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Tag: “Bent Apple“ Pipes

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 Stanwell 07 Bent Apple with a Triangular Saddle Stem Restoration

June 13th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

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

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

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

Background

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Stanwell Shape Numbers and Designers – Pipedia)

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

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

The Restoration

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Length: 5.07 in./ 128.78 mm.

Weight: 1.59 oz./ 45.1 g.

Bowl Height: 1.65 in./ 41.91 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.35 in./ 34.29 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.79 in./ 20.07 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.67 in./ 42.42 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Stanwell 07 Bent Apple with a Triangular Saddle Stem.