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Restoring a KB&B Kaywoodie Drinkless English Made 95B Pot from Bob Kerr’s Estate

Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen from Bob Kerr’s Estate is a KB&B Drinkless Kaywoodie English Made Pot with an unmarked stem. It is the last of Bob’s English made Kaywoodies. (Bob’s photo is to the left). If you have not “met” the man and would like to read a bit of the history of the pipeman, his daughter has written a great tribute that is worth a read. Because I have included it in most of the restorations of the estate to date I thought that I would leave it out this time. Check out some of the recent Dunhill restoration blogs (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/01/restoring-the-last-of-bob-kerrs-dunhills-a-1962-dunhill-bruyere-656-f-t-bent-billiard/).

This Pot is stamped DRY in a KBB style cloverleaf followed by Drinkless [over] Kaywoodie [over] Made in England on the left side of the shank. On the right side it is stamped with the number 95B. The DRY stamp in the cloverleaf was new to me. The tapered stem is missing the typical white inlaid Kaywoodie Cloverleaf logo. The tenon is threaded and has been modified with the removal of the stinger. The stem is oxidized, calcified and has light tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. The exterior of the bowl is grimy and dirty. There is a thick cake and lava overflow on the rim top. It is thick enough that it is hard to know if there is any damage on top and edges. Jeff took photos of the pipe to show its general condition before he did his cleanup. The exterior of the pipe was very dirty – grime and grit ground in from years of use and sitting. The rim top was covered with a coat of thick lava that overflowed the bowl. There was also some darkening on the rim top and inner edge of the bowl. The bowl itself had a thick cake with flecks of tobacco stuck in the cake on the sides. Jeff took photos of the sides and the heel of the bowl to give a better feel for the condition of the bark around the bowl.The next photos show the stamping on the sides of the shank and it is very readable. It reads as noted above.The stem was dirty and extremely oxidized. The stem appeared to be a replacement as it is missing the Kaywoodie logo and the metal stinger/tenon has been modified. I have learned that Bob was a chewer and his stems seemed to have been replaced often. This one at least fit well to the shank and did not yet have the chew marks that were a norm on Bob’s pipes.Before doing cleanup work on the pipe I decided to do some research on the pipe. I looked first on the Pipephil website and found some information on the white club inlay on the left side of the tapered stem. (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-kaywoodie.html). Since I did not have the original stem the information there was less helpful.

I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kaywoodie) and read the section on the rough outline on the history of the brand that links the brand with the English section of the company. I quote:

Again, demand for KBB pipes and especially Kaywoodie prompted another move for both the manufacturing facilities and the corporate offices. In 1930 the corporate office moved into the Empire State Building on Fifth Avenue in New York. By 1935, the manufacturing operations moved from Union City to 6400 Broadway in West New York, New Jersey which, at the time, was touted as the largest pipe making facility in the world. At the height of production, there were 500 employees producing up to 10,000 pipes per day.

The corporate offices were relocated in 1936 to the International Building, Rockefeller Center, 630 Fifth Avenue, New York. The invitation to visit the new office reads, “Kaywoodie is now on display at the world’s most famous address – Rockefeller Center. Here Kaywoodie takes its place among the leaders of industry and commerce.” The move to Rockefeller Center coincided with The Kaywoodie Company’s emergence as a subsidiary of KBB. All of the pipes manufactured by KBB including the Yello-Bole line were also on display here. By 1938 Kaywoodie had opened an office in London to meet worldwide demand. Kaywoodie of London was jointly owned with another famous pipemaker, Comoy’s of London.

From there I turned to a link on the article to a section called Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Collector%27s_Guide_to_Kaywoodie_Pipes#NOTES_ON_.22OTHER.E2.80.9D_KAYWOODIE_PIPES).

English Kaywoodies. All of the catalogs reviewed in this research contained the following copyright notification: Printed in U.S.A., Kaufmann Bros. and Bondy, Inc., New York and London. Kaywoodie Pipe cases and smoker’s accessories were also marked with “New York and London”. The catalogs, however, do not present any information concerning Kaywoodie’s London operations, or how the English Kaywoodies might have differed from those manufactured and marketed in the U.S. Lowndes notes that he has several English Kaywoodies acquired in Vaduz and Zurich. English Kaywoodies are now made by Oppenheimer pipes. Lowndes notes that English Kaywoodies with the “screw-in bit” come in Ruby Grain, Custom Grain, Standard, and Relief Grain grades. The traditional push-bit models come in Continental Plain and Relief, London Made, Minaret, Air-way Polished No. 707, and Lightweight grades. Prices in 1985 ranged from 9.50 (pounds) to 26.00 (pounds). Lowndes notes that the Super Star was a special edition English Kaywoodie made of finest briar with a handmade silver band. Lowndes has two: one from Zurich with a large white-outlined logo, and beautifully cased; and one in walnut finish with the black-in-white logo. A recent catalog shows the Super Star without a band and the ordinary small white logo. A 1985 letter from Oppenheimer states that the black-in-white logo has been discontinued and only the regular white logo is now used.

I turned to Pipedia’s Kaywoodie Shape Number chart to check out the number 95B that is stamped on the shank side (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kaywoodie_Shape_Numbers). The chart gives the shape information and the time frame in which the shape was made. I did a screen capture of the shape number information and have included it below.From the above information I now knew that the pipe in hand was a Medium sized Pot with a long saddle stem originally. Somewhere in its life that stem disappeared and was replaced by a long taper stem. The pipe was made between 1940-1972 in London by Oppenheimer. It had screw-in bit.

With over 125 pipes to clean from Bob’s estate I took a batch of them to the states with me when I visited and left them with Jeff so he could help me out. Jeff cleaned the pipes with his usual penchant for thoroughness that I really appreciate. Once he finished he shipped them back to me. This one was a real mess and I did not know what to expect when I unwrapped it from his box. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish looks very good with good looking grain around the bowl and shank. Jeff scrubbed it with Soft Scrub and soaked it in Before & After Deoxidizer to remove the oxidation on the rubber. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour it looked a lot better. I took photos 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 cleaned bowl and rim top looked like. The rim top shows damage and charring on the inner edge of the bowl. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the light tooth marks and the remaining oxidation on the stem surface.I took photos of the stamping on both sides of the shank and it is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above. The new stamp to me is the KBB style Cloverleaf stamp with the word DRY stamped in the center of the leaf pattern.I unscrewed the stem for the shank and took a photo of the bowl and stem to give a picture of what it looked like. You can see the clipped off stinger that has been modified to leave behind a threaded tenon.Now, on to my part of the restoration of this KBB English Made Pot. I decided to start by dealing with the damage to the rim top and the inner edge of the bowl. I topped the bowl on a board with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damage to the bowl. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage to the inner edge of the rim. I worked on the inner bevel to clean up the damage and the darkening. I moved on to deal with the gouges in the bowl on the right side. I fill them in with clear super glue. When the repairs had cured I sanded them smooth with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth them out.I stained the repaired and sanded areas with a blend of Cherry, Maple and Walnut stain pens to blend them into the surrounding briar. Once the stain cured I polished the briar to further blend it into the bowl. I polished the bowl and rim top with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping the briar down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bark on the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth and shoe brush to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the surface of the stem with the flame of a lighter. The heat lifted the majority of the dents in the stem surface. There was one tooth mark on the underside that was just ahead of the button.There was one deep tooth mark on the underside of the stem next to the button. I filled it in with clear super glue. Once the repair cured I used a needle file to flatten the repair and sharpen the edge of the button. I sanded them out with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing them with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished the vulcanite 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. This KB&B Kaywoodie Drinkless 95B Pot, English made pipe from Bob Kerr’s estate turned out to be another great looking pipe. The Walnut finish on the pipe is in excellent condition and works well with the polished vulcanite taper stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and 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 KB&B Kaywoodie 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 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. If you are interested in carrying on Bob’s legacy with this pipe send me a message or an email. I have more to work on of various brands. Perhaps one of those will catch your attention. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. This is an interesting estate to bring back to life.

Breathing Life into a Parker Super Bruyere793 Billiard from Bob Kerr’s Estate

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have only 11 more of Bob’s pipes to finish before I have completed the restoration of his estate so I am continuing to work on them. The next one from Bob Kerr’s Estate is Parker Super Bruyere billiard. It is a nice looking Billiard pipe with nice grain. (Bob’s photo is to the left). If you have not “met” the man and would like to read a bit of the history of the pipeman, his daughter has written a great tribute that is worth a read. Because I have included it in most of the restorations of the estate to date I thought that I would leave it out this time. Check out some of the recent Dunhill restoration blogs that include the biographical notes about Bob. Here is a link to one of them (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/01/restoring-the-last-of-bob-kerrs-dunhills-a-1962-dunhill-bruyere-656-f-t-bent-billiard/).

The Parker Super Bruyere Billiard has a taper vulcanite stem. It is a smooth finished bowl and shank that has a lot of dust and debris ground into the finish of the briar. The pipe is stamped on both sides of the shank. On the left it is stamped with the shape number793 followed by Parker over Super in a Diamond over Bruyere. On the right it is stamped with the number 2 in a circle followed by Made in London England. There was a thick cake in the bowl and lava overflow on the rim top. There was tobacco debris stuck on the bottom and sides of the bowl. The tapered vulcanite stem was calcified, oxidized and had tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button on both sides. It had the Parker Diamond P stamp on the topside of the stem. Jeff took photos of the pipe to show its general condition before he did his cleanup. As I mentioned above the exterior of the pipe was very dirty – grime and grit ground in from years of use and sitting. The rim top was covered with a coat of thick lava that overflowed from the thick cake in the bowl. It was hard to know what the rim edges looked like because of the lava. Jeff took photos of the sides and the heel of the bowl to give a better feel for the condition of the briar around the bowl. The next photos show the stamping on both sides of the shank. The stamping is clear and readable as noted above. There is also a stamped Diamond P on the top of the tapered stem. The stem was dirty, calcified and oxidized with tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside of the stem at the button. I have worked on quite a few Parkers over time and I have seen them stamped like the one I have however, there as a superscript after the D in England. I turned to Pipedia to see what I could find out a Super Bruyere without a date code(http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-parker.html). I have included a screen capture of the section showing a similarly stamped pipe. With over 125 pipes to clean from Bob’s estate I took a batch of them to the states with me when I visited and left them with Jeff so he could help me out. Jeff cleaned the pipes with his usual penchant for thoroughness that I really appreciate. Once he finished he shipped them back to me. Bob’s pipes were generally real mess and I did not know what to expect when I unwrapped it from his box. I was surprised to see how well it turned out. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish looks very good with good looking grain around the bowl and shank. Jeff scrubbed it with Soft Scrub and soaked it in Before & After Deoxidizer to remove the oxidation on the rubber. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour it looked a lot better. I took photos before I started my part of the work. I took some close up photos of the rim top and the stem surface. I wanted to show what cleaned bowl and rim top looked like. The rim top had some darkening but the inner and outer edges of the bowl were in excellent condition. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the tooth marks and the remaining oxidation on the stem surface. I took photos of the stamping on both sides of the shank. The stamping on both the left and right side are clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem for the shank and took a photo of the bowl and stem to give a picture of what it looked like. The oxidation is very visible.I decided to start my part of the restoration work on this pipe by addressing the damage to the rim top and inner edge first. I topped the bowl on a piece of 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board to smooth out the damage. I used a folded piece of 220 sandpaper to address the damage on the inner edge and bring the bowl back to round. There was a deep gouge on the left side of the heel of the bowl that I dealt with next. I filled it in with clear superglue and once it had cured sanded it smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth between each sanding pad. I paused the polishing for a moment and stained the rim top with a Maple and an Oak stain pen to blend the rim top colour into the bowl and shank colour. I went back to polishing the bowl with 6000-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads. The last three pads helped to blend in the restained areas of the repairs. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth and shoe brush to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I painted the stem surface with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the dents in the surface of the vulcanite. I was able to lift most of them out. What remained were some light marks in the surface. I scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub and cotton pads to remove the remaining oxidation. It took a bit of elbow grease but I was able to remove it all. I sanded out the remaining tooth marks on both sides with 220 grit sandpaper. I started the polishing of the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I touched up the Diamond P stamp on the top of the taper stem with Liquid Paper. I worked it into the stamping with a tooth pick. I scraped off the excess with the tooth pick and the finished stamp looked much better. I polished the vulcanite 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. This nice looking Parker Super Bruyere 793 Billiard from Bob Kerr’s estate cleaned up really well and looks very good. The mixed stain brown finish on the pipe is in great condition and works well with the polished vulcanite taper stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. 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 Parker Super Bruyere feels great in the hand and I think it will feel great as it heats up with a good tobacco. 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 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. If you are interested in carrying on Bob’s legacy with this pipe send me a message or an email. I have more to work on of various brands. Perhaps one of those will catch your attention. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. This is an interesting estate to bring back to life.

A New Life for the second BBB a Liverpool Pipe from Bob Kerr’s Estate

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Blog by Steve Laug

I have only 12 more of Bob’s pipes to finish before I have completed the restoration of his estate so I am continuing to work on them. The next one from Bob Kerr’s Estate is second of two BBB pipes in his collection. It is a nice looking Liverpool shaped pipe which is a part of the Canadian shape family. (Bob’s photo is to the left). If you have not “met” the man and would like to read a bit of the history of the pipeman, his daughter has written a great tribute that is worth a read. Because I have included it in most of the restorations of the estate to date I thought that I would leave it out this time. Check out some of the recent Dunhill restoration blogs that include the biographical notes about Bob. Here is a link to one of them (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/01/restoring-the-last-of-bob-kerrs-dunhills-a-1962-dunhill-bruyere-656-f-t-bent-billiard/).

The BBB Liverpool has a taper vulcanite stem. It is a smooth finished bowl and shank that has a lot of dust and debris ground into the finish of the briar. It no longer has any remnants of the original BBB stamp on either side of the shank. It has no shape number or other stamping left on the right side. There was a thick cake in the bowl and lava overflow on the rim top. There was tobacco debris stuck on the bottom and sides of the bowl. The tapered vulcanite stem was calcified, oxidized and had tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button on both sides. It had the BBB Diamond Brass inlay on the topside of the stem. Jeff took photos of the pipe to show its general condition before he did his cleanup. To me the shape was certainly part of the Canadian pipe family. It is a round, long shank pipe with a taper stem which is defined as a Liverpool in the chart below.As I mentioned above the exterior of the pipe was very dirty – grime and grit ground in from years of use and sitting. The rim top was covered with a coat of thick lava that overflowed from the thick cake in the bowl. It was hard to know what the rim edges looked like because of the lava. Jeff took photos of the sides and the heel of the bowl to give a better feel for the condition of the briar around the bowl. The next photo shows the inlaid BBB Diamond logo on the topside of the tapered stem. The stem was dirty, calcified and oxidized with tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside of the stem at the button. With over 125 pipes to clean from Bob’s estate I took a batch of them to the states with me when I visited and left them with Jeff so he could help me out. Jeff cleaned the pipes with his usual penchant for thoroughness that I really appreciate. Once he finished he shipped them back to me. Bob’s pipes were generally real mess and I did not know what to expect when I unwrapped it from his box. I was surprised to see how well it turned out. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish looks very good with good looking grain around the bowl and shank. Jeff scrubbed it with Soft Scrub and soaked it in Before & After Deoxidizer to remove the oxidation on the rubber. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour it looked a lot better. I took photos before I started my part of the work. I took some close up photos of the rim top and the stem surface. I wanted to show what cleaned bowl and rim top looked like. The rim top had some darkening but the inner and outer edges of the bowl were in excellent condition. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the tooth marks and the remaining oxidation on the stem surface. I removed the stem for the shank and took a photo of the bowl and stem to give a picture of what it looked like. The oxidation is very visible. I decided to start my part of the restoration work on this pipe by addressing the damage to the rim top and inner edge first. I used a folded piece of 220 sandpaper to address the damage on the inner edge and bring the bowl back to round. I then topped the bowl on a piece of 220 grit sandpaper on a topping board to smooth out the damage. There was a deep gouge on the front of the heel of the bowl that I dealt with next. I filled it in with clear superglue and once it had cured sanded it smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding it with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down with a damp cloth between each sanding pad. I paused the polishing for a moment and stained the rim top with an Oak stain pen to blend the rim top colour into the bowl and shank colour.I went back to polishing the bowl with 6000-12000 grit micromesh sanding pads. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth and shoe brush to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I painted the stem surface with the flame of a Bic lighter to lift the dents in the surface of the vulcanite. I was able to life most of them out. What remained were some light marks in the surface. I sanded out the remaining light tooth marks and dents with 220 grit sandpaper and starting the initial polishing with 400 grit sandpaper. I polished the vulcanite 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. This gorgeous BBB smooth Liverpool from Bob Kerr’s estate cleaned up really well and looks very good. The mixed stain brown finish on the pipe is in great condition and works well with the polished vulcanite taper stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. 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 BBB Liverpool feels great in the hand and I think it will feel great as it heats up with a good tobacco. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. If you are interested in carrying on Bob’s legacy with this pipe send me a message or an email. I have more to work on of various brands. Perhaps one of those will catch your attention. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. This is an interesting estate to bring back to life.

A Difficult To Identify But Simple Restoration Of “Ornsby” Pipe

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Blog by Paresh Deshpande

I had recently completed a challenging restoration of an ORLIK MEERSCHAUM LINED pipe that had broken meerschaum lining. I considered it to be a challenging project because I had never undertaken repairs of a meerschaum as a material and trespassing in to uncharted territories is always challenging. However, thanks to all the detailed and informative write ups on the subject that is available on rebornpipes.com, I was successful in restoring the pipe and making it smoke worthy!!

For my next project, I wanted something simple to work on and after rummaging through the huge pile of pipes awaiting restoration; I selected this interesting but different looking pipe that was in my grandfather’s collection. I say it is different since this pipe does not have a shank but the stem directly fits in to the bowl beneath the vertically placed draught hole on the heel. In addition to the vintage classic pipes, there are quite a few such different looking and unique pipes that I have been fortunate to inherit.

Beneath all the dust and grime, beautiful Bird’s eye grains to the sides and bold cross grains to front and back that extends to nearly half the width of the bowl on the left side can be seen over the stummel. Once the stummel has been cleaned and polished these grains will pop out and look more beautiful. The stummel is sans any stampings while the vulcanite stem with a conical aluminum tenon end has a symbol that is hard to describe. It’s an interlocked OP with a straight line from the base of the letter P. The lack of any Maker’s stamp and COM stamp makes the identification of this pipe very difficult.Lack of Maker’s stampings and COM stamp made research of this pipe very difficult. There was no point visiting rebornpipes.com as I did not have any name to search for. Similarly, visiting pipedia.org would not help as I did not have COM stamp to follow. Finally I turned to pipephil.eu and searched the Logos with a geometrical pattern and Logos with miscellaneous symbols sections. Again I came up with nothing matching the stem logo on the pipe in front of me. As a last resort, I just typed “pictures of unusual tobacco pipes” in to the Google search bar and there before me were a plethora of pictures. As I was scrolling through these images, after a couple of hours, I finally found a picture that was an exact replica of the pipe on my work table. A click on to this image took me to the site smokingmetals.co.uk. Here is the link to the web page; http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=106

From the read I understood that this design was a part of the piper’s eternal quest for a cool and dry smoke. I reproduce a part of the information that should provide the readers with an insight in to the designer of the pipe and the Company that manufactured these pipes.

Invented by Chief Marine Officer, William Edward Ornsby in an attempt to create a cooler smoke and a dry bowl. Marketed by the Ornsby Pipe Company Ltd, Pennywell, Sunderland, Tyne & Wear, England, predominately in the North of England, this pipe is virtually a stem direct to bowl.
The push fit stem/bit can be rotated to clear any shreds of tobacco that may be blocking the airway. A half turn of the stem will cut any trapped leaf in the airway and a quick blow will eject the offending particle. As the centre photo shows, the metal part of the stem goes right through the bowl. The packaging was also unusual in that it was a tube.
The pipe came with two choices of stem, straight or curved and there was a choice of six bowls: Natural, Brown Sandblast, Black Sandblast, Smooth Mahogany Finish, Deep Cut Horizontal Carved or the Deep Cut Vertical Carved.
Overall length 5 3/4 inches (146 m/m)

My thanks to Richard Adamek for the following:
“ORNSBY PIPE COMPANY LIMITED At an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Members of the above-named Company, duly convened, and held at 7 Benton Terrace, Sandyford Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on 27th October 1980, the following Extraordinary Resolution was duly passed:
“That it has been proved to the satisfaction of this Meeting that the Company cannot, by reason of its liabilities, continue its business, and that it is advisable to wind up the same, and accordingly that the Company be wound up voluntarily and that Brian Leslie Wilson, of Wilson Johnson, 7 Benton Terrace, Sandyford Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, be and he is hereby nominated Liquidator for the purposes of the winding-up.”
(803) Brian Dobinson, Director”
Richard also found the patent number… US patent 242261 of 1976

Thus from the above, it is now established that the pipe that I am dealing with is an ORNSBY with a Natural smooth finish and a straight vulcanite stem. The pipe was awarded a US Patent in 1976 and the company was liquidated in 1980. This places the pipe in between the period from 1970s to 1980 making it 40 plus years old!!

Initial Visual Inspection
The pipe has beautiful Bird’s eye and cross grain across the stummel that can be seen through all the dirt and grime from years of use and uncared for storage. The chamber has a thick layer of cake with lava overflow over the rim top surface. The vulcanite stem is heavily oxidized and the aluminum tenon contraption appears to be dull and lackluster. The bite zone is peppered with minor tooth chatter. I think this should be an easy refurbishing project. Here is how the pipe appears as it sits on my work table. The smooth stummel has some beautiful Bird’s eye grain on the sides with cross grains on the front and back of the stummel. At the bottom on either side of the stummel, is a sharply contoured cut that merges and forms a gap between the either sides of the stummel that houses the aluminum tenon end of the stem. The stummel surface is covered in dirt and grime giving the stummel a dull and lackluster appearance. There is not a single fill in the briar and the stummel just oozes out high quality. There are a few dents and dings on either side of the stummel. The gap at the foot of the stummel that houses the aluminum tenon is covered in oils, tars and grime from years of usage and storage. The housing for the tenon needs to be cleaned. The minor dents and dings will be addressed once the stummel is sanded down with a sand paper. A nice cleaning and polishing should highlight the beautiful grain on the briar. A thick layer of cake is seen in the chamber. The rim top surface has a few dings and is covered in thick overflow of lava, dirt, dust and grime. The condition of the inner walls of the chamber and rim top surface will be known once the cake has been taken down to the bare briar. The inner rim condition appears to be good with no burn/ charred surfaces. However, the outer rim edge is damaged most probably due to striking against a hard surface. In spite of the thick cake, the chamber odor is surprisingly not strong and should be addressed once the cake has been taken down to the bare briar and the shank internals have been thoroughly cleaned. The draught hole is in the dead center of the heel of the chamber and is constricted due to accumulation of the thick cake. Only once the stummel has been thoroughly cleaned that I can be sure of my initial appreciation. The dings over the rim surface will be addressed by topping while the damage to the outer rim edge will be taken care of by sanding or, if need be, by creating a bevel. The draught hole needs to be thoroughly cleaned for a full and smooth draw. The tapered vulcanite stem is unique and nothing like I had seen before. The tenon end is a conical aluminum extension and has a horizontal slot that is closed at the bottom, cut across the mid section which opens in to the stem airway. This slot is aligned with the draught hole. For a better understanding of the construction and functioning, shown below are a few pictures which shows the complete set up. The stem is heavily oxidized with minor tooth chatter in the bite zone. The aluminum tenon is stained with dried oils and tars and has a lackluster appearance. Deposits/ accumulation of gunk is seen in the horizontal slot in the conical tenon, clogging the air way. Apart from slight calcium deposition at the edge of the both the buttons, there is no damage to the button per se on either surface and no deep bite marks in the bite zone. I shall clean the stem internals and get rid of the surface oxidation. This internal cleaning will improve the air flow and external cleaning will help in aesthetics of the stem. The minor tooth chatter in the bite zone will be addressed by sanding the area. The Process
I decided to address the stem first for this restoration. There is no fixed routine that I follow during any restoration and I prefer to address first that part which requires maximum repairs or that what requires maximum time. I cleaned the internals of the stem with thin shank brush dipped in liquid dish washing soap and further cleaned it with regular and bristled pipe cleaners and 99.9% isopropyl alcohol. It has been my experience that initial cleaning with shank brush greatly reduces the subsequent requirement of pipe cleaners.Next, I reamed the chamber with size 2 followed by size 3 head of the Castleford reamer. I further sand the walls with a folded piece of 220 grit sand paper and took the cake down to the bare briar. I wiped the chamber with a cotton swab and isopropyl alcohol. It was a great relief to find a solid chamber with no heat fissures/ lines/ pits. The lava overflow from the rim top surface was gently scrapped off with my fabricated knife. I cleared the draught hole of all the obstructing cake and gunk with hard bristled pipe cleaners and alcohol. The gap at the foot of the stummel that houses the tenon was cleaned using shank brush, pipe cleaners and alcohol. The rim top surface needs to be scrubbed clean. This cleaning has revealed an uneven inner rim with chips to the edge, especially one in 12 o’clock direction. The damaged areas of the inner rim edge are marked in yellow circles. Further external cleaning of the stummel will present a clearer picture of the extent of damage. The chamber now smells fresh and clean. The time that I was working on cleaning up of the stummel, Abha my wife worked on the stem. Since there was no requirement of any repairs to the stem, she volunteered to clean it up. With a folded piece of 180 grit sandpaper she rid the stem of the deep seated oxidation. She followed the 180 grit sandpaper with sanding the stem with progressively finer grit sandpapers of 220, 400, 600 and 1000 grit. The use of progressively finer grit sandpapers helps in removing complete oxidation from the stem surface while eliminating the sanding marks left behind by the coarser grit sandpapers. She cleaned up to the aluminum tenon end and the stem with 0000 grit steel wool and Murphy’s Oil soap and rubbed a little EVO deep in to the vulcanite. What fantastic results she has produced! The stem already looks polished and yet micromesh cycle is yet to be completed. Here is how the stem appears at this stage.With the internals of the stummel now clean, I cleaned the external surface of the stummel. I applied “Briar Cleaner”, a product that has been developed by my friend Mark Hoover, to the external surface of the bowl. It works similar to Murphy’s oil soap and needs to be applied to the stummel surface and set aside for 5- 10 minutes. The product pulls out all the dirt and grime to the surface making further cleaning easy. I am quite happy with this product. I used a hard bristled tooth brush to scrub the stummel with the gel like product, wiped it clean with a moist cloth and dried it using paper towels and soft cotton cloth. I deliberately cleaned the rim and the shank end by inverting the stummel and rotating it on a piece of Scotch Brite. I cleaned the gap that houses the conical aluminum tenon with a shank brush and dish washing soap to remove what little crud remained in the gap. I set the stummel aside to dry out naturally. The stummel is now nice and clean with the grains showing a lot of promise. The rim top surface has many dents and dings while the outer rim edge has many small divots carved, probably as a result of knocking against a hard surface to remove the dottle. The inner rim too has few dings and chipped edge. I shall resort to topping and creating a bevel over the edges to address these issues. Now that the stummel was clean, I could make out the exact extent of damage to the rim top surface and also to both inner and outer rim edges. I topped the bowl on a piece of 220 grit sand paper, checking ever so frequently the progress being made. One of the things that I prefer to avoid is topping a bowl as it compromises the shape of the bowl while also loosing briar estate. In case it is unavoidable, I prefer to keep it to the minimum. In this case, a few rotations later, I am at that point where the rim top surface damage has been addressed while the inner and outer rim edge damage has been addressed to a great extent. I need to create a slight bevel over both the edges to fully address the damage to the rim edges. To address the remaining dents and chips to the inner and outer rim edges, with a folded piece of 220 grit sand paper pinched between my forefinger and thumb, I created a slight bevel over both these edges. I am quite pleased with the way the rim top and the edges appear at this stage in restoration. I subjected the stummel to a complete cycle of micromesh polish, wet sanding with 1500 to 12000 grit pads, the only variation being that since 1500 and 2400 grit micromesh pads have completely worn out and due to lockdown couldn’t order on line, I wet sand using 1500 and 2000 grit sand papers. I wiped the stummel with a moist cloth after every three grit pads to remove the sanding dust left behind by the pads. This also helps in monitoring the progress being made and ensures early corrective action. I am happy with the progress being made till now. Next, I rub a small quantity of “Before and After Restoration Balm” in to the briar and the rim top surface with my finger tips and worked it deep in to the surface and let it rest for a few minutes. The balm almost immediately works its magic and the briar now has a nice vibrant appearance with the beautiful grain patterns on full display. The contrast of the dark browns of the grain with the light hues of the rest of the stummel adds an interesting dimension to the appearance of the stummel. I further buffed it with a horse hair brush to further deepen the shine. Simultaneously as I was carrying out repairs and polishing of the stummel, Abha was busy silently polishing the stem. She wet sanded the stem with 1500 and 2000 grit sand papers and followed it up with wet sanding using remaining micromesh grit pads 2400 to 12000. She even polished the conical aluminum tenon to a pristine smooth shining finish. Readers who have been following my write ups for some time now are aware of Abha’s penchant for not taking any pictures……and she has stayed true to this habit of hers. Sincere apologies as there are no pictures for this stage!!

To complete the restoration, I mount a cotton cloth buffing wheel on to my hand held rotary tool and apply a coat of Blue Diamond to the stummel and the stem to polish out the minor scratches. With a cotton buffing wheel that I use for carnauba wax, I apply a coat of carnauba wax and continue to work on it till the complete coat of wax had been polished out. I mount a clean cotton cloth buffing wheel and give the entire pipe a once over buff. I finished the restoration by giving the entire pipe a rigorous hand buffing using a microfiber cloth to raise the shine further. The finished pipe looks amazingly beautiful and is now ready for its long second innings with me. I only wish it could share with me its life story of the past years while I enjoy smoking my favorite Virginia blend in it or maybe an English blend!! P.S. This pipe was an interesting project, the most difficult part being the research on the maker and brand of this pipe. This task was made difficult due to lack of any stampings on the stummel. However, once the provenance of this pipe was established, it was a simple straight forward restoration project.

This pipe too shall be joining the few pipes in my collection that are a milestone in pipe smoker’s eternal quest for a cool and dry smoke.

A big thank you to all the readers who have thus far walked with me on this journey…

Praying for safety and well being of all readers of rebornpipes.com. Stay home, stay safe.

Breathing Life into a Medico Crest Artisan Freehand from Bob Kerr’s Estate

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen from Bob Kerr’s Estate is a Medico Artisan Freehand. (Bob’s photo is to the left). If you have not “met” the man and would like to read a bit of the history of the pipeman, his daughter has written a great tribute that is worth a read. Because I have included it in most of the restorations of the estate to date I thought that I would leave it out this time. Check out some of the recent Dunhill restoration blogs that include the biographical notes about Bob (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/01/restoring-the-last-of-bob-kerrs-dunhills-a-1962-dunhill-bruyere-656-f-t-bent-billiard/).

The Medico Artisan Freehand has a smooth finish and a smooth rim top. It has carved indentations around the bowl sides. It was stamped on the underside of the heel. It read Medico Crest Artisan Imported Briar. The finish was dirty with dust and grime ground into the bowl sides. There was a thick cake in the bowl and lava overflow on the rim top. The vulcanite stem was oxidized and had tooth marks and chatter near the button on both sides. It appears that the tenon is drilled to accommodate a Medico paper filter. Jeff took photos of the pipe to show its general condition before he did his cleanup. The exterior of the pipe was very dirty – grime and grit ground in from years of use and sitting. The rim top was covered with a coat of thick lava that overflowed the bowl. There was also some darkening on the rim top and inner edge of the bowl. The bowl itself had a thick cake with flecks of tobacco stuck in the cake on the sides. Jeff took photos of the sides and the heel of the bowl to give a better feel for the condition of the briar around the bowl. The next photo show the stamping on the underside of the shank and it is very readable. It reads as noted above. The second photo shows the stamped Medico M shield logo on the top of the stem.The stem was dirty and oxidized with light tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside of the stem at the button. This one at least did not have the chew marks that were a norm on Bob’s pipes. Before doing cleanup work on the pipe I decided to do some research on the pipe. I have worked on and smoked Medico pipes in the past but I have never worked on a Medico Crest Artisan in the past. I decided to look on the normal sites to see what I could find out about this line. I looked first on the Pipephil website and found some information on the Medico Crest line with a similar logo as this pipe but nothing on the Crest Artisan line. I did a screen capture of the pertinent information on the logo itself (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-medico.html). The crest is similar but it has an M in the center and seems to have been gold. I turned to Pipedia to see what further information was available on that site and if there was anything specifically on the Artisan line (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Medico). I quote:

Medico was created in 1933, and is still produced by S.M. Frank. The brand is famous for its pipe filters, which were launched in the same year. Since 1966, some models have been made in Brylon, a synthetic material, and others in briar. The brand was also sold by the English

Symbol: M inside a shield, although early pipes, like the example bellow, had a + sign, like a Medic would have on their sleeve.

The article included photos of A Medico Crest Artisan, made in Italy, courtesy Doug Valitchka. The carving around the bowl is identical. This one is stamped ITALY while the one I am working on is not stamped with that identification.With over 125 pipes to clean from Bob’s estate I took a batch of them to the states with me when I visited and left them with Jeff so he could help me out. Jeff cleaned the pipes with his usual penchant for thoroughness that I really appreciate. Once he finished he shipped them back to me. This one was a real mess and I did not know what to expect when I unwrapped it from his box. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish looks very good with good looking grain around the bowl and shank. Jeff scrubbed it with Soft Scrub and soaked it in Before & After Deoxidizer to remove the oxidation on the rubber. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour it looked a lot better. I took photos before I started my part of the work. I took some close up photos of the rim top and the stem surface. I wanted to show what cleaned bowl and rim top looked like. The rim top shows some damage on the inner edge of the bowl. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the light tooth marks and the remaining oxidation on the stem surface. I took photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank and it is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above. I removed the stem for the shank and took a photo of the bowl and stem to give a picture of what it looked like. The remaining oxidation is very visible.Now, on to my part of the restoration of this Medico Crest Artisan Freehand. I decided to clean up the damaged rim top and inner edge of the bowl. I gently topped the bowl on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper. I cleaned up the inside of the bowl edges with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. Once I was finished the rim top looked a lot better. I polished the top of the bowl and the entirety of the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping the briar down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I restained the rim top with a blend of Cherry, Maple and Oak Stain Pens to blend it into the colour of the rest of the briar. Once it had dried I would polish it and give it several coats of Before & After Restoration Balm.I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth and shoe brush to raise the shine. I used some Antique Gold Rub’n Buff to recolour the logo on the stem top. I rubbed it into the logo with a pipe cleaner and buffed it off with a soft towel. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded out the tooth dents in the top and underside of the stem at the button. I started polishing the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. There was still some oxidation around the logo and on the stem surface. I polished the vulcanite 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 left a little oxidation around the stamp so as not to damage it more. This Medico Crest Artisan Freehand pipe from Bob Kerr’s estate turned out to be a great looking pipe. The mixed stain brown finish on the pipe is in excellent condition and works well with the polished vulcanite saddle stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and 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 Medico Crest Artisan Freehand 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 ¾ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. If you are interested in carrying on Bob’s legacy with this pipe send me a message or an email. I have more to work on of various brands. Perhaps one of those will catch your attention. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. This is an interesting estate to bring back to life.

A Second Inning For A Meerschaum Lined Orlik Bent Brandy

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Blog by Paresh Deshpande

I had recently worked on a long Albatross wing bone stemmed Corn Cob which was both rustic and delicate from an estate lot of 40 pipes that I had acquired about six months ago. This was the second pipe from the lot that I had refurbished, the first being a huge Real Cherry wood pipe. Here is the link to both the write ups which will provide background information as to how I came to acquire this lot and the condition of the pipes that I had received;

https://rebornpipes.com/2020/03/08/refurbishing-a-real-cherry-foreign-pipe-from-estate-lot-of-40/

https://rebornpipes.com/2020/05/10/refurbishing-a-vintage-corn-cob-pipe-with-an-albatross-wing-bone/

The third pipe from this lot and currently on my work table is beautiful Bent Brandy with a pearly variegated stem with swirls of light browns and grays. The first two pipes that I had worked on are marked with yellow and green arrows while the third pipe that is currently on my work table is shown in the second picture marked in indigo colored arrow. The pipe feels heavy and solid in hand. It is stamped on the bottom surface towards the shank end as “ORLIK” over “MEERSCHAUM” over “LINED”. There is no shape code or COM stamp on the stummel. The acrylic stem too is devoid of any stamping.I referred to pipedia.org for information on the firm ORLIK, my interest being piqued since I remember having seen a few Orlik pipes in my inherited pipe collection (unfortunately, I have never gotten around to work on any of them as yet!!). From what I have learned, the company was started in 1899 by Louis Orlik in London, Bond Street to produce HIGH QUALITY pipes for a RELATIVELY LOW PRICE. In 1980 the company was acquired by Cadogan. Like many of London’s other pipe manufacturers they moved to a new built factory in Southend-on-Sea. As all current brands in the Cadogan group, Orlik was being produced in those factories. In the same article, at the end is an onsite link to Dating Orlik Pipes by Michael Lankton, which makes for an interesting read. I reproduce the relevant portion which points to the pipe currently on my table;

Virgin(Series Letter:Without letters)
Old Bond Street(Series Letter:A)
Old Bond Street Sandblast(Series Letter:AX)
Supreme(Series Letter:T)
Supreme Sandblast(Series Letter:TX)
Meerschaum Lined(Series Letter:M)
Corona(Series Letter:C)
Old Root(Series Letter:R)

Here is the pipedia link to the article on Orlik pipes;

https://pipedia.org/wiki/Orlik

Since the pipe currently on my table is sans the series letter M and also the stem is neither Hand cut nor molded vulcanite but variegated acrylic stem, I assume that it is a Post Cadogan era pipe that is Post 1980s.

Initial Visual Inspection
The pipe, as it appears, is shown in the pictures below. There is thick layer of cake in the chamber with equally heavy overflow of lava over the rim top surface. The stummel is dirty with a number of dents/ dings and minute fills that are visible. The stem is filthy with heavy tooth chatter and deep bite marks in the bite zone and button edges on either surface. All in all, this was a very well loved pipe that has the classic signs of poor care and rough use. The chamber has a thick even layer of hard cake. There are copious amounts of old oils, tars and grime that have overflown the rim top surface and further down the stummel surface. The thick cake and heavy lava overflow over the rim top masks the condition of the chamber walls and the rim surface. The condition of these surfaces will be determined only once the cake and lava overflow has been cleaned up. The rim top surface is highly uneven as evinced by the uneven accumulation of lava overflow, again, this is just speculation as what surprises are hidden beneath will be revealed only once the overflow has been removed. There are signs of charring along the outer rim edge and one prominent charred portion is at 1 o’clock direction to the front of the bowl. The smells from the chamber are very strong (very strong is actually an understatement) and all pervading. This issue of old smells will have to be addressed. I shall top the rim to make it perfectly even and also address the charred outer rim edges. It has been my experience that such thick layer of cake invariably hides some kind of wall damage, either heat fissures or beginnings of a burnout. Being meerschaum lined, I just don’t want a broken/ cracked meerschaum surface. The golden walnut stained stummel with dark brown stained grains makes for an alluring visual display. The surface is fraught with numerous minor dents, dings and is covered in dust, dirt and grime of the overflowed lava. A charred spot is seen to the front of the bowl in 1 o’clock direction (encircled in red). The shank end has patches all around, akin to water marks and my guess, looking at the condition of the chamber and stummel, is that the oils and tars from the mortise had leaked from the tenon- mortise junction and dried over the surface. The heavily clogged mortise is an indication of the oils and tars having nowhere to go but escape from the stem shank junction. I intend to sand the stummel surface to remove as much of the dents and dings as is possible while making the stummel surface smooth. I need to be careful while sanding the shank end to remove the patches so as not to shoulder the shank end. Major dents and fills that are revealed, if any, will be filled with clear superglue as briar dust and glue would leave ugly dark spots. The pearly variegated stem with swirls of light browns and grays is filthy to say the least. The stem surface is covered in grime and dirt with heavy tooth indentations over the button edges on either surface. The bite zone is peppered with deep tooth chatter. The tenon end, horizontal slot and the air way is covered and clogged with gunk. Air way over the surface appears darkened and flow through the stem is laborious and heavy. The stem surface and internal first needs to be cleaned. The tooth chatter will be sanded out with 220 grit sandpaper and if need be, will be filled with glue. The button edges on either surface needs re-building using clear CA superglue. The Process
I began the process of refurbishing this pipe first by working on the stem. I cleaned the external surface of the stem with a Scotch Brite gauze and liquid dish washing soap. Once the external surfaces were clean, I cleaned the stem internals with a small shank brush and liquid dish soap. I have realized that using small shank brush and liquid soap reduces consumption of pipe cleaners by about 75%. This is considerable savings considering that I pay thrice the cost of pipe cleaners on cost of shipping!! Next, I ran a couple of dry pipe cleaners through the stem to clean and dry it out. I avoid using isopropyl alcohol in cleaning stem air way just to guard it against crazing (call it my paranoia to use alcohol on an acrylic or Perspex stem!!). The tenon end, slot and the air way is now clean. I sand the bite zone with a folded piece of 220 grit sand paper to address the tooth chatter. Though the tooth chatter has been addressed to a great extent, the button edges are yet to be addressed. I wiped the stem with a moist cloth to remove the sanding dust. Thereafter, I applied clear CA superglue over the button edges and filled the deep tooth indentations and the minor tooth chatter in the bite zone. I set the stem aside for the fill to cure.I reamed the chamber with a Castleford reamer tool, using the smallest (size one) head of the tool. Reaming a meerschaum lined bowl is fraught with challenges, most notably being exerting of excess pressure with the reamer heads on the thin meerschaum wall lining causing the lining to break in chunks. I was very gentle and careful while using the reamer head. Thereafter I moved on to using my fabricated knife to further take the cake down to the meerschaum lining. Truth be told, the use of the knife was restricted only to scraping the surface in an attempt to dislodge the cake. With a 150 grit sand paper, the walls of the chamber were rid of all the remnants of the cake and it was at this stage that the first large chunk of meerschaum lining came loose. Subsequently a few smaller bits loosened out and came apart from the meerschaum lining. The area of damaged meerschaum lining can be seen in the enclosed red area. It seemed that the thick layer of cake was holding the meerschaum lining together. The rim top is not even and the lava overflow has hardened considerably over the surface to form a mound all along the rim top surface. To get a better understanding of the condition of the meerschaum lining, I wiped the walls of the chamber with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton swab. Now the extent of repairs required is amply evident. The entire lower meerschaum lining on the left half of the chamber has broken down in a jagged manner and the same is marked with yellow arrows. The fourth picture gives out a very clear idea of the break in the lining and the thickness of the lining that needs to be repaired. Also the hardened lava overflow over the rim top is clearly discernible. This issue needs to be addressed first. With my fabricated sharp edged knife, I gently scrapped and dislodged the complete mound of overflowed lava from all around the rim top surface. After the lava overflow has been removed, the damage to the rim top is now clearly visible. The meerschaum lining is uneven and has been completely blackened due to absorbing all the oils and tars from such heavy usage.I topped the rim on a piece of 220 grit sand paper, frequently (every couple of turns) checking for the progress being made and was careful with topping as I had no desire to break the meerschaum lining from the rim top area. Though the rim top, after topping was smooth and even, the distinct white meerschaum lining edge is still a dirty dark color and is, in fact, darker than the rest of the briar surface. A closer look inside the chamber revealed a highly uneven and heavily gouged looking chamber walls. The ghost smells are still very strong and not even reduced with all the cleaning and removal of the cake. Since the meerschaum lining along the chamber walls are broken and gouged out, salt and alcohol treatment to get rid of the smell is NOT RECOMMENDED. I need to figure a way out. This is how the rim top and the chamber walls appear at this stage. I was so caught up with the condition of the chamber, I completely forgot to clean the mortise and shank air way. Maybe with this cleaning the ghost smells may greatly reduce and or miraculously disappear altogether. I cleaned the mortise and the airway using regular/ bristled pipe cleaners and q-tips dipped in 99.9% pure isopropyl alcohol. I also scraped out the entire gunk from the shank with my fabricated knife. While I was cleaning the air way, two more chunks of the meerschaum linings came loose from around the draught hole. As expected, the mortise was filthy and clogged with oils, tars and gunk and the number of pipe cleaners and q-tips that were used to get the mortise and shank cleaned up is an indication enough. I applied “Briar Cleaner”, a product that has been developed by my friend Mark Hoover, to the external surface of the bowl. It works similar to Murphy’s oil soap and needs to be applied to the stummel surface and set aside for 5- 10 minutes. The product pulls out all the dirt and grime to the surface making further cleaning easy. I am quite happy with this product. I used a hard bristled tooth brush to scrub the stummel with the gel like product, wiped it clean with a moist cloth and dried it using paper towels and soft cotton cloth. I deliberately cleaned the rim and the shank end by inverting the stummel and rotating it on a piece of Scotch Brite. I set the stummel aside to dry out naturally. With the external cleaning, the stummel looks clean with the beautiful Bird’s eye grains at the foot now clearly visible. This scrubbing and cleaning also removed the thin layer of lacquer in patches on the stummel (layer of lacquer had missed my notice before). A few minor dot-like fills were also now visible. I first need to remove the entire lacquer coat from the stummel to further revel any other imperfections in the briar surface of the stummel.To remove the coat of lacquer from the stummel, I wiped the entire surface with pure Acetone on a cotton swab. I was relieved that the lacquer coat did not hide any more flaws in the briar than what was noted after the external cleaning. I must admit that the tiny spots of fills are something which needs no refilling and should be further reduced once the stummel has been sanded and polished. With the external cleaning of the stummel surface complete, I turned my attention to the most challenging part of this restoration, the repairs to the meerschaum lining along the walls of the chamber! I have never attempted this repair though I had earlier read about the process of repairing meerschaum lining on rebornpipes.com using egg whites and finely powdered chalk. However, attempting it for the first time is always a challenging prospect.

I had been gifted a Meerschaum lined gargantuan Kilimanjaro Made in Tanganyika bent billiard by my good friend Dal Stanton, aka The Pipe Steward that had several complications, the most significant being repairing meerschaum lining. Dal has the gift of penning down thoughts and actions in to words on paper and his essays are very detailed and descriptive. I went through his write up, understood the process, followed the useful links in his blog and formulated my own strategy to execute the repairs on the meerschaum lining on the pipe in front of me. Here is the link to the write up that Dal has posted on rebornpipes.com.

https://rebornpipes.com/2019/07/12/a-meer-lining-and-crack-repair-to-rescue-a-doomed-gargantuan-kilimanjaro-made-in-tanganyika-bent-billiard/

In his write up, Dal had referenced another article on rebornpipes.com which he had followed in his restoration of the Kilimanjaro pipe. I read through the article which was indeed a very useful step by step guide to build up the repairs to the meer lining using the mixture. Here is the link to the write up.

https://baccypipes.wordpress.com/2017/06/10/old-time-meer-lining-repair-method-on-a-1930s-kaywoodie-shellcraft-5651/

With my ideas crystallized as regards tackling this repairs, I first made a chalk powder using a mortar and pestle. I strained this powder through a very fine mesh sieve and obtained sufficient quantities of very fine chalk powder. I separated egg white from one egg. Next, I made a thin mix of egg white and chalk powder and with a flat bamboo frond; inserted a folded pipe cleaner to keep the draught hole open and applied a layer all along the walls of the chamber and over the meerschaum lining. No sooner had I applied the mixture, it ran down the sides and accumulated at the heel of the stummel forming a dark dirty yellow puddle. Apparently the mix was too thin. I cleaned this puddle using absorbent kitchen napkins. The unexpected benefit of this failed first layer was that the old oils and tars were pulled out from the walls of the chamber by this mixture. I wiped the chamber with a cotton swab and isopropyl alcohol. Once the chamber walls had dried out, I made a slightly more thick mix of the old timers mix and applied a layer. I kept the stummel left side down as I wanted the mix to fill and harden over the damaged meer lining over the left side. I kept the stummel aside to dry out naturally. While the meerschaum repairs were set aside to cure, I worked the stem. The stem fills had cured nicely. Using a flat head needle file, I sand the fills to achieve a rough match with the rest of the stem surface and also reshaped the buttons on both the surfaces. I further fine tuned the match with a folded piece of 220 grit sand paper.Staying with the stem restoration, I polished the stem surface with micromesh pads, wet sanding with 1500 to 12000 pads. I wiped the surface with a soft cloth at the end of the micromesh cycle. The rim top surface looks nice with a deep shine. I applied a little Extra Virgin Olive oil to the stem, though it does not help much, and set it aside. Though I am not a big fan of acrylic stems, I am happy with the way the stem appears at this stage. The layer of egg white and chalk powder mix had hardened considerably after an overnight curing time. I made a slightly thicker mix and applied another layer and set it aside to cure. I continued to apply a gradually thicker layer of the mix till I was satisfied that the broken meer lining was completely covered. I set the stummel aside for the mix to harden. The mix appears to be too thick, but the same can be sanded down subsequently to the desired thickness. Once the mix had completely cured, I topped the rim top to even out the excess of the mix from the rim. I expected to find a perfect white ring of the mixture within the briar rim surface. However, that was not to be!! Though not perfect ring, it’s a lot better than before. One maxim that I follow during restoration is “LESS IS MORE” and thus, I did not further repeat the process of adding a layer of the mix and topping it again once the mix had cured. It’s not perfect but it is definitely functional. I followed the topping by sanding the walls with a folded piece of 180 grit sand paper. If observed closely, the left side lining is thicker than the rest of the chamber giving the chamber an out of round appearance. I need to sand the left side layer more to achieve the desired symmetry. I further sand the chamber walls with a 220 grit sand paper to even out the thickness of the left side wall and also reduce the thickness from the bottom half of the chamber. Again the uneven appearance of the white mixture was an eye sore but I resisted the temptation of rebuilding it all over again. But that’s for now…..never know maybe a couple of months down the line, as I look at it again, maybe I would attempt the rebuild! However, for now the chamber is nice round and the repairs appear solid and the pipe is definitely ready for a smoke. The ghost smells are also completely eliminated and the chamber is now odorless. I am quite happy with the progress till now. With the meerschaum lining repairs sorted out for now, I turned my attention to the external surface of the stummel. I sand the entire stummel with a piece of 220 grit sand paper. This served four purposes; firstly the coating of lacquer was completely rid off, secondly, the minor dents and dings and fills were evened out to a great extent and thirdly the water marks at the shank end were completely eliminated. The fourth issue that was addressed was the charred spot on the rim outer edge in 1 o’clock direction. The stummel is now ready for a nice polish. Now it was time to polish and impart a nice shine to the stummel. I wet sand the stummel with a 1500 and 2000 grit sand paper followed by wet sanding with 2400 to 12000 grit micromesh pads. Even though the tiny fills are clearly seen in the following pictures, in person, they merely appear as tiny dots and not easily discernible. I really liked that the mixed grains on the sides and Bird’s eye grain on the foot are now visibly resplendent in all their glory. I rubbed a small quantity of “Before and After Restoration Balm” in to the stummel to enliven and protect it. I rubbed this balm deep in to the briar of the stummel and smooth rim top with my fingers and let it rest for a few minutes. The balm almost immediately works its magic and the stummel now has a nice vibrant appearance. I further buff it with a horse hair shoe brush. To apply the finishing touches, I mount a cotton cloth buffing wheel on to my hand held rotary tool and apply a coat of Blue Diamond to the stummel and the stem to polish out the minor scratches. With a cotton buffing wheel that I use for carnauba wax, I apply a coat of carnauba wax to the stummel and stem and continued to work on it till the complete coat of wax had been polished out. I mount a clean cotton cloth buffing wheel and gave the entire pipe a once over buff. I finished the restoration by giving the entire pipe a rigorous hand buffing using a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine further. The finished pipe is shown below. The pearly variegated stem with swirls of light browns and grays contrasts beautifully with the dark brown hues of the stummel and is very appealing to the eye. The repairs and transformation of this pipe to its present functionality and beauty was indeed worth the efforts that were put in. P.S. This pipe, when it came to my work table, presented a daunting task to restore. It was surely greatly loved by someone in the past as was evident from the thick cake, overflowing lava over the rim top and the stem damage, but I say in the same breath that it was also the most abused pipe. The broken meerschaum lining added to my agony while presenting me with an opportunity to put in to practice what I had read and learned about meerschaum repairs on Reborn Pipes.

A big THANK YOU to my good friend, Dal Stanton aka The Pipe Steward for the detailed and graphic description of the technique to repair Meerschaum and also to my Guru, Steve, for creating and regularly updating rebornpipes.com, a one stop site for everything that one wants to know and learn about pipe restoration!!

Appreciate all the efforts of readers who have had the patience to read this write up thus far!

Praying for the safety and well being of all the readers and their loved ones in these troubled times…

Restoring a Tired Irwin’s London England 1 Billiard from Bob Kerr’s Estate

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen from Bob Kerr’s Estate is the second Irwin billiard in Bob’s Collection. Bob was an artist from the Vancouver area and a real character (Bob’s photo is to the left). If you have not “met” the man and would like to read a bit of the history of the pipeman, his daughter has written a great tribute that is worth a read. Because I have included it in most of the restorations of the estate to date I thought that I would leave it out this time. Check out some of the recent Dunhill restoration blogs (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/01/restoring-the-last-of-bob-kerrs-dunhills-a-1962-dunhill-bruyere-656-f-t-bent-billiard/).

This is the second Irwin’s billiard from Bob’s Collection and this one is in far worse condition than the previous one. It is worn and tired looking. It has a thin, almost pencil shank and stem. The briar is dirty and the finish is worn off. There are some deep scratches in the left side of the bowl and the rim top looked like it had been used as a hammer. There is a thick cake and lava overflow on the rim top. It is stamped Irwin’s over London England the left side of the shank. On the right side it is stamped with the number 1. The thin tapered stem has a faint IR stamp on the top side. It stem is oxidized, calcified and has light tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe to show its general condition before he did his cleanup. He took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the lava build up on the edges of the bowl. It was thick and hard but hopefully it had protected the rim top and edges from damage. It was hard to know for sure from the photos. Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the condition of the finish. You can see some beautiful grain under the grime and grit ground into the finish. You can also see the damaged areas on the briar in the photos. He took a photo of the left side to show the deep scratches in the briar. Next these there were also vertical scratches and a fill that had fallen out. It was going to take a bit of work but it must have been a fine smoking pipe if the condition is any indication.He took photos of the stamping on both sides of the shank. The stamping was readable as you can see from the photos and read as noted above. You can also see the Circle IR stamp on the topside of the taper stem. Jeff took photos of the top and underside of the stem showing the tooth chatter, scratching and oxidation on the stem surface and wear on the edges of the button.The shape number 1 on the right side of the shank mystifies me a bit but I knew that Irwin’s was a second line for GBD. I am including what I found when I worked on the previous Irwin’s billiard in this collection.

I turned to the Pipephil website (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-i.html). The site had very little information but it linked the brand to GBD as I had remembered. Here is a screen capture of the section.I turned to Pipedia to see if I could find more information on Irwins and there was nothing listed in the article on GBD pipes. I did find a note on the Brands and Makers page connection the brand to GBD (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_Brands_/_Makers). On that page under Irwin’s I found the following information.

GBD sub-brand / second. Also known “Irwin`s Handmade in Denmark”

Other than that there was no other information.

With over 125 pipes to clean from Bob’s estate I took a batch of them to the states with me when I visited and left them with Jeff so he could help me out. Jeff cleaned the pipes with his usual penchant for thoroughness that I really appreciate. Once he finished he shipped them back to me. This one was a real mess and I did not know what to expect when I unwrapped it from his box. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish looks very good with good looking grain around the bowl and shank. Jeff scrubbed it with Soft Scrub and soaked it in Before & After Deoxidizer to remove the oxidation on the rubber. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour it looked a lot better. The stem still had a lot of deep oxidation. I took photos 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 cleaned bowl and rim top looked like. The rim top good but there was some darkening on the beveled inner edge of the rim. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the light tooth marks and the remaining oxidation on the stem surface. Now on to my part of the restoration of this Irwin’s London England 1 GBD made Billiard. I decided to start by dealing with the damage to the rim top and the inner edge of the rim. I started by topping the bowl on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper to start removing the damage to the rim top. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the edge and clean up the edge to minimize the darkening. I retopped the bowl on the topping board to further work on the outer and inner edge. Once I finished the topping I was happy with the look of the rim top and edges. I sanded out the scratches in the left side of the bowl as shown above. I was able to remove them with the 220 grit sandpaper.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping the briar down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The pipe looks very good. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. The stem was in great condition with light tooth marks and oxidation. The circle IR stamp on the top of the stem is very faint. There was not enough depth to the stamp to put white paint into and restore. I polished the vulcanite 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 left a little oxidation around the Circle IR stamp on the top of the stem to preserve what remained. This Irwin’s London England 1 Billiard made by GBD from Bob Kerr’s estate turned out to be a great looking pipe. The mix of brown stains highlights the grain around the bowl sides, top and bottom. The finish on the pipe is in excellent condition and the contrasting stains work well with the polished vulcanite saddle stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and 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 Irwin’s Billiard 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 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. If you are interested in carrying on Bob’s legacy with this pipe send me a message or an email. I have more to work on of various brands. Perhaps one of those will catch your attention. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. This is an interesting estate to bring back to life.

Restoring a KB&B Kaywoodie Drinkless Rhodesian from Bob Kerr’s Estate

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe I have chosen from Bob Kerr’s Estate is a KB&B Drinkless Kaywoodie Rhodesian with a chunky shank and stem. (Bob’s photo is to the left). If you have not “met” the man and would like to read a bit of the history of the pipeman, his daughter has written a great tribute that is worth a read. Because I have included it in most of the restorations of the estate to date I thought that I would leave it out this time. Check out some of the recent Dunhill restoration blogs (https://rebornpipes.com/2020/01/01/restoring-the-last-of-bob-kerrs-dunhills-a-1962-dunhill-bruyere-656-f-t-bent-billiard/).

This chunky Rhodesian is stamped KB&B in a cloverleaf followed by Drinkless [over] Kaywoodie [over] Made in England on the left side of the bowl. On the right side it is stamped with the number 83B. The thick tapered stem has the typical white inlaid Kaywoodie Cloverleaf logo. The tenon is threaded and has a stinger that is stamped Drinkless [over] Reg No 213598. The ball on the end of the stinger has been clipped off. The stem is oxidized, calcified and has light tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. The exterior of the bowl is grimy and dirty. There is a thick cake and lava overflow on the rim top. It is thick enough that it is hard to know if there is any damage on top and edges. Jeff took photos of the pipe to show its general condition before he did his cleanup. The exterior of the pipe was very dirty – grime and grit ground in from years of use and sitting. The rim top was covered with a coat of thick lava that overflowed the bowl. There was also some darkening on the rim top and inner edge of the bowl. The bowl itself had a thick cake with flecks of tobacco stuck in the cake on the sides. Jeff took photos of the sides and the heel of the bowl to give a better feel for the condition of the bark around the bowl. The next photos show the stamping on the sides of the shank and it is very readable. It reads as noted above. The stem was dirty and extremely oxidized. Once again the stem appeared to be a replacement as I have learned Bob was a chewer and his stems seemed to have been replaced often. This one at least fit well to the shank and did not yet have the chew marks that were a norm on Bob’s pipes.Before doing cleanup work on the pipe I decided to do some research on the pipe. I looked first on the Pipephil website and found some information on the white club inlay on the left side of the tapered stem. I did a screen capture of the pertinent information on the logo itself (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-kaywoodie.html). From there I learned that the logo was used until the 1980s. After the early 50s the logo was on the side of the stem.I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kaywoodie) and read the section on the rough outline on the history of the brand that links the brand with the English section of the company. I quote:

From there I turned to a link on the article to a section called Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Collector%27s_Guide_to_Kaywoodie_Pipes#NOTES_ON_.22OTHER.E2.80.9D_KAYWOODIE_PIPES).

I turned to Pipedia’s Kaywoodie Shape Number chart to check out the number 83B that is stamped on the shank side (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kaywoodie_Shape_Numbers). The chart gives the shape information and the time frame in which the shape was made. I did a screen capture of the shape number information and have included it below.From the above information I now knew that the pipe in hand was a Half Bent Heavy Round Shank Bulldog made between 1938-1955 in London by Oppenheimer. It had screw-in bit.

With over 125 pipes to clean from Bob’s estate I took a batch of them to the states with me when I visited and left them with Jeff so he could help me out. Jeff cleaned the pipes with his usual penchant for thoroughness that I really appreciate. Once he finished he shipped them back to me. This one was a real mess and I did not know what to expect when I unwrapped it from his box. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish looks very good with good looking grain around the bowl and shank. Jeff scrubbed it with Soft Scrub and soaked it in Before & After Deoxidizer to remove the oxidation on the rubber. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour it looked a lot better. I took photos 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 cleaned bowl and rim top looked like. The rim top shows damage and charring on the inner edge of the bowl. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the light tooth marks and the remaining oxidation on the stem surface.I took photos of the stamping on both sides of the shank and it is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above. I unscrewed the stem for the shank and took a photo of the bowl and stem to give a picture of what it looked like. You can see the ball clipped off the end of the stinger.Now, on to my part of the restoration of this KBB English Made Rhodesian. I decided to start by dealing with the gouges in the bowl front and heel and on the back of the rim cap. I fill them in with clear super glue. When the repairs had cured I sanded them smooth with 220 grit sandpaper and 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage to the inner edge of the rim. I worked on the inner bevel to clean up the damage and the darkening. I sanded to the top of the rim at the same time to minimize the darkening.I stained the repaired and sanded areas with a Walnut stain pen to blend it into the surrounding briar. Once the stain cured I polished the briar to further blend it into the bowl.I polished the top of the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping the briar down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar bowl sides and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth and shoe brush to raise the shine. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded out the tooth dents in the top and underside of the stem at the button. There were a few deep tooth marks on the underside next to the button. I filled them in with clear super glue. Once the repairs cured I sanded them out with 220 grit sandpaper and started polishing them with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper.I polished the vulcanite 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. This KB&B Kaywoodie Drinkless 83B Rhodesian, English made pipe from Bob Kerr’s estate turned out to be a great looking pipe. The Walnut finish on the pipe is in excellent condition and works well with the polished vulcanite taper stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and 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 KB&B Kaywoodie 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 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. This particular pipe is staying with me for a while as it is a lot like the GBD 9242 Bent Rhodesian that is on my bucket list of pipe. The fact that it is English Made and made by Oppenheimer makes me wonder about a GBD connection. Who knows for sure though! I have more to work on of various brands. Perhaps one of those will catch your attention. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. This is an interesting estate to bring back to life.

Back to Briar from Bob Kerr’s Estate – a Charatan’s Make Belvedere 2502 Prince

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Blog by Steve Laug

I am continuing to work on the pipes in Bob Kerr’s estate for a while. I am getting closer to finishing restoring this large estate with only about 29 more pipes to do. This is the second of his two Charatan pipes that I am working on. I am cleaning them for the family and moving them out into the hands of pipemen and women who will carry on the trust that began with Bob and in some pipes was carried on by Bob. In the collection there were 19 Peterson’s pipes along with a bevy of Dunhills, some Comoy’s and Barlings as well as a lot of other pipes – a total of 125 pipes along with a box of parts. This is the largest estate that I have had the opportunity to work on. I put together a spread sheet of the pipes and stampings to create an invoice. I was taking on what would take me a fair amount of time to clean up. I could not pass up the opportunity to work on these pipes though. They were just too tempting. This beautiful Charatan’s Make Prince is a great pipe to work on. It is a classic shaped pipe with a Charatan spin on the prince shape. It will go on the rebornpipes store.

This Charatan’s Make London England Belvedere smooth finish with lots variation in the grain around the briar is a beauty! The pipe is stamped on the left of the shank and reads Charatan’s Make [over] London England [over] Belvedere. On the right side it has the shape number 2502. The grain grime and dirt ground into the mixture of grain around the bowl. It had rich dark and medium contrasting brown stains that do not look too bad. There was a thick cake in the bowl with remnants of tobacco stuck on the walls. There was a thick lava overflow sitting on the total rim top. The inner edge of the rim is dirty and may have some damage under the grime. It was a beautiful pipe that was dirty and tired looking. The replacement taper stem was oxidized and calcified toward the end. It had the characteristic tooth marks that I have come to expect from Bob’s pipes. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work on it. He took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the lava build up on the edges of the bowl. It was thick and hard but hopefully it had protected the rim top and edges from damage. It was hard to know for sure from the photos.Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the condition of the finish. You can see the beautiful grain under the grime and grit ground into the finish. He took photos of the stamping on both side of the shank. The stamping was readable as you can see from the photos and read as noted above. Jeff took photos of the top and underside of the stem showing the tooth chatter, scratching and oxidation on the stem surface and wear on the edges of the button.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. There is some really helpful information on each of the lines of Charatan’s Make pipes that entered the market. Here is the link to the section of the site that I turned to (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-charatan.html). There is an alphabetical listing of the lines but the Belvedere they showed had a stem made for a 9mm filter while the one I have is a nonfiltered pipe. 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.

I turned to Pipedia to see if I could find more information on the brand and possibly a link to the Belvedere line (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 and have highlighted in red the sections that give information on this particular pipe.

In 1863 Frederick Charatan, a Russian/Jewish immigrant, opened a shop in Mansell Street, located in the borough of Tower Hamlets, London E1, where he began to carve Meerschaum pipes. These pipes got very popular soon, and thus Charatan moved to a bigger workshop in Prescot Street, just around the corner. Here he began to make briar pipes which should make the name famous the world over. Charatan was the first brand to make entirely hand-made briars from the rough block to the finished pipe including the stems. The nomenclature “Charatan’s Make” refers to this method of production and was meant to differ Charatan from other brands who “assembled” pipes from pre-drilled bowls and delivered mouthpieces.

Being the undisputed No. 1 in English pipemaking, Charatan was approached by Alfred Dunhill who was unsatisfied with the quality of the pipes he imported from France. During 1908 – 1910 Dunhill bought pipes from Charatan paying exorbitant prices to ensure he had some of the very best pipes for sale in England. In 1910 he lured away Joel Sasieni, one of Charatan’s best carvers, and opened his own small pipe workshop on 28 Duke Street. On the retirement of his father in 1910 Reuben Charatan took over the family business…

…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 60’s and early 70’s…

I continue digging further into the dating of the pipe, but what I had found 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

– 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 onwards 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.

I am also including a shape chart from that site. I have drawn a blue box around the 2502 Prince shape.With over 125 pipes to clean from Bob’s estate I took a batch of them to the states with me when I visited and left them with Jeff so he could help me out. Jeff cleaned the pipes with his usual penchant for thoroughness that I really appreciate. Once he finished he shipped them back to me. This one was a real mess and I did not know what to expect when I unwrapped it from his box. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish looks very good with good looking grain around the bowl and shank. Jeff scrubbed it with Soft Scrub and soaked it in Before & After Deoxidizer to remove the oxidation on the rubber. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour it looked a lot better. The stem still had a lot of deep oxidation. I took photos 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 cleaned bowl and rim top looked like. The rim top shows damage on the inner edge with some charring on the front inner edge. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the light tooth marks and the remaining oxidation on the stem surface.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank and it is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above. I took the stem off the shank and took some photos to give a clear picture of the pipe from the left side profile and the top looking down. It is a really pretty pipe.Since this is another pipe Bob’s estate I am sure that some of you have read at least some of the other restoration work that has been done on the previous pipes. You have also read what I have included about Bob Kerr, the pipeman who held these pipes in trust before I came to work on them (see photo to the left). Also, if you have followed the blog for long you will already know that I like to include background information on the pipeman whose pipes I am restoring. For me, when I am working on an estate I really like to have a sense of the person who held the pipes in trust before I worked on them. It gives me another dimension of the restoration work. I asked Brian if he or his wife would like to write a brief biographical tribute to her father, Bob. His daughter worked on it and I received the following short write up on him and some pictures to go along with the words including one of Bob’s carvings. Once again I thank you Brian and tell your wife thank you as well.

I am delighted to pass on these beloved pipes of my father’s. I hope each user gets many hours of contemplative pleasure as he did. I remember the aroma of tobacco in the rec room, as he put up his feet on his lazy boy. He’d be first at the paper then, no one could touch it before him. Maybe there would be a movie on with an actor smoking a pipe. He would have very definite opinions on whether the performer was a ‘real’ smoker or not, a distinction which I could never see but it would be very clear to him. He worked by day as a sales manager of a paper products company, a job he hated. What he longed for was the life of an artist, so on the weekends and sometimes mid-week evenings he would journey to his workshop and come out with wood sculptures, all of which he declared as crap but every one of them treasured by my sister and myself. Enjoy the pipes, and maybe a little of his creative spirit will enter you!

Now on to my part of the restoration of this Charatan’s Make 2502 Prince. I decided to start by dealing with the damage to the inner edge of the rim. I topped the bowl on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the damage on the rim top. I followed up with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the edge and give it a slight bevel to remove the damaged area and bring the bowl back into round. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping the briar down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I touched up the stain on the rim top with a Maple and a Cherry stain pen blended on the top. Once the bowl was polished it would blend in well with the rest of the briar around the bowl.I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth and shoe brush to raise the shine. Mark Hoover’s Balm is a product that I have come to appreciate and one I use on every pipe I have been working on. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I worked over the rest of the remaining oxidation and the tooth marks with 220 grit sandpaper. I started polishing the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. At this point it is starting to look much better. I polished the vulcanite 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. This Charatan’s Make Belvedere Prince from Bob Kerr’s estate turned out to be a great looking pipe. The mix of brown stains highlights the sandblasted grain around the bowl sides, top and bottom. The finish on the pipe is in excellent condition and the contrasting stains work well with the polished vulcanite saddle stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and 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 Charatan’s Make Belvedere 2502 Prince 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 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. If you are interested in carrying on Bob’s legacy with this pipe send me a message or an email. I have more to work on of various brands. Perhaps one of those will catch your attention. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. This is an interesting estate to bring back to life.

The next pipe from Bob Kerr’s Estate – a Charatan’s Make Belvedere 2012

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Blog by Steve Laug

I am continuing to work on the pipes in Bob Kerr’s estate for a while. I am getting closer to finishing restoring this large estate with only about 29 more pipes to do. This is one of his two Charatan’s pipes that I am working on. I am cleaning them for the family and moving them out into the hands of pipemen and women who will carry on the trust that began with Bob and in some pipes was carried on by Bob. In the collection there were 19 Peterson’s pipes along with a bevy of Dunhills, some Comoy’s and Barlings as well as a lot of other pipes – a total of 125 pipes along with a box of parts. This is the largest estate that I have had the opportunity to work on. I put together a spread sheet of the pipes and stampings to create an invoice. I was taking on what would take me a fair amount of time to clean up. I could not pass up the opportunity to work on these pipes though. They were just too tempting. This beautiful Charatan’s Make Lovat is a great pipe to work on. It is a classic shaped pipe with a Charatan spin on the Lovat shape. It will go on the rebornpipes store.

This Charatan’s Make London England Belvedere smooth finish with lots variation in the grain around the briar is a beauty! The pipe is stamped on the left of the shank and reads Charatan’s Make over London England over Belvedere. On the right side it has the shape number 2012. The grain grime and dirt ground into the mixture of grain around the bowl. It had rich dark and medium contrasting brown stains that do not look too bad. There was a thick cake in the bowl with remnants of tobacco stuck on the walls. There was a thick lava overflow sitting on the total rim top. The inner edge of the rim is dirty and may have some damage under the grime. It was a beautiful pipe that was dirty and tired looking. The stem was oxidized and calcified toward the end. It bears the CP stamp on the left side of the saddle stem. It had the characteristic tooth marks that I have come to expect from Bob’s pipes. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work on it. He took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the lava build up on the edges of the bowl. It was thick and hard but hopefully it had protected the rim top and edges from damage. It was hard to know for sure from the photos.Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to show the condition of the finish. You can see the beautiful grain under the grime and grit ground into the finish. He took photos of the stamping on both side of the shank. The stamping was readable as you can see from the photos and read as noted above. You can also see the CP stamp on the left side of the saddle stem. Jeff took photos of the top and underside of the stem showing the tooth chatter, scratching and oxidation on the stem surface and wear on the edges of the button.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. There is some really helpful information on each of the lines of Charatan’s Make pipes that entered the market. Here is the link to the section of the site that I turned to (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-charatan.html). There is an alphabetical listing of the lines but the Belvedere they showed had a stem made for a 9mm filter while the one I have is a nonfiltered pipe. The site did give a short history of the brand. I quote the portion that is most pertinent.

The section called Miscellaneous Notes had some interesting information. The pipe I was working did not have the Double Comfort (DC) bit which helps give more credence to an early pre-Lane date for this one. It also does not have the Serif L on the shank which adds to my belief of its early date.

Charatan records indicate the DC (Double Comfort) bit was introduced in the 50’s, but some report seeing them in earlier production. Still others indicate they were introduced by Lane in 1960. Regardless, the DC bit is not an accurate way to date a pipe because many Charatan’s were made with regular and saddle type bits throughout the “Lane Era”…

…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.

– 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.

I am also including a shape chart from that site. I have drawn a red box around the 2012 Lovat shape.With over 125 pipes to clean from Bob’s estate I took a batch of them to the states with me when I visited and left them with Jeff so he could help me out. Jeff cleaned the pipes with his usual penchant for thoroughness that I really appreciate. Once he finished he shipped them back to me. This one was a real mess and I did not know what to expect when I unwrapped it from his box. He reamed it with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the reaming with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the internals with alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs until the pipe was clean. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime and grit on the briar and the lava on the rim top. The finish looks very good with good looking grain around the bowl and shank. Jeff scrubbed it with Soft Scrub and soaked it in Before & After Deoxidizer to remove the oxidation on the rubber. When the pipe arrived here in Vancouver for the second stop of its restoration tour it looked a lot better. The stem still had a lot of deep oxidation. I took photos 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 cleaned bowl and rim top looked like. The rim top good but there was some damage on the inner edge with some charring on the front inner edge. I also took close up photos of the stem to show the light tooth marks and the remaining oxidation on the stem surface.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank and it is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above. I took the stem off the shank and took some photos to give a clear picture of the pipe from the left side profile. It is a really pretty pipe.Since this is another pipe Bob’s estate I am sure that some of you have read at least some of the other restoration work that has been done on the previous pipes. You have also read what I have included about Bob Kerr, the pipeman who held these pipes in trust before I came to work on them (see photo to the left). Also, if you have followed the blog for long you will already know that I like to include background information on the pipeman whose pipes I am restoring. For me, when I am working on an estate I really like to have a sense of the person who held the pipes in trust before I worked on them. It gives me another dimension of the restoration work. I asked Brian if he or his wife would like to write a brief biographical tribute to her father, Bob. His daughter worked on it and I received the following short write up on him and some pictures to go along with the words including one of Bob’s carvings. Once again I thank you Brian and tell your wife thank you as well.

Now on to my part of the restoration of this Charatan’s Make 2012 Lovat. I decided to start by dealing with the damage to the inner edge of the rim. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the edge and give it a slight bevel to remove the damaged area and bring the bowl back into round.Sometimes the pipe does not come with enough work on it! Today I took the pipe to my old office to work on it while I waited for movers to come for our Canon Copier and some of the desks, computers and equipment. I was carrying it from my car to the office and it fell out of my hand and bounced off the asphalt parking lot. It left some nice road rash on the right side of the bowl. I tell you when that happens I want to cry!! This evening when I got home I filled in the divots of the rash with some clear super glue. Once it cured I sanded them smooth with micromesh and blended them into the surrounding briar.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping the briar down with a damp cloth after each sanding pad. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth and shoe brush to raise the shine. Mark Hoover’s Balm is a product that I have come to appreciate and one I use on every pipe I have been working on. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. It did not seat against the shank end when it arrived as could be seen from the photos at the beginning. Someone had trimmed the step down tenon slightly and done it crooked. To smooth that out and facilitate a snug fit against the shank end I cleaned up the tenon. I topped the tenon on the topping board with 220 grit sandpaper and straightened out the tenon end. It did not take too much work to get the fit right.I worked over the rest of the remaining oxidation and the tooth marks with 220 grit sandpaper. I started polishing the stem with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. At this point it is starting to look much better. I touched up the CP stamp on the left side of the saddle stem with some Rub’N Buff Antique gold. I tried some Liquid Paper but it did not stick. The Rub’N Buff worked well and highlights the fine stamping of the entwined CP on the left side of the saddle.I polished the vulcanite 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. This Charatan’s Make Belvedere Lovat from Bob Kerr’s estate turned out to be a great looking pipe. The mix of brown stains highlights the grain around the bowl sides, top and bottom. The finish on the pipe is in excellent condition and the contrasting stains work well with the polished vulcanite saddle stem. I put the stem back on the bowl and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel using a light touch on the briar. I gave the bowl and 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 Charatan’s Make Belvedere Lovat 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 ¾ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. If you are interested in carrying on Bob’s legacy with this pipe send me a message or an email. I have more to work on of various brands. Perhaps one of those will catch your attention. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. This is an interesting estate to bring back to life.