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Restoring the fourth and final of six pipes for a Vancouver Pipeman – A Brigham 4244 Full Bent

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by Steve Laug

Last week I received an email from Steffen regarding a few more pipe projects that he had for me to work on. He dropped them off here yesterday for me to work on. There were six pipes in the lot. Two were his that I had worked on a few years ago – a Mayfair 1005 rusticated tree stump and a Jost Supreme. Both were favourite pipes of his. One was a Savinelli Bent Billiard that he purchased on a trip to Italy. The final three were pipes that belonged to his father who would soon be visiting him in Vancouver – a Brigham full bent four dot 4244, a Savinelli Portofino Bent Pot and a Bent Rhodesian with no name stamped on the shank sides. Steffen texted me this photo of the pipes before he sent them.I decided to work on the two pipes at the bottom before addressing the final pipe of Stephen’s Dad’s pipes. This involved stem tightening on two of Stephen’s pipes that are really straight forward. I did not write a blog on them. It is now time to work on the final one of Steffen’s father’s pipes. It is a rusticated Full Bent Pipe. It is a beautiful rusticated piece of briar that I fully appreciate why his Dad chose it. The pipe is stamped on the underside of the shank. It reads P 4244 M followed by Brigham. There is no Canada stamp on it. The stem bears 4 dots on the left side of the saddle. The briar is dirty from use with a moderate cake in the bowl and some chipping and dents in the rim top on the outer edge of the bowl. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had some tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside of the stem ahead of a hand carved button that his father carved in the stem end. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work and included them below. I took a photo of the stem surfaces and the bowl and rim to give a sense of condition of the pipe. You can see the cake in bowl and the lava overflow and the heavy nicking and denting on the edges and rim top of the bowl. The stem surface is very dirty and you can see the tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. There is also a paper wash inserted in the mortise of the pipe to tighten the fit of the stem.I took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank to show its clarity. It read as noted above. I also removed the stem from the shank of the pipe and took a photo of the parts to show the flow of the pipe. It has some great grain. For the needed background I am including the information from Pipedia on Brigham pipes. It is a great read in terms of the history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Pipes). Charles Lemon (Dadspipes) is currently working on a book on the history of the brand. Until that is complete this article is a good summary. I have included it below.

Roy Brigham, after serving an apprenticeship under an Austrian pipesmith, started his own pipe repair shop in Toronto, in 1906. By 1918 the business had grown to include five other craftsmen and had developed a reputation across Canada for the high quality of workmanship. After repairing many different brands of pipes over the years, Roy noted certain recurring complaints by pipe smokers, the most common referred to as “tongue bite”. Tongue bite is a burning sensation on the smoker’s tongue, previously thought to be due to the heat of the smoke (i.e. a “hot smoking pipe”).

He soon began manufacturing his own pipes, which were lightweight, yet featured a more rugged construction, strengthening the weak points observed in other pipes. The problem of tongue bite intrigued him, and he decided to make overcoming it a future goal.

About 1938, Roy’s son Herb joined him to assist in the business. The business barely survived the great depression because pipes were considered to be a luxury, not a necessity, and selling pipes was difficult indeed. In approximately 1937 [1], after some experimentation, Roy and Herb discovered that tongue bite was in fact a form of mild chemical burn to the tongue, caused by tars and acids in the smoke. They found that by filtering the smoke, it was possible to retain the flavour of the tobacco and yet remove these impurities and thereby stop the tongue bite.

Just as Thomas Edison had searched far and wide for the perfect material from which to make the first electric light bulb filaments, Roy & Herb began experimenting with many materials, both common and exotic, in the quest for the perfect pipe filter. Results varied wildly. Most of the materials didn’t work at all and some actually imparted their own flavour into the smoke. They eventually found just two materials that were satisfactory in pipes: bamboo and rock maple. As bamboo was obviously not as readily available, rock maple then became the logical choice.

They were able to manufacture a replaceable hollow wooden tube made from rock maple dowelling, which when inserted into a specially made pipe, caused absolutely no restriction to the draw of the pipe, yet extracted many of the impurities which had caused tongue bite. The result was indeed a truly better smoking pipe…With the information from Charles’ article and the chart above that he included I knew what I was dealing with in terms of the stamping and the age of this pipe. I learned that this 4244 (the 4XX shape number) is a Brigham Director (4-Dot) Full Bent. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

I used a brass bristle wire brush to clean up the debris on the bowl top. The small rusticated patterns were quite filled in with lava and dirt. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer using the second and third cutting head to trim the cake back. I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife to clean up the remnants leaving bare briar. I sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl was undamaged under the cake and was now significantly cleaner. I cleaned out the airway in the shank and mortise as well as the stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. It was dirty but it cleaned up very well. I scrubbed the surface of the briar with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. I rinsed it with warm running water and repeated the process until the pipe was clean. It looked much better. I sanded the smooth panel on the right side of the bowl and the smooth ring around the rim top and shank end with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. I polished the smooth portions of the briar with 1500-12000 micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding the bowl with the pads and wiping it down after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris. It is looking much better. I left the nicks on the outer edge as they are a part of the pipe’s journey. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a shoe brush to work it into the rustication. The product works to clean, restore and preserve the briar. I let it do its magic for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The pipe looks very good at this point in the process. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the vulcanite saddle stem. I cleaned the stem area around where Stephen’s father had cut off the damaged button and notched the side of the stem. I used alcohol and cotton swabs. I rebuilt the button on both sides of the stem with black CA glue. I also filled in the notches with the glue. I layered it on multiple times to build up the button surface. The glue I use has both rubber and carbon in the mix that harden as it dries but does not become brittle. Once it cured I flattened the repairs and reshaped the button edge with a flat needle file. I gave the button top and bottom as well as the notches another layer or two of black CA glue. Once it cured I continued the process of reshaping and then sanded the stem with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris and dust. The stem looked very good. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with an Obsidian Oil cloth after each sanding pad.  I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and buffed it off with a cotton cloth. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil to preserve and protect the stem. I fitted the tenon system with a Brigham Hard Rock Maple Filter. It fit well and the pipe is ready to smoke with it in place. This Brigham 4244 Full Bent Four Dot Director is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The mix of brown stains really highlight the grain and the polished finish has depth. The nicks on the outer edge give a bit of character and history to the pipe. I put the vulcanite stem with the rebuilt button 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 Brigham 4244 Full Bent Four Dot Director 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 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 66 grams /2.33 ounces. I had finished the stem tightening on two of Stephen’s personal pipes and cleaned them up. This is the last of the other four of Stephen’s pipes that needed to be worked on and restored. I will give him a call in the week ahead and get them back to him to enjoy with his father.

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.

Restoring a Butz-Choquin Vendôme Extra 1688 Apple

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by Kenneth Lieblich

Here’s a charming pipe! I’ve been restoring a good number of pipes for a local family and this is the latest of the bunch: a Butz-Choquin Vendôme Extra 1688. This is an apple shape (in French, the shape is called boule – meaning ball), with a round shank and a tapered stem. It’s an attractive pipe, but it has seen better days. Time to spiff it up for its new owner. Let’s have a look at the markings on this pipe. As the photos show, the left side of the shank reads, Butz-Choquin [over] Vendôme [over] Extra. The right side of the stem reads, St Claude [over] France [over] 1688. Additionally, the stem shows the BC logo of Butz-Choquin in a clear, acrylic circle. Both Pipedia and Pipephil have good write-ups on the history of Butz-Choquin and I encourage you to read both. Also, Steve has restored quite a few and it’s worth having a look at his writings too. For the moment, here is some information from Pipedia:

The pipe, from Metz to Saint-Claude.

 Jean-Baptiste Choquin of Metz started out as a tobacconist. This enterprise was prosperous; he had several employees. Among those, there was a certain Gustave Butz who was its first workman and who became his son-in-law by marrying Choquin’s daughter Marie in 1858.

In 1858 Jean-Baptiste Choquin created, in collaboration with Gustave Butz, the Choquin pipe. This bent pipe with a flat-bottomed bowl was finished with an albatross-bone mouthpiece, fixed with silver rings.

In 1858, still in Metz, Gustave Butz built an establishment for the manufacture of the Choquin pipe which took the name of. In 1951, the Berrod-Regad company bought the trademark, continuing manufacture until 2002. Departing from Metz, the workshop was relocated to Saint-Claude, then also called “the world capital of the briar pipe”, under the Berrod-Regad group. The Berrod-Regad group would go on to completely rebuild the network of representatives until finally entering the export market in 1960 and has since won several prizes, as well as the Gold Cup of French good taste.

In a few years, the brand’s collection increased from ten to seventy series. 135 years after it was founded, the pipe is still well-known not only in France but throughout the world. In 2002, the Berrod family, wishing to preserve manufacture of pipes in Saint-Claude, handed over the company to Fabien Guichon, a native of the area, who will continue to develop the brand during the 21st century.Meanwhile, Pipephil says this:

The origin of the brand reaches back to 1858 when Jean-Baptiste Choquin in collaboration with his son-in-law Gustave Butz created their first pipe in Metz (France). Since 1951 Butz-Choquin Site officiel Butz Choquin, pipes de Saint-Claude jura. BC pipe de bruyere luxe is a brand of the Berrod-Regad group (Saint-Claude, France).

Jean Paul Berrod managed the company from 1969 to 2002 when he retired and sold the corporate to Mr Fabien Gichon. Denis Blanc, allready owner of EWA, took over the S.A. Berrod-Regad in 2006.

In an old Butz-Choquin catalogue, I found the pipe shape in question, listed with its requisite number:An inspection of the pipe showed a few flaws to be addressed. The bowl was dirty and stained. It also had some burn marks on the rim top. Furthermore, it had an unattractive lacquer-like finish to it. Meanwhile, the stem was dirty and scratched. There were minor bite marks and there was some oxidation.To begin, I used oil soap on a few cotton rounds and wiped the stem down to provide an initial cleaning of filth before moving on. The primary cleaning comes next. I cleaned the inside of the stem with both pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in 99% lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. I scrubbed thoroughly to make sure the interior was clean.The goal of the next step is the removal (or minimization) of oxidation. Going to my sink, I used cream cleanser, cotton rounds, and a toothbrush, and scoured the stem to remove as much surface oxidation as possible. As the photos show, the result is a hideous brownish mess – but better off the stem than on it.Once the stem was reasonably clean, I soaked it overnight in some de-oxidation fluid. This solution works to draw oxidation in the stem to the surface. This is a major aid and an important step in ensuring a clean stem. The following day, I drew the stem out from its bath and scrubbed the lingering fluid with a toothbrush.Now that the stem is clean and dry, I set about fixing the marks and dents in the vulcanite. This is 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 reduce the bulk of the cyanoacrylate repairs. I want to remove the excess adhesive as near to the surface as possible, without cutting into the vulcanite. Following that, I use 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 apply pipe-stem oil while using the last five micromesh pads. There was a wonderful, deep black shine to the stem when I was done.Now that the stem is (nearly) complete, I can move on to the stummel. The first step for me is to ream out the bowl – that is to say, remove all the cake inside the bowl. This accomplishes a couple of things. First (and most obviously), it cleans the bowl and provides a refurbished chamber for future smoking. Second, when the old cake is removed, I can inspect the interior walls of the bowl and determine if there is damage or not. I used a reamer, a pipe knife, and a piece of sandpaper taped to a wooden dowel. Collectively, these ensure that all the debris is removed. Plenty of cake in there…The inside of the stummel needs to be cleaned thoroughly. Similar to the stem, I then cleaned it with both pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in 99% lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. With a pipe this dirty, it took quite a while and much cotton to get clean (as the photos will attest).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 any remaining oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton.To tidy up the briar, I also wiped down the outside with some oil soap on cotton rounds (and a toothbrush). This does a good job of cleaning any latent dirt on the surface of the briar. The last step of the cleaning process is to scour the inside of the stummel with some soap and tube brushes. This is normally the culmination of a lot of hard work in getting the pipe clean.However, I noticed that the lacquer was flaking and looking terrible. As a result, I chose to remove it all with acetone on some cotton rounds. Of course, acetone is a volatile chemical, and I only use it rarely and judiciously in my pipe work. In this case, it acted perfectly to remove what I needed and left beautiful wood underneath. In fact, it looked so much better after having wiped it down. The damage to the rim is not terrible, but it is notable. In order to lessen the burns on the rim, I ‘topped’ the pipe – that is to say, I gently and evenly sanded the rim on a piece of 220-grit sandpaper. This effectively minimizes the damage, without altering the look of the pipe. A little of the burn remains, but that is part of this pipe’s life story.I used all nine micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) on the outside of the stummel to finish it off. This sanding minimizes flaws in the briar and provides a beautiful smoothness to the wood.The removal of the lacquer was a positive, necessary step, but it made the stummel a bit pale. I decided to stain the wood with an alcohol-based, aniline dye. I use this type of dye because it is easy to work with, uniform in colour, quite penetrating, and is easily thinned with isopropyl alcohol. For this pipe, I chose a light brown colour, as it most closely resembled what the pipe would have looked like when new. I spread the dye all over the outside of the stummel with a small dauber and then applied a gentle flame to it. This flame assists in setting the stain by quickly evaporating the isopropyl alcohol. If necessary, the stain can be lightened by wiping the briar with pure alcohol – and, in this case, that’s precisely what I did. I rubbed some Before & After Restoration Balm into the briar and let it sit for 20 minutes or so. The balm moisturizes the wood and gives a beautiful depth to the briar. I then buffed it with a microfibre cloth. For the final step, I took the pipe to my bench buffer and carefully polished it – first with a white 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 Butz-Choquin Vendôme Extra 1688 apple is a very handsome pipe and will provide many years of smoking pleasure for its new owner. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 5¼ in. (134 mm); height 1⅝ in. (40 mm); bowl diameter 1⅓ in. (34 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (19 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅛ oz. (34 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I enjoyed restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Restoring the third of six pipes for a Vancouver Pipeman – No Name Bent Rhodesian

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by Steve Laug

Earlier this week I received an email from Stephen regarding a few more pipe projects that he had for me to work on. He dropped them off here yesterday for me to work on. There were six pipes in the lot. Two were his that I had worked on a few years ago – a Mayfair 1005 rusticated tree stump and a Jost Supreme. Both were favourite pipes of his. One was a Savinelli Bent Billiard that he purchased on a trip to Italy. The final three were pipes that belonged to his father who would soon be visiting him in Vancouver – a Brigham full bent four dot 4244, a Savinelli Portofino Bent Pot and a Bent Rhodesian with no name stamped on the shank sides. Stephen texted me this photo of the pipes before he sent them.I decided to work on the second of Stephen’s father’s pipes. It is a smooth Bent Rhodesian. It is a beautiful grained piece of briar that I can appreciate why he chose it. The pipe is unstamped and does not appear to have even the remnants of any stamping. The briar is dirty from use with a moderate cake in the bowl and a lot of chipping and dents in the rim top and the twin rings on Bullcap on the bowl. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had some tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside of the stem ahead of and on the surface of the button. There is no stamping on the side of the stem as it was unmarked. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work and included them below. I took a photo of the stem surfaces and the bowl and rim to give a sense of condition of the pipe. You can see the cake in bowl and the lava overflow and the heavy nicking and denting on the edges and rim top of the bowl. The stem surface is very dirty and you can see the tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. There is also a paper wash inserted in the mortise of the pipe to tighten the fit of the stem.I removed the stem from the shank of the pipe and took a photo of the parts to show the flow of the pipe. It has some great grain.I used a dental spatula to scrape out the paper washer from the inside of the shank. It had been glued to the right side of the shank to thicken the wall of the right side. It was not an effective way as the shank was not drilled evenly. It was straight but the shank was not round. The stem turned the same way the stem was.To address the damage on the rim top I topped it with 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board. I took off the rim damage and smoothed out the top of the rim. It looked much better. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer using the second and third cutting head to trim the cake back. I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife to clean up the remnants leaving bare briar. I sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl was significantly cleaner. I cleaned out the airway in the shank and mortise as well as the stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. It was dirty but it cleaned up very well. I cleaned the surface of the briar with a cotton pad and acetone to remove the grime and the remnants of the finish on the briar. It looked much better.There was a large divot on the bottom of the bowl that I decided to repair. I filled it in with some clear CA glue and pressed briar dust into the glue. I repeated the process until the damaged area was filled in. Once the repair cured I sanded it flat to blend it into the surrounding surface of the briar. It looked much better when I was finished. I sanded the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. I polished the briar with 1500-12000 micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding the bowl with the pads and wiping it down after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris. It is looking much better. I left the nicks on the twin rings around the top of the Bullcap as they are a part of the pipe’s journey. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a shoe brush to work it into the rings around the Bullcap. The product works to clean, restore and preserve the briar. I let it do its magic for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The pipe looks very good at this point in the process. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the vulcanite taper stem. I scrubbed the surface of the stem with Soft Scrub to break through the oxidation, calcification and clean up the tooth marks.I filled in the tooth marks on the stem surface and on the surface of the button on both sides with black CA glue. The glue I use has both rubber and carbon in the mix that harden as it dries but does not become brittle. Once it cured I flattened the repairs and reshaped the button edge with a flat needle file. I cleaned up the repaired areas with 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris and dust. The stem looked very good. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with an Obsidian Oil cloth after each sanding pad.  I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and buffed it off with a cotton cloth. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil to preserve and protect the stem. This No Name Bent Rhodesian is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The mix of brown stains really highlight the grain and the polished finish has depth. The nicks in the rings give a bit of character and history to the pipe. I put the vulcanite 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 Bent 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: 5 inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 inch, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 48 grams /1.69 ounces. I have three more of Stephen’s pipes to work on. Once I have finished I will get them back to him to enjoy with his father. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

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.

Restoring the second of six pipes for a Vancouver Pipeman – Savinelli Portofino Rusticated Pot

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by Steve Laug

Earlier this week I received an email from Steffen regarding a few more pipe projects that he had for me to work on. He dropped them off here yesterday for me to work on. There were six pipes in the lot. Two were his that I had worked on a few years ago – a Mayfair 1005 rusticated tree stump and a Jost Supreme. Both were favourite pipes of his. One was a Savinelli Bent Billiard that he purchased on a trip to Italy. The final three were pipes that belonged to his father who would soon be visiting him in Vancouver – a Brigham full bent four dot 4244, a Savinelli Portofino Bent Pot and a Bent Rhodesian with no name stamped on the shank sides. Steffen texted me this photo of the pipes before he sent them.This afternoon I decided to work on the first of Steffen’s father’s pipes. It is a rusticated Bent Pot. It is a beautiful grained piece of briar that I can appreciate why he chose it. There is a mother of pearl acrylic disc sandwiched between two brass bands on the end of the stem that provides a separation between the bowl and the vulcanite taper stem. The pipe is stamped on the underside of the shank and heel of the bowl and reads Portofino [followed by] Italy below and to the right [followed by] Savinelli [over] Product. The briar is dirty from use with a moderate cake in the bowl and an overflow of lava on the rusticated rim top. The stem was oxidized, calcified and had some tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside of the stem ahead of the button. There is no stamping on the side of the stem as it was unmarked. It also looked to have been made for a Savinelli Balsa Filter. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work on it. I have included them below. I took a photo of the stem surfaces and the bowl and rim to give a sense of condition of the pipe. You can see the cake in bowl and the lava overflow on the edges and rim top of the bowl. The stem surface is very dirty and you can see the tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I also took a photo of the bowl with the stem removed. It is a great looking pipe.I cannot find any specific information on the Savinelli Product Portofino Rusticated Pot online. I found pipes for sale on Worthpoint and other sites that were both smooth and rusticated so the name does not imply rusticated pipes. Portofino is a village in NW Italy, SE of Genoa: tourist resort. The brand is thus part of a collection of pipes made by Savinelli named after villages in Italy. I have included a photo of the village from a tourist site.Now it was time to start working on the pipe itself. I reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer using the second and third cutting head to trim the cake back. I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife to clean up the remnants leaving bare briar. I sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl was significantly cleaner. I scrubbed the externals of the bowl with a tooth brush and some undiluted Muprhy’s Oil Soap.  I rinsed the bowl down with warm water to remove the debris and dust. The bowl looked muc better. I worked on the rim top with a brass bristle wire brush to clean up the debris on the rim top. It looked significantly better.I cleaned out the airway in the shank and mortise as well as the stem with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. It was dirty but it cleaned up very well.   I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips. It works to clean, restore and preserve the briar. I let it do its magic for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The pipe looks very good at this point in the process. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the vulcanite taper stem. I scrubbed the surface of the stem with Soft Scrub to break through the oxidation, calcification and clean up the tooth marks.I filled in the tooth marks on the stem surface and on the surface of the button on both sides with black CA glue. The glue I use has both rubber and carbon in the mix that harden as it dries but does not become brittle. Once it cured I flattened the repairs and reshaped the button edge with a flat needle file. I cleaned up the repaired areas with 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris and dust. The stem looked very good. The stem was drilled to fit a Savinelli Balsa System filter. I removed a new filter from the package of Balsa filters and fit one in the tenon of the stem. It fit well and looked good.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with an Obsidian Oil cloth after each sanding pad. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and buffed it off with a cotton cloth. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil to preserve and protect the stem. This Savinelli Product Portofino Rusticated Pot is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The mix of brown stains really highlight the grain under the rustication and the polished finish has depth. I put the vulcanite 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 Savinelli Product Portofino Pot 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 ½ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 67 grams /2.33 ounces. I have five more of Stephen’s pipes to work on. Once I have finished I will get them back to him to enjoy with his father. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it.

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.

Really a Disappointing Mess… or was it?

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by Steve Laug

I entitled this blog “A Disappointing Mess…” because when I saw the stamp Connoisseur the brain dropped out and my wish was that this was an Ed Burak made pipe! Of course, it is not one of Ed’s pipes nor does it even look like one. However, in the heat of a pipe hunt it is easy to let the thrill of a find eclipse rational thought processes. It certainly did this time. When I got home and looked at the stamping on the pipe I knew I was probably dealing with an Italian made pipe for import to the USA. It really has all the marks of that including the Imported Briar stamp under the name. On the left side of the shank it is stamped Connoisseur [over] Imported Briar. On the underside of the shank at the shank/stem junction it is stamped Italy. The pipe really was a wreck and if I had been paying attention I probably would have left it in the antique mall where we stumbled across it. The finish on the bowl was a spotty, peeling varnish or perhaps worse and there were nicks and fills in the briar. The bowl had a heavy cake and the rim top was covered in lava. The outer edges of the bowl were a bit beat up and the inner edge was a mystery under the lava. The stem was dirty, oxidized and calcified and had deep tooth marks and chatter on the button surface and ahead of the button on both sides. Here are some photos I took before I started the cleanup. I took a photo of the stem surfaces and the bowl and rim to give a sense of condition of the pipe. You can see the thick cake in bowl and the lava overflow on the edges and rim top of the bowl. It is hard to know if there is any damage as the cake and lava is quite thick. The stem surface is very dirty and you can see the deep tooth marks and chatter covered by the dirt and debris.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. It is clear and readable on all the shank sides as noted above. It also seems that there is a remnant of the C stamp on the side of the stem. It is not deep in vulcanite surface. I also took a photo of the bowl with the stem removed. It is a great looking pipe.I turned to Pipephil’s site to look for a Connoisseur that was not connected to Ed Burak. I found one that bears the same stamping on the shank sides and was made in Italy. The photo showed the C logo on the stem. The one I am working on is not to clear. I have included a screen capture of the pertinent information below (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c6.html). I have also included some information from the side bar below the photo below.Probably a brand of Hall & Fitzgerald. The “Connoisseur” name has also been used by Lorenzo or Kaywoodie for their pipe lines.

From there I did a Google search on Hall & Fitzgerald. I came across a link on vkpipes to a pipe made by them. There is no specific connection in the notes to the Connoisseur. It is interesting to note that they had quite a few brands in their stable (https://vkpipes.com/pipeline/hall-fitzgerald-straight-grain/). It is at least a very likely connection.

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.

Now it was time to start working on the pipe itself. The bowl was thickly caked so I reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer using the second and third cutting head to trim the cake back. I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife to clean up the remnants leaving bare briar. I sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl was significantly cleaner. I scraped the heavy lava coat on the rim top with the edge of the Fitsall knife. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I scrubbed the bowl and rim with the toothbrush. I rinsed it off with warm running water and dried it with a soft towel. It looked much better and the rim top looked clean. The grain under the heavy varnish coat shone clearly once the grime was removed. I wiped the bowl down with acetone to remove the finish from the bowl. It did not work very well. It made a bit of progress but the coat was very thick. I gently topped the bowl on a topping board with 320 grit sandpaper and worked over the rest of the briar bowl and shank with 320 grit sandpaper to break the varnish surface.I used some straight acetone and cotton pads to wipe the bowl down a second time. This time I had much better success. It removed much of the varnish coat. You can see the varnish and stain on the cotton pads. At this point I dropped the bowl in an alcohol bath that I have here. It is one that I have and refilled for many years. It is straight 99% isopropyl alcohol. I have soaked a lot of pipes in it and over the years it has picked up a bit of patina. I have found that when a bowl soaks in it the alcohol helps remove older varnish coats and also adds some of that rich patina to the raw briar like the rim top in this case.I let it sit in the bath overnight. I removed the bowl from the bath in the morning. I dried it off and took photos of the bowl at this point. Overall it looked much better. The varnish coat was basically gone and the rim top had picked up some patina from the bath. I sanded the briar rim top and bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I was able to remove the remnants of stain and also varnish on the bowl. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad using a paper towel and a drop of olive oil. I really liked the way the briar looked at this point in the process. I polished the briar with 1500-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with each pad and wiping it down with a damp cloth between pads. It took on a rich shine. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a shoe brush to get it into the twin rings around the cap. It works to clean, restore and preserve the briar. I let it do its magic for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The pipe looks incredibly good at this point in the process. I had an aha moment and realized I had not cleaned the mortise and shank so I paused in the process to do both the stem and the bowl. I turned the stinger out of the tenon so I could properly clean it. It was pressure fit so it was an easy removal. I cleaned up the metal stinger with a brass bristle wire brush so that the oils and tars were gone. I cleaned out the mortise, the airway in the shank and the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. It was not a surprise that it was very dirty. With everything clean I turned my attention to the stem. I filled in the deep marks in the vulcanite stem with black rubberized CA glue. Once it hardened I flattened the repairs out with a small file. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the rest of the stem. It was beginning to look good. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris and dust. The stem looked very good. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad.  I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and buffed it off with a cotton cloth. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil to preserve and protect the stem. I reinserted the aluminum stinger in the tenon of the vulcanite saddle stem. It looks very good. It is easily removable should the new pipe man or woman chooses to remove it.This Connoisseur Imported Briar Bullmoose is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The brown stains really highlight the grain and 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 Connoisseur Imported Briar Bullmoose 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 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 50 grams /1.76 ounces. I will be placing it on the rebornpipes store in the Italian Pipemakers Section soon. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. 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.

Restoring a Charatan’s Make London England Sandblast Billiard

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen to work on was purchased on 03/21/2024 during a pipe hunt from a shop in Oregon City, Oregon USA. I have worked on a lot of Charatan pipes through the years and some have been sandblast pipe. This nicely shaped sandblast Billiard is very nice with deep sandblast around the bowl. It is stamped on the underside of the shank and reads Charatan’s Make [over] London, England. On the heel of the bowl it is stamped with a cursive L in a circle identifying it as a Lane Era Pipe. There is no shape number on the bowl or shank. The stamping is faint in spots but still readable. The taper stem does not bear the CP logo on the left side. The bowl had a thick cake and there was a lava overflow on the sandblast rim top. The inner edge of the rim thickly covered with lava so it was hard to know the damage at this point. The outer edge looked very good. The stem is lightly oxidized and has tooth marks and chatter on both sides at the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his clean up. Jeff took photos of the bowl, rim top to show the thickness of the cake in the bowl and the lava on the rim top. The bowl had a thick cake that overflowed in lava on the inner edge and rim top of the bowl. I am hoping that the thick lava coat protected things underneath it from damage to the edges and top. He took photos of the top and underside of the stem showing the tooth chatter and marks and oxidation on the stem surface and wear on the edges of the button. Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the condition of the briar. You can see the beautiful shape of the bowl even through the dirt and debris of many years. You can also see the depth of the blast around the bowl and shank. Jeff took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. You can see that it is clear and readable as noted above. An added part of pipe restoration for me is to try to gather as much background on a brand and maker as I can find. With Charatan that is an enjoyable web to try to untangle. There is a lot of information and it can lead to understanding what era a pipe was made in. To try to figure out the era of the Charatan’s pipe I was working on I turned to the Pipephil website, Logos and Stampings (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-charatan.html). There is some really helpful information on each of the lines of Charatan’s Make pipes that entered the market. There was not a sandblast stamped like the one in hand. The site did give a short history of the brand. I quote the portion that is most pertinent.The brand was founded in 1863 by Frederik Charatan. When his father retired in 1910, Reuben Charatan took over the family business. All the pipes were handmade until 1973. The brand name has been overtaken by Dunhill in 1978 and sold in 1988 to James B. Russell Inc.(NJ, USA). During the period 1988-2002 Charatans were crafted by Butz Choquin in St Claude (France). Dunhill re-purchased Charatan brand name in 2002 and Colin Fromm (Invicta Briars, Castleford) followed up on freehand production.

Next, I turned to Pipedia to see if I could find more information on the brand and possibly a link to a sandblast finished Dublin (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Charatan) but once again in the general article it was not listed. It did give a little more historical information. I quote the pertinent parts that give information on this particular pipe.

In 1950 Herman G. Lane, striving to expand his business in Great Britain, made contacts with the Charatan family. Apparently, Lane got a certain influence soon, but it was not until 1955 that Lane Ltd. became the sole distributor for Charatan’s in the United States superseding Wally Frank. This can be documented in a “biography” written for Herman G. Lane titled “Leaves from a Tobaccoman’s Log”.

Thanks to Herman G. Lane’s dedicated labor Charatan became hugely popular in the States. As reported by Ken Barnes in an interview with Rick Newcombe, Reuben Charatan passed away in 1962, and his widow sold the firm to Herman Lane 1 or 2 years after his death.[1] In the early 1960s Charatan pipes were the first to overstep the $100 Dollar line in US pipe sales. In 1978 Lane’s heirs sold the Charatan company to Dunhill. The Prescot Street factory was closed in March 1982. Thereafter the fame and quality of the make declined.

The pre-Lane period (prior to 1955) and the Lane era pipes (1955 to until sometime between 1979 – 1984) are of primary interest the collector. The Lane era is often quoted as beginning about 1950.

Charatan records are almost non-existent before Lane due to a factory fire, making it difficult to date pre-Lane pipes. Charatan used 4 basic grades prior to 1950: Supreme, Selected, Executive, and Belvedere. After 1950 Herman Lane’s influence began, and the grades started to expand. In 1955 Lane took over sole distributorship of Charatan in the US. In 1957 he introduced the Supreme S. Most of his other introductions were from the 1960s and early 1970s.

From this I am fairly certain I am dealing with a Lane pipe made after 1955. There is also a circle L script mark that is a Lane stampings on the pipe which also supports this.

I continued digging further into the dating of the pipe, but what I had found above was a good start for me. If some of you would like to try your hand at dating it more accurately as to the time period it came out you might want to check out the article on Pipedia on Dating Charatans (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dating_of_Charatans).

I also reread the article on Pipedia by the Italian fellow who contributed some really helpful information on the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Charatan_-_Milan_2014). I quote the section on the Second period: Reuben Charatan 1910 – c. 1962. I have highlighted a portion of the section on the shank in red to point out some more helpful dating information.

– In 1962 Herman Lane took over the business from the Charatan family, although he had already influenced production from the 1950s.

– The pipes were mostly larger than the previous ones and corresponded in size to Dunhill group 5. These are slightly less rare, but still difficult to find.

– Stem: Usually in ebonite, saddle shaped or tapered, bearing a fine “CP” stamp, underbore system (see below) used when necessary.

– Shank: The shape code is stamped on it together with the nomenclature “CHARATAN’S MAKE LONDON ENGLAND” arranged in two lines. From 1955 onward on the models marketed for the USA there is also a serif and circled capital “L” (but not all models bear this) which resembles the pound sterling symbol. The “L” is for Lane, the importer.

From 1958, Lane changed the nomenclature for models marketed for the US to clarify the message: “MADE BY HAND”.  In this period the underbore was introduced. Its manufacturing period ranged between 1920 and c.1930. This model was equipped with a duralumin plunger trap fitted in the stem, which served to clean the residue more easily. This particular model bore a special stamp on the stem, and also had its own catalogue…

QUALITY GRADES…The stem did not only display the stamps mentioned above. Another stamp that can help dating is the one referring to the quality of the pipe. Until Herman Lane arrived on the scene there were four quality grades. Starting with the lowest: Belvedere, Executive, Selected, and Supreme. Lane went on to add higher grades from time to time: Supreme S, Supreme S100, S150, S200, S250, S300, Coronation, Royal Achievement, Crown Achievement, and Summa Cum Laude; these last three are extremely rare and almost impossible to find. He also invented other, different grades, even changing the previous pipe classification standards. We will not go into detail here, but it means that if we find an S100 or Coronation the pipe was manufactured following Herman Lane’s acquisition. In particular, the FH mark, or Freehand pipe was commissioned to the famous Danish craftsman, Preben Holm.

Nomenclature

The Lane Trademark serif and circled L indicates the pipe is from the “Lane Era” (approx. 1955 to 1979 -1984?), however it appears that both the English factory or Lane themselves sometimes, or perhaps even often forget to stamp the L on a pipe. The Charatan factory was known for inconsistencies, especially in stampings. Therefore, although an L on the pipe definitely defines it as a Lane Era pipe, the lack of it could simply mean the pipe missed receiving the stamp from the factory. The lack of the trademark could also mean the pipe was destined for the European market.

Charatan pipes were not well distributed prior to the Lane Era, so very few pre-Lane pipes exist today. Herman Lane greatly grew the brand in the U.S., which caused corresponding growth in Europe.

Generally, when the pipe is stamped with the BLOCK letters “MADE BY HAND” it means the pipe was probably made between 1958 and 1965”

Generally, block letters “MADE BY HAND” and some of the other nomenclature in script (i.e. City of London or Extra Large next to the MADE BY HAND) means the pipe was made sometime between 1965 and the mid 1970s. The total script nomenclature “Made by Hand in City of London” evolved over this period of time, so many pipes had variants, such as Made By Hand in block letters and City of London in script, or some other variation of the terms or stampings.

It is believed the FH was used on Charatan pipes between 1957 and 1967-68. Three different sizes were used. The Charatan Logo (CP) on the pipe bit was changed over the year

Now I knew I was working on Lane Era pipe which actually means it was between 1955 and 1988 as shown by the stamping. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

Jeff had cleaned it thoroughly. He had reamed it with a PipNet reamer and cleaned that up with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He had scrubbed the exterior of the briar with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. He removed the shiny coat on the briar with acetone on cotton pads. He cleaned out the interior of the shank, sump and airway in the shank and stem with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the oxidation and calcification on the surface. He soaked it in Briarvilles Pipe Stem Deoxidizer to remove the oxidation. He removed it from the Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took some photos of the pipe before I started my part of the work. 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 was and inner edge were in good condition. There were spots on the rim top and edges where there were some spots of debris in the finish. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the condition of the vulcanite. It was in clean but there were tooth marks and chatter on the stem ahead of the button on both sides.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. The stamping on this one had faint spots on the edges so I was worried that it would worsen with the cleanup. I took some photos to show the clarity of the stamping. The photo is a little blurry but the stamping remains the same. 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 to capture the look of the pipe as a whole.With that finished the bowl was very clean and the sandblast looked great. I used a brass bristle wire brush to work over the debris on the rim top and clean it up. It looked much better after the work on it was finished.I rubbed the bowl and rim down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the sandblast surface of the briar with my fingertips and a horse hair shoe brush 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 set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks on the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter. I was able to lift the tooth marks considerably but some still remained. I filled them in with black, rubberized CA glue. Once it had cured I used a small file to flatten out the repairs. I sanded them smooth with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the surface of the vulcanite. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with a damp cloth. The stem began to take on a shine by the final pads.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 to give the sanding pads some bite. I polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil. I know that most think it does nothing for acrylic stems but I use it anyway as I find it works very well to deepen the shine. 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 Lane Era Charatan’s Make London England Sandblast Billiard is put back together, polished and waxed. I put the bowl and stem back together. I lightly polished the bowl and the replacement stem with Blue Diamond. 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 depths of the sandblast really pop with the wax and polish. The shiny black vulcanite stem is a beautiful contrast to the browns of the bowl. This Charatan’s Make London England Sandblast 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: 5 ¼ 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 1.31 ounces/38 grams. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipemakers Section if you would like to add it to your rack and carry on the previous pipeman’s legacy. This is an interesting estate to bring back to life.

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.

A New Home for a Brebbia Bent Pocket Pipe

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by Kenneth Lieblich

A young gentleman came to me with the desire for a small pipe he could use on the go. We ultimately settled on a charming little pipe made by Brebbia. It’s a black, sandblasted bent billiard pocket pipe. Despite its diminutive size, it’s a very handsome pipe and promises to be a good smoker. It will serve this fellow very well for a long time to come. Only two words constitute the entirety of this pipe’s markings. On the underside of the stummel are the words Brebbia [over] Italy. I’ve worked on some Brebbia pipes before, so I went and looked up my previous articles. I learned from Pipedia and Pipephil that the Brebbia pipe company was named after the locality of Bosco Grosso di Brebbia in Lombardy, Italy. The company was founded by Enea Buzzi and Achille Savinelli in 1947, but they parted ways in 1953. Mr Savinelli went on to form his eponymous company, while Mr Buzzi kept the factory and created Maniffatura Pipe Brebbia – they produce MPB and Brebbia pipes. Mr Buzzi’s family still run the company today. Let’s this pipe cleaned up! On the whole, the pipe is in good shape. Nothing major is wrong with either the stem or the stummel. Great news!First, I used oil soap on a few cotton rounds and wiped the stem down to provide an initial cleaning of filth before moving on to the next steps. The primary cleaning comes next. I cleaned the inside of the stem with both pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in 99% lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. I scrubbed thoroughly to make sure the interior was clean.The goal of the next step is the removal (or minimization) of oxidation. Going to my sink, I used cream cleanser, cotton rounds, and a toothbrush, and scoured the stem to remove as much surface oxidation as possible. As the photos show, the result is a hideous brownish mess – but better off the stem than on it.Once the stem was reasonably clean, I soaked it overnight in some de-oxidation fluid. This solution works to draw oxidation in the stem to the surface. This is a major aid and important step in ensuring a clean stem. The following day, I drew the stem out from its bath and scrubbed the lingering fluid with a toothbrush.Once clean and dry, I set about fixing the marks and dents in the vulcanite. This is 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 reduce the bulk of the cyanoacrylate repairs. I want to remove the excess adhesive as near to the surface as possible, without cutting into the vulcanite. Following that, I use 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 apply pipe-stem oil while using the last five micromesh pads. There was a wonderful, deep black shine to the stem when I was done.Now that the stem is (nearly) complete, I can move on to the stummel. The first step for me is to ream out the bowl – that is to say, remove all the cake inside the bowl. This accomplishes a couple of things. First (and most obviously), it cleans the bowl and provides a refurbished chamber for future smoking. Second, when the old cake is removed, I can inspect the interior walls of the bowl and determine if there is damage or not. In this case, there was none. I used a reamer and a piece of sandpaper taped to a wooden dowel. Collectively, these ensure that all the debris is removed.The inside of the stummel needs to be cleaned thoroughly. Similar to the stem, I then cleaned it with both pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in 99% lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. Fortunately, it wasn’t too dirty.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 any remaining oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton.To tidy up the briar, I also wiped down the outside with some oil soap on cotton rounds (and a toothbrush). This does a good job of cleaning any latent dirt on the surface of the briar. The last step of the cleaning process is to scour the inside of the stummel with some soap and tube brushes. This is the culmination of the work in getting the pipe clean.No sanding needed for a sandblast. So, I rubbed some Before & After Restoration Balm into the briar and let it sit for 20 minutes or so. The balm moisturizes the wood and gives a beautiful depth to the briar. I then buffed it with a microfibre cloth. For the final step, I took the pipe to my bench buffer and carefully polished it – first with a white diamond compound, then with three coats of conservator’s wax. This procedure makes the pipe look its best – the stummel sings and stem glows.This Brebbia bent billiard pocket pipe is very handsome and will provide many years of smoking pleasure. I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe as much I as I did restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 3⅔ in. (93 mm); height 1⅜ in. (36 mm); bowl diameter 1⅛ in. (30 mm); chamber diameter ⅔ in. (17 mm). The weight of the pipe is ⅞ oz. (25 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.

Restoring a Handsome Portland Pipe Co. “Falcon Briar”

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by Kenneth Lieblich

This is the next pipe that I restored for a local family. One of the gentlemen selected this fine Canadian shape for his own. It’s a good-looking pipe and worthy of restoration. This pipe comes from the Portland Pipe Co., which I’ve written about before. This specific pipe has some interesting markings – let’s take a look. On the top of the shank, it reads Portland Pipe Co [over] B.B& S Ltd. [over] London made – England. On the left side of the shank, it reads Falcon Briar. On the right side of the shank, it reads P2 – presumably a shape code. Two things puzzled me: the term “Falcon Briar” and the code “P2”. They didn’t conform to anything I already knew about Portland. Here is a review of my digging for information on Portland Pipe Co.I began my research with José Manuel Lopes’ book, Pipes: Artisans and Trademarks. As the photo shows, there was a little information, but not a lot.The connection with Barling was interesting, so I also checked Wilczak and Colwell’s book, Who Made That Pipe? From the photos below, you can see that the Portland Pipe Co. is connected to Barling too.Time to check online. Pipephil had a similarly brief write-up (included here).Pipedia was a bit more informative. Their page on the Portland Pipe Co. includes the following information (the typos are in the original and are NOT mine):

Portland Pipe Company was an English pipe maker, and appears to have started in the 1930’s, and went out of business in 1962. It’s though they had ties to Barling pipes from the 1930’s. They might have been a sub-brand or “second” which was separate from, but fully owned by Barling’s all along. It also thought that after Portland closed down, and during Barling’s corporate era (BB&S), Barling picked up some of the Portland brand (Londoner, Cragmoor and Portland) and made them for a while. WILCZAK & COLWELL in their book “Who Made That Pipe?” acknowledge the brand as from England, though some have been made in Italy as well (see Pipephil.eu). The Brand John Peel is a pipe which has the stamping: JOHN PEEL, A PORTLAND PIPE, MADE WHOLLY IN ENGLAND. I have a model with is also stamped SPECIAL, it’s a stack design with shape number 801. This pipe might have been made either by Portland or Barling. According to a 1940 price sheet, the following models were offered, along with the correlating prices:

 Vintage (10/6)
Exchange (7/6)
Londoner (7/6)
Mosaic (7/6)
Portland Super (7/6)
Crustor (5/6)
Diploma (5/6)
Port Royal (5/6)
Port-de-Luxe (5/6)
Portland Patent (5/6)
Souk-el-Arba (5/6)
Times (4/6)
British Sovereign (3/6)
John Peel (3/6)
Jubilee (3/6)
Sirdar (3/6)
Campaigner (2/6)
Dandy (2/6)
First Call (2/6)
Knobby (2/6)
Topsall (2/6)
Topsall Comfort (2/6)
Portman (2/-)
British National (1/6)
Ruf Kut (1/6)

This doesn’t mention anything about “Falcon Briar”. However, there are a few other tidbits of information. The PipesMagazine.com forums include an interesting comment from Barling expert Jonathan Guss:Finally, over at the Very Keen on Pipes website, a reader commented on one of their posts by saying:

“… Portland pipes make up one of the great mysteries of London pipe making. No one knows when Barling bought Portland but most of us barling guys believe it was mid to late 30’s. I saw a reference once online using the year 1936 but this cannot be confirmed. Next, John Peel was for a long time thought to have been a shop but there is no evidence proving that. However, John Peel pipes were almost certainly made by Portland. What most of use want in a pipe of this type is a pipe made before 1962, when the barling family was let go by the new owners and the brand went into a downward spiral quality wise. Re Portland, a number of them have recently turned up as a result of a “garage find” of a batch of pipes from the Toronto Canada area and they were mixed in with other wood from the 50’s and that seems to indicate a 50’s date of manufacture. Note: in those days several of the larger pipe makers made pipes or just bowls for other brands and these were mostly Charatan, Comoy and other makers such as Orlick. What is almost certain is that never did barling make / sell any pipes that were not carved by barling carvers untill after 1970. So, Portland and Peel were never actually barling made, these pipes were either made by Portland in house or, in later years past 1962, by Charatan and others. Also, if one looks at the style of the bits it evident that Portland and Peel pipes were not made that long ago, probably 50’s and 60’s unless there is a BB&S stamp which indicates post 1970 age (the & symbol being the give away since B.B.S was used in the older pre 1962 era.) Just some info for you to keep in mind… “

This is interesting stuff and then Steve gave me another possible detail. Apparently, Comoy’s used to make a line of pipes called ‘Falcon’ and another called ‘Royal Falcon’. Perhaps this bowl was made by Comoy, but later picked up by Portland. This could explain why the pipe contains the ‘Falcon Briar’ line. Pipephil has this tidbit:By inference (and some educated guesswork), this pipe was made in England, probably in the 1970s (or, at least, post 1970), by the Portland Pipe Co. However, there may be a Comoy connection too. I am happy to be educated by someone who knows more.

The pipe was in good condition and didn’t require any major surgery. The bowl was a bit dirty and banged up, but nothing serious. Similarly, the stem had some tooth marks and scrapes, nothing to worry about.To start, I used a disposable lighter and ‘painted’ the stem with its flame. The gentle heat of the flame can cause the dents in the vulcanite of the stem to expand back into shape. This helped a little bit.I used oil soap on a few cotton rounds and wiped the stem down to provide an initial cleaning of filth before moving on to the next steps. The primary cleaning comes next. I cleaned the inside of the stem with both pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in 99% lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. I scrubbed thoroughly to make sure the interior was clean.The goal of the next step is the removal (or minimization) of oxidation. Going to my sink, I used cream cleanser, cotton rounds, and a toothbrush, and scoured the stem to remove as much surface oxidation as possible. As the photos show, the result is a hideous brownish mess – but better off the stem than on it.Once the stem was reasonably clean, I soaked it overnight in some de-oxidation fluid. This solution works to draw oxidation in the stem to the surface. This is a major aid and important step in ensuring a clean stem. The following day, I drew the stem out from its bath and scrubbed the lingering fluid with a toothbrush.Once clean and dry, I set about fixing the marks and dents in the vulcanite. This is 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 reduce the bulk of the cyanoacrylate repairs. I want to remove the excess adhesive as near to the surface as possible, without cutting into the vulcanite. Following that, I use 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 apply pipe-stem oil while using the last five micromesh pads. There is a wonderful, deep black shine to the stem when I am done.Now that the stem is (nearly) complete, I can move on to the stummel. The first step for me is to ream out the bowl – that is to say, remove all the cake inside the bowl. This accomplishes a couple of things. First (and most obviously), it cleans the bowl and provides a refurbished chamber for future smoking. Second, when the old cake is removed, I can inspect the interior walls of the bowl and determine if there is damage or not. Everything looked good inside the bowl. 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. This worked well. Similar to the stem, I then cleaned the insides of the stummel with both pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in 99% lemon-infused isopropyl alcohol. The pipe turned out to be a bit dirtier than I expected.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 any remaining oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton.To tidy up the briar, I also wiped down the outside with some oil soap on cotton rounds (and a toothbrush). This does a good job of cleaning any latent dirt on the surface of the briar. The last step of the cleaning process is to scour the inside of the stummel with some soap and tube brushes. This is the culmination of a lot of work in getting the pipe clean.In order to lessen the nicks on the rim, I ‘topped’ the pipe – that is to say, I gently and evenly sanded the rim on a piece of 220-grit sandpaper. This effectively minimizes the damage, without altering the look of the pipe.I used all nine micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) on the outside of the stummel to finish it off. This sanding minimizes flaws in the briar and provides a beautiful smoothness to the wood. I rubbed some Before & After Restoration Balm into the briar and let it sit for 20 minutes or so. The balm moisturizes the wood and gives a beautiful depth to the briar. I then buffed it with a microfibre cloth. For the final step, I took the pipe to my bench buffer and carefully polished it – first with a white diamond compound, then with three coats of carnauba wax. This procedure makes the pipe look its best – the stummel sings and stem glows.This Portland Canadian is a very handsome pipe and will provide many years of smoking pleasure. I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe as much I as I did restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 6 in. (153 mm); height 1⅞ in. (48 mm); bowl diameter 1⅓ in. (33 mm); chamber diameter ⅔ in. (17 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅜ oz. (40 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.

Restoring and Repairing a Tinsky American Sandblast Dublin Reg No C 486/*S 5

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by Steve Laug

Just before the Postal Strike here in Canada I received an email from Baker regarding a Tinsky American Smoking Pipe that he had purchased that needed some attention. He sent me a link in the email to a series of photos showing the issues with the pipe.

Hey Steve…

I got an American Smoking Pipe bent Dublin from the 80’s several months ago and just noticed a big crack opening up in the bottom of the bowl….

This pipe also has a dry, desiccated look and feel to it — almost like a piece of driftwood. What do you think? Is this something you can help with? I’m not in a rush but it’s too good a pipe to let fade away.

Best regards, Baker

I have included the photos that Baker sent me below. It truly is a dry looking sandblast pipe with some issues of cracks and flaws in the briar. The first photo gives a profile of the pipe.He also took photos of the rim top and bowl. You can see from the photos that the bowl has a moderate cake. It does not appear that there are cracks on the inside of the bowl in the photos. There is some darkening around the inner edge. The rim top has some beautiful and rich grain. He took several photos of the crack in the bowl radiating from a flaw in the briar. It is on the front of the heel. There was also a large flaw on the lower front of the bowl. He included a photo of that as well.He also included a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It reads American in an oval [over] REG. NO. [over] C 486/*S 5. It is clear and readable. I have collected and smoked Mark Tinsky’s pipes for over 30 years now and thoroughly enjoy them. I cannot speak highly enough about the quality and craftsmanship of his pipes. I have pipes made by Mark and by Curt Rollar in my collection and both are great smokers and pipes that reach for regularly in my choice of pipes. I turned to his website for a quick summary of the history of the brand (http://www.amsmoke.com/Index%20Folder/PipeHist.html). I quote from the site as it is a short, concise history.

The American Smoking Pipe Co. was formed in 1978 by Mark Tinsky and Curt Rollar. Both started making pipes for Jack Weinberger (JHW Pipes) while in high school and throughout college. Determined to blaze their own path, they formed their own company- its goal to create unique pipes, lightweight and comfortable, where attention to detail was the rule not the exception. Exulting in their new freedom, they carved out new shapes that were balanced between the radical freehand era of the 70’s and the board pipe look of other conservative companies. Hungry for recognition, they stormed the Eastern and Southern shops looking for markets to sell their pipes. Many hidebound retailers refused to try something new, preferring to sell, well, what has always sold before. However, their pipes did take root in many shops and the business thrived.

They continued expanding their pipe making capabilities, adding employees to help finish the pipes. In 1990, over a disagreement over how much to expand, Curt Rollar left the company. This put a break on expansion and coupled with a U.S. recession and rising anti-smoking fervour served to limit production to supplying existing retailers, thus ending a decade of growth. With pipes sales in decline, we turned to pipe repair as a way to supplement revenues. Finding that we liked fixing things, American concentrated on pipe repair. While working hard at repair and manufacture American is ready once again to expand its markets through its existing network of shops serviced by pipe repair.

The pipe I am working on is stamped American in an oval with a Reg. No. [over] C 486/*S 5 as noted above. The stamp tells me that the pipe was made in April of 1986. The S stamp could signify that the pipe is a sandblast but I am not sure. The 5 is the size of the pipe.

We chatted and he prepared to send the pipe to me. THEN THE CANADA POSTAL STRIKE HAPPENED. I had an idea of shipping it to a mailbox in the US and then I could get it from there rather than wait for the strike to end. Baker shipped it and it arrived quite quickly. Sadly, I was ill as was Kenneth so we were not able to head south to pick up the pipe. Kenneth picked it up and dropped it off Friday.

I took photos of the pipe before I started my work on it. It was dry and desiccated on the outside as Baker noted. There was a moderate cake in the bowl and some darkening on the rim edge. The crack and flaws are very visible in the photos. The blast seemed almost worn and tired. The variegated brown acrylic stem looked good with a few tooth marks and chatter on both the top and underside of the pipe. Have a look. I took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show the condition of both. The rim top is smooth and has some beautiful birdseye grain. You can see the debris in the bowl and darkening on the inner edge. I also took photos of the acrylic stem showing the tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took a photo of the bowl with the stem removed to give a sense of the proportion and appearance of the pipe without the stem.I took some photos of the crack and flaws in the bowl. The photos show the one in the heel and on the front of the bowl. Now it was time to start working on the pipe itself. The bowl was slightly conical so I reamed it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife taking it back to bare briar. I sanded the bowl walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The bowl was significantly cleaner.I used a brass bristle wire brush to knock of the debris on the briar of the sandblast. Once I did that I decided to address the crack and fills in the heel of the bowl. I used my lens and light to magnify the crack and drill a small microdrill hole at each end of it with my Dremel.I filled in the drill holes in the briar and the track of the crack with clear CA glue. I used a dental spatula to press briar dust into the superglue over the crack and the drill holes. At the same time, I repaired the flaw on the front of the bowl. I went over the repaired areas with a brass bristle wire brush to knock off the excess glue and briar dust. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I scrubbed the smooth rim top and the sandblast walls with the toothbrush. I rinsed it off with warm running water and dried it with a soft towel. It looked much better and the rim top looked clean. The grain under the sandblast stood out clearly. I cleaned out the internals of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to remove the buildup tars and oils. It smelled significantly better.I sanded the smooth rim top and edge with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I was able to remove the darkening and really begin to see the grain.I polished the rim top with 1500-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with each pad and wiping it down with a damp cloth between pads. It took on a rich shine. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and a shoe brush to get it in the grooves. It works to clean, restore and preserve the briar. I let it do its magic for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The pipe looks incredibly good at this point in the process. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I filled in the deep marks in the acrylic stem with black rubberized CA glue. Once it hardened I flattened the repairs out with a small file. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them into the rest of the acrylic stem and started the polishing them with 600 wet dry sandpaper. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris and dust. The stem looked very good.I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine and buffed it off with a cotton cloth. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Oil to preserve and protect the stem. This American Reg. No. C 486/*S 5 Sandblast Dublin is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The brown stains really highlight the grain and 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 American Mark Tinsky Dublin 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 ½ inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 52 grams / 1.83 ounces. I will be packing this up and sending it back to Baker this week. I am looking forward to hearing what he thinks of it. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. 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.

Repairing and Restoring the last of the Six pipes – a Damaged Plateau Rim Top on a Knute of Denmark Freehand

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by Steve Laug

In November I received an email from Mario about working on some of his Dad’s pipes. Here is what he wrote to me.

I am desperately seeking help restoring and repairing some of my dad’s smoking pipes. I have tried reaching out to the only two known pipe repair establishments I could find in the entire country but one is not currently taking repair orders and the other said she didn’t want to try to repair these pipes without having even seen them. Would you be willing to take on the repairs or can you recommend anyone? Thank you much!!!—Mario

I wrote him back and asked him to send me photos of the pipes. He sent some single photos of the meerschaum bowl and stem, several of the leather clad Canadian and the photo of the rack and six pipes shown below. I looked through the photos and this is what I saw. There were two leather clad pipes a Canadian and a Pot. Both of them were cracked on the shanks and had been self-repaired with wire to hold the cracked shank together. The leather cladding was torn and the stitching was rotten and broken around the bowl. To me they were both unrepairable. There was a lovely older Meerschaum figural with a horn stem that needed a good cleaning and repairs to the horn stem. There were two Knute Freehand pipes with original stems that were dirty but fixable. The plateau on the smooth one had a large chunk of briar missing. There was a Wilshire Dublin with a chewed and misfit stem. Finally, there was a billiard that had been restemmed with a fancy GBD saddle stem on it. They were a messy lot but I told him to send them on to me. They arrived yesterday and the condition of the pipes in the photos was confirmed. They were a mess and needed much work. I have included Mario’s group photo below to show the lot. This afternoon I decided to start working on the final of the six pipes from Mario – a Knute of Denmark smooth freehand. It had a plateau rim top and shank end. The bowl had a thick cake on the walls and a heavy lava coat in the plateau rim top. There was a missing chunk of briar or perhaps a fill that had come loose in the plateau finish on the right side running from the inner edge almost to the outer edge. The finish was dirty and had grime ground into the sides of the bowl. The stamping on the underside read Knute [over] of Denmark. There was a hairline crack on the underside of the shank extending from the shank end over the K in the Knute stamp. It had a fancy turned, vulcanite saddle stem that had lots of tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. There was a split on the top side of the stem and on the button. I took photos of the pipe when I unpacked it to examine it. I have included those below. I took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show the condition of both. You can see the debris in the bowl and lava in the plateau surface of the rim top. The missing chunk on the right topside of the bowl is also very visible with debris and lava in the hole. I also took photos of the heavily oxidized and calcified stem showing the heavy tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. There was also a hairline crack in the topside of the stem from the button edge forward.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took a photo of the bowl with the stem removed to give a sense of the proportion and appearance of the pipe without the stem.Before I started my work on the pipe I wanted to remind myself of the provenance of the pipe. I remembered that it was linked to Karl Erik as I have worked on quite a few Knute Freehands. I wanted to know where this pipe fit into the Karl Erik lines so I turned to the first of two sites that I always check to gather information on a brand.  I turned to the first source of information site – Pipephil’s (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-k3.html) got a quick overview on the brand once again connecting it to Karl Erik. I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Erik). Pipedia had this great picture of Karl Erik Ottendahl and I decided to include it here as a reminder of the artisan who first carved and released this pipe. Reminded of the tie to Karl Erik, I knew a bit about the pipe at hand. I turned to address the pipe itself. There it is clearly identified and linked to Karl Erik Ottendahl. It is designated as a second and frequently having rustication. The interesting thing is that his pipe does not look like a second at all and I wonder if the Knute is a line of Karl Erik’s rather than a second. Who knows? This one is a beautifully grained smooth Freehand pipe. Now it was time to work on the pipe and bring it back to life. The large pit in the plateau rim top and the crack in the shank needed to be repaired and the bowl brought back to life.

I started my work on the pipe by starting the process of cleaning the pipe. I carefully reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe Reamer remove from the bowl leaving bare briar. I cleaned up the remnants of cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife and removed the remaining debris. I sanded the bowl walls smooth with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. I scraped the lava coat off the rim top – both the rusticated portion and the smooth ring of the meerschaum bowl top with the Savinelli Pipe Knife and removed all of it. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap. I scrubbed the rim top with a brass bristle wire brush to clean off the lava and debris in the plateau. I rinsed it off with warm running water and dried it with a soft towel. It looked much better and the rim top looked clean. The grain stood out clearly. I cleaned out the deep pit in the rim top. It appeared that the hole was original a fill that had fallen out. I used qtips and alcohol to clean out the grime in the hole in the plateau.I rebuilt the missing fill with clear CA glue and briar dust. Once it was in place I used a brass bristle wire brush to give it patterns like the rest of the rim top.I sanded out the inner edge of the bowl with a dowel and 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the repair on the edge and round out the edge. I went over it again with the brass bristle brush and blew off the dust. It was looking quite good.I used a black stain pen to fill in the valleys in the plateau on the rim top and on the shank end. The black will give depth to the finish once it is sanded and polished.I repaired the hairline crack in the shank underside with clear CA glue and held it closed until the repair cured. Once it hardened it was ready to be sanded. I carefully sanded it around the stamping so as not to damage it.I sanded the smooth briar and the high spots on the plateau with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the briar down between each sanding pad. The briar took on a rich shine and the grain stood out in all its glory. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped it down the bowl after each sanding pad. Some of the photos of the sanding are a bit out of focus but overall the bowl took on a shine.
 I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the nooks and crannies in the plateau on the rim top and the shank end with a horsehair shoe brush. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out. I mixed a bowl coating with activated charcoal powder and sour cream. I put a pipe cleaner in the shank and applied the mixture to the walls of the bowl with a folded pipe cleaner. I wanted to protect the bowl repair while Mario enjoyed smoking it again. I set it aside to cure overnight. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I scrubbed it down with Soft Scrub to deal with the oxidation and calcification on the stem surface. It looked much better once scrubbed and on the centre of the stem it had a Crown K logo that was often on Knute of Denmark pipes.I filled in the deep bite marks on the top and underside of the stem with black CA glue. It is strengthened with charcoal powder and rubber. I let the glue cure and flattened the repairs with a small needle file. I reshaped the button and it began to take shape and look much better. I paused the process and touched up the Crown K on the stem top with Rub’n Buff Antique Gold. I worked it into the stamp on the stem and then rubbed it off with a soft cloth. I followed that by wiping the stem down with an Obsidian Oil cloth. The stem looked better and the stamping was clear and readable.I sanded the repairs with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the stem surface and also remove more of the oxidation in the stem surface.I sanded the stem to smooth it out with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with an Obsidian Oil cloth. It was beginning to look very good.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I gave it another rub down with Obsidian Oil and let it dry. I put the stem back on the Knute of Denmark Smooth Freehand Sitter pipe and took the pipe to the buffer. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish the briar and the vulcanite. Blue Diamond does a great job on the smaller scratches that remain in the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem several coats of carnauba wax and 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 really nicely with a great contrasting stain look to the briar. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. This is a beautiful Karl Eric Made Knute of Denmark Freehand – the fancy turned stem and plateau rim top and shank end give the pipe a great look. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches wide x 1 7/8 inches long, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.22 ounces /63 grams. This is the final pipe of 6 pipes that am restoring for Mario from his Dad’s collection. I look forward to hearing what he thinks of this newly restored pipe. Later this week I will pack them up and send them home to him. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it!