NebraskaPeteGeek

A Jirsa Danish Style Bent Egg Restoration

May 8th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I’ve restored a few Danish style pipes recently and there is just something I find appealing about their curves. Kind of like the graceful curves of a 1940 Ford Coupe.

(https://www.artandspeed.com/vehicles/290/1940-ford-deluxe-coupe)

I can’t say why I find them attractive, I just do. Well this pipe screamed out to me in a similar fashion. A far more affordable fashion, I may add. I saw the pipe while perusing eBay.

(the above three photos are from the seller’s original listing VINTAGE ESTATE PIPE | eBay)

I have to say that I was unfamiliar with the brand and had to do some research to find out even the name. Still this pipe was calling out. The bidding went on and was won. The Jirsa arrived here and was bumped to the front of the queue. Below are some photos of the pipe upon its arrival.

The pipe looked to be in good shape. The stem was oxidized but not severely. The worry there was that the stem looked like it was made of three different materials; an acrylic spacer, a briar band and the stem proper, with the stem only showing oxidation. My worry was how the other two materials and their glue would react with the deoxidation treatment. Otherwise the restoration looked like it should be pretty easy.

Background

As I said earlier, I was not familiar or even aware of Jirsa pipes. To be honest, I didn’t even know what the logo was nor could I easily make out the stamps. I went to pipephie.eu in search of the logo. Starting with what I could see, a circled, “letter”?

(Pipes : Encircled letter)

Wow, the Jirsa logo looked the same, right down to the briar band. Following that lead I gave it a click. I had a match. The JIRSA stamp on the example from pipephil.eu was even faint like the pipe in hand and a photo of the maker, Goldrich Jirsa.

(Je-Jn — Pipes : Logos & Markings)

It was also the first pipe I had ever worked on from the Czech Republic.

I next visited pipedia in search of additional information. The information found was surprisingly detailed. I’ll include it in its entirety:

“Jirsa is a Czech Republic brand owned by the family company headed by the artisan Oldrich Jirsa. They use Ebonite and cumberland stems. Best Grading: SG (Grain), three stars. Symbol: stylized J coming out of an oval.^[1]

Sysop Note: Apparently Jirsa no longer uses Ebonite and Cumberland as reported above, but now makes there stems in house using a proprietary, food-safe plastic mixture, which is reported to be very bite-friendly and somewhat softer than acrylic.

The following is an excerpt from a blog post written by Christian Probst for Cigar World:

Jirsa pipes from the Czech Republic may have been known to some pipe smokers for several years. The pipe smokers who already know this brand value it for its excellent price-performance ratio, interesting shapes and good workmanship.

Olda Jirsa, the company owner, writes about his company on his website :

I have been making pipes since 1994. We are a small workshop and we have always strived for pipes with the intention of “making good pottery rather than expensive china”. A lot has happened over the years. We have moved three times and faced various crises, both privately and professionally. The world of pipes has changed, small pipe shops are disappearing and everything is shifting to the internet and social networks. The world is changing and new technologies are influencing more and more aspects of our lives, but we want to stick to traditional craftsmanship as much as possible. We use a modern CNC milling machine for standard production, but each tube is still more than 80% handcrafted. Most pipes are produced in small series, but a small part is personally and entirely handcrafted by me. But in any case, all pipes are made with an interest in them, and also in you.
Olda Jirsa

What can still be said is that although Jirsa is a small manufacturer, the manufacturing processes are very modern and economical. Some specialists speak of the most modern workshop equipment in a European pipe manufactory. This has a positive effect on the precision. Holes sit, transitions are right – perfect function.

Also worth mentioning is the in-house mouthpiece production, which gives Jirsa additional flexibility in shaping the pipes. Neither acrylic nor ebonite is used here, but a proprietary, food-safe plastic mixture is used, which is very bite-friendly and somewhat softer than acrylic.

As usual for a Central European manufacturer, they almost exclusively use pipes with a 9mm filter hole, which mostly suits German pipe smokers.

The design language and style are also very characteristic, a unique “handwriting” is clear. Especially bulldog variants of Jirsa have numerous lovers and fans. The fact that small, light-colored acrylic applications are often used between the stem and the mouthpiece is another very attractive detail that makes a Jirsa pipe recognizable as such at first glance.

If you take a look at our Jirsa range, you will see that we currently have predominantly rusticated pipes in the shop. The reason for this is simple – we can only upload the pipes one at a time, but smooth pipes will follow in a timely manner!

Among other things, there will also be very beautiful, light-colored pipes made of great wood quality.

So look forward to absolutely “cheap” pipes in the literal sense, which are worth trying out!” (Jirsa – Pipedia)

Observations were meeting with the information on the pipe with the exception of the founder’s name, is it Oldrich Jirsa, Olda Jirsa or Goldrich Jirsa. Personally, I think Oldrich sounds more reasonable with the “Olda” as more informal. The shaping of the pipe definitely looked far more artisanal than factory matching the 80% handcrafted claim. The stem material, I found very interesting and concerning. Would my standard practices work on restoring it? Stay tuned…

I still wanted some first person knowledge about the company so I messaged my European Connection. No not Gene Hackman, he passed away last February and he was only a French Connection. The great Sascha Mertens, my German connection and European knowledge base. I sent him a photo and asked what he knew about Jirsa pipes. His reply was typical of the all knowing: “Nice pipe! Have none but was told they’re pretty good!” ( Mertens, Sascha. Personal communication). There you have it, time to get to work. Oh, one more thing, here is a link to the official Jirsa site: Website for Jirsa Briar pipes. Now I can get to work.

The Restoration

The pipe made its way to the workbench and a cleaned denim piece. Have I mentioned how much I like this shape?

I started with the stem. It did seem slightly different from vulcanite in the way it had oxidized. I did not appear to react adversely to 95% ethyl alcohol during the cleaning with bristle pipe cleaners.

Into the Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. I planned on leaving it overnight.

Returning to the stummel, I gathered the reaming kit. The #2 PipNet blades were a loose fit but the #3 seemed too tight so I grabbed the Kleen-Reem. The Kleen-Reem also proved to be too low of a gauge. I scraped with the General triangular scraper and found the bowl had some kind of a bowl coating. This concoction was more paint-like though I am sure it was not a type of paint. I tried the PipNet #3 blades again and found the bore diameter was correct. A great deal of effort later the old bowl coating was removed.

The interior of the tobacco chamber was in great shape, obviously well protected by that bowl coating. The chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.

Next came the rim. There was a little bit of lava deposited on the rim.

The rim was moistened with saliva and scraped with a sharp pocket knife. It looked much better but unfortunately also uncovered the charring of the briar from a lighter.

Hmm, I guess not everyone has access to soft flame pipe lighters and some poor souls have to use regular Zippos or war surplus flame throwers.

I lightly topped the rim with 320 sand paper followed by a lighter touch with 400 grit paper.

The rim appeared better but I did not want to alter the shape or the glorious curves of this pipe. Have I mentioned how much I like the shape of this pipe?

To the sink! The stummel was scrubbed with Murphy Oil Soap, undiluted and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Returned to the bench the stummel was wiped with 95% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad. The stain color was unlike any that I’d seen before. Apricot colored was the term that came to mind.

There were four factory fills of briar flaws. The color of the fills was very similar to the briar but the fill material was very hard and shiny. The reflective spots of the next three photos are of the factory fills. I opted not to dig them out as they all were hard and secure.

I lightly sanded the stummel searching for additional spots which may require filling. That is where I stopped for the night. In the morning the stem would be ready and my eyes more awake.

The next morning I returned to the basement to check on the stem’s progress. “AUGH, what have I done?” May have been heard in surrounding counties. I removed the stem from the Briarville solution and laid it on my shop rag. The color was a spotty olive green, very similar to what I expect the color of a ½ composted zombie would be.

I feverishly rubbed with the coarse shop rag wanting to erase the sin of my putting the stem in that solution. Oh, cool, it comes off with vigorous rubbing.

Back at the workbench the solution had been wiped off or dried and what remained was a buff colored residue. This was definitely not vulcanite now acrylic. By George, this must be, “proprietary, food-safe plastic mixture” as stated above. From here on I’ll use PFSPM in place of proprietary food safe plastic mixture. The second alarming thing to note was the darkening of the briar spacer. I had an idea for a fix for this as well.

I proceeded like I would with a vulcanite stem and scrubbed the surface with Soft Scrub cleanser on a make-up pad. The buff colored residue came off with rubbing. It did heavily foul the make-up pad as seen in the photo below. The stem material was much softer than traditional vulcanite, perhaps from the extended time in the Briarville solution. I decided that I would only work this PFSPM with dry methods going forward.

I used Scotch tape to cover and protect the logo. I thought that it already was much more faint than it was before the Briarville solution and my rubbing/scrubbing. I did not want to further degrade it.

I used Scotch tape on the shank stamps as well. “Why Scotch tape?, you ask. I wanted to sand as close as I could to the stamps and the clear tape is easy to see and trim.

I had left the stummel lightly sanded with 320 followed by 400 sanding sponges the night before. I continued the hunt for briar flaws with fresh eyes and found one. It was a tiny pit requiring a small drop of brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue).

Once the CA had cured it was filed with a small flit file.

The stem and stummel were then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 320-3500 grit. Between sponges the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel. The stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol.

The sanding did not lighten the color of the briar spacer of the stem. Plan B, using a saturated solution of oxalic acid to bleach the wood. I carefully applied the oxalic acid solution with a cotton swab.

Below is a before oxalic acid photo.

And here is an after oxalic acid photo. It worked better than I had hoped. I had a friend who used to say, “better lucky than good, any day”. Truer words have rarely been heard.

Now I wanted to bring up the shine around the logo without eroding it, a tough job. I carefully avoided the logo while buffing the stem.

The stem looked great and the logo was still intact.

The original logo looked white so I tried a white acrylic paint. This is a water based model paint for figures with fine detail for gaming. I allowed the paint a few minutes of dry time and carefully tried scraping it from the stem while leaving paint in the depressions of the stamp. Failure. I tried a second time allowing additional dry time. Another fail. The paint was not adhering to the PFSPM.

Hmm, silver is not white but a close second. I tried applying Silver Leaf Rub’nBuff. This is a solvent based wax. I thought that maybe it would adhere better.

Success. You can see the area around the loge where the Scotch tape had kept the logo safe from sanding and also showed that my buffing hadn’t affected the logo much. I hoped that the Rub’nBuff residuals would be removed with the next step.

Next came the Before and After Fine Polish followed by the Extra Fine Polish. Both of these were hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth (AKA t-shirt rag). The logo looked good and the stem looked fantastic.

With the stem looking great it was time to see what magic the Before and After Restoration Balm would work on this lovely piece of briar. Have I mentioned how attractive I think this pipe’s shape is?

The remaining Restoration Balm was wiped from the stummel with an inside out athletic sock. The balm did whatever it did beautifully.

It was time for several coats of carnauba wax. This was applied with the buffer.

The insides of the pipe were clean, the exterior had been restored, one thing remained, a bowl coating. I like to use pure maple syrup and carbon powder or charcoal, if you prefer.

A cotton swab was used to apply a very thin coating of maple syrup to the interior of the tobacco chamber. A pipe cleaner was inserted into the airway to keep carbon powder from the airway. A capsule of activated charcoal was opened up and poured into the chamber. The rim was sealed with a piece of painters tape. I then vigorously shook and tapped the stemmel on my knuckles. I rotated the stummel repeatedly and shook and tapped some more.

The tape was removed and the remaining powder dumped. I removed the pipe cleaner and gave the airway a couple of hard blows from my mouth.

Below you can see a nice even coating which would dry after a few days.

The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth further deepening the shine.

This Jirsa Danish Style Bent Egg was a fun pipe to work on despite what appeared to be a disaster at one point. I love how it is such a unique piece and can only imagine the craftsmanship required to make such a wonderful shape. Most of the restoration I do are on factory made pipes this is far from that. Though Not a piece of flawless briar I commend the folks at Jirsa for making a very nice pipe. The drillings are spot on the fills where well done and have withstood the test of time. The stain or dye used was very nicely done and looks more like a natural finish. The stem polished up beautifully and though I may never know exactly what PFSPM is, I can say that it can be restored to its past glory. It also has a very nice feel between the teeth. The dimensions of the Jirsa Danish Style Bent Egg are:

Length: 5.75 in./ 146.05 mm.

Weight: 1.81 oz./ 92.88 g.

Bowl Height: 2.26 in./ 57.40 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.89 in./ 48.00 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.78 in./ 19.81 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.63 in./ 41.40 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 Jirsa Danish Style Bent Egg. Oh, have I mentioned how attractive I find the shape of this pipe? If you are interested in having this pipe for your own please feel free to email me: scimansays1787@gmail.com.
Customizing the Button Zone of a Forever Stem

May 6th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

This is a bit different from my typical restoration. I was chatting with a fellow Vacebook group member, Cash Gillespie, the other day about how Vermont Freehand’s Forveer Stems a are beautiful but the were just a bit too thick in the button zone. I said something like. “I frequently take a file to them and thin them a bit.” We continued chatting and I thought maybe folks would like a bit of a tutorial on working a stem. I’ll be doing this with a Forever Stem I picked up a while back for a Missouri Meerschaum Mark Twain.

Let me start with the selection. This can be overwhelming at first. Vermont Freehand is a great crew to work with. Now, I feel the need to warn you that the do take a week off for the Las Vegas Pipe Show so don’t expect a rapid response in October. Other than that they are “get ‘er done” guys and quickly post orders. Their Forever Stems page will give you the below options:

(https://vermontfreehand.com/forever-stems/)

Carefully select the stem for the pipe you want to customize. From there you can select the style of stem you are interested in.

(https://vermontfreehand.com/product/forever-stem-filtered/)

Then comes the toughest choice, color.

(https://vermontfreehand.com/product/forever-stem-filtered/)

(https://vermontfreehand.com/product/forever-stem-filtered/)

The choices will make you second guess yourself and want to buy more than one. I am sure this is fine with the Vermont crew but at $18 each this retired pensioner has to think long and hard.

The color I chose for th e MM Mark Twain was the Red Ambeer Tortoise. A few days later the stems arrived. Yeah, I said stems. I couldn’t choose between colors and I have a lot of cobs so I figured what the heck. Don’t judge. Anyway, the stem arrived and the Mark Twain never looked better. I heard the theme song to the Jeffersons playing in my head, “Movin on up”. Placing the pipe in my mouth kind of shattered my euphoria. It wasn’t nearly as comfortable as I’d hoped. The thinner bit of a standard M cob wasn’t there. The bit was wider, which I liked but it was a touch too thick. Off with the tinfoild hat and on with the pondering cap. I thought for a minute and decided that a custom stem might need a customization to really make it live up to the name, “custom”.

I examined the stem then measured it with a caliper. It was 5.1 mm thick. I recalled reading once that Dunhil stems were regarded by many to be the most comfortable stems and that they were close to 4 mm thick. That would mean that I needed to take 0.5 mm from the top and 0.5 mm from the bottom of this new stem. Hmm, do I dare file this beauty and risk marring the gorgeous finish. Oh yes, I dare.

I figured that filing slowly while checking the thickness with the caliper would be the best way to proceed. I do not have a belt sander, this tool would be a great option if available but I’d imagine that you would want to use grit like 320 or finer and take your time.

My Forever stem felt a bit thick at 5.1 mm.

I used a pair of files to thin it down. The most important part is the side of the file that hits agains the button. Both of my files have a cuttign edge and a smooth non-cutting edge. I kept the non-cutting edge against the button as I didnt want to file that potion.

I used the below wooden block to raise the stem up off the benchtop and allow me to file with curved strokes and rotated the stem while filing. I frequently used the calliper to check the thickness. My goal was to remove about 0.25 mm from the top then flip the pipe and remove 0.25 mm from the bottom. If that felt good, great. If not, then additional filing would be done.

I had filed until I got to 4.6 mm and thought that felt very nice for my bite. Next, I sanded to remove the evidence of my filing. I began with 320 sanding sponge.

I moved through the series of sanding sponges working with finer and finer grit. Between each sponge I wiped was any sanding debris with a paper towel.

All the sanding reduced the thickness slightly more.

Next came the micro-mesh pads. I worked the stem with these from the 3600 grit through the 12000 grit. Between pads I would wipe the stem with a paper towel or soft cloth rag to remove debris.

The final polishing was done with Before and After Fine followed by the Extra Fine Polish. These were applied with a soft cotton cloth, AKA t-shirt rag and hand buffed.

There you have it, how I had a Forever Sten feel better for my clench. The whole process was done without the use of any power tools. Now, if you have access to those, things would undoubtedly go faster but for me this is a hobby of leaisure and not something I am in a hurry to complete. Yeah, if you think that sounds like a cover for saying that I am too cheap to buy and equip the shop of my dreams you are not far from wrong. Oh, I almost forgot, if you are interested where I got my sanding sponges and micro-mesh pads there are the links: Sanding sponges:

Micro-mesh pads:

I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance, restorations or customizations. 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 Forever Stem and it’s MM Mark Twian.
A Marxman Jumbo A Bench Made Apple Restoration

May 1st, 2025
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

If you have been following this blog for a while you know I have a love of Marxman pipes. If you are new to the blog, welcome. By the way, I have a love of Marxman pipes. To be honest I am not sure when I got this pipe nor where it came from. Record keeping is not my strong suit and I just can’t seem to find an intern to work for nothing. Anyway, I’m pretty sure it came as part of an estate lot last summer and has been languishing in the queue since then. The stamping on the base of the pipe read A above Jumbo (in a fancy script) over BENCH MADE. On the underside of the shank the MARXMAN stamp, with the arrow is partially visible, over IMPORTED BRIAR, also faint. Below are some photos taken prior to working on the pipe.

Poorly centered draft hole.

Overall, the pipe looked to be in pretty good shape. The off center draft hole was not something that could be addressed. I could make it look as it did or better when it left the Marxman factory though.

Background

The Jumbo stamp on this pipe is a bit misleading. There is nothing that I can see that would classify it as jumbo. It is what I would call regular size, at best. Perhaps wartime jumbo was different from non-wartime jumbo. I am getting ahead of myself. In previous posts I have reported on the genius of Rober Marx, the creative mind behind Marxman pipes. Here are two links which will take you to two other Marxman Jumbos which I have restored:
- Jumbo C https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.com/7197
- Jumbo Dublin https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.com/3071
As for the date of production for this pipe, I think it is a wartime or shortly after World War II era pipe. My reasoning is threefold:
1. The flecks of metal found in the hard rubber stem material. During the war many products were in very short supply. Rubber was a significant one. Old used tires were routinely recycled during this time. Metal flecks in pipes are indicative of this recycling.
2. The use of a brass condenser or tenon extension. Aluminum was another product which was in very short supply during the war. I had never seen a brass condenser before and I hypothesise that this was due to wartime shortages of aluminum, the preferred metal for “filters” like this.
3. The smaller size of a “Jumbo” is due to the shortages of briar due to the war in Europe. Smaller pipes require less briar meaning that more pipes could be made by reducing the sizes of the stummels cut from a block of briar.
The Restoration

The good looking pipe began the restoration on a cleaned piece of denim acting as a protective cover for the workbench.

I disassembled the pipe and thought the color of the metal stinger was off. At the time I wrote this off as discolored by smoking residues.

The stinger was placed in a plastic medicine cup with a few milliliters of 95% ethyl alcohol. The stem was prepared for a several hour long bath in Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover by lightly sanding it with a 320 grit sanding sponge.

The airway of the stem was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in the ethyl alcohol.

The tood chatter was filed with a small flat file. I also added definition to the button with the edge of the file to the button.

The stem was then suspended in the Briarville solution (referred to as deox, henceforth).

The label instructions recommend 2-12 hours for the Briarville deox, this meant overnight. I turned my attention to the stummel. The ream team was gathered.

A PipNet with #1 and #2 blades were used for the majority of the reaming. The General triangular scraper was used for cleanup work.

A wood dowel wrapped in 320 sandpaper was used to sand the interior of the tobacco chamber.

DOH! I missed the bottom of the bowl while sanding. There, that was better. The chamber showed no sign of heat damage though the drilling for the airway was not centered very well. Perhaps this is another indicator of wartime production, illustrating that manufacturers had trouble retaining skilled craftsmen.

The airway of the shank was then cleaned out using cotton swabs, a nylon shank brush, folded bristle pipe cleaners each dipped in the 95% ethyl alcohol. Also used was a dental scraper. The more tar I can scrape from an airway, the far less scrubbing with the previous three it requires.

The rim had some light lava deposits.

These were removed by moistening with saliva and scraping with a sharp pocket knife.

Below, the rim after the scraping.

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

Back at the workbench the stummel looked much better.

I removed the stinger from its alcohol bath and was surprised to discover that it was not discolored but brass. What? A brass stinger? That was the first time I had seen one of those. Oh well, it cleaned up nicely with a bristle pipe cleaner.

At this point I wanted to sand the stummel but I did not want to do that without the stem in place. Hmm, it wouldn’t be ready until the morning. I know. I’ll epoxy these 10 popper bodies to their hooks. That way I’ll have something to demand my attention and allow me to neglect restoring pipes, tying some more bass poppers.

The next morning I successfully refrained from making bass lures and focused on the Marxman. The stem was removed from deox and wiped with a coarse shop rag. This removed some of the oxidized rubber.

My lovely bright yellow Briarville deoxidizing solution is no longer bright yellow.

The stem after the deox bath.

Below is one of those metal flecks/inclusions I mentioned in the Background section.

The stamps were covered with painters tape for their protection from the sanding. I decided to avoid the sanding of the bottom altogether but I wanted insurance for the shank zone.

A series of sanding sponges ingrits from 320-3500 were used in sequence for sanding the stem and stummel (sans the bottom). Between each sponge I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol to remove sanding debris. The stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel between sponges.

I wrapped the shank with masking tape to protect it from the buffin that I wanted to do to the stem. I used a rouge compound and the dedicated rouge wheel.

The sanding and buffing worked nicely but there remained a tooth dent on the top of the stem that I did not like.

I chose to clean the area with an alcohol dipped cotton swab and apply a dab of black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) to the dent.

The CA was spritzed with a CA drying accelerator.

This was then filed flat and sanded smooth before rebuffing the area. That took care of the dent.

The stem was then polished with Before and After Fine followed by Extra Fine Polish. These wonderful polishes were applied and hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth.

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

Excess balm was wiped or hand buffed from the stummel with an inside out athletic sock. The Terry cloth of the sock is a great material for getting the remaining blam from the nooks and crannies of the rustications.

Since the carvings of the pipe were rather shallow, I thought that carnauba wax applied with the buffer would be ok and not gum-up the carvings. Extra effort was put into making sure the grooves were worked with the edge of the wheel.

The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth further deepening the shine.

Overall this Marxman A Jumbo Bench Made apple turned out very nicely. The soft appearance of the briar is accented by the rustications. The glossy black vulcanite provides a lovely contrast for both textures. The pipe says, “I’m Jumbo” but the size says different. Perhaps the Jumbo is just a quality claim by Marxman rather than a size claim. Either way, it is still a pretty little pipe and will undoubtedly be a fine smoker with an old and venerable heritage. The dimensions of the Marxman A Jumbo Bench Made apple are:

Length: 5.61 in./ 142.49 mm.

Weight: 1.06 oz./ 30.05 g.

Bowl Height: 1.49 in./ 37.85 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.16 in./ 29.46 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.69 in./ 17.53 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.37 in./ 34.80 mm.

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

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Below are some photos of the finished Marxman A Jumbo Bench Made apple.
LHS Sterncrest 14K 39 Billiard Restoration

April 29th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

If Vincent van Gogh were to have been a pipe carver this pipe may have been carved to compliment his Starry Night painting. The carved swirls remind me of van Gogh’s famous stars. Maybe that is what struck me about this piece or maybe it was the 14 karat solid gold band. With gold breaking $3500 per ounce, I suppose more folks are going to be hunting for the solid gold work on all kinds of old pieces. This pipe was picked up from an antique dealer in Beverly, Massachusetts last month and got itself bumped up in the queue due it’s amazing carving. Below are some photos of the pipe as it appeared upon arrival before work started.

Pretty cool, right? The bone tenon extension was a real bonus as those typically indicate a higher level of quality and workmanship. The gold band was tarnished. This was weird because gold doesn’t tarnish, perhaps the copper and silver which were added to the gold all settled on the surface (metallurgical humor, there). The pipe was in very good condition and did not look like it would need much more than a thorough cleaning and a bit of stem work, tooth dent removal and better fitting of the tenon with the mortise. Speaking of the stem, it did not appear to be vulcanite but rather a hard plastic. Another weirdism.

Background

I began the research for LHS with pipephil.eu. There I found the following short piece on the company along with many examples of stampings matching the stamping from this pipe.:

LHS — Pipes : Logos & Markings

The next stop on the research train was at pipedia.org. There I found greater detail regarding the company and it’s founders, brothers Ludwig and Hugo Stern.

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

Notes from Geyer’s Stationer

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

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

The pipephil.eu site did have a great set of photographs of the LHS Brooklyn factory and they can be seen below.

(Document: L&H Stern factory — Pipes : Logos & Markings –)

(Document: L&H Stern factory — Pipes : Logos & Markings –)

(Document: L&H Stern factory — Pipes : Logos & Markings –)

(Document: L&H Stern factory — Pipes : Logos & Markings –)

I still find it hard to imagine that New York City was a manufacturing hub. In my mind NYC is a place of offices and apartments housing people all like Jerry Seinfeld, George Costanza, Elain Benes, Cramer and Newman. As you may have guessed, I have never been to NYC.

This Sterncrest 14k. according to the quality guide from pipephil.eu, was LHS’s second highest quality line.

(Document: LHS Grading — Pipes : Logos & Markings –). What would today’s equivalent of $7.50 in 1944 money? According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics,

(CPI Inflation Calculator). A $138 pipe is not considered to be a “highend” pipe by today’s standards but more in line with a standard Savinelli or Peterson factory made base pipe. The threaded bone tenon and sold gold band lead me to think that the Consumer Price Index may be missing exact relevance or that quality standards of today are much different than that of 1944. If you are curious, I used http://coinapps.com/gold/gram/calculator/ to value the 0.4 g 14K gold band. The below is a screen shot using the gold value as of 4/25/2025:

The Restoration

The Starry Night Sterncrest, the pipe’s new nickname (do you like it?) made it to the workbench and a cleaned denim piece.

I disassembled the pipe. I was slightly surprised with the ease that the bone tenon unscrewed from the stem. Frequently these old bone tenon extensions become fused to their stems and require their destruction to remove.

The bone goes from white to nearly black with smoking. This one was a uniform dark brown.

The shank cleaning was done with 95% ethyl alcohol, cotton swabs, pipe cleaners and a dental scraper.

The reaming tools were gathered.

The PipNet reamer and the #1 and #2 blades did most of the work removing the cake from the tobacco chamber.

The chamber looked good and was then sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.

After sanding to bare briar the chamber was inspected for any damage due to heat or charring. None was observed.

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

Returning to the workbench the grooves in the carvings still looked rough as if partly filled with dirt and grime.

The rim also looked like the carvings retained some lava, smoking residue.

The rim was scrubbed with a brass rush dipped in ethyl alcohol and wiped with a make-up pad.

I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. The pad picked up quite a bit of old stain.

Since the brass brush worked well with the rim, I decided to try scrubbing the carvings with it and ethyl alcohol. The color is not off in the photo below. My fingers were stained with the stain from the stummel. What I had thought was dirt and grime in the grooves was actually accumulated stain.

The carvings looked better after being scrubbed, wiped and allowed dry.

I turned my attention to cleaning the airway of the stem. Again I used ethyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners. The stem was surprisingly clean.

The same was done with the bone tenon extension.

I addressed the overly tight fit of the tenon to the mortise by sanding the tenon with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

Once sanded I applied a light coat of petroleum jelly to the tenon and retried the fit.

The fit was great with the appropriate tightness.

I wanted to remove the tarnish from the 14k solid gold band. It was thin and to reduce the risk of bending it I wanted to polish the band on the shank. I wrapped the shank in masking tape to protect the briar from discoloration due to the polishing cloth chemicals.

Cape Cod Metal Polishing Cloths were used to remove the tarnish from the band. I have to comment that the smell of this metal polish is a high point of using it. It has a wonderful aroma.

The band after polishing was returned to a brilliant gold color.

The shank, band included, was rewrapped with masking tape again for its protection from sanding.

Before sanding, I wanted to remove the tooth chatter from the stem. I was leery of using a lighter to “paint” the stem as I was unfamiliar with this type of stem material and did not know how it would react to flame. I opted to just file the chatter with a small flat file.

The area was sanded with 320 and 400 grit sanding sponges.

The stem was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 320-350. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with Obsidian Oil and wiped with a paper towel. After the sanding the stem was taken to the buffer and polished with rouge compound with the rouge wheel then white compound with the white compound wheel.

I removed the masking tape and wiped the shank with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol to remove any traces of adhesive from the tape. The stummel was then given a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm worked into the carvings with a soft fiber tooth brush and allowed to sit for an hour.

The stummel was then hand buffed with an inside out athletic sock to remove excess Restoration Balm.

I applied Before and After Hard Rubber Balm to the bone tenon extension. I am sure that Mark Hoover didn’t intend for his balm to be used on bone but the product works amazingly well at preserving vulcanite stems and I figured that it would work equally as well on bone. I then reassembled the stem.

The stem and stamping surface were given several coats of carnauba wax at the buffer. Apply carnauba to the carving as they were too deep and would likely accumulate a thick wax coating which would then accumulate dirt.

The stummel was waxed with Renaissance Micro-Crystalline Wax with a baby tooth brush and buffed with a clean flannel buffing wheel. The edge of the wheel was used to work excess wax from the deeper carving grooves while still receiving a protective coating. I have to say that I also love the smell of this wax.

The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth further deepening the shine.

Personally, I think this LHS Sterncrest 14K 39 billiard, AKA: Starry Night Sterncrest, restored very nicely. The swirling carvings are eye-catching and something not seen on modern production pipes. The bone tenon extension is also a link to simpler days. The stem polished up beautifully and both is set apart from the carvings and is accentuated by the gold band. The light weight of this pipe should make it a fine clencher and the sarving are both pleasant to the eyes and provide a great feel in the hand. The dimensions of the LHS Sterncrest 14K 39 billiard are:

Length: 5.68 in./ 144.27 mm.

Weight: 0.95 oz./ 26.93 g.

Bowl Height: 1.54 in./ 39.12 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.34 in./ 34.04 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.76 in./ 17.78 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.32 in./ 30.48 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 LHS Sterncrest 14K 39 billiard.
A James J. Fox Irish Bulldog Restoration

April 24th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

You know when you see something and the little voice in your head says, “Wait! There’s something peculiar about that”? That is exactly what happened when I was perusing eBay and saw this pipe. I can’t recall if it was the photo or the header, “James J Fox Made in Dublin Ireland Pipe” that caught my eye but one of them gave me a temporary case of whiplash. Now, we all know what a pipe made in Dublin actually means but what is this James J Fox stamp? A distant relative of Wileward Ethelbert Coyote, perhaps? (Wile E. Coyote for those non-cartoon-culture savvy). Even with less than stellar photographs, I knew I had to lay hands on this lass. The button was clicked, money sent and the pipe arrived. Well, it was a bit slower than that but you get the idea. Upon arrival, I got a good look at the stampings. Top left, Fox over Special in a flowing script. This one was faint, not worn, just faint. The top right shank had MADE IN DUBLIN over IRELAND. Again the stamp was faint but only in the middle top portion. Almost as if the stamp was not flat. The final stamp was on the lower left face of the shank and it read, JAMES J FOX over DUBLIN LONDON. The photos below show the pipe as it appeared before any work was done.

This looked like it would be a straightforward restoration with no real obstacles. Yeah, the stem was oxidized and there was some weird stain on the front left of the bowl but the stem fit was great and the rim indicated that the previous owner took care of this pipe or hadn’t used it extensively.

Background

I went directly to the James J. Fox website as the start of the background search. Here it states the following:

“We have been trading in fine tobacco and smokers’ accessories from 19 St James’s Street since 1787 and our customers have included discriminating smokers from all walks of life – from commoners to kings. Among them have been Sir Winston Churchill, Oscar Wilde, British and Foreign Royalty, the officer’s mess of famous British regiments, and the leading lights of the stage, film, sport, tv, radio, music and literature.

Our world famous tobacco business started with Robert Lewis, who began trading fine tobacco in St James’s Street in 1787. James J Fox was formed in Dublin in 1881 and opened its first tobacco shop in London in 1947. Fox acquired the business of Robert Lewis on 14 September 1992, uniting two of the most respected names in the cigar world. Both companies now trade as JJ Fox (St James’s) Ltd and run the cigar departments of Harrods and Selfridges.” and about their founder, Frederic James Fox (1913-1990) “Born in 1913, Frederic (Freddie) was the fourth of five children and the youngest of James Fox’s three sons.He found himself in charge of the family business, a single cigar shop on Dublin’s Grafton Street, after the untimely death of his two brothers. Stanley Fox was shot dead by armed thieves thought to be members of the IRA in 1926, while Ronald (Biffy) was missing in action over the Dutch coast in 1942 during an RAF mine laying mission. Freddie, not content with just one shop, took the business from strength to strength. He established a successful import and wholesale business in Ireland alongside the world’s first Duty Free outlet which expanded the retail cigar business into London. He developed numerous brands including Punch Nectares, Bolivar Amado, Hoyo Royal Hunt and La Corona Policromia, and established the Astor Tobacco Company. His enterprising nature also saw Freddie acquire and develop a successful import and wholesale business in the Channel Islands; and he oversaw the origin of the business’s entry into the property markets, developing several high profile office buildings in St Helier, Jersey including Sir Walter Raleigh House on the Esplanade. Freddie Fox died in 1990. He is still sorely missed by his family, friends and colleagues from the cigar industry. Were he to be asked to comment on his career achievements, he might say :

“Not bad for a beginner.” We would agree.” (Heritage | Welcome to the History of James J. Fox)

For a far more complete history of the James J, Fox shops and their history I will refer to Mark Irwi’s Peterson Pipe Notes blog, 157. The James Fox – Peterson Small Batch Lines: An Interview with Yiorgos Manesis (157. The James Fox – Peterson Small Batch Lines: An Interview with Yiorgos Manesis – Peterson Pipe Notes). Yiorgos Manesis says in Irwins blog, “They used to make their own pipes here, a small factory for a few years. It didn’t last long, and only two or three people worked there. I don’t know if they were turning bowls, or just getting bowls and finishing them here. They were involved in all parts of the tobacco business—they were making pipes, hand-blending their own pipe tobaccos. And Freddie Fox, who was Robert and Stuart Fox’s [the 5th generation owners] grandfather, was a very intelligent, savvy man.” (157. The James Fox – Peterson Small Batch Lines: An Interview with Yiorgos Manesis – Peterson Pipe Notes). Now is this pipe one of those made by Fox?

I sent some photos to Mark Irwin asking him what he thought of this pipe soon after it arrived. His response was, “Boy oh boy! Isn’t this COOL? Does it look like the Peterson 493 shape to you? It pretty much does to me. These James Fox / Peterson pipes are really scarce. Yes, please let me know when you run the blog post, as I want to point everyone out to it as well as include at least one of these photos to help them get to your blog.” (Mark Irwin, personal email). I cannot say that I was terribly familiar with the 493 shape so that is where I went hunting.

Mark’s Peterson Pipe Notes provided me with two wonderful posts describing the development of Peterson’s bulldog shapes. Blogs 388 (1891-1919) and 390 (1920-1947) detail the development of shaps during the years in parentheses.

“Two years after hostilities ended and bringing our survey of the IFS and Éire eras to its conclusion is the fullest flowering of bulldogs in K&P’s history, before or since: the distributor’s catalog c. 1947. Three squat bulldogs, the 493, 494 and 495, all reintroducing the “Cad” name. The 170 / 175 and 150 /155 don’t appear to be different shapes, but merely different stems—one saddle, one bent.”

(https://petersonpipenotes.org/390-a-visual-history-of-petersons-bulldog-shapes-part-2-from-the-end-of-the-patent-through-the-irish-free-state-and-eire-eras/ highlight added by me). In examining the James J. Fox and comparing it to the 493 from the diagram above the shape looked very similar. Mark appeared correct but one thing which struck me was the saddle stem. The 493 looks to have a saddle that tapers slightly from the shank towards the button.This narrowing is completely absent in the Fox Special, if anything the Fos pipe has a reverse taper. Using my micrometer I checked the width at the shank, 0.72 (18.4 mm) inches and at the opposite end of the saddle, .74 inches (18.8 mm). This is far from definitive proof that the pipe was made in the short lived James J. Fox shop but it does make me say, “Hmmm.”

Though lacking a shape number, the Fox Special must be regarded with some suspicion. Mark thought it looked like a Peterson 493, and I concur with estimated measurements from the shape charts the dimensions do fit nicely. The 493 shape existed through the 1970s as evidenced in a chart and description, “This shape chart from Associated Imports point-of-sale brochure leUS pipe smokers know what shapes they might expect in non-System pipes. Note several rare, currently sought-after shapes by collectors: the XL02, XL999, XL493s, 124 and 120F.” on page 170 of The Peterson Pipe The Story of Kapp Peterson (Irwin, Mark and Malmberg, Gary. Briar Works Press. 2018, First Edition, second printing 2021. Printed in Canada).

In 1983 Peterson published a point-of-sale catalog, the Peterson-Glass catalog. I can find no reference to the 493 shape in this catalog, with only the 80S,150 and 999 bulldog or Rhodesian shapes remaining. (petersonpipenotes.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Peterson-Glass-Catalog-1978-79-PETERSON-PIPE-NOTES.ORG_.pdfpetersonpipenotes.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Peterson-Glass-Catalog-1978-79-PETERSON-PIPE-NOTES.ORG_.pdf)

The final thing I’ll mention here is a listing of a Peterson 493 from the Estates section of smokingpipes.com:

(https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/ireland/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=239789)

So, we are left with little but supposition, assumptions and conjecture, three great words, but hardly a definitive date of birth nor maker for this lovely pipe. Ath the end of this blog I show the measured dimensions of the Fox Special. If you compare the dimensions of this pipe to the listing of a Peterson 493 from smokingpipes.com there remains little doubt of this pipe’s heritage.

The Restoration

As usual the pipe was introduced to the workbench with a cleaned denim piece. I say cleaned because though laundered, stains aplenty remained.

I began with a quick prep of the stem for a bath in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. This product was sent to me by Richard Messineo of Briarville to try. Again I wish to thank Richard for the chance to test this product. The stem was lightly sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

I then cleaned the airway with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

The stem was submerged in the Briarville solution. The label instructions say 2-24 hours. I allowed this stem 13 hours of exposure.

In the meantime I began reaming the tobacco chamber.The tools of choice were the PipNet, Smoingpipes Low Country Reamer and the General triangular scraper (with the tip ground round).

The number 3 blades of the PipNet did the lion’s share of the work with the General coming in for clean-up.

The tobacco chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper scraped around a wood dowel. The chamber appeared free of any heat damage or charring.

Next came the cleaning of the airway. This was done with numerous cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners both dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol as well as some scraping with a dental scraper.

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 looked better but the stain at the front right remained.

A wipe with 95% ethyl alcohol on amake-up pad removed a bit of color, probably old wax and stain.

The stain persisted.

As a remede, I thought maybe oxalic acid would bleach the stain.

I used a saturated solution of oxalic acid applied with a cotton swab on the stain. The swab assumed an orangish color.

After the oxalic acid had sat for 30 minutes I returned the stummel to the sink for another scrub with Murphy Oil Soap. I figured the basic nature of the soap and copious rinsing would neutralize the acid and rinse any remnants. Once dry the stummel appeared as below. The stain was vanquished.

The next day I returned to the stem. The Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover is getting darker in color. I am not sure how many stems this product is able to treat. I think this was number 3 or 4.

The stem was removed and was vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rag. Below you can see that some of the oxidized vulcanite was removed onto the rag.

The stem looked much better.

I scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads to remove more of the oxidized vulcanite.

The stem was then coated with another product, Before and After Hard Rubber Balm. This product was sent to me from Mark Hoover to try. Thank you, Mark. I really like this balm for treating vulcanite stems after they have been restored. It is more viscous than Obsidian Oil and I think it lasts longer than Obsidian Oil in protecting polished stems.

In preparing the stummel for sanding, I covered the stampings with masking tape. I prefer to cut slightly irregular pieces of tape for this as they do not give as blocky a look to the unsanded areas under the tape.

The stummel and stem were united during the sanding to avoid rounding the joint between the two materials at their seam. The sanding was done with a series of sanding sponges in grits of 400-3500. Between each sponge the briar was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol to remove sanding debris. The stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a dry paper towel between sponges.

The tape was removed and the pipe micro-meshed with pads 4000-12000. The above between pad wiping was done as with the sanding except I used Obsidian Oil rather than mineral oil.

The stem was polished with Before and After Fine followed by Extra Fine Polish.

Each was applied by finger then hand buffed using a soft cotton cloth.

The stummel was then covered with a liberal coat of Before and After Restoration Balm. I let the balm work its magic for 20 minutes.

The excess balm was hand buffed with an inside out athletic sock to remove it and reveal the revived briar grain.

The pipe was then taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax. I used a fly tying bodkin to remove the xa deposits from the beading around the rim. The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth further deepening the shine.

I think this Fox Special turned out very well. This stained spot and stem were the two areas I was most concerned about, both turned out exceptionally well. The high gloss black vulcanite really accentuates and contrasts the briar grain. The condition of the rim makes the pipe look like it is a brand new specimen rather than a restored old beauty. The stampings, though faint, can all be made out and add to the mystery of this pipe provenance. Peterson product or not, it is a beautiful Irish Lass.

The dimensions of the James J. Fox, Fox Special are:

Length: 5.77 in./ 144.53 mm.

Weight: 1.30 oz./ 51.60 g.

Bowl Height: 1.55 in./ 45.97 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.24 in./ 39.37 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.73 in./ 20.32 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.78 in./ 42.16 mm.

Below is an image of a Peterson 493 estate pipe:

(the above image is taken from https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/ireland/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=239789).

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 Guard 522.
A Missouri Meerschaum Freehand Customization

April 22nd, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

In a previous blog about customizing a Missouri Meerschaum Riverboat Gambler I made the following comment, “Expecting perfection from a new corn cob pipe is kind of like expecting a perfect first date. Sure it can happen but more often than not the pipe will have flaws typical of cobs like a first date will undoubtedly have awkward, “damn, I should never have said that” moments.” () As far as cobs go, this is a rather expensive one Missouri Meerschaum (MM) lists the Freehand at just north of $50 (https://corncobpipe.com/product/freehand-corn-cob-pipe/). I have to say I was a bit disappointed when I held my new cob for the first time. The size was impressive and the stem beautiful but the nickel collar was wonky.

Given the wonkiness was not very much but it was enough to bother me.

When I tried removing the stem, the shank separated from the cob.

So now I had a new MM Freehand in two pieces, which I wanted, but not in the way I wanted. The stem fit was very tight and I was able to liberate the stem from the shank with more force than I thought necessary. Once separated the wonk was even more pronounced.

Now given, it was only a couple of degrees off but it bothered me.

To remedy the stem collar fit I first had to remove the collar. The glue here was holding fast, unlike the shank… I used a heat gun to heat the collar and soften the glue.

The heat worked and the collar was removed.

Looking at the stem, I wondered why it was so darn tight. It had been sanded as evident by the sanding marks on the tenon.

The one side of the tenon looked as if it had been polished to a high gloss. Weird, is all I could think. I sanded the tenon with a 400 grit sanding sponge until I got a tightness which I thought more appropriate.

I looked at the collar wondering why it was not fitting the shank. It was even in thickness.

When placed standing upright the stem had a cant to one side. It is hard to notice in this photo but trust me it was there and annoying.

Upon close examination of the collar I saw the issue. There was an inner flange to the collar which was not flush with the outer collar. Hmm I thought, “how can this be adjusted?”

I looked through a snuff tin of various parts and scraps from previous restorations and found a solution in true Redneck Merican fashion – a gun and a hammer. Well not really a gun but a spent .44 Mag case which had donated much of its length for a band at some time. I thought the brass case could be tapped with a hammer to straighten the flange of the collar.

It worked. Although it did take some fine tuning by flipping the collar ofer after adjusting too far.

The inner flange was eventually made flush with the outer edge of the collar.

Now when pressed back onto the shank, the stem stood upright perpendicular to the benchtop.

The collar was glued in place using brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue).

Since the shank was no longer fixed to the cob, I thought that I may as well trim the inside tobacco chamber end of the shank. I know this is not necessary but it was already apart so why not? I marked the excess shank with a pencil.

Below is the marked shank removed from the cob.

I used a cutoff bit in the Dremel rotary tool to cut the end from the shank and smooth it.

Once reinserted the shank end could be just seen.

The shank was glued into place using Elmer’s white general purpose glue. The glue was applied to both surfaces, pressed together tightly and allied to dry for 15 minutes.

Below is a photo of the mounted shank as it was drying.

Since I had a few minutes until the glue had dried, I thought, “why not use the new tapered bit from Vermont Freehand to open up the airway in the stem?”

I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance, restorations or customizations. 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 a couple of photos of the finished Missouri Meerschaum Freehand.
The Riverboat Gambler with a Forever Stem Customization

April 17th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Expecting perfection from a new corn cob pipe is kind of like expecting a perfect first date. Sure it can happen but more often than not the pipe will have flaws typical of cobs like a first date will undoubtedly have awkward, “damn, I should never have said that” moments. I recently bought three brand new Missouri Meerschaum Riverboat Gamblers with very pale complections, brass collars and white stems.

My thought was to dye the stummels black and make some very sharp looking custom cobs. Well the thought worked out well for two of the three pipes. The third pipe had a stem that was cracked at the base of the tenon. This crack led to a break while trying to remove the stem. This is not something that I have had occur with a new pipe but I wasn’t too upset by it thinking that this was an excuse to purchase a Forever Stem from Vermont Freehand for the pipe.

A drywall screw was used to pull the broken tenon from the shank.

“To the Internet!” was the battle cry. I chose and ordered a replacement stem from the great options from Vermont Freehand. The shipping was quick and I soon had a replacement stem. I still wanted to dye the cob and stem black as I was very happy with how the other two Riverboat Gamblers turned out.

I wanted to maintain the Missouri Meerschaum logo sticker so I covered it with Vallejo Liquid Mask. This is a quick drying latex that is used to keep paint from areas where it is not wanted. Once dried it can be easily peeled off.

The cob and stem were sanded with 320 and 400 grit sanding sponges. I do not like to go finer than that before dying briar due to my thoughts that finer sanding does not allow the dye to penetrate as well into the wood. I was not concerned with masking the band at the end of the shank since the brass collar would completely cover it.

Once the sanding was completed I prepared the dye gear. This included a cork to plug the tobacco chamber and act as a handle, a lighter for flaming the wet dye, a bend pipe cleaner as an applicator, a paper towel surface cover and the Fiebing’s Leather Dye in black. I also had a heat gun to heat the cob before applying the dye.

The cob was briefly heated then painted with the black Fiebing’s Leather Dye. The first coating was applied and quickly absorbed into the cob and stem. I tried to flame the stummel but there was just nothing to burn.

I applied a second coating of Fiebing’s this time the flaming attempt did work but very briefly. The pipe was taken to a vise where I clamped it and allowed it to dry overnight.

The next day I applied a third coating of black dye and set the pipe to dry for two hours. Once completely dry I wiped/rubbed the cob and stem with a paper towel to remove any of the dye that might come off on a person’s hands while handling it. I then proceeded to apply a coating of Danish Oil to the cob and stem. I used a fluffy pipe cleaner to apply the Danish Oil.

I allowed the Danish oil to dry for about an hour and applied a second coat. This one was allowed to dry for another hour.

I peeled the Liquid Mask latex from the logo sticker.

The mask did exactly what it was supposed to do and kept the dye from coloring the sticker.

The last steps included giving the pipe a couple of coats of carnauba wax with the buffer followed by a hand buffing with a microfiber cloth.

I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance, restorations or customizations.If you are interested the two Riverboat Gamblers from the earlier customizations are available. Feel free to message me in the comments if you would like one of them. 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 RIverboat Gambler 2.

How it looks after one bowl of Prince Albert. The light interior of the tobacco chamber is now properly colored, as well.
A Royal Guard 522 (Stanwell) Restoration

April 15th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

“That is a cool shape” is what I said to myself when I came across this darling Danish damsel languishing on eBay. The two photos in the listing were not great, which may have been why there had been little interest in the pipe. I’ll include one below.

I made an offer to the seller and it was accepted. Several days later the Royal Guard made the trip from Shenandoah, Virginia to the wilds of southeast Nebraska. The stamping on the pipe read “Royal Guard” (in a fancy script) over MADE IN DENMARK on the left shank and 522 on the right shank. The stem stamping was clear and had an RG overlapping. Below are some photos of the pipe prior to any work done.

The Royal Guard looked like it was in very good shape. The only issues were the lava flows on the rim and the oxidation of the stem. This looked to be a very relaxing restoration. I was excited to continue the testing of the new products too: Before and After Hard Rubber Balm and Briarville’s Stem oxidation Remover.

Background

Stanwell was hardly an unknown brand to me but I had not spent a lot of time working on Stanwell pipes. The last one I had worked on and blogged about was back in June of 2024. Here is that link if you’d care to read it. The funny part was that the restored Stanwell from that post was very similar in shape to this pipe. Below are before photos of both pipes. Apparently my taste in pipe shapes has not changed much in a year.

The first place I researched Royal Guard was pipephil.eu. Here I found a match for the stamping s and the RG stem logo. The Royal Guard was said to be a “Stanwell seconds”.

(Roy-Rz — Pipes: Logos & Markings)

The next leg in the search was to pipedia.org under “Stanwell”. “During WWII, Danish pipe smokers could no longer buy the English made briar pipes they preferred to smoke. In 1942, because of the unavailability of English pipes and raw briar, Poul Nielsen began making pipes from beech wood for Danish customers. At the time, Poul was managing a company called Kyringe, which made various wood products. At the end of the war, briar became available again, so Nielsen began importing his own briar and started making briar pipes to compete with the English manufacturers. It must be remembered that in 1948, England was the single great center for pipe making. Therefore, Nielsen changed the name of his pipes to “Stanwell”, which sounded much more like a proper English name than “Nielsen”. He also created the horse drawn carriage logo for its English connotations. He later changed his own last name from Nielsen to Stanwell, a testament to his devotion to the pipes he made. Stanwell’s relationships with Danish pipe makers goes back to Sixten Ivarsson, who is considered the originator of modern Danish pipe making. Ivarsson was commissioned to design Stanwell shapes. In 1969, the factory was moved a town called Borup, just outside of Copenhagen to be closer to Ivarsson.” (Stanwell – Pipedia)

According to the entry the main part of the information was from a smokingpipes.com article on Stanwell. So, I went to the original document: (Stanwell Shapes and Origins | Smokingpipes.com). I will include this information in its entirety below:

“Alongside classic English and French pipemakers, Stanwell holds a significant place in pipe history. Due to the briar shortages of WWII, and the chaos that overwhelmed both France and Britain — as well as Italy from where a large quantity of briar was sourced — Danish pipe smokers couldn’t obtain pipes from England, despite preferring such pieces. To fill this void of quality smoking instruments in Denmark, Poul Nielsen began making pipes out of beechwood under the name Kyringe in 1942.

When the war ended and briar resumed availability, Nielsen transitioned into making briar pipes, joining the market now resurrected with popular English brands. These marques dominated the preferences of pipe smokers, England considered the Mecca of pipemaking, so in 1948, Poul changed his brand name to Stanwell — a more English-sounding name to cater to popular pipe smoking inclinations. He even changed his own surname to Stanwell, cementing his commitment to his pipe making venture and his devotion to crafting quality pipes.

Stanwell became the first main exporter of Danish pipes, introducing the world to new pipe designs and adding diversity. Unlike most other brands, though, Stanwell fostered relationships with individual Danish artisans — most notably Sixten Ivarsson. Ivarsson revolutionized the pipe making process in the 1960s with his paradigm-shifting “shape first, drill second” approach, allowing carvers greater freedom and creativity when crafting new designs.

Recognizing this potential for collaboration, Stanwell commissioned Sixten to design a number of shapes for the Danish marque. This relationship, then, extended to other artisans in Denmark: Jess Chonowitsch, Anne Julie, Tom Eltang, and the S. Bang workshop, which at the time consisted of Svend Bang, Per Hansen, and Ulf Noltensmeier.

Stanwell’s extensive portfolio, then, features a number of artisan-designed shapes, offering the individuality and aesthetic appeal of artisan pipes but with the greater production ability of a state-of-the-art factory. Such a combination is rarely seen from large-scale pipe makers, setting Stanwell apart and lending it a distinguished place among the globe-spanning breadth of pipe making.

Many of these artisan-designed shapes can be found in our Danish Estates category, and below are listed some of the most popular and iconic pieces, divided by their progenitors:

Sixten Ivarsson

11 – Bent Pot

17 – Billiard

21 – Potato Sack

30 – Acorn

35 – Peewit

62/63/64 – Bent Dublins

70 – Volcano

86 – Bent Pot

Anne Julie

11 – Bent Bulldog

35 – Bent Egg Freehand

Tom Eltang

126 – Horn (plateau rim, 125 smooth rim)

131 – Apple

190 – Billiard

191 – Bent Rhodesian

199 – Billiard

Sixtus 208 – Billiard

Sixtus 209 – Apple

Sixtus 210 – Pot

Sixtus 211 – Bent Dublin

Sixtus 212 – Bent Billiard

Sixtus 213 – Horn/Zulu

227 – Bent Dublin

228 – Dublin

232 – Bent Billiard (sits)

Featherweight 243 – Bent Dublin/Acorn

Featherweight 245 – Poker

Jess Chonowitsch

140 – Bent Dublin

141 – Billiard/Brandy

142 – Bent Dublin

145 – Horn

146 – Horn/Dublin

148 – Canadian

162 – Calabash

217 – Horn

S. Bang

178 – Billiard

179 – Bent Apple” (Stanwell Shapes and Origins | Smokingpipes.com) I did take some creative license to format the original images to better fit the page but the information was not changed in any way.

In looking at the images from various Stanwell carvers I could not find a match for the Royal Guard pipe. The number 522 also could not be found on any Stanwell literature. The closest thing I could find was the following:

(Stanwell Shape Numbers and Designers – Pipedia)

If you assume that the 5 of the 522 is there to indicate the Royal Guard then the 22 would be the shape number. There is no reference to a shape 52 in any Stanwell catalogs so, this seems like a reasonable assertion. The shape number 22, is mentioned in the above quote/screenshot in two versions. The “Straight billiard with an oval shank and tapered stem” obviously does not pertain to this pipe but the “Bent apple-horn hybrid with a half-saddle stem” could be used to describe this pipe.

(Stanwell Shape Numbers and Designers – Pipedia) A further look at who originally designed the Stanwell shapes lists Sixten Ivsrsen as the creator of shape 22. As for the date of production, who knows. If I had to guess I would say, 1970s but that would be just a guess.

The Restoration

Even just sitting on a denim piece at the workbench I think this is a great shape.

As I said before, I was excited to try out the new Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. So much so, that I completely forgot to clean the stem airway before inserting a pipe cleaner to act as a handle and placing it in the solution.

I left the stem in the solution for 12 hours.

Reaming the tobacco chamber was the next task. The ream team was gathered, below.

The PipNet with the #3 blade did the heavy lifting here with the General triangular scraper finishing up the job.

The chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper to bare briar. No heat damage was observed in the chamber. The rim certainly needed a good cleaning to remove the lava, though.

The lava was moistened with saliva and allowed to sit for a couple of minutes before being scraped with a sharp pocket knife.

The scraping revealed no serious charring of the rim’s briar.

Next, 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 95% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad. This removed some color from the stummel.

There was some shine remaining on the stummel so I repeated the wiping with acetone on make-up pads.

This pipe had been used for smoking cherry blends and there was a definite cherry ghost haunting the briar. I opted to do a cotton alcohol treatment to exorcize the ghost while I waited to see the results of the Briarville solution.

I added alcohol to the cotton which was stuffed into the tobacco chamber and airway with a disposable pipette.

Alcohol was added until both ends were saturated.

The next day revealed the scene below. The bowl was quite unstained while the shank was heavily discolored.

The cotton was removed.

Well, it isn’t bright and pretty yellow anymore. The Briarville solution was dramatically darker than the previous day.

The stem was moved to a coarse shop rag.

A vigorous rubbing with the rag removed some of the softened oxidation from the stem and left it on the rag.

The stamping on the stem looked good. There is always a fear of the oxidation remover removing the logo though, this stamp was nice and deep and hard not been buffed or worn into oblivion like some I’ve seen.

Overall I was quite impressed with the Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. It seemed to have worked well and was less messy than the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer that I have been using for many years.

I applied a drizzle of Soft Scrub cleanser to several make-up pads and scrubbed the stem with these. There was a lot of oxidized vulcanite removed in the process.

The last step in the oxidation was a coating of Before and After Hard Rubber Balm. This is another product sent to me by Mark Hoover, creator of the Before and After Products. I really like this blam for maintaining vulcanite stems after they have been restored. I think the more viscous balm is a better preservative than the Obsidian Oil.

With the residues within the shank softened by the alcohol-cotton treatment I started cleaning out the shank with alcohol dipped cotton swabs and a dental scraper.

The mortise had been drilled with a Forstner or other flat bottomed bit making a very regular mortise. This also created a great place for tars and residues to accumulate.

With the airway cleaned I was ready to start sanding the stem. To protect the shank and stem log0, masking tape was used to cover them. I wanted the stem and stummel together during the sanding to avoid round their edges creating an unsightly gap.

I tried flame painting the tooth dents out the button of the stem. This can sometimes reduce the dents.

The one thing that always reduces dents is filing the area. It also reestablishes a nice button.

The filing was done on both the bottom and top of the stem.

The stem was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 320-3500 grit. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it off with a paper towel.

The smooth part of the stummel was sanded with the same series of sanding sponges. Here I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad moistened with alcohol between sponges.

The original logo appeared to have been painted with a white paint. I thought that a silver would look more “Royal”, befitting the name Royal Guard.

I applied silver leaf Rub’nBuff with a fly tying bodkin, working it into the logo stampings.

The Rub’nBuff was buffed by rubbing it on the denim work surface. This left a little bit of silver remaining on the area around the logo. I figured that this would be removed by the micro-mesh pads.

The stem and smother area of the stummel were micro-meshed with pads 400-12000. The stummel was wiped with an alcohol dampened make-up pad between micro-mesh pads while the stem was rubbed with Obsidian Oil between pads.

The stem was then polished with Before and After Fine followed by Extra Fine Polished. Both were applied by my finger and hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth.

The pipe was then taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax. Since the sandblast was not very deep or pronounced I thought that it would be safe to use carnauba wax if applied carefully and worked with the blast direction.

The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth further deepening the shine.

I think this Royal Guard 522 turned out very well. This rim and stem were the two areas I was worried about, both turned out exceptionally well. The high gloss black vulcanite really accentuates and contrasts the sandblast of the stummel. The smooth portions of the stummel and shan are also a nice contrast in textures and amplify the sweeping curves of this shape. There was a lingering cherry taste when Drawing air through the pipe. Fortunately for me I planned on keeping this pipe and adding it to my personal collection and I don’t mind the ever so slight cherry. Heck, I might just use it for those blends. The dimensions of the Royal Guard 522 are:

Length: 5.69 in./ 144.53 mm.

Weight: 1.82 oz./ 51.60 g.

Bowl Height: 1.81 in./ 45.97 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.55 in./ 39.37 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.80 in./ 20.32 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.66 in./ 42.16 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 Guard 522.
A Marxman Lovat Restoration with a Shank Reconstruction

April 10th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

My love affair with Marxman pipes sometimes gets the best of me or worst of me. This pipe started out as just a typical listing on eBay for two pipes. The E. Wilke is the one that caught my eye and the Marxman was a deal sweetener.

I made an offer that was accepted. The seller messaged me saying that he broke the Marxman while putting the stem back on and that he was going to substitute a Dr Grabow pipe. I replied by saying that I bought the two pipes from the listing and did not want a Dr Grabow. We messaged back and forth, him saying the pipe was thrown away, me saying I’ll still take it but I wanted a discount of the original price. He eventually sent me the broken Marxman, though without the chipped piece from the shank and the Wilke. Below are some photos of the Marxman prior to work being done.

The glaring repair was the large chip from the shank. I thought the best way to fix this would be to cut a piece of briar from a donor pipe and carve it to fit. The whole piece would then be covered with a band. The replacement briar would provide the strength and fill the void. Other than that this looked like a typical restoration.

Background

I have restored numerous Marxman pipes and blogged about several. I will not go into great detail fawning over the amazing Robert Marx and his marketing genius. I will include a link to one blog where I detailed the history of the; company, myth, legend and the man that was Robert Marx. If you’d like a nice brief history, pipedia.org has a nice Marxman primer HERE.

The Restoration

The poor broken Marxman made its way to the workbench and a clean denim piece.

The first task was to find a donor pipe that was close in size. I found an old Bruyere Guarente with nearly the same diameter. I felt a little bit sad for the poor donor then looked upon the large number of fills in the old French billiard and thought that would live on in this Marxman.

I measured the approximate chip dimensions and marked them on the donor.

The ream team was gathered and included the PipNet, Smokingpipes Low Country Reamer and the General triangular scraper.

The PipNet #1 blades were used for most of the work. The #2 blades were just a bit too large for the tobacco chamber so the other two reamers were used to finish the scraping.

The tobacco chamber was then sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. No heat damage was observed in the chamber.

Airway cleaning was next. The initial alcohol soaked cotton swabs and pipe cleaners came back black with smoking residue. The best part about the chipped shank was that I could get a little bit deeper into the shank with the dental scraper. The scraping produced a great deal of tar and yuck.

The cleaning continued with more alcohol, cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners. There was also more scraping and scrubbing with a nylon shank brush.

The stem was cleaned with 95% ethyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners. The tooth dents were filed with a small flat file.

The filing also addressed the reshaping of the button.

A couple of weeks ago Richard Messineo (BRIARVILLE TOBACCO PIPE REPAIR & RESTORATION) asked for my address. He said that he’d like to send me some of Briarville’s Stem Oxidation Remover to try. Apparently he had read the blog and still thought that Briarville should be associated with this blog. Weird, eh? Heck, I don’t even know if I want to be associated with some of the ramblings found here… Anyway, the Briarville Stem Oxidation Remover (Briarville deox) arrived and I was anxious to give it a try. The label said to leave the stem in the solution for between 2-24 hours. The solution was a lovely bright yellow and was far more liquid than the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer (deox) that I have been using for the past several years. The Briarville deox also has a much less offensive aroma than my old deox. The stem received a pipe cleaner to act as a hanger to suspend the stem in the solution.

As I was cleaning the shank and stem I was thinking about the best way to cut the donor shank and remove the patch. I opted to use the Dremel rotary tool with a cutoff bit.

The large diameter would create a larger cut on the donor but the thin nature of the cutoff bit was a plus.

The cutting went without issue and provided me with a pretty good match to the chipped portion of the Marxamn. Some minor shaping was done to improve the fit with the flat surface of the cutoff bit.

Below you can see a rough fitting of the patch.

Here is the opposite side.

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.

I looked over at the Briarville deox. The stem had been in the solution for about an hour. I noticed there was a brown swirl at the bottom of the jar. Cool, it works.

Back at the workbench, the stummel looked better. The scrubbing revealed a couple of old fills that were quite soft, one on the left of the bowl and another on the right at the junction of the shank and bowl. I picked the old fill out of the pits with a fly tying bodkin.

I wiped the surface of the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

Below is the pit picked of the old fill.

And the second pit.

The pits were filled with brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) applied with a fly tying bodkin.

I then pressed briar dust into the pit. The new fill was then filed smooth and sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

And the second fill.

The next day I returned to the stem. It had spent about 12 hours in the Briarville deox.

The stem was removed and placed on a coarse shop rag.

I vigorously rubbed the stem with the shop rag. Some oxidized vulcanite was removed by the rag.

Back at the workbench I examined the stem and compared the results between the two solutions. There was a light brown residue on the stem. The residue was also present in the stamping of the stem logo.

I wanted to treat the stem like I would if I were using the Before and After product so I scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub on a make-up pad. The Soft Scrub removed more oxidized vulcanite. The light brown residue was removed with this scrubbing.

After the scrubbing I applied Before and After Hard Rubber Balm.

I gathered the stuff that I needed for the gluing of the patch into the chipped area. I wanted to use epoxy due to the more forgiving nature and longer setting time.

I wanted to glue the patch in place with the assistance of the tenon to keep this aligned. To keep the epoxy from adhering to the tenon, I applied a coating of petroleum jelly to the tenon.

Below, you can see the well greased tenon.

The epoxy was placed on all of the surfaces and clamped. The next three photos show various views of the clamp. This epoxy is said to set-up in 15 minutes. I let it sit for 30 before removing the clamp and stem.

While the epoxy was setting-up I measured the width of the brass band. I thought that a band that completely covered the patch looked too large for the size of this pipe. I chose to make the band a bit smaller and looked more appropriate.

After 30 minutes the clamp and stem were removed. The patch looked good. I thought that it provided good contact with the existing shank and the tenon. The band would provide the reinforcement strengthening the whole shank end.

I began filing the patch making the patch fit the contours of the shank.

There were small seams which I filled with brown CA and briar dust, as with a normal fill.

The above fills were smoothed with a file and sanding sponges. In preparations for the sanding, the shank stamps were taped on both the left and right sides.

The stummel was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 320-3500. Between each sponge the briar was wiped with a make-up sponge moistened with alcohol.

The stummel was then worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. Again, between each pad the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol.

To keep the joint from being rounded by sanding I wanted to sand it attached to the shank. I was not worried about rounding the shank end since it would be under the band but I still did not want to remove briar from the shank so, I wrapped it in masking tape.

The stem logo was taped over with masking tape for its protection. The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 320-3500 grit. Between sponges the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel to remove sanding debris.

The stem was worked with micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000. Between pads I rubbed the stem with Obsidian Oil and wiped it with a paper towel.

The brass band was temporarily fitted. I could see that the filing and sanding of the shank end had made it lighter color than the rest of the shank. I thought that I could match the color better with a Furniture Touch-up marker. Oak was the color of choice.

Below you can see the stained shank end.

To glue the band in place I used brown CA applied to the shank and pressed the band in place against the workbench.

I thought the stem logo would look good in a color that accentuated the brass band so gold leaf Rub’nBuff was used. I first cleaned the logo stamping with alcohol on a cotton swab.

The Rub’nBuff was applied with a fly tying bodkin and worked into the stamping.

The Rub’nBuff was buffed off holding the stem and rubbing it on the denim work surface.

The stem was then re-oiled with Obsidian Oil.

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

After the Restoration Balm worked its magic the excess balm was wiped with an inside out athletic sock.

The pipe was taken to the buffer to polish the brass band with white buffing compound.

After the metal polishing the pipe was wiped thoroughly and waxed with several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer.

The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth further deepening the shine.

I think this Marxman turned out very well. I am still having internal debates as to the band width. I think it looks great with this band but I wonder if a band that concealed the whole scar would have been okay. The repair is solid and the stem fit is very good. I have no worries about the repair failing. The band looks like it is original and adds a flourish which improves the look of the pipe. The Briarville Stem Deoxidizer was a very nice product to work with. I cannot say at this point whether I prefer it or not over the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. More testing will be done on future restorations. I can say that it works well and is less messy to use. The stem looks great with no signs of oxidation but it was not a heavily oxidized stem to begin with. These dimensions of the Marxman lovat are:

Length: 5.20 in./ 132.08 mm.

Weight: 0.74 oz./ 20.98 g.

Bowl Height: 1.56 in./ 39.62 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.37 in./ 34.80 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.67 in./ 17.02 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.20 in./ 30.48 mm.

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

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Below are some photos of the finished Marxman lovat.
A Missouri Meerschaum Riverboat Gambler Customization

April 8th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I am stepping a bit away from a restoration with this blog. These are brand new Missouri Meerschaums that I saw on sale from The Pipe Nook a while back. I was not terribly impressed with the color scheme but I thought that they would look lovely if dyed with black. The gold (brass) collar and the white stem looked amazing in my vivid mental image. Well, I ordered three of them and completely forgot about them until the day they arrived. Below are a couple of photos of the pipes upon arrival.

Background

The three pipes in my vivid mental image reminded me of the Three Amigos movie. Perhaps due to the color scheme of because I found both to be funny.

(https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR_cYnPqluK9oSLhSnahLRE2or2bchVG5scyEXdtgrBw6sfir3u)

Corn cob pipes by their very nature make me think of down home utilitarian goodness. Nebraska, my home state, is known as the home of the University of Nebraska Lincoln (UNL) Cornhuskers. Immediately to our southeast is the state of Missouri, home of the Missouri Meerschaum Pipe Company. According to pipedia.org,

“Washington, Missouri has long been known as the “Corn Cob Pipe Capital of the World.” It was the Missouri Meerschaum Company, still the world’s oldest and largest manufacturer of the cool, sweet-smelling corn cob pipes, that began the tradition for which Washington became famous.

In 1869 Henry Tibbe, a Dutch immigrant woodworker, first began production of the corn cob pipe. Legend has it that a local farmer whittled a pipe out of corn cob and liked it so much he asked Henry Tibbe to try turning some on his lathe. The farmer was well-pleased with his pipes so Henry made a few more and put them for sale in his shop. They proved to be such a fast selling item that soon Tibbe spent more time making pipes for his customers than working with wood. Soon Tibbe went into full time production of corn cob pipes. In 1907, the H. Tibbe & Son Co. became the Missouri Meerschaum Company

The word Meerschaum is taken from a German word that means “sea foam”. It is a Turkish clay used in high grade pipes. Tibbe likened his light, porous pipes and their cool smoke to that of the more expensive meerschaum pipes and coined the name “Missouri Meerschaum” for his pipes. Tibbe and a chemist friend devised an innovative system of applying a plaster-based substance to the outside of the corn cob bowls. In 1878, Tibbe patented this process.

A nationwide distribution system was established for the sale of his pipes. Other pipe firms also developed; by 1925 there were as many as a dozen corn cob pipe companies in Franklin County, most of them in Washington. Today, Missouri Meerschaum stands alone as the first and only surviving piece of the living history. These gentle pipes are smoked and loved all over the world as well as being used as souvenirs, often imprinted with the name of the city, business or event.” (Missouri Meerschaum – Pipedia)

These three lovelies are brand new products of Missouri Meerschaum.

The Customization

The three amigos made their way to the workbench and nestled in with a clean denim piece.

I thought the natural rim of these pipes would look interesting if I kept it in it’s natural state. TO do this I planned on applying a coating of Vallejo Liquid Mask to the rim. This product is a liquid latex which dries quickly and will seal off the surface. It is used by model painters to keep paint off surfaces where paint is unwanted. Once dry it can be easily peeled off. I planned on pouring a small amount onto a try and dipping the rim into the Liquid Mask.

Well, the plan came to a quick detour. The liquid was thicker than I remembered it being so a fly tying bodkin was used to stir it and apply a layer to the rim.

As the mask dries it loses the pastel color and becomes more clear.

Below you can see the mask clearing. I sanded the stummel and shank with a 320 sanding sponge and followed that with a 400 grit sponge. The bare wood/cob was wiped with a make-up pad moistened with alcohol to remove sanding debris.

The dye of choice was Fiebing’s Leather Dye in black. I wanted to heat the surfaces to be dyed with a heat gun prior to the dyeing to help the dye penetrate.

The dye was applied with a folded pipe cleaner. I applied two coats and tried to flame the wet dye but most of the alcohol had evaporated. Instead I used the heat gun to apply heat to the stummel.

A third coat of dye was applied. This time it did flame but not much so the heat gun was used again.

Back at the workbench the stummel was allowed to dry for over an hour.

I was happy with how the cob and wood had taken the dye.

I peeled the Liquid Mask from the rim.

The mask worked brilliantly but I Was not sure if I liked the natural rim or not.

Tha base and the logo looked okay.

For pipe number two, I sanded as with number 1.

This time I applied the Vallejo Liquid Mask to the logo on the bottom of the pipe.

Below is the dye kit used for the second pipe.

Number two was dyed black.

A second coat of black on number two.

A third coat of black on number 2.

Both pipe 1 and 2 were set aside for an hour to completely dry. As I looked at the two side by side, I decided that I did not like the natural rim. I used a cotton swab to carefully apply Fiebing’s Leather Dye to the rim of pipe number 1.

I liked that better. Some dye made it past the cork plug and into the tobacco chamber with both pipes. I do not think this will be noticeable when smoked or if it is I’m sure it will be very temporary.

As the first two were dying st started on the third pipe. As I was twisting the stem loseI noticed it was cracking. As I continued it broke completely leaving the broken tenon in the mortise.

I used a drywall screw to remove the broken tenon piece. Hmm, not happy but this will be an excuse to buy a Forever Stem from Vermont Freehand. I think one of the light bone sems would look amazing. Stay tuned for that blog.

The natural and the black backgrounds for the logos both looked good to me so, I left it weil enough.

The next day I applied a coating of Nordicare Danish Oil to the black dyed surfaces. This was allowed to dry for an hour.

A second coating was added and allowed to dry for several hours.

I wrapped the shanks of both pipes with masking tape to protect them while I buffed the collars.

White buffing compound was used on the dedicated white wheel. This did put some smudges on the white stems but wiped clean with a cotton cloth.

The pipes were then lightly waxed using carnauba wax on the buffer.

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

I think these two corn cob pipes turned out very nicely. They match the vivid mental image I formed in my imagination when I first saw them. The whole process went pretty much as planned. I think the slightly matte finish goes with the whole cob character as does the slightly rough finish of the shank. The white stems are a beautiful contrast to the black dyed stummels and those polished brass collars add a touch of class few expect from a corn cob pipe. These pipes are ready for a classy night at the opera or at least Grand Ole Opry.

These dimensions of these two Missouri Meerschaums should be very similar, being lazy, I only measured one:

Length: 6.30 in./ 160.02 mm.

Weight: 1.31 oz./ 37.13 g.

Bowl Height: 1.80 in./ 45.72 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.67 in./ 42.42 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.69 in./ 17.53 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.48 in./ 37.59mm.

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 Missouri Meerschaum Riverboat Gamblers.

Below is pipe #1

Below is pipe #2

Below is the rim of pipe #2

Below is the rim of pipe #1