Tag Archives: stem work

Restoring and Irish Made Peterson’s Killarney Natural 381 Billiard

by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is natural finished Peterson’s Straight Billiard that we purchased from and our connection in Copenhagen, Denmark on 12/09/2023. It was stamped Killarney in script on the left side of the shank. On the right it is stamped “A Peterson’s [over] Product” [over] Made in Ireland (in two lines). The shape number 381 is near the bowl/shank junction. It has a smooth, natural finish with great grain around the bowl and shank. There is some patchy varnish on the surface that is dirty with a lot of oils, debris and grime. The bowl had been recently reamed and there was a light cake. There light spots of lava on the rim top and edges. The top and edges of the rim looked very good. It appeared that there was a beautiful pipe underneath all of the buildup of years of use. The stem was a Peterson’s P-lip taper stem with a Peterson’s P logo on the left side. It was quite clean and did not seem to have a lot of oxidation or calcification. There was some light chatter on the stem and the button edges were quite clean. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work on it. Jeff took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the look of the bowl and the rim top. There were small spots of lava on the top of the rim and the edges of the bowl. Jeff took photos of the top and underside of the stem showing the light tooth chatter and overall good condition of the stem surface. Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the condition of the finish. You can see the grime around the sides of the bowl and shank. Even under the dirt and debris of the years it looked very good. Jeff took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. The stamping was readable as you can see from the photos. It read as noted above.I am including the information from Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson).

I turned to “The Peterson Pipe” by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg to get some background on the Kilarney Pipe. On page 306 it had the following information on the pipe.

Kilarney (1949-) Entry line with smooth finish and P-Lip mouthpiece. May have either a K or P stamped on the mouthpiece; may have an aluminum stinger (not to be confused with the tenon extension tube found on straight System pipes). 1949-c.1957 examples made for the US market may have any of the following COM stamps: MADE IN IRELAND (forming a circle), “A PETERSON’S PRODUCT” over MADE IN IRELAND or LONDON MADE over ENGLAND. Some early specimens stamped KILLARNEY over NATURAL (a higher grade) have MADE IN IRELAND (forming a circle). Examples c. 1986-90 feature a nickel band, which was replaced in ’91 with a shank extension of nickel band with black acrylic inlay. Fishtail mouthpiece from ’86 although P-Lip is sometimes seen. For the current German market, the Killarney is stamped CONNEMARA

I knew that I was dealing with a pipe made 1949-c1957 due to the stamping on the shank and a natural finish. It has the “P” stamp on the stem side and a P-lip mouthpiece. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He reamed the light cake in the bowl with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. He cleaned up the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, shank brushes and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He worked on the rim top lava spots with the soap and tooth brush. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior with Soft Scrub and then soaked it in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. He washed it off with warm water to remove the Deoxidizer. The pipe looked far better when it arrived. I took some close up photos of the rim top and also of the stem surface. I wanted to show what an amazing job Jeff did in the cleanup of the rim top. The rim top and inner edge of the bowl looked very good. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the condition of the vulcanite. It was quite clean and there were light tooth marks ahead of the button.One of the things I appreciate about Jeff’s cleanup is that he works to protect and preserve the nomenclature on the shank of the pipes that he works on. He was able to preserve and maintain its condition in the process. I took some photos to show the clarity of the stamping. I have noticed that many restorers are not careful to protect the stamping in their cleaning process and often by the end of the restoration the nomenclature is almost destroyed. I would like to encourage all of us to be careful in our work to preserve this as it is a critical piece of pipe restoration! I took the stem off the shank and took a photo of the pipe. I wiped the bowl down with acetone and cotton pads to remove the remnants of the varnish coat on the bowl sides and shank. I sanded the briar with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads to remove the remainder of the varnish coat that the acetone did not remove. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris. It really looks much better. I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad to remove the dust. The briar was really shining by the final pad. I rubbed the bowl and rim down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for 10 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. I really like watching the Balm do its magic and bring the briar alive. I touched up the “P” logo on the left side of the saddle stem with white acrylic fingernail polish. I let it dry then I polished off the excess with a worn 1500 grit micromesh sanding pad. Once the excess was removed the stamp looked much better. There were some weak spots on the leg and tail of the “P” stamp.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem 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 coat of Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil. It works to protect the stem from oxidizing. I set it aside to dry. Once again at this point in the restoration process I am excited to be on the homestretch. I look forward to the final look when the Made in Ireland “A Peterson’s Product” Killarney 381 Billiard with a taper stem is put back together, polished and waxed. I put the bowl and stem back together. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. 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. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The shiny black vulcanite stem is a beautiful contrast to the natural browns of the bowl and thick shank. This Irish Made Peterson’s Killarney 381 Billiard was another fun pipe to work on. It really is a quite stunning piece of briar whose shape follows the flow of the briar. The pipe feels great in the hand will be better when warmed up while smoking. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length:6 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.38 ounces/39 grams. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Irish Pipemakers Section if you would like to add it to your rack and carry on the previous pipeman’s legacy.

As always, I encourage your questions and comments as you read the blog. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipe men and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

New Life for a Republic Era Peterson’s “Donegal” Rocky 15 Rusticated Billiard

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is a sandblast Peterson’s Rusitcated Billiard shaped pipe that we purchased from our contact in Copenhagen, Denmark on 11/21/2023. It was stamped on the underside of the bowl and shank and on the heel, it was stamped Peterson’s [over] “Donegal” Rocky [over] the shape number 15. Following that it read, Made in the Republic of Ireland (in three lines). There is a band on the shank that is stamped on the left side and reads K&P in shields [over] Sterling Silver. Under those stamps there are three hallmarks – Hibernia seated, Crowned Harp for country of manufacture and a date letter in this case that was not readable. It has a rusticated finish around the bowl and shank that has a lot of oils, debris and grime in the finish. The pipe had been recently reamed and there was a light cake in the bowl and a lava overflow in the rustication on the rim top. The inner edge of the bowl looks to be in good condition. There was a very beautiful pipe underneath all of the buildup of years of use. The stem was a Peterson’s style P-Lip Taper Stem. It had light chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work on it. Jeff took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the thin cake in the bowl and the light lava build up on the rusticated rim top and the edges of the bowl. The rim top and edges looked good. Jeff took photos of the top and underside of the stem showing the tooth chatter on an otherwise good looking stem. More would be visible once Jeff cleaned it up. Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the condition of the finish. You can see the dust and grime around the sides of the bowl and shank in the rusticated finish. Jeff took photos of the stamping on the underside of the bowl and shank. The stamping was faint but readable as you can see from the photos. It read as noted above. The Sterling Silver ferrule is actually clearly stamped and readable. The hallmarks are worn and hardly readable.I am including the information from Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson). I have included a bit of the pertinent history here.

1950 – 1989 The Republic Era – From 1950 to the present time, the stamp for this era is “Made in the Republic of Ireland” in a block format generally in three lines but two lines have been used with or without Republic being abbreviated.

During the 1950’s and 60’s the Kapp & Peterson Company was still in the ownership of the Kapp family. However 1964 saw the retiral of the company Managing Director Frederick Henry(Harry) Kapp.

Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. He cleaned up the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He worked on the rim top lava and darkening with the soap and tooth brush. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub and then soaked it in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. He rinsed it off with warm water to remove the Deoxidizer. The pipe looked far better when it arrived. The silver tarnished once again and would need to be polished because it had been sitting here for awhile. I took some close up photos of the rim top and also of the stem surface. I wanted to show how well it had cleaned up. The rim top and edges look quite good. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the light tooth marks on the surface near the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank and the band. You can see that it is stamped as noted above. It is faint but still readable. I took the pipe apart and took a photo of the pipe. It is a good-looking pipe and has a rugged rustication around the bowl. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a horsehair shoe brush to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 10 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I polished the Sterling Silver band on the shank with a jeweller’s cloth to remove the tarnish and polish it. I touch up the P stamp on the left side of the saddle stem with some white acrylic fingernail polish. I pressed it into the stamp with a toothpick and scraped off the excess with the pick and then lightly sanded it with a worn 1200 grit sanding pad. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil. It works to protect the stem from oxidizing. I set it aside to dry. I am excited to finish this Republic Era Peterson’s “Donegal” Rocky 15 Billiard. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the rugged rustication all around it. Added to that the polished Sterling Silver band and the black vulcanite stem was beautiful. This rusticated Classic Peterson’s “Donegal” Rocky Billiard is nice looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 29 grams/1.06 ounces. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be on the Irish Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Restoring a Republic Era Peterson’s “Sterling Silver” 606S Sandblast Pot

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen is smooth finished Peterson’s “Sterling Silver” pipe. The pipe came to us from our contact in Copenhagen, Denmark. This one is a classic Peterson’s Pot shaped pipe with a saddle P-lip stem. It has a dark brown coloured finish with amazing sandblast grain around the bowl sides and shank. It is very dirty. This Pot has a silver band on the shank that was badly oxidized. The grime on the finish was ground into the finish on the bowl sides. The contrast of the brown stains make the sandblast really pop. It was stamped on the underside of the shank and reads 606S the shape number on the heel of the bowl followed by the three line Made in the Republic of Ireland followed by Peterson’s [over] “Sterling Silver”. The heavily tarnished band is stamped with K&P in shields [over] Sterling [over] Silver. To the right that it has three hallmarks – Hibernia seated arm on a harp (signifies country of manufacture), a crowned harp designating Sterling quality and finally a Date Letter mark – in this case it is a lower case “s” (1983). It was in filthy condition when Jeff brought it to the table. There was a thin cake in the bowl and a spattering of lava in the sandblast of the rim top but a clean inner edge of the bowl. The stem was oxidized and had light tooth marks and chatter on the top and a deeper on on the underside near the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before his cleanup work before he started on the pipe. Jeff took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl is lightly caked and the rim top and edges look very good. The stem is oxidized and has light tooth marks on the top and underside near the button. Jeff took some photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the grain that was around this bowl. It is a nice looking pipe. He took photos of the sides of the shank to show the stamping. The stamping is readable in the photos below and is as noted above. The stamping on the Sterling Silver band is also readable through the oxidation. I am including the information from Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson).

I turned to “The Peterson Pipe” by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg to get some background on the Sterling Pipe. On page 314 it had the following information on the line.

Sterling (1949-c1957; 1978-) – Higher grade line with sterling band. Early example, 1949-57, with COM of Made in Ireland forming a circle, were offered to the US market through Rogers Imports and have no hallmark, although until recent years the line carried Peterson’s maker’s mark, the K&P is in separate shields. Models beginning in ’78 with hallmarked dates and a COM stamp of Made in [over] the Republic [over] of Ireland.

I knew that I was dealing with a pipe made between 1949-1957 as shown by the Made in the Republic of Ireland three line format stamp. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. He cleaned up the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, shank brushes, cotton swabs and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He worked on the rim top lava with the soap and tooth brush. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol, shank brushes and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior with Soft Scrub and then soaked it in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. He washed it off with warm water to remove the deoxidizer. The pipe looked very good when it arrived here. I took some close up photos of the rim top and also of the stem surface. The rim top had some darkening on the back top and the inner edge. It also had some nicks and scratch on the rim top at the back and on the right. The silver cleaned up well on the band. The stem was clean and the tooth marks and chatter were minimal.I took photos of the stamping on the top and underside of the shank. You can see that it is stamped as noted above. It is faint and readable. I took the pipe apart and took a photo of the pipe. It is a good looking pipe and has some nice looking grain around the bowl. The briar looked very good at this point. I began my work on it by working some Before & After Restoration Balm into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. I polished the Sterling Silver band on the shank with a jeweller’s cloth to remove the tarnish and polish it. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I filled in the deep tooth mark on the underside of the stem with black rubberized CA glue. Once the repair cured, I sanded the stem with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to remove the remnants of oxidation and the repair on underside of the stem ahead of the button.I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads and wiped it down with an Obsidian Oil cloth after each sanding pad. The stem began to take on a shine.I touch up the P stamp on the left side of the saddle stem with some white acrylic fingernail polish. I pressed it into the stamp with a toothpick and scraped off the excess with the pick and then lightly sanded it with a worn 1200 grit sanding pad. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I am excited to finish this Sandblast Peterson’s “Sterling Silver” 606S Pot. I put the pipe back together and lightly buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with the depths of the sandblast taking on a rich glow. Added to that the polished Sterling Silver band and the black vulcanite saddle stem was beautiful. This smooth Classic Peterson’s “Sterling Silver” 606S Pot is nice looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 40grams/1.41 ounces. It is a beautiful pipe and one that will be on the Irish Pipe Makers Section of the rebornpipes store soon. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Restoring a Republic Era Peterson’s Rosslare XL13 fishtail stem 9mm Filter Bulldog

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen is another Peterson’s Rosslare Bulldog. This one is a large size Bulldog with a Peterson’s taper, fishtail stem. It came to us from our contact in Copenhagen, Denmark on 11/21/2023. This pipe was obviously a favourite of the previous pipe smoker. It had been well smoked but it had been reamed and cleaned recently. The briar was dirty with grime and oils ground into the finish and the varnish coat was spotty and peeling. The pipe was stamped on the left side and read Peterson’s [over] Rosslare. On the right side it had the three-line Republic of Ireland stamp [over] the shape number XL13. On the left underside of the diamond shank it is stamped HUBER [over] MUNCHEN. The acrylic stem was clean without tooth marks. It was a 9mm filter stem. The Peterson’s P logo was present but the gold had washed out over time. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on it. Jeff captured the light cake in the bowl and the clean rim top in his photos. The edges looked to be in excellent condition and the varnish coat had been removed from the rim top. The taper, fishtail stem surface was very clean. He took photos of the sides and the heel of the bowl to show the interesting grain patterns in the briar. The varnish coat is spotty on the rim top and shank end. Even so it was quite beautiful. He also took some photos of the shank sides to capture the stamping on the shank. It was also stamped Huber Munchen on the underside and he did not capture that in a photo. I wanted to understand the Rosslare line to see where it stood in the Peterson’s hierarchy. I turned to page 311 of “The Peterson’s Pipe” by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg and read about the line. I quote:

Rosslare (2003-) Upper-grade line, Classic Range and select B shapes in smooth or black sandblast, sterling band often fitted with faux spigot, amber fishtail acrylic mouthpiece, embedded aluminum P in the first years and hot foil P more recently. Not to be confused with the Rosslare Royal Irish (2010)

I turned to (http://thepetersonpipeproject.blogspot.com/2007/07/dating-peterons-pipes.html) to lock down a rough period of time for the Republic Era. I quote:

Stamping of Bowl: During the years of Kapp and Peterson’s business operations, the country of Ireland has undergone several name changes and K&P’s stamping on their pipes reflects these changes. Knowing these changes, a Peterson pipe can be roughly dated and placed in “eras.”

The Republic Era is from 1949 until the present. The Republic of Ireland was formed on 17 April 1949. From 1949 to present the stamp for this era is “Made in the Republic of Ireland” in a block format generally in three lines but two lines have been used with or without Republic being abbreviated.

Finally, on the underside of the shank it is stamped Huber [over] Munchen. From a past restoration I did a lot of work on the stamping (https://rebornpipes.com/2023/10/14/petersons-kildare-special-hg-republic-of-ireland-10-canadian/). Have a look if you are interested.

To learn more about the Huber Munchen stamp I turned to page 300 of “The Peterson’s Pipe” by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg as noted by him in the previous blog and found a great paragraph on the stamping. I quote in full.

GH Retailer’s Monogram (c. 1960s) George Huber of Munich, Germany, a Peterson distributor and retailer for decades, stamped their monogram on pipes sold in their store, G overlaid on H. Peterson shared in the 1988 commemoration of Huber’s 125^th year in business by producing a special pipe with a sterling rim cap, stamped HUBER over CELEBRATION.

The pipe I have is one that does not bear that monogram and does not appear to have ever had the sterling rim cap and was not stamped HUBER over CELEBRATION. It was however, stamped Huber [over] Munchen – the city where the shop was located. With that information I turned my attention to working on the pipe.

Jeff cleaned this filthy pipe with his usual clean up process. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals 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 looks very good with great looking grain around the bowl and shank. Jeff soaked the acrylic stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer to remove the grime on the surface. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour I was amazed it looked so good. I took some close up photos of the rim top and the stem surface. I wanted to show how well it had cleaned up. The rim top and inner and outer edge looked very good. It did not have any varnish on the rim and the shank end was also missing the varnish on the first inch from the shank end. It was ragged looking. Once stripped of the varnish it should polish well. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the condition of the stem surface near the button.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. You can see that it is stamped as noted above. It is faint in spots but readable. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to have a look at the parts and overall look. To address the spotty varnish on the bowl sides and shank, I wiped it down with acetone and cotton pads. I removed a lot of the varnish coat and sanding it with the sanding pads would remove the rest of the coat. I sanded the briar with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads to remove the remainder of the varnish coat that the acetone did not remove. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris. It really looks much better. 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. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each pad. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and gave it a final coat and set it aside to dry. I touched up the gold P stamp on the left side of the stem with Rub’n Buff Antique Gold. I pressed it into the stamp with a toothpick. I buffed it off with a soft cloth. I fit the stem with a 9mm filter and put the pipe back together again. The fit was perfect. I am excited to finish this Peterson’s Rosslare XL13 Bulldog. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with beautiful mixed grain all around it. Added to that the polished black vulcanite stem combined with the bowl and sandwich brass/nickel/brass band on the shank and made a stunning pipe. This smooth Classic Peterson’s Rosslare XL13 Straight Bulldog is great looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 44 grams/1.55 ounces. It is a beautiful pipe that I will soon be putting on the rebornpipes store in the Irish Pipe Makers Section. If you are interested in adding it to your collection send me an email or a message. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Working on a Mystery Rhodesian 125

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen is a bit of a mystery pipe with stamping that is not clear as much of it is covered by a K&P nickel band on the shank. This one is a nice smaller size pipe with a pencil shank and a Peterson’s P-lip stem. It reminds me of a Captain Pete N24 Rhodesian that I restored a while ago (https://rebornpipes.com/2023/11/28/fresh-life-for-a-captain-peterson-made-in-england-n24-rhodesian/). It looks a lot like that one! It came to us from a pipeman in Naples, Florida, USA on 07/17/2024 as a donation. This pipe had been well smoked and there was a cake in the bowl and lava overflowing on the inner edge and the rim top. The briar was dirty with grime and oils ground into the finish and some of the lava flowing down the bowl sides. The nickel ferrule was oxidized but undamaged. It was stamped with the K&P stamp [over] a refined shamrock, a reclining wolfhound and a tower without a door. The pipe itself was stamped on the left side and though partially covered with the nickel band read Lumber [followed by] what could be Executive [over] Clifton [followed by] what looked like Make. On the right side it had the shape number 125. The ferrule was stamped K& P over Peterson’s on the left side. The stem was oxidized and had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on it. Jeff captured the cake in the bowl and the light lava overflow onto the rim top and inner edge of the bowl in his photos. The stem surface had light tooth chatter and marks and was oxidized. He took photos of the sides and the heel of the bowl to show the interesting grain patterns in the briar. It was quite beautiful. He also took some photos of the shank sides to capture the stamping on the shank and the nickel band. The stamping on the shank were clear but covered by the band. The band bore the K&P stamp. The mystery was in front of me… what was the stamping on the pipe? I could discern Lumber followed by what could be Executive but the second word was not clear as it was under the nickel band. The word underneath was Clifton followed by what looked like the word Make. I did some searching on Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c5.html) and found a listing for Clifton pipes. I have included a screen capture of the section. I have also included the sidebar information.Brand of Hall & Fitzgerald (J.M. Lopes, p. 86, op. cit.)

From the side bar I learned of the connection to Hall & Fitzgerald. I did a Google search on Hall & Fitzgerald. I came across a link on vkpipes to a pipe made by them. It is interesting to note that they had quite a few brands in their stable (https://vkpipes.com/pipeline/hall-fitzgerald-straight-grain/). The Clifton line is listed in the quote below.

Hall & Fitzgerald is first mentioned in an 1878 Directory of Bristol as a ‘Fancy Goods Warehouse’. Within a few years the company is in the partnership of William Sydney Hall and Edward Thurston Davies trading as Hall & Fitzgerald, of 147 Temple Street, Bristol, Tobacconists and Fancy Goods Merchants. Silver hallmarks for pipe fittings are registered in London in 1899 and in Chester in 1901. Hall & Fitzgerald is making and selling smoking pipes until liquidation and closing in 1982 (except the World War II years). Known brands: Clifton, Dorchester, Excelsior, Hercules, Oxford, Craftsman and Wessex.

With that information at hand I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrub to remove as much of the oxidation as possible. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe once I received it. I took photos of the rim top and bowl as well as the stem to give a sense of the condition of both. The rim top looked had some scratching on the top and some damage to the inner edge but over all it was in much better condition than I thought. The stem cleaned up well and the tooth marks on the top and underside ahead of the button are visible in the photos.I took photos of the stamping on the shank sides. The are faint and readable as noted above. The band covers part of the stamping on the left side. I took a photo of the stamping on the top of the nickel band. It was clear and readable. I took the stem out of the shank and took a photo of the overall look of the pipe. I decided to start my work on the pipe by addressing the damage on the inside edge of the bowl and the rim top. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the edge. I wiped it down with a damp cloth and the rim top damage and darkening on the inner and outer edges were gone.I sanded the briar with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris. It really looks much better. 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. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned to work on the stem. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This Clifton Make Lumber Exec… 125 Pencil Shank Rhodesian with a vulcanite taper stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The beautiful grain that shines through the polished finish is stunning. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Clifton Make 125 Rhodesian fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 22 grams/.74 ounces. I will be putting the pipe on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipe Makers Section. If you are interested in this pipe send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. There are many more to come!

Restoring a Osman Tall Meerschaum Billiard with a Bakelite Stem

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by Steve Laug

Last evening but for quitting for the night I decided to work on another pipe that I no longer know where or when we purchased it. It is another pipe from a large box of Meerschaum pipes that is sitting in my storage that I need to clean up and restore. I have honestly avoided them for years but now was the time to start my work on some of them. The one I chose was a Tall Billiard or almost a stack. It is a smooth meerschaum with what appears to be a Bakelite stem. It is a beautifully shaped meer with nicks and scratches from its journey and some nice patina developing around the shank and sides. The meer is very dirty from use with a thick cake in the bowl and an overflow of lava on the inner edge and rim top. The stem fit well against the shank end and had a threaded tenon in the shank that aligned with properly with the stem in place. The tenon was a Kaywoodie type threaded one that had been clipped. The stem was stamped OSMOND on the left side and the shank band has the marks of a repair band. On the underside of the name F. Wright was scratched into the surface but it was almost worn away. I took photos of the pipe before I started my clean up work on it. I took photos of the rim top and the stem to show the condition of the pipe when I brought it to the worktable. You can see the cake in the bowl and the build up of lava and debris on the edge and top of the rim top. It is another dirty pipe but still a charmer. The orifice button Bakelite taper stem has light chatter and deep tooth marks on both sides near the button. I took a photo of the stamping on the left side of the taper stem. It is clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts.I started my work on the bowl by reaming the thick cake out of the bowl. I started with a PipNet reamer and the 2nd and 3rd cutting heads to take back the cake to the walls of the bowl. I cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and scraped the rim top at the same time. I sanded the bowl walls with a piece of dowel wrapped with 220 grit sandpaper. Once finished it looked much better. I scrubbed the bowl and shank with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I rinsed off the soap and debris with warm water and repeated the process until the pipe was clean. I dried it off with a soft towel. It really began to look better. I cleaned out the airway in the shank and mortise as well as in the stem with pipe cleaners (both bristle and regular). I used a brass bristle wire brush to further clean up the metal tenon. It was much better.I polished the meerschaum with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cotton cloth. The bowl took on a shine by the last pads. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Clapham’s Wax that blends both carnauba and beeswax in a soft wax. I rubbed the wax on the bowl sides and the shank end with my fingers and set it aside to dry. Once the wax cured I buffed the bowl with a clean buffing pad and then with a soft microfibre cloth. The bowl has a rich glow. I polished the polished nickel band with a jeweller’s cloth to clean and protect the finish and to remove the remaining oxidation and dullness. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I filled in the tooth marks with some clear CA glue. When it cured I flattened the repairs with a small flat file to blend them into the surface of the stem. I then sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth it out. I continued sanding the stem surface with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with a damp pad to remove the debris. By the end it was quite shiny and ready for polishing.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it 1500-12000 pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each pad to protect it and preserve it. I polished it with Before After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I am really happy with the way that this Osman Meerschaum Tall Billiard with a Bakelite Stem turned out. It really is a beautiful looking pipe with a unique shape and smooth meerschaum bowl. The taper stem is really nice. The rich patina on the meerschaum came alive with waxing and buffing. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of beeswax/carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Osman Meerschaum Tall Billiard really is a beauty and feels great in the hand and looks very good. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ¼ inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 51 grams/1.80 ounces. The pipe will be going on the rebornpipes store soon. It will be in the Ceramic and Meerschaum Pipes Section if you would like to add it to your collection. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. It was a fun one to work on!

Restoring a 1978 Peterson’s Dublin 221S Bent Billiard

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen is another Peterson’s Dublin Bent Billiard pipe. This one is a nice smaller size It has a silver ferrule and a taper style Peterson’s stem on the shank end. It came to us from our contact in Copenhagen, Denmark on 04/11/2024. This pipe was obviously a favourite of the previous pipe smoker. It had been well smoked but was also well cared for. The bowl was recently reamed and there was no lava on the rim. The briar was dirty with grime and oils ground into the finish and some of the lava flowing down the bowl sides. The Sterling Silver ferrule was oxidized but undamaged. The pipe was stamped vertically on the left side and read Peterson’s with a forked P [over] Dublin. On the right side it had the three-line Republic of Ireland stamp [over] the shape number 221S. The ferrule was stamped Peterson’s [over] Dublin on the top left side. That is followed by Sterling [over] Silver. To the right that it has three hallmarks – Hibernia seated arm on a harp (signifies country of manufacture), a crowned harp designating Sterling quality and finally a Date Letter mark – in this case it is an italic “m” (1978). The stem was lightly oxidized and was free of tooth marks or chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on it. Jeff took photos of the rim top and stem to show the general condition of the pipe. The bowl and the rim top were quite clean. The inner edge of the bowl had some darkening around the edges. The photos of the stem show the light tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. Jeff took some photos of the bowl sides and heel to show the amazing grain that was around this bowl underneath the grime and grease coat on the surface. It is a nice looking pipe. He took photos of the sides of the shank to show the stamping. The stamping is readable in the photos below and is as noted above. He also captured some of the stamping on the Sterling Silver band on the shank. I am including the link to the Pipedia’s article on Peterson pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson).

I turned to “The Peterson Pipe” by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg to get some background on the Peterson’s London Made England line. On page 298 it had the following information.

“Dublin” (1906-2003) Although DUBLIN appears under PETERSON’s on many pipes over the decades, it has served mostly to part of the brand name. The word first appeared on pipes hallmarked 1906-11, stamped PETERSON’S over PATENT over DUBLIN. The simpler PETERSON’S over DUBLIN first appeared on pipes hallmarked 1912 after the expiration of the patent. Illustrations of pipes in the’37 catalog show a random dispersion of the stamp PETERSON’S over OF DUBLIN together with the ordinary PETERSON’S over DUBLIN on ever model offered. Specimens of the former will bear either an Irish COM and almost certainly date from 1945-62. It was first mentioned in print as pat of the model name in the’68 price list, as K&P DUBLIN, in ’92 for a Danish market line.

I knew the date for the pipe I was working on from the stamping on the silver– 1978. Since the one I was working on did not have a D shape it is not provable that it was made for the Danish market. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had done a great job cleaning up the pipe as usual. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet reamer and cut back the cake back to the bare briar. He cleaned up the walls with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the interior of the bowl and shank with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, shank brushes and alcohol to remove the tars and oils. He scrubbed the exterior of the pipe with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime from the finish. He worked on the rim top lava and the darkened spots with the soap and tooth brush. He scrubbed the inside of the stem with alcohol and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior with Soft Scrub and then soaked it in Briarville Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. He washed it off with warm water to remove the Deoxidizer. The pipe had some dark spots on the briar but it looked far better when it arrived. I took some close up photos of the rim top and the stem surface. I wanted to show how well it had cleaned up. The rim and inner and outer edge looked very good. It should polish well. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the condition of the stem surface near the button.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. You can see that it is stamped as noted above. It is faint in spots but readable. I took photos of the stamping on the silver band to try and capture what was on the band. It is readable. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to have a look at the parts and overall look. I sanded the briar with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris. It really looks much better. 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. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. I polished silver band with a jeweller’s cloth to remove the tarnish and protect the finish from further tarnishing. It took on a rich shine. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each pad. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and gave it a final coat and set it aside to dry. I am excited to finish this Peterson’s Dublin Silver Banded Bent Billiard. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with beautiful mixed grain all around it. Added to that the polished black vulcanite stem combined with the bowl and sandwich brass/nickel/brass band on the shank and made a stunning pipe. This smooth Classic Peterson’s Dublin banded Bent Billiard is great looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 44 grams/1.59 ounces. It is a beautiful pipe that I will soon be putting on the rebornpipes store in the Irish Pipe Makers Section. If you are interested in adding it to your collection send me an email or a message. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Life for a Peterson’s System Standard 313 Made in the Republic of Ireland

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen is another Peterson’s System Standard pipe. This one is a nice smaller size It has a saddle style Peterson’s stem on the shank end. It came to us from a seller in Sylacauga, Alabama, USA on 04/08/2024. This pipe was obviously a favourite of the previous pipe smoker. It had been well smoked and there was a thick cake in the bowl and lava overflowing onto the rim top. The briar was dirty with grime and oils ground into the finish and some of the lava flowing down the bowl sides. The nickel ferrule was oxidized but undamaged. There were oils oozing out under the ferrule and also out of the top of the ferrule onto the stem. The pipe was stamped vertically on the left side and read Peterson’s [over] System [over] Standard. On the right side it had the three-line Republic of Ireland stamp [over] the shape number 313. The ferrule was stamped K& P over Peterson’s on the left side. The stem was oxidized and had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up work on it. Jeff captured the thick cake in the bowl and the heavy lava overflow onto the rim top in his photos. There really was no way of knowing what the edges looked like under the thick cake. You can also see the lava flowing down the sides of the bowl in the photos. The stem surface had tooth chatter and marks and was oxidized. He took photos of the sides and the heel of the bowl to show the interesting grain patterns in the briar. It was quite beautiful. He took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank and on the ferrule. It is readable and clear as noted above. While dating a Peterson’s pipe, I always fall back to my under mentioned favourite site; http://thepetersonpipeproject.blogspot.com/2007/07/dating-peterons-pipes.html

I quote from the above site.

Stamping of Bowl:

During the years of Kapp and Peterson’s business operations, the country of Ireland has undergone several name changes and K&P’s stamping on their pipes reflects these changes. Knowing these changes, a Peterson pipe can be roughly dated and placed in “eras.”

With that information at hand I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the stem with Soft Scrubb to remove as much of the oxidation as possible. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe once I received it. I took photos of the rim top and bowl as well as the stem to give a sense of the condition of both. The rim top looked had some scratching on the top and some damage to the inner edge but over all it was in much better condition than I thought. The stem cleaned up well and the tooth marks on the top and underside ahead of the button are visible in the photos.I took photos of the stamping on the shank sides. The are clear and readable as noted above. There is some faintness on parts of the stamping but it is still readable. I took the stem out of the shank and took a photo of the overall look of the pipe. I decided to start my work on the pipe by addressing the damage on the inside edge of the bowl and the rim top. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the edge. I wiped it down with a damp cloth and the rim top damage and darkening on the inner and outer edges were gone.I sanded the briar with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris. It really looks much better. 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. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned to work on the stem. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. This Republic Era Peterson’s System Standard 313 Bent Billiard with a vulcanite stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The beautiful grain that shines through the polished finish is stunning. As the pipe is smoked the patina should develop and look even better. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the buffing wheel and followed that by buffing the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Peterson’s System Standard 313 fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 37 grams/1.31 ounces. This one has been reserved for first refusal. If you are interested in being in the queue for this pipe send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. There are many more to come!

Reworking an early, Gentle Metal System Pipe

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by Steve Laug

I am down to four more pipes to work on from Jeff’s last box of pipes. The one I have chosen to work on next is one that came to us from a seller in Ogden, Utah, USA on 12/12/2024. The pipe is quite unique with a metal base and a plastic or Bakelite outer bowl and a ceramic sleeve inserted inside. The surface of the bowl is very dirty with grime and oils built up around the outside. The bowl seems to me pressed into the base and the base is finned metal with a nut in the bottom holding the base to the shank. There are four small holes in the base that provide the airflow into the shank. There is a knurled cap on the end of the shank that is not removable (though it probably was originally). There is a small airhole in the top of the knurled end nearest the bowl. The shank tube is engraved with the word Gentle in script on the left side at an angle. Jeff took photos of the pipe when he received it and before he started his clean up work. He took photos of the rim top to show the cake on the walls of the ceramic sleeve in the bowl and the lava on the rim top. The bottom of the bowl is open into the base and there was tar and oils in the bottom of the base. The stem appears to be made of something other than rubber or vulcanite. I think it is probably some kind of nylon type substance or and early acrylic. It has a lot of tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. He took photos of the sides of the bowl to show the look of it. The top third of the bowl is a brown Bakelite that looks quite interesting. The middle of the bowl is a dark/black Bakelite. The bottom third is the base that is screwed onto the shank. It is finned and is hollow and holds the bowl pressed in place. He took a photo of the stamp on the left side of the metal shank. The stamping is clear and readable as noted above.Jeff was able to take the pipe apart as much as possible. He was able to remove the bowl from the base and I am not able to do that here. It is an interesting pipe. The bowl is a ceramic sleeve within a Bakelite sleeve. I turned to my favourite metal pipe site – Smoking Metal UK. I am including the link to the site and the information that the site include (http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=359). I quote from the article and also included the photos of the pipe on the site below:

GENTLE – Department : METAL STEM & Plug in bowls

GENTLE- another early system pipe that seems over engineered. The plastic outer bowl holds an inner, seemingly ceramic liner with a perforated base. This all push fits into the vaned metal part which is in turn attached to the stem by a square nut. There are four smoke holes through to the stem. The stem appears not to be the usual method of increasing the distance for the smoke to travel, just a tar trap. There is a device at the front by which, twisting a collar, a small hole is opened allowing in air. I am sure the end cap must be removable; however, my example is firm and I am not risking any damage. The name GENTLE is engraved on top of the stem in script lettering

The pipe shown with the blue background appears to have a different detail in the knurled end cap. No idea if this an earlier or later version. The seller of the “blue” one also could not undo this knurled piece.

Overall length is 6 inches (152 m/m)

The advert is from the October 1949 Popular Science magazine Jeff cleaned up the parts and put them back together once again. It cleaned up very well. As I guessed from the photos on the bowl top the ceramic liner had cracks on the insides of the bowl. They were tight and hairline and went from top to the bottom of the inner tube. He carefully reamed the pipe and sanded the bowl. He cleaned out the shank and other parts with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners and alcohol. It looked good when it arrived. I was able to remove the bowl/base by undoing the square nut on bottom of the base with a pair of needle nose pliers.I sanded the walls of the ceramic sleeve with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I smoothed out the bowl walls and cleaned up the cracks. It looked very good.I set the bowl aside and dealt with the tooth marks, chatter and scratches on the surface of the stem. I sanded the stem surface with 220 grit sandpaper until I had blended all of the chatter and marks into the surface.I sanded the stem further with 320-3500 grit 2×2 inch sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. It began to look very good.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to cure. I polished the Bakelite bowl with 1500-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris after each sanding pad. It looked amazing by the final pad. I tightened the nut in the base of the bowl with a pair of needle nose pliers so that it was snug on the shank. It is a square nut and I held it with the pliers and then twisted the bowl on the shank.I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the Bakelite Bowl with my finger tips. I let it sit on the bowl for 10 minutes and then buffed it off with a paper towel and soft cloth. The product is a great addition to the restoration work. It enlivens, enriches and protects the bowl even a Bakelite bowl while giving it a deep glow (typically briar). It is a product I use on every pipe I restore. It was great to finish this Unique Gentle System Pipe with Bakelite Bowl lined with a Ceramic sleeve and nylon/rubber stem. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like. Added to that the polished black, saddle stem was beautiful. This Gentle System Pipe is great looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 45 grams/1.62 ounces. It is an interesting pipe and one that will soon be on the rebornpipes store in the Pipes from Various Makers Section. If you want to add it to your collection let me know. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this pipe.

Cleaning Up a Stylish Jobey Shellmoor Extra Hawkbill

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by Kenneth Lieblich

This good-looking pipe came from the great state of Washington and I’ve been meaning to clean it up for some time. This is a Jobey Shellmoor Extra pipe, in the hawkbill shape, and, although this particular pipe doesn’t show any shape number, it is identical to a Jobey Shellmoor Extra E527 that Steve restored last year. You can read that restoration here. It’s not immediately clear to me why this one doesn’t have a number, but no matter! Let’s look at the markings that do appear on this pipe. On top of the shank, we see Jobey [over] Shellmoor [over] Extra. On the stem, we see the Jobey logo inlaid in brass.Regarding the Jobey company itself, there is precious little background information. The Pipedia article on Jobey (which I encourage you to read here) begins with this tidbit:

English – American – Danish – French… Sadly, solid information about Jobey is scant. Probably established in England around 1920(?) the brand hiked into the USA later.

And Pipephil adds this note:

These pipes are made in St Claude (France) by Butz-Choquin (Berrod-Regad group) since 1987. Before this date some were manufactured in England and Denmark (Jobey Dansk).So? Not much history to learn, sadly. Let’s clean this pipe up. Fortunately, this pipe was in good condition and didn’t require too much labour. The stummel is dirty but sound. The rim is coated in lava. The bowl has a decent amount of cake in it. The stem is also dirty, oxidized, and shows signs of calcification. There are lots of tooth scratches and some minor dents. I used isopropyl alcohol on a few cotton rounds and wiped down the stem to provide an initial cleaning of filth before moving on to the next steps. The primary cleaning came next. I disinfected the inside of the stem with both pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in lemon-infused 99% isopropyl alcohol. I scrubbed thoroughly to make sure the interior was very clean. Actually, it wasn’t too bad inside.The goal of the next step is the removal (or minimization) of oxidation. Going to my sink, I used cream cleanser, cotton rounds, and a toothbrush, and scoured the stem to remove as much surface oxidation as possible. As the photos show, the result was a hideous, ochre-coloured mess – but better off the stem than on it.Once the stem was reasonably clean, I soaked it overnight in some Briarville Stem Oxidation Remover. This solution works to draw oxidation in the stem to the surface of the vulcanite. This is a major aid and an important step in ensuring a clean stem. The following day, I drew out the stem from its bath and scrubbed the lingering fluid with a toothbrush.As the stem was now clean and dry, I set about fixing the marks and dents in the vulcanite. This was done by filling those divots with black cyanoacrylate adhesive, impregnated with carbon and rubber. I left this to cure and moved on.

The penultimate step for the stem is sanding. First, with my set of needle files, I reduced the bulk of the cyanoacrylate repairs. I removed the excess adhesive as near to the surface as possible, without cutting into the vulcanite. Following that, I used all nine of the micromesh sanding pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to sand out flaws, even out the vulcanite, and provide gentle polishing of the finished surface. I also applied pipe-stem oil while using the last five micromesh pads. There was a wonderful, deep black shine to the stem when I was done.As the stem was (nearly) complete, I moved on to the stummel. The first step was to ream out the bowl – that is to say, remove all the cake inside the bowl. This accomplished a couple of things. First (and most obviously), it cleaned the bowl and provided a refurbished chamber for future smoking. Second, when the old cake was removed, I could inspect the interior walls of the bowl and determine if there was damage or not. I used a reamer, a pipe knife, and a piece of sandpaper taped to a wooden dowel. Collectively, these ensured that all the debris was removed.My next step was to remove the lava on the rim. For this, I took a piece of machine steel and gently scraped the lava away. The metal’s edge is sharp enough to remove what I need, but not so sharp that it damages the rim. Similar to the stem, I then cleaned the stummel with both pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in lemon-infused 99% isopropyl alcohol. With a pipe this dirty, it took quite a while and much cotton to clean.I then decided to ‘de-ghost’ the pipe – that is to say, exorcize the remaining filth from the briar. I filled the bowl and the shank with cotton balls, then saturated them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummel sit overnight. This caused the remaining oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton.To tidy up the briar, I wiped down the outside, using a solution of a pH-neutral detergent and some distilled water, with cotton rounds. I also used a toothbrush in the crevices. This did a good job of cleaning any latent dirt on the surface of the briar. The last step of the cleaning process was to scour the inside of the stummel with the same mild detergent and tube brushes. This was the culmination of a lot of hard work in getting the pipe clean.I rubbed some LBE Before & After Restoration Balm into the briar and let it sit for 30 minutes or so. The balm moisturizes the wood and gives a beautiful depth to the briar. I then buffed the stummel with a microfibre cloth. For the final step, I took the pipe to my bench polisher and carefully buffed it – first with a blue diamond compound, then with three coats of carnauba wax. This procedure makes the pipe look its best – the stummel sings and the stem glows.This Jobey Shellmoor Extra hawkbill pipe looks fantastic again and is ready to be enjoyed by its next owner. 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 ‘American’ 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 5⅓ in. (135 mm); height 1⅞ in. (48 mm); bowl diameter 1⅞ in. (47 mm); chamber diameter ⅞ in. (22 mm). The weight of the pipe is 2⅛ oz. (62 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I did 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.