Tag Archives: waxing a stem

Reworking another newly acquired trade, a Hansen Briar Danish ¼ Bent Pot

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Blog by Steve Laug

A month or so ago I received an email from a fellow in Japan who had some pipes he wanted to sell. He sent me a few and one of them was this interesting sandblast ¼ Bent Pot that came in a pipe sock. The pipe was clearly stamped on the underside and read Hansen [over] Briar the same as the pipe sock. Along the shank stem junction, it is stamped Made in Denmark. The stamping was clear and readable. The bowl has been reamed and the pipe cleaned. There was a carbon bowl coating on the bowl. The shank is very clean inside and the pipe smelled very clean. It was so clean that I don’t think the pipe had been smoked since the fellow in Japan picked it up. The rim top was clean though the inside edge of the rim showed damage on the left front. There was no damage to the outer edges. The pipe had been given a varnish/shellac coat that made the blast very shiny. The stem looked very good. It was polished and there were no tooth marks or chatter on either side of the stem. Overall, I am happy with it but I will need to remove the shiny varnish coat. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work on it. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition of the bowl and the top. You can see clean bowl (with carbon coating) and a clean rim top. The stem looks very good with no tooth damage and no oxidation on the surface of the vulcanite.I took a photo to show the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took the stem off and took a photo of the pipe to show its condition.I turned to Pipephil’s site to see what I could learn about the Hansen Briar Made in Denmark brand and particularly the sandblast one I was working on (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-h1.html). I have included a screen capture of the section on the brand. It is noted in the side bar that it is a brand of Poul HansenI followed the link in the side bar to Poul Hansen of the article above to see what it is included on the brand (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-p4.html#poulhansen). I have included a screen capture of that section as well as the side bar below.Poul Hansen was a pupil of Sixten Ivarsson during the 1960s and 1970s. He started as tool and machine maker for Danish pipe makers but soon decided to carve pipes on his own. He concentrated on American, Japanese and German markets. He founded the Danish Pipe Shop (Strøget, Copenhagen) which he sold to Steffen Nielsen in 1969. Poul Hansen retired in 1998.

That short history is intriguing as is the connection to Sixten Ivarsson. That led me to do some more digging on Pipedia ( https://pipedia.org/wiki/Hansen,_Poul) and found the following more detailed information. I quote below:

Poul Hansen was a very skilled toolmaker and builder of machine tools. Around 1960 he got in contact with the workshops of Pibe-Dan, W.Ø. Larsen and others. So, he began to make a lot of special tools and machines for a large number of the Danish pipemakers in the early 60’s. He was inspired by the many beautiful pipes he saw when he visited the pipemakers and soon he decided to try out the art himself.

Poul Hansen was basically “self taught” and his early attempts suffered from kinda awkward shapes and finishing. Things turned for the better significantly when Sixten Ivarsson, appreciating the talent, began to tutor Hansen for a while and taught him the vital “tricks” of pipemaking. Soon after Hansen was in business fine. Right from the start he avoided the competition at home and concentrated on the American, Japanese and German markets.

Iwan Ries in Chicago was one of his first American dealers and in catalogs form the late 60’s and early 70’s you can find Poul Hansen pipes ranging from 125 – 500 $US. In Japan, his pipes were prized even higher at the same time. For the German market, Hansen made some very elegant 9mm filter pipes which rank among the best ever made in this tier.

Hansen carved the bulk of his pipes during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Around the midst of the 1970’s he took over a small Copenhagen tobacconist’s shop from it’s retiring owner. Now, operating the shop took a lot of his time but vice versa secured a steady income, and Hansen reduced his output considerably. BTW In Denmark he only sold a very limited amount of pipes – but some of his very best.

He stamped most of his pipes “HANSEN” + “BRIAR” + “HANDMADE” + “DENMARK” (the latter sometimes vertically). Few pipes are grouped “MEMORIAL” instead of “BRIAR”. If these are grading names, Memorial is considered to be the higher.

When Poul Hansen in 1998, at a very old age, decided to stop making pipes (due to his poor eyesight), the remains of his workshop, including a fairly large number of pipes, were bought by one of the leading Danish suppliers of briar and rods. Some of the tools are still there, but all the pipes – many not stamped yet – were obtained by Lars Kiel in early 2002. Some of these pipes are now up for sale.

Poul Hansen is little known in today’s circles, those collectors (especially in the States) who have his pipes, tend not to sell them.

With the information from Pipedia I knew that I was working on a bit of a rarity of pipes. It was a Poul Hansen. He started making pipes in the late 60s and early 70s and stopped making pipes in 1998 at an old age. That helped lock in a time period for the creation of this pipe. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

I started my work on the pipe by cleaning up the inner edge of the rim. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damage on the front left side. I gave the edge a slight bevel to minimize the damage. It looked much better when finished.I took on the shiny top coat on the bowl next. It was deep in the sandblast finish and I worked on it with a brass bristle wire brush and some 100% acetone to remove the finish. It took repeated applications of acetone and the hard scrubbing of the brass bristle brush. I was able to break down the finish and open up the pores in the briar. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the bowl, rim top and shank with my fingertips and a shoe brush to get it in to the crevices and valleys. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I find that the balm really makes the briar come alive again. The contrasts in the layers of stain really made the grain in the sandblast stand out. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The bowl really looks good at this point. The stem looked so good that I rubbed down with Obsidian Oil and used the Before & After Fine and Extra Fine Polishing Compound to protect and deepen the shine.With the bowl and the stem finished I put the beautiful Poul Hansen, Hansen Briar Made in Denmark ¼ Bent Pot back together and buffed it on the wheel using Blue Diamond to give it a shine. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It really is a great looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are – Length: 4 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of this large pipe is 1.23 ounces /35 grams. This Hansen Briar ¼ Bent Pot is another great looking pipe. It is much more beautiful in person than these photos can capture. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the Danish Pipemakers Section soon. If you would like to add it to your collection let me know. This is another pipe that has the possibility of transporting the pipe man or woman back to a slower paced time in history where you can enjoy a respite. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me.

Reworking another newly acquired trade, a Michel Deluxe Sandblast Pot

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by Steve Laug

A month or so ago I received an email from a fellow in Japan who had some pipes he wanted to sell. He sent me a few and one of them was this interesting sandblast Pot. The Pipe was clearly stamped and read Michel Deluxe [over] Made in [over] London, England. The stamping was clear and readable. The bowl has been reamed and the pipe cleaned. The shank is very clean inside and the pipe smelled very clean. It was so clean that I don’t think the pipe had been smoked since the fellow in Japan picked it up. It looked to me like it had a repair on bottom front wall of the bowl. The damage was well repaired but looked like it was from overzealous cleaning with pipe cleaners. It looked like the kind of damage that is caused by the wire in a pipe cleaner. The rim top and edges looked very good. There was no damage to the inner or outer edges. The pipe had been given a varnish/shellac coat that made the blast very shiny. The stem looked very good. It was polished and there were no tooth marks or chatter on either side of the stem. Overall, I am happy with it but I will need to remove the shiny varnish coat. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work on it. I took a photo of the rim top to show the condition of the bowl and the top. You can see clean bowl and rim top. You can also see the light repair on the bottom front of the bowl. They did a great job so it is solid. The stem looks very good with no tooth damage and no oxidation on the surface of the vulcanite.I took a photo to show the stamping on the underside of the shank. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took the stem off and took a photo of the pipe to show its condition.I turned to Pipephil’s site to see what I could learn about the Michel Deluxe Made in London, England brand and particularly the sandblast one I was working on. Sadly there was nothing there under that listing. I then turned to Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Michel) and found the following information is courtesy of Matt Hardin:

I see that there has been some confusion about these pipes recently from the entry under “Michel” on Pipedia. Not surprising at all. This tsunami of MICHEL and MICHEL DELUXE pipes which washed ashore on eBay a few months ago all came from one enormous NOS pipe auction on HiBid.

At the time I attempted to document what I could about the auction in general, who the owner was, and some detail about the hundreds of MICHEL and MICHEL DELUXE pipes included. I placed everything I could find in this long thread at Pipe Smokers Den with the full story evolving over time: https://pipesmokersdens.com/threads/the-ultimate-nos-pipe-auction.19629/

The bottom line on those pipes is that they were named after the shop which sold them: Maison Michel of NC, owner Michel J. Mitchell. They were made by a variety of private label pipe manufacturers, most probably from the 60s-70s. Some are marked Made in England, some France, some Denmark. Michel Mitchell died in 1980 after which his sister sold the store to a bank and the entire inventory of the shop sat in storage for ~40 years.

From there I followed the link given in the article to the discussion on Pipesmokersdens (https://pipesmokersdens.com/threads/the-ultimate-nos-pipe-auction.19629/page-3) an online forum that had this information:

Maison Michel was opened by Michel J. Mitchell, a Lebanese immigrant and WWII Navy veteran in Charlotte, NC in 1951. He operated his pipe and gift shop until he passed away in 1980. Thereafter his only survivor was a sibling who sells the real estate, is otherwise super wealthy (and a good person), and she puts his shop inventory in storage for 42 years until she passes away in 2022. Then in 2023 a mother lode of NOS pipes is unleashed online.  

I have included a banner below on the shop as well as some news clippings below that. Though they are small they are still readable.With the information from Pipedia I knew that I was working on a pipe from Maison Michel of North Carolina Pipe or Tobacco Shop. The one I was working on was English Made and may not have been a part of this motherlode but rather one from the shop itself. I am not sure I will ever know that for certain but it is finished while the others in the sale were not. I also learned that it was made during the 60s or 70s. Now it was time to work on the pipe.

I started my work on the pipe by addressing the shiny top coat on the bowl. It was deep in the sandblast finish and I worked on it with a brass bristle wire brush and some 100% acetone to remove the finish. It took repeated applications of acetone and the hard scrubbing of the brass bristle brush. I was able to break down the finish and open up the pores in the briar. I worked some Before & After Restoration Balm into the finish of the bowl, rim top and shank with my fingertips and a shoe brush to get it in to the crevices and valleys. The product works to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I find that the balm really makes the briar come alive again. The contrasts in the layers of stain really made the grain in the sandblast stand out. I let the balm sit for 15 minutes and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The bowl really looks good at this point. The stem looked so good that I rubbed down with Obsidian Oil and used the Before & After Fine and Extra Fine Polishing Compound to protect and deepen the shine.With the bowl and the stem finished I put the beautiful Michel Deluxe Sandblast Pot back together and buffed it on the wheel using Blue Diamond to give it a shine. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax on the wheel. I buffed it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. It really is a great looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are – Length: 5 ¾ inches, Height: 1 ½ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 3/4 of an inch. The weight of this large pipe is 1.34 ounces /38 grams. This Michel Deluxe Pot is another great looking pipe. It is much more beautiful in person than these photos can capture. I will be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipemakers Section soon. If you would like to add it to your collection let me know. This is another pipe that has the possibility of transporting the pipe man or woman back to a slower paced time in history where you can enjoy a respite. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me.

Restoring a Beautiful Imperial Old Bruyere 188 Chunky Billiard

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By Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is another pipe is another pipe that we picked up from the estate in Oregon City, Oregon, USA on 03/21/2024. This one was a nice looking thick shanked Billard that reminds me of Dunhill LB pipes. It has some nice grain patterns. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Imperial in script [over] Old Bruyere [over] Made in England. To the right of that is stamped the  which is the symbol for a Registered Trademark. On the right side of the shank it is stamped next to the bowl with the shape number 188. The smooth finish had some very nice grain but there was a lot of grime and oils ground into the finish around the bowl and the shank. The pipe was dirty but is quite nice natural tones of the briar. There was a moderate cake in the lower portion of the bowl. The inner edge looked quite good. The outer edge was rounded and damaged giving the rim top a crowned look. The stem seems to be hard rubber rather than vulcanite that leads me to think it is an older pipe. It has a stamp on the left side of the taper that reads Imperial with the tail of the “l” curving under the rest of the stamp in the same script as the stamp on the shank. It had some light oxidized and had some tooth chatter and tooth marks on the top and underside ahead of the button. The pipe showed a lot of promise but it was a mess. Jeff took pictures of the pipe before he did his clean up work. He took photos of the rim top and bowl as well as the stem surfaces to show the condition of the well smoked pipe. You can see the light cake in the bowl and the light lava on the inner edge and rim top. There is also some roughening on the outer edge at the front and back of the bowl. It appears to have been rounded over giving the rim top a bit of an artificial crown. The stem was lightly oxidized, calcified and had scratches, tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button. Jeff took some photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to give a sense of the grain and the shiny varnish or shellac coat on the exterior of the bowl. It is definitely an addition that will need to be removed. He captured the stamping on the sides of the shank and stem. On the left side it reads as noted above. On the right side it is stamped with the shape number 188. To capture the stamping on the left side Jeff had to take a few extra photos. I turned to Pipephil to get a quick overview of the background information on the Imperial brand (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-i.html). There was no background information on the site this time but the photos below are helpful in terms of the stamping on the shank and the stem.I turned to Pipedia for more information (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Tobacco_Co.). I quote the article below.

From Pipes, Artisans and Trademarks, by Jose Manuel Lopés’

The Imperial Tobacco Co. (Imperial Tobacco Ltd.) was founded in 1901 through the merger of several British tobacco companies. In 1902 it went into partnership with the American Tobacco Company to found the British American Tobacco Company.

See also: Civic. Brands involved: Comoy’s, Bewlay, Nording, Ogden’s, Salmon & Gluckstein, and Steel’s

There was a great older advertisement on the link as well that highlighted the age of the brand. I have included that below.Now it was time to look at it up close and personal. Jeff had removed the cake and the lava on the rim top. He had reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe Reamer and cleaned up the remnants with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He took the cake back to bare briar so we could check the walls for damage. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime on the bowl and rim and was able to remove the lava and dirt. He cleaned out the interior of the bowl and shank with shank brushes, pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until they came out clean. He cleaned the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the grime on the exterior. He cleaned out the airway with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I took some photos of the pipe before I started my work on it today. I took a close up photo of the cleaned up rim top. The rim top and the inner edge look good. The damage on the outer edge of the bowl shows up as rounding on the front and the back of the bowl. The bowl is clean and the walls are undamaged. The stem looks good with some tooth chatter and marks along the top and underside ahead of the button. The stem is hard rubber which makes the work more difficult on the tooth marks.I took a photo of the stamping on the shank side. It is clear and readable as noted above. I took the stem off the pipe and took a photo. The thick shank billiard is an attractive looking pipe with nice lines. The taper stem shows tooth damage on the top and undersides of the stem. I started my work on the pipe by working over the rim top and the bowl and shank with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped the bowl down after each sanding pad. The bowl began to take on a shine. I used a Cherry stain pen to restain the rim top and edges to match the colour of the rest of the bowl. The match will be perfect once I finish the next stage of polishing.I polished the smooth rim top and areas on the bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. After each pad I wiped the bowl down with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. It really took on a shine and the fills were less noticeable by the last three sanding pads. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the briar with my fingertips where it works to clean, restore and preserve the briar. I let it do its magic for 15 minutes then buffed it off with a cotton cloth. The pipe looks incredibly good at this point in the process. I set aside the bowl and turned my attention to the stem. I “painted” the tooth marks and chatter on both sides of the stem with the flame of a Bic lighter. I was able to lift all of them to the point where sanding the stem with 220 grit sandpaper should smooth the rest of them out.I touched up the faint stamping on the left side of the taper stem with white acrylic fingernail polish. I pointed it on with the applicator and scraped off the excess and lightly sanded it with a 1500 grit micromesh pad. I sanded out the remnants of the tooth marks with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper and was able to remove all of the remaining marks. Once finished the stem looked very good.I sanded the stem surface with 320-3500 grit sanding pads. I wiped down the stem after each pad using a cloth impregnated with Obsidian Oil. It started looking better as each step took it closer to the finished look.I continued to polish the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it further with Before & After Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to cure. I am excited to finish this Imperial Old Bruyere  Made in England 188 Billiard. I put the pipe back together and buffed it with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and then by hand with a microfibre cloth to deepen it. It is fun to see what the polished bowl looks like with beautiful straight grain all around it. The polished grain on the pipe looks great with the black hard rubber stem. This Imperial Old Bruyere Billiard is great looking and the pipe feels great in my hand. It is light and well balanced. Have a look at it with the photos below. The dimensions are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 53 grams/1.87 ounces. It turned out to be a beautiful pipe. I will soon be putting it on the rebornpipes store in the British Pipemakers Section. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Remember we are the next in a long line of pipe men and women who will carry on the trust of our pipes until we pass them on to the next trustee. Thanks for your time reading this blog.

Cleaning up a Lightweight Gourd Calabash Pipe

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by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the table is a small older style meerschaum lined Gourd Calabash without the top. It is one we picked up from and estate in Oregon City, Oregon, USA on 03/21/2024. The surface of the gourd is smooth and unadorned. It has an acrylic shank extension. The gourd had obviously been waxed and the surface was smooth and shiny. The meerschaum was unique in that it was almost like a meerschaum lining in a briar pipe than the typical cup liner that I was familiar with in Calabash pipes. The meer bowl had a light cake in it but the rim top looked good and had taken on a nice patina. The inner edge had some slight damage on the right side and was a little rough to the touch. The acrylic shank extension was in excellent condition and fit with a slight waist at the gourd end. The fancy turned stem was quite heavily oxidized and there were light tooth marks on the top and underside ahead of the button. The stem had also straightened out over time and would need to be re-bent to fit the flow of the bowl. I took a few photos of the pipe in the car on the way home and have included them below. I took a photo of the rim top and bowl to show the condition of both of them. The bowl shows that is clear of caking on the walls. The rim top showed some darkening. The inner edge of the bowl has some damage that will need to be taken care of. The photos of the stem show the heavy oxidation and light tooth marks/chatter on both sides ahead of the button. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to show the proportions of the pipe. It is a nicely shaped gourd and the meerlining looks great. The stem length works very well with the pipe.I started my work by cleaning up the inner edge of the meerschaum lining. I gave the inner edge a slight bevel with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper.I cleaned up the cake in the meerschaum bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe knife and then sanded the walls with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The walls were smooth and showed no burn damage.I cleaned out the interior of the shank, mortise and airway in the gourd and in the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol. The pipe was surprisingly clean. I polished the rim top (meer and gourd) and the gourd body itself with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. At the same time I polished the acrylic shank extension. I wiped it down with a cotton pad and a cloth impregnated with Obsidian oil after each sanding pad. The briar really took on a patina that began to look better with the polishing. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the gourd. I work it into the gourd with my finger tips to make sure that it covers every square inch of the pipe. I set it aside for 10 minutes to let it do its work. I wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The calabash really began to have a deep shine. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. You see the shine that the gourd has taken on and the way grain pops on the smooth portions and the rusticated parts have depth. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I decided to rebend the stem to fit the flow of the bowl. I heated it with a lighter flame and put it in the shank. I bent it so that when it was held in my mouth the bend of the stem was straight and even with the top of the bowl. I sanded the re-bent stem with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the tooth damage and chatter as well as the oxidation. It began to look much better.I worked on the oxidation on the stem with Soft Scrub. I worked it into the surface of the vulcanite with cotton pads and was able remove the majority of the oxidation on the stem surface. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to break up the remaining oxidation. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It began to look 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 polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. Once I had finished the polishing I gave it final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. More than usual at this point in the restoration process I am excited to be on the homestretch. I really am looking forward to the final look when I put a pipe back together, polished and waxed. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish gourd bowl and the vulcanite. I gave the gourd and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The shiny black acrylic shank extension and the vulcanite stem is a beautiful contrast to the browns of the bowl and shank. This Meerschaum Lined Gourd Calabash was another fun pipe to work on. The pipe is comfortable pipe to hold in the hand. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ¾ inches, Height: 2 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.27 ounces/36 grams. I will be adding it the Ceramic and Meerschaum Pipes section of the rebornpipes store. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I working on it.

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

Restoring a tired and worn Dunhill Shell 41111 Lovat

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Blog by Steve Laug

I took a second Dunhill to the work table. It was I picked up while I was in Idaho. It was one that we had purchased from a friend in Denmark on May 22, 2024. It is a petite and worn Dunhill Shell Lovat. The stamping on the underside of the shank read 41111 on the heel of the bowl. That is followed by Dunhill Shell [over] Made in England followed by a number 18 to the right of the D in England that will help me date the pipe. The bowl had been reamed not long ago. There was some dust and debris in the light sandblast on the rim and the inner edge had some darkening. The outer edge looked very good. The sandblast finish was worn and dirty but it could not hide the lovely blast around the bowl and shank. There were some very worn areas on the left side of the shank. The oxidized and tarnished silver band on the shank appears to be cosmetic as there are no visible cracks in the shank. The band is stamped with AD in a diamond which is the Alfred Dunhill stamp. It also reads .925 which is the quality of sterling silver. The stem was clean and there were light tooth marks on the top and underside ahead of the button. There also appeared to be a hairline crack in the middle of the button on the topside. The classic Dunhill White Spot was on top of the saddle stem. I took a few photos of the pipe before I started my work on it. I sent the photos to Paul and he is excited about it. I took a photo of the rim top and bowl to show the condition of both of them. The bowl itself had been recently reamed. The rim top showed a coat of lava and some darkening around the edge. The inner edge looked rough but a cleaning would make that clear. The outer edge looked very good. The photos of the stem show light oxidation and tooth marks/chatter on both sides ahead of the button. The first photo shows a tiny hairline crack mid button and just over the edge.I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. The photos are blurry but you can see the shadow of the stamping. In person it is very readable. The stamp on the silver band is also very readable once the oxidation has been removed. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to show the proportions of the pipe. As is my regular practice, before I started my work on the pipe, I turned to Pipedia’s section on Dunhill Shell Pipes to get a bit of background on the Dunhill finishes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill#Root_Briar). I quote:

Shell

A deep craggy sandblast with a black stain finish (usually made using Algerian briar) – the color of the stain used has varied over the years. Although there is some doubt as to them being the first to sandblast pipes, Dunhill’s Shell pipes, and the sandblasting techniques developed to create them are considered one of Dunhill’s greatest and most lasting contributions to the art of pipe making.

The documented history of Dunhill’s inception of the Shell is largely limited to patent applications — there are no catalog pages or advertisements promoting blasted pipes at the time. The preliminary work on the English patent (No. 1484/17) was submitted on October 13, 1917. The patent submission was completed half a year later, on April 12, 1918, followed by the granting of the English patent on October 14, 1918. This was less than a month before the end of The Great War on November 11th.

In 1986 Dunhill released a line of premium Shell finish pipes – “RING GRAIN”. These are high-quality straight grain pipes which are sandblasted. Initially only Ring Grain, but now in two different finishes. In 1995 the “Shilling” was introduced with Cumberland finish – it is an extremely rare series. These pipes exhibit a deeper blast characteristic of that of the 1930’s – mid-1960’s (and the limited ‘deep blast’ pipes of the early 1980s) and show a fine graining pattern. These are considered the best new Dunhills by many enthusiasts today and are very rare. The finish is sometimes described as tasting like vanilla at first, with the taste becoming more normal or good as the pipe breaks in.

There was also a link to a catalogue page that gave examples and dates that the various finishes were introduced (https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:Dunnypipescatalog-1.png).I turned to Pipephil’s dating guide to show how I arrived at the date of manufacture for this pipe (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1a.html). I am including the chart that is provided there for the dating a pipe. I have drawn a red box around the section. Since the pipe I am working on has a superscript suffix 18 after the D in England it points to the 1960 line on the chart below. To date it just add 1960 +18 for a date of 1978. I have drawn a red box around the pertinent section in the chart.I now knew that I was working on a Shell that came out in 1978 as far as I could tell by the date stamp. The shape of the pipe is 41111. From the shape chart on the site I could know that I was dealing with a Lovat (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/shapes.html). I quote below for the interpretation

Dunhill pipes are stamped with a four digit code.
Digit 1: (from 1 to 6) denotes the size of the pipe (the group).
Digit 2: denotes the style of the mouthpiece (0,1=tapered, 2=saddle)
Digit 3 and 4: denote the generic pipe shape (in yellow in the chart on top) 

Example: 5102
(5 = size | 1 = tapered stem | 02 = Bent)

When 5 digits occur, the meaning of the 4 first remain the same

The pipe in hand is stamped 41111 which is a size/group 4 pipe, the 1 is for taper but on a Lovat it is a saddle as noted in the chart on the link above, the 111 is the shape of a Lovat.

Now it was time to work on the pipe. I cleaned up the oxidized silver band with a jeweller’s cloth to remove the tarnish and protect it from further tarnish. There was more work to do but at least at this point I could read the stamping on it clearly. I used a brass bristle wire brush to knock off some of the debris and lava on the rim top. I did this in preparation for scrubbing it with Murphy’s Oil Soap.I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime and debris in the finish. I scrubbed out the mortise and tenon with small tube brushes and soap to remove the oils and tars in the shank area. I rinsed it with warm water to remove the grime and oils in the finish and shank. I dried it off with a soft cotton cloth. One of the benefits of doing this is that the briar in the nicks and dents on the bowl sides swell and virtually disappear. The pipe has a fresh look that really highlights the depths of the sandblast on the briar. I used a Walnut and a Mahogany stain pen to touch up the fading on the bowl sides. There were spots where the stain had faded and it added to the worn look. I restained it with these two stain pens and then used a black stain pen to touch up the spaces. The combination of the stains is very close to the colour on the Shell Briar. I let it dry and once it did it looked much better. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips to make sure that it covered every square inch of the pipe. I set it aside for 10 minutes to let it do its work. I buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. The first photo shows the hairline crack on the top side of the button forward about 1/8 of an inch. I filled in the cracked area on the stem with rubberized black CA glue. I set the stem aside to let the repair cure.Once the repair had cured I sanded it smooth with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I was able to blend in the repair on the top of the stem. It looked much better and the repair was solid.I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to break up the remaining oxidation. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It began to look good.When I finished polishing the stem with the sanding pads it dawned on me that I had not cleaned the internals of the shank and stem. My routine had been broken as this restoration was spread over the better part of a week. No excuse but that is what happened. So I paused the polishing and scrubbed out the inside of the shank, mortise and the airway in both the stem and the shank. I used pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. It cleaned up very well.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 polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. Once I had finished the polishing I gave it final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry.  I put the 1978 Dunhill Shell 41111 Lovat bowl and stem back together. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl multiple coats of Conservator’s Wax and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The Shell Briar stains worked amazingly well with the polished vulcanite saddle stem. The grain around the bowl and shank and looks quite remarkable. This is truly a beautiful Dunhill Shell 41111 Lovat. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.16 ounces/33 grams. I will be adding this to the rebornpipes store in the British Pipemakers Section soon. It will be a definite good deal is you have been looking for a Dunhill. Let me know if you wish to add it to your rack. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me. Cheers.

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

Restoring a Sasieni Two Dot London Made King Size 44G Oval Shank Lovat

2 Replies

Blog by Steve Laug

Last week I received a package of pipes to work on for a friend, Scott. I had no idea what was coming but when it arrived I was surprised with the interesting and amazing pieces he included for me to work on. These included a nice looking large Dunhill 841 ODA Lovat, a Campaign pipe with a Calabash style bowl and a start on the stem, a Sasieni 2 Dot London Made Canadian with a Lovat style saddle stem, and finally an older GBD MR&Co silver banded 5 Lovat. All of them are quite lovely and also interesting for me to be able to work on. I took a photo of the box when I unpacked the pipes.The second pipe I chose to work on from this lot was the large Sasieni Two Dot Large oval shank Lovat. The pipe has a smooth, rich brown finish. The stamping on the topside of the shank read Sasieni [over] Two Dot [over] London Made [over] King Size. On the underside the COM Stamp was shaped like football and read Made in [arched over] England. That is followed by a shape number 44G. The bowl had a heavy cake in it and the rim top and inner edges had a heavy lava built up. The cake was thicker on the back half of the bowl. The outer edge of the bowl looked very good. The finish was very dirty with grime ground into the bowl sides and shank. The stem was calcified and oxidized and there were tooth marks on the top and underside ahead of the button. The Sasieni two blue dots were on top of the saddle portion of the stem. I took a few photos of the pipe before I started working on the pipe and have included them below. I took a photo of the rim top and bowl to show the condition of both of them. The bowl itself had a thick cake on the walls and bowl bottom. The rim top showed a heavy coat of lava and the inner edge was heavily caked and its condition would be revealed with cleaning. The outer edge looks good. The photos of the stem show the oxidation, calcification and tooth marks/chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. The stamping was clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to show the proportions of the pipe. Before I started my work pipe, I turned to Pipephil’s site (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-sasieni.html) to get a feel for the Two Dot pipes. As usual there is some helpful information in short form on the site. I have included a screen capture of the pertinent section below.On the side bar it also included this information on the King Size stamping:

“King Size” marking in any Sasieni grade or finish were the largest pipes Sasieni regularly marketed.

“Two dot” pipes are not to be confused with the Duplicated One dot.

On the side bar there was also a link to move information in French regarding the Two Dot pipes (http://www.pipephil.eu/oddpipes/dots/sasieni-2dots.html). I ran it through Google Translate and picked up the following information that was quite helpful. (I know Google translate is greatly lacking but it at least gives a sense of the meaning of the words.) I am including the link and the translation should you want to check it out.

Two-Dot Sasieni

If you are intending to acquire your first Sasieni pipe, and your budget does not allow you to splurge these days, I cannot recommend enough that you take a closer look at the colonized pipes at this London pipe maker.

What differentiates the Sasieni two-point pipes from those with four? Very few two things, judge:

Alfred Sasieni wanted the pipes marked with the diamond to be absolutely perfect. Those which had even a surface irregularity (sandpit) the size of a tenth of a pinhead, were to be considered second choice.

At the beginning of the sixties (see diagram here http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/fr/infos/sasieni-timechart.html), while the house was already marketing second-choice pipes through sub-brands [1], it was finally decided to sell the “almost perfect” under the prestigious Sasieni brand, but by reducing the points to two.

These two-point pipes were marketed from 1961 until the early 1980s. On the second-hand pipe market these models are generally sold at very fair prices [2]…

[1] Illustrated list of Sasieni’s sub-brands or second brands.

[2] Do not confuse Sasieni pipes marked with a double point, with those that have a point on either side of the pipe.

From that information I knew that I was dealing with an “almost perfect” piece of briar and that explained the two small pinprick holes on the right side of the bowl. I also knew that the Two Dots were marketed for a short period from 1961 to the early 1980s which gave a time frame for this pipe. With the King Size stamp I also knew that I was dealing with one of the largest pipes that Sasieni marketed.

By the way, Pipedia gives a great history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Sasieni) that is well worth reading.

Now it was time to work on the pipe. I used a PipNet Pipe reamer first to take out the majority of the cake. It was a deep bowl so I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to clean up the remaining cake in the bowl and to scrape off the lava on the rim top. I used a dowel wrapped with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the walls of the bowl. I checked for damage on the bowl walls and it was in good condition. I sanded the bevel on the inner edge of the rim with 220 grit sandpaper and the thick lava coat on the rim top with a 320 grit sanding pad. I scrubbed out the inside of the shank, mortise and the airway in both the stem and the bowl. I used pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. It cleaned up very well.I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime and debris in the finish. I scrubbed out the mortise and tenon with small tube brushes and soap to remove the oils and tars in the shank area. I rinsed it with warm water to remove the grime and oils in the finish and shank. It has a fresh look that really highlights the grain in the briar. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads to minimise the scratches in the briar. I dry sanded with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. By the end of the nine pads the briar took on a rich shine and the rim top looked very good. I paused the polishing process long enough to give the rim top a light stain with a Maple stain pen to add some colour back to the light areas on the rim top. It matched the colour of the rest of the bowl and would do so even more once polished. Once finished I continued the polishing process with micromesh sanding pads. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips o make sure that it covered every square inch of the pipe. I set it aside for 10 minutes to let it do its work. I buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. First, I wanted to address the tooth marks in the surface on both sides. I “painted” the surface of the vulcanite with the flame of a Bic lighter and was able to significantly lift the tooth marks. I sanded the remaining marks and chatter with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth them out. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to break up the remaining oxidation. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It began to look 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 polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. Once I had finished the polishing I gave it final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I put the Sasieni Two Dot London Made King Size 44G oval shank Lovat bowl and stem back together. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The reddish/brown stains worked amazingly well with the polished vulcanite taper stem. The grain around the bowl and shank and looks quite remarkable. This is truly a beautiful Sasieni Two Dot King Size 44G Lovat. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ½ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 2.22 ounces/64 grams. I have two more of Scott’s pipes to work on and then I will be sending them back to him. I am sure he will soon add them into his rotation and enjoy some great smokes. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me. Cheers.

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

Restoring a Classic Dunhill Bruyere Prince

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By Steve Laug

I took a break from the queue of pipes I have to work on to work on a pipe in my own box. Paul in Illinois who loves Dunhill Prince shapes and he regularly texts and asks if I have any. When I was in Idaho I picked up one that we had purchased from a friend in Denmark on May 22, 2024. It is a lovely Dunhill Bruyere Prince. The stamping on the left side of the shank read FET (the designation for a prince) [over] F/T next to the bowl. That is followed by Dunhill [over] Bruyere. On the right side it read Made in [over] England followed by a number 7 to the right of the D in England that will help me date the pipe. The bowl had been reamed not long ago. There was some lava on the rim top on the back of the rim and the inner edge had darkening and was rough to the touch. The outer edge looked very good. The finish was dirty but it could not hide the lovely grain around the bowl and shank. The stem was clean though a bit pitted. The bend in the stem common on Prince pipes had straightened over time. There were tooth marks on the top and underside ahead of the button. The classic Dunhill White Spot was missing on top of the stem but a clean small hole remained where it had been. I took a few photos of the pipe before I started my work on it. I sent the photos to Paul and he is excited about it. I took a photo of the rim top and bowl to show the condition of both of them. The bowl itself had been recently reamed. The rim top showed a coat of lava and some darkening around the edge. The inner edge looked rough but a cleaning would make that clear. The outer edge looked very good. The photos of the stem show light oxidation, the missing white spot on the top and tooth marks/chatter on both sides ahead of the button. I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. The photos are blurry but you can see the shadow of the stamping. The stamping was faint but readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to show the proportions of the pipe. As is my regular practice, before I started my work on the pipe, I turned to Pipedia’s section on Dunhill Bruyere Pipes to get a bit of background on the Dunhill finishes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill#Root_Briar). I quote:

Bruyere

The original finish produced (usually made using Calabrian briar), and a big part of developing and marketing the brand. It was the only finish from 1910 until 1917. A dark reddish-brown stain. Before the 1950s, there were three possible finishes for Dunhill pipes. The Bruyere was a smooth finish with a deep red stain, obtained through two coats, a brown understain followed by a deep red.

There was a link on the above site to a section specifically written regarding the Bruyere finish (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill_Bruyere). I turned there and have included the information from that short article below.

Initially, made from over century-old briar burls, classified by a “B” (denoted highest quality pipe); “DR” (denoted straight-grained) and an “A” (denoted first quality), until early 1915. After that, they became a high-end subset to the Dunhill ‘Bruyere’. The DR and B pipes, a limited production, they should be distinguished as hand-cut in London from burls as opposed to the Bruyere line which was generally finished from French turned bowls until 1917, when the Calabrian briar started to be used, but not completely. Only in 1920 Dunhill took the final step in its pipe making operation and began sourcing and cutting all of its own bowls, proudly announcing thereafter that “no French briar was employed”.

Bruyere pipes were usually made using Calabrian briar, a very dense and hardy briar that has a modest grain but does very well with the deep red stain.

“Before the 1950s, there were three possible finishes for Dunhill pipes. The Bruyere was a smooth finish with a deep red stain, obtained through two coats, a brown understain followed by a deep red. The Shell finish was the original sandblast with a near-black stain (though the degree to which it is truly black has varied over the years). Lastly, the Root finish was smooth also but with a light brown finish. Early Dunhill used different briars with different stains, resulting in more distinct and identifiable creations… Over the years, to these traditional styles were added four new finishes: Cumberland, Dress, Chestnut and Amber Root, plus some now-defunct finishes, such as County, Russet and Red Bark.”

There was also a link to a catalogue page that gave examples and dates that the various finishes were introduced (https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:Dunnypipescatalog-1.png).I turned to Pipephil’s dating guide to show how I arrived at the date of manufacture for this pipe (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1a.html). I am including the chart that is provided there for the dating a pipe. I have drawn a red box around the section. Since the pipe I am working on has a suffix 7 and is the same size as the D in England. It points to the 1960 line on the chart below. To date it just add 1960 +7 for a date of 1967. I have drawn a red box around the pertinent section in the chart.I now knew that I was working on a Bruyere that came out in 1967 as far as I could tell by the date stamp. The shape of the pipe is an FET (Prince) with a F/T or fishtail stem.

Now it was time to work on the pipe. I used a PipNet Pipe reamer first to take out the majority of the thin cake. I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to clean up the remaining cake in the bowl and to scrape off the lava on the rim top. I used a dowel wrapped with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the walls of the bowl. I checked for damage on the bowl walls and it was in good condition. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the damage around the bowl edge and the lava build up on the rim top. It is looking much better at this point in the process. I scrubbed out the inside of the shank, mortise and the airway in both the stem and the shank. I started the process by scraping the inside of the mortis with a pen knife. There was a small ridge of build up mid mortise making the seating of the stem incorrect. Once I had scraped it clean I used pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol on the shank and on the airway in the stem. It cleaned up very well. I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime and debris in the finish. I scrubbed out the mortise and tenon with small tube brushes and soap to remove the oils and tars in the shank area. I rinsed it with warm water to remove the grime and oils in the finish and shank. I dried it off with a soft cotton cloth. One of the benefits of doing this is that the briar in the nicks and dents on the bowl sides swell and virtually disappear. The pipe has a fresh look that really highlights the grain on the briar. I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads to minimise the scratches in the briar. I dry sanded with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. By the end of the nine pads the briar took on a rich shine and the rim top looked very good. Even the damage on the outer edge, while still present looked much better and the roughness was gone. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips to make sure that it covered every square inch of the pipe. I set it aside for 10 minutes to let it do its work. I buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. First, I wanted to address the tooth marks in the surface on both sides. I “painted” the surface of the vulcanite with the flame of a Bic lighter and was able to significantly lift the tooth marks. I also heated the stem so I could put a slight bend in it to capture the Prince shape. I sanded out the remaining tooth marks that were present with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. It looked very good at this point. I paused in the sanding process to address the missing white dot on the stem surface. I have some white spot material that I received from Mark Hoover. It is a small envelope of white spots. I put one spot in the lid of a jar I have here and mixed it with some 100% acetone. I stirred it with a dental pick to mix the acetone with the spot material. It softens and becomes malleable. I pressed the softened material into the hole on the top of the stem with the dental pick. Once it set I sanded off the excess material on the stem surface with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to smooth out the newly filled white spot and to break up the remaining oxidation. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It began to look 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 polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. Once I had finished the polishing I gave it final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry.   The diameter of the tenon made it clear that the pipe had originally had an inner tube. Somewhere along the journey the tube had disappeared. I went through my can of tubes and stingers and found an inner tube that was the right length. I inserted it in the tenon and took photos of the fit.I put the 1967 Dunhill Bruyere FET F/T Prince bowl and stem back together. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The reddish/brown stains worked amazingly well with the polished vulcanite taper stem. The grain around the bowl and shank and looks quite remarkable. This is truly a beautiful Dunhill Bruyere FET F/T Prince. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 1 ¼ inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber diameter: 7/8 of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.23 ounces/36 grams. I have another pipe set aside for Paul in Illinois that I will pack together and send to him. I am sure he will soon add them into his rotation and enjoy some great smokes. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me. Cheers.

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

Restoring a 1961 Dunhill Bruyere Made in London 1 ODA 841 Lovat

2 Replies

by Steve Laug

Last week I received a package of pipes to work on for a friend, Scott. I had no idea what was coming but when it arrived I was surprised with the interesting and amazing pieces he included for me to work on. These included a nice looking large Dunhill 841 ODA Lovat, a Campaign pipe with a Calabash style bowl and a start on the stem, a Sasieni 2 Dot London Made Canadian with a Lovat style saddle stem, and finally an older GBD MR&Co silver banded 5 Lovat. All of them are quite lovely and also interesting for me to be able to work on. I took a photo of the box when I unpacked the pipes.The first pipe I chose to work on from this lot was the large Dunhill ODA 841 Lovat. The pipe has a smooth Bruyere finish. The stamping on the left side of the shank read ODA [over] 841 next to the bowl. That is followed by Dunhill [over] Bruyere. On the right side it read Made in [over] England followed by a number 1 to the right of the D in England that will help me date the pipe. The bowl had a heavy cake in it and the rim top and inner edges had a heavy lava built up. The outer edge of the bowl had knocked hard against a surface and damaged all the way around. The finish was very dirty with grime ground into the bowl sides and shank. The stem was calcified and oxidized and there were tooth marks on the top and underside ahead of the button. The classic Dunhill White Spot was on top of the saddle portion of the stem. I took a few photos of the pipe before I started my work on it and have included them below. I took a photo of the rim top and bowl to show the condition of both of them. The bowl itself had a thick cake on the walls and bowl bottom. The rim top showed a heavy coat of lava and the inner edge looked rough from being reamed with a knife but a cleaning would make that clear. The outer edge on the front of the bowl and the back have knocking damage and the side edges have some as well. The photos of the stem show the oxidation, calcification and tooth marks/chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took photos of the stamping on the sides of the shank. The stamping was clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to show the proportions of the pipe. Before I started my work on the pipe, I turned to Pipedia’s section on Dunhill Bruyere Pipes to get a bit of background on the Dunhill finishes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill#Root_Briar). I quote:

Bruyere

The original finish produced (usually made using Calabrian briar), and a big part of developing and marketing the brand. It was the only finish from 1910 until 1917. A dark reddish-brown stain. Before the 1950s, there were three possible finishes for Dunhill pipes. The Bruyere was a smooth finish with a deep red stain, obtained through two coats, a brown understain followed by a deep red.

There was a link on the above site to a section specifically written regarding the Bruyere finish (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill_Bruyere). I turned there and have included the information from that short article below.

Initially, made from over century-old briar burls, classified by a “B” (denoted highest quality pipe); “DR” (denoted straight-grained) and an “A” (denoted first quality), until early 1915. After that, they became a high-end subset to the Dunhill ‘Bruyere’. The DR and B pipes, a limited production, they should be distinguished as hand-cut in London from burls as opposed to the Bruyere line which was generally finished from French turned bowls until 1917, when the Calabrian briar started to be used, but not completely. Only in 1920 Dunhill took the final step in its pipe making operation and began sourcing and cutting all of its own bowls, proudly announcing thereafter that “no French briar was employed”.

Bruyere pipes were usually made using Calabrian briar, a very dense and hardy briar that has a modest grain but does very well with the deep red stain.

“Before the 1950s, there were three possible finishes for Dunhill pipes. The Bruyere was a smooth finish with a deep red stain, obtained through two coats, a brown understain followed by a deep red. The Shell finish was the original sandblast with a near-black stain (though the degree to which it is truly black has varied over the years). Lastly, the Root finish was smooth also but with a light brown finish. Early Dunhill used different briars with different stains, resulting in more distinct and identifiable creations… Over the years, to these traditional styles were added four new finishes: Cumberland, Dress, Chestnut and Amber Root, plus some now-defunct finishes, such as County, Russet and Red Bark.”

There was also a link to a catalogue page that gave examples and dates that the various finishes were introduced (https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:Dunnypipescatalog-1.png). I turned to Pipephil’s dating guide to show how I arrived at the date of manufacture for this pipe (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/cledat-en1a.html). I am including the chart that is provided there for the dating a pipe. I have drawn a red box around the section. Since the pipe I am working on has a suffix 1 it points to the 1960 line on the chart below. I have drawn a red box around the pertinent section in the chart.On Pipedia they also have an ODA shape chart that was helpful. I have included that below (https://pipedia.org/wiki/A_DUNHILL_ODA_SHAPE_CHART).I turned further to a listing on Pipephil (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/infos/dunhill-oda-en.html)with regard to the ODA 800 Series pipes. It is a helpful document and I have included a screen capture of it below. The chart has a paragraph at the top that reads as follows:

The following chart (1) lists larger Dunhill shapes introduced in 1950. They were stamped “ODA” with a number ranging from 806 to 857 (but not all number in between….

After the chart were the following paragraphs that I am also including.

Pipes from the ODA 800 series must be distinguished from the pre-WWII “OD” (Own Design) pipes. The later were carved to order and graded from A to J.

 The ODA 800 series were discontinued in the mid 1990s.

 (1) According to John Loring (op. cit.) I now knew that I was working on a Bruyere that came out in 1961 as far as I could tell by the date stamp. The shape of the pipe is Dunhill ODA 841 which were made from 1950 until 1990 when the 800 series was discontinued. So this pipe fits the date line perfectly. The ODA 841 was the designation for Lovat shape with a saddle stem.

Now it was time to work on the pipe. I used a PipNet Pipe reamer first to take out the majority of the cake. It was a deep bowl so I used a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife to clean up the remaining cake in the bowl and to scrape off the lava on the rim top. I used a dowel wrapped with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the walls of the bowl. I checked for damage on the bowl walls and it was in good condition. I scrubbed out the inside of the shank, mortise and the airway in both the stem and the shank. I used pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. It cleaned up very well.I scrubbed the exterior of the bowl with a tooth brush and undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the grime and debris in the finish. I scrubbed out the mortise and tenon with small tube brushes and soap to remove the oils and tars in the shank area. I rinsed it with warm water to remove the grime and oils in the finish and shank. It has a fresh look that really highlights the briar. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the damage around the bowl edge and the lava build up on the rim top. I also carefully knocked off the rough edges on the outer edge of the bowl without significantly changing the damage. It is looking much better at this point in the process.I polished the briar with micromesh sanding pads to minimise the scratches in the briar. I dry sanded with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. By the end of the nine pads the briar took on a rich shine and the rim top looked very good. Even the damage on the outer edge, while still present looked much better and the roughness was gone. I paused in the polishing to touch up the light spots on the bowl top and edges with a Cherry stain pen. The colour is a perfect match and with the ongoing polishing and final buffing of the bowl it will blend in perfectly.Once the stain cured I went back to the polishing routine. The stain coat blended in quite well and was looking like it should by the time I finished the final pad. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I worked it into the briar with my finger tips o make sure that it covered every square inch of the pipe. I set it aside for 10 minutes to let it do its work. I buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. First I wanted to address the tooth marks in the surface on both sides. I “painted” the surface of the vulcanite and was able to significantly lift the tooth marks. I sanded the remaining marks and chatter with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth them out. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to break up the remaining oxidation. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It began to look 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 polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. Once I had finished the polishing I gave it final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry.  I put the 1961 Dunhill Bruyere ODA 841 Lovat bowl and stem back together. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The reddish/brown stains worked amazingly well with the polished vulcanite taper stem. The grain around the bowl and shank and looks quite remarkable. This is truly a beautiful Dunhill Bruyere ODA 841 Lovat. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 ¾ 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 1.98 ounces/56 grams. I have three more of Scott’s pipes to work on and then I will be sending them back to him. I am sure he will soon add them into his rotation and enjoy some great smokes. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me. Cheers.

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.

Cleaning up a Pipe Hunt Find from Idaho

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by Steve Laug

A few weeks ago, I visited my Dad and family in Idaho Falls, Idaho. While there my Brother Jeff and I did a bit of pipe hunting. We did not find much but we did find an interesting Banker shaped pipe in an Antique Mall. The price was right ($35USD) so we picked it up and brought it home to Jeff’s house. The surface of the briar has been roughened, perhaps by steel wool or a wire brush. The finish was rough to the touch but it looked like there might be some nice grain underneath. With the use of a lens I could read the stamping on the topside. It read House of Lords [over] Made in England. There was the remnant of the shape number on the right side of the shank next to the bowl. It could be a 52S shape. The bowl had a cake in it and the rim top had a thick coat of lava built up. The stem had a crown stamp on the topside of the saddle. The stem was lightly oxidized and there were tooth marks on the top and underside ahead of the button. I took a few photos of the pipe in the car on the way home and have included them below. I reamed the pipe while I was staying with Jeff. I forgot to take photos of the pipe before I reamed it. I brought it home to finish my work on it. I took photos of the pipe when I took it out of the box this afternoon. Jeff had scraped the lava off the rim top and we cleaned up the outside of the bowl. You can see the damage to the finish in the photos below. Whoever had done the work on it had made a mess of it. This was going to be a fun one to bring back to life. I took a photo of the rim top and bowl to show the condition of both of them. The bowl itself looked quite clean after our reaming. The rim top showed some darkening on the top and down the outside edges where it had run over the rim top. The inner edge was rough from being reamed with a knife and would need to be cleaned up. The photos of the stem show the light oxidation and tooth marks/chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the side of the shank. The stamping was clear and readable as noted above. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to show the proportions of the pipe. I turned to Pipephil’s site (www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-h3.html#houseoflords). I did a screen capture of the section on the site. It shows the stamping on the left side of the shank that matches the stamping on the topside of the pipe I am working on. The crown stamp shown on the stem I have is a lot like stamping on the stem I have. I am including the information from the side bar that says that House of Lords is a brand from Samuel Gordon and possibly a Sasieni second (J.M. Lopes, op. cit.). I further followed the link to “Gordon” and learned that Samuel Gordon had founded the brand “GORDON” in 1910-20 eras. This is the link for Gordon brand of pipes; www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-g4.html#gordon

From there I turned to the Sasieni listing on Pipedia and scrolled down to the list of seconds that was given there (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Sasieni#Sasieni_Seconds). From that information I learned that the pipe was definitely linked to Sasieni. The fourth listing in the screen capture Now I knew I was dealing with a Sasieni made pipe which helps explain the stamping on the pipe including the Made in England on the topside of the shank. I did a quick search of rebornpipes and found an article on a pipe I had restored that was the same shape as this one. I have included the link (https://rebornpipes.com/2015/10/25/cleaning-up-a-london-made-charleston-banker/). Have a look at the blog and you will see the shape I am referring to. I am also including some photos of the pipe that show the parallels to the one that I am working on now. I turned to work on the pipe next. Since it had been reamed and cleaned a bit I could forgo that part of the process. I used a 320 grit sanding pad to remove the darkening from the rim top. There was some burn damage on the back inside edge and the front inside and outside edge. I Then used a piece of 220 grit sandpaper and a wooden ball to give the top an inward bevel that took care of the damage to the inner edge and cleaned up the rim top. The pipe was beginning to look much better. I still needed to sand the rough finish but I liked the rim top at this point. I sanded the bowl with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to smooth out the roughened finish. I wiped it down after each sanding pad to get a sense of the progress on the finish. It was looking better with each pad I used. I wiped the bowl and shank down with alcohol on a cotton pad to remove the sanding dust and get a sense of the grain around the bowl sides. I am very happy with how it is looking at this point. I polished the bowl with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with a cotton pad and a drop of olive oil after each sanding pad. The briar really took on a patina that began to look better with the polishing. I rubbed the bowl down with Before & After Restoration Balm. It is a paste/balm that works to deep clean the finish, enliven and protect the briar. I work it into the briar with my finger tips to make sure that it covers every square inch of the pipe. I set it aside for 10 minutes to let it do its work. I wiped it off with a soft cloth then buffed it with a cotton cloth. The briar really began to have a deep shine. The photos I took of the bowl at this point mark the progress in the restoration. You see the shine that the briar has taken on and the way sandblast has depth. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I sanded the stem with 320-3500 grit sanding pads to break up the remaining oxidation. I wiped it down after each sanding pad with an Obsidian Oil impregnated cloth. It began to look 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 polished it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. Once I had finished the polishing I gave it final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. More than usual at this point in the restoration process I am excited to be on the homestretch. I really am looking forward to the final look when I put a pipe back together, polished and waxed. I polished the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond to polish out the scratches in the briar and the vulcanite. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The grain pops with the wax and polish. The shiny black vulcanite stem is a beautiful contrast to the browns of the bowl and shank. This House of Lords Banker was another fun pipe to work on. The pipe is comfortable pipe to hold in the hand. The finished pipe is shown 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. The weight of the pipe is 2.08 ounces/59 grams. The pipe will be on the rebornpipes store shortly in the British pipe makers section. If you are interested in adding it to your collection let me know. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I working on it. As always, I encourage your questions and comments as you read the blog. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.

Cleaning Up a Bewlay Popular 510 Billiard

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by Kenneth Lieblich

Next up is a handsome and modest Bewlay Popular 510 billiard. It is a simple, salt-of-the-earth type of pipe that I love. No muss, no fuss – just a solid, classic pipe. I acquired it from a local gentleman who had smoked a pipe once upon a time, but was finally divesting himself of his smoking paraphernalia. As some of the photos show, this one still has its original pipe sock to go along with it. The pipe is from The House of Bewlay – a chain of pipe stores and not a manufacturer itself – and is a classic billiard shape. The pipe’s markings on the left side of the shank read Bewlay [over] Popular. The right side of the pipe shows London Made [over] 510 (the shape number). Next to that is either a letter O or a number 0 (or maybe even a U) – it’s hard to know which, since it doesn’t look either like an O from the word “London”, nor like the 0 in the number “510”. Finally, there is a letter B on the left side of the stem.The shape number corresponds perfectly with a Bewlay catalogue from the late 60s, as you can see in the photo below. I do not know the exact date of the pipe, but it is likely from the 1960s or 70s.Let us read a bit more about Bewlay from the Pipedia article:

The English brand of Bewlay & Co. Ltd. (formerly Salmon & Gluckstein Ltd.), was in business from the early 20th century until the 1950s. The brand ended up being sold and taken over by Imperial Tobacco Co. The shop chain closed in the 1980s but there seems to be one shop still in business on Carr Lane in the city of Hull. Bewlay pipes were made by prestigious firms. Notably Barling, Charatan, Loewe & Co., Sasieni, Huybrecht, and Orlik. So understandably, the English considered a Bewlay pipe a quality pipe.

The website, Very Keen on Pipes, also includes the following information about Bewlay. I don’t know what the source of his information is, but I will reproduce here nonetheless:

One of the most famous English tobacco shops, Bewlay & Co. Ltd, was founded in 1870 at 49 W. Strand in London by the Jewish Elkan family, who immigrated from the Netherlands. At the initial stage, the business was positioned as retail trade in tobacco products; Bewley was one of the first to sell cigars. Of course, in the early 20th century, briar pipes became very popular, and Bewlay’s offered a range of Barling, Charatan’s, Loewe, Sasieni, and Orlik models. Bewlay’s was one of the first companies to export pipes to the United States. Some fans claim that Bewlay’s was the start of Joel Sasieni (Sassieni’s family were also Jewish immigrants, lived in the same area, and appear to have attended the same synagogue). In 1937, the family business was sold to Salmon & Gluckstein, which was already controlled by Imperial Tobacco. The chain of stores closed in the 1980s.

There is a long-standing confusion over determining who made which Bewlay pipes when. Bewlay used a several different fonts for the B of their logo. Equally, the pipes are marked with variations of “Made in England”, “London, England” and “London Made” (as this one is). The photo below is from Pipephil and the middle pipe is very similar to this one, in terms of markings. There is a multi-page thread in the forums of PipesMagazine.com on this topic and, if you’re interested, you can find it here. I’m not sure which of those companies might have made this pipe, but I would certainly welcome any information from someone who does know.The pipe is in very nice shape and was well-loved. The stem had some tooth scratches and dents, plus it was coated with a lot of oxidation and calcification. The previous owner must have treated this one like a lollipop. There were no significant issues with the stummel, although it did have some lava on the lovely rim. I started out by gently and carefully scraping off some of the thick layer of calcification on the stem with a butter knife. You can see in the photos that this created quite a bit of debris.I then cleaned the inside of the stem with 99% isopropyl alcohol and some pipe cleaners. It was dirty, but not too bad. I also cleaned the stem with some Murphy’s on some cotton rounds. As you can see, the stem was pretty dirty, and will need a good soaking. In fact, it had a funny pattern of tiger stripes on the stem.After all that, the stem went for a dip in the stem oxidation remover. I let it sit overnight, to allow all the oxidation to rise to the surface of the stem. The next day, I cleaned up the stem with some cleanser on some cotton pads. This took some considerable elbow grease, but, in the end, worked very nicely. Forgot to take a photo though.I then renewed the colour on the stem’s “B” by painting some nail polish there and letting it set. After that, I took my nine Micromesh pads and sanded the whole stem until it was shining like new. I also used my pipe stem oil in between the pads (from 3600 on) to bring out some extra lustre. Beauty.Onto the stummel. In order to clean out the cake in the bowl, I used the KleenReem and followed that up with a piece of sandpaper taped to a wooden dowel. I sanded down the cake until I hit the briar walls, so that I could inspect them for potential damage. Everything looked good on the inside, which is great news.I proceeded to clean out the inside of the shank with 99% isopropyl alcohol and pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. It was surprisingly dirty in there! But I got it clean in the end.When that was done, I set up to de-ghost the pipe. I put some cotton balls into the bowl and the shank and soaked them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I let that sit overnight so that any remaining smells and/or filth would leach out into the cotton. I also scrubbed the insides with some soap and tube brushes. It was beautifully clean after that!The stummel was in very nice shape, although the rim did have some lava on it, as previously mentioned. I used a piece of machine metal to ever-so-gently scrape off as much of this as I could so as to avoid damaging the rim. This worked perfectly. A good amount of debris came off, which was nice to see.

I then used some lightly diluted Murphy’s to clean the whole stummel. This removed any external dirt and oils, and it was much improved.I then took my restoration balm, rubbed it in the wood and let it sit for about 20 minutes. This balm is fantastic stuff and does wonderful things to nourish the wood. After letting it sit, I used a microfibre cloth and buffed it. Off to the bench polisher to put the final touches on this pipe. I first gave it a thorough (but light-handed) going-over with White Diamond compound. Following that, several coats of carnauba wax created a beautiful, glossy seal on the pipe.

All done! This Bewlay Popular 510 billiard looks fantastic and is ready to be enjoyed again by the next owner. I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! As I mentioned before, it comes with its original branded pipe sock. If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the “British” 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 5⅔ in. (143 mm); height 1¾ in. (45 mm); bowl diameter 1¼ in. (32 mm); chamber diameter ⅔ in. (18 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1 oz. (30 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I did restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.