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.

Below are some photos of the finished Brebbia Sabbiata 880: