In 1976 GBD introduced a series called the “Seventy-Six” to commemorate the United States Bicentennial.  I was in Sophomore in high school during 1976 and the year-long celebration had a big impact on me.  The Seventy-Six model remained in the GBD catalog until 1981.  From the 1976 Catalog:

“The GBD “Seventy-Six” is our contribution to the Bicentennial celebrations.  We have really pushed out the boats for “the colonies” in launching this new series that will be remembered by its proud owner long after the celebrations are forgotten.”

My first “Seventy-Six” model was a 1976 Coloussus and I’ve since added three more, including this Shape 1353.  I would call this a banker, but in a Smokers Haven sales ad, it is referred to as a “bent oval-shank pot”.

The pipe was in decent shape, with a moderate coating tars on the bowl top, along with a few nicks and dents.  The stem, while heavily oxidized still had the brass rondell.  The rondell along with the “London, England” stamp indicated a pre-Cadogan era GBD.  The stem was also free of any serious teeth marks.  Several of the nicks were very noticeable and I wasn’t sure they could be removed or hidden easily.

I reamed the bowl and soaked it for six hours with some Everclear and sea salt.  Prior to soaking, I buffed the pipe lightly with some Tripoli and White diamond followed by a buff with carnuba wax.  I like to leave the wax on the pipe during the soaking process in the event some alcohol is splashed on the briar bowl top and I believe the wax gives it some protection from lifting the stain.  While the bowl was soaking, the stem was also soaked in a mild solution of Oxy-clean.  I put a dab of grease on the brass rondell.  The oxidation was so heavy, part of the rondell was obscured and at first I thought it was just worn heavily.   That turned out not to be the case.

After the bowl was soaked, I emptied the salt and alcohol solution.   I heated a kitchen knife with a torch and applied that to the dents with a wet towel.  The steam generated allows the dents to pop back out most of the time.  In this case, the dents did spring back to shape and I was able to reduce the depth of some of the nicks.  Next I buffed the briar bowl again, using separate wheels of Tripoli, White Diamond and several coats of carnuba wax.  I was able to diminish all of the nicks, in particular the one on the right side of the oval stem.

Next I went to work on the stem, which I re-attached to the bowl in order not to round off the crisp edge.  I removed the oxidation with 1500 grade wet paper (dipped in my oxy-clean solution) followed by 2000 grade paper.  Next I moved to the Micromesh sheets, using 8000 and finally 12000 grade paper.  I then buffed the stem with white diamond and Blue Magic brand plastic polish.

A wire bristle brush dipped in Everclear was used to clean the shank.  It took approximately 25 swabs with the bristle cleaner until the brush came out clean.    I’ll let the briar dry out for a few days before smoking the pipe.   Below are some pictures of the finished pipe.