craftsmenship at very moderate prices.

Rarely seen there are also nice freehands from this era stamped MASTRO and signed by A.M. Sanoul, who is otherwise completely unknown as a pipemaker.

All the same, in 1980 Hillen faced major financial problems. At this time there was only a second manufacturer of briars pipes in the Benelux countries, the Elbert Gubbels & Zonen B.V. in the Netherlands. The Belgian competitor being in trouble, Gubbels used the favour of the hour and bought up the company. The reason is plausible: in some countries, particularly in Germany, Hilson held larger market shares than Gubbels’ mainstay brand Big Ben.

The Hillen plant in Bree was closed down shortly after and ever since then Hilson pipes are manufactured in Roermond, NL.

Given that the plant in Bree, Belgium closed around 1980 after Gubbels had purchased the company, I knew that the pipe I was working on had been made prior to 1980. The Made in Belgium stamp on the underside of the shank gave that information. I am not sure that I can get any closer in terms of a date for the pipe.

On this pipe, my brother’s cleanup work was the lion’s share of what needed to be done to revitalize it. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer to remove the cake and cleaned up after the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife. He scrubbed the finish with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grit and grime. He scrubbed the rim top and was able to loosen the debris that had built up there. He rinsed the bowl under running water and dried it off. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and when he removed it he rinsed off the debris and product with warm water. He scrubbed out the airway in the bowl, shank and stem with pipe cleaners, shank brushes, cotton swabs and alcohol. When I received the pipe I was amazed at how good it looked. The stem would need some attention but that was about it. The bowl could be waxed and buffed with little other work. Jeff had done a great job. I took photos of what the pipe looked like when it arrived in Vancouver.
I took close up photos of the bowl and the rim top to show the condition. It looked better and the inner edge and top were in very good condition. I also took photos of both sides of the stem to give a sense of the condition of both sides at the button. There were light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It reads as noted above and is very clear and readable. I forgot to take a photo of the H logo on the stem but other than being faded is in excellent condition. I took the stem off the shank and took photos of the pipe to give a sense of its beauty and proportions.I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips to get it into the grain. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain in the sandblast stood out. I set the bowl aside and turned to the stem. I “painted” the surface of the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the tooth marks. I filled in those that remained with Extra Strength CA glue – strengthened with rubber. Once it cured I used a small flat file to flatten the repairs and recut the button. I blended the repairs further with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads. I wiped the stem down with a damp cloth after each pad. By the last sanding pad, it began to take on a deep shine. I touched up the H logo on the left side of the saddle stem with white acrylic fingernail polish. It was faint in spots but I worked it into the stamp with a tooth pick. Once it cured I sanded off the excess with worn 1500 grit micromesh pad. It looked better.I polished it with micromesh sanding pads – dry 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 another coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I am excited to put the final touches on this interesting piece of Hilson’s Made in Belgium Pipe History. It is a beautiful Hilson Epoque Largo 170/S Sandblast Dublin shaped pipe. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl 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 beautiful grain on the bowl sides, top and bottom. The polished black vulcanite saddle stem combined with the bowl to make a stunning pipe. This older Hilson Epoque Largo 170/S is great 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 ¾ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 42 grams/1.52 ounces. It is a beautiful pipe that I will soon be adding to the rebornpipes store in the Pipes from Various Makers Section. If you would like to add it to your collection let me know. It should be a great smoking pipe. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Weber Imported Briar Rusticated Campaign Calabash Pipe

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a rugged looking the Campaign style pipe with a deep rustication. It was one purchased on 01/20/2026 from a Facebook seller in Quaker Town, Pennsylvania, USA. The bowl and the shank are heavily rusticated. The top of the bowl insert, base of the calabash and the end of the shank band are smooth. It is a great looking pipe. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Weber in an oval [over] Imported Briar. The finish was dirty and had a lot of grime and grit ground into the rustication and the smooth portions. The rim top and inner edge of the bowl is dirty with a thick overflow of lava the edge and the top that was heavier toward the back of the bowl. The bowl insert was stuck in the calabash base and had no give. There is a thick cake in the bowl. The vulcanite taper stem is dirty and has light tooth marks and chatter on the surface ahead of the button. There were no logo stamps on either side of the stem. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work. It showed a lot of promise. Jeff took photos of the briar bowl insert in the calabash base. It is stuck but you can see the thick lava coat on the rim top, heavier toward the back. The cake in the bowl is quite thick and overflows over the top. It is a dirty pipe. I am curious what the bowl of the calabash underneath looks like. He took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the finish around the bowl and the condition of the pipe. You can see the grime ground into the surface of the briar. The stain combination really makes the grain and the depths of the rustication stand out. I look forward to seeing it once it is clean and polished. He took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. Jeff put the bowl in the freezer to try and loosen the insert from the calabash base. After some time, there he was able to remove the insert. He took photos of the parts to show the dirty condition. There was crumbling cork gasket around the inner edge of the calabash base. It will need to be replace. I checked on Pipephil and though there was great information on the Weber brand of pipes. There was nothing in the list there that showed a Campaign pipe or referred to it. I turned to Pipedia’s article on Weber and it was a great on the history of the brand. There was nothing there on the Campaign pipe. From there I turned back to the various Campaign pipes on rebornpipes that I have worked on before.

I am attaching the link to one of the blogs and some of the information that I found in researching the brand at that time. (https://rebornpipes.com/tag/wdc-campaign-calabash-pipe/). The information is all on the WDC made Campaign pipe but the information is helpful.

In my online research I found a brief interchange on a Google group. I include the link if you would like to read it in context and its entirety. It gives some helpful information regarding this particular pipe. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.smokers.pipes/kpkpd3zXoiwExcerpt from pipedia.org

To a request for information regarding the WDC Campaign pipe on the Google Group there was quite a long string of answers. I am quoting two of those in full…

Respondent 1: While I can’t say anything about this pipe specifically, I have a hazy memory of that shape listed in a book about pipes; (I may be totally misremembering this, but here goes) the shape being called the “Dawes”, named after Harding’s Vice President? Anyone else remember this? Sounds like an interesting pipe, whatever it’s called…

Respondent 2: From Weber’s Guide to Pipes: “The Dawes Pipe (more correctly named the Lyons, after its inventor, Charles Herbert Lyons) happened to be the favorite pipe of General Charles G. Dawes, Vice-President of the USA from 1925 to 1929. General Dawes smoked the curious pipe incessantly and it became popularly known as the Dawes Underslung, because the shank joined the bowl near its rim.”

I looked on Pipedia, (https://pipedia.org/wiki/The_Lyon_Pipe) for information on the Dawes Underslung pipe or what was known as a Lyons Pipe. It is a fascinating read regarding the shape and the build of the pipe. I have also included a copy of the Patent page that was on that link.

General Charles G. Dawes (August 27, 1865 – April 23, 1951) was an American banker and politician, as well as the 30th Vice President of the United States. He was a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925, and later in life the Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He also, of interest to pipe smokers, so incessantly smoked a Lyon pipe that his party used it as a campaign emblem and the pipe took on his name, now being referred to as the Dawes Pipe. In fact, this pipe was invented by Charles H. Lyon (February 17, 1861 – January 1, 1947).

The Lyon pipe, now more commonly known as the Dawes pipe, was characterized by an inner bowl which was threaded into an outer bowl, with smoke traveling through the bottom of the inner bowl to reach the airway much as in a traditional gourd calabash. On September 11, 1924, the Ellensburg Daily Record reported from Chicago that Mr. Lyon worked from a small tin shanty on the outskirts of Chicago, but upon Dawes’ nomination for the Vice Presidency became swamped by orders for the pipe, with 75,000 orders received at that time, and a factory struggling to produce 1,000 pipes a month.

The Lyon pipe was invented by Charles H. Lyon (1862-1947) while working in his workshop in the Chicago area in the early 1920’s. In late 1920, the inventor, a former millwright, was without his right arm due to a factory accident he suffered during World War I, without a job, and at 60 contemplating a start in the real estate business to feed his family. While considering his options, he thought up the pipe that bears his name, and applied for a patent for its design on September 23, 1920. The following year, having seen him smoking a pipe, Lyon sent a pipe to the General as a sampler and the General began ordering the pipes by the dozen.

The two became friends, and General Dawes used the pipe as a campaign giveaway in his 1924 campaign for the Vice Presidency, making the pipe famous. In the meantime, Lyon had been granted a patent for the pipe on September 18, 1923. It is reported in Lyon’s obituary on January 2, 1947 in the Oakland Tribune that Dawes and Lyon had become partners in the production of the pipe. Jeff carefully reamed this Weber Imported Briar Campaign Insert bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and then cleaned up the inside of the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the inner bowl and the exterior of the briar with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime on the rim top and bowl sides. He scrubbed the internals of the shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, shank brushes and alcohol until the airways were clean and the pipe smelled fresh. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the oxidation and then let it soak in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. He rinsed it with warm water when he took out of the soak. The pipe looked much better once the bowl and stem were clean. Before I started my part of the work I took photos of the pipe. It is a pretty pipe. I took close up photos of the bowl and the rim top to show the condition. It looked better and the inner edge and top were in very good condition. There were some scratches in the top and on the inner edge that will need to be cleaned up. I also took photos of both sides of the stem to give a sense of the condition of both sides at the button. There were light tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button. On the underside there was also a deeper mark on the button itself.I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the shank.. It reads as noted above and is very clear and readable. I took the briar inner bowl out of the outer bowl and took some photos of the various parts of the pipe. You can also see the inset on the top edge of the base where a cork gasket was fit to hold the insert in place. It is an interesting piece of pipe history and it is in excellent condition for a pipe of its age. I worked on the damage on the rim top and inner edge with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the rough areas smooth and smoothed out the rim edge. It began to look better.I sanded the smooth rim top of the insert with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris and dust. It looked very good.I polished the smooth rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped down the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. To achieve a snug fit of the insert in the base I cut a piece of cork from a thin sheet of cork to make a gasket for the base bowl. The cork had a sticky back on it and I pressed two layers or the cork in place and trimmed the excess off the top of the bowl with a knife. Once finished I gave it a light coat of Vaseline to soften and preserve it. I pressed the two parts together and it fit snugly into the outer bowl. I hand buffed the bowl with a microfibre cloth and took photos of the pipe at this point in the process. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips and a shoe brush to get it into the depths of the rustication. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out. I filled in tooth marks that were present with Extra Strength CA glue – strengthened with rubber. Once it cured I used a small flat file to flatten the repairs and recut the button edge. I blended the repairs further with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads. I wiped the stem down with a damp cloth after each pad. By the last sanding pad it began to take on a deep shine.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 final coat of Obsidian Oil. I am excited to put the final touches on this interesting piece of American Pipe History a beautiful Weber Imported Briar Campaign Calabash Pipe with a double bowl. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl 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 beautiful grain on the bowl sides, top and bottom. The polished black vulcanite stem combined with the bowl to make a stunning pipe. This older Weber Imported Briar Campaign Calabash Pipe is great 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: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 39 grams/1.41 ounces. I will be adding it to my own collection for now to enjoy and experiment with. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Cleaning Up a Handsome Gourd Calabash

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by Kenneth Lieblich

A friend of mine recently returned from a local gun show and, as it so happened, someone was selling a few pipes there too. So, my buddy found this very nice (and very dirty) gourd calabash and bought it for a good price. He asked if I could bring some ‘vim and vigour’ back to this old boy. No problem, I said. Happy to help. No markings at all on this pipe, but no matter. Let’s take a closer look at the condition of the pipe. The bowl is beautifully-shaped meerschaum. It has some minor signs of wear, but nothing serious. Similarly, the gourd is in lovely condition. No external wear to speak of and the cork gasket is in good shape. The gourd also has an acrylic shank extension in nice shape. However, the inside of the gourd was filthy beyond words! Finally, the vulcanite stem is also in good nick (as my English friends would say). It has some oxidation and some tooth marks, but nothing to worry about. First things first. For the life of me, I could not remove the meerschaum bowl from the gourd. It was like concrete. I didn’t want to cause any damage, so I stopped and grabbed my heat gun. This softened some of the interior goo and – finally – allowed me to unscrew it.The stem’s calcification was quite substantial. I used an old butter knife and gently scraped some of the thicker accretion off. Doing this now helps later in removing the oxidation. I used isopropyl alcohol on a few cotton rounds and wiped down the stem to provide an initial cleaning of filth before moving on to the next steps. The primary cleaning came next. I disinfected the inside of the stem with both pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in lemon-infused 99% isopropyl alcohol. I scrubbed thoroughly to make sure the interior was very clean.The goal of the next step is the removal (or minimization) of oxidation. Going to my sink, I used cream cleanser, cotton rounds, and a toothbrush, and scoured the stem to remove as much surface oxidation as possible. As the photos show, the result was a hideous, ochre-coloured mess – but better off the stem than on it.Once the stem was reasonably clean, I soaked it overnight in some Briarville Stem Oxidation Remover. This solution works to draw oxidation in the stem to the surface of the vulcanite. This is a major aid and an important step in ensuring a clean stem. The following day, I drew out the stem from its bath and scrubbed the lingering fluid with a toothbrush.As the stem was now clean and dry, I set about fixing the marks and dents in the vulcanite. This was done by filling those divots with black cyanoacrylate adhesive, impregnated with carbon and rubber. I left this to cure and moved on.The penultimate step for the stem is sanding. First, with my set of needle files, I reduced the bulk of the cyanoacrylate repairs. I removed the excess adhesive as near to the surface as possible, without cutting into the vulcanite. Following that, I used all nine of the micromesh sanding pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to sand out flaws, even out the vulcanite, and provide gentle polishing of the finished surface. I also applied pipe-stem oil while using the last five micromesh pads. There was a wonderful, deep black shine to the stem when I was done. As the stem was (nearly) complete, I moved on to the bowl. The inner side of it was caked with old tobacco filth, so I grabbed a piece of machine steel and gently scraped the lava away. The metal’s edge is sharp enough to remove what I need, but not so sharp that it damages the meerschaum. I then had to ream it out – that is to say, remove all the cake inside the bowl. This accomplished a couple of things. First (and most obviously), it cleaned the bowl and provided a refurbished chamber for future smoking. Second, when the old cake was removed, I could inspect the interior walls of the bowl and determine if there was damage or not. Meerschaum is too fragile for a proper reamer, so I used 220-grit sandpaper on the end of a wooden dowel to clean out the bowl and it turned out very well. One of the frustrations of cleaning meerschaum is that once smoked, the stains never go away. However, I did what I could and it definitely improved. I sanded down the entire piece of meerschaum with my micromesh pads. I also rubbed some Clapham’s Beeswax into the meerschaum. Then I let it sit for 20 minutes, buffed it with a microfiber cloth and then repeated the beeswax process. Worked like a charm! Next, I had to do something about the incredible amount of filth inside the gourd. The photos don’t quite do it justice. This was no easy task, as the gourd is relatively thin and fragile. To use an oxymoronic term, I was aggressively delicate in my work. I used several items: pipe cleaners, a wire brush attached to my rotary tool, my pipe knife, and some dental and scraping tools. I had to use all of my experience and judgement here – I wanted to remove as much as possible, but not at the risk of any damage to the pipe. Fortunately, I managed to walk that fine line. I wiped down the outside of the gourd, using a solution of a pH-neutral detergent and some distilled water, with cotton rounds. I was pleased with the results.I sanded down the acrylic shank extension (but not the gourd) with only the finest of the micromesh pads. I also cleaned out the inside with cotton swabs and alcohol. It wasn’t very dirty. I then coated the gourd with LBE Before & After Restoration Balm and let it sit for 30 minutes. After that, I buffed it with the microfibre cloth. Finally, I applied some light lubricant to the cork gasket. Even though the gasket was in perfect shape, it’s a good idea to lubricate it in this way in order to maintain its elasticity. I set it aside to absorb and moved on.

Before I went off to the buffer, I gave the meer and the gourd another going over with Clapham’s beeswax rub. This really worked well. I only took the stem to the buffer, as meerschaum and gourds don’t tolerate those high speeds very well!

All done! This gourd calabash looks fantastic again and I am delighted with the results. I’m sure my friend will be too. Stupidly, I forgot to take measurements of the pipe before I returned it to him. However, I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I enjoyed restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Restoring a Shamrock Billiard made in Ireland 105 Billiard with a Maltese Cross on the shank

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe was a mess and one that obviously had been “ridden hard and put away wet”. The finish and condition were filthy. It was definitely a stranger to any cleaning! This one is a smooth Billiard that has a rich coloured finish around the bowl sides and shank under the grit and grime of years. This pipe was purchased from an antique mall on 08/31/2024 in Hillsboro, Oregon, USA. The finish is dark and dull, so dirty that it obscures the grain in the finish. It was stamped on the left side of the shank and read SHAMROCK. It was stamped to the right of the shank and reads MADE IN IRELAND (in a circle) with the shape number 105 preceded by what looks like a Maltese Cross. Together they are next to the bowl. It was filthy when Jeff brought it to the table. There was a thick cake in the bowl and lava on the rim top and the inner edge of the bowl. There were nicks in the inner edge all the way around. The polished nickel band was stamped with a Shamrock [over] three faux hallmarks – a shamrock, an Irish Wolfhound and a tower with a door. The vulcanite stem was oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before his cleanup work.
Jeff took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is heavily caked so it is hard to know the condition of the edges under the lava overflow. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had tooth marks on the top and underside. Jeff took photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the grain that was around this bowl. You can see the mix of grain and the small sandpits in the finish in the photos below. Even so, it is a nice looking pipe. He took a photo of the sides of the shank to show the stamping. The stamping is clear and readable as noted above. He also captured the stamping on the polished nickel band on the shank. It is also very clear. I always try to research the brand and the stamping on a pipe so I can better understand its background and history before I start my work on it. The stamping on this pipe have a rich history that I wanted to understand. I am including the link to the 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 turned to “The Peterson Pipe” by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg to get some background on the Peterson’s Shamrock Pipe. On page 312 it had the following information.

Shamrock (c1941-2009) Originally stamped SHAMROCK with no brand name, an inexpensive line first described in George Yale (New York) mail order booklet in 1941, imported by Rogers Import. The line was actively promoted beginning in ’45, aggressively promoted in US by Rogers from early ‘50s when they registered the Shamrock logo with US Patent Office, claiming propriety since ’38. Over the years offered with P-lip or fishtail mouthpiece, with or without nickel band, with or without Shamrock logo on the band, with or without S stamped in white or later in gold on mouthpiece. Appearing in 2008 as unstained smooth and rustic, fishtail mouthpiece with gold impressed P on the stem. COMS of MADE IN over IRELAND (C1945-1965), MADE IN IRELAND forming a circle (c1945-1965), “A PETERSON’S PRODUCT” over MADE IN IRELAND (c1945-1965), MADE IN THE over REPUBLIC over OF IRELAND9c1948-1998). Model is always difficult or impossible to date.

Judging from the description above, the pipe I am working on is stamped with the stamp noted in red above. Made in Ireland in a circle which narrows the date to between approximately 1945-1965. It is just stamped SHAMROCK with no brand name and no stamping on the stem.

From there I turned to page 302 in the above book to unpack the stamping on the nickel band on the shank. There was a listing on the nickel mounted markings such as those used on the band on the shank of this pipe. I quote:

Nickel-Mount Markings. Often called faux hallmarks or faux marks by Peterson collectors, this set of three little images of a shamrock, an Irish wolfhound and a round tower appear within rectangular shapes as decorations on nickel mountings. Very early nickel mounts (1891-c. 1920) had no such decorations, only the same stamps used on sterling but without the hallmarks. As a stamp, the set of decorations began to appear at the beginning of the Irish Free State era, sometimes alone but often under K&P and over block lettered PETERSON over DUBLIN, although the three emblems appeared on K&P’s Irish Carving Shamrocks pipes since 1896. The stamp was used until about 1963, when hand soldered nickel bands and ferrules were replaced by pressed ferrules and premade bands…The shamrock is the emblem of Ireland; the Irish wolfhound has long been used for both hunting and protection, and is an emblem of strength; the round tower a symbol of Ireland’s early religious power. These decorations were stamped at the factory on non-sterling mounts only, and the assay office has nothing to do with them…

I have also included the following photo of the stamping on the nickel band below. It is as described above.That still not cover the Maltese Cross on the right side of the shank ahead of the shape number 105. I have seen these before but I wanted to document what I had found on Peterson’s Pipe Notes blog. I have included that below (https://petersonpipenotes.org/276-kps-pipes-for-the-illuminati-na-heireann/). I quote:

Two of the foremost researchers among the P.G. (Peterson Geeks) Irregulars are Lance Dahl and Scott Forrest, who independent of one another came up with compelling evidence regarding an unknown stamp on a number of pipes in their collections. The stamp looks like a Maltese cross and appears either singly or doubled on pipes from the Patent era through the Éire and Early Republic. Because pipemen can sometimes be quite dogmatic about what they read in a forum or imagine the case to be (“don’t confuse me with the facts, my minds made up”), I should let everyone know that Scott’s background is in historical research and Lance worked in government intelligence before his retirement, giving them that “Thinking Man” spirit we routinely find in our fellow CPGs…

… SCOTT: It’s crazy to speculate on the such scanty information, but since that’s what pipe smokers do almost every day regarding the origin of their pipes, here’s my take. This wasn’t an auxiliary of the Irish republicans. The Maltese cross is always thought of first as a symbol of protection, although to be sure numerous religio-political military organizations attached themselves to its use (like the Order of St. John, but there’s dozens of them). I say that because of what we know Charles Peterson’s own political views. But his cousin Conrad wasn’t adverse to using violence to bring about political change and neither was his own wife, right? So who knows? But it’s interesting that the Maltese cross pops up in these “Peace” advertisements in the 1910s, isn’t it?

… LANCE: I think I’d have to agree with Scott’s theory, based on the text at St. Patrick’s. The motives and purpose of the group seem outside the normal purview of the Irish republicans. While the book is about anti-Papal groups, but the two paragraphs on this group don’t say they were anti-Catholic per se so much as suggest they should be considered anti-Catholic because they were motivated by some kind of tolerance or pacificism like we find in the Mennonites of Ukraine, the Moravians, Quakers, Molokons or whoever. But the use of the Maltese crosses (three), the all-seeing Eye and the shamrock is interesting, isn’t it? Obviously the “watching” thing is there, the idea of enlightenment or secret understanding. Then there’s the symbol of Ireland, which is also a symbol of the Trinity used in the St. Patrick legend. The last line of the text from the seminary reads Hic coetus doctrinam suam non a Patriciis, sed a Sanctis Celticis habere videtur, something like “the society takes its spiritual doctrine not from Patrick but the Celtic saints before him.” So I don’t know, at least not until something more turns up.

The blog also includes a lot more information on the Maltese Cross or Crosses on Peterson’s Pipes. Give it a read as it very interesting. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

I was utterly surprised when I took this pipe out of the box and compared it to the before photos. 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. Surprisingly the walls looked unscathed from the heavy cake. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, shank brushes 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 Deoxidizer. He washed it off with warm water to remove the Deoxidizer. The pipe looked far better when it arrived. The cleaned up rim top revealed very damaged inner edge and the top. There were nicks in the surface of the rim and the edges. I took some close up photos of the rim top and the stem to show the condition of both. You can see the deep tooth marks and damage to the button edges on both sides.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is faint but still readable. It reads as noted above. I took a photo of the stamping on the shank. It is clear and readable. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to have a look at the parts and overall look. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the inside edge of the bowl and smooth out the damage on the rim top. I gave it a slight bevel to minimize the damage.I sanded the bowl and rim with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad to remove the sanding debris. It began to take on a shine by the final pad. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The bowl developed a rich shine. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 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 set the bowl aside and turned to the stem. I “painted” the stem surface with the flame of a lighter to lift the tooth marks. I was able to lift some of them. I filled in the remaining marks in the surface with extra strength, rubberized CA glue. I set it aside to cure. I sanded the marks smooth with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to further blend the repairs into the stem. I wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil cloth. It began to look much better.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 am excited to finish this Older Made in Ireland Shamrock 105 Maltese Cross Billiard. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl 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 beautiful mixed grain all around it, looks great with the new black vulcanite stem. This smooth Classic Shamrock 105 Maltese Cross Billiard is great 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 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 42 grams/1.48 ounces. It turned out to be a beautiful pipe. I will be putting on the rebornpipes store in the Irish Pipe Makers Section. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me. Any questions or observations are always welcome.

A Lovely Ropp Cherrywood Carre France 841 Octagonal Panel Poker Sitter

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by Steve Laug

This rusticated Bent Cherrywood with a fancy saddle stem and square bit is quite lovely and lightly smoked. It was one of a lot purchased on 01/20/2026 from a Facebook seller in Quaker Town, Pennsylvania, USA. It is a smooth Bent Cherrywood with octagonal panels on the of the bowl. The saddle stem is vulcanite and has the Ropp logo on the left side of the stem. The bowl is four smooth panels on the front, back and two sides. The remaining panels of the octagon and the shank still have the Cherry back. It is stamped on the smooth panel on the underside of the bowl and reads Ropp in an oval [over] Carre [over] France [over] the shape number 841. The bowl had a thick cake on the lower half of the bowl while the top half was clean. The rim top and the bevelled inner edge were quite clean. There was grime ground into the finish which left the bowl and shank dirty and dull. The vulcanite saddle stem has light tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his work on it. Jeff took photos of the rim edges and top to show the condition of the bowl and rim. It was surprising how clean it was. He took photos of the stem surface as well to show the condition as noted above.Jeff took photos of the bowl sides, heel and front of the bowl and the shank to give a sense of the condition of the bark around the sides of the pipe. It is a unique one. He took a photo of the stamping on the heel of the bowl and the inset Ropp oval logo on the left side of the stem. Both are readable and clear as noted above. I turned to Pipephil (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-ropp.html) to get a bit more background on the brand before I did my work on the pipe. No matter how many I have worked on I seem to forget the history of the cherrywood pipes. I quote:

Brand created by Eugène-Léon Ropp (1830 – 1907) and continued throughout 3 generations. “GBA Synergie” run by Bernard Amiel (†2008) bought back Ropp in 1988 and owned it until 1991. The company was taken over by Cuty-Fort Entreprises (Chacom, Vuillard, Jean Lacroix…) in 1994.

I have also included a screen capture of a Cherry wood pipe. The one I am working on is significantly different that this but it has he bark left on the pipe as noted below. Below the photo is the side bar information. The stamp on the stem on this one is different it is a silver oval with the name ROPP stamped in it.Cherry wood pipe with bark. Ropp stamped a cursive R on the stems of some of their export pipes.

I turned to Pipedia for a bit more detailed history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Ropp). I quote below.

Eugène-Léon Ropp (1830 – 1907) had acquired a patent for a cherrywood pipe (wild cherry, lat.: Prunus avium) in 1869. In 1870 he established a workshop to manufacture such pipes in Büssingen (Bussang, Vosges mountains). Around 1893 the business moved into the former mill of Sicard (part of the community of Baume-les-Dames – Département Doubs, Upper Burgundy – from 1895 on).

The pipes were a big success in the export as well. Shortly before 1914 Ropp designated A. Frankau & Co. (BBB) in to be the exclusive distributor in the UK and it’s colonies.

Probably in 1917 a workshop in Saint-Claude in the Rue du Plan du Moulin 8 was acquired to start the fabrication of briar pipes. In 1923 a small building in the environment of Saint-Claude, serving as a workshop for polishing, was added.

Even though cherrywood pipes were the mainstay of Ropp until the company finally closed down in September 1991. The company was taken over by Cuty-Fort Entreprises (Chacom, Jeantet, Vuillard, Jean Lacroix…) in 1994.

Reminded about the background on the Ropp Family and their Cherrywood pipe it was now time to turn to the pipe itself and do my part of the work.

As usual Jeff had done a thorough cleanup on the pipe. He 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, shank brushes 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. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub and a cotton pad. Once finished he soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water and cleaned out the airway in the stem with alcohol. Other than the damaged rim top the pipe looked good. I took a photo of the rim top and stem to show the condition. The rim top and the inner edge of the bowl had some damage and darkening on the front and the back of the bowl. The vulcanite saddle stem had light tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button.The stamping on the heel of the bowl is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. It is a nice looking octagonal panel with a slight bend in great condition.I polished the bark and clean cherrywood with micromesh sanding pads, dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads and wiping it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank both (smooth and bark covered) with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for about 10 minutes then buffed it with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out. I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. The photo below shows the polished stem. This nice Cherrywood finished ROPP Carre France 841 Octagonal Panel with a black vulcanite saddle stem is a great looking pipe. The rugged bark finish on four of the octagonal sides and the smooth panels on the other four highlight the grain on the cherrywood bowl front, back and sides. The black saddle stem works really well with the pipe as a whole. The wood is clean and really came alive. The rich medium brown of the wood gave the grain a sense of depth with the polishing and waxing. The grain really popped. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished ROPP Carre 841 Cherrywood is a beauty and feels great in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.05 ounces/58 grams. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. There are many more to come!

Restoring and Restemming a Stanwell Regd. No. 969-48 Old Briar 858 Billiard

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by Steve Laug

Not too long ago I received an email from a Andrew in Greece asking if I could work on some pipes for him. He had some that needed a stem and a couple of pipes with broken stems and a Canadian that had a crack down the back of the bowl and across the right side. We emailed back and forth and he sent me the following photos. I figured they would be some interesting pipes to work on so he sent them to me to work on. I received the box yesterday. When I opened it this morning I was amazed to see what he had sent. The Sandblast Canadian that needed restemming was stamped 264 Peterson’s Kapruf. The rest of the stamping was quite faint. The pipe needed to be restemmed and it had a small divot in the shank end and what looked like a crack. The second, a smooth Canadian was a BBB Ultonia 504 with a gold band. The two Sandblast with broken stems turned out to be Stanwells. The larger on is stamped Stanwell [over] Regd. No. 969-48. It is followed by the shape number 858 [over] Old Briar. The smaller one is stamped Stanwell [over] Regd. No. 969-48 followed by de Luxe followed by the shape number 87. The last of the five with the cracked bowl is an 8 Dot Sasieni [over] London Made [over] Pat. No. 1513428. It was also stamped “Amesbury”. They were going to be an interesting lot to work on.

The final pipe I had left to deal with was the larger Stanwell Old Briar 858 billiard next. It was in decent condition, probably the best of the lot. The stamping on the shank read Stanwell [over] Regd. No. 969-48 followed by Old Briar [over] the shape number 858. It was clear and readable. The sandblast finish was nice but dirty. The bowl had a light cake in it and there were spots of lava on the rim top and inner edge. The inner edge was in excellent condition with no damage. The interior of the shank was quite dirty. I took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show the condition of them bowl. The lava on the rim top was in the sandblast. The inner edge looked very good. I also took a photo of the underside of the shank to show the faint stamping that was present. It is faint in spots but is still readable.I turned to do a bit of research on the Stanwell Old Briar line first to Pipephil’s site and found a listing there with a photo of the stamping (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-stanwell.html). I included the sidebar information below the scan.Logo without crown. The “Regd. No.” stamping discontinued in late 1960s to very early 1970s.

I know that Pipedia has some great history (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Stanwell) on the brand so I turned there hoping to see the Old Briar. There were several examples of the Old Briar line shown on the site and references to it appearing in both a 1960s and 70s catalogue. I turned to an offsite catalogue from the 1970s and scrolled through until the page I am including below that show the Old Briar Line(https://files.homepagemodules.de/b169807/f122t2475p9130n1.pdf). It also states that the 800-899 shape numbers included the Sandblast De Luxe which includes the shape 858 Billiard that I am working on.I knew that the pipe I had in hand was pipe a robust Sandblast De Luxe 858 Billiard. With the Regd. No. on the shank, the pipe was made in the period between 1948 and 1960.

Now it was time to work on the pipe. I started my work on the pipe by reaming it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I cleaned the lava built up on the rim top with a brass bristle wire brush. I sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel to clean up the remaining bits. It looked much better after the clean up. I cleaned out the internals of the shank and bowl with pipe cleaners – regular and bristle and isopropyl alcohol. The pipe is very clean. I like it clean to make a better fit for new stem. I cleaned out the airway in the stem I had chosen with pipe cleaners and alcohol. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my finger tips and a shoe brush to work it into the sandblast. The product is incredible and the way it brings the grain to the fore is unique. It works to clean, protect and invigorate the wood. I went through my stems and found one that was the right length and would need some slight adjusting to fit the diameter of the shank and the tenon.I used a Dremel and sanding drum along with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to shape and rework the stem and tenon to fit the shank end. Once I was finished with the reshaping of the stem I put it in the shank and took photos of the look of the stem.I sanded the stem with 320-1500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil Cloth to remove the sanding dust. It began to look very good. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil Cloth. The stem began to take on a rich shine. This Stanwell Regd. No. 969-48 Old Briar Sandblast 858 Billiard with a new vulcanite taper stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restemmed and restored. The beautiful sandblast on the briar shines through the polished finish is stunning. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Stanwell Regd. No 969-48 Old Briar 858 Billiard fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 35 grams/1.23 ounces. It is a beautiful pipe and the last of the five pipes that Andrew sent me. Once I am finished with it, the lot they will be heading back to Greece. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. On a lark, I slipped a thin brass band on the shank just to see what it would look like. I figured it would give it a great, distinguished look. It was not needed so it was solely for decorative purposes. I sent picture of the pipe with and without the band to Andrew and he liked it as much as I did. With that in mind, I glued the band in place on the shank and let cure. I took photos of it once it was finished.