Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I really like the apple shape.  It is one of those things that I can’t explain, kind of like the inexplicable pull to pat a dog on the head even though they haven’t done anything pat worthy.  Now this pipe, through no fault of its own, has remained unrestored for quite a while due to a previous owner smoking marijuauna or some cannabis with it.  I dread working on pipes used for pot.  The resins and tars from cannabis are a pain to remove from a pipe.  Those pot-heads who say. “But, smoking weed is “natural” and way healthier than tobacco” have apparently never compared the smoking residues of the two.  Not only does the cannabis smell terrible, when exposed to ethanol it kind of dissolves then as the alcohol evaporates the remaining resins become more like a soft plastic and resist further applications of ethanol.  Okay, I am sounding whiny, so I will leave it at this: 

Cannabis users, please just eat your cannabis – edibles do not seem to leave any residue in a pipe. I think even Jeff Spicoli would agree with that statement.

(https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/great-character-jeff-spicoli-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-3375d9e42a28)  

Background

I began researching this pipe by visiting the pipephil.eu site.  Here I found the following:

(Go-Gq — Pipes: Logos & Markings).   John Redman, eh.  As a kid I grew up on Redman avenue.  I am going to assume that the street was named in honor of the pipemaker though in reality I know this not to be true.  Stupid reality.  This John Redman produced several very nice looking pipes in his London factory.

(Jo-Jok — Pipes : Logos & Markings).

Now I wanted to know more about this factory and the history of my childhood street namesake.  I turned to pipedia.org.  There the entry was what I call lacking.  Though there was a nice photograph of the factory.

“John Redman Ltd. and British Empire Pipe Co.

Other lines include Aristocrat, Buckingham, Buckingham Palace, Canberra, Captain Fortune, Dr John, Golden Square, Redonian, Richmond (not Sasieni), Twin Bore

Former factory located at 3-11 Westland Place, Hackney, London N1 7LP” (John Redman Ltd./British Empire Pipe Co. – Pipedia)

(File:John Redman Ltd.jpg – Pipedia)

My thirst for knowledge remained unfulfilled.  I tried searching the internet without a guide and found a wonderful article by an anonymous author on the vkpipes.com site.

“This famous picture above is perhaps the only broad known illustration to materials about John Redman LTD & British Empire Pipe Co. And the majority of sources doesn’t move usually far beyond a couple of sentenses: this company did really exist, it was located at this address and there is their former building. However…

However, this Edwardian building on Westland Place was only an annex and no actual manufacturing was located there. The principle place of business and offices were located in Whitecross Street 123/5/7, within 15 minutes of slow walking from Westland Place. Therefore, one of their series was named Whitecross – you may find it in the catalogue below. The building on Whitecross St. still stands there and you may see it on the picture below. The crossing street is the Fortune St., so we have got an explanation of another Redman’s brand name – Captain Fortune.

Indeed, many Redman’s brands bear such toponomical signs: the “Golden Square” series comes from the Golden Square located between the Lower John and Upper John streets, “Dr. John” is the most probably related to the abovementioned John streets. There are also Canberra road and Canberra House in London (which might inspire stamping of the famous Canberra pipes) as well as Canterbury House (Canterbury series). Burlington pipes named after the Burlington Arcade (see also H. Simmons). The majority of them are located quite close to the John Redman’s main office. No wide explanations are needed for the series Westminster and Kensington. And of course, some British imperial charm was added with names Aristocrat, Redman’s Royal, King’s Ransom.

John Redman (as it happened later to Eric Nording) was both a carver and an owner of a business of the same name. The first pipes were born in 1934, but personal efforts appeared soon to be insufficient, what inevitably led to emerging of the name John Redman LTD. Unfortunately, we don’t have artifacts, which could be unambiguously carried to the “pre-war” period. In the WWII years the company could hardly got to the list of lucky manufacturers, who received scarce briar from the state.

But by the end of 1950s John Redman’s firm offered a well balanced portfolio – from popular and practical “Captain Fortune”, “Dr John”, “Golden Square” to top graded Redman’s Royal made of best briar and almost without any stains (comparable to GBD Virgin, but the “Royals” were usually much larger and carved in their own unique style). And of course, we shouldn’t forget about qualitative and still affordable Redonians, Aristocrats and Canberras – a very strong middle (and upper middle) segment. More details, list of offered brands as well as presentation and gift sets can be seen in the catalogue.

It is known that in late sixties and later a part of the production was ordered from subcontractors, for example Blakemar Briars, and since 1992 trademarks of John Redman were taken over by Gerald Grudgings of Loughborough; this company wasn’t a top manufacturer, but many sources attribute the invention of the lovat shape to it.

As the conclusion we are proud to express our sincere and warmest thanks to Robert Deering, who worked for John Redman in 1960s and gave us a number of very important directions.

​Below you may enjoy the catalogue of the John Redman Ltd products approximately from the 1960s. A very rare finding!” (JOHN REDMAN Catalogue – Very Keen on Pipes)

(JOHN REDMAN Catalogue – Very Keen on Pipes)

The Restoration

I did start with a clean denim piece but only photographed the stem.  I’m not sure why.  I guess I wanted to get rid of that nasty marijuana smell so bad that I wasn’t thinking straight.  I used a channel lock with the jaws wrapped in masking tape to remove the stinger from the stem.

The stinger was placed into a medicine cup where it was submerged in 95% ethyl alcohol.

The stem cleaning went better than I thought it would, only requiring a couple of bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

Next came the ream team and the reaming of the tobacco chamber.

This too went quickly with the PipNet doing most of the work.

The Tobacco chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.  After the sanding I scrubbed the bowl with alcohol dipped cotton swabs, hoping to get rid of the smell.  The interior showed no signs of heat damage.

The rim was not in too bad shape requiring only a little bit of scraping with a sharp pocket knife.

The resulting surface looked better but there were two areas of charring, fore and aft as well as the deep rim dents.

I decided to lightly top the rim to better analyze the best way to proceed with restoring the rim.  I used 320 sand paper laid flat on a countertop and circular sanding. 

The rim was sanded wit 400 grit paper in the same fashion as with the 320.

The front rim looked pretty good but the rear would require some filling with cyanoacrylate (CA< super glue) and briar dust.

Next, the stummel was taken to the sink where it received a scrubbing with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon scrub brush.  The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

There was the shine of a clear coat present after the scrubbing.  Alcohol had no effect on it soI tried acetone on a make-up pad.  This worked but was very slow acting.

I recently refilled my acetone jar by topping it off with fresh acetone.  I submerged the stummel in the acetone and set the timer for 30 minutes.

30 minutes later I removed the stummel and decided to scrub the airway of the shank while the tars and smoking residue were still softened by the acetone.  The shank was filthy and reeked of non-tobacco.  Scraping with a dental scraper and numerous cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners seemed to do little but anger the residues.

I continued the assault.

That unpleasant task finished, I turned to addressing the rim damage.  I beveled the inner rim with 320 sandpaper and a wood sphere.  The outer rim, I tried to bevel it with a flat file.

Though better, those dents had to go.  I picked out the old fills with a fly tying bodkin figuring that I may as well do all the filling at the same time.

Since there would be a significant amount of sanding with the new fills, I finished removing all traces of the clear coat with acetone dripped make-up pads.

I placed a small drop of brown CA onto/into each of the pits.  While it was still wet, I pressed a small scoop of briar dust into the pit.  The briar dust causes the CA to set-up and cure nearly immediately.  I used a brass brush to clear the loose dust from the area.  The photo below shows what the new fills look like at this stage.

These new fills were filed with a small flat file to remove the excess new fill.  The light color of the fill indicates that it needs an additional application of CA and perhaps briar dust.  A completed fill appears dark.

An additional application of CA and more briar dust was done.

This created another round of light briar new fills to be filed.

Eventually the new fills were smoothed with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

At this point, I was thinking to myself, “Hey self, the name of the pipe is Golden Square.  Let’s try to lighten the briar to a more golden color.”  Self replied, “Brilliant, I’ll get the oxalic acid.”  Oxalic acid can be used as a treatment to bleach darkened or stained wood.  I had mixed this saturated solution several months ago and had used it successfully a few times.  

I applied the solution with a cotton swab.  The effects occurred quickly.  Below is the stummel still wet with the solution.

The solution was rinsed thoroughly then scrubbed with dish soap.  The basic nature of the soap helped neutralize any remaining acid.  The stummel was towel dried and allowed to air dry for several minutes.  The below photos show the lightened color of the briar.

I got the stem prepped for a dip into the deox tank, that is my term for the Skippy peanut butter jar filled with Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer.  The stem would be spending overnight in the solution.

While the stem was soaking I apparently thought it best to completely not photograph the sanding of the stummel with sanding sponges 400-3500 and also not to photograph the micro-meshing of the stummel with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000.  I also failed to photograph me wiping the stummel with an alcohol moistened make-up pad between each sponge and pad to remove sanding debris.  For the life of me, I cannot understand why I chose not to do any of the above.  Darn old people…

I did however photograph the application of Before and After Restoration Balm after all the sanding and micro-meshing was completed.

After the balm had worked it’s magic for 30 minutes the remaining elixir was wiped from the stummel using an inside out athletic sock revealing the glorious briar of this Golden Square.

The next day, I removed the stem from deox and allowed the excess solution to drip back into the jar.

The stem was hand rubbed with a coarse shop rag to remove the excess solution and some of the loosened oxidized vulcanite.

Below you can see the oxidized rubber that was removed.

I cut a small piece of Scotch tape to cover the stem logo protecting it from the sanding barrage that was coming next.

I wanted the stem in place with the stummel for the sanding to avoid rounding the joint where the two pieces meet.  I remembered that the stinger had been soaking in alcohol since the previous day.  The medicine cup was retrieved 

and the stinger cleaned.

The stem was reassembled and reinserted into the shank.  Next, I wrapped the shank with painters tape to protect it from the stem sanding.  The sanding progressed from sanding sponge 400-3500.  Between sponges I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a paper towel.  Oh, and photographed it.

The stem was worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000.  Between each pad I rubbed the stem with a light coat of Obsidian Oil and wiped it with a paper towel.  Oh, and photographed it.

The stem was looking very good but it needed to have the gold reapplied to earn it’s title Golden Square.  I cleaned the logo area with an alcohol dipped cotton swaband fetched the Gold Leaf Rub’nBuff.

The gold was applied to the logo with a fly tying bodkin, pressing it into the stamped logo.

The Rub’nBuff was then rubbed and buffed to remove the gold from the high points of the logo.

I then used Before and After Fine Polish followed by the Extra Fine Polish.  Both compounds were hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth.

The pipe, now cleaned, still had the lingering aroma of non-tobacco – yeah pot smoke.  I decided to give it an alcohol and cotton ball overnight treatment.  I stuffed cotton into the bowl and shank of the stummel then added 95% ethyl alcohol with a disposable pipette until the cotton was saturated.  This sat overnight.  In the morning, I found the following:

The cotton was removed and the bowl and shank were again scrubbed with alcohol dipped cotton swabs.  The Ghost of Mary Jane was gone.

The pipe was reassembled and taken to the buffer where it received several coats of carnauba wax.

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

Overall this Golden Square Apple turned out very nicely.  I love the traditional well proportioned shape.  The pipe retained some of the contrast stain, enough that I did not think additional dying was needed.  The oxalic acid treatment did a nice job at lightening the briar without diminishing the original stain too much.  I could have continued with additional bleaching but I liked where I stopped.  The vulcanite of the stem polished up nicely and accents the briar well.  The dimensions of the Golden Square Apple are:     

• Length:  5.58 in./ 141.73 mm.
• Weight:  1.51 oz./ 42.81 g.
• Bowl Height:  1.68 in./  42.67 mm.
• Chamber Depth:  1.43  in./ 36.32 mm.
• Chamber Diameter:  0.72 in./ 18.29 mm.
• Outside Diameter:  1.53 in./ 38.86 mm.

I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations.  If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons.  Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

Below are some photos of the finished Golden Square Apple.