Tag Archives: Stem repairs

Breathing New Life into Dunhill Shell 6R F/T Pot

by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table came to us from a seller in Cleveland, Ohio, USA on 04/26/2022. It is a Dunhill Shell Pot with a saddle stem that looks quite good. Overall it looks very good. It is stamped on a smooth panel on the underside of the shank. On the heel of the bowl it is stamped with the shape number 6R F/T followed by Dunhill Shell [over] Made in England¹¹ [followed by] Circle 4S. The stamping is faint in spots but still readable. The pipe has a mix of black, cordovan and brown stains on a Shell sandblast finish and some amazing grain that the shape follows well. The finish was dusty and dirty with grime ground into the nooks and crannies of the rugged sandblast. The bowl had a moderate cake and there was lava in the sandblasted rim top and edges. The original stem is on the pipe is oxidized and has some tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button. I took photos of the pipe to show what it looked like before I started working on it. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the thickness of the cake and the lava coat on the rim top. There was some tobacco debris in the bottom of the bowl. The stem photos show the condition of the taper stem ahead of the button. I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the proportions of the pipe.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 R6 is the shape number for a Pot. The F/T gives the shape of the stem as a Fishtail but on this pipe it is a saddle stem. The Dunhill Shell is the finish. Following the Made In England¹¹ gives the year that the pipe was made. The circle 4 S is the stamp for a Group 4 in a Shell finish.

From there I wanted to pin down the date stamp ¹¹. 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 1971 pipe. I wanted to know more about the Shell finish and when it was introduced by Dunhill and how that fit the Patent stamp on the bowl. I turned to a listing on Pipedia that gave me the information I was looking for (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill).

Shell

The Shell is a deep, craggy sandblast finish with a black stain, traditionally applied to soft, beautifully grained Algerian briar. While perhaps not the first-ever use of sandblasting on pipes, the technique perfected by Dunhill is considered one of the brand’s most significant contributions to the art of pipe making. The development is documented in English patent No. 119708/17; preliminary work began on October 13, 1917, and the patent was granted a year later, just weeks before the end of the First World War.

The origin of the finish is famously recounted as an “Accidental Discovery” in early Dunhill catalogues. The story tells of Algerian briar blocks being inadvertently left near a furnace, causing the softer wood to shrink and the harder grain to stand out in a textured relief. The reality, as detailed in the patent application, was a deliberate process of steeping the briar in oil for weeks, followed by a heat treatment. Only then was the sandblast applied to cut away the softer wood, resulting in a durable, lightweight, and cool-smoking pipe.

In 1986, Dunhill introduced a premium version of the Shell finish called the ‘Ring Grain’. These pipes feature a particularly deep blast reminiscent of the classic style of the 1930s to mid-1960s, applied to briar with a superior grain pattern. The ‘Ring Grain’ name was later changed to ‘Shilling’ in 1995. Regarded by many enthusiasts as among the finest modern Dunhills, these pipes are produced in limited quantities and are exceptionally rare.^[122]^[123]

Now I knew that I was working on a Dunhill Shell 6R F/T Pot with a Saddle stem that was made in 1971.

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 used a brass bristle brush to clean up the sandblast on the rim top. I was able to remove the debris built up in the grooves of the sandblast. 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 scrubbed the bowl and shank with a tooth brush and some undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I also worked it over with a brass bristle brush and the 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. I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to work it into the nooks and crannies of the sandblast 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 turned my attention to the stem. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation and the tooth chatter and marks on the surface. I scrubbed the surface with Soft Scrub Cleanser and took off the oxidation that had been loosened by the sanding. It looked much better.I sanded the stem and tenon surface 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 1971 Dunhill Shell 6R F/T bowl with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches and raise the shine. I gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax and the bowl several coats of Conservator’s 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 Shell 6R F/T Saddle Stem Pot. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.38 ounces/39 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked this beautiful little Dunhill sandblast. This one is reserved for a friend as it is his birth year pipe. Thanks for looking.

New Life for a 1976 Dunhill Root Briar 412 Bent Billiard with a Taper Stem

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is another one that came to us from the seller in Caldwell, Idaho, USA on 07/12/2025. It is a Dunhill Root Briar Bent Billiard with a vulcanite taper stem. It is in dirty but in good condition as can be seen in the photos below. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads 412 [followed by] Dunhill [over] Root Briar. On the right side it is stamped Made in England16. The stamping is clear and readable. The pipe has rich Root Briar Finish with a blend of brown stains on a richly grained smooth finish that the shape follows well. The finish was dusty and lightly dirty with grime ground into the finish. The bowl had a moderate cake and there was tobacco debris in the bowl. The rim top had a thick lava coat on the rim top and edges. The original white spot saddle stem is dirty and oxidized with light tooth marks and chatter on both sides. I took photos of the pipe to show what it looked like before I started working on it. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the thickness of the cake and the lava coat on the rim top. There was some tobacco debris in the bottom of the bowl. The stem photos show the condition of the saddle stem ahead of the button.The stamping on the sides of the shank are 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. 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 412 is the shape of the pipe which is a Bent Billiard. The Dunhill Root Briar is the finish. Following the Made In England16, the 16 gives the year that the pipe was made.

From there I wanted to pin down the date stamp 16. 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 1976 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 412 Bent Billiard with a Taper Stem that was made in 1976.

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 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. 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 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 sanded it 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. 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 polished the vulcanite taper stem and the 1976 Dunhill Root Briar 412 bowl with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches and raise the shine. I gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax and the bowl several coats of Conservator’s 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 412 Bent Taper Stem Billiard. The finished pipe is shown in 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 1.45 ounces/42 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked this beautiful little Dunhill Root Briar. I will be adding it to the rebornpipes store in the British Pipe Makers Section if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for looking.

Restoring a 1973 Dunhill Shell 656F/T Bent Billiard with a saddle Dunhill filter stem

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is another one that came to us from the seller in Caldwell, Idaho, USA on 07/12/2025. It is a Dunhill Shell Bent Billiard with a vulcanite saddle stem. It is in dirty but in good condition as can be seen in the photos below. It is stamped on a smooth panel on the underside of the heel and shank and reads 656 [over] F/T [followed by] Dunhill Shell [over] Made in England¹³ [followed by] circle 4S. The stamping is clear and readable. The pipe has rich Shell Finish with a blend of brown, black and oxblood stains on a deep sandblast finish and some amazing grain that the shape follows well. The finish was dusty and lightly dirty with grime in the nooks and crannies of the rugged, deep sandblast. The bowl had a moderate cake and there was tobacco debris in the bowl. The rim top had a thick lava coat in the sandblast rim top and edges. The original white spot saddle stem is dirty and oxidized. The tenon also was drilled for a Dunhill filter. There was a ridge on the underside of the stem that ran for most of the length of the stem. I took photos of the pipe to show what it looked like before I started working on it. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the thickness of the cake and the lava coat on the rim top. There was some tobacco debris in the bottom of the bowl. The stem photos show the condition of the saddle stem ahead of the button. There is also line on the underside of the stem that looks like a crack but it is not. It is probably a trough on the inside of the airway.The stamping on the heel of the bowl 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. 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 656 is the shape of the pipe which is a Bent Billiard. The The 56 is the number for a Bent Billiard. The 6 at the front is the size designation. The F/T gives the shape of the stem as a Fishtail. The Dunhill Shell is the finish. Following the Made In England¹³ gives the year that the pipe was made. The circle 4 S is the stamp for a Group 4 in a Shell finish.

From there I wanted to pin down the date stamp ¹³. 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 1973 pipe.I wanted to know more about the Shell 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).

Shell

Now I knew that I was working on a Dunhill Shell 656F/T Bent Billiard with a Saddle stem that was made in 1973.

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 scrubbed the bowl and shank with a tooth brush and some undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I also worked it over with a brass bristle brush and the 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. I used a brass bristle brush to clean up the sandblast on the rim top. I was able to remove the debris built up in the grooves of the sandblast. I remembered that I had not cleaned the shank. 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 rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to work it into the nooks and crannies of the sandblast 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 decided to address the ridge on the underside of the stem first. I checked the inside of the stem and there was a slight trough on the inside left by pipe cleaners perhaps. I heated the surface of the stem with the flame of a lighter and rolled a round lighter across the ridge to smooth it out. I repeated the process until the surface was smooth. I sanded it with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to blend it in. From what I can feel with a pipe cleaner the inside of the stem is smooth. I sanded the oxidation, the flattened ridge top and tooth chatter with 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to remove all of the tooth damage on the stem and the majority of the oxidation. I sanded the stem and tenon surface 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 1973 Dunhill Shell 656F/T bowl with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches and raise the shine. I gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax and the bowl several coats of Conservator’s 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 Shell 656F/T Bent Saddle Stem Billiard. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.20 ounces/34 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked this beautiful little Dunhill sandblast. I will be adding it to the rebornpipes store in the British Pipe Makers Section if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for looking.

Restoring a Hard-Smoked Dunhill Shell Briar OX Bulldog and Reworking a Badly Damaged Stem

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table came to us from a seller in Cleveland, Ohio, USA on 04/26/2022. It is a Dunhill Shell Briar Bulldog with a saddle stem that has been “ridden hard”. It is in rough shape as can be seen in the photos below. It is stamped on a smooth panel on the underside of the shank. On the heel of the bowl it is stamped with the shape number OX followed by Dunhill [over] Shell Briar [followed by] Made in [over] England⁶ [followed by] Circle 4T. The stamping is faint in spots but still readable. The pipe has a mix of black, cordovan and brown stains on a Shell sandblast finish and some amazing grain that the shape follows well. The finish was dusty and dirty with grime ground into the nooks and crannies of the rugged sandblast. The bowl had a thick cake and there was heavy lava in the sandblasted rim top and edges. The original stem is on the pipe and it is a mess. The button has a crack on the top side and the underside is missing a huge chunk from the button forward about ¾ of an inch or more. Jeff took photos of the pipe to show what it looked like before he started working on it.Jeff took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the thickness of the cake and the lava coat on the rim top. There was some tobacco debris in the bottom of the bowl. The stem photos show the condition of the short taper stem ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the bowl sides and heel of the bowl to show the deep and rugged sandblast. It is a beautiful looking piece of briar. Jeff a photo of the stamping on part of the shank. He did not capture the shape number or the Dunhill over Shell Briar. It is clear and readable as noted above. 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 OX is the shape of the pipe which I assume is a Bulldog. The Dunhill Shell Briar is the finish. Following the Made In England⁶ gives the year that the pipe was made. The circle 4 S is the stamp for a Group 4 in a Shell Briar finish.

I turned to Pipedia’s shape charts on Dunhills (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill_Shape_Chart). I have included the shape charts from the site. The first is the chart as a whole and the second is a larger version of the right column.From the above information I could see that I was working on a Saddle Bulldog shaped pipe. The chart shows that the OX is the stamping for Saddle Bulldog.

From there I wanted to pin down the date stamp ⁶. The pipe has a patent number on it so that will also help with the date of this pipe. I have included the Dunhill Dating Key Part 2 chart below for you to follow (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1a.html). The third column shows the date of the pipe. Since it bears the smaller raised suffix ⁶ it took me to the 1950 box. From there the key tells me to add 1950 + 6 dates the pipe to 1956.I wanted to know more about the Shell Briar/Shell finish and when it was introduced by Dunhill and how that fit the Patent stamp on the bowl. I turned to a listing on Pipedia that gave me the information I was looking for (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill).

Shell

In 1986, Dunhill introduced a premium version of the Shell finish called the ‘Ring Grain’. These pipes feature a particularly deep blast reminiscent of the classic style of the 1930s to mid-1960s, applied to briar with a superior grain pattern. The ‘Ring Grain’ name was later changed to ‘Shilling’ in 1995. Regarded by many enthusiasts as among the finest modern Dunhills, these pipes are produced in limited quantities and are exceptionally rare.^[122]^[123]

Now I knew that I was working on a Dunhill Tanshell OX Bulldog with a Saddle stem that was made in 1956.

I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had carried out his usual thorough cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the bowl, shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs, shank brushes and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the externals with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. He rinsed the bowl off with running water and dried it off with a soft cloth. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and once it had soaked rinsed it off with warm water to remove the residual solution. He dried it off and rubbed it down to remove any oxidation that was still on the stem. The pipe looked very good when I received it. The bowl and rim top were in good condition but needed work on the blast in the top and damage on the inner edge. The saddle stem had a large piece of vulcanite missing on the underside from the button forward. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition. You can see the clean bowl and damage to the inner edge of the bowl on the front and back side of the bowl. The stem came out looking clean. The issues noted above are visible in the photos below.I took a photo of the underside of the shank to show the stamping. It is clear, though faint toward the stem and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe parts to show what I was working with. It is a nice looking pipe.I started by working over the damage on inner edge of the rim. I started with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the inner edge and give it a slight bevel. It looked significantly better.I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to work it into the nooks and crannies of the sandblast 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 tried filling in the chipped area on the stem surface with Black CA Glue, carefully layering it on the surface. When it dried, it also cracked fell out. I tried another repair with a piece of mesh like Kenneth described in his blog on the stem repair. Once it cured it too cracked along the remaining edges of the stem and fell out. There was nothing I could add to strengthen the repair. With the various avenues of repair unsuccessful I decided to cut off the damaged stem end. I did it with a Dremel and sanding drum and removed all of the damaged area on the stem.

I rebuilt the new button on both sides with the Extra Strength Rubberized/Carbon Black CA glue. I layered it on the stem surface and repeated the process until the stem was workable. I let the repair cure overnight. Once it cured I shaped and flattened it with a small file. I shaped the slot with small files and a small pottery saw. I smoothed out the shape of the newly formed button and slot with 220 grit sandpaper. It looked very good at this point. I sanded the stem and tenon surface 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. This 1956 Dunhill Shell Briar OX Saddle Stem Bulldog has a beautiful, unique Dunhill Sandblast finish made in 1985. The rich Shell Briar finish that is identified with some great grain around the bowl and shank. It has some great rugged sandblast that Dunhill specialized in making. The polished black vulcanite saddle stem adds to the mix. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel being careful to not buff the stamping. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Dunhill Shell Briar OX Straight Bulldog is quite nice and feels great in the hand. 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 40 grams/1.41 ounces. This one will be staying here as I do some testing on the durability of the repair under normal conditions. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe Thanks for your time.

What a surprise when I learned that it was my birthyear Dunhill OX Bulldog

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is another one that came to us from the seller in Caldwell, Idaho, USA on 07/12/2025. It is a Dunhill Tanshell Diamond Shank Straight Bulldog with a vulcanite saddle stem. It is in dirty but in good condition as can be seen in the photos below. It is stamped on a smooth panel on the underside of the heel and shank and reads OX [followed by] Dunhill [over] Tanshell [followed by] Made in England⁴ [over] Pat. No. 417574/34 [followed by] circle 4T. The stamping is clear and readable. The pipe has rich Tan and Brown stains on a deep sandblast finish and some amazing grain that the shape follows well. The finish was dusty and lightly dirty with grime in the nooks and crannies of the rugged, deep sandblast. The bowl had a moderate cake and there was tobacco debris in the bowl. The rim top had a thick lava coat in the sandblast rim top and edges. The original white spot short taper stem is dirty and oxidized. I took photos of the pipe to show what it looked like before I started working on it. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the thickness of the cake and the lava coat on the rim top. There was some tobacco debris in the bottom of the bowl. The stem photos show the condition of the short taper stem ahead of the button. The stamping on the heel of the bowl 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. 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 OX is the shape of the pipe which I assume is a Bulldog. The Dunhill Tanshell is the finish. Following the Made In England⁴ gives the year that the pipe was made. Underneath the Pat.No. 417574/34 that tells me that this is a Patent Era pipe. The circle 4 T is the stamp for a Group 4 in a Tanshell finish.

I turned to Pipedia’s shape charts on Dunhills (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill_Shape_Chart). I have included the shape charts from the site. The first is the chart as a whole and the second is a larger version of the right column. From the above information I could see that I was working on a Saddle Bulldog shaped pipe. The chart shows that the OX is the stamping for Saddle Bulldog.

From there I wanted to pin down the date stamp ⁴. The pipe has a patent number on it so that will also help with the date of this pipe. I have included the Dunhill Dating Key Part 1 chart below for you to follow (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1.html). The first column is shows where to turn with the patent number. The pipe was made between 1921 and 1954. From there the key took me to a chart to narrow down the dating of the pipe. I have included the second par or Page 2 of the Dunhill Dating Key. Since the Patent No. is the same it takes me to the first column below. Since the stamping Dunhill is not aligned with Shell it takes me to the No column. Following that it takes me to the box with 1950+suffix. That tells me that the pipe is a 1954 pipe and thus the end of the Patent Era. That made it my BIRTHYEAR PIPE!I wanted to know more about the Tanshell finish and when it was introduced by Dunhill and how that fit the Patent stamp on the bowl. I turned to a listing on Pipedia that gave me the information I was looking for (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill).

The Tanshell, introduced between 1951 and 1952, was Dunhill’s fourth major finish and its first significant post-war addition to the product line. It is a light tan sandblast, a finish achieved by using Sardinian briar exclusively through the 1960s. As Sardinian briar is considerably harder and denser than the Algerian variety, the resulting sandblast pattern is far more even and regular in its texture.

The development of the Tanshell was not straightforward. According to John C. Loring, the finish was the product of “certain processes… not previously employed”. The pipe was initially slated to be named the ‘Root Shell’, and a stamp to that effect was ordered in May 1951. Ultimately, however, the name ‘Tanshell’ was chosen, though the stamp for the new name was not received until December. This delay explains why most, if not all, Tanshell pipes manufactured in 1951 did not enter retail distribution until 1952 and were consequently stamped with a 1952 date code.^[122]^[123]

Now I knew that I was working on a Dunhill Tanshell OX Bulldog with a Saddle stem that was made in 1954.

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 used a brass bristle brush to clean up the sandblast on the rim top. I also worked over the inner edge of the bowl with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded it until the bowl was once again round. I scrubbed the bowl and shank with a tooth brush and some undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I also worked it over with a brass bristle wire brush and the 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. I scrubbed it further with Before & After Briar Cleaner and a brass bristle brush to work the cleaner into the grooves. I rinsed it off and repeated the process until it became cleaner. There is still some darkening in the sandblast that will not come out but it is clean and significantly better. I remembered that I had not cleaned the shank. I think the 1954 date – my birth year excited me enough that it escaped me. 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 rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to work it into the nooks and crannies of the sandblast 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 sanded the oxidation and the tooth marks and chatter with 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to remove all of the tooth damage on the stem and the majority of the oxidation.I sanded the stem and tenon surface 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 Sandblast Bulldog bowl with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches and raise the shine. I gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax and the bowl several coats of Conservator’s 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 Tanshell OX Saddle Stem Bulldog. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.20 ounces/34 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked this beautiful little Dunhill sandblast. This one turned out to be a birthyear pipe for me – a 1954 so I will be adding it to my collection. Thanks for looking.

Restoring a Dunhill Tanshell Briar 6475F/T Friendly Cherrywood

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is another one that came to us from the seller in Caldwell, Idaho, USA on 07/12/2025. It is a Dunhill Tanshell Cherrywood with a vulcanite saddle stem. It is in good condition as can be seen in the photos below. It is stamped on a smooth heel of the bowl and reads 6475 F/T [over] Dunhill Tanshell [over] Made in England¹¹ [over] circle 4T. The stamping is clear and readable. The pipe has rich Tan and Brown stains on a Shell sandblast finish and some amazing grain that the shape follows well. The finish was dusty and lightly dirty with grime in the nooks and crannies of the sandblast. The bowl had a moderate cake and there was tobacco debris in the bowl. The rim top had a thick lava coat on the smooth crowned rim top and edges. The original white spot saddle stem is dirty and oxidized. It had a white Delrin replacement tenon that seemed to be loose. I took photos of the pipe to show what it looked like before I started working on it. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the thickness of the cake and the lava coat on the rim top. There was some tobacco debris in the bottom of the bowl. The stem photos show the condition of the saddle stem ahead of the button. The stamping on the heel of the bowl 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. 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 Pipephill helpful site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/shell-briar1.html). The stamping is interpreted as follows: The F/T is the stamp for a fishtail type stem. The Dunhill Tanshell is the finish. Following the Made In England¹¹ gives the year that the pipe was made. The four digit shape number is a bit of a mystery.

I turned to Pipedia’s shape charts on Dunhills (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill_Shape_Chart). I quote what was written there and have included the shape charts from the site.

The standard catalog currently encompasses thirty-five distinct shapes, each designated by a two-digit numerical code. From time to time, however, the inherent characteristics of a particular piece of briar lend themselves to the creation of a form that exists outside this established repertoire. These unique, non-standard shapes are collectively referred to by the term “Quaint”. The modern four-digit identification system has been successfully in place for more than three decades, serving Dunhill, its commercial partners, and its clientele with proven efficacy.From the above information I could see that I was working on a Cherrywood shaped pipe but the shape number above did not match that. The chart shows that the Cherrywood was a 20 but there is no 20 number on the pipe I am working on. From there I turned to the next chart on the site which gave a digit by digit breakdown of the shape number. I include the chart below and then underneath I give the break down on the number.

The shape number of the pipe is 6475F/T using the chart above here is what the numbers tell us.
The first digit 6 is the group size of the pipe making it a large Group6.
The second digit 4 is the mouth piece which in this case is a ¼ bent taper but the pipe I am working on is a ¼ bent saddle stem which should be a number 5.
The third + fourth digit 75 which does not match anything on the chart above. Even the shape number on the first chart above identifies a Cherrywood as a 20.

From there I turned to another link on Pipedia which gave shape numbers and names on the pipes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill_Shapes_List). The site listed that the shape I have in hand is one know as a Group 6 size 475 which is known as a Friendly.

6475 Friendly (=475?) 4 5½” 1950, 1969

From there I wanted to pin down the date stamp ¹¹. I have included the chart below for you to follow (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1a.html). The second column is where the 2-year suffix fits. To arrive at the date the suffix ¹¹ is added to 1960 making the pipe a 1971 Tanshell Cherrywood with a saddle stem – a Dunhill Friendly.I also am including a link to a similar pipe in the shape number 475 on the blog that is very similar to the one I am working on.

https://rebornpipes.com/2018/11/09/restoring-an-amazing-1963-dunhill-tanshell-cherrywood-475/

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 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. I worked over the rim top with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads. I wiped the rim top down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The crowned smooth rim top looks good.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 rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to work it into the nooks and crannies of the sandblast 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 sanded the oxidation and the tooth marks and chatter with 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to remove all of the tooth damage on the stem and the majority of the oxidation.While I was working on the stem the white acrylic replacement tenon came out in my hand. It had not been glued in place in the stem so it easily slipped out. This was actually great because I wanted to replace it with a black tenon. I went through my Delrin tenons and found one that was perfect and looked more like the original. I fit it in the shank and to make sure it all fit together correctly.I glued the new tenon in place in the stem with Black CA Glue. Once the glue set on the tenon I worked over the tenon surface with a flat file and 220 grit sandpaper to get a snug fit in the shank. I wiped down the stem and tenon with some Obsidian Oil and it began to look very good. I sanded the stem and tenon surface 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 stem and the smooth portions of the Cherrywood bowl with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches and raise the shine. I gave the stem several coats of carnauba wax and the bowl several coats of Conservator’s 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 Tanshell 6475F/T Cherrywood Friendly. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.48 ounces/42 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked this beautiful little Dunhill sandblast. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipe Maker Section soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for looking.

Rethinking the Repair of Damaged Stems

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by Kenneth Lieblich

Welcome to another installment of my Pipe Incident Reports. The idea, in general, is to provide a brief write-up – focusing on a particular pipe-restoration-related issue – rather than an entire restoration story. I’ve been blessed by a precious few God-given talents in my life, but innovation is not among them. I’m not usually able to come up with groundbreaking ideas to do things differently. Having said that, I do try and improve my repair/restoration skills, techniques, and procedures wherever I can. One can call it kaizen or whatever, but I try to find better ways of restoring pipes.Today, I am attempting to improve the process of repairing stem bite-throughs by incorporating steel mesh. Now, you might be thinking, ‘That’s not a sentence I ever expected to read’, and you are justified in that thought.

Many pipe repairmen have used various methods for repairing bite-throughs (holes) in vulcanite. Normally, this involves mixing cyanoacrylate adhesive with activated charcoal or powdered vulcanite. Some fellows have also tried some sort of epoxy to bring the stem back to life. In fact, when I started doing pipe repairs, I used that mixture of cyanoacrylate adhesive and activated charcoal. Then I discovered a black-tinted cyanoacrylate adhesive that came pre-mixed with rubber and charcoal. I introduced this product to Steve and it’s what he and I have been using ever since. However, I have always wondered about the durability of these repairs – especially against the bite of a man’s jaw. I wondered, could there be a better way?

Maybe. Read on, but please note: what I am proposing is NOT a complete solution. This is an idea that I hope someone will take and turn into a workable method.

I decided to test a pipe-stem repair with the aforementioned adhesive built around a stainless-steel wire-mesh structure. My thinking is that this would enhance the strength and durability of said repairs. For any engineers or scientists reading this article, please know that I have no scientific background and I am not equipped to conduct accurate tests of compressive or tensile strength. I am merely running an idea up the proverbial flagpole and seeing who salutes it. I hope that someone reading this will take the idea and, either, discredit it or expand upon it. The experiment I describe below is just that: an experiment. It is, possibly, a proof of concept – but certainly not the final step.

The idea came to me one day as I saw some sort of wire mesh being used in a concrete foundation. This mesh is used in construction to control cracking, to distribute stress, and add tensile strength. Perhaps it can be used, in like manner, where a large vulcanite repair is needed. My encounter with the concrete was providential because I had recently acquired a large lot of pipes, many of which had damaged stems. There was one stem in particular that stood out as a candidate for this experiment. Here it is: This is a stem that I would normally likely toss in the garbage, unless a customer specifically asked me to repair it. The damage is obviously serious. Ironically, this brutal damage actually makes this stem the perfect patient for this type of surgery.

Here is the stainless-steel woven wire mesh. For those of you who know such things, this mesh has a mesh number of 200. It can be acquired inexpensively and comes in various mesh numbers. The larger the number, the finer the holes in the mesh. To be frank, my selection of 200 was pure guesswork. I didn’t really have a sense of what would be best – other than to say that it needed to be fine enough to prevent the adhesive from pouring straight through.On with the work! I first needed to create a platform upon which the adhesive and mesh could rest. This was obviously essential in order to maintain the draught hole in the bit. In the first photo below, you’ll see that I used cardboard, but I immediately abandoned that idea (I’ll explain why momentarily). I am displaying this photo in order to demonstrate my use of a pencil to scribe the precise shape of the missing section of vulcanite.I quickly eliminated the cardboard idea because it just isn’t as useful a material for this purpose. Instead, I used several layers of duct tape as my substrate. I can still scribe a line on the duct tape, but – more importantly – cyanoacrylate adhesive doesn’t stick to it. In other words, once the work had fully cured, I could readily remove the duct tape without affecting the repair.

With my scribed line, I was able to transfer the pattern of the absent vulcanite on to the wire mesh and cut it to shape. Truth be told, it would probably be better to use welded wire mesh, but I have no idea where you acquire that in such a small mesh number. Anyway, before cutting the wire mesh, I took the critical steps of (1) gently sanding the mesh with sandpaper to provide a slightly rough surface to maximize the adhesive bond, and (2) cleaning the mesh thoroughly with acetone, to remove any sanding grit and any other substance that would inhibit a good adhesive bond.

And away we go! It is important to apply the cyanoacrylate adhesive in thin layers, rather than one thick blob. I chose to apply a layer, spray it with an accelerator, apply another layer, etc. – until I was satisfied. Once complete, I left it to sit overnight and came back the next day. I freely admit that I am still concerned about the brittleness of this repair, but I think this is definitely a step in the right direction. Naturally, shaping and sanding was the next step – and this took a while. I should emphasise at this point that I didn’t employ the same attention to detail on this stem, as I would on a stem for a customer. I just wanted to get this done and see if it would work. As I sanded with needle files and sanding pads, I shaped the button and melded the repair into the surrounding vulcanite. You can see the results below. It’s pretty good and I’m sure it would look even better if I was doing it for sale or for a customer.

Some final thoughts: I think there is a rudimentary idea here. I feel confident in saying that the repair itself is likely stronger and more resilient with the mesh than without. However, I am apprehensive about whether the brittleness of the cyanoacrylate adhesive is improved or not – and I’m not sure how to reasonably overcome that issue (other than trying epoxy). Another problem that still exists is that there is no direct connection between the mesh and the pre-existing vulcanite. This surely isn’t helpful. It is at the edges – where the adhesive meets the vulcanite – that the bond must be weakest. Next steps might include (1) embedding the wire mesh in an epoxy – this might be the best way of addressing brittleness; (2) overlaying the wire mesh on the original vulcanite to create a bridge structure (although this creates its own big problems); (3) developing a way of affixing the mesh to the vulcanite.

Now, over to you! What do you think of this idea? How would you improve it? What are the next steps? What colossal errors have I made? Please let me know what you think in the comments below. If you make use of the ideas from this experiment in your pipe work, please let me know how it goes. I hope you enjoyed reading this installment of my Pipe Incident Reports – I look forward to writing more. If you are interested in my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

A Well Travelled 1967 Dunhill Shell Briar LB F/T Billiard

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blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table came to us from a seller on Facebook Instant Collection in Oregon City, Oregon, USA on 03/21/2024. It is a Dunhill Tanshell Briar Billiard that is in good condition. The original stem is on the pipe and it is made for a filter. It is stamped on a smooth panel on the underside of the shank. On the heel of the bowl it is stamped with the shape number LB F/T followed by Dunhill [over] Tanshell Briar [followed by] Made in [over] England 7. After that it is stamped with a 4 in a circle [followed by] T for Tanshell. The stamping is clear and readable. The pipe has a mix of tan and brown stains on a sandblast finish and some amazing grain that the shape follows well. The finish was dusty around the nooks and crannies of the sandblast but otherwise fairly clean. The shank had repaired cracks around the end that actually included about 1/3 of the shank and extended up the shank about ½ inch. The bowl had a thick cake in the bowl and there was lava in the sandblasted rim top or edges. The taper stem was dirty and had tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe to show what it looked like before he started working on it. He took photos of the bowl and rim top to show how clean they were and of the stem to show the condition of both sides of the stem. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show the deep sandblast grain on the pipe. There were some dark spots on the back of the bowl, the rim top and spots on the sides. It is a beauty. The stamping on the heel of the bowl and shank read as noted above. It was faint but it is readable in good light.He took some photos of the cracks in the shank. It is clear and visible. It had been well repaired and the repair was well done. To the naked eye the crack is hidden in the valleys and low areas in the sandblast.One of the first things I like to do is to unpack the stamping and understand each element in it. I turned to Pipephill helpful site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/shell-briar1.html). The stamping is interpreted as follows: The LB is the shape for a larger thick shank billiard and the F/T is the stem shape – a Fish Tail stem. The Dunhill Tanshell Briar is the finish which is corroborated the S at the end of the stamping. The size of the pipe is a Group 4. The 7 following the D of England gives the date the pipe.Pipephil also has some helpful dating keys on the site that are basically flow charts that you can walk through to date your pipe (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1a.html). I turned to Part 2 of the Dating Key and followed the chart. This pipe has a suffix of 8 following the D in England. It is not raised /smaller so that took me to the section on the chart below (column three) which instructed me that the pipe could be dated by adding the suffix 7 to 1960 which made the pipe a 1967 Tanshell Briar. I turned to Pipedia’s section on Dunhill Root Briar to get a bit of background on the Dunhill finishes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill#Root_Briar). I quote:

Tanshell
The Tanshell, introduced between 1951 and 1952, was Dunhill’s fourth major finish and its first significant post-war addition to the product line. It is a light tan sandblast, a finish achieved by using Sardinian briar exclusively through the 1960s. As Sardinian briar is considerably harder and denser than the Algerian variety, the resulting sandblast pattern is far more even and regular in its texture.

I have also included a chart from the site from Dunhill spelling out the Standard Pipe Finishes and giving short information and a timeline. I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had carried out his usual thorough cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the bowl, shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs, shank brushes and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the externals with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. He rinsed the bowl off with running water and dried it off with a soft cloth. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and once it had soaked rinsed it off with warm water to remove the residual solution. He dried it off and rubbed it down to remove any oxidation that was still on the stem. The pipe looked very good when I received it. There were dark spots on the back of the bowl, the back of each side and the back of the rim top. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition. You can see the clean bowl and darkening on the rim top. The stem came out looking quite good. There are some deep tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took a photo of the underside of the shank to show the stamping. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe parts to show what I was working with. It is a nice looking pipe.I started my work on the pipe by dealing with the cracks in the shank. I took photos of the shank cracks. I trickled some clear CA glue into the cracks on the top and underside of the shank. I worked it into the cracks with a tooth pick. I went through my bag of brass bands and found one that fit the shank. It was a snug fit and once glued in place it would pull the cracks tight. I flattened the bottom of the band and put a few spots of glue on the band inside. I pressed it onto the shank for a tight fit. I took some photos of the banded shank. I really liked the look of it and the band worked well to tie the repairs together. I wiped the dark areas on the back of the bowl, rim top and shank with acetone on a cotton pad. I was able to remove the darkening and the bowl was washed out in those spots but it was very clean. I restained the bowl with a brown aniline stain. I applied it with the wool dauber and then flamed it to set it in the grain. I repeated the process multiple times until the colour was consistent all around the bowl sides.Once I had flamed the stain on the bowl I wiped it down with isopropyl alcohol on cotton pads to make the stain a bit more transparent. I wanted to hide the burn and darkening marks and this stain would blend them into the surface a bit more. I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to work it into the nooks and crannies of the sandblast 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 filled in the tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem with a black, rubberized CA glue. Once it cured I used small files to flatten the repaired areas. I sanded them with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth them and blend them into the surface of the vulcanite. I sanded the stem surface 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. This Dunhill Tanshell Briar LB F/T Chunky Billiard with taper stem has a beautiful, unique Dunhill Sandblast finish made in 1967. The thin brass repair band adds to this great looking pipe that is in almost new condition. The rich brown washed finish that is identified with some great grain around the bowl and shank. It has some great rugged sandblast that Dunhill specialized in making. The polished black vulcanite taper stem adds to the mix. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel being careful to not buff the stamping. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Dunhill Tanshell Briar LB F/T Shell Briar Billiard is quite nice and feels great in the hand. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This one will stay with me for a while. I love the thick shank and solid feel of the LB shape. Thanks for your time.

Restoring a Brigham 2 Dot Crowned Rim 259 Rusticated Acorn

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen is a worn rusticated acorn shaped pipe that was stained with a rich brown colour. The mix of stains made the rustication take on depth even with the grime on the finish. We are not sure where we picked this pipe up – traded, found, purchased. No memory sadly. It was stamped on the underside of the shank and read shape number 259 followed by Brigham [over] Made in Canada. It was in decent condition when I brought it to the table. The finish was dirty with grime ground into the briar sides and rim but still looked okay. The bowl had been reamed and cleaned. The rim top and edges were a bit rough and the bowl was slightly out of round. The stem was oxidized and had tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside on and near the button. The Maple Distillator was in the aluminum tube and was well used. It appeared to have been rinsed off a few times as it bore stain but no oils. I took photos of the pipe before my cleanup work. They tell the story and give a glimpse of the promise in this pipe. Jeff took photos of the rim top to show the interior the bowl and the rim top and inner edge. It has been reamed and the rim top and inner edge shows damage. The stem is oxidized and has tooth marks on the top and underside near the button.I took a photo of the underside of the shank to show the stamping. The stamping is faint but readable in the photo below and is as noted above – it reads 259 (shape number) Brigham in script [over] Made in Canada. The stem has two dots in a row on the left side.I took the stem off the bowl and took pictures of the aluminum tube tenon with the Maple Distillator in place and out of the tenon on top of the tube. Before I get into the restoration part of this pipe I decided to include a poster I picked up that shows the filtration system of the patented Brigham Distillator. Give the poster a read. It also helps to understand the internals of these older Canadian Made pipes. I decided to start my restoration work on this one by dealing with the damaged crown rim top. I used a wooden sphere and a piece of 220 grit sandpaper to deal with the damage on the top and inner edge of the bowl. It is slow tedious work but the finished product looks much better. I cleaned the shank and mortise as well as the airway in the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. It smelled great and was ready for the next pipe man or woman who takes on the trust.I sanded the smooth rim top and edges with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads. I wiped the briar down with a damp cloth after each pad. The rim began to look much better. I polished the smooth rim top and edges of the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. After each pad I wiped the briar down with a damp cloth. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and the rustication with a shoe brush 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 photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I sanded out the light tooth marks and chatter with 220 grit sand paper to blend them into the rest of the stem surface.I dry sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. It began to take on a rich shine.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. Before I finished polishing the stem I fit it with the new Rock Maple Distillator. The photos show the box and the new Distillator on the box and then in place in the tenon.I am glad to finish this Brigham Made in Canada 259 Rusticated Acorn. 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 the grain popping through on the bowls sides and rim top. Added to that the polished black vulcanite stem with the shining brass pins was beautiful. This mixed grain on the smooth finish Brigham 2 Dot Acorn is nice 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: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.27 ounces/ 36 grams. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be in the Canadian Pipemakers Section on the rebornpipes store soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know.

Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of the next generation.

Restoring a lovely Peterson’s “Donegal Rocky” 338 Bent Billiard

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table came to us from one of our pipe hunts or a trade but neither Jeff or I remember when and where we picked it up. It is a classically rusticated Peterson’s “Donegal” Rocky 338 Bent Billiard. The finish is quite nice with at that classic Peterson’s rustication pattern. The pipe pretty clean with the exterior polished and dust free. The bowl had been reamed somewhere along the way and the bowl was pretty clean. The rim top was in good condition and the inner edge looked quite good and the bowl was slightly out of round. The pipe is stamped on a smooth panel on the underside of the bowl and shank and reads Peterson’s [arched over] “Donegal” [over] Rocky followed by the shape number 338. On the oxidized Sterling Silver band it is stamped K&P [over] Peterson’s. The stamping is clear and readable on both the pipe and band. The fishtail stem is clean – no tooth marks and chatter. I took photos of the pipe before I starting work on it. I took photos of the rim top to show the lack of cake in the clean bowl and rim top and edges. The stem was also in decent condition other than scratches and nick marks.The stamping on the underside of the shank read as noted above. The photo shows that they are faint but clear and readable. The stamping on the silver is also readable. I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed to show the overall look of stem, tenon and profile of the pipe. It is a great looking pipe. Peterson’s website describes the pipe as follows (https://www.peterson.ie/pipes/classic/donegal-rocky/moreinfo.cfm?pd_product_Id=247):

Though quite compact in terms of overall length, this bent Billiard shape maintains the signature muscularity and tubular profile that define our House Style, the bowl being more cylindrical in shape with a stout, angular transition. Its half bend provides a natural clenching posture for a comfortable, hands-free smoke.

Both Al Jones and I have worked on a 338 in the past. Mine had a P-lip stem while Al’s had a fishtail stem like this one. I am including the links to both of our blogs below if you are interested in seeing the details of the shape.

https://rebornpipes.com/2020/07/27/new-life-for-a-petersons-republic-era-donegal-rocky-bent-billiard-338/

https://rebornpipes.com/2024/11/15/peterson-338-donegal-rocky-clean-up/

I quote a portion of Al’s blog on the shape as his research really helped clarify a timeline for this pipe. I quote:

This Peterson Shape 338 caught my eye because it was a Donegal Rocky and came with a silver band. Peterson introduced this line in 1945 with a rusticated finish and two-tone stain. The rustication style has evolved over the decades.

Mark Irwin had an entry on the Donegal Rocky line on his Peterson Pipe Notes blog. Curiously, the line was first introduced only with a fishtail stem and Sterling band. The line came with a P-lip starting in 1975.

I followed Al’s link to the Peterson’s Pipe Notes blog (https://petersonpipenotes.org/148-the-rocky-history-of-the-donegal-line/). I quote the pertinent sections on the site about the Donegal line and have included the shape charts.

The “Donegal Rocky” (in quotation marks), released in 1945 or so, was Kapp & Peterson’s first rusticated line. Not that K&P hadn’t rusticated pipes previously, they just that they hadn’t devoted an entire line to rustication. And they were apparently proud of it, because they gave it a sterling mount along with a black finish and white-stamped P on the mouthpiece.It was part of K&P’s “Product Line,” what I call gateway pipes and others might call an entry-level pipe, as you can see in this shape chart from the 1945 catalog. Like the Shamrock (European version) and “K,” it was originally a fishtail line.

For nearly thirty years, from 1947 until 1975, the line continued uninterrupted, black rusticated finish with fishtail mouthpiece and sterling band.

The bowl was clean the briar looked very good, so I rubbed the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush to get it into the deep crevices of the rustication. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the briar. I let it sit for 10 minutes while I worked on the stem. After the time passed I buffed it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The rustication came alive with the balm. I polished the Sterling Silver band on the shank with a jeweller’s cloth to remove the tarnish and polish it. I sanded out the scratches in the stem at the shank end. There marks, almost small cuts in the vulcanite that I sanded out with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch pads. I was able to remove the marks and give the stem a rich shine. There was some glue from a previous repair on the tenon and face of the stem to expand the tenon. I scraped off the excess glue and sanded the tenon and the stem surface at the same time.I polished the 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. This Peterson’s “Donegal” Rocky 338 Bent Billiard is a nice-looking pipe. The rustication and mixed stain around the bowl sides and shank really stand out with the polishing. The finish on the pipe is in excellent condition and the contrasting stains work well to give some contrast to the rusticated finish of the pipe. The polished black vulcanite, fish tail P-lip taper stem adds to the mix. The pipe is really quite eye-catching. I put the stem back on the bowl and buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel, carefully avoiding the stamping on the shank and using a light touch on the rusticated portions. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing it with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Peterson’s “Donegal” Rocky 338 is quite nice and feels great in the hand. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 37 grams/1.31 ounces. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another interesting pipe. I will be adding it to the Irish Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store soon. If you want to add it to your collection send me an email or a message! Thanks for your time.