A Medico Gold Crest 63 Bent Billiard Restoration

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.