NebraskaPeteGeek

A Jarl 1502 Bent Billiard Restoration

June 20th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Capturing the essence of an old pipe is part of the fun of restoration for me. I had never held a Jarl pipe before this battered darling arrived. It was part of the estate lot with the Stanwell from a previous blog. (I linked it if you would like to see that one also.) I searched through photographs online to see as many Jarl pipes as possible. They looked similar to Stanwell pipes, with their Danish characteristics of more delicate shanks and sweeping curves. More whimsical and fluid than the traditional shapes of France and England. The drillings on this pipe were exceptional. It looked like a quality piece of briar even before the restoration had begun. The stamps of the Jarl were mostly clear and read JARL over MADE IN DENMARK. There was also a 1502 as what I assume was a shape number stamped around the bottom of the shank. Let me show you the pipe as it appeared before making it to the workbench.

It may be difficult to see the qualities that I saw from the above photos. The finish was long gone and the fit of the stem to the shank seemed out of alignment. The oxidation of the stem was pretty bad as well. Maybe it was just me looking through my rose tinted lenses or seeing the glass as half full rather than half empty. Whatever the reasoning, I thought this old Dane would certainly make someone a grand smoker.

Background

There was not a great deal of information to be found on Jarl pipes. I perused the “go to” sites of pipephil.eu for information on logos first. The below screen capture shows everything that pipephil.eu had on Jarl.

(J-Jd — Pipes : Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu))

It was the middle section of the three that was most similar to the pipe in hand. The stamps matched nearly perfectly save for the different shape number. The photograph showed non rusticated patches on the sides and bottom very similarly to the Jarl I had.

(J-Jd — Pipes : Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu))

The next search was on pipedia.org. Jarl there led to a page with little information but a great number of photographs of Jarl pipes. Here is the text in its entirety: “In December of 2010 Ellen Jarl wrote that Jarl pipes were made by her grandfather, Niels Mogens Jørgensen in a little factory in the town of Bramdrupdam, just outside Kolding, Denmark. We have no reason to doubt that Niels Mogens Jørgensen is the maker of these pipes:
- Examples and details, courtesy Doug Valitchka” (Jarl – Pipedia)
Like I said, not much information and darn near every article online includes this quote from Ellen Jarl. Of the many photographs present there were several examples of rusticated Jarl pipes. I will show a few to exemplify why I chose to refinish the Jarl 1502 the way that I did.

The two photos above show the rusticated areas as unstained left and nearly black right.

The above two show the rusticated area stained darker but not black.

The final photo below shows what I am calling a worn black stain to the rusticated area. This stain looks like it was originally black with some of the black buffed or wiped off.

That was the finish that I would try to emulate. All of the above photos are from

Jarl – Pipedia.

The Restoration

On to the workbench with a clean denim piece and another beautiful old pipe hiding under the years of neglect.

The reaming tools were gathered.

And, put to work. This tobacco chamber was deep with a conical taper at the bottom. The PipNet couldn’t ream out that shape but the scrapers could.

The chamber was then sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. No damage to the interior was observed.

The stummel made its way to the sink for a scrubbing with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a toothbrush. The rustications were actually scrubbed twice, once with the toothbrush and a second time with a stiff nylon brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water.

I hoped to soften and loosen the residue in the shank with warm water and a scrub with a shank brush and a bit of Dawn dish soap. The soap lathered up brown and was thoroughly rinsed with water.

Back at the workbench the stummel showed signs of a finish of some kind. Note the darker shiny area along the shank.

I used a make-up pad wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol to remove the finish. This colored the pad indicating that the finish was being removed. It also darkened the briar significantly, weird…

I used a toothbrush dipped in ethyl alcohol and scrubbed the stummel and rewiped the stummel. More finish was removed.

Finally I wiped the stummel with acetone on a make-up pad. This yielded some finish removed and allowed me to see a large red fill. I picked the old fill material from the pit. The stummel’s color remained darkened.

I started scraping the airway of the shank using a dental scraper. I am not sure why but, the darkened briar bothered me. I stopped working on the airway.

I wanted to address this darkened briar. I have had mixed results using a saturated oxalic solution on briar to bleach the wood. I thought this might work well here.

The solution was applied with a cotton swab and allowed to sit for 30 minutes. The stummel was rinsed with copious amounts of warm tap water and scrubbed with a nylon brush during the rinsing.

After the stummel dried I could see that the oxalic acid did a wonderful job at lightening the briar and returning it to a natural color.

The stamping remained in great condition.

Next, I needed to soften up the oxidized surface of the vulcanite. I used a solution of water and OxyClean. The stem was allowed to soak for an hour.

I returned to cleaning the airway. More scraping with the dental scraper, scrubbing with a shank brush and alcohol and cotton swabs dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. I forgot to photograph the shank cleaning other than the photo below. Apologies if you love seeing many tar stained cotton swabs.

As previously alluded to I wanted to darken the rusticated area while keeping the smooth panels natural. I had purchased a product which I read about for painting miniatures for gaming. This product was a water based latex that could seal off an area where no paint was wanted. The latex could then be peeled off. I thought that the stuff sounded interesting and had ordered a bottle of it a year or so ago. I now had what I thought would be the perfect job for it. Using a detailing paint brush I painted the Vallejo Liquid Mask onto the smooth surfaces. As the mask dries it turns more clear. I set the stummel aside to allow the mask to dry.

I turned my attention back to the stem.

Once removed from the Oxy bath I used a clean make-up pad to vigorously wipe the Oxy solution from the vulcanite. This removed some of the surface oxidation.

I proceeded to use make-up pads and SoftScrub to scrub the surface of the stem. Eventually the pads were no longer removing oxidized rubber.

The mask appeared to be dry. I continued with the stem cleaning to allow more mask drying time. Bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol were used to clean the stem’s airway. Hey, there are some of the cotton swabs from the shank cleaning. The stem was then coated in a layer of mineral oil.

Time to test the mask and dye the rusticated areas. I prepped the area for dying and assembled the Fiebing’s Black Leather Dye, a folded pipe cleaner (applicator) and a lighter.

The black dye was applied and flamed with the lighter burning away the alcohol of the dye.

I rinsed the stummel with a stream of 70% ethyl alcohol to rinse excess dye and wiped the surface with a paper towel. I took the stummel to the buffer and buffed the stummel with rouge compound on a flannel wheel. The buffer removed the outermost dye and the mask. The masked areas were completely unaffected by the dye. Success! A little bit of scrapping with a sharp blade and sanding to clean up the edges would be needed to make the edges beautiful. Looking at many of the Jarl pipe photos his pipes often have a reddish tint to the briar. I liked the more golden, natural shade that I had and decided against a red or orange dye wash.

After the scraping and sanding I applied a layer of Before and After Restoration Balm to the stummel and allowed it to sit for 20 minutes.

20 minutes later the balm was wiped away using an inside out athletic sock to reveal a lovely two tone rustication.

The stem was sanded using a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. Between each sponge I rubbed in a dab of mineral oil and wiped it with a paper towel.

I worked the stem with 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Between each pad I rubbed in a small drop of Obsidian Oil and wiped it with a paper towel.

The stem was polished with Before and After Fine Polish applied with my fingertip and hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth.

Before and After Extra Fine Polish was then used to hand buff the stem again with a soft cotton cloth.

The stem logo was repainted using white acrylic modeling paint.

This was a fun restoration. I got to work on a new brand and try a new product. I think the pipe turned out very nicely. Of course I have never seen another Jarl pipe and only had internet photos to base my judgment on. I’ve heard the saying, “ignorance is bliss”. I am therefore a blissful ignoramus regarding Jarl pipes. Nevertheless, I think this pipe looks great. The Vallejo Liquid Mask did exactly what it is supposed to preserve the natural grained briar from the black dye. The “worn black” dye that I was trying to achieve turned out how I imagined it would. The stem polished up pretty well, I didn’t want to be too aggressive with the restoration and obliterate the J logo. I think that I captured the essence of the pipe.

The dimensions of the Jarl 1502 Bent Billiard are:

Length: 5.66 in./ 143.76 mm.

Weight: 1.25 oz./ 35.70 g.

Bowl Height: 1.96 in./ 49.78 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.72 in./ 43.69 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.75 in./ 19.05 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.49 in./ 37.85 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Jarl 1502 Bent Billiard.
A Linkman’s Dr Grabow De Luxe 9733 Restoration

June 18th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

A few years ago when I started the hobby of pipe restoration I picked up a Linkman’s Dr Grabow 9733A with an estate pipe auction. It was in decent shape, if memory serves. For whatever reason I loved the shape and the feel of that pipe in my hand. It was a bit heavy for a clincher and it did have a stinger. Those are two qualities that I now pretty much avoid. Below is a recent photo of that old Linkman.

Well, the other day while looking through eBay auctions I came across a sister, as Sascha Mertens (A German friend and pipe restorer of great skill and graciousness) calls them. There up for auction was a Linkman’s Dr Grabow 9733. I can’t say if she was the older or younger sister but, I was as smitten with her as I was her sister. Fortunately for me, there do not seem to be many folks interested in collecting these curvaceous darlings. I did have to wait out the auction and with a winning bid south of $25 I had successfully started the adoption process. A few days later the pipe arrived from Wernersville, Pennsylvania to the wilds of southeast Nebraska. Upon opening the package I was graced by the following new member of my pipe family. Her stamps read: LINKMAN’S over Dr. Grabow on the left shank, 9733 De Luxe over BRUYERE on the right. The top is stamped with a gold shield and the bottom with PAT. NO. over 1896800. The stem also had a white “propeller” logo.

The pipe had some scars, dents and peeling finish and hygiene issues yet structurally she was solid with precise fitting mortise and tenon and was in wonderful shape for a 90ish year old pipe. I was looking forward to spending some quality time with this old piece of briar. There was a substantial queue in front of her to reach the work bench and she did have to wait her turn. Okay, I pulled some strings and got her past a bunch of others. Don’t tell them that though…

Background on Linkman’s Dr Grabow pipes

This story goes back to 1898. No, this is not another of my Peterson pipe reflections but it does begin about the same time that Charles Peterson was changing the pipe smoking world with his wonderful patents. In one of my very first blogs I wrote about the restoration of an MLC pipe. “The stamp that I could not make out on my pipe was the MLC. This stands for Mary Linkman & Company. This is the same company formed by Louis B. Linkman, the originator of Dr. Grabow pipes. In 1898 Linkman and August Fisher started a small business making pipes. The business grew and, “in 1907 M. Linkman & Company was incorporated with Louis B. Linkman as president, August Fisher, vice-president…” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/M._Linkman_%26_Co.). If you would like to see a very early blog about the MLC Hell Maria here is that link.

So, two youngsters started up a pipe making company at the turn of the last century. It doesn’t end there, friends. I wrote the following in a blog about another Linkman’s pipe: “ “BACK IN 1898, two ambitious young men reached the momentous decision to go into business for themselves. They were Louis B. Linkman and August Fisher. From the time they were in knee pants they had worked for a pipe jobber in the mid-west.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/M._Linkman_%26_Co.). These two young entrepreneurs were joined by a third, “Anton Burger, who had also been employed by a pipe jobber in the mid-west, approached them and was taken in as a partner. M. Linkman & Company proceeded as a partnership; the business developed rapidly through the untiring efforts of these men in producing quality pipes and rendering good service to their customers.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/M._Linkman_%26_Co.). The company eventually

came to be known as Dr Grabow.”

According to Tobaccopipes.com “The birth of the Dr Grabow smoking pipe is simple enough. It started off when Dr Grabow himself and his acquaintance Dr Linkman regularly visited the local pharmacist at Brown’s Drug Store in Lincoln Park Chicago. Dr Linkman was on the lookout for a doctor’s name to Christian an innovative line of pipes in order to mellow out the smoking apparel’s smoggy image. He asked Dr Grabow to allow him to use his name to which he agreed and the name has stuck since then. Linkman continued to manufacture his Dr Grabow pipes until 1953.

The earliest of these exclusive pipes were stamped both with Linkman’s and Dr Grabow. They included a propeller emblem that was white in color at the top of the mouthpiece. Linkman’s pipes are also stamped with their own four digit code. This code indicates their model and shape. For example, the PRE – 1944 model names included the “Special”, “Supreme” and “Deluxe” versions of Dr Grabow’s pipes.

In 1944 the white propeller emblem was replaced with a white spade, a move that heralded the introduction of Linkman’s new Dr Grabow pipes. All of the newer entries included most of the earlier favorites as well as “TRU-GRAIN” and “SELECT”. Later models of Dr Grabow pipes were described as Imported Briar.” (https://www.tobaccopipes.com/dr-grabow-history/)

Below I show documentation/definition of the stamps on the Linkman’s 9733.

Dr. Grabow stamp

“1930 Linkman (59 years old?) begins using Dr Grabow (62 years old) name” (Dr. Grabow Pipe History Timeline – Pipedia)

De Luxe stamp – This excerpt from pipephil.eu shows a tremendous amount of information in a small blurb. Which indicates a slightly bent Dublin shape rather than the bent bulldog of the 9733.

9733 stamp

As for the 9733 shape, pipedia.org has an entire article dedicated to “Dr. Grabow Models (Series,Line) Names Through the Years” (Dr. Grabow Models (Series,Line) Names Through the Years – Pipedia). In this article it says the following about the De Luxe:
- DE LUXE begins with 92, 97, 98 – Two Dots, Circle or Shield on shank sometimes. Series 92 = Very dark reddish wine, solid looking finish, yet undefined, possibly from 1938 or slightly later era. Series 97 = Natural Variegated Grain Finish, c1937. Series 98 = yet undefined, Dark Brown appearance? Series 99 = Dark Walnut Finish, c1937.
(Dr. Grabow Models (Series,Line) Names Through the Years – Pipedia)

This pipe has the “97” and “Shield”. The second two numbers of the 9733 refer to the shape of the pipe. The 97 with the “Natural variegated Grain Finish” looks like a good fit for a description of this pipe.

Below is another Linkman’s line, the Courtleigh. It has a different first 2 numbers, “88” followed by the “33”. The 33 here is obviously the same shape as the De Luxe 9733

PAT. NO. 1896800

“1932, April 13th, Linkman applies for his spoon/tool/nicotine-saliva trap stinger, Patent #1896800.” and

“1933, February 7th, Linkman (62 years old) receives patent #1896800 for threaded stem”

(Dr. Grabow Pipe History Timeline – Pipedia)

(Patent Public Search | USPTO)

BRUYERE

The term “Bruyere” is French for heather or what we call briar. The terms Bruyere and “Italian briar” were used prior to the Second World War by numerous pipe makers. During the War there was an interruption to the supply of briar from the Mediterranean. This led to manufacturers attempting to use various alternatives. There have been documented 9733 and 9733A pipes stamped with “WEST COAST BRIAR”.

Example: “I did finally get a 9733 stamped West Coast Briar, but it’s a real mess — someone (not me) severely distorted the stem with pliers in an attempt to remove it. This damaged the propeller logo on the stem and sort of actually TWISTED the stem a bit, but it’s the only WCB I have, so it has to do until a better example comes along.

Mine has WEST COAST BRIAR in block letters on the right side along with the number, a script “Dr. Grabow” over a block letter DE LUXE on the left and the SHIELD emblem on the top of the shank. The usual patent number for the cleaner is on the bottom of the bowl.””

Author: LokoMac8 on the Dr. Grabow Pipes forum https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/drgrabows/west-coast-briar-t376.html

This most likely would have been Manzanita. After the War many manufacturers used the term “Imported Briar” indicating that the wood used was indeed briar.

From the above stamps I can say with a good level of certainty that this pipe was made between 1933-early 1940s at the Chicago Dr. Grabow factory.

The Restoration

As usual the Linkman’s got a clean denim piece for work surface protection. I must have been in a hurry to work on this pipe because I wasted no time in seeing how dirty the shank was. Yes, it was pretty dirty. I used 95% ethyl alcohol on cotton swabs to soften the smoking residues in the airway.

A dental scraper was then used to scrape as much tar from the airway as possible. The more I can get out via scraping the less I have to scrub.

After several minutes of airway scraping and scrubbing I decided that maybe I should do this restoration the way I do most others. Normally I start with the reaming, move to the stummel scrubbing then work on the shank’s airway. I have no idea why I broke from this routine, maybe just excited by this pipe. I returned to doing things “by the booK” and assembled the reaming tools.

The PipNet with the #2 blades did the majority of the reaming. The SmokingPipes scraper and the General were used to finish us the reaming.

The 220 sandpaper wrapped around the wood dowel was used to sand the chamber to briar. The chamber showed no signs of any damage from excessive heat or any other mistreatment. I further sanded the tobacco chamber with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a Sharpie marker. The rim of the pipe remained dirty with a light lava deposit.

The rim was wetted with saliva and gently scraped with a sharp pocket knife.

The stummel was then taken to the sink where it was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium stiff toothbrush. The soap was rinsed with warm water. At this point I thought that I would try scrubbing the shank airway with a shank brush and Dawn dish soap. The airway was thoroughly rinsed with warm water and scrubbed with the shank brush during the rinsing. Upon returning the stummel to the workbench this is how it looked.

I wetted a make-up pad with 95% ethyl alcohol and gave the stummel a wipe. The remaining clear coat seemed susceptible to alcohol. It must have been a light shellac.

After a second make-up pad with alcohol the shiny spots of the stummel were gone.

I looked over the clean surface of the stummel and saw one pit where the fill had loosened with the scrubbing. I picked the remaining old filler from the pit. This would get filled with cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust later.

I returned to the cleaning of the airway. I was hoping that the use of the water, soap and rinsing had softened the tar and yuck (Yuck – a highly technical term for hardened smoking residue) in the airway. I poured 3-4 ml of 05% ethyl alcohol into the chamber and allowed it to flow into the shank. I scrubbed with this alcohol and a shank brush to loosen and dissolve the yuck. I then poured the remaining alcohol into a medicine cup. The color was not bad. Apparently my out of sequence scrubbing had served a purpose after all.

I continued to scrub and clean with alcohol dipped cotton swabs until the airway was clean.

Once satisfied with the cleaning of the airway I turned to the filling of pits on the stummel. I only found the one pit which I had already picked free of old fill.

This one pit was filled with a dab of brown CA applied with a fly tying bodkin. I then quickly pressed briar dust into the wet CA. The CA set-up almost immediately with the briar dust and the subsequent fill was sanded smooth.

I did find some dents that I did not want to fill with CA and briar dust on the top of the shank and the front of the bowl. To address these I thought that I would try to raise the dents using steam. I heated the clothes iron on high, selected a soft cotton cloth and a pipette with tap water.

I wrapped the dented area with the cloth, applied several drops of water and pressed the iron to the wetted cloth. The dents on both the shank and the bowl front were raised beautifully. I love it when things work like they are supposed to.

Next was the sanding of the stummel. I first wanted to protect the stamps from any damage by taping over them with painters tape.

Doh, forgot to tape that logo stamp. I did tape it, then sanded the stummel with a sequence of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. Between each sponge I would wipe the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol to remove dust. This alcohol wiping is hard on smaller taping making me have to retape that logo more than once.

After the sanding the stummel was worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-6000. Again between each pad I wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad.

At this point I repainted the logo with Gold Leaf Rub’nBuff.

This is a relatively new product for me. Steve Laug mentioned that I try it in one of our chatting sessions and this was the perfect place for it. I tried to apply it with a cotton swab and made a bit of a mess. I think future applications will be done with a detail paint brush. Anyway, I cleaned up the edges with an alcohol dipped cotton swab and continued micro-meshing with the 800 and 12000 micro-mesh pads.

The stummel was then coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit while I worked on the stem.

I cleaned the aluminum stinger with 95% ethyl alcohol, a magic eraser and pipe cleaners. It looked much better.

This stem was not typical vulcanite. I could feel the material get slippery with the 95% ethyl alcohol. As the alcohol evaporated it would solidify again. This is more typical of phenolic plastics like Bakelite. Not wanting to dissolve the stem in alcohol I used SoftScrub on make-up pads to clean away the oxidized material. The airway of the stem was cleaned with soap and water with bristle pipe cleaners. Below you can see the make-up pads become less discolored with oxidized material. The stem was then oiled with mineral oil.

I couldn’t wait any longer to see how the stummel was going to look. I wiped the remaining Restoration Balm from it with an inside out athletic sock. Beautiful is the word that came to mind.

I wanted a better handle for holding the stem while sanding it. The stummel seemed to be the easiest holder. I taped over the finished briar.

The stem was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500. Between sponges I would apply a bit of mineral oil with my finger and rubbed it over the stem. I would then wipe away the oil and dust from sanding.

I micro-meshed the stem with the 4000-12000 pads. Between each pad I applied a drop of Obsidian Oil to the stem, rubbed it on and wiped with a clean paper towel.

The stem was then polished using Before and After Fine Polish applied by finger and hand buffed using a soft cotton cloth.

After the Fine Polish Before and After Extra Fine Polish was applied and hand buffed.

The pipe was then taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.

This shape is an absolute favorite of mine. I love the way it hangs from my mouth and feels in my hand. The pipe turned out beautifully. I was very pleased at the way the dents lifted without a trace and the fact that the single pit was a simple fix and nearly unnoticeable was a huge plus. The stem polished up well and accentuates the briar grain wonderfully. I like the lack of the aluminum ring at the junction of the stem and stummel more than her sister. The final photo shows both side by side. Let me know if you agree. I am not sure if I prefer the beading around the bowl over the lack of beading. On Some bull dogs I think the beading is necessary, this one, I am okay without it. Perhaps it is because of the thickness of the shank that makes the beading seem a bit unnecessary. The dimensions of the Linkman’s Dr Grabow De Luxe 9733 are:

Length: 5.32 in./ 135.13 mm.

Weight: 1.58 oz./ 47.30 g.

Bowl Height: 1.65 in./ 41.91 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.25 in./ 31.75 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.69 in./ 17.53 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.56 in./ 39.62 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Linkman’s Dr Grabow De Luxe 9733.

The sisters. 9733A, left and 9733, on the right.
A Stanwell 07 Bent Apple with a Triangular Saddle Stem Restoration

June 13th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I recently received a lot which included a couple of Danish pipes. They were all gloriously dingy and well used. I know, not everyones’ cup of tea but for me, heaven. The first of the pipes that I selected was a Stanwell. I had restored a Stanwell POY 1997 for my son-in-law as a birthday present but I only one other Stanwell had ever crossed my workbench.

This pipe was stamped 07 over STANWELL over HAND MADE over DENMARK. The lot came from Sacramento, California via an eBay auction and a safe road trip provided by the United States Postal Service to the wilds of southeast Nebraska. Below are some photos of the Stanwell 07 upon arrival.

The previous owner apparently liked to keep the tobacco chamber clean as there was no buildup of cake present. The pipe had obviously been smoked more than the bowl indicated. The stem had calcium deposits and tooth dents indicative of long term but not hard clenching. The finish was degraded and worn as would be expected of a well smoked and less well cared for companion pipe.

Background

The following is taken from pipedia.org and is an article from smokingpipes.com, included here in its entirety, italics were added by me save for the final sentence.

“When pipe smokers talk about pipes that are consistently great smokers, exhibit the creative and beautiful designs that exemplify Danish pipemaking and offer the best value in factory produced pipes, they are talking about Stanwell. We hear time and time again, from customers and top pipe makers from around the world, that Stanwell is the best factory produced pipe in the world. Stanwell maintains the most modern pipe making facility in the world and for many years has enjoyed some unique relationships with many legendary Danish pipe makers. In fact, Stanwell occupies a pivotal place in the history of the world-wide popularity of Danish-made pipes. During WWII, Danish pipe smokers could no longer buy the English made briar pipes they preferred to smoke. In 1942, because of the unavailability of English pipes and raw briar, Poul Nielsen began making pipes from beech wood for Danish customers. At the time, Poul was managing a company called Kyringe, which made various wood products.

At the end of the war, briar became available again, so Nielsen began importing his own briar and started making briar pipes to compete with the English manufacturers. It must be remembered that in 1948, England was the single great center for pipe making. Therefore, Nielsen changed the name of his pipes to “Stanwell”, which sounded much more like a proper English name than “Nielsen”. He also created the horse drawn carriage logo for its English connotations. He later changed his own last name from Nielsen to Stanwell, a testament to his devotion to the pipes he made. Stanwell’s relationships with Danish pipe makers goes back to Sixten Ivarsson, who is considered the originator of modern Danish pipe making. Ivarsson was commissioned to design Stanwell shapes. In 1969, the factory was moved a town called Borup, just outside of Copenhagen to be closer to Ivarsson.

Stanwell revolutionized the pipe world with his new factory; until its debut, very few pipes were exported from Denmark. It was the Stanwell factory that first began mass exportation of Danish pipes and first whetted the appetites of Americans and Germans for the Danish pipe. Today Stanwell produces around 300,000 pipes annually. Stanwell relies on designs from the great Danish pipe makers, from Sixten Ivarsson to Jess Chonowitsch from which they create their hundreds of shapes. Since most sandblasting for Danish pipemakers is done at the Stanwell factory (Stanwell has a reputation for excellence in sandblasting that is used by many, many Danish carvers from Poul Winslow to Jess Chonowitsch), many of the pipes that they sandblast are then observed and used as starting points for Stanwell shapes with the consent of the original carvers. This interesting and unusual symbiotic relationship gives Stanwell the opportunity to offer hundreds of unusual and interesting shapes at an affordable price.

Once a new shape is established and hand carved, it is then reproduced using a lathe. Following the initial carving of the pipe which is done by machine, all other processes are done by hand, from the final sanding and staining to the application of the wax finish. There are approximately 120 manual steps to Stanwell’s pipe making process. The Stanwell factory is arguably the most efficient pipe operation in the world. It is this efficiency that has made Stanwell so remarkably price competitive and able to offer pieces of superior quality to those created by other large factories.

Essentially the goal of Stanwell is, and always has been, to produce high quality pipes at a price that is truly within the reach of the common man. In this they have succeeded admirably, offering perhaps more pipe for the money than any other pipe manufacturer in their price range. Stanwell pipe offers exceptional quality at a remarkably affordable price. Today it often seems that there are few options in between low cost, very low quality pipes and the handmade pipes that fetch hundreds of dollars. Stanwell manages to fill this void commendably by offering pipes close to the quality of the handmade with prices that are only slightly higher than drug store pipes.

Stanwell pipes are a must for any pipe collection. The Stanwell name is a cornerstone of Danish pipe making. In owning a Stanwell, you will not only enjoy beautifully styled, great smoking pipe at a great price, you will own a piece of pipe making history.
This is the end of smokingpipes.com material” (Stanwell – Pipedia)
- 07. Two versions of this shape number:
a) Slightly bent Zulu-Canadian hybrid with an oval shank and a short tapered stem, by Sixten Ivarsson.

b) Bent apple with a triangular shank and saddle stem.

(Stanwell Shape Numbers and Designers – Pipedia)

There is a section in the pipedia.org article concerning the HAND MADE designation: “Pricing Information in 1970s

1979 Tinder Box Catalog page featuring Stanwell pipes, courtesy Doug Valitchka
- Hand Made, (smooth walnut, brown and black sandblasted) $13.60 USD” (Stanwell – Pipedia)
If I had to proclaim a date of manufacture for this pipe I would venture to say this is a HAND MADE Stanwell 07 from the 1970s.

The Restoration

As usual I began by placing a laundered denim piece on the worksurface.

This restoration started with the stem. I figured that it would need to soak in a solution of OxyClean to loosen the oxidation from the surface of the vulcanite. To speed the process alon I lightly sanded the stem with a 320 grit sanding sponge before the Oxy bath.

I do not recall the concentration of the OxyClean and water and admit that this solution has been used numerous times since its original formulation. As it still works, i’ve no mind for remixing it.

During the Oxy bath, I turned my attention to the stummel. The reaming tools were assembled though mostly unneeded.

The PipNet saw very little action but did it’s job gloriously. The scrapers also were not really required.

I did sand the chamber with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel and could see no sign of any damage to the chamber from excessive heat. The below photo was taken prior to the sanding.

The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrubbing. Undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium bristle toothbrush were used for the scrubbing.

I also scrubbed the airway with a nylon shank brush and a small amount of Dawn dish soap. The soap was rinsed with copious amounts of warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton dish towel.

Upon returning to the work bench the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. Very little color was removed from the surface of the stummel.

I repeated the wiping with a make-up pad wetted with acetone. Again, surprisingly little color came off the stummel. The stummel did appear much darker than it had prior to the scrubbing.

I sanded the stummel with a 320 sanding sponge to see if I could lighten the now dark stummel and re-wiped with both alcohol and acetone, respectively. Dark briar dust came off but no real lightening of the briar.

I allowed the stummel to dry for several minutes and sanded again with a 600 grit sanding sponge. The dark surface remained. Perhaps this was the “walnut” stain referenced in the HAND MADE description from the pipedia.org article?

I continued to sand and reshape the rim and rim bevels while thinking about how I wanted this pipe to look when finished. I used a 2 inch polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) pipe cap wrapped in 220 sandpaper to reestablish the inner rim bevel. I did not think the dark color accentuated the briar grain and did not really like the color.

At the counter I lightly topped the rim with 220 sandpaper laid flat, followed by 400 sandpaper. I sanded in a circular motion rotating the stummel in my hand 90 degrees after a few circles. This was repeated 3 more times to keep even pressure on the rim while sanding.

I wondered how a saturated oxalic acid solution would affect the color of the briar. In the past I have had mixed results in trying to “bleach” briar using oxalic acid. I have a jar containing a saturated solution and painted some of the solution onto the stummel with a cotton swab.

The effect was very fast and quite dramatic. The solution lightened the briar in front of my eyes. I allowed the solution to work its magic for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes I rinsed and lightly scrubbed the stummel with warm water.

Upon drying I was happy to see briar of the color which I was more accustomed to.

I could also see a single spot which I needed to fill with cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust.

With the briar/stummel situation dealt with, I returned to the stem. I removed the stem from the Oxy bath and dried it with paper towels. I started scrubbing the oxidation from the stem with Soft Scrub on make-up pads. The first several pads were heavily stained with oxidized rubber.

Eventually the oxidized material was removed and the stem coated with mineral oil.

The airway of the stem was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners and 95% ethyl alcohol.

The stem cleaning had given me time to think about how I wanted the stummel to look. I decided that I wanted a darker base with a touch of reddish orange. To do this I first needed to dye the stummel black. I know you are probably thinking, “What? You just spent all that time lightening the stummel.” Yeah, I did. But this black was going to be something that I was in control of, not the weird unknown dark that was removed.

Black Fiebing’s Leather Dye was applied to the stummel with a folded pipe cleaner and flamed with a lighter.

This black dye was then sanded from the surface of the stummel leaving the black to penetrate deeper into the soft grained briar and not penetrate as much into the harder grained briar.

When wetted with alcohol the light grained briar had a nice brown color contrasting well with the black. It was lacking the reddish orange that I wanted though. I mixed a wash of 50% Feibing’s Orange Leather Dye with 50% ethyl alcohol. The alcohol was 95% ethyl. This wash was applied with a cotton swab and flamed with the lighter.

The stummel was then taken to the buffer where I buffed the freshly orange dyed briar with a flannel buffing wheel and rouge buffing compound.

I am not sure why but the sanding of the stummel and stem of this pipe were very poorly photographed. I am having trouble thinking of any reason for the oversight other than forgetf,,, What was I talking about, again? Anyway, I know I did sand both with the series of sanding sponges and micro-mesh pads. I also bet that in between each sponge and pad I wiped the surface with either alcohol, for the briar, or mineral oil, for the vulcanite. I do remember that I failed to repaint the stem logo prior to polishing the stem and had to go back and repair the white.

I cleaned the logo thoroughly with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol.

I then used a white acrylic modeling paint to the logo. Before the paint was completely dry I used a piece of thin plastic to scrape over the top of the logo. This scraped the paint from the high spots leaving the stamped depressions. A few minutes later the paint was completely dry and the logo was hand buffed with a cotton rag.

The pipe then was taken to the buffer where it was given several coats of carnauba wax. I then hand buffed the pipe with a nanofiber polishing cloth and took the finished photos.

I think this Stanwell 07 is ready to return to a smoking lifestyle. The contrast dye may not be a perfect match to the original walnut but I like it. I looked through many photos of Stanwell pipes and the number of reddish tinted versions are darn near 50%. The stem polish up very nicely and is a great combination of angels on top with a nice curve below. It seems like such a small detail but the triangular stem with a curved bottom adds tremendously to this pipe. I do believe that this pipe will be a Christmas present for my son-in-law. His name is Sebastian and the Stanwell logo is very fitting. Don’t tell him. The dimensions of the Stanwell 07 Bent Apple with a Triangular Saddle Stem are:

Length: 5.07 in./ 128.78 mm.

Weight: 1.59 oz./ 45.1 g.

Bowl Height: 1.65 in./ 41.91 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.35 in./ 34.29 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.79 in./ 20.07 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.67 in./ 42.42 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Stanwell 07 Bent Apple with a Triangular Saddle Stem.
A Wally Frank Ltd. Rusticated Billiard Restoration

June 10th, 2024

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I have restored a few Wally Frank pipes and find them ever-interesting. I suppose they are interesting because there is no archetypal Wally Frank pipe, this is opinion and meant to be taken as such. What I mean is that Wally Frank was an effective businessman and followed the trends and style changes like a master marketer. He seemed to always be searching for a “new” pipe that people would want to buy rather than focus on developing classic pipes which people would return to purchase as “classics”. I’ll stop talking about Wally Frank for a few minutes and just focus on the pipe at hand.

This Wally Frank came from an eBay auction that I just couldn’t ignore. Well, not for the price anyway. It is a carved or rusticated billiard in the fashion of the Custombilts from the 1940s-1950s. The little darling arrived in the middle of May and got bumped up in the restoration queue due to her good looks and to be completely honest, I was looking forward to a stress free restoration. Here is what she looked like upon arrival.

Stress free; some oxidation on the stem, a few decades of grime, minimal sanding, serious reaming and airway cleaning aside, this looks like relaxation therapy to me.

Wally Frank Background

Okay, back to my editorializing about Wally. The huge variety, nearly schizophrenic in nature, of Wally Frank style pipes may be due to his constantly trying to keep his offerings fresh in a competitive pipe market. Frank’s pipes were not what I would consider high end pipes. He was likely going after customers with less disposable income and mimicking a variety of popular styles . He was known to venture throughout Europe searching for less known carvers and small shops where he could purchase quality at lower prices. Wally Frank’s unique pipe offerings may make more sense when you consider the Wally Frank “Pipe of the Month Club”, an early subscription pipe offer. He apparently wanted to keep the customers satisfied with new and unique offerings. Here is the order form from http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-w1.html

The date on the form is difficult to make out but, I think it is 1947. $1 in January of 1947 is equivalent to $14.58 in April of 2024 (https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm). Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to get a new pipe every month for $15 dollars today?

The first paragraph about Wally Frank from Pipedia pretty much sums up Frank’s contributions to our hobby:

Wally Frank, Ltd. was one of America’s oldest and most respected names in pipes and tobaccos, beginning in the early 1930’s. Wally Frank operated a chain of tobacco stores in New York City (the flagship store was in Lexington Avenue) and had a vast catalog business for pipes and pipe tobaccos. Their numerous private-label pipes were made by many makers, including Charatan, Sasieni, Weber, and many others. Wally Frank, Ltd. also owned the Pioneer brand of meerschaum pipes, made from both Turkish and African meerschaum. In addition to importing pipes, he had many pipes made in his own name and also employed pipemakers like Peter Stokkebye, Svend Bang, and Ed Burak (who later became the owner of Connoisseur). As a result, each Wally Frank pipe must be individually evaluated on its own merit. (Wally Frank – Pipedia) Mr. Frank did this for many years, Wordcat.org is a library of print material available via interlibrary loans. They have several Wally Frank catalogs available from 1930-1958 (au:Wally Frank, Ltd. – Search Results (worldcat.org)).

Due to the large number of sources of Wally Frank pipes there is no Wally Frank shape chart to use as with Dunhill, Peterson, Kaywooodie and other manufacturers. I looked through the several Wally Frank pipes that I have kept for personal use and I could find only one with a shape number stamped on the pipe. And that is a Custombilt pipe from the Wally Frank Era of ownership. So, in a sense not really a Wally Frank pipe. The

Above photos are from a restoration I did in February 2024, here is the link for those interested: Custombilt Original 699.

The Restoration

Typical of my restorations I began with a cleanish denim piece on the workbench. Clean is a relative term and my denim pieces are losing family members quickly and few clean relatives remain.

I pulled the stinger from the stem and placed it into a plastic medicine cup with 95% ethyl alcohol.

The reaming tools were assembled.

The only tool that would fit into the tobacco chamber was the General triangular scraper. The scraper did well and eventually opened up a hole in the cake.

Once the hole was large enough the Scotte Stainless Steel reamer could enter the fight. The lava on the rim was so thick that I couldn’t tell where the cake ended and the briar began.

A large pile of cake scrapings had appeared on the plastic envelope, AKA reaming surface. The rim was still lava encrusted. I had to scrape the rim to assess the tobacco chamber reaming.

I was able to see the rim with the lava scraped away and able to get the PipNet into the reaming action.

I was curious about how much cake had been removed. I weighed a larger medicine cup of the electronic scale – 2.1 g (empty).

I brushed all of the reamed cake into the cup and re-weighed it – 5.4 g. I am pretty sure 3.3 grams is what the average kindergartener weighs in at.

On to the scrubbing. The stummel went to the sink where it was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium bristle toothbrush. A second soap application was used with a stiffer nylon scrub brush due to the years worth of grime and the rusticated surface of the stummel

After the scrubbing the stummel was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton hand towel. I returned to the workbench and scrubbed the stummel further with a nylon brush dipped in ethyl alcohol. I had to dip the brush numerous times. I was removing clear finish, which I assumed was shellac and stain from the stummel. The use of shellac made me think that this pipe may have been older than I had thought.

Since my fingers were already covered in alcohol and finish I figured a bit more alcohol would be good. I scrubbed the stinger and freed it from its tar coating. The alcohol and a .30 caliber brass bore brush were used since the regular brass brush was over by the sink and I’m lazy.

The stummel was wiped several times with make-up pads dipped in ethyl alcohol to remove any traces of finish and traitorous stain from the stummel.

With the stummel exterior cleaned I decided to let it dry for a few minutes and get the stem ready for a soak in an OxyClean solution. The stem was lightly sanded using a 320 grit sanding sponge.

Then it went into the solution. I cannot remember what concentration this solution was mixed at but it is less than a saturated solution.

I began cleaning the airway by softening the residues with alcohol wetted cotton swabs then scraped with a dental scraper. A nylon shank brush was used with alcohol poured into the bowl and through the shank. That is the brown liquid in the cup below. Alternating cycles of scraping, scrubbing, swabbing – repeat – were done until the airway was clean.

Finally a doubled over bristle pipe cleaner dipped in alcohol emerged from the airway non-brown.

The rim had seen some hard nocks, literally. Below is a photo with sunlight. This would require a light topping.

I topped the rim with 220 sandpaper (on the right) and 400 sandpaper (left) using small circle motion. I would rotate the stummel in my hand 90 degrees after 4 circles and repeat. This is done to keep even pressure on the entire rim surface.

Below is the rin in sunlight after topping with the 400 grit sandpaper.

I lightly sanded the highspots of the stummel with a 600 grit sanding sponge. I did not want to reduce the rustication but I did want to sand through the stain a little bit to add highlights to the briar.

The rim was sanded using a sequence of sanding sponges 600-3500. In between each sponge the rim was wiped with an alcohol dampened make-up pad.

The rim was then micro-meshed with pads 4000-12000, in sequence. In between each pad the rim was again wiped with an alcohol dampened make-up pad.

The stummel was coated with a thin layer of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit while I continued working on the stem.

The stem emerged from the OxyClean and was scrubbed with SoftScrub on make-up pads. Below you can see how the pads show a lightening with less oxidation removed from left to right

The interior of the stem was cleaned using bristle pipe cleaners and 95% ethyl alcohol. The stem was then coated with mineral oil and allowed to sit for several minutes.

Returning to the stummel – it was wiped of the Restoration Balm using an inside out athletic sock. The briar looked very nice and rejuvenated.

The stem was then worked with the sequence of sanding sponges from 600-3500. Between each sponge I would wipe a light layer of mineral oil onto the stem and wipe it with a paper towel.

The stem was then micro-meshed with the 4000-12000 pads. In between pads I rubbed in Obsidian Oil with my finger and wiped with a paper towel.

I failed to photograph it but the final polishing of the stem was done with Before and After Fine and Extra Fine Polishes. Each was hand buffed using a soft cotton cloth. Yeah, product placement, bring on the sponsors.

The final steps were to apply several coats of carnauba wax to the shank and stem with the buffer. I very lightly applied carnauba wax to the ridges with the buffer as well.

I think this old Wally Frank Rusticated Billiard turned out very well. I love the color of the original stain and think the rustication is perfect without me doing anything to it. I appreciate the rugged yet classic lines of this shape. The aluminum ring, though far from high class, does add a nice contrast to the glossy black vulcanite and the mahogany stummel. The draw of the pipe is a bit constricted by the stinger for my preference but they are removable and when removed it is quite nice. The dimensions of the Wally Frank Rusticated Billiard are:

Length: 6.09 in./ 154.69 mm.

Weight: 1.24 oz./ 35.3 g.

Bowl Height: 1.77 in./ 44.96 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.30 in./ 33.02 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.77 in./ 19.56 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.

Below are some photos of the finished Wally Frank Rusticated Billiard.
A Bonnie of a Bonnie Briar Restoration

June 7th, 2024

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Okay, sometimes I am attracted to a pipe on pure whimsey. This time it was the name: Bonnie Briar. A term that has gone out of mainstream use and belies one’s Scott heritage “bonnie” or “bonny”. Used as an adjective to describe something as lovely. If you prefer a more formal definition here is Oxford’s “1.b. 1580– Of an object: attractive; beautiful or handsome; esp. (of a place) characterized by attractive landscape or architecture; scenic, pretty (used esp. as a conventional epithet in Bonnie Scotland).” (https://www.oed.com/dictionary/bonny_adj?tl=true)

Now you may say, “If the briar is so bonnie, why’d they carve all them gouges in it?” A fine question, indeed. Perhaps they were trying out another Scottish stereotype of being frugal with one’s money? Ah dinnae ken the reason but I liked the name and the graceful curves and had to adopt the wee bonnie lass.

Below are some photos of the Bonnie Briar prior to working on it.

As you saw it was a little used pipe and was in great shape. It did have a cursed clear coat which had to be exorcised with extreme prejudice (that may be a bit dramatic). Overall this looked to be a straight forward restoration.

Background on Bonnie Briar

When I saw the stem I immediately assumed it was an S.M. Frank co. pipe, namely Medico product. Alsa, my prejudice led me astray. According to pipedia.org,

“Bonnie Brier is a trademark of Finsbury Products, Inc. of Elmsford, NY.. The trademark was registered in November of 1976, and expired in August of 1997. The pipes are signed “Bonnie Briar” in script with the name of the model line underneath and “Imported Briar” below. There are several model lines with different makers marks on the stem or shank: Matterhorn (a crown), Standard, Highlands (script “H”), Interlude (stylized “JB” in an oval) and Willow Ridge (script “W R”).” (Italics are mine)

(src: http://www.trademarkia.com, www.pipephil.eu)

After reading the above I asked, “who the heck is Finsbury?” Having never heard of them I continued along the trail. Pipedia provided little information here but they did provide a clue with the Oppenheimer Pipe lead.

(American Pipe Brands & Makers E – F – Pipedia)

I checked Finsbury on pipephil.eu and found the following:

Again, not much additional information. I then searched “Bonnie Briar” on pipephil and came up with logos matching the “makers marks” mentioned in the pipedia.org excerpt.

The strange thing with the above set of logos is that pipephil.eu has the country of manufacture (COM) as England yet Finsbury has a definitive U.S. address of Elmsford, NY. Perhaps the Oppenheimer ownership of Finsbury swayed their COM perspective. Below are names of brands under the Oppenheimer umbrella.

Oppenheimer Pipe – Pipedia

Again using pipedia.org as the source:

The Oppenheimer Group was a British holding company, which through the Cadogan company had various pipe brands. It was founded in 1860 by Charles Oppenheimer, along with brothers Adolphe and David, and Charles’s brother-in-law, Louis Adler. They established connections with GBD in 1870. With business interests in Saint-Claude, Oppenheimer bought the Marechal Ruchon & Cie. factory, which from then on had two directors in London (Adolphe Oppenheimer and James Adler, son of Louis Adler), and two in Paris (August Marécel and Ferdinand Ruchon). In 1906, the group built a large factory in Saint-Claude, under the direction of Lucien Verguet, which led to the merger of Sina & Cie. and C.J. Verguet Freres. In 1920, the London factory took over A. Frankau, which produced BBB. Between the wars, Oppenheimer assumed the management of Ropp and used countless pipe factories around the world. In the 1970s, with the creation of Cadogan France, which had the GBD, Chacom, and Ropp brands, the last two being sold later, it separated from its English partner.

(From Pipes, Artisans and Trademarks, by José Manuel Lopes) (Italics are mine)

(Oppenheimer Pipe – Pipedia)

This clarifies the provenance of our little Bonnie Briar and establishes it as a pipe made in Elmsford, N.Y. between 1976-1997. I am still slightly confused by the Medico style mortise and tenon though I cannot find any link between S.M. Frank and Finsbury, Bonnie Briar or Oppenheimer. Not a real oldie but still a goodie.

The Restoration

As usual I began with a cleanish denim piece for a work surface.

I tried to remove the clear coat with 95% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad and met with no success. The next attempt was with acetone on a make-up pad. That did work. Since the pipe was heavily carved a simple wiping of the surface would not be effective or efficient so the acetone jar would have to come into play. This is not my preferred method as it can cause the briar to swell and has a tendency to reduce stamps making them less defined. It does however remove lacquer quite well.

Timing is the hard part with acetone. In a perfect world a stummel would be placed in the acetone bath and removed every 30 minutes to see how well the removal of finish is proceeding. In my world, I typically either have something come up or forget to remove the stummel and end up leaving it in the acetone for a longer period of time. Once removed I like to use a brass or nylon brush dipped in acetone to scrub the stummel while it is still wet. I couldn’t find whether my brass or nylon brushes so the steel brush was used very lightly. Thye did show up later, amazingly right where I had left them.

The stummel was then wiped with acetone wetted make-up pads to remove any remaining residue.

To evaporate the acetone that had soaked into the briar I placed the stummel outside in the partial sun for about 30 minutes.

Below is what it looked like after drying.

The reaming went quickly as the little cake present was thoroughly softened by the acetone bath.

The cleaning of the airway within the shank was more difficult than expected. I think the Black that is shown on the pipe cleaners and cotton swabs was more of a bowl coating that was sprayed into the bowl/shank. I did not see how this pipe had ever been smoked enough to make the airway that dirty. The stem airway was nearly clean from the start and I didn’t even think to photograph it.

I lightly sanded the stummel with 400 then 600 grit sanding sponges. I wanted the carvings dyed darker than the ridges of the stummel so I decided to dye it with Fiebing’s Dark Brown Leather Dye. I then planned to sand the ridges to remove most of the dark brown leaving a more contrasted surface to the stummel.

Here you can see the dying process.

Once everything had been coated a couple of times the disposable lighter was used to flame the dye. This burns off the alcohol solvent of the dye and sets the dye into the briar.

The surface was then wiped with make-up pads wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol removing excess dye from the stummel. Then sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge to unveil the lighter briar of the ridges while leaving the troughs darker..

The stummel was then worked over with sanding sponges 1000-3500 (I failed to photo document this) and 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Between each sponge or pad I wiped the surface with a slightly alcohol dampened make-up pad to remove sanded material and dust.

I wasn’t quite pleased with the color of the stummel so I thought a light with diluted Fiebing’s Orange Leather Dye would make the color a bit brighter. I mixed equal parts of the orange dye with 95% ethyl alcohol.

This dilution was applied to the stummel with a cotton swab. The stummel was again flamed with the lighter and allowed to dry for a few minutes.

I then used a clean flannel wheel on the buffer with one white diamond compound to buff the stummel. This removed a little bit of the orange. While there I also butted the stem.

Below you can see the orange washed stummel after buffing.

In the sunlight the color really showed.

The stummel was given another alcohol wipe with a clean make-up pad then it received a liberal coating of Before and After Restoration Balm.

While the balm was doing whatever magic that it does, I turned to repainting the logo and poorly photographing the repainting. First the logo area was cleaned with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol.

Next I used a white acrylic modeling paint working into the stamping of the logo. This paint dries within a few minutes.

I then used a stiff plastic card to scrape the paint from the area around the logo. And buff the remaining paint off with a cotton rag.

The Restoration Balm was wiped from the stummel having done its magic.

The stem was slightly loose when inserted into the shank. This was remedied by pushing a needle nose pliers into the tenon spreading the two halves slightly more apart.

Bonnie Briar was then returned to the buffer and after a quick wheel swap was given several coats of carnauba wax.

I think this little pipe turned out quite nicely. I did lose a small amount of definition with the stamping due to the finish removal but that is a small price to pay for the exorcism of that demon coating. The color turned out to be a near perfect match to the original with better depth and slightly more contrast. I do think that the draft hole drilling is a little too high in the bottom of the tobacco chamber. That is something far outside my control without building up the bottom of the chamber with either pipe mud or J.B. Weld. I could be wrong and should probably shut-up and test before commenting on it. The draw is quite smooth and easy with or without a Medico filter. I am sure this will be a fine smoking little pipe. The dimensions of this Bonnie Briar standard are:

Length: 5.36 in./ 136.14 mm.

Weight: 1.09 oz./ 30.90 g.

Bowl Height: 1.51 in./ 38.35 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.24 in./ 31.50 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.30 in./ 33.02 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Bonnie Briar standard.
A The Pipe Restoration

June 5th, 2024

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

You know that feeling after a long day at work when you finally make it home and you just want to sit in your favorite chair in vegetative relaxation? That is how I felt after the restoration of the Medico Guardsman. I just wanted an easy pipe to work on. I looked through the boxes of “help me” pipes and selected a black the pipe apple. I have no recollection of when this pipe came to me or by what means. If I were to guess, I’d say it was part of an estate lot from a couple years ago. It’s days of languishing unused and unappreciated had come to an end.

The pipe was in very good shape with just a touch of lava on the rim, no cake to speak of in the tobacco chamber, no layer of grime on the surface but it did have a surprising amount of tooth chatter on the stem. Maybe the previous owner liked the appearance of being a pipe smoker without the smoking part. To each their own… Below are some photos of the pipe before any work was done.

This appeared like it was going to be more of a cleaning and polish job with a bit of stem work than a full blown restoration. I was okay with that.

Background on The Pipe

This brand of pipes is a perfect example of an inventor applying the term, “Better living through modern chemistry”. The first line in pipedia.org reads as follows: “the pipe (pyrolytic graphite/phenolic resin)” (Super-Temp – Pipedia). No introduction, no capitalization, no context, just that line. I find that funny and telling, like the pipe smoking world is just not ready for anything other than clay, briar or meerschaum. So unaccepting the line isn’t even worthy of punctuation. S.M. Frank has been successfully making and selling Brylon (briar dust and resin) since 1966 (Yello-Bole – Pipedia).

Pipedia.org does go on a bit more to say, “In 1963, Super-Temp Corporation began making plastic pipes with pyrolytic graphite bowl liners. They were called the pipe. In 1965, Super-Temp contracted to market their unique pipes through Venturi, Inc., the company which sold Tar Gard cigarette filters. Colors and stripes began to be offered circa 1967. About 1970, THE SMOKE pipes were added to the line – they were non-traditional shapes with a less expensive bowl liner. Venturi pipes were added around 1972 – they had no liner in the bowls at all. The pipes were out of production by 1975.” (Super-Temp – Pipedia)

A while back Dal Stanton did a wonderful job with a restoration of a blue bulldog the pipe. You can find that blog post here. In typical Dal Stanton fashion his research for the brand was wonderfully in-depth and I will defer to Dal and his post if you would like more information about the brand and it’s history. I will mention a gentleman who I found very interesting, a “Billie W. Taylor II, Ph.D. Pipe Collector.” That is the title he uses on his website dedicated to the pipe, THE SMOKE and Venturi pipes. Here is the link to his site. I feel I must thank him for his site and his permission to link to his site, ”If you like this page and wish to share it, you are welcome to link to it, with my thanks.” (Billie W. Taylor II, http://www.thepipe.info/)

The Restoration

I guess I am just used to calling this next part “The Restoration”, though in this case I don’t really consider this a restoration, the pipe is in too good of condition for a restoration. Anyway, I began in my normal fashion with a clean denim piece for a work surface.

Heck, the pipe was cleaner than the clean denim. I blame the guy who does the laundry, yeah, that’d be me.

The reaming tools were assembled and barely used.

See what I mean by barely used?

This pipe looked like it had been smoked maybe a handful of times. There was a bit of lava on the rim. “Bit” could be an exaggeration…

I probably could have skipped the scraping of the lava from the rim and just scrubbed it when I did the Murphy Oil Soap scrub but it is a habit to scrape the rim, I guess.

Below is the scraped rim.

Below is the stummel after having been scrubbed with a medium toothbrush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Oh how nice it would be if every shank were this easy to clean.

The stem was slightly more dirty but it too was quickly cleaned with 95% alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners. The stem and it’s tooth chatter were more difficult to repair than expected. The plastic just did not respond to sanding like a vulcanite stem did.

I worked the stem with the sequence of sanding sponges 320-3500. I taped off the shank as it was not needing any sanding. Between sponges I wiped the stem off with an alcohol dampened make-up pad. I remember reading Dal Stanton’s post where he had a similar experience with working with the plastic stem material. He ended up unhappy with his initial work and went back and started all over with 320 sandpaper and worked back up to the Before and After Fine & Extra Fine Polish. I thought about redoing the whole sequence then thought to myself, “Hey self, this is going to be a working pipe, not something for sale or a museum exhibit”. I agreed with self and proceeded.

Next I removed the tape and wiped the pipe with the make-up pad to remove any adhesive from the tape. I used a series of micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000 grit on both stem and stummel. Between each of these pads the sem was again wiped off with the alcohol dampened make-up pad.

The whole pipe, stem and stummel, were polished with Before and After Fine Polish. The polish was hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth. The same process was repeated with the Before and After Extra Fine Polish. I forgot to photograph that step.

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

I really like the look of this pipe. It could be because the apple is a favorite shape or the classy elegance of an all glossy black pipe. Either way, it is pretty. There are two things that I have noticed; one – that the pipe feels heavy for the size and two – there is a strange chemical taste similar to formaldehyde when I draw air through the pipe. Neither of these are good selling points. As an example of this, the last two pipes restored were the pipe apple and a Medico Guardsman apple. The sizes of the two pipes are within a few millimeters of each other on all dimensions yet the Medico weighs in at 1.11 oz and the

the pipe weighs 1.47 oz., over a third of an ounce more. I did smoke the pipe and found that it was a nice cool smoking pipe. I did notice the formaldehyde taste once. I do not know if this will continue with future smokes or if that is a “breaking in” issue with this bowl material.

The dimensions of the the pipe Apple are:

Length: 5.34 in./ 135.64 mm.

Weight: 1.47 oz./ 41.9 g.

Bowl Height: 1.54 in./ 39.12 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.29 in./ 32.77 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.44 in./ 36.58 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.
A No-Name Basket Pipe I mean Medico Guardsman Apple

June 3rd, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

The question “Why do I do this?” comes to mind with this Nameless pipe. I had written the title and previous sentence before I discovered what this pipe was. With some help and a phone call from Steve Laug this pipe’s Identity has been discerned and a Medico Guardsman. This pipe had been used frequently. The owner must have gained some enjoyment out of it or they would have surely just smoked another pipe. Perhaps it was their only pipe. There was no distinctive aroma other than old tobacco so the blend of choice was probably a common blend like Kentucky Club or Half and Half. The finish on the pipe had long ago faded, cracked and peeled. I couldn’t really see any distinguishing grain. The stem had pretty significant dents from clenching, further proof that this pipe had been someone’s long term companion. It also appeared to have a reverse tenon (more on this later).

Back to the initial question, “Why do I do this?” I could wax philosophically and throw together some word salad of jiberish or I could just say, “because I enjoy it.” Perhaps in the same way that the previous owner enjoyed this pipe. I find peace in working with my hands in a relaxing stress free fashion. There is no timeline, no customer to please upon finishing this pipe, no expectation of having it turn out flawlessly, just me in the cool quiet of my basement with a couple of dogs lounging on the couch and an old pipe. The motions of cleaning, sanding, refinishing are repetitive and require little thought. This is my hobby and I do it because I like to. The product of the hobby may be sold or given away. It doesn’t really matter, either way someone will get a new-to-them pipe that they can enjoy in their future.

Back to the pipe. I kind of have to write this thoughtfully breaking it into two sections:
1. I had it pretty much finished and ready to write-up when I started chatting with Steve Laug.
2. Back to the workbench with it in an attempt to fix what we had decided was previous “repair”.
I guess I’ll start with the pipe as it appeared upon arrival.

The word “rough” comes to mind. My dad would have called it “rode hard and put away wet”. Anyway you look at it this one definitely needed some work or a trash can. I went with the first option. With a cursory inspection I immediately thought this pipe to be a Medico due to the tenon with the space for Medico or Dr Grabow filters. I could not make out any definitive stampings though. Usually Medico stamps are good. Even now, knowing what the pipe is, I could not clearly make-out the stamp.

The G on the stem was also worn and didn’t register in my mind. I thought that maybe if I removed the finish the stamp would be more clear. I started a mental list of tasks for this restoration; reaming and cleaning the tobacco chamber, cleaning the airways of the shank and stem, stripping off the old finish and maybe dying the stummel, repairing the bite marks and tooth chatter, sanding, micro-meshing and polishing. It all sounded daily typical.

Now is the time I would normally discuss the background of the pipe. With this pipe I was unsure of it’s name and provenance. I’ll revisit this later.

The Restoration

This restore began like most others with a clean denim on the work surface.

The reaming tools were assembled.

The reaming progressed as normally except that darn grate was in the way.

Eventually the chamber was cleaned. A dental scraper was used to scrape around the aluminum grate.

The rim had some minor lava deposits which required a bit of scraping with a sharp pocket knife.

Below is the scraped rim.

To the sink. Here the stummel was scrubbed with a medium bristle toothbrush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel was dried with a cotton hand towel.

I returned to the workbench and assessed the stummel. There were remnants of a clear coat finish on the briar, this had to go. Still no clear stamps.

I first tried 95% alcohol on a make-up pad to remove the finish. This did little.

Next I tried acetone on a make-up sponge. This worked well in dissolving the lacquer and removing some stain.

Below you can see the right side of the stummel prior to a wiping with acetone on a make-up pad.

Here is the same side after wiping with the acetone.

Several acetone dipped pads later the finish was removed and the briar was accessible.

The briar was in good shape and showed little signs of old fills or damage. There was an ashtray scar where a cigarette probably charred the briar on the front of the stummel. The stummel was sanded with 400 grit sanding sponges to see if there was damage that I had overlooked. The stummel was then wiped with a make-up pad wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol.

Below you can see the cigarette burn.

I then started scrubbing the airway of the shank. Bristle pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, a .33 caliber brass bore brush and a nylon bore brush were all used with copious amounts of 95% ethyl alcohol. The airway was eventually cleaned but the end of the shank under the grate was difficult to access and continued to return tools stained with tar.

To help conceal the ashtray scar and bring out the briar grain I decided that I would attempt a contrast stain.dye with black Fiebing’s Leather Dye.

The black dye was applied with a folded pipe cleaner and flamed with a disposable lighter.

I returned to the workbench to sand away the outer surface of black stained briar. I hoped that this would leave the softer grained briar which had absorbed more of the black dye. I allowed the black dye to dry for a while and turned my attention to cleaning out the airway of the stem. Again bristle pipe cleaners, cotton swabs, a shank brush and ethyl alcohol were used.

Once the stem was cleaned I returned to sanding the outer surface of the stummel with both a 320 and 400 grit sanding sponge. The stummel was wiped with make-up pads dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. Below is how the stummel looked after sanding. The dye had defined the grain nicely.

I thought the stummel needed a bit more color so I decided to give it a wash in a diluted red Fiebing’s Leather Dye. I diluted the red dye with about 50% ethyl alcohol and applied it with a cotton swab.

I thought that this combination of dyes looked about right, I also knew that quite a bit of the red would end up being removed by sanding and micro-meshing but it should retain a light reddish hue.

The stummel was then sanded using the sequence of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grit. I very lightly wiped the stummel between pads with a very lightly alcohol dampened make-up pad. I did not want to remove too much of the red dye.

At this point I switched gears and started working on the stem.

Okay, here is where it gets a little weird. I had sent Steve Laug a private message on Facebook asking if his memory about the aluminum grate in the bowl was any better than mine. He replied, “I have seen it in pipes here but also don’t remember the brand . It is a stinger apparatus if I remember right. With the carb it is like a barbecue grate” he then said, “Let me do some digging”. I continued working on another pipe.

He messaged me a few minutes later saying, “Looks like a Medico Guardsman”. He included a link. Below are some photos from the link.

(https://www.reddit.com/r/PipeTobacco/comments/1798ljp/refurbished_medico_guardsman_is_a_unique_pipe/?rdt=49705)

That served as a very definitive identification to me. I still wondered about the slightly different grate in the bowl on my pipe. Perhaps the previous owner lost a couple of holes? I’d heard of losing a button. Why not a buttonhole?

Anyway, the G on the stem also looked like the worn G on the pipe in hand.

I think we are now ready for, dramatic pause, “The Background section. Yay.

Background of Medico

Pipephil.eu has the following photo of Medico Guardsman logos:

(Medico — Pipes: Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu)). I am not sure why I couldn’t connect the dots there. It looks completely obvious in hindsight.

A quick search of Medico of pipedia.org supplies the following.

“When you trace the Medico tobacco pipes history, you have to trace it back to the origins of the company that created it. The company that originated the Medico brand is the S.M. Frank & Co. This company dates back to the year 1900. In that year, a man named Sam Frank began selling pipes and related tobacco products. Eventually, the company began making its own line of pipes. With the help of an experienced pipe manufacturer, Ferdinand Feuerbach, the company produced the popular Royal DeMuth and Hesson Guard Milano tobacco pipes. The company continued to grow well into the early part of the 1930s.

By the early 1930s, there were some concerns about the tars and nicotine found in tobacco smoke. In order to mellow out the flavor of hot tobacco smoke as well as to capture the tars and nicotine, the S.M. Frank & Co. introduced the Medico pipe filter. This is an absorbent paper filter that many people still use to this day. In order to accommodate the new filter, the company developed an accompanying brand of pipes known as Medico. That line of pipes continues in production today.
- 1934 Medico Absorbent Filter Patent 1,967,585, courtesy Doug Valitchka
“The company ended up buying some of their main competition in 1955. That year the Kaywoodie brands came under the S.M. Frank Company. The Medico brand continued production through this transition without many changes. The next big change for the brand came in the late 1960s. In 1966, the company developed a synthetic material that combined the traditional briar wood with resins. It is known as Brylon. At that time, all Medico pipes were made from imported briar wood. In order to keep production costs down, the company began offering some lines with Brylon. Today, that is still true.

Today, the Medico brand of pipes is still a top selling one for the S.M Frank & Co. This line of pipes comes in thirteen different finishes with five made of briar wood and the rest from Brylon. All come with the push bit with a filter inside. The filter is easily changed out when the smoker desires. In the briar wood finishes, this line includes the Silver Crest, Premier, Bold Rebel, Kensington, and Windsor. In the Brylon, the line includes the Lancer, Apollo, Standard, Varsity, Conqueror, Medalist, Cavalier, and V.F.Q. As far as price, the briar wood pipes tend to be higher in cost that the Brylon ones. Courtesy TobaccoPipes.com”

(Medico – Pipedia)

And a 1962 Medico print ad showing a Guardsman.

(Medico – Pipedia)

The Restoration Part Two

The chatting in Facebook was becoming annoying for both Steve and I so a phone call was made and we were able to discuss this pipe. Steve agreed with me in never having seen a Medico pipe with a reverse tenon. He had seen a tenon where a previous owner had removed the aluminum from the stem and glued it into the shank thus making the pipe into a reverse tenon. He thought that this is what may have occurred with this pipe as well. I decided that the pipe needed to be restored to it’s original configuration. This meant that I too would free the reversed tenon from the shank and glue it where it belonged, in the stem. Both Steve and I agreed that the stem’s mortise appeared to have been roughened with sandpaper to allow the adhesive to better hold the aluminum. So I set out to right perceived wrongs.

Our discussion also included using heat to soften the glue holding the aluminum in the shank, where we have lived in the US and Canada, our previous and current jobs, and turtles. Yes, you read that correctly, turtles. And no, there was no mention of using heat to remove a turtle from it’s shell.

Anyway, back to the restoration part two. A new plan was formulating in my mind:
1. Heat the aluminum to free it from the glue holding the “reversed tenon” in the shank.
2. Reclean the shank.
3. Glue the aluminum into the stem, where it belonged.
4. Polish and wax for the final time.
That sounded like a good plan.

The aluminum was heated with a disposable lighter for a count of 20. I then used a very high tech aluminum tenon extraction device to apply force to the aluminum. Oh, I suppose you are wondering exactly what a “very high tech aluminum tenon extraction device” is. Well you take a smaller size channel lock and wrap the jaws with painters tape, tadah! Your very own very high tech aluminum tenon extraction device. Let’s just call it a VHTATED or pliers from here on out. The heating and pliers seemed to have no effect on the tenon. It probably needed more heat so, another 20 count of flame was applied. At this point I will warn you to keep your fingers away from the little metal carburetor. I have heard that they become very hot when exposed to a couple of 20 counts. Yeah, I burned myself on that. Twice. Maybe three times but who’s counting? Still nothing was moving. Perhaps a change in the direction of applied force was needed. Instead of a twisting motion with the pliers on the tenon maybe a straight line pull would be better. I used a knife blade to press down between the shank end and the aluminum tenon. I figured that the ring was all part of the tenon and it would pull the tenon free. The knife blade slid the aluminum out away from the shank. Victory, I thought!

Then I realized that the aluminum was just a spacer ring. I removed it.

Hmm, change of strategy. Using a disposable pipette I drew up a little bit of acetone in the pipette and applied it around the aluminum/briar contact. It seeped in quickly. I figured that the acetone would certainly help dissolve the heated glue and help free the aluminum. Nope.

Okay, if a little acetone didn’t work more certainly would. I dunked the stummel into my jar of acetone and let it soak for 2 hours. Below you can see the liberated spacer ring lying below the stummel.

Two hours later I removed the stummel and dried it of acetone. The acetone did not appear to have removed my dye. This was welcomed as a small victory. I again tried to wiggle the tenon while gripping in with the pliers and rotating the stummel. It moved. Maybe only a mm but it moved. I wiggled it some more. I could get it to rotate 1-2 mm. Okay, if a two hour soak was good and longer soak might completely free the aluminum from the shank. Back into the acetone jar went the stummel. I went fishing.

The next morning I retrieved the stummel from the jar. I fully expected the rotation to be free and for the aluminum to slide free. Nope. I started thinking that if the aluminum carburetor had gotten hot enough to cause me pain then it had to be in contact with the aluminum of the tenon. What if they were all in contact with each other? That would mean that the grate was not a separate piece, which is what I had assumed. I rotated the tenon back and forth with it’s 1-2 mm rotation and sure enough, the grate was moving 1-2 mm also. They were the same piece of metal. Moving the stummel around I could see light coming through the hole in the carburetor through a hole in the grate. What if I could push the carburetor out with a punch from the top? I got the fly tying bodkin. It was small enough to go through the grate holes but large enough not to pass through the carburetor. I placed the tip through the hole and into the carburetor. Then tapped it with the pliers. At first nothing happened. I tapped harder and the carburetor started to emerge. I grabbed it with a needle nose pliers and removed it. I then gripped the aluminum tenon and sure enough, it rotated and was pulled free.

The case of the Medico reverse tenon was solved. The hole in the aluminum tube, visible in the photo above, was the hole that the carburetor fit into. It had locked the whole aluminum grate-tenon-tube in place. Below is a photo of the carburetor and the aluminum tube.

Here is the tube with the carburetor hole facing up.

Here is the tube with the grate holes facing up.

The end of the tube was plugged completely with tar and yuck.

The tar plug was removed and the whole piece thoroughly cleaned.

With the removal of the grate the tobacco chamber could now be properly cleaned as well.

With all that finished it was time to see if the pipe could be reassembled. The pieces were all gathered.

The aluminum tube was reinserted and tapped into place.

The holes aligned and the carburetor was reinserted and tapped into place.

The spacer was the most difficult piece to reattach. Once it was nearly in place a thin bead of brown CA was applied to the shank using the fly tying bodkin. The spacer was then pressed into position. This was the only glue used during reassembly.

The stummel then received a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm ti try to rejuvenate the briar after the extended time in the acetone.

Even after the restoration balm tha acetone had done some bad things to the briar. IT was dull and no longer smooth. I resanded the stummel with the sanding sponges from the 1000-3500 sponges. Then micro-meshed again with the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. I did not bother to photograph this as you have seen it all before and this blog is getting entirely too long. The Before and After Restoration Balm was applied again and allowed to sit for 30 minutes. It was then wiped away with an inside out athletic sock. The pipe was again waxed with several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer.

This restoration proved to take far longer than what I thought it should have. Although to be honest it kind of was two restorations in one. I have to say that I think it turned out pretty nicely. I also have to admit to having learned a great deal from the process. A big thanks to Steve Laug and his extensive experience. I am actually quite impressed with the Medico Guardsman pipe and am considering picking up a couple more to see if this was a common structure in all of them. The dimensions of this Medico Guardsman Apple are:

Length: 5.46 in./ 138.68 mm.

Weight: 1.11 oz./ 31.70 g.

Bowl Height: 1.54 in./ 39.12 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.06 in./ 26.92 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.73 in./ 18.54 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.44 in./ 36.58 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Medico Guardsman Apple.
A Malaga Apple Restoration

May 27th, 2024

Written and photographed by

John M. Young

I remember the warnings about peer pressure in the 1980s Before that it was just called “running with the wrongs kids”. I think this pipe purchase represents me being affected by peer pressure, although in a good way. I had not heard of Malaga pipes or their founder, George Khoubesser, until reading about them in Steve Laug’s rebornpipes.com. He has restored several of George “Manny” Khoubesser’s Malaga pipes over the years.

It was chatting with Steve that had piqued my interest in Malagas. I later mentioned that I had tried bidding on one listed at eBay. He said that his brother was also bidding on that same pipe. Well rather than run up the bidding and compete against one another we started coordinating on future Malage pipes as they became available. Eventually I saw this one back at the beginning of May. I made an acceptable offer to the seller and had a Malaga of my own to restore.

Below are some photos of the pipe when it arrived here in southeast Nebraska.

Hmm, there appeared to be several ways to go with this restoration and to several levels. The crack in the shank had been successfully repaired with a silver band albeit an oversized silver band that partially covers the stamps. There looked to be a small crack around the rim. I was not sure if it was superficial or structural. The stummel looked great without a single fill, kudos to Mr. Khoubesser for excellent briar selection. The stem would need a good deal of attention to repair the tooth dents.

Malaga Background

Piedia.org has a nice history of Malaga pipes. I will include the text here in its entirety:

“The Malaga Pipe Company was founded circa 1939 by George Khoubesser, (b.1892 d.1971), and located in Royal Oak, Michigan at 1406 East Eleven Mile road. The second generation owner’s name was Emmanuel Khoubesser (b. 1942 d. 1981), who everyone knew him as “Manny”. He was a big jovial man that was easy to converse with, always had a smile and a good joke to tell his very loyal customers. He had the ability to befriend anyone within minutes. The small store was packed with curious customers every Saturday morning looking for the latest design made earlier in the week. He also carried a full line of custom mixed tobaccos that you could sample and an array tobaccos in tins.

I was first introduced to him in 1969. I remember him taking me in the back to show me each step involved in pipe making. He was very serious about the quality of the product he sold and would never sell a flawed pipe, even if it was very minor. My step father purchased several of his pipes and really enjoyed them. He once said he’s never found a better pipe (his words).

Manny passed away in 1981 and his wife and oldest children took over the business. Malaga closed in 1999 after 60 years in business. The building still exists on Eleven mile, looking almost like it did back then, but now houses the Michigan Toy Soldier Company. I would think the pipes Manny produced are now more valuable than ever. If you happen across one of these pipes, you’ll know a little bit more about it’s rich history. Enjoy!”

(Malaga Pipe Company – Pipedia)

If your taste for the history of Malag pipes has yet to be satiated I will refer you to Steve Laug’s blog regarding the history of the brand (George Khoubesser and Malaga Pipes | rebornpipes). Steve also received a treasure trove of ephemera from the estate of one of his reader’s fathers (Malaga Pipes Catalogue of Pipes and Tobaccos | rebornpipes). Wonderful information and valuable insights from people who are far more industrious than I with providing you with background information.

The Restoration

In typical fashion this project began with a clean denim piece on the work surface.

The reaming tools were assembled. The PipNets’s #2 and #3 blades could be used in the large Malaga tobacco chamber.

And used they were. After the PipNet the chamber was scraped with the General triangular scraper and sanded with the 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. There was no evidence of heat damage to the interior of the chamber.

Nex was a trip to the sink. Here the stummel was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium stiff toothbrush.

Returning to the workbench the stummel was wiped with a cotton make-up pad wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol. Some further grime, wax and perhaps stain was removed with the pad.

Next, I addressed the calcium deposits on the stem by scraping them with a sharp pocket knife.

The area immediately above the button was filed with a flat needle file and the entire stem was lightly sanded with 320 then 400 grit sanding sponges. I failed to photograph the next step, apologies. After the sanding I scrubbed the stem with make-up pads and Soft Scrub cleanser. The pads were heavily stained with oxidized rubber. Several pads and Soft Scrub applied to a Magic Eraser later, the stem was cleared of oxidized rubber.

The next step was to repair the tooth dents.

I used black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) to fill in the dents and rebuild the damaged button. Below are photos of the top and bottom of the stem.

The wet CA was spritzed with a CA drying accelerator. This cures the CA within seconds. The following two photos show the cured CA.

The CA fills were filed with the flat needle file and the button reshaped.

After filing the fills were sanded with the 400 sanding sponge. The improvement was great but additional thin layers of black CA were required to smooth and blend the repairs. The below two photos show the repairs prior to the additional thin layers and further sanding of the CA.

With the stem bite marks repaired it was time to clean the airway. 95% ethyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners were used.

The same process was used to clean the airway of the shank. Ethyl alcohol and a nylon shank brush along with some scraping from a dental pick were added to the cleaning here.

Throughout the above cleaning I was thinking about the silver band. I had tried removing it after the murphy’s scrubbing, alcohol wiping, and now again after the alcohol rich shank cleaning. If there had been glue used to fix the band I could not loosen it with water, soap, or alcohol. I tried a bit of acetone to see if that would penetrate under the band and loosen the grip of the band on the shank. Nothing seed to work. Whomever had installed this band fit it very tightly to the shank. I thought about heating it with a heat gun to try to remove it but decided that it really was a pretty well done banding. How might it look if I just polished it? I tried that.

The band polished nicely and I decided to stop worrying about it. This was going to be a personal use pipe and I was okay with having a couple of letters of the stampings covered.

I then taped the stamps and the silver with painters tape to protect them from the sanding which was to occur next.

The stem and stummel were sanded with a sequence of sanding sponges from 400-3500. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with an alcohol moistened make-up pad while the stem received a bit of mineral oil from my finger and was wiped with a clean paper towel.

Finishing the sanding, I removed the painters tape and vigorously rubbed any remaining adhesive off with a make-up pad and alcohol. I then used the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads in sequence on both the stummel and stem. As with the sanding sponges, the stummel was wiped with alcohol on a make-up pad between pads. The stem received a small drop of Obsidian Oil, rubbed in and wiped with a paper towel between pads.

The stummel was then coated in Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 30 minutes.

30 minutes later the excess Restoration Balm was wiped off with an inside out athletic sock. The balm had worked it’s magic and the stummel looked fantastic.

The final polishing of the stem was done with Before and After Fine Polish. This was applied by a fingertip and hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth.

The Fine Polish was followed by Before and After Extra Fine Polish applied and buffed the same way.

The final step was to take the pipe to the buffer where it received several coats of carnauba wax. After the wax was applied and buffed I hand buffed the pipe with a nanofiber polishing cloth in an attempt to improve on the already exquisite shine.

I am pleased with the restoration of this Malaga Large Apple. I have also filled the ample bowl with tobacco and given this old girl a “test drive”. Steve Laug was quite right, Malaga pipes are fine smokers. The grain of this pipe is beautiful with flame-like patterns especially on the right side. The stem also cleaned up well. I did notice a metal fleck in the rubber. This usually indicated recycled rubber and was typical during the years around the Second World War. Perhaps that gives a clue to the age of this pipe. I do wish that it had not experienced a shank crack but the repair was done well and I think the silver band looks quite acceptable. The only other flaw is the small crack on the rim. I think that is superficial and did not think that it needed any attention. The dimensions of this Malaga Large Apple are:

Length: 6.10 in./ 154.94 mm.

Weight: 1.73 oz./ 49.10 g.

Bowl Height: 1.78 in./ 45.21 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.42 in./ 36.07 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.83 in./ 21.08 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.61 in./ 40.89 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Malaga Large Apple.
A Forecaster Bulldog Restoration

May 23rd, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I am a sucker or a couple of shapes and the bulldog is one of them. By sucker, I mean that I am willing to spend more time on restoring a shape that I like than I am with a shape that I do not find as appealing. This little Forecaster fit the “sucker” category in a couple of ways; one, I wanted to restore a forecaster pipe and two, the shape is a favorite. The pipe came to me as a combined purchase with the Yello-Bole Yacht. I linked that restoration if you are interested. The damage to the Forecater was not nearly as evident from the eBay photos as it was in real life.

Below are some photos of the Forecaster upon arrival here at what some consider the pipe clinic.

The crack in the shank was barely evident yet should have been expected by looking at the construction and damage to the pipe. The mortise was threaded which is a design that begs for owners to over tighten or a stem and can lead to cracking. The damage to the stem looked as if it could have been done with pliers, further evidence of excessive pressure put on the mortise and potential cracking. The question was: “Why was so much force needed to screw in a stem?” That was answered by examining the threads of the mortise. Pieces of aluminum could be seen in the wooden threads. They looked like they were embedded into the wood. I am getting ahead of myself. Before we get to the restoration let me give a quick review of Forecaster.

Background

Below are a couple of print ad images from Forecaster.

(Forecaster – eBay)

(Forecaster – Pipedia)

These two ads give some historical perspective to the brand and pipe. According to the University of Maryland library Archives, “Roger Bower (1903-1979) was active in broadcasting from 1925 to 1974. He joined radio station WOR in New York in 1928 and became a combination producer, director, actor, announcer, and sound effects engineer. During that time, WOR became the flagship station of the Mutual radio network, and Bower directed many prominent programs, including It Pays to be Ignorant, and Can You Top This? In the early 1930s, Bower announced the first Macy’s Thanksgiving

Day Parade, which he continued to describe for many years. He gave one of the first (closed circuit) television demonstrations in 1933, in a Macy’s department store window. Bower remained with WOR for 24 years, until the station was sold in 1952.” (https://archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/2/resources/524)

Pipedia.org says the following, “Forecaster pipes were made by the National Briar Pipe Co. of Jersey City, N.J.. The pipe boasted an “aluminum winder” threaded through the airway meant to clean and cool the smoke. For more information see National Briar Pipe Co..” (Forecaster – Pipedia). Upon reading the National Briar Co. page I found that, “The National Briar Pipe Co. was homed in Jersey City, New Jersey. Brands produced afak:
- Biltmore
- Forecaster
- Honeybrook
- King Eric
- Kleenest
- Nifty
- Rembrandt
- Sir Sheldon
- Drysmoke Silvertone
- The Mayflower
- The Doodler (created and formerly produced by Tracy Mincer, †1966)
Logo on the left side of the stem on Rembrandt branded pipes is a capital “N” in italics. Assume that holds true for other brands produced by National. —Dgillmor 21:55, 10 May 2012 (CDT)” (National Briar Pipe Co. – Pipedia). This explains the N stamped and painted on the Forecaster stem.

As for the time line with this Forecaster bulldog I have nothing to assign it directly. I think it is safe to assume it to be from the late 1940s-1970.

The Restoration

In our last episode we discovered that Jill was pregnant with Roger’s baby, Seymour had been committed to an insane asylum and that strange aluminum flakes were infesting the threads of the Forecaster’s mortise. Okay, I may have taken some liberties with the story there, about Jill and Roger but Syemore is definitely nuts and the aluminum flakes were more than just a rumor.

I used a fly tying bodkin to pry the aluminum out of the threads then a brass shotgun bore brush to further clean the threads of debris. It took me several minutes to get the visible flakes out of the threads.

Below you can see the metal flakes and briar dust from the threads. I think the white German Shepherd hars was deposited post aluminum extraction and was not part of the problem.

Now I got to play detective and construct a situation of how this aluminum got into the wood and why the pipe had been used so little without resorting to aliens or bigfoot. I am guessing that when the aluminum tenon was cut for threads some of the tailing remained on the tenon. These flakes got forced into the briar threads when the pipe was originally assembled. When the original owner first got his or her (yeah, that’s how woke I am) new pipe they had to take it apart. We all know that experience. This would have liberated any remaining tailings from the tenon and placed them on the scene. The new owner, whether they were female, male or of undisclosed orientation then reassembled the pipe. The stem would have been difficult to reassemble due to the debris filled threads. Extra force would have been required, perhaps even a tool. By tightening the stem with a tool the stem was marred. The new owner couldn’t return the pipe as they had damaged it. So they continued using it but they were also someone who liked a clean pipe so after the first use they wanted to clean the pipe out. The stem was even more difficult to remove and upon reassembly could not be threaded in without enough force to further mar the stem and crack the shank. I’d like to think there was a blood curdling scream, “What have I done?” Probably not, in the 1950s-1960s, John Wayne was the role model and he never screamed “What have I done?” The pipe was left with a gap in the fit of the stem to stummel. Not wanting to look like an idiot the new owner stopped using the pipe concealing their idiocy from the world – until now.

I reamed the tobacco chamber with a Triple-Ream tool that came with an estate lot a while back. I couldn’t use my trusty PipNet with its #1 blade due to personal idiocy and breaking the blade. Some of us don’t bother concealing our idiocy, The fact that the pipe had barely been used helped greatly in the reaming process. The chamber was also sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. Guess what – there was no damage to the chamber from excessive heat.

I started formulating a plan for the shank crack. A couple of scenarios played out in my mind. Again not resorting to aliens or bigfoot, I thought that banding would be the easiest solution. The problem with that is that I have no diamond shaped bands. Typically I use cartridge brass from spent shells or brass tubing. Both of those are fairly thick materials and would be difficult to reform to a diamond shape. The second option was something I had read from Charles Lemon. He had repaired a cracked bowl using a 1.2 mm drill bit and 1.2 mm brass rods. Here is the link to Mr. Lemon’s pinning tutorial. If you are unfamiliar with Chrales Lemon’s work he can be found at https://dadspipes.com/. SIdenote: If you are familiar with my blogs and unfamiliar with Chrale’s you may need to join Seymour at the insane asylum.

I figured that if it worked for a bowl it should also work for a shank. Given, a shank is going to be more difficult to work with due to the smaller size but the idea is the same. After initially reading Charle’s tutorial I quickly ordered 1.2 mm drill bits and 1.2 mm brass tubing for the deluge of cracked bowls that I was sure would need my immediate care. Well, the deluge never arrived but the bits and rods did. I have yet to try this on a cracked bowl and was feeling quite sorry for the bits and rods due to their forced early retirement. I decided this pipe could give me practice with the technique as well as justify the enormous capital investment for the 1.2 mm thingies (<$20 at Amazon).

Now as typical for me, I like to think about a project a good deal before actually attempting it. I started working on repairing the damaged stem while I was planning the pinning repair. Some people call this multi-tasking. I call it thinking about a project a good deal while working on repairing a damaged stem. Probably because I am not good at multitasking. Anyway, the stem needed to have new material built up where there were dents in the rubber. I used layers of black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) spritzed with a CA drying accelerator.

The new CA was then filed flat with a flat needle file and sanded with a 320 grit sanding sponge.

Additional CA and drying accelerator were used to further fill any tiny depressions. These were again filed and sanded.

I was still thinking about the pinning project when I moved on to the next phase – cleaning the stummel. I was not dirty so I skipped scrubbing it and moved right to wiping it off with acetone moistened make-up pads. There was a light clear coat on the briar that I wanted rid of. The acetone worked well at removing it.

It was finally time. I had thought myself into a plan of action. Drill two holes with the 1.2 mm drill bit in my battery hand drill. Drill a third hole at the end of the crack , also 1.2 mm, to stop further crack enlargement. I wanted the angle to be dissimilar and through the thickest part of the shank. The holes were drilled and the brass rods inserted.

The final hole was a hole for terminating the crack.

The brass pins were cut then roughed with a file to allow more surface area for the epoxy to adhere to. I would recommend roughening the brass rod before the pins are cut to length as they would be easier to hold. A mistake I’ll probably make again…

The aluminum of the tenon was covered with Vaseline petroleum Jelly to avoid CA or epoxy glue from adhering to the aluminum. Sidenote: When drilling the pinning hole to the left, I accidentally made the hole too far into the threads. This meant that I either had to drill the mortise larger cutting into the brass rod or, to file the first 3-4 mm of threads off the tenon. I chose to file the aluminum threads of the tenon. You can see in the photo below the threads had been filed off.

The 2 part epoxy was mixed according to package instructions. I would recommend against accidentally squeezing way too much epoxy resin onto your mixing surface, like I did.

I applied a drop of thin clear CA for the crack. The Vaseline coated aluminum tenon was rethreaded into the mortise. The thin formula allowed the CA to penetrate the crack. A Vaseline coated clamp was used to clamp the crack closed as much as possible.

After the CA had cured, a couple of minutes later, I used a fly tying bodkin to push some of the epoxy into the pinning holes. The roughened brass rods were then pressed into the holes. When doing this make sure the brass rods are a couple of mm shorter than the length of the hole. This was another mistake which I made. I thought I had cut them short enough so that I could fill the holes on either end of the brass rod. I am not sure how I messed this part up. Either I accidentally switched the rods when placing the pins or I cut the rods too close to the same length as the holes. I dipped a cotton swab into acetone and cleaned any epoxy from the surface of the shaft.

The glued pins were set aside allowing the epoxy to cure for 2 hours. After the epoxy had cured, a small drop of brown CA was applied to each end of the hole and a small amount of briar dust was pressed into the CA moistened hole. Once cured this would be the first layer of the fill. The cured CA briar dust fill was then filed slat with a flat needle file and smoothed with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

The filling of the pinning holes was repeated on the adjacent side of the shaft. The below photo shows the brown CA applied to the hole.

Below you can see the briar dust had been pressed into the CA.

The stamps were then taped with painters tape to protect them and the stummel was sanded with the sequence of sanding sponges from 400-3500. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad.

The tape protecting the stapes was removed and the stummel was polished with a sequence of 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad.

The stummel then received a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and was allowed to sit for 30 minutes.

30 minutes later the Balm was wiped away with an inside out athletic sock. The pipe was then taken to the buffer where several coats of carnauba wax were applied with the buffer.

I would like to say that I am pleased with the restoration of this Forecaster Bulldog but there were just too many flaws to make me truly happy. Some were my mistakes or “learning experiences” others were just damage to the pipe. Yes, it does look better than it did originally and it is structurally more sound This one was certainly challenging, but to drill and pin the shank crack using hand tools was difficult. Perhaps a darker base coat dye with some contrast would have been a wise move to conceal the repairs. I rack this restoration up as a learning experience for me and I am looking forward to seeing how well the pinning holds up under normal wear and tear. I will be keeping and using this pipe as a “work” pipe for tasks like mowing, truck maintenance, gardening etc, where it will get more rough treatment to better test the pinning fortitude. Also, the stem repairs look far worse in the photos than in normal room lighting. I swear, they do, really. The dimensions of this Forecaster Bulldog are:

Length: 4.66 in./ 118.36 mm.

Weight: 0.90 oz./ 25.51 g.

Bowl Height: 1.31 in./ 33.27 mm.

Chamber Depth: 0.85 in./ 21.59 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.67 in./ 17.02 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.51 in./ 38.35 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Forecaster Bulldog
A Peterson 87 Spigot Restoration

May 21st, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Well, my Peterson Pipe Acquisition Disorder (PPAD) has once again come out of remission. I didn’t think that self medicating and meditation via fishing would keep it at bay for very long and I was correct. Go me! How could I say no to this little darling when it appeared with a buy now price less than ½ that of a new spigot. As soon as I got the notification I looked and clicked the “hello PPAD button”.

The pipe shipped quickly after an excruciating 3 day long posting time by the seller. I know, they were building anticipation, right? Don’t they realize the importance of immediate gratification to a poor soul suffering a terrible PPAD episode? Within a week the Peterson Spigot made it from North Hollywood, California to the wilds of southeast Nebraska. Below are some photos of the pipe as it appeared prior to any work.

Yeah, it has the potential to be a real looker and another yeah, it has a green tint towards the bottom. I’ve never experienced a Peterson with a clear coat quite like this. It will have to go. There is a lava outcrop on the rim flowing over the edges. The tobacco chamber needs a good reaming and inspection. The shank and stem look disgusting, um, I mean well used. But that grain is gorgeous.

Peterson Background

For a complete history of the Peterson Pipe I cannot even begin to do justice to the subject. Mark Irwin and the late Gary Malmberg have done a wonderful job with this in their book, image and purchase link below.

(https://www.smokingpipes.com/accessories/books/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=471478)

For a shorter and less costly history I will include a few good links for those who are interested:
- Peterson Pipes History (Peterson Pipes History (#1 Best Source) – TobaccoPipes.com)
- A Primer on Peterson Pipes (A Primer on Peterson Pipes | PipesMagazine.com)
- System Day 2019: 100 Years Of Peterson System Advertisements (100 Years of System Advertisements – Peterson Pipes | Smokingpipes.com)
For the history of this pipe I will start here with a quote from smokingpipes.com describing the 86 Spigot pipe:

“Peterson: Green Spigot (87) Fishtail Tobacco Pipe

Product Number: 002-029-114391

Peterson’s “87” is a straight Apple in classic Peterson style, with a bit of extra heft to its shank relative to the bowl and a tapered stem that keeps things balanced throughout. It’s still a robust, hearty smoker, that has no problem upholding the marque’s characteristically bold style and features a bowl that is capacious enough to thoroughly enjoy your favorite tobacco, yet small enough so that it doesn’t require a major time commitment.

Along with their signature shaping style, Peterson of Dublin is renowned for their silverwork. The journey of becoming a Peterson silversmith requires years of training and personal mentorship from the factory’s senior craftsmen, and the superlative results testify to such a demanding, lengthy process — each worker having engineered his own mandrel to the extent that every metal accoutrement made is imprinted with the subtle, personal style of the one who machined it. Peterson’s Spigot line was created in 1977, after discovering an old Peterson catalog from 1906 that pictured pipes with spigot mounts, and the series is among the best at showcasing the Irish marque’s signature silver treatment, fitting sterling silver around both the shank end and stem base in a spigot-mount arrangement. The construction provides further reinforcement and durability and highlights even more sterling silver than would be used for a standard military mount. Presented here in the Green finish, the flashy, regal metal is paired to Peterson’s signature emerald stain for a unique, distinctly Irish take on the dress pipe aesthetic.

-Truett Smith” (https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/new/peterson/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=607279) Written as a true advertising genius, well said Mr. Smith.

Pipedia.org discussed the spigots in general. “Gold & Silver Spigots: The Peterson Spigot is characterised by a gold or sterling silver covering on the tapered end of the mouthpiece which complements the sterling silver band of the pipe. The Spigot style evolved from the practice of soldiers in earlier centuries who repaired broken pipes by sliding a used cartridge case over the shank and reinserting the mouthpiece. In this unique spigot finished pipe, Peterson craftsmanship perfect the union of finest quality briar and precious metals. The silver or gold is spun to shape and then fitted to the pipe.

These are amongst the most attractive and collectable pipes in the Peterson range of pipe issues. They just ooze quality. Prices start at around $200 and rise to $800 for the Gold versions.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson)

The final point to discuss here is the year that this pipe was produced. Peterson’s hallmarking is a great way to precisely date a Peterson pipe. Here are links to Peterson’s hallmarks (Hallmarks – Peterson Pipe Notes) and (PPN-Hallmark-Chart.pdf (petersonpipenotes.org))

The image to the left is a screen clip of the PPN-Hallmark-Chart. While the photo below is the hallmark of this pipe.

This dates the 87 Spigot in the Year of Our Lord 2012.

The Restoration

As usual the work surface received a cleanish denim piece.

I started with a make-up pad dipped in acetone to see if the finish was susceptible to acetone. I hoped so. I was not. The acetone did remove the lava from the rime nicely as can be seen on the pad below.

As I was considering options for removing the clear coat I began working on reaming the tobacco chamber. The tools were assembled; PipNet with #2 blades, General triangular scraper, 320 sandpaper wrapped wood dowel and the 320 sandpaper wrapped Sharpie marker.

The reaming and sanding of the chamber went well and revealed a tobacco chamber with no damage.

Still pondering the finish removal, I started cleaning the airway of the shank. Scraping with a dental scraper, numerous cotton swabs, bristle pipe cleaners and a good amount of 95% ethyl alcohol later the airway was clean.

Still thinking about finish removal, I started cleaning the stem. Again the ethyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners came to use.

The acrylic stem needed minimal exterior work. I sanded it with 1000-3500 sanding sponges then polished it with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000.

During the above cleaning I decided to try physical removal of the finish over chemical removal. Great care would have to be taken around the stamps but how hard could this finish really be, right? I started sanding the finish on one side of the stummel. Good Lord the stuff was hard. Impervious, adamantine, diamond coated, were terms that came to mind. I changed my mind after about 20 minutes of sanding and barely making a dent in the finish. This was a job for modern chemistry.

A couple of years ago I purchased a very cool used pipe rack for my son-in-law. It needed to be stripped and refinished. During my college days I spent one summer stripping and refinishing school gym floors. We used methylene chlorine and it would eat its way through polyurethane finish in minutes. It was also highly toxic and probably an environmental menace. I wondered what products had been developed more recently for stripping finishes. I settled on a non-toxic product called Max Strip Paint and Varnish Stripper.

(Max Strip)

It worked quite well on the pipe rack and seemed to live up to the non-toxic reputation. The pipe rack also turned out amazingly well and was a great Christmas present. I reread the toxicity information and decided that it should be okay for use with pipes.

Application of stripper 1. It seemed much thinner than I remembered it. Hmm, perhaps reading the directions is a good idea.

Oh yeah, shake the container well. That made it much thicker, like I remembered. The stummel was coated with a thick coating of the stripper and set bowl down in a disposable plastic dish.

After 12 hours I wiped the stripper from the stummel using paper towels and rinsed it under a stream of water while scrubbing with a Scotch Brite pad. The side where I had sanded the finish looked better than the rest of the stummel but none of it looked stripped. I took it out into the sunlight for a better look and photos. The scratches that can be seen were from the Scotch Brite pad.

The shiny areas of remaining finish were evident.

The stripper did manage to eat it’s way through the disposable plastic dish.

Read those instructions again. OK, it says to “scrape” the stripper and old finish from the surface. I also used glass this time as a tray to catch the excess stripper.

Application 2.

After 2 hours I scraped the stripper with a sharp kitchen paring knife. This worked much better.

You can see the stripes where my scraping wasn’t well aligned. I tried sanding with a 320 sanding sponge. The stummel still had a layer of the clear coat that the sandpaper would barely touch. The dust came off as a white powder or as a pastel green powder indicative of finish, not the reddish brown of briar.

After the scraping the stummel was again rinsed with copious running water and further Scotch Brite scrubbing.

Application 3. Freshly sharpened knife and dental scraper at the ready. I allowed the stripper to do it’s thing for an hour then scraped the stripper from the stummel. Again I rinsed with water and scrubbed with the Scotch Brite pad.

The stummel looked better but still not free of the clear coat of stain. I decided to try an acetone wipe to see what would happen. To my surprise the make-up pad wetted with acetone came away with a good deal of green. It was as if the stripper had softened the finish and it was now susceptible to acetone. Yay!

I got out the acetone jar and submerged the stummel into the solvent.

The stummel was allowed to soak in the acetone for one hour. I then removed it with nitrile gloved hands. The green was gone along with the finish. I won!

Another make-up pad wetted with clean acetone and very little color came off the stummel.

I lightly sanded the stummel with the 320 sanding sponge. There were still some areas where the sandpaper would not “cut” as with briar but these quickly sanded away. The below two photos are again outside in sunlight.

The beautiful brain was still there but all of the previous dye/stain had been removed. This required a rebuilding of dye to emphasize the grain I’d seen before. I made a difficult decision to not use green. I knew this would violate the “restore” part of restoration but this was going to be a personal use pipe rather than a resale so keeping it original was not as high on the list of priorities. I also feared the fading of the new green requiring another refinishing.

The lack of finish also made several pits very noticeable. These were filled with brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust. The old fill material was picked from the stummel using a fly tying bodkin. A small drop of brown CA was then applied to the pits and briar dust was pressed into the wet CA. The new fills were filed with a flat needle file and smoothed with a 320 sandpaper sponge. Where needed a second application of CA was used and sanded allowing the sanding to provide the briar dust.

Additional sanding of the stummel required that the stamps be protected with a layer of painters tape.

The stummel was then sanded with the 400 sanding sponge. The stummel was nor ready to have the briar grain reemphasized. I used a black Fiebing’s Leather dye as a base for contrast dying.

The black dye was applied with a folded pipe cleaner and flamed with a disposable lighter to burn off the alcohol and set the dye to the briar.

I then rinsed the stummel with 70% isopropyl alcohol over the sink to remove some excess dye.

Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with several make-up pads wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol to remove the black dye from the surface.

Next came the sanding of the stummel to remove the outer layer of dyed briar. The sanding continued from the 400-3500 sanding sponges. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with ethyl alcohol.

To restore a bit of the original color to the stummel I used a “wash” of 95% ethyl alcohol with orange Fiebing’s Leather dye mixed at about 3:1 (3 parts alcohol to one part orange).

The stummel was then micro-meshed using the 4000-12000 pads. Between each pad the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad lightly wetted with ethyl alcohol.

The stummel was then coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 30 minutes.

30 minutes later the excess Restoration Balm was wiped away using an inside out athletic sock. There’s that grain I had been waiting to see.

The pipe was then taken to the puffer to receive several coats of carnauba wax applied with the buffer.

I am pretty happy with the restoration of this Peterson 87 Spigot. It is a shape that I love and I only have one other spigot. The spigot system is very handy as well as classy looking. This one was certainly challenging to remove the dreaded clear coat. I lament the loss in clarity of the stamps but that is the price paid to be rid of the clear coat. The contrast dying came out well as did the color of the finished Spigot. The minor dents in the silverwork were not repairable by me but it does save me the trouble of having to dent them myself, I guess. I am becoming more and more a fan of acrylic stems. Their ease of maintenance is nice and I really don’t find their hardness to be an issue. The dimensions of this 87 Spigot are:

Length: 6.09 in./ 154.69 mm.

Weight: 1.47 oz./ 41.8 g.

Bowl Height: 1.77 in./ 44.96 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.42 in./ 36.07 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.73 in./ 18.54 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.47 in./ 37.34 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Peterson 87 Spigot

Yeah, the stampings did take a beating from all the stripper, dying and sanding.