I’m back into Marxman mode. This one has sat neglected in the queue for several months. Everytime I looked over at the pipes waiting to be restored I thought about doing this one, then I got distracted like a dog whose owner yells, “squirrel!” Speaking of dogs, I frequently call my 85 pound four-legged tongue a “big headed freak”. This bulldog is kind of like that except it’s a big bowled freak with a lovely forward cant. I ordered this pipe from Judds Pen and Pipes, a well known seller of eBay, back in May of 2024. I told you it had been waiting in the queue for a while… Below are some photos I took before starting work on this pipe.
This pipe was in very good condition with grain that looked very promising under the accumulated wax/finish and did not look like it would require a tremendous amount of work. I did not like the overly glossy appearance of the pipe in general. Either it had a very thick layer of carnauba or there was an evil clearcoat finish lurking. The stem fit was not very tight, that would have to be addressed. The tobacco chamber had some cake and hopefully no damage beneath it. The stem showed almost no browning from oxidation. This was strange for a pipe over 75 years old but I wasn’t complaining. There was some tooth chatter and dents in the stem to be restored.
Background
Believe it or not this would be the 20th Marxman pipe which I have restored and blogged about. There are also a few that I didn’t write up as well. I would like to think Robert Marx would approve. In each of the Marxman restorations I have done, I have included a background section. I think the most complete history is from “A Marxman Jumbo C Restoration” ‹ NebraskaPeteGeek — WordPress. Rather than copy-paste it here, I will let those interested pursue that link.
There is a shorter history of Robert Marx and the Marxman company here, at pipedia.org.
The Dunsboro name can be found in a catalog image on pipedia.org. The site lists the catalog as “circa 1950s” but Robert Marx sold the company to MasterCraft in 1953, making the catalog likely from the early 1950s.
Once on the workbench and underlain with the required denim, I again wondered about the finish.
I began with rubbing the pipe with a make-up pad wetted with 99% ethyl alcohol.
This came back with dark stains of dirt and old wax. Well, I assumed it to be old wax. The stamping immediately became more clear and easier to read.
The stem fit was an issue.
With a closer examination of the tenon, I saw why this tenon was either abused to this was a poor attempt at restemming using a chainsaw as a tool for fine-tuning the fit of the tenon.
I started by attempting to re-face the edge of the stem with the tenon.
The refacing was done using a wooden block with holes cut to fit various diameter tenons and some 400 sandpaper.
The end of the mortise was far from straight.
I filed it flat with a small flat file.
I then used a ½ inch counterboring bit to give the airway a slight bevel.
The tenon was restored to cylindrical shape by applying several light coats of Thin cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). These were lightly filed and sanded between coats of CA.
I had to test to make sure gravity was still affecting liquids, it was. No really, I didn’t spill the alcohol while cleaning the stem with bristle pip cleaners.
I filed the top and bottom surface of the bite zone with a small flat file to remove most of the tooth chatter.
The reaming tools were gathered.
To ream the tobacco chamber the #2 and #3 PipNet blades were used. A small amount of clean-up was done with the General triangular scraper.
After sanding the chamber with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel the chamber looked good with no signs of heat damage, though there was some scratching of the wall by a previous owner.
The shank went well using cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners dipped in ethyl alcohol. There was also a bit of scraping done with a dental scraper and boring of the airway with the Scotte stainless steel pipe reaming tool – shank drill.
Next, the stummel was scrubbed with a nylon brush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and then dried with a cotton hand towel.
I packed the tobacco chamber, airway and shank with cotton.
I then applied 99% ethyl alcohol with a disposable pipette to the cotton until it was saturated. The alcohol would be allowed to evaporate overnight. This softened and dissolved some of the accumulated tars in the airway, moved them from the briar into the cotton as the alcohol evaporated.
The next day the cotton showed signs of the successful removal of tars from the briar.
The cotton was removed using a forceps.
Recleaning of the airway indicated that the initial cleaning and the cotton/alcohol treatment were successful.
The shank stamps were masked with masking tape for their protection during the upcoming sanding.
I nearly forgot to fill the tooth chatter on the stem beforeI started sanding. Black rubberized CA was used for the fills. This was allowed to cure for about an hour before filing and sanding it.
A small flat file and 400 sandpaper were used to smooth the new fills.
I wanted to keep the pipe intact during the sanding avoids the rounding of the edges of both the shank and the stem, though some rounding of these edges had occurred by previous Keeping owners. The sanding was done with a series of sanding sponges from 320-1500 grits. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with an alcohol dampened make-up pad and the stem rubbed with mineral oil then wiped with a paper towel. The wiping was done to remove sanding debris.
The sanding progressed with the 2000-3500 sanding sponges with the above wiping after each sponge.
Eventually the pipe was worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. Here the wiping was done similarly to the sanding stems except instead of mineral oil I used Obsidian Oil on the stem.
The pipe was then taken to the buffer and buffed with white buffing compound on both the stem and stummel. The excess buffing compound was wiped off with a cotton hand towel then the pipe was cleaned with a make-up pad dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol to remove any remaining buffing compound.
I returned the pipe to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.
The final step was a hand buffing of the carnauba wax with a microfiber polishing cloth.
This Marxman Dunsboro turned out quite nicely. The briar grain is exceptional, for a Marxman. I added that disclaimer since Marxman pipes are kind of known for their rougher textures. The stem material is not of the highest quality vulcanite and even when polished it retains a less glossy finish. The repair of the tenon went better than expected producing a nice cylindrical tenon. Unfortunately, the mortise had become worn by the old uneven tenon and a rigid tight fit was near impossible to achieve. It is far better than it was though. Overall, this pipe will make a great smoking pipe and shows some of the characteristics of the better-quality WWII era Marxman pipes. The dimensions of the Marxman Dunsboro Saddle Bulldog are:
Length: 5.47 in./ 138.94 mm.
Weight: 1.45 oz./ 41.11 g.
Bowl Height: 1.82 in./ 49.78 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.56 in./ 39.62 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.76 in./ 19.30 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.62 in./ 41.15 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished Marxman Dunsboro Saddle Bulldog.
I kind of think who ever came up with leather clad pipes either had some structurally sound but ugly briar blocks or they were hallucinating due to taking Ambien and took a break from walking their frozen turkey while wearing a tangerine Speedo and a sombrero long enough to wrap a piece of briar in leather. Yeah, let that vivid mental image marinate before continuing. Either way, they do show up on the estate market and can be pretty pipes. This Jeantet with a faux alligator-skin texture for example is a pretty pipe. Once again, I can’t recall how it came to me other than as part of an estate lot. Below are some photos of the pipe before work began.
The stem showed signs of oxidation and tooth chatter. The stem’s stinger was well lacquered with smoking residue indicating frequent use. The tobacco chamber had a bit of cake and the rim was lava encrusted. The seams of the leather looked good and intact and the condition of the leather, overall, was good. There was some discoloring of the edges of the leather around the rim which I thought would be difficult at best to remove. Overall though the pipe looked like it had great potential.
Background
Jeantet is an old name in briar pipes and harkens back to southern France in the late 1800s. My first stop on the research train was to pipedia.org. Here I found the following:
“The firm of the Jeantet family in Saint-Claude is first mentioned as early as 1775. By 1807 the Jeantets operated a turnery producing in particular wooden shanks for porcelain pipes and wild cherry wood pipes. The firm was named Jeantet-David in 1816, and in 1837 the enterprise was transformed into a corporation as collective name for numerous workshops scattered all over the city.
The manufacturing of briar pipes and began in 1858. 51 persons were employed by 1890. Desirous to concentrate the workers at a single site, the corporation began to construct a factory edifying integrated buildings about 1891 at Rue de Bonneville 12 – 14. This took several years. In 1898 Maurice Jeantet restructured the business. He is also presumed to enlarge Jeantet factory purchasing a workshop adjoining southerly. It belonged to the family Genoud, who were specialized in rough shaping of stummels and polishing finished pipes. (In these times it was a most common procedure to carry goods from here to there and back again often for certain steps of the production executed by dependant family based subcontractors. Manpower was cheap.)
Jeantet was transformed to a corporation with limited liability in 1938. By that time a branch workshop was operated in Montréal-la-Cluse (Ain), where mainly the less expensive pipes were finished. 107 employees – 26 of them working from their homes – were counted in Saint-Claude in 1948 and 18 in the Ain facility.
The Saint-Claude factory was considerably modernized by ca. 1950 installing (e.g.) freight elevators. In 1952 the southern workshop was elevated. 80 workers were employed in 1958. The factory covered an area of 2831 m²; 1447 m² of the surface were buildings.
The climax of the pipe production was reached around 1969, when thirty to thirty-five thousand dozens of pipes were made by 72 workers (1969). But then the production continuously dwindled to only six or seven thousand dozens in 1987 and only 22 workers were still there. Even though, around 1979 a very modern steam powered facility for drying the briar had been installed in the factory’s roofed yard.
Yves Grenard, formerly Jeantet’s chief designer and a great cousin of Pierre Comoy, had taken over the management of Chapuis-Comoy in 1971. Now, to preserve the brand, the Jeantet family went into negotiations with him, and resulting from that Jeantet was merged in the Cuty Fort Group (est. 1987 and headed by Chacom) in 1988 along with the pipe brands of John Lacroix and Emile Vuillard. Chacom closed the Jeantet plant, and the City of Saint-Claude purchased it in 1989. After alternative plans failed, the buildings were devoted to wrecking. The southerly workshop was wrecked before 1992.
Today Jeantet pipes were produced as a sub-brand by Chapuis-Comoy who’s mainstay is Chacom of course.” (Jeantet – Pipedia). If you were wondering, 2831 m² is about 0.7 acres. That doesn’t seem like much by today’s standards but I am sure in southern France that was expansive for its time. I am going to assume that this pipe was made some time prior to the demolition of the Jeantet plant in 1992, that is a pretty easy conclusion to draw. Moor likely it was produced prior to the closing of the plant in 1988.
Leather wrapping of briar has an equally interesting history and again pipedia.org details one of the most renowned leather workers who specialized in pipes. “In 1948 Jean Cassegrain inherited a small shop near the French Theater on the Boulevard Poissonnière in Paris, called “Au Sultan”. Articles for smokers and fountain pens were offered there.
Now, the absolute bulk of the pipes Cassegrain found in the inventory was from war-time production and due to the sharp restrictions on pipe production the French government had enforced in 1940, these pipes were of very poor quality and showed large fills. Strictly speaking, they were not marketable now that the French pipe industry produced pipes of pre-war standards again. In this situation Cassegrain had the probably most enlightened moment in his life: he took some of these pipes to a leather worker who clad bowls and shanks in leather. Only the rims of the bowls and the shanks’ faces remained blank.
E voila – the pipes looked pretty good now and were eye-catching enough to become an instant success in sale. Above all among the thousands of Allied soldiers who populated Paris in those days. The thing worked well, and even unexperieceid pipesters liked the covered pipes very much for they did not transmit the heat to the hand. Very soon Cassegrain had sold the old stock of pipes, and the leather-clad pipes became his only product. He began to place orders with renowned firms like Ropp or Butz-Choquin.
Because the name Cassegrain was already registered as a trade name for one his relatives, Cassegrain, a big fan of horse races, named his newly created firm after his favorite race course Longchamp near Paris. Hence an outlined galopping race horse with jockey was chosen as logo. The wind mill – see the frontpage of the catalog – symbolizes the name Cassegrain.
The numerous contacts with American soldiers bestowed an official contract on Cassegrain to supply the PX shops with his leather-wrapped pipes. According to his grandson, also named Jean and now CEO of the family firm, “There wasn’t an American GI in Europe who didn’t have one of these pipes at the time. They were exported and sold in PXs worldwide. That’s how it all started.”
In the course of the following years Cassegrain enlarged and refined the Longchamp pipe program continuously. More precious kinds of leather like calf and suede came in use. The top range was clad in alligator leather and even pony fur was used. In addition, many models showed vibrant colors now, and small sized pipes, the “Royal Mini”, made that also women interested themselves in the pipes. The hype was pushed furthermore, when well-known persons of public interest, like TV moderators or pop icon Elvis Presley, began to flaunt with a Longchamp put on.
The Cassegrain family expanded their business in 1955 starting a sortiment of pipe bags, tobacco pouches, pipe stands, ashtrays, tampers, lighters – all made of or clad in leather. (Going from there Longchamp turned to other gentleman’s leather-goods around 1960 and finally established itself as a global brand at the end of the 1960’s introducing the Xtra-Bag for ladies.)
After 1970 the interest in leather-clad pipes slowly diminished. The Longchamp pipes were offered for the last time in the 1978 catalog though previously placed orders were delivered until 1980.
The splendid success inspired many other renowned producers to offer their own lines Ropp, Butz-Choquin, Gubbels, GBD, Sasieni… Maybe Savinelli was the very last producing them for the label of the famous designer Etienne Aigner.” (Longchamp – Pipedia). Now there is no reference to Jeantet in the Longchamp article above but, it is pretty easy to imagine that the number of companies specializing in covering briar pipes in leather, with attractive results, would not have been an extensive list. The dates also coincide nicely with the heyday of pipe production during the 1950-1980s period. This would narrow down the production of this particular pipe to a product produced prior to the late 1970s.
The Restoration
After the before photos the pipe made it to the workbench.
The stem was a tight fit and not wanting to force things unnecessarily, I began work on the stem. The stinger was fouled with smoking residue and quite stuck in the stem. I used a strip of thick leather to protect the aluminum of the stinger from the jaws of the pliers.
Well I’ll be, the stinger was threaded. A nice touch showing a higher quality of workmanship than I was expecting.
I dropped the stinger into a medicine cup of 99% ethyl alcohol to soften the residue and proceeded to clean the vulcanite threads of the stem.
The airway of the stem was scrubbed using a nylon shank brush and the ethyl alcohol.
Numerous bristle pipe cleaners joined in the fun of removing the yuck from the airway.
The bite zone of the stem was filed with a small flat file to remove the tooth chatter and reestablish the button.
Below is a close-up of the top surface of the stem after filing.
And the bottom surface also after filing.
The stem was then suspended into Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer (deox). I planned to leave it in the solution for at least 12 hours but more likely 18.
I retrieved the stinger from the ethyl alcohol and scrubbed it with a brass brush, cotton swabs, bristle pipe cleaners, and regular pipe cleaners. It eventually looked pretty good.
I then took the stinger to the buffer to make it look even better by polishing it with white buffing compound. I hoped that I could not launch the stinger across the room as I lost a grip on it.
When, I didn’t lose my grip and the stinger now looked better than good.
The reaming gear was gathered.
The #1 PipNet blades proved too narrow for use but the #2 blades were about perfect.
The “about perfect” did require me to do a bit more clean-up with the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper.
The reaming done, it was time to sand the tobacco chamber and assess for any heat damage.
The sanding was done with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The bare briar showed no signs of any heat damage. The rim on the other hand, needed a good scraping.
The lava was moistened with saliva and scraped with the edge of a very sharp pocket knife.
I used a wood sphere and a sanding sponge to restore the inside edge bevel and to remove most of the charring from lighting the pipe.
To clean the leather I went looking for my saddle soap. I could have sworn I had some but could find none. After a little research, I discovered that Castile soap could be diluted with water and used as a leather cleaner.
Below is the result of the stummel being scrubbed with the diluted Castile soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton hand towel.
I had Mink Oil and Neatsfoot oil. I opted to use the Mink Oil since I liked the smell of it better.
The leather was liberally coated with Mink Oil and the rim with Before and After Restoration Balm. These were allowed to sit for 30 minutes. It was about here that I realized that I had not cleaned the shank airway. DOH!
The excess Mink Oil and Restoration Balm was wiped away using an inside out athletic sock after 30 minutes.
The shank cleaning then began, completely out of order and with extra caution as to not get the newly cleaned leather dirty. A good number of cotton swabs dipped in alcohol were used as was scraping with a dental scraper.
I was pretty sure there was still a good deal of yuck in the airway so a cotton/alcohol treatment was prescribed. The bowl and airway were packed with cotton and 12 ml of 99% ethyl alcohol measured into a medicine cup.
The alcohol was slowly added to the cotton with a disposable pipette until the cotton was thoroughly saturated. This would be allowed to evaporate overnight. The goal was to allow the alcohol to dissolve the residues and move them to the cotton as the alcohol evaporated. Since the stem was in deox overnight and the stinger was clean, I had only some Mark Twain reading to keep me occupied and sleep, of course.
The next day after lunch I returned to find the alcohol evaporated and the cotton stained.
The cotton was removed using forceps.
The cleaning of the shank proceeded again but much faster this time around.
I gave the leather a second coating of the Mink Oil and allowed it to absorb into the leather briefly before hand buffing with the athletic sock.
The stem was removed from deox and allowed to drip excess solution back into the jar.
A coarse shop rag was used to vigorously rub the stem to remove the loosened oxidized vulcanite and to absorb the solution. You can see from the stains on the rag how effective this was.
The stem was then scrubbed with Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads. One pad was used on each face of the stem.
The bite zone, top and bottom, were sanded with a 320 sanding sponge.
I wanted to keep the squared shape as much as possible. To do this I used a piece of 400 grit sandpaper wrapped around a wooded block. This was in an attempt to keep the square shank preserved as much as possible.
Mineral oil was rubbed onto the stem and wiped from the stem with a paper towel.
The stem was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grits. Again, the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with paper towels between each sponge.
The stem was then worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. In place of mineral oil, Obsidian Oil was used between micro-mesh pads.
The stem was then buffed with a blue buffing compound on a dedicated blue wheel on the buffer.
The stem was then given several coats of carnauba wax on the buffer.
The final step was to hand buff the pipe with a microfiber polish cloth.
I can’t say that I am a user of leather clad pipes, I actually don’t think I have ever tried one. I can appreciate their appearance and their feel in the hand. They do feel good with their softer texture and in this case the faux reptile skin texture. The stem of this pipe polished up very nicely; this is a credit to Jeantet’s use of quality vulcanite. The glossy black stem is a beautiful contrast to the rich brown leather and the briar rim looks very nice together. The stitching and seams of the leather are niche and tight and show little wear. The dimensions of the Jeantet Leather Clad Panelled Apple are:
Length: 5.88 in./ 149.35 mm.
Weight: 1.70 oz./ 43.18 g.
Bowl Height: 1.74 in./ 44.20 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.42 in./ 36.07 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.73 in./ 18.54 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.53 in./ 38.86 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished Jeantet Leather Clad Panelled Apple.
In all honesty, this is hardly a restoration. It is more of a cleaning and polishing. The pipe had never been fired. Why someone would do that is beyond me but after the last restoration I appreciate something that is more like pushing the easy button. I am not really sure when this pipe arrived other than it was at least a year ago. My record keeping started out very good when I began restoring pipes then went downhill quickly. Below are some photos of the Brigham billiard prior to starting work.
I am sure you noticed that the stem was not completely seated in the above photos. That is because it wouldn’t press into place without excessive force. The aluminum tenon was oxidized and I thought it best not to force it. The only other issue was the slight oxidation of the stem which made it look rather dull. Those were the only real things this pipe needed; aluminum polishing/oxidation removal and a stem polishing. Yay!
Background
Back on August 7, 2025 I wrote about a Brigham 202 Billiard with a dental bit. It is linked for those interested in that restoration. Anyway, I discussed The ultimate guide to Brigham pipes, a book by Charles Lemon. Here is a quote from that blog:
“The ultimate source of information on Brigham pipes is Charles Lemon, the author of Brigham Pipes – A Century of Canadian Briar. This wonderful book is available from Mr. Lemon on his website, Books, or from smokingpipes.com (Brigham Pipes – A Century of Canadian Briar | Smokingpipes) if you need to increase the total of your purchase to get the ever popular free shipping, and other various sources. I am unsure about Canadian immigration rules but I think this book should be required reading for prospective immigrants to Canada, especially if they are pipe smokers. ” (A Brigham 202 Billiard Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek)
I once again found myself rereading Mr. Lemon’s work. My mind is far better at relearning than it is at remembering, Though I admit to being able to find the information much faster this time. The 1990s to early 2000s brought unique challenges and opportunities to Brigham. According to Charles Lemon, “ The company rounded the decade with two major introductions. The first, in response to demand for a lower-priced pipe, was the Italian-made Brigham System Pipe”, the first Brigham pipe made completely outside of Canada. The second and more far-reaching change was the development of the composite tenon, still in use today.” (Lemon, Charles. Brigham Pipe – A Century of Canadian Briar. Copywell, Woodbridge ON. Second Printing, October 2023. Page p. 51). So this dates the Brigham System pipe to the late 1990s. The next page narrows the latest possible production date to 2001.
Again referring to Lemon, “In all, Brigham tested ten different composite formulas before landing on a material that was less expensive than aluminum, strong, lightweight and tolerant of high heat levels. The new composite tenons generated quite a stir among Canadian pipe smokers when introduced in 2001, but the benefits, especially the much lower risk of a cracked shank, outweighed the initial resistance from Brigham pipe fans” (Lemon, p.52). One other dating quote from Mr. Lemon is in regards to the stem logo:
“”Brigham System” Pipes (late 1990s to early 2000s) were the first Brigham pipes made entirely in Italy. These were entry-level pipes available in 12 shape sand marked first with a yellow star on the stem, which later changed after 2001 to a maple leaf.” (Lemon, p. 55)
Since this pipe is clearly stamped as a Brigham System with a country of manufacture (COM) of Italy, a yellow star stem logo and an aluminum tenon it must have been made in the late 1990s to 2001.
The Restoration
From the photo table to the workbench, a scenic journey of about 15 feet, the pipe made it without incident.
I chose to work on the oxidized tenon first.
Using 0000 steel wool the oxidized aluminum was cleaned up and polished.
The mortise showed signs of some oxidized aluminum residue within.
I used a .22 caliber rifle brass bore brush to clean the mortise.
The shank was then cleaned with cotton swabs dipped in 95% isopropyl alcohol.
Once the mortise and tenon were cleaned up the two joined as they should.
I wanted to revitalize the stem with some buffing. I did not want to affect the finish on the shank, so I taped the end of the shank with masking tape.
Being the lazy bum that I am, I didn’t replace the buffing wheel and just used the white wheel and white buffing compound on the stem.
The yellow painted stem logo did take a slight beating from the buffing. I used some Pale Saffron acrylic modeling paint to refresh the logo. This color was a nearly perfect match to the original color. The acrylic paint was allowed to dry for a few minutes.
The excess paint was removed using micro-mesh pads. These were fine enough that the finish from the buffing was not noticeable.
The stem then received several coats of carnauba wax at the buffer. The stummel also was waxed with carnauba but very lightly as I did not want to fill the rustications with wax deposits.
The final step was to hand buff the pipe with a microfiber polish cloth.
This Brigham System pipe is one of the last Brighams made using the aluminum tenon. With its traditional internals and a very traditional billiard shape it is a very well balanced pipe with great hand feel. The texture does not show any real briar grain and the dye is rather artificial in appearance; it would certainly make an excellent working pipe for those projects in the yard or garage. I have had experience with the Brigham maple inserts and found that they do remove liquids and tar from the smoke effectively. The stem of this pipe polished-up very nickel and overall it looks like a brand new pipe. Which, never having been smoked, it really is. The dimensions of this Brigham System are:
Length: 5.95 in./ 151.13 mm.
Weight: 1.42 oz./ 40.26 g.
Bowl Height: 1.85 in./ 46.99 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.66 in./ 42.16 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.84 in./ 21.34 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.44 in./ 36.58 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished Brigham System Billiard.
I think I have only worked on 6-10 Savinelli pipes. There have been four that I have blogged about, including this one, and another 3 or 4 that I restored before I was writing about the restorations. Some of those early Savinelli restorations were Dry System pipes, Savinelli’s take on the Peterson System and a Punto Oro Mister G. In general I have nothing but praise to give Savinelli pipes except for their vulcanite. Savinelli’s acrylic stems are a thing of beauty with wonderful color schemes and excellent workmanship. Their vulcanite on the other hand is shaped with care and precision but the darn stuff is nearly impossible to restore to the original gloss black. I think I am getting ahead of myself again. This Savinelli Extra 616 KS is an amazing pipe due to its incredible shape. It’s classified as a bent billiard but that doesn’t do it justice. It has wonderfully thick walls and a very substantial shank, making it similar in size to a Peterson 307 but larger in all the right places. Yeah, I had to compare it to a Peterson since my experience with Petes is far more extensive than with Savinelli. I picked this pipe up by making an offer on the poor pipe which no one was bidding on. The seller accepted and the rest is history. Upon arrival I took some photos of the pipe prior to working on it.
I could definitely see why many people like this shape, it has wonderful proportions and feels great in hand. This one needed some work, though. The vulcanite stem was severely oxidized. I hoped my previous experiences with Savinelli vulcanite would be different this time. The stummel had a few dents which looked easy to fill and the existing fill were all secure and intact. The tobacco chamber had a layer of cake which I hoped would not reveal hidden damage. The rim looked good with only minor lava deposits. Overall, this looked like a pretty easy restoration.
Background
Re-reading the blog about the Savinelli Porto Cervo, I thought, “why rewrite good information?” So I didn’t. Below is what I said about Savinelli in March 9th of 2024:
“First off , let me provide some history of Savinelli. As usual I employed pipedia.org and pipephil.eu for source information. The pipedia.org section of Savinelli is well written and very informative. I know I said I wanted to keep this brief but much of this is worthy of repeating, especially the “origins” of the company in 1876 and the post-WWII company as we know it.
Early Origins
“1876 was a year of breakthroughs: Thomas Edison patented the mimeograph, Julius Wolff-Eastport canned sardines for the first time, Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call,
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky completed Swan Lake, Melville Bissel patented the first carpet sweeper, Mark Twain published Tom Sawyer, and in Milan, Italy, Achille Savinelli opened one of the first shops exclusively focused on tobacco and smoking accessories.
That last item may seem relatively unimportant in the global scheme of advancements, but for those of us who love pipes, it was a monumental achievement, made even more difficult by the Italian government, which held a monopoly on tobacco. In addition, Achille was convinced that briar pipes represented the future of pipe smoking at a time when the market was dominated by clay and meerschaum. It may not have been obvious in 1876, but Achille Savinelli’s commitment to briar pipes would prove to be visionary.
He soon began designing his own pipes (different from the styling we associate with Savinelli today) and arranged their manufacture by local pipemakers in the Varese district of north-west Italy. The pipes became so popular that some were exhibited at the 1881 Esposizione Industriale Italiana (Italian Industrial Exposition)—the precursor to today’s Milan Fair, one of the largest trade fairs in the world.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Savinelli)
Post-WWII
“With his two best friends, Amleto Pomé and Mario Vettoruzzo, he assembled a team of fifteen employees to start a new business in the Varese region—the same area of northwest Italy in which his grandfather, Achille Sr., commissioned his own designs more than 60 years before.
Savinelli Pipes began production in 1948 and, although the pipes were of a superior quality and unique in their aesthetic, the brand wasn’t an immediate success. Few new brands are. It takes time for the public to catch on. Retailers were skeptical of placing Italian pipes alongside their best sellers from England or France, and customers, in turn, were hesitant to purchase a Savinelli over pipes by already established, foreign brands. Achille Jr. stood by his product, however; he knew it was only a matter of time before the world realized that these pipes were of a far superior quality, capable of competing with even the most well-established pipe manufacturers in the world. As it turns out, he was right. In less than a year, Savinelli pipes gained prestige in markets all across the world—heralded for their delicate balance of innovation and tradition, of form and function. Savinelli pipes were placed alongside the likes of Dunhill and Comoy’s in tobacconists from the United States to Europe, and, in time, this exposure modified Italy’s reputation; it was not only the premier exporter of briar, but now a premium source of fine briar pipes.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Savinelli)
Yeah, I know, that was kind of lazy. Now about this pipe: Savinelli Extra 616 KS. According to the official Savinelli site, “Model 616 KS is one of the biggest models which Savinelli offers to its customers. The big and deep chambered cylindrical bowl is visually balanced by a thick and robust cylindrical shank. A really masculine style.” (Savinelli Pipe – FORESTA 616 KS). The number of Savinelli lines, brands, sub-brands etc… is dizzying:
(Savinelli – Pipedia). How anyone, even master factory craftsmen, can keep track of all that is remarkable.
The Restoration
The Extra 616 KS made its way to the workbench.
I started with the stem. The good news was there was no real tooth chatter. I used a flat file to redefine the button and remove the general tooth denting.
A wood block was used to help hold the stem for some light sanding to remove the surface oxidation.
The airway of the stem was cleaned out with bristle pipe cleaners and 99% ethyl alcohol.
I thought a 24 hour dip in the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer would be adequate.
Returning to the stummel I started cleaning the shank with the unused ends of the bristle pipe cleaners left from the stem.
Numerous cotton swab, and shank brushing, all with 99% ethyl alcohol along with a good deal of scraping with a dental scraper helped clear the accumulated smoking residues.
The reaming tools were assembled.
The PippNet with it’s #2 and #3 blades did the majority of the reaming.
I used the General triangular scraper and the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer for some clean-up.
The reamed tobacco chamber looked much better.
The chamber was sanded to bare briar using 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. No heat damage was evident.
With the amount of tar and yuck in the shank airway I thought it would be best if I gave the stummel a cotton alcohol treatment. The airway and tobacco chamber were stuffed with cotton.
Normally 10 ml of 99% ethyl alcohol would be sufficient for this but the 616 KS has a very substantial bowl, so 15 ml were measured out. The alcohol would be applied via a disposable pipette.
The cotton was saturated with alcohol and would be left overnight.
The next day the cotton showed the tell tale color of the deposited tars removed by the alcohol.
The cotton was removed and the airway was again cleaned using alcohol dipped cotton swabs and some more scraping.
The Savinelli made its way to the sink for a scrub with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
The dried stummel looked far better.
A wipe down with a make-up pad dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol removed a bit of color, probably wax and some remaining grime.
This did allow me a better look at the dents and dings in the briar.
The two old fills remained quite secure and I decided to leave them in place, even though I truly dislike their pink color.
The stem was removed from the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer (deox) and allowed to drip excess solution from the stem using the patented Drip-O-Matic.
The stem was vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rage to remove some of the oxidized vulcanite and the remaining solution. The oxidized rubber can be seen on the rag in the photo below rag
Returning to the workbench, the stem was worked with Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads to remove more of the oxidized material.
A liberal coating of mineral oil was applied to the stem to curtail further oxygen attack.
To further remove the oxidation I sanded the stem with 320-600 sanding sponges. The stem was secured to the shank and the shank masked with masking tape to prevent excessive sanding of the briar. Between each sanding sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.
Now, under normal room light the stem looked pretty good but when placed under the bright lights of the photography table the brown of oxidation was very evident. Darn that Savinelli vulcanite.
I wiped the stem with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol to remove the oil and reintroduced the stem to the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. I left it in the solution for another 12 hours.
This gave me plenty of time to work on the stummel. To fill the dents and dings, I used thin cyanoacrylate and briar dust. The new fills were filed with a small flat file and sanded smooth with sanding sponges.
The rim was lightly topped with 400 grit sandpaper laid flat on a counter and the inner rine bevel reestablished using a small wood sphere and sanding sponges in grits 320 and 400.
The stamps were taped over with masking tape for their protection.
12 Hours later the stem was removed from deox again and allowed to drip for a few minutes.
Back onto a clean side of the coarse shop rag.
More vigorous rubbing yielded more oxidized vulcanite.
Under normal lighting it looks good.
Under bright photo lighting, not so much. Darn Savinelli vulcanite.
The stem and stummel both met the serials of sanding sponges from 320-3500. The stem was again rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel between sponges. The stem was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad between sponges to remove sanding debris.
The stem was then taken to the buffer where I used a rogue buffing compound to buff the stem.
I switched wheels and then buffed with white buffing compound. The buffing had the desired effect of giving the stem a wonderful gloss finish but under bright light, brown oxidation could still be seen. Darn Savinelli vulcanite.
I returning to the workbench the stummel was coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and the stem coated with Before and After Hard Rubber Balm. These were allowed to sit for 30 minutes.
Both balms were hand buffed with an inside out athletic sock to remove the excess balms.
The pipe was returned to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.
The final step was to hand buff the pipe with a microfiber polish cloth.
I would love to say that I think this Savinelli turned out great. Unfortunately, the oxidation of the stem stops me from saying great. Acceptable, is a better term. The stummel turned out very nicely and the polish of the stem is beautiful. I think the only way to remove the oxidation would be to sand the shank and stem together and reduce the thickness of both to get to non-oxidized vulcanite. This would alter the dimensions of the pipe overall and I do not think that is worth it. I again say, “darn Savinelli vulcanite”. For those thinking about purchasing an estate Savinelli, I recommend going with models which have acrylic stems unless the oxidized vulcanite suits your fancy. This is still a wonderful pipe and will be a great smoker.
The dimensions of the Savinelli Extra 616 KS are:
Length: 5.58 in./ 141.73 mm.
Weight: 2.25 oz./ 63.79 g.
Bowl Height: 2.13 in./ 54.10 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.84 in./ 46.74 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.83 in./ 21.08 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.74 in./ 44.20 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished Savinelli Extra 616 KS.
I first laid eyes and hands on a Rettke pipe in July of 2025. You can see that entire restoration here. I was taken by the rather nontraditional, double drilled shank, of the pipe. These pipes are what I call “gimmick pipes”. Now, not all gimmicks are equal. I am sure that Charles Peterson was considered a gimmick pipe maker with his three patents for the Peterson system back in the late 1890s. That gimmick has been used to great result and success for well over 125 years.I made an offer to the seller and was turned down. The pipe sat through several auction cycles and remained unsold. I made a lesser offer and it was accepted. The virtue of patience strikes again. The pipe did not have far to travel after the purchase, merely from Washington, Missouri to the wilds of southeast Nebraska. Yes, the same Washington, Missouri as both the home of J. Rettke and Missouri Meerschaum pipes. Below are some photos taken before I began working on the pipe.
Overall a pretty clean specimen with no glaring issues. The stem had oxidation expected of a 60+ year old pipe. The internals looked clean. There were no obvious fills, indicating a good quality briar. The grain of this pipe was not as distinctive as the first Rettke I restored and I thought that maybe a contrast dye would bring out the existing grain. The rubber seal/end of the “whirler” ( J. Rettke’s term for the spiral aluminum condenser) showed signs of drying and oxidation and may need to be addressed or replaced. Otherwise a thorough cleaning was in order.
Background
I will use the same Background information that I used for the first Rettke restoration and include it here in its entirety:
“I started my research on Rettke pipes with a pipedia.org search on “rettke”. Below is the short entry from that site.
“J. Rettke, Washington MO, PAT. June 12 1962. The silver colored thumbscrew below the stem unscrews and is a 2⅜” corkscrew like device. The company is now gone having been purchased by Missouri Meerschaum. This odd looking pipe is made of briar and has a lower chamber with a metal condenser and an upper chamber that contains a filter. The smoke leaves the bowl thru the lower chamber then into the upper and out the stem. It smokes dry and cool. It has a large bowl.”
(Rettke – Pipedia) I could not read the above newspaper article even by zooming in.
The next search was using Google patent and searching for “Rettke 1962”. This search turned up the original patent diagrams:
My next search was for Steve Laug’s Rebornpipes.com. Steve Laug did a Rettke restoration back in 2017 and contained links to the State Historical Society of Missouri. I could not get this site to produce the same document or to even display the link Mr. Laug has in his blog post. I will link Steve Laug’s blog here: Restoring a J. Rettke Patent Pipe from Washington, Missouri | rebornpipes. It is a very well written and researched piece that does contain a transcript of the newspaper article as well as several photographs of Julius Rettke and the pipe making process.
My favorite quotes from the newspaper article are,
“The work is done in Mr. Rettke’s basement of his home at Third and Market streets. He doesn’t work at it every day only when he feels like it. He likes to fish and that comes before his pipes in the summer.”
I can completely understand the lack of enthusiasm for pipe work when fishing is taking a priority.
And this quote:
“Mr. Rettke received his patent on his pipe in 1962. What makes his pipe different from others on the market is the path the smoke takes from the bowl, and the passage of smoke through a twisted piece of aluminum, or a “whirler.” The smoke also travels through a standard filter in a standard hard-rubber stem. The “whirler” has a rubber tip that shows on the outside of the pipe under the stem. The “whirler” also can be used as a pipe cleaning tool. It pulls out easily for cleaning purposes.” Here the newspaper article talks about a rubber tipped “whirler”. That is how the whirler of my pipe is made. The other Rettke pipes I saw in photos all had a knurled aluminum tip. This little fact is mostly non-important, I just found it interesting.
Now for the fun part: How does this pipe work? In the news article transcript it said, “four holes are bored.” under the photo of J. Rettke at the drill press. I read that after I had done my exploration of the stummel and it was in near complete agreement of what I observed.
Using the above photo, I overlaid some image features to indicate the “four” drillings.
This pipe landed on the workbench and a cleaned denim piece.
I decided to work on the whirler first.
The rubber was dried and cracked. I hoped this was only on the surface.
The rubber was coated with Mark Hoover’s Before and After Hard Rubber Balm. Mark was kind enough to send me a bottle of this product to test. I doubt that he ever imagined it to be used on a Rettke whirler but hey, it is rubber. The whirler was set aside to allow the balm to work it’s magic.
The stem was cleaned with several cotton swabs and pipe cleaners dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol. The stem appeared to have been used without a Medico filter.
After numerous cotton swabs, I took the stem to the sink for a scrubbing with Castile soap and a nylon brush. The soap was used undiluted and as the photo below shows the brush came back with a good deal of smoking residue.
After the stem was rinsed with warm water, I returned to the workbench and found the cotton swab dipped in alcohol started coming back with far less color. Victory!
Once clean, the stem was suspended into a solution of Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. I ended up leaving the stem in the solution for a bit over 24 hours. The following day was Christmas Eve and I was away from home for the day.
The reaming gear was gathered.
The PipNet with the #2 and #3 blades did most of the reaming.
Some light clean-up scraping was done with the General triangular scraper.
The below photo is of the reamed tobacco chamber.
The chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The bare briar showed no signs of any damage from heat.
The shank cleaning was twice as much work as a normal pipe due to it having twice as many shank draft holes. Weird, eh? Again alcohol dipped cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners were used along with a bit of scraping with a dental scraper. The upper chamber returned swabs with less charred residue than the lower chamber.
I thought that an alcohol cotton treatment would be a good idea to fully clean and de-ghost the draft of this pipe. Not that the previous user had used a foul smelling tobacco, it actually was a pleasant burley based aromatic from what my nose could tell. The chambers and passageway was packed with cotton.
Usually a pipe holds around 10 ml of 99% ethyl alcohol. I figured this one might hold a bit more. The alcohol would be applied with a disposable pipette.
The saturated alcohol would be allowed to evaporate overnight. This would dissolve the remaining smoking residues and tar and move them into the cotton as the alcohol evaporated.
With the stem and stummel now occupied with long term waiting procedures, I cleaned up the aluminum of the whirler with 99% ethyl alcohol and cotton swabs.
The next morning I returned to the workbench for a few minutes before heading to the Christmas Eve celebrations. The cotton had picked up the color of deposited tars.
The cotton was removed with tweezers. I again used alcohol dipped cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners to repeat the airway cleaning to remove any remaining, now softened, residues.
The next evening, I removed the stem from the deoxidizing solution and used the patented Drip-Dry-O-Matic, okay, it’s not patented. Yet!
The stem was vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rag to remove remaining solution and some of the softened oxidized rubber.
Back at the workbench the stem looked kind of rough but black.
I used some Soft Scrub cleanser of make-up pads to clean off additional oxidized vulcanite.
The stem was then sanded, with more attention on the tooth chatter above the button, with 320-600 grit sanding sponges. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a dry paper towel to remove sanding debris.
It was time to see how a contrast dye would enhance the briar grain. I thought that a base of black with a top coat of Mahogany would look very nice. Both dyes were Fiebing’s Leather Dye applied with a pipe cleaner, flamed with a flighter.
Below you can see the stummel after a coating of the black Fiebing’s. The cork was placed in the tobacco chamber to keep the dye out.
I only wanted the black dye to be absorbed more deeply by the softer grain. I then rinsed the dye from the stummel using 91% isopropyl alcohol over the sink then wiped the stummel with a paper towel.
When sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge, both harder and softer grain was removed. The dye had penetrated the softer grain deeper than the harder grain.
Next came the mahogany applied with a pipe cleaner.
I again rinsed the dye from the stummel with 91% isopropyl and wiped with a paper towel. Returning to the workbench I sanded the stummel with 400 then 600 grit sanding sponges. Below you can see how the black accentuated the grain and how the mahogany added warmth to the non-blackened areas.
After a drying time of about 30 minutes I applied a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm to the briar and a coating of Before and After Hard rubber Balm to the stem and rubber of the whirler. This was allowed to sit for about an hour.
The balms were hand buffed from the pipe with an inside out athletic sock.
The pipe, both stem and stummel were then buffed with rogue buffing compound at the buffer. The pipe was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad to remove any remaining buffing compound then returned to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.
The final step was to hand buff the pipe with a microfiber polish cloth.
After restoring the first J. Rettke pipe, I wrote this sentence in the conclusion. “Of the many gimmick pipes I’ve had the pleasure of working on, I think this one would actually be an effective system for condensing steam. It just makes sense.” I could not have said it better, myself. Wait, I did say it. Anyway, this pipe turned out very well. The contrast dye is what I hope it would look like – greater definition of the briar grain. The stem polished up nicely. I tried the draw both with and without Medico filters and the draw was very good either way. With the first J. Rettke, I ended the conclusion by typing, “I would consider this an artisanal pipe from a time before artisanal was cool.” I couldn’t have said that better, myself. Now for the part I had been looking forward to since I saw the first Rettke, smoking it and seeing firsthand if J. Rettke’s patent was effective or another gimmick. The dimensions of the J. Rettke are:
Length: 5.88 in./ 149.35 mm.
Weight: 1.46 oz./ 41.39 g.
Bowl Height: 1.92 in./ 48.77 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.42 in./ 36.07 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.71 in./ 18.03 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.41 in./ 35.81 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished J. Rettke pipe.
If you have read a few of my blogs you know I have a thing for Peterson pipes. Oh yeah, the name NebraskaPeteGeek may also provide a clue. Anyway, I have returned to Peterson restoration. This particular pipe was a line unfamiliar to me, Brymeer. I found it strange that there were only 3 others bidding on this pipe and when I won it for less than $20 I was even more surprised. Given, it was in rough and dirty shape. After a journey from Lowell, Indiana to the wilds of southeast Nebraska the pipe arrived. Below are some photos taken before I began work on the pipe.
Hmm, where to start with this one? The stem was severely oxidized with a couple of deeper tooth dents. I feared losing the GREAT BRITAIN COM stamp with oxidation removal.The stummel was quite dirty but looked good otherwise. The rim was a mess with chips in the meerschaum liner. The tobacco chamber was carbon caked, who knows what lies under that? I do like a challenge.
Background
I have said it before and likely will again, “For a great history Mark Irwin and Gary Marlburg’s book is a must read for a Pete Geek.
Another amazing site full of Peterson information is, Peterson Pipe Notes. I can wholeheartedly recommend the free at
https://petersonpipenotes.org/ Yes, you will get emails but only for things like the weekly blog post and occasional Peterson pipe drops (like the Peterson Pipe Notes Pipe of the Year) or offers for cool Pete Geek merchandise.
According to the Big Book, also known as The Peterson Pipe,
“Brymeer (1971-75) Offered only in Iwan Ries catalogs, meerschaum-lined black sandblast briar and P-lip of fishtail mouthpiece. Produced by Peterson-Manxman factory” (The Peterson Pipe Irwin, Mark and Malmberg, Gary. The Peterson Pipe; The Story of Kapp and Peterson. 2018, Briar Books Press, Canada. First edition, second printing. p. 308)
“What is this Peterson-Manxman Factory?”, you ask. Pipedia.org to the rescue.
“Laxey Pipes Ltd. resided in a historical 19th century four-storey Man stone building at The Quay, Old Laxey, Isle of Man, which thankfully has been preserved.
The company specialised in the production of meerschaum pipes using the Meerschaum mined by the Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation in the Amboseli basin in Tanganyika (since 1964 part of the United Republic of Tanzania).
Please note: you may often find names like “Manx Pipes Ltd.”, “Man Pipe Co.” and others more, but there is no indication of another Isle of Man pipe producer other than Laxey Pipe Ltd. at any time!
Laxey Pipes Ltd. marketed own brands like “Manxpipe”, “Manxman”, “Manxland” e.c. Names like “John Bull”, “White Knight” (unwaxed), “Domino” (black, or lined) indicated some shapes / colours of Laxey’s own series. The stems either showed the astronomical sign for “male” or “man” (circle + arrow), or the crest of the Isle of Man, the 3-legged X in a circle. Manxpipes and Laxey’s other brands were available through pipe retailers in general, but also were sold (mainly) to tourists through their own shop in Laxey.
Furthermore Laxey Pipes Ltd. manufactured the meer bowls for Peterson, Barling, Nørding and others from the later 1960’s until 2001. Man Pipe e.g. was a brand distibuted by Comoy’s. The bowls usually showed no nomenclature indicating the orderer. “Genuine Block Meerschaum” was engraved frequently. Often, just the stems were different, while bowls were the same.
Supply of meerschaum from East Africa run out (Kenya / Tanzania exhausted, Somalia inaccessible), and thus the last Laxey meers were supplied to trade in May, 2001. Laxey Pipes Ltd. tried to survive continuing with briar pipes – mainly in the Danish style -, but to no success. It closed down business in July, 2002.” (Laxey Pipes Ltd. – Pipedia)
There we have it, this pipe was made between 1971-1975 in the Peterson-Manxman factory on the Isle of Man. That is a darn definitive piece of provenance if ever there was one.
The Restoration
The slightly battered dirty girl made her way to the workbench and a clean denim piece.
The first order of business was to clear the accumulated cake from the tobacco chamber. This proved to be a much more difficult job that I imagined. I did not use a reamer like the Kleen-Reem or the PipNet due to the threat of cracking the meerschaum liner with additional torque, instead the Smokingpipe Low Country reamer and the very sharp pocket knife were deployed.
Let me assure you that both diamonds and cake on meerschaum have a similar hardness. The scraping continued.
Eventually I moved to the wood dowel wrapped in 320 grit sandpaper.
Next, came the cleaning of the stem. This was done with 99% ethyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners.
The stem was then hung, suspended, in Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. I had not used this wonderful product for a few months because the fine folks at Briarville had sent me a complimentary bottle of their Pipe Ste Oxidation Remover. That bottle had finally started giving less and less desired results after about 9 months and approximately 30 pipe stems. Mark Hoover’s Before and After product seems to last longer, doing more pipes, and though a bit more difficult to remove the solution after deoxidizing, I think it works slightly better overall. Since this stem was quite oxidized, I figured 24 hours in the solution would be adequate.
With the stem out of the picture for a day, I switched to the stummel. It was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush over the sink. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
The stummel looked much better once cleaned.
I wiped the stummel with a cotton ball wetted with 99% ethyl alcohol and it only removed a slight bit of dirt and no dye.
Still unimpressed with my removal of the cake from the tobacco chamber, I returned to scraping it with the General triangular scraper, the pocket knife and a rotary tool grinder mounted to a hand drill. This combination helped free the caked carbon from the bowl better but still not to my satisfaction. I feared marring the meerschaum with more aggressive methods.
The next evening, I removed the stem from the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer and let it drip excess solution back into the jar.
After drip drying the stem was vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rag to remove some of the oxidized vulcanite.
The shop rag shows the removed oxidized rubber.
Another of my fears with this pipe was the obliteration of the stem stamps from the deoxidation. I was glad to see that the stamps remained legible, though faint.
The tooth dents above the button were addressed with rubberized cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). These were filed smooth and sanded.
The stem was then sanded with 320-600 grit sanding sponges. The ste log and Country of manufacture (COM) stamps were masked with masking tape to protect them during the sanding.
The stem was then worked with a series of sanding sponges. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a clean dry paper towel to remove sanding debris.
The chip on the rim of the meerschaum bowl liner had me thinking of ways to repair it. The area was rough enough and the meerschaum porous, so I thought that I could use the old technique of egg white and meerschaum dust to fill the chipped area.
I made a paste with the egg white and meerschaum dust and applied it with a snuff spoon.
The chip looked better and I thought it would lighten as it dried. It did lighten then fell out. I repeated the attempt with the same results. I could not get the eggwhite-meerschaum dust paste to adhere to the existing meerschaum. Strike one and two.
With my brain engaged with chip solutions, I turned to a more repetitive task while I thought. I micro-meshed the stem with 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Between each pad I rubbed the stem with Obsidian Oil and wiped it with a dry paper towel. I then repainted the Stem logo with a white acrylic modeling paint.
I used the Before and After Fine Polish then the Extra Fine Polish on a soft cotton cloth and hand buffed each.
The stem was then buffed with carnauba wax on the buffer.
The stummel received a coating of Renaissance Micro-Crystalline Wax applied with a baby toothbrush.
In the above photo you can see the repaired chip loosening in preparation to fall out. The stummel was then worked with a shoeshine brush to polish the Renaissance Wax.
I was at two strikes for chip repair. My thought process was working out other potential solutions I had two other ideas for repairing the chip:
Cut a and shape a replacement chip from stock meerschaum and gluing it in place with clear JB Weld. This product was preferred due to its ability to withstand high temperatures.
Mixing some clear JB Weld epoxy and meerschaum dust. Then applying the epoxy-meerschaum to the chip, allow it to cure then sand to blend.
Both ideas relied on the ability of the epoxy to adhere to the meerschaum and I hoped the heating and cooling or expansion and contraction of the materials would be compatible.
I opted to try the chip replacement with a new meerschaum chip, first.
The first part of this idea required a fairly accurately measured replacement piece of meerschaum. My father, a Geography and Industrial Technology (shop) teacher by original training, frequently said, “Measure twice and cut once.” Cautious measurements were taken and transferred to the piece of block meerschaum. The only meerschaum I had was of Turkish origin and not the more off-white African version as with the bowl liner.
Below you can see a better view of the proposed chip replacement.
To cut this delicate material, I used a Dremel rotary tool with a thin cut-off bit.
Below is a photo of the replacement chip.
With some fine tuning of the replacement chip’s edges a good fit was eventually found.
As previously mentioned JB Weld clear epoxy was the adhesive of choice. Equal parts were measured and mixed according to packaging directions.
The epoxy was applied to both surfaces and the replacement chip fitted to the gap. I thought that I could come back to trim the excess epoxy after it had set-up for about an hour. It would still be soft enough to cut away from the meerschaum with an Exacto knife.
After the epoxy had set up for about 6 hours I applied a piece of masking tape and cut out for the replacement chip. This allowed me to remove the excess material using an emery board without marring the rim.
The emery board made short work of the soft meerschaum.
Additional sanding was done using a wood sphere wrapped in 320 sandpaper and a piece of 400 sandpaper by hand.
Below is a view of the replacement chip immediately before final sanding with the 400 sandpaper.
Since I had already waxed the stem and stummel , all that remained was a hand polish with a microfiber polishing cloth and a stop at the photo table.
I think this Peterson Brymeer Dublin turned out quite well compared to how she looked originally. The briar’s sandblast cleaned-up very nicely. With the dark original stain of the stummel there is a lovely contrast to the slightly off-white meerschaum lining. The stem deoxidized remarkably well. I was able to retain both the COM and the P logo on the stem. The fresh vulcanite looks great with the black of the briar. The chipped rim repair turned out about as well as I could have hoped. Yes, it is noticeable but with a few smokes, I think the meerschaum will color and conceal the repair almost completely. The tobacco chamber cake was very resistant to removal. I guess there is a reason that diamonds are so tough. This carbon was nearly diamond-like in its resistance to removal, but in the end most of it was cleared. The dimensions of the Peterson Byrmeer Dublin are as follows:
Length: 6.06 in./ 153.92 mm.
Weight: 1.22 oz./ 34.59 g.
Bowl Height: 1.89 in./ 48.01 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.55 in./ 39.37 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.71 in./ 18.03 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.38 in./ 35.05 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished Peterson Byrmeer Dublin.
I remember studying the Ancient Greeks in 9th grade. The whole philosophy of Stoicism struck me as great. Relying on rational thought over emotion was somehow appealing, which is funny because having worked with adolescents for a 33 year career as a secondary teacher, I quickly learned that nearly all of their decisions have nothing to do with reason. Come to think of it neither do mine. This pipe for example, a Kaywoodie meerschaum apple which by the seller’s description:
What rational thinker would want to deal with a meerschaum pipe that has a hole that ”goes all the way through”? That is the fun part of rationality, one can rationalize just about anything. The pipe called out to me partially because of the uncommonality of Kaywoodie meers but also because of the shape. Yeah I know, two more irrational thoughts. Then there was the whole challenge of, “can I restore it?” That one I could more easily rationalize with, “it would be a good way to practice repairing meerschaum pipes.” Besides, it is cold outside, there is snow on the ground and the lake is becoming covered with hard water, limiting my fishing.
The pipe had no markings or stamps indicating the maker other than the Kaywoodie cloverleaf on the stem and the Kaywoodie 4 hole stinger. My immediate thought was that it was actually a Laxey product. More on that in the background. Normally I would write something like. “Below are some photos of the pipe before work began.” but I actually had picked at the apparent fill on the outside of the pipe a little bit before I took the following photos.
For the most part this looked like a pipe in great condition. The stem was not oxidized, there was no tooth chatter and it aligned correctly when screwed in. The interior of the tobacco chamber had been scraped and sanded and looked good, except for the gaping hole. This hole continued through the side of the stummel. I developed a plan in my mind of how to address this hole:
Cut a piece of meerschaum, from a piece of scrap meerschaum, that would be fit to the hole on the inside of the tobacco chamber. This would be like an inlay.
Fill the hole in the side of the pipe with a mixture of epoxy and meerschaum powder from both the tobacco chamber and from the outer-side of the stummel.
Place the meerschaum inlay onto the epoxy fill and into the hole.
Allow the epoxy to cure.
Top the outside fill with meerschaum powder mixed with eggwhite and sand the meerschaum inlay smooth with the tobacco chamber.
Dye the fill on the outside of the pipe with a strongly brewed tea to match the color of the meerschaum.
Apply a molten beeswax to the surface of the stummel.
Hmm, it sounded like a reasonable plan but like all of my plans, they tend to have trouble when exposed to reality. You may be wondering, “What the heck is egg white used for?” There is a technique for repairing meerschaum pipes using powdered chalk mixed with eggwhite. I have used this technique previously in the restoration of a Kiko Caveman (Kiko Caveman Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek). In that blog post there is the original recipe and instructions as well as an exchange between me Dal Stanton and Paresh Deshpande regarding the durability of the repair. I now have a small supply of meerschaum pieces so I planned on replacing the chalk with meerschaum powder.
Background
Having restored a few meerschaum pipes, I had a feeling (yeah, not very Stoic) that this was a Laxey. The following reasons were indicators: The color was not the bright white associated with Turkish meerschaum, the lack of any maker marks, the proprietary Kaywoodie stinger and the general lower quality of the meerschaum as seen by the flaws.
Like I mentioned earlier, I thought the pipe was likely a Laxey product. Below is the entry on Laxey Pipes from pipedia.org:
“Laxey Pipes Ltd. resided in a historical 19th century four-storey Man stone building at The Quay, Old Laxey, Isle of Man, which thankfully has been preserved.
The company specialised in the production of meerschaum pipes using the Meerschaum mined by the Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation in the Amboseli basin in Tanganyika (since 1964 part of the United Republic of Tanzania).
Please note: you may often find names like “Manx Pipes Ltd.”, “Man Pipe Co.” and others more, but there is no indication of another Isle of Man pipe producer other than Laxey Pipe Ltd. at any time!
Laxey Pipes Ltd. marketed own brands like “Manxpipe”, “Manxman”, “Manxland” e.c. Names like “John Bull”, “White Knight” (unwaxed), “Domino” (black, or lined) indicated some shapes / colours of Laxey’s own series. The stems either showed the astronomical sign for “male” or “man” (circle + arrow), or the crest of the Isle of Man, the 3-legged X in a circle. Manxpipes and Laxey’s other brands were available through pipe retailers in general, but also were sold (mainly) to tourists through their own shop in Laxey.
Furthermore Laxey Pipes Ltd. manufactured the meer bowls for Peterson, Barling, Nørding and others from the later 1960’s until 2001. Man Pipe e.g. was a brand distibuted by Comoy’s. The bowls usually showed no nomenclature indicating the orderer. “Genuine Block Meerschaum” was engraved frequently. Often, just the stems were different, while bowls were the same.
Supply of meerschaum from East Africa run out (Kenya / Tanzania exhausted, Somalia inaccessible), and thus the last Laxey meers were supplied to trade in May, 2001. Laxey Pipes Ltd. tried to survive continuing with briar pipes – mainly in the Danish style -, but to no success. It closed down business in July, 2002.” (Laxey Pipes Ltd. – Pipedia)
Side Note
If you are interested, I wrote more extensively about the meerschaum deposits in Tanzania when doing research on a Kiko Caveman pipe. That can be found here: Kiko Caveman Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek.
Back to this Kaywoodie. In trying to date this pipe we can use the stinger as a kind of reference. According to pipephil.eu the 4 hole stinger began in 1924. These early stingers were part of a push fit mortis-tenon. In “1931 when the SynchroStem patent was granted” (Document: Kaywoodie’s Drinkless patent — Pipes : Logos & Markings –) Kaywoodie’s screw-in stinger was adopted.
Another clue to the date of this Kaywoodie can be found with the stem logo. According to the Kaywoodie Collector’s Guide from the pipedia.org site, “Early (pre-1936) Kaywoodies had an “elongated” white cloverleaf on the bit, a large fitment, and four-digit shape numbers. The 1936 catalog shows a larger, “fuller” leaf, but lists two-digit shape numbers. Sometime between 1936 and 1947, the better pipes were marked on the bits with a black cloverleaf in a white circle. The white cloverleaf continued on the lesser pipes. However, this was not a consistent convention, as pipes of the same grade could have either type of leaf.” (Collector’s Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes – Pipedia). Again the dates here intricate the 1936-1947 period but show no definitive years.
Using the Synchrostem information from pipephil.eu and the logo information from pipedia.org the dates 1936-1947 overlap from both sources. The issue here is that Laxey produced pipes from the “latter 1960’s until 2001” (Laxey Pipes Ltd. – Pipedia). Okay, I have no actual proof that this was a Laxey carved piece of meerschaum and the latter 1960s are 20 years from the stated time of Kaywoodie’s black cloverleaf in a white circle. This leads to some conjecture on my part. I still believe this pipe to be a piece of African meerschaum, likely manufactured by Laxey perhaps fitted with a stash of older bits provided by Kaywoodie in the late 1960s.
The Restoration
The Kaywoodie made its way to the workbench. Actually, back to the workbench after my earlier exterior picking of the older fill.
I picked at the pit on the outside edge of the stummel to remove the loose material. I assumed this to be an attempt at filling the pit from the factory. The material was white and much softer than the surrounding meerschaum.
As I was examining the pipe more closely I noticed that the drillings were not very precise. The draft hole was slightly off-center. I did not think this would affect the performance of the pipe significantly.
Next I looked at the meerschaum pieces I had on hand. I bought an old “carve your own meerschaum pipe” kit over a year ago as a source of scrap meerschaum to use for projects like this. It had several pieces of the mineral.
These pieces showed many surface flaws. I assumed that these flaws would also likely be found inside the pieces and would only be exposed by drilling or cutting the meerschaum This is what I thought were the source of the “hole” in the Kaywoodie.
Below is another photo of the flaws in a piece of meer.
The piece of meerschaum that I selected to be a donor.
My father, the high school drop-out with a PhD., earned his original teaching degree in wood shop and geography. His accomplishments likely influenced my own interests in life. I remember him saying, “measure twice, cut once” on many occasions when we were doing various projects. I continue using his advice except, I typically measure more than twice.
This piece of meerschaum was selected because it seemed to have far fewer flaws than some of the other pieces.
Due to the very brittle nature of meerschaum I opted to do the cutting with a Dremel and a narrow cutoff wheel.
Below is a photo of the cutoff bit.
I tried a sample cut to get a feel for cutting meerschaum with the dremel before cutting the real piece. It worked! I was amazed at how the meerschaum smelled like talcum powder.
The Dremel was used to cut the rough inlay piece. Below you can see the inlay piece laid on top of the pit.
More measuring and marking to get the inlay to fit the pit was done.
Trimming and fitting to the pit took more time than I would like to discuss. Lets just say it was a long tedious process.
Loooong and teeedious. Eventually I was happy with the shape and fit of the inlay piece of meerschaum.
Next, I need meeschaum powder. I used the same piece of meerschaum and an emery board to generate some powder.
Clear J-B Weld was the epoxy of choice due to its ability to withstand high temperature. The epoxy was mixed as per label instructions then mixed with some meerschaum powder.
This meer-epoxy mix was applied to the pit and worked into the hole.
The inlay piece was then gently pressed onto the meer-epoxy.
From the outside hole, I applied more of the meer-epoxy filling the hole from the outside. I allowed a slight depression here thinking that I would fill this depression with the meer-eggwhite mixture once the epoxy had completely cured.
I did top the still “wet” epoxy with some meerschaum powder, in hopes of giving the meerschaum-eggwhite mixture greater surface area to adhere to.
Below is a photo of the outside fill after the epoxy had cured for 8 hours.
The inlay was sanded smooth to the surface of the tobacco chamber using 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel then by hand with 400 grit sandpaper.
The next day the epoxy had partially cured and the fill had a slightly transparent look. The topping with the meerschaum powder did not seem to have formed the rough texture I had hoped for.
Dinner that night now had to include some egg mixed with the fried potatoes and Thanksgiving turkey leftovers burritos that was planned. No sense wasting an entire egg for a few ml of eggwhite, eh? The eggwhite was mixed with meerschaum powder.
This mixture was applied to the area I wanted filled. As the eggwhite-meer mixture dried, it contracted, leaving a crack and pulling away from the sides of the fill. While it was still soft I was able to add a tiny bit more of the mixture and work it to repair the cracks. I also tried to give the slightly pliable mixture a bit more texture so it blended with the texture of the surrounding meerschaum.
The stummel needed an overnight to fully cure. I turned my attention to the stem. I cleaned it with bristle pipe cleaners and 99% ethyl alcohol.
I touched-up the edge of the button with a small flat file and sanded the stem with a 400 grit sanding sponge.
Then I scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub cleanser to remove the light oxidation.
The shank of the pipe was wrapped in masking tape to protect it from the buffing which I wanted to do next.
At the buffer I worked the stem with white buffing compound hoping to remove the surface oxidation and restore the shine.
The buffing helped but I thought that my buffing skills could use a bit more work. I used Before and After Fine and Extra Fine Polish on a soft cloth to hand polish the stem.
The next day, now 36 hours of cure time for the epoxy and 14 hours of eggwhite-meer drying, this is how the fill looked. Still an ugly scar. Maybe it will look better after the new beeswax?
I proceeded with cleaning out the shank with bristle pipe cleaners and 99% ethyl alcohol.
Next, the pipe was taken to the sink for a scrub with warm water and a nylon brush.
The stummel looked clean but I still didn’t like that scar.
Hmm, tea time for me and the too white meerschaum scar. I brewed a nice strong Irish breakfast tea for me and to stain the meerschaum.
The tea was applied with a paintbrush and it softened the white, slightly.
It remained a rather ugly scar.
I use a hot water bath to melt the beeswax. A small jelly jar with the beeswax is set in boiling water. The water, once hot, melts the wax and will keep the beeswax liquid for longer amounts of time. The tin is used to catch dripping wax as I brush it onto the meerschaum while the heatgun provides heat to the stummel and to the wax as it is applied.
I pre-heated the stummel with the heat gun. A wine bottle cork was used to plug the tobacco chamber and as a handle.
Below you can see the boiling water melting the beeswax.
Once melted I turned off the burner and had plenty of time to work with the liquid wax.
The pipe was returned to the workbench to cool.
The new beeswax application did little to improve the scar. I added additional wax to the repair fill to cover the slight cracks present. This new wax was melted with a lighter to fill the cracks.
The final step was to hand polish the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.
I would like to say that this Kaywoodie Meerschaum Apple turned out beautifully, but that darn scar still bothers me. I was pleased with the hole filling and meerschaum inlay of the tobacco chamber. That part of the plan worked better than I imagined. The stem also turned out very nicely. The glossy black provides a great contrast to the creamy meerschaum. Overall the color of the meerschaum is a warm light yellow and should age and color nicely with use. If nothing else, this pipe allowed me to work with another meerschaum pipe and try a repair which went from a problem to a potential solution to an actual repair. It will be interesting to see how well the repair lasts and how the coloring of the meerschaum develops. The dimensions of this Kaywoodie Meerschaum Apple are:
Length: 6.10 in./ 154.94 mm.
Weight: 1.17 oz./ 33.17 g.
Bowl Height: 1.55 in./ 39.37 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.21 in./ 30.73 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.80 in./ 20.32 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.74 in./ 44.20 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished Kaywoodie Meerschaum Apple.
This is the third Kaywoodie Tuckaway that I have come across. The previous two were purchased and restored before I started blogging restorations, prior to October 31, 2023. They are two of my favorite pipes and have places in a three-pipe rack on my mantleplace. Below is a photo of the three amigos.
The stamping of my original two, the first has KAYWOODIE over Super Grain (in script) over IMPORTED BRIAR (on the shank bottom), a 042 on the right side shank and a logo-less stem. The second pipe has KAYWOODIE over Standard (in script) over IMPORTED BRIAR on the left shank with 022 on the right and a Kaywoodie clover logo stem. I identified the newest pipe from what appeared to be an assortment of pipe parts on eBay. Apparently no one else thought this mess was worth the $9.99 opening bid.
The newest pipe has no discernable stampings but it does have a Kaywoodie clover logo stem. The stems of all three pipes are interchangeable. Below are some photos of the pipe prior to starting work on it.
No stamping bottom, left nor right.
The only distinguishing feature is the stem logo.
The pipe was in relatively good shape. It had a moderate cake in the tobacco chamber and some lava on the rim. The stem showed signs of tooth chatter but without any deep dents or wear. The fit of the stem in the mortise was snug and proper. The grime on the stummel made it a bit difficult to see the grain of the briar but there were hints of beauty under the accumulated dirtiness. As for the slightly off colored clover logo, I thought it would brighten to the original white once sanded. Overall, this looked like a nice and easy restoration.
Background
Kaywoodie has a long and colorful history dating back to their origins, “Kaywoodie name first appearing in February of 1919.” (Kaywoodie History – Greywoodie LLC) The history of Kaywoodie pipes is fortunately well documented thus, allowing rather precise dates for a Kaywoodie collector to declare the provenance of their charges. Rather than deposit it here, I will link the two outstanding histories of KB&B/Kaywoodie – Greywoodie’s site has a well written history of the company (Kaywoodie History – Greywoodie LLC) and pipedia.org has pretty much the same written history with a rich library of Kaywoodie catalogs, photos and images of old print advertisements, (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kaywoodie). I can’t recommend them enough for those interested in reading more about the company and the products. There is a third document which provides information more specific for tracing the providence of a specific pipe or model of pipes and that is he Collector’s Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Collector%27s_Guide_to_Kaywoodie_Pipes).
Tuckaway. The 1955 catalog shows a Drinkless Tuckaway that was simply a smaller version of other Kaywoodie styles. The Tuckaways of the 1955-1968 period had military mountings, filter-free see-thru bits, and were packaged in a leatherette case. Available in Standard, Relief Grain, and Super Grain grades ($6-$8, depending on grade). Miniatures. Two-inch miniature replicas of “their big brother”, complete with the Drinkless fitment and Synchro Stem. The catalogs show these as individually-cased pipes but multiple pipe sets were apparently available. Price: $5.00 (Collector’s Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes – Pipedia)
Back in October, 2025 Dal Stanton published a restoration blog about a Kaywoodie Tuck away that he did New Life for a Rare, Early 1960s Kaywoodie ‘Tuckaway’ Standard 050B – The Pipe Steward. This well researched and written post does a fine job at documenting the Kaywoodie Tuckaway far better than I have done. Dal’s pipe also has the “filter-free see-through bits” alluded to in the Collector’s Guide quoted above. This forces the question of when did Kaywoodie produce the three examples which I have come across? Well the only thing which I state is the above quote, “The Tuckaways of the 1955-1968 period had military mountings” (Collector’s Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes – Pipedia). The bits associated with these three pipes are not exactly vulcanite, nor are they nylon. They are apparently some different plastics. They do not oxidize like vulcanite but they are softer than acrylic. They dent from tooth chatter more like nylon but they are easier to sand file and sand than the nylon bits of Medico or Falcon pipes. The white clover logo does show a yellowing with age which was refreshed to the white with sanding.
The Restoration
After the “Before” photos the pipe made its way to the workbench.
Reaming was the first task. The PipNet with #1 and #2 blades, the Smokingipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper were recruited for the task.
The PipNet blades did most of the work.
This Tobacco chamber was drilled with a more conical bit, as is traditional for a Dublin shape pipe. The Kleen-Reem fit this chamber better that the PipNet and was used as well.
There was little for the General to do, but for a bit of clean-up.
Below is a down chamber photo of the reaming results.
The chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The exposed bare briar showed no signs of any heat damage.
The rim had a layer of lava on the back half. I hoped there wouldn’t be any charring underneath.
The rim was moistened with saliva. I then took the knife upstairs for a resharpening on the sharpening stone. A few minutes later the rim was scraped with a very sharp blade.
I was surprised at how clean, relatively, the airway of the shank was.Some scraping with a dental scraper was done followed by an alcohol soaked shank brush and several bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs also dipped in the 99% ethyl alcohol.
Below are two close-ups of the tooth chatter on the top and bottom sides of the bit. Notice how it looks more like the nylon of a Medico pipe.
I was able to file the bite zone to eliminate most of the chatter on both the top and bottom surfaces.
After the file, I moved to an emery board, like for filing fingernails.
The emery board was also used to reestablish and redefine the button.
There were still some minimal dents which were being difficult. I thought, “maybe a flame painting”. This is where the flame from a lighter is moved along the dented surface. In my experience this is usually to minimal effect but it did seem to work.
The stummel was then taken to the sink for a scrub with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel hand dried with a cotton hand towel.
Back at the workbench I rubbed the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with 99% ethyl alcohol. This produced some color on the pad as dye or stain was removed from the briar.
I wanted this pipe to be lighter in color to show off the briar grain. I first started a light sanding with a 320 grit sanding sponge.
The sanding helped but not as much as I had hoped. Hmm, plan-B: An application of oxalic acid was the remedy that came to mind.
The crystals present at the bottom of the jar indicate the solution is fully saturated. Oxalic acid is known to bleach stains in woods. My hope was to lighten the color of the briar. Previous attempts at this have met with varying degrees of success.
I applied the first coating of oxalic acid to the stummel with a cotton swab.
This was allowed to sit for 30 minutes while I finished watching an episode of Homeland (glad that it finally made it’s way to NetFlix).
After 30 minutes I recoated the stummel with a second application of the oxalic acid solution.
This one sat for another 20 minutes. The photo below shows what it looked like dried.
The stummel was returned to the sink for rinsing with copious amounts of water. To make sure the oxalic acid was completely rinsed and neutralized I scrubbed the stummel with Castile soap and a nylon brush. I figured that the basic nature of the soap would neutralize the remaining acid.
More rinsing and then some more rinsing, oxalic acid can continue the bleaching if not completely removed.
Once dried I wiped the stummel with 99% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad again. Far less color came off on the pad and the stummel did appear lighter, though not to the extent I was hoping for.
The only fills that I thought necessary were two on the lower left of the stummel.
The pits were filled with briar dust which was pressed into the pit. The dust then received a small drop of thin cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). The CA was absorbed into the briar dust and bonded the dust to the stummel nearly instantly.
The fill was then sanded smooth with a 400 grit sanding sponge.
The aluminum collar was covered with masking tape, then the stummel was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. Between sponges the stummel was wiped with an alcohol moistened make-up pad to remove sanding debris.
The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. The masking tape remained on the collar for this sanding. Between sponges the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel. This wiping was to remove any sanding debris. Once the sanding was finished the masking tape was removed and the stem oiled with Before and After Hard Rubber Balm.
I thought that the entire pipe would look better with a buffing with white buffing compound.
After cleaning the buffing compound residue from the pipe I was happy with the briar and the collar but not with the stem. I worked the stem with a series of micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000 grit. Between each pad I rubbed the stem with Obsidian oil and wiped it with a paper towel. The stem looked better but not as well as I thought it could look.
I got out the Before and After Fine and Extra Fine polish and worked the stem, especially the bite zone with these and a soft cloth.
That did the trick, the stem looked good. Next I returned to the buffer and applied several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer.
The final step was to hand polish the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.
This Kaywoodie Tuckaway turned out beautifully. I was pleased with the way that the briar lightened with the oxalic acid and subsequent sanding. The briar needed no additional stain or dye and has a lovely warm brown appearance. The stem did turn-out nicely. I cannot say that I like working with whatever plastic it is made of but the end result is attractive. I do wish that this pipe had some official Kaywoodie stampings though. I know they would not affect the pipe’s performance and I am certain of this pipe’s provenance, still I do miss the stampings. The dimensions of this Kaywoodie are:
The dimensions of this Kaywoodie are:
Length: 5.54 in./ 140.72mm.
Weight: 1.03 oz./ 29.20 g.
Bowl Height: 1.74 in./ 44.20 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.51 in./ 38.35 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.32 in./ 33.53 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished Kaywoodie Tuckaway.
The sheer number of pipe shapes and brands of tobacco pipes can be overwhelming. This does allow users and collectors to specialize and find something that suits their own personal fancy. All of these options can be daunting. As an example I put together a list of my top 3 favorite pipe shapes. This list had no fewer than 6 shapes. Yeah, math and choosing were never my strong suit. Then there are the pipe companies. Many pipe aficionados dedicate their collection to a single maker. I find that I can’t even do that. While organizing a pipe rack, my official Peterson shelf has several Marxman and one commissioned pipe in it. Proving once again that I like what I like and care little for convention. That brings us to the subject of today’s blog. I am fascinated by the pipe oddities. Whether they be the crazy innovations of inventors, promotional pipes or the Brick and Mortar (B&M) pipe shop stamped pipes made by renowned pipe manufacturers. I have restored pipes Stamped with; TROPICAL PAINTS (A Tropical Paints Cleveland Pot Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek), DUPONT EXPOSIVES (A du Pont Explosives Promotional Pipe Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek), BRIARS ‘N’ Blends (A Briars ‘N’ Blends (Comoy’s 409) ¼ Bent Bulldog Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek) and TELFORD’S (A Telford’s Canadian Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek). Researching these pipes is a journey into our hobby’s past and to a time when pipe smoking was far more popular than today.
This Gus’ Own Lumberman is a perfect example of that history. It was part of an estate lot which arrived here in August of 2024 from Hardin , Kentucky. I’d heard of Gus’ Smoke Shop in Los Angeles but had personal ties to the locale. The only stamping on the pipe was GUS’ OWN. No county of Manufacture (COM), which can indicate that the pipe was made in the US, but this is not always the case. Below are some photos I took of the pipe prior to working on it.
Judging by the tooth chatter on the stem and the thick cake in the tobacco chamber, this was a well loved and frequently used pipe. It also meant that it would require more time to clean it up. The stem showed signs of oxidation but the mortise to tenon joint was secure. The finish was worn, a further proof of a well used pipe. Overall it looked to be a fairly straightforward restoration. Another thing I have noticed is that heavily used pipes are frequently excellent smokers. Once they are cleaned up, I should add.
Background
I had heard mention of Gus’ Smoke Shop as one of the large pipe and tobacconist brick and mortar shops in Los Angeles, California. The search for Gus’ turned up a hit on the forum, PipesMagazine.com. The forum thread started with a member asking if anyone remembered the shop. Below is a very interesting entry from a member named huntertrw dated July 16, 2023:
“I correspond occasionally with Richard Carleton Hacker, and this is what he was kind enough to share today concerning Gus’:
“Gus’s started out as Boyd’s Pipe Shop in 1927, back when Ventura Blvd. was still largely a dirt road and horses vied with automobiles. In addition to pipes and cigars, Boyd raised and sold chickens and candy and a few other sundry unrelated items.
“Boyd sold the shop to Gus Pfender in 1937, who renamed it Gus’. Note the unusual apostrophe placement.
“Sometime before 1975 Pfender sold the pipe shop to an Englishman named Norman Fudge. Fudge wisely kept the Gus’ name – otherwise folks might have mistaken it for a candy store!
“I first began going to Gus’ in the late 70’s and remember seeing the original gas stove in the back room and the brass cash register that was sill in use. I also remember seeing the occasional chicken feather poking out from the floorboards, and Norm telling me how they got there. Although he had a reputation for being cantankerous, I got along with Norm, especially when he learned I wrote about pipes and had a collection of Sherlock Holmes memorabilia (which may have appealed to his British heritage).
“I met Jimmy and Paula Hurwitz when they came to the store and Jimmy was deciding on whether or not to buy it, as Norm was getting on in years and frankly, was tired of dealing with the public.
“Jimmy asked my opinion and I thought it was a good deal, especially since store ownership included the property on what now was now a main San Fernando Valley thoroughfare.
“Jimmy bought the store in 1985 and I continued to be a regular customer and even put the photo I took of the store in at least one of my books.
“I lived in the same area, as did a number of pipe smoking movie celebrities. with whom I became friends. William Conrad gave me one of his beloved Charatans (which I still have) and David Rose, the musician and I shared both pipe and train hobbies.
“An interesting side-note: David had an unusual triangular pipe rack he had purchased in London. I tried to buy it but he wouldn’t sell. When he died in 1990 Jimmy bought it and resold it to me – at I’m sure more than David would have wanted for it. It still have it.
“To his credit, Jimmy kept the old stove in the back room, remodeled the store to include a walk-in cigar humidor, and still occasionally cranked up the old brass cash register, although a newer electronic gadget saw much more use.
“Gus’ was the quintessential neighborhood pipe shop and might have still been there today if Jimmy hadn’t run afoul of some sort of California law and subsequently was imprisoned for a short while and, of course, lost the store.
“When he got out of stir he tried selling pipes out of the back of the corner liquor store, but of course, it wasn’t the same. That venture only lasted a short while and he sold socks at Nordstrom’s but eventually died of cancer some time back.
“Gus’ was next door to the Mistral’s restaurant and sat vacant for many years (it was always sad to walk by its shuttered facade) until Mistral’s purchase it, used it for the occasional private party, and now plans to open it as an extension of the main restaurant. But those plans were put on hold due to the pandemic.
SHERMAN OAKS — Here at Jim Hurwitz’s shop, as at hundreds of others like it, the redemption of the American male quite possibly is underway.
Before joining in the praising, however, you’ll have to put health considerations aside for a time, for Hurwitz’s place is a tobacco shop.
In the last year or two, sales of pipes and pipe tobaccos at his Gus’ Smoke Shop on Ventura Boulevard have begun ticking upward. Tobacconists in other parts of the country also report the trend, for the first time this generation.
This can mean only good things for the XY-chromosome contingent, not to mention those of the XX variety who must truck with them.
Unlike the case with cigarettes and cigars, no one keeps national aggregate figures on pipe sales, but “pipe sales have been increasing,” affirms Bill Fader, the Baltimore-based executive director of the Retail Tobacco Dealers of America, “especially in the case of the better, more expensive pipes, the ones that go for $100, $150, $300 and up, because they’re almost works of art.”
Along with the years-old cigar mania, this is more good news for Gus’ Smoke Shop, which has weathered many another trend, both up and down, in its seven decades.
Gus’, Hurwitz claims, was the first business to open on Ventura Boulevard and is the oldest tobacconist in Los Angeles. Founded in 1927 as Boyd’s, a store that sold candy and live chickens as well as tobacco, the business occupies its original premises.
The eponymous Gus Fender bought the store in the 1940s and sold it a couple of decades later to Norm Fudge. Hurwitz, a dedicated customer, bought it from Fudge in 1985. “I always thought Norm Fudge was Gus,” says Hurwitz, a heavyset man of 46 given to baggy jeans and untucked jerseys. “I guess whoever is behind the counter is Gus–and now I am Gus.”
Gus’ contains two walk-in humidors for cigars and specialty cigarettes, but the dense, moist aromas of more than 30 hand-blended pipe tobaccos in large, glass jars dominate the wood-paneled store. Sweet Virginia, spicy perique, sultry Latakia–these and other leaves vie for a visitor’s olfactories. Many of the mixtures are assembled according to recipes handed down from Gus to Gus to Gus.
More than 600 pipes are arrayed on various shelves and in a glass display case. These range in price from $30 to $3,500, the latter for a massive 1960s-vintage, gold-trimmed example from famed manufacturer GBD. Many of the great names in pipes are represented–Peterson of Ireland, Stokkebye of Denmark, GBD and Ashton of England, Savinelli and Ser Jacopo of Italy.
Although some meerschaums–cool-smoking, delicate pipes of white clay–are displayed, the majority are of briar, which comes from the roots of heath trees that grow in Mediterranean locales. Mediterranean briar, properly cured and dried, is prized for its hardness and the eye appeal of its grain.
Increasingly, people buy pipes simply as objects of beauty, Hurwitz says. Some buyers don’t even smoke. The thriving business Gus’ does repairing and reconditioning vintage pipes further indicates the new collectible cachet of pipes.
The increase in pipe sales, however, is not just another manifestation of affluent American thing-gathering. A small but significant percentage of those caught up in the cigar mania, which brought on inflated prices and supply shortages, have begun to smoke pipes, Hurwitz reports. Virtually all pipe smokers are male.
Wherein lies the potential for redemption.
“Cigarette smoking is an addictive, nervous smoking, and cigar smoking has the connotation of aggressive display and success,” Hurwitz offers. “Pipe smoking is more philosophical, i.e., associated with the professor type, much more laid-back. With even a very good, expensive cigar, you light it, burn it and it’s gone. But a pipe you can use for years. Pipe smoking is about the art of smoking. Everything else is about consumption.”
Hurwitz and his salesmen give new pipe smokers a short course in the fine points of the art: How to choose a style of pipe. How to load and light it. How to keep it from going out. How to break in a pipe and how to care for it.
Clearly, when a man commits to a pipe, he is committing to an altered form of being that values deliberateness, skill, patience and sitting more or less still for a while (it being hard to do much of anything else, especially anything exertive, when smoking a pipe).
Pipe smoking also is a turning away from massed-produced sameness. It feeds a man’s appetite for his own individuality, since the types and characteristics of pipes and of the tobaccos that can be stuffed in them are practically innumerable.
“If you take the band off a cigar, you many times don’t know what brand you’re smoking,” says Fader of the tobacco retailers. “A corona cigar is a corona cigar. A robusto is a robusto. Not so with pipes. They’re dramatically varied in appearance and style.”
In short, these new pipe smokers, like pond frogs who sense change in the environment before other species, may be the first to tune into an emerging male zeitgeist.
Maybe the American male who’s held psychological sway over society the last decade and a half–the compulsive, hard-driving, fire-breathing guy on the make–is about to retire from sheer exhaustion.
His successor looks like he might turn out to be a more reflective chap. A guy who won’t be quite so hard on the tire treads. One who doesn’t even have to inhale to appreciate existence.” (Pipe Dreams – Los Angeles Times)
Well that was all good information but who made this pipe for Gus’? Fine question, that. Unfortunately I had very little to go on. I initially thought it looked like a Stanwell pipe. You know, that whole, “looks like a duck” train of thought. I asked my best source for Stanwell questions, Sascha Mertens, if he thought it might be a Stanwell. His reply was, “I don’t think it’s a Stanwell because of the stem. This is quite an unusual bite.” (personal communication). Strike one.
I knew I had seen a stem very similar to that recently. I looked back through this year’s restorations and there it was – the Marseille Volcano (A Marseille Oval Shank Volcano Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek). Below is a photo I took while working on the stem.
Very similar, eh?
Well the Marseille Volcano was another near bust for background information. All I can speculate about this pipe is that the stem looks similar to French-made pipes. As for the year of production, that too is all speculation. Based on the styling, I would say 1970s.
The Restoration
After the “before” photos our patient made its way to the workbench and a somewhat clean denim piece.
I started with the reaming. PipNet with #2 and #3 blades, the General triangular scraper and the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer.
Yeah there was quite a thick cake with this pipe.
Even the clean-up produced a pile.
The tobacco chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper with a finger and 320 wrapped around a wood dowel.
The bare briar sanded chamber showed no signs of any heat damage. Apparently that layer of cake did its job protecting the briar.
I was dreading this next part and was very surprised when the shank was pretty clean. Normally a pipe with that much cake would have a filthy airway, this one was not too bad. I used the Cleen-Reem shank drill and it passed easily. A shank brush dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol also returned only slight stains on the paper towels.
Further cleaning with bristle pip cleaners also did not indicate a terrible airway. I was very glad to know the previous owner kept a relatively clean pipe.
I couldn’t accept the cleanliness of the shank and thought it certainly must have been a fluke. I therefore decided to give the pipe a cotton-alcohol soak. The tobacco chamber and shank were stuffed with cotton and I prepared 10 ml of 99% ethyl.
The alcohol was pipetted into the shank and bowl with a disposable pipette until the cotton was saturated. This would sit for several hours as the alcohol evaporated.
I turned my attention to the stem. More dirty than the shank but not terrible. Bristle pipe cleaners with more alcohol did the trick. Some of the tooth chatter was removed by filing the area with a small flat file.
There was one large toothmark that defiled removal with a file.
The stem went onto the Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover (deox).
The next day I removed the cotton from the bowl and shank. The shank cotton was far more discolored than that of the bowl.
The shank was cleaned again with bristle pipe cleaners and alcohol to remove any tar that remained.
The rim showed some lava or accumulated smoking residue in the rustication.
I took the stummel to the sink for a scrub with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush.
I then worked the rim with a brass brush to get rid of the stubborn lava on the rim. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol. Some of the black dye came off. This was expected.
The newly cleaned rim showed no signs of charring. Yay!
The side panels had beautiful grain but the rusticated area was rather worn. I thought about leaving the pipe in this condition then though, “no, you should restore it to how it looked, factory fresh”.
I sanded the side panels with 400-1000 grit sanding pads.
Using black Fiebing’s Leather Dye and a paintbrush, I carefully reapplied the black dye to the black portions of the stummel.
This was a slow and careful process.
The remaining areas were re-dyed with a folded pipe cleaner and the black dye.
As the dye was drying I went to retrieve the stem for deox. The last two stems I have used the Briarville deox on have emerged with a tan crust. I am now wondering if I need to replace this solution. It has been used on many stems since last April, when the kind folks at Briarville sent it to me to try. I vigorously rubbed the stem with a coarse shop rag to remove the crust and any softened vulcanite.
I took the stem to the workbench and started scrubbing it with Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads. This produced pads well covered with oxidized vulcanite and the stem started to look better.
The stem was sanded with 400-1000 grit sanding sponges. You can see the two dents on the top side of the stem in the photo below.
And the one large dent on the button side of the stem.
All of these dents had very smooth edges. These smooth edges led me to fear that normal fills with cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) would risk the fills chipping and coming loose. To remedy this, I thought that deepening the dent with a 2 mm drill bit would provide far better surface area for the CA to adhere to.
I drilled a series of holes into the dented surface of the stem.
I used a “Rubber Toughened” black CA for the fill. The CA was applied using the tip of a fly tying bodkin. I also applied a line of the CA to the edge of the button.
The same was done for the top side of the stem.
The CA was allowed to dry or set on its own for an hour. The below two photos who the resulting cured CA.
The CA was then filed smooth with a small flat file the the stem was worked with a series of sanding sponged from 400-3500 grit. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a paper towel. After the final sponge I applied a coat of Obsidian Oil to the stem.
The stem was then taken to the buffer where I buffed it with white compound on a dedicated white compound wheel.
The masking tape was removed and I cleaned the pipe of any buffing compound. I returned to the buffer to apply several coats of carnauba wax to the pipe.
The final step was a hand buffing of the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.
I would love for this pipe to go to someone who has fond memories of Gus’ Smoke Shop. It is a lovely old pipe and it should provide years of service. The black dye turned out very nicely and is a lovely contrast to the smooth side panels. The grain present on the sides is also very pretty. The stem turned out well but I do admit that some browning of oxidation can still be seen in very bright light. In normal room light it remains undetectable. The stem fills are nearly unnoticeable without a very close examination.
The dimensions of this Gus’ Own Lumberman are:
Length: 5.74 in./ 145.80 mm.
Weight: 1.54 oz./ 43.66 g.
Bowl Height: 1.79 in./ 45.47 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.61 in./ 40.89 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.80 in./ 20.32 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.54 in./ 39.12 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished Gus’ Own Lumberman.
For some reason the Warren Zevon Werewolves of London was playing in my mind while I was restoring this pipe. In the mental soundtrack the line “He’s the heavy handed gent, ran amok in Kent” was substituted for “He’s the hairy handed gent gent, ran amok in Kent” (Warren Zevon – Werewolves of London Lyrics | Genius Lyrics). This pipe is large and would indeed fit well in the heavy hands of a gent from Kent. I have an affinity for panel pipes of various shapes. I do not recall how this one came into my possession but it was undoubtedly part of an estate lot. The pipe has no maker’s mark nor name, only the stampings MADEINLONDON over ENGLAND on the right shank. Below are some photos of the pipe prior to work.
The pipe was solidly built with good drillings. The fit of the stem to the shank was pretty good but only well fit in a single position. The stem was quite oxidized, calcium deposits around the bite zone and several deep tooth dents both top and bottom. The stummel was dirty with old grime. There were also moderate lava deposits on the rim and several old fills with their less than appealing pink spots. Overall a fairly straightforward restoration of a well used pipe.
Background
In researching the possible history of this pipe, I was limited to only the country of manufacture (COM) stamp. This led me to pipephil.eu for makers who used MADE IN LONDON over ENGLAND. The best I hoped for would be to find a stamp which matched. My first thought was a maker like Comoy, a large factory with numerous seconds brands. Most of Comoy’s lines of seconds used MADE IN LONDON in a circle with the ENGLAND offset. The below photo is a good example of this:
There were some examples of Comoy seconds which did use the MADE IN LONDON over ENGLAND.
(Gr-Gt — Pipes: Logos & Markings). In the Comoy’s examples the stamped words are clearly separated with a space. The No Name Billiard does not have these spaces. It is a single stamped word, “MAEDINLONDON”, without spaces.
The next contestant on, “Who Made That Pipe?” is a Conway. The
(Mas — Pipes: Logos & Markings). Mason House is a maker which I could not find any information about. The only thing that did turn up was another Mason House pipe listed as sold on WorthPoint. I captured the stampings from that pipe.
I was unable to make little conclusion other than the stamps were similar in their lack of spacing between the words and the ENGLAND did line up pretty much the same. Maybe I don’t have a discerning enough eye, but I other than those two things I couldn’t tell if they were the same stamp.
The final contestant was Parker. This one I discounted immediately due to spacing between the words and additional information in the form of a date suffix.
My conclusion is that the No Name Panel Billiard share a similar stamp to that of Mason House. This could indicate a possible origin or merely show that both makers used the same lazy stamp maker. As for the age of this pipe, that too is only a guess. I would say that a large block of briar like this would have to be from post World War Two. The Briar is not as soft as the Algerian briar pieces I have worked with so another assumption is that it is likely from the south of France or Italy.
The Restoration
The pipe found its way to the workbench and a cleaned piece of denim.
I began work with the stem. It was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners and 99% ethyl alcohol. I was surprised that it did not take much to clean the stem.
The bite zone was filed with a small flat file to reestablish the button and eliminate most of the tooth denting.
Both the top and bottom of the stem were flame painted with a lighter in hopes of lifting some of the dents by causing the vulcanite to expand and contract with heat. This may have helped a little bit.
The stem was then placed into a bath of Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover (deox) for just shy of 4 hours (based on the time stamps from the photos). A pipe cleaner was inserted into the stem to act as a handle for easy removal from the deox.
While the deox solution did the magic that it does, I turned to reaming the tobacco chamber. The ream team was assembled and included the PipNet with the big blades, #3 and #4, along with the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper.
The #3 and #4 blades of the PipNet did the majority of the work.
The tobacco chamber was sanded with 180 and 320 grit sandpaper via my finger. I do like the larger diameter chambers for this task.
Below is the sanded chamber showing no signs of any heat damage to the bowl.
The rim remained lava encrusted. I was hoping not to find any charring under the lava.
The lava was moistened with saliva and allowed to soften for a few minutes.
Scraping was done with a sharp pocket knife. Yay, the rim was free of charring except around the inner rim edge. Good job, previous owner.
Next came the shank cleaning. Bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol were used for the initial passes through the airway. Once the smoking residues had softened I was able to scrape the airway with a dental scraper. Every little bit of tar and yuck scraped is worth several pipe cleaners. I also used the shank drill from the KleenReem reaming tool to drill its way through the stem. This further removed some of the yuck. Eventually the airway returned unstained pipe cleaners.
The stummel was then taken to the sink for a scrub with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. If you are playing along at home, feel free to use an old toothbrush. This stummel was pretty filthy with years of accumulated grime, testifying to a well loved and used pipe. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with 995 ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad. This produced little color indicating that I had pretty much clean briar.
Those nasty pink fills stood out even more with the cleaned briar.
My idea was to pick the old fills out with the use of my trusty fly tying bodkin. This proved to be far more difficult than I planned. The fills were very hard and resisted my bodkin picking. Ethyl alcohol did not seem to soften the fills, so I tried dabbing the fills with acetone on a cotton swab. This did work though it took numerous applications and about 10 minutes. The acetone evaporated quickly and allowed the fills to reharden. I had to constantly dab to keep them moist while watching TV. I don’t think the TV was necessary for the process.
Eventually the fills released their grip and were removed revealing rather deep pits.
These pits were filled with briar dust pressed into the pit then a small drop of This cyanoacrylate (CA, superglue) was dabbed onto the briar dust. The CA soaked into the dust and bonds to the briar. This sets up nearly instantaneously. The rough surface was then filed smooth with a small flat file and additional briar dust was pressed into the remaining pit, with another dab of CA. I find that small layers work better than trying to fill large pits all at once.
The stummel was then sanded with both 320 and 400 grit sanding sponges. I wiped the surface of the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol between sponges to remove sanding debris.
I thought that this pipe would look better with a contrast dye. My reasoning was that it would both bring out the briar’s grain and help conceal the new fills. Black Fiebing’s Leather Dye was used for the base coat. The tobacco chamber was plugged with a wine bottle cork and the dye applied with a folded pipe cleaner. I only used a single coat and did not flame off the alcohol solvent as it evaporated quickly with this large stummel.
I avoided the rim with the black dye. The stummel was allowed to dry for a few minutes then wiped with a dry paper towel.
Once dry, the stummel was buffed with rouge buffing compound to remove the black from the surface of the pipe. The dye penetrates the soft grained briar deeper than the hard grained wood.
Back at the workbench you can see the grain of the briar was accentuated with the black dye. I sanded the stummel lightly with the 400 grit sanding sponge and wiped the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol to remove a bit more of the black.
The stummel was then given a coating of Light Brown Fiebing’s Leather Dye. This was applied in similar fashion to the black except I did not avoid the rim.
After the Light Brown dye had dried for about 30 minutes I wiped it with an alcohol wetted make-up pad. Below are a couple of photos of the resulting dyes.
The stem was removed from deox and I was not pleased to see that it had a light-colored coating over the surface. I used a coarse shop rag to hand buff the stem. Some of the light coating came off onto the rag.
I hoped that Soft Scrub cleaner on make-up pads would remove the light film and oxidized vulcanite.
It did, but it took many more cleanser wetted pads, more than shown below.
I hadn’t seen a light film like that before so I was curious to see how the stem would look buffed. I used the rouge compound and the rouge wheel. I looked OK after buffing so I continued as I would normally.
I wanted to fill the remaining tooth dents. I first roughed up the freshly buffed surface with a 320 grit sanding sponge to allow the black CA more surface area to bond to. I then applied small dabs of black CA to the dents. These dabs were spritzed with a CA drying accelerator. The photos below show the top and bottom surfaces.
Both surfaces were filed with a small flat file then sanded with 320 and 400 grit sanding sponges.
WIth the shank still masked I sanded the entire stem with a series of sanding sponges from 320-3500 grit. Between sponges I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a dry paper towel.
I returned to the buffer, this time using white buffing compound and the dedicated white wheel.
The stem looked much better.
I failed to photo-document the stummel sanding, so you will have to trust me. It was sanded with the same sanding sponges from 320-3500. I did wipe the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol between sanding sponges to remove debris. The stummel was coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 30 minutes. During this time I returned to watching TV. Again, I do not think the TV was necessary.
The stummel was then hand buffed with an inside out athletic sock to remove excess Restoration Balm.
The pipe was taken back to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.
The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth then finished photo shoot.
This Made in London, England No Name Panel Billiard has been restored to a condition likely better than it’s factory original. The new contrast dye accentuates the briar grain and adds a warmth lacking in the original. The replaced fills blend with the new contrast dye and are so much better than the pink plague of the original. The stem is far better than it was but try as I did, I could not get the vulcanite to return to the black. The dark brown is really only noticeable under very bright lights or sunlight. The finish of the stem did turn out well with the previous tooth dents only noticeable under close scrutiny. This pipe is a large billiard and it has a hand feel that only a large pipe has. For those who love large billiards this pipe calls out to you. The dimensions of the No Name Panel Billiard are:
Length: 6.02 in./ 152.91 mm.
Weight: 2.22 oz./ 62.94 g.
Bowl Height: 2.11 in./ 53.59 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.88 in./ 47.75 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.89 in./ 22.61 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.55 in./ 39.37 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover. If you are interested in purchasing this pipe or any other from previous blogs please feel free to contact me at scimansays1787@gmail.com.
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Below are some photos of the finished Made in London, England No Name Panel Billiard.
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