NebraskaPeteGeek

A Dr. Grabow Grand Duke Medium Bulldog Restoration.

December 27th, 2023

Written and photographed by John M. Young

When I first started this blog back on October 30, 2023 one of the first pipes I discussed was a Dr. Grabow Westbrook Dublin. In that blog I wrote: “We all know of Dr. Grabow pipes and likely have our own opinions of them. Anyway you look at it Dr. Grabow pipes are an American icon. I do not feel the need to examine the history of the brand and am including links regarding history for those who are interested.” I think that sums up how I feel today as well as it did then.

History:

Dr. Grabow Pipes: https://www.tobaccopipes.com/dr-grabow-history/#:~:text=The%20famous%20smoking%20pipe%20brand,US%20patent%20number%201.896%2C800.

Dr. Grabow on Pipedia:

https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Grabow

Dr. Grabow timeline, Pipedia:

https://pipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Grabow_Pipe_History_Timeline

Current Dr. Grabow:

https://www.drgrabow.net/

The Dr. Grabow being restored here is a Grand Duke Medium Bulldog. This pipe was part of an estate lot and was not my “target” of the lot. It was just along for the ride. I have nothing against this pipe other than a dislike for heavy clear coat finishes. Here is what this Grand Duke looked like upon arrival:

As you can see from the photos this pipe was pretty much new perhaps, only smoked a couple of times. Judging by the tobacco chamber and the filter I am inclined to say maybe only smoked once. So, what are the steps for this restoration? I am thinking that I will: Ream the bowl, strip the finish, perhaps restain/dye the stummel, polish the stem, clean the minimal residues from the airway and finish with several coats of carnauba wax.

Heavy clear coat is frequently used to hide the blemishes of a flawed briar block. I remember the Waldorf restoration where the clear coat covered and supplied a “glue” to hold literally cubic centimeters of fill in place. I have also seen beautiful pieces of briar hidden from the world with indiscriminate applications of stain and heavy finish. This is not meant to be an indictment against factory made pipes. The turning out of thousands of pipes by using the briar that the company has purchased rather than the selecting the absolute best pieces to work with is how these companies produce mass market pipes and sell them for prices that nearly anyone can afford. This means that these pipes are more of a gamble – will you get lucky and have a “magic” piece of briar or a flawed piece that will serve its purpose?

I first cleaned out the tobacco chamber, reaming is hardly the term I would choose. There was

minimal residue accumulated in the chamber. I used a Smokingpipes Low Country reaming knife and a General triangular scraper for the scraping. I finished with a 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. There was no damage to the interior of the chamber.

Next I wanted to determine which solvent would dissolve this type of finish. The easiest finish to remove is shellac. That is easily removed with 95% ethyl alcohol. Next on the “easy” scale is a varnish that is soluble in acetone. After that we move into the “poly” or as I call them “Space Age Polymers”. That is a tongue in cheek reference to the commercials advertising all kinds of crazy products during the 1960s and early 70s. I have a Kaywoodie with a finish

that I lovingly refer to as diamond coating as I cannot find anything that can affect it, short of sanding. I started the finish removal with 95% ethyl alcohol on a make-up removal pad. It had no effect on the Grand Duke finish. Next I tried acetone on a make-up pad. It did little at first but I could feel the surface becoming tacky as I rubbed. Okay, I think we have the solvent. The rubbing was far too slow a process so, I decided to submerge the stummel into an acetone bath. I keep glass canning jars of solvents for this purpose. The EtOH is an abbreviation for ethyl alcohol. I dropped the stummel into the acetone and topped it off with some fresh solvent to completely cover the stummel. I figured that I would see the results in an hour.

During the acetone bath I turned my attention to the stem. The stem was in excellent shape with only some scratches from light handling of jostling around in a drawer or shipping box. I started polishing with a 2400 micro-

mesh pad. The material was not vulcanite. It too is impervious to the ethyl alcohol but acetone quickly dissolved the plastic stem. Not to self, keep acetone away from the stem. I worked the stem with the 2400, 3200, 3600 and 4000 micro-mesh. Between each pad I would wipe the stem off with an alcohol dampened make-up pad.

After about an hour I used a forceps to remove the stummel from the acetone bath. The finish was very soft and tacky. The problem with acetone soluble finishes is

that they will re-harden with the evaporation of the acetone. That is exactly what this one was doing. I took a couple of paper towels and folded them in half to absorb the spent acetone. I then used a steel brush dipped into the acetone and lightly scrubbed the stummel. The brushing with wet acetone worked very well at removing the finish.

Once removed I sanded the stummel with 400 sandpaper and wiped the stummel down with a make-up pad moistened with alcohol. With no finish obstructing the

view, I could now see there were some serious fills that had been made to this pipe. Along the right side of the stummel there must have been a gouge that ran from about shank high to right above the bead. The rustication attempted to conceal the gouge but there had been some filling as well. I used a fly tying bodkin to remove some of the old fill material that was loose or softened. I then applied brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) to the areas where there were small pits that I wanted filled. I quickly used the 1500 micro-mesh pad to smooth these areas. The dust from the micro-meshing was incorporated into the CA and filled the small pits. I allowed the stummel to dry overnight to rid it of the acetone that had soaked into the briar. Acetone is very volatile and would be completely gone by morning. Below are photos of the pipe stripped of finish.

In the morning. I reworked the rustication with a Dremel tool and a round carving bit. This would smooth the filled areas and better blend them to mask the flaws.

There was also a little bit of old filler in the bead cuts. This made them appear like they were “clogged”. I tried to open them more with a piece of folded sandpaper. Unhappy with the result I used a cutoff disk with the Dremel tool to open them. I sanded with the previously mentioned folded sandpaper and applied the black Fiebing’s Leather Dye to the bead cuts as well.

in the briar. I used Fieding’s Black Leather Dye applied with a detail paint brush to darken the recarved areas. When the dye had dried I dabbed the

newly dyed areas with an alcohol dipped make-up pad to blend the new dye with the older. After the dye had dried I again micro-meshed the stummel with the 1500 micro-mesh pad to remove any black dye from the high spots.

With the re-carvings done, I reattached the stem and masked the stamps on both sides of the stummel with painters tape. I micro-meshed the entire pipe from the 1800-3600 micromesh pads. Between pads I wiped the pipe with an alcohol

moistened make-up pad. When finished with the 3600 micro-mesh pad, I removed the masking tape and wiped the pipe with the alcohol. I finished the micro-meshing with the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads, wiping between

each as before. The pipe was looking far better than when it arrived. I was debating whether to stain/dye the briar with a light brown leather dye. I decided to apply a coat of Before and After Restoration Balm to the pipe and see how the briar looked without a stain.

After a few minutes I used the inside of an athletic sock to remove the remaining Restoration Balm. The briar looked good, almost like a contrast stain had been used. I thought the light brown Fiebing’s unnecessary. A took the pipe to the buffer and applied several coats of carnauba wax. I normally do not use carnauba on a rusticated pipe but this one has enough smooth areas that it seemed worthwhile to do. The pipe was then hand buffed with a microfiber cloth to further enhance the shine of the smooth surfaces.

I admit that I really like the look of this Dr. Grabow Grand Duke Rhodesian. The remaining dark stain gives the natural briar the look of a light contrast stain which stands out against the dark depressions of the rustication. The highly polished stem just makes the whole pipe look even nicer. I think the restoration was a “grand” success in changing a cheap looking drugstore pipe into a pipe that will make people look twice. I love when a couple of hours work changes the subject from the old cast off or ordinary to something unique and pretty. I hope that you found something here that you can use in your own restorations or had an entertaining read. If you like this sort of thing please click the Like and Subscribe buttons. May you have a wonderful and prosperous New Year. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

Below are some photos of the finished Dr. Grabow Grand Duke Rhodesian.
A Kings Cross Bulldog Restoration

December 26th, 2023

Written and photographed by John M. Young

The return of the Kings Cross collection. Back at the end of November, I had won an auction for a lot of 6 Kings Cross pipes. I have restored the 3 Square, Kruger and a Billiard from that lot. The next victim, umm, I mean subject, was this bulldog. It had very classic lines with a slightly forward cant to the bowl, very fine beading and a saddle stem. A very attractive traditional bulldog design. When it arrived here in south east Nebraska from Rutherfordton, North Carolina, it looked to be in good condition.

The bulldog would need the normal restoration attention including: Finish removal, tobacco chamber reaming/sanding/inspection, rim topping, airway cleaning, stem revitalizing with teeth chatter removal, refilling of fills, filling of pits, stummel sanding/micro-meshing, re-staining, and carnauba wax to finish. Plus any new issues which typically arise with closer inspection. In other words, this is an easy one.

A little bit about the history of the Kings Cross line. These pipes were manufactured by the Chapuis-Comoys company.

“Kings Cross is a brand made by both Chapuis-Comoy in France using Algerian Briar. Kings Cross is also a brand name used by Savinelli, which is more commonly seen in the U.S. market. Those pipes are made using Italian Briar” (Kings Cross – Pipedia)

Chapuis is the French factory while Comoy’s’ is the English factory. The pipe has the stamp showing it is ALGERIAN BRIAR and 238 shape. This fits with the above quote from pipedia.org concerning Algerian briar. The shape number Coincides with the Comoy shape chart

(Comoy’s Shape Number Chart – Pipedia) with the “str” referring to a straight pipe, “M” medium size and “(S)” for a saddle stem.

Briar, Erica arborea, grows throughout the Mediterranean. It survives on the rocky slopes where most plants would succumb to the dry windy conditions of the Mediterranean climate’s dry season. During the wet season, fall and winter, is the growing season. “Evergreen roots descend deep into the soil to retrieve water to sustain life in an area that varies in precipitation (Tett 2003). Little land is able to be used for agriculture. Only three percent of Algeria is deemed fit for agricultural use” (https://meteor.geol.iastate.edu/~kuballc/portfolio/406%20Version%202.pdf)

The history of Algerian briar is one of Imperialism, wild species harvesting, and war. There is an amazing article about Algerian briar found in the scanned copy of November 1948 Pipe Lovers magazine.

“As is well known, the ideal pipe wood is one which is fine-grained, tough, slow burning and sweet tasting Pipes made of briar root have been the preference of the majority of smokers for over a hundred years.

Of the many kinds of briar root, that grown in Algeria is considered today as being the finest for pipe making and pipe smoking. Although opinions among pipe experts differ, the best is still said to come from this French colony in Africa.

The primary reason isn’t because the country is named Algeria, or because the French own the land. It is simply because the terrain and climatic conditions are such that the wood grown in this section of the earth is most suitable for the creation of briar which comes closest to meeting the pipe smoker s exacting demands. (https://pipedia.org/images/7/7f/PL_NOV_48smaller-file.pdf, p. 327).

In the article the history of French imperialism coincides with the production of the briar for pipemaking, “The use of briar in pipe making began just prior to 1830, the year that the French first occupied Algeria”*. The timing of this article is interesting. The Second World War had ended in 1945. This article would have seen the drought of Mediterranean briar brought on by the War years ending. It would also include the curing time required for the first post war briar. So, this article heralds the reemergence of Mediterranean briar availability for European and American pipe makers. This boon of supply would come abruptly to an end for Algeria, as that country’s war of independence from France was just around the corner. 1954-1962 brought a brutal war with France to Algeria, followed by more years of internal civil conflict. All of these political instabilities further reduced the availability of this “worlds greatest briar” from the pipe makers of the world. *(https://pipedia.org/images/7/7f/PL_NOV_48smaller-file.pdf, pp. 327-328 & 346).

A manufacture date for this pipe remains elusive. I would hypothesize that it was made with Algerian briar harvested between the late 1940s to early 1950s and was produced in France after 1971. “In 1971, the London factory (see Comoy’s) became independent, and Yves Grenard, second cousin to Pierre, took over Saint-Claude” (Chapuis-Comoy – Pipedia). I added the bold blue to 1971.

On to the restoration. I began with the tobacco chamber. This bulldog had a well developed cake with some minimal lava deposits on the rim. The chamber was reamed with a PipNet reaming tool and it’s size 2 blade. It was further scraped with the Smokingpipes Low Country reaming knife and sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The inside of the tobacco chamber showed no signs of heat damage.

The rim was moistened with saliva and lightly scraped with the edge of a pocket knife. After these scrapings the stummel was taken to the sink for a scrub with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a medium bristle toothbrush.

For the shank cleaning I first turned on Roku and Netflix and brought up season four of The Last Kingdom. Though not a necessary part of the restoration, Saxons and Vikings, like a good black cavendish, make most things better. I began cleaning the interior of the shank with cotton swabs dipped in 99% isopropyl alcohol. The airway was dirty at what I would call an appropriate level. Several swabs and bristle pipe cleaners later, and a few more Saxons and Danes, the stummel was cleaned. Next, I lightly topped the rim with 400 sandpaper. Below you can see the sanded tobacco chamber and the topped rim.

Now for the part that I figured would be more difficult – removing the finish. This pipe had a healthy clear coat. I first tried 95% ethyl alcohol on a make-up removal pad to dissolve the finish. It was mostly ineffective. Next I tried acetone on a make-up pad – success. The acetone removed the clear coat. I blame Uhtred of Bebbanburg for me not photo documenting the removal of the finish with numerous make-up pads and more dips into acetone. Yes, I could have just dropped the stummel into the jar of acetone and let it soak for a couple of hours but, what would I have done while watching Uhtred? It took the better part of one episode and part of another to remove the finish.

With the finish removed I lightly sanded the stummel, avoiding the stampings, to look for areas that would need to be filled. There was a large existing fill along the bottom of the shank. I was mostly solid and I did not see any reason to try removing it completely. It had a small spot where some of the fill had gotten chipped out so I used cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust to fill that. I repeated this for the two other areas that I thought warranted filling.

Before sanding the entire stummel with the 400 sandpaper and micro-mesh pads I wanted to get the stem ready for sanding and micro-meshing as well. I wanted them attached when I sanded them to avoid rounding their adjacent contact edges.

I also wanted to retain the stampings, FRANCE and K within a circle, on the stem. This meant that I was only going to use Soft Scrub with Oxy-clean on a make-up pad. The scrubbing of the stem also required the death of a few Saxons and Danes, I mean the scrubbing of the stem occurred during the slaying of a few Saxons and Danes. No Danes or Saxons were harmed during the restoration of this Kings Cross Bulldog. I would scrub with the make-up pad until it was heavily discolored with oxidized vulcanite, reapply additional Soft Scrub and continue. Eventually the pads ceased to be discolored, brown. The area around the button needed to be sanded to remove the teeth chatter. I used 400 sandpaper wrapped around and an emery board to provide a stiffness. There were two spots that required black CA fills. A drop of black CA was placed on the depression and then it was spritzed with CA drying accelerant. Photos below before.

After the CA had set-up I filed the CA smooth with a flat needle file and smoothed it with 400 sandpaper. Photos below after.

With the stem’s oxidation removed and both the stem and stummel fills smoothed with 400 sandpaper I masked the stampings on the stem and stummel.

The entire pipe was then lightly sanded with the 400 sandpaper. Once finished I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad moistened with 99% isopropyl alcohol. I worked a drop of Obsidian Oil onto the stem and wiped away the excess with a paper towel. I then worked my way through the micro-mesh pads 1500-3600 with wiping of the stem and stummel as above.

After the 3600 pad I thought that I needed to give the stummel a little bit of dye. Along the keel at the front of the pipe there was an area that was strangely lighter and the fill at the front of the bowl, both could use some additional color.

I assembled the staining gear: Fiebing’s Light Brown Leather Dye, a medicine cup with 3 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol, a clean pipe cleaner, and a lighter (left photo). I dipped the pipe cleaner into the dye and transferred it to the 3 ml of alcohol. This was stirred to dilute the dye (right photo)

I didn’t want to darken the whole pipe, just to darken the light spots and blend it with the existing stain. I applied the diluted dye to the stummel. It took a couple of complete applications before the dye was pooling on the surface of the stummel. I then flamed the stummel with the lighter. I then went over the lighter area again.

After the dye I allowed the stummel to dry for about an hour. After the dry time I moistened a make-up pad in 95% ethyl alcohol and wiped the stummel. The pad was stained with dye it was removing from the briar. I repeated this two additional times. The stummel now looked uniform in color and shade.

I continued on with the micro-mesh pads 4000-12000 and repeated the wiping of the stem and stummel as described above between each pad. With the final wipe done I slathered the entire pipe with a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm.

After 30 minutes of letting the balm do the magic that it does I wiped the remaining balm from the pipe using the inside of an athletic sock. Yes, it was a clean one. The final stretch. The pipe looked very nice. The wood grain stands out from the glossy black stem. The stamps remained visible. All that remained was to apply several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer. After this was done I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth and took it upstairs to photograph.

I hope that you readers are not getting tired of Kings Cross pipes. There are still 2 to be restored. Actually they are both the same shape so I will probably not do blogs on both of them. Although I could just say “See previous blog” for the second blog. This one was fun and not just because of Uhtred. I do love the bulldog shape and this one has some very nice grain. It also allowed me practice at stamp avoidance which is a necessary skill to hone and use. I do hope that you found some of the techniques used were helpful or at least entertaining. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover. I also hope you had a wonderful Christmas and wish you all a very happy New Year.

Below are some photos of the finished Kings Cross Bulldog.
A Wally Frank Opera Restoration

December 23rd, 2023
Written and photographed by John M. Young

This little Wally Frank came to me via an eBay auction recently. I feel a strange attraction to the oddities and this one is a bit odd. Firstly, the oval shape. Secondly, there is the wood itself, definitely not briar. Thirdly, there is the stem, oddly rounded. The second and the third “oddities” indicate the age of the pipe. I am going out on a speculative limb here and say that this old girl is from the World War II years.

Here is what the Wally Frank Oval looked like upon arrival:

Now let me address the points made in the introduction. Wally Frank was a tobacconist who started his career in the 1930s. I will use pipedia.org’s first paragraph to set the stage for the company,

“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)

I found a very interesting “Wally Frank story” from 1992. While the piece has no annotations and a few points in the article appear to be creatively written it does provide a very fun read of the history of the company. (A&MG_V4_I1.pdf (pipedia.org)). This is not the first Wally Frank pipe that I have blogged about. If you are interested in the previous blog, here is the link – https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.wordpress.com/735.

I called this shape an Oval as I transferred and labeled the photos. There is no shape chart for Wally Frink pipes as Frank was not so much a manufacturer. He was a tobacconist who bought, imported and sold pipes. I correct the name Oval to Opera. The following describes the Opera.

Opera

Castello: ‘Castello’ Opera

The Opera is a pipe shape that, in profile, often resembles an Apple, but the sides have been compressed for a more slender overall width, creating an oblong chamber — though some renditions feature a standard circular chamber. The shape was designed for formal occasions to fit comfortably in the breast pocket of a jacket without disrupting the suit’s lines.

(https://www.smokingpipes.com/smokingpipesblog/single.cfm/post/the-many-shapes-and-styles-tobacco-pipes)

With the shape of the pipe established I will turn to the wood of this Opera. It does not appear to be Mediterranean briar. The pipe is natural or unstained and has the characteristics of Mountain Laurel. Mountain Laurel is a species, Kalmia latifolia, is in the same family as our beloved briar yet from North America. Steve Laug, of Rebornpipe.com, did a wonderful blog about alternate woods used in pipe making. I will link his blog here for those interested in the history of the plant in the Second World War.
- Two Alternative Pipe Woods – Robert M. Leverette
(https://rebornpipes.com/tag/mountain-laurel-pipes/#:~:text=There%20were%20at%20least%20three,Pipe%20Works%2C%20owned%20by%20D.%20P.)

I have a nice example of a Mountain Laurel pipe. It is stamped as “World’s Best Briar” which was Trapwell’s marketing ploy used during the war years. Here are photos of the Trapwell:

Notice the absence of bird’s eyes that are common in Mediterranean briar.

Lastly I referred to the stem as being different from modern pipes. The shape and the material are not like today’s stems. There are pieces or bits of metal in the rubber. This belies the fact that during WWII a great deal of rubber was going to the war effort. Here is a quote indicative of the times, “Likewise, vulcanite for stems was either rationed or forbidden, so that many, if not most of the pipes produced during the war were equipped with horn stems (horn is a very comfortable material, but is easily cracked).” (WWII Phase – Pipedia). Now, that quote was from England regarding Dunhill’s

production. The United States also had rationing and supply issues as well. I believe that the bits of metal in the stem were from recycled tires being used for other rubber products, in this case a pipe stem.

So here we have what I think is a 1940-1950 Wally Frank Opera made from North American mountain Laurel and recycled rubber. During the early sanding of this pipe I emailed Steve Laug about dyeing the wood and expressed my concerns, “I feel that might be near sacreligious.” In the end I did dye the pipe as you will read, below, and it improved the appearance significantly.

Normally when restoring a pipe I will begin with the tobacco chamber. In the case of this Opera the chamber had never been fired. Step one – easy mode. After the chamber I will move on to either a Murphy’s Oil Soap scrub or cleaning the airway in the shank. Step two and three – easy mode. After the scrub the pipe would normally return to the workbench for the wipe

down with an alcohol wetted make-up pad. I did this and very little color was present on the pad. So I repeated it with a pad moistened with acetone. The alcohol is on the left pad, acetone on the right. Neither solvent removed any stain, indicating that this was indeed an unstained piece of wood. The alcohol pad probably removed years of dust and maybe some surface wax applied at the factory.

Next, I started sanding the dents and ding this stummel had received over the years. I noticed a tiny hairline crack at the rim. The crack did not appear to

advance more that a couple of mm. I thought it best to use a drop of cyanoacrylate (CA, or super glue) to reinforce the area. Other dents were removed with 400 sandpaper. There was one other dent that was too deep to sand and one additional pit. Both were filled with CA and wood dust provided from sanding.

I attached the stem to the stummel to allow sanding them together. Before starting I taped the stamp with painters tape to protect the stamp from sanding. I started sanding around the button with 400 wet dry sandpaper. It would look good, I’d wipe it off with a clean paper towel and then work a drop of Obsidian Oil onto the surface. The stem appeared to absorb the oil. By the time I had tried to wipe off the excess oil the rubber would look black but nearly dry. The strangest part was that all of the sanding seemed to be in vain. The stem still appeared to have a rough surface with tiny cracks seeming to run perpendicular to the length of the stem.

I repeated the process with the entire series of micro-mesh pads. Between each pad I would apply a drop of Obsidian oil and wipe with a paper towel. I then used Before and After Fine Polish followed by the Extra-Fine Polish. The following photos are after the micro-meshing and polishing:

I am pretty sure if I had this on a t-shirt which said “Polished, WTF?”. I would sell out at a pipe restoration conference.

I continued with the stummel and the micro-mesh pads 1500-3600. Between each pad, I would wipe the stummel with an alcohol dampened make-up removal pad. Then proceed to the next pad. Needing a break from micro-meshing I and wondering how to address the stem issue moved on to coloring.

I decided that the stummel needed some color. I did not want to go too dark and settled with Fiebing’s Light Brown Leather Dye. One of the tips Steve Laug gave me was to heat the stummel prior to staining. The remaining dye gear is shown in the photo. A clean pipe cleaner was used as the applicator

and the lighter to flame the dye setting it into the wood. I first heated the stummel with the heat gun until it was too hot to hold the wood. I applied several coats of the dye to the stummel. With the first two the alcohol of the dye evaporated very quickly the third coat did allow me to flame the stummel with the lighter. I was worried that I had gone far too dark

with the stain. I allowed the stain to dry for 2 hours. I used an alcohol wetted make-up pad to remove excess dried dye from the stummel. I repeated this two more times. I then started to micromesh the stummel with the 2400 micromesh pad. The pad would quickly fill with dyed wood dust and was cleaned from the pad with a toothbrush dipped in alcohol. I removed the most heavily dyed wood from the surface revealing a slight contrast stained stummel. It was a great improvement over the original very blonde/bland grain of the natural wood.

I continued through the micro-mesh pad series from 4000-12000. Again , between each pad I would wipe the stummel with an alcohol dampened make-up removal pad.

“What to do with that stem?” kept running through my mind. I thought I would try an experiment on the bottom of the stem. I scrubbed the surface clean of any oil with an alcohol wetted pad. I then used a paintbrush to paint Clear Thin CA onto the surface. This was allowed to set and cure. I then repeated with a second coat to smooth the depressions in the first coat. The brush idea was not a good one as the brush gave a puff of magic smoke and set up within seconds of the first coat. After the CA had hardened, I used 400 sandpaper to smooth the CA. This was wiped with a dry paper towel. I then worked through the micro-mesh series. Between each pad I wiped with an alcohol dampened pad. Here are a couple of photos of the result. Much better than the polished version but I could still see the tiny fractures in the rubber. You can also see two of the small metal pieces in the rubber, Let’s just call them glitter.

I decided to repeat the whole process with the top surface. I repeated everything with the top surface with the same result. Great improvement over the original surface but still the tiny fractures were visible.

With the stem and stummel finished all that remained was to give the whole pipe a few coats of carnauba wax at the buffer. The wax brought the grain of the wood out even better and seemed to mask the stem fractures. After the application and buffing of the wax I hand buffed the pipe with a microfiber cloth.

This pipe while beginning in easy mode soon progressed into something a bit more complex. If any readers have insights as to working with rubber with these characteristics or flaws please feel free to mention it in the comments. I would love to hear how others have dealt with issues like this. The staining turned out well and my experimental CA fills of tiny fractures in the stem seemed to work. I have no idea what the long term effects will be. If you have found this helpful and or entertaining please click the like and subscribe. Thank you for taking the time to read the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

Below are some photos of the finished Wally Frank Opera.
A Peterson Captain Pete Restoration

December 21st, 2023

Written and photographed by John M. Young

It has been said that I suffer from Peterson Pipe Acquisition Disorder (PPAD). Though not a painful affliction, except in a financial way, it can prove detrimental to one’s long term mental stability. I believe the early symptoms include a strange desire to only smoke Peterson pipes. As the disorder progresses afflicted individuals feel a compulsion to own each of the Peterson 300 series shapes. In its latter stages individuals can become obsessed with owning an example of every Peterson pipe ever produced. These poor souls have been known to have and hoard hundreds of Peterson pipes which they refer to as “a collection”.

Fortunately, for myself, I seem to be in an early stage of the disorder and only have mild symptoms. This stage is often referred to as being a “Pete Geek”. Some symptoms in PPAD include rambling conversations with patients repeating the terms 1896, patents, well, chimney and P-lip. Some patients have been known to speak poorly pronounced Gaelic phrases like “Sláinte”, “Dia duit” and “Póg mo thóin!”   In my case, I can still see the beauty of other brands and lines of pipes and, so far at least, not fallen into true Obsessive Compulsive Peterson Pipe Acquisition Disorder (OCPPAD).

The subject of this blog is a Peterson Captain Pete. The pipe was purchased via an auction from eBay. Peterson pipes have a long and storied history which is rich and fascinating. I highly recommend the book The Peterson Pipe, by authors Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg as well as a reading of pipedia.com’s Peterson pages. According to Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg, the Captain Pete:

“This line’s name was derived from the nickname of Charles Peterson, known affectionately as “Captain Peterson.” The first issue, c. 1940-62, was in a smooth finish produced for Rogers Imports with a white stamped P inside C, or a circled P on the mouthpiece. CAPTAIN over PETE on shank, and a MADE IN IRELAND in a circle. English made versions show CAPTAIN over PETE on shank or “CAPTAIN PETERSON” and A PETERSON PRODUCT over MADE IN ENGLAND or LONDON MADE over ENGLAND. The second issue (1998-), features an XL bowl with Sherlock Holmes shapes and compact stems, in rustic or combination of smooth and rustic, with a nickel band between two narrow brass bands.” (Irwin and Malmberg p.295)

Photos of this Peterson Captain Pete when it arrived are below:

As you can see from the photos and by comparing them to the description of Irwin and Malberg, this is a first issue 1940-1962 pipe. The condition of the pipe is remarkable. I would judge that it was only smoked a handful of times. The lathe marks inside the tobacco chamber are visible though not shown in the photos. The condition of the stem and lower bowl interior are nearly factory fresh. When I first examined this pipe I thought the only work that I would need to do was minimal. It included; redoing the factory fills, 8 of them in total, reaming the slight cake of the tobacco chamber, fine polishing of the stem with a logo touch-up painting and a thorough cleaning of the airway.

I began with a look at the airway. It was remarkably clean, after swabbing the shank with a cotton swab dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol and a pipe cleaner

dipped in the same alcohol I only got a slight discoloring of the swab and cleaner. Though not spotless far cleaner than I would have expected from a pipe that was 60-80 years old. I suspected that someone had cleaned this pipe recently.

Next on the agenda were the fills. I do not enjoy replacing fill. Yes, I know it is a part of my pursuit and that the very nature that creates this wonderful wood, briar, would not have the characteristics that we require if it were to grow in more hospitable, less sandy environs. I still do not like fixing fills. “Quit whining, ya big baby.” “Oh good, you’re back. I was beginning to think I was alone.” “You’re not getting paid by the word so knock it off and fix the dang pits.”

I tried to photograph the pits and their factory fills. They were not badly done, just done in a factory. I know this pipe would never have made the cut at Dunhill’s due to the sand pits but a Peterson isn’t a Dunhill. Although

the finished goal is to have a finish that rivals a smooth Dunhill. Anyway, I began by picking out any old fill material that was soft enough to remove with a fly tying bodkin. There were 8 pits in all. I used the same bodkin to place a small drop of brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) into a pit. I then used nitrile gloved fingers to take a pinch of briar dust and forcefully press the dust into the CA filled pit. The CA sets up near immediately with the briar dust so the motion of placing and pressing must be done quickly. Once one was filled I moved on to the next pit. Once all were filled I allowed them to sit and cure for a few minutes.

The beautiful Captain Pete now looked like a pox ridden mess. I remember learning the word carbuncle in High school English, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, perhaps. For some reason that word popped back into my mind.

The next task was to file the majority of the CA and briar dust “new fill” from the stummel while doing as little damage as possible to the stummel. Slow and steady are the keys to this. Now, a normal person can do this by feel. The CA is much harder than the briar and I am sure it feels significantly different than filing the briar. I cannot feel very much with my fingers. They are perpetually numb due to me having multiple sclerosis (MS). I have to use my eyes and ears to see and hear the file working rather than relying on a sense of touch. Since the file is covering the area being filed it is mostly by hearing that I do this. Once filed smoothish I turned to the sandpaper. I

used nothing coarser than 320 and this only with a very light touch. 400 was mainly used after which I went directly to the 1500 micro-mesh pad. Once sanded smooth I then checked for any slight spots where the briar dust had left tiny pores in the surface. When a tiny pore or depression was found I would lightly touch it with the bodkin touched with, not dipped in, brown CA. These very small spots of CA were then allowed to sit for 15 minutes to cure. After curing they were again smoothed using the 2400 micro-mesh pad.

I was now ready to start the micro-meshing of the whole stummel. I used painters tape to mask the stampings and reinserted the stem. I also taped over the stem logo. I used the 1500 and 1800 micro-mesh pads dry with a very light touch. After the pads I wiped the stummel off with a make-up removal pad moistened with 99% isopropyl alcohol. The stem did not require micro-meshing at this coarse of a grit so it was ignored. The 2400 micro-mesh pad was used on both the stummel and stem. The wiping of the stummel remained the same while the wiping of the stem between pads was done with a drop of Obsidian oil rubbed in by fingers followed by a wipe with a clean paper towel. This continued through the 3600 micro-mesh pad with the above mentioned wiping between pads.

Upon finishing with the 3600 micro-mesh pad and wipe I removed all of the painters tape. I then repainted the logo with acrylic model paint. This was allowed to dry for 10 minutes.

Once the paint had dried I began micro-meshing the stummel and stem with the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. There were a couple of spots inside the logo that needed to have paint scraped off. This was carefully done with the edge of a pocket knife. Between each of the micro-mesh pads the stummel and stem surfaces were wiped as before.

In examining the pipe after the micro-meshing I was not happy with the briar color. There were light areas where I had sanded during the filling of blemishes that did not match the stummel. I thought it would be best to lightly restrain the stummel using a diluted Fiebing’s Leather Dye.

I poured 5 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into a medicine cup. I then used a clean soft pipe cleaner as an applicator. The pipe cleaner was dipped into the Light Brown Fiebing’s and stirred into the 5 ml of ethyl alcohol. THe dye was then applied to the surface of the stummel.

Several coats were applied to achieve complete coverage. The wet stummel was then flamed with a disposable lighter to set the dye. I then allowed the dye to dry for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes I began wiping the stummel with a make-up pads wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol. The pads removed much of the dye and blended the area very nicely.

Once all of the alcohol had evaporated I slathered the entire pipe with Before and After Restoration Balm. The balm was allied to sit and do its magic for 20 minutes.

I was definitely in the home stretch and the pipe was looking good. I wiped off the Restoration Balm with a soft cotton rag. I then polished the stem using Before and After Fine Polish applied with my finger and rubbed with a cotton rag followed by the Before and After Extra-Fine Polish.

The final step was to apply several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer. After buffing the pipe was hand buffed with a microfiber cloth and taken upstair for a photo session.

Overall I am very pleased with how well this Captain Pete turned out. I had always wanted to restore one of these and can now check it off the list. I do think that the previous owner had cleaned up this pipe and perhaps tried their hand at a restoration. It was remarkably clean, except for the need of a reaming, when I received it. One other thing that I noticed when working with the stem was the lack of any oxidation. For a pipe that is 60-80 years old there should be oxidation. I could tell that the stem had been buffed with noticeable buffing marks running perpendicular to the length of the stem. These were all removed during the micro-meshing. I do hope that you have found this informative and or entertaining. If you like this sort of thing please hit like and subscribe. Thank you very much for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

*Irwin, Mark, and Gary Malmberg. The Peterson Pipe The Story of Kapp & Peterson. First Edition, second printing ed., Canada, Briar Books Press, 2018.

Below are some photos of the finished Peterson Captain Pete.
A Marxman Quarter Bent Big Boy Rhodesian Restoration

December 18th, 2023

Written and photographed by John M. Young

The title of this one is a mouth full. I was happily calling this Marxman a pot throughout the photography, restoration and transfer of the images. When typing the restoration, I asked a Marxman connoisseur, Briar Lee of PipesMagazine.com forum fame, “What would this Marxman shape be called?” He quickly messaged me the answer: “That is a quarter bent Big Boy Rhodesian.” Firstly, thank you, Briar Lee. Secondly, now I have to go and change the titles of 56 computer files from “Marxman pot…” to “Marxman quarter bent Big Boy Rhodesian…”. Oh, if only there were an app for THAT.

This Marxman, not a pot, came to me via an eBay auction. If you have frequented this blog, you will have seen a couple of other Marxman pipes restored. If you are a new viewer, welcome. I love old Marxman pipes made before the founder sold the company to MasterCraft in 1953.

Yes, the big ugly chunky Marxman pipes. A buddy describes one of my Marxman pipesas, “It’s like a tank made love to a lovat.” and he continued. “Not a brand new tank. Like an old one that went through two or three world wars.” Thank you, Don Cole. He was referring to the beauty to the left. I don’t have to try very hard to see exactly what he meant.

(German Tiger Tank) (Lovat)

I will again refer to the best sources for information available to pipe hobbyists pipedia.org and piphil.eu. Pipedia’s short history of Marxman pipes reads as thus:

“Marxman (Marxman Pipe Company) was created by Robert (Bob) L. Marx in 1934, when he was 29, and after he had worked for the William Demuth Company. His pipes were not outstanding because of the quality of their wood (probably Algerian), but Bob started making unique sculpted pieces, which brought the brand fame in the World of Hollywood cinema. Actors like Zachery Scott, Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Alan Hale, Joel McRae, and Ronald Reagan were some of the faces that appeared on the bowls. Bob new how to innovate and took full advantage of marketing and press advertising in order to sell the brand–one of his slogans being “Relax with a Marxman”.” (Marxman – Pipedia)

In my last Marxman blog (Marxman Super Briar) I discussed the prices of Marxman pipes and adjusted them to current U.S. dollars. Briar Lee messaged me with some thoughts of his regarding Marxman pricing and pipe lines.

“In my experience, how to tell … a Big Boy … Marxman is:

1. No size stamp. If there’s a B or C those were $7.50 or $10 pipes.

2. The inside of the bowl is at least .850. Most are bigger.

3. Most have thick shanks with saddle stems.

4. 60 to 90 grams. Two or three times more than usual 30 gram medium size.

5. Not always, but usually no Jumbo or Benchmade or Super Briar grade stamp. Most common is just Marxman with arrow over IMPORTED BRIAR.”

The stamping that Briar Lee is referring to is:

(photo by J.M. Young)

And,

“All the beautiful full page of a national magazine in color advertisements Marx ran in Look, the Saturday Evening Post and other such big circulation magazines would have the 400 at $25, a Jumbo at $10, a Benchmade at $7.50 and a Super Briar at $5 and a Mel-o at $3.50.

Not any mention of his figural pipes at all.

Sometimes in the fine print there was a $15 size.

My guess is almost all pipes over $5 were bought as gifts.

The B and C size Jumbos are big pipes, too.

But the $15 size were not just huge (for the forties) but magnificent, the ones in the top of the store display.” (Briar Lee, personal communication)

Using an inflation calculator and comparing November 1945 to November 2023 we can see that $3.50-$25 is equivalent to $59-$424. (https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm) The $15 and $25 ($254 and $424) Marxmans were not the price ranges of lower quality pipes nor were they the pipes of the “everyman” who was having a pipe. These were the luxury items of their time. I could not find a 1945 Dunhill catalog but did find a 1951.

(File:Dunhill catalog 1951 11.jpg – Pipedia)

The prices are indicated in pounds. Below are historical exchange rates of the U.S. Dollar to the British Pound Sterling for 1950.

A £10 Dunhill in 1950 would have cost approximately $28.50 (10 / 0.3508) or a £50 Dunhill would be $142.50 (50 / 0.3508). In today’s dollars these would be $354 and $1,771.45 respectively. Dunhill, then and now, a luxury item.

The Marxman pipe that this blog is dedicated to is a quarter bent Big Boy Rhodesian. The date of manufacture would be between 1934 and 1953 and was probably a $15 pipe in 1945. Upon arrival the pipe looked like this.

The condition of the pipe was very good for a pipe of this age and use. The tobacco chamber appeared to have been either frequently reamed or seldom used. The rim had evidence of lava but no heavy deposits. The stem showed no heavy denting nor chatter from teeth. I was pretty sure this was going to be a simple restoration.

The first step was to completely ream the tobacco chamber and sand it to bare briar. This was done with a PipNet reaming tool with the largest size blade, Smokingpipes Low Country reaming knife and a General triangular

scraper. The reaming eliminated the minimal cake quickly. Further scraping with the knives was required as the chamber diameter was larger than the largest blade of the PipNet. The chamber was then sanded with 220 wet dry sandpaper and my finger. Those huge bowls are so nice and easy to sand with a finger.

With the reaming finished I took the stummel to the sink for a scrub with Murphy’s Oil Soap. The Murphy’s was used undiluted. The scrubbing was done with a medium bristle toothbrush. All of those nooks and crannies of the rustication trapped a significant amount of dirt and grime. After the first scrub I poured on another blob of Murphy’s and scrubbed the stummel a second time. The Murphy’s was then rinsed with war mater and dried with a cotton dish towel.

I returned to the workbench and used a 95% ethyl alcohol soaked make-up removal pad to vigorously rub the entire stummel. The pad was quickly shredded by the rusticated surface but little color came off the pipe indicating that there was no stain nor finish used on this briar. It probably was only treated with wax from the factory. At this stage the pipe stummel looked like this:

I thought, “wow, this is going fast and easy”. Yeah, I know, “why did you say that? Now the next thing you do is going to be terrible.” I am pretty sure those were the same words that George Armstrong Custer said prior to running into the Sioux nation on June 25th 1876. Okay, I think you can see where this is going and I admit to exaggeration. Custer didn’t run into the whole Sioux Nation, just a large number of irate Lakotas and some Cheyenne. I, on the other hand, narrowly escaped defeat with the cleaning of this shank.

The first thing to do when cleaning a shank is to moisten a cotton swab with alcohol and rub it around the inside of the shank. Often the first rub in the shank doesn’t look so bad as the alcohol is actually starting to dissolve the tars and dried oils in the airway. The second alcohol dipped swab then goes into the shank and gets introduced to the now softened yuck (technical term used in restoration for tars, oils or general filth). This poor second swab can

become very darkly stained and covered in yuck. That is exactly what happened except it wasn’t just the second cotton swab it was the 2nd through the 46th. To be fair, I alternated with using the dental pick to scrape the walls of the airway, filling the airway with alcohol and scrubbing it with a nylon brush, cotton swabbing, wrapping a piece of a paper towel around a round needle file and scrubbing with the paper towel then back to cotton swabs. In other words the

airway was doing a very good impression of the La Brea Tar Pits without any dead megafauna. After what seemed like eternity, I packed the tobacco chamber and shank with cotton and poured in 95% ethyl alcohol until the cotton was saturated and the alcohol pooled slightly. I then turned my back on the stummel and let it soak overnight.

In the morning, the cotton looked like this. I began with another alcohol soaked cotton swab. I quickly became loaded with dissolved tar and yuck. I

began scraping with the dental pick and then swabbing. Just when I was about to surrender the cotton swabs started to lighten. They

changed from dark brown to a lighter golden brown then to light brown, then tea stained, then clean. I was victorious, unlike Custer.

This whole filthy shank admittedly took me by surprise. The bowl had been in good condition, indicating a cleaning regimen, the stem did not appear heavy chewed on again indicating that care was taken with this pipe. Then to find a shank that had apparently never had any type of cleaning surprised me.

On to the stem. The draw of the stem seemed open but it did have the taste and smell of old tobacco residue and tar. I could see light through it so, how bad could it be? The first bristle pipe cleaner was dipped in alcohol and would not go all the was through. I just scrubbed back and forth with the length that would pass. Upon repeating I was able to get the next pipe cleaner further. The next went even further after 4, I could get a pipe cleaner through the entire stem. They were still coming out stained with the before mentioned yuck. Another two, still yuck. I then moved to a churchwarden bristle pipe cleaner. I dipped the pipe cleaner as far as possible into the alcohol bottle, clamped one end in the vice and threaded the stem onto the other end. Holding the free end in one hand I moved the stem up and down along the length of the pipe cleaner. This cleaned out the remaining residue. Subsequent normal pipe cleaners then came out clean.

The exterior of the stem was in good shape. It may not have been pretty but

There was not actually much to do. I used 0000 steel wool eliminate most of the surface oxidation from the vulcanite. I used a dental scraper to clean out the corners where the button meets the stem. Then I used Soft Scrub with OxyClean on make-up pads to vigorously rub/scrub the stem. The pads would quickly become discolored requiring me to use a clean spot on the pad or to replace the pad altogether. After 5 pads or so, the stem was really looking good. I then reattached the stem to the stummel. Hmm, all that stummel scrubbing must have made the stem fit a bit loose.

It might have tightened up with a smoke or two but I did not like the loose fit. I used a dry-brushing paint brush and black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) to increase the diameter of the tenon. I placed a drop of CA onto the

tenon and used the brush to paint a very thin layer onto the tenon. Avoiding the shoulder of the stem. The stem was then set aside to dry. I hardened within a few minutes. I then tried fitting tenon into the mortise. It was still loose, better but loose. I applied another drop of CA and “repainted” the tenon and allowed it to dry. After the second coat of CA i used a 3600 micro-mesh pad to polish the tenon then tested the fit. Perfect. The paint brush was cleaned with acetone after each use.

Okay, let’s try reattaching again. I reattached the stem to the stummel – nice. I was ready for the micro-mesh pads. I covered the MARXMAN stamp with painters tape to protect it from sanding. I remembered that I wanted to get

rid of 2 small sand pits on the rim and the one remaining dent on the inside rim. The photo doesn’t show the pits but trust me, they were there. I used a fly tying bodkin to apply a small drop of CA to the pits/dent, I then forced a pinch of briar dust into the CA wetted pit/dent. The CA sets up nearly instantly. The fill was then carefully filed using a flat needle file and sanded with 400 sandpaper. This briar that Marxman used is incredibly soft. You can easily dent it with your fingernail. This softness makes it difficult to work and if there is one grain out of place on your sandpaper it will scratch the surface.

The micro-meshing was tedious on the wide smooth rim due to the softness of the briar. The stem went quite well. I started with the 1500 micro-mesh pad after wards I wiped down the briar with an alcohol dampened make-up pad and I rubbed a drop of Obsidian Oil over the stem and wiped it with a paper towel. I then moved to the next micro-mesh pad. Each pad was used in succession with the same wiping between each. When I got to the 6000 micro-mesh pad I removed the painters tape from the stummel and wiped the area free of any adhesive with the alcohol pad. I then progressed through the remaining micro-mesh pads.

I took the pipe to the buffer for the application of several coats of carnauba wax. Once finished I gave the pipe a final buffing with a microfiber cloth. I took the pipe upstairs for some photographs. I had some sunlight to work with and wondered if I would like the lighting with the low angle nearly winter sun. With the bright light I could see oxidation on the stem below the button. I did not like this and returned the pipe to the workbench and the 400 sandpaper. After the sanding the same micro-meshing procedure was repeated for the upper end of the stem. That made it look much better in both normal and brightly lit settings.

Tis pipe proved to have hidden and unexpected issues regarding the level of yuck in its shank. Perhaps that is a sign from above, to remind me that things are not always as they seem. The same way that this less than beautiful pipe can provide unparalleled smoking pleasure. I actually smoked this pipe as I was typing this, earlier. Typical of a Marxman of this type and era it smoked amazingly. Cool and delightful are the words that come to mind. I immediately berated myself for complaining about the soft briar. That very briar is what makes these Marxman pipes the wonders that they are. I guess I will just have to smoke them more often to avert my forgetfulness. If you have found anything here useful or entertaining click that like and subscribe. Thank you so much for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

Below are some photos of the Marxman quarter bent Big Boy Rhodesian, both with sun and without..

The stem photos in the sun were taken before redid the area near the button.
An Amphora Bent Billiard Restoration

December 17th, 2023

Written and photographed by John M. Young

During the 1950s-1970s many popular tobacco companies would include offers for pipes in the packages of their tobacco. These coupon pipes include some of my favorites like the Dr. Grabow Westbrooks. These were pipes that were only available by redeeming the coupon through the mail. Amphora did the same. Below is the text from pipedia.org in reference to Amphora pipes:

“Amphora pipes are made in Holland by the Jos. Gubbels organization, the same company which makes the very well known and loved Amphora Pipe Tobaccos. The pipes are produced in relatively small numbers to a high standard and not commonly found. They were used primarily in promotions and incentives for Amphora tobacco.

The Royal Dutch Pipe Factory Elbert Gubbels & Sons B.V. is the only manufacturer of briarroot tobacco pipes in the Benelux countries where pipes of high quality are made under the brands Big Ben, Hilson, Royal Dutch and Amphora. They also supply numerous smokers’ accessories of high quality.“ (Amphora – Pipedia)

And of course one needed a coupon for the pipe.

(Amphora_Info_1967.jpg (1080×647) (pipedia.org))

And here we see the shapes available and their subsequent pipe number to enter onto your coupon.

(https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:Amphora_Chart.jpg)

(File:Amphora1970.jpg – Pipedia)

To think that someone around 1970 picked-up a pack of Amphora pipe tobacco, discovered inside a coupon/order form, filled it out and waited (8-14 weeks, most likely) for their prize. I can imagine the joy and anticipation when they opened the box to find the above Amphora 725 smooth finish bent billiard. They probably felt that this was a pipe made specifically for them as they got to choose the specific shape and finish.

Enough imaginative silliness. Let’s get to the restoration of this darling that came to me as part of an estate lot purchase from eBay. Shen the lot arrived this Amphora was not in factory fresh condition. It appeared as the photos below show.

The term ”well used” came to mind. I also wondered about the pipedia.org quote about “The pipes are produced in relatively small numbers to a high standard and not commonly found.“ (Amphora – Pipedia). Wondered about the 8 fills that I would have to deal with, that is. The inner voice chimed in, “Oh well, you were the one who always wanted to work on an Amphora.” “Yes, I do”, was my reply to myself.

I figured that I would start with the usual tobacco chamber reaming. This “usual” proved to be slightly less usual. Part of the material to be removed from the chamber was of spider origin. Undaunted, I continued with the PipNet reaming tool and the Smokingpipes Low Country reaming knife and General triangular scraper. The thick cake succumbed to the scrapings of the tools wielded by their primate operator. The chamber was further sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wooden dowel. The interior of the chamber had been protected by this cake and had not received any damage from the smoking of innumerable packages of Amphora pipe tobacco.

The rim was also scraped of some of its lava before heading to the sink for the Murphy’s Oil Soap scrub.

The Murphy’s was used undiluted and scrubbed with a medium bristle toothbrush. Particular attention was paid to the rim in an attempt at removing all of the lava. After the scrub the stummel was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton dish towel.

Returning to the workbench I could now see the damage done to the rim. Hmm, topping this rim would take at least an ⅛ inch or 3–4 mm off the top. I decided to give the rim a slightly “canted” appearance by filing the front off the stummel then reestablishing the beveled rim by sanding with a 1 ½ in PVC pipe cap topped with sandpaper. The newly sanded rim was then stained with Maple colored furniture repair stain pen. This was blended in with an alcohol soaked make-up pad.

I failed to take any photos of how well this worked at this stage of the restoration. You can jump down to the finished photos of the rim if you can’t wait. I don’t want to spoil the surprise for those with patience.

Next was dealing with the fills. I used a fly tying bodkin to pick out any fill material or to clean out the pits. None of them were really large fills, just little sand pits that I found annoying.

The easiest way to deal with them was to forcefully press briar dust into the pit and place a small drop of cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) onto the briar dust filled pit.

Immediately after the CA was added I would press additional briar dust down onto the CA. There was still a small damaged area at the front rim which I also placed a dab of CA and then applied a pinch of briar dust. After all of these fills had cured I smoothed the CA off with a needle file then sanded with 400 sandpaper.

Next I started cleaning out the airway. This proved to be more troublesome than I initially thought. I don’t know why, I had seen the cake in the tobacco chamber and knew this pipe had seen heavy use. I guess “de nile” isn’t only for African geography students. The shank was heavily tarred. The short

version is; many alcohol soaked cotton swabs, a few visits to the sink with alcohol poured into the bowl and scrubbed with a nylon shank brush and more cotton swabs later the airway was cleaned.

The stummel was ready for finish sanding but the stem needed to be attached for that. This meant that the stem needed to be the next focus. There were no deep dents from clenching nor any significant tooth chatter. Oxidation

and calcium deposits were the only issues. I started by scraping the button edges with a sharp knife. Then gave the stem an energetic rub with 0000 steel wool to remove the calcium and outer oxidation. After the steel wool, I started rubbing the stem with Soft Scrub with Oxy-Clean on make-up remover pads. These came back with the dark golden brown indicating that they were removing oxidized vulcanite. I continued this until I was satisfied with the color of the stem. Since there were no dents requiring sanding I thought that I’d just use white diamond buffing compound and the buffer to polish the stem. It looked good so I gave it a drop of Obsidian Oil rubbed in with my fingers.

The stem was reunited with the pipe. I knew that I would probably scratch the just polished surface of the stem with the micro-mesh pads but was not concerned since the shank and stem would be smoothed evenly in the process. I masked off the shank stampings with painter tape and began with the 1500 micro-mesh pad. I used the pads dry in succession through the 3600. Between each pad I would wipe the stummel with an alcohol moistened make-up pad and the stem with a drop of Obsidian Oil followed by a paper towel. After the 3600 micro-mesh pad I removed the painters tape and cleaned off any adhesive residue with alcohol. I continued with the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads again wiping with alcohol pads and Obsidian oil, as before.

At this stage I had what appeared to be a few spots of uneven color due to the sanding of the CA fills. The light spots were not very noticeable with the photos. Trust me, they were there. To address this I poured about 5 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into a medicine cup. I then made a dye applicator from a pipe cleaner. I dipped the pipe cleaner into Fiebing’s Light Brown Leather Dye. I then stirred the 5 ml of alcohol with the dye soaked pipe cleaner. This acted to dilute the dye significantly. After stirring I applied the dye onto the stummel. I used two coats, flamed after the second coat. This was then wiped with an alcohol dampened make-up pad to blend the dye. It worked as planned, unfortunately I did not photograph this part. Apparently it was late and I blame sleepiness for my neglect.

When finished with the micro-mesh pads I slathered on a healthy coat of Before and After Restoration Balm and let it dry overnight. Bed time.

The next morning I wiped off the pipe with the inside of an athletic sock. I am beginning to think this may be the purpose for the terry cloth inside of socks. The pipe was really looking good. I took it to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax on both the stummel and stem.

Overall the Amphora turned out very well. She is quite photogenic. The rich browns of the briar contrast nicely with the ebony stem and the grain patterns of the sides are mostly symmetrical and show off the swirls and bird’s eyes at the front. I neglected to repaint the logo. That will need to be done in the future. I have noticed two different colors when looking at old Amphora photos so, I am unsure as to which color would be more appropriate. I hope that you have found this restoration useful or at least entertaining. If you like this sort of thing please click the like and or subscribe, below. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

Below are photos of the finished (sans logo repainting) Amphora bent billiard.
Commissioning a Pipe from Phillip Rivara

December 15th, 2023

In November I decided to have a custom pipe made. I had never done anything like that before. I had heard great things about Phillip Rivara and was introduced to him by a fellow member of a Facebook group that I am in, Bound by Briar. I explained that I was interested in having a pipe made with borings similar to a Peterson Straight System pipe. He said that he could do that and mentioned his admiration of the Peterson 1906 Jap shape. I agreed. The following are photos taken by Phillip Rivara and sent to me documenting the process of making the pipe. The final few photos are taken by me when the pipe arrived here. I had a great time working with Phil and felt involved in nearly all aspects in building this dream pipe.

The following link is to a Google documents slide show that I put together showing the process of making the pipe.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1n2KRlpJKaDQ3dKdximzmSf6ki2VKYTKOdPoCIJBBX9I/edit?usp=sharing

This link will take you to a video that Phillip Rivara posted on his YouTube channel showing the commissioned pipe.

I do hope that you found this interesting and/or entertaining. Thank yo for reading and in this case watching the rambling of an old pipe lover.
A Marxman Super Briar

December 14th, 2023
Bent Bulldog Restoration

Written and photographed by John M. Young

The bulldog, easily one of my favorite shapes. The other day I was discussing my favorite shapes and I joked that my top 3 list of pipe shapes had 5 contestants. This ridiculous statement indicates my inability to choose only 3 or that my math skills are subpar. Either way the Bulldog or Rhodesian is definitely on the list. The subject of this blog is a Marxman bent bulldog The shape comes directly from the Marxman catalog, circa 1945:

(Marxman – Pipedia)

This Marxman bent bulldog was purchased individually on eBay. Yes, there are some people that purchase a Marxman pipe individually and not just one of an estate lot. I get the impression that there is a prevailing idea that Marxman pipes are pipes of lower quality. Let us examine some common claims:
1. Marxman pipes were cheap.
Marxman did not produce any $.50 to $1.00 pipes. Judging by the Marxman catalogs and print ads $2.50, $3.00, $5, $7.50, $10and $15 were the 1945 prices of Marxman pipes. $1 in 1945 = $17 today thus, $42-255 in today’s dollars. (https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm)

Comparing Marxman to 1946 Yello-bole print ads, Yello-bole pipes are listed at $1 and $1.50 (https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:YBShankLogo16.jpg)
1. Marxman pipes are full of fills.
Look at the time frame. Marxman started the company in 1934 and sold it to Mastercraft in 1953. Other than the first 5 and last 5 years, World War 2 affected the ability to access Mediterranean briar. (Marxman – Pipedia)

I have Marxman pipes with many fills and with no fills, indicating that they used the briar that they could obtain.

I have yet to find a Marxman pipe that has more fills than I have birthday candles on my cake. Yeah MasterCraft, that is aimed at you.
1. Marxman pipes are less than attractive (AKA Ugly). Okay, I’ll give you that one.
2. Marxman used those ugly worm trail carvings to hide cheap briar.
Perhaps those carvings are the best way to work the soft Algerian briar that smoke so well.
1. Algerian briar is of poor quality.
Now that is a loaded statement. Search any pipe smoker forum for “Algerian briar” and you will find opinions as to it being the “best” to “barely fit for pipe making”. I have examples of exceptionally smoking pipes made from Algerian briar.

As for this Marxman Super Grain Bent Bulldog I can say that it was made in New York City (Marxman Pipes Inc., was located at 27 West 24th St. New York 10, NY.) between the dates of 1934-1953. (Marxman – Pipedia).

When this Marxman arrived it looked like this:

Everything a guy who loves to restore old pipes would possibly want. It is going to need the following: Tobacco chamber reaming, rim topping, scratch removal, fill replacement, button reconstruction, figure out why the stem won’t go in all the way, general cleaning and surface restoration. Better get started, eh?

The first thing I addressed was the stem issue. Looking down the airway with a flashlight I could see lots of yuck. Yuck is the technical term for any unwanted smoking residue. I don’t think I had ever seen chunks of yuck

before but they were there. I used a dental scraper and a drill bit (slightly smaller than the mortise drilling) to clear the mega-yuck. Mega-yuck is a newer technical term used to describe large pieces of yuck. When the stem was reinserted there was still an undesirable gap. Hmm, I’ll check it again after the reaming and scrubbing.

That was a nice segway to the next task, the reaming of the tobacco chamber. I used the number two sized blade with the PipNet reaming tool to clear the

majority of the chamber. The Smokingpipes reaming knife and the General triangular scraper were also used to rid the chamber of the cake. This was followed by a sanding of the interior with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel and sandpaper on my finger. When finished I could see no damage to the interior of the chamber. I also scraped the rim lightly with the General scraper to remove the worst of the lava.

Next stop on the tour is the sink, for a Murphy’s Oil Soap scrub. The Murphy’s is used undiluted while the scrub is done with a medium bristle toothbrush. This eliminated the years worth of accumulated dirt and grime from the exterior of the stummel. The rim still retained blackened areas. I was hoping that they were lava but I could now see some of it was charred briar from lighters and/or matches. The stummel was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton dish towel.

I returned to the workbench and gave the stummel a wipe with a make-up removal pad soaked in 95% ethyl alcohol. The pad removed very little, only showing a yellowish smudge after the wipe. This indicated that there was little to no finish remailing and that the stummel was natural, not dyed/stained. I allowed the stummel to dry while I turned my attention to the stem.

Earlier in the day I had given the reaming knives and pocket knife a diamond stone sharpening. I used the pocket knife to scrape the surface of the stem. I did this holding the blade 90 degrees to the surface of the stem. I very lightly brought the blade towards me. This works very similar to a woodworking card

scraper. An amazing device that allows a woodworker to remove very thin layers of material. I was able to scrape the calcium deposits and the outermost oxidation from the stem. I then used 0000 steel wool to further smooth the surface.

I wanted to deal with the charred rim next. I used a technique described to me by a Germain Facebook buddy, Sascha Mertens. He said to rub the charred area with petroleum jelly then lightly scrape it with a very sharp knife edge. By doing this very slowly and carefully I was able to remove a very thin layer of

charred wood. I would wipe the blade on a make-up pad and repeat. When additional petroleum jelly was needed I applied more. Once finished removing the charred areas I very lightly topped the rim using 400 sandpaper.

Next on the agenda was to clean out the airway. The stem was removed. The stinger was removed from the stem and dropped into a medicine cup with alcohol. While the stinger was soaking I dipped a pipe cleaner in the 95% ethyl alcohol and ran it through the stem. It came out very dirty. Where the alcohol touched my finger on the stem the surface felt slippery then tacky. Wait a minute! This is not vulcanite. As the alcohol evaporated I was left with a fingerprint on the stem where my finger had been. Okay, no more alcohol for you, stem. I switched to cleaning the stem with soap and water with the pipe cleaners. I am guessing that the stem was Bakelite or a bakelite-like material.

With the stem done I started cleaning the stummel airway. It too was rather filthy. Oh yeah, I remember the yuck and mega-yuck from earlier. Well, it hadn’t gotten andy better. I started with a cotton swab dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. It returned dark brown. I figured that I could continue with a kajillion more cotton swabs or I could pour 3 ml of the alcohol into the bowl and use the nylon brush to scrub the yuck in an alcohol bath. I went with the alcohol bath and brush route. I scrubbed for a while, dumped the alcohol out, assessed the color and repeated with clean alcohol. I did this 4 times before the alcohol came back not looking like black coffee. Once it was more teacolored I switched over to the cotton swabs. After about 10 swabs the shank airway was clean.

The pipe was reassembled without the stinger, wiped with alcohol and photographed. The post-scrub Marxman was looking significantly better. As a bonus the stem now fit snugly with the stummel. Small victories are accepted without question.

Next, that ugly fill by the stem had to go. There is just something about

those pink fills that makes me a bit crazier than normal. I used a fly tying bodkin to see how securely attached the fill material was. Yay, I popped right out.

It was deeper than I thought but was not worried about the structural integrity of the proximity to the mortise edge. Wow, that sentence made me sound all kids of intelligent – I will stop that at once. Yes, it was close to the edge but the replacement fill of cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust would be far stronger and better bonded to the briar than the pink goo (goo, a technical term describing anything either black or pink in pipe restoration) ever had been.

To fill in this larger pit, I placed a large drop of brown CA onto a small plastic lid. I then placed a pinch of briar dust next to the CA. Using the fly tying bodkin I dragged some briar dust into the CA and stirred the dust into the CA. I repeated this until the CA/dust had a consistency of syrup. If you add too much dust the magic smoke will rise from the mixture and it will set up immediately. This requires you to start over. (So, I hear…). Upon starting over and repeating the mixing, I then applied the mixture to the area needing to be filled with the bodkin. The CA set-up very quickly and allowed filing and sanding within minutes.

Tape applied to the stem to protect it from filing.

Once filed flat the tape was removed.

Sanding with 400 sandpaper.

This little sand pit was filled by placing a small drop of brown CA in the hole. A small pinch of briar dust was placed onto the CA and pressure was applied to the dust, forcing it into the hole. The CA set-up immediately filled the pit and C.A. Filmore was born. The small fill was then carefully filed smooth and sanded.

Hello, my name is C.A. Filmore and I will be your tour guide. Hmm, you may want to use nitrile gloves.

To rebuild the button I used a technique that I have not seen other restorers use. I first smoothed the area below the button with 400 sandpaper.

Scotch tape applied to the stem immediately below the button.

Black CA applied to the button to build-up the area.

The CA was spritzed with accelerant and “cut” at the back of the button with an Exacto knife while the CA was still soft. You only have a few seconds between the spritzing and the curing of the CA. The “cut” needs to be made during these critical seconds when the CA is still soft.

Scotch tape removed along with the CA that was “cut”.

The new button is shaped with needle files and sandpaper.

With the fills filled and the button rebuilt, all that remained was the micro-meshing of the stummel and stem. I kept both pieces attached during this process in order to keep the hard angles of their juncture. The 1500 and 1800 micro-mesh pads were moistened with a drop of water. Between each pad I would wipe the stummel with a make-up pad moistened with alcohol and would apply a drop of Obsidian Oil to the stem, work it in with my finger and wipe it off with a paper towel. I would then move to the next micro-mesh pad. The finer micro-mesh pads were all used in sequence, dry, with the same wiping with alcohol and oil to the stummel and stem respectively.

Upon completing the micro-meshing I applied a slathering of Before and After Restoration Balm to the pipe (stummel and stem) and allowed it to marinate for 20 minutes.

After the Restoration Balm had done it’s thing for 20 minutes, I removed the excess with a clean cotton rag. The pipe was really looking good. I took it down to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.

This old Marxman Super Grain bent bulldog turned out amazingly well. I did give it a smoke and that too was amazing. I do not know what it is about Marxman pipes but, the pipes made in New York from Algerian briar are some of the finest smoking pipes I have ever used. They remain cool, require no break in and deliver a sweetness that is just amazing. I hope you have found some of the techniques used here helpful in your own restorations or were at least entertained. If you enjoy this sort of thing please hit the like and subscribe below. Thank you very much for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

Here are some photos of the finished Marxman Super Grain Bent Bulldog:
A Kings Cross Billiard Restoration

December 12th, 2023

Written and photographed by John M. Young

I recently won an auction for 6 Kings Cross pipes. They are a mixture of 2-Made in England, 3-Made in France and 1-no Country of Manufacture (COM) just “ALGERIAN BRIAR”. I have chosen this billiard as the next restoration subject. Below are the photos of how it appeared as I removed it from the box:

This pipe needs many things done to bring her up to snuff: Reaming, rim topping and bevel, airway cleaning, stem sanding with button building, briar and stem refurbishing and a good waxing. I accept this mission.

In a previous pair of restorations (Kings Cross Kruger and Kings Cross Foursquare) I discussed the Chapuis-Comoy history and this pipe shares that heritage. This Kings Cross is of a French country of Origin (COM) as indicated by the stamp on the stem. It is unfortunate that this stamp is so faint. I know it will not survive the restoration thus any COM will be lost. I guess I can take some solace in knowing that her history will be preserved with this blog and I can pass that on to the next steward of this pipe.

As for the provenance of this pipe we can look at the shape number “185” and take a look at the Comoy shape chart from pipedia.org:

(https://pipedia.org/wiki/Comoy%27s_Shape_Number_Chart)

That looks like a match, to me. This is indeed a large billiard with a straight stem. Both Comoy and Chapuis used the same shapes when they consolidated their production in 1988. Which means that this old girls was a product of the Chapuis factory of Saint Claude (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/infos/chapuiscomoy-en.html) .

(http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/infos/chapuiscomoy-en.html)

On to the restoration. Other than the stem, which looks like some arseling tried to use a vice grip to see if he could squeeze the smoking residue from the stem rather than use a pipe cleaner, the pipe looks pretty good. There are two noticeable pits that will require filling and the damage to the rim from the previously mentioned arseling knocking the dottle from the pipe against pieces of broken concrete.

Sidenote: Arseling – The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines arseling as meaning “backwards” and having been derived from the noun arse and the suffix –ling. Used above as a noun deriding the person who inconsiderately damaged the pipe. (https://thijsporck.com/2015/11/12/arseling-a-word-coined-by-alfred-the-great/#:~:text=The%20Oxford%20English%20Dictionary%20(OED,arse%20and%20the%20suffix%20%E2%80%93ling.)

I began by reaming the tobacco chamber using the 3rd size blade on the PipNet, it is a “L” for large.

The Smokingpipes Low Country reaming knife and the General triangular scraper were also used after the PipNet. This was followed by 200 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel and with sandpaper on my finger. The interior of the chamber looked great. I used the edge of the knife to lightly scrape some of the lava from the rim.

Next the stummel went to the sink for the Murphy’s Oil Soap scrub. I used the Murphy’s undiluted with a medium bristle toothbrush. The stummel had years of dirt and grime attempting to hide the grain beneath. I spent a bit of extra time on the rim to address the lava remaining there. The stummel was then rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton dish towel. Returning to the workbench I saw that there remained some stubborn lava on the rim. I worked on this with saliva and a cotton rag until I realized how dumb, I was behaving. “Hey dummy, you are going to top that whole rim.” Hmm, good thing I have a kind and loving internal voice. I returned to the sink, since that is where the counter I use for topping is. I used a piece of 200

sandpaper laid flat on the counter to top the stummel. As I sanded I rotated the stummel to maintain even pressure around the entire rim. After the topping I wanted to maintain the bevel on the inside of the rim. I used a

wooden sphere wrapped in 200 sandpaper to reestablish this bevel. Different sized spheres can be used for different angles. After the topping the new rim needed a bit of stain. I used the walnut furniture touch-up marker for the initial color match and blended it with an alcohol dipped make-up pad.

With the rim complete I turned my attention to the two spots requiring fills. They were both small but in positions that would require care to maintain

the original shape of the stummel. I chose to use cyaloacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust. I used a fly tying bodkin to apply a small drop of CA to the hole and placed a pinch of briar dust onto the CA. I then pushed the briar dust into the hole. This usually fills the cavity in one application and will give you a nice little CA fill spot on your index finger. The CA cures almost instantly with the briar dust and pressure. The remaining scab, for lack of a better term, was filed off using

needle files. I used the flat file for the flare area on the right fill and curved and rounded files for the shank/bowl transition. The area is then sanded with 400 sandpaper and touched-up with the furniture touch-up marker.

With the fills dealt with I started in on the roughest parts of the stem. I used the flat needle file to smooth the most egregious gouges on the stem then sanded them with 200 sandpaper wrapped around an emery board. I wanted the stiffness of the emery board to keep me from sanding the gouges into a curved shape. After the worst of the gouges were removed there remained a couple of depressions on both sides of the stem. I filled these with black CA. The CA was spritzed with a curing accelerator then filed smooth with the flat needle file. These areas were then smoothed with sandpaper.

At this point I decided to build up and shape the button of the stem. I again used the black CA for this reshaping. On previous restorations, I have neglected to photo document my process of button building. This is not to preserve my “secret technique”. It is merely because I get to working on this part and get so consumed in the process that I forget to document it. This time I made an effort to show what I do. I will typically shape and sand the area shank-ward of the button. Once smooth, I use a piece of scotch tape to keep the new CA only on the button.

I apply the black CA and spritz with accelerant. You have a few seconds when the CA is soft, before the accelerant cures the CA into it’s hardened form.

While it is still soft I use an exacto knife to cut the edge of the button giving it a sharp definition towards the stem. I then peel the scotch tape off, taking with it the area beyond the cut. I will then shape the new CA button. I will repeat this until I have the desired shape. I have not seen other restorers use this technique. I doubt I am the only one who has thought of this.

After the fills were smoothed with 400 sandpaper I prepped the pipe for micro-meshing. Since I had so much sanding of the stem to do, I left the stem and shank together for the sanding and micro-meshing. I knew that this would obliterate the “FRANCE” stamping on the stem but I did mask the stamping on the stummel to preserve them.

The micro-meshing was pretty standard from1500-1800 pad used wetted with a drop of water. The stummel was wiped with an alcohol dampened make-up removal pad while the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel. The next micro-mesh pads were the 2200-3200 used dry with the above mentioned wiping done between each pad.

I removed the painters tape before using the 4000-12000 micromesh pads. I rubbed the areas taped with an alcohol pad to remove and tape adhesive residue and continued the micro-meshing with alternating wipes between pads.

At this stage the pipe was looking very nice. I gave the stummel a liberal coat of Before and After Restoration Balm and the stem a coat of Obsidian Oil and allowed them to while I attended to some laundry duty.

With the laundry folded an put away it was time to wipe off the balm and see how this old billiard is looking. I wiped the pipe with the inside of an athletic sock. Those little ankle high socks fit on my hand perfectly and have a wonderful terry cloth interior perfect for pipe rubbing. Oh, she is looking so much better. All that is left is a trip down stairs to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer.

Oh, dang it, I forgot about the stinger, again. It had been sitting in a medicine cup with some 99% isopropyl alcohol. The alcohol softed the tar-lacquer (not sure if that is a thing). I used the buffer with some white compound to polish it up then reinserted it into the stem.

This restoration was all very straight forward. It was a good way to spend the better part of an afternoon. The briar grain shows very nicely and sets off the ebony of the polished vulcanite well. Not too shabby for a factory made briar pipe. I am sure she will make a great companion for her next owner and provide years more of quality tobacco consumption. I hope that you found some of these techniques helpful for your own restorations or were entertained. If you liked this sort of thing, please hit the like and/or subscribe buttons down there. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

Here are some photos of the finished Kings Cross billiard:
An LHS London Royal Restoration

December 10th, 2023

Written and photographed by John M. Young

This little gem came in an eBay estate lot from Bemidji, Minnesota. We spent several family vacations with friends on Leech Lake (sounds horrible but it is beautiful) and I remember the annual visits to Bemidji fondly. This was a well loved little pipe and saw more than it’s share of tobacco. It looks to be a restoration requiring several techniques.

In looking at the photos you can see that this London Royal is in need of; a cleaning, reaming, rim work, stem refurbishment, a button rebuild, general sanding/refinishing and maybe a dye job (to emphasize wood grain). This looks like a fun one.

“Who made this London Royal?” was one of my first questions. I turned first to pipedia.org, where I was met with 20 mentions of “London” with none of them having the “Royal” after London. Hmm, not a promising start. Next I turned to pipehil.eu. This returned the following:

Now I was getting somewhere. The “Royal London” name was there but the stamping style did not match and the absence of any logo on the stem was worrisome. I did have the “LHS” lead to follow. Okay, pipedia.org, time to redeem yourself. With a search of “LHS”, I had more information to work with.

“Ludwig Stern, a successful pipe manufacturer since 1893 and closing around 1960, reorganized his company along with his brother Hugo Stern, opening a factory in 1911. They named the company L&H Stern Smoking Pipes & Holders. The newly formed company was moved into a six story building on the corner of Pearl and Waters street Brooklyn, NY.” (LHS – Pipedia)

This little London Royal did not strike me as being a very old pipe. When I saw the closing date of 1960 I was a bit surprised. This led me to think that I did not have the correct maker. I continued reading the LHS information.

“Thoroughly organized in all departments, and housed in a well-lighted and ventilated modern office and manufacturing building, the firm of L&H Stern Inc. is located near the first arch of the Manhattan bridge, near the river and convenient to the Brooklyn bridge, which makes it accessible from all the hotels in the metropolis for visiting buyers. The structure is six stories with a seventeen-foot basement, with light on three sides through prismatic glass windows, the first floor being seven feet above the sidewalk. Light enters the upper floors from all four sides.

L&H Stern is known to every important wholesaler and jobber in the country. LHS manufactures a complete line of briar pipes. Ginmetto wood pipes are also made, as well as Redmanol goods, the man-made amber. The first substitute for amber. Everything, even down to the sterling silver and other metal trimmings are made under one roof.” (LHS – Pipedia)

Interesting, a company that produced all aspects of their product. In today’s world that is nearly unheard of. The “Redmanol” part especially caught my attention. Redmanol was an early plastic created by Lawrence Redman:

“Born in Oil Springs, Ontario, Redman took a B.A. degree from the University of Toronto in 1908. He continued his studies at the University of Kansas. In 1913, with the backing of S. Karpen & Bros., a Chicago furniture manufacturers, Redman established the Redmanol Chemical Products Company which produced a plastics similar to Bakelite. Redman was the president.

In 1922, the Redmanol company, the Condensite Company of America, and General Bakelite were consolidated into Bakelite Corporation.^[1] Redman became vice president and director of research. He retired in 1939.

Redman was a member of the American Chemical Society and its president in 1932.” (https://docs.google.com/document/d/147Wq0urGOvxojLwagHF3yXDwNu5XhtefJ3xp6zl-JAw/edit)

The reason this caught my attention was that the stem on this pipe did not have the appearance of vulcanite. It had a slightly different feel on my teeth and the texture just didn’t feel “right”. Also the fact that such a well used pipe with the button worn down yet did not display any noticeable indentations from being clenched seemed odd to me.

“Bakelite’s availability and ease and speed of molding helped to lower the costs and increase product availability so that telephones and radios became common household consumer goods.^[8]^{: 116–117}^[40]^[41] It was also very important to the developing automobile industry.^[42] It was soon found in myriad other consumer products ranging from pipe stems and buttons to saxophone mouthpieces, cameras, early machine guns, and appliance casings.” (Bold added by me) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakelite)

The final piece to this pipes provenance came from a photograph on the pipedia.cog LHS site:

(photos from LHS – Pipedia)

The tenon extension of the photo, right, is the exact same as the tenon extension of the London Royal. I own a couple of old Peterson pipes with bone tenon extensions. These extensions or “chimneys”, as they are known at the Peterson factory, change color with use. They change from their natural bone color to the deep brown, nearly black, that is seen both in this pipe and the photo, right. This leads to the question: “Is this a bone extension or is it a Bakelite/Redmanol extension?” I had not heard of plastics being used as tenon extensions. Another LHS – Pipedia photo shows the following and mentions “bone screw”:

(photo from LHS – Pipedia)

I am assuming the “bone screw and Redmanol bit” were together in a single stem. This shows that LHS was using tooled bone as part of their manufacturing. It also indicated a very strong case for the heritage of the London Royal as an LHS product with manufacture dates between 1920s-1960.

With this bit of the history solved I turned my attention from the computer to the pipe. The first step was to get the tobacco chamber reamed and check for any damage. The cake was extensive and required the use of the Scotti and PipNet reaming tools, the Low Country and General knives followed by the 200 sandpaper wrapped dowell.

You can see from the photos that there was a bit of rim scraping done with the edge of the knife as well.

After the reaming and chamber sanding the stummel went to the sink for the Murphy’s Oil Soap and toothbrush scrub. The toothbrush is a medium stiff bristle and the Murphy’s is used undiluted. The stummel was rinsed with warm water after the scrub and dried with a cotton dish towel. I returned to the workbench for a good look at the condition of the stummel. The rim still had a few spots of lava after the Murphy scrub. These were worked on with saliva and a cotton rag until removed. The stummel was then rubbed with a 95% ethyl alcohol moistened make-up removal pad. The first pad came away with a bit of discoloration, indicating the removal of finish. This was probably a shellac. The second pad came away with less while the third was pretty much clean.

I was not looking forward to the next part of the cleaning. I figured if the tobacco chamber was that heavily caked the shank would be a tar filled wonderland (with extra sarcasm). I tried feeling around inside the airway with a dental pick but everything felt solid, not gummy. “Oh, this won’t be so bad”, I wishfully thought. I dipped cotton swab in alcohol and gave the airway a swirl. Dramatic pause. It came back brown, not black. The other end with more alcohol went in. Another dramatic pause. Umm, I think the first one just pissed off the tar. This end was BLACK. The first bit of alcohol had gone in and softened the dried residue and primed it for the second swabbing. Yeah, it was as bad as I had originally thought. To make matters more interesting the boring of the airway was done similar to a Peterson Straight System – in other words the mortise was drilled the length of the airway to the bowl-shank transition. At this point the draught hole was a short drilling from the bottom of the tobacco chamber to the enlarged airway. This diagram attempts to clarify:

I am the proud owner of several Peterson 31s and a pair of 120s that are all Peterson Straight System pipes. I absolutely love the way they smoke. Cleaning them is not as easy as a standard pipe. It is kind of like arguing with your child: You love the way your child uses logic and language to make a good point but dislike the fact that they are arguing with you. Anyway, this design allowed the smoke to enter the “chamber” (for lack of a better word) where it could cool and let the water and other stuff to condense, then the cooler drier smoke would pass through the stem to the smoker. All this other stuff had accumulated and dried in the chamber and created a less than easy cleaning.

I Started with cotton swabs. This proved inadequate for the job. I moved up to a piece of paper towel wrapped around a round needle file, dipped in alcohol. Also inadequate. I then graduated to pouring about 3-5 ml of alcohol into the tobacco chamber and using a nylon brush to scrub the airway while I held it at an angle to pool the alcohol in the bowl and shank while allowing it to dissolve the residues. Better but still not cutting the tar. Finally I got out the big gun – a .22 caliber brass bore cleaning brush. It was smaller in diameter than the chamber so I didn’t have to force it in. I refilled the bowl with 3-5 ml of fresh alcohol, held it at an angle and lightly scrubbed the interior with the .22 bore brush. This was finally able to cut through the residue. It still took a large number of cotton swabs but I was victorious.

Next was the stem. Remember how I said that the stem didn’t feel like vulcanite? Well, I dipped a pipe cleaner into 95% ethyl alcohol and started to run it through the stem. I quickly realized that the stem absolutely was not vulcanite. It became very slippery in my fingers with a drop of alcohol. Bakelite and Redmanol are soluble in alcohol and acetone. Fortunately the alcohol dries quickly and the Bakelite goes back to being hard plastic. Hmm, that would be an easy test to see if the tenon extension is Bakelite or bone! The alcohol had no effect on it. Verdict, the tenon extension is bone. Okay, alcohol is out. Water on vulcanite is not good unless you like discoloration and oxidation. Guess what? Water has no effect on Bakelite. Problem solved. I would just use hot soapy water to remove the yuck (the technical term) from the stem. That sounded great until I realized that all of my nylon brushes were too large to fit in the button or the bone tenon extension. I used bristle pipe cleaners with Dawn dish soap and hot water. The pipe cleaners worked at removing the yuck (the technical term) from the stem airway.

Returning to the stummel, I started with a 1500 micro-mesh pad used dry. There were no large scratches of surface blemished to address. I worked up through the 4000 micro-mesh pad. Between each pad I wiped the stummel off with an alcohol dampened make-up pad. It was here that I thought again about giving this pipe a dye and light sanding to try for a contrast stained finish. The wood grain was not terrible nor was it anything wonderful. A bit of contrast may be just what this old pipe needs.

I got the necessary dye gear ready. Fiebing’s light brown leather dye, a pipe cleaner, the official bowl plug, a lighter and the plastic bin to protect the counter, and since the heat gun was already out, the heat gun. I put the official bowl plug into the bowl. This amazing device not only keep the

dye from getting into the bowl, it also provides a handle. Okay, it’s really just a fishing bobber wrapped in duct tape. I hear some people use wine bottle corks. I then heated the stummel with the heat gun. This expands the pores in the briar allowing better penetration of the dye. Next I used the pipe cleaner as an applicator with the dye. After I was satisfied with the coverage I flames the dye burning off the alcohol in the dye and setting the dye into the briar. I allowed the dye to dry for a while while I did some chores that I had been busy neglecting.

Chores complete, I returned to the workbench and began lightly micro-meshing the stummel with the 2400 micro-mesh pad. I did this dry to remove the outermost stained briar. Hopefully the light touch would remove the outermost layer of stained briar. This allows the briar to show the grain that absorbed more of the dye as darker while the grain that absorbed less remains lighter. At least that is the theory. I think it looks better than it did. I continued to micro-mesh the stummel with the 4000 and 6000 pads. I did not use alcohol to wipe the stummel between pads as I did not want the stain to bleed from the darker to the lighter area.

I started to work on the stem. I was not sure how the Bakelite would handle sanding or micro-meshing so I started with the 2400 micro-mesh pad. It seemed to removed marks and teeth chatter well. I went down to a more coarse grit to speed the process along. I used the 1800 micro-mesh pad dry to smooth the chatter and smooth the stem. I did this with a very light touch. After 1800, I returned to the 2400-6000 micro-mesh pads. I wiped between each with a water moistened paper towel.

I needed to rebuild the button before I did any more work on the stem. To build up the button I was going to use black cyanoacrylate (CA, superglue). I wrapped a piece of scotch tape around the stem right up against where the button started. This gave me a clean sharp edge to build material. I also did not know how the Bakelite would react to the accelerant for setting the CA. I figured the scotch tape would allow me to protect the stem surface from any over spray. Like usual, I got into the groove of adding material, spritzing, filing, adding more material, filing, sanding, etc… and completely forgot to document/photograph the process. AGAIN. Apologies, I can show the finished product though.

After the button rebuild I finished with the 6000-12000 micro-mesh pads again with the wetted paper towel between pads.

The stummel was reunited with the step and both were taken to the buffer where I applied several coats of carnauba wax to the entire pipe. In looking at this pipe I see a unique bit of history. I can’t help but think this was an attempt to copy the Peterson straight system. Below is the London Royal and my Peterson 120 with a bone tenon extension:

Peterson stopped using bone in about 1960, which is also the year LHS ended as a company. The bone tenon extensions have a tendency to fuse with the vulcanite with age and cannot be removed without breaking the bone. The bone would then have to be drilled out and replaced with an aluminum tenon extension. These are available from Peterson or

(https://www.smokingpipes.eu/accessories/replacement-stems/)

Smokingpipes.eu for a reasonable €2.03, then there is the €15 for shipping. The Smokingpipes.com has had them as sold out for over 2 years. If one were to accidentally break a bone tenon extension this would be a viable replacement. There I go, rambling on about Petersons again. Anyway this little London Royal made in Brooklyn with some darn old materials turned out to be a pretty little pipe. I do not know how well she smokes but, judging by the cake build-up she had, she must be pretty good. I do hope that some of the techniques used here are helpful to your restorations or entertaining. If you like this sort of thing please hit the like and subscribe at the bottom. I thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

Here are the finished photos of the LHS London Royal.