I remember an old advertisement for Camel cigarettes where the main actor walks a mile for a Camel cigarette. That commercial was made about thirty years after this pipe while the advertisement campaign by Camel was actually started in 1920. (https://tobacco-img.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/06212512/camel_creativehistory.pdf) I still associate camels with tobacco. If you have followed my blog for any time you have seen me restore several Marxman pipes. I admit to being a Marxman fanboy. Having read about and seen images of Robert Marx’s figural pipes I knew I wanted to have one in hand. That is where this camel enters the story. I saw the photo from the eBay listing:
Background
As I said earlier, I have restored several Marxman pipes this year. I will link a couple which I think did a fair job at documenting the company history: Marxman Jumbo and Marxman Mel~O for those who are interested in reading about this amazing company.
Back to the pipe in hand, The eBay listing photo was not a great photo and the others were no better.
I could tell, kind of, that this was a similar camel from the 1950 Marxman catalog.
Image above is from pipedia.org circa 1950s catalog. Now, I know that the above image is not stellar quality but I think the camel in hand looks to be of better quality than the quality of the carved pipe in the catalog image. There seems to be a great difference in the carving quality of some of the Marxman carved figural pipes which I have seen photos of. I can’t help but wonder if the figurals from the early 1940s were of a higher quality than those of the 1950s. Allow me to show a couple of screen captures from Etsy and eBay of recent auctions to make this point.
The first two images below appear to be rather good quality carvings and I realize that image quality plays a major role in assessing the apparent quality of a piece.
While the next two images show carvings of a lower quality or lesser detail:
All of the pipes are listed as “Marxman” but stampings of the shank can only be verified on the Ubangy Male and the parrot pipes.
MasterCraft purchased Marxman in 1953 and started importing pipes from France and Italy. These foreign made Marxman pipes do not have the “magic” of the Marxmans made in New York. I cannot quantify the magic and I do have a French made Marxman spigot that is a truly wonderful smoking pipe but there is just something missing from the Marxmans after the sale to Mastercraft.
The Restoration
The Camel got itself a nice soft piece of denim to rest upon.
The first stem was the reaming of the tobacco chamber.
The very deep tobacco chamber. The Kleen-Reem was used for this due to its reach. The chamber was also scraped with the Smokingpipes Low Country reaming knife and sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.
The stummel was then taken to the sink for a scrub 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.
Back at the workbench the briar was looking better without the years of accumulated dirt and grime. Fortunately it did not smell like a wet camel.
There was still some lava present in the carvings on the rim. I cleaned this with 95% ethyl alcohol and a brass brush.
I failed to photograph the cleaning of the shank. I guess I was so excited to be working on a Marxman figural that I lost myself in the task.
I did regain my composure while cleaning the stem. This was done with 95% ethyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners. You can see from the pipe cleaners, in the photo below, that the stem was in need of a cleaning. I assure you that the shank was also quite dirty and required many scrubbings with a nylon shank brush, alcohol dipped cotton swabs and folded pipe cleaners.
The stem exterior was in far better shape than the interior. It had slight tooth chatter but no deep dents.
I filed the tooth chatter with a small flat file on both the top and bottom of the stem.
I wrapped the shank in painters tape to protect it during the sanding. Oh, below you can see how the lava cleaned up from the rim too. Sorry for not photographing that cleaning.
The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a paper towel.
The stem was then worked with micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000. Between each pad the stem was rubbed with Obsidian Oil and wiped with a paper towel.
The stummel had a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm rubbed into the carvings by a baby toothbrush.
The Restoration Balm was allowed to work it’s magic for 20 minutes. It was then vigorously hand buffed with an inside out athletic sock to remove the excess balm.
I cleaned the baby toothbrush by dipping it into 95% ethyl alcohol and rubbing the brush on the denim piece. This was repeated several times to remove all of the Restoration Balm on the brush bristles. I then used the baby toothbrush to apply Renaissance Micro-Crystalline Wax to the stummel. I buffed the stummel with a shoeshine brush then with a fluffy microfiber polishing cloth.
The pipe was taken to the buffer where I applied several coats of carnauba wax to the stem and to the smooth heel where the briar was stamped. I did not apply carnauba to the carved surfaces of the stummel. The stem was hand buffed with the microfiber polishing cloth to further raise the level of shine.
There you have it, the 1940s Marxman Camel restoration. Although I am sure my oldest granddaughter will declare this is a llama not a camel. She has a thing for llamas and rearranging the pipes in my pipe racks. I am very pleased with how this restoration turned out. I’d always wanted to lay hands on a Marxman figural and this one was a beauty. The briar looks great, cleaned and conditioned. The stem polished-up wonderfully and together they are quite stunning. Filling the entire cavernous bowl would provide lengthy smoke. I am thinking at least a couple of hours. Certainly enough time to walk a mile.
The dimensions of this Marxman Jumbo C are:
Length: 6.08 in./ 154.65 mm.
Weight: 2.67 oz./ 75.60g.
Bowl Height: 3.5 in./ 80.00 mm.
Chamber Depth: 2.24 in./ 57.00 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.79 in./ 20.07 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.57 in./ 39.88 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished Marxman Camel.
Oh to have both of the pipes in this matched pair. I don’t mean to complain as this was part of an estate lot where I was targeting a single pipe. The target was a Peterson meerschaum Dublin 120. This pipe was just an innocent bystander caught up in the crazed Peterson Pipe Acquisition Disorder (PPAD) that wreaks havoc on my life occasionally. If you are curious regarding the meerschaum pipe here is the link to that restoration. Below is a screenshot from the original eBay listing back on August 4 of 2024. There was a second Kaywoodie but a White Briar is no Matched Grain.
The lot came from Rockmart, Georgia and did have several interesting pipes. Below are some photos of the Matched Grain prior to working on it.
“Free tobacco with the purchase of one chomped on Kaywoodie.” I don’t think that advertising campaign will catch on.
The stummel needed almost nothing except the general lava cleaning, reaming and cleaning, the stem on the other hand… You may have noticed that the stem immediately behind the button had been filed. I did that before I took the above photos. I was thinking about how to reinforce the button for its reconstruction. So in full transparency, there was a little bit of work done to the pipe prior to the above photos.
Background
I am using pipedia.org’s Collector’s Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes to tell the history of the company and the Matched Grain lines as they are far better at it than this lazy writer. “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….”
The pre-Kaywoodie KB&B pipes were marked on the shank with a cloverleaf around KB&B. Some early Kaywoodies had this same marking on the shank, but the practice was dropped some time prior to 1936. Yello-Boles also had KBB in the leaf on the shanks, but did not have the ampersand found on Kaywoodies.
Early (pre-1936) Kaywoodies had an “elongated” white cloverleaf on the bit, a large fitment, and four-digit shape numbers. The 1936 catalog shows a larger, “fuller” leaf, but lists two-digit shape numbers. Sometime between 1936 and 1947, the better pipes were marked on the bits with a black cloverleaf in a white circle. The white cloverleaf continued on the lesser pipes. However, this was not a consistent convention, as pipes of the same grade could have either type of leaf.
The S.M. Frank Co. now owns the Kaywoodie name, but no longer makes pipes. However, Italian made “drugstore” grade Kaywoodies are still being marketed in this country. These Italian-made Kaywoodies have a “whiteoutline” cloverleaf logo.
Pipedia Editor’s Note: Thankfully, Kaywoodies are again being made in the U.S. ”
The Kaywoodie shape 10 has remained very consistent in catalogs since if first appeared in the 1936 catalog as appears from the Collector’s Guide yo Kaywoodie Pipes:
The below Kaywoodie Lines and their dates are clipped from the Guide and are a compilation:
“THE 1947 KAYWOODIE LINE OF PIPES
The Matched Grain first appears in the 1947 catalog. According to the Collector’s Guide or Kaywoodie Pipes: “In addition to these individual pipes, the 1947 catalog shows two- and seven-pipe matched grain sets(5).
Two-Pipe Matched Grain Setb: $25.00
Seven-Pipe Matched Grain Setc: $125.00”
“THE 1955 KAYWOODIE LINE OF PIPES
The line-up of pipes in the 1955 catalog (Table 3) was more extensive than in previous years. The catalog presented an expanded line of meerschaum pipes and introduced a 4-pipe set of Matched Grain Pipes, as well as several pipes with “special features”.”
Matched Grain Set (4-Pipes): $50.00
Matched Grain Set (7-Pipes): $125.00”
“THE 1968-69 KAYWOODIE LINE OF PIPES
In addition to the two-, five-, and seven-pipe Matched Grain pipe sets listed in Table 4, the 1968-69 catalog introduced the Presentation Pipe. The catalog states that in “Every 8 or 10 thousand briar blocks, we come across a single piece that is as near to perfection as briar can get. This rare find is set aside and turned over to a master pipe craftsman. He lovingly sees this precious briar through each step, until it takes shape as one of the rarest pipes in the century.” The Presentation Pipe was packaged in a walnut grain, velvet lined, leather case. (See Section 3.5 for description of other Kaywoodie Presentation Pipes).”
Matched Grain Sets:
2 Pipesa: $75.00
5 Pipes: $175.00
7 Pipesa: $250.00”
“Presentation Collection. “The most illustrious collection of pipes ever assembled – the Kaywoodie Presentation Collection. It presents a set of 28 Kaywoodie Matched Grain Pipes . . . pipes as perfectly, flawlessly, magnificently matched as a string of rare Oriental pearls. Over 500,000 blocks of pristine briar must be sorted to find just one such matched collection; hence no more than 12 sets can be produced in any one year. Hand fashioned from tapered bit to burnished bowl, every pipe in this Collection becomes a prized possession. A Carved Headbriar [see note concerning “carved heads” in the discussion of Heirloom pipes, Section 3.4], a Calabash and a Meerschaum complete this Collection of 31 pipes. This precious ensemble is housed in a custom-designed walnut cabinet of distinguished elegance. It contains a tobacco humidor and a handy compartment for pipe smoking utensils. A brass plate, engraved with the recipient’s name, personalizes the presentation” (Price: $2500). The Presentation Collection did not appear in the 1955 catalog, but was apparently introduced shortly thereafter. A “brief” article in the September 17, 1956 issue of Newsweek supports this contention. The article, entitled “Pipe Dream”, contains a photo of the Presentation Collection, which is described as the “costliest pipe set ever marketed in the U.S.” (Lowndes notes that a small (undated) WWII era catalog showed the Presentation Collection in a smaller cabinet with legs that sold for $1000.)”
From all of the above we can be assured that this pipe was indeed part of a set. Most likely it was one of a pair of pipes made between 1947 and 1969. Its companion piece or pieces are lost to time thus reducing the value and importance but not the beauty of the selected briar and the craftsmanship that went into this pipe.
The Restoration
In the beginning there was clean denim. Kind of a Genesis vibe to the resurrection of this lovely pipe.
I started with the stem. It was lightly sanded with a 600 grit sanding sponge to remove the hardened oxidation and surface grime.
Next, the stem had a pipe cleaner inserted into the tenon to act as a hanger and it was submerged into the jar of Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. Here it sat for 4 hours.
The stummel was exorcized of the remnant tobacco.
The ream team was gathered and included the PiNet, Smokingpipes Low Country reaming knife, General triangular scraper and wood dowel wrapped in 220 sandpaper.
The reaming was quickly completed and the bowl sanded to bare briar. This revealed no damage to the interior of the tobacco chamber.
The rim was moistened with saliva and gently scraped with a sharp pocket knife.
The scraped rim looked mostly free of any charring.
I tried a scrub with 95% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad to assess the finish on the briar. The pad turned a yellow brown indicating that the finish was susceptible to ethyl alcohol.
I took the stummel to the sink for a scrub with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon scrub brush. The soap lather turned a yellow brown color with scrubbing. This was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton dish towel.
Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad with 95% ethyl alcohol and more of the finish was removed. The result was a finish-free stummel with lovely grain.
Next came the shank cleaning. This was done with folded bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs both dipped in the ethyl alcohol.
I lightly topped the rim to remove the dottle knocking scars and the light charring on the rim. 220 and 400 grit sandpaper were used.
Below you can see the rim after the topping.
I was anxious to see the briar grain and applied a coat of Before and After Restoration Balm before I sanded or micro-meshed the briar. I know patience is a virtue but I couldn’t wait.
The stem was removed from the Deoxidizer solution after four hours. It was allowed to drip a good deal of the excess solution back into the jar.
My normal coarse shop rags were both in the laundry so an old bathroom face towel was used to buff away the remaining Deoxidizer solution. I’ll see if the oxidized vulcanite is effective at staining white cotton face towels. The stem on the other hand was looking much better.
The stem was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners and 95% ethyl alcohol.
Make-up pads with Soft Scrub cleanser were used to further remove any remaining surface oxidation.
The below photo shows a clean black stem with quite a bit of pitting from the deoxidizing of the vulcanite. The stem had been oiled with mineral oil to prevent further oxidation.
For the moment you’ve all been waiting for: “How the heck is that stem going to be salvaged?” My imagined plan was to file immediately behind the button and glue two brass pins across the gap. These pins would provide a scaffold for the building up of cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and black JB Weld Epoxy. The pins would be completely encased in CA and Epoxy and not be seen while providing rigidity for any future chomping. The thickened rebuilt zone would be the “new button” The old button end would be filed off, shortening the stem by a couple of millimeters. This plan worked brilliantly in my damaged brain but how would it fare in reality? I wasn’t sure but I knew that I’d have a heck of a hard time finding a perfect replacement stem so, this seemed like the best remedy.
Two brass pins were measured and cut to span the gap. The first pin was glued into place using black CA. I allowed the CA to cure on its own and did not use a CA drying accelerator.
I wanted to work on the stem, one side at a time and be able to access the airway to sand and smooth the airway if needed. I made a dam from a piece of plastic lid and thickened the plastic with several layers of Scotch tape. This would be inserted into the airway to prevent the CA and Epoxy from entering where I did not want it.
With the dam inserted I was ready to start layering reinforcements of black CA.
The black CA was applied using a fly tying bodkin. Unfortunately the black CA was slightly transparent. This is why I thought that I would also have to use the JB Weld epoxy. Imagine the brass pin inside the new button and the old button, that you see below, as being filed off.
Below the CA was allowed to cure and the dam removed. Everything was going according to the plan.
After the CA had cured I cut an emery board nail file to fit into the airway. I used this to smooth the interior of the airway. Below is an early photo of the smoothing. You can see that the brass pin is completely encased in CA.
The process was then repeated for the opposite side with the placement of the second pin.
Black CA was used to fill around and encapsulate the brass pin.
To build up material around the new button I used black JB Weld with the addition of very finely ground carbon powder. I wanted to make sure that the epoxy was not even slightly transparent. I emptied a capsule of carbon into the mortar and used the pestle to grind it into a very fine powder.
The two part epoxy was mixed and a small amount of ground carbon powder was added. To keep the epoxy from fouling the airway another plastic dam was used. This time I coated the surface of the dam with Vaseline petroleum jelly to keep the epoxy from adhering to the dam.
The JB Weld label says the product sets up in 15 minutes. I think they meant to say 15 hours. It does set up to the point that it stops flowing in 15 minutes but I usually give the epoxy at least 24 hours before I try to file or sand it.
The next day, I mixed a second batch of epoxy as with the first batch. This was applied to the bottom side of the stem. I propped up the pipe as shown in the photo below.
The below photo shows how the first application of the epoxy looked after 24 hours.
Here is the second application cured for 24 hours.
This photo shows the two applications in profile.
The button was filed to reshape it. Below is the top view of the reshaping.
The bottom view of the reshaping.
Profile of the reshaping.
I taped the shank off to protect it, with masking tape, then sanded the stem with a series of sanding sponges in grits 320-3500. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a paper towel.
The stem was then micro-meshed with 4000-12000 pads. Between each pad I rubbed the stem with Obsidian Oil and wiped it with a paper towel.
The stummel was worked with micro-mesh pads 3200-12000. Between each pad I wiped the stummel with a make=up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.
The pipe was taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax. The final step was to hand buff the Matched Grain with a microfiber polishing cloth.
This beautiful Matched Grain Kaywoodie will unfortunately and most likely never again see it’s mate. It’s beauty will have to be appreciated on it’s merits alone. I think the pipe turned out very nicely. The briar is exceptional with outstanding grain and free of any pits or flaws. The stem reconstruction actually went as I imagined it would. That comes as a welcome shock to me. More times than not my imagined plans are dealt a rude awakening by reality. The dimensions of this Matched Grain 10 Bent Billiard are:
Length: 4.90 in./ 124.46 mm.
Weight: 1.28 oz./ 36.30g.
Bowl Height: 1.72 in./ 43.69 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.47 in./ 37.39 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.03 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.39 in./ 35.31 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished Matched Grain 10 Bent Billiard.
When I first saw photos of an Aristocob I was intrigued. My view then shifted to unnecessary and gimmicky as I became more enamored with new and old corn cob pipes. Still, the intrigue remained. The price of these pipes also played a part in my general lack of interest in acquiring and restoring one. I then read about the lack of availability of replacement interior corn cob replacement bowls. That was a real strike against the pipe, in my opinion. A pipe which required a disposable part that was no longer produced made me question the lasting qualities of these pipes. I remember looking through auctions for replacement bowls. When available, a 3 pack of replacement bowls was nearly the price of an Aristocob pipe. Which I thought was already rather high. Then one day I won an auction for an estate lot and surprise surprise, there was a new box of 3 unused Aristocob bowls. That meant that I would HAVE to purchase an Aristocob pipe. The completionist character flaw was rearing it’s ugly head and winning.
Well, two years or so later, I finally found an adequately priced Aristocob in need of restoration and probably in need of a fresh corn cob bowl. The auction was won and the pipe made a journey from Brooksville, Florida to southeast Nebraska. There are no stampings on the pipe nor on the stem. The only item which had any nomenclature was a stained Medico filter which resided in the shaft/stem of the pipe. Below are some photographs of the pipe as it appeared upon arrival.
I was reminded of the old Wendy’s restaurant commercial “Where’s the beef?” except I was thinking “Where’s the briar?” Yeah, if you got that reference, you are old and American. Anyway, I wasn’t sure exactly how to proceed with a wood-free pipe. I guess clean everything, buff the metal, sand the stem (that part was familiar) and see how it all looks when finished.
Background
As I disassembled the pipe I was first concerned with ridding the pipe of the dry crusty smoking residues and tar. As I cleared that away I was impressed with the quality of work and the amazing design of this pipe. My initial intrigue became more appreciation as I was able to examine the details that J.W. Zarikta, the inventor, incorporated it into the design. Little things like; the rubber o-ring seating the stem in the shank, the reservoir beneath the bowl allowing condensed water to pool below the bowl keeping it from absorbing the liquid, the slight air space around the con cob bowl allowing expansion and the fins of the aluminum stummel acting to radiate heat while allowing the handler of the pipe not to touch a overly hot pipe. The words “brilliant” and “genius” came to mind. Then the engineering and machining that impressed me as well. The casting of the aluminum was good with no noticeable pits and the only seams, from casting, were observed along the middle above the shank and between the cooling fins.
According to smokingmetal.co.uk,
“The ARISTOCOB is an American made system pipe with corn cob bowl inserts.
Originally the AL-COB CORPORATION out of Grand Haven, Michigan, which later became ARISTOCOB INCORPORATED from Caledonia,Michigan. Later still they were bought out by Missouri Meerschaum Company
Apparently available in the first place in a plastic case containing one pipe, 2 replacement corn cob bowl inserts and instructions for use
The cob inserts were made for some time by The Missouri Meerschaum Company, manufacturer of corn cob pipes in Washington, MO. The box shown is their box. They made the inserts from the early 1970’s until 1983. They are no longer available from that source but do appear on ebay at times
The top of the vaned bowl outer unscrews to enable easy replacement of the bowl insert. An inline filter can be used in the stem.
The mouthpiece has been seen in two version, with and without an �O� ring
Using the above dates it is a safe assumption that this pipe was made between 1966 and the early 1970s in Caledonia, Michigan. The box of replacement bowls were of the original make as well marked with the Caledonia, Michigan location indicating that they were from prior to the purchase of the Missouri Meerschaum Company.
The Restoration
This restoration began with a clean denim piece on the work surface.
The pipe was disassembled with the rim going into a 95% ethyl alcohol bath and the bowl chamber filled with enough ethyl alcohol to cover the smoking residue.
I allowed the aluminum to soak for 20 minutes to soften the tars. The chamber, shank and rim were then cleaned using cotton swabs and a light rubbing with 0000 steel wool both wetted with ethyl alcohol. With the aluminum parts cleaned of their crusty tar I took the stummel to the buffer where I buffed it with a flannel wheel and rouge buffing compound.
Back at the workbench I wiped the buffing compound away with make-up pads dipped in ethyl alcohol.
The aluminum had returned to a lovely shine.
The stem was made from a nylon, I think, that was similar to the black plastic stems of Missouri Meerschaum (MM) corn cob pipes. I was leery of filing and sanding the plastic, fearing that I would not be able to restore the original luster. I decided to file and sand it anyway as I wanted to remove the tooth chatter and couldn’t think of another way to do that.
I then cleaned out the airway of the stem using cotton swab and bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.
The light filing and sanding appeared to work well to remove the tooth chatter. Now would sanding allow a fine finish? The answer was yes. The sequence of sanding sponges from 400-3500 worked well to remove the chatter and restore the stem to a like new condition. To better hold the stem during sanding I inserted it into the stummel and wrapped the shank with painters tape to protect the aluminum.
To further polish the stem I micro-meshed it with 4000-12000 pads. Between the pads I applied a small drop of Obsidian Oil which was rubbed onto the stem then wiped with a dry paper towel. Below you can see the taped shank.
The stem was then hand buffed with Before and After Fine Polish on a soft cotton cloth.
The Fine Polish was followed by Before and After Extra Fine Polish with the same cloth.
The tape was removed and the entire pipe was buffed with white buffing compound at the buffer. After the compound was cleaned and wiped away using make-up pads and ethyl alcohol the pipe received several coats of carnauba wax applied with the buffer.
Looking at the finished pipe I wondered why in the world it took me so long to restore one of these remarkable and attractive old pieces of ingenuity. The design and manufacturing was a testament of the grand idea that this pipe imbues and is a testament of inventiveness. I also cannot help but think an easy fix to the problem of not being able to get additional corn cob replacement bowls would be to custom make a meerschaum bowl. I know this would violate the whole “cob” of the “Aristocob” concept but it would be a cool upgrade. The dimensions of this Aristocob are:
Length: 5.48 in./ 139.19 mm.
Weight: 1.35 oz./ 38.40 g.
Bowl Height: 1.68 in./ 42.67 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.11 in./ 28.19 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.63 in./ 16.00 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.
This may just be the longest restoration yet. Trust me when I say this project has been ongoing since August 15 and today is September 10. For context a normal restoration takes me 2-4 hours not including drying or soaking time. Let me start in the beginning which normally is where stories begin. This pipe was purchased on August 6. I knew it had issues, which you will see shortly, and would allow me to practice several techniques that I wanted to become better at. The pipe was listed on eBay as a “Buy now” for $20 or best offer. I offered the seller $16 and they accepted. In a few minutes you will think I am losing my cognitive faculties or that I probably never had that large of a faculty to start with.
The pipe was sent from Hudson, New York to the wilds of southeast Nebrask and arrived after 6 days, August 12. Upon opening the package I was a bit surprised at the severity of the issues which I had willingly adopted. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. Here is the pipe prior to any work done.
Remember, I said it had issues. I can hear folks saying, “What kind of masochistic idiot are you?” and probably some comments about wanting to sell me fine swamp land in Louisiana or perhaps a bridge in Brooklyn. I wanted to practice the cracked bowl pinning technique by Charles Lemon (you can see that here), repairing cracked shanks and I am continuously working on different ways to repair chewed up mouthpieces (this time with black epoxy resin). So, now you see I thought I could do all of those things with one pipe. There was madness to my madness. No wait, that’s supposed to be, there was a method to my madness.
Background
Over the past almost a year, I have restored 7 Marxman pipes. This will be the 8th. And you say, “I thought you went by the name Nebraska Pete Geek?” Well, I just counted and I have done 12 Petersons so, the name is well founded. I do love an old Marxman pipe though. The amazing history of Robert Marx was summarized by me in an earlier blog which I will include again here:
On January 11, 2024 I blogged about a Marxman Gold banded Dublin (linked if you are interested) and wrote the following about Robert Marxman and Marxman pipes:
“My recent fascination with the post-World War Two (WWII, to properly use an acronym) led me to further appreciation of the Marketing genius of Robert Marx, the founder of Marxman Pipes Inc. Allow me to illustrate:
Those are the back covers of Pipe Lovers Magazine for each month of 1946. That represents a substantial investment in building and maintaining one’s brand name.
Here is a quick review of Marxman pipes from pipedia.org:
“Marxman (Marxman Pipe Company) was created by Robert (Bob) L. Marx in 1934, when he was 29, and after he had worked for the William Demuth Company. His pipes were not outstanding because of the quality of their wood (probably Algerian), but Bob started making unique sculpted pieces, which brought the brand fame in the World of Hollywood cinema. Actors like Zachery Scott, Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Alan Hale, Joel McRae, and Ronald Reagan were some of the faces that appeared on the bowls.
Bob knew how to innovate and took full advantage of marketing and press advertising in order to sell the brand–one of his slogans being “Relax with a Marxman”.
In a recent forum post on Pipesmagazine.com, contributor jguss posted the following from the February 2, 1935 issue of the UnitedStatesTobaccoJournal:
A remarkable article showing the business acumen as well as a photo of the man himself. Thank you, jguss.
This is one of my favorite quotes about Rober Marx:
“Ted also said: Several years before UST bought Mastercraft, M/C had aquired Marxman Pipes. A wonderful kind man, Bob Marx was still working as a salesman in NYC, and I was fortunate to make a few sales calls with him. You all remember Charles Atlas? Bob Marx was about 76 and had just been awarded the (I think) Atlas Award for being the finest speciman of manhood over 70 years old in NYC, or maybe the state.
M/C had some inventory of Marxman stuff, but not a lot. I know very little about Marxman. Did they make, import, or both?” (Mastercraft – Pipedia)
The “Ted”, who is being quoted above, was the nickname of Tom Douglas. Here is an announcement of Mr. Douglas’ passing from Pipesmagazine forum November 26, 2018:
“Tom Douglas passed away at 71 years of age, this past Saturday, in Florida. It seems he had an infection in his stomach, but I don’t know much more than that, regarding what actually contributed to his death. He did have a history of heart and other health complications. I just spoke very briefly with his wife Joyce; you can imagine how she’s doing.
The impact Tom had on the pipe community is huge…beginning with an immense library of pipe knowledge through the pages of the Dr. Grabow Collectors Forum….his 25 years of service at the Grabow / Sparta pipe factory (where he retired in 1991)….his executive leadership over Mastercraft distribution for many years…”
So, at 76 years old Robert Marx was still involved in the business that he must have loved. This would have been around 1980.”
Then last winter, Mark Irwin, of Peterson Pipe Notes and author of The Peterson Pipe book, sent me a c. 1945 Marxman Brochure. I photographed the pages of the brochure and included them below.
One of the easiest things to date is a Marxman pipe. The company was formed in 1939 and sold in 1953 to MasterCraft. Though the Marxman name continued after 1953 the pipes were made in France or Italy and stamped as such with Country of Manufacture (COM) stamps. This means that a non COM stamped Marxman pipe was made in New York City between 1939-1953.
This pipe is undoubtedly a Marxman Jumbo as seen on page six of the above brochure. As a “C” size this pipe would have commanded a price of $10 in 1945. According to the Consumer Price Index inflation calculator that would equate to $173.78 today (July 1945 to July 2024). (https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=10&year1=194507&year2=202407)
The Restoration
Oh no, the poor battered beauty can’t even get an unstained denim piece to rest upon. The bright side is that it will look significantly worse shortly.
I started with the reaming of the tobacco chamber using a PipNet with the size 3 and 4 blades. The #4 rarely gets to come out and play.
Typical of Marxman pipe the reaming was very easy with the cake coming easily off the briar. The chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel and taken to bare wood. No heat damage was observed.
The shank was a dirty mess. For as easily as the tobacco chamber gave up it’s accumulated cake the airway clung to it’s smoking residues tenaciously. Several scrubs with 95% ethyl alcohol and a shank brush followed by alcohol dipped cotton swabs were used. I was getting frustrated and my thoughts turned to the next steps.
It was during the repetitions of scrubbing that my mind started to process ways to repair the cracked shank. The first thought was merely a brass band. I did this with a Marxman Mel-O and that restoration turned out very well as the below photo illustrates:
My thoughts shifted to considering an internal band. I had seen a video on how to make a pipe with a military mount by J. Alan of jalanpipes.com a few years ago. Here is that video. In the video he used a piece of brass and filed teeth into the brass tube. He then used the tube to cut a circular slot or hole just outside of the mortise on the shank. A piece of brass tube was inserted into this circular slot and the shank had a reinforcement that could take significant abuse. I filed that away in the back of my mind. For whatever reason the thought of a brass reinforcing band inside the shank of this pipe seemed like a good idea. The shank was thick and could easily accommodate a band and what the heck, it was already cracked. How badly could I screw this pipe up? In hindsight, I should have watched the video again or researched this technique more but I was in “problem solving” mode.
I looked through the stock of brass tubing that I had and found a piece which looked to be the perfect diameter. It was 5/8th inch outside diameter tubing. Next I started filing teeth on the edge of the tube. I couldn’t remember how many teeth were used in the video and couldn’t be bothered to rewatch it. As you may have guessed by my complete lack of video that I really do not like videos. I think it comes from being a teacher for 32 years. Rather than read, research and learn things like I did as a student, all students ever wanted to do was “watch a video”. This is fine and dandy for seeing how to replace the gas cap door on a 2004 Ford F150 (yeah, I just did that) but there isn’t a video on the life of Robert Marx. Videos are a great tool for some things but they are not the sole source of learning. Anyway, I filed some teeth.
They looked like they would cut briar. They also looked like they would have to be brought out of the hole and have the saw dust blown off of them frequently. I was in uncharted territory and expected some learning by trial and error.
In my imagination the brass tube/cutter would be clamped into a chuck of some type and spun at some speed, probably slow and lowered or slid into the shank which would be clamped somehow. Yeah, there was a lot of “some” in my thought process at this time. I do not have a drill press nor a lathe. The thought of using hand tools for this operation seemed ridiculous. I then contacted my son-in-law’s brother who is a machinist extraordinaire. The date was August 15, 2024. He replied the next day and was worried about brass being able to cut the briar. I then realized that he spent his days cutting far tougher material like steel, stainless steel, titanium and cobalt-chromium alloys. Yeah, he works in a prosthetics lab. He had the experience, tools and know-how needed to help with this endeavor. More on this later.
I had a rim to clean up and a stummel to scrub and a whole bunch of clean cotton swabs which were demanding to be filthy..
So that is what I did. The stummel was taken to the sink and scrubbed with Murphy Oil Soap, undiluted , and a nylon scrub brush. The years of dirt and the lava came off quickly. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
Back at the bench things were looking good both in the reality of the drying stummel and in the realm of my imagination of how the shank repair would proceed.
I certainly was back in reality, with a really dirty shank.
That brought me to the next new idea I wanted to try. In one of the Facebook groups that I am in, someone mentioned using two part epoxy to repair and reconstruct buttons. I wish I could remember what group or who the person was who had sown this seed in my brain. I thought that I needed to try it out and this stem was a perfect subject. The stem was cleaned using 95% ethyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners then lightly sanded to remove some of the surface oxidation and allow the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer access to the vulcanite.
A pipe cleaner was inserted into the remaining button, to act as a hanger suspending the stem in the deoxidizer, and it was lowered into the deox ( my term for the liquid).
According to the time stamp on the photos the stem was in deox for 7.5 hours.
That gave me plenty of time to soil another stack of cotton swabs in an attempt to exorcize the tar demons from the airwair. Finally, I was victorious and the airway was clean.
The seemingly unending airway scrub did allow me time to ponder the next step and the next technique that I wanted practice with. That is the repair of a cracked bowl using strategically placed brass pins. I first saw this technique in a post by Charles Lemon of Dads Pipes. Charles is a real restorer, unlike me, and actually does this for a living bringing back family heirlooms and working magic with his impressive skills. You can find Charles’ pinning tutorial blog here. I had used pins to repair a cracked shank as a first time practice ordeal and again with a cracked bowl, both blogs are linked if you care to make fun of my attempts. This cracked bowl was more of a cosmetic crack in the briar. It did not extend through the wall of the tobacco chamber and looked more like it was from an improperly cured piece of briar rather than a case of excessive cake. Either way, I was going to repair it with brass pins. I first filled the crack with brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) pushed into the crack with a fly tying bodkin. The CA was allowed to cure in it’s own time and was not accelerated by a CA drying accelerator.
Once cured the surface of the CA was roughened up a little bit to better blend it with the carving on the stummel. I used a round rat tail file and a diamond needle rat tail file for the roughening.
My jumping around from task to task with this restoration shows my desire to plan and think through each of the multi-step procedures used with each technique. I use the time stamps from the photos to sequence the restoration process that I present to you. I apologize if this makes it hard to follow while reading. This is the way it all happened though
I wanted to give the CA adequate time to cure so I busied myself with the repair/rebuilding of the stem. Someday I’ll get a drill press or a lathe and that cool tenon turning tool and I’ll just make stems rather than try to reconstruct them. There’s that imagination again. Anyway, the stem was removed from deox and wiped with a coarse shop rag. This more abrasive material is great for absorbing the excess deoxidizer and abrading away some of the oxidized vulcanite.
Aug. 15 (I’m using the dates here to show the curing times of the epoxy.)
To rebuild the button, I first cut a dam from a plastic lid. This dam was coated with petroleum jelly and inserted into the airway in an attempt to keep the epoxy for sealing it off. I mixed the two part J. B. Weld black epoxy as per product instructions.
I used a piece of Scotch tape around the bottom of the stem to aid in keeping the epoxy on the top then applied the epoxy to the fill area with a fly tying bodkin. The stem was set aside for 24 hours to cure.
Aug. 16
The next day, I checked on the epoxy to see how well it was working as a fill material.
The dam was removed easily and appeared to have work at keeping the epoxy from the airway.
I took the stem to the photography bench for some better than the phone photos.
The surface was roughed up with a 320 grit sanding sponge to give the next application of J.B. Weld something to bond to and the dam was reinserted.
Another batch of epoxy was mixed then applied to the area to build up the missing material for a proper button. This application was again set aside for 24 hours.
Aug. 17
This was nowhere near as quick as using a black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) to fill an area but I was still curious as to its effectiveness. I filed the 2nd application and reformed the button.
The epoxy filed and sanded more easily than CA would have. I was sure that it would cure to a harder consistency in a couple of days.
Aug. 18, 8:30am
A third application of J.B. Weld was applied to the stem. This time to a larger area. I wanted a wider area to use for blending the original stem to the new patch. This application also was spread on the top and bottom of the stem.
A pipe cleaner was inserted to act as a hanger and the stem was hung to cure.
Aug. 18, 9:50pm
13 hours later, I checked on the curing of the epoxy. The surface was rough rather than smooth, as it had been with the previous two applications. I did like the way tha material built up though.
Aug. 19, 1:00pm
Another 15 hours later and I returned to the cured epoxy on the stem. The rough texture remained and the epoxy felt more tacky than the previous iterations. The new material pulled away from the second application as I was filing it. Bah, that won’t do. I peeled the 3rd application off the stem. I was not sure if it was a bad mix or what had happened. One thing that I was certain about was that I preferred to use black CA for rebuilding buttons.
All this time between sessions with the pipe did allow me to thoroughly plan how I wanted the pinning to go. I drilled 3 holes with a 2mm drill bit. Each hole was drilled at a different angle and each transected the crack. The below photo shows each hole with a piece of 2mm brass rod. I had gotten better with my drilling and none of the holes had emerged all the way through the stummel.
The hole depths were measured with their respective rods. Each rod was cut slightly shorter than the depth of the hole.
I applied a small drop of brown CA to a hole and quickly pushed the corresponding rod into it to a point below the briar surface. The below photo shows all three rods pressed into place. You can still see the brass peeking from the holes.
The holes were then filled with another application of brown CA and topped with a small scoop of briar dust. The dust was pressing into the wet CA. The fill was then sanded smooth on the rim and slightly smoothed in the carved areas. This project took an intermission while I waited to schedule a visit to the machine shop of my fellow conspirator.
Sept. 9
A date had been set for the machine shop visit. This was a clandestine operation after hours. In preparation for the event, I needed to glue the shank crack with CA. I used a thin clear CA to penetrate the crack as deeply as possible. This was applied with the ever popular fly tying bodkin and quickly clamped.
The clamping provided no visual compression of the crack but it made me feel like I accomplished something. I then applied a thin line of brown CA to the crack to fill it with the fly tying bodkin.
Sept. 10
Now to protect my fellow conspirator’s identity, since we were infiltrating his shop after hours and without the knowledge of his overlord, I will refer to him as Christian. A fitting name and perhaps title. I explained what I thought we could do and how I imagined it happening. Christian immediately understood and dashed my imagined process with a healthy dose of reality. He said that this was a job for the milling machine. The first order of the new reality based procedure was to shorten my brass cutter to fit into a collar which could be mounted into the chuck of the milling machine.
Next we needed to clamp the stummel into position in a way that limited movement without marring the briar. This was done with a couple of scraps of a clear soft plastic between the vise jaws and the stummel.
The cutter was aligned with the shank.
Turtle speed was selected on the milling machine.
And the cutting was begun, very slowly, maybe 0.5 mm then I’d blow the dust away with the compressor.
This continued and was looking very promising. I hadn’t really thought about how deep to make the slot. It was determined that 5 mm would probably be sufficient.
The depth gauge was set to the 5 mm goal and the cutting proceeded.
Once achieved, the slot looked as good as I had imagined.
The next task was to cut a 4.7 mm wide brass band from the same tube the cutter was made with. This would ensure a perfect fit. We moved to the lathe to square up the end of the brass tube.
The lathe was set to cut a precise 4.7 mm wide band. We thought that this would allow me to press the band into the slot so that it would be flush with the face of the mortise and would require no sanding of the brass band. The no sanding was important for a proper fit with the stem to maintain the shank to stem joint.
The band cutting proceeded successfully on the second attempt after Christian had sharpened the cutter. The first attempt met with a hot mess. Literally, the dull cutter made an out of round band that was very hot.
The band seemed to fit beautifully. It was not pressed in fully as there was no way to extract it once it was in there. Also, my crack glue-job seemed to be holding without the reinforcing band.
After many thank-yous, a Mission Impossible like extraction from the machine shop and a drive back home the Marxman was back to the home workbench.
I thought about which glue to use, CA or epoxy for gluing in the band. I settled on epoxy due to my fear of not being able to move fast enough for the CA and having the CA set-up before I had the band fully pressed into place.
I applied a bead of epoxy to the slot.
Surprisingly, I remembered to roughen the inside and outside of the brass band with a sanding sponge.
The band was then pressed into position.
The excess epoxy was cleaned up with a cotton swab dipped in acetone and… (dramatic pause). OH CARP! There was about 0.2-0.5 mm of brass band sticking up above the surface of the mortise. What had gone wrong? I texted Christian, if that is his real name, and explained what I was seeing. We had both noticed that my brass cutter was significantly more dull when we finished cutting, back at the shop. He thought that the dulled teeth would have given a false 5 mm depth to the cut. I agreed and thought that maybe the epoxy would have added another fraction of a mm. In hindsight, the band would have been better cut at 4.5 mm to ensure greater clearance.
I used a small flat file to remove as much of the brass as I felt comfortable removing. I had to go very slowly and with great care to avoid filing any briar. I then took the stummel to the topping board there. I very slowly sanded the brass to flush with the briar. I failed to photograph any of this, apologies. I did photograph the resulting fit though.
Below is a photo of the internal brass band in all of it’s glory.
Now to finish this stem. I thought I could go over the patch on the bottom of the stem with black CA and that it would make the difference in the vulcanite and the black epoxy disappear. Once again the imagination was working beautifully and all of the imagined repairs were equally as beautiful.
I painted the bottom of the stem with the black CA.
The CA was then spritzed with a CA drying accelerator. The subsequent area was filed and sanded to blend the vulcanite with the patch. You’ll have to wait or jump to the end to see how reality dealt with my imagined results. This is mainly because I failed to photograph it. Umm, I mean, that I want to build anticipation. Yean, that’s the ticket.
To rebuild the button proper, I Scotch taped the stem right against the button This kept me from having to re sand the blended stem patch. It also allowed me to file and sand the button without scratching up the already smoothed stem. I applied layers of black CA to the button, spitzed with the drying accelerator and while the CA was still soft, I made a straight cut through the still pliable CA giving the button a more defined seam where it met the stem.
The above was done for both the top and bottom. Both sides were filed then sanded to a proper shape.
Here you can see the progress from the side.
Eventually the stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. Between the sponges the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a dry paper towel.
I was apparently getting tired and failed to photograph the micro-meshing of the stem. The next step was to coat the stummel with Before and After Restoration Balm and let it sit for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes the Restoration Balm was wiped off with an inside out athletic sock.
It was at this point that I decided to try another novel technique on this pipe. I had not worked with a shellac finish on a pipe in a long time, perhaps even before I started blogging back in October of 2023. I slid the stem out about ¼ inch or ½ cm to provide a handle but not get any shellac on it. I used a disposable foam brush to apply a very thin coat of shellac to the stummel. The briar absorbed the shellac quickly and it dried as the alcohol solvent evaporated. Now for the weird part – I slightly wetted a paper towel with 99% isopropyl alcohol and wiped the stummel with the paper towel. This smoothed the shellac remaining on the surface of the panels. I only applied the single coat of shellac as I don’t really like the look of a clear coat on pipes. This wasn’t really a clear coat, more of a sanding sealer and a layer of protection of the carved surfaces from dirt and hand oils. I let the stummel dry for about 15 minutes then took it to the buffer for a polish with white diamond compound. The entire pipe was then wiped with a clean dry cotton cloth to remove any remaining buffing compound. The stem and stummel then received several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer. A quick hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth and she was finally finished.
I would like to thank you for making it this far into this dissertation. It is actually longer than many Masters Degree dissertations that I’ve read. Perhaps I’ll be awarded an honorary masters from some pipe restoration university. That’s a thing, isn’t it? A special thanks goes out to the machinist Christian, who may or may not actually go by that name. I had now successfully turned the $16 pipe into a $25 pipe, which equated to about $0.50/hour. Good thing I’m retired or the U.S. The Department of Labor would be filing suit for unfair pay. In all honesty, this pipe provided me with some new challenges and did exactly what I wanted it to do, allowed me to practice doing what I love to do – learn new and hone existing techniques. The pipe turned out amazingly well. This one will be joining my personal collection. The dimensions of this Marxman Jumbo C are:
Length: 6.01 in./ 152.65 mm.
Bowl Height: 1.73 in./ 43.94 mm.
Weight: 2.13 oz./ 60.60g.
Chamber Depth: 1.32 in./ 33.53 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.91 in./ 23.11 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.76 in./ 44.70 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished Marxman Jumbo C.
Proof positive that I have turned away from restoring pipes from the 1940s. Okay restoration may be too strong of a word for this entry. I can’t be certain that this pipe ever saw a flame. It is a lovely example of the craftsmanship that Dr Grabow is capable of. This beauty was part of an estate lot from Norman Park, Georgia, USA via an eBay auction. The pipe was not stamped with The name Dr Grabo yet it wears the Dr Grabow logo on the stem. The only stamp is COLLECTOR over 2002. Below are some photos of the Collector 2002 as it looked upon arrival.
I’m not sure if that is the original filter. It came that way though.
I always find it funny to find an unsmoked or seldom smoked pipe that has tooth dents or chatter.
Background
Dr Grabow has a long and well documented history, in general. This line, unfortunately, is not part of that “general”. In an earlier blog of mine, I briefly detailed this history. I will include that summary here:
“In one of my very first blogs I wrote about the restoration of an MLC pipe. “The stamp that I could not make out on my pipe was the MLC. This stands for Mary Linkman & Company. This is the same company formed by Louis B. Linkman, the originator of Dr. Grabow pipes. In 1898 Linkman and August Fisher started a small business making pipes. The business grew and, “in 1907 M. Linkman & Company was incorporated with Louis B. Linkman as president, August Fisher, vice-president…” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/M._Linkman_%26_Co.). If you would like to see a very early blog about the MLC Hell Maria here is that link.
So, two youngsters started up a pipe making company at the turn of the last century. It doesn’t end there, friends. I wrote the following in a blog about another Linkman’s pipe: “ “BACK IN 1898, two ambitious young men reached the momentous decision to go into business for themselves. They were Louis B. Linkman and August Fisher. From the time they were in knee pants they had worked for a pipe jobber in the mid-west.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/M._Linkman_%26_Co.). These two young entrepreneurs were joined by a third, “Anton Burger, who had also been employed by a pipe jobber in the mid-west, approached them and was taken in as a partner. M. Linkman & Company proceeded as a partnership; the business developed rapidly through the untiring efforts of these men in producing quality pipes and rendering good service to their customers.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/M._Linkman_%26_Co.). The company eventually
came to be known as Dr Grabow.”
According to Tobaccopipes.com “The birth of the Dr Grabow smoking pipe is simple enough. It started off when Dr Grabow himself and his acquaintance Dr Linkman regularly visited the local pharmacist at Brown’s Drug Store in Lincoln Park Chicago. Dr Linkman was on the lookout for a doctor’s name to Christian an innovative line of pipes in order to mellow out the smoking apparel’s smoggy image. He asked Dr Grabow to allow him to use his name to which he agreed and the name has stuck since then. Linkman continued to manufacture his Dr Grabow pipes until 1953.
The earliest of these exclusive pipes were stamped both with Linkman’s and Dr Grabow. They included a propeller emblem that was white in color at the top of the mouthpiece. Linkman’s pipes are also stamped with their own four digit code. This code indicates their model and shape. For example, the PRE – 1944 model names included the “Special”, “Supreme” and “Deluxe” versions of Dr Grabow’s pipes.
I have frequently said things like, “I ain’t too bright but…” or “I may have been born at night but, it wasn’t last night” regarding my own intelligence. With that in mind, I can pretty assuredly surmise that this pipe is from Dr Grabow’s Sparta, North Carolina factory and was made in 2002.
The Restoration
Okay, not a real restoration, more like a refreshment. Although that makes me think it needs a cocktail umbrella or something sticking out of the bowl though.
I did ream out the bowl as it was rough with what I assume was a lumpy bowl coating.
Below you can see a couple of the lumps I was referring to. The tobacco chamber was sanded smooth with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.
I cleaned the airway of the shank with cotton swabs and folded bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.
The stummel was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon scrub brush to remove 22 years of dust. The soap was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton hand towel.
Before polishing the brass band I first taped the stem with painters tape. This was to keep the metal polish from the plastic of the stem. I always enjoyed polishing the brass on my JROTC uniform back in high school. Though this Cape Cod Metal Polish smells far better than the Brasso of 40 years ago. The brass band polished up very nicely.
The stem was cleaned out using cotton swabs & bristle pipe cleaners with 95% ethyl alcohol.
I’m not sure how an unsmoked pipe can get teeth marks but they do. I used a small flat file to smooth the area behind the button on both top and bottom. The filed surface was then sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge.
The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grit. I was a bit nervous about achieving a factory like finish on this plastic stem but continued and hoped for the best.
The stem was micro-meshed with 4000-12000 pads. Between each pad I applied a small drop of Obsidian Oil. The stem was looking great, no need for my earlier worries.
I removed the painters tape and used Before and After Fine polish hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth. I buffed both the brass band and the plastic of the stem.
Before and After Extra Fine Polish followed the Fine Polish.
The pipe was then taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax from the buffer. The rustications on this pipe were not very deep so I figured that buffing carnauba would be OK and it appeared like I was correct. The final step prior to photographing the finished pipe was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.
I have to admit that I am not the biggest fan of Dr Grabow pipes. I mean, I love the Westbrooks and the old Linkmans that I have. I find that the Dr Grabow filters are a bit too constricting for my taste. The factory finishes that come with many Dr Grabow pipes are high gloss clear coats which is something that I do not prefer and many of the carved or rusticated versions look cartoon-like. However, this Collector 2002 is a beautiful pipe. I still do not like the draw with a filter inserted but without the filter it is wide open and very nice. The finish is a nice light sandblast which shows off the briar grain beautifully. The stain is a bit dark for me but it works well with the brass band. The stem is polished exceptionally well and has a gorgeous high gloss. Overall this is a darn good looking and feeling pipe which Dr Grabow should be proud of. The dimensions of this Dr Grabow Collector 2002 Billiard are:
Length: 5.92 in./ 150.39 mm.
Weight: 1.43 oz./ 40.80 g.
Bowl Height: 1.76 in./ 44.70 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.39 in./ 35.31 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.75 in./ 19.05 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.35 in./ 34.29 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished Dr Grabow Collector 2002 Billiard.
I didn’t call this a restoration because the pipe was unfired when it arrived. Unfired and yet the shank was cracked. Perhaps that is why it had remained unfired. The world may never know. As much as I love a good mystery, I love a good banding project more so, that is what I did.
I am not going to do my usual before and after photo spread with this one since the befores would look so much like the afters it would waste vital electrons. I will however still do the “Background”. One other thing I think I need to clarify: You can purchase bands made specifically for pipe repairs from Vermont Freehand here are their home and bands links (https://vermontfreehand.com/) and (https://vermontfreehand.com/bands-caps-rings/). They have individual bands and assortments ranging from 10mm-25mm in 0.5mm increments. If your time is worth money then this is probably a far better solution than what I am doing with this blog. I like to fashion repairs with what I have available. I am a firearms shooter and reloader, this makes a wide range of brass cylinders, in the form of spent cartridges, available to me. My son-in-law is a plumber thus I have a variety of copper to use. His brother is a machinist thus making an entire machine shop available with a darn good machinist. These may or may not be things available to most people.
Background
Raskassa is a name without much information. Pipedia.org will tell you the following: “There were no results matching the query.” Not terribly helpful. Pipephil.eu has a bit more on “Raskassa” but not much.
I find the above quote interesting. Otto Sevic has an entry in pipedia.org which contains the following in its entirety: “Mars pipe: According to Wilczak & Colwell in their book titled “Who Made That Pipe?” Mars was manufactured by Otto Sevic in the United States, and dates to 1930. This makes sense if the patent date stamped thereon is July 6, 1926. The side of the pipe is marked: “MARS, PAT. 7.6.26” indicating the design was patented on July 6, 1926. The patent was apparently for a filtering system built into the base of the bowl. The pipe has a chamber built on the bottom of the bowl which is accessed through a black Bakelite cap. Inside is an aluminum chamber to catch moisture coming from the bowl. From the bowl bottom is a tube extending into the chamber and ending there a little above the cap. The cap appears to have an absorbent material like cotton or paper to absorb the moisture. And then through the shank is another aluminum tube which is ported into the shank and the stem is mounted with a normal tenon mount.”
Example and details, courtesy Doug Valitchka
(https://pipedia.org/wiki/Mars). This pipe does not strike me as a pipe produced before the Second World War. The other sentence indicates the pipe pictured on pipephil.eu site is made of Mountain Laurel. That wood was only utilized during the war years and proved to be less than ideal for pipes and was phased out fairly rapidly after the war. The rustication and staining of this pipe make the determination of the wood difficult to impossible.
Another mention of “Raskassa” is made by Steve Laug of repornpipes.com with his restorations of several Malaga Ras Kassa or Malaga Raskassa pipes. Both spellings are used. In a previous blog of a Malaga Apple , I wrote the following:
“Piedia.org has a nice history of Malaga pipes. I will include the text here in its entirety:
“The Malaga Pipe Company was founded circa 1939 by George Khoubesser, (b.1892 d.1971), and located in Royal Oak, Michigan at 1406 East Eleven Mile road. The second generation owner’s name was Emmanuel Khoubesser (b. 1942 d. 1981), who everyone knew him as “Manny”. He was a big jovial man that was easy to converse with, always had a smile and a good joke to tell his very loyal customers. He had the ability to befriend anyone within minutes. The small store was packed with curious customers every Saturday morning looking for the latest design made earlier in the week. He also carried a full line of custom mixed tobaccos that you could sample and an array tobaccos in tins.
I was first introduced to him in 1969. I remember him taking me in the back to show me each step involved in pipe making. He was very serious about the quality of the product he sold and would never sell a flawed pipe, even if it was very minor. My step father purchased several of his pipes and really enjoyed them. He once said he’s never found a better pipe (his words).
Manny passed away in 1981 and his wife and oldest children took over the business. Malaga closed in 1999 after 60 years in business. The building still exists on Eleven mile, looking almost like it did back then, but now houses the Michigan Toy Soldier Company. I would think the pipes Manny produced are now more valuable than ever. If you happen across one of these pipes, you’ll know a little bit more about it’s rich history. Enjoy!”
Now, this pipe does not bear the MALAGA stamping nor is it of a quality associated with Malaga pipes, much less the highest quality produced by that maker. So the question remains, “Who made this pipe?” Malaga stamps are of a block style print
I did not have any nickel plated brass of an appropriate diameter to use for a band. I did have a length of stainless steel that would suffice. I had never thought to make a band of stainless steel so that idea in itself was interesting. I measured the thickness of the band and got out the pipe cutter. The cutting of pipe is pretty much the same no matter the stock to cut. The stainless was far harder than brass or copper but the same procedure.
Slipping the band over the tenon and inserting the stem partially let me imagine or visualize a completed pipe. Not bad but I couldn’t help but wonder what a copper band would look like instead. So, I cut one of those too.
Oh, I liked the copper much better.
The next step was to file the end of the shank to fit the new band. This is a long meticulous and rather tedious process. I wanted the band to be very tight, compressing the cracked shank and providing a good fit of the tenon in the mortise. I was not too worried about a perfect finish of the band to the non-filed shank. The rusticated stained shank could easily blend and conceal any poor-fitting with a little bit of black epoxy from the gluing of the band to the shank.
The proper fit was finally achieved and the band was glued and tapped into place on the shank. The glue used was J.B. Weld black epoxy. Extra epoxy was used as a fill around the gaps between the band and the unfiled shank. The next day the epoxy had cured and was hard enough to file. I wrapped the stem with painters tape to protect it from filing.
The overflow of black epoxy was filed flush with the shank and stem.
The joint was lightly sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge and touched-up with a black Touch-up marker.
The stem tape was removed and the shank was taped to protect it from the sanding and polishing of the band. The band was sanded with the 2000-3500 sanding sponges then with the 4000-12000 micromesh pads.
For a wax I went with Renaissance Micro-Crystalline Wax applied with a baby toothbrush.
The wax was then hand buffed with a shoe shine brush.
Then the stummel was hand polished with a soft cotton terry cloth.
The stem was buffed with white diamond compound on the buffer then waxed with several coats of carnauba wax.
This banding project turned out very nicely. In the final photo you cannot make out the crack at all. The pipe has a unique rustication pattern which feels great in my hand. The black stain with the copper band gives it an elegant appearance in contrast to the rustic nature of the pipe. The stem needed little work and polished up well. Overall this is a lovely pipe that is amazingly light and should make for a grand smoker.
The dimensions of this Raskassa Pot with a beautiful copper band are:
Length: 5.61 in./ 142.49 mm.
Weight: 0.99 oz./ 28.00g.
Bowl Height: 1.66 in./ 42.16 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.45 in./ 36.83 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.85 in./ 21.59 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.45 in./ 36.83 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 Raskasss Pot.
This is a pipe I read about in 2023 and have been searching the auctions for since. One showed up in Italy a few months ago and the price was just too steep for my tastes. Finally this one showed up with an estate lot. I didn’t really want any of the other pipes in the lot but they were a package deal. I watched the auction run to the allotted time and still would not pay the asking minimum bid. The seller relisted the lot and my watch began anew. Again no one met the minimum asking price. The item was relisted a third time, with a “Make Best Offer” option. “Okay, now we’re talking”, I thought. I waited a few days then sent an offer with a note that I was only really interested in the Needham. The offer was accepted and I received the lot a few days later.
I was ecstatic when I saw the Needham in the flesh. The condition was much better than I expected or than the photos showed. Actually, a couple of the other pipes were also quite interesting and will most likely be seen in the future. The Needham looked to have only been smoked a few times, if that. The bottom of the tobacco chamber appeared unfired. The stamps on the base of the pipe were clear and well imprinted and read, NEEDHAM over IMPORTED BRIAR over PAT’D. There is no stem logo. The only other distinguishing feature is the red anodized aluminum screw at the front of the stummel base. Below are some photos of the pipe as it appeared upon arrival.
Background
The advertisement which originally sparked my interest in the Needham pipe is the below from the November issue of Pipe Lovers magazine 1946, page 365.
Now, you would think with an idea this great and a shape this cool and a pipe market that was smoking (pun intended) this would have been a great success with tomes written about and chronicling this wondrous development of human ingenuity. Umm, no. Here is what Pipedia.org has to say about Needham pipes:
Perhaps pipephil.eu has access to the hoards of documentation for the brand?
Bah, fortunately, dear reader I am not easily dissuaded by failure. I did come across a few interesting reads regarding the original Needham patent and the flush of smoking pipe innovations from the late 1800s-mid1900s. First lets take a look at the original Needham patent submitted September 30, 1942.
The second article shows a condensed form of the previous long description:
The final is an essay by Ben Rapaport, with my favorite quote where he is describing fundamental changes to smoking pipes over the past 100 years, “So what’s left? Asked and answered: all the quirky, kitschy, zany-looking concoctions, contraptions, and gimmicks, the Rube Goldbergian attempts at either changing the pipe’s outer appearance or reengineering the interior’s performance. Quite a few offered to the smoking public in the early to mid-20th century were, literally and figuratively, pipe bombs—not the homemade, improvised explosive devices—pipes that never got much consumer traction; their designs were of questionable functionality and of dubious benefits. A few were advertised as delivering a healthier smoke. Others were so butt-ugly that no self-respecting pipe smoker would have been seen puffing one of these in public.” (https://pipedia.org/images/e/e9/Rapaport-Pipe_Bombs.pdf) Ben Rapaport does have a nice description of the Needham and it’s intended improvements:
In examining the stummel and measuring drilling depths, I came up with the following diagram (measurements and their corresponding representations are approximate and not to scale):
Do I think that this system would work? Not really. The theory is reasonable but the dimensions don’t seem appropriate. If the condensing chamber were to be tripled in length and the moisture drain would be drilled larger in diameter, then maybe. It would then be a pipe more like a horizontal Cavelier. As built, I think that the small amount of moisture condensed would foul the moisture drain and not accumulate in the Moisture chamber.
Needham pipe advertisements appear in the 1946 November and December issues of Pipe Smokers magazine. The patent for the Needham was applied for in 1942 and issued in 1944. I cannot find anything about the Needham pipe factory or what became of it. I think it is safe to say that this pipe was made around 1946.
The Restoration
As usual the restoration began with a clean piece of denim to work on.
The reaming tools, though hardly necessary, were gathered.
I used the PipNet with the #2 blades to ream the tobacco chamber. I can’t really call the smoking residue that was present cake. It was more like a communion wafer than a cake. I scraped the chamber clean and sanded with the 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.
Not surprisingly, the walls of the Neeham were nearly pristine.
Next the shank and the lower moisture chamber (as it was called in the advertisement) were cleaned using cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners both dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.
The below photo shows the two holes drilled in the stummel. The top hole is the draft hole while the bottom is supposedly the hole where the condensation will drain into the moisture chamber.
Here I have run a pipe cleaner through the lower hole and out the front of the moisture chamber.
Here a pipe cleaner is run through the upper hole and into the tobacco chamber.
After the shank was cleaned I turned my attention to the stem.
With the inside clean, I sanded the surface with a 400 grit sanding sponge and prepared the stem for a dip into the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer or, as I like to call it deox.
Into the deox with you.
The pipe cleaner inserted into the tenon acts as a hanger for the stem.
I left the stem in deox for about three hours, it was two episodes of rewatching The Umbrella Academy while working on the stummel and a lunch break. The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrubbing with a nylon scrub brush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton dish towel.
Upon returning to the workbench the stummel was wiped with 95% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad. There appeared to be some residual finish on the briar.
The scrub and wipe did reveal several pits which would require filling with cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust.
There remained some kind of finish on the wood. I used acetone on a make-up pad and that seemed to be what was needed to remove the stubborn clear finish.
I sanded the stummel with a 400 grit sanding sponge. At this time I applied thin coats of CA to the grooves seen earlier. The sanding dust provided the briar dust needed to combine with the CA and fill the depressions. The shallow grooves only took one application of the CA while the deeper groove required 3 and subsequent sanding to fill it. The series of sanding sponges then continued from 600 through the 3500 grit. Between each sponge I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad moistened with ethyl alcohol.
After lunch the stem was taken from the deox and allowed to drip dry using the pipe cleaner hanger pinched into a bottle lid.
When finished dripping the stem was vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rag to remove the deox loosened oxidation. This can be seen as the discoloring on the shop rag, below. The stem ‘s surface looked pitted and rough.
I scrubbed the stem with several make-up pads sprinkled with Soft Scrub cleanser to remove more of the surface oxidation. The stem was now black and received a coating of mineral oil before the next step.
Next came the sanding sponges, 320-1000 grit. I first wrapped the shank with painters tape to protect it. I needed to reattach the stem to the stummel to ease holding the stem.Between each sponge I applied mineral oil, rubbed it in with my fingers and wiped the stem with a clean dry paper towel.
The pitting was sanded away and revealed a much more uniform black vulcanite. This was further sanded with the 1500-3500 sanding sponges again with the mineral oil rub and wipe between each sponge.
The tape was removed and the stummel and sem were worked with the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. The stummel was again wiped with alcohol on a make-up pad between micro-mesh pads. The stem now received a small drop of Obsidian Oil rubbed in and wiped with a paper towel.
Before and After Restoration Balm was then applied to both the stem and stummel and allowed to sit for an episode of The Umbrella Academy, about 45 minutes.
The Restoration Balm was wiped off using an inside out athletic sock and energetic hand buffing to clear the balm from the carvings.
The pipe looked amazing. I then took it to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax. The wax was worked into and with the scratch-like rustications. This took considerably longer than a typical wax and buff.
I was very pleased with the restoration of this Needham Not just because I finally found one to restore, although that was pretty cool in itself. The briar grain is pretty and I wonder why the rustication was used. I have not seen any versions of a Needham pipe with a smooth finish. The vulcanite cleaned-up well and looks great. I have yet to smoke the Needham and experience the effectiveness of this system. I do have my doubts about the need for the extra drillings and chamber. Who knows, I will be completely happy with either result – a nice relaxing smoke with a neutral tobacco. I’m thinking Peterso’s Early Morning Pipe blend. If you want to know my impressions of the system let me know in the comments. Also if you have any information about the Needham Pipe Company or Edward F. Needham, I’d love to read that as well. The dimensions of this Needham are:
Length: 5.67 in./ 144.02 mm.
Weight: 1.47 oz./ 41.80 g.
Bowl Height: 1.74 in./ 44.20 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.29 in./ 32.77 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.85 in./ 21.59 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.
This is something that you don’t see everyday: An original unfired early 1900s Frank Dublin pipe with a nickel plated band, horn stem and threaded bone reverse tenon. This pipe was part of an eclectic estate lot which contained a couple of old pipes in unsmoked condition. This was the first of that lot I have tackled. The stamps on this pipe read, Frank (in a cursive script) over ITALIAN BRIAR. There is no shape number. The band is stamped with three five pointed stars over 3 faux hallmarks (an anchor, a star and a walking figure with a bird-like head) over NICKEL PLATED. Judging by the horn stem with an orific style button and the bone tenon, I am guessing this pipe was made prior to 1920.
Below are some photos of the Frank Dublin prior to it receiving any work:
Okay, this is more of a clean-up than a full restoration since the pipe has never been smoked. And, yes, keeping to the original aesthetic is usually paramount to a restoration but, I am pretty sure that there is briar grain under that stain that needs to see the light of day. The finish will be removed. The stem sanded and polished and the whole thing made beautiful. All without having to clear the yuck from a shank – YAY!
Background
The name Frank refers to Sam Frank Sr. who started building a pipe empire in 1900. I will let the article for pipdia.org explain this, “In the year 1900 Sam Frank Sr. started his own business, selling pipes and other tobacco items. His original office was located at 20 W. 17th Street, NYC. He was also closely associated with the sales staff of Wm. DeMuth & Co., selling their line of pipes. It was at this time that Mr. Frank first met Ferdinand Feuerbach and formed what would be a lifelong friendship. Mr. Feuerbach started working for the DeMuth company in 1897 and by 1903 had become the production manager. In 1919, when Mr. Frank needed an experienced pipe man to run his pipe factory, located at 168 Southern Blvd., in the Bronx, he persuaded his old friend Ferdinand to join him. Mr. Feuerbach is credited with developing DeMuth’s popular Royal DeMuth and Hesson Guard Milano pipelines. In 1922, when S. M. Frank purchased the Manhattan Briar Pipe Co. the company incorporated. In 1933, the paper Medico filter was introduced along with the Medico brand line of pipes. The Medico filter is the “original” and most absorbent paper filter on the market that is recognized by pipe smokers world-wide. Filtered pipe smoking, a debatable issue among pipe smokers, reduces tars and nicotine in the smoke stream to make a “safer” smoke.” (S. M. Frank & Co. – Pipedia) (italics are mine)
As for the year that this ppe was produced, I found an article on S.M. Frank which states, “The earliest recorded location of the S. M. Frank pipe factory was 292 Ave. B in Manhattan in 1903. This was their factory until the late 1910s, when they moved to 168 Southern Blvd. in the Bronx.” (https://www.14to42.net/21street.html) The above quote from pipedia.org mentions that Frank, “In 1919, when Mr. Frank needed an experienced pipe man to run his pipe factory” (S. M. Frank & Co. – Pipedia). These two pieces of information indicate that the Frank pipe factory was established in 1903 and produced pipes through 1919 and beyond. Judging by the orific style stem of this pipe, I am assuming that it was made in the Frank factory located in the Bronx of New York City. Steve Laug, of rebornpipes.com, discusses the orific button in depth (https://rebornpipes.com/2013/05/17/whatever-happened-to-the-orific-button/). In this post he notes that pipes with orific buttons in his collection date from 1850s-1912. Personally I do not think that I have ever seen an orific button on any pipe from later than 1920. This reinforces my claim that this Frank Dublin was made prior to 1920. More specifically between 1903 and 1919.
The Restoration
As typical with my restorations, I began with a clean denim piece. No tar stains from this old girl. There would be a bit of black sanding dust though.
The annoying sticker and its old adhesive would have to go.
The sticker was scraped free and the stubborn adhesive removed with 95% ethyl alcohol on a cotton swab.
The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrubbing with Murphy Oil Soap and a medium toothbrush. The Murphy’s removed the century worth of dirt and grime and was rinsed with warm water. The stummel was dried with a cotton dish towel and returned to the workbench.
The stummel looked much better and I could see briar grain peeking through the layers of stain.
I first tried 95% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad to free the briar.
Next, I tried acetone on a make-up pad.. The chemical solvents made advances on removing the finish and more grain was apparent.
I resorted to physical rather than chemical removal and was rewarded with a lovely contrast stained piece of briar. The stummel was sanded with a 320 grit sanding sponge, removing the outer layer of black stained wood.
Another wipe with acetone on a make-up pad removed yet more stain.
The rim was lightly topped with 400 grit sandpaper laid flat on a countertop. I did not have to sand away dents of ding, just the stained briar.
Next I started sanding the stem. I first wrapped the nickel plated band with painters tape to protect it from the sanding. I then used a series of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grits. Between each sponge I wiped the stem with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol. The stem was looking very good after the sanding.
The stummel sanding revealed an old fill at the front of the stummel. The old fill material was picked out with a fly tying bodkin. The new fill was made with brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust.
I placed a drop of brown CA into the depression then scooped up a small mound of briar dust with a dental scraper. The briar dust was placed onto the wet CA and pressed into the pit. The CA cures very quickly with the dust and allows sanding within seconds. The new fill was brushed off with a brass brush to remove the excess briar dust then the new fill was sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge. This was a large fill and it required repeated applications of CA and briar dust.
The stamps on the shank were covered with painters tape and the band was retaped for their protection. The stummel was then sanded with the series of sanding sponges from 600-3500. Between each sponge I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol.
The protective tape was removed and the stem and stummel were micro-meshed with pads 4000-12000. Again, between each pad I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol.
The entire pipe was given a coat of Before and After Restoration Balm. The balm was allowed to soak into the stem and stummel for 20 minutes.
The Restoration Balm was wiped off with an inside out athletic sock, revealing the beautiful old briar.
To raise the shine on the stem I hand polished it using Before and After Fine Polish on a soft cotton cloth.
The Fine Polish was followed by Before and After Extra Fine Polish, again hand polished with a soft cloth.
The Frank Dublin was then taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.
This was a nice relaxing restoration which turned out wonderfully. The previous stain did a fine job of staining the briar and when sanded allowed a beautiful contrast stain. The horn stem has aged very well and was fortunately never attacked by beetles. I have to admit that the feel of a horn stem is not bad on the teeth. I think a non-orific button would make it even more comfortable. The coloring of the horn is a feature that I appreciate the most. I am sure that this pipe will find its way to its next steward who may take it into the next century.
The dimensions of this unfired darling are:
Length: 5.68 in./ 144.27 mm.
Weight: 1.13 oz./ 32.20 g.
Bowl Height: 1.85 in./ 46.99 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.48 in./ 37.59 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.76 in./ 19.30 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.30 in./ 33.02 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 Frank Dublin.
I just can’t stop myself from working on those darn 1940s pipes. This little gem is one of those World War II Mediterranean briar substitutes. Kind of like a substitute teacher, they try but just are not the same as the regular version. I’ll get to more detail on that in the Background section, below. I have restored a handful of Trapwell pipes over the years
and found them to be exceptional smokers. They all share the same system for cooling the smoke and condensing out steam. It is this system that makes them good smokers but also a bit troublesome to clean. The subject of this blog is a large apple that has seen some tough handling. The pipe was purchased through eBay and was not part of an estate lot, just a single pipe. After a journey from Union Dale, Pennsylvania to the wilds of southeast Nebraska the old girl arrived. Below are some photos of this Trapwell as she appeared prior to any work.
I am not all that familiar with pipe care practices in different parts of the country. Apparently in Pennsylvania, pipes are frequently placed into cages with hyperactive irate badgers. I could be wrong on this but it would explain the numerous gouges, scratches, dings, dents and other surface scars that the Trapwell had. There were also signs that the pipe was smoked in between badger treatments and perhaps tumble drying sessions with the previous owner’s rock collection. There was a definite lava accumulation on the rim and some caking within the tobacco chamber. The stem and band had marks along their length that indicated that the badgers of Pennsylvania have acquired the use of pliers. These tool marks indicated to me that the stem was probably quite stuck in the shank (It was). The stem also had a bit of tooth chatter which would have to be repaired. Overall, it looked like a fairly straight forward restoration (It wasn’t).
Background
To have an understanding of Trapwell, we have to look into their origin story. No, there are no radioactive spiders but it is still a good story. “Henry Leonard & Thomas, Inc. (HLT) was founded in Ozone Park, Queens, New York by Henry J. Lavietes and two partners on May 31, 1938. The company patented a stem design for pipes and cigarette holders designed by Henry on March 9, 1943. Henry was the son of David Lavietes, who moved to Sparta, North Carolina in the early 1940s to purchase laurel and rhododendron burl to ship back to his son and HLT. Lavietes decided to stay in Sparta and founded the D&P Pipe Works with his other son Paul, originally as a 15 person operation. David Lavietes was the inventor of the Ajustomatic feature incorporated into Dr. Grabow pipes even today.
In 1944, the trademark for the Royalton filter well was granted to HLT. Soon after, however, Henry Lavietes closed the New York operation with little warning and moved the entire production to Sparta, North Carolina. At this time in addition to the Royalton line, HLT was making many other lines of pipes.
In 1953, HLT acquired all assets and equipment of the Dr. Grabow company of Chicago, Illinois, and began production of Grabow and Hollycourt pipes. At the same time, they acquired the Continental Briar Company, owner of the Royal Duke, Duke of Dundee, and Honeydew pipe brands still evident in the common use of the word “Duke” to name Grabow pipes.
On October 21, 1969, United States Tobacco company, owners of the Mastercraft brand, announced that it had acquired HLT. It still ran as a separate company until 1985, however, when Sparta Pipes, Mastercraft and HLT were merged into Sparta Industries, Inc.
While, even after this time, the HLT brand was sold to Lane, and later, in 2006 to International Pipes & Assessories, the current owners, IPAL continues to make and sell the Royalton pipe with the original HLT logo as part of the Grabow line.” (Henry Leonard & Thomas Inc. – Pipedia) (Italics are mine)
So we have David Levietas and son, Paul, setting up a North American briar harvesting venture in North Carolina. All of this due to the Nazis waging war on Europe and shutting down exportation of the pipemans’ favorite wood – briar. That dynamic duo was D&P Pipeworks.
“Trapwell pipes marked with “World’s best briar” are made of Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) a species from the Ericaceae family.
The brand was made by D & P Pipe Works, owned by D. P. Levitas and located in Sparta, Alleghany County, North Carolina close to the population of Mountain Laurel in the area. Later, this company changed its name to Sparta Pipe Works and still later to Sparta Industries.
There were at least three pipe brands made from the Mountain Laurel: Trapwell, Breezewood and Custombilt.” (Trapwell – Pipedia)
David Levietas, as previously mentioned was the inventor of the “Ajustomatic”. He also was the inventor of the Trapwell system. The below diagram from the original US patent 2,262,159 was screenshot from the PDF. This PDF can be found here: US2262159A – Smoker’s pipe – Google Patents for those interested in the original.
It is this feature that makes the Trapwell pipe what it is – a fine smoking tool.
The Restoration
This restoration began with me attempting to unscrew the stem from the shank of the pipe. This unscrewing actually removed the aluminum mortise from the shank. This was not an intended part of David Levietas’ design. From the photos above you can see the following images:
The photo on the right is what is supposed to happen when unscrewing the stem. Using a pliers with the jaws wrapped in painters tape, as to not mar the stem nor aluminum, I was able to unscrew the two aluminum threaded parts. I would have to reinsert and glue the mortise section back into the shank. This comes later in the restoration.
I set out cleaning the threads of the tenon by soaking the threads in 95% ethyl alcohol. The threads were then scrubbed with a brass brush dipped in the alcohol. This cleaned any residual tars and removed most of the oxidized aluminum.
The shank piece of aluminum was larger and required a larger medicine cup for soaking. It also required more alcohol. I opted to use 91% isopropyl alcohol for this larger amount. Yeah, I’m cheap. Isopropyl is far less expensive than ethyl. That extra carbon and two hydrogens of the isopropyl must reduce both the effectiveness of it as a solvent and the cost. It still worked to clean the aluminum along with cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners.
The stem was cleaned out with 95% ethyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners.
With the insides clean it was time to address the exterior. I lightly sanded the stem with a 320 and 400 sanding sponge. I then painted the tooth chatter with a lighter in hopes of raising the dents.
The sanding and flame painting helped with the tooth chatter but were unable to do much to the pliers scars. These would require filling with black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue).
I switched tasks to the stummel. Yeah, ADHD isn’t just for kids. I gathered the reaming tools and started working on the tobacco chamber. This was a relatively narrow chamber and would not fit my PipNet Reaming tool since I had broken the smallest size blades for it. The Scotte Stainless Steel reamer would suffice.
Looking down into the chamber I couldn’t see any damage from heat. It still needed additional scraping and sanding but still the Mountain Laurel appeared to be heat resistant. Not the badger claw marks through the lava.
Next the stummel was taken to the sink. Here it was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium toothbrush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and then the stummel was dried with a cotton hand towel.
Back at the workbench you can see the grain of the Mountain Laurel. It is different from briar and lacks the bird’s eyes. I can’t say that it is unattractive, just different.
I wiped the surface with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol to remove any wax and or finish from the stummel. I got some color on the pad. It looked more like a stain than a finish.
The stummel was then sanded with a 320 and a 400 grit sanding sponge.
The rim needed topping to address the dents and dings on the surface. This was done with a piece of 320 sandpaper laid flat on a countertop. I used a circular pattern with rotations of the stummel in my hand every 3-4 circles. This process was repeated with 400 grit sandpaper.
In preparation of a contrast dye, I taped the stamps to keep them from being as heavily dyed as the stummel. The tape was cut in irregular patterns to avoid the blocky appearance when finished.
I planned to use a mixture of ⅓ black to ⅔ dark brown Fiebing’s Leather Dye.
The dye was measured out with a disposable pipette and mixed in a medicine cup. It was then applied to the stummel using a bent pipe cleaner as an applicator. The wet dye was flamed with a lighter to burn off the alcohol solvent of the dye.
The stummel was then rinsed with 91% isopropyl alcohol over the sink.
Excess dye was wiped from the stummel with a paper towel. The protective tape also came off during the wiping but it had done its job.
Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a couple of make-up pads dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. I was not sure how the Mountain Laurel would take the dye as I had never dyed Mountain Laurel before. The softer portions of the wood absorbed the dye very well while the harder grain seemed to repel the dye to some extent. This looked to give the wood a very interesting pattern.
I then tried to sand off the outermost black dyed layer of wood. It was here that I realized how woefully inadequate my previous sanding had been. The badger claw marks were everywhere. Stupid badger.
After thinking about how to deal with the scratches and dents for what seemed like hours, I thought, “try steaming them out”. I plugged in the iron, set it to high, wetted a washcloth and donned a left glove. I wrapped the washcloth around the stummel and proceeded to roll it over the hot iron. I would have taken pictures of this process had I more than the two hands.
The results of the steaming were better but still required far more sanding. And yes, it’s a kevlar glove, I clean fish down at this sink on occasion.
Okay, back to sanding. Lots of sanding. And then some more sanding.
Finally I was wondering if I had done so much sanding that the contrast dye had been completely removed. Out of curiosity I grabbed the Before and After Restoration Balm and gave the stummel a coating. I waited 15 minutes for the balm to do what it does – magic. Many of the dents and scratches seemed to have disappeared.
There were a couple of dents that were too much for even the wonders of Restoration Balm. These would have to be filled with brown CA and briar dust. Now that I write that I realize I should have used Mountain Laurel dust. I certainly had enough.
The new fills were filed with a flat needle file then smoothed with 400 sandpaper.
I must have left stummel mode and entered CA fill mode. I started filling the tooling and tooth dents on the stem. Here I used black CA and spritzed it with a CA drying accelerator.
These areas were again filed flat with a flat needle file then smoothed using a 400 grit sanding sponge.
For a final finish I applied a light top coat of thin clear CA. This CA flows more easily and filled any small depressions that remained. Once cured the areas were filed and sanded as above.
The wood of the shank was taped with painters tape and the stem was sanded using a series of sanding sponges from 400-1500. Between each sponge I dabbed mineral oil onto the stem, rubbed it in with my fingertip and wiped the stem with a paper towel.
The above was repeated with the 2000-3500 sanding sponges.
The stummel got new tape over the stamps. Then was sanded sith the sanding sponges 1000-3500. Between sponges I wiped the wood with a make-up pad moistened with alcohol.
The tape was removed and the adhesive wiped off with alcohol. The pipe was then polished with the micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. The stummel was wiped with alcohol on a make-up pad between pads. The stem received a drop of Obsidian Oil, rubbed onto the vulcanite and a wipe with a dry paper towel.
Once finished with the micro-meshing I pulled the aluminum shank insert out. Cleaned the hole and the aluminum with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol then applied a light coat of white all purpose glue to the toothed end of the aluminum and reinserted it into the shank. I adjusted the bit while the glue was wet. The joint where the two pieces meet was wiped with a paper towel and a bit of alcohol. The pipe was then taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.
This Trapwell Apple turned out far better than I thought it would. During the restoration I still had my doubts as to how it would look finished. It is truly a stunning pipe. Some of the scratches are still evident but the Mountain Laurel nearly has a glow to it. In sunlight it is remarkable. The contrast dye did far better than I hoped it would, even after all my post-dye sanding. The stem polished up nicely as well. There remain some deep scratches in the aluminum but removing them would probably alter the straight smooth shank to stem junction. Overall I am very pleased at how this pipe turned out. The dimensions of this beauty are:
Length: 6.11 in./ 155.19 mm.
Weight: 1.34 oz./ 38.00g.
Bowl Height: 1.47 in./ 37.34 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.26 in./ 32.00 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.68 in./ 17.27 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.56 in./ 39.62 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 Trapwell Large Apple.
Just when you thought I had moved on from my fascination with pipes from the 1940s I throw another one at you. I had been watching the auctions for a Ken after reading about them in the 1946-1948 Pipe Lovers Magazines for several months. The difficulty was in finding one that had an intact condenser apparatus and was in the price range I found acceptable. Complicated and delicate are two words that come to mind for the contraption within the stem.
Well, as you can see I found one that fit both of my criterion. This pipe was originally purchased on June 8 of 2024. When the box arrived my excitement was quickly dashed due to the wrong pipe was sent by the seller. eBay messages were exchanged and the incorrect pipe was returned to the seller. At this point I thought my search would have to start all over. Fortunately the recipient of the Ken pipe returned his incorrect shipment quickly. The seller was able to repost the Ken and I was able to purchase it again. I felt a little bad for the seller as he had to pay for the return shipping but was glad he made it right with us buyers. The correct pipe eventually arrived and waited in the queue for it’s spot on the workbench. Here is what the Ken looked like upon arrival.
Background
I’ll start with what drew me to want to restore a Ken in the first place, a full page ad from Pipe Lovers magazine January 1946:
I especially loved the “Smokers’ Guild of America”, rather than the company name. There is a union that I could support.
Here is a larger version of the Ken schematic diagram from Popular Mechanics 1946:
“KEN Brand Pipes are made by Prim Associates of America out of Chicago, Ill. The design is unique and somewhat complex and has a patent by Otto Turinsky.[1] This patent was applied for in Dec. 1939 and granted in May 1941, Pat No 2,242,805. An ad in Popular Mechanics from 1946 shows the pipe costing $3.50 and shows Six Key features of the Ken Pipe along with a Money Back Guarantee! Stem is Lucite and the interior chamber contains various technical features to remove tar, moisture, burnt tongue and remove impurities.” (KEN – Pipedia)
I searched through Google patents, advanced search and found the original patent from Otto Turinsky:
(1498380862798272946-02242805 (storage.googleapis.com)). Perhaps Otto Turinsky was either very attorney averse or so innovatively clever as to make a device that rivals could not or would not try to copy thus freeing himself from all the trouble brought about by patent infringement litigation.
With only the smallest bit of conjecture I can safely say that the Ken in hand is a pipe made in Chicago, Illinois between the dates of December 30 1939, when the patent was applied for, and May 20 1941, when the patent application was granted. That was a tough time to start production of a new line of pipes as World War Two would have nearly eliminated the supply of briar from the Mediterranean.
The Restoration
I broke from usual and began cleaning without a clean denim piece for a work surface. I guess I was just excited to work on this pipe after waiting so many months to finally have one. The stem of the Ken had a scar from a battle with a cigarette, probably from a seedy bar down by the river.
The interior of the stem was truly tar and yuck infested. That should look like yellow acrylic rather than a black painted ceiling.
The patent diagram refers to the rounded cylinder as the “cup”. The cup was a black caked mess and needed into an alcohol bath, stat. Yeah, borrowing terms from hospital emergency room lingo makes me feel cool.
The stem was not accepting of the 95% ethyl alcohol so cleaning had to be done with something else. I used Castille soap diluted with water to soften the old smoking deposits within the stem.
The contraption’s tar was softening with the alcohol. I took it to the sink where I could scrub it with additional alcohol without making a mess of the workbench.
The aluminum was scrubbed with a nylon brush dipped in alcohol. The tar was relinquishing its grip on the old aluminum.
I eventually could see that the cup was just slid onto an aluminum tube coming out of the shank. I carefully slid the cup off and allowed it to soak further. In the 95% ethyl alcohol.
Every few minutes I removed the cup and tried cleaning inside the cup and the exterior. As you can see the alcohol was darkening from the soaking and scrubbing.
The aluminum cup was delicate feeling. I did not want to exert very much pressure on it or it’s flanges. I used pipe cleaners and cotton swabs with about ½ of their cotton removed to scrub the inside of the cum.
The inside of the cup was finally cleaned.
The exterior remained difficul to clean and was stained. This surface required a bit more of an abrasive cleaning. I lightly scrubbed it with 0000 steel wool dipped in the alcohol.
After soakin the stem’s interior was scraped with a dental scraper and scrubbed with various scrubbing tools; bristle pipe cleaners, small tube brushes, cotton swabs, a fy tying bodkin, etc… Actually almost anything I could fit into the stem was used to try to separate the tar from the plastic.
After the interior was looking better I used an emory board to flatten the cigarette burn. I then applied a thin coating of clear Thin Cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) to the depression in the center of the cigarette scar. I was afrain to speed the drying of the CA as the CA drying accelerator that I use reacts less than favorably to acrylic. I allowed the CA to dry at it’s own pace and smoothed the new material. I had to reapply several times to get the depression filled.
The stummel was prepped for reaming and the tools were gathered. The tobacco chamber war a bit too narrow for the PipNet #2 blade and the #1 blade remained broken. Apparently it will not heal itself and return to work.
The reaming was done mainly with the Scotte Stainless Steel Reamer Tool, scraping with both the General Triangular scraper the the Smokingpipes Low Country Knife was also done. The chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The chamber was taken to bare brian and no damage from heat was observed.
The stummel was then taken to the sink. There it was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium toothbrush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton dish towel.
Returning to the workbench the stummels was wiped with 95% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad. Some color came off on the pad indicating that there had remained wax and/or finish remaining on the briar.
The rim was moistened with saliva and scraped with a sharp pocket knife.
I decided to give this stem an alcohol/cotton treatment as it still smelled of old tobacco residue and tar. Cotton was stuffed into the bowl and shank. Alcohol was added by a disposable pipette, approximately 10 ml. The alcohol was allowed to sit overnight to work on removing the remaining residue.
The next day the cotton in the chamber appeared as the photo below shows.
Finally the stem and stummel looked fairly clean.
The stamps were covered with painters tape to protect them during sanding.
The sanding of the stem used sanding sponges 1000-3500. The stem was wiped off with a make-up pad moistened with water between each sponge.
The sanding of the stummel was done with the same sanding sponges only from 600-3500. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped off with a make-up pad moistened with 95% ethyl alcohol.
Th stem and stummel were worked with 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. The stummel wiped with the alcohol wetted pad while the stem was wiped with a water wetted make-up pad.
The stummel then received a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and was allowed to sit for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes the excess Restoration Balm was hand buffed to remove the excess using an inside out athletic sock.
The pipe was then taken to the buffer fr several coats of carnauba wax.
I Though the pipe was finished yet there were still two things which bothered me slightly. Number one was the “KEN” stamp on the top of the stem. It needed something. I decided to repaint the stamp with silver Rub’nBuff.
The second thing that I found bothersome was that the stem had a slight looseness that I didn’t like. I thought that it would probably go away after the first smoke but what if I didn’t smoke this pipe? I decided to give the stem a touch of beeswax upon the tenon of the shank. This stem is actually a reverse mortise/tenon with the mortise being the stem and the tenon is the shank.
Molten beeswax was applied with a small paintbrush and allowed to cool.
The wax was then cut away using the Low Country Knife. The tenon was then rubbed with a cotton cloth to smooth and wipe away additional excess.
Here is the stem with new paint and a tight fitting stem. There, I was finally happy with it.
Well, I can mark off another 1940 pipe from the list of pipes that I wanted to restore. In all seriousness this Ken Billiard turned out better than I expected it to. The yellow stem had me worried. I’ve seen photos of red, blue and black stems. I think a red or blue would be easier to restore as the transparency of the stem would be less noticeable and the black would be easy mode. This one looks pretty good with the yellow accenting the yellow tones in the briar quite nicely. The nickel band looks good with the silver Rub’nBuff. The internals cleaned up well and I learned about how this aluminum contraption is designed and how it’s supposed to work. That was something that had really intrigued me about these pipes. I have very mixed feelings about smoking this old pipe. I want to know how the whole thing works but I’m not looking forward to cleaning it all out again. Oh, you know I’ll smoke it. The dimensions of the Ken PAT. APLD. SE areas follows:
Length: 5.72 in./ 145.29 mm.
Weight: 1.05 oz./ 30.00 g.
Bowl Height: 1.66 in./ 42.16 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.34in./ 34.04 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.74 in./ 18.80 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.30 in./ 33.02 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 Ken Pat. Apld. 1350 SE.
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and the Otto Sevic pipes do appear to have the same style of stamp.
Bah, fortunately, dear reader I am not easily dissuaded by failure. I did come across a few interesting reads regarding the original Needham patent and the flush of smoking pipe innovations from the late 1800s-mid1900s. First lets take a look at the original Needham patent submitted September 30, 1942.
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NebraskaPeteGeek 
