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Restoring a Carey Magic Inch Pat. No. 3267941 Mediterranean Briar Israel Calabash

by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is an interesting looking Carey Magic Inch Calabash pipe. It is unique for several reasons. The first is that it comes with a flat piece of briar that is shaped to the base of the pipe. It has some great grain on the base and plateau on the edges. The second is that the left side and back of the bowl and shank are smooth and the right side and part of the front of the bowl is sandblast. The pipe is stamped on the left side and reads Carey [over] Magic Inch [over] Pat. No. 3267941. The stamping on the right side reads Mediterranean [over] Briar Israel. The stem has the Carey Logo “C” in a box on the topside. We purchased the Carey from an estate sale in Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA on 08/05/2018. The finish on the pipe was dirty with grime and oils ground into the briar. There was a thick cake in the bowl that overflowed on to the rim top and inner beveled edge. They both have a coat of lava on them. There is a vulcanite shank extension on the shank end that is quite polished. The stem is a Carey Magic Inch stem that tells me that the pipe has the Carey filtration system in the shank. A slim tube or Papyrite slips over the tube and filters out the oils. The stem has three slots in the top to aid airflow. The stem is the typical Carey special mix of vulcanite and plastic of some sort and in this case, I am thankful that it is not chewed. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his work on it. He took photos of the rim top to show the moderate cake in the bowl and the thick lava coat and debris on the rim top and inner edge. He took photos of the stem to show the tooth chatter and marks on the surface. None are too deep and I am thankful for that. He captured the finish and grain on the sides of the bowl. The left side shows the sandblast and the others show the smooth nicely grained finish. It is a beauty. He captured the stamping on the sides of the shank and it is clear and readable. The stamping reads as noted above. The Patent Number is interesting.The stamping gives me pause. I know that Carey Magic Inch pipes were typically made in the USA and for a short time in Great Britain. This one is stamped Mediterranean Briar Israel which I had not seen before. I am also pretty sure it is made by the Shalom Pipe Factory for Carey. But now to do a bit of study on the brand.

I first did a quick Google search of the brand and Israel to see what I could learn of the connection. There I found a discussion on Pipesmagazine forum. In the last line of the section I am quoting from the poster, Briar Lee I found what I was looking for. I have highlighted it in red in the text below for ease. I quote the entire section and have attached the link as well (https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/threads/e-a-carey-pipes-for-new-pipe-smokers.102325/).

A Carey Magic Inch pipe uses a paper sleeve on a ventilated tube in the stem. When smoking a tiny bit of air is metered into the smoke stream.

This air doesn’t materially change the flavor but it significantly cuts back on mouth burn and tongue bite and somehow prevents prevent gurgling and soggy pipes, how I’ve not ever been able to quite figure out. But the system works.

After you become an old leather tongued pipe addict and want the full blast of the smoke stream, use a piece of plastic drinking straw to replace the paper tube.

Carey pipes have been made all over the world through the years, and I have them from the USA, London, Italy, Greece, and Israel.

From there I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-c2.html). And found a listing for Carey. It gave me a pipe with the same patent information but it was made in England so that did not help much. I have included a screen capture below.I turned next to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Carey_Magic_Inch). The site had a short article that gave a basic description of the Magic Inch system. It also provided a link to the EA Carey Website which I would look at next. I quote from the Pipedia article below as it is a simple description of the system and the pipe.

The “Magic Inch” System has been a Carey’s tradition for over 50 years, with over 1,000,000 sold. The “Magic Inch” is an air chamber inserted between the imported briar bowl and the vented mouthpiece which allows cool outside air to enter and mix with the warm tobacco smoke inside the “Magic Inch” chamber. Tobacco tars, oils and moisture, are squeezed out of the smoke. The residue drops to the bottom of the chamber and is absorbed by the Papyrate sleeve. From its rich tradition and thousands of satisfied customers, this pipe is sure to be your smoking favorite for life. Carey Magic Inch pipes can be readily identified by a boxed letter C on the stem, along with a distinctive series of three vent slits and the Carey Magic Inch name stamped into the side of the bowl.

That lead me to the Carey Site as noted above (https://www.eacarey.com/magicinchinfo.html). I did a screen capture of the page defining the Magic Inch system. The diagram is helpful to capture the mechanics of the pipe.The site also had testimonials from satisfied customers about the system and hidden in the bottom of one of the sidebars was the Patent info. I have included that screen capture below as it is very interesting (https://www.eacarey.com/careyclassics.html).Now I knew that the pipes were made in many countries and that Israel was on the list. There was no direct link to the Shalom Pipe Company but I am still confident they made this pipe and Carey added the plumbing.

I was ready to start working on this pipe. As usual, Jeff had thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. I probably don’t say enough about how much I appreciate him doing the hard clean up work before I even get the pipes. He does an amazing job. He had reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer back to bare briar and removed the remnants of the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He used a small blade to pick out the thick lava on the rim top. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and shank brushes. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe and the stem that came with it before I started my part of the restoration work. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the clean condition. The bowl walls look very good. The rim top had some remnants of what looked like varnish – almost rings or swirls on the top. The stem looks very clean and when I run my fingers along the edges it still has the casting marks on it.
I tried to capture the stamping on the shank underside. It is readable and clear as noted above. I took a photo of the pipe with the stem removed. I started by working on the rim top. I wiped the bow and rim top down with acetone to remove the varnish run marks on the rim top. Once it was wiped down the marks still remained on the top and turned out to be marks from when the bowl was finished (poorly finished on the top). I sanded the rim top with 320-3500 grit sanding pads and wiped it down between pads with a damp cloth to check the progress. It looked much better and was smooth. The scratches were sanded out and feel the way it should feel. I restained the sanded rim top and edges with an Oak stain pen to blend it into the surround colour of the briar. The match was perfect and once the pipe was polished more it would be a great match.I polished the smooth portions of the briar and the vulcanite shank extension with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad. I wiped the shank extension down with Obsidian Oil. I take photos of the three groups of pads for my own viewing primarily as I am looking for progress in polishing. Once again, by the end of the process it looked quite good. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips. I worked it into the sandblast portions of the finish with a shoe brush. It works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The grain came alive. With the bowl finished I decided to put a Papyrate filter on the apparatus at the end of the shank. I took one from the box and carefully slid it in place. The fit is snug and the look is perfect. Now I turned to the stem. I love watching the shine develop on the mixed Carey vulcanite as I polish it with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. I finished this part of the polishing by using Marks Hoover’s Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I wiped it off with a soft cloth and gave the stem another coat of Obsidian Oil. This Carey Magic Inch Pat. No. 3267941 Bent Calabash is a great looking pipe with some interesting sand blast on the front and right side of the bowl and vulcanite shank extension. The fact that it is stamped Israel fits as I have worked on Alpha Pipes of similar shape and style. The beautiful grain around the smooth portions and sandblast on the other portions of the bowl is quite stunning and works well with both the shape and the polished vulcanite shank extension and the polished Carey Magic Inch style 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 wheel and followed by buffing the pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Carey Magic Inch Calabash fits nicely in the hand and feels great. Give the finished pipe a look in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ½ inches, Height: 2 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 63 grams/2.22 ounces. I will be putting the pipe and the briar pipe rest on the rebornpipes store in the Pipes From Various Makers Section shortly. If you wish to add this interesting pipe to your rack it is a great addition. Send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. I appreciate your support and time!

Restemming and Restoring a Frasorteret Freehand

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by Steve Laug

This interesting Freehand with both smooth and sandblast finishes came to us from an estate we purchase from Santa Cruz, California USA on 05/28/2024. It is a unique looking pipe that took some work to figure out the stamping. With some digging and comparing we knew that the stamping on the underside of the shank just ahead of the vulcanite shank extension read Frasorteret [over] Hand Made [over] In [over] Denmark. You might well ask why we had to figure it out. That is simple in the half of the name line was cut off by the shank extension. The pipe has a flat bottom so it is a bit of a sitter. The finish is dirty with dust and oils in the sand blast portions on the bowl sides. The smooth portions are also dirty with oils and dirty ground into the finish. The plateau rim top has some darkening toward the back of the bowl as well as thick lava filling it the grooves in the finish. The bowl has a moderate cake. The vulcanite shank extension is oxidized and also dirty. The stem is actually a poor replacement that is a saddle stem for a straight shank. The pipe would have originally had a fancy freehand style military style stick stem that sat in the extension. It will need to be replaced. Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he started his work on it. He took photos of the rim top to show the moderate cake in the bowl and the thick lava coat and debris in the plateau finish on the backside of the rim top. You can see that it basically fills in the grooves of the finish. He took photos of the stem to show the oxidation and calcification on it but at some level it does not matter as it will be replaced. Jeff took one photo of the right side of the bowl to give a sense of the finish on the bowl sides. There are no other photos at this point.He captured the stamping as best as possible on the underside of the shank next to the vulcanite shank extension. It reads as noted above.It seemed to me that Frasorteret pipes came from the creative carving of Preben Holm so I wanted to confirm that memory. When you get a certain age memory can fool you! I turned first to Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-f4.html). It tied the line to Preben Holm but there was not too much more information at this point.I turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Frasorteret) to gather further information. There the information was scant but none the less made the connection to Preben Holm very clear. Here is the information.

The Frasorteret line of pipes were made by Preben Holm and were nearly identical to his normal line of pipes but for fills and pits and the like. The pipes were stamped Frasorteret Made in Denmark.

Now I had the background I needed. I was ready to start working on this pipe. As usual, Jeff had thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. I probably don’t say enough about how much I appreciate him doing the hard clean up work before I even get the pipes. He does an amazing job. He had reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer back to bare briar and removed the remnants of the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He used a small blade to pick out the thick lava on the rim top. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and shank brushes. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe and the stem that came with it before I started my part of the restoration work. Preben’s Holm’s magic is very visible in the shaping of the pipe. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the clean condition. The bowl walls look very good. The replacement stem looks very clean and will be a good addition to my can of stem options. I tried to capture the stamping on the shank underside. It is a bit blurry but it is still very readable and clear as noted above. I took a photo of the pipe with the replacement stem removed. It really makes it clear to me that it is a replacement.The pipe was ready for me to work on but I decided first to go through my stems. I went through both vulcanite and acrylic stems which may sound easy but I have several hundred stems to sort through. I was looking for something that flowed with the delicate shape of the bowl and shank and was simply weightless looking. I found what I was looking for and took a photo of it with the stem I found. I like the looks of the new choice. What to do next? I figured I might as well continue working on the stem since I had already started. I sanded out the tooth chatter on the stem end and worked on the oxidation with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper.I sanded the stem with 2×2 sanding pads – 320-3500 to start the polishing process and further remove the oxidation and marks. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. It was beginning to look very good.I love watching the shine develop on the vulcanite as I polish it with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. I finished this part of the polishing by using Marks Hoover’s Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I wiped it off with a soft cloth and gave the stem another coat of Obsidian Oil. I set the stem aside and turned my attention to the bowl. I used some Soft Scrub to work on the oxidation on the vulcanite shank extension. I did a lot of scrubbing on it and the oxidation came off the vulcanite and it looked much better. I polished the smooth portions of the briar and the vulcanite shank extension with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad. I wiped the shank extension down with Obsidian Oil. I take photos of the three groups of pads for my own viewing primarily as I am looking for progress in polishing. Once again, by the end of the process it looked quite good. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips. I worked it into the plateau finish with a shoe brush. It works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The grain came alive. This newly restemmed Frasorteret Hand Made in Denmark Freehand is a great looking pipe with some interesting shaping around the sides of the bowl and vulcanite shank extension. You can easily see the handiwork of Preben Holm in the shaping of the pipe. The beautiful grain around the smooth portions and sandblast on the other portions of the bowl is quite stunning and works well with both the shape and the polished vulcanite shank extension and the military stick mount stem. I put the new 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 wheel and followed by buffing the pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Preben Holm Hand Made Frasortert 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: 6 inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 42 grams/1.52 ounces. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipemakers Section shortly. If you wish to add this interesting pipe to your rack it is a great addition. Send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. I appreciate your support and time!

Spiffing Up a Rare Caminetto Masterpiece

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by Kenneth Lieblich

Roll up! Roll up! Come and see the amazing Ascorti Radice Caminetto New Dear Chimney! What a stunning pipe! I picked up this pipe while I was visiting the historic town of Bellingham, Washington. I wish I knew some of this pipe’s individual history, but – alas! – the shop purveyor had no information. It is a remarkable pipe – with the recognizable rustication of the New Dear line and an astonishing chimney elevation. This is your chance to get your hands on an extraordinary pipe – one of the original Caminettos. The markings on this pipe were just what one would hope for. They read Ascorti [over] Radice [over] Cucciago [over] Cantu-Italy. Next to that is a little shield symbol. Further to the right are the words “Caminetto” [over] New Dear. Finally, at the end, is a letter G. There is also, of course, the moustache logo on the stem. This information is worth its weight in gold, as it will help us to get a reasonably accurate date on this beauty.First, let’s talk about Caminetto. There is quite a bit of information to be had on Pipedia about the company and I won’t attempt to reproduce it all here. However, I enthusiastically recommend reading the general Caminetto article here, the Caminetto history article here, the Ascorti article here, and the Radice article here. If you’re really keen, you could even read the Castello article here.

Phew! After all that reading, I would like to quote a bit of the history from Pipedia:

Caminetto’s history started in 1959 when Guiseppe Ascorti, from Cucciago, and known to his friends as “Peppino”, was hired by Carlo Scotti to work at Castello, located in nearby Cantu. Since it’s foundation in 1947 Castello had contributed substantially to regained glory for Italian pipemaking.

Talent and assiduity soon made Ascorti one of Scotti’s most notable pipemakers – a man he counted on for the future. But, Ascorti had his own far reaching plan: He wanted to work as a self-employed pipemaker! After his wife, Paola, had taken over her parent’s small greengrocery in the early 1960’s this plan became more concrete. The additional income from the shop enabled him to buy tools and machines little by little to furnish his own workshop. By the end of 1968 he was ready and left Castello. Ascorti also persuaded his co-worker, the young and highly-talented pipemaker Luigi Radice (born 1939), to join him – the two were neighbors in Cucciago. Carlo Scotti, whom is known as a perfect gentleman, is reported to have spoken unreservedly about this development.

Ascorti & Radice started to manufacture pipes on their own. One of the first who agreed to market their pipes was Gianni Davoli, proprietor of a tobacco shop in Milan. The situation was perfect–two pipemakers in search of a distributor, and a pipe merchant in search of a mainstay brand to market. Davoli – via friends and relations in the States – had made flourishing contacts with US pipe wholesalers and traders. He shipped some pipes across the pond for inspection and received excellent feedback for the very high quality of the pipes. He, shortly after, offered to be the sole distributor worldwide, and Ascorti & Radice happily accepted.

Then came the legendary evening when Ascorti, Radice and Davoli gathered around the fireplace after a hard day’s work enjoying their pipes, a glass of wine, and humorous conversation. Davoli is said to be the one who associated the pipes with the fireplace or chimney, which is “camino” in Italian. Hence “Caminetto”, the diminutive (smaller) singular version of camino, was coined as the brand’s name.

It is, of course, so fitting, so appropriate that this pipe is, itself, in a chimney shape. Fantastic! Reading on, I learned more about the time period in which this was made. This history was originally provided by a fellow named joshoowah on brothersofbriar.com. It is now on Pipedia. I’ve actually taken a screenshot of the relevant information so that it is easiest for you to see and understand.So, based on the above information, I can safely state that this pipe is from the earlier time period of 1968/9-1974/5.

Let’s take a closer look at the condition of the pipe. It’s actually in great shape, all things considered, and must have been greatly loved by its owner, as it was well smoked. The beautiful acrylic stem had some very minor tooth marks, but nothing of concern. The stummel was heavily caked inside the bowl and there was some definite darkening on the rim. I’d have to inspect that more closely after cleaning. Stem first. To be precise, it was stem and shank extension first. They are both acrylic, and the shank extension came off with ease, so they could be cleaned up together. I cleaned the insides with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, and isopropyl alcohol. It was pretty dirty, and I went through a good number of pipe cleaners and swabs. A lot of debris was trapped in there and I needed to do some significant scrubbing. I also tried using some cleanser with tube brushes on the inside and that did help. I gave it a thorough rinse and moved on.I filled the few tooth marks in the stem with some black cyanoacrylate adhesive (the shank extension didn’t need any). After allowing that to cure, I sanded the glue down with some sandpaper, then the whole stem with my Micromesh pads. For the last few pads, I also added some pipe stem oil. I forgot to take pictures, but I restored the moustache in gold too. On to the stummel, and there was some work to be done here! I needed to get the darn thing clean. I reamed out the stummel and removed all the cake. Fortunately, there was no damage to the interior walls.I used a dental tool to mine some chunks of gunk out of the mortise – yuck! Just like the stem, I also used pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol to scrub the insides. It was quite dirty – much cotton was expended.I decided to de-ghost the pipe in order to remove any lingering smells of the past. I thrust cotton balls into the bowl and the shank and saturated them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let the stummel sit overnight. This caused any remaining oils, tars and smells to leach out into the cotton. The bowl was nice and clean after this. But, just to make sure, I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some dish soap and tube brushes. Then it was really clean. I used cotton rounds and some Murphy’s Oil Soap to scrub the outside of the stummel and a toothbrush with Murphy’s for the lava on the rim of the pipe. Once complete, I took a closer look at the darkness on the rim. It wasn’t too bad, but I thought it could use a little help. I mixed up a little oxalic acid and rubbed the dark spots with cotton swabs. This worked really well in removing a lot of the dark. I was pleased. I then rubbed some Before & After Restoration Balm into the wood. I gently brushed it into the rustication grooves and let the balm sit for twenty minutes or so. The BARB works so well at bringing out the best in the wood. I brushed it with a horsehair brush and buffed it with a microfibre cloth. Beauty! Later, I went to the bench buffer and applied some White Diamond to the stummel and stem. Then the final polish! The rusticated surface meant that I didn’t use carnauba wax – it gets gummed up in the grooves. Instead, I used Conservator’s Wax which worked like a charm.This Ascorti Radice Caminetto New Dear Chimney was a nifty restoration and I had fun with it. I think the result is terrific and it’s a stunning pipe once again. I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the “Italy” pipe section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 6 in. (152 mm); height 2½ in. (65 mm); bowl diameter 1⅓ in. (33 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (18 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅝ oz. (49 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this restoration as much as I enjoyed restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Restoring an older MLC Redmanol French Briar Crosby Style Pipe with a Redmanol Stem

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by Steve Laug

This older MLC billiard (almost a Bing Crosby shape though certainly a predecessor) is early 20th century pipe. It came to us from Mark in Missoula, Montana, USA and was a pipe from his Grandfather’s collection. He sent us a cigar box of pipes from that collection that included a lot of interesting pipes for us to work through. Mark also included a biographical sketch on his Grandfather, W.B. Bollen (written by Mark’s Father). His Grandfather, WB Bollen was quite involved in the state of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest of the USA in the field of agriculture through Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. The sketch is called Recollections of W.B. Bollen and I am in the midst of reading it while I work on the first of these pipes – the MLC Billiard. According to Pipedia, (https://pipedia.org/wiki/M._Linkman_%26_Co) the initials MLC stand for M. Linkman Company which was thought to mean Mary Linkman Company. They were a Chicago based company that produced both briars and meerschaums. The company was named for the mother of the same Linkman who branded pipes under that same name and then eventually became the Dr. Grabow pipe manufacturer with which we are familiar. Pipephil’s site gave a little more information at this link (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-l4.html). M. Linkman and Co. was established by Louis B. Linkman and August Fisher in 1898. The company closed down in the 1950s and the Dr Grabow branch was sold to Henry Leonard and Thomas Inc.(HLT), There was also a note that early Linkman’s pipes were stamped MLC in an oval.

I have written a bit more about the MLC brand on several early blogs (https://rebornpipes.com/2016/11/12/an-interesting-the-nuvo-mlc-italian-briar-hidden-in-a-wdc-case/ https://rebornpipes.com/2017/08/17/restoring-a-sad-old-mlc-bent-billiard/). The second link included this older photo of the Linkmans that is really fascinating. I am including it below.If you have followed this blog for a while you have come to know that I love really old pipes and this one fits into that category of pipes. It is stamped MLC in an oval over Redmanol over French Briar on the left side of the shank. The stamping is faint but readable with a light and lens. There are no other stampings on the briar. The band is Sterling Silver and is dented and worn but also bears the MLC oval logo stamped on the topside. It is a pencil shank billiard with a thin “unbreakable” tube lined Redmanol stem. The bowl exterior was absolutely filthy. There was darkening and oils ground into the briar. The thick cake in the bowl and the lava coat on the edges and rim top made it hard to know what the condition of the rim edges. There also appeared to be a thin hairline crack on the backside of the bowl from the rim edge about 2/3 of the way down to the shank. There was also a large silver “O” on the front of the bowl which I believe refers to Oregon Agricultural College (which later became Oregon State University). As with other schools in the 1920s pipes were made honouring the institution and were available to graduates and students. This fits the time frame for this pipe. W.B. Bollen received his BS in Horticulture in 1921 and an MS in Soil Bacteriology in 1922, both from Oregon Agricultural Colledge. I am fairly certain that this dates the pipe that I am working on. The Redmanol Stem was in good condition with the usual chips, nicks and tooth marks of a pipe that is over 100 years old. Jeff took the photos that follow before started the cleanup. You can see from the photos the condition of the pipe.He took photos of the rim top and bowl to show the condition of the pipe. You can see the thick cake, the lava on the rim top, an out of round inner edge and a potential crack on the rim top at the back of the bowl. He also took photos of the Redmanol stem to show its condition as noted above. He took photos of the sides of the bowl to show the grain underneath the dirt and grime ground into the finish. You can also see the nicks in the briar and the oxidized silver O that is on the front of the bowl. There is a lot of beauty underneath the grime. While he was unable to capture the stamping on the shank side he was able to capture the stamping on the silver band. Underneath the oxidation and scratches, it is still clear and reads MLC in an oval over Sterling.Now that I knew a bit of the history of the pipe both in terms of the maker and the pipeman who enjoyed it, I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had thoroughly cleaned up the pipe. He had reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer back to bare briar and removed the remnants of the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and shank brushes. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration work. I took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the clean condition. The damage on the inner edge of the bowl is evident as is the crack on the rim top above the crack on the back of the bowl. The crack extends across the rim top and just slightly into the bowl. That is to be expected. The bowl walls look very good. The Redmanol Stem looks very clean and the chips and nicks are visible the length of the stem. The silver band looks far better.I tried to capture the stamping on the shank side and band in the photos below. They are faint and very hard to capture. It is there but hard to see with out a lens. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts of the pipe. It is a beautiful pencil shank pipe. I also took a photo of the Silver “O” on the bowl front. It is nicely done and the tarnish is gone. I decided to address the out of round inner edge of the bowl first. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage on the edge and to give it a slight bevel to bring it back to round. I sanded out the damage on the rim top to smooth it as well. It definitely looks better.I turned to deal with the crack in the back of the bowl that I mentioned above. The first photo sows the crack. It is hairline and starts on the rim top as shown above and extends down the bowl about 2/3 of the distance to the shank. It is a single crack so I used a small micro Drill bit on my Dremel and put a small hole at the bottom of the crack to stop it from going further. You will notice some small nicks in the surface of the briar where the drill hit as I guided it to the crack end.I wiped the back of the bowl down with alcohol on a cotton pad to clean up any debris from the drilling and any that might be in the fine crack. I ran a thin bead of clear CA glue down the crack and in the drill hole and nicks. I used a dental spatula to press fine briar dust into the crack through the glue. Once it cured I sanded the repaired area with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the repair. I polished it with a 400 grit sanding pad and then stained the area with a Cherry stain pen to match the rest of the surrounding briar. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad. I take photos of the three groups of pads for my own viewing primarily as I am looking for progress in polishing. Once again, by the end of the process it looked quite good. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips. It works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The grain came alive. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. The scratches, tooth chatter and marks easily were addressed by dry sanding the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. It looked very good at this point in the process.I polished the Redmanol stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads to further remove the remaining scratches. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. This 1920s MLC Redmanol French Briar Pencil Shank Billiard with a Redmanol stem is a great looking pipe with some interesting scalloping around the sides of the bowl. An added bonus if you are an Oregon Agricultural College Fan there is a silver “O” on the front of the bowl. The beautiful grain around the bowl is quite stunning and works well with both the shape and the polished silver band and “O” and the Redmanol 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 wheel and followed by buffing the pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished MLC Redmanol French Briar 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: 6 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 24 grams/.85 ounces. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipemakers Section shortly. If you are an avid Oregon fan or know one then this is the piece of history for you. Send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. I appreciate your support and time!

Restoring a Plateau Scalloped Billiard with a Fancy Saddle Stem

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by Steve Laug

When Jeff and I were contacted about an estate in Santa Cruz, California, USA for sale I was excited to see what was in the lot. There were several with no other stamping on the shank than JHW. I have to say that I have seen very few JHW pipes and my heart skipped a beat when I saw not just one but 7 pipes with that stamping. All were Freehands and all were very unique – maybe even odd you might say! We purchased the estate on 05/28/2024. I am working on the third of the pipes. Now you might ask who is JHW? Why so excited about three initials? Well I have to tell you right up front that JHW is Jack H. Weinberger. Who is that? That does not help either? Jack H. Weinberger was a pipe maker in West Caldwell, New Jersey. Still not helping? He hired young lads from the local high school to help him out as he carved 10-12 hours a day. Two of these are none other than Curt Rollar and Mark Tinsky went on to become the American Pipe Company. There was a long list of pipe carving luminaries who came through Jack’s shop and JHW pipes but these two you probably have heard of. So JHW or Jack H. Weinberger was an important part of the American Pipemaking scene and gave many carvers a start and they have continued to this day. Now maybe you understand my excitement – being able to work on a few of Jack’s pipes and bring them back to their former glory.

This pipe I chose to work on was another unusual one. It is a great piece of plateau briar with a mix of grain all the way around the bowl and shank culminating in a tight pattern on the heel of the bowl. It is a beautiful piece of briar! But Jack chose to use this block very differently than most would have used a plateau block. He made a Billiard style pipe but with a round bowl. The bowl is a classic billiard with a high side on the right and a lower side on the left. The plateau on the top side of the pipe has been brushed and flattened to knock off the rough edges. The carving includes what I have called scalloping on the front of the bowl moving upward in ever larger arcs from the bottom of the bowl. Very unusual but something just calls out to you. When the pipe came to us it was dirty with grime ground into the finish. There was a thick cake in the bowl and lava on the rim top in the plateau. The stem is a fancy saddle with calcification, oxidation and light tooth marks and chatter on both sides just ahead of the button. There appeared to be some darkening around the inner edge of the rim and on the top itself. It was dirty but that did not hide the beauty of the briar. Jeff took photos of the pipe as a whole before he started his cleanup work. I include them below.Jeff took some close up shots of the rim top to show the bowl and cake. You can see the lava on the plateau rim top and the inner edge. The stem photos also show the condition it was in when we received it. Lots of promise with the pipe but some work too! Jeff took some photos of the sides – top, bottom, left and right to give a sense of the lay of the pipe on the block of briar. It is certainly unusual and unique. Here are some photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. The J is a stylized pipe followed by uppercase HW. There is also the number 6 at the stem shank junction. It is clear and readable. Take some time to read the great writeup on Pipedia and JHW pipes and influence they had on the American pipe making scene. It is a well written and enjoyable read. Here is the link: (https://pipedia.org/wiki/JHW_Pipes).

Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had cleaned up the pipe with his usual thoroughness. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners and shank brushes. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration work. The plateau rim top cleaned up really well. The rim top and inner edge of the bowl look good. The bowl itself was very clean and the pipe smelled fresh. The stem surface had small tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. The stamping on the left side of the shank is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad. I take photos of the three groups of pads for my own viewing primarily as I am looking for progress in polishing. Once again, by the end of the process it looked quite good. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips. I worked it into the plateau finish with a shoe brush. It works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The grain came alive. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. The tooth chatter and marks were so minor that I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads to remove them. I wiped the stem down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. This Jack H. Weinberger (JHW) Plateau Top Billiard Saddle Stem is a great looking pipe with some interesting scalloping around the front and sides of the bowl. The beautiful grain around the bowl is quite stunning and works well with both the shape and 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 the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel and followed by buffing the pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Jack H. Weinberger (JHW) Plateau Top Scalloped 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: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 49 grams/1.76 ounces. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipemakers Section shortly. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your collection send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. I appreciate your support and time!

Is this what you would call an English Walnut Shape on this House of Robertson Pipe?

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By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is a unique House of Robertson pipe we picked up. It was purchased from a seller on eBay from Long Beach, California, USA on 07/13/2024. It is a Billiard or maybe an Egg with a rusticated finish that makes it look like the shell on an English Walnut. The name House of Robertson is roughly hand-etched with an engraving tool on the underside of the shank on a smooth panel. This pipe is shaped somewhere between and Egg and a Billiard but really does capture the shape of a Walnut. As you look at the following photos you will see why I am not sure what to call it. The pipe has a unique rustication on the sides of the bowl and shank. The bowl is thickly caked with some lava overflow on the rim top. The outer and inner edges of the rim look to be in good condition. There is some darkening and nicks on the inner edge but nothing horrible. The pipe was dirty but underneath all of the grime it appears to be in excellent condition. It had an oxidized silver band on the shank that is stamped Sterling but I am certain it is cosmetic as there are no cracks showing on the shank end. It is definitely an interesting pipe and should clean up very well. The fit of the stem to the shank was good. The vulcanite taper stem was oxidized and calcified. There are light tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started the cleanup. Jeff took photos show the condition of the bowl and the stem. The photos of the bowl and rim show the cake in the bowl and the lava overflowing onto the rim top. The rustication on the top of the bowl and the inner and outer edge of the rim are pretty well covered in lava. It was hard to know what the inner edge and top really looked like until we cleaned it. The silver cosmetic band was heavily oxidized and almost black. The taper stem was oxidized, calcified and had tooth chatter and marks on both sides of the stem near the button. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl show some stunning and unique rustication all around the pipe. The finish makes the bowl and shank have an almost walnut texture. The next photo shows the etched or engraved with a name on the underside of shank. It reads House of Robertson. The silver band has a faint Sterling Silver stamping on it.I am including the information that I found when I received my first of the House of Robertson Pipes. I found a link on Pipedia that gave me the only information I could find on the brand. I include that in total as it is interesting to read.

“House of Robertson” was in business for many years, but alas, closed their doors in 1999. They were located in Boise, Idaho. They are noted for making rather large and interesting pipes. Thayne Robertson was a Master Mason, AF & AM, and started the shop about 1947 and his son Jon started working there in 1970 when he finished college, along with Thayne’s daughter. Thayne and his son started making the big pipes at that time, and made them together until 1987 when Thayne passed away. Jon kept the store and his sister moved on to other things. The House of Robertson appears to have closed around 1999 (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Robertson).

Since then I have worked on a lot of House of Robertson pipes and have been able to track down more information. I am including a link to a Catalogue that I picked up on eBay. Click on the link and have a look at this interesting book of information on the brand and the pipe maker himself (https://rebornpipes.com/2022/12/11/a-house-of-robertson-catalogue-filled-with-great-examples-of-thayne-robertsons-work/).

I am also including a biography of Thayne Robertson that I found on Facebook from a fellow in Boise, Idaho. It is an interesting read into the mind of the pipe maker. Make sure to take time to read it (https://rebornpipes.com/2021/10/31/house-of-robertson-pipes-boise-pipe-carver-thayne-robertson/).

Now it was time to work on the pipe itself. When it gets to Vancouver it my turn to contribute to its restoration. Jeff did a great job cleaning the pipe on the inside and outside. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and cleaned up the remnants with the Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the shank and stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the dust in the rustication on the bowl and shank as well as the smooth portions. He rinsed it under running water. He dried it off with a soft cloth. Once the dust and debris were removed the finish was dull but appeared to be in excellent condition. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it under warm water to remove the deoxidizer gel solution. I took photos of the pipe to show its condition before I started my work on it. I took a photo of the bowl and rim top to show how well it had cleaned up. There is some rim darkening but you can see the rustication on the top of the bowl. The stem tooth marks and chatter are very light.I took a photo of the engraving on the underside of the shank. It is clear and reads as noted above. I also took the stem off the pipe and took a photo of the parts to give a sense of the proportions of the pipe. It is a beauty.I started my work on the pipe by dealing with the darkening on the inner edge of the rim and the darkening on the rim top with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. It looked much better when finished. However, there was still some darkening in the rustication on the back of the rim top. I scrubbed it with Mark Hoover’s Before & After Briar Cleaner and was able to remove a lot more of the darkening. I put it on the area with my finger tips and worked it into the surface with a tooth brush. I worked over the area with a brass bristle wire brush and then rinsed it off with warm water. The end result is far better than when I started though there is still a bit of darkening. I used an Oak stain pen to touch up the rim top and the cleaned area and the finish look good. I worked Before & After Restoration Balm deep into the smooth finish to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I hand rubbed it with my fingers and a shoe brush to work it into the finish then set it aside to dry for 10-15 minutes. I wiped it off with a soft cloth. I buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to polish it. It really began to have a deep shine in the briar. The rim top is looking much better. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. The rustication on the bowl stands out with interesting lines moving across the sides of the bowl and the shank. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the vulcanite surface with the flame of a lighter – constantly moving the flame over the tooth marks and was able to lift many of them. I filled in those that remained with black rubberized CA glue. Once it cured I flattened the repairs with needle files. I sanded the stem with 220 grit sandpaper to blend the repairs into the surface. I sanded the stem with the 2 inch square 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped down the stem after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished out the scratch marks left behind by the sandpaper. The stem looked very good.I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding it with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I polished it further with Before & After Pipe Polish – using both the Fine and Extra Fine Polishes. I gave it a rubdown with Obsidian Oil one last time and set it aside. I put the House of Robertson Rusticated Walnut with a taper stem back together and worked the pipe over on the buffing wheel using Blue Diamond to lightly polish the stem. I buffed the bowl and stem to raise the gloss on the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the pipe multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the entire pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished the House of Robertson Walnut is shown in the photos below. The medium brown stains on the rusticated walnut shaped bowl works well with the rich black of the vulcanite stem. The dimensions of the pipe are: Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside Diameter: 1 ½ inches, Diameter of the chamber: ¾ inches. The weight of the pipe is 42 grams/1.45 ounces. This is an interesting piece of briar with a rustication that looks like a walnut shell on the bowl and shank. I really like how the briar and the vulcanite work well together. This one will soon be on the rebornpipes store. If you are interested in adding a House of Robertson to your collection this may well be the one for you. Thanks for walking with me through the restoration process.

Restoring a Compact Straight Grain Freehand Saddle Stemmed Pipe

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by Steve Laug

When Jeff and I were contacted about an estate in Santa Cruz, California, USA for sale I was excited to see what was in the lot. There were several with no other stamping on the shank than JHW. I have to say that I have seen very few JHW pipes and my heart skipped a beat when I saw not just one but 7 pipes with that stamping. All were Freehands and all were very unique – maybe even odd you might say! We purchased the estate on 05/28/2024. I am working on the second of the pipes. Now you might ask who is JHW? Why so excited about three initials? Well I have to tell you right up front that JHW is Jack H. Weinberger. Who is that? That does not help either? Jack H. Weinberger was a pipe maker in West Caldwell, New Jersey. Still not helping? He hired young lads from the local high school to help him out as he carved 10-12 hours a day. Two of these are none other than Curt Rollar and Mark Tinsky went on to become the American Pipe Company. There was a long list of pipe carving luminaries who came through Jack’s shop and JHW pipes but these two you probably have heard of. So JHW or Jack H. Weinberger was an important part of the American Pipemaking scene and gave many carvers a start and they have continued to this day. Now maybe you understand my excitement – being able to work on a few of Jack’s pipes and bring them back to their former glory.

This pipe I chose to work on was another unusual one. It is a great piece of plateau briar with straight grain all the way around the bowl and shank culminating in a tight pattern on the heel of the bowl. It is a beautiful piece of briar! But Jack chose to use this block very differently than most would have used a straight grain, plateau block. He made a very compact almost Opera style pipe but with a round bowl. The bowl is deep like a stack and seems conical as it moves toward the bottom. The plateau on the top side of the pipe has been brushed and flattened to knock off the rough edges. Very unusual but something just calls out to you. When the pipe came to us it was dirty with grime ground into the finish of the bowl. There was a thick cake in the bowl and lava on the rim top in the plateau. The stem is a thin bladed saddle that had light tooth marks and chatter on both sides just ahead of the button. There appeared to be some darkening around the inner edge of the rim and on the top itself. It was dirty but that did not hide the beauty of the briar. Jeff took photos of the pipe as a whole before he started his cleanup work. I include them below. Jeff took some close up shots of the rim top to show the bowl and cake. You can see the lava on the plateau rim top and the inner edge. The stem photos also show the condition it was in when we received it. Lots of promise with the pipe but some work too! Jeff took some photos of the sides – top, bottom, left and right to give a sense of the lay of the pipe on the block of briar. It is certainly unusual and unique. Here are some photos of the stamping on the underside of the shank. The J is a stylized pipe followed by uppercase HW. There is also the number 6 at the stem shank junction. It is clear and readable.Take some time to read the great writeup on Pipedia and JHW pipes and influence they had on the American pipe making scene. It is a well written and enjoyable read. Here is the link: (https://pipedia.org/wiki/JHW_Pipes). Interestingly there was a pipe pictured on the site that is the same shape as the one I am working on. I am including it for comparison sake.Armed with that information I turned to work on the pipe itself. Jeff had cleaned up the pipe with his usual thoroughness. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway in the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners and shank brushes. He soaked the stem in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Deoxidizer and rinsed it off with warm water. I took photos of the pipe before I started my part of the restoration work. The plateau rim top cleaned up really well. The rim top and inner edge of the bowl look good. The bowl itself was very clean and the pipe smelled fresh. The stem surface had small tooth marks and chatter on both sides near the button. The stamping on the underside of the shank is clear and readable. It is stamped as noted above. I removed the stem and took a photo of the pipe to give a sense of the whole. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth after each pad. By the end of the process it looked quite good. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips. I worked it into the plateau finish with a shoe brush. It works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The grain came alive. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded out the tooth marks and chatter with 220 grit sandpaper until it was smooth.I polished the vulcanite stem with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I rubbed it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and let it dry. This Jack H. Weinberger (JHW) Straight Grain Compact Freehand Saddle Stem is a great looking pipe now that it has been restored. The beautiful grain around the bowl is quite stunning and works well with both the shape and 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 wheel and followed by buffing the pipe with a clean buffing pad. I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The finished Jack H. Weinberger (JHW) Compact 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 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 3/8 inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 42 grams/1.48 ounces. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipemakers Section shortly. If you are interested in adding this pipe to your collection send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I worked on it. I appreciate your support and time!

What an Interesting Malaga Hand Made Egg to convert to an Apple

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by Steve Laug

In the latest box of pipes I received from Jeff were two Malaga Pipes to work on. The first of those on the table this afternoon is an interesting Malaga I would call a large decorative Egg. We purchased it on 06/23/24 off eBay from a seller in Farmington Hills, Michigan, USA. The grain on the smooth portions of this pipe is quite nice. There are also some rusticated bands around the bowl and shank end that are quite unique. It is something that I have never seen before on the Malaga pipes that I have worked on. It was obviously someone’s favourite smoker. It is stamped on the underside of the shank and read “MALAGA” [over] Hand Made [over] an upper case “H”. The finish was dirty and worn. There were tars and oils ground into the surface of the briar. The bowl had a thick cake that flowed over the top of the rim top. The top, inner and outer edge has heavy damage on the back side of the bowl. There was lava flowing over the edges down the first 1/4 inch of the bowl. It was hard to clearly assess the damage to the inner edge. The condition of the rim edge and top would become clear in the cleaning process. The fancy turned saddle stem was vulcanite. It was oxidized, calcified and there was chatter and deep tooth marks on the top and the underside of the stem ahead of the button. Jeff took photos of the pipes before he started his clean up work. Jeff took photos of the rim and bowl to show the cake and lava on the rim top and edges. The inner edge of the rim showed thick cake coming up to the top and flowing over the edge. The damage to the rim top is also very visible in the photo. The pipe was a dirty one but still a beauty. The fancy vulcanite saddle stem had deep tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside of the stem ahead of the button. The photos of the sides and heel of the bowl hint at the damage around the bowl sides from teh rim top downward. The briar is quite nice all around the pipe. The oil curing/finish makes the grain really stand out on the bowl and shank. Jeff took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. On the left it read MALAGA as noted above. On the right it read Imported Briar. The stamping was clear and readable. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the brand, I am also including the link to a blog that I wrote that gives some of the history of the Malaga brand and the Malaga Pipe Shop in Royal Oak, Michigan in the USA. Here is the link – https://rebornpipes.com/2013/02/09/george-khoubesser-and-malaga-pipes/. That blog also includes links to a catalogue and the history of the pipemaker George Khoubesser. If you are interested to learn more then I invite you to follow the link to get a feel for the brand and the pipemaker.

I am also am including a link to some printed material on the Malaga brand that came to me from the daughter of George Koch (we purchased George’s pipes from his daughter) to help identify the particular stamping on the pipe. The link takes you to the entire collection of materials that were sent to me (https://rebornpipes.com/2019/02/27/malaga-pipes-catalogue-of-pipes-and-tobaccos/).

Jeff had cleaned up the pipe using his usual procedure. He reamed the pipe with a PipNet pipe reamer and removed the rest of it with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the bowl with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap with a tooth brush. He rinsed it under running warm water to remove the soap and grime from around the bowl sides. It looked much better. He cleaned out the inside of the shank and the airway with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. The stem looked much better and the light tooth marks on both sides were still visible and would need a little work. I took photos of the pipe once I received it. I took a photo of the rim top and the stem to show their condition. Jeff was able to clean up the cake and the lava overflow that was shown in the rim and bowl photos above. The rim top was a major mess. It was chipped and burned and was quite charred and soft. It was going to take some work and some topping to remove the damaged portion of the rim top. There was some darkening around the bowl edges and top. The grain on it was quite nice. The stem looked better, though there were tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the shank to show that the clean up had not damaged it at all. It looked good. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo of the parts to give a sense of what the pipe looks like.I started my work on the pipe by addressing the mess of the burned/charred rim top and edges. The briar was actually almost charcoal like and soft. The softness went quite deep. I topped it significantly with a Dremel and sanding drum and then cleaned it up on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper. The rim top was finally solid at this point as was the inner edge of the bowl.I worked on the inner edge of the rim with a wooden sphere and a piece of 220 grit sandpaper. It took some work to smooth out the edge and bring it back to round. It is significantly shorter in height but the soft wood is gone and the rim top is solid. There were two small hairline cracks on the rim top that would need to be repaired but it was looking better. I worked over the rim edge and top with a 320 grit sanding pad to smooth out the bevel. I was liking the way it turned out. I used some clear CA glue to fill in the small hairline cracks on the rim top.I wiped the bowl down with a light coat of olive oil and sanded the smooth portions of the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. The finish began to have a rich shine. I was able to blend the repairs on the rim top into the surrounding briar and the bowl looked very good. I polished the bowl sides and the smooth rim top with micromesh sanding pads. I dry sanded it with 1500-12000 grit micromesh pads (I forgot to take photos of the sanding with the micromesh pads). I wiped it down after each pad. It really began to be beautiful. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm to deep clean the finish on the bowl and shank. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it in with my fingers to get it into the briar. I worked it into the twin rings in the bowl cap with a shoe brush to get deep in the grooves. I let it sit for 10 minutes then I wiped it off and buffed it with a soft cloth. The briar really began to have a rich shine. I took some photos of the bowl at this point to mark the progress in the restoration. It is a beautiful bowl. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks with the flame of a lighter to lift them. I was able to lift them significantly. There were several deeper ones that I filled with clear CA glue. Once the glue hardened I flattened them with a small file. I sanded them with 220 grit sandpaper to blend them further into the surface of the stem. I scrubbed the remaining oxidation on the stem surface with Soft Scrub cleanser on a cotton pad and was able to remove what remained in the curves of the saddle portion of the stem. It looked better.I sanded the stem with the 2 inch square 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped down the stem after each sanding pad. I was able to remove the tooth marks and chatter on both sides with the pads. The stem looked very good.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I did a final hand polish of the stem with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil. It works to protect the stem from oxidizing. I set it aside to dry. I put the stem back on the reshaped bowl of this “MALAGA” Hand Made H Apple and took it to the buffer. I buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish the briar and the vulcanite. Blue Diamond does a great job on the smaller scratches that remain in both. I gave the bowl and the stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. I am amazed at how well it turned out. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. This is beautiful smooth finished “MALAGA” Hand Made H Apple and the vulcanite, fancy saddle stem combine to give the pipe a great look. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¾ inches, Chamber diameter: 1 inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.29 ounces/66 grams. This is another pipe that I will be putting on the rebornpipes online store in the American Pipe Makers and Pipemaking Companies Section shortly, if you are interested in adding it to your collection. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me on this beauty!

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

A Beautiful Preben Holm Surprise

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by Kenneth Lieblich

It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago and, much to my surprise, my parents gave me pipes for my birthday! I say “surprise” because my lovely folks were somewhat bemused when I got into the pipe-restoration hobby. However, this would seem to indicate that they have endorsed this great hobby of mine. This pipe is, by far, the nicest of the three I received. It is a Preben Holm 400 Free Hand. The grain is truly wonderful. Fortunately for me, the pipe was in decent condition when I got it. Not too much work required. Let’s have a look at the markings. On the underside of the shank, there are the words Preben Holm [over] Free-Hand [over] 400 [over] Hand Made [over] in [over] Denmark. My mother is of Danish extraction, so perhaps that played a role in this pipe’s selection. Over on the top of the stem, we see a crown above the letters PH (obviously standing for the man himself). In the past, I have often wondered about many Danish freehand shapes – especially Preben Holm’s. Sometimes (not always) they seem to be intricate merely for intricacy’s sake – or made to look like a piece of abstract art. However, Preben Holm is a true master of the craft and I don’t feel that sense of unnecessary complexity with this specific pipe. It is genuinely well made and beautiful. Let’s learn a bit more about Preben Holm and his pipes. Pipedia’s article about him says:

Preben Holm (1947-1989) has set some marks in pipe history. Just before his 16th birthday in 1963 he sold pipes to the legendary Pipe-Dan shop and at the age of only 22 he headed 45 employees. He was among the first Danish artisans who made “Danish pipe design” famous in the USA in the 1960’s. More than that he was one of the very first carvers who exceeded this moderate Danish Design which based on the classical shapes. “Chasing the grain” they turned out wild and dramatic fancy pipes. Combining smooth with blasted surfaces, showing big areas of the original bark at the top of the bowl and at the end of the stem, these pipes were quite shocking to many elder and more conservative pipe smokers. When he started to sell his pipes to Lane Ltd. under the Ben Wade label, he caused a hype fairly beyond comparison. Especially in the U.S., as most of his pipes were sold there.The Pipedia article also goes on to provide the very interesting tale of his business written by the man himself. I recommend reading it, although it deftly sidesteps discussing his own inner demons. In the same article, Poul Winslow says about Preben Holm:

Preben was a genius. Maybe a bit wild, always flying from idea to idea and impatient for results. But could he turn a pipe! Some of the most extreme free-hands came out of our workshop in the ’70s, and whatever his critics say, they sold like crazy, mostly in America. And when it came to finishing, he was the best in the business.There are a number of forums and websites that talk about his grading system. Unsurprisingly, much of this information is muddled, contradictory, or applicable to the Ben Wade pipes he made. From what I can understand – and I am happily corrected by those who know more – the era of pipes from which my pipe came used a grading system (ascending) of 100 to 500. Regardless of the accuracy of that information, my pipe is a 400.

Holm had a line of pipes called “Crown”, which, fittingly, had a crown on the stem – just like mine. However, all the examples of Crown pipes I’ve seen state that word on the pipe and that word isn’t on my pipe. The other point of mild frustration is that I seemingly have no way of dating this pipe, other than the unhelpfully and nebulously statement that it was made “in the ‘70s”. In 2020, Steve wrote an article about a PH Crown that he restored. It is not the same as mine and doesn’t have the same markings, but there is some indication that this pipe might have been distributed in the US by Lane Ltd under Preben Holm’s own name. Moving on…

I began work on the stem. Nothing especially remarkable here, but I needed to pay attention to the crown logo and PH because they were not as distinct as one would wish. I wiped down the outside of the stem with oil soap on some cotton pads. I also took a BIC lighter and ‘painted’ the stem with its flame in order to lift the little bit of tooth chatter. This helped a bit. Then, I cleaned out the insides of the stem with pipe cleaners and isopropyl alcohol. Once this process was done, I used some cleanser and cotton pads to wipe down the stem. I covered the logo with a dab of petroleum jelly before throwing it in the Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover overnight. The following day, I cleaned all of the de-oxidizing mess and used a toothbrush to remove the leftover oxidation. This worked well.I then used all nine Micromesh pads (1,500 through 12,000 grit) to bring out the lovely black lustre on the stem. I also used Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil in between each pad scrubbing.On to the stummel, and whoever previously had this pipe had done a decent job of cleaning the inside of the bowl. It didn’t need reaming, but I did use my pipe knife and some sandpaper to remove any cake. I took the bowl down to bare briar, as I wanted to ensure there were no hidden flaws in the walls of the bowl. Fortunately, there were none.Another important step in this process was removing the dirty remnants on the rim (as you’ve seen in the photos). I took a piece of machine steel and gently scraped away at this debris until it was gone. I love this technique because it is incredibly effective (more so than soaking) and does no damage whatsoever to the briar. The results speak for themselves.I then proceeded to clean out the insides of the shank with cotton swabs, pipe cleaners, and isopropyl alcohol. There was some filth inside this stummel, but it wasn’t too bad. I then moved on to cleaning the outside of the stummel with oil soap and some cotton pads. That removed any latent dirt. I followed that up by cleaning the insides with some soap and tube brushes. I noticed some very minor dents in the wood (see the photos) and I felt confident that those could be raised. I took an iron and a damp cotton cloth and steamed them. The hot, moist steam can often cause those sorts of injuries to swell back into shape. In this case, it worked a treat! I sanded down the stummel with my some of my micromesh pads to make it smooth and lovely. You will have noticed that there were two small nicks on the end of the shank. I deliberately decided to not fill these in. Instead, I simply sanded them thoroughly as I just described. This was a good decision as the nicks were minimized and are part of the pipe’s history. Of course, I added some restoration balm to the wood and let it sit for 20 minutes or so. I then buffed it with a microfibre cloth and – boy – did it look good! This balm does beautiful things to the wood and really generates a beautiful shine. I then took the pipe to my bench polisher and buffed it with White Diamond and a few coats of carnauba wax. All finished! This is a wonderfully crafted pipe and it really looks lovely. As it is a gift from my parents, this is one pipe that I am keeping for myself and adding to my collection. I am sure that I will be enjoying this one for many years to come. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 6½ in. (165 mm); height 2¼ in. (57 mm); bowl diameter 1¾ in. (46 mm); chamber diameter ⅞ in. (22 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅞ oz. (55 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe as much I as I did restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.

Bringing New Life to an Older BBB Gourd Calabash

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by Steve Laug

I regularly am in correspondence with quite a few people through the reach of rebornpipes. This week alone I have received emails from Hungary, Slovakia, England, Australia to name a few. On top of those are the emails from the US and Canada. I received one from a Paul in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada about a pipe he recently picked up and he wrote to me after finding a similar one on rebornpipes. Here is his initial email:

I have purchased an old pipe. The case said BBB in it so I googled it. It is a Calabash like on your website, but the steel rim has an actual flap over the bowl that you can open or close with vent holes in it. It has three markings stamped on it, anchor-lion-n (not the “f”like yours). Can I send you a picture? – Paul

I wrote him back and asked him to send me the pictures. I was very curious to see the age of the pipe and perhaps help him that way. He sent me the following photos. The first two show the bowl as a whole. It was an interesting looking pipe. Paul also sent me photos of the rim cap and bowl cap so I could see how they function and could read the stamping on the silver of both. The stamping was as he noted in his first email.He also included photos of the case exterior and the inside. The inside of the case is stamped with a BBB Diamond logo in the lid of the case. I wrote Paul back about the pipe to help unpack the stamping on the top of the rim and cover. The stamps can be interpreted as follows:

The LB on the cover of the rim/windcap is for Louis Blumfield.

The other stamps are as follows:

Anchor is for Birmingham the city where the silver was made and fitted to the bowl.

Rampant lion is for the quality of the silver used in the rim cap and cover. It means that it is .925 sterling silver

The letter n is the date stamp. I included a copy of the Hallmark chart for British hallmarks. I can match your pipe’s stamp to 1912. I have marked it on the chart below in red.Paul responded with his thanks and a further email:

Hi Steve is it possible to give it a tune-up? professionally? And also, do you think I should just display it? Or is it ok to use? What would you do? – Paul

I wrote back and sent him my address and he mailed the pipe to me to work on. When I got it I opened the box and took some photos of the case and the pipe. The case is worn black leather with nicks and scuffs on it. The case is obviously hand fitted to the pipe. I took the pipe out of the case and took a look at what I had to work with. The gourd was dirty and had a burn mark on the underside at the bend. The shank end is Maple I believe and has some glue dried on from a silver shank band that was missing. The rim top had a silver rim cap and wind cap. It was loose on the top of the gourd. I removed it underneath the bowl lining appeared to be clay. It had some repaired cracks. It was sitting in a wood base that was inserted in the gourd. The base has pins snapped off in it that originally held the rim cap in place. The bowl itself had a large opening in the bottom but there was a lot of debris and clogging in the bowl. There was a rattle in the gourd itself. The stem was amber and was in very good condition. There were light tooth marks and chatter on the top and underside ahead of the button. The airway in the stem was very dirty and the shank was also very dirty. I took photos of the wind cap and rim cap to show the scratching and wear on the silver. It was worn and tired with a little bit of tarnish as well. I will need to polish both with some silver polish to remove the tarnish and the scratching. The amber stem looks good with some light chatter on the top and the underside ahead of the button.I removed the silver rim cap and windcap. I took a photo of the clay bowl insert. It is pitted and dirty but you can see what I have to work with. It is hard to see but the original pins that held the cap in place are all snapped off in the clay. I took a photo of the bowl with the cap and stem off. I carefully scraped out the clay bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to remove the cake build up in the bowl and also tobacco debris on the walls of the bowl. I sanded the walls smooth with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper.I cleaned the internals of the gourd shank and below the clay bowl with pipe cleaners and alcohol. I cleaned the amber stem at the same time with pipe cleaners and alcohol. Once it was clean the pipe smelled significantly better.The burn on the underside of the gourd had a burn mark and a gouge. I filled it in with clear CA glue. One it dried I sanded it smooth and polished it with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. Once finished it looked much better.I used four spots of all-purpose white glue on the inside of the silver rim cap. I pressed in place and set it upside to dry. I polished the scratches in the silver with micromesh sanding pads. I worked over the wind cap and all of the edges on the rim cap. I lightly polished them with the pads and wiped them down after each pad with a jeweller’s cloth. The cap and rim began to take on a very rich shine. The scratches were not all removed but they definitely looked much better when I finished with the last of the sanding pads. I rubbed the gourd and the maple shank extension down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface with my finger tips. The product works to clean, enliven and preserve the wood and gourd surfaces. It gives a rich a glow. I let it sit on the surface for 10 minutes and then buffed it off with a soft cloth. The gourd began to take on a rich shine. Since I did not have a silver band that would fit the shank extension I decided to stain it. I gave it a coat of Maple stain and Cherry stain using stain pens. It brought out some nice grain patterns in the wood. I gave it another coat of Before & After Restoration Balm and buffed it off with a cloth. It really was looking great in contrast to the colour of the gourd.I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the amber stem. I used 320-3500 grit sanding pads to dry sand the tooth chatter on both sides near the button. It took a bit of sanding but I was able to remove them all and start the polishing with the pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It really looked very good.I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I did a final hand polish of the stem with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a coat of Obsidian Pipe Stem Oil. It works to protect the stem from oxidizing. I set it aside to dry. The amber took on a rich glow by the end of the polishing. I put the stem back on the BBB Clay Gourd Calabash and took it to the buffer. I carefully buffed the gourd, the extension and the amber stem with Blue Diamond to polish the gourd and the amber. Blue Diamond does a great job raising more of the shine and smoothing out imperfections. I gave the bowl and the stem several coats of carnauba wax and buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. I am amazed at how well it turned out. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. This is beautiful smooth finished 1912 BBB Gourd Calabash and the amber taper stem combine to give the pipe a great look. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are Length: 7 inches, Height: 4 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 2 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. This beauty will be heading back to Paul in Halifax, Nova Scotia soon. I hope he will enjoy the pipe and enjoy smoking it. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me on this beauty!