NebraskaPeteGeek

A du Pont Explosives Promotional Pipe Restoration

August 28th, 2025
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

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As a little kid I used to sit with my father at his reloading bench while he reloaded rifle shells. It was my job to line up empty cases in straight little rows. Important work, to be sure. Later in life I too shared my father’s love of high power rifles, reloading and the study of reloading manuals. I remember shooting my first deer with a hand loaded 25-06 Remington. To this day, I can recall the load: 54 grains of 4831, Federal large rifle primer, 100 grain Nosler Boat Tail Ballisting Tip bullet. I cannot recall the muzzle velocity, like I used to but I still do have the Yugoslavian made Mauser rifle imported by Interarms. “What the heck does all that have to do with a du Pont Explosives promotional pipe?” you demand to know. Well, du Post explosives were not only the reason for the pipe but they also manufactured gun powder. A lot of it. Long before Dwight Eisenhower warned us against the influence of the military industrial complex du Pont was the largest US maker of black powder

Background

I have to admit that I was surprised that there was anything written about this pipe. The first place I looked was pipedia.org and low and behold, I got a hit. Below is the full text.

“du Pont Explosives pipes were given out as souvenir pipes by the Explosives Department of the du Pont Company between 1912 and 1933. (Source: Debra Hughes, Curator of Collections and Exhibits, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE USA.) The original maker is unknown.

The shape is apparently intended to resemble an 18th or early 19th Century gunpowder barrel. Poker and bent shapes are represented. Some pipes may have ferrules. They are stamped with the duPont logo and “REG. US. PAT. OFF. EXPLOSIVES” on one side and “GENUINE FRENCH BRIAR” on the other side. Stems are vulcanite or similar material.”
- Example du Pont Explosives pipe bowl
- Example gunpowder keg with extra bands to prevent staving
- An unsmoked example, courtesy Brian Robertson Collection
(DuPont Explosives promotional pipes – Pipedia)

Well, that pretty much sums up everything I wanted to know. That dated the pipe to 1912-33 and put the production in the USA, probably. I can’t imagine a foreign carver being too concerned with US patent registration. The 1912-1933 dates would precede the briar shortages of World War 2. I have not read anything about briar shortages caused by World War 1 but I am certain that they would have existed. One other thing I found interesting was the painting of the indentations of the stamp, as seen in the photos above. There was no sign of any remnant paint in the stamp on the pipe in hand. I was not sure how to or if to replicate this on the restored du Pont pipe.

The Restoration

Much to my chagrin, I worked on two pipes simultaneously. I normally do not like to do this as I inevitably forget steps or the photographing of steps, but my schedule has included a couple of fishing tournaments as of late. Priorities, priorities… Both pipes shared a denim piece on the workbench.

The first task was to prepare the stem for a bath in Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. To do this I wanted the stem clean. I first tried my standard treatment of 99% ethyl alcohol on pipe cleaners. The stem started to feel slick in my fingers. The ethyl alcohol was dissolving the surface material on the stem. “Okay”, I thought and remembered the quote from the pipedia.org, “Stems are vulcanite or similar material” (DuPont Explosives promotional pipes – Pipedia). Hmm, I switched over to a 91% isopropyl alcohol thinking that the larger molecule would be less likely to act on the rubber. It worked and after several bristled pipe cleaners dipped in the 91% isopropyl alcohol the stem was clean.

Both stems were dropped into the bottle of Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. I will refer to this as deox from here out.

I thought back to April, 2025 after Briarville gave me a bottle of their product to try. Usage had discolored it severely but it was still working. Sorry, I digress. The stems were to be left in deox overnight.

The ream team was assembled. The PipNet #2 and #3 blades were the proper size.

The PipNet did its job of removing the cake, admirably. The General triangular scraper was just used to clean up at the bottom of the chamber.

The reamed chamber looked good but the rim definitely needed some work.

The lava on the rim was softened with saliva. After a couple of minutes the lava was scraped with a sharp pocket knife.

The cleaning of the shank airway was done with 99% ethyl alcohol on a nylon shank brush, bristle pipe cleaners and numerous cotton swabs. A dental scraper was also used.

After the shank cleaning, I sanded the tobacco chamber with 320 grit sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The bare briar showed no sign of heat damage. Below are photos showing the left and right chamber walls.

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

I wiped the surface of the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol. The pad showed some sign of remaining grime. I wiped it a couple more times to remove whatever the scrubbing missed.

I was not convinced that the airway was completely rid of the smoking residues. The pipe also still had an aroma of old aromatic tobacco. Though not unpleasant, I wanted to remove them. TO do this I packed the tobacco chamber, airway and shank with cotton.

The cotton was saturated with about 10 ml 99% ethyl alcohol applied with a disposable pipette. This was allowed to evaporate overnight.

The next day revealed that the alcohol had worked at dissolving the yuck (technical term for smoking residue) from the walls of the airway and deposited said yuck into the cotton.

The yuckified (the technical term for cotton soiled with dissolved smoking residue) cotton was removed.

I ran an alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaner through the airway and scrubbed with a cotton swab also alcohol fortified. Both devices returned with little yuck. Triumph!

The inner and out rims of the bowl showed signs of abuse. I lightly topped the rim but refused to top it severely enough to remove all trace of the damage. That would have shortened the height of the bowl by nearly an 1/8th inch or 3 mm. Instead, I slightly beveled the inner and outer edges with a file and sandpaper.

The stem was taken from deox and vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rag. This removed a good deal of the oxidized material from the surface of the stem.

Below shows the pre-sanded but oiled stem and stummel.

I tried to paint the tooth dents on the stem with a soft flame lighter. This rarely makes a big difference but it’s fun to do.

The tooth chatter was filed with a small flat file and the edge of the button was slightly defined on both the top and bottom sides. These were also lightly sanded with a 320 sanding sponge.

Here is a great example of why I do not like to do two pipes simultaneously. I failed to document the application of the cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) to fill in the deeper tooth dents. Rather, all you get to see is the filled and filed smooth result.

With the fills on the stem complete, I turned to the one big fill on the left rear of the stummel. The old fill material was picked out using a fly tying bodkin. This new fill would certainly leave a scar but it would be a smooth shiny scar.

I used a fine applicator tip on a bottle of Thin CA to apply a tiny bit of CA into the depressions. I then placed briar dust on top of the wet CA. The excess dust was brushed off. I topped the briar dust with additional Thin CA.

The new fill was sanded to see where additional CA and briar dust would be required. Oh yeah, the reason for the masking tape of the stamps was to protect them from my sanding.

The stem and stummel were sanded simultaneously with a series of sanding sponges in grits 400-3500. Between sponges the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol while the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.

After the sanding the pipe was worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. The wiping between pads was done as with the sanding sponges except the stem was oiled with Obsidian Oil.

The stummel was then coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to soak in that balmy goodness for 20 minutes.

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

The pipe then received several coats of carnauba wax applied with the buffer.

The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.

This du Pont pipe was a fun restoration. Not only did it allow me to reminisce about my father and reloading but also gave me the chance to work on a pipe that was probably 100 years old. This old gal is still quite pretty and the bent poker, that’s what I am calling it, shape is intriguing and fun. The briar grain is mostly concealed by the ring carvings of the “gun powder barrel” but the shank sides show lovely bird’s eyes. The hard rubber of the stem did polish-up nicely and provides a fine accent to the natural color of the briar. This historical sitting pipe will make its next owner a fine and historical tobacco enjoyment tool. The dimensions of this du Pont Explosives promotional pipe are:

Length: 4.70 in./ 119.38 mm.

Weight: 1.53 oz./ 43.36 g.

Bowl Height: 1.79 in./ 4.47 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.58 in./ 40.13 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.80 in./ 20.32 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.30 in./ 33.02 mm.

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

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Below are some photos of the finished du Pont Explosives promotional pipe.
A Peterson Irish Seconds Bent Billiard Restoration

August 26th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

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The story of the Ugly Duckling seems to come to my mind when I think of Peterson Irish Seconds. Though in the case of this pipe it’s more like an ugly duckling that got chewed on by a snapping turtle down at the pond.

Well, this looks like it might be another tough restoration. The reason this pipe didn’t make it as a “real” Peterson might have been the deeper than normal blastings at the front left of the pipe. In a couple of places the briar looks like the blasting cut deeper into the briar. I am no expert on Peterson quality control but that did seem suspect. As for what I planned to do was the following: A thorough cleaning of the pipe inside and out, a refinishing of the briar, and a rebuilding of the stem. This rebuilding would allow me to try to weld vulcanite kind of like I welded acrylic on a previous restoration (A Commissioned Stanwell 32 Button Repair – acrylic welding – NebraskaPeteGeek).

Background

Being a rather typical member of Generation-X, sometimes called lazy slackers, I will refer you to what I wrote about Peterson Irish Seconds in a previous blog,

I cannot begin to describe the history nor impact of the Peterson pipe company. I can tell you what I think is the best source of information on the subjects and that is Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg’s book, The Peterson Pipe The Story of Kapp & Peterson. According to the authors,Peterson’s seconds are as follows,

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mark also writes a weekly blog titled Peterson Pipe Notes. If you have not already subscribed I highly recommend it. It will be one of the best $0 purchases you can make and is a vault of information on all things Peterson and various other topics. I am not just saying that because Mark has posted a few of my restorations either. His blog concerning the Irish Seconds is very well researched, written and can be found here: https://petersonpipenotes.org/tag/irish-seconds/. (Young, John. An Irish Seconds Oom Paul (Peterson 02) Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek).

As for this pipe, I believe it to be a Peterson 312 shape. The dimensions and shape match the 312 Bent Billiard. According to the official Peterson website,

“One of our largest and most robust variations on the classic, this bent Billiard offers a generous fire hole with thick insulating walls, as well as a more tubular transition and muscular shank that capture our House Style. Though bold and substantial, its half-bend lends it a natural impression when clenched in the teeth.” (Peterson Pipes: System Standard Heritage (312) P-Lip).

The shank is drilled with a reservoir making me think that the pipe was not intended as an Irish Seconds but as a 312 but it just didn’t make the quality control cut after the blast. That is all conjecture on my part though.

The Restoration

As much as I do not like to work on more than one pipe at a time, due to old brain issues, I did indeed do these two pipes simultaneously.

Stem cleaning was the first priority as I wanted to get this stem into the Briarville’s oxidation remover solution. I was looking forward to trying the vulcanite welding.

The exterior was lightly rubbed with 0000 steel wool to remove the outermost oxidation.

The stem then was placed into the Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover, or Deox, as I like to call it. I planned to leave it in the solution overnight.

I then turned to gathering the ream team.

The PipNet’s #1 and #2 blades did most of the work with the General triangular scraper doing clean-up.

The rim had lava deposits, but with its rusticated rim, it would be tough to scrape clean.

The scraping of the rim, once softened with a bit of saliva, was partially productive.

The tobacco chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The sanding revealed the briar and no damage due to heat.

No damage is always welcome.

Next came the cleaning of the air way within the shank. This was more difficult. Peterson pipes with their reservoirs are frequently difficult to clean. I do wish that their owners would have taken a few minutes to swab out the reservoir with a tissue or napkin as recommended, but I too have neglected to do this after a smoke. The airway was cleaned with a dental scraper, nylon shank brush, bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs all doused with liberal amounts of 99% ethyl alcohol.

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

The deeper parts of the sandblast and the rim did not look like they were as clean as I would have liked so a second scrub was done with a brass brush and the Murphy’s. The rinsing and drying remained the same.

Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol. This did remove some of the black stain from the briar.

Still not happy with the cleanliness of the airway, I thought maybe a cotton and alcohol treatment would soften and draw out remaining tars from the briar.

The bowl, airway and shank were stuffed with cotton. The cotton was then saturated with about 10 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol and allowed to sit overnight. With the stem and stummel both soaking overnight with their treatments, I called it a night.

Remember I said that I was working on two pipes at the same time? Well, I continued the next morning. The cotton had done its job of absorbing the tars dissolved by the alcohol as it did its job of dissolving the tars and moving them to the cotton as it evaporated.

The cotton was removed.

I then cleaned the airway as before and was pleased that it took little effort.

The stem was retrieved from deox and placed on a coarse shop rag where it was rubbed vigorously. This helped remove some of the oxidation loosened by the deox solution.

The stem was filed and sanded exposing a cleaned surface to work with.

The same filing and sanding was done to the underside.

I cut a “dam” from a plastic lid to fit into the slot and block off the airway from unwanted welding material.

Below you can see the airway filled with the dam.

I selected a vulcanite stem from my extras.

The surface material was filed and sanded from the stem to expose clean fresh vulcanite.

I tried melting the vulcanite with a soldering iron, as I had successfully done with the acrylic. It did not work. I then tried to heat the vulcanite with a heat gun to soften it before using the soldering iron. This too met with failure.

All that it did was to make the surface of the vulcanite surface get rough, as if it were bubbling up. I could not get any material to melt off the stem for use as welding material for the Peterson’s stem.

Plan B began to form in my Multiple Sclerosis damaged brain. What if I cut a piece of vulcanite from an existing stem and welded it in place with rubberized cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue)? Hmm, the damaged brain thought this might work. I set off to find an appropriate donor stem. The donor’s button was removed with a cut-off tool with the dremel rotary tool. This also gave me a feel for cutting vulcanite.

I measured and drew out the piece which I wanted the donor to donate.

Except for a small chip off the donor piece where I tried to hold it in a forceps, it looked good and fit well. Okay, there was actually a lot of trimming and shaping with the dremel.

The Bob Smith rubberized CA was the glue of choice.

The CA was applied to the seam around the donor piece. The dam would hopefully keep the CA from dripping into the airway. Also from previous experiences the CA does not stick to this plastic.

After about 30 minutes I couldn’t wait anymore so I spritzed the CA with a drying accelerator. This hardened up the CA in moments. The plastic dam was pulled free.

I filed the repair with a small flat file and checked the airway. Everything was going according to the imagined plan.

A second application of black CA was applied to fill and blend the repair. I also added a line of CA to the back side of the button to re-establish its shape.

The underside of the stem was also coated with a thin layer of CA to fill the multitude of dents caused by the snapping turtle attack.

After the CA had cured it was again filed and sanded with 320 and 400 grit sanding sponges. The repair looked better than I had thought it would.

The underside was also filed and sanded.

WIth the stem issues resolved, I turned my attention to the refinishing of the briar. This pipe had some serious wear issues. The black stain had been worn away completely from the left rear side of the stummel.

I used Fiebing’s black Leather Dye diluted about 50% with ethyl alcohol.

I initially thought to just apply the dye to the areas where the finish had been worn away but as I did this I realized that blending the old and new finishes would be impossible. The best solution was to apply the black dye to the whole stummel.

Well, the whole stummel minus the lighter shank end. The dye was flamed with a lighter to burn off remaining alcohol and to help set the dye into the briar. After the flaming I wiped the surface with a make-up pad wetted with ethyl alcohol. I was not concerned with the dye drying because I wanted to remove the dye from the high spots of the blast. The lower spots would dry on their own accord.

After the stummel had dried, I lightly sanded the high spots and contours with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

This light sanding removed the black dyed briar from the surface revealing the lighter briar underneath.

The worn briar of the left side of the stummel looked much better.

The stem was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges. I did not worry about taping the shank as the sanding there would improve the lightening of the briar at the shank end. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a dry paper towel.

The sanding continued through the finest grit sanding sponge, 3500. The oiling and wiping also continued between sponges.

I buffed the stem with white buffing compound to further polish the vulcanite.

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

The remaining Restoration Balm was hand rubbed with an inside out athletic sock to remove the excess.

The stem was waxed with several coats of carnauba wax applied with the buffer.

I did not want to wax the stummel with carnauba due to the deeper recesses of the blast. I opted to use Renaissance Micro-Crystaline Wax. This product was applied with a baby toothbrush.

I used a shoe buffing pad to hand polish the Renaissance.

As a further buffing attempt, I used shoe buffing brushes to work the wax and raise the shine.

The final touch was to hand buff the entire pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.

My struggle to repair the damage caused by the snapping turtle attack on this poor Peterson was complete. Overall I think it turned out very nicely. Given, I will probably not sell this specimen as the stem repair was a technique that I have not tried before and have not tested sufficiently. I was disappointed by my failure to weld the damage with vulcanite but will probably do more research and attempt it again. The stem did polish-up very well and looks dramatically better than it did. I am sure the repair will hold and should be strong enough to combat the forces of extended clenching. The refinishing of the stummel also turned out very nicely. The definite deep blast is a feature that I really like the look of. Though this may have been the reason for this pipe being classified as an Irish Second. The dimensions of this Peterson Irish Seconds Bent Billiard are:

Length: 5.50 in./ 139.70 mm.

Weight: 1.83 oz./ 51.88 g.

Bowl Height: 1.75 in./ 44.45 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.54 in./ 39.12 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.32 in./ 33.53 mm.

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

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Below are some photos of the finished Peterson Irish Seconds Bent Billiard.
A Marxman Carved Head – Monk Restoration

August 21st, 2025
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

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I am not a big fan of figural pipes in general. However, as a Marxman fan, I cannot help but try my hand at bidding when one comes up on eBay for a reasonable price. That was the case with this charming cherub. This little cheeky monk showed up with three other pipes. The Marxman was the obvious target of the acquisition but the other two also looked interesting.

I won’t say what I ended up paying for the trio but it was far less than I was willing to pay for the funky monk. A road trip from Decatur, Georgia to the wilds of southeast Nebraska later the pipes arrived. I also like to think this freewheeling friar made a detour through Sherwood Forest to visit a certain hooded robbing Robin. Now my imagination is running rampant. The stampings on the bottom of the pipe were a nice sharp MARXM with the fletchings of an arrow on the left. The last couple letters of MARXMAN and the arrow tip looked to be the victim of an incomplete stamp. Below this was IMPORTED BRIAR. Anyway, below are some photos of the chubby cheeked monk before he had any work done.

Yeah, this one had some issues. The stem was obviously not the original. There was a visible crack in the shank, likely the reason for the also not original band. The pipe had been smoked as indicated by both the cake in the bowl and the lava on the rim. There also appeared to be a cigarette burn on the right side of the stummel. The carving itself looked good although the small hole exiting the monk’s lips gave me concern. I worried that this irregularity in the tobacco chamber might lead to charring around the hole. Well, I’d cross that stream, without crossing quarter staves with Little John, during the reaming. See that? Another Robing Hood tidbit. I wonder if there will be more.

Background

I keep hoping that an author will write a comprehensive history of Robert Marx and Marxman Pipes, similar to:
- Back From The Ashes: Uncovering the Lost History of G. L. Hunt and the Falcon Pipe by K.A. Worth (available here, Amazon.com: Back From The Ashes: Uncovering the Lost History of G. L. Hunt and the Falcon Pipe eBook : Worth, K. A.: Books)
- Brigham Pipes – A Century of Canadian Briar by Charles Lemon. (available here, Books)
- “As Individual As A Thumbprint”: The Custom-Bilt Pipe Story by William E. Unger, Jr.,Ph.D (no longer in print)
- The Peterson Pipe The Story of Kapp & Peterson by Irwin, Mark and Malmberg, Gary (2018). (available here, The Peterson Pipe Book (Softcover) | Smokingpipes.com)
Until then I will have to use less glamorous means of documentation. Heck, I’ll even quote myself, how is that for less-than-glamorous? Below are links to previously written blogs with more complete histories of Marxman pipes, for those interested in reading more about Robert Marx and his company.
- Camel figural https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.com/7445
- Jumbo C https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.com/7197
- Jumbo Dublin https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.com/3071
- Mel~O pear https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.com/6995” (https://scimansays1787.com/2024/11/12/a-marxman-four-hundred-restoration/).
As for this particular pipe, I’ll refer to a c. 1950 Marxman catalog,

(File:MarxmanCatalog4.jpg – Pipedia). This is why I titled this blog “A Marxman Carved Head – Monk Restoration”. The catalog calls these pipes “CARVED HEADS” rather than figural pipes and I used that nomenclature. I am assuming that this pipe is from around the 1950 date, prior to the acquisition of Marxman by Mastercraft in 1953. After the acquisition Marxman pipes were manufactured in France and Italy and bear a country of manufacture (COM) stamp indicating the COM. Since this pipe is lacking a COM, I assumed that it was carved in New York City.

The Restoration

The Monk made its way from the photo table to the workbench and received a cleared denim piece.

The first thing I did was look through my limited stock of pipe stems for suitable replacement stems. The stem that was on the pipe was already a replacement stem likely from a Comoy pipe. Comoy had several brands or seconds that used three bars on their stems. I found two then fit the mortise and would require less work on my part to fit the stem to the pipe.

The first was a black hard rubber, non-vulcanite, saddle stem. All of the Carved Heads had a taper stem, according to the photos from the catalog, though some of the animal versions appeared to have saddle stems. This stem would provide a more original look to the piece.

The second was a short briar wood stem. This stem was interesting and would make the pipe into a cute nose-warmer.A very non-traditional look, but one that was intriguing.

Below is a photo of the briar stem from the rear.

I asked the monk which he preferred and got the silent treatment. Not even a, “To Nottingham.” Perhaps he’d taken a vow of silence…

I tried both stems for size and feel.

The nosewarmer version was OK to clench with its short, less leverage physics. The Saddle stem also clenched well and did maintain the standard look of a Marxman. I was still undecided.

Maybe some reaming would cure my indecision.

The reaming was done with the PipNet #1 and #2 blades. The Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper.

The reamed tobacco chamber looked pretty good. Just some lateral rings had been lightly cut into the briar.

Sanding the tobacco chamber with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel took the briar to bare wood and revealed no damage to the chamber from heat. Also, the small hole leading to the monk’s mouth seemed completely fine.

I turned to cleaning the airway of the shank. This was done with several bristle pipe cleaners, a nylon shank brush, several cotton swabs all dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol. There was also some scraping of the airway with a dental scraper. The alcohol softened the glue holding the band. This was removed and dropped into the alcohol.

After soaking in alcohol, the band was cleaned with a cotton swab and a light rubbing with 0000 steel wool.

I wondered how the band would look buffed, so I took it to the buffer and lightly worked it with white buffing compound. It shined up nicely.

I tried both stems with the polished band.

I had decided. The replacement of the replacement stem would be the saddle stem. It would require some file work though.

I thought to myself, “Hi self, You know that band would look much better if it were brass.” I couldn’t help but agree. I went through the bras tube stock and found a piece that would fit with minimal shank filing. I used a pipe cutter to cut off a section to fit the monk’s shank.

The new band was too tight to allow a good fit, Some cleaning and then filing and sanding would be required.

The monk still needed a tiny bit of dental work. The small hole in between the lips would not pass a pipe cleaner through to the inside of the tobacco chamber. I used a couple of alcohol dipped pipe cleaners then used a Vermont Freehand slot tool (Slot Tool (with handle) – Vermont Freehand). To clean-up the inside of the hole.

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

Returning to the workbench, I wiped the stummel with a cotton make-up pad dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol.

I was not happy with how the shank cleaned up so I thought that a cotton alcohol treatment would loosen up the tar deposits in the airway. The tobacco chamber and the airway were packed with cotton from a few make-up pads. I thought that 10 ml of alcohol would suffice. The alcohol was transferred via a disposable pipette.

I used a pipe stand to elevate the shank end to be about the same level as the rim as the pipe was now filled with alcohol saturated cotton.

Usually I allow the alcohol to evaporate overnight. This pipe sat for seven hours until I returned to it. The monk, not like Friar Tuck from the stories, didn’t seem to be able to handle his alcohol and was face down.

Upon returning I could see that the evaporating alcohol had done its job of liberating the tars from the briar and moving them to the cotton as the alcohol evaporated.

The shank too, looked like the treatment had been successful.

The cotton was removed and with it a good deal of tar and smoking residue. I again cleaned the shank with alcohol dipped cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners.

I masked the shank and band for their protection. The replacement stem was fitted using a small flat file.

Once filed to fit I smoothed the saddle with 320 and 400 grit sanding sponges. The stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel to remove sanding debris.

It was time to glue the new band in place. The fit was tight and required me to place a wood block against the end and tap the band into place with a hammer. I decided to go with brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue).

My brown CA is getting old and it is like applying warm tar. I used a fly tying bodkin to apply the CA around the end of the shank leaving a couple mm for the CA to move when the band was pressed on.

The seating of the band went well. After allowing it to set-up for an hour I wetted a soft cloth with acetone and wiped the band and shank. Acetone will dissolve CA, especially before it is completely hardened.

The replacement stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges. The first were 320-600 grits. Again between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped the stem with a paper towel.

The next set of sponges were 1000-2500 grits. Again the oil and wiping was done between each sponge.

The final sanding was done with 3000 and 3500 grit sanding sponges with the same oiling and wiping.

I worked the stem with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. In between each pad I rubbed the stem with Obsidian oil and wiped it with a paper towel.

The stem and band were then buffed with white buffing compound.

The buffing compound was removed with vigorous hand buffing with a cotton cloth. The stummel then received a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm applied with a baby toothbrush to get the balm into all of the nooks and crannies. This sat overnight.

The next day, I used an inside out athletic sock to remove the remaining Restoration Balm.

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

The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.

As always, I enjoyed working on this Marxman pipe. The figurals, though not my favorite, were fun and kind of whimsical. I couldn’t help but think about all the adventures of Robin Hood while I was working on this pipe. I know it is not made in the image of Friar Tuck from the Robin Hood tales but, that is what was running through my mind. The carvings are of good quality with well defined cuts and contours. The briar is of good quality and was generally free of pits and fills. The replacement stem polished up nicely and does look like it belongs with this pipe. The band also turned out well and should provide years of beauty and security from further cracking. The dimensions of this Marxman Carved Head – Monk are:

Length: 4.99 in./ 126.75 mm.

Weight: 1.64 oz./ 36.49 g.

Bowl Height: 1.75 in./ 44.45 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.51 in./ 38.35 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.56 in./ 39.62 mm.

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

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Below are some photos of the finished commissioned Stanwell 32.
A Commissioned Stanwell 32 Button Repair – acrylic welding

August 19th, 2025
Photographed and Written by

John M. Young

I was recently approached by a fellow member of the Facebook (FB) group The Real American Pipe Smokers (RAPS) to repair a chipped button on a Stanwell bulldog. The pipe’s owner, named Cash, had shown the chipped stem to other restorers or repairmen and they recommended stem replacement. Very understandably, Cash did not want to lose the brass inlaid Stanwell stem. I said that I thought that I could repair the chipped button making it usable again without a stem replacement. I do love a challenge. Cash and I never discussed the cost of this project.

Shipping was arranged and Cash sent the pipe off from Alabama to the wilds of southeast Nebraska. When the box arrived I was surprised by the size of the box. When I lifted it I was even more surprised by the weight. I wondered if a new packing material had been developed in Alabama which would replace the air filled bubbles with tungsten. Upon opening the box I was astounded by the number of pipe tobacco tins that had been included for me to sample. I immediately replied to Cash saying, “Good Lord, man. You sent me enough tobacco for a couple of full restores. Thank you so much. I have always wanted to try a couple of those. I am plotting a couple of “best ways” to fix the Stanwell as I type.” Cash’s reply spoke to his generosity, “Sharing is part of the fun and enjoyment of it haha. Glad you like it, can’t wait to see what you come up with for the pipe.”

The Stanwell was a delightful 02 shape. The shank had a double brass band separated by a zebra-wood band (I think it is zebra-wood). The stem was a polished acrylic with an inlaid S topped with the Stanwell crown. It was a stunning pipe. A stunning pipe that had a chipped button problem. There was also tooth chatter on both the top and bottom of the bite zone. This was a well loved stunning pipe. Below are some photos of the pipe prior to any work done.

The only significant issue was the chipped button. Other than that the pipe was in very good and very clean condition. Sure there was some tooth chatter on the stem which I would remove and a general cleaning followed by some polish and waxing. The stem repair was the reason for the commission.

Background

I will not bother you with a history of Stanwell pipes. If you are interested in this truly illustrious brand, I will include a link here: Stanwell – Pipedia.

This pipe is one of the oldest shapes in the Stanwell line-up. According to pipedia.org’s Stanwell Shape and Designer page,

“32. Two versions of this shape number:

a) Straight bulldog with a saddle stem; Stanwell’s first pipe shape (originally designed in 1942).

b) Bent Dublin-strawberry hybrid with a rounded rim and saddle stem, by Sixten Ivarsson. Redesigned by Tom Eltang in the early 1990s.” (Stanwell Shape Numbers and Designers – Pipedia).

This pipe is most certainly a member of the “a” club.

The Repair

The chip, which is the focus of this repair, spanned the lower button. With a normal repair I would have thought about bridging the span with a 2 mm brass rod set into the button then overlaid the brass with layers of black cyanoacrylate or black epoxy to conceal the brass. Finally reshaping the button back to its original shape. The Stanwell button, with a smaller, more delicate button had less material in which to conceal a 2 mm brass reinforcing rod. Now the pressure was really on me. I remember lying in bed thinking about potential repairs:
1. The standard black cyanoacrylate material build-up and reshaping.
2. An epoxy material build-up and reshaping.
3. Using a brass pin to reinforce the button underneath the new material.
4. A new idea formed in my sleepy brain, this stem is acrylic. What is the melting point of acrylic? What if a sample of black acrylic were to be melted and that was the source of the new material/replacement material build-up? Hmm, something to think about while more awake. Molten black acrylic material build-up and reshaping.
The next morning I researched the melting point of acrylic or Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) specifically. (Acrylic Melting Point | A Comprehensive Guide) According to this site the melting point was dependent on additives, which would alter the physical properties of the plastic by changing the flexibility, glossiness, hardness, etc… In general the melting point was about 320 degrees Fahrenheit. That was a relatively easy temperature to work with. I immediately started thinking about ways to achieve and maintain that temperature. I did not relish the thought of running my oven in the heat of August but this was for science!

Option 4, was seeming like more and more of an interesting potential solution. I would definitely want to test the technique on a guinea pig stem before trying on Cash’s Stanwell. I may have been born at night but not last night. I knew that this was all just an idea between my ears. One of the benefits of having no formal training in pipe restoration is that I have no set or “right” way of doing a repair. I reached out to Steve Laug and asked him if he had ever heard of using molten acrylic to rebuild a stem.

Sidenote:

Now, you are probably wondering if this is going to be a blog about repairing an acrylic stem using molten acrylic. Well, at this point, I had no idea. I was just waiting to hear back from Steve.

A return to critical thinking and scientification, Steve got back to me and said, “Yes. But have never tried it” (Laug, Steve. Personal communication). Hmm, Steve had heard of this idea. Good thing I didn’t say, “A return to original thinking and scientification.” He did make a good point though, I wondered “how will the molten plastic affect the hard cool acrylic I put it on.” That made me think that heating the receiving stem to around 280F would be a good idea. Why 280F? I don’t know, but it sounds good. Okay, enough thinking, time for some doing.

As if by coincidence and not by some algorithm the following link came up on my computer later that same day:

Beginners’ Guide to Melting HDPE – How to Make a Recycled Plastic Pen

Not being one to give credit to conspiracy theories, I thought why couldn’t Al Gore write a better computer program and hook me up with a more appropriate “Repairing a Chipped Acrylic Pipe Stem Using Molten Acrylic” article. Maybe he is too busy saving the world from global warming or shopping for additional sea side properties and just had some lackey intern write it for him.

Another sidenote: In the previous blog: A Royal Danish 913 Pear Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek I discussed and photographed the process of collecting acrylic material from fitting a new acrylic stem to replace a damaged vulcanite stem. This was the source of acrylic for the next portion of my experimentation.

I turned my scientificating brain toward the melting of the acrylic turnings I had generated. One article said that acrylic melted at 320℉. I set the oven to 320℉ and placed the snuff tin with acrylic shavings on a parchment covered pizza pan into the oven. I expected the acrylic to melt like a thick liquid like hot tar.

It didn’t. Hmm.

I raised the temperature10℉. And continued my expectation. Expectation dashed.

I raised the temperature to 340℉. At this point expectations were still alive though some life support may have been required. Another 10 minutes and another dashed expectation. Hmm.

I tried raising the oven temperature to 360℉. Still nothing, though the acrylic shavings were far more pliable (when poked with a knife) and seemed to be kind of flattening on the snuff tin. Hmm.

380℉ Seemed like the next logical step. Would you like to guess what happened? If you guessed nothing you would be quite correct. Running the oven for over an hour in August was proving to be another in a long list of poor choices that I had made. I called it quits, turned off the oven and left the acrylic in there until morning.

The next day I thought that maybe a small soldering iron would be a better tool for melting acrylic. My imagination ran through various unfounded thoughts. I decided that the imagination needed to take a back seat to good old scientification trial and error with an emphasis on error. Not wanting to try anything new and untested with a client’s pipe, I set out to practice on a sacrificial pipe stem. An acrylic test victim was selected from some pipe stems I had. Using a screwdriver, I broke out a portion of the practice stem. I then used a Dremel rotary tool and cut a gash into the button as well. This gave me two areas to attempt repairing with molten black acrylic and a soldering iron.

Using a pencil electric soldering iron, I applied the heated tip to the acrylic turning. They melted and stuck to the tip. I thought, “Success”. Now to transfer this material to the area on the practice stem. It transferred pretty easily. Two problems quickly became evident though:
1. The turnings were full of air pockets as they were like ribbons or shavings.
2. I wanted to make sure and melt the original stem acrylic also to bond the new and old together.
Solutions:
1. I found that by pressing the soldering iron down and rolling the tip, I could force the turnings into place and press out possible air trapped in the acrylic. There could still be unseen bubbles that would only be discovered when pressure was applied to the stem from biting down on the button and cracking through the thin unseen bubble.
2. I tried heating the original stem, melting the new and old acrylic together. That worked
I failed to photograph the developing soldering iron techniques but did take a few photos of the “welded” practice stem. The first two photos below show my attempts to fill the voids and file the added acrylic with a small flat file, reshaping the button.

The third photo shows the same fill but here I had gone over the previous fill and remelted the filled area and added additional weld acrylic. I tried to press the new material into the existing material with more force, hopefully pressing out any air pockets and smoothing the weld more than the previous attempt. The button was reshaped using the same file.

The rebuilt patch was finished with an application of black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue).

The CA was spritzed with a cyanoacrylate drying accelerator. This made the CA harden almost immediately. The hardened CA was then shaped with a small flat file and sanded.

The airway was rough. Unseen air bubbles within the weld were probably responsible.

I used a Dremel rotary tool and a small cutoff bit to reshape the end of the button.

Below is the reshaped button.

After further sanding and polishing, the stem repair looked pretty good.

A scar of the repair was visible, but only upon close inspection.

Below are two photos of the polished button.

I tested the fill by biting done on it simulating normal force applied during clenching. The fill seemed solid. I was and still am unsure how the weld will hold up over time and extended clenching.

Yet another sidenote: I am sure that you are wondering, “Good lord, man. 41 pages in and you still haven’t started the repair on this poor guy’s pipe!” Hmm, I wonder if I was a bit frightful of doing irreparable harm to the Stanwell?

I sent my preliminary findings and photos to the client, Cash. I wanted his opinion regarding this as a possible repair solution. He consented to the application of melted acrylic. More pressure but at the same time I thought I was onto a very workable solution to the problem at hand. One thing I had ordered since I started this project was a couple of ½ inch rods of black acrylic. I thought that the rods might be useful as a source of acrylic welding material where I did not have to deal with the problems with the turnings, aka, air bubbles within the weld.

The moment of truth had arrived. I was going to use the new black acrylic rods as a source for acrylic to fill the void in the Stanwell. I plugged in the soldering iron and patiently waited for it to heat. Testing the soldering iron on the acrylic rod allowed me to gain a feel for how the acrylic melted and the pressure I needed to shape it.

I had previously cut a plastic lid and applied layers of painters tape to thicken it until I had the thickness I wanted. This would act as a dam and provide a surface on which I could weld to while filling the void left by the chip.

I cleaned the shipped stem with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol making sure to carefully clean the broken surfaces. I also examined the area to make sure no pipe cleaner fibers were present.

With the dam in place and a feel for the melting of the acrylic rod, I was as ready as I could get to try welding with someone else’s pipe. I started melting material from the acrylic rod and moving it to the stem. Once there, I worked the material with the tip of the soldering iron into the existing stem acrylic by heating both and melting them together. Additional acrylic was added to fill the void again, remelting applied material and adding new. Yeah, at this stage it was quite ugly.

Slowly this process built up acrylic into the void.

The dam was removed to check its performance. Below you can see through the airway.

Once sufficient acrylic was added, it was time for some button reshaping. I used a small flat file, emery board and a 320 grit sanding sponge for the reshaping. Below is the stem top view.

And here is the stem bottom where the majority of material had been added. There were a couple of spots where additional acrylic was needed.

While doing the reshaping of the button a chip of new acrylic broke off from the button on the left side of the below. This re-emphasized that I needed to re-melt the existing material when applying additional acrylic to get the two layers to bond.

I used the soldering iron to create a narrow point of melted acrylic on the acrylic rod’s end to aid in the application of additional material to the stem. I wondered if an ⅛ inch diameter acrylic rod was available. This would be much more useful in future projects..

Below is the button after the second application of more acrylic.

Below is a photo of the end of the button after the second application.

And the bottom of the button after the reshaping of the second application.

Below is a stem top view of the reshaping after the second application.

The shape was getting there. In the below photo you can see seems where air bubbles were present. The end would need further sanding and a bit more shaping.

Eventually I had to call it quits on the shaping. There remained some small flaws in the new acrylic. To fill these, I chose to apply a thin coating of black CA. I hoped this would flow into any small seams and bubble voids. The CA was allowed to cure on its own for an hour.

Once fully cured the CA on the top and bottom was filed smooth with a small flat file.

The filed CA looked good and was only noticeable with close examination.

I wanted to clean up the slot at the end of the button. I did this, as with the practice stem, using a Dremel rotary tool and a small round cut-off bit.

The stem was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges in grits of 320-3500. I saw no reason to sand the stem above the saddle so it was not sanded. Between each sponge I wiped any sanding debris from the stem with an alcohol wetted cotton ball.

I proceeded to work the stem with 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Here I worked the stem along the full length. I applied masking tape to the shank to avoid any damage to the stamped areas. Again, between each pad I wiped the stem of any debris between pads.

The masking tape was removed and the pipe taken to the buffer where I buffed the bands and stem with white buffing compound. The next two photos show the stem, top and bottom, after buffing.

And the button after buffing.

I cleaned the airway of the shank with a nylon shank brush, bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs all dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol.

The tobacco chamber was reamed with the standard ream team.

The narrow chamber of the Stanwell only allowed the #1 blade of the PipNet with the remaining work done by the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer. I did not take the tobacco chamber back to bare briar and left a thin layer of cake.

The rim had a light layer of lava.

I moistened this with saliva and carefully scraped it with a sharp pocket knife blade.

The stummel was then wiped with an alcohol wetted cotton ball to remove surface dirt and grime. Most of this was probably deposited by me.

The stummel then received a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm which was allowed to do the magic that it does for 15 minutes.

The balm was removed by a hand buffing with an inside out athletic sock.

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

Well, there it is. The repair of a pipe stem by welding black acrylic onto a chipped stem. The page counter says 92 pages. If you stuck through the whole thing, thank you. I had my doubts that it would work. In the end, I think it worked quite well. I am glad to know that I now have another tool in my toolbox for repairing pipes. I am imagining using this technique of vulcanite, as I type this. I’m also glad to know that Cash was very pleased with the photos I sent him of the finished pipe. I have no idea how many hours were spent on this project. Given, a good deal of it was practicing on a sacrificial stem and not actually working on the Stanwell. I consider Cash’s account paid in full, with all of the wonderful tobacco he sent me. Besides, how else was I going to learn a new trick? Now don’t get crazy and say, “You should be paying him for this opportunity.” Don’t make me stop this blog and spank you. (That’s what my dad always used to say to me when I was brothering/bothering my little sister, in the car. Except, not the “blog” part) The dimensions of this Stanwell 32 are:

Length: 5.00 in./ 127.00 mm.

Weight: 1.32 oz./ 37.42 g.

Bowl Height: 1.80 in./ 45.72 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.48 in./ 37.59 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.69 in./ 17.53 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.53 in./ 38.86 mm.

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

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Below are some photos of the finished commissioned Stanwell 32.
A Royal Danish 913 Pear Restoration

August 14th, 2025
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

This is a restoration that didn’t start out as a restoration. It didn’t even start out as a restoration of this pipe. Now, if you were to say, “Huh?” I would completely understand. As it isn’t a normal restoration, the format is a bit different. I never photographed a set of “before” shots, only photos of the restoration and the “finished” pipe. I know, total slacker move but I think you will find the process informative or at least worthy of constructive ridicule. I mean constructive criticism.

The pipe had sat at the front of the queue and on the workbench in front of me for quite some time.

I always seemed to find another victim, I mean subject, to work on and skipped over this one. Probably because I liked the shape but felt that it would be a lot of work to repair this Danish darling and once done, I doubted anyone would want to buy it.

Anyway, a commission came in for a stem repair on a lovely Stanwell pipe.

This new job once again trumped the poor Royal Danish. Trust me, this is related and not just rambling. The Stanwell needed a button rebuild on an acrylic stam. The owner did not want to have the pipe re-stemmed out of love for the pipe and the fact that the original stem was inset with a brass “S” and crown. I don’t blame him, the stem was a beauty.

In thinking of ways to repair the Stanwell, I wondered about welding some black acrylic onto the original stem and reshaping the welded acrylic to a new button. To do this, I needed some black acrylic that I could melt and use as “welding” material. Stick with me, I know this sounds convoluted. The Royal Danish needed a replacement stem for a severely chewed vulcanite original stem. In looking through my stock of extra stems, I found a close match that was black acrylic. This new acrylic stem would need to have the tenon cut to fit the Royal Danish and quite a bit of shaping. This, I thought, would provide me with a good deal of black acrylic “welding” material. So, you see my plan? Re-stem the Royal Danish with a new acrylic stem, use the trimmings to see if Welding acrylic would actually work, then weld black acrylic to the commissioned Stanwell. Clear as opaque black acrylic?

Background

The stamp on the bottom of the Royal Danish is shown below and reads 913, offset to the left and Royal Danish in a cursive script over MADE IN DENMARK.

Pipedia.org states that “Royal Danish is a Stanwell sub-brand.” (Royal Danish – Pipedia). Photos from the above link show similar stampings .

I then went to the “Stanwell Shape Numbers and Designers” entry on pipedia.org. I had a bit of confusion with the shape number “913” for this pipe as there was no 913 listed as a shape number on the Stanwell pages. Then I noticed that all of the Royal Danish pipes began with a 9.

I returned to the Stanwell shape numbers page on pipedia.org and found the 13. Below is that:
- 13. Three versions of this shape number:
a) Short cutty with a saddle stem (early 1950s – see catalog).

b) Slightly bent pear with an oval shank and a saddle stem, by Sixten Ivarsson (pictured, right).

c) Large billiard with a saddle stem.

(Stanwell Shape Numbers and Designers – Pipedia)

(Stanwell Shape Numbers and Designers – Pipedia)

That is a near perfect match to the pipe in hand. And, a Sixten Iverson shape as well. I knew I liked it for a reason. Alas, when this pipe will be finished it will no longer have that iconic saddle stem but a graceful taper instead.

The Restoration

After searching through my stems I found a possible replacement. As stated earlier, this new stem was an acrylic as compared to the vulcanite original. It also lacked the chewed through areas on both the top and bottom. I considered this a good thing.

Though not a perfect match, the cross section was close and could be shaped to fit without altering the shank. Well, I hoped to not alter the shank.

At this point I was still not set in restoring the Royal Danish. I was more interested in getting the acrylic stem trimmings to try melting them into a usable form for the commissioned Stanwell pipe. The next step was to generate the trimmings by fitting the stem to the Royal Danish.

To do this I used the (Adjustable Tenon Turning Tool & Parts – Vermont Freehand). This tool fits into the chuck of an electric hand drill. I planned on collecting the turnings in a metal snuff can lid, seen below. The steel guide rod of the tenon cutter was the correct size to fit into the airway of the acrylic stem. The 3 allen wrenches were used to adjust the tenon cutting tool while the drill bit seen below is the same size as the guide.

The guide rod did not fit the original vulcanite stem, it was larger. This meant that the first step would be to drill out the old stem so it would fit onto the guide rod. This may seem unnecessary but the old stem fits the mortise of the Royal Danish. I planned to set the adjustable tenon cutter using the old stem as a guide or template for cutting the acrylic stem.

Using the drill bit that came with the tenon cutter, I drilled out the vulcanite tenon to fit the tenon cutter’s guide rod.

Below are the two allen screws which are used to adjust the carbide cutter of the tool.

The metal snuff can lid worked beautifully.

With several attempts at adjust/trim/check fit/readjust/retrim/recheck fit, I finally achieved a good fit with the acrylic stem.

This sem would also provide me with additional acrylic material from the filings which would soon be produced.

Another source of acrylic.

So, the filing began. The shank was wrapped in painters tape to protect the briar for what was to come.

I quickly realized that recovering acrylic filing was much easier from a smooth surface than a denim covered surface.

The file did exactly what files are supposed to do, remove material.

The tape did exactly what tape is meant to do, protect what is underneath it.

I had to remove and reapply the tape several times. Oh, and look at all of that acrylic material.

The filing of the shank was necessary to fit the new steamboat just a small amount on the upper corners of the shank. You may also notice that I used a thinner masking tape for shank protection. This was done to reduce the step from shank to stem.

It was here that this project had temporarily ended. I had what I was after – acrylic material to test my Acrylic welding idea. I’ll write more about that fiasco in the commissioned Stanwell restoration.

The restoration of the Royal Danish did resume after a brief hiatus. I will continue that story now.

Having decided to actually restore the Royal Danish, I re-started by collecting the ream team

The PipNet proved most useful at removing the accumulated cake. The Smokingpipes Low Country reamer did a small amount of scraping at the bottom of the tobacco chamber and the General triangular scraper was used for a bit of chamber clean-up along the upper sides.

The reamed tobacco chamber is seen in the below photo.

I sanded the chamber with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The resulting bare briar showed no signs of damage from excessive heat.

The airway of the shank was cleaned with several bristle pipe cleaners , cotton swabs and a shank brush. All of these were dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol.

The stummel was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The accumulated grime of the pipe can be seen below on my fingers and the brush. This pipe was quite dirty/ The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench I wiped the outside of the stummel with a cotton ball dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol. I then decided to do a cotton alcohol soak. The tobacco chamber and the shank were stuffed full of cotton.

About 10 ml of 99% ethyl alcohol was poured into a medicine cup. I guessed this would be the amount needed.

The alcohol was applied to the cotton with a disposable pipette.

Alcohol was added until the cotton was saturated. The stummel was then set aside overnight to allow the alcohol to evaporate. This would draw out and dissolve the tar still in the briar then transport and deposit it to the cotton as the alcohol evaporated.

Upon returning to the pipe, I removed the now dry cotton with a forceps. The shank was again cleaned with alcohol dipped cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners.

I sanded the stem with a series of sanding sponges in grits400-3500. Between each sponge, I wiped the stem with an alcohol wetted cotton ball to remove sanding debris.

The stem was then worked with 4000-12000grit micro-mesh pads. Again the stem was wiped with a cotton ball between pads.

The smooth panel on the stummel had scratches and pits or dents which were no more obvious after the scrubbing.

I tried steaming the briar with a heated clothing iron on top of a water dampened hand towel.

The below two photos show the steamed panels. The steaming did raise some of the dents.

There remained three dents on the left panel which I filled with brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). This was allowed to cure/harden.

The CA was filed smooth using a small flat file.

The CA was then sanded smooth with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

The rim was lightly topped with 320 followed by 400 grit sandpaper laid on a flat countertop. The inner rim was beveled using 320 sandpaper wrapped around a small wood sphere.

The panels and rim were further sanded using 400-1000 sanding sponges.

The stem was taken to the buffer and buffed with white compound.

I then coated the stummel with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed it to sit for 15 minutes.

The remaining balm was removed by hand buffing the stummel with an inside out athletic sock.

The below photo shows the pipe after the hand buffing next to the original stem. A slight improvement was noted, Okay, more than slight.

The last things done to the pipe were an application of several coats of carnauba wax, then hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.

Not too shabby for a restoration that never really started and had starts and stops along the way. The distinctive shape is pleasing to view and to hold. The sandblast rustications, though worn, are comfortable. I think I would prefer a complete sandblast finish over the smooth panel but the panels are attractive and show off a little bit of the briar grain. The stem turned out nicely. The luster of the acrylic is beautiful and the fit is good. Yeah, the pipe is missing the original saddle stem but I confess that without more specialized tools like a belt sander, I did well. The dimensions of this Royal Danish 913 Pear are:

Length: 6.14 in./ 155.96 mm.

Weight: 1.61 oz./ 45.64 g.

Bowl Height: 1.86 in./ 47.24 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.67 in./ 42.42 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.51 in./ 38.35 mm.

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

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Below are some photos of the finished Royal Danish 913 Pear.
A Design by Curtis Aluminum Pipe Restoration

August 12th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Yeah, metal pipes intrigue me. I don’t have many and frequently smoke even fewer. There is just something about them that makes me think of George Jettson, space age polymers and TANG. Although this pipe dates back farther than the 1960s space age, more on that in the background. Last winter I got a wild hair (sorry, American idiom meaning spontaneous enthusiasm) and decided that I needed to work on metal pipes. Like a typical ADHD gerbil (another idiom meaning, I have too short of an attention span), I lost interest after acquiring several in-need–restoration Kirstens and a bag of a dozen metal pipes that I purchased from Steve Laug (reborpipes.com). I sharpened my very dull metal polishing skill with some encouraging words and over the phone instruction from Doug Bisbee (dkmetalpipes.com/Estate Vintage Metal Tobacco Pipe Restoration & Sales). A couple of restorations later I had moved on to other projects and interests.

For some reason this pipe yelled out to me from a box on the shelf and demanded that I move it to the front of the queue. The pipe was one that I’d received from Steve Laug. It looked dingy and oxidized but I thought that it showed promise. On the bottom of the pipe was stamped Design by Curtis in a cursive script over PAT. PEND. Below are some photos I took prior to working on the pipe.

The aluminum was oxidized. So much so that I actually rubbed the pipe with a dry towel before photographing it on the black fabric. I didn’t want to get white aluminum oxide all over the fabric. The internals showed signs of dried hard smoking residue. I was sure that the pipe should disassemble more than I did in the above photos but the residue had stuck some parts together. The stem had tooth chatter top and bottom with a couple of deeper dents. This looked like it would be a great project allowing me to stay in the basement workshop and avoid the heat of August.

Background

The previously mentioned Doug Bisbee not only runs dk Metal Pipes but also is the manager or administrator of SMOKING METAL TOBACCO PIPE COLLECTORS & FANATICS. This is a repository of an immense collection of metal tobacco smoking pipes. It is also my “go-to” source whenever I want to learn anything about a metal pipe. According to the Smoking Metal site,

“The Curtis Custom-Built Pipe Model 100

Manufactured by Curtis Industries of 1120 East 222nd Street, Cleveland 17, Ohio. First seen around 1946

The actually markings are �Design by Curtis PAT .PEND. �.

The bowl insert appears to be briar, despite having only had many examples am still unable to get the bowl apart, I am loathe to risk damage. The top plate does revolve but whether it is a screw attachment or a push fit cannot yet be ascertained

The interior of the stem is more complicated, taking an inline filter inside the tube. The shape of the end plug makes it more than interesting to undo. On many examples this part is the piece most damaged by pliers

With so many threads in the �gunk� part of the pipe it can be a problem to clean.

25 Dec 1945 US patent # D143257 Inventor Howard Abrams, University Heights, Ohio” (CURTIS)

The smokingmetal site also had a photo of an old Curtis pamphlet. Though a bit difficult to read it is an interesting source of information from the origins of the company.

(CURTIS)

Inventor Howard Abrams applied for the patent on September 10, 1945 and received the patent, astonishingly quickly on Decemper 25 1945. A Google patent search resulted in the following:

(USD143257S – Design foe a smoking pipe – Google Patents)

(USD143257S – Design foe a smoking pipe – Google Patents)

With my search providing the above information and a definitive date I turned to the restoration.

The Restoration

As usual the pipe made its way to a cleaned denim piece at the workbench.

I started with cleaning the chassis. I do not know if that is the proper term for the main body of this pipe as Howard Abrams failed to leave us a labeled diagram of the parts of his innovation. Perhaps that is how he got it approved so quickly. I could not get the conical endcap to loosen at all during the cleaning so I let it soak in the 99% ethyl alcohol.

I call this stem assembly. The end of the assembly did come off, let’s call it the nozzle. The stem will accept a Medico filter if 0.58 inches or 15 mm of the filter is cut off.

The stem nozzle was also soaked in ethyl alcohol while I cleaned the stem with cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners dipped in alcohol.

The aluminum of the stem would be buffed with white compound along with the rest of the aluminum eventually

The stem’s bite zone had significant tooth dents on both the top and bottom along with the typical chatter. The top dent was deeper and small.

The bottom dent was broader but shallower.

Both bite zones were filed with a small flat file then sanded with a 320 grit sanding sponge.

The sanding debris was cleaned off with a cotton swab dipped in ethyl alcohol. A small drop of black rubberized cyanoacrylate was placed on each depression.

Both drops were allowed to cure and harden on their own.

While that was curing, I turned to the rim. It just needed some scrubbing. The little bit of lava was moistened with saliva and rubbed with a paper towel. Then I realized that I could use the alcohol freely since there wasn’t a finish to protect .

Tada, not perfect but far better.

The bottom of the bowl required several cotton swabs and more ethyl alcohol. It was pretty gunked up with smoking residue and tar.

I used the PipNet with the #2 blades to ream the tobacco chamber. It was a narrow bowl and had a surprisingly flat bottom. The General triangular scraper with its tip ground off with a grinder helped return the chamber to briar. At least I thought it was briar. Sanding the chamber walls with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel confirmed that the wood had the color of briar. The sanding also revealed no signs of heat damage. This was not surprising considering how well I imagined the pipe would remove heat via the conductive aluminum.

I took all of the aluminum parts to the buffer and polished the metal using white buffing compound on the flannel wheel dedicated to buffing this the white compound. I neglected to photograph any of this process partly out of the embarrassment caused by the oxymoronic black colored white compound wheel and partially/mostly because I forgot to. At this stage in a restoration I find it very helpful to go fishing during the half hour before and after sunset. This vital break allowed the CA the curing time it needed and me a break from sitting on my lazy butt.

Later that night, I returned to the now hardened CA to file it smooth with a small flat file and sand the fill with 320, 400 and 600 grit sanding sponges. The fill looked good.

The above process was repeated with the bottom fill.

The stem was coated with mineral oil and I went to bed.

The following day, I returned to the workbench and sanded the stem with a series of sanding pads from 320-3500 grits. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a dry paper towel.

The nicely polished aluminum of the stem was masked out of habit. I took it to the buffer and the oxymoronic black white compound wheel. Feel free to ask, “why did you mask the aluminum?” Because of habit and the fact that I’m not too bright. Anyway, the stem was buffed and looked very nice. Well, not so nice in the photo below but after the buffing compound was removed, it really did look good.

After the buffing compound was wiped from the stem, I unwrapped the tape and wiped the whole pipe with a cotton ball dipped in ethyl alcohol. The pipe was then returned to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax. The final step was a hand buffing with a micromesh polishing cloth.

I have to say that this pipe looks stunning in person. My ability to capture the polished surface of the pipe with my camera is mediocre at best. This pipe will certainly turn heads if smoked out in public. The aluminum polished up very nicely. Yes, there were a couple of places where the aluminum was pitted by oxidation and these are visible. The stem also polished very nicely and is an amazing contrast and accent to the aluminum. Here the CA repairs are only discernable upon very close inspection. I admit to being unable to free the conical endcap from the grip of the smoking residue. I will continue to soak the chassis in alcohol hoping this will eventually release the threads. Doug Bisbee said to soak it for a week and try again. The dimensions of this Design by Curtis are:

Length: 6.42 in./ 163.07 mm.

Weight: 1.65 oz./ 46.78 g.

Bowl Height: Attached to chassis 1.97 in./ 50.04 mm. Separated 1.42 in./ 36.07 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.03 in./ 26.16 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.61 in./ 15.50 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.48 in./ 37.60 mm.

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

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Below are some photos of the finished Design by Curtis.
A Brigham 202 Billiard Restoration

August 7th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I’ve put a few bits in my mouth which were designed for denture wearers. Usually these are uncomfortable for me and my complete natural teeth. Heck, I’ve never even had a cavity. I know, hard to believe but true. I did try the bit of this Brigham and was surprised how good it actually felt. I am again getting ahead of myself. This restoration is of a 202 Brigham Two Dot Billiard pipe. It was another pipe that came from an estate lot. It was not the target specimen of the lot but more just a member of a group and subsequently got neglected in a box until I rediscovered it over the years later. I do not keep good records of when various pipes were purchased or from where. That may be a 2026 New Year’s resolution which I’ll likely forget to ever make much less abide by. Anyway, the pipe was stamped 202 (rather haphazardly on its bottom) to the right appears to be a double stamping of MADE IN CANADA, in a straight line over or under a more clear Brigham over CANADA. The photos show this more clearly than my description. Below are photos of the pipe prior to work being done:

The pipe had obviously been a well loved and well smoked pipe. The tooth chatter and oxidation of the stem proved that. The amount of lava on the rim also was an indicator of the use this pipe had experienced. The tobacco chamber had been well maintained and looked fairly clear of a thick cake. This told me the previous owner liked a cleaned chamber and judging by the lack of any deep groves cut into the chamber they also had used appropriate tools to keep the chamber clean. The aluminum of the Brigham system was mostly free of oxidation externally and generally clean on the inside as well. This looked like it would by a straightforward restoration of a classic Brigham pipe.

Background

I admit that being my lazy self, I did a search on pipephil.eu for Brigham logos, knowing full well that this is a Brigham pipe.

(Brigham — Pipes : Logos & Markings) The pipephil page had entries for the 1-6 dot pipes as well as some additional specialty pipes. The two shapes from the “Two dot” entry appeared to have a “2” as their prefix.

I stopped being quite so lazy and got out my Brigham Pipe – A Century of Canadian Briar book to look for the 202 shape. Hmm, there was no 202 but there was an 02 Billiard offered since a 1939 Brigham brochure (Lemon, Charles. Brigham Pipe – A Century of Canadian Briar. Copywell, Woodbridge ON. Second Printing, October 2023. Page 17). My conclusion is that the Two dot Brigham is thus stamped 202. A three dot Brighan with an 02 Billiard shape would be stamped 302. Now, enough guessing. I decided to re-read the book.

The ultimate source of information on Brigham pipes is Charles Lemon, the author of Brigham Pipes – A Century of Canadian Briar. This wonderful book is available from Mr. Lemon on his website, Books, from smokingpipes.com (Brigham Pipes – A Century of Canadian Briar | Smokingpipes) if you need to increase the total of your purchase to get the ever popular free shipping, and other various sources. I am unsure about Canadian immigration rules but I think this book should be required reading for prospective immigrants to Canada, especially if they are pipe smokers.

I could go on and quote Charles Lemon’s book extensively but that would require me to do so much typing and I have said it before and likely will say it again, I am a proud Generation-X slacker. Copy and Paste is so much easier. I will say that Lemon’s work is outstanding and it was a pleasure to read and in my case re-read, since old slacker minds apparently don’t hold as much information as they should. The re-reading was done to remind me how the shape numbering system works and to find references to the dental button. This elusive detail was not found and remembered from the first reading and failed to be found on the second round. I resorted to emailing Charles Lemon from the “contact” button on his website, www.DadsPipes.com. Mr. Lemon responded quickly to my request about information concerning the dental button of this pipe. I did include photographs of the pipe, stampings and button in my groveling email which also included a misspelling of the work “bok”. Yeah, it was supposed to say “book”, darn slackers…

Taking apparent pity on my groveling and lack of ability to spell, general ignorance about Brigham pipes, or maybe because he just a great guy, Charles Lemon replied with the following:

“Your pipe dates to the 1980s, and I suspect from the early 1980s. The 02 shape represents Brigham’s smallest Billiard, a shape that fell out of favour in later years as pipes became larger overall.

I don’t have any specific information about Brigham’s use of dental bits but I do know that Brigham offered a choice of stem shapes to clients when they ordered a pipe, dating to at least the 1960s. I suspect that your 202 is either one of the last of the optional stem offerings or a custom request. With the factory attached to the main retail outlet at the time, Brigham had an amount of flexibility to accommodate this sort of request if they chose to.

Hope that helps, It’s not a definitive answer, I know, but it is in keeping with how the company operated at the time. For what it’s worth, I have a small number of dental bits in the shop if you’re interested.” (Charles Lemon personal email)

Wow, is all I could say. Well, I did reply and say more than “wow”. There was also a thank you involved and probably some additional groveling.

That email response provided a pretty definitive date and explanation of the dental bit.

The Restoration

The restoration should have been a rather simple affair and as usual it started with a laundered denim piece on the workbench. Well, the stem got to sit on the denim at least.

I started to clean the stem airway with a bristle pipe cleaner dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol. It was a tight fit at the slot then it became much easier after a tiny “tick” was heard. “Oh crap”, was probably the next sound heard. I had chipped the vulcanite at the slot with my rambunctious behavior. At least that is what my mom always said after I broke something, “Stop being rambunctious!” Hmm, why didn’t she yell that before I broke something? The chip was tiny and fit back together very nicely so I set it aside where it would be safe.

I continued on filing the tooth chatter and smoothing the area above the button. Two small files, one flat the other a tapered ½ round. The rounded file fit the rounding of the underside of the dental button nicely. These areas were also sanded with a 320 sanding sponge as I went.

I then proceeded to clean the stem, with less rambunctiocity. Wow, spell check didn’t say that wasn’t a word.

The stem was allowed to soak in Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. It went in on a Sunday late afternoon. I had to attend a funeral for a cousin in northeast Iowa so it sat in the deoxidizer for about 30 hours.

Upon returning to the wilds of southeast Nebraska, I took up the restoration the next night. If you look carefully at the below photo you can see the chip from the stem propping the pipe up. Apparently that was the safe stop to keep the chip. I cleaned out the shank with a shank brush, cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners all dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol. If you are wondering about the purple on the cotton swabs it is probably potassium permanganate (KMnO4). Here is a quote from a chemical supplier who still sells KMnO4 “Potassium Permanganate is a dark purple solid. Dissolving 1 ounce in a pint of water is used to stain woods a pleasant brown. The Potassium Permanganate decomposes on contact with the wood and leaves a brown residue that stains the wood. If the color is too dark it can be lightened by washing the wood with a strong solution of hypo. The brown color imparted to fairly woods will gradually fade when exposed to direct sunlight. Mix only enough solution to do the job at hand as the solution on long standing will lose its effectiveness. Use it with caution as it is a strong oxidizer.” (POTASSIUM PERMANGANATE | WoodFinishing Enterprises)

Next came the assembling of the ream team.

The PipNet with its #1 and #2 blades did most of the work.

The Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper were used to touch-up the tobacco chamber.

The reamed chamber looked very good and showed no signs of any heat damage.

I sanded the interior of the chamber with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel followed by 320 sandpaper wrapped around a Sharpie marker.

The bare briar indeed was free from any damage.

The rim would hopefully be also free of damage under the layer of smoking residue, aka lava.

The lava was moistened with saliva and gently scraped with a sharp pocket knife.

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

Back at the workbench, I wiped the stummel with an alcohol wetted cotton ball. Some color came off the pipe. I did not want to change the look of this pipe by removing and rebuilding the finish.

I gave the stummel a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and set it aside to work its magic overnight. Hey look, that little ship is still there. Safe and sound.

After the funeral, still the next day though, I returned to working on the pipe. I saw a small black fleck on my denim and threw it into the trash. Stupid little black flecks. I then wiped the remaining Before and After Restoration Balm off of the stummel using an inside out athletic sock.

I retrieved the stem from the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. I’m just going to call it deox from here on. Nothing personal to Mark Hoover, but that is just too much to type. I placed the still wet with deox solution on my favorite coarse shop rag. The deox on the aluminum had foamed up, presumably a reaction of oxidized aluminum to the deox solution.

I vigorously rubbed the vulcanite with the coarse gag. This absorbed excess deox and abraded away some of the oxidized rubber. Actually a lot of the oxidized rubber.

Back at the workbench, I cleaned the interior of the stem with several thick pipe cleaners then coated the stem inside and out, with Before and After Hard Rubber Balm (HRB, henceforth). This is another great product from Mark Hoover. I like it best as a preservative on a finished stem to combat oxidation but it works well on a stem fresh out of deox too.

The deox had left a mark of the aluminum of the Brigham system. The cleaner shiny aluminum clashed with the more dull original aluminum.

I hand buffed this using Before and After Fine Polish on a paper towel. Tada, much better.

I looked over the tooth chatter and cleaned the HRB from the bite zone with alcohol on a cotton swab. I was prepping the area for a small drop of black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) to fill the depression.

It was about here that I realized the little black fleck that I threw away was the chip from the button. “Oh crap!”, may have been spoken. The poor little chip had evaded trouble by staying in its safe place for a couple days before some rambunctious oaf displaced it.

Hmm, how hard could it be to find a tiny black fleck in the trash bin of… a guy who dumps lots of black powdery debris… in the trash bin. Oh crap.

I set out a piece of scrap packing paper and went through the trash, shaking the bigger pieces to dislodge a small black fleck. Eventually I dumped the reaming debris onto the paper, got down on my less than flat belly and started sifting through the black powder searching for a fleck.

Hah! Victory. I actually found the little bugger. By the way, if you think that it’s easy being this dumb, you would be mistaken. It takes years of training and classes in rambuctiocty from the local community college.

And it still fits.

The wound was cleaned with alcohol in preparation of the regluing. I thought about drilling and reinforcing the chip with a 2 mm brass pin but the rough surface of the break and the contours of the fit seemed like they would provide good support on all three sides.

I used a plastic lid cut-out inserted into the slot to keep the CA from being rambunctious. Yeah, I’m going to see how many times I can use that word.

The glue of choice was This rubberized CA from Bob Smith Industries. It was getting a bit old and wasn’t as thin as it used to be but it coated the contact surfaces well. A drop of the CA was placed on the disposable pipette bulb then applied to the stem with a fly tying bodkin.

Once that CA had set, I applied a thinner black CA to fill the seams.

Once the thinner CA set, I applied a bead of the first black CA to the edge of the button to address the rounding of that edge by previous tooth wear and tear.

Once all the CA had cured, I again filed the CA with the two files used earlier then started the sanding with a series of sanding sponges. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil then wiped it with a paper towel.

I was still not happy with the seam of the glueing so I sanded that additionally with 400 grit sandpaper wrapped around the handle of an Exacto knife. I kept my rambunctious nature in check and did not skewer myself with the blade. Yeah, it would have been smart to remove the blade but, it is me we’re talking about here… I then polished the stem with new micro-mesh pads in grits of 4000-12000.

To avoid having another pipe cleaner chipped button incident, I used a cut-off bit in the Dremel rotary tool which was a fraction of a mm thicker than the original slot. This widened the slot enough to pass a pipe cleaner, even bristled, more easily. The slot was polished with a thin folded piece of 400 grit sandpaper.

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

I do hope that you had fun reading about the trials and tribulations of not being the sharpest tack in the pack. I will continue making mistakes and documenting them in hopes that you can learn from them in a less painful fashion than I. This Brigham was actually a fun little pipe to work on. The fact that it was a non-typical version with a dental stem made it more interesting to me. Thank you again Charles Lemon for the insights into Brigham pipes. The pipe itself is a lovely example of a two dot Brigham. The rustication provides an attractive and comfortable bit of briar and the stem though lacking the robustitude to weather a rambunctious restorer still turned out very nicely. The dimensions of this Brigham 202 are:

Length: 6.49 in./ 164.87 mm.

Weight: 1.33 oz./ 37.06 g.

Bowl Height: 1.72 in./ 43.69 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.41 in./ 35.81 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.30 in./ 33.02 mm.

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

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Below are some photos of the finished Brigham 202 with a dental stem.
A Micoli Restoration

August 5th, 2025
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

The best man in my wedding is an artist. The creativity that artists have is an innate ability to create beauty from nearly anything. I was always amazed by this superpower. When I first saw this Micoli pipe I thought, “that carver is an artist, how in the world did he come up with that?” I merely have the ability to repair the toll of time on things of beauty and a sense of practicality. Though this Micoli pipe is an incredible pipe to look at, the carvings do not meet my sense of practicality. Aesthetic beauty and useful practicality are often at odds and this pipe strikes me as an example of that conflict. For whatever reason; desire to work on a Micoli pipe, infatuation with a truly artistic creation or “dang, that’s cool”, I had to have this pipe when I saw it on eBay. After the winning of the auction the waiting for arrival began. Five days seemed to go more slowly than usual, perhaps I have discovered a remedy for aging? The relatively short trip from Saint Charles, Illinois to the wilds of southeast Nebraska was done and below is what the pipe looked like upon its arrival. The only stampings were a signature style “Micoli” over “Fre…” I could not make-out the last letters of the lower word.

I wasn’t and still am not sure if the stem is intended to be a reverse tenon push stem or a threaded tenon. Maybe the artist designed it to be either or. The pipe looked to be in better condition than the eBay photos indicated. Minimal oxidation of the stem, good news. A nice polish to the smooth sections, I do hope that is just a very thick carnauba wax… A slight cake in the bowl, more good news. This looked like an “easy button” restoration.

Background

Micoli has an active website: Micoli is a master carver of freehand pipes

According to the site,

“Micoli or “Mic” as he is called by family and friends, has aquired the reputation of being one of the best American pipe makers. He is appreciated by the most prominent of collectors. Educated in the arts, He started this adventure in 1968. His craftsmanship and artistry were dedicated to over twenty years of full time pipe making, with no two alike. In the last thirty years plus he has been partially retired and limits carving to a few pipes a month. He has continued sculpting animals and other subjects fom brair and other rare woods.

Micoli is now 79years” (About Micoli)

That woud make chronological sense, I was born in 1966 and if he started carving in/after college he’d be about 79. Yeah, math works. The site has photographs of a lot of Micoli carved pipes. These were fun to look through though I did not find one similar to the pipe in hand. That is not too surprising since no two pipes look alike and the various styles are a veritable kaleidoscope of shapes.

For further information I checked pipephil.eu. Here I found the following quote and images:

“Artisan: Robert Eugene (Mic) Burns carved pipes at least from the early 1970’s. Last news about him dates from November 2001. His son Ryan Burns stated in a forum his father is still (2009) very much alive and is in excellent health.

The deeply Dremmel carved pipes are typical of R. Burns’ work.

Micoli’s second: E. Oslo” (Mi-Mk — Pipes: Logos & Markings)

The final search was at pipedia.org, where the below was taken along with several photographs. Hmm, it sounds remarkably like his own website. Darn these lazy writers… Oh wait, I’m one of them.

“Micoli or “Mic” as he is called by family and friends, has acquired the reputation of being one of the best American pipe makers. He is appreciated by the most prominent of collectors. Educated in the arts, He started this adventure in 1968. His craftsmanship and artistry were dedicated to over twenty years of full time pipe making, with no two alike. In the last twenty years plus he has been partially retired and limits carving to a few pipes a month. He has continued sculpting animals and other subjects from brair and other rare woods. Micoli is now 72 years old.

The signature of Burns’ work is the specific way of rustication he worked out using a Dremel power tool. (The Dremel had been introduced to pipemaking by Teddy Knudsen.)

Burns / Micoli also made the E. Oslo pipes. These can be considered his entry-level pipes as he did not carve these from scratch but rather purchased run-of-the-mill standard shapes from Italian and English pipe makers, such as Savinelli and Comoy’s, and dremeled his signature magic on them. The pipe shown was very likely a Savinelli 111 KS.”
- Example and detail, courtesy Doug Valitchka
(Micoli – Pipedia)

The Restoration

I took the pipe parts to the workbench and gave them a cleaned denim piece.

Looking over the pipe with a more critical eye, I again inspected the tobacco chamber. I hoped that the darkened rim was just a deposit of lava and that there was no charred wood beneath.

I reattached the stem and tried the draw. Yikes! There was barely any airflow. I pulled the stem and tried it. The stem was clear. I looked into the mortise.

I heard Jed Clampitt saying, “What in tarnation?” in my mind. I grabbed a thin forceps and grabbed at the obstruction. A wadded up abraded piece of plastic came out. It looked as if someone had been trying to get it out for some time and had scratched and pushed the piece of plastic into the airway. “Odd”, I thought.

The air way was now open and had a normal draw.

The ream team was gathered.

The PipNet #3 and #4 blades got used but not much. The wide bowl of this pipe was cleaned out with a little help from both the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper.

Below is the condition of the reamed tobacco chamber.

I sanded the interior of the chamber with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The briar showed no signs of heat damage.

I ran an alcohol dipped pipe cleaning into the shank and it went straight in but not into the bowl. Hmm, that is odd. “What is this little depression in the tobacco chamber and why is it wet?”

And why are there two airways? Those two pipe cleaners were not going through the same hole.

Here you can see two pipe cleaners in the bowl. Well, one complete pipe cleaner and the emerging tip of the second.

The correct airway was a bit difficult to get a pipe cleaner into with the Delrin tenon screwed into place. I bent the tip of the pipe cleaner downward and it would go through.

Below you can see a slightly bent pipe cleaner going through the airway.

It is kind of hard to make out in the photo below but if you use your imagination you can see two airways.

I used a length of aluminum tube which was 0.13 inches in outside diameter to go through the drillings. This was done so I could envision what in the heck was going on inside this shank. It was weird, there were two airways. One was only accessible if the Delrin tenon was removed. This one angled down from the shank-end and to the bottom of the tobacco chamber. The other drilling was straight inline with the Delrin tenon if it was screwed in place.

The below three photos with overlaid diagrams are representations of what I think the airway was like and how I thought repairs might proceed.

The first diagram is how the carver drilled the stummel. The angle is not precise nor probably to scale but for visualization purposes it works.

This second diagram shows what was done to the stummel by a previous owner. The angle here would follow the straight line entrance of a pipe cleaner or drill bit inserted through the threaded reverse tenon if it were screwed into the shank.

This photo shows the stummel with the threaded Delrin reverse tenon fitting.

This last diagram attempts to show my idea of a repair. I thought that I could use a disposable pipette to deliver J-B Weld epoxy and fill the incorrectly drilled hole, shown in dark gray, into the existing upper drilling. This would fill the hole and seal off the incorrect airway. The epoxy is inert and heat resistant. I would sand any epoxy that extruded into the tobacco chamber. This seemed like a grand idea if I could get the thick viscous epoxy to flow enough to use a pipette to deliver it into the hole.

For this plan to work the epoxy would have to be drawn up into a disposable pipette. I had two types of pipettes on hand, one with a larger diameter tip and one that was smaller. I thought the larger would work. If it did not, I figured I could cut the tip back a little and make the opening wider.

I needed to be careful not to get any epoxy onto the threads or into the correct airway. I made a tool to clear the correct airway of any stray epoxy by plugging the end of a 0.14 inch, outside diameter brass tube with a cotton swab.

I snipped off the extra cotton and hardened it with a drop of thin cyanoacrylate (CA). Once hard I sanded the CA hardened cotton smooth.

I had a plan now to see if the pipette would be able to deliver the epoxy. I measured out the epoxy.

Then mixed the two parts for 30 seconds as per instructions.

The moment of truth, would the plan work or force a “Plan-B” into effect? Success. The epoxy did flow up into the pipette. Very slowly and probably only for about 5 minutes but it was working.

Using the bright workbench lights I was able to see into the mortise of the shank, insert the pipette into the hole and deliver some of the epoxy. This was repeated a few times before the epoxy became too thick to be drawn into the pipette. The below photo shows the wet epoxy filled hole at the 10:00-11:00 position.

I checked the correct airway with the “brass correct airway clearing tool” (I wonder if there is a market for these?). It came through clean and epoxy free.

Next I cleaned the threads of the epoxy which I had carefully and purposely spilled using acetone on a cotton swab. Okay, that isn’t true. I did not purposely spill anything.

I set the stummel in a pipe holder and let the epoxy set-up for about 20 minutes. This was done so the epoxy would not flow out of the hole. Gravity can, on occasion, be your friend.

Once the epoxy was set-up, I held the stummel up to the light so that I could see light coming through the correct airway. Again, success. I thought that I had better quit. This many successful outcomes usually indicates a major FAIL in the near future. The pipe was set aside for 12+ hours giving the epoxy time to cure completely.

The next day I sanded the spot where epoxy had come through the hole into the tobacco chamber. I thought that I might have to use a bowl coating to cover this slight imperfection.

I also disassembled the “brass correct airway clearing tool” by dipping the tip in acetone and pulling the cotton swab with a pliers. Weird how my marketing team has not gotten back to me about the prospects of a nationwide campaign for “brass correct airway clearing tools”. O, yeah, I forgot, I don’t have a marketing team.

It was time to get this restoration back on track. The whole “easy button” theme had been severely violated. The stem was cleaned with ethyl alcohol dipped pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. All one each of them. You can tell I am not used to clean pipes.

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

Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a cotton ball dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol. Very little color came off on the cotton indicating that the stummel was free of any finish or wax.

I was very happy to see that the rim had not been charred much by use and that the lava coating the surface was mostly removed.

The stummel was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. Between each sponge the briar was wiped with an alcohol dampened cotton ball to remove sanding debris.

The stem was also sanded with a series of sanding sponges. Between sponges the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.

The stem and stummel were worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. I don’t know why there was no photograph documenting the micro-meshing of the stummel. Perhaps the photography team is off cavorting with the marketing team.

The stummel was then given a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm while the stem was coated with Before and After Hard Rubber Balm. Both the stem and stummel were then abandoned because the fishing team needed a guide.

Okay, there isn’t really a fishing team but there was fishing. The next day I wiped the remaining Before and After balms from the pipe with an inside out athletic sock.

I wanted to give the smooth parts of this pipe a nice coating of carnauba wax but I did not want the wax to gum-up the carvings. My solution was to mask off the carvings with masking tape.

The smooth shiny parts received their carnauba coatings and they looked marvelous.

The last steps were to remove the masking tape and to hand buff the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth. That made the shinies even shinier.

This Micoli was a treat to work on. Sure, the whole repair of a second airway was a pain but I learned that epoxy can be applied via a disposable pipette. Besides, I think the repair was a fun challenge and keeps my old brain working on problems that need solving. The grain on this Micoli is nearly flawless. Perhaps he carved away flaws but I do not think that was why he carved like he did. I think the artist was just being an artist and I got to share in that process. The stem polished-up beautifully. There is one tiny metal inclusion in the vulcanite that is reminiscent of the recycled rubber from wartime pipes. Overall the pipe is a whimsical adventure of flowing lines. I am not sure if this piece will enter my personal collection or if it will go on to another owner. I’ll just have to see if someone reaches out to me about purchasing it. Pipes like politicians are nearly all for sale. The dimensions of this Micoli are:

Length: 6.08 in./ 154.43 mm.

Weight: 1.43 oz./ 40.54 g.

Bowl Height: 1.87 in./ 47.50 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.43 in./ 36.32 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.88 in./ 22.35 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.54 in./ 39.12 mm.

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

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Below are some photos of the finished Israeli Bent Billiard.

Yeah, I still don’t know what that second word is. I did email The carver via his website but have not heard back.
An Israeli Bent Billiard Pipe Restoration for the Real American Pipe Smokers (RAPS) Facebook group

July 29th, 2025
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

This is the third, though not likely final, restoration of a pipe for the Real American Pipe Smokers (RAPS) Facebook (FB) group. This pipe was sent to me by a fellow member who had asked if I’d be willing to restore some pipes to be given away to RAPS members. I love to work on pipes that I find interesting and doing so for a good cause is even better. The three pipes arrived and were indeed interesting.

The top and bottom pipes were blogged about last week and were a Porcelain Apple and a J. Rettke, Feel free to click those names for links to the respective restorations. The final pipe is a large bent billiard with a chimney-like bowl. The only identifying stamp of the pipe was ISRAEL on the underside of the shank. Below are some photos of the pipe before I began work on it.

The stem had been chewed on a great deal this normally would indicate a pipe that had been smoked a great deal. However the tobacco chamber appeared fairly cake free. The rim did have a layer of lava and the rim edges showed signs of being knocked against hard rough surfaces. Perhaps I had come across a heavily smoked pipe which had been owned by someone who appreciated a clean pipe? There was also a dreaded clear coat finish on this pipe which would have to go. I know, my job is to restore, but I have a disdain for heavy clear coat finishes. The stem did look salvageable and I hadn’t restored one that was this chewed up for a while. Oh, the things I consider fun… I was worried about the ISRAEL stamp surviving the finish removal. Oftentimes the stamping is done on top of the clear coat and the briar below does not preserve the stamp very well.

Background

The number of Israeli pipe making companies is pretty easy to count, one. According to pipedia.org:

“Not much is known about Israel’s sole pipe factory though it’s reported to have operated quite successfully on international markets.

Beside the brand “Shalom” the mainstay brand was Alpha – especially well known in the USA. Alpha was popular for a range of fresh and unusual shapes. Series (afaik): Caprice (s), Citation (s), Classic (b), Pedestal (s), Regent, Region (b), Rex (s). (1)

(1) (b) = blasted, (s) = smooth

Alpha also produced at least one of its Citation forms for Carey’s “Magic Inch” series.

Mentioned in context with Shalom Pipe Factory was a Danish pipemaker named ‘Muki Liebermann’, who later lived and worked in the USA. Muki is known for his unique briar bending technique and his original shapes that gave inspiration to many of the most praised Danish pipemakers.

Shalom was taken over by Robert L. Marx of New York City, later Sparta, NC, then of Mastercraft. Mastercraft continued the Alpha pipes introducing new lines.” (Shalom Pipe Factory – Pipedia)

Also at the bottom of the pipedia.org entry is a blurb about other Israeli brands. It is not clear that these are lines which Shalom produced or if they are separate companies. I assume that they are Shalom lines.

“Other brands from Israel:
- Andersen
- Burl King (Best known for their Danish-looking “thumbhole” pipes with plateau tops.)
- Fader (Presumably for Fader’s Tobacco Shop, Baltimore. Also known: Fader – Made In Denmark.)
- Goliath Briar (huge pipes)
- Krisson
- Mastersen
- Trophy” (Shalom Pipe Factory – Pipedia)
The Restoration

As usual the pipe got herself a cleaned denim piece, more for the protection of the workbench than for the pipe’s comfort.

I decided to work on the stem first as I thought it would require the most effort. The top was lightly chewed but had pretty significant calcium deposits.

The bottom side was really chomped on and would need to have black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) built up and then reshaped.

I started with a cleaning of the stem with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol.

The calcium deposits were scraped off with a sharp pocket knife.

The top and bottom were then filed with a small flat file to remove most of the teeth marks.

Rubberized black CA was used to build up material in the indentation on the bottom surface and button.

The built-up material was filed flat.

Additional black CA was added to allow for smoothing the underside of the stem.

This built-up area was then filed smooth and blended with the existing stem.

The whole area was sanded to check the blending of the vulcanite to the CA seams. It did not look bad. I had not started on the button as of yet.

To better blend the seams I applied a coating of thin CA. This penetrates any tiny crack of seams and would further blend the two materials with finer grade sanding.

The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from grits 400-3500. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a paper towel. The last thing I did, at this stage, was to apply a coating of Mark Hoover’s Before and After Hard Rubber Balm. Mark sent me this product to try and I think it does a very nice job at preserving a polished stem and keeping oxidation at bay during normal pipe smoking.

I turned my attention to the stummel. The reaming tools were gathered and included the PipNet, Smokingpipes Low Country Reamer and the General triangular scraper.

All three tools were used and the Kleen-Reem reamer was pulled into the fray because of the bowl depth and slightly conical boring.

The rim looked like it had suffered frequent hard knocks on concrete or stone surfaces. This roughened rim also had a coating of lava. Scraping lava from a flat surface is pretty easy but scraping lava from a rough surface is a different matter.

I tried to use the traditional scraping method of using saliva to moisten and soften the lava then scrape it with a sharp pocket knife. With the surface being as rough as it was, I met with limited success.

Normally a light topping of the rim would be done with 320 sandpaper but this rim was rounded and dented. Due to the very deep bowl, I decided that there was plenty of briar there and filing the rim would be a faster was to smooth the surface.

One smoothed with a flat file I topped the rim with 320 followed by 400 grit sandpaper.

The shank was then cleaned with several bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol.

Next up was the scrubbing of the stummel with a nylon brush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

I wiped the stummel with a cotton ball wetted with ethyl alcohol. The alcohol has no effect on the clear coat. Bah. In the next couple of photos you can see where the finish had been worn off the briar.

Since the ethyl didn’t affect the finish, I tried acetone. It did soften the finish but very slowly and with a great deal of work. I decided to give the whole stummel a bath in acetone. The old jar was not large enough so I had to make use of a wide mouth pint jar acetone bath.

I let the stummel soak for over an hour in the acetone before removing it. Apologies for the poor focus. I’d blame the nitrile glove but I was only wearing one. There was still a lot of finish remaining on the briar. I thought, “why the heck did they apply the finish so thick?”

The good news was that the soaking made the old fills easy to remove. Well, easy if I moved quickly before the acetone evaporated.

There were several deep pits in the briar.

The pits were pretty evenly distributed over the whole stummel and as I said, deep.

At least they didn’t use the bright pink fill that you often find on old pipes. Below are a few of the remnants of fill material.

I sanded the remaining finish from the briar using sanding sponges that I usually never would use on a pipe, 180 and 280 grit. The little 320 sanding sponge just couldn’t cut through the thick hard finish. You can also see the depth of the pits on the shank in the below photo.

Eventually the stummel was sanded with 320 and 40 grit sanding sponges and the fills were refilled with briar dust and brown CA. I could have sworn that I photographed the filling of the pits but I failed to.

I also sanded the interior of the tobacco chamber and discovered some pits there as well. Imperfections in a chamber like this can cause the briar to burn and smolder with the tobacco. That extra surface area is something I wanted to eliminate.

I mixed up a small batch of black J-B Weld epoxy to press into the pits within the tobacco chamber. I used the mini popsicle stick as an applicator to “squeegee” the epoxy into the pits.

After the epoxy had dried for 24 hours I would sand away the excess.

With the epoxy hardening I turned my attention to redoing the color scheme of the pipe. The plan was to use a base coat of black Fiebing’s Leather Dye. This would be buffed and lightly sanded, dying the softer grained briar black while removing the outer surface of the harder, less susceptible briar. Next a coating of Mahogany, again lightly sanded and finally a top coat of orange. The goal was to have a pipe with dark grain highlighted with an orange mahogany. It worked well in my imagination and it should conceal all those dark spots that were the new fills.

The first step, black Fiebing’s looked as expected.

After buffing with a rouge buffing compound and wiping with ethyl alcohol cotton balls the black had indeed penetrated the softer grain.

A light sanding brought out the lighter grained areas more to my liking.

Next came the mahogany dye.

Below is the mahogany after a light sanding and alcohol pad wipe.

Finally the orange top coat.

I discovered why the Israelis had applied such a thick clear coat to this stummel while I was sanding it. The briar was extremely soft and very difficult to work with. Sanding would remove one scratch and create two more. I decided that maybe a couple coats of Danish Oil would help to toughen the briar.

Below you can see how I hung the stummel on a vice for drying. I applied three coats of Danish oil to the pipe and the stummel looked like it had never even seen a drop of Danish oil. Good lord this briar was a pain to work with.

The final steps to the restoration included a trip to the buffer for several coats of carnauba was and a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth. It was at this point that I realized how completely unhappy I was to have forgotten to bend the stem to what I thought was a better bend.

I used a heat gun to heat the stem until it was pliable. I then bent the stem to have a more attractive and more comfortable shape.

The stem before the bending:

And, after the bend:

Of course the heating and bending of the vulcanite ruined the finish of the fill work that I had done to the stem. That was all resanded, a touch of thin CA, and some more sanding then rebuffed. This then led to a rewaxing and re-hand-buffing. Oh, for the love of transparency! I could have left all my mistakes out but then I’d feel dirty or something…

I think that the briar used in this Israeli pipe was the same or similar to the briar used by Robert Marxman, in other words it is Algerian briar. This briar is known to be a great smoking briar but is also known to be very difficult to work with due to the very soft nature of the wood. Think about the heavily rusticated pipes of Marxsman or the Custom-bilts. Those carving techniques were utilized to conceal the soft and imperfect grains of those pipes. Though they are renowned as great smokers, this pipe has the same cinnamon-cardamomscent as my Marxmans. The difficulties in trying to get this pipe to have a flawless smooth surface was difficult and I completely understand the Israeli’s use of a heavy masking clear coat. In the end I think that I did maintain the color scheme of the original pipe though I did lose the stamping, ISRAEL. The stem is another problem area. This vulcanite just would not lend itself to the high gloss sheen that I strive for. Overall I am sure this pipe will provide a great smoking experience but it does not have the aesthetic that I would be proud of. I guess I should be happy by giving this undoubtedly a “basket pipe” a new lease on life and provide its next owner with a good quality pipe.

The dimensions of the Israeli Bent Billiard are:

Length: 5.64 in./ 138.18 mm.

Weight: 2.10 oz./ 42.24 g.

Bowl Height: 2.35 in./ 49.02 mm.

Chamber Depth: 2.09 in./ 38.35 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.73 in./ 18.54 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.57 in./ 34.54 mm.

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

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Below are some photos of the finished Israeli Bent Billiard.

I included the next two photos to show what the finished tobacco chamber fills looked like after the sanding.
A Rettke Pipe Restoration for the Real American Pipe Smokers (RAPS) Facebook group

July 24th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

This is the second pipe of the Real American Pipe Smokers Facebook (RAPS & FB) group set of pipes. The first pipe of this series was a porcelain apple (). All three pipes will be given away to RAPS members in the near future. This one is a real treat for me to work with. I love to play/work with pipes with what I call crazy gimmicks. I’m sure that the inventors would call them “creative innovations”, or some-such, rather than crazy gimmicks – tomayto, tomahto. Whatever you call them I find these creations fascinating. Going all the way back to Charles Peterson’s 1890 patent for the reservoir in Peterson pipes. Okay, that one is NOT a crazy gimmick but a heavenly inspired stroke of human genius.

(US519135A – Charles peterson – Google Patents)

Hey, I have the title Nebraska Pete Geek, Certified Pete Geek (CPG) for a reason. I think the heyday for these “innovations” was from the turn of the last century to the 1960s. This was a time of far more people smoking pipes and a period where new materials, like plastics, were coming to market. The age-old issues of heat, “impurities” and steam had a myriad of cures put forward by imaginative pipe inventors.

Now, this Rettke pipe reminds me of two other pipes I have restored; the Samharra and the Needham pipes. All three share a similar double drilled shank.

(A SAMHARA Pipe Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek)

(A Needham Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek)

The Rettke is the most recent patent with a 1962 stamping. OK, I’m getting ahead of myself again, let me get back on track. This pipe was sent to me by RAPS member Jonathan “Fuzzy” Polak, along with two others. The pipe was stamped with RETTKE over WASHINGTON MO. on the left bottom and PAT. JUNE 12 1962 on the right bottom.

Below are some photos I took of the pipe prior to work beginning.

Overall the pipe looked to be in very good condition. The typical reaming and tobacco chamber sanding would be done. A thorough cleaning of the interior and exterior. Sanding of the stummel and a polishing of the stem. The exciting part, for me, would be the exploration of the drillings involved with making this pipe.

Background

I started my research on Rettke pipes with a pipedia.org search on “rettke”. Below is the short entry from that site.

“J. Rettke, Washington MO, PAT. June 12 1962. The silver colored thumbscrew below the stem unscrews and is a 2⅜” corkscrew like device. The company is now gone having been purchased by Missouri Meerschaum. This odd looking pipe is made of briar and has a lower chamber with a metal condenser and an upper chamber that contains a filter. The smoke leaves the bowl thru the lower chamber then into the upper and out the stem. It smokes dry and cool. It has a large bowl.”

(Rettke – Pipedia) I could not read the above newspaper article even by zooming in.

The next search was using Google patent and searching for “Rettke 1962”. This search turned up the original patent diagrams:

(1498404097506821639-D0194174)

My next search was for Steve Laug’s Rebornpipes.com. Steve Laug did a Rettke restoration back in 2017 and contained links to the State Historical Society of Missouri. I could not get this site to produce the same document or to even display the link Mr. Laug has in his blog post. I will link Steve Laug’s blog here: Restoring a J. Rettke Patent Pipe from Washington, Missouri | rebornpipes. It is a very well written and researched piece that does contain a transcript of the newspaper article as well as several photographs of Julius Rettke and the pipe making process.

My favorite quotes from the newspaper article are,

“The work is done in Mr. Rettke’s basement of his home at Third and Market streets. He doesn’t work at it every day only when he feels like it. He likes to fish and that comes before his pipes in the summer.”

I can completely understand the lack of enthusiasm for pipe work when fishing is taking a priority.

And this quote:

“Mr. Rettke received his patent on his pipe in 1962. What makes his pipe different from others on the market is the path the smoke takes from the bowl, and the passage of smoke through a twisted piece of aluminum, or a “whirler.” The smoke also travels through a standard filter in a standard hard-rubber stem. The “whirler” has a rubber tip that shows on the outside of the pipe under the stem. The “whirler” also can be used as a pipe cleaning tool. It pulls out easily for cleaning purposes.” Here the newspaper article talks about a rubber tipped “whirler”. That is how the whirler of my pipe is made. The other Rettke pipes I saw in photos all had a knurled aluminum tip. This little fact is mostly non-important, I just found it interesting.

Now for the fun part: How does this pipe work? In the news article transcript it said, “four holes are bored.” under the photo of J. Rettke at the drill press. I read that after I had done my exploration of the stummel and it was in near complete agreement of what I observed.

Using the above photo, I overlaid some image features to indicate the “four” drillings.

Not to be a smart ass, but I think Mr. Rettke would agree that there were actually 5 drillings. The final hole would be a hole at the bottom of the tobacco chamber connecting the airway to the lower chamber. I’ll blame the reporter for the oversight and not Mr. Rettke.

The Restoration

The Rettke made its way to the workbench and received its complimentary denim piece.

I started with cleaning the whirler, as Julius Rettke called it. There was a shellac like coating from smoking residue on the aluminum indicating that it did actually work.

The whirler was placed in a medicine cup with 99% ethyl alcohol and allowed to soak.

Using the same alcoholI started cleaning the two shank airways or, the upper and lower chambers if you are thinking about my amazing diagram from above.

This pipe had been used but not very heavily. The cleaning went quickly. Oh yeah, I also cleaned out the connecting airway with bristle pipe cleaners also dipped in ethyl alcohol.

I gathered the ream team.

The number 2 blades for the PipNet was the perfect size for most of the tobacco chamber, Julius Rettke may have had a custom drill bit for boring the tobacco chamber as it appeared to have a flat button and a slight taper at the bottom quarter of the chamber. According to the newspaper article he was a machinist for Missouri Meerschaum so who knows, maybe it was a custom built bit?

The photo below attempts to show the tobacco chamber’s shape after the reaming.

The below photo of the sanded tobacco chamber better shows the flat bottomed chamber. The chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel and with small pieces of sandpaper by hand.

The sten was placed into Briarville’s Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover and allowed to soak overnight.

The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrub with a nylon brush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel. The photo below shows how dirty the stummel actually was with the lather colored brown from dirt and maybe a bit of stain

Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a cotton ball dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. A little bit more stain was removed but the wood grain looked very good. I also noticed that this pipe had no discernable fills. Thank you, Mr. Rettke for selecting quality briar.

I figured that I should give this pipe a full cotton/alcohol treatment due to the fact that there was additional length to the airway. I didn’t want any of the previous tobacco smoked to influence future smoking. I packed the tobacco chamber with cotton.

I then packed cotton into the lower, connecting and upper chambers. The cotton was then saturated with 99% ethyl alcohol and allowed to sit overnight.

The next day I returned to the workbench to find the alcohol had done its job of dissolving smoking residues then depositing those residues onto the cotton as it evaporated.

The cotton in both chambers looked as did the tobacco chamber.

Upon removing all of the cotton, I could see that the cotton/alcohol treatment was both needed and successful at removing more yuck from the airway.

I used alcohol dipped cotton swabs to clean the airways again.

The stem was removed from the Briarville solution and vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rag.

I applied some Before and After Hard Rubber Balm to the stem to see how it would react with the vulcanite.

This is how the pipe sat for several days. I had a week-long trip to east Tennessee for family matters. When I returned I had all the post-vacation abandoned house/yard nonsense and some fishing to catch up with. I can say that the stem seemed to react positively to the time spent soaking up the Before and After Hard Rubber Balm. The restoration got back on track with a topping of the rim. 3200 and 400 grit sandpaper were used with the pieces laid flat on a countertop. I also used a wood sphere and 320 sandpaper to give the inner rim a slight bevel and conceal the two slightly charred spots.

The pipe stem was reattached to the stummel for the sanding. A series of sanding sponges in grits 320-3500 were used on both the stem and stummel. Between each sponge I wiped the stemmel with a cotton ball wetted with ethyl alcohol while the stem was rubbed with Obsidian Oil and wiped with a paper towel. These wipings were done to remove and sanding debris.

After the sanding the pipe was worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. The same wiping between sponges was employed between pads.

The pipe was then coated with Before and After Restoration balm. This magic elixir was allowed to sit for 30 minutes. After the sit time excess balm was wiped away with an inside out athletic sock.

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

I placed a drop of Before and After Hard Rubber Balm on the rubber end of the whirler and rubbed it in. Yeah, this rubber is not “hard” but I figured that it would work well here too.

The whirler was reinserted and the entire pipe was hand buffed with a microfiber polishing cloth which raised the shine on this lovely pipe.

Of the many gimmick pipes I’ve had the pleasure of working on, I think this one would actually be an effective system for condensing steam. It just makes sense. That said, I did not try it out as it is intended to be a pipe given to a RAPS member. I did try the draw both with and without a new Medico filter and both were very nice. By the way, If you are interested in becoming a member give FB “The Real American Pipe Smokers” a look and join up with this interesting group of pipe smokers. This J. Rettke pipe has very pretty grain on the left and decent birdseye’s on the right. The Medico stem polished up well and can be used with or without a Medico filter. Looking closely at the stamp on the pipe’s bottom, I do think that the stamping should look like the other examples of Rettke pipes and read J. RETTKE. The J. is just too faint to be seen. Overall this is a very nice and interesting historical pipe. I would consider this an artisanal pipe from a time before artisanal was cool.

The dimensions of the J. Rettke are:

Length: 5.44 in./ 138.18 mm.

Weight: 1.49 oz./ 42.24 g.

Bowl Height: 1.93 in./ 49.02 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.51 in./ 38.35 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.73 in./ 18.54 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.36 in./ 34.54 mm.

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

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Below are some photos of the finished J. Rettke pipe.