NebraskaPeteGeek

A Jobey Natural 995 Restoration

June 2nd, 2026
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I’m sure that some of you can relate to the attraction that some pipes have, which captivate us. This was one of those for me. I saw this lovely bent Jobey while perusing eBay auctions and couldn’t help placing a bid. I’m not sure if it was the novelty of the pinched stem of the shape in general. I don’t dwell on the why’s of attraction but just take it as it comes. Apparently no one else was bewitched by the allure of this darling and it soon made the journey from Suffern, New York to the wilds of southeast Nebraska. Below are some photos of the pipe before work began.

Okay, maybe it was the broken stem that dismayed other shoppers from this dainty darling. I couldn’t bring myself to replace the stem as it was one of the features that drew me to her. The stem would have to be restored. I recalled reading a blog post by Kenneth Lieblich on Steve Laug’s rebornpipes.com where Kenneth used stainless steel mesh to repair a similarly broken stem (Rethinking the Repair of Damaged Stems | rebornpipes). I had talked with Kenneth about the repair and had even purchased some stainless steel mesh but had not tried the technique. This looked like a perfect stem to try it with. The rest of the pipe was in good shape. Used and dirty, sure, but good nonetheless.

Background

In researching Jobey I began with pipephil.eu. This pipe did not have a country of manufacture (COM) stamp which led me to believe it was an American product. The Jobey entry at the site both confirmed and confused my thoughts. The US flag at the top right corner indicates an American origin but the text declares that the pipes are made in France. Hmm, apparently the plot thickens.

(Jo-Jok — Pipes : Logos & Markings)

Next stop on the research express was to pipedia.org. The first sentence there contained two words which I was not hoping to find, “information” (yes) and “scant” (not so much). Below are two parts of the pipedia entry for Jobey, the first provides more confusion and expands the US/France origin to include England, as well.

“English – American – Danish – French… Sadly, solid information about Jobey is scant

Probably established in England around 1920(?) the brand hiked into the USA later. In the course of time owner, distributor and manufacturer changed repeatedly. As far as is known the following companies have been involved with the brand:
- George Yale Pipes & Tobacco, New York (1942)
- Norwalk Pipe Co., New York (1949)
- Arlington Briar Pipes Corp., Brooklyn (when?)
- Hollco International, New York (1969).
- Weber Pipe Co., Jersey City, NJ (1970’s)
- Tinder Box, (1970’s – 80’s).
Throughout decades Jobey pipes were mainly sold in the USA, Canada and England but remained almost unknown in continental Europe. The bulk of Jobeys were predominantly made according to classical patterns and mainly in the lower to middle price range. The predominant judgment of the pipe smokers reads: “A well made pipe for the price.” So there is hardly anything very special or exciting about Jobey pipes although a flyer from ca. 1970 assures: “The briar root Jobey insists upon for its peer of pipes is left untouched to grow, harden and sweeten for 100 years. […] Jobey uses only the heart of this century old briar and only one out of 500 bowls turned measures up to the rigid Jobey specifications.” 99.80% of cull… that makes the layman marveling!” (Jobey – Pipedia).

The second portion of the entry is far more intriguing, especially as it alludes to conspiracy. I do love a good conspiracy.

“Possible Jobey Origin

As is noted above, the origins of this company seem to be shrouded in mystery, and most people claim that the origins were in England, followed by American production, and then a later move to Saint-Claude. There is another possible origin for the company, however, and it would suggest that Jobey was in Brooklyn, New York long before the 1969 patent of the Jobey “link”.

There’s not a lot of chatter about it, but if you can lay your hands on a copy of “The Tobacco World”, Volume 61, from 1941, there is a brief mention that reads “Norwalk Pipe Expands” and in the body states that Norwalk Pipe Corporation, “manufacturers of Jobey and Shellmoor pipes”, is moving to larger offices at 218 East Twenty-Sixth Street, NYC, as announced by Louis Jobey, president of that company. Norwalk is listed as one of the alternate distributors for Jobey on this page but apparently Louis Jobey was also actually working there at the time.

Before that, the first mention of Jobey seems to be back in 1915, when two brothers named Ulysses and Louis Jobey of Brooklyn, New York obtained a patent for an odd sort of cavalierish pipe in 1915, here’s the link: http://www.google.com/patents/USD46998

But less than four years later, in 1918, there’s a notice in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on November 6th to the effect that Louis Jobey declared bankruptcy in the District Court, with final hearing scheduled for December 1918. And in an even sadder turn, that same month sees a funeral notice for Lorraine Jobey, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Jobey, formerly of Brooklyn but now living in Moline Illinois at the home of Mr. and Mrs. George E. Hutchinson. The little girl evidently died in a fall.

There’s little else on Ulysses Jobey except that he evidently had a “junior” after his name or a son by the same name. Because Ulysses Jobey, Jr. was listed as the vice president in New Jersey of Lakewood Pipe Company Inc., a maker of smoker’s articles, in the 1922 New York Co-partnership and Corporation Directory for Brooklyn. Given the timing it’s likely this was the brother.

So while it it speculative, one possible origin story for Jobey is that the company was started by two brothers in Brooklyn in the teens with a new idea for a pipe, and failed amidst terrible tragedy. One brother went to one company and another to the other, but it was Louis who continued making Jobey pipes through the 40s under that name, despite evidently no longer owning the company. It would appear to be the Norwalk Company that was bought out by Wally Frank in the pre-link days. This would suggest that Jobey was always American.

Visit F&K Cigar Co. for an overview of the current offer!

Visit Chris’ pipe pages for a fine selection of Jobey related documents!” (Jobey – Pipedia)

In all honesty, I cannot pinpoint the locale of production, the year of production or who actually owned the company or name of Jobey and I am OK with that. A little mystery is tonic for the imagination. If I had to guess, I would place the production in the 1970s or 1980s somewhere in the US. On to the restoration.

The Restoration

The pipe made its way to the workbench.

I started working the stem with 0000 steel wool.

The inside was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners and 99% ethyl alcohol. There was also a bit of filing done on the button area and some cotton swab work on the opposite end.

Next the stem was scrubbed with Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads. To further remove some of the oxidized vulcanite.

The stem was then submerged in Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer (deox). Normally I let stems soak in this solution for 2-6 hours but it was bed time so this stem was in overnight.

The next morning I removed the stem from the solution and utilized the Drip-O-Matic 3000 (AKA a pipe cleaner and an empty bottle of alcohol) to allow the excess deox to drip back into its jar.

I cleaned the threaded tenon with a pipe cleaner and alcohol.

While the stem was dripping I reamed the tobacco chamber using the PipNet with the #2 and #3 blades.

The cake was easily removed.

I used the General triangular scraper, with the tip ground to a round point, to do a little bit of fine scraping of the chamber.

The chamber looked good and showed no evidence of heat damage. The interior was then sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. I forgot to photograph the results of this, apologies.

The rim was well encrusted with smoking residue also known as lava.

The shank was cleaned out with more alcohol and several bristle pipe cleaners along with a dental scraper.

Then some more pipe cleaners and a nylon shank brush.

Removing the lava was done with careful scraping with a very sharp pocketknife. After the initial scraping the rim was moistened with saliva and additional scraping was done with the blade.

To the sink! Here the stummel was scrubbed with a nylon brush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water.

The stem had dripped as much of the deox as it appeared like it could. A coarse shop rag was used to vigorously rub the remaining solution from the stem. This rubbing removed additional oxidized vulcanite which the deox had softened.

Back at the workbench the scrubbed stummel looked much cleaner and lived up to its name, “Natural”.

There was a strange discolored rectangular spot on the underside of the stummel which I thought looked odd.

The rim turned out very nicely and showed no signs of charring from exuberant lighter use.

A quick recleaning of the stem airway was done with a couple more alcohol dipped pipe cleaners.

I then worked the button area with a 600 grunt sanding sponge and a couple of sanding boards. I slathered the stem with Before and After Hard Rubber Balm and let it soak in the balm for 30 minutes while the airway received a mineral oiled pipe cleaner.

I wiped the remaining balm from the stem with paper towels and examined the chipped button. Fortunately my eyes are not as blurry as the photo.

I figured that I would use a dam made from a piece of plastic lid to keep the black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue).

This one was cut for a previous stem repair and fit nicely.

Below is a photo of the stainless steel mesh that I had purchased and the piece I cut from the roll. I planned on using Kenneth Lielich’s technique but rather than inlaying the mesh into the void, I wanted to shape the mesh and overlay it to add additional contact surface for the CA and the mesh. In hindsight I think cutting down into the vulcanite with a Dremel bit, about 0.5 mm would have been a better idea. Live and learn, eh?

The mesh folded easily and conformed to the surface of the button.

I used one of my good fly tying scissors to remove any stainless steel strands which might stick up through the CA.

With the dam covered with petroleum jelly and in place, the mesh was placed.

Black CA was then carefully placed onto the mesh.

A CA drying accelerator was used to cure the CA more quickly.

It required several coats of CA to cover and conceal the mesh. This would require blending the patch with additional CA and a good deal of filing and sanding.

I would love to say the below photo was the result, but it is the top, non-chipped side of the button.

This photo is of the repair, before reshaping via filing and sanding.

To reestablish the slot, a Dremel rotary tool and the bit shown below was used.

There was a lot of blending, filing, sanding followed by another coat of CA followed by more filing and sanding. The photos of this were neglected as I was in a “stem beautification” mode. I did start photographing when finished though. I guess you will just have to wait to see the finished stem.

The stem and stampings were taped off during the stummel sanding with a series of sanding sponges.

Then the shank was taped off during the stem sanding with the same sanding sponges.

Eventually the stem was buffed with white buffing compound at the buffer.

The threaded tenon insert was glued in place using black CA. The well greased pipe cleaner was used to make sure no CA seeped into the airway. This glue was allied to cure for an hour.

The stummel was coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for another hour.

After the hour an inside out athletic sock was used to hand buff away the remaining Restoration Balm.

The pipe was ready for several coats of carnauba wax applied with the buffer.

The final step was a hand buffing of the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.

The Jobey Natural 995 turned out exceptionally well. Though not the most beautifully grained piece of briar, it is a solid piece with excellent drillings. The stem repair worked. I can say that I learned a great deal and look forward to using this Kenneth Lieblich repair method again. The strength of the patch feels great and I am sure that it will provide a far superior repair than CA alone. The biggest problem with this type of repair is my own lack of skill in finishing a reshaped button. I know, I know, practice makes perfect and it will take much practice to perfect this technique. I am sure that this Jobey Natural 995 is ready for another 50 years of faithful service with grace and style.

The dimensions of the Jobey Natural 995 are:

Length: 5.98 in./ 151.89 mm.

Weight: 1.52 oz./ 43.09 g. (with band)

Bowl Height: 1.74 in./ 44.20 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.45 in./ 36.83 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.78 in./ 19.81 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.63 in./ 41.40 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.

Loading…

Type your email…

Below are some photos of the finished Jobey Natural 995:

A Duncan Delta Bent Restoration

May 21st, 2026

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

It has been a while since I restored a metal pipe. Not because I have an aversion to metal pipes, I actually find them quite interesting. I had seen photos of Duncan Delta pipes and thought they looked more refined than some of the American made aluminum pipes. The aluminum showed greater machining than the more tubular Falcon, finer finish than a Dr Grabow Viking and more elegance than the Yello-Bole Airograte. I decided that I wanted to work on one of these English aluminum pipes.

They appeared with some regularity on eBay but were almost always located in the United Kingdom. This meant that shipping would likely double the price of the pipe. To make matters worse eBay’s global shipping from England has led several pipes I had purchased to be confiscated as “nonpermitted”. My purchase price was always refunded but several desirable pipes were lost. England’s Royal Mail has proven to be reliable but not every seller will use that. This led me to keep an active search for Duncan Deltas and hope that price, shipper and shipping cost could all come together for a positive find. After over a year of waiting, the confluence of positives was achieved and I won a Duncan Delta from Saffron Walden, United Kingdom.

The Duncan Delta made its way across the Atlantic, then half way across North America to the wilds of southeast Nebraska. Upon arrival the pipe appeared as below.

The Dencan Delta had been used, not abused, just used. The bowl showed signs of cake development especially towards the bottom of the bowl. The top of the bowl looks like it had been reamed or scraped with more frequency. There was a light lava deposit on the rim. I hoped this did not conceal underlying charring. The dental mouthpiece was in great condition, as was the aluminum. The bowl looked faded but not dented or scratched. Overall this looked like it would be an interesting project.

Background

For a very nice history of Duncan Briars, I recommend giving the Duncan Briars – Pipedia a read. It is a bit lengthy to include here though I will include a couple of pieces pertaining to this pipe. Duncan’s history spanned over 100 years from 1889-1994, when the family sold Duncans Briars Limited.

An interesting detail of this pipe is the dental mouthpiece. This was first patented prior to World War Two and according to the pipedia.org entry,

“For many years he had been conscious of the need for a pipe that could be held in comfort by the pipesmoker with dentures. When this became his own misfortune, he was more determined than ever that this need be fulfilled.

Many hours were spent developing a mouthpiece with a lip that could be held by leverage, and finally he perfected, and patented, The Original Duncan Dental Pipe, the first of its kind in the trade.

Although the pipe retailers were very skeptical, perseverance on the part of John Louis finally convinced them that the Duncan Dental was worth a try, and the response by the pipe smoking public meant that the Duncan Dental would quickly establish itself as a milestone in the history of pipe making” (Duncan Briars – Pipedia)

I am not a denture wearer, but I can attest to the comfort of this mouthpiece.

Returning to Duncan Briars – Pipedia,

“40’s to 60’s

Pipe smokers are normally slaves of convention, yet in the late fifties the metal stem pipe wave swept Great Britain, and ‘Duncan’ was well to the forefront with their Delta Dri-Fashion Pipe. The pipe was a massive hit at home and overseas, and even though production has stopped many devout Delta smokers are still on the lookout for rare ‘spare’ bowls.” (Duncan Briars – Pipedia)

With that history of Duncan and the Delta line, I went to pipephil.eu, not for confirmation of the stampings or logos but more to see what the original stem logo may have looked like. The state of the current logo was rather beat-up.

Dul-Dz — Pipes : Logos & Markings The logo in the photos above showed that the stem logo appeared to have been painted in a silver. I could certainly add that detail to the restoration.

The last site I wanted to read through was http://smokingmetal.co.uk . This site has an extensive listing of metal pipes, photographs and some information which pipedia.org often does not contain. The site did not disappoint.

“DUNCAN DELTA

Department : METAL STEM & Threaded bowl

The Duncan Delta pipe, made in England, an aluminium cast stem with interchangeable briar bowls. A fibre disc in the sump acts as an absorbent medium, Pipes come in straight or bent form with semi bent, straight or dental bites. Bowls come in various shapes, smooth or rustic finish. There are 2 types of bowl, with one central hole or with a central air hole surrounded by 4 smaller holes. There are at least nine shapes of bowl.. named Billiard, Golf, Caddy, Rugby,(standard size) and ‘mini size’ Keg, Whisky, Brandy, Cocktail all available in smooth or rustic, and shown here a large freehand”

(DUNCAN DELTA) An interesting bit from this entry can be gleamed from the photograph of the Duncan Delta box, above. Though the shape of this bowl is not illustrated by photographs, it is on the box (lower left) and is called the “cocktail”. It is slightly difficult to make out but it does seem to match this pipe.

The smokingpipes.co.uk site also mentioned, “A fibre disc in the sump acts as an absorbent medium”. I searched eBay and found the following:

The price of the 6 discs was only around $10 but they were located in Australia and would require an additional $21 shipping. Though not in the budget for this experiment, it is good to know that they are still available for the collector who may want a pristine Duncan Delta.

The Restoration

After the before photos were taken the Dencan made its way to the workbench.

I began with disassembling the pipe. The bowl unscrewed from the aluminum body. There appeared to be a disc of some material in the base of the aluminum body. I later discovered this chamber was called the “sump”. A rather unbecoming term, but I will continue using it. The disc was heavily soiled.

The bowl appeared equally soiled. It also appeared to be chipped around its edges. There was a raised nipple that contained the airway. This nipple was also chipped and rough.

I removed the “fibre disc” with a fercept. Below the disc was a soiled sump.

I found that the mouthpiece was also detachable.

I cleaned the mouthpiece with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol.

To remove the dried smoking residues in the sump, I propped the aluminum up with the mouthpiece and filled the sump with 99% alcohol.

The bowl was covered with dust indicating that the pipe had stood in a stand for many years.

The tobacco chamber was of a size that did not fit a PipNet blade very well. This led me to do most of the reaming with an Openel knife.

The PipNet #2 blades were used to scrape the bottom of the tobacco chamber.

The hole at the bottom of the bowl was cleaned using the shank drill from the Kleen-Reem tool. This drill was the perfect size for the hole.

The rim’s lava deposits were light and I thought they would succumb to scrubbing.

The tobacco chamber was sanded using 320 sand paper both by finger and sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.

The bare briar showed no damage from heat.

To the sink! The briar bowl was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton hand towel.

As the bowl was drying on the workbench I was able to see the myriad of bir’s eyes. There were a couple of places on the rim where there remained a slight bit of charring or lava.

The bowl was wiped with 99% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad. Notice some of a pinkish stain or dye was removed. Most of this dye was along the base of the bowl.

All of the scrubbing and alcohol revealed a large fill. I think the fill area received an extra heavy coating of dye in an attempt to conceal this fill.

I picked the old fill material from the bowl. I had to soften the fill with 99% ethyl a few times.

The alcohol was poured from the sump into a medicine cup and was cleaned with cotton swabs and a baby toothbrush. The threads of the aluminum were scraped using a fly tying bodkin to free those grooves.

I then applied some Soft Scrub cleanse to the baby toothbrush to further clean the threads and sump.

I used bristle pipe cleaners dipped in ethyl alcohol to clean the airway.

To the sink! Oh fun, I got to say that again. The aluminum was scrubbed with Dawn dish soap and a nylon brush and shank brush. The soap was rinsed with copious warm water.

The aluminum body of the pipe now looked much better.

Even the mortise was nearly spotless.

And the sump, clean enough to use as a soup spoon. Though why you’d do that is quite questionable.

The embedded grime in the factory stampings was a thing of the past.

Turning my attention to the wooden nipple at the bottom of the bowl. This little bit showed ware and chips. I wanted to restore it to a more smooth and functional part. This would require some thought.

The fill repair, nipple rebuilding and strengthening of the wooden threads all would be done with cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust.

The old fill had been removed and the pit was packed with briar dust.

Thin CA was applied to the dust. This would penetrate the dust and bond it to the sides of the pit.

The subsequent new fill was filed with a small flat file. The results were still rough and required a second application.

The second application was reversed with the Thin CA going on first then briar dust pressed into the wet CA.

The dust combined with the wet CA and cured almost instantly. This was then filed smooth.

A final coat of Thin CA was applied to the fill and allowed to cure on its own.

The cured CA was again filed smooth and sanded.

To strengthen the wood threads I carefully applied This CA to them. The CA penetrated the briar and would hopefully strengthen the wood, making it much tougher.

To rebuild the nipple, I decided to retain as much of the original as possible. To do this I cut a cotton swab off and literally coated the cotton with petroleum jelly to keep the CA from adhering to the cotton. This would be inserted into the hole.

The cracks and crevasses would then be packed with briar dust and topped with Thin CA. This would be repeated until the nipple had been reestablished.

The newly reestablished nipple was then shaped with a small flat file.

The results were good and were also much tougher than the original briar. The chipping of the threads should also be reduced with the CA impregnated briar.

It was time to work on my metal polishing skills. This is one of those things that requires extended practice and experience, both of which I lack. I used white buffing compound on the dedicated wheel at the buffer. The aluminum and mouthpiece were buffed until I was pleased with their appearance.

The bowl was sanded using a series of sanding sponges, starting with 400-1500 grits. The bowl was wiped with a make-up sponge wetted with alcohol between each sanding sponge to remove sanding debris.

The sanding and wiping continued through the series of sponges in grits of 2000-3500.

The bowl then received a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and was allowed to sit for about an hour.

The polishing of the aluminum went well but buffing compound remained in the spaces along the shank of the pipe. To address this I thought that I could slice felt buffing discs for the Dremel tool thinner. The original discs were far too thick to fit into the spaces along the Duncan’s shank.

This idea was a good one but proved to be ineffective. The slimmed-down discs did not have the strength to hold onto the Demel bit and they would stop spinning while the bit continued to spin. I ended up using the thinned discs to rub the spaces by hand.

I did use the dremel with a conical felt tip and white buffing compound to further polish the sump.

After all the aluminum polishing, I wiped the excess Restoration Balm from the bowl using an inside out athletic sock.

The aluminum, briar and mouthpiece were looking great. I did fail to photograph the buffing of the mouthpiece, apologies for that. Next came the restoration of the stem logo. The pipephil.eu photos showed the delta logo as silver. To match this detail, I used Rub’nBuff Silver Leaf.

The paste was applied using a fly tying bodkin to work the paste into the depressions of the logo.

The excess was hand buffed with a soft cloth then cleaned up with an alcohol dipped cotton swab.

The reassembled pipe was then taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.

The final step was a hand polishing of the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.

Yay, I can check off another pipe from my list of pipes that I wanted to work on. This Duncan Delta was fun to have in hand. The elegance of the shape is wonderful. I really appreciate how the entire pipe came apart for cleaning. The aluminum polished-up nicely though those voids along the shank surely radiate heat effectively are a bit of a challenge to clean. The plastic of the stem also took well to the buffer and now appears factory fresh. The grain of the briar bowl is lovely with a great number of bird’s eyes. Though the large fill on the front of the bowl may be a detraction from the beauty, the smoothness of the finished fill and its lasting strength add character to the piece. I have not smoked this pipe but I am certain it will perform admirably. I did try the denture bit for comfort and can attest that it is quite nice. I am sure that this Duncan Delta will provide years of service to its next pipe steward.

The dimensions of the Duncan Delta are:

Length: 5.58 in./ 141.73 mm.

Weight: 1.22 oz./ 34.59 g. (with band)

Bowl Height: 1.44 in./ 36.58 mm.

Chamber Depth: 0.99 in./ 25.15 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.77 in./ 19.56 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.58 in./ 40.13 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.

Below are some photos of the finished Duncan Delta:

A Pall Mall Carved Billiard Chinrester

May 4th, 2026
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I have a fondness for the unusual and this pipe stem fits that description. I had been looking for a Kaywoodie Chinrester or a Yello-Bole Chin Rester (spelling apparently matters) for a couple of years. Each one that would show-up on eBay would sell for amounts I didn’t feel comfortable with. Eventually this Pall Mall Chinrester style pipe appeared. The bidding continued as normal but I either got lucky or collectors didn’t realize that this pipe was a Yello-Bole. I actually thought the Pall Mall stamping made the pipe even more interesting. Upon arrival I took the below set of photos.

I noticed that there were corkscrew marks in the tobacco chamber. I thought that marks would be deeper gouges in the briar, caused by a vigorous reaming with a post hole digger, but they turned out to be nearly imperceptible to my finger. Given, I have multiple sclerosis and can’t feel much with my fingers, but still they were not deep gouges. The stem was oxidized but had obviously not been stored in a brightly lit room. The aluminum stinger showed signs of oxidation again indicating the pipe’s age. The finish did show signs of handling which had worn away the black dye/stain to reveal briar underneath. Overall this looked like a fun restoration without any major rebuilding of damage.

Background

Yello-Bole was an offshoot of Kaywoodie which in turn was formed from Kaufman Brothers and Bondy (KB&B). This was a gradual shift and is summarized nicely in the following entry in pipedia.org:

“According to Hacker (1), the firm of Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy (KB&B) began producing the Kaywoodie (2) Pipe in 1915. Hacker notes that:

“The company was originally started in 1851 in New York by two brothers named Kaufmann, who sold meerschaums and clays that a third :brother sent them from Vienna. Business thrived and in 1854 the Kaufmanns took in a partner named Bondy. … The three partners retired :in 1898, but their relatives continued on with the firm, which had begun to manufacture their own briar pipes under the KB&B trademark. :In 1915 the Kaywoodie brand was created as a marketing umbrella for a new briar pipe which the KB&B company introduced. …”‘

The “marketing umbrella” mentioned by Hacker included lower grade Kaywoodies that were later marketed under the “Yello-Bole” name. (According to a 1948 Yello-Bole catalog, “Yello-Boles have been on the market since 1933. About 25 millions of these pipes have been sold”). Hacker concludes his history of Kaywoodie Pipes by noting that:

“The KB&B briar pipe brand existed from 1900 until just after World War I (with some overlapping with the Kaywoodie from 1915 — 1917), :and collectors refer to the KB&B as a Kaywoodie transition pipe. During the early years of the 20th century a number of filter systems :were designed by the KB&B firm and incorporated into their Kaywoodie Pipes under the names of Synchro-Stem and Kaywoodie Drinkless3 :filters. During the late 1920’s and throughout the 30’s the Kaywoodie became a highly respected pipe in spite of its filter system (which :was popular among many smokers of the era) primarily due to the fine quality of the straight grain and the flame grain models. :Unfortunately, the hard-to-get-briar years of World War II marked the decline of the Kaywoodie Pipe, a plummet from which it has never :recovered as far as collectors are concerned….”” (Collector’s Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes – Pipedia )

Two advertisements of the Yelllo-Bole Chinrester are shown below:

(Ad from 1939 Saturday Evening Post | Pipe Smokers Forums of PipesMagazine.com)

(1949 Ad Yello-Bole Briar Chinrester Pipe Smoking Tobacco Kauffmann Bro – Period Paper Historic Art LLC)

I focus on the Yello-Bole Chin Rester as the stem logo is used in the Pall Mall pipe. Kaywoodie also produced a similar stemmed pipe and apparently referred to it as the “Chinrester”, all one word. These two advertisements clearly show that the Chin Rester was in production from at least 1939-1949. In an attempt to narrow this range down, I used pipedia.org’s Kaywoodie Shape Numbers page to create the following table. The term “chinrester” was used rather than “Chin Rester” by the author, but I think that makes no difference.

(Kaywoodie Shape Numbers – Pipedia ). Hmm, that doesn’t seem to help narrow anything down, now does it?

Further in the pipedia.org Kaywoodie Collector’s Guide page it states,

“Other interesting entries in the 1955 catalog included:
- Export Pipes— Pipes without the Kaywoodie screw-in filter system. Available in Super Grain to Connoisseur grade pipes.
- Fit Rite. “Fit Rite” refers to the design of the bit (“absolutely flat on top and bottom from the tip right to the saddle”).
- Chesterfield8— Identical to the Peterson System Pipe (reservoir in pipe shank to collect moisture, Peterson style lip, military mounting). Available in Super Grain, Relief Grain, Flame Grain, and Connoisseur grades.
- Chinrester. “S-Shaped” bit— “Chinrester pipes perform a special function by resting comfortably on the chin, thereby easing the strain on smokers whose jaws tire quickly or whose teeth are weak.”
- Stembiter. “For smokers with strong teeth who bite through their pipe bits.” The bit was “notched” in front of the lip of the bit to “conform to the shape of the teeth”. The bit incorporated a 3-way smoke passage with two of the passages terminating in the lip-end of the bit and the third in the notch on the top of the bit9. (Also see “Durobit”, Section 3.4).
- White Briar— “Bowls of prime imported briar, with hard white finish that keeps its lustre and sparkling whiteness.”
- Filter-Plus— Interchangeable bowls in metal shanks. Two basic models were available. The 1955 model featured six “screw-on” interchangeable bowls. In the late 1950’s (after 1955) or early 60’s, the Filter-Plus Deluxe pipe was introduced (“gold-like” finish on shank). In the early to mid-1960’s, the Filter Pipes featured a “strap-on” bowl with a threaded base for ceramic filters. The bowl on these pipes was held in place with a spring-loaded pin that could be released by pulling the bit.
- Drinkless Tuckaway–Smaller versions of “popular shapes”. Available in smooth or carved finishes (Also see Section 3.5)” (Collector’s Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes – Pipedia ). Bah, this further widens the range of possible dates to the 1955 Kaywoodie catalog.
I do find it funny that the above section uses a quote about “weak teeth”,

“Chinrester. “S-Shaped” bit— “Chinrester pipes perform a special function by resting comfortably on the chin, thereby easing the strain on smokers whose jaws tire quickly or whose teeth are weak.”

Stembiter. “For smokers with strong teeth who bite through their pipe bits.” The bit was “notched” in front of the lip of the bit to “conform to the shape of the teeth”. The bit incorporated a 3-way smoke passage with two of the passages terminating in the lip-end of the bit and the third in the notch on the top of the bit9. (Also see “Durobit”, Section 3.4).” (Collector’s Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes – Pipedia ). Below is an image of this advertising.

(File:Kaywoodie OtherPipes kwg-26i.jpg – Pipedia). I do not think that an ad campaign like that would be very successful today. No one I can think of wants to be targeted with real or perceived flaws.

I did find one piece of the dating puzzle in the pipedia.org Yello-Bole entry. It states the following:

“Tips for Dating Yello-Bole Pipes
- KBB stamped in the clover leaf indicates it was made in 1955 or earlier as they stopped this stamping after being acquired by S.M. Frank.
- Pipes from 1933-1936 they were stamped “Honey Cured Briar”
- Post 1936 pipes were stamped “Cured with Real Honey”
- Pipe stems stamped with the propeller logo were made in the 1930’s or 1940’s – no propellers were used after the 1940’s.
- Yello Bole used a 4 digit code stamped on the pipe in the 1930’s.
- Pipes with the Yello-Bole circle stamped on the shank it were made in the 1930’s, this stopped after 1939.
- Pipes stamped BRUYERE rather than BRIAR it was made in the 1930’s.
” (Yello-Bole – Pipedia ). The fourth bullet point declares that the propeller logo was not used after the 1940s. I think that it is safe to assume that this pipe was most likely produced by Yello-Bole between 1939-1949 for Pall Mall. Perhaps as a coupon pipe as an offer to reward Pall Mall tobacco buyers with a unique pipe.

The Restoration

The pipe made the 20 foot journey from the photo table to the workbench.

The reaming was mainly done with the #2 and #3 blades of the PipNet. You may have noticed a new addition to the ream team, that is an Opinel child’s first knife. Once again my German buddy, Sascha Mertens shared a great idea. He mentioned the rounded tip of these knives and he was absolutely correct. It makes a nice addition to the bench tools.

There was very little cake for the PipNet to remove.

A light scraping with the Opinel and sanding with 320 grit paper wrapped around a wood dowel revealed bare briar with no noticeable heat damage.

The shank was cleaned out using cotton swabs and 99% ethyl alcohol. A shank brush also with alcohol joined the fun.

There was a small crack in the shank which appeared to be quite superficial. Maybe this was repaired at one point with the addition of the band or maybe the band was part of the original pipe.

To the sink! The stummel was scrubbed 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 stummel looked much better without the accumulated dust and dirt.

I wiped the stummel with 99% ethyl alcohol on a cotton make-up pad. Little black dye/stain came off with this wiping. I figured that the previous handling this pipe had gotten had removed most all that would come off.

Switching to the stem, I gave the vulcanite a quick rub with 0000 steel wool.

Then a scrub with Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads. This removed a good deal of the surface oxidation.

The airway was cleaned with pipe cleaners and 99% ethyl alcohol. The contorted path was surprisingly easy to work a pipe cleaner through. Even the stinger accepted a pipe cleaner.

The stem was then suspended in Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer (deox) for 3 hours.

Once removed from deox the stem was allowed to drip excess deox solution back into the jar using the patented Drip-O-Matic 3000 device.

A vigorous rubbing with a coarse shop rag removed more of the oxidized rubber from the pipe stem.

Stems look far better black, eh?

I buffed the stinger with Blue Diamond on the buffer.

It looked much better without the oxidation.

Next, I used black Fiebing’s Leather Dye to restore the black finish to the stummel. The tobacco chamber was plugged with a cork to keep dye from the chamber. The dye was applied with folded pipe cleaner and flamed between coats. The flaming burns off the alcohol solvent and better fixes the dye to the briar. 3 coats were applied.

The stummel was allowed to dry for a couple of hours.

Once dry, I hand buffed the stummel with a paper towel to remove excess black. As you can see, not very much came off on the paper towel.

Renaissance Micro-Crystalline wax was used on the heavily carved stummel. This was worked into the carvings with a baby toothbrush.

After working the wax in, I hand buffed the stummel with a soft cloth.

The baby toothbrush was cleaned with alcohol and the workbench cover.

The shank was masked to protect it while I buffed the sterling silver band.

Again the buffer and Blue Diamond were used to buff the band.

The band was then masked to protect it from the sanding. I wanted the stem attached to the stummel. This allowed a better handle for the sanding of the stem.

The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. Between sanding sponges the stem was wiped of sanding debris with a paper towel.

I returned to the buffer and the Blue Diamond to buff the vulcanite.

The stem and band was then given several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer. I avoided waxing the stummel as I did not want to allow a build up of wax on the carvings.

The whole pipe was then hand buffed with a microfiber polishing cloth,

The Pall Mall Billiard Chinrester turned out very nicely. The black carvings are set off beautifully from the black stem with the sterling silver band. I am not sure if the band was original or not but it certainly was well done and accentuates the joint between the stem and stummel. The textural difference between the carved briar and the gloss black stem is another unique feature of this pipe. It gives a nice tactile grip and a very attractive look to the pipe. Weighing in at .93 ounces or 26 grams, the chinrester stem really isn’t a necessary feature. The pipe is very light but it is remarkably comfortable. I can certainly see why this style of pipe lasted for over 10 years. Though I also think it looks a little silly, perhaps that was actually what led to it’s decline: Death by a thousand giggles. The dimensions of the Pall Mall Billiard Chinrester are:

Length: 5.77 in./ 146.56 mm.

Weight: 0.93 oz./ 26.37 g. (with band)

Bowl Height: 1.69 in./ 42.93 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.53 in./ 38.86 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.73 in./ 1.54 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.35 in./ 34.29 mm. (each facet was slightly different)

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.

Loading…

Type your email…

Below are some photos of the finished Pall Mall Billiard Chinrester:
A Brebbia Paneled Bent Dublin Restoration

April 27th, 2026

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

This Brebbia was picked-up as an estate pipe bound for my personal collection. I thought I needed a panel and had been searching for a Savinelli Ottogono bent billiard for what seemed like a couple of years. I saw this little darling and thought, “that is a great shape”. The auction timed out with no one wanting to pay the buyer their asking price. I watched and waited for another posting period or two and the pipe remained. I finally broke-down and made an offer that I thought was reasonable. The offer was accepted and the Brebbia made it’s way to the wilds of southeast Nebraska. Upon arrival I was amazed at the condition of the pipe. It looked far better than the description or photos indicated. Happy, but I have to admit, disappointed at the same time for the restoration would be so uneventful. Actually a cleaning and polishing would be a better description than calling this a restoration. Anyway, The below photos were taken of the pipe prior to it being worked on.

It really did look like a new pipe. You could tell that it had been smoked a couple of times by the condition of the tobacco chamber, the light cake build up and sure there were a couple of light tooth marks on the stem, but this pipe was in great shape. This one was going to be a breeze.

Background

The official Brebbia site, Pipe Brebbia | Official Website and Online Shop has a very nice history of the company section, History. This is recommended reading for those more interested in the brand and history. In a nutshell, Brebbia and Savinelli are like siblings. They grew up together then split off and went their separate ways. Like I said, a nutshell – a very small one too.

Additional reading about Brebbia can be found at Brebbia – Pipedia. As for the Brebbia logos, Brebbia — Pipes : Logos & Markings has a nice selection of photos including this one showing both the stem logo and the “Golden Gnome” as on the Brebbia in hand:

(Brebbia — Pipes : Logos & Markings). As for the date of production of this pipe, I could not find anything specific to the Sabbiata line other than the following:

(sabbiata italian definition – Search ).

The Restoration

After the photo shoot for the before photos the Brebbia made it to the workbench. The verdict is still out on the new cloth surface protection towels. They look OK for photography but everything seems to snag on the fabric and wants to lift the cloth from the surface. I think I prefer the denim pieces but they were getting very stained.

A look down the mortise showed a very clean shank.

The tobacco chamber was also clean but did show signs of use.

The only tool I used for reaming was the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer. And it didn’t have much to do.

I started swabbing the chamber out with cotton swabs dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol and discovered that Bebbia used a rather thickly applied bowl coating.

The coating must have been sprayed into the bowl and allowed into the shank because cleaning it with the same method provided the same black stained cotton swabs.

Some of the coating must have also made its way into the stem.

With that bowl coating stuff removed, I was able to say, “To the sink!” Here the stummel was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed away with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

The stem showed ever-so-light tooth chatter scars.

I did not think that sanding or micro-meshing was necessary to address this and that buffing with Blue Diamond compound would take care of the marks.

A couple of coats of carnauba wax at the buffer and the stem looked like new.

That’s it. That is all I did. I didn’t even bother taking a full set of after photos since the pipe didn’t look enough different to warrant taking them. I can say that it is a fine smoker and will be used and enjoyed for many years to come (hopefully).

The dimensions of the Brebbia Sebbiata 880 are:

Length: 5.78 in./ 146.81 mm.

Weight: 2.06 oz./ 58.40 g. (with band)

Bowl Height: 2.03 in./ 51.56 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.64 in./ 41.66 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.75 in./ 19.05 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.60 in./ 40.64 mm. (each facet was slightly different)

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.

Loading…

Type your email…

Below are some photos of the finished Brebbia Sabbiata 880:
A Peterson System Standard 302 Ebony Restoration

April 23rd, 2026

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I have probably said this before, I love Peterson pipes and fishing. Now in fishing, catch and release is where fish are pursued,caught and then released. Hmm, I guess that didn’t need explanation. Anyway, a similar process can be done with pipes. A given specimen can be pursued, obtained, restored then collected or sold to a new owner. This restoration is even better than that, I got to restore a Peterson Ebony 302 for someone else. I didn’t have to pursue, obtain or look for a buyer. I’ve probably said this before too, “I’m lazy”.

Tom reached out to me to restore a well loved pipe of his. He apparently had been impressed with my restorations while abusing himself by reading my blog. He sent me some photos and I agreed to restore the pipe – it’s a Peterson, of course I’d restore it.

He packed up the pipe and sent it to the wilds of southeast Nebraska. Below are some photos taken prior to working on the Ebony.

Well loved, well used and well cared for, were terms that came to mind. The ebony finish was nearly pristine. I didn’t want to do anything to it other than cleaning and waxing except for the rim – that would take a bit of work. There was a light cake in the tobacco chamber and the reservoir showed signs of frequent use. The nickel collar was tarnished and should buff nicely. The stem was suffering from oxidation and looked to be where the majority of time would be spent. Overall this was going to be a fun project.

Background

I had to count how many Peterson pipes I had blogged about. I ran out of fingers and toes but used the dog’s feet to assist in the task, then I got sidetracked, darn ADHD. Let’s just say between 30-40. Adding to that all the pipes restored prior to blogging would likely put the number at closer to 100. Have I mentioned that I like Peterson pipes?

Back to the background. Peterson pipes or Kapp and Peterson, if you prefer, is the oldest operational pipe manufacturer in the world. Summarizing the history of Peterson would require a large book and perhaps a blog. Good thing Mark Irwin has provided both of these: The Peterson Pipe: The Story of Kapp and Peterson, written by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg, and petersonpipenotes.org (PPN). For a less lengthy summary Peterson – Pipedia provides a nice article.

For this pipe in particular I refer to Mark’s blog post on Ebony finished Peterson pipes: 367. A History of Peterson’s Ebony Finish, With Help from Sykes Wilford and Adam Davidson – Peterson Pipe Notes. As Mark discusses in the post, the ebony finish is difficult to perfect. This is the main reason I was glad to see that Tom’s 302 was in such great shape. It relieved me of having to try to reestablish a beautiful ebony finish myself. The 303 was added to Peterson’s line-up in 1978. Here is a description of the 303 from PPN:

“302 Extra-Large Apple. 1978-Present.

Length: 5.75 in. / 146.05 mm.
Weight: 2.30 oz. / 65.20 g.
Bowl Height: 1.72 in. / 43.69 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.39 in. / 35.31 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.80 in. / 20.32 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.74 in. / 44.20 mm.

The 302 and its smaller, less jowly sibling the 303, first appeared in the 1978 Peterson-Glass catalog and were issued simultaneously as the De Luxe Systems XL2S (later 2S) and 3S, the Classic Range 02 / XL02 and 03, and in the Dunmore System as the 70 and 73. Peterson describes the 302 shape as “an extra-large apple” in the 1986 catalog and the 303 as a “medium apple.” If you look at this bowls closely, whether in new or vintage pipes, you’ll notice there are actually two shapes, one wider at the back and bottom of the shank and the other more rounded. This stems, I suspect, from outsourcing to two different bowl sources, as the difference is too great to be merely a sanding problem. In any event, I like and smoke both. The fat-bottom seems to have been the model for the Lestrade Sherlock Holmes, XL23. For both the 302 and 303, it’s worth seeking out the early-issue mouthpiece versions (pre-1990), some being quite short and some longer, but all possessing the wide saddle and the Comfort P-Lip.” (146. A Guide to System Shapes, 1896 – 2019, Part 1 (The 300 Shape Group) – Peterson Pipe Notes). To narrow down this 303’s historyI again refer to Mark Irwin’s PPN with two quotes

1) “From 1979 until now many Pete lines have been given the ebony treatment” and

2) “I remembered when K&P had last done a big release of ebony Standard Systems around 2010 or so” (367. A History of Peterson’s Ebony Finish, With Help from Sykes Wilford and Adam Davidson – Peterson Pipe Notes). I realize this isn’t as effective as silver hallmarks but it does provide some dates; 1979-2010.

I suppose I could just ask Tom, when he got this pipe, eh? That is what I did and here is his reply: “Yessir I got this last year from an estate sale in the heights in Little Rock. The fella that owned it was a huge part and mentor of many pipe smokers @ The Pipe & Tobacco Shop in Little Rock. I had no idea that all the pipes I bought at his estate sale were his. It’s a huge honor to have some of his pipes but my memory of his name I just can’t remember. He was around 90 when he passed.” (personal communicationTom Gilliam, AKA: AR Piper). Tom then said he would reach out to the owner of the shop.

If you really want to torture yourself you can also read one of my earliest attempts at blogging where I use a vinegar iron solution to ebonize a Pete, featured on another of Mark’s PPN: https://petersonpipenotes.org/370-ebony-finish-of-a-peterson-estate-pipe-using-vinegar-iron-solution/

The Restoration

The 302 made the 20 foot journey from the photo table to the workbench.

I began with the stem, cleaning it with 99% ethyl alcohol, cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners.

The surface of the stem was rubbed with 0000 steel wool to remove some of the surface oxidation.

I used a small flat file to sharpen the edges of the button.

Next, the stem was scrubbed with Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads.

This removed more of the surface oxidation.

A pipe cleaner was inserted into the airway and the stem was suspended in Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer (deox).

This stem was a bit longer than the depth of the deoxidizer so I propped the jar at an angle to fully submerge the stem.

I turned my attention to the stummel and the light layer of cake within.

The number 2 and 3 blades of the PipNet worked very nicely.

There was a small amount of clean-up that had to be done with a Smokingpipes Low Country reamer.

Looking down the tobacco chamber, I couldn’t see any signs of damage due to excessive heat.

Sanding the tobacco chamber with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel then with 300 grit paper and my finger. Exposing the bare briar within the chamber confirmed the excellent condition of the tobacco chamber.

It was at this point I started cleaning out the shank and reservoir. This took a rather large number of alcohol dipped cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners. I also used a dental scraper and a nylon shank brush, also dipped in alcohol. I apparently failed to photograph any of this process. I could have sworn I took photos but there was nothing on the phone. Feel free to use your imagination of a pile of soiled cotton swabs.

To the sink! The stummel was 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 dried with a cotton hand towel.

The stummel looked great except for the tarnished collar.

I was hoping that the scrub would remove the light lava deposits from the rim. Wrong. Normally I would scrape the rim with a sharp knife blade but I did not want to risk marring the ebony finish.

A more conservative approach was used – alcohol dipped cotton swabs.

The cotton swab scrubbing was slow and still there remained either some lava or slightly charred edges.

I needed time to think about how to deal with the rim so I figured I would do an alcohol cotton treatment. This would also help in loosening the remaining tar deposits within the airway, reservoir and shank. The bowl and airways were packed with cotton.

Since this was a larger chambered pipe, I figured about 12-15 ml of 99% ethyl alcohol would be needed. This would be added using a disposable pipette.

I was close, it took about 11 ml of alcohol to saturate the cotton.

8 hours later I returned to the pipe. The alcohol had dissolved the residues in and on the briar. As the alcohol evaporates these dissolved bits are moved to the cotton.

The cotton was removed.

Another round of airway cleaning commenced. The heavily stained pipe cleaners are from the draft hole between the tobacco chamber and the airway of the shank. I had apparently forgotten to clean this during the early cleaning of the shank. This was probably due to me being very busy forgetting to take photographs.

Anyway, the shank and reservoir were now clean.

The stem was removed from the deox, having spent over 8 hours submerged. I used the patented Drip-O-Matic 3000 to allow some of the excess deox solution to drip back into the jar.

While the Drip-O-Matic 3000 was doing its job, I turned my attention back to that troublesome rim. With closer examination (squinting) I concluded that a good deal of the rim’s imperfections was still lava, not charring. I utilized a very high-tech technique to remove this stubborn material – saliva, a paper towel and a lot of rubbing. Well, that’s high tech here in the wilds of southeast Nebraska.

There was still one area that was charring on the rim. It looked like the previous owner held the pipe with his left hand and lit the pipe with his right hand from the 1:00-2:00 position.

I thought maybe I could reapply a coating or two of Fiebing’s Black Leather Dye and this would miraculously erase the damage.

Hmm, maybe more than one of two applications…

While the Fiebing’s was drying, I returned to the stem. A coarse shop rag was used to vigorously rub the stem. This removes the oxidized vulcanite that the deox solution has softened and does a lovely job of staining a clean coarse shop rag.

With the shop rag thoroughly defiled and the stem looking much better, it was time to start sanding the stem to return it to factory fresh.

A series of sanding sponges in grits from 400-3500 were used. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with a drop of Before and After Hard Rubber Balm and wiped with a paper towel. This wiping removed sanding debris from the stem. Once finished I coated the stem with the balm and allowed it to sit.

Time to make that tarnished collar shine. I wrapped the shank with masking tape to protect it from buffing.

The nickel was polished with Blue Diamond at the buffer.

The results were a great improvement.

Back to the stem. I used 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads to work the stem, again with the Before and After balm and wiping between pads.

The stem was then buffed with Blue Diamond at the buffer.

A final coating of Before and After Hard Rubber Balm was given to the stem and it was reunited with the stummel.

The black Fiebing’s Leather Dye worked well at making the stubborn spot on the rim black but it was still noticeable. I thought that maybe a coati or two of Danish oil would help conceal the blemish.

This was applied to the rim with a cotton swab.

The whole rim was coated to help blend the spot.

Then several more mini applications to the spot, itself. After the oil dried I worked the spot with 7000, 8000 and 12000 grit micro-mesh.

The stubborn little spot remained noticeable. I finally surrendered to failure. I thought maybe, just maybe, that the carnauba waxing would finally smooth the blemish, but didn’t hold much faith in that.

Several coats of carnauba wax were applied to both the stem and stummel.

The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth which really brought out the shine.

What a chubby cheeked beauty. This Peterson System Standard 302 Ebony restored wonderfully. The glossy black finish was well maintained by the previous owner and needed little work. The slightly charred spot on the rim was fixed with a touch of black dye,Danish oil, polishing and disappeared with the waxing. The oxidation of the stem was removed and revealed the lovely black high gloss vulcanite. This glossy black matches the stummel and is accentuated by the polished nickel collar. Overall, I think the pipe looks nearly as great as it probably did exiting the Peterson factory in Dublin. I am sure that Tom, will enjoy many years of relaxing contemplation with this pipe. The dimensions of the Peterson System Standard 302 Ebony areas follows:

Length: 6.09 in./ 154.69 mm.

Weight: 2.58 oz./ 73.14 g.

Bowl Height: 1.88 in./ 47.75 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.40 in./ 35.56 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.80 in./ 20.32 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.79 in./ 45.47 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.

Loading…

Type your email…

Below are some photos of the finished Peterson System Standard 302 Ebony.
A Storm Crank Bait Restoration. Wait a minute, that’s not a pipe.

April 20th, 2026

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Not a pipe indeed. If you have read my blogs for a while you may have picked up on one of my other vices, fishing. A buddy of mine, let’s call him Matt, had (still has but I’m trying for grammatical correctness) a beloved Storm crank bait. As you may have noticed from the above photo it suffered a catastrophic break. When I saw the pieces on the deck of Matt’s bass boat I immediately felt his pain. You know that little devil that pops up whispering nerdowell things in your ear? Mine was saying, “Hah, he’ll never catch more fish than you with that lure again!” Darn little devil. After a morning of fishing Matt had once again caught more fish than me even without the use of his beloved bait. I looked at the pieces and thought, “I can fix this”. Matt said to give it a try, it was getting any better laying on the deck of his boat but at the same time, I couldn’t help but notice that it had not gotten picked up and thrown away. Perhaps some things are just too painful to disregard. That brings us to the blog for this week. How can a pipe restorer repair a broken plastic lip of a crank bait?

The Restoration

The bait made it to the workbench. It is weird typing that without the word “pipe” in there.

My first thought was to tack the lip back together with some cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). Not as a permanent repair but to get the lip back into its original position and alignment. I also thought about completely removing the line tie and redrilling a new hole through the old line tie and into the molded resin body of the lure, then fashioning a new line tie and glueing it into position. I judged that might significantly weaken the lip and would likely affect the movement of the lure through the water, so opted against that.

The surfaces to be glued were cleaned using 99% ethyl alcohol on a cotton swab.

Next a drop of CA was applied to the surface and the lip was reattached. Additional CA was allowed to fill the cracked surface of the seam. The Thin CA is very thin, imagine that, and penetrates well into any slight crack.

While allowing the glue to cure, I thought I should attempt to repair the “hook rash” or wear on the finish of the bait caused by frequent run-ins with the hooks. That brown looked very similar to a mahogany wood stain.

Sure enough, mahogany matched quite well. A little bit of Thin CA locked that stain in place. Now both ends of the bait were untouchable until the CA cured, unless I felt the need to attach the bait to my fingers.

After the CA had completely cure, I used a Dremel rotary tool with a cut-off bit to make two grooves into the lip intersecting the previous break. My grand plan was to use two 2 mm brass rods to reinforce the lip. These would be glued in place with CA then encased in 24 hour epoxy resin which would later be carved to a semblance of the original lip but be slightly thicker. The brass rods, CA and Epoxy all come together to repair and strengthen the break. In my imagination, this worked gloriously.

To further anchor the 2 mm brass rods I drilled a 2 mm hole into the resin body of the bait.

The brass rods were measured and cut. They were then pressed into the holes and fit nicely into the grooves cut with the Dremel. These received a drop of Thin CA to tack them into place while the epoxy cured.

I thought the eyes needed a bit more flair, so I painted a gold iris around the black eye. OK, I was really just keeping busy while the CA fully cured but it still looks cooler, eh?

I also blended some acrylic model paint to cover the hook rash on the belly of the bait. Had I been thinking I would have given this a light coat of thin CA to seal the paint as well. Too bad I wasn’t thinking.

The black was touched up as well and also not protected with CA.

The Protected mahogany spot was filed smooth, not quite finished in the photo below.

I chose West System G/flex epoxy for this repair. For no other reason that these were new bottles and the tips were not gunked up like my other epoxies were.

Using masking tape, I made a dam around the lip to contain the epoxy and keep it from flowing over the edges. The epoxy was mixed as per label instructions and applied to the lip both on top and bottom. The bait was set up level and allowed to cure for 24 hours.

The next day the line tie was completely encased in hardened epoxy. Don’t worry, this was part of the intended thickening of the lip. A grinding bit was used in the Dremel to carve and reshape the hardened epoxy.

I used a hand drill with a couple of bits to drill out the epoxy from the line tie eye.

The epoxy was finish sanded and slightly shaped using sanding boards in 400-800 grit.

Once the epoxy was shaped to my satisfaction I buffed the bait with Blue Diamond compound on the buffing wheel. This is where protecting the new paint would have really been a good idea. The buffing kind of removed most of my beautiful color matching. DOH!

Chinese UV resin was applied to the bait and allowed to cure in sunlight for 20 minutes. After the first coat a second coat was added and allowed to cure for another 30 minutes.

Below is the bait as it was being set in the sun for Chinese UV resin curing.

The hardware was reattached and the bait returned to Matt. Here is the point where you ask, “Didn’t you sharpen all the hooks for him?” Heck no, he is always catching more fish than me anyway.

I do hope that you have found something useful or at least entertaining in this “not-a-pipe” restoration. Feel free to like, comment and/or subscribe. The next blogs will most likely be a return to pipe restorations but you never know.

Loading…

Type your email…
A Medico Gold Crest 63 Bent Billiard Restoration

April 17th, 2026
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I’m not sure why I am drawn to these old Medico pipes. I don’t smoke them. I’d gladly exchange them for US monetary units, but nevertheless I like restoring them. Maybe that is enough. The rolled gold band does make them look classy and the briar is usually of good quality. I do not like restoring the nylon stems, though I kind of like the way a nylon stem feels between my teeth. For whatever reason, I picked up this one from eBay for a very reasonable price. Maybe someone will want a matching pair, the Dublin from the previous blog post and this one would make an attractive duo of Medico Gold Crests. Below you can see some photos of the Bent Billiard before I began work.

The pipe looked as if it had only been smoked a handful of times. The clear coat finish was cracking, from age and would have to be removed. There were a few dents and dings on the briar but I thought that a hot iron and a wet cloth would allow the briar to expand and return to the original state. Overall an easy restoration.

Background

The following is taken from a restoration I did of a Medico meerschaum Gold Crest pipe:

“According to TobaccoPipes.com,

“When you trace the Medico tobacco pipes history, you have to trace it back to the origins of the company that created it. The company that originated the Medico brand is the S.M Frank & Co. This company dates back to the year 1900. In that year, a man named Sam Frank began selling pipes and related tobacco products. Eventually, the company began making its own line of pipes. With the help of an experienced pipe manufacturer, Ferdinand Feuerbach, the company produced the popular Royal DeMuth and Hesson Guard Milano tobacco pipes. The company continued to grow well into the early part of the 1930s.

So, where did Medico pipes come into the picture?

By the early 1930s, there were some concerns about the tars and nicotine found in tobacco smoke. In order to mellow out the flavor of hot tobacco smoke as well as to capture the tars and nicotine, the S.M. Frank & Co. introduced the Medico pipe filter. This is an absorbent paper filter that many people still use to this day. In order to accommodate the new filter, the company developed an accompanying brand of pipes known as Medico. That line of pipes continues in production today.

The company ended up buying some of their main competition in 1955. That year the Kaywoodie brands came under the S.M. Frank Company. The Medico brand continued production through this transition without many changes. The next big change for the brand came in the late 1960s. In 1966, the company developed a synthetic material that combined the traditional briar wood with resins. It is known as Brylon. At that time, all Medico pipes were made from imported briar wood. In order to keep production costs down, the company began offering some lines with Brylon. Today, that is still true.

Today, the Medico brand of pipes is still a top selling one for the S.M Frank & Co. This line of pipes comes in thirteen different finishes with five made of briar wood and the rest from Brylon. All come with the push bit with a filter inside. The filter is easily changed out when the smoker desires. In the briar wood finishes, this line includes the Silver Crest, Premier, Bold Rebel, Kensington, and Windsor. In the Brylon, the line includes the Lancer, Apollo, Standard, Varsity, Conqueror, Medalist, Cavalier, and V.E.Q. As far as price, the briar wood pipes tend to be higher in cost that the Brylon ones.” (Medico Pipes History | TobaccoPipes.com)

I was unable to precisely identify the years in which the Gold Crest line was made. I did find a couple of print advertisements from 1958 and 1966, at least that is what the eBay sellers were claiming. The first ad is from 1958 and shows a Gold Crest with a list price of $5. The ad says “NEW! See the 1958 series of MEDICO Crest”. This could be read as meaning that the Crest line changed from year to year or that 1958 was the first year of the line.

(1958 Medico Pipes Ad Filter Pipes Crest | eBay)

The second ad looks quite “1966” but it doesn’t mention the Gold Crest pipe. Neither advertisement had the M within the crest as with the Medico Gold Crest in hand.

(1966 Medico Gold Crest Pipe Art Illustration Photo Vintage Magazine Print Ad | eBay)

Looking at just those two advertisements I would feel comfortable saying that this pipe is from around 1960.” (A Medico Gold Crest Meerschaum Apple Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek)

The Restoration

The pipe was taken to the workbench and a new cloth workbench cover. Yeah, I finally decided to try something different than the denim pieces.

The tobacco chamber looked very clean.

And the rim was nearly pristine.

I used 99% ethyl alcohol and cotton swabs to clean out the tobacco chamber.

Next came the cleaning of the shank, again with alcohol, cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners.

The rim needed nothing special.

To the sink! The stummel was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. After rinsing the soap with warm water the stummel was dried with a cotton hand towel.

The stem was cleaned as with the shank.

Now for the part that I dislike, restoring the nylon mouthpiece. There was some tooth chatter on the top and bottom.

I used a small flat file to smooth the surfaces.

After filing an emery board and 400 grit sand paper were used.

The stem then was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 1000-3500 grits.

Buffing the stem came next with blue buffing compound.

Have I mentioned how much I don’t like polishing nylon stems? More buffing was called for.

Once the buffing was done, I cleaned the Gold Crest logo with alcohol.

Gold leaf Rub’nBuff was the new logo coating of choice.

The Rub’nBuff was applied and then hand buffed with a soft cloth.

The next three images attempt to show the dents and dings that I planned on steaming out.

Before steaming, I wanted to remove the clear coat. Acetone was the solvent that worked best to remove this.

I applied acetone to make-up pads and rubbed away the old finish.

An electric iron and damp cloth provided the steam. This worked very nicely.

The stampings were covered with masking tape to protect them from sanding.

The old fills were picked out and new fill material was added. I used a small drop of thin cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) in the fill then pressed briar dust onto the wet CA.

I used my finger tip to press the briar dust into the wet CA. Really, I was not picking snuff boogers from my nose.

The band was also masked for its protection then the briar was sanded using a series of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grit. In between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol.

The stummel was then worked with micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000. Again with wiping between each pad.

When removing the tape from the band the whole band slid off. Apparently the alcohol from the wiping had softened the glue. DOH!

A light coating of white all purpose glue was applied to the shank end and the band was re-glued.

Before and After Restoration Balm was applied to the briar and allowed to work its magic for 20 minutes.

The excess balm was hand buffed with an inside out athletic sock.

The pipe was then given several coats of carnauba wax at the buffer.

The final step before heading to the photo table was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.

I think this Medico Gold Crest bent billiard turned out beautifully. The graceful curves of this shape are extremely comfortable both in hand and clenched. Removing the old clear coat and restoring the briar allows the grain to shine. Though not perfect, the stem is far far smoother than it was. When regluing the band I adjusted it to show no gap between the shank and stem. This did leave a slight ring ahead of the band. This pipe will surely be a great smoking pipe with or without a filter. The dimensions of this Medico Gold Crest bent billiard are:
- Length: 5.54 in./ 140.72 mm.
- Weight: 1.31 oz./ 37.14 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.75 in./ 44.45 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.58 in./ 40.13 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 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.

Loading…

Type your email…

Below are some photos of the finished Medico Gold Crest 63 Bent Billiard.
A Medico Gold Crest 65 Dublin Restoration

March 22nd, 2026
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I am writing this on Saint Patrick’s Day and it’s a beautifully shaped Dublin pipe. Coincidence? I know, I should have been working on a Peterson but have you seen the auction prices of used Peterson’s lately? Anyway, this lovely (well, it will be lovely) Medico came to me as an attempt to invest in the gold market surge. Another pathetic attempt at humor.

OK, it has been several days since I started writing this blog. I don’t know why but I was just having a terrible time sitting to do the writing. It’s not because of the pipe, it’s a beauty. Oh well, here goes.

The below photos are of the Medico Gold Crest before I started work on it.

Overall a typical well used and loved pipe. It needed reaming and rim work. The stem was gnawed on nylon which would require more time than a vulcanite stem. There were numerous old fills that would need to be replaced. The gold Rolled Gold (“R.G.” from the stamp) would need buffing. Overall a typical restoration.

Background

I am going to use the “Background” from a Gold Crest Meerschaum pipe I restored a while back. “According to TobaccoPipes.com,

“When you trace the Medico tobacco pipes history, you have to trace it back to the origins of the company that created it. The company that originated the Medico brand is the S.M Frank & Co. This company dates back to the year 1900. In that year, a man named Sam Frank began selling pipes and related tobacco products. Eventually, the company began making its own line of pipes. With the help of an experienced pipe manufacturer, Ferdinand Feuerbach, the company produced the popular Royal DeMuth and Hesson Guard Milano tobacco pipes. The company continued to grow well into the early part of the 1930s.

So, where did Medico pipes come into the picture?

By the early 1930s, there were some concerns about the tars and nicotine found in tobacco smoke. In order to mellow out the flavor of hot tobacco smoke as well as to capture the tars and nicotine, the S.M. Frank & Co. introduced the Medico pipe filter. This is an absorbent paper filter that many people still use to this day. In order to accommodate the new filter, the company developed an accompanying brand of pipes known as Medico. That line of pipes continues in production today.

The company ended up buying some of their main competition in 1955. That year the Kaywoodie brands came under the S.M. Frank Company. The Medico brand continued production through this transition without many changes. The next big change for the brand came in the late 1960s. In 1966, the company developed a synthetic material that combined the traditional briar wood with resins. It is known as Brylon. At that time, all Medico pipes were made from imported briar wood. In order to keep production costs down, the company began offering some lines with Brylon. Today, that is still true.

Today, the Medico brand of pipes is still a top selling one for the S.M Frank & Co. This line of pipes comes in thirteen different finishes with five made of briar wood and the rest from Brylon. All come with the push bit with a filter inside. The filter is easily changed out when the smoker desires. In the briar wood finishes, this line includes the Silver Crest, Premier, Bold Rebel, Kensington, and Windsor. In the Brylon, the line includes the Lancer, Apollo, Standard, Varsity, Conqueror, Medalist, Cavalier, and V.E.Q. As far as price, the briar wood pipes tend to be higher in cost that the Brylon ones.” (Medico Pipes History | TobaccoPipes.com)

I was unable to precisely identify the years in which the Gold Crest line was made. I did find a couple of print advertisements from 1958 and 1966, at least that is what the eBay sellers were claiming. The first ad is from 1958 and shows a Gold Crest with a list price of $5. The ad says “NEW! See the 1958 series of MEDICO Crest”. This could be read as meaning that the Crest line changed from year to year or that 1958 was the first year of the line.

(1958 Medico Pipes Ad Filter Pipes Crest | eBay)

The second ad looks quite “1966” but it doesn’t mention the Gold Crest pipe. Neither advertisement had the M within the crest as with the Medico Gold Crest in hand.

(1966 Medico Gold Crest Pipe Art Illustration Photo Vintage Magazine Print Ad | eBay)

Looking at just those two advertisements I would feel comfortable saying that this pipe is from around 1960.” (A Medico Gold Crest Meerschaum Apple Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek)

The Restoration

The pipe was taken from the photo table to the workbench where it received a semi-clean denim piece.

The first step was to reem the tobacco chamber. I thought the PipNet with the #1 and #2 blades would be sufficient.

They were but the chamber was more caked than I initially thought.

The #3 blades came out and did a bit of work also.

The Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper also were used.

Below is a photo of the reemed chamber.

Once sanded it looked much better and showed no signs of heat damage.

The rim was encrusted in smoking residues or lava.

This was moistened with saliva and scraped with a sharp pocket knife, revealing the slightly damaged rim seen below.

I topped the rim using 320 sandpaper laid on a countertop. Followed by 400 sandpaper.

The topped rim looked far better. The inner rim did show some signs of charring from lighters on both the right and left sides.

I tried to sand the inner rim with a wooden sphere wrapped in 320 sandpaper.

The sanding helped but there remained slight depressions on both the left and the right. I didn’t want to alter the bore any more than I had to.

The shank was cleaned out using cotton swabs, bristle pipe cleaners, a dental scraper, nylon shank brush and a good deal of 99% ethyl alcohol.

To the sink! The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrub with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton hand towel.

There remained some clear coat finish on the stummel.

I am not a fan of clear coats.

I tried to remove the finish with 99% ethyl alcohol. This did little.

Between the scrubbing and the alcohol the old fills were softened. This made them easier to pick out using a fly tying bodkin.

I tried using 100% acetone on a cotton make-up pad. The finish succumbed to this solvent readily.

The pits were packed with briar dust.

The briar dust then had a small drop of thin cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) applied via a disposable tip on the CA bottle. Each new fill was filed with a small flat file. If additional briar dust and CA were needed a second application was done.

The stampings and gold band were covered in masking tape to protect them from the sanding which was soon to follow.

I switched to working on the stem for some reason. I guess I had put it off long enough. Medico nylon stems are not easy to restore as they do not take well to using black CA for filling pits, dents or other teeth marks. I began with a small flat file.

Augh, so much tooth trauma.

The center of the stem had been bent inwards from biting, collapsing the airway a little. I thought that if I were to heat the nylon with boiling water then force a bamboo skewer into the airway, I might be able to reform it.

I would love to say this worked beautifully but I’d be lying. It did slightly improve the denting but only slightly. I then tried heating the stem with a heat gun. Again, I met only slight improvements.

Giving up on my attempts at restoring the stem to new condition, I called my improvement good and cleaned out the airway with alcohol, pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and a shank brush.

Okay, back to the stummel. This was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 320-1500. Between each sponge I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol.

The sanding continued with sponges 2000-3500 with the same wiping between sponges.

The band was polished on the buffer with a blue buffing compound. I was afraid that it might obliterate the very light stampings and it pretty much did.

The stummel received a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and was allowed to sit for 30 minutes.

The remaining balm was hand buffed away with an inside out athletic sock.

After all the filing and attempted stretching of the nylon, The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges then buffed on the buffer. The below photos show the stem as good as I was able to get it.

Yeah, it is better but I don’t even want to think about the amount of time I spent to get it to the condition that you see in those two photos.

I still needed to refresh the gold crest on the stem. For this I opted to use Rub’n’Buff Gold Leaf wax.

I applied the gold with one of the bamboo skewers and after sharpening the tip with a pocket knife. The wax was allowed to dry for a couple of minutes then hand buffed with a soft cloth.

The pipe was then taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.

The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.

This Medico Gold Crest Dublin did turn out very nicely. The briar shows good edge grain front and read with lovely striping. There is not much bird’s eye to the grain which would make it even more interesting. The nylon of the stem is far better now than when the restoration began. I still have not discovered a good or efficient way to restore nylon. Perhaps someday. Until then I have to accept that my abilities are taxed and accept this as good enough. The gold band did polish up well at the cost of the lightly stamped 14K 1/40 R.G. stamping. I am sure that this lovely Dublin will be a fine smoking pipe and bring someone many more hours of smoking contemplation. The dimensions of the Medico Gold Crest 65 Dublin are:
- Length: 5.98 in./ 151.89 mm.
- Weight: 1.16 oz./ 32.88 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.81 in./ 45.97 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.56 in./ 39.62 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.82 in./ 20.83 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.

Loading…

Type your email…

Below are some photos of the finished Medico Gold Crest 65 Dublin:
A J. Rettke Restoration, yeah another one

March 10th, 2026

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I know, I know, you have seen me restore two of these already. “How is this one different?”, you ask. Well, it was in far worse condition than the other two. Yeah, that’s not much of a reason. OK, I like working on them. They’re kind of ugly yet at the same time there is just something about them that intrigues me. Maybe because they look like a gimmick pipe but these actually work. Given I have only kept one for my own personal use. This pipe came from an eBay auction where I was the sole bidder. Maybe for good reason. Upon arrival the pipe sported the traditional stampings, J. RETTKE over WASHINGTON MO. next to PAT. JUNE 12, 1962 on the bottom of the pipe. Below are some photos taken before I began work on the pipe.

Oh the horror. It’s not that bad, really. The pipe was filthy and heavily used. That should tell me that it was a great smoking pipe. Why else would someone use it that much, right? I failed to photograph the stem for the “before” section, apologies. It was in bad shape. The Medico stems that J. Rettke used were a mix of nylon and vulcanite. I say this because I have encountered both in my Rettke restorations. This one was a well chewed nylon stem. The bowl had a thick cake and scraps of tobacco still within. There was a thick lava deposit on the rim. The exterior of the pipe was dirty and I thought this filth was masking the briar grain. The screw in aluminum “whirler” (J. Rettke’s name for the part) was stuck. This one was going to require some time.

Background

I will use the research I did from my first J. Rettke pipe for the “Background” section and include it here:

“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:

(1498404097506821639-D0194174)

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 photos, I overlaid some image features to indicate the “four” drillings.

Not to be a smart ass, but I think Mr. Rettke would agree that there were actually 5 drillings. The final hole would be a hole at the bottom of the tobacco chamber connecting the airway to the lower chamber. I’ll blame the reporter for the oversight and not Mr. Rettke.” (A Rettke Pipe Restoration for the Real American Pipe Smokers (RAPS) Facebook group – NebraskaPeteGeek). It seems weird to quote myself but, I’m far too lazy to rewrite all that. Feel free to take a look at the other two Rettke restorations. Here is the second: A J. Rettke Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek.

The Restoration

I wrapped the knurled end of the whirler with a thick piece of leather and gripped it with a pliers to free it from the stummel for the “before” photos. Below is the pipe on the workbench.

The whirler was too long for the medicine cup so it got an old snuff can lid with enough 99% ethyl alcohol to soak the aluminum.

The airway of the shank was as disgusting as the rest of the pipe. I tried to moisten the tar deposits with alcohol dipped cotton swabs. I also used a .22 caliber brass bore brush to lightly scrub the upper and lower chambers. There was also some scraping with a dental scraper.

The reaming used three of the PipNet blades.

The first blade.

The second blade.

And the third blade.

Old Mr. Rettke must have had a drill bit with a more conical bottom as I needed to use the Kleen-Reem to ream that part of the tobacco chamber.

Even after all that the chamber needed scraping with the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper.

Finally, the chamber was reamed. The walls were remarkably intact and undamaged by the many bowls of tobacco.

To rid the rim of it’s lava, I employed a new tool or toy. A cabinet scraper. The rim was moistened with saliva and allowed to soften for a few minutes.

The cabinet scraper performed admirably but revealed that the rim appeared to be stained or dyed black. I had never seen a black Rettke pipe before. Maybe it wasn’t as filthy as I suspected.

To the sink! Here the stummel was scrubbed with a nylon brush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. Yeah, it was filthy. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Hmm, back at the bench it became obvious that the briar had indeed been dyed black. It wasn’t just dye though, it was like old Mr. Rettke had mixed the dye with lacquer. I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol and it removed a lot of black.

I started sanding to see if I could penetrate the finish. It worked. I thought to myself, “a smooth black fishing is a tough thing to master. Maybe Mr. Rettke was trying his hand at that kind of finish to mask some flaws in this piece of briar?” Yes, it was all conjecture, but it makes for an interesting story.

This pipe had a very sharp rim both inside and outside the tobacco chamber. To mask the dings and wear, I added a slight bevel to the inner rim using sandpaper and a wooden sphere. The outer rim was also beveled using a life and sandpaper.

I know, I was jumping around a lot with the different parts of the restoration. I next cleaned the whirler. I do that when I am thinking about how to go about doing something with a restoration. Repetitive activities help lubricate my thought process.

The whirler cleaned up nicely.

Hmm, there was a fill on the top of the shank, the parabolic light mark seen below. I wondered if this was what Mr. Rettke was trying to conceal with the black? I proceeded to pack the airways with cotton.

I figured that it would take a bit over 10 ml of ethyl alcohol to saturate the cotton. Using a disposable pipette I added alcohol until all of it was saturated.

I was right, a bit more than 10 ml. The alcohol would be left to evaporate, dissolving the tars and moving them to the cotton over the next several hours.

I turned my attention to the stem. It too was dirty and took several cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaner dipped in alcohol to clean.

Here is a photo of the condition of the stem before working to smooth it. Yikes!

Filing was the first step. I used a small flat file to reestablish the button and remove some of the dents from teeth.

The filing and sanding with a 320 sanding sponge continued on both the top and bottom of the stem. Darn that nylon.

Taking a break from the stem, I thought about how to repair the two dings on the bottom left of the stummel. The alcohol was still soaked into the cotton within the airways and would be interfered with by my manipulations.

I first tried to raise the dents using a hot iron and a wet cotton cloth.

This worked a little bit but the dents remained.

I filled the dents with briar dust and pressed the dust into the depressions.

This cyanoacetate (CA, super glue) was added to the briar dust.

This was filed using a small flat file.

An additional application of briar dust and CA was used and more filing and a bit of sanding smoothed the damage.

The next day the cotton was removed.

Another airway cleaning with cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners went much better that the first one.

The stummel was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grits. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol to remove sanding debris.

The stummel was then worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. The wiping was done as with the sanding sponges between each pad.

The stummel was coated in Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 20 minutes. I liked the way the removal of the black finish had left a finish like a contrast dye on the briar.

The excess Restoration Balm was wiped from the stummel using an inside out athletic sock.

It’s here that I realized that I had neglected to photograph all the sanding and buffing that I did on the stem. This is probably due to the fact that I do not enjoy working on nylon stems very much. They always seem like you are taking two steps forward and one step back while trying to give them a nice finish and even after a mile’s worth of steps they don’t look great. Well the stummel did look great and both the stem and stummel received several coats of carnauba wax at the buffer.

The final step was a hand buffing of the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth before the “finished” photo shoot..

I doubt I will ever get tired of restoring J. Rettke pipes. This one turned out very nicely. Yeah, the stem still shows some signs of chompage but it is far better than it was before the restoration. The tobacco chamber was well preserved by all that cake and it looks great. The refinishing of the briar appears dramatically better than I expected. The contrast dye, though unexpected, shows off the wood grain beautifully. At the end of the first Rettke restoration, I said, “Overall this is a very nice and interesting historical pipe. I would consider this an artisanal pipe from a time before artisanal was cool.” Those two statements also apply to this pipe. The dimensions of the J. Rettke are:

Length: 5.39 in./ 136.91 mm.

Weight: 1.25 oz./ 35.44 g.

Bowl Height: 1.93 in./ 49.02 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.46 in./ 37.08 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.75 in./ 19.05 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.36 in./ 34.54 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.

Loading…

Type your email…

Below are some photos of the finished J. Rettke pipe.
A Peterson System Standard 301Restoration

March 1st, 2026

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

It seems strange to me that of all the Peterson pipes that I own, I have shown few restorations of them. This is because I was not documenting or blogging about them when they were restored. The blog has only been a lifestyle since October of 2023 and these pipes were acquired and restored long before that. This 301 is a re-restore. “Huh?”, you say. Well It was a pipe that I purchased on the estate market cleaned up and used for several years. Now someone has expressed an interest in acquiring their own 301 and asked if I had one available. Since pipes were made for smoking and this lovely Pete does not get very frequently used, I decided it would be better off with a companion who would use it. Where it came from originally is a question I cannot answer. Likely an eBay auction though. When it was purchased, also unknown, but probably early 2020s. The pipe was stamped PETERSON’S Over SYSTEM over STANDARD on the left shank and MADE IN THE over REPUBLIC over OF IRELAND over 301 on the right shank. The stampings are all crisp and clear. There was no signature P on the stem which I felt as if it was missing something without it also lacking was the faux hallmarks on the nickel ferrule. It was only stamped with K&P over PETERSONS. Below are some photos I took of the pipe before beginning this restoration.

The pipe was in good shape overall. There were some tooth dents on the stem and slight oxidation. I apparently did not restore the stem, other than removing the oxidation, from when I first got the pipe. The tobacco chamber had been reamed, again probably from my cleaning. There were a few spots where the old fills were failing and a spot on the front of the outside rime where the pipe had been knocked. In general a “light” restoration was required.

Background

If you have read my previous blogs, thank you, and you are probably aware that I am a fan of Peterson pipes. Like many Peterson fan boys, or Pete Geeks as some call us, I could go on ad nauseum about Peterson pipes, their history and the remarkable innovations that made Peterson pipes the legend that they are. I will refrain from doing this again and give you a few sources of information which will allow you to read about the history of the company. For a great history Mark Irwin and Gary Marlburg’s book is a must read for a Pete Geek.

(Available at https://www.smokingpipes.com/accessories/books/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=471478) Given the price is a bit high but worth every penny for a Peterson aficionado.

The next site is pipedia.org’s History of Peterson by Jim Lilley (Peterson – Pipedia)

Next, the pipephil.eu site for all things logo: Peterson: historical pipes — Pipes: Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu) They also have a few other links to things like the Peterson timeline and P-lip information.

The last source is Peterson Pipe Notes. Mark Irwin has blogged about many particular Peterson lines, features and histories over the years. I can wholeheartedly recommend his blog and free subscription at

https://petersonpipenotes.org/ His posts are searchable for specific items of interest and will open an entire hoard of rabbit holes for you to delve into. 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.

The Restoration

The 301 made its way to the workbench for a second time. Well, not the current workbench, this workbench is only a couple years old but you know what I mean.

I started with a light rubdown of the stem with 0000 steel wool.

That was followed with a cleaning of the inside of the stem with 99% ethyl alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs.

The shank was cleaned in similar fashion. Whew, I would have been embarrassed if this pipe was dirtier than that.

The tobacco chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel and by 320 on my finger. There was no sign of any heat damage to the chamber.

The rim did have a very light lava residue and a few dings.

The stem was suspended in Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer (deox) by inserting a pipe cleaner into the button and hanging it in the solution. I figured that 6-8 hours would be plenty of time for this stem.

The stummel was scrubbed 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 scrub did soften the fill material as well as removed the dirt and most of the wax on the briar.

A wipe with 99% ethyl alcohol removed any remaining wax and a bit of the original stain as can be seen on the cotton make-up pad.

The old fill material was picked out using a fly tying bodkin.

The new fill would be made of Briar dust pressed into the pits then topped with thin cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). Below is a photo of a dental scraper which makes a fine little scoop for the briar dust and has a flat underside used to press the dust into pits.

Thin CA works best for this type of fill.

The disposable fine tip applicators are a godsend for delivering tiny drops of CA to the new fills.

I allowed the CA to cure on its own rather than applying a spritz of a drying accelerator. 20 minutes later the drops looked like little scabs.

These were filed with a small flat file.

After filing the new fills were sanded with a 600 grit sanding sponge. If any holes or voids were visible then a second application of briar dust and CA were used.

The damage to the front of the rim needed a similar repair.

Here, I applied the CA to the damaged area first, then pressed the rim into the container of briar dust. This pressed the dust into the wet CA. Fling the new fill material and repeating with additional CA and briar dust to build up the damaged area.

With the rim fill needing to be flattened to match the rim, I decided to lightly top the rim. This was done with 400 grit sandpaper laid flat on a countertop. A figure eight pattern was used while sanding. Bah, the sandpaper was getting full of dust.

I cleaned the sandpaper at the sink and repeated the light stopping of the rim.

The rim looked much better but now the inner rim showed light charring from lighting the tobacco.

A 2 inch wooden sphere was used with a piece of 320 sandpaper to uniformly sand the inner rim. This does add a slight bevel to the rim which was not a feature of the original pipe.

The ferrule and stamps were masked to protect them from sanding.

Both the left and right sides.

After the first little bit of sanding I discovered a small dent that I hadn’t noticed. It lined up with the wood grain concealing it.

It bothered me so much that I got out the iron and a wet cloth. This steaming will usually raise dents very well.

It did and the dent was no longer assailing my limited sensibilities.

The sanding resumed with a series of sanding sponges from 320-3500 grit. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad to remove sanding debris.

The sanding sponges gave way for the micro-mesh pads. I went with 4000-12000 with wipings between each pad as with the sanding sponges.

The shank was masked off to protect the newly sanded shank from the buffing wheel.

The ferrule was buffed with white buffing compound and the dedicated wheel.

The results were quite nice.

Before and After Restoration Balm was the next step. A nice thick coating over the briar was allowed to sit for 30 minutes.

An inside out athletic sock was used to wipe away the remaining balm and hand polish the stummel.

It was time to remove the stem from its deox bath. It had been in the solution for over 8 hours. The Drip-O-Matic 3000 was rebuilt and allowed excess deox solution to drip back into the container for a few minutes.

A coarse shop rag was used to wipe away the remaining solution as well as to buff away the softened oxidized vulcanite. The residue can be seen in the photo below.

The bite zone of the stem was filed with a small flat file to reestablish the button’s edges and reduce the dents from Chompy, the previous owner.

Filing was done on both the bottom and top bite zones. Darn that Chompy.

Some of the dents required the use of a black CA to fill the depressions.

I did use a CA drying accelerator for curing these fills. They were then filed and sanded smooth. Some required additional applications of CA.

Below you can see the larger dent still had a tiny spot that required a second drop of black CA.

The stem got a similar sanding regimen, the series of sanding sponges 320-1500. Wiping between sponges was mineral oil and paper towels rather than alcohol and make-up pads.

It was getting late so I gave the stem a liberal coating of Mark Hoover’s Before and After Hard Rubber Balm and went to bed. I doubt that letting the vulcanite soak in this product does anything but it made me feel good about myself and I slept well.

The next morning I wiped the Hard Rubber Balm from the stem and continued sanding with 2000-3500 grits sanding sponges.

I opted to polish the stem with white buffing compound rather than going to the micro-mesh pads. I have been trying to work on my buffing skills.

With the stummel finished and the stem buffed to a beautiful gloss, I coated both with several layers of carnauba wax at the buffer.

The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth which raised the level of shine to a stunning point.

Another Peterson System Standard 301 that looks as good or better than when it left the factory in Dublin. Peterson is known to sand to 400 grit before polishing. This pipe has a finish that is sanded and polished finer than that. The “Comfort Lip” stem cleaned-up and polished beautifully. The original stain or dye on this briar was maintained and enhanced during the restoration. The nickel ferrule also polished-up very well. This shank strengthening feature is a lovely transition from the smooth finished briar to the glossy black vulcanite. The dimensions of the Peterson System Standard 301 are:

Length: 5.74 in./ 145.80 mm.

Weight: 1.69 oz./ 47.91 g. (with band)

Bowl Height: 1.80 in./ 45.72 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.51 in./ 38.35 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.81 in./ 20.57 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.

Loading…

Type your email…

Below are some photos of the finished Peterson System Standard 301.