Tag Archives: Tinder Box pipes

Cleaning up a Lightly Smoked Algerian Briar Tinder Box Pot shaped pipe

Blog by Steve Laug

On a recent trip that Irene and I took with Jeff and his wife to the Oregon Coast we managed to do some pipe hunting. We found a few interesting pipes. I was in the mood today to work on a couple of them as a break from the restorations I am doing for others. The first of these is a pipe marked Tinderbox on the left side of the shank and Algerian Briar on the right side of the shank. It is a pot shaped piece with some great grain around the bowl – lots of birdseye. The bowl was not even broken in. At first glance we thought it was unsmoked but in looking at it at home I think it may have been smoked at least once as there is some darkening around the top 1/3 of the bowl. The rest of the bowl is pristine. The natural finish is dirty from sitting around but otherwise quite nice. The stem has some tooth chatter and oxidation but is otherwise quite clean. I took this one home as it did not need a lot of work to bring it back to life. I took photos of the pipe before starting my cleanup work. I took close up photos of the rim top and bowl to show how clean it was. There is some nice cross grain on the rim top. I also took photos of the stem to show their condition. You can see the oxidation and tooth chatter on it but otherwise it is a pretty straight forward cleanup.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. You can see them below and they read as noted above. I also noticed that the stem was stamped on the underside and read France.I have seen the France stamp on vulcanite before and I believe it is not the provenance of the pipe as a whole but of the rubber stem. In this case I am pretty sure that the pipe was made for Tinder Box by an English pipe maker as the shape matches the Pot shapes of several of the English makers. I looked up Tinder Box on Pipedia to see if I could get a lead. I have included the link to that article (https://pipedia.org/wiki/The_Tinder_Box). I quote in full:

The Tinder Box was the chain of tobacco stores started by Edward Kolpin, Sr., who carved Ed’s Hand Made pipes. The store, eventually sold to a Canadian conglomerate, eventually reached 200 retail outlets by 2007, and in the 40 years it operated on a large scale a great number of pipes were made for The Tinder Box by well respected makers. A few include the Tinder Box Unique, made by Charatan, Christmas Pipes by Ascorti, and the Tinder Box Noble and Exotica, made by Shalom Pipe Factory, Mauro Armellini did make the Verona and Napoli lines.

With that information and really not being much clearer on the maker of the pipe I turned to work on the pipe itself. I sanded out the darkened area of the bowl with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. I took off much of the darkening as it was only on the surface of the briar. I ran a pipe cleaner and a cotton swab and alcohol through the shank and it came out spotless. The pipe was very clean.I polished the bowl and rim top with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped down the bowl after each sanding pad to remove the sanding debris. The natural finish on the bowl began to have a rich shine. I was finished polishing the bowl so it was time to rub the briar down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips and let it sit for about 10 minutes. I buffed it off with a cotton cloth. You can see how well the product works to clean and enliven the briar and as a bonus it protects it as well. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. While I was with Jeff in Oregon I picked up some of the Soft Scrub that he has found very useful in removing oxidation and calcification. I rubbed down the stem with it on a cotton pad. You can see the results on the pads in the photo below.I sanded out the tooth chatter and the remaining oxidation with 220 grit sandpaper and started the polishing with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I rubbed down the stem with Denicare Mouthpiece Polish and a cotton pad to remove the remnants of oxidation and to blend in the sanding. The stem shows promise at this point in the process. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with a cotton pad to remove the sanding debris. I finished polishing the stem with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both fine and extra fine. I finished by wiping it down with Briarville’s No Oxy Oil and buffing it to a shine. Once again I am my favourite part of the restoration when all the pieces are put back together. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I hand buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. It is fun to see what the polished bowl and stem look like in comparison to what it looked like before I started. This Tinder Box Algerian Briar Pot is nice looking and feels great in my hand. The pipe is another light weight that could be clenched and smoked while doing other things as it is very well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. This is the first of the restorations of the pipes we picked up along the Oregon Coast. It will be going on the rebornpipes store shortly. If you are interested in adding this older Algerian Briar pipe to your collection let me know. Lots more to do in this lot! Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog.

Restoring a Second set of Twins – English Made Tinder Box Liverpools

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In a recent pipe hunt I picked up this second set of twin pipes. They came from the same collection as the pair of Royal Coachman bent billiards. These are stamped The Tinder Box over Meerschaum Lined on the left side of the shank and Imported Briar on the right side of the shank. I stated in the title that they are English-made and I came to that conclusion by the shape, size, staining and overall look of the pipe. Though I cannot definitively prove that, they are very similar to an older Orlik pipe of the same shape that I repaired and restored. The staining and finish were in very good shape. There were relatively few dents and dings in the bowl and shank though both were very grimy and greasy. The rims were clean other than the slight tar build up on the meer portion. The briar outer rim was in great shape with no nicks of dents. The stems were oxidized and had calcium build up all over the surface. There were also sticky places on the stem that looked like the residue from a sales label. Since they did not have a label when I bought them I am thinking this maybe the original labels on the pipe stems. Inside the bowl was slightly caked and had tobacco residue stuck to the walls. The inside of the shank and stem were very dirty with tarry buildup. The slot on both mouthpieces had narrowed with the tars.
The meerschaum lining on the two was in great shape except for the bottom of the bowl. The lining on the bowl of the top pipe above and below shows the break through on the lining. It was worn all the way through to the briar. The size of the hole was about the size and shape of a pencil. The lining on the bottom pipe was not as worn but was significantly below the airway and showed damage. It was very thin if my measurements were correct. Both of these bowls would need to be addressed in a restoration.
I cleaned out the inside of the bowl and the shank to prepare for patching the bottom of each bowl. I used cotton swabs, isopropyl alcohol and pipe cleaners to remove the tars and grime from the inside of both. I also used a fine sanding sponge to remove the tars from the top of the rim and the meer lining. All of this was done to prepare for the repairs I was planning for the inside of the bowl.
I scrubbed the outside of the bowl and shank with Murphy’s Oil Soap on cotton pads to remove the grime and sticky substances on them both. I also rubbed down the stem with the oil soap.
I mixed a small batch of Plaster of Paris in a plastic bowl that I use for mixing and cleaning pipes. I generally pour in the dry powder and then use an ear syringe to add water slowly to the mix to get the right consistency for a patch. I learned the hard way to do this. I used to pour in the powder and then pour in water. I had to keep adding back and forth to get the mix right and always ended up with excess material. This way I can actually mix it in very minute batches, and add water as needed to keep it workable.
I inserted a pipe cleaner into the airway and into the bottom of the bowl to keep the airway from clogging with the mixture. I then pressed the mixture into the bottom of each bowl with the spoon end of a pipe nail and a dental pick. The trick is to push into the bottom and use the dental pick to push it into the holes. Once it is tightly packed by the pick I use the spoon to smooth it out on the walls of the bowl and the flat head to press the bottom of the bowl. In this case the bowl was somewhat conical so I used the spoon the entire time.
I cleaned up the bowl and smoothed out the surface of the repair with my finger. I wet the end of it with water and then rubbed it against the walls and bottom. I do this to knock down the ridges left behind by the spoon. I cannot get it absolutely smooth but it is smooth enough that after a few smokes it matches the surface of the meer lining. In the photo below the top pipe shows that it took the largest amount of patching. It was the bowl that was worn through at the bottom. The crack at the airway is actually not a crack but a pipe cleaner end pushed into the bowl. The bottom bowl took far less of the mixture to patch. I set them aside to cure overnight. The last photo of the bowls shown below shows the bowls after the plaster had cured. They were hard and slightly rough to the touch. I wet my finger again and rubbed down the ridges on the sides and bottom of the bowl until the surface was smoother. I sanded the patch with 220 grit sandpaper and with a medium and fine grit sanding sponge. I wiped down the inside of the bowl with a wet cotton swab to remove the dust from the sanding.
I sanded the stems with 220 grit sandpaper and then a medium and a fine grit sanding sponge. I buffed the stems with red Tripoli and then took them back to the work table. I sanded them both with my usual micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded with 1500-2400 grit pads and then dry sanded with 3200-12,000 grit pads. I had to stop several times and go back to the sandpaper and sponges to get the deep oxidation. I repeated the sanding with the micromesh pads. I wiped the stems down with Obsidian Oil. When it had dried I buffed the stems and bowls with White Diamond and then gave the pipes a buff with carnauba wax. I finished by buffing with a soft flannel buffing pad to polish. The photos below show the finished pipe. I will let them cure for a few days longer before loading them and giving them a first smoke. I have found that as the plaster heats when smoking it becomes harder and even more cured. It makes a durable and lasting repair.