Tag Archives: Stem repairs

Another Danish Beauty Designed by Sixten Ivarsson

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by Kenneth Lieblich

This wonderful pipe is a Danish Sovereign 64 Freehand with a smooth finish, a plateau rim and a stylized saddle stem. The more I look at this pipe, the more I like it. It is a short and stocky pipe (like an MMA fighter) and it feels strong and rugged (also like an MMA fighter). It feels wonderful in the hand and was clearly a much-loved pipe. It came from the same collection of pipes, here in Vancouver, that my recently restored freehand canted egg came from. Let’s look at the pipe’s markings. On the left side of the shank are the words Danish [over] Sovereign. On the right side of the shank is the number 64 – that’ll be the shape number. On the underside of the shank are the words Made in Denmark. On the left side of the stem are three letters: XXX. These are used to designate Danish Sovereign, specifically. I’m not sure why – there doesn’t appear to be anything smutty about these pipes. Sorry – dad joke. From previous restorations, I learned that ‘Danish Sovereign’ is a sub-brand of the esteemed Danish pipemaker, Stanwell. Pipephil lists Danish Sovereign as such, and also mentions that this brand was marketed specifically for North America.Pipedia equivocates a bit about Danish Sovereign. They list the company under its own name and that the pipes “appear to be Stanwell seconds”. However, the Stanwell page lists it clearly as one of their brands. Pipedia has a good amount of information on the Stanwell brand and its history. I certainly recommend looking it over: https://pipedia.org/wiki/Stanwell.

With the number 64 on the shank, I went to check the list of Stanwell shapes, here on Rebornpipes, and I found a match. Shape 64(a) is listed as “Freehand, Plateau top, saddle mouthpiece, by Sixten Ivarsson”. To further confirm this, here is a page from an old 80s Stanwell catalogue which clearly shows the same shape of pipe with the matching shape number.Anyway, this really is a good-looking pipe. Just a few issues to resolve. The stem was oxidized and calcified, and had some small bite marks. The plateau rim on the stummel was a bit encrusted with lava, but not too bad. The insides were fairly dirty and would need some work to clean out. The main issue with the stummel, however, is a strange mottling of the stain. The last of this series of photos shows an example of the ruined finish. The stem was first on my list. I wiped down the outside of the stem with oil soap on some cotton pads. I also took a BIC lighter and ‘painted’ the stem with its flame in order to lift the bite marks and dents. Unfortunately, this didn’t really work, but I have ways of sorting this out. Then, I cleaned out the insides of the stem with pipe cleaners and 99% isopropyl alcohol.Once this process was done, I used some cleanser and cotton pads to wipe down the stem before throwing it in the pipe stem oxidation remover overnight. The following day, I cleaned all of the de-oxidizing mess and again scrubbed with the cleanser on some cotton pads to remove the leftover oxidation. This worked well.I used some nail polish to restore the letters XXX on the stem. I painted the area carefully and let it fully set before proceeding.Before I moved on to the Micromesh pads, I built up the dents on the stem with cyanoacrylate adhesive and let them fully cure (forgot to photograph this). I sanded the adhesive down with my needle files to meld seamlessly into the stem. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to bring out the lovely black lustre on the stem. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing, from 3,600 on.On to the stummel, and the usual cleaning procedures were in order for this pipe. I used both the KleenReem and some 220-grit sandpaper taped to a dowel to remove the built-up cake and take the bowl down to bare briar. I wanted to ensure there were no hidden flaws in the walls of the bowl. Fortunately, there were none.I then proceeded to clean out the insides of the shank with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners, and 99% isopropyl alcohol. There was some filth inside this stummel, but it wasn’t too bad. I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some dish soap and tube brushes.I then moved on to cleaning the outside of the stummel with oil soap, some cotton pads, a toothbrush, and a wire brush. That removed any latent dirt. However, it didn’t remove the odd, mottled stain. That needed to be sorted out straight away.In order to remove the existing mess, I opted to begin with my grey sanding pads. Those greys start out with more aggression than my Micromesh pads. That aggression was necessary to strip the wood down. I gave the wood a thorough going-over before shifting to the usual Micromesh pads. I was satisfied, as the wood came out smooth, clean, and pale. Now what? Here’s the plan. The grain in this briar was so attractive, that I wanted to make a special effort to emphasize it. I took some black leather dye and coated the stummel with it (excluding the plateau). After applying the dye, flaming it, and letting it set, I wiped those areas down with isopropyl alcohol to remove most of the dye. The goal here was to accentuate the grain with only residual amounts of black dye.The next step was to bring back the lovely rich colour that was always supposed to be there. In similar fashion, I coated everything – bar the plateau – with some light brown dye. Again, after flaming and setting, I wiped everything down with isopropyl alcohol on cotton rounds. I was so pleased with the results – the pipe looks absolutely fantastic.Naturally, I then applied the Before & After Restoration Balm to the stummel and let it sit for 20 minutes or so. There is some beautiful wood on this Danish pipe and I mimed a chef’s kiss in approval. Then it was off for a trip to the bench polisher. I buffed with gusto by applying the finishing touches of white diamond compound and carnauba wax. I had to be especially careful with the bench polisher, since the plateau edge had a tendency to catch on the buffing wheels.

This Danish Sovereign 64 Freehand was a delight from the start and its beauty only increased through the restoration process. I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the ‘Danish’ pipe section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the Stanwell are as follows: length 4⅞ in. (124 mm); height 2 in. (50 mm); bowl diameter 1⅔ in. (42 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (19 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅞ oz. (55 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this restoration as much as I enjoyed restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Bringing a Dunhill Tanshell 59 Billiard Back to Its Best

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By Kenneth Lieblich

Dunhill is a name that inspires awe and warms the cockles of the hearts of many pipe smokers worldwide. Today, I am pleased to show the restoration of a wonderful tanshell briar. I acquired it in an auction last year. Other than that, I don’t know much of its provenance. Its colour and cragginess are very handsome, and I have no doubt that it was a much-loved pipe. I instinctively have a certain reverence for Dunhill pipes, and I am especially keen to restore this one so that the next pipe smoker can enjoy it. As I mentioned, this is a Dunhill Tanshell and the markings confirm this. It is a beautiful, classic billiard shape. Pleasingly, those markings are very clear and well-cut on the bottom of the shank. On the left-hand side is the model number, 59. Immediately to the right of this is Dunhill [over] Tanshell. Then, to the right of that, is Made in [over] England12. To the right of that is an encircled 4, followed by a T. Finally, the stem, of course, has the iconic white spot of Alfred Dunhill’s company. Here is a photo of Alfred, followed by the markings. Let’s have a closer look at what all of these markings mean. The model number 59 is one of the classic Dunhill shapes – that number first appeared all the way back in 1928. The page on Pipedia about Dunhill shapes says this:

The original skus/model numbers from the 1920’s until the early 1970’s stood for very specific shapes and bowls. For example, the codes 31, 34, 59, 111, 113, 117, 196, LB, LBS… were all different types of Billiard shaped pipes and there were about 50(!), such codes for the Billiard shape alone.Let’s have a closer look at what all of these markings mean. The model number 59 is one of the classic Dunhill shapes – that number first appeared all the way back in 1928. The page on Pipedia about Dunhill shapes says this:

The original skus/model numbers from the 1920’s until the early 1970’s stood for very specific shapes and bowls. For example, the codes 31, 34, 59, 111, 113, 117, 196, LB, LBS… were all different types of Billiard shaped pipes and there were about 50(!), such codes for the Billiard shape alone.Furthermore, John Loring’s fine book, The Dunhill Briar Pipe: The Patent Years and After, says this about the Tanshell:

The TanShell was Dunhill’s fourth finish and its first major post-war line addition. Introduced in 1951/1952 the TanShell was a naturally stained sandblasted pipe made exclusively from Sardinian briar through the 1960s. The TanShell apparently was not simply a light stained Shell but rather was also the product of “certain processes [unrevealed] not previously employed.” Initially, it appears that the pipe was to be named the Root Shell and a stamp to that effect was ordered and received by Dunhill in May 1951. Ultimately, however, the name TanShell was settled upon but the stamp for the TanShell name was not received by Dunhill until the beginning of December. Thus while the Tanshell was in production in 1951 it appears that most if not all TanShells made in that year did not enter into retail distribution until 1952 and were given a 1952 date code.The markings Made in [over] England12 give us an indication of when this pipe was manufactured. The number is the date suffix and provides us the information we need to figure out the date. I already knew the answer, but allow me to walk you through the process. I went to Pipephil’s Dunhill Dating Key (which you can find here) and I have reproduced (below) the two charts they use to date Dunhills. In the first image below, we are asked if our pipe has a date suffix. It does, so we follow the arrow and the chart asks if our pipe has a patent number. It does not, so we proceed. Then we are asked if our pipe reads Dunhill [over] London – again, it does not. As a result, we know that our pipe dates from after 1954.On to the second chart – and it is much more straightforward. The chart asks for the digits in our date suffix. In our case, it is 1 and an offset 2, so we know that the date of our pipe is the result of simple addition: 1960 + 1 = 1961 and the 2 identifies the date of sale for the Dunhill guarantee. Now we know that the year of manufacture is 1961! (thanks for the help Al). Is this your birth year? If so, have I got a pipe for you!Next, the encircled 4 and the capital T. This tells us about the size and finish of the pipe. Pipedia says:

The encircled group number indicates the size of the bowl (1, for example, is the smaller bowl). It is usually followed by a letter corresponding to the pipe finish. This number/letter code has been introduced about 1950 and was discontinued about 1976 replaced by a 4 or 5 digits code. They were reintroduced in March 2012, but only for commemorative versions.

In this case, the 4 indicates a medium/large size bowl and the T naturally refers to Tanshell.Finally, the white spot. Have you ever wondered about it? Well, very briefly, here is the origin of the famous white spot (from Pipedia):

In 1912, the famous white spot was introduced for very practical concerns. With straight pipes, customers had trouble knowing which way to insert the handmade vulcanite mouthpieces. So Alfred Dunhill ordered white spots to be placed on the upper side of the stem. This very practical solution would become a definitive trademark of Dunhill pipes. The “white spot” soon became known as a symbol of quality.

Now let’s get on with restoring this beautiful pipe!

This pipe was in generally good condition – nothing outstanding and no significant damage. As you can see, the stem had the usual wear-and-tear – some scratches, tooth dents, etc. There was some calcification, but not much oxidation. Meanwhile, the stummel was in lovely condition, but a bit dirty. The shank was dark and the bowl had lots of cake and lava. The sandblast looked rich and beautiful. I began by making an attempt at lifting some of those tooth marks. I “painted” the stem with the flame of a lighter – this can sometimes raise the vulcanite back into place. There was definitely progress, but I would need to repair the more significant dents.I wiped the stem with oil soap on some cotton pads. There was calcification there and I needed to remove it. Meanwhile, the stem was pretty dirty inside. I cleaned out the inside with various pipe cleaners and 99% isopropyl alcohol. There was quite a pile afterwards. I then wiped down the stem with cleanser to remove some surface oxidation. Once this process was done, the stem went for an overnight soak in the oxidation remover. As the name suggests, this liquid removes oxidation, but, more than anything, it helps draw oxidation to the surface of the vulcanite. This allows me to clean the oxidation off in a couple of ways: both by applying a mild abrasive cleaner to the surface, then by sanding the stem. The following day, I cleaned all of the de-oxidizing mess off with alcohol, pipe cleaners, et cetera. The oxidation had migrated to the surface and would be fairly straightforward to remove. I scrubbed with the cleanser again on some cotton pads to remove the leftover oxidation.Next step was to address the remaining tooth marks. I filled those dents with some black cyanoacrylate adhesive that is infused with carbon and rubber. This makes a better repair than regular CA glue, as it more closely mimics the original material. When the adhesive was cured, I used my needle files to remove the excess and bring it down to the level of the vulcanite.Then I used a set of nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) which gradually erased the ravages of time and brought out the stem’s lovely black lustre. For the last five pads, I also lightly coated the stem with Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each scrubbing. At last, I set the finished stem aside. Off to work on the stummel! The outside looked very well cared-for. No notable damage and the blast maintained its great appeal. Alas, the rim had plenty of lava, but first things first. The bowl needed a thorough reaming, so I used the KleenReem to scrape off the built-up cake and I followed that with 220-grit sandpaper taped to a dowel to eliminate as much as possible. Generally, I prefer to sand the chamber down to bare briar. When restoring, it is important to ensure that there is no damage to the briar in the bowl, under the cake. I was pleased to see that the walls were sound.Next up, I needed to clean the shank and bowl thoroughly. I proceeded to use Q-tips, pipe cleaners, and 99% isopropyl alcohol. Holy moly – this was a dirtier pipe than I had initially anticipated. There was quite a pile of Q-tips and pipe cleaners left behind.Then, to further clean the inside of the pipe, I opted to “de-ghost” the pipe. I put some cotton balls in the bowl and in the shank, and then saturated them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let that sit overnight to exorcize any evil spirits (i.e. bad smells and oils) from the old pipe.Time to deal with that rim. I gently scraped as much debris as I could with a piece of machine metal. However, given the craggy blast, that only worked so well. I moved on to cotton rounds and some oil soap to clean the outside of the stummel and a toothbrush with oil soap for the lava on the rim of the pipe. This worked a treat. I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some Castile soap and tube brushes. At this point, I rubbed some Before & After Restoration Balm into the briar and left it to sit for 15 minutes or so. I brushed it with a horsehair brush and buffed it with a microfibre cloth. The balm does wonderful things to the wood, and I really like the sheen on the sandblast. Then it was off for a trip to the bench polisher. A few coats of conservator’s wax (from Lee Valley) were just what this pipe needed. Boy – that wax really makes this pipe pop! The lovely shine made the wood look absolutely beautiful. The sandblast looks fantastic and is ready to be enjoyed again by the next owner.

I thoroughly enjoyed bringing this Dunhill Tanshell 59 Billiard back to life and I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the “British” pipe section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the Dunhill are as follows: length 5⅜ in. (137 mm); height 1⅞ in. (46 mm); bowl diameter 1¼ in. (33 mm); chamber diameter ⅔ in. (18 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1¼ oz. (36 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this restoration as much as I enjoyed restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Restoring a Gorgeous Danish Freehand Canted Egg

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by Kenneth Lieblich

Wow – this is one breathtaking pipe. I acquired this beauty from a kind lady in the Vancouver area who sold me her late husband’s pipes. He had good and modest taste, and I immediately took a liking to this pipe. The combination of smooth and sandblasted briar is very attractive and the blast itself is really craggy and wonderful. The restoration was good fun too. This is a Royal Guard 535M freehand canted egg – or, at least, that’s what I’m going to call it. I learned from previous research that “Royal Guard” is a Stanwell sub-brand (in this case). I believe there was also a full Stanwell line called Royal Guard too, but that’s a topic for another time. It’s all a bit confusing, but this pipe is definitely of the sub-brand variety. As is typical of Stanwell sub-brands, the quality is immaculate and it’s not at all obvious why this wasn’t a full-blown Stanwell. This canted egg is a very attractive shape and it really makes an impression. It has beautiful, partially-sandblasted briar from the bowl and down the shank to the vulcanite shank extension. It also has a lovely flared push stem. The underside of the shank reads 535M [over] Royal Guard [over] Made in Denmark and, on the stem, the letters RG, indicating the Royal Guard make. Both Pipedia and Pipephil list Royal Guard as being a Stanwell sub-brand or second (and not much else), as per the photo below.I did some searching for that “535M” shape number, but came up empty. Stanwell does not have a 535 shape number. Sometimes a digit can be added to a shape number, but the Stanwell 35 shape does not correspond to this pipe at all. I learned that some of the Stanwell sub-brands used the Stanwell shape numbers and some used their own. Apparently, Royal Guard uses their own. Meanwhile, Pipedia has a good amount of information on the Stanwell brand and its history. I certainly recommend looking it over: https://pipedia.org/wiki/Stanwell.

Anyway, this really is a good-looking pipe. No major issues to resolve – just a few minor ones. The stem was a bit dirty, and had some small dents. There was also some oxidation on the vulcanite. The rim on the stummel was a bit blackened, but not seriously. The insides were dirty and would need some work to clean out. The stem was first on my list. I wiped down the outside of the stem with oil soap on some cotton pads. I also took a BIC lighter and ‘painted’ the stem with its flame in order to lift the bite marks and dents. This worked reasonably well, but I would still need to sort out the dents. Then, I cleaned out the insides of the stem with pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. Once this process was done, I used some cleanser and cotton pads to wipe down the stem before throwing it in the oxidation remover overnight. The following day, I cleaned all of the de-oxidizing mess and again scrubbed with the cleanser on some cotton pads to remove the leftover oxidation. This worked well. I used some nail polish to restore the letters “RG” on the stem. I painted the area carefully and let it fully set before proceeding.Before I moved on to the Micromesh pads, I built up the dents on the stem with black, carbon-and-rubber-infused cyanoacrylate adhesive and let them fully cure.I sanded the adhesive down with my needle files to meld seamlessly into the stem. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to bring out the lovely black lustre on the stem. I also used pipe stem oil in between each pad scrubbing (from 3600 on up). I then proceeded to clean out the insides of the shank with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners, and isopropyl alcohol. There was some filth inside this stummel, but it wasn’t too bad. I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some dish soap and tube brushes.I decided to de-ghost the pipe, so I thrust cotton balls into the bowl and the shank and saturated them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummel sit overnight. This caused any remaining oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton. The bowl was nice and clean after this.At this point, I turned my attention to the vulcanite shank extension. This, like the stem, needed to be cleaned and deoxidized. However, I did not want to soak the whole shank in the deox fluid. Similarly, I couldn’t risk getting any of the powerful cleanser on the beautiful briar. So, I took some clear hockey tape and carefully, precisely masked the briar with it, as protection. I then proceeded to clean the vulcanite safely with the cleanser. I’m glad I did – boy, was it dirty!I then moved on to cleaning the outside of the stummel with oil soap, some cotton pads, and a toothbrush. That removed any latent dirt hidden in the lovely recesses of the sandblast.As I mentioned earlier, there were some very minor burn marks on the rim of the stummel that also needed to be addressed. Fortunately, I was able to resolve this by gently sanding the interior rim edge to remove any remnants that remained. This worked perfectly and didn’t affect the pipe at all. Since this was a partial sandblast, I only needed to use the Micromesh pads on the smooth sections near the rim and shank. Of course, I also sanded the vulcanite shank extension and, like the stem, I used pipe stem oil on it. A light application of Before & After Restoration Balm brought out the best in the stummel. The balm does wonderful things to the wood and really emphasizes how beautiful this pipe is. I’m going to be sorry to see it go.


I took the pipe to my bench polisher and gave it a thorough going-over with my buffing compound and carnauba wax. This pipe was a delight from the start and its beauty only increased through the restoration process. This Royal Guard 535M freehand canted egg is elegant, light, and incredibly comfortable to hold. Finally, I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the ‘Danish’ pipe section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 5½ in. (142 mm); height 2⅛ in. (54 mm); bowl diameter 1½ in. (39 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (19 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅜ oz. (41 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this restoration as much as I enjoyed restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Cleaning up another Bellingham Pipe Hunt Find, a Sasieni Mayfair 52N Apple

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By Steve Laug

We met up at a local eatery and had a great breakfast together with our aunt. We took her to her residence afterwards and visited with her for most of the morning. Together we headed to Old Town Bellingham to begin our pipe hunt. We visited three of my favourite antique malls and worked out way through the aisles of wares for sale. Jeff and I tend to divide and conquer, each walking through the aisles of the shop looking for pipes. The rest of the family moves through looking for their own treasures. In the first shop there was a rack and in it were two pipes. The first was a Sasieni Royal Stuart Billiard and the second was a Sasieni Mayfair Apple. Both were great and were added to the hunt bag. Here is the link to the blog on the hunt and a photo of the pipes we added (https://rebornpipes.com/tag/bellingham-pipe-hunt/). Both were dirty but both contained the Sasieni Magic – classic shapes and nice briar. The next pipe on the work table is the second Sasieni a Mayfair Apple which is the upper pipe in the photo below. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and has a rugby ball stamp Made in England next to the shank/bowl junction. That is followed by Sasieni [over] Mayfair. On the right side it has the shape number 52N next to the bowl/shank junction followed by London Made stamped mid shank. The stem has an M logo on the topside. The bowl had a thick cake and a thick lava overflow on the rim. It was hard to estimate the condition of the rim top with the cake and lava coat but I was hoping it had been protected from damage. It appeared that the outer edge was in decent condition. The finish was a classic Sasieni smooth. The finish was dusty and tired but had some nice grain under the grime and the finish appeared to be in good condition. There were a few nicks in the surface on the left side of the bowl. A lot would be revealed once I had cleaned it. The stem was dirty, oxidized, calcified and had tooth chatter and tooth marks near the button on both sides. I took photos of the pipe before I stated my cleanup work. I took a close-up photo of the bowl and rim top to show its condition. The bowl had a thick cake in it and an overflow of lava on the top of the rim. The previous pipeman had left a mess for me to clean up. The stem was also is a mess. There was some tooth marks and dents on the top and underside ahead of the button. There was a thick coat of calcification and oxidation on the stem. M logo stamp on top of the stem was clear and readable.I took photos of the stamping on the right and left side of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts. It is a beautiful pipe. The stinger apparatus is missing and the airway in the tenon is the same as the Royal Stuart that I worked on (https://rebornpipes.com/2024/06/16/cleaning-up-another-bellingham-pipe-hunt-find-a-sasieni-royal-stuart-55-billiard/). As is my usual practice I turned to Pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-sasieni2.html) to look for any information on the Mayfair line. It was not listed in the original Sasieni list but it did come up in the Sasieni Seconds list. It was listed there and I did a screen capture of the section and have included it below. The logo on the pipe stem I was working on is stamped like the third one below. The shank stamp was like the one in the third photo below. From that information I knew that I was dealing with a Family Era Sasieni with the white M logo that was used on these older ones. That placed the date before 1979 when the company was sold.

From there I turned to Pipedia and read through the history of the brand. It confirmed the date of manufacture as pre-1979. At the bottom of the Pipedia article there was a 1965 catalogue. I have included the link to the catalogue (https://pipedia.org/images/1/1b/Sasieni_1965.pdf). Page six of the catalogue had a listing of the Sasieni lines and on the top right column the Mayfair was shown.

Page seven below gives a great description of the Mayfair line. It reads: Mayfair – these handsome pipes are remarkable for their good looks and sweet smoking qualities. Men who know and enjoy good pipes appreciate their tailored appearance and the superior craftsmanship in these “Mayfair” bruyeres. Smooth Tawny Natural finish only. Excellent value for the smoker seeking a medium priced pipe. Now I knew that is was not a second at all at this point in time. It was rather a well made pipe selected for its tailored appearance and superior craftsmanship on a medium priced pipe. That also pushed the date back to at 1965. The catalogue also had a shape photo that matched the numbers on the pipe I am working on. The shape 52 was known as a Hurlingham and was used in quite a few of the Sasieni lines for that large Apple. I have included a screen capture of the shape photo in the catalogue.There was also a shape chart on Pipedia and I have saved the page that included the shape of the 52N (Hurlingham) (https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:Sasnieni_Shapes.jpg).Now I knew what I was working on. It was a pre-1965 Apple in the Hurlingham shape in an early version of the Mayfair and in Smooth Tawny Natural finish that had taken on some colour through smoking. Now it was time to start my work on it. I reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer using the second and the third cutting head to take the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the remnants of the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I finished the bowl internals by sanding the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl walls looked very good with no checking or cracking to the walls. I scraped the heavy lava on the rim top with the edge of the Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I was able to remove the majority of the build up. The rest would come up after I scrubbed the bowl.I decided to scrub the bowl with Mark Hoover’s Before & After Briar Cleaner. He had sent me a sample to try out so this was the first pipe to try it out on. I shook the jar to make sure it was well mixed. I applied it to the surface of the briar bowl and the filthy rim top with my finger tips. I scrubbed it with a tooth brush and wiped it off with a cotton pad to remove the grime and the residual product left on the briar.  It looked much better once I had cleaned it. I rinsed it off with warm water and dried the briar with a cotton cloth. There were still some flecks of paint and debris on the briar and the rim top still had some lava that I needed to remove. I wiped the bowl with a cotton pad and acetone and cleaned off the remainder of the debris and the briar looked very good. With the externals cleaned it was now time to work on the internals of the mortise, shank and airway in the stem. I scraped the walls of the shank with a dental spatula and took a lot of tars and oils out with the spatula. From there I cleaned up the debris with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol until it was clean and the smell was gone. I cleaned the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I used both bristle and fluffy pipe cleaners to clean out the oils and tars. I scoured out the open tenon with a cotton swab. It came out looking much better. I set the stem aside and went back to working on the bowl. I sanded the briar with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the briar down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the debris that was left behind. By the time I finished the last pad the briar was very smooth and clean to the touch. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The bowl began to really shine with the polishing. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the briar with my finger tips. The product works well to clean, enliven and protect the briar and really brings it back to life. I have been using it for quite a few years now and really like the way it makes the briar come alive and makes the grain pop. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks on the surface of the stem and was able to lift them all. I blended the remaining marks into the surface with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I worked on the oxidation on the stem with Soft Scrub and cotton pads. I find that the product really cut through the deep oxidation and removes it well. I worked on both side of the stem and was pleased that it did no harm the “M” stamp on the topside of the stem.I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to blend in the scratch marks from the 220 grit sandpaper and to remove the residual oxidation that still remained. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth. By the final 3500 grit sanding pad the stem had a more normal shine and the oxidation, tooth marks and chatter were gone.I decided to touch up the M stamp on the top of the stem at this point. I used an acrylic white fingernail polish and it dries hard and matches very well. I applied it with the brush in the cap and worked it into the stamp with a tooth pick. Once it was cured I lightly sanded it off with a 1500 grit micromesh 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 Sasieni Mayfair 52N Apple with a vulcanite taper stem has a beautiful, unique Natural Sasieni finish that has some great grain standing out. The polished 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 Made in England Sasieni Mayfair 52N Apple 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: 6 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 1.76 ounces/50 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This one will be going on the rebornpipes store in the English Pipe Makers Section. Thanks for your time.

Cleaning up another Bellingham Pipe Hunt Find – a Sasieni Royal Stuart 55 Billiard

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By Steve Laug

We met up at a local eatery and had a great breakfast together with our aunt. We took her to her residence afterwards and visited with her for most of the morning. Together we headed to Old Town Bellingham to begin our pipe hunt. We visited three of my favourite antique malls and worked out way through the aisles of wares for sale. Jeff and I tend to divide and conquer, each walking through the aisles of the shop looking for pipes. The rest of the family moves through looking for their own treasures. In the first shop there was a rack and in it were two pipes. The first was a Sasieni Royal Stuart Billiard and the second was a Sasieni Mayfair Apple. Both were great and were added to the hunt bag. Here is the link to the blog on the hunt and a photo of the pipes we added (https://rebornpipes.com/tag/bellingham-pipe-hunt/). Both were dirty but both contained the Sasieni Magic – classic shapes and nice briar. The next pipe on the work table is the Sasieni Royal Stuart which is the lower pipe in the photo below. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and has a rugby ball stamp Made in England next to the shank/bowl junction. That is followed by Sasieni [over] Royal Stuart. On the right side it has the shape number 55 next to the bowl/shank junction followed by London Made stamped mid shank. The stem has an RS logo on the topside. The bowl had a thick cake and almost a half bowl of tobacco filling it. There was a thick lava overflow on the rim. It was hard to estimate the condition of the rim top with the cake and lava coat but I was hoping it had been protected from damage. It appeared that the outer edge was in decent condition. The finish was a classic Sasieni smooth. The finish was dusty and tired but had some nice grain under the grime and the finish appeared to be in good condition. A lot would be revealed once I had cleaned it. The stem was dirty, oxidized, calcified and had tooth chatter and tooth marks near the button on both sides. I took photos of the pipe before I started my cleanup work. I took a close-up photo of the bowl and rim top to show its condition. The bowl is over half full with burned tobacco and debris. It is unburned just below the surface of the ash. I always wonder when I find a bowl filled like this what happened to the pipeman who had the pipe before. Was he suddenly called out during a smoke? Did something happen to him after he laid the bowl down that kept him from coming back and finishing his smoke. I guess know one will ever know. It left a mess for me to clean up. The stem was also is a mess. There was some tooth marks and dents on the top and underside ahead of the button. There was a thick coat of calcification and oxidation on the stem. RS logo stamp on top of the stem was clear and readable.I took photos of the stamping on the right and left side of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts. It is a beautiful pipe. The stinger apparatus was filthy and clogged with tar and oils in the spear end and all the spirals. It is aluminum but you would never know that from looking at it.As is my usual practice I turned to Pipephil (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-sasieni2.html) to look for any information on the Royal Stuart line. It was not listed in the original Sasieni list but it did come up in the Sasieni Seconds list. It was listed there and I did a screen capture of the section and have included it below. The logo on the pipe stem I was working on is stamped like the second one below. The shank stamp was like the one in the third photo below. While this was helpful it did not get me any closer to establishing a date for the pipe. I turned to Google and did a quick search there. It came up with a Worthpoint article that I have included along with the photos below (https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/sasieni-family-era-royal-stuart-139465999).This COLLECTIBLE BRIAR PIPE is an OLD “FAMILY-ERA” SASIENI in the CLASSIC CANADIAN Shape!!! It is a Dunhill Group 4 Size. Although like most non-dotted Sasieni’s it does not have a “Town Name” (which Sasieni used in lieu of Shape Numbers), Sasieni connoisseurs will recognize this as the ever-popular “Amesbury” Shape (#44 on the Sasieni Shape Charts)! It comes from one of Sasieni’s oldest and most popular lines – – – the “ROYAL STUART”!!! It is one of the OLDEST ROYAL STUART’s because it has the ORIGINAL “RS” OVERSTAMPED LOGO (with the “R” Stamped over the “S” or vice versa)! For those who have not experienced the quality of Sasieni Pipes, this is an outstanding opportunity that does not require the commitment of a substantial investment as do many higher graded Sasieni’s! In the early Sasieni History after the short reign of the One Dot, Sasieni Eight Dots, the Four Dots became the top-of-the-line throughout most of the “Family Era” (or the time during which the Sasieni Family continued in ownership and operated the company including the quality control). Pipes that were not quite good enough to receive a higher grade became Two Dots or “Claret” One Dots. At the same time and throughout the history of the Company, Sasieni also offered a wide variety of non-dotted pipes beginning with their earliest catalogs. Many of those early lines like “His Royal Highness,” “The Henley Club” and “The Friar” disappeared into the rich lore of Sasieni History. But the “ROYAL STUART” survived the test of time and continued throughout the Family Era. During the “FAMILY ERA,” the finish often became the distinguishing characteristic between lines of “non-dotted” Sasieni’s. Mayfair’s were “Smooth Tawny Natural finish,” and Old England’s started as rusticated pipes while Royal Stuart’s were natural smooth or “deep plum” colored . Their great popularity quickly caused Sasieni to expand the Royal Stuart line to include “carved rusticated finish” pipes, too! And, the Royal Stuart became one of the longest-running “workhorses” among all Sasieni lines! Royal Stuart’s were advertised as an “outstanding quality and rare value” pipe but it was the bowl selection process that separated this line from others. Sasieni explained: “These bowls are selected for their fine grain conformation.” And this Canadian is a good example! Much of the Bowl has BIRDSEYE on the sides with DIAGONAL CROSS GRAIN which is actually more like STRANDS OF FLAME GRAIN on the front and back!!! The FLAME GRAIN continues on both sides of the Shank where it becomes PERPENDICULAR, PARALLEL STRAIGHT GRAIN!!! The NATURAL SMOOTH Finish has mellowed into a LIGHT WALNUT BROWN PATINA and there are NO dents, chips or scratches which detract from the beauty of the finish! A few small sandpits or sandspots keep the Pipe from perfection (and undoubtedly kept it from becoming a “dotted” Sasieni)! NO varnish, lacquer or shellac has been added to improve the finish for the pictures and temporarily conceal scratches and toothmarks! And, NO coating has been applied to the inside of the bowl to hide cracks, heat fissures and even burn-outs! The Pipe shines as it did when it came from the factory! This Canadian is 6″ LONG with a Bowl just OVER 1 3/4″ TALL!!! The nomenclature is crisp and clear: “Sasieni [in script], ROYAL STUART, LONDON MADE, MADE IN ENGLAND [in the classic Sasieni “football” shape], 44N”. The very oldest White Sasieni “RS” Overstamped Logo used on Royal Stuart’s remains mostly visible on the original bit! This is an unusual and collectible old Sasieni that is in PRISTINE CONDITION!!! It is an excellent entry-level Sasieni collectible! If the CONDITION of your eBay purchase is of importance to you, you will not find a better Sasieni Royal Stuart on eBay. Particularly because of its condition, this Royal Stuart is a bargain priced collectible! This Sasieni Canadian has been refurbished and is ready to smoke. There are no toothmarks on the mouthpiece and no carbon build-up on the Rim of the bowl.

From that information I knew that I was dealing with a Family Era Sasieni with the white overstamped RS logo that was used on these older ones. That placed the date before 1979 when the company was sold.

From there I turned to Pipedia and read through the history of the brand. It confirmed the date of manufacture as pre-1979. At the bottom of the Pipedia article there was a 1965 catalogue. I have included the link to the catalogue (https://pipedia.org/images/1/1b/Sasieni_1965.pdf). Page six of the catalogue had a listing of the Sasieni lines and on the top left column the Royal Stuart was shown.

Page seven below gives a great description of the Royal Stuart line. It reads: Royal Stuart a sweet smoking pipe of fine smoking quality bruyere. Finished to a satin smoothness in both light natural and deep plum. These bowls are selected for their fine grain conformation.Now I knew that is was not a second at all at this point in time. It was rather a well made pipe selected for its fine grain conformation. That also pushed the date back to at 1965. The catalogue also had a shape photo that matched the numbers on the pipe I am working on. The shape 55 was known as a Buckingham and was used in quite a few of the Sasieni lines for that large Billiard. I have included a screen capture of the shape photo in the catalogue.There was also a shape chart on Pipedia and I have saved the page that included the shape of the 55 (Buckingham) (https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:Sasnieni_Shapes.jpg).Now I knew what I was working on. It was a pre-1965 Billiard in the Buckingham shape in an early version of the Royal Stuart and in the light Natural finish that had taken on some colour through smoking. Now it was time to start my work on it. I used a dental spatula to remove the dried tobacco in the bottom half of the bowl. It was too dry and to compromised to determine the type of tobacco but I could tell that it was not an aromatic as there was no smell in the tars and oils in the shank and on the stinger.I reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer using the second and the third cutting head to take the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the remnants of the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I finished the bowl internals by sanding the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl walls looked very good with no checking or cracking to the walls. I scraped the heavy lava on the rim top with the edge of the Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I was able to remove the majority of the build up. The rest would come up after I scrubbed the bowl.I decided to scrub the bowl with Mark Hoover’s Before & After Briar Cleaner. He had sent me a sample to try out so this was the first pipe to try it out on. I shook the jar to make sure it was well mixed. I applied it to the surface of the briar bowl and the filthy rim top with my finger tips. I scrubbed it with a tooth brush and wiped it off with a cotton pad to remove the grime and the residual product left on the briar.  It looked much better once I had cleaned it. I rinsed it off with warm water and dried the briar with a cotton cloth. There were still some flecks of paint and debris on the briar and the rim top still had some lava that I needed to remove. I wiped the bowl with a cotton pad and acetone and cleaned off the remainder of the debris and the briar looked very good. With the externals cleaned it was now time to work on the internals of the mortise, shank and airway in the stem. I scraped the walls of the shank with a dental spatula and took a lot of tars and oils out with the spatula. From there I cleaned up the debris with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol until it was clean and the smell was gone. In order to clean out the shank I needed to remove the stinger apparatus from the tenon. I heated the stinger with a lighter and the goo softened enough to be able to remove the singer. I then cleaned the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I used both bristle and fluffy pipe cleaners to clean out the oils and tars. I used a tooth brush and a brass bristle wire brush to clean off the stinger at the same time. I scoured out the open tenon with a cotton swab. It came out looking much better. I set the stem aside and went back to working on the bowl. I sanded the briar with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the briar down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the debris that was left behind. By the time I finished the last pad the briar was very smooth and clean to the touch. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The bowl began to really shine with the polishing. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the briar with my finger tips. The product works well to clean, enliven and protect the briar and really brings it back to life. I have been using it for quite a few years now and really like the way it makes the briar come alive and makes the grain pop. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks on the surface of the stem and was able to lift them partially. I cleaned out the tooth marks with alcohol and q-tip then filled in the ones that remained with some rubberized, black CA glue. Once the glue cured I flattened out the repairs and recut the button edge with small files to start the process of blending them into the surface of the vulcanite. I further blended then with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to remove the varnish coat that covered it. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth. By the final 3500 grit sanding pad the stem had a more normal shine and the varnish, tooth marks and chatter were gone. Once I finished with the sanding pads I reinserted the stinger apparatus in the tenon. I used a small blade to spread the gap in the end of the insertion part and pressed into the tenon. It is really a strange looking piece of aluminum. 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 Sasieni Royal Stuart 55 Billiard with a vulcanite taper stem has a beautiful, unique Natural Sasieni Royal Stuart finish that has some great grain standing out. The polished 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 Made in England Sasieni Royal Stuart 55 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: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.73 ounces/49 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This one will be going on the rebornpipes store in the English Pipe Makers Section. Thanks for your time.

Fresh Life for a 1976 Dunhill Shell Briar 126 3S Billiard

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By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is a lovely Dunhill small sandblast Billiard shaped briar pipe. We purchased it from our contact in Copenhagen, Denmark on 01/22/2024. It is a classic Dunhill Sandblast Billiard shaped bowl. It has a sandblast, rich brown stained bowl that really highlights the grain in the briar. The bowl is dirty with grime in the finish. There also appears to be a shiny varnish coat over the grime in the sandblast. There appears to be a varnish coat on the stem as well. The bowl has a moderated cake and a light lava overflow on the sandblast rim top and edges. The stamping on the pipe is clear and readable and on the under side it reads 126 the shape number [followed by] Dunhill [over Shell Briar. That is followed by Made in England the superscript date number 16 is stamped after the D in England. There is a circle 3S following the date stamp that identifies the pipe as a group 3 sized pipe in a Shell finish. The stem had a white spot that is damaged and shrunken on the top side of the taper. It is lightly oxidized and has tooth chatter and deep tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button. The sad thing is that once again the stem is covered with a varnish coat. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup. He took photos of the pipe’s bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the lava coat overflowing onto the top. It is another dirty pipe. You can see the shiny coat on top of the finish and the grime in the photos. He also took photos of the stem to capture the tooth marks on the top and underside near the button. He took photos of the sides and the heel of the bowl to give a sense of the sandblast finish on this one. Even under the grime and shiny varnish coat in the grooves the blast is quite beautiful. Jeff took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable though it is faint in some spots. I wanted to unpack the Dunhill stamping on the shank and work to understand each element of the stamp. I generally use the Pipephil site to gather as much initial information as possible (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/shell-briar1.html). The stamping is interpreted as follows: The number 126 is the shape number for a taper stem Billiard. The Shell Briar stamp refers to the finish. The underlined, superscript number 16 following the D of England would give the date the pipe. The circle 3S tells me that the pipe is a group 3 sized pipe and the S is for the Shell finish. The photo below is of the stamping on a Don shape but the stamping is similar on this one.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-en1.html). I turned to Part 1 of the Dating Key and followed the chart. This pipe has 16 following the D in England. There was no patent number so that took me to the section on the chart below (column one) which instructed me that the pipe could be dated as being made “posterior to 1954”.I followed the link under “Your pipe is posterior to 1954. Narrow down your dating”. That took me to Page 2 of the dating key (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1a.html). The second column – suffic [1…4] or [11…39] led me to the next section. Since the 16 after the D in England the date of the pipe spelled as 1960 + 16 making the date 1976.I then turned to Pipedia’s section on Dunhill Shell Briar to get a bit of background on the Dunhill finishes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill#Root_Briar). I quote:

Shell

A deep craggy sandblast with a black stain finish (usually made using Algerian briar) – the color of the stain used has varied over the years. Although there is some doubt as to them being the first to sandblast pipes, Dunhill’s Shell pipes, and the sandblasting techniques developed to create them are considered one of Dunhill’s greatest and most lasting contributions to the art of pipe making.

The documented history of Dunhill’s inception of the Shell is largely limited to patent applications — there are no catalog pages or advertisements promoting blasted pipes at the time. The preliminary work on the English patent (No. 1484/17) was submitted on October 13, 1917. The patent submission was completed half a year later, on April 12, 1918, followed by the granting of the English patent on October 14, 1918. This was less than a month before the end of The Great War on November 11th.

In 1986 Dunhill released a line of premium Shell finish pipes – “RING GRAIN”. These are high-quality straight grain pipes which are sandblasted. Initially only Ring Grain, but now in two different finishes. In 1995 the “Shilling” was introduced with Cumberland finish – it is an extremely rare series. These pipes exhibit a deeper blast characteristic of that of the 1930’s – mid-1960’s (and the limited ‘deep blast’ pipes of the early 1980s) and show a fine graining pattern. These are considered the best new Dunhills by many enthusiasts today and are very rare. The finish is sometimes described as tasting like vanilla at first, with the taste becoming more normal or good as the pipe breaks in.

I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had done an amazing cleanup of the pipe. He reamed the cake with a PipNet reamer and cleaned up that with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the bowl and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and shank brushes. He scrubbed the externals with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and rinsed the bowl off with running water. His scrubbing removed the varnish on the bowl with just a few spots remaining. 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 soak did not penetrate the varnish on the stem at all but it certainly looked better. Other than the shiny spots in the finish where the varnish remained, the pipe looked very good when I received it. You can also see the sunken state of the white spot on the stem surface. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition. It looks good with the tars and oils removed from the rim top. The inner edge of the bowl was in excellent condition. The bowl itself was very clean. The stem came out clean but the varnish coat remained and discoloured the white spot. The photos clearly pick up the shrunken white spot on the stem top. The varnish coat gave the whole stem an artificial shine that hid the tooth marks and chatter underneath.I took a photo of the underside of the shank to show the stamping. The photo shows the stamping and it is very readable other than the date stamp which is visible in person. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the pipe parts to show what I was working with. I think once the varnish is removed the pipe will be a nicer looking piece.The briar was actually very clean and the varnish coat had been eliminated on the bowl so I had a bit of an easier job than on the previous 126 that had a heavy varnish coat. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface 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 (it varies how long I leave it not for any specific reason but because I get preoccupied with other things). Once it has done its magic I buff it with a cotton cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe really comes alive with the balm. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to remove the varnish coat that covered it. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth. By the final 3500 grit sanding pad the stem had a more normal shine and the varnish, tooth marks and chatter were gone. With that done I was ready to address the shrunken and discoloured white spot.Once I hard removed the varnish coat I cleaned up the sunken white spot with a cotton swab and isopropyl alcohol. I was able to remove the staining on the spot and the grime that had built up in the hole. It was now ready for the patch. Mark Hoover has some small white acrylic dots that can be used to fill in the hole in the stem top.  I followed Mark’s direction and put one acrylic dot into a small amount of acetone for a couple of seconds. I then pushed it into the hole with some tweezers. Mark had said that if the drilled hole goes a bit deeper and is not to the level with the surface of the stem then wait a minute or two and put another on top. I let it harden and then I sanded it smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. 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 1976 Dunhill Shell Briar 126 Billiard with a vulcanite taper stem has a beautiful, unique Dunhill Sandblast finish that is very deep and craggy. The Shell Briar mixed brown finish highlights some great grain around the bowl and shank. It has a unique sandblast that Dunhill specialized in making. The removal of the varnish gave a clearness to the stem surface. The polished 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 multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax 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 126 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 ¼ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.13 ounces/32 grams. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. This one will be going on the rebornpipes store in the English Pipe Makers Section. Thanks for your time.

Repairing a Broken Tenon and Restoring A Ben Wade Golden Matt Handmade Freehand

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Blog by Steve Laug

To me there is something almost electric about handling and working on a pipe designed and carved by Preben Holm. I can’t describe adequately the feeling I have when I turn the bowl and stem over in my hands even before I start working on one of these his pipes. All I know is that there is an energy and fluidity that flows through the pipe because of the way he carved and shaped the briar. He is a master of chasing the grain in the briar. Every time I get a chance to work on one I am excited about the possibility. So, a few weeks ago when I got an email from a reader of the blog about his Ben Wade, Preben Holm pipe it was with no hesitation that I accepted working on it. I have included that email below along with a photo I asked him to send me to see the pipe.

I wondering if you can find me a replacement pipe stem for my Ben Wade pipe. Dropped my pipe and broke it. — TomThis Ben Wade Golden Matt was no exception to my experience with Ben Wade pipes. Tom sent it to me and today it arrived. I was excited to be able to work on it. This one has incredible grain around the bowl sides and shank. The bowl had a very thick cake on the walls. The plateau on the rim top is filled with tars and lava but it is a large top. The shank end also has a plateau finish. It is very unique pipe. The combination of dark and medium stains highlights grain that runs like flames across both sides of the bowl culminating at the flat heel of the bowl. The rim top is plateau and it looks quite unique – with the valleys and hills in the top and also something that looked like it had been wire brush. The variegated copper, brown and gold acrylic stem is beautiful and the turning of acrylic give it an amazing look. The tenon is broken off and fortunately the piece has been pulled from the shank. It is a smooth break which makes things easier. There were tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem ahead of the button. I took photos of the pipe to try and capture what it looked like before I started working on it. It really is a beauty in spite of the grime in the finish. I took some time to really examine the condition of the pipe. I made some notes of what I saw. It is clear to me that this is one of Tom’s favourite pipes as you can see from the thick cake in the bowl and the lava on the rim top. It is hard to know the condition of the inner edge of the bowl due to the lava on the edges. The outside of the bowl and plateau portions are dirty and dusty but the grain pops through. The fancy acrylic turned stem still had a faint BW Cross and Crown logo on the top just past the fancy turnings. The stem as a whole was dirty and dusty with tooth marks and chatter on the both sides ahead of the button. I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank to capture all of the stamping. It was clear and read Ben Wade in script at the top [over] Golden Matt [over] Hand Made [over] in [over] Denmark. Though the photo is a bit blurry the stamping is much clearer in person.I wanted to get a sense of the background of the pipe. I always enjoy the background as a part of my work on a pipe. I am including the history that I included in a previous blog. It includes the idea that the Preben Holm pipes were marketed under the Ben Wade label in the US and imported through Lane Ltd. I turned to Pipedia and read the listing on the brand to refresh my memory and flesh out the knowledge of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Wade). I have included a photo from that site that was taken from a Tinderbox advertisement. The pipe labelled D in the advertisement is a Ben Wade Golden Matt Freehand.

Ben Wade Ad in a Tinder Box catalogue, courtesy Doug Valitchka

I quote the portion of the article that summarizes the history of the brand.

Young Copenhagen master pipemaker Preben Holm had made a meteoric career heading a pipe manufacture employing 45 people at the age of 22! But around the turn of 1970/71 he was in major financial difficulties. His US distributor, Snug Harbour Ltd. in New York City, left him in the lurch. Holm had three unpaid invoices on his desk and another large shipment was ready for the USA, when Snug Harbour’s manager told him on the phone that there was no money at all on the account to pay him.

So, the Dane went to New York for an almost desperate search for a new distribution partner. He made contacts with Lane Ltd. and met Herman G. Lane in February 1971. Lane Ltd. had no interest in Holm’s serial pipes produced at that time but so much the more in the hand-carved freehands because the hype for Danish freehands and fancies in the States was still on its way to the climax then. The meeting resulted in an agreement to start a cooperation. Lane insisted to improve the quality considerably and in return he assured to be able to sell essentially larger quantities.

Holm went back home to work on new samples with all-new designs and altered finishes for Lane. Both, Lane and Holm, agreed that it would be unwise to sell the pipes under Preben Holm’s name as long as Snug Harbour had a considerable stock of Preben Holm pipes and might sell them pipes at very low prices just to bring in some money.

So, on Mr. Lane’s proposal it was determined to use the name Ben Wade belonging to Lane Ltd. Lane spent considerable amounts of money for advertising the new brand in the big magazines– the centerpiece being whole-page ads showing a very exclusive Seven Day’s Set.

The cooperation with Lane Ltd. proved to be an eminent business success for both partners. Within a very short time Ben Wade Handmade Denmark sold in much larger quantities and at higher prices than they had ever dreamed of. And the hype these freehands and fancy pipes caused went on unbroken long after Herman G. Lane deceased. Preben Holm – obviously much more brilliant in pipe making than in pipe business – was in major troubles again in 1986 and had to sack most of his staff. The Ben Wade production was significantly lowered but continued until his untimely death in June of 1989.

Up to now Preben Holm made Ben Wade pipes are cult and highly sought for on the estate markets.

This pipe was another Preben Holm made Freehand distributed in the US by Lane Ltd under the name Ben Wade. The freehand rage occurred in the late 70s and the pipes were made until Preben’s death in 1989. My guess would be that this pipe was made sometime during that time period and potentially in the late 70s.

Armed with that information I moved forward to work on the pipe itself and see what I had to do with it. I reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer using the second and the third cutting head to take the cake back to bare briar. I cleaned up the remnants of the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I finished the bowl internals by sanding the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl walls looked very good with no checking or cracking to the walls. I worked over the rim top with a brass bristle wire brush to knock off the loose debris on the rim top. I worked it over to clean out the grooves and valleys of both the plateau top and the wire marks across the surface of the rim. It really is a beautiful pipe and a unique looking rim top finish. It cleaned up quite well.With the internals of the bowl cleaned I worked on the airway in the shank, mortise and the stem. I cleaned it with pipe cleaners – both regular and bristle, cotton swabs and 99% isopropyl alcohol. I was able to remove a lot of the debris and oils in the pipe. It smells much better. Now that the reaming and scrubbing of the interior was finished, I moved on to the exterior of the pipe. I scrubbed the plateau rim top and shank end along with the smooth bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. The grime and oils just rinsed off under the warm water that I ran over the finish. I dried it off with a soft cloth and I was please with how clean it was and how the grain stood out. I sanded the briar with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the briar down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the debris that was left behind. By the time I finished the last pad the briar was very smooth and clean to the touch. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. The bowl began to really shine with the polishing. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the smooth briar with my finger tips. I worked it into the plateau on the rim top and shank end with a horse hair shoebrush. The product works well to clean, enliven and protect the briar and really brings it back to life. I have been using it for quite a few years now and really like the way it makes the briar come alive and makes the grain pop. The bowl is finished and really looks amazing. All that remains is that I have to polish it on the buffer. I set it aside and turned my attention to the broken tenon. I went through my collection of tenons and found a couple that would work. The difference was in the diameter of the portion of the tenon that went into the stem.I chose the top one in the photo above as the tenon insertion point was smaller in diameter and would fit better in the stem. I used a Dremel and sanding drum and 220 grit sandpaper and a topping board to flatten the broken end on the snapped tenon. I wanted a flat surface to be able to drill the airway for the new tenon.Once it was flattened I used progressively larger drill bits to open the airway.  By the third drill bit the opening was perfect for the diameter of the tenon insert end. I smoothed out the junction of the tenon and the stem using a flat file and the transition was very smooth. I flattened the threads of the insert end with the file at the same to make the fit snug. I knew that once I glue it in place it would be secure and strong.I painted the end of the threaded portion of the tenon with rubberized black CA glue. I inserted a pipe cleaner in the stem and threaded the new tenon onto the pipe cleaner. Once everything was aligned I pressed the tenon in place in the stem end. It aligned perfectly with the pipe cleaner as a guide.Once the glue had set and the tenon was firmly in place I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to achieve a snug fit in the shank.I touched up the Cross & Crown stamp on the top of the stem with Rub’n Buff Antique Gold and buffed it off with a cotton pad. It was faint but it was readable. I sanded the tooth marks and chatter on both sides with the 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the marks and minimise them. It looked better.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads. I used 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris on the surface of the stem. I polished the new tenon at the same time and both took on a rich shine and looked better. I finished by polishing the stem and tenon with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish and gave it a final wipe with Obsidian Oil. This is a beautiful Hand Made Preben Holm made Ben Wade Golden Matt Freehand with a fancy, turned, variegated acrylic stem. It has a great look and feel. The shape fits well in the hand with the curve of the bowl and shank junction a perfect fit for the thumb around the bowl when held. I polished stem and the bowl with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. I gave the plateau on the rim top and shank end multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine andwith a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The rich combination of browns and black in the smooth finishes and the black plateau areas took on life with the buffing. The rich colour of the briar works well with the polished stem. I like the grain and finished look of this Preben Holm Ben Wade Golden Matt Freehand. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 ½ inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 2 wide x 2 ¼ inches long, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 74 grams/2.61 ounces. This Danish Freehand is a real beauty. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over another beautiful pipe. It will be heading back to Tom shortly and he will once again have his favourite pipe to enjoy. Thanks for your time.

New Life for a GBD Speciale Standard London England 788 D Bent Apple

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By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the worktable is an English made oval shank bent Apple with a classic brown finish. It is a combination reddish brown stains. The pipe came to us from a lot that we bought from a Facebook auction from Beach Lake, Pennsylvania, USA on 01/29/2024. The pipe is very dirty with a thick cake in the bowl and lava on the rim top. The rim edge looks good but it was hard to know what was under the lava coat on the top and edges. It is stamped on the top and the underside of the shank. On the topside it reads GBD in an oval [over] Speciale [over] Standard. On the underside it is stamped London, England [over] the shape number 788 followed by the letter D. The finish was dusty and there were oils and grime ground into the finish around the sides of the bowl. The stem is a vulcanite saddle stem with grime on the surface and tooth chatter and deep marks ahead of the button on both sides. There is an inlaid GBD oval medallion on the top of the saddle stem. Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. Jeff took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show the condition of the pipe. There was a thick cake in the bowl and a build up of lava on the smooth rim top. It is also built up on the inner edge of the bowl. The stem photos show the grime and the deep tooth marks on both sides ahead of the button. He took photos of the sides and the heel of the bowl to show the finish on the pipe. It is a unique stain on it that really shows the grain around the bowl sides. He took two photos to capture the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted aboveI turned to PipePhil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-gbd.html) to see what I could find. The site had nothing particular on the GBD Speciale Standard line of pipes.

I then turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/GBD) to see if there was info the brand. It is a great read in terms of history but there was nothing giving details on a GBD Xtra Straight Grain.

The claims after the 1st World War demanded further distinctions. First of all was the London Made, which became the Standard London Made, followed by the New Era– in 1931 the top model asking 12½ Shilling. The Pedigree, although sketched around 1926, was not produced until the later 1930s. The New Standard was introduced in order to give the popular Standard of the 20s a higher rank in value. The Prehistoric, a deeply sandblasted black pipe, that still carried the small GBD Xtra stamp, was entirely new and unusual.

The French GBDs more or less followed the same developments, although Xtra and Speciale very longly used there. In the late 1920s a GBD with a metal filter system was introduced under the name Extra Dry. Also, from Paris came another important new feature: the introduction of the inserted metal plate with the GBD initials on the stems. That insert added a further “touch of class” to the pipes and in London it was attached immediately.

From that small note I knew that I was working on a post WW1 Pipe that carried the GBD Speciale Standard stamp.

I then followed a link at the end of the article to another article on Pipedia about model information (https://pipedia.org/wiki/GBD_Model_Information). There I found a note to the Speciale stamp that stated Production in France.

Further on in the thread on the Speciale pipe I found this response by snagstangl that reads as follows:

I was re reading a Jacques Cole article concerning GBDs titled “Story of a Pipe Brand” it had this to say about this topic:

“We have seen that early Briar GBDs were made in only one, later two qualities and the need to mark the difference did not arise. There were few finishes but towards the end of the 19th century demand was changing, for instance the UK had a “penchant” for the darker finishes. Qualities were therefore sub-divided and we see the introduction of the GBD XTRA (note the spelling). The GBD Speciales were as the name implied, special models, finishes and fittings. GBD XTRAs were the cream, being mostly straight grains. The “ordinary* quality was simply
stamped GBD. Demand after the First World War called for further identification starting with GBD ‘London Made* which became ‘Standard London Made*, followed by GBD “New Era’, top of the range in 1931 at 12/6d! GBD ‘Pedigree’, although first thought of around 1926, was well established in the late 1930s. GBD “New Standard’ was created to give a boost to the “Standards’ of the 1920s and a newly introduced sandblast was called GBD ‘Prehistoric’, still bearing a small GBD ‘Xtra* stamp. French made GBDs followed more or less the same ideas, still however using ‘Xtra’ and ‘Speciale’ while in the late ’20s a metal system GBD was introduced under the name GBD ‘Extra Dry*. The 1920s also saw an important development with the introduction of the metal GBD inlay on mouthpieces which gave the pipes that extra ‘touch of class’. This inlay has been used on GBDs for nearly 60 years.”

That was followed by a response from osiris01:

I started with either this text or one using it as source and it does explain well the reason for creating, first the Xtras and Speciales, and later, the other graded lines like New Era, Pedigree etc. The problem is that the Xtra and Speciale were discontinued in 1937/8 (Pipedia et al) because the new lines provided a more refined grading system. And yet, the Xtra was listed in the catalogs until 1950.

My guess is that the French factory continued with the Xtra, for a reason unknown to me. The only evidence I have of this is a badly translated sentence from Pipedia that describes the process of creating additional lines. It reads “The French GBDs more or less followed the same developments, although Xtra and Speciale very longly used there.” What ‘Longly used there’ means I don’t know, but somewhere was still making them, and if you translate ‘longly’ as ‘longer’, it does imply that they continued making them for a longer period. It’s a far from perfect explanation but, as I said, they were still being made somewhere and it does imply that the French factory were responsible. However, they were different to the Xtras made in the 20s/30s since the later ones had a chamfered rim, different stems etc.

However, reading you text again, I wonder if the it is hinting at a COM. “Demand after the First World War called for further identification starting with GBD ‘London Made* which became ‘Standard London Made*,”. It doesn’t say that a COM was not used before then (that would be too easy), but you wouldn’t stamp a pipe “Xtra, London Made, London Made” or similar.

I just don’t have enough evidence, reference points, old models to compare against etc. Even describing it as an educated guess is still stretching it a bit. The best guess, perhaps.

However, what I do know is that the 1930s Xtras were fitted with a specific stem with an unusual button called the ‘curved wafer tip of comfort’ (just rolls off the tongue). The following images shows the detail from a 1938 catalogue and the button on my pipe, and to my eye, they are the same. Not in any way conclusive, but it’s the best I’ve been able to come up with.

Now I knew that I was dealing with a French made GBD Speciale Standard created in the 1950s.

Jeff reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals of the shank and stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish on the bowl looked really good when I got it. The rim top and edges looked very good. He soaked the twin bore stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer bath to remove the oxidation. The stem looked better and the deep tooth marks and chatter on the surface were also visible. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour it looked much better than when he found it. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work on it.  I took photos of the condition of the rim top and stem before I started working. The rim top looks very good and the bowl is spotless. The stem is much better but still shows some oxidation and tooth chatter and deep marks on both sides near the button. I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. The stamping was clear and readable as noted above. I took the bowl and stem apart and took a photo of the pipe to show the look of the pipe. Now it was my turn to work on the pipe. The bowl was in very good condition so I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding dust. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the bowl, rim top and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I find that the balm really makes the briar come alive again. The contrasts in the layers of stain really made the grain stand out. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The bowl really looks good at this point. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks on the surface of the stem and was able to lift them partially. I cleaned out the tooth marks with alcohol and q-tip then filled in the ones that remained with some rubberized, black CA glue. Once the glue cured I flattened out the repairs and recut the button edge with small files to start the process of blending them into the surface of the vulcanite. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to further blend in the repairs. I wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil saturated cloth to remove the grime and protect the stem. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both fine and extra fine. I wiped it down again with some Obsidian Oil and let it sit and dry. I always look forward to the moment when all the pieces are put back together. The pipe makes a final trip to the buffing wheel and is met first with Blue Diamond polish on the buffing wheel. That is followed by multiple coats of carnauba wax over the whole pipe. Then I do a step that not everyone does but I learned from one of the old pipe men who no longer with us, I buff the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. Finish my buffing by hand with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with black vulcanite stem. This richly stained GBD Speciale Standard 788 Bent Apple is light weight and ready for you to load up a tobacco of preference and enjoy. Have a look at it in the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 48 grams/1.69 ounces. This is one that will go on the British Pipemakers Section of the rebornpipes online store shortly. Let me know if you are interested in adding it to your rack. 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.

Reworking a newly acquired trade, a Barclay Rex Bent Billiard

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Blog by Steve Laug

A month or so ago I received an email from a fellow in Japan who had some pipes he wanted to sell. He sent me a few and one of them was this interesting older Barclay Rex Bent Billiard. The Pipe was faintly stamped and read Barclay Rex on the left side of the shank. The stamping was faint but readable. It looks as if it is stamped underneath very faintly and read New York. The rest of the stamping is unreadable and the stamping on the right side of the shank is buffed away. The bowl has been reamed and the pipe cleaned. The rim top is slightly out of round and there are scratches and debris on the rim top. The pipe has been polished and the junction between the shank end and the stem shows some rounding of the edges – something that I truly hate in a restoration. The stem itself is also rounded at the shank junction but is polished and there are light tooth marks on the top and the underside against the button. The shank is very clean inside and the pipe has a faint aroma of English tobacco. Overall, I am happy with it but I will need to deal with rounded joint of the stem and shank. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work on it. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition of the bowl and the top. You can see the lava on the rim top that had been left from the restoration previously done. The bowl is slightly out of round due to damage to the inner edge. The shank stem joint shows some rounding to the edges.I took a photo to show the stamping on the left side of the shank. It is readable and I think there is also some stamping underneath what is present.  I took a photo of the right side as well to see if anything showed up in the photo. It did not show anything on the right side. It has some great grain on the bowl and shank and the rounding at the shank and stem joint. I took the stem off and took a photo of the pipe to show its condition. I turned to Pipephil’s site to see what I could learn about the Barclay-Rex brand and particularly the sandblast one I was working on (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-b1.html). I have included a screen capture of the information that is shown there.I quote from the sidebar on the site below as it gives a good summary of information.

Brand created in 1910. The shop was situated on Maiden Lane. Three addresses now (2010): 75 Broad Street, 70 East 42nd Street, 570 Lexington Avenue. See also: André

I turned to Pipedia to try and place this pipe in the timeline of the brand and was able find some helpful information which I have included below (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Barclay_Rex). I quote the information below.

Barclay-Rex, a downtown Manhattan tobacconist, was founded in 1910 by Vincent Nastri, a pipemaker from Salerno, Italy. The store was originally located at Barclay and Church Street, and the name was taken from that location and Nastri’s beloved Great Dane, Rex. The business is still run by Vincent Nastri, III and owned by Vincent Nastri, Jr. They have several locations in New York City. The store has carried pipes from all fine makers, and the Barclay-Rex line of pipes is also much sought after, in that pipes were made in a range from the very inexpensive into the several hundreds of dollars. The pipes were, at least into the 1960’s, made of Algerian briar.

In addition to pipes made by Mr. Nastri over the years, Mr. Nastri, III, has been quoted as stating that a pipemaker just leaving Dunhill made pipes with a small off-white dot on the stem for a time for the shop. As was discovered by Steve Laug of Reborn Pipes, they were evidently made by a pipemaker whose initials were HGP, and stamped on the pipe as such. These pipes were made for a single run only, and then never made again.

In addition, Sasieni at least for a time made private label pipes stamped with the Barclay-Rex name, but with their own shapes and shape numbers.

Locations: (Flagship Store) 75 Broad Street, New York, New York 10004 Telephone: (212) 962-3355

70 East 42nd Street, New York, New York 10165 Telephone: (212) 692-9680

570 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York 10022 Telephone: (212) 888-1015

Email: info@barclayrex.com Website: http://www.barclayrex.com Toll Free: (888) 278-6222 Fax: (212) 962-3372

With the information from Pipedia I knew that I was working on a pipe from the Barclay-Rex Tobacconist in New York City. The fellow I bought it from had no background information on the pipe. I was unable to pin down the date this pipe was made. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

I started my work on the pipe by addressing the spots of lava on the rim top and the damage on the inner edges of the bowl. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to work over the inner and outer edge to smooth out the damage. I polished the rim top with 1500-12000 grit micromesh sanding pad – dray sanding to remove the darkening and remaining lava on the rim top as well. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the bowl, rim top and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I find that the balm really makes the briar come alive again. The contrasts in the layers of stain really made the grain stand out. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The bowl really looks good at this point. I spent some time studying the shank/stem junction to see the edges looked. I could see them on both the stem edge and the shank edge. The internal of the shank There as no way to square the shank end to be a smooth transition because of the rounded edges. The top edge of the shank is quite thin so there is no room for smoothing it out. With those issues in mind I chose to band it with a thin brass band to square up the shank edge. The photos of the shank end show the rounding but it worse in person than shown in the photos. I heated the band and pressed it onto the shank end. I took photos of the shank end before and after the banding. I put the stem on the shank and took a photo of the pipe with the band in place. I like the look of it as it adds a nice touch of bling. I set the bowl aside and worked over the tooth marks against the button edge with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to blend them in the rest of the stem surface. Once it was finished the tooth marks were gone. I needed to polish the sanding marks out with micromesh sanding pads.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil. With the bowl and the stem finished I put the beautiful Barclay-Rex New York Bent Billiard back together and buffed it on the wheel using Blue Diamond to give it a shine. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It really is a great looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are – Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 1 inch. The weight of this large pipe is 1.34 ounces /38 grams. This Barclay-Rex Bent Billiard is another great looking pipe and the brass brought the junction back to square. It is much more beautiful in person than these photos can capture. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store soon. If you would like to add it to your collection let me know. This is another pipe that has the possibility of transporting the pipe man or woman back to a slower paced time in history where you can enjoy a respite. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me.

De Profundis: Rescuing a Peterson 301

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Blog by Kenneth Lieblich

If this pipe could talk, surely it would say, “Out of the depths I have cried unto Thee, O Lord…”. This great pipe has truly come from the depths of … who knows where. It’s a handsome, rugged Peterson 301 System rusticated bent pot with a P-lip. As is often the case, this pipe (and the others in the photo below) came from an old gentleman, now deceased, who lived on Vancouver Island. The first two pipes below are both 301s and the third is perhaps/maybe a 317 (not sure yet). I have no idea what he did with these pipes (dropped them down the mines perhaps), but boy-oh-boy, these are pretty rough. No problem – it’s my job to sort things out.The only markings to be found on this pipe are the 301 found on the underside of the stummel, the K&P [over] Peterson on the nickel ferrule, and the double-stamped, stylized P on the stem. That’s annoying! Mark Irwin of Peterson Pipe Notes has written a few good articles about the 301s on his blog and I recommend reading one here and another one here. Of course, Steve has also written restoration blogs about the 301, including this one and it contained an important tidbit of information that I quote here:

I learned previously that the shape 301 was not introduced until 1975. Considering the Republic stamp, this one would likely date between 1975 and 2000.

This was significant because, due to the markings being almost entirely worn on this pipe, there was nothing on the wood other than the number 301 – and I couldn’t tell an age from that. Charles Lemon from Dad’s Pipes also has a post about a 301, which he describes as coming from the “1970’s era”. Now, what’s interesting about Steve and Charles’ pipes is that the patch of briar which shows the marks is quite different from mine. Below are Steve’s, Charles’, and my pipes, respectively. The first two are sort of freeform oval-ish shapes. Third (mine) is a rectangle and I wonder if that indicates a different era. I don’t know, but any of you reading this do, please let me know!  This pipe is filthy beyond description – but must have been smoked frequently and with great affection. The stem has dirt everywhere, severe toothmarks aplenty, and calcification as I have seldom seen. Meanwhile, the stummel looks as though oily dirt has been rubbed into the surfaces of the rustication. The rim is coated in lava, the front edge of the rim is bashed, and the bowl is clogged with cake. Some spots on the rustication are really worn – the old fellow must have really loved his pipes. I began by cleaning some of the calcification on the outside of the stem. I took a blade (an old butter knife, actually) and began gently scraping at all that build-up. Obviously, I took it easy, as I did not want to damage the stem’s vulcanite any further. The butter knife worked quite well and I got a good amount loose. I followed that up with some Murphy’s on some cotton rounds to try and scrub the rest away. I broke out the isopropyl alcohol and pipe cleaners, and got to work on the inside of the stem. Predictably, it was unbelievably dirty and I went through a good number of pipe cleaners in order to clean it up.As I mentioned, there were quite a few dents in the stem. Some were obviously tooth marks, but other dents looked like blunt force trauma! Time to break out the BIC lighter to see if it could raise some of them. Quite frankly, it did not do much – this repair was going to require some considerable sanding etc. Before that, however, the stem went for an overnight soak in the deoxidizer. The following day, the oxidation had migrated to the surface and would be fairly straightforward to remove. I scrubbed vigorously with SoftScrub to remove the leftover oxidation. At this point, I painted the accidentally-duplicated P on the stem, as it was pretty rough – just like everything about this pipe.

Once clean, I set about repairing the dents. Before I moved on to the Micromesh pads, I built up the dent damage on the stem with black cyanoacrylate adhesive and let it fully cure. It turned out that this was not as straightforward as I had hoped. It took more than one application of adhesive to sort this problem out. I sanded the lumps down with my needle files and my grey pads, to make the stem look sort of normal. I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to bring out the lovely black lustre on the stem. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each of the last five pads. On to the stummel – this is where the lion’s share of the work was. The insides (both bowl and shank) were overwhelmed with cake and tar and anything else you’d care to mention. The bowl really needed to be reamed, so I used the KleenReem to scrape off as much built-up cake as possible. Generally, I prefer to sand the chamber down to bare briar. When restoring, it is important to ensure that there is no damage to the briar under the cake. There are a few situations when I might leave some cake in the bowl, but not today. There were definitely some craze lines in the briar on this pipe. I’ll come back to that later. Just like the bowl, the shank was absolutely disgusting. It had never been cleaned – or, not for many decades. I started cleaning the inside with isopropyl alcohol, Q-tips, and pipe cleaners. This took a while. The inside was very dirty and required and extraordinary number of Q-tips and pipe cleaners. Eventually some cleanliness came to it.I threw the stummel in my alcohol bath in the hope that it would loosen some of the ground-in filth on the outside of the bowl. After 24 hours, this worked a bit, but not enough. I added some scrubbing with Murphy’s and a toothbrush. This made things much better, but it’s a case of two steps forward and one step back: sure, it’s clean, but lots of the stain in now gone too. I decided to de-ghost the pipe despite what I had just done with the alcohol bath. I thrust cotton balls into the bowl and the shank and saturated them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummel sit overnight. This caused even more oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton. The bowl was nice and clean after this.On to the ferrule – which was bashed and discoloured from years of mistreatment. Somewhat to my surprise, the ferrule came off very easily and required no special effort. I began by cleaning the metal with some SoftScrub on cotton rounds. This was quite good at removing the unsightly bits. I used some of my MicroMesh pads (only 3,600-12,000) to eliminate some of the minor scratches on the metal. It also gave a nice shine which clearly hadn’t been seen for decades. I used a jewelry cloth to give the final polish to the nickel. This ferrule would always retain some small dents etc. from its hard life, but it looks much improved. And this is where I stopped for a looooong time. It occurred to me that the amount of work involved in this pipe was tremendous. I was torn about how invasive I wanted to be in my pipe surgery. What about the damage to the rim? What about rematching the stain? What about the heavily worn sections of the rustication? Perhaps my temperament didn’t suit this pipe too well. I freely admit that I set aside the pipe for nearly six months before coming back to it. That sounds absurd, I know, but it was either that or chucking it in the fireplace.

Back in the present day, I began by working the rim back into shape. I sanded it down on my topping board so that it was level (it wasn’t before). I used some tools, including my Dremel and some modified screwdrivers, and re-rusticated the rim. It looked great, but too sharp. So, I sanded the sharp bits to add some softness to the rim. At this point, six months on, I couldn’t remember what cleaning I had and had not done to the pipe. I dragged out some soap and some tube brushes and scrubbed the insides. I’m glad I did – it still needed it.I wanted to have another look at the underside of the stummel for any sign of markings. I used a piece of chalk and pretended this was an old gravestone rubbing. The 301 came out more clearly, but, sadly, nothing else was revealed. It was worth a shot.I knew I had to stain the stummel, but I wanted to address the heat crazes inside the bowl first. I prepared some heat-resistant epoxy and filled the cracks and gouges, ensuring that the epoxy was evenly spread throughout the bowl. Of course, I did plug the draught hole with a folded pipe cleaner (coated in petroleum jelly) to make sure none of the epoxy made its way up there. Once done, a good 24 hours was needed to ensure that the epoxy was properly set.Having completed that, it was time for staining. This would require more than one colour and some finessing to get right. I applied black leather dye with a cotton dauber to colour the recesses (or valleys, if you like) of the rustication. I flamed it with my BIC lighter and let it set. This dye is alcohol-based, so I used isopropyl alcohol to wipe down the pipe and remove excess stain. This wasn’t sufficient, so I also used some 0000-grit steel wool. I coated it again with cordovan leather dye, flamed it again, and let that set too. As before, I wiped it down with alcohol to provide depth, nuance, and variation to the colour. I was pleased – and would be more pleased soon. At long last, I was off to my bench buffer to put the final touches on this pipe. I first gave it a thorough going-over with Red Tripoli. This may seem strange, but I needed to lighten the colour of the high points of the stummel. Then I used the White Diamond compound. Following that, several coats of conservator’s wax created a beautiful, glossy seal on the pipe and moved closer to closure for this long and involved repair.At this point, I glued the ferrule back in place. Then I gently sanded the inside of the bowl to provide a rough surface for what was to come next. I thinly coated the entire inside of the bowl with a mixture of activated charcoal and my wife’s homemade yogurt. Once hardened, this provided a good, slightly rough surface for a new cake to build.This rugged and handsome Peterson 301 System rusticated bent pot has come out of the depths and is back to life. I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the “Ireland” pipe section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 5¾ in. (145 mm); height ¾ in. (45 mm); bowl diameter 1½ in. (38 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (20 mm). The weight of the pipe is 2 oz. (60 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this restoration as much as I enjoyed restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.