NebraskaPeteGeek

Masta 45F Patent Standard Bent

November 14th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

For the pipe connoisseurs out there the name Dunhill evokes strong feelings, rightfully so, of quality and workmanship. I have yet to have the honor of restoring or smoking a Dunhill pipe so I feel inadequate to describe them. I can say that there are a few brands owned by Dunhill which I have had the pleasure of restoring: These include Hardcastle, Parker and now Masta. Yes, I know this does not make a Masta a Dunhill any more than a Mazda car was a Ford due to Ford’s ownership of a large amount of Mazda’s shares. The fact remains that so far, this is as close as I have gotten to an actual Dunhill. This Masta was purchased via eBay from a seller in Vilnius, Lithuania and thus took considerably longer to ship than a typical State side transport. I think it was worth the wait. The pipe arrived and was photographed as it appeared after the unboxing. It is stamped MASTA over PATENT over STANDARD with 45F left of the stamping on the left shank of the pipe. On the right shank is MADE IN LONDON over ENGLAND.

The pipe appeared to have been cleaned though not restored . This made for what looked like an easy relaxing restoration. The tobacco chamber was mostly clean. The Stem had some oxidation and a single bite mark on the bottom of the button. There were no serious dents or scars on the briar.

Background

As said earlier, I’d not be a good pipe snob, never having laid hands on a Dunhill. When asked what my favorite pipe is, I’ve been known to reply, “The one between my teeth.” When asked about my favorite tobacco, the reply is similarly “The one in my pipe.” I have found that I prefer some pipes, tobaccos and people over others. Generally, the rule is that I favor those which agree with me. Aesthetically this Masta agrees with me. Historically, I find the lack of information about Masta disagreeable. Pipephil.eu has a few photos of stamping which verify this pipe is indeed a Masta but little else.

(Mas — Pipes: Logos & Markings)

Turning to pipedia.org, I found a short blurb followed by a longer blurb. The first is included below:

“Masta was a brand founded around 1900. When Parker Hardcastle Limited was formed in 1967, they also incorporated the Masta Patent Pipe Company. From this point this was a Dunhill / Parker / Hardcastle offshoot, primarily for the scandinavian market. The brand no longer appears to exist. Masta was at the end rarely the equal of a Parker.” (Masta – Pipedia)

Wow, so between 1900 and 1967 Masta apparently did nothing. They were then taken over by Dunhill, along with Parker and Hardcastle, where they produced sub-Parker quality pipes for some “scandanavian”s who couldn’t even afford to capitalize Scandinavia. Hmm, not too impressive thus far.

The second blurb appeared to have been taken from another source and was footnoted in the “References” at the bottom of the pipedia.org page. Wanting the original source so, I followed the link to the below quote:

“Produced in London by Masta ( Dunhill ). Masta Patent Pipes Company was founded around 1900 to London. The firm suffered numerous adversities (the factory was destroyed by a bombardment in 1941, during the second world war). the mark Masta was acquired in 1946 by Parker Pipes Co. (Dunhill) and the production continued in the establishment Parker-Hardcastle, next to St. Andrews Road. What the pipes Masta (how Hardcastle and Parker ) can be considered “second lines” of Dunhill (or exemplary not perfect, with defects that cannot be signed from the mother house) is common and very diffused opinion. To this opinion I habitually conform me. It is necessary to specify however that this hypothesis is controversial and it has never been confirmed. The only certainty seems to be that Parker , Hardcastle and Masta belong to Dunhill and the pipes they are produced in the establishment Parker-Hardcastle . Parker and Masta have in common usually forms and numbers of shape.” (Masta (Dunhill) Patent Standard – Very nice English briar pipe – No Reserve | #292597597)

Well, that was better than the first blurb even with the apparent use of Google translate to convert it to English. There were discrepancies among the dates, 1946 and 1967 for the purchasing of Masta by Parker and or Dunhill. This still was a more objective version of Masta history.

Pipedia.org also has a nice Masta shape chart:

(C_2-1.jpg (3574×2443))

I still had trouble with the whole notion of a company as illustrious as Dunhill having to wage economic warfare on companies producing far lower quality products. I couldn’t imagine many Dunhill aficionados ever hearing the announcement, “Attention K-mart shoppers…” during their pipe shopping excursions.

It was in a blog on Steve Laug’s Rebornpipe.com that I came across Robert M. Boughton’s blog “Identifying, Categorizing and Refurbishing a Masta Diplomat” (Identifying, Categorizing and Refurbishing a Masta Diplomat | rebornpipes). Robert did a wonderful job explaining the history of Mast in a reasonable way which I found enthralling. I highly recommend that blog as a read if you are interested in the history of the Masta Patent Pipe Company. With that I felt like I now had a functional knowledge of the brand and turned to the restoration.

The Restoration

As usual I began with a clean denim piece to protect the work surface.

The team was assembled; the PipNet with #2 blades, Smokingpipes Low Country Reamer, General triangular scraper (with the tip ground round) and 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel (AKA a 20 gauge shotgun magazine plug).

The PipNet was used predominantly for the reaming with the other two scrapers just to clean off stubborn spots.

The completed reaming showed slight damage to the rim.

Once reamed the chamber was sanded with the 220 sandpaper. No damage from heat was observed .

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

Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. Very little color, existing finish, came off. The grain patterns could be seen much better at this time and looked very nice. I was very tempted to contrast stain the stummel here but thought that that would not hold true to the nature of this pipe.

The shank airway was filthy and full of accumulated tar. After numerous alcohol dipped cotton swabs, I decided to try a cottom/alcohol soaking to remove the tars. The tobacco chamber and shank were stuffed with cotton and 95% ethyl alcohol was added to the cotton filled passages with a disposable pipette to the point of saturation. The alcohol was allowed to work on dissolving the tars overnight.

The next day the cotton had absorbed much of the tars liberated from the briar by the alcohol as it evaporated.

The cotton was removed and the cleaning resumed and went at a much faster rate.

The surface of the stem was scrubbed with Soft Scrub cleanser on a make-up pad.

This produced very little discoloration on the pad indicating that the stem was not heavily oxidized.

The button needed a little bit of reconstructive work. I used cheap transparent tape to cover the button proper and confine the black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) to the stem where I wanted to fill the dent. I prefer the cheap tape as the more expensive 3M brand Scotch tape softens and dissolves with exposure to CA drying accelerator.

Black CA was applied to the area to be filled with a wide zone for blending.

The black CA was spritzed with a CA drying accelerator and filed smooth.

The taping was reversed – covering the new patch and leaving the area to be filled uncovered.

The black CA was applied to the dented spot on the button, building up the area. This was then spritzed with a CA drying accelerator. The tape was removed and the fill filed smooth and the button reshaped.

The newly repaired button was sanded smooth and inspected to see if additional CA would be required.

The stummel was very clean and free of any flaws except for one small pit. This was filled with brown CA and allowed to sure on its own. The stamps had been taped with painters tape to preserve them during the upcoming sanding.

The stem and stummel were sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grit. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol. The stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel between sanding sponges.

After the final wipe downs from sanding the pipe was worked with micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000 grit. Between sponges the stummel was again wiped with the alcohol wetted make-up pads while the stem now received a rubbing with Obsidian Oil and a wipe with a paper towel.

The pipe was given a coat of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 30 minutes.

With the balm doing the magic that it does for 30 minutes the remaining mysterious elixir was wiped from the pipe with an inside out athletic sock.

The final steps were to take the pipe to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax and a final hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.

I have to say that I think this Masta Patent Standard 45F is a beautiful specimen. The graceful curves are well proportioned and elegant. It appears to be a well crafted pipe with only one noticeable pit in the briar. If this is what a Dunhill “second” looks like, I am going to be very impressed if I ever get to work on a Dunhill. I retained the natural finish of the briar and it is quite lovely with attractive bird’s eyes and a nice flame grain on the front. The stem polished up well and the high gloss black is a pretty contrast to the natural briar. I am sure that this pipe will be a grand smoker and bring someone many years of enjoyment.

The dimensions of this Masta 45F Patent Standard Bent Billiard are:
- Length: 5.63 in./ 143.11 mm.
- Weight: 1.49 oz./ 42.40 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.79 in./ 45.47 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.60 in./ 40.64 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.70 in./ 17.78 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.42 in./ 36.07 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 Masta Patent Standard 45F.
A Marxman Four Hundred Restoration

November 12th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

There it is, the apex of the Marxman line. Well in this case what is left of the apex. All that remains of this Four Hundred is the stummel. The 14 karat gold band and original stem have been lost to the ravages of time. The briar lives on clinging to her past glory. I am going to do my best to restore this former queen to her proud majesty.

Over the past three years I have only seen 3 Marxman Four Hundreds come to auction. There was one on Etsy a couple of years ago and I still kick myself for not buying it. This one and another on eBay listing for north of $200, if I recall correctly.

This pipe wears the stamp “The Four Hundred” in an Old English script on the bottom of the pipe, also on the bottom is “E152”. On the left shank is stamped MARXMAN within the arrow above IMPORTED BRIAR. As previously mentioned the gold band and original stem are missing. The replacement stem is stamped FRANCE around the tenon end. Below are some photos of the Marxman Four Hundred before I had done any work to the pipe.

The pipe was quite dirty with years of grime on the stummel. The rim had a significant lava deposit. There was a slight superficial crack running along the front of the briar. The tobacco chamber had a substantial cake build up present and of course the ill fitting replacement stem would have to be worked on. My Four Hundred was in need of a good deal of work.

Background

According to pipedia.org: “The Four Hundred was Marxman’s best series, characterized by very large pipes. Similarly famous was the Marxman Heirloom Pipes series, with around 80 pieces produced by well-known North American sculptors, such as Jo Davidson, Cecil Howard, Charles Kopp, and RD Lewis, contracted by Bob in 1947. Today these pipes are genuine collector’s items. The series included animal and human figures, selling at extremely high prices for the time.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Marxman)

I have restored and blogged about several Marxman pipes over the past year. I will include a few of them here if you are interested in more of the history of the brand.
- Camel figural https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.com/7445
- Jumbo C https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.com/7197
- Jumbo Dublin https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.com/3071
- Mel~O pear https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.com/6995
The Restoration

This restoration began on September 29, 2024. It is now October 29, 2024. Thank goodness for time stamps on photos. I remember the process and with the correct sequence of photos describe the restoration in detail. As usual the pipe got a clean denim piece as a work surface.

Next, the ream team was assembled. This tobacco chamber was large enough to require the large, size #4 PipNet blades along with the General triangular scraper, the Smokingpipes Low Country Reaming Knife.

I started with the PipNet and the #2 blades.

Progressing through the blades, #3 was next up.

The #4 blade was the last of the progression.

The chamber was reamed but still required sanding. This was done with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. You can also see from the photo below the extent of the lava on the rim.

The chamber was looking far better and showed no damage from excessive heat from smoking. This surprised me, in a good way.

The mountainous pile of cake is not done justice by the below photo.

To provide a better representation of the cake it was placed into an empty snus can.

The snus can was then dumped in preparation of it’s next task – to hold some undiluted Murphy Oil Soap.

Tha stummel was placed rim down in contact with the Murphy’s to soften the lava while preserving the rim from an accidental heavy handed scraping.

After about 30 minutes I checked the condition of the lava. It had softened dramatically and was scraped away with a very light scraping with a sharp pocket knife.

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

Back at the workbench the stummel was beginning to show the previous glory which it had been robbed of.

The rim, now cleaned of most of the lava, did not have any damage from doddle knocking. I had feared what was under the lava. Relief.

I used the shank boring drill from the Kleen-Reem tool to drill out the airway of the shank.

The shank was quite filthy and drilling it out helped remove a good deal of the accumulated tar.

The shank cleaning proceeded with drilling, scraping with a dental scraper and many alcohol dipped pipe cleaners.

The cotton swab brigade also came around with 95% ethyl alcohol to further clear out the shank.

The stem was filed to a much better fit. This took considerable time and removed the FRANCE stamping completely.

The airway of the stem was surprisingly clean. Apparently the previous owner was aware of pipe cleaners and stems at least or, the old stem was just thrown out due to being as filthy as the shank.

The stem was lightly buffed with 0000 steel wool in preparation of the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer bath.

Below you can see the stem entering the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer bath.

The stem was allowed to soak in the deoxidizer solution for four hours.

Once removed from the solution I allowed it to drip excess solution back into the jar for several minutes using the patented Drip-O-Matic. Available at fine retailers near you.

The stem was then rubbed with a coarse shop rag to remove the remaining solution and to abrade more of the surface oxidation which the solution had loosened.

The stem was returned to the workbench for a scrubbing with make-up pads and Soft Scrub cleanser.

At this point I paused the restoration of the Marxman for several days. I needed to find a replacement gold band. The original was a 14 karat gold band not plated, filed nor rolled but true 14K gold. With the current price of gold and over $2700/ounce I opted against this option. I reached out and called Tim West at J. H. Lowe & Co (https://jhlowe.com/). Tim is always very helpful with products and advice for restorations. He did not have anything in the 16 mm diameter that I needed. He did suggest Vermont Freehand (https://vermontfreehand.com/). Steve Norse at Vermont Freehand was very helpful and through a series of emails I was steered to their gold plated 16 mm band. Now we come to another problem with restoring pipes in October – The Las Vega Pipe Show. The entire Vermont crew was apparently in attendance at the Las Vegas show and the order had to wait until they returned back to work. Also during this break in working on the Marxman, I restored several other pipes. In the process I neglected to photograph the sanding and polishing of the Marxman stem and stummel. I normally do not like to work on more than one pipe at a time for this very reason. I am very easily distracted, undiagnosed Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can play havoc with my ability to remain on task if allowed. And this break not only allowed it but promoted it. Long story short, The band arrived from The Vermont boys and work resumed.

The below photo shows that the original band was about 4 mm thick and the new band 7 mm. I thought about cutting the new band down but thought I should try it on first.

I immediately liked the way the wider band looked. The reshaped stem was a pretty good match of the original saddle stem. I admit to assuming the original stem was a saddle as many of the photos of other Four Hundreds appear with saddle stems. I have a couple of tapered stems of proper size, maybe someday I’ll be good enough at cutting a tenon to try making one for this pipe.

The gold band was affixed using white all purpose glue. Vermont and I had equally accurate measurements for this band making for a fit which was snug enough that I did not have to heat the band and force a fit.

The pipe was given a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm. The Balm was applied with a baby toothbrush to work the stuff and it’s magic into the carvings. It was allowed to sit for 30 minutes.

The brush was cleaned with dips into 95% ethyl alcohol and rubbing the bristles on the denim a couple of times.

After 30 minutes, the Restoration Bal was wiped from the pipe with an inside out athletic sock.

The pipe was taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax. The rustications were wide and shallow enough that I felt comfortable using carnauba wax on them. It took considerably longer working the wheel edge into the carvings but the result looked great.

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

The dimensions of this Marxman Four Hundred are:
- Length: 7.36 in./ 186.94 mm.
- Weight: 2.48 oz./ 70.30g.
- Bowl Height: 2.21 in./ 56.13 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.77 in./ 44.96 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.82 in./ 20,82 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.80 in./ 446.37 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 Four Hundred.
Kiko Caveman Chimney Restoration

November 7th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

“Another Kiko Caveman?”, you ask. I reply. “YES!” These pipes are so interesting, not just to look at but to hold. The feel in the hand is remarkable. The first thing that strikes me is how lightweight they are especially for a hunk of rock. Second, is the sheer idea of the age of the mineral itself. One source dates this Amboseli sepiolite (meerschaum) to the Late Pleistocene to Holocene age so, approximately 12,000-10,000 years ago (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S007045710870027X). This is interesting since several pipes advertise “century old” briar. How many can claim to be 100 centuries old? Anyway, this Kiko came from an eBay auction and has a much less interesting acquisition story than the first Kiko Caveman. Meerschaum is a hydrophilic mineral, meaning water loving. A few weeks ago I was chatting with Sascha Mertens, a pipeman from Germany, he was explaining how to tell a block meer from a pressed meerschaum. You need only to place your tongue on the meerschaum. It will stick to a block meerschaum and not with a pressed. This reminded me of testing minerals as a geologist. The same thing would occur with anhydrous hydrophilic minerals. Well, my tongue stuck most uncomfortably to the Kiko. It was in need of a fresh coat of beeswax.

The stem is the only part of the pipe that is stamped with any identifiers. Here we can see the elephant logo on the left side of the shank and TANGANYIKA on the bottom surface.

The Meerschaum was in good shape and the tobacco chamber was mostly clean, no cake to speak of. It looked like this restoration would be mostly stem work and of course a fresh beeswaxing.

Background

I did a restoration of another Kiko Caveman a couple of weeks ago. I will include a link here to that restoration. I will also use the background of the previous restoration here as both pipes are similar.

The first step that I took in researching this pipe was to look up the logo at pipephil.eu. There I found the following:

(Ki-Km — Pipes : Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu))

Turning to pipedi.org for some history of Kiko led to the following entry:

“Kiko, meaning “pipe” in Swahili-Kiswahili to English translation, is probably the best known of the various brands listed below. In East Africa Meerschaum is found in Tanganyika, once known as German East Africa, and since 1964 part of the United Republic of Tanzania. The main deposit comes from the Amboseli basin surrounding the Lake Amboseli. Tanganyika Meerschaum is normally stained in shades of brown, black and yellow, and is considered to be inferior to Meerschaum from Turkey. Eventhough, the raw material is mined by the Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation and to a large extent used for pipemaking. Uncounted pipemakers throughout the world were supplied with Amboseli Meerschaum, preferentially used for Meerschaum lined briars or leather-clad pipes. In Tanganyika the Kilimanjaro Pipe Company Ltd.” (Kiko – Pipedia)

And, more specifically the Caveman line of Kiko pipes.
- “Caveman Fashioned from a piece of natural meerschaum.Every pipe is unique and – is in fact a geological specimen over a million years old.Attractively boxed.” (Kiko – Pipedia)
A second entry at pipedia.org discusses the Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation in greater detail.

“From Pipes, Artisans and Trademarks, by José Manuel Lopes

Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation is a company that formed in 1955 by Kenyan businessmen from Nairobi after the discovery of a meerschaum mine relatively close to the surface on Kilimanjaro. The meerschaum is tougher, less porous, and cheaper than the Turkish variety. Another mine was soon discovered in Sinya, in the famous Amboseli Game Park.

The company, previously based in Arusha (Tanzania), became an associate of a Belgium firm, but closed some years after. It produced the Caveman, Countryman, Kiko, Killimanjaro, Sportsman, Townsman, and Wiga brands. It maintained a link with GBD for the making of the GBD Block Meerschaum series, and after its closure, the English firms, London Meerschaum and Manx Pipes (Manx Meerschaum) continued producing with African meerschaum.” (Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation – Pipedia)

To give more depth to the meerschaum story here is a quick lesson in geography.

Lake Amboseli is a rainy season body of water along the shared border of Kenya and Tanzania, northwest of Mount Kilimanjaro. The straight white line on the image below is that border. Sinya refers to the Sinya Mine (https://www.mindat.org/loc-266724.html).

(https://www.google.com/maps/@-2.7763709,37.2580582,99656m/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e4?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDkyMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D)

Zooming in on the south western shore of the temporary Lake Amboseli you can actually make out the excavations of the old mining activities. On the below image from google maps; pits, tailing piles, roads etc… can be discerned.

(https://www.google.com/maps/@-2.7763709,37.2580582,99656m/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e4?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDkyMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D)

It appears that little to no mining is done at the site today. Several sources say that the meerschaum deposit were close to the surface, not very large and were played out

Super fast history lesson:

Before World War I, Tanganyika formed part of the German colony of German East Africa. It was gradually occupied by forces from the British Empire and Belgian Congo during the East Africa Campaign, although German resistance continued until 1918. After this, the League of Nations formalised control of the area by the UK, who renamed it “Tanganyika”. The UK held Tanganyika as a League of Nations mandate until the end of World War II after which it was held as a United Nations trust territory. In 1961, Tanganyika gained its independence from the UK as Tanganyika, joining the Commonwealth. It became a republic a year later. Tanganyika now forms part of the modern-day sovereign state of Tanzania. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanganyika_Territory)

With all of that information in mind and assuming that the TANGANYIKA stamp on the stem is referring to the country of manufacture (COM) this pipe was made not after 1962.

The Restoration

After getting a clean denim piece this pipe needed to have the stem freed from the tenon. It was firmly attached firmly, as if someone appeared to have glued the stem in place.

I wrapped the stem with several wraps of masking tape to protect the stem from the channellock pliers. A twist and turn later the stem was freed.

The tenon appeared to be aluminum as it was not attracted to a magnet and glued in place in the meerschaum. When inserted completely the stem was loose but if backed out about 2 mm it was a perfect fit. I decided that a cork washer would be the easiest fix for this situation.

The photo below shows the light cake deposits in the bowl were removed with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.

The stem was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. The stem was then placed into a jar with Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. The jar needed to be propped at an angle due to the length of the stem.

The stummel was cleaned with warm tap water and a nylon scrub brush.

Fresh beeswax was melted in a small glass canning jar placed in a pan of boiling water. The surrounding water keeps the wax molten for longer enabling me to have more time with the molten wax.

The heat gun was set up in proximity.

I did not have a cork of suitable size to plug the tobacco chamber so through the power of adaptation I discovered a 20 gauge shotgun shell was the perfect diameter. The shotgun shell was my plug and handle for the heating of the meerschaum with the heat gun.

The molten beeswax was brushed onto the stummel and the meerschaum was heated with the heat gun. The aluminum lid acted as a wax drop catch pan. Several coats of beeswax were brushed onto the meerschaum.

Below you can see the meerschaum was set aside to cool.

After four hours the stem was removed from the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer and it was allowed to drip excess solution back into the jar.

The stem was hand rubbed/buffed with a coarse shop rag to absorb the remaining solution and abrade the softened oxidized vulcanite.

The below photo is blurry but does show the oxidized rubber left behind on the rag.

The stem was rubbed with mineral oil to prevent new oxidation.

My masking tape protective layer was not quite adequate to protect the stem during the freeing from the stummel. Doh! That would need to be repaired with an application of black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). Well, now you know that I make mistakes. A lot of them… The stem stamping and logo were covered with painters tape to protect them during the sanding.

The dent was filled with black CA and allowed to dry/cure on its own.

Once cured the repair was filed with a small flat file. The stem was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grit. Between sponges the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.

The elephant logo area was cleaned with a cotton swab and ethyl alcohol to remove sanding debris and mineral oil in preparation of a new paint job. White acrylic modeling paint was used.

The paint was applied using a bamboo skewer.

When dried the paint outside of the depressed logo was removed during the micro-meshing. This was done with 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Between each pad the stem was rubbed with Obsidian Oil and wiped with a paper towel.

The stem was taken to the buffer where it was polished with Blue Diamond compound . The stem then received several coats of carnauba wax. The stummel, having just received fresh beeswax, did not have any carnauba wax applied.

I am very pleased with how well this Kiko Caveman turned out. I could not find any information concerning the shapes that the makers tried to carve for. This pipe was very different in regards to the tobacco chamber drilling than the previously restored Kiko Caveman. This pipe has a narrow 16.26 mm bore while the other Kiko has an 18.29 mm bore. I tried the narrow bore with Carolina Red Flake virginia blend and it smoked very nicely. The stem of this pipe polished nicely and the glossy black vulcanite accents the lighter meerschaum well. The long stem does not make for a very comfortable clenching pipe but the “hand feel” makes up for that. Besides, the flat bottom of this pipe provides a perfect and stable sitting base. The dimensions of the Kiko Caveman Chimney are:
- Length: 6.85 in./ 173.99 mm.
- Weight: 1.92 oz./ 54.43 g.
- Bowl Height: 3.02 in./ 76.71 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.69 in./ 42.93 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.64 in./ 16.26 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.92 in./ 39.88 mm. In line with the stem
1.47 in./ 37.34 mm. Perpendicular to the stem

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 Kiko Caveman Chimney.
A Denicotea Deluxe Hockey Restoration

November 5th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

DENICOTEA arched over DELUXE on the left shank with HOCKEY over BRUYERE EXTRA on the right. 741L on the underside of the shank next to the stem.

Background

In a previous blog I wrote about the history about what little I found about Denicotea, I will link that post here, and include the information below:

“Pipedia.org has a short article on Denicotea. I will include it here in its entirety:

“Willy Heineberg founded the company Denicotea in 1932 and began manufacturing and selling smoking accessories such as filters, filter inserts, cigarette holders and pipes.^[1] The company headquarters was initially in Cologne, but was relocated to Bergisch Gladbach after the Second World War.^[2]

Denicotea is actually the name of a silica gel filter, cigarette holders and care products for pipes and cigarette holders.

I still find it a bit confusing as Denicotea seems to be a company^[3] and a brand as well which is operated by COMPOSING-STUDIO GmbH^[4].

Brands

Adsorba

Adsorba is a fantasy series of pipes produced by Luigi Crugnola for the German market.

Aldo Morelli

Aldo Morelli is a fictional name. The brand Aldo Morelli has been registered for Denicotea on February 26th, 1992.^[5]

Depending on the different lines the pipes are made by Cesare Barontini, Gigi or Molina Pipe for Denicotea GmbH.

Stefan Petzuch points out this brand appears to have similarities to the Mauro Cateni pipe brand, in particular they are both fictional Italian brands by German companies, and both have the “HAND CUT” imprint on the stem as seen bellow. This may connect the Aldo Morelli brand to Gebr. Heinemann KG in Hamburg, who had registered the Mauro Cateni brand. Or perhaps there is a connection between Denicotea and Gebr. Heinemann KG, or perhaps these pipe brands simply used “Hand Cut” stems from the same source.” (Denicotea – Pipedia)

Interesting and weird are the two qualifiers that come to mind in reading that. The four makers mentioned in the article; Luigi Crgnola, Cesare Barontini, Gig and Molina are all Italian pipe manufacturers. Where does the MADE IN ENGLAND stamp on the example on pipephil.eu or the stamp on the pipe I purchased come in, I cannot say. I can say that I am not the first person to have little success researching the origins of Denicotea pipes. Dal Stanton, who is far more diligent in his background research than I, had a French made Denicotea. He traced its origins to the St. Claude area but not to a specific maker. Dal’s blog was posted on Steve Laug’s rebornpipes.com site. Here is the link to Dal Stanton’s blog post: https://rebornpipes.com/2016/09/29/nice-find-in-plovdiv-bulgaria-denicotea-deluxe-curling-bruyere-extra/”

This Denicotea has neither the Country of Manufacture (COM) stamps of England nor France. It does have a shape number 147L which I could find no corresponding match with brands associated with Denicotea. This pipe’s heritage appears to remain a mystery.

The Restoration

The restoration began with the reaming of the tobacco chamber. There was little cake to remove indicating that the pipe had not been used heavily. This premise was later shattered. The chamber was rather narrow making me use the Kleen-Reem, General triangular scraper and the smokingpipes Low Country reaming knife to clear the cake.

The below photo illustrates the very small amount of cake present. The bowl was sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel and no evidence of heat damage was observed on the bare briar.

The rim had no lava deposits again indicating that the pipe had not been smoked too heavily.

The stummel was taken to the sink and scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon scrub brush.

Next came the cleaning of the shank. This is where I realized that this pipe had indeed been smoked a good deal. For all the maintenance that the bowl had received the shank had been severely neglected. It was very full of tar and smoking residue, also known as yuck. Now, to cut the previous owner some slack, the shank was not easy to clean as the airway appeared to be bored at 9.5 mm. The plastic tenon was inserted into this bore and left with a step. There was another step at the bowl end of the airway where the drilling draft hole went from a normal small hole to the 9.5 mm. These two steps had accumulated a great deal of yuck and could not be reached with dental scrapers to help clear the yuck. Numerous cotton swabs dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol were used along with a nylon shank brush. I seemed to make little progress as the cotton swabs continued to emerge heavily stained with yuck. I then decided to try stuffing the tobacco chamber and the shank with cotton, filling them with 95% ethyl alcohol and allowing them to sit overnight.

The stem was not much better than the shank. I plugged the button end with my finger and poured some ethyl alcohol into the airway. Here I scrubbed with a nylon shank brush.

The alcohol was allowed to drain into the sink. It was full of yuck.

The stem was designed for use with 9 mm filters and judging by the accumulated yuck, they had not been used as I don’t think a filter could have been inserted with all of the residue in the stem.

I alternated between using Castile soap and 95% ethyl alcohol hoping that one of the two would help reduce the yuck.

It was about here that I noticed the fine scratched immediately above the button.

The scratches were present on both the top and bottom sides of the stem.

The stem was returned to the workbench where I continued cleaning the stem with more traditional methods. Bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in alcohol were used. I also wrapped small 5 cm square pieces of paper towel around a rat tail file and scrubbed the airway with these dipped in alcohol. Eventually I was victorious and the stem cleaned.

To address the scratches I sanded the button end of the stem with 400, 600 and 1000 grit sanding sponges. I used a small circular pattern while sanding. This eliminated the scratches.

While the stummel was still soaking with the cotton and alcohol I picked the old fill from the briar. There were two big fills on the left.

One large fill and one smaller fill on the right.

And two larger fills on the rim which were picked free of old fill material.

The whole stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grits. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a paper towel.

This is where day one ended. The pipe was to sit overnight allowing the alcohol to soften and dissolve the yuck in the airway.

The next day I returned to find the cotton, as expected, quite stained with removed yuck.

The cotton was removed and I tried cleaning the airway with cotton swabs and the 5 mm paper towel pieces wrapped around the rattail file.

The cotton alcohol had worked but not to the extent I had hoped for. Many more cotton swabs and scrubbings with alcohol yielded nothing but more stained swabs.

This prompted me to repack the bowl and shank with cotton and repeat the overnight soaking.

Since the cotton helb the alcohol in contact with the walls of the airway and was not dripping alcohol I went ahead with the filling of the pits. For this I used brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust. I applied the CA into the pit and then pressed some briar dust into the wet CA. These cured almost immediately. The subsequent fill was filed with a small flat file and smoothed with a 400 grit sanding sponge. The three photos below show the first application of CA/briar dust.

The filling process was repeated for each of the fills.

Where needed the brown CA was added a third time without briar dust and allowed to cure. The pipe was again allowed to sit overnight enabling the alcohol to further dissolve and remove the yuck.

The next day, I revisited the pipe.

The cotton was again stained with removed yuck. I removed the cotton.

The staining was far less than the previous attempt. I started cleaning with alcohol dipped cotton swabs. At first I thought that no progress had been made then suddenly the swabs began to come out with less staining. I had finally removed the yuck.

The stamps were covered with painters tape to protect them during the sanding. The stummel and stem junction was sanded with sanding sponges 400-3500. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad moistened with 95% ethyl alcohol.

The pipe was then worked with micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000. The stummel was again wiped with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol. The stem was rubbed with Obsidian Oil and wiped with a paper towel between micro-mesh pads.

The pipe was taken to the buffer where I buffed the entire pipe with Blue DIamond on a clean wheel. After the buffing compound was thoroughly wiped off the pipe received several coats of carnauba wax. The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.

This pipe is a perfect example of how my prejudice led me to inaccurate conclusions. Yeah, the tobacco chamber looked clean and there was no lava on the rim, both indicating a little used pipe, only to discover a heavily tarred mess of an airway. Overall I am pleased with the finished restoration. The briar grain is nice, the new fills are a bit too noticeable. In hindsight, I am thinking that a contrast dye of black would have concealed them and accentuated the briar grain. That might be another project for this winter when I am hunkered down avoiding the cold and snow. The stem polished up very nicely. The long sleek glossy black vulcanite is a great contrast with the briar. I do really like this shape, though it doesn’t quite fit a cutty nor a zulu. I guess that’s why it is called a Hockey. The dimensions of the Denicotea Deluxe Hockey are:
- Length: 6.66 in./ 169.16 mm.
- Weight: 1.18 oz./ 33.70 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.77 in./ 44.96 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.42 in./ 36.07 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.67 in./ 17.02 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.

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Below are some photos of the finished Denicotea Deluxe Hockey.
A Peterson Irish Seconds Restoration

October 31st, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

It seems fitting to post this pipe today, October 31, 2024, for a few reasons. The first of which is the name, Nebraska Pete Geek. Secondly an Irish Seconds sounds like the pipe is being given a second chance which is exactly what restoring does for these old darlings. Third, today is the one year anniversary of this blog. I really didn’t think that I’d be able to successfully do this for an entire year. As of this writing, 3133 visitors have viewed my blogs 5138 times. I taught secondary school science for 32 years and a rough calculation had me at 3600 students over those years. I have achieved nearly that many viewers in a single year. All I can say is thank you all. Your support, comments, and encouragement have been wonderful. I know, “shut up and get on with the restoration.”

This pipe came to me as part of an estate lot back in early July. This pipe wears the stamp IRISH SECONDS on the left and MADE IN THE over REPUBLIC over OF IRELAND on the right. There is no shape number but the shape corresponds to the Peterson Classic Shape XL90 which is the same shape as the 307 Extra Large Billiard. Below are some photographs of the pipe as it appeared prior to any work.

The Irish Seconds looked like a very straightforward restoration. Reaming, cleaning some scratch mitigation and deoxidizing the stem. The rather blocky button would have to be made more comfortable, I know this is not restoring it to factory new condition but whoever gets this pipe will be quite grateful.

Background

I’ve said it before and here it is again: “If you have been following this blog for a length of time you know I have done a few Peterson restorations in the past. If you are new here, welcome and I’ve done a few Peterson restorations in the past. I’m not going to go on and on about the history of the oldest continually operating pipe manufacturer in the world and arguably the best. I will however lead you to The Peterson Pipe book. Mark Irwin and Gary Marlburg’s book is a must read for a Pete Geek.

(Available at https://www.smokingpipes.com/accessories/books/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=471478) I am also including a couple of free sites as the book is a bit pricey,

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

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

According to smokingpipes.eu Irish Seconds,

“If you’ve ever been to any kind of “outlet” store, you’re already more or less familiar with what seconds are. Products that — due to some minor cosmetic flaw — just don’t pass a manufacturer’s quality control process. When these cosmetic flaws don’t affect the function or durability, they generally get sold at a deep discount. Not ideal for the manufacturer, but it’s great news for you, the customer.

And that’s exactly what we have here — pipes produced right here in Ireland, fully functional, eminently smokeable, and heavily discounted due to some superficial blemish. Irish Seconds are graded from 1 to 3, with 1 being the highest quality, and 3 being the deepest discount. If you’re in the market for a shop pipe, just getting into pipes, or are generally more budget minded, these are hard to go past.

(https://www.smokingpipes.eu/pipes/new/irish-seconds/) I have to admit that I am happy not to be geographically closer to Dublin. The reasons for my happiness are that I would most likely be considered furniture at the Nassua Street shop and would convert the entirety of my daughter’s inheritance to Petersons and Irish Seconds. Though neither of these things are terrible, both would become annoying by those involved.

In listening to my own advice I quote from Irwin’s big Peterson Pipe book: “See Seconds” (p. 304). Just kidding, it really does say that though. The real information is as follows:

“Seconds Peterson seconds are pipes of all shapes with briar flaws deemed unacceptable for ordinary models and sold at reduced prices, sometimes unstained, fit with fishtail or round button mouthpieces. Since the early 1990s they have only been available in Ireland. Occasionally they are described in Peterson catalogs under different names, and documented specimens have various stampings. In roughly chronological order these include:

Stamped arched KAPP & over straight PETERSON”S over arched DUMMIES An early specimen preserved at the Peterson museum with this stamp has a round-button mouthpiece.

IRISH FREE STATE stamp (1922-37) COM stamp with no brand or model name. Documented with or without nickel bands.

System Reject (1968-) Noted first in the Price List for January 1968 as being available in all six system shapes. Also found in the ‘80 Peterson-Glass Price List.

Erica System Reject (1987-98)Noted in two US distributor catalogs. Fishtail mouthpiece, unstamped nickel band, with COM of MADE IN THE over REP. IRELAND or with no COM.

Irish Seconds (1982-98) Classic Range shapes stamped with no brand name , fishtail mouthpiece, in unstained, black rustic or dark brown finishes, no band. (Irwin, Mark and Malmberg, Gary (2018). The Peterson Pipe The Story of Kapp & Peterson, First edition, second printing 2021. Briar Books Press, Canada. p312).

The last line of the Irwin quote above describes this pipe nicely. It is indeed not stamped with a brand, unstained, it is of the Classic Range and matches the dimensions of an XL90 (used from 1980-) and has no band. With this information I can safely say that this pipe is a Peterson product produced between 1982-98 and though deemed unworthy of the Peterson name, it remains a fine briar pipe.

The Restoration

The chubby darling got a clean denim piece to sit on.

The stem was heavily oxidized. I lightly sanded it with a 320 sanding sponge in preparation of the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer (deox) bath.

I inserted a pipe cleaner into the button to act as a hanger, suspending the stem in the deox.

I figured at least 4 hours in deox would be required.

I gathered the reaming gear: The PipNet with #2 blades, the General triangular scraper, Smokingpipes Low Country reaming knife and wood dowel wrapped with 220 sandpaper.

The reaming went smoothly as the cake was not terribly thick. The top of the bowl had some scratches that appeared to be from a previous owner scraping the bowl with a pocket knife. Also the lave on the rim was not bad and did not appear to be hiding any charring of the rim.

The interior of the bowl did not have any heat damage.

The shank was cleaned by scraping with a dental scraper and with cotton swabs dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

Folded bristle pipe cleaners, also dipped in alcohol, were also used to clean the airway.

After 4 hours the stem was removed from the deox and allowed to drip excess solution back into the jar.

The stem was vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rag to remove the remaining deox solution and abbrade additional oxidized vulcanite.

Below you can see the oxidized rubber removed by the rubbing.

The stem was then scrubbed with several make-up pads drizzled with Soft Scrub cleanser.

The button was reshaped to make it far more comfortable for a smoker. A couple of flat files were used for the reshaping.

The worst of the stummel dents were at the bottom front of the stummel. It looked like it had been dropped on concrete.

The other dents and dings were less severe but were on both sides.

I decided to try raising the dents with steam. I set an iron to high and moistened a washcloth with tap water. Below you can see the set up and the protective tape on the stamps in anticipation of the sanding that would follow.

The steam did raise the dents but they would still require filling with cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue).

Below is a close up of the dents after a couple of steaming episodes.

The area was covered with brown CA applied with a fly tying bodkin and allowed to cure/dry without the use of a CA drying accelerator.

Once dry, the area was filed smooth and sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

The pipe was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. The pipe was sanded intact to avoid the rounding of the shank/stem joint. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad moistened with ethyl alcohol. The stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel between sponges.

The pipe was then worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. The wiping after each pad was as above except that the mineral oil was replaced with Obsidian Oil for the stem.

The pipe was given a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 20 minutes.

20 minutes later the balm had done it’s magic and the excess balm was wiped from the pie using an inside out athletic sock.

The pipe was taken to the buffer where it received several coats of carnauba wax applied by the buffer. The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth to raise the shine.

I think this Peterson Irish Seconds turned out very nicely. The reservoir is drilled out in typical Peterson System fashion and though the stem lacks a tenon extension and the P-lip, I am sure that this will be a fine smoking pipe. The briar grain is pretty with the cross-grain at the front and rear. The bird’s eyes are small and very numerous. I can’t help but wonder how the pipe would look with a contrast dye accentuating the briar grain. That would violate the description of the Irish Second though. The stem polished up very nicely revealing the glossy black vulcanite under all that oxidation. The dimensions of the Peterson Irish Seconds are:
- Length: 5.18 in./ 131.57 mm.
- Weight: 1.96 oz./ 54.88 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.91 in./ 48.51 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.46 in./ 37.08 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 Peterson Irish Seconds.
A Dr Grabow CDL Restoration

October 29th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I cannot explain why but I find metal pipes fascinating. I don’t find them particularly beautiful but more utilitarian, like a good tool. I remember first seeing a Dr Grabow CDL online and found them to be rather disjointed in appearance. The stems and shanks looked segmented. Still, they intrigued me. The advertisements spoke highly of their cool and dry smoking characteristics but then nearly all advertisements make similar claims. I decided that I needed to find and restore one to see this for myself. The search for a subject was not fast and easy. For many months the auction listings were far more expensive than what I was willing to pay. I remember thinking, “Who in their right mind would pay over $100 for a Dr. Grabow?” The listings seemed to be of two categories; one around $30 and the other +$100. I personally thought that both were too high, at least for a pipe to satisfy my curiosity. Eventually, I found a likely subject for under $20. The pipe was an eBay purchase and arrived from Reno, Nevada. On the bottom of the stummel was stamped DR. GRABOW IMPORTED BRIAR in a circle around CDL. Below are some photos of the Dr Grabow CDL before any work was done.

The pipe appeared to be unsmoked and there was a clean filter within the stem. How the nylon bit became so heavily dented with what looked like tooth chatter, I couldn’t figure out. There were a few marks on the stummel that looked like the finish had been worn away. I wondered if the pipe had been jostled in a drawer of a vehicle glovebox, purchased but never used. For whatever reason this pipe had gone neglected for the past 50 years and would soon be back in the game.

Background

Dr Grabow is perhaps one of America’s best known pipe brands. This renown has brought with it a following of two main camps: Those who love their Dr Grabows and those who do not. In an attempt to remain objective, I can say that I love a couple of the Dr Grabow lines; the old 1930s Linkman pipes and the more recent Westbrooks are in my “favorites” category while many of the other lines are considered “less than” pipes. By that I mean less than preferred. Whatever your impression of Dr Grabow, they have a long and significant history in our hobby. I will include a link to the history of the brand from pipedia.org for those who would like access to a more complete history here.

As for the CDL pipes, I first turned to pipephil.eu for information. According to this site the CDLs were manufactured for about a decade starting in 1975 and never made it past test marketing.

(Dr Grabow — Pipes : Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu))

Next, I found a nice restoration of a CDL by Charles Lemon of dadspipes.com. In his blog he included an image of an ad from pipephil.eu. I found this interesting but could not find the ad on the pipephil.eu site. I do not know what the “Magni” implies in the ad but it certainly must be important as it is found in three of the components of the pipe. Perhaps “magni’ficent? The prefix comes from Latin meaning, large or great, if memory serves.

(https://dadspipes.com/2020/10/09/a-quick-refresh-for-a-grabow-cdl/)

Whenever I research any pipe consisting of metal parts, I turn to smokingmetal.co.uk. This is a wonderful resource for pipes made from, you guessed it, metal. The entry is included in its entirety.

“Not totally sure where this pipe fits in. Metal stem it certainly has, but unsure if bowl is meant to be detachable 6.2 inches long and the facility to take an in line filter in the stem. The stem continues right through the bowl and enables air to be drawn through from front of bowl as well as smoke from bowl

This example thanks to John Phillips of Arkansas.

Ed James tells me that CDL is for Cooler,Dryer,Lighter. He has a display card with this on, the pipe retailed at $4.95 at that time.

“A couple of other things I remember about the CDL pipe. It was produced from 1975 to 1983 in limited qualities and test marketed in several U.S. cities but apparently never mass marketed” from Dave Whitney” (http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=391)

Another interesting link is the Dr Grabow timeline produced by Tiki Vegas. I find this useful for dating various Dr Grabow lines. According to Vegas, the CDLs were made starting in 1974 not 1975 as previously recorded.

(https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/dr-grabow)

Turning to a forum post, I found a quote from a user named theloniousmonkfish who stated:

“Made from 75-83 and test marketed in cities across the US, never took off.

From the former COO of Grabow, Tom Douglas

“The predecessor of the CDL was bought in 1967 in LaGuardia airport by Paul Fish. It sat on Pauls desk until his death in 1972. It was a simple bowl and a simple metal stem with attatched bit. I’ve always speculated that it was sold by Mastercraft.

Jack Martin became President of Sparta Pipes in 1972. The CDL sat on his (and Paul’s) desk for years.

In about 1974 we decided to design and try the concept. Tooling for the “shank”, and the mould for the bit were EXPENSIVE, but we tried.

Best I recall… we made 300 and sent them FREE to RJR customers who had ordered Westbrook etc. along with a survey. Knew we had pipe smokers.

Comments were.. Coolest smoke I ever had.

Dryest smoke I ever had.

Lightest pipe I ever owned.

But Invariably.. Ugliest pipe I’ve ever seen.

Guess we should have called it CULD.

I’m really curious about what those who have never tried a CDL will think about it. It is a wonderful smoke…. not to be seen outside with…… Td”“

(https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/threads/need-info-on-dr-grabow-cdl.93500/) This is interesting as it is purportedly a quote from the former COO of Dr Grabow, Tom Douglas.

In summary, it appears that the CDLs were produced by Dr Grabow as a test to see if the product would be accepted by pipe smokers. The pipes were manufactured in 1974 or 1975-1983. For whatever reason the line never caught on with pipe smokers and was discontinued.

The Restoration

The Dr Grabow CDL received a clean denim piece for the restoration. Well, actually it would be more of a refreshening than a restoration.

The first step was to clean the accumulated years worth of dirt and dust from the patient. This was done with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon scrub brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton face towel.

The pipe was already looking better. I was not sure why there were areas within the rusticated surface which looked like scratches in the finish.

Alos confusing was the high number of what looked like tooth chatter.

The interior of the stem was cleaned with a cotton swab dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. This came back clean reaffirming my impression that the pipe had never been smoked.

To address the damage to the stem, I filed the dented surface with a small fine file. The nylon bit proved to be difficult to file not because it was too hard but more due to its plasticity. The shank was wrapped in painters tape for its protection. I then worked the stem with a series of sanding sponges from 320-3500 grit. Occasionally I would rub the stem with mineral oil and wipe it with a paper towel. This helped me see where I needed additional sanding. The stem was then taken to the buffer where I buffed it with a Red Tripoli wheel followed by a White Diamond wheel. The finish of the stem was far better but also far from perfect. This was, though, as good as I was going to get it.

The worn spots on the stummel were stained using a walnut Furniture Touch-up Marker. Below are a few before and after photos..

I used Renaissance Micro-Crystalline Wax Polish to help preserve the rusticated briar. This was applied with a baby toothbrush.

The instructions said that the product “Dries hard instantly”. I found that their definition of instantly differed from mine.

After the wax was applied I let it sit for 5 minutes then hand buffed it with an inside out athletic sock.

The pipe was returned to the buffer where I applied a couple coats of carnauba wax to the stem, shank and base of the stummel. The pipe was then hand buffed with a microfiber polishing cloth.

I am actually smoking this pipe as I type this conclusion, I am quite pleased at how much better the pipe looks after the restoration. The worn surfaces are refreshed and the stem much better and nearly chatter free. The pipe does smoke very nicely. I give credit to the Dr Grabow designers full credit for that. The walls of the stummel are 0.35 inches (8.89 mm) wide. This, the “Magni-vent” and the “Magni-chamber” do combine to make a nice cool smoking experience. I am smoking it without a filter and will compare that to filtered smoke in the future. The dimensions of the Dr Grabow CDL are:
- Length: 6.19 in./ 157.23 mm.
- Weight: 0.99 oz./ 28.04 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.46 in./ 37.08 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.24 in./ 30.73 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.78 in./ 19.81 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.48 in./ 37.59 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 CDL.
A BBB Own Make Virgin 165 Large Apple Restoration

October 24th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I’m pretty sure that the saying, “An apple a day, keeps the doctor away” was in reference to the apple shape of pipes. Although, the only lines that my doctor seems to say are; “You should lose 30 pounds” and “exercise more”. I think I’ll take a walk with this BBB 165 once it is restored. This lovely pipe, well soon to be a lovely pipe, came to me via an eBay auction. How could I say no to this listing:

Besides, I was the only bidder for the “Chubby” darling. The pipe was obviously well made with great grain, minimal fills, and a very tight fit between the stem and shank. The stamps read; BBB in a diamond, OWN MAKE (with the KE very faint) over VIRGIN on the left side. On the right shank was stamped MADE IN LONDON over ENGLAND and 165. I assumed this to be the shape number associated with this model. The stem had an inlaid metal logo consisting of a diamond with B over BB within the diamond. Below are some photos of the BBB upon arrival here in southeast Nebraska.

This looked like a straightforward restoration with no hidden weirdisms. I like straightforward without weirdisms.

Background

I think this was the first BBB pipe that I had worked on certainly, the first I blogged about. I first turned to pipephil.eu for a search of BB logos. Here I found the following:

There are several examples of BBB lines but nothing on the OWN MAKE VIRGIN. The good news was that this was definitely not a cheap Chinese BBB reproduction or copy. Side note: Is that even a thing? I have heard of Dunhill imitations but that had nothing to do with the Chinese.

Next, I turned to pipedia.org. Here I found a plethora of information on the brand. There was a link to a history of BBB which the pipedia entry is taken from, Genesis and history of Adolph Frankau & Co Ltd written by Benoit de Liège.

(Pipe Smokers – BBB, by Benoit de Lège (fumeursdepipe.net)). This piece is a fascinating look at the history of the company and the 18 year old Luis Blumfeld who was given charge of the firm and is the origin of the first “B” in BBB. I will include an excerpt and recommend the article for those interested. I used the translation function in Google to translate the French to English and it did a fine job.

In 1847, Adolph Frankau arrived in London and quickly understood the opportunities presented by the rapidly expanding tobacco market. He founded the company “Adolph Frankau & Co” and became an importer of meerschaum pipes and tobacco-related supplies. He took under his wing a 14-year-old boy, Louis Blumfeld. The business prospered quickly until the death of Adolph Frankau in 1856. His widow is preparing to sell the company.

Enter Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), author of “Heroes and Hero Worship”. The latter advised Mrs. Frankau not to sell, but to entrust the future of the company to the young Louis Blumfeld, then 18 years old. Carlyle must have had a very high opinion of the young Louis, and this confidence was justified by his handling of the case, his enthusiasm, and his inexhaustible energy. Louis quickly realised, like others, the great potential of La Bruyère, whose interest had just been recognised.

Louis Blumfeld developed important international trade relations from the very beginning, with particular success in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and the far east of Europe, Switzerland and, with a special mention, Denmark. Although the USA has never been an extraordinary market, a branch is still open in New York. In fact, the commercial strategy focused mainly on the countries of the British Empire. Shortly before 1914, A Frankau & Co was also the exclusive dealer for Ropp’s Cherry Wood pipes to cover the United Kingdom and its colonies.”

(Pipe Smokers – BBB, by Benoit de Lège (fumeursdepipe.net)).

The below quote discusses the quality of various BBB ranges. This includes the metal inlays as seen with this BBB 165 Large Apple.

“In the Thirties, the top-of-the-range one becomes “BBB Best Make” with alternatives like “Super Stopping” and “Ultonia Thule”. The BBB Carlton, sold with the detail with 8/6 in 1938, is equipped with a system complicated out of metal, system which equipped the BBB London Dry too. Blue Peter was not estampillées BBB but BBB Ultonia, and the BBB Two Star (* *) become the bottom-of-the-range one. The calabash leave the catalogues, but some pipes with case and some scums are still produced. The forms also are typical of this time: half are billiards, some princes and bullcaps, a limited number of bulldogs and curved. It is as at that time as the top-of-the-range series receive an incrustation of initials BBB out of metal, whereas the bottom-of-the-range series have only the engraved pipe.

Middle of the years 1950 with that of the Sixties, the lines are relatively stable. At the top, Own Make “Rare Grain”, then the line virgin with hearth in scum, Own Make “Virgin”, Own Make “Walnut” and finally Own Make “Thorneycroft”.” (BBB – Pipedia)

Based on the information above the metal “incrustation of initial BBB” represents a “top-of-the-range” quality of this BBB.

The identical stamping of a pipe can also be found on pipedia.org and is shown below.

BBB Virgin and nomenclature, courtesy Doug Valitchka

(BBB – Pipedia)

The 1960 BBB catalog had images of the VIRGIN line as well as the 165 large Apple shape.

(BBB_1960.pdf (pipedia.org))

(BBB_1960.pdf (pipedia.org))

Taken in its entirety, the above information indicates that the BBB Own Make Virgen 165 is a high quality pipe fashioned between the mid-1950s-1960s.

The Restoration

As usual the restoration began with a fresh piece of denim on the workbench.

The ream team was gathered and included the PipNet reaming tool with #2 blades, Smokingpipes Low Country reaming knife, General triangular scraper (with the tip ground round) and a wood dowel wrapped in 220 sandpaper.

There was a surprisingly large amount of cake in the bowl. The previous owner was a “whole bowl” smoker with the cake running all the way to the bottom of the tobacco chamber.

The PipNet tool was a near perfect fit of this bowl and only slight scraping with the other tools was needed.

After sanding the interior of the chamber to bare briar I could see very slight spider webbing. I thought that a bowl coating of maple syrup and carbon powder would be more than sufficient to protect the briar from further damage.

The below two photos are out of sync with the restoration. The first shows the spider webbing of heat damage. I coated the bowl with maple syrup and dusted it with carbon powder at the end of the restoration. The second photo shows the bowl coating.

The rim had a bit of lava on the surface. I hoped that there was no damage to the rim beneath the lava. I moistened the deposits with saliva and gently scraped it with a sharp pocket knife.

The scraped rim showed little damage – Yay!

The stummel was taken to the sink where it was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon scrub brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton face towel.

Back at the workbench I could see that the stummel had not received a clear coat. Perhaps this was what BBB referred to as “virgin”. The briar looked as though it had been stained with a medium brown stain. The grain was quite pretty and I decided to do as little as possible to the stummel.

I began cleaning the shank with 95% ethyl alcohol on cotton swabs. Once the yuck (technical pipe restorer term for smoking residue) was softened, I proceeded to scrape the airway with a dental scraper. I then poured 3-4 ml of ethyl alcohol into the bowl and allowed it to flow into the shank. Using a nylon shank brush I scrubbed the airway and poured the alcohol into a medicine cup. The scraping, scrubbing and swabbing continued.

Several cycles of the above finally yielded a clean stairway within the shank.

The stem was lightly sanded to assess the level of oxidation. Prior to the sanding I covered the logo with a piece of painters tape to protect it. The stem material was discolored like vulcanite but softened with the 95% ethyl alcohol like phenolic plastic (Bakelite) does. I proceeded to clean the airway with several bristle pipe cleaners dipped in the alcohol.

There were a couple of tooth dents on the button that received small drops of black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). The CA was allowed to cure on its own without the use of a CA drying accelerator.

While the CA was curing, I examined the stummel for pits which needed to be filled. I only found one. I placed a small drop of brown CA on the pit and allowed it to cure.

The cured CA was filed and sanded smooth.

The stem was also filed and sanded smooth

I taped over the stamps on the shank with painters tape and proceeded to sand the pipe with a series of sanding sponges from grits 400-3500. Between each sponge I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol. The stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel between sanding sponges.

The pipe was then micro-meshed with pads 4000-12000. Again the stummel was wiped with alcohol between pads while the stem was rubbed with Obsidian Oil and wiped with a paper towel.

I applied a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm to the entire pipe and set the timer for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes I wiped the excess balm from the pipe with an inside out athletic sock.

The pipe was then taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax. The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.

This BBB was restored beautifully. I am not sure about the definition that BBB used for their version of “Virgin”. In my mind that would be an unstained briar finished only with love and wax. This pipe appears to have been stained with a medium brown previously. I am not being critical, it is a lovely shade of brown and the stain shows off the grain very nicely. The stem cleaned and polished well. The material of the stem reacted with 95% ethyl alcohol like Bakelite rather than vulcanized rubber. Either way the high gloss finish of the stem provides a beautiful contrast to the briar. The apple shape is a favorite of mine so, I may be a little bit jaded by calling this pipe beautiful. I am sure that it will once again provide it’s new steward with hours of great smoke and contemplation. The dimensions of the BBB Own Make Virgin 165 Large Apple are:
- Length: 5.43 in./ 137.92 mm.
- Weight: 1.43 oz./ 40.04 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.74 in./ 44.20 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.21 in./ 30.73 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.74 in./ 18.80 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.

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Below are some photos of the finished BBB Own Make Virgin 165 Large Apple.
A Marxman Figural Camel Restoration

October 22nd, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

But

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.
A Smokes Stogies Snuff & Stuff Panel Billiard

October 17th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Geometry, design and art are not things that I have ever been trained in. Sure, I took an art history class in college and loved it but that could have been just for the nude women. I was 19 years old after all and in 1985 the internet was not a source of said nudies. Back to the aesthetics of pipes; panel shapes with their flats and curves draw me to them. I cannot explain why, perhaps it is like they are providing some order to the chaos of fire and smoke or, maybe they just look cool. Whatever the case may be, this panel caught my eye and the stamped name on the shank made me laugh. SMOKES STOGIES SNUFF AND STUFF. I made several assumptions here; the stamp referred to a tobacconist shop, the “SMOKES” referred to cigarettes, the “STOGIES” to cigars, “SNUFF” the nasal variety not the films and “STUFF” the catchall category. I definitely wanted to visit that shop as I am a snuff taker/pipe smoker who has not seen snuff in a brick and mortar establishment in more years than I can remember. I am not sure where this pipe came from. It was most likely part of an estate lot. My record keeping is poor at best and the secretary continues to not come to work. This is probably due to the fact that I’ve never hired one. The below photos are of the Smokes Stogies Snuff and Stuff pipe prior to working on it.

So many issues. The glaring ones are; the cloudy clear coat, oxidized stem, hole in stem and the tobacco still in the bowl. Well one of those will be easy to fix.

Whew, that’s a relief.

Background

I think it is safe to say that Smokes Stogies Snuff and Stuff is not the original maker of this pipe. A quick internet search did not produce the tobacco shop that I had imagined. I envisioned a castle-like structure with old world charm nestled in the historic section of an old New England town. Then I found this matchbook. Anchorage Alaska! That completely edited imagined scene. Now I envisioned rustic sea-side tobacconist along a wharf with a fleet of fishing boats moored. Instead of a wooden cigar-store Indian statue there was a haggard sea captain with a pipe, wooden leg and a harpoon in hand. Oh, the vivid mental images were running wild.

Alas there matey, little could be found of this tobacco shop. Fortunately there were the names of the proprietors on the mathbook – Mike Plipton and Wades Osborne. There was also the address. Hmm, Penney’s Mall didn’t sound like it fit my wharf scene and a search 412 W. 6th Avenue, Penney’s Mall Anchorage Alaska 99501 completely ruined my imagined scene. The below photo is of the Anchorage JCPenney. Not a fishing boat to be seen.

(https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FJ._C._Penney_Store_%2528Anchorage%2C_Alaska%2529&psig=AOvVaw3QYrR-aXjqHAL4GFNYJT12&ust=1727882791568000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBQQjRxqFwoTCJjl5JS_7YgDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE)

The search continued. Next I tried the proprietor’s names. Mike Plimpton’s name led me to the following obituary:

(Michael Charles Plimpton (1945-2003) – Find a Grave Memorial)

I could find nothing on Wade Osborne.

I then searched out Anchorage tobacco shops currently in business, hoping to find someone who knew of or about Smokes Stogies Snuff & Stuff or the proprietors. One of the shops that I contacted, via their website, was G&P Fine Tobaccos Limited (https://gptobacco.com/). I received the following email reply:

“Our shop started in the late 60’s and we know of this shop.

It was a small shop in the JC Penney’s mall in the mid 80’s and was very short lived according to our shop oracle (who starting working our group of shops in the early 80’s).

They were in business for about 2 years and abruptly closed

Ill let you know if he remembers more. Ill be meeting with him again soon

Best regards,” (personal communication, email)

A second avenue of research led me to the Alaska Pipe Club Facebook page. I posted an inquiry and a few photos of this pipe and asked if any group members had additional information. I received a few replies from kind and knowledgeable Alaskans.

One of the most helpful replies was:

“DS Hogan

From G&P / Tobacco Cache this morning: Our retired guys chimed in this morning with some history. It was a shop that formed in the mid 80’s in the penny’s mall. They recall it being in business for a couple years aprox 2- years then it abruptly closed. Hurriedly for some reason that no one recalls. No records exist on it aside from advertisements such as the match covers. Nice find. Always cool to discover shop stamped pipes. We have collected a few from the earliest Tobacco Cache and Pipe and Pouch FAIRBANKS, but haven’t seen much other. Happy collecting.” (Facebook, Alaska Pipe Club group chat)

Well, the approximate date of the pipe seemed quite certain now who made it was inquisition. Unfortunately, there was no shape number stamped on the pipe. I had restored a Telford’s Canadian pipe earlier this year. Telford’s is a tobacco shop outside of San Francisco, California. In talking to the Owner, he told me that the pipe I was restoring was made by Comoy’s and stamped by them for sale in his shop. I started looking at Comoy’s shapes for a panel billiard with a square stem. According to pipedia.org Comoy’s did produce such a pipe but there was no photograph or image to confirm the exact shape or the number of panels.

(Comoy’s Shape Number Chart – Pipedia)

Next I searched GBD. The GBD 9486 was a nearly exact match to the Smokes Stogies Snuff & Stuff pipe.

(GBD Shapes/Numbers – Pipedia)

I posted my proposed manufacturer in the Alaska Pipe Club group and received the comment that Kaywoodie also made a very similar panel shape. The reply is below:

DS Hogan

John M. Young it certainly looks like a GBD. I collect GBD’s and love them. Panels are super rare to fine. Also note that Kaywoodie made panels like that (identical shape) as well as GBD

I searched the Kaywoodie shapes and found a match from their 1968-69 catalog. Kaywoodie No. 44 Octagon Apple did appear to have the correct shape but it lacked the saddle stem and did not list the square shank.

Based on my limited searching I think it is a fairly safe assumption that the Smokes Stogies Snuff & Stuff pipe was produced by GBD in the mid 1980s.

The Restoration

As usual the pipe received a clean denim piece as a work surface.

I cleaned out the stem which surprisingly, was quite clean. 95% ethyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners were used and the stem was lightly sanded to remove the surface oxidation.

Next, a pipe cleaner was inserted into the tenon to act as a hanger for the stem as it was submerged into Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer.

The stem in the solution for 3 hours.

I hoped that the clear coat on the stummel was a shellac which would be easily removed with 95% ethyl alcohol. I tested this with alcohol on a make-up pad. It was not. This was not surprising since the pipe was of a more recent make. Though being lazy, I had hoped.

The reaming tools were assembled: Kleen-Reem, Smokingpipes Low Country reaming knife, General triangular scraper and a wood dowel wrapped with 220 sandpaper.

The Kleen-Reem did the majority of the work in removing the cake from the tobacco chamber. Minimal scraping was needed. I then sanded the interior to bare briar and saw no sign of any damage from heat to the chamber.

The stummel was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium stiff toothbrush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton dish towel.

Since the clear coat was not soluble with alcohol I opted to soak the whole stummel in acetone to remove the finish.

The stummel wanted to float higher in the acetone than I like so an empty brass pistol cartridge (brass band doner) was used to weigh it down.

30 minutes later the stummel was removed and wiped with a make-up pad wetted with acetone. The finish had been removed but so had a good deal of the Smokes Stogies Snuff & Stuff stamp. I have found that some manufacturers will stamp on top of the clear coat rather than stamping the briar then applying the clear coat. This is more often done on lesser quality pipes. In these cases removal of the finish will also remove the stamping.

While the yuck, also known as smoking residue, was still soft from the acetone bath, I worked on removing it from the shank. This was done with a nylon shank brush, cotton swabs, bristle pipe cleaners and 95% ethyl alcohol.

The stem was removed from the Deoxidizer (deox) and allowed to drip the excess solution back into the jar. The not yet patented Deoxidizer Drip-O-Matic consists of the pipe cleaner hanger wedged into the lid of a taller bottle.

After dripping, the stem was vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rage to absorb the remaining solution and to abbrade some of the loosened oxidation.

Below you can see the oxidation that was removed with the shop rag.

The stem was looking much better though slightly pitted by losing the oxidized rubber.

I then used several make-up pads with Soft Scrub cleanser to further rid the stem of oxidized rubber.

The stem was reattached to the stummel to preserve the joint where the two pieces meet. I then lightly sanded with a 400 and 600 grit sanding sponge. This prepared the stem for the rebuilding of material lost to tooth/biting damage.

I roughened the area that was to be rebuilt with 80 grit sandpaper.

A piece of a plastic lid was cut to act as a dam to stop the black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) from building up in the airway. The plastic dam was wrapped in several coats of cheap Scotch tape to add to its thickness. The good 3M tape does not work as well as the cheap stuff at resisting the CA and the CA drying accelerator used to speed the curing of the CA.

With the dam inserted into the mouthpiece, black CA was layered onto the button area. This CA was then spritzed with a drying accelerator. Several thin coats are preferred over one thick coating as the accelerator does not penetrate into a thick layer.

Below, you can see how the deeper dents were filled before the area was covered.

The new CA patch was then filed, smoothing the surface. Sanding sponges further smooth and remove the lines from filing.

The shiny spots on the photo below indicate places where additional CA needed to be applied and material built up.

This process was repeated until the damage was no longer obvious.

I wanted to give the stummel a little bit of a contrast stain to bring out the briar grain.

The stummel was pre-heated with a heat gun to open the pores of the briar. A duct-tape wrapped fishing bobber was inserted into the tobacco chamber to keep dye from entering. Most folks use a wine bottle cork for this but I’ve found that not drinking severely limits the availability of wine bottle corks.

The black Fiebing’s Leather Dye was applied with a folded pipe cleaner and flamed with a lighter.

The stummel was then wiped with a paper towel to remove excess dye.

I then took the stummel to the buffer where the new black dye was buffed from the surface of the pipe with rouge compound. Below you can see one panel buffed. The dye penetrates the softer grained briar more than the harder grains. When buffed off this contrast accentuates the grain.

The stem and stummel were then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol. The Stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.

The pipe was then worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. Between pads the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol. The Stem was rubbed with Obsidian Oil and wiped with a paper towel.

The stummel was given a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 20 minutes.

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

The pipe was then taken to the buffer where it was given several coats of carnauba wax. The final step was hand buffin the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth to further raise the level of shine.

I would like to thank the folks at G&P Fine Tobacco Limited (https://gptobacco.com/) and the Alaska Pipe Club for assisting with the research for this restoration. If you are ever in Anchorage please pay G&P Fine Tobacco Limited a visit. I think this piece of tobacciana known as, Smokes Stogies Snuff & Stuff paneled, square shank, saddle stem billiard turned out quite well. I was sad to see the stamp not make it through the finish removal completely intact. It is still legible but not with ease. The stem reconstruction turned out well and the contrast dye looks very nice and accentuates the briar grain. The dimensions of this Smokes Stogies Snuff & Stuff paneled, square shank, saddle stem billiard are:
- Length: 5.53 in./ 140,46 mm.
- Weight: 1.53 oz./ 43.70g.
- Bowl Height: 2.09 in./ 53.09 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.60 in./ 40.64 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.73 in./ 18.54 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.41 in./ 35.81 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

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Below are some photos of the finished Smokes Stogies Snuff & Stuff paneled, square shank, saddle stem billiard.
Kiko Caveman Restoration

October 15th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

It must be my four years of physical geography/geology undergraduate training that drew me to this pipe. It looks like a rock sample on a stick but I fell in love with it at first sight, scars and all. I remember seeing various examples with various natural rock-like shapes online but this one called to me. The funny part of this story is that I had just seen Steve Laug post in a Facebook group about a great antique store that he came across. I commented something about how the local antique stores in town really needed to “up their game” regarding old tobacco pipes and whined about how the local shops might have a Willard that looks as if it was last cleaned by placing it in a garbage disposal. Yeah, I was a bit jealous. The next day I made my way into town to pay taxes on the house and truck. While there I swung into one of the antique shops and asked if they had any old pipes. Out came the box. Low and behold, there was this Kiko. I was amazed, there were also two Willards that had last been cleaned not with a garbage disposal but with a technique involving chains and a gravel road – not sure how that one works. I don’t think the proprietor of the shop had any idea about the value of the Kiko. His mother was working the counter that day and we had a very nice conversation about meerschaum and how it really was a rock. I left her enlightened and with some cash as I returned home with a Kiko and new stickers on my license plates. When I got home I was able to examine the pipe more thoroughly and in a less excited state. There were no carvings or stamps on the stummel. The stem had the Kiko Elephant near the shank on the left and along the bottom was stamped TANGANYIKA. Below are some photos of the Kiko as it appeared prior to any work.

I’m not sure what the scars on the lower end of both sides were from. I can’t figure why you’d need to squeeze a meerschaum stummel with a channel lock pliers but that is what it looks like happened. The stem was oxidized suggesting that it was indeed vulcanite and had accompanied a previous owner on many a clenching expedition. This was going to be an interesting restoration. The first question: Do I re-carve the damaged spots and make the re-carvings blend with the original or, Do I patch the holes? Either pursuit was a novel idea for me. Research was required.

Background

The first step that I took in researching this pipe was to look up the logo at pipephil.eu. There I found the following:

(Ki-Km — Pipes : Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu))

Turning to pipedi.org for some history of Kiko led to the following entry:

“Kiko, meaning “pipe” in Swahili-Kiswahili to English translation, is probably the best known of the various brands listed below. In East Africa Meerschaum is found in Tanganyika, once known as German East Africa, and since 1964 part of the United Republic of Tanzania. The main deposit comes from the Amboseli basin surrounding the Lake Amboseli. Tanganyika Meerschaum is normally stained in shades of brown, black and yellow, and is considered to be inferior to Meerschaum from Turkey. Eventhough, the raw material is mined by the Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation and to a large extent used for pipemaking. Uncounted pipemakers throughout the world were supplied with Amboseli Meerschaum, preferentially used for Meerschaum lined briars or leather-clad pipes. In Tanganyika the Kilimanjaro Pipe Company Ltd.” (Kiko – Pipedia)

And, more specifically the Caveman line of Kiko pipes.
- “Caveman Fashioned from a piece of natural meerschaum.Every pipe is unique and – is in fact a geological specimen over a million years old.Attractively boxed.” (Kiko – Pipedia)
A second entry at pipedia.org discusses the Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation in greater detail.

“From Pipes, Artisans and Trademarks, by José Manuel Lopes

Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation is a company that formed in 1955 by Kenyan businessmen from Nairobi after the discovery of a meerschaum mine relatively close to the surface on Kilimanjaro. The meerschaum is tougher, less porous, and cheaper than the Turkish variety. Another mine was soon discovered in Sinya, in the famous Amboseli Game Park.

The company, previously based in Arusha (Tanzania), became an associate of a Belgium firm, but closed some years after. It produced the Caveman, Countryman, Kiko, Killimanjaro, Sportsman, Townsman, and Wiga brands. It maintained a link with GBD for the making of the GBD Block Meerschaum series, and after its closure, the English firms, London Meerschaum and Manx Pipes (Manx Meerschaum) continued producing with African meerschaum.” (Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation – Pipedia)

To give more depth to the meerschaum story here is a quick lesson in geography.

Lake Amboseli is a rainy season body of water along the shared border of Kenya and Tanzania, northwest of Mount Kilimanjaro. The straight white line on the image below is that border. Sinya refers to the Sinya Mine (https://www.mindat.org/loc-266724.html).

(https://www.google.com/maps/@-2.7763709,37.2580582,99656m/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e4?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDkyMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D)

Zooming in on the south western shore of the temporary Lake Amboseli you can actually make out the excavations of the old mining activities. On the below image from google maps; pits, tailing piles, roads etc… can be discerned.

(https://www.google.com/maps/@-2.7763709,37.2580582,99656m/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e4?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDkyMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D)

It appears that little to no mining is done at the site today. Several sources say that the meerschaum deposit were close to the surface, not very large and were played out

Super fast history lesson:

Before World War I, Tanganyika formed part of the German colony of German East Africa. It was gradually occupied by forces from the British Empire and Belgian Congo during the East Africa Campaign, although German resistance continued until 1918. After this, the League of Nations formalised control of the area by the UK, who renamed it “Tanganyika”. The UK held Tanganyika as a League of Nations mandate until the end of World War II after which it was held as a United Nations trust territory. In 1961, Tanganyika gained its independence from the UK as Tanganyika, joining the Commonwealth. It became a republic a year later. Tanganyika now forms part of the modern-day sovereign state of Tanzania. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanganyika_Territory)

With all of that information in mind and assuming that the TANGANYIKA stamp on the stem is referring to the country of manufacture (COM) this pipe was made not after 1962.

The Restoration

As I said earlier, I had some research to do regarding how to patch meerschaum. Oh yeah, I decided to patch the damaged area rather than try my hand at carving the meerschaum. The first site I visited was that of Troy W. of Baccypipes (https://baccypipes.wordpress.com/author/troynov1965/). He had a unique “Old Time Meer Lining Repair Method On a Kaywoodie Shellcraft #5651” post describing the use of finely ground chalk and egg white. This patch was described for repairing a meerschaum bowl lining but I figured that it could be used for meerschaum in general. Here is the link to that blog post. A second blog post that I read was by Dal Stanton, published at rebornpipes.com, describing another meerschaum lining repair. That post can be found here. I frequently message Dal about various pipe related issues or the weather in Colorado. I asked him how the repair on the pipe he had done was holding up with use. His restoration was done as a commission for Paresh Deshpande. Paresh has also done restorations at rebornpipes.com (Here is an example by Paresh). Dal messaged Paresh and in very short order replied to me,

“I have heard of no failures! The concoction is pretty sturdy and a great way to salvage Meers.

Dal

I’ll ask Paresh for a report.

Dal

From Paresh:

Hey Dal,

The repairs have held up perfectly well and the pipe is still providing me hours of great smoke. Do say Hi to John for me.” (Dal Santon, personal communication)

That provided the confidence boost that I needed. Egg whites and powdered chalk, who would have thought that would be the solution (pun intended – though it is actually more of a mixture than a solution) to this restoration?

On the next trip into town I stopped by a local dollar store and purchased chalk. The trip was actually for groceries so eggs were already on the list. Returning home I set to work following Troy W.’s procedure. Troy used the handle of a screw driver, apparently he didn’t own a mortar and pestle either. I started with a breaker bar rather than a screwdriver.

The breaker bar worked well but the end was rather small in diameter. I looked in the garage for a larger caliber tool.

A small sledge hammer head with a broken handle seemed like the perfect choice. I don’t recommend that you break off the handle of your small sledge in order to reproduce this procedure. I’m sure the handle would not provide a significant source of error.

The hammer was washed and dried and put to work.

A point of reinforcement here, Troy mentions to finely grind the chalk and when you have it ground then grind it some more. I concur and can state that I did not follow this advice as well as I should have. You really want the chalk to be powdered. Not mostly powdered with some small pieces, like mine was. I am sure that a mortar and pestle is the proper tool for this endeavor and were I still an active science teacher I would have borrowed one from the lab. Drats, foiled again by life choices.

The chalk was mixed with egg white. I added chalk until I had a mixture that was like “soft peaks” when whipping cream. The damaged spots appeared to have plenty of rough surface to enable the mixture to adhere to. I did wipe the surrounding smooth surface with alcohol to remove any surface wax that might not allow the mixture to stick.

The mixture was applied and allowed to dry for 4 hours. I also wanted to test a spot of the mixture to see how I could stain it in order to blend the patch with the existing meerschaum. I placed a small blob on a scrap of cardboard and set it aside to dry. I put the unused mixture in an airtight container and refrigerated it.

Once dry the patch felt “chalky”. I don’t know what I was expecting, perhaps more “dried eggy”. The numerous air bubbles had also left pours that I was not happy with. You can see the bubble very distinctly on the dried test blob.

Hmm, I think I needed more chalk in my mixture to make it less liquid and more like putty. I added more chalk. I lightly sanded the dried patch in preparation for a second application.

This 2nd application was applied to both sides simultaneously. The mix was thick enough that It would not drip, had no air bubbles and I could work it more like a putty. “Living and learning” might become my new life motto.

I let this application dry for about 30 minutes then tried to add some texture to it in an attempt to match the existing texture.

Time to test this blob. I thought that I would cover ½ the blob with beeswax to see how the wax colored the patch then try painting the other half with a green tea I was drinking to see how that changed the color.

The first part of the plan worked as planned. ½ the blob was painted with hot beeswax.

The plan went bad when I used the heat gun to melt the beeswax and allow the excess to drip off. It did drip down but the force of the hot air also pushed the remelted wax up onto the unwaxed portion of the ½. Oh well, my plans frequently have difficulties with reality.

There was a slight yellowing of the patch with the application of the beeswax. This was good but not quite the color change I wanted. The texture also changed significantly. The blob was no longer chalky, it was much more like the meerschaum. I think the term in meerschaumy.

I smoothed the mostly dried patch with 400 wet/dry sandpaper and tried the green tea stain. The tea immediately resoftened the patch. Hmm, – note to self, dry time seems important. The tea did seem to color the patch successfully. I set the stummel aside to completely dry and harden, overnight, in this case.

The next day, I began melting the beeswax. I have decided that I really need one of those electric candle maker wax heating pots. Until I do get one I will continue with this system I devised: An aluminum pan with water, a small canning jar with beeswax and a stove top. I like the hot water bath because I can’t overheat the wax getting it to its flashpoint and once the wax is melted I can turn off the flame and the hot water will keep the wax liquid for several minutes.

I heated the stummel with the heat gun preparing it for the wax that I would be painting it with. I painted the entire stummel with melted beeswax. I was amazed at how much wax the meerschaum absorbed. Nearly none of the was applied dripped into the catch tin.

I started working on the stem. The tooth chatter was filed and the stem sanded to remove the hardened oxidized surface.

The stem was then placed into Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer (deox). Due to the long stem the jar had to be sealed and placed at an angle to allow the stem to be fully submerged.

Several hours later the stem was removed and allowed to drip excess solution back into the jar.

I used a coarse shop rag to wipe and hand buff the remaining solution from the stem.

The coarse material of the rag both absorbs the solution and acts as an abrasive to remove the newly softened oxidation. The dark residue can be readily seen in the photo below.

The stem was then scrubbed with Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads.

At this point I used painters tape to mask the logo and stamp then sanded the stem with sanding sponges in grits of 400-3500. Between sponges I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a clean dry paper towel. I failed to photograph this so I guess you will just have to believe me.

Before moving on to micro-meshing the stem I wanted to repaint the logo and try to paint the TANGANYIKA stamp.

The letters were faint and proved to to take well to the painting. I didn’t see any evidence that they ever had been painted so this was not a great loss. The elephant had been slightly degraded with the removal of the oxidation but remained accepting of the paint. The stem was then polished with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. Between each pad the stem was rubbed with Obsidian Oil and wiped with a paper towel.

The stem was taken to the buffer for a final buff with Blue Diamond compound. The stem then received several coats of carnauba wax. The stummel was not waxed with carnauba since it had just received fresh beeswax.

This was a fun restoration. It did not turn out as well as I had hoped. The patched spots on the damaged meerschaum are actually quite an eyesore but I learned many things about working with meerschaum. This pipe is not one that will be offered for sale unless someone really wants it.The meerschaum remains a rugged thing of beauty to me even with the blemishes. The stem cleaned and polished nicely and provides a strangely satisfying contrast to the stummel. I was glad that the logo and stamps were preserved. I am also looking forward to another Kiko restoration, hopefully one without the deep scars that this pipe had. The dimensions of this Kiko Caveman are:
- Length: 6.83 in./ 173.50 mm.
- Weight: 1.34 oz./ 37.40 g.
- Bowl Height: 2.33 in./ 59.18 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.61 in./ 40.89 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 2.00 in./ 50.68 mm.in line with shank
1.64 in. / 40.18 mm. Perpendicular to shank

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 Kiko Caveman.

Troy W.’s

Chalk and egg white meerschaum bowl lining repair.

Old Time Meer Lining Repair Method On a Kaywoodie Shellcraft #5651

Dal Stanton’s meerschaum bowl lining repair.

A Meer-lining and Crack Repair to Rescue a Doomed Gargantuan Kilimanjaro Made in Tanganyika Bent Billiard