Tag Archives: Stem repairs

My brother has an eye for unusual pipes – A Mastercraft Sea Slug

Blog by Steve Laug

When I visited my brother a few months ago one of the pipes that he had picked up for me to restore is one that I probably would never have picked up myself. In fact to me it was ugly and there was nothing redeeming about it. It looked like a giant sea slug to me and even the striations looked like the wrinkles in the slug’s body as it crawled. But I have to say that my opinion changed as I worked on this old pipe. I know that Mastercraft actually made few pipes but had the pipes jobbed by other pipe companies globally. This one was made in Italy and has all the marks of a Lorenzo pipe to me. I doubt I will ever know for sure but that is my take on it. As you look at the photos you may have your own take on it and that is totally fine – just take the time to post what you think in the comments at the end of the post.

This old pipe was pretty rough when it came to my work table. The rim was battered and the reaming that had been done did not account for the angled bowl. There gouges of briar missing on the rim edge that extended into the bowl. The cake was soft but generous. The finish was tired and worn but underneath the grime the wire striations on the briar had something about them that drew me to them. The pipe is stamped on a semi-smooth portion of the bottom of the bowl/shank (on this pipe I am not sure where each of those terms ends). It reads Mastercraft in the classic shield of the logo. Next to that is stamped COLOSSALS or COLOSSAL S with the S slightly bigger perhaps referring to the Satin Grain. Under that is it stamped Imported Briar and Italy. There are some deep gouges in the briar on that smooth portion that obviously were there when the pipe was stamped as the stamping goes through them but does not show up in the deeper areas. The stem is Lucite and it was covered with tooth chatter on the top and the bottom sides near the button as well as some deep tooth marks on both sides and on the button surface. The slot in the airway was clogged and dirty. (The first picture below is a little out of focus but it gives and idea of the shape of the pipe.) I cleaned up the reaming angles with the Savinelli Pipe Knife and was able to get the bowl clean and smooth back to briar.I decided to try to bevel the rim to remove the gouges on the right top side. I worked on it for quite a while before I gave up on that and topped the bowl. In the photo below the largest gouge is the light brown portion of the rim on the top of the photo toward the back of the bowl.I took some photos of the stem to show the damage that needed to be worked on to recondition and rework it to bring it back to new. The first photo is the top of the stem and the second the underside.I was able to sand out the tooth marks on the top side of the stem with 220 grit sandpaper and also reshape the button a bit. I did the same on the underside but there was one deep tooth mark that I would need to fill.Giving up on trying to reshape the rim or repair it I topped the bowl on my topping board and took of the damaged area on the right side of the rim and the back of the left side as well. The gouges were just not something I wanted to try to fill in. I also decided that I would flatten the rim and give the inner edge a slight bevel. I would stain the rim to match the smooth portion on the underside of the pipe.I used the Dremel and sanding drum to bring the bowl back into round and then lightly beveled the inner rim edge with the sanding drum (first picture below). I cleaned up the Dremel work with a folded piece of 180 grit sandpaper followed by 220 grit (second picture).I cleaned the mortise and airways in the bowl and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol (I have always used 99% isopropyl).I restained the rim with a dark brown stain pen and blended in some black from a Sharpie pen. I wiped down the exterior of the bowl with alcohol on a cotton pad to remove the grime and to blend the rim colour with the bowl.I built up the tooth mark on the underside of the stem and the deep marks on the button surface with black super glue. Once it dried I sanded the repairs with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surface and sharpened the button edge with a needle file. I sanded the stem with 400-600 grit wet dry sandpaper to remove the scratches. I wet sanded it with 1500-3600 grit micromesh sanding pads and dry sanded it with 4000-12000 grit pads. I buffed it quickly with Blue Diamond and gave the stem a light coat of carnauba wax. I gave the bowl several coats of Conservator’s Wax and buffed it with a shoe brush and a microfibre cloth to give it a shine. I gave the stem several more coats of carnauba wax. I lightly buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad and then again with the microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. What started out as an oddball pipe to me somehow in the process of restoration took on a beauty of its own. I like the smooth rim and the contrast it gives with the wire finish on the bowl and shank. Together they work for me. I know in the box of pipes I have sitting to refurbish that Jeff has sent me some others that cause a raised eyebrow but I have to say he has an eye for seeing beauty where I would walk by it and leave the pipe to molder away.

Restoring a Stanwell Handmade Danish Bulldog

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Blog by Steve Laug

The second pipe I picked up from Charles Lemon of Dadspipes was a nice little Stanwell Bulldog that captured my attention. It is another one that I have added to my own collection. I loved the shape of it when I saw it in the photos that Charles sent me of the estate pipes he had purchased recently. It came in the mail through our ‘ultra quick’ Canada Post Express Mail on Friday. I cleaned up the W.O. Larsen and already wrote about that on the blog. This one looked amazing and came in its own Stanwell pipe pouch. It was stamped on the left underside of the diamond shank with the number 33 and next to that Stanwell Regd. No. 969-48 over Handmade in Denmark.When I removed the packing material and took the pipe out of the bag it was indeed a beauty. The colour was lighter than what was shown in the original photo that I had of the pipe. That does not matter too much to me as the lighter colour allows the grain to show through. This pipe has some amazing birdseye grain on the bowl sides. The diamond shank culminating in a vulcanite shank extension looks stunning. The finish was quite clean on the pipe and it still had a shine. The vulcanite shank extension was lightly oxidized. The shank stamping was very clear and sharp. The double rings on the bowl were in perfect condition. The finish on the bowl and shank was in excellent condition. The rim was another story. It had some tar and oil (lava) build-up that flowed over from the cake in the bowl. The cake, though uneven, was hard. The rim also had a burned area on the middle of the rim top on the right side. It impacted the condition of the bowl and the roundness of the inner rim edge. The stem was oxidized and the stamping of the Crown S was worn and the gold stamping was gone. There was tooth chatter on the topside of the stem and tooth marks on the underside. I took some close-up photos of the stem to show the tooth chatter and tooth mark on the underside near the button.I took a close-up photo of the rim to show the condition of the rim with the burned area (top left toward the front of the bowl) and the thickness of the cake.I reamed the cake back to bare briar with the Savinelli Pipe Knife. The carbon cake came out nicely and left the bowl quite clean. This reaming also gave me a clear picture of the condition of the burned area on the rim. The next series of photos tell the story. I reamed the bowl and then topped it. I took a photo after I had topped it lightly to show the extent of the burn mark on the right side of the rim. I finished topping the bowl using 220 grit sandpaper on the topping board. I sanded the rim with a medium and fine grit sanding block to smooth out the scratches. I used the light brown stain pen to touch up the rim surface. The inside rim edge needed some more work but I wanted to see what the rim looked like at this point.I sanded the inner edge of the rim with a folded piece of sandpaper – beginning with 180 grit and then progressing to 220 grit sandpaper and then on to 1500-3200 grit micromesh sanding pads. I beveled the edge slightly to remove the rim damage and darkening. The second photo below shows the finished rim after sanding. I touched up the inner bevel with a light brown stain pen. I wet sanded the vulcanite shank extension with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-12000 grit pads and gave it a coat of micromesh between the 4000 and the 6000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I cleaned out the inside of the mortise and the airways in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners until they came out clean.I scrubbed the stem with Meguiar’s Scratch X2.0 to begin removing the oxidation on the surface.Most of the oxidation came off so I used some Antique Gold Rub n’ Buff to highlight the Stanwell Crown S on the stem top.I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh pads and gave the stem a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads (I forgot to take the photo) and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. I set it aside to dry. I buffed the stem and bowl with Blue Diamond carefully working over the stem and the shank extension to polish the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax to protect and preserve it. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to add depth to the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I am looking forward to giving it an inaugural smoke soon. I really like the finished look of the pipe. The slightly beveled rim took care of the burn so that it can no longer be seen. The smooth finish shows off the birdseye grain and the swirls of cross grain. It is a beautiful pipe and I am glad to have it grace my pipe rack. Thanks for looking.

Restoring a W.O. Larsen 11 Handmade Bent Brandy

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

Charles Lemon of Dadspipes blog picked up a batch of pipes that included a lot of Danish made ones from an estate not long ago. He has been writing about their restoration on his blog. He sent me some photos of the pipes and offered to sell some to me. I chose two of them. The first one was the Larsen that is pictured below. The description of the pipe said that it was stamped on the underside of the shank 11 over W.O. LARSEN over Handmade over Made in Denmark. On the topside of the shank next to the stem/shank junction it was stamped SUPER. The stem had a broken tenon and it was stuck in the shank. Charles had mentioned that he thought it looked like it had been glued in so it would take a bit of work. When I saw the grain on it I decided that it would be a fun piece to work on for my own rack. It has some stunning flame grain on all around the bowl sides and birdseye grain on the rim and the bottom of the bowl and shank.I looked up some background on W.O. Larsen and found a great summary on this site. It was helpful and brief so I quote it in full below: https://www.finepipes.com/pipes/danish/w-o-larsen?sort=20a&page=1&zenid=debcdee8f415c1977fb5c359652d6aeb W.O. Larsen was one of the most famous tobacco shops in Copenhagen, with a beautiful store located on Copenhagen’s famous “Walking Street.” During the flowering of the Danish pipe in the ’60’s, they first began retailing pipes by such carvers as Sixten Ivarsson, Sven Knudsen, Poul Rasmussen, and Brakner. Urged on by his store manager Sven Bang, the owner, Ole Larsen, decided to begin making pipes in the basement of the shop. He first hired Sven Knudsen as the pipe maker, who soon passed the job to his protégé Hans “Former” Nielsen. Larsen’s fortunes rose along with the rest of the Danish pipe business and Former was soon managing a group of carvers in the old Larsen cigar factory. Among these were Teddy Knudsen, Tonni Nielsen, Jess Chonowitch, Peter Hedegaard and others, who were responsible for the Select and Straight Grain series before they branched out on their own. After Former left to start Bentley pipes in Switzerland, his duties were taken over by Soren Refbjerg Rasmussen, while the straight grains were made by Teddy’s student Benni Jorgenson. As Ole’s health began to fail, the reins were taken over by his son Nils. Nils became convinced that the way for Larsen to prosper was by entering the low-end market, and acquired the Georg Jensen pipe factory to make an array of less expensive pipes. This turned out to be a fatal error, and Larsen was recently sold to Stanwell, who continue to produce so-called “Larsen” pipes in their huge factory. Thus ended an important part of Danish pipe history.

I was looking forward to seeing it firsthand so I paid Charles and he shipped it on Friday. Wonder of wonders, Canada Post delivered it on Monday. I came home from work to find the awaited box on the table. I opened it and found the Larsen in a bag with the label printed on the outside enumerating it’s stamping. I took it out of the bag and immediately took it to the work table. The photos below show the pipe as it looked when it arrived. It was much lighter in colour than the photo had led me to believe.The bowl was dirty and there were some dents and marks in the briar. The rim had a thick coating of tars and the back edge of the rim was worn down from knocking the pipe out to empty it. There was an uneven cake in the bowl. The tenon was stuck in the shank and there were dried bits of glue on the end of the shank and around the end of the stem where someone had glued the stem onto the end of the shank. Fortunately the stem did not stick to the briar but the tenon certainly did. The stem was clean of bite or tooth marks and was lightly oxidized. I took a photo of the end of the shank to show the glue spots on the briar and around the broken tenon.When I had looked at the initial photo I was uncertain that the stem was original as it looked to be bigger in diameter than the shank. I lined up the broken tenon in the shank with the rough end on the stem and took some photos to see if it actually fit the pipe.I decided to try pulling the tenon with my normal screw and it did not budge. It began to shatter and break apart.Thus I knew that I would have to resort to drilling out the broken tenon. I set up my cordless drill and put a drill bit slightly larger than the airway in the chuck. I slowly drilled out the tenon, increasing the size of the drill bit until it was the just slightly smaller than the mortise. The last bit I used broke the tenon piece free from the shank and the mortise was clear.While I had the drill out I also drilled out the broken tenon in the stem in preparation for the replacement tenon I would use.Once the airway was drilled out on the stem I used a tap to thread the newly drilled airway to accommodate the threaded replacement Delrin tenon.I used the topping board and 220 grit sandpaper to clean off the glue residue on the end of the stem before I put the new tenon in place. I want a clean, flat surface to work with against the shank when I was finished.I used some clear super glue on the new tenon and twisted it into the stem. I put it in the shank to check the alignment several times before putting a few more drops of super glue around the tenon stem union.Once the glue dried I put the stem in place in the pipe and took some photos to evaluate the fit. With the tenon repair completed it was time to address the bowl. I took some close up photos of the bowl/rim and the stamping on the shank.I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer using the third cutting head and took the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Pipe Knife. I sanded the inside of the bowl with a tube of sandpaper. This smoothed out the walls of the bowl and began to clean up the damage on the inner edge of the rim.The rim damage on the back side needed to be dealt with so I topped the bowl to remove the damaged area.I scrubbed the briar with acetone on cotton pads to remove the wax, grime and oils in the wood. The grain is really beautiful in the photos below. I scrubbed out the mortise and airway in the shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners until they came out clean.I mixed three of the stain pens together to get the correct brown on the rim. Once it was blended and sanded I stained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain and flamed it. I repeated the process until the coverage was even on the bowl. I wiped down the bowl with alcohol on cotton pads to make it more transparent and make the grain show through. It still needed more work but it was definitely getting there. The inner edge of the rim needed more work to remove the damage but the colour was correct.I used a folded piece of 180 grit sandpaper to bevel the inner rim of the bowl to remove the damaged areas. I followed up by sanding it with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper and continued to sand the inner edge. I sanded the inner edge and rim with 1800-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I restained the inner bevel with a dark brown stain pen to match the finish on the bowl.With the bowl finished I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads. I rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil and dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads. I gave it another coat of oil and sanded it with 6000-12000 grit pads. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and then gave the bowl and stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. By now you are all probably very familiar with my process. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise a shine and then hand buffed it with a microfibre cloth to add depth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is one I plan on hanging onto for my own rack and I am happy with how it turned out. Thanks for looking.

Breathing New Life into a Design by Curtis Metal Pipe

6 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

This smoking metal pipe is really Art Deco looking. It has a metal finned bowl with a pressure fit top cap holding in a briar bowl. There is a threaded connector between the bowl and the metal shank base. The connector threads into both the bowl and the shank. The shank has a pointed end cap that is frozen in place. The bowl was caked and worn. The stem had bite marks on both the top and the bottom sides near the button. The stem is a military mount that sits in a stepped down interior of the metal shank. There is a tube at the end of the airway in the shank that seems to have holes in it as the air flows through when blown into the end. The exterior of the pipe is oxidized and dull. The bottom of the shank is stamped Design by Curtis over Pat. Pend. It is a brand about which I know nothing. I took some close-up photos of the bowl and the stamping on the shank to give a better idea of what the pipe looked like when I started. I took the pipe apart to have a look at the pieces individually and see what I could learn from the way it fit together. I was unable to take the end cap off the shank and I was not willing to damage the cone shaped piece to work it free. I wanted to learn more about the pipe so I did a bit of digging on the Smoking Metal Pipes Site and found this information and pictures (http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=52 ). The site showed a picture of another version of the pipe. It may be newer than the one that I had in hand. It was marked as a Curtis Custom-Built Pipe Model 100. It was manufactured by Curtis Industries of 1120 East 222^nd Street, Cleveland, Ohio. They were first seen around 1946. The pipe that was pictured was different in several ways. The stem was different in that it had a filter insert and a threaded tenon. My version did not have a filter system and also did not have the stinger end cap that held the filter in place. The pictures that follow come from that site. I have cropped and rearranged them to better suit the order of my blog. The brochure also comes from that site. From the Smoking Metal Site it appears that the patent was applied for 25 December 1945. It had the patent number #D143257 and the inventor is named as Howard Abrams from University Heights, Ohio. The site also showed a cut away photo of the bowl and cup.It also includes a copy of the brochure that was included with the pipe. The cover of the brochure reads The Curtis Custom-Built Pipe and three descriptors – Streamlined, Precision Built, Guaranteed. The back reads The Curtis Pipe carries a six month guarantee. The rest reads No. 52927 over Curtis Industries 1120 East 222^nd St. Cleveland, Ohio over Model 100 Patent Pending.Inside it reads A few simple ways to care for your Curtis Pipe. I typed out the contents below the picture.1. Break your pipe in slowly. For the first few smokes fill the pipe loosely and only half way then smoke the new Curtis Pipe slowly and all the way down. Don’t puff hard or fast or you may burn your tongue and may burn out the bowl as well.

2. Don’t collect too much cake, a cracked, burnt and useless bowl will result.

3. Never knock your pipe on hard surfaces since you may split the shank or break the bit. Don’t bite on the bit too hard.

4. Keep your pipe clean. Use your cleaner every few smokes and occasionally use a good fluid to cleanse it.

5. By removing the knurled cap on the pipe stem, a standard pipe filter can be used.

The Curtis Pipe, new in design is produced with a high degree of precision, designed for a cool, clean smoke. Enjoy the full smoking benefits of the pipe by following above suggestions.

Armed with this information I took the pipe apart and began to clean and restore it. I reamed the bowl with the Savinelli Pipe Knife to remove the cake and clean up the briar rim of the bowl insert. I unscrewed the bowl and the threaded connector from the bottom of the bowl. I cleaned out the connector and the airway in the bowl with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I scrubbed the rim and the interior of the bowl with cotton swabs and alcohol to clean out the remaining debris in the bowl and on the rim.I scrubbed out the mortise and airway with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs to remove the tars and residue. I heated the end cap and still could not remove it so I cleaned out the inside of the airway from the top of the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. It was a bit of a pain to work around the tube in the shank below but I was able to remove the grime and build up in that place.I set the shank aside and worked on the stem. I cleaned it out with alcohol. There were two deep tooth marks on top and the underside of the stem. I wiped the stem surface down and filled in the dents with black super glue. I sprayed the glue with the accelerator and then sanded the repairs down with 220 grit sandpaper and a medium grit sanding stick until they matched the surface of the stem. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and rubbed it down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of oil. I let the oil dry. I dry sanded the aluminum barrel shank and the rim of the bowl with 4000-12000 grit micromesh pads. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond and then buffed it with a clean flannel buffing pad. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is a beautiful example of the Curtis pipe and the finished pipe is a great addition to my metal collection. Thanks for looking.

ADDENDUM

I received and email from one of the blog’s readers, Doug with some photos of the break down of the bowl system. It looks like the rim top is indeed pressure fit. Thanks for providing these photos Doug. They certainly add to our understanding of the way the bowl was designed.

Dunhill White Dot Repair

12 Replies

Lance Leslie

I received an email from Lance this afternoon with a blog submission. In his email he states that he thought that this would make a good blog for the site. He has been restoring pipes for a few years and has learned some valuable tips on rebornpipes. He sent along a restoration he completed that had a repair tip he had not seen addressed on the blog. While I have inserted dots on Dr. Plumb pipes and an odd variety of others I have not dedicated a blog to this repair so I agreed that it would be good to have his process spelled out here. Welcome to rebornpipes as a contributor Lance. It is good to have you here. Hopefully this will be the first of many contributions that you bring to the site. — Steve

I have been restoring pipe for a few years now and have learned some valuable tips from rebornpipes. I have a restoration to share and unless I have missed it, I have not seen this issue addressed on this blog. The issue being, adding the infamous white dot to new replacement stem. Or…in my case, a blank replacement stem.

I recently won this Dunhill on eBay and noticed that the White Dot was missing. After asking all the right questions to be sure I WAS bidding on a Dunhill, I made my offer and won. The owner did not know much about pipes so he did not know if it was a replacement stem. I have seen the white dot covered by soot only to be revealed during the cleaning, but this was not the case. This was listed as a 1982 Dunhill Bruyere but it turned out to be a 1977. Here is the pipe as it looked when it arrived.The rim was covered with lava and the bowl was thick with cake. There were some dings in the bowl that would need to be addressed. The stem had some dents and would need a White Dot added. What is a Dunhill without the White Dot? The stem was also heavily oxidized. I placed the stem in an Oxyclean bath and let the stummel soak in an alcohol bath to loosen the lava. After I removed the lava I saw significant damage to the rim of the piped and the rim was scorched in two places. This could only be fixed by topping the bowl. Rats! I removed the stem for the Oxyclean bath and polished it with Meguiar’s scratch X 2.0. I didn’t want to go too far with the stem because I would be adding the dot later. I then took the bowl and my sanding bit and topped the bowl. As you can see, it is now clean and sharp. The scorching was also gone. Thank goodness it was not too deep. Next I wanted to address the dents in the sides of the bowl. Thanks to rebornpipes I knew a simple way to do this. And yes, my wife is missing a dish towel. With said dish towel wet, I heated a kitchen knife with a lighter. I pressed the knife against the dish towel and steamed the dent right out. Works every time. Now I needed to stain the top of the bowl. I mixed up some leather dye to match color of the bowl and gave the top several coats until it matched.Now the fun part!! It was time to add the White Dot to the stem. I had recently acquired a quad copter (Syma X5SW) and remembered the propeller protectors that came with the copter.
These are added for beginners to help protect the blades while you learn to fly. I no longer needed these so I checked the size and knew it would be a perfect match. BTW, you can order these blade protectors off of Amazon. Just type in replacement parts for Syma X5SW. They are cheap! See photos below… The ends of the blade protectors would do nicely. They are even conical shaped!!! I clipped off one end and sat it to the side. I then took some old stems and did a practice run before trying it on the Dunhill. It worked like a charm. I did not take pictures of my practice run, sorry. I then went to my drill bits and chose the correct size. I lined up another Dunhill beside this one to get the proper distance for the White Dot on the stem. After I found the distance and center, I carefully drilled about 3 mm down. (Start your drill out slow if you use a hand-held drill. I would suggest a drill press if you have one.) I added some black super glue to the hole and placed the little white rod into the hole. Then using a rubber hammer, I hammered it into the hole.Then I clipped the plug as close as I could using scissors, and sanded down the rest with my sanding bit. The rest of the plug was sanded down with 220 sandpaper.Then it was a trip through the micro-mesh sanding/polishing pads. The pipe was married to its stem once again and polished with carnauba wax. Here is the finished pipe.

This one was just plain ugly it was such a mess

9 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

When my brother sent me the link for this one and I scrolled through the pictures the seller included, I almost said to pass on it. It was such a mess that the ugliness made me not want to even deal with this one. But there was something challenging about the pipe and through the gunk it looked like it might have some interesting grain. I know in the early days of my estate buying on EBay I did not pay attention to the measurements on the pipe. I figured it would be a moderately sized Banker or Author with an oval shank. I also ignored the brand stamping on the pipe. It read La Strada Forte on the top of the shank which also should have been a bit of a giveaway. Even the photos below that the seller included of the pipe in a rest should have been a clue. But I missed the clue because I was blown away by the sheer disaster of the pipe. As you look at it below try to catalogue the issues that you see. Let me tell you what, no matter how much I prepared myself by cataloging the issues I saw in the pictures they in no way captured the reality of the mess this pipe was in. It was actually quite unbelievable. First off, I should have read the measurements. This pipe was huge. The length was average really, at 5 ½ inches long. The width of the shank was a bit bigger at 1 1/8 inches wide. The diameter of the bowl exterior was 2 1/8 inches. The chamber appeared to be an inch in diameter but the cake in it reduced it to about ¾ inch. The cake was thick and it was hard. It overflowed onto the top of the bowl and part way down the sides. The inner edge of the rim looked like someone had hacked at it with a knife so underneath the thick cake I could see the chop marks of the knife in the edges of the bowl. The finish was more than shot – it was gone and in its place was thick oily grime ground into the briar. The stamping was black with the oils. It was thick enough that the grime was flaking off on the bottom of the bowl. The stamping was readable and said LA STRADA over FORTE on the top side. On the underside was the shape number 538 and next to the shank stem junction was stamped Italy. The stem was not only oxidized but really worn. The top edge of the button was almost flattened and there were tooth marks in the top of the stem. The underside was another story – there was a chunk of vulcanite missing and the button was gone. The airway was collapsed and the inside surface was gouged with file marks. This poor pipe was looking pretty desperate and I thought about cannibalizing it for briar and parts.Then I looked at the briar through the grime. The bottom of the bowl had some really nice grain – a few fills popping through – but still really nice. The sides of the bowl also had some promise under the grime. And, I liked the shape of the pipe even though it was a war club. Maybe…just maybe…I took a close-up photo of the top of the bowl and the cake inside. I still shake my head when I see the state of the bowl and the damage to the inner rim. It was really in bad shape. Just look at the hack job that had been done to that inner edge.I also took a couple of close-up photos of the stem to show the extent of damage that had been done to it as well. It was in very rough shape.I reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer starting with the smallest cutting head to clean up the walls of the bowl slowly. I worked through all four reaming heads ending with the largest one. I used the Savinelli Pipe Knife to do some clean up to the edges and try to smooth out some of the rim damage. Between the largest PipNet cutting head and the pipe knife I was able to do a lot of redeeming work on the inner edge of the rim.I topped the bowl on the topping board to remove the damaged finish and to reduce the damage to the inner edge of the rim.I scrubbed the surface of the briar with acetone on cotton pads to remove the dirt and grime in the grain as well as the oils. It was amazing how much grit came off the bowl. Once the surface was clean I worked on the inner rim. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to bevel the edge inward and clean up the cuts and nicks in the edge. I did not take a picture at this point but you will see the cleaned up rim in the pictures that follow the work on the stem.

I set the bowl aside to work on the stem. To take care of the damaged stem I made a wedge out of cardboard and covered it with clear strapping tape so that the super glue mixture I was going to use would not stick to it. I wanted it thick enough to leave an airway/slot in the stem. I mixed up a paste of charcoal powder and black super glue. The glue has a slow drying time so I was able to mix a thick paste with the combination. I used a dental pick and spatula to put the mixture in place on the top and the bottom of the stem and build up the area that would become the button on the top side and the repair and button on the underside. I also built up a slope on the stem underside to give me a bit more thickness over the airway. At this point I sprayed the repair with an accelerator to harden the surface of the glue. I set it aside to let the glue repair cure/harden.Once the repair had hardened I used the sanding drum on the Dremel to smooth out the repair. I would still need to sand it by hand but the Dremel took a lot of the heavy spots out of the mix and also allowed me to rough shape the button.The next photos show the repairs after a lot of filing and sanding. The shape is very clear and distinct. The repair is rock solid. You can also see the inner rim bevel on the rim of the bowl in the first photo.The slot was really tight in the button. It was partially closed off and need to be reopened. I used different shaped needle files to open the slot and to reshape it. I also reshaped the button with the needle files. The three photos below show the development of the slot and the button.I reshaped the button edges with needle files and reshaped the taper of the stem from the saddle to the button. I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to blend it into the surface of the vulcanite stem. The photos show the progression in the shaping. There is still a lot of sanding to do to finish the shaping and polishing of the stem but I set it aside and worked on the bowl for a while. I cleaned out the inside of the mortise and the airway in the shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. It took a lot of scrubbing to clean out the airway and mortise.I heated the briar with a blow dryer and then stained it with a dark brown aniline stain mixed 50% with isopropyl. I used a black Sharpie to darken the fills on the bowl and shank then applied the stain with a cotton swab and flamed it with a lighter to set it in the grain.I wiped the bowl down with alcohol cotton pads to blend the stain and to make it more transparent. The photos below show the bowl after the wipe down. The scrubbed bowl looks quite a bit lighter but once it is waxed it will darken again. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 micromesh sanding pads and rubbed the stem down with Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded it with 3200-4000 grit pads and gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of oil and let it dry. (The photos below show both sides of the stem with each set of micromesh pads.) I buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the wheel and then gave it multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to polish the wax. I buffed it by hand with a microfibre cloth to add depth to the shine. I am pleased with the overall look of the pipe and considering what it was like when I first looked at it the improvement is vast. The stem repair is quite extensive. It has cured and is hard now and I am curious as to how it will hold up over time. The pipe looks good and should have a long life ahead of it. Thanks for looking.

Rough Texture of a Jobey Shellmoor combined with Yellow Lucite

4 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

As I said before I never paid much attention to Jobey pipes. My brother has given me a new appreciation for them. The pipe he sent me that I chose to work on next is stamped Jobey Shellmoor on the underside of the shank. There is no shape number or other stamping on the pipe. There is a Jobey logo stamped on the yellow acrylic/Lucite stem. When I first saw the pipe I was pretty certain that the stem was a replacement. Now that I have it in hand I have to admit I was wrong it is the original. When I first picked it up I thought it would be a pretty straightforward repair. I could not have been more wrong but that would come out in the process of the restoration. The rustication was very dirty on the sides of the bowl but it had that rough rustication that I have come to expect on Shellmoor pipes. The rim was in rough shape with lava in all of the grooves. That would have been easily remedied but there was also a burned area on the top of the rim at the front that had left a deep groove. The bowl was thickly caked (I removed much of it in Idaho when I was there). When I brought it to the work table and tried to finish reaming the bowl I was reminded of the rock hard cake. It took two different reamers to take out the cake. The stem had some tooth marks and the airway was black with tars. When I removed the stem the Jobey Link was stuck in the stem. Not a big deal but it would make getting the black out of the airway. When I examined the rim more closely I saw that it was actually quite damaged. I took two close-up photos of it to show the thick lava and the burned area on the front of the bowl. It is a little hard to see in the second photo (forgive the slightly out of focus photo) but it extends down the front of the bowl about ¼ inch. I worked on the Jobey Link and was able to dribble alcohol down the stem to soften the tars that held it in the stem. I wiggled it free. The photo below shows the pipe taken apart.I started working on the bowl by reaming it completely. The cake was exceptionally. I hard I used the PipNet reamer with the first three cutting heads to take the cake back to bare briar. I used a Savinelli Pipe Knife to complete the job at the bottom of the bowl. When I had finished reaming the bowl I noticed that the airway into the bowl was absolutely invisible. I could not see it on the back wall of the bowl. I used the drill bit from the KleenReem pipe reamer to hand drill out the airway from the shank into the bowl. The tars in the shank were almost as hard as the cake in the bowl. It took a lot of elbow grease and pressing the bit into the airway. I was finally rewarded with it popping through into the bowl. With the rough cleaning done on the bowl and shank I decided to work on the rim surface. I topped it with 220 grit sandpaper on the topping board. (If you look closely at the shank end in the photo it appears that there is a crack in the shank. It is merely a scratch in the top surface of the briar at that point.)After topping it for a while I took a photo to show the extent of the damage to the rim. This photo clarifies what I saw in the original scan of the bowl.I continued topping the bowl until I got to solid wood under the burned area. The rim surface was darkened but the briar was hard. I picked the burned area on the front of the bowl clean of soft burned wood with a dental pick.I was not too worried about the rim darkening as I intended to rusticate it again to match the rough finish of the bowl. I filled in the burned area with clear super glue to build it up. I also intended to rusticate the burned area on the front of the bowl at the same time. The next series of photos show the process of rustication and the different burrs I used on the Dremel to get the pattern on the rim I wanted. I also worked on the front of the bowl to remove the damage of the burned area with the same burrs. I tried to match the pattern on the rest of the bowl. The success of that will be seen in later photos. Once I had the work down with the Dremel and burrs I took it back to the worktable and used a brass bristle brush to knock of the sharp edges and the loose pieces of briar from the rim and the bowl front. The second and third photos show the bowl front and the work that I did to match the pattern in that area. I scrubbed the briar with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime so that I could restain the bowl. I rinsed it with warm running water to remove the soap from the grooves and crevices along with the loosened grime.I used a black Sharpie to colour in the depths of the rustication on the rim and the repaired area at the front of the bowl. I wanted to approximate the contrast in the rest of the finish.I restained the bowl with a dark brown aniline stain and flamed it to set it in the grain. I repeated the process until the coverage was what I wanted.I wiped down the bowl with alcohol on cotton pads to remove some of the dark brown stain from the high spots on the bowl and add some contrast and depth to the finish. I took another close-up photo of the rustication on the rim to show what it looked like with the stain coat.I cleaned out the mortise threads and the airway with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol.Once it was clean I greased the threads on the Jobey Link with Vaseline and turned it in place in the shank with a small screwdriver.The stem turned out to be another issue that I had not taken into real consideration. The dark stain of tars and oils in the airway turned out to be a real pain. I used cotton swabs and alcohol to clean out the portion of the stem that slid over the Link. That was the easy part. I then scrubbed out the airway with alcohol and pipe cleaners. I used a dental pick to clean out the slot in the button. The tars in the airway were stubborn. I mixed a batch of Oxyclean, inserted pipe cleaners in the airway to wick the mixture up the stem and then dropped the pipe in the mixture to soak overnight. I took it out in the morning and scrubbed it with several different brushes and pipe cleaners. I removed about 50% of the black in the stem but not all of it. I put it back in the Oxy soak for another night.I buffed the bowl by hand with a shoe brush to see what the finish would look like. The following photos give a good picture of where things stand with the bowl at this point. I took the stem out of the Oxy bath and cleaned out a bit more of the darkened area. I used pipe cleaners dipped in Bar Keepers Friend scouring powder and was able to get out more of the tars and darkening. I stopped for a little while and worked on the externals. There were several deep tooth marks in the stem near the button on the top and bottom sides. I sanded and cleaned the stem then filled the tooth marks with clear super glue. When the glue set I sanded the repairs smooth to match the surface of the stem. I went back to scrubbing the airway. I remembered reading about someone using soft scrub successfully so I ran upstairs and asked my wife if she had any I could use. I push it through the airway in the stem with thick, fluffy pipe cleaners and rotated them to scrub. It took out some more of the darkening but still not enough to my liking. Finally I set up a retort on the stem alone. I boiled alcohol through the stem to remove more. Finally I used an ear syringe to shoot boiling water through the stem. I gave up after using all of those methods. I think I had removed as much of the darkening as I was going to get out of the stem. The stem definitely looks better than it did when I started. I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and wiped it down. I dry sanded with 3200-12000 grit pads and wiped it down. I lightly buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the wheel and then gave the stem several coats of carnauba. I polished the stem and bowl with a clean buffing pad and then by hand with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown below. The first photos show the areas of the rim and the front of the bowl that I cleaned up and re-rusticated with the burrs and Dremel. The remaining photos are of the pipe in its entirety. I have never seen a Jobey Shellmoor pipe with a Lucite stem but this golden stem goes really well with the dark brown stain. The finished pipe is 6 ½ inches long and looks rather dapper and stylish. It has come a long way from when I started on it. I picked this pipe to work on while I was restoring the La Strata because I thought it would be easy. I could not have been more wrong. But I am glad it is finished. Thanks for looking.

Breathing New Life into a Jobey Stromboli 500 Bent Sitter

3 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

It’s funny how some brands escape my attention. I cannot explain it or give some rationale for not being interested in Jobey pipes. But I know that until my brother, Jeff started picking them up because he liked the looks of them they did not appear much on my radar. I know that a few years back I picked up a Stromboli ¼ bent author because I liked the look of the rustication but that was the long and short of my interest. Now since my brother has been buying pipes more of them are crossing my work table and I am gaining a new appreciation for them.

In the case of this pipe, I know that the blue stem on this Stromboli is what caught my brother’s eye. It is a gorgeous shade of blue that stands in stark contrast to the dark deep rustication of the bowl and shank of the pipe. He sent me the link to the eBay sale and I too took an interest in the stem and the shape. From the photos I could see that the finish on this pipe was in decent shape overall. There was some wear on the rim. It appeared that some of the finish had chipped off and there were some worn spots on the front and the back outer edges of the bowl. The cake was uneven (varying thicknesses from the photos) in the bowl and an overflow of lava on the rim top and edges. The stem had some stains or dark substance on the grooves of the turned portions. The pipe is stamped on the smooth bottom of the sitter bowl with the words Jobey over Stromboli and the number 500. The stem also has some wear and tooth marks on and in front of the button on the top and bottom sides. All in all, I was looking forward to receiving this pipe and seeing what I could make of it. I have included the seller’s pictures below to show some of the issues that I mentioned above. When the pipe arrived it looked precisely as the pictures had shown it. The dirty finish was a little worse than the photos showed. There was more grime in the grooves of the rustication. The stamping on the bottom of the bowl had a wax buildup in it that made it appeared blurred and double stamped. The stem was also a bit more of a mess than I had originally thought. The brown areas around the grooves and lines on the stem were actually thick and hard and did not come off by scraping. I am not sure what the substance was but it seemed to be stubbornly permanent. There were also tooth marks on stem on both the top and the underside of the stem near the button. The top of the button was also worn down on the inner sharp edge. The slot was almost closed off with grime and debris. The stem was loose and easily fell of the Jobey Link in the mortise. I took some photos of the pipe before I started working on it. I took a close-up photo of the rim and also the bottom of the bowl to show the stamping. The rim was dirty with tars and oil and some lava in the grooves. The bowl had a light cake remaining even after I had field reamed it when I was visiting in Idaho. The stamping on the bottom of the bowl is visible in the second photo. It had wax and grime in the grooves so it looked almost blurred and out of focus. I removed the stem from the Jobey Link and then used a flat blade screw driver to turn the link out of the shank of the pipe. I took a photo of the parts of the pipe to show the size and shape of the link. (You can also see the brown buildup on the grooves and ridges of the stem).I scrubbed the rustication with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the deep grooves. I also used a brass bristle brush to scrub the rim and the grooves there. The bristles of the brass brush easily removed the tars and lava from the rim surfaces. Once the bowl was scrubbed I rinsed it under warm running water to remove the soap and grime and then dried it on a soft towel. I used a dark brown stain pen to touch up the worn areas on the outside edge of the rim and the top surface as well. The dark brown perfectly matched the stain on the rest of the bowl. With the link removed from the shank I was able to clean out the mortise with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. I worked on the threads as well to remove the buildup on them. I clean out the airway on the stem with pipe cleaners and alcohol and picked the slot clean with a dental pick. I used a pipe cleaner to also clean out the airway in the link. With the inside of the stem clean the link fit snugly in place and the stem was no longer loose. With the inside of the stem clean it was time to work on the rock hard substance on the grooves of the turned stem. The substance was impermeable to alcohol and was also on the flat diamond sides of the saddle portion of the stem. I wrapped a metal tube that was approximately the same diameter as the grooves with 220 grit sandpaper and worked on cleaning out the grooves and an emery board to sand the flat surfaces. I used a needle file to redefine the edges of the button on both sides of the stem and to also smooth out the tooth chatter and marks. I sanded the stem at the button and grooves with 150, 280, 320, 400 and 600 grit wet dry sandpaper to smooth out the scratches left behind by the 220 grit sandpaper. I took photos of all sides of the stem to show how well the sanding removed the hard substance on the stem in the affected areas. I cleaned out the stamping with a dental pick and then used a black Sharpie Pen to colour in the text of the stamping. I buffed the bowl bottom lightly on the buffer to blend the black pen into the rest of the bowl bottom. I turned the link back into the shank and gave the bowl a light coat of Conservator’s Wax. I buffed it with a shoe brush to raise the shine. I did a final scrape of the interior of the bowl with a Savinelli Pipe Knife to remove the remaining cake on the bowl walls.I wet sanded the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads and then wiped down the stem with a clean cloth to remove the dust. I dry sanded the stem with 3200-12000 grit pads to continue to polish and shine the stem.

I lightly buffed the stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. It is important with Lucite to keep a light touch as you move the stem against the wheel as you can easily melt the stem and make more work for yourself. I hand gave the stem several coats of carnauba and buffed it with a clean buff. I brought the pipe back to the work table and buffed the bowl with the shoe brush and also with a microfibre cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is a beauty. I love the contrast between the dark brown/black of the craggy rustication and the smooth deep, royal blue of the stem. Thanks for looking.

Gotta Love this Sandblast on the Ehrlich Diamond Shank Bent Billiard

10 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

When I saw this Ehrlich Sandblast Diamond Shank bent Billiard I was immediately drawn to the cragginess of the blast on the bowl. The deep lines and grooves of the blast that go all around the bowl are really nicely done. The ridges and grooves flow with the cut of the pipe and give it a distinctive flare that I was taken by. The finish was worn but in decent shape in the EBay photos but it still looked good. When I picked up the pipe from my brother on an April visit I could not wait to work on it. I took these photos to show the state of the pipe when I received it. The finish was worn and dirty – lots of grime in the deep grooves. The rim was pretty clean. I field reamed it when I was at my brothers and took back the cake that was there to bare briar. The shank had a smooth portion on the left underside where the EHRLICH stamp resides. I have no idea how to tell the age of their pipes as all the ones I have had over the years have had the same stamping. Some added a second line – Supreme, etc. – but this one only had Ehrlich. The band on the shank end is stamped Sterling. It was obviously put on the shank after the blast and was a shop cosmetic addition. It does not hide any cracks in the shank. The stem was oxidized and had some serious bite marks on the underside that would need to be addressed. I liked the shortness of the stem as it gave the pipe a compact look that worked with this pipe. I took some close-up photos of the rim and the stem to show their condition. The rim had no buildup or tars on it. The thin edges were lightly grooved – almost looked like the pipe maker had rusticated the rim to match the look of the bowl rather than risk sandblasting it. The stem was another story. The top side had lots of small dents that looked like they had been buffed out and the result was a wavy top surface. The underside had deep bite marks and tooth indentations that amazingly did not break through the surface and leave holes. I think that the thickness of the stem prevented the bite marks from going through to the airway. The sharp edge of the button and the top and bottom surfaces were pretty much obliterated by the “chomper” who had previously owned this pipe. I cleaned out the deep tooth marks on the stem with alcohol and cotton swabs. I removed the debris in the pits and grooves with a dental pick. I dried off the stem and then filled the bite marks with black super glue. I built up the button and filled in the sharp groove. I would need to recut that once the glue had cured. I laid the stem aside to let the glue harden.I scrubbed the grooves and ridges of the bowl and shank with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap. I rinsed the bowl under running water and dried it off. The scrubbing had done a great job removing all of the grit and grime in the ridges and grooves of the sandblast. While the stem repair cured I worked on the bowl. I wiped it down to remove any remaining dust and then put a large cork in the bowl so that I could hold on to it while staining the bowl. I used a dark brown aniline stain that had been thinned to 50% with isopropyl alcohol to restain the bowl. I flamed it to set the stain in the blast. I wiped down the bowl with alcohol on cotton pads to make it a bit more transparent and allow the dark black in the grooves to show through. I hand buffed the bowl with a shoe brush to get a bit of a shine on the briar.With the externals pretty well cleaned up and restored I addressed the internals of the bowl and shank. I cleaned out the mortise and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. To my surprise there was not much tobacco debris or oil in the shank. What came out with the cleaning was the original brown stain. Evidently the bowl had been dipped in stain. The amount of stain that came out on the pipe cleaners and cotton swabs was amazing. You can see it in the photo below. I scrubbed it until it was clean and I could see bare briar on the sides of the mortise.I sprayed the stem repair with some accelerator to harden the super glue more quickly. I decided to use it this time. I usually let the repair cure over night, but this time I was a bit impatient. When the glue was hard to the touch I used a series of flat needle files to begin flattening the repair and shaping the sharp edge of the button on both sides of the stem. With the button edges cleaned up and the slot opened slightly with the files I sanded the stem surface with 180 and 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the repairs and minimize the file marks in the vulcanite. I wet sanded both sides of the stem with 1500-2400 grit micromesh sanding pads to blend in the repair on the underside. I rubbed it down with a coat of Obsidian Oil. I dry sanded both sides with 3200-4000 grit sanding pads to further blend in the patch on the underside. By this point it was beginning to disappear into the shine of the stem. I gave it another coat of oil. I finished sanding it with 6000-12000 grit pads and gave it a final coat of oil and let it sit until the oil was dry. I buffed the stem with Blue Diamond and lightly touched the blast with the polish. Too heavy a touch and the grooves fill in with the polishing compound so it is critical to have a very light touch. I gave the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax and buffed it with a clean buffing pad. I sparingly applied some Conservator’s Wax to the bowl and hand buffed it with a shoe brush and with a clean buffing pad. I finished by hand buffing the pipe with a microfibre cloth to give depth to the shine. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. I really like the way the stain turned out and I am pleased with the repair to the stem. Thanks for looking.

Spotlight: Ladies Pipes, Part 3/7, a Tiny Medico Acorn

1 Reply

Guest Blog by Robert M. Boughton
Member, International Society of Codgers
Member, North American Society of Pipe Collectors
http://www.naspc.org
http://www.roadrunnerpipesnm.biz
http://about.me/boughtonrobert
Photos © the Author

Two old buddies are heading off on their Annual Fishing Trip. For argument’s sake we’ll call them Kevin and Bob.
Bob notices that Kevin is being more grumpy than usual and tries to lighten things up by way of conversation.
Bob: “So Kev, last week was your birthday, happy belated.”
Kevin: (grudgingly) “Thanks.”
Bob: “Say, did, Laura, buy you that Estate Dunhill that you were constantly hinting at?”
Kevin: “Na”
Bob: “Well what did she get you instead?”
Kevin: “SUV.”
Bob: “New or used?”
Kevin: “New of course.”
Bob is extremely puzzled as Kevin is still driving the same beat-up pickup that was already old when Saddam was considered an ally.
Bob: “You know, Kev, you and I have been friends for a long time, and I’m entitled to say that you are an ungrateful sour puss. Laura buys you a New SUV instead of a second hand pipe, and that has you in a bad mood.”
Kevin: “Humph!”
Bob: “Well what kind of an SUV was it anyway?”
Kevin: “Socks, Underwear, Viagra”
— Thanks to mate on smokingpipes.com/forums. (I don’t know, but for some reason this struck me as a good gift idea for the next man who gives a lady grief for enjoying a pipe.)

INTRODUCTION
Steve comments now and then on the pleasure he gets from researching a pipe’s history. I know his motivation is not to tuck away, in his mind and for his own use, the information he gathers. I can’t say for sure what drives Steve, but I suspect he, also, is a natural born reporter – which is to say collector and sharer of information – with an insatiable longing to spread his news to readers as well as to supplement or in some cases create new pipe lore available online. Steve laughed at this when I suggested the notion, but I would say his crowning achievement so far is the definitive and exhaustive research that got to the bottom (which was deep) of the complex origins and Byzantine life of Brewster pipes – a close second to his exposé on the history of the Colossus Pipe Factory (CPF).

As a former freelance news reporter/photographer and still a spot news enthusiast, not to mention aspiring literary writer and pursuer of other investigative endeavors, I have a knack of my own for probing. When I can’t find any mention whatsoever of a pipe brand, I therefore become somewhat vexed. This was the case in particular with the first two pipes I restored for this series. One was a Frasa (or maybe FRASA as an acronym) French natural bent billiard;. The other was a Clinton natural straight oval that was neither the Israeli Alpha brand type nor the U.S. variety. Forever a dogged reporter at heart and also having a serious case of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, however, I intend to stay on these stories and others until I uncover the facts. The truth is out there.

As for Medico, there is much to be found online and in actual bound and printed books on pipes and the long, glorious history of their peaceful enjoyment. Indeed, the latter tools still exist, however tenuous their future. I hope and pray they survive for as long as Mankind occupies this planet, if not beyond. The history of Medico began with S.M Frank & Co.in New York in 1851, giving S.M. Frank the claim to the oldest pipe manufacturer in the U.S. By the time Frank formed Medico Pipes in 1957, it had already consumed eight other pipe makers, some still celebrated and others less remembered: the Manhattan Briar Pipe Co. in 1922; William DeMuth & Co. (WDC) in 1937; The Kaywoodie Co. (later Kaywoodie Pipes Inc.), Yello-Bole, Kaufman Brothers & Bondy (KB&B), the Reisss-Premier Corp. and the New England Briar Pipe Co. in 1955, and the New Jersey Briar Pipes Co. in 1956.

Discussions today about Medico pipes, in person or online forums, can become downright nasty, pitting vehement supporters against rabid critics. Nevertheless, older Medicos certainly possess a certain heightened quality and charm, and the brand’s lines are still made to be inexpensive and durable. As cigarsinternational.com put it, Medicos are “no-nonsense pipes made for the everyman.” That, they no doubt definitely are, at prices ranging from $15.99-$39.99. Medico has made pipes with materials including traditional briar, Brylon (an S.M. Frank synthetic invention of high temperature resin and wood flour) and even a unique bent tall billiard covered with a mysterious material described by Pipephil as either felt, synthetic fur “or a piece of wall-to-wall carpet.” Well, that settles that. To tell the truth, I would love to own one of those, if only for show-and-tell and to be able to call myself a carpet piper, despite the risk of static-electric charges and burns.SOME FEMALE SMOKERS AND PIPE MAKERS
I have put out various general calls for help in my local and online pipe communities searching for women who smoke pipes and would be willing to share some of their experiences and preferences, and my friend Liz invited me to become a Friend of her Facebook Ladies of the Briar Group. I still need to pursue that line, but at least have four blogs left to do so.

Since my second ladies pipe blog, I have re-focused my research on areas of interest I had not even considered until some other friends mentioned them. The one was revealed to me by Jennifer, the owner of Stag Tobacconist in Albuquerque where I am a very frequent fixture. The other, suggested to me by another Smoking Forums UK friend, Ed, was a fact that struck me as so obvious I was embarrassed to have overlooked the idea. Both, I believe, will prove of great interest.

Unknown to me until Jennifer’s revelation, was that Samuel Gawith Fire Dance Flake – a Virginia mix with blackberry, vanilla and brandy flavorings that was a favorite of mine back in my aromatic-heavy days but remains a blend I still enjoy on occasion – was formulated by one of the few female tobacco blenders in the U.S. The light flavorings and Best Brown Virginia used give Fire Dance a nice little bite.Of more significance is the presence of females – ye gads, what’s the world coming to? – in the business of making pipes. Ed mentioned the following names and provided a few links, worried these were not enough, and I looked up the rest to get samples of their work: Vilma Armellini, one of three daughters of the great Italian pipe maker Mauro Armellini and who regularly assisted her father in making many of his pipes and took over the business upon his death; Anne Julie; Nanna Ivarssen, and two newcomers who have been crafting fine pipes for the past several years, Sabina Santos and Scottie Piersal. Alas, I have been unable to locate a pipe made entirely by Vilma Armellini, but the first photo below shows her father’s work that likely included her help. I will, you can bet, continue looking. In light of my severe case of P.A.D., I expect to add samples of these brilliant women’s pipe crafting art to my collection as soon as possible.

RESTORATION
Now, for the drab little Medico Real Briar acorn as I first saw it. The bit looked like this close up.I put it in an OxiClean bath and the stummel in used Everclear (not to drink, but to strip prior pipes).I took the bit out after a half-hour or so and wet micro meshed it. Then I went ahead and buffed it with red and white Tripoli, White Diamond and carnauba.I apologize for the gunk in the last photo. I just noticed it, but I assure you it came off with a wipe, or I wouldn’t have sold it the next day. About an hour after putting the stummel into the Everclear, I removed it and swabbed the chamber with one small soft cotton square and the outside with another. As usual, there was still old stain to remove, but other than uncommon situations such as removing that awful red varnish used on almost all pipes made in China , for example, I prefer not to let the wood soak too long. A little sanding with 220-grit paper in easy, even strokes, for the most part in the same direction, worked off the rest of the drab and dreary cloaking stain on the briar that had left darkness there and nothing more, as Edgar Allen Poe wrote. Call me anything other than Ismael, but I always get a distinct rush when the stummel is ready for micro meshing. In an average restoration of this type, with no serious, time-consuming obstacles, micro meshing most of the time is the halfway + 1 point, or the hump of the project. However, with five steps to go before completion of the pleasant task – it was better than the movie, which I had seen 10 times already – I was exactly halfway finished. The point, however obtuse, is that in my mind I was almost to the finish line. Oh, never mind! Alright, then, I proceeded to micro mesh from 1500-12000. Next up was re-staining the stummel, using Lincoln brown alcohol-based shoe and boot leather dressing.I also enjoy the brief puff of blue fire after holding my Bic or a good kitchen match close to the stain-wet wood, like flaming baked apples served with ice cream. Sort of. But that doesn’t make me a pyro. I prefer to think that life is like a bowl of ice cream, even if it’s served up on fire at times. Consequently, a few minutes after torching the stummel, I started with 2400 and 3200 micro mesh to remove the charred neon green coating. That broke through to dark brown, at which time I switched to super fine four-ought steel wool to take the darkness down a few notches. Ready for the second to last step in this somewhat off-the-norm order of events, I retorted the pipe at last. After running a fluffy cleaner through the shank and clearing more last-minute soot from the chamber with a cotton cloth square, I buffed the stummel with white Tripoli, White Diamond and carnauba, using the wheel I keep clean after each to work the compounds further into the briar and keep them from smudging. CONCLUSION
So far, by an eerie coincidence if there is such a thing, all three of the pipes I have restored for this ladies pipes series have sold. The Frasa (or FRASA) went to my good friend and fellow pipe club member, Ashley. The Medico Acorn of this installment was snatched up by another woman, Rita, whom I met last night when she saw me smoking a pipe and mentioned that her husband “used to enjoy his pipes all the time” (I took this rather ominous wording as either a sign that the good man is no longer with us or just not with Rita), as well as the fact that she gave up cigarettes by puffing on a pipe of her own with tobacco until she weaned herself off both, and she added that she missed the feeling of the pipe in her mouth. No comment. The third pipe, a Citation Real Briar oval, sold to an 18-year-young man who also approached me because of the fine pipe in my mouth at the time. Ashley reserved hers before it was even restored while the others fell victims to my persuasive sales technique and the fortuitous circumstance that I had my available pipes with me. Still, I didn’t push any of the ladies pipes on anyone. They were all picked out of the box by the happy buyers.
SOURCES
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/smoke-jokes
https://rebornpipes.com/tag/brewster-pipes/
https://rebornpipes.com/2013/04/14/some-reflection-on-the-historical-background-on-cpf-pipes/
http://www.smfrankcoinc.com/home/?page_id=2
https://pipedia.org/wiki/S.M._Frank
http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-medico.html
http://www.smfrankcoinc.com/home/?page_id=143 Medico pipes
http://www.cigarsinternational.com/brands/1552/medico/
http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend/1965/samuel-gawith-firedance-flake
http://www.theitalianpipe.com/artisans/armellini.htm
http://www.annejulie.com/pipes.html
https://pipedia.org/wiki/Ivarsson,_Nanna
http://www.sabinapipes.com/
http://mypipeclub.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=18ed18b6fd1b7cfa581ca18da56449f7&topic=805.0 Scottie Piersal