NebraskaPeteGeek

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.
A Yello-Bole Chesterfield (1933-1936) Restoration

May 16th, 2024
Written and photographed by

John M. Young

In the past I have written about how I think Yello-Bole pipes are considered the Cinderella of the KB&B line. Kind of like the homely, overworked but trustworthy step-sister from the Disney adaptations. When that ugly clearcoat is removed there is frequently beautiful grain underneath also like the Cinderella story, when the heroine gets all gussied-up she is a beautiful young woman. I guess that makes me the Fairy Godmother or Godfather in this restoration. Now if I could just get some magical forest critters to do the work for me…

I go through phases. For a while I was hunting for estate pipe lots, then I started targeting individual specimens of interest then back to lots. Currently I am in specific targeting mode again. This one was a targeted acquisition from eBay. It made the journey from Fleming Island Florida to the wilds of southeast Nebraska and looked to be in very good condition after the travels. Here are some photos of the Chesterfield before any work had been done.

Bah, they even lacquered the aluminum collar. Stupid clear coat.

Judging by the faded stummel and the heavily oxidized stem this pipe had been stored or displayed out in the light. It had not been used heavily as evidenced by the lack of smoking residue in the reservoir and the still visible yellow bowl coating. The stem also showed minimal tooth chatter. There was still plenty to do to make this old girl into the Belle of the Ball.

Yello-Bole Background

A couple of reasons I was bidding on this pipe were that I had never resotored a Chesterfield and the “Honey Cured Briar” stamp. This is a bit more of a rarity than the usual “Cured with Real Honey”. According to pipedia.org, “Pipes from 1933-1936 they were stamped “Honey Cured Briar” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Yello-Bole). That provides pretty finite dates for this old pipe.

Back in March I blogged about a Yello-Bole billiard. In this blog I wrote about the history of the company and will include that here. Yello-Bole was started as a processor of briar that did not meet the quality standards for Kaywoodie pipes. I’ll allow pipedia.org to tell the story as a more reputable source than my failing memory.

“In 1932 Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy (KB&B), est. 1851, expanded their programm consisting of KB&B pipes, Reiss-Premier and Kaywoodie as the mainstay brand by introducing the Yello-Bole line. Yello- Bole was designed as an outlet for lower grade briar not used in Kaywoodie production.

At that time KB&B produced their brands in Union City and in West New York, both New Jersey. Deviating from that, Yello-Boles were manufactured by The New England Briar Pipe Company in Penacook, New Hampshire to use this KB&B subsidiary to capacity.1966 Add

As briar was hardly had during World War II, the KB&B Company embarked on a project of domestically grown briar wood, called Mission Briar or manzanita early in 1941. The Pacific Briarwood Company, a subsidiary founded for this purpose, began harvesting the burls growing on the slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. Though this wood is botanically the same as briar form the Mediterranean countries, the smoking characteristics were not quite as good and the project was abandoned after the war.

Was it for that reason? Advertising from the 1940’s pictures the Yello-Bole “Honey Girl”, who gently urges the pipe smoker to smoke the pipe with “a little honey in every bowl.” In fact, honey was an ingredient of the material used to coat the inside of the bowl. It was said to provide a faster, sweeter break-in of the pipe.

In 1952, 101 years after the Kaufmann brothers had opened a small pipe shop in the Bowery section of New York City, Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy Company with all subsidiaries was purchased by an unknown company strange to pipe industry. (At least, the new owner was economical because the KB&B managers had to leave their luxurious bureaus on 630 Fifth Avenue, New York – the Rockefeller Center – for new rooms in the factory on 6400 Broadway, West New York.) This interlude ended after only 3 years in March of 1955, when S. M. Frank & Co. bought Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy, The Kaywoodie Company, Reiss-Premier Corp., The New England Briar Pipe Co. and – of course – Yello-Bole.

From the time of S.M. Frank’s purchase in 1955 until 1972 Yello-Bole was run as a separate company, as division of the parent. Through this period, Yello-Bole, same as Kaywoodie, had it’s own officers, sales force and maintained the production facilities in West New York. These 17 years were probably the most glorious years in Yello-Bole’s history.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Yello-Bole).

“Tips for Dating Yello-Bole Pipes
- KBB stamped in the clover leaf indicates it was made in 1955 or earlier as they stopped this stamping after being acquired by S.M. Frank.
- Pipes from 1933-1936 they were stamped “Honey Cured Briar”
- Post 1936 pipes were stamped “Cured with Real Honey”
- Pipe stems stamped with the propeller logo were made in the 1930’s or 1940’s – no propellers were used after the 1940’s.
- Yello Bole used a 4 digit code stamped on the pipe in the 1930’s.
- Pipes with the Yello-Bole circle stamped on the shank it were made in the 1930’s, this stopped after 1939.
- Pipes stamped BRUYERE rather than BRIAR it was made in the 1930’s.”
(https://pipedia.org/wiki/Yello-Bole).

Using the above guidelines this pipe represents the 1st and 2nd bullet points:
1. KBB stamped in the clover leaf
2. “Honey Cured Briar”
The Restoration

With the usual clean denim piece placed, I began with the stem on this restoration. I knew it was going to require a bit of time in the Before and After Deoxidizing solution or, deox, as I like to call it. I cleaned the airway with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. The exterior was rubbed with 0000 steel wool in an attempt to remove the oldest of the oxidation.

The stem then received a pipe cleaner to act as a hanger and handle for lowering it into the deox. I left the stem soaking for 2-2.5 hours.

During the deox time I turned my attention to the stummel. I began with reaming the tobacco chamber with the PiNet and #2 blades. The original yellow bowl coating was still slightly pliable and made reaming difficult. That and the more conical drilling is why the Scotte Stainless Steel Reaming tool was also used to ream the bottom of the chamber. The Generar triangular scraper had no difficulty scraping it away. The chamber was then sanded using 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel followed by 320 sandpaper wrapped around a Sharpie marker.

No damage from heat was expected nor discovered.

The stummel was then taken to the sink for a scrub. The scrub was done with a medium stiff toothbrush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with numerous make-up pads soaked in acetone. This removed the clear coat and a good deal of the excess red stain from the briar. I used a nylon scrub brush dipped in acetone to free the stampings of the clear coat covering them.

The removal of the clear coat revealed 3 old fills which had softened from the acetone. The old material was picked from the pits and they were refilled using brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust.

The new fills were smoothed with a flat needle file, topped with a small drop of brown CA then sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

The stummel received painters tape over the stamps to protect them from sanding or polishing in the case of the aluminum collar.

The collar was taken to the buffer where it was polished with red buffing compound followed by buffing with white compound.

The stummel was sanded with a sequence of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grits. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad.

After sanding the stummel, I worked with the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Between each pad the stummel was wiped with an alcohol moistened make-up pad.

The stummel then had a coat of Before and After Restoration Balm applied and was allowed to sit for about 30 minutes.

It was time to work on the stem. I retrieved it from deox and allowed the solution to drip from the stem.

And drip.

And drip.

Finally I used a coarse shop rag to wipe away the remaining excess deox solution. I like the shop rag as it is rough textured and it makes me think it is helping abrade away oxidized rubber while wiping.

Stimm quite a bit of brown.

Many make-up pads with Soft Scrub later the stem was looking better. I took it to the buffer and buffed it with red followed by white buffing compounds to remove more of the stubborn oxidation.

The stummel was wiped clean of the Restoration Balm with an inside out athletic sock. The sock had many white hairs from the local White German Shepherd. I am not sure if this is a necessary part of the restoration but it seems inevitable in this house.

Tha stem was looking far better after the buffing however I worked it over with the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads anyway. Between each pad I wiped the stem with a drop of Obsidian Oil.

The last step was to apply several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer.

I am very pleased with the restoration of this Yello-Bole Chesterfield and can attest to it being a very good smoking pipe. The time honored and proven Peterson system works well with or without the name “Peterson” stamped on the pipe. The removal of the clear coat allowed the briars grain to be seen and appreciated. The stem still shows some signs of the heavy oxidation but cleaned-up quite well. The drilling of the stem is excellent and would make Charles Peterson proud to be imitated so well. I know Peterson litigated patent infringers early on but am unaware of any litigation against KB&B. Although patent law in the US allows 20 years of protection from the time the original patent is filed. That would have made KB&B free to imitate after 1911.

The dimensions of this Chesterfield are:

Length: 5.31 in./ 134.87 mm.

Weight: 0.96 oz./ 27.4 g.

Bowl Height: 1.71 in./ 43.43 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.47 in./ 37.37 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.66 in./ 16.76 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.19 in./ 30.23 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 Yello-Bole Chesterfield.
A Gold Medal First Prize Lovat Restoration

May 14th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Why do I keep doing this to myself? Here we have another wonderfully shaped pipe made with; quality briar, decent grain pattern that is well constructed and has a very pretty and unique stem. “So, what is the problem?”, you ask. I can find next to nothing on the maker of this delightful darling.

Let me show you some photos taken of the Gold Medal Lovat before any work was done to it.

The first places searched were pipedia.org and pipephil.eu. Neither of these sites had anything on the Gold Medal. Next was a Google search, it turned-up a reference to a very similar pipe. The stampings appear to be very similar to the pipe I have in hand, though the stem is quite different. I realize that the stem on the Gold Medal that I have could be a replacement but, I would prefer to think it original.

Gold Medal First Prize Century Imported Briar Tobacco Estate Pipe | #4573590166 (worthpoint.com)

I can safely say that whoever made the Gold Medal Lovat, made more than one of them. I remembered seeing a Peterson pipe stamped with Gold Block. In researching that memory, I came across Mark Irwin’s Peterson Pipe Notes blog post about the Gold Block Petersons. I will link the blog here, https://petersonpipenotes.org/tag/gold-block/, for those who are interested. In a nutshell, Gold Block was a pipe tobacco. “To qualify for the 1987 offer, one had to send them £9.95 and proof of purchase for three tins of their Gold Block tobacco.” (https://petersonpipenotes.org/tag/gold-block/). The same thing that American tobacco companies were doing with the coupon pipes like; Broadcaster, Van Roy, Silver MacDuff, Bruce Peters, Dr Grabow Westbrook, etc… At the end of this blog, if it ever does end, I will add links to other coupon pipes which I have restored.

Perhaps this Gold Medal Lovat was a promotional pipe affiliated with a tobacco brand. I started searching Gold Medal as a pipe tobacco rather than a pipe. Again a paltry amount of information but a couple of images did come up.

(Gold Medal Tobacco Tin • Antique Advertising)

(Gold Medal Tobacco Tin • Antique Advertising)

They are asking well over $200 for those old tobacco tins. I am apparently in the wrong business. Now there was information on Cameron and Cameron.

(https://rocketwerks.tumblr.com/post/185175224571/cameron-cameron-aka-kinney-tobacco-co-cameron)

(https://antiqueadvertisingexpert.com/project/cameron-cameron-co-richmond-va-finest-grade-tobacco-can-circa-1920/)

“By 1870 the tobacco-manufacturing companies owned by Alexander Cameron, William Cameron, and their younger brother, George Cameron, were among the largest in Richmond and Petersburg, and by continuing to expand their business throughout the remainder of the century, they made it one of the largest such enterprises operated by Americans at that time. They sold tobacco around much of the world through agents in Australia, China, India, Japan, South Africa, Europe, and North America. Although each company operated independently, they all worked together buying, manufacturing, and selling all forms of tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, plug tobacco, and smoking tobacco. In 1886 William Cameron retired, leaving the management of the far-flung business in the hands of Alexander Cameron and George Cameron, who purchased another Richmond firm within two years to create A. and G. Cameron and Sizer, later known as Cameron and Cameron.

By early in the 1890s the Camerons’ factories in Richmond and Petersburg alone employed hundreds of workers and could produce as much as four million pounds of tobacco each year. Alexander Cameron and his partners began to face increasing competition from the American Tobacco Company, created in 1890, which continually undercut the prices of independent manufacturers. Cameron attempted to compete but ultimately decided to retire from the business, and by 1904 he had sold the Cameron factories to the new British-American Tobacco Company.” (https://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Cameron_Alexander)

British-American Tobacco (BAT) is one of the world’s largest tobacco companies today. Their business is mainly selling cigarettes all over the world to people who want them and being sued all over the world by countries who want to share in the profits of BAT by doing none of the work. The sale of the Cameron tobacco business to BAT was done far earlier than this pipe. To me, it has the look of a much more recent vintage than a turn of the century specimen.

Well jumping down that rabbit hole, though entertaining and educational, delivered little information on the Gold Medal Lovat. How about turning to the stem and see where that may lead. The stem is some strange rubber that is soluble in 95% ethyl alcohol. More on that later. It has no stamps but does have a single brass dot on the upper surface. I searched through pipephil.eu for similar stems. I looked back at the stampings. SYNCHRO was an obvious clue. The Synchro-Stem was a Kaywoodie patent from 1932.

(Document: Kaywoodie’s SynchroStem patent — Pipes : Logos & Markings – (pipephil.eu))

The aluminum mortise and tenon are similar to a Kaywoodie synchro-Stem but the Gold Medal has twice as long a set of threads as a Kaywoodie. Another difference is the draft hole in the aluminum tenon extension. Kaywoodie draft holes are at an angle which makes cleaning with a pipe cleaner easier. The Gold Medal stem has a draft hole which is drilled perpendicular to the airway. I am sure this is easier to manufacture but makes cleaning more difficult. More on this later.

On the opposite side of the shank from the SYNCHRO stamp is a country of manufacture (COM) ITALY. The only Italian made Kaywoodies were very recent pipes, “The S.M. Frank Co. now owns the Kaywoodie name, but no longer makes pipes. However, Italian made “drugstore” grade Kaywoodies are still being marketed in this country. These Italian-made Kaywoodies have a “whiteoutline” cloverleaf logo.” (Collector’s Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes – Pipedia). Bah, another dead end.

Let’s see what can be found from the CENTURY OLD stamp. A search of CENTURY OLD leads to the following: “It’s possible this pipe was made by Lorenzo, who marked some of their pipes as Century Old Briar, although the script here is different. This pipe has a similar rustication to the Lloyds Canadian example seen below” (Century Old – Pipedia).

Comparing the above from pipedia.org to the Gold Medal the font is more italic above and block lettered below.

According to pipedia.org Lorenzo has a line of pipes called Lloyds. “Lloyd’s was strictly a Lorenzo second.”(Lorenzo – Pipedia)
- Lloyds Examples and details, courtesy Doug Valitchka
”

(Lorenzo – Pipedia)

As you can see the stamping here reads CENTURY OLD over BRIAR ITALY. Again far different than the Gold Medal but the Italy connection is present and if you are familiar with Lorenzo pipes there was a good deal of orange stained briar produced by Lorenzo. Orange is the color of the Gold Medal stem. Yeah, I am reaching for a link…

How about that nifty brass dot? Single brass dots are a bit more rare and may provide some insight. Savinelli’s Punto Oro line uses a single brass dot but let’s be honest,

Savinelli would never stoop so low as to have an aluminum mortise and tenon. I could not find any other Italian makers who had used a single brass dot as a stem logo. The last thing I thought about was the four pointed star on the stem of the worthpoint.com Gold Medal. Guess what, there is one maker who uses a four point star – Five Stars.

Again, not helpful as Five Stars is a French pipe maker. A whole lot of nothing when it comes to the provenance of this Gold Medal Lovat. I am really wanting to go back to restoring Yello-Boles and their well documented histories.

The Restoration

As usual I began with a clean denim work surface.

This restoration began with the stem. It is an amazing stem. It has the tooth feel of vulcanite but it softens with 95% ethyl alcohol like some plastics. The stem with alcohol on my finger felt slick initially then became sticky. Upon the alcohol evaporating the stem returned to its normal feel. I took this to mean that cleaning it with alcohol was not the best option. I ran a few pipe cleaners dipped in alcohol through the stem before making this discovery. Afterwards, I used Castile Soap and hot water to scrub the airway of the stem.

The next step was the reaming of the tobacco chamber. The cake built up in the chamber was very hard and resisted the PipNet with the #2 blades. I used the General scraper to scrape the majority of the cake and finished with the PipNet. The chamber was then sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wooden dowel. This was followed by sanding with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a Sharpie marker.

Below is a photo of the chamber after sanding and wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad. No evidence of heat damage was observed in the chamber.

The rim had lava deposits as seen in the below photo.

These were removed by wetting the rim with saliva and scraping the rim using a sharp pocket knife.

Next came the cleaning of the airway inside the shank. I poured 4-5 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the tobacco chamber and allowed the alcohol to flow into the shank. I then used a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway with the alcohol. The alcohol was then poured from the airway into a medicine cup. I also used cotton swab and folded bristle pipe cleaners in the scrubbing. The aluminum mortise did not allow for effective scraping of the airway with a dental scraper thus making the scrubbing process longer and more difficult. I repeated the alcohol/nylon brush scrub followed by the pipe cleaners/cotton swabs numerous times.

Eventually I was tired of the airway scrubbing and needed to give my cramping hands a break. I took the stummel to the sink for a scrub of the exterior. This was done with a medium stiff toothbrush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and then dried with a cotton hand towel. While I was at the sink I scrubbed the airway with a nylon brush and some Dawn dish soap. This did remove some tar from the airway , based on the color of the lather.

Back at the workbench I continued with the airway scrubbing. The color of the alcohol was getting lighter and the cotton swabs less discolored from the tar residue. You can also see from the below photo that a good deal of the pipe’s finish was removed by the Murphy’s Oil Soap scrub.

Eventually the stummel was rid of the tar in the airway. A light sanding and wipings with 95% ethyl alcohol removed the remaining finish and revealed the spots that required either old fill removal or spots to fill. Old fill material was picked out using a fly tying bodkin. The depressions received a small drop of brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) applied with the bodkin then a pinch of briar dust was pressed into the wet CA. The below photos show the CA/briar dust fills.

The excess briar dust was brushed away and then topped with another small dab of brown CA. They were then filed using a flat needle file and smoothed with a 400 grit sanding sponge. Below you can see photos of the dark appearing sanded fills.

The stamps were taped with painters tape to protect them from the sanding that was to come. The pipe was sanded with a sequence of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grits. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad. Due to the small size and close quarters of this stem, I chose to use the buffer with red buffing compound rather than sanding.

After the sanding the stem and stummel were worked with the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Between each pad the stummel was wiped with an alcohol moistened make-up pad. The stem received a small drop of Obsidian Oil rubbed in by fingertip and wiped with a paper towel.

The pipe was then liberally coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes the excess Restoration Balm was wiped away using an inside out athletic sock.

A quick trip to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax finished this Lovat up quite nicely.

Overall I think this Gold Medal First Prize Lovat restored very well. In hindsight, I think it would have looked very interesting with a contrast stain of black and maybe a top coat of orange to match with the stem colors. The existing stain looks good with the stem but I just wonder how a contrast stained stummel would look. The dimensions of the lovat are as follows::

Length: 5.33 in./ 135.38 mm.

Weight: 1.11 oz./ 31.50 g.

Bowl Height: 1.72 in./ 43.69 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.49 in./ 37.85 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.76 in./ 19.30 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.34 in./ 34.04 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 Gold Medal First Prize Lovat

As promised some coupon pipe restorations (yeah, I may have a problem):

A Dr Grabow Westbrook Triangle Dublin Restoration

A Millard Dublin Restoration

A Vox Pop Superb Briar Air Conditioned Zulu Restoration

A Silver MacDuff Restoration

A Bruce Peters Dublin Restoration

A Broadcaster Billiard Renovation

A Van Roy Bard Selected Grain Restoration

A Ludwig and Hugo Stern (LHS) Sculptured Purex Dublin

An Amphora Bent Billiard Restoration

A Dr. Grabow Westbrook Restoration
A Yello-Bole Yacht (1933-1936) Restoration

May 9th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Here I go again, making you all read about some of my favorites rather than going out and finding obscure makers to educate myself about the history of pipes and pipe smoking. But just look at the curves and lines of that adorable, dare I say sexy yacht shape Yello-Bole. And to think she is 90 years old. How can that not be of interest?

Yes, Yello-Bole was considered a second of Kaywoodie but, in my mind, that is like calling Mary Ann a second to Ginger on Gilligan’s Island. I always thought Mary Ann was way prettier than Ginger. But what do I know, I like Yello-Boles. I also think that the pre-Second World War pipes were of a higher quality than those of post-WWII. The mass production, limited briar and lower quality of briar in general probably all played a role in the decline of quality. Then again I may be looking through some weird romanticized glasses. I do need to get to the eye doctor.

Yello-Bole Background

Being a proud member of Generation X, I will refer to one of my previous blogs about Yello-Bole for an account of the brand’s history and the age of this specimen (https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.wordpress.com/3929):

“ Yello-Bole started as a processor of briar that did not meet the quality standards for Kaywoodie pipes. I’ll allow pipedia.org to tell the story as a more reputable source than my failing memory.

“In 1932 Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy (KB&B), est. 1851, expanded their programm consisting of KB&B pipes, Reiss-Premier and Kaywoodie as the mainstay brand by introducing the Yello-Bole line. Yello- Bole was designed as an outlet for lower grade briar not used in Kaywoodie production.

At that time KB&B produced their brands in Union City and in West New York, both New Jersey. Deviating from that, Yello-Boles were manufactured by The New England Briar Pipe Company in Penacook, New Hampshire to use this KB&B subsidiary to capacity.1966 Add

As briar was hardly had during World War II, the KB&B Company embarked on a project of domestically grown briar wood, called Mission Briar or manzanita early in 1941. The Pacific Briarwood Company, a subsidiary founded for this purpose, began harvesting the burls growing on the slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. Though this wood is botanically the same as briar form the Mediterranean countries, the smoking characteristics were not quite as good and the project was abandoned after the war.

Was it for that reason? Advertising from the 1940’s pictures the Yello-Bole “Honey Girl”, who gently urges the pipe smoker to smoke the pipe with “a little honey in every bowl.” In fact, honey was an ingredient of the material used to coat the inside of the bowl. It was said to provide a faster, sweeter break-in of the pipe.

In 1952, 101 years after the Kaufmann brothers had opened a small pipe shop in the Bowery section of New York City, Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy Company with all subsidiaries was purchased by an unknown company strange to pipe industry. (At least, the new owner was economical because the KB&B managers had to leave their luxurious bureaus on 630 Fifth Avenue, New York – the Rockefeller Center – for new rooms in the factory on 6400 Broadway, West New York.) This interlude ended after only 3 years in March of 1955, when S. M. Frank & Co. bought Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy, The Kaywoodie Company, Reiss-Premier Corp., The New England Briar Pipe Co. and – of course – Yello-Bole.

From the time of S.M. Frank’s purchase in 1955 until 1972 Yello-Bole was run as a separate company, as division of the parent. Through this period, Yello-Bole, same as Kaywoodie, had it’s own officers, sales force and maintained the production facilities in West New York. These 17 years were probably the most glorious years in Yello-Bole’s history.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Yello-Bole).

“Tips for Dating Yello-Bole Pipes
- KBB stamped in the clover leaf indicates it was made in 1955 or earlier as they stopped this stamping after being acquired by S.M. Frank.
- Pipes from 1933-1936 they were stamped “Honey Cured Briar”
- Post 1936 pipes were stamped “Cured with Real Honey”
- Pipe stems stamped with the propeller logo were made in the 1930’s or 1940’s – no propellers were used after the 1940’s.
- Yello Bole used a 4 digit code stamped on the pipe in the 1930’s.
- Pipes with the Yello-Bole circle stamped on the shank it were made in the 1930’s, this stopped after 1939.
- Pipes stamped BRUYERE rather than BRIAR it was made in the 1930’s.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Yello-Bole).
Using the above guidelines this pipe represents the 1st, 2nd and 5th bullet points:
1. KBB stamped in the clover leaf
2. “Honey Cured Briar”
3. 4 digit code”
Now for the shape number. This is a four digit number. Using the shape chart from the Kaywoodie Collector’s Guide I made the following:

(https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kaywoodie_Shape_Numbers)

So there we have it, a 1933-36 Yello-Bole Yacht, oval bit. And a lovely Yello-Bole Yacht it is. Well, maybe not lovely now but wait until the restoration is complete… Speaking of before and after, below are some photos of the Yacht prior to any work being done.

Yeah, I know. It is kind of hard to see the loveliness in those before photos. The old girl needs to have some work done. The restoration will require, cleaning, finish stripping, dent and ding repair of the stummel and stem, oxidation removal from the stem and rebuilding of the stem’s button.

The Restoration

In my typical fashion I began with a clean (kind of, the stains are getting harder to launder) denim piece as a work surface.

The stem was removed. The stinger appeared to be quite stuck and was placed in 95% ethyl alcohol to soak.

Reaming tools were assembled. The PipNet would have to sit this restoration out since I broke the smallest size, #1 blades. The Scotte Stainless Reaming Tool would suffice along with the General triangular scraper and the 220 sandpaper wrapped dowel.

Below is a post reaming photo of the tobacco chamber showing no damage from excessive heat.

The rim was scraped with a sharp pocket knife to remove any lava and some of the charred briar.

There were several spots where the rim had been damaged by dottle knocking or other rough handling. Remedies included topping the rim by a few millimeters or filling with cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust. I chose the latter so as to not change the shape of the yacht’s proportions.

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

Back at the workbench the stummel looked significantly better. It also showed exactly where the old finish needed to be removed.

What solvent would be best for finish removal? I usually start with the least offensive and work up from there. I began with 95% ethyl alcohol on a cotton make-up pad. It removed the fishing but at a very slow and tedious rate.

Next I tried acetone on a make-up pad. Much faster results came with this solvent.

A few pads later and the finish was mostly removed. I did not want to submerge the stummel into a jar of acetone. My acetone jar is getting pretty dark with finish and stain from other pipes and I did not want to risk darkening the briar of this Yello-Bole nor did I have enough fresh acetone on hand to discard the old and make a new acetone bath.

A light sanding with a 400 grit sanding sponge followed by a make-up pad with acetone freed the thicker finish from spots. Notice the stamps still had a heavier layer of finish.

The stamps were cleared of their finish with the use of a nylon scrub brush dipped in clean acetone then scrubbed.

It turns out that the singer was immune to being pulled from the stem not my tars but by threads. Cue the Homer Simpson, “DOH!” Even though the threads look rather shoddily cut and tar filled they cleaned up nicely with alcohol and a bristle pipe cleaner. The brown dust that you see on the denim is from a light sanding of the stem with a 400 grit sanding sponge. I wipe the sponge frequently to clean the dust from the abrasive surface.

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

Next came the cleaning out of the airway in the shank. I had a feeling this one was going to be difficult and it was. I started by pouring 4-5 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the tobacco chamber and allowed it to flow into the shank. I used a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway with the alcohol. The alcohol was then poured into a medicine cup. The first time doing this is sometimes misleading. It can take a couple of applications of alcohol to get the tar and yuck loosened up and dissolve into the alcohol. Cotton swabs were used to further scrub the airway.

The process was repeated numerous times.

Feeling like I was making little progress I chose to pack the tobacco chamber and airway with cotton and saturate it with 95% ethyl alcohol and let it sit overnight.

While the alcohol was working on softening and dissolving the yuck. I set to repairing the stem. I cut a piece of plastic to use as a dam to keep the black CA from flowing into the airway.

Below you can see the placement of the dam.

The black CA was layered onto the surface of the dam then quickly flipped over to keep gravity from pulling the CA into the airway. The CA was spritzed with a CA drying accelerator. Once I had a layer of solid cured CA on the dam I no longer had to invert the stem and could slowly layer additional CA to build up the missing stem material. One of the keys to successful rebuilding of a stem is the multiple slow thin layer build up of CA rather than a thicker layering.

Once I had enough material built up I removed the dam. And sanded the end of the button flat. The newly formed button was then shaped with a flat needle file and 320 sandpaper.

Below you can see the restored/rebuilt stem with a coat of mineral oil. The Stummel had sat for over 12 hours and the cotton was now mostly dry.

I removed the cotton from the chamber and airway and resumed my cleaning with alcohol scrubbing.

For a more abrasive approach I started using two bristle pipe cleaners folded over (4 pipe cleaners in thickness). This allowed me to more forcefully scrub the airway. After many more repetitions of the alcohol- scrub-alcohol-scrub the airway was finally cleaned.

All of that scrubbing had an unintended consequence – the stem was now too loose. To remedy this I applied a small drop of black CA to two sides of the tenon. I used a paint brush to evenly spread the CA over the tenon, “painting” it in a light coat of black CA.

Once cured the back CA was sanded using a 400 grit sanding sponge until the fit was perfect.

The next task was to repair the damage around the rim of the stummel. There were several dents which required a drop of brown CA in the dent then a pinch of briar dust pressed into the CA wetted depression. A second small drop of CA was then added to the briar dust surface of the fill. This allowed the CA to fuse the briar dust into a solid mass of fill material which could then be shaped and sanded.

The fills using CA and briar dust are dark brown in color. To minimize their appearance and to enhance the briar grain, I decided to contrast stain or dye the stummel with Fiebing’s Leather Dye in black. I taped over the stampings to keep as much of the black dye as possible from the stamp areas.

The dying gear was assembled.

The stummel was coated with the black Fiebing’s Leather Dye then flamed with the disposable lighter to burn off the alcohol solvent of the dye. This also helps to set the dye into the briar. I then used 70% isopropyl alcohol to rinse the entire stummel over the sink.

Returning to the workbench I used make-up pads wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol to wipe/scrub as much of the black dye from the stummel as I could.

The stummel was then sanded with a 320 sanding sponge followed by sanding with a 400 grit sanding sponge. Below are three photos of the results of the black contrast dye after being sanded.

The stem and stummel were sanded together with the series of sanding sponges from the 600-3500 sponges. The stummel was wiped with a make-up pad moistened with alcohol.between each sponge. The stem had a light coat of mineral oil applied by fingertip then wiped with a paper towel between each sponge.

After the sanding sponges the pipe was further polished using micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000. The stummel was wiped with a make-up pad moistened with alcohol.between each pad. The stem had a drop of Obsidian Oil applied by fingertip then wiped with a paper towel between each pad.

The stem and stummel were then given a coat of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for an hour.

An hour later the Restoration Balm excess was wiped from the pipe using an inside-out athletic sock.

The pipe was then taken to the buffer where it was given several coats of carnauba wax with the buffing wheel.

I am very pleased with the restoration of this Yello-Bole yacht. I can also report that it is a very good smoking little pipe. This one will be going into my personal collection. I think the contrast staining accentuated the briar grain beautifully. The stem repair also went well and though not completely invisible is only noticeable under close scrutiny. This old Yello-bole should be in service for another 90 years and will hopefully amaze someone in the early 2110s.

The dimensions of this yacht are:
- Length: 5.31 in./ 134.87 mm.
- Weight: 0.96 oz./ 27.4 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.71 in./ 43.43 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.47 in./ 37.37 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.66 in./ 16.76 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.19 in./ 30.23 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 Yello-Bole Yacht

.