“Bruce Peters“ Briar pipes

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Back on January 20, 2024 I posted a blog about a Broadcaster Billiard. While researching the history of that little darling I discovered that it was what some call a coupon or certificate pipe. The term comes from an advertising method where a coupon or certificate for a new pipe was placed into the packaging of pipe tobacco. The buyer could fill out the coupon, include a check and order the pipe or in some cases accumulate enough coupons and turn them in for a new pipe. A wonderful marketing idea, especially for folks who considered a pipe as a consumable product like shoes. When they got too worn and dirty they just replaced it with a new one.

It turns out that one such tobacco company that pursued this technique was Penn Tobacco Company, Penn as in Pennsylvania. In the Broadcast er blog I wrote the following:

“The history of Broadcaster is actually the history of the Penn Tobacco Company and Henry Leonard and Thomas Inc. (HLT). Broadcaster was a brand of pipes only available as coupon pipe from Penn via the coupons included in packages of pipe tobacco. Penn produced the tobacco while HTL produced the pipes for Penn. Pilehil.eu explains this and three other lines of pipes below.

Brand of the Penn Tobacco Company formed in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania in 1901 by Russell Uhl († 1914) and Henry Weigand († 1942). Bruce Peters was a Treasurer of the company.

There were four pipes in the line offered by the company: the Bruce Peters (top of the line), the Silver Mac Duff, the Vox Pop, and the Broadcaster. The pipes were manufactured for Penn by Henry Leonard & Thomas, manufacturers of Dr. Grabow pre-smoked pipes.

(http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-b8.html#brucepeters)”

If you are interested more in the history of the Penn Tobacco Company and my research into the history of the Broadcaster and subsequently this pipe, please take a look at the Broadcaster Restoration.

It turns out that Penn’s advertising genius caught another customer, me, far after their own company faded into history. I wanted to restore examples of those pipes. Through the wonders of the Internet and eBay, we can find these poor abused darlings and have them delivered to our door. Below is the listing of the Bruce Peters that I purchased from eBay.

Wait, not that one. Dang eBay searches, just when you think, “how can I go wrong with a name like “Bruce Peters”…

Yeah, that’s much better and more appropriate. A mere 9 days after purchasing the Bruce, as I called him, it arrived. Ole Bruce looked a bit rough. Here are the before photos.

I felt like a game show host. Read this next line in your best game show host voice. “Welcome to another episode of “What’s Under That Filth? America’s favorite game show where contestants wager a guess to see if there is beauty under the filthy grime of old pipes.” Hmm, I don’t think it will give The Price is Right any competition. Anyway, I thought that the Bruce might have some pretty grain under there. It was hard to tell, the stamps were barely visible, BRUCE PETERS on the left and BENCH MADE over IMPORTED BRIAR on the right. There was a thick lava deposit over the rim. I could also see rim damage from knocking the rim on various unforgiving surfaces. The stem looked like some prayers offered to the patron saint of desperate situations and lost causes, Saint Jude Thaddeus would be required. I’m not even Catholic, but any help removing the calcium deposits and oxidation is appreciated.

I took old Bruce to the workbench and against my better judgment, gave him a clean denim piece. You know he is just going to get it all dirty.

I usually start with the reaming. I assembled the reaming tools: PipNet withthe #2 blades (I would have used the #1 but it broke), The Scotte reaming tool, Smokingpipes knife, General triangular scraper, 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel and the 320 sandpaper wrapped Sharpie.

I started to ream the tobacco chamber with the PipNet but the cake was hard, dry and the opening was too constricted with cake. Scraping with the General opened the chamber enough to get the Scotte in. This was followed by the PipNet and more scraping. Eventually the sanding revealed briar in very good shape. No heat damage was seen.

I carefully scraped the rim with a sharp pocket knife. As expected there was damage to the front of the rim from repeatedly knocking the dottle from the pipe on various hard rough surfaces.

Next it was time to give Bruse a scrub. I used Murphy’s Oil Soap undiluted and a medium bristle toothbrush to scrub Bruce. This was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton dish towel. I then poured about 3-4 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the bowl, allowed it to flow into the shank and scrubbed the airway with a nylon shank brush. The alcohol was then poured into a medicine cup to judge how dirty the airway was. Dark brown = very dirty, light brown = not so bad and clear = a new pipe. This one was very dirty.

After the stummel dried I was impressed with the grain and decided that it was worthy of a set of post-scrub photos.

These last two show the dents and dings on the front of the rim. That is going to take some topping and sanding to reestablish the bevel of the rim.

I now believed the quote from above:

“the Bruce Peters (top of the line) … by Henry Leonard & Thomas, manufacturers of Dr. Grabow pre-smoked pipes.”

(http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-b8.html#brucepeters).

The “top of the line” grain of this Bruce Peters was quite lovely.

Back to the cleaning. The shank was quite dirty, as should be expected after seeing that tobacco chamber. I did a series of 3-4 ml of alcohol into the bowl followed by scrubbing with the nylon shank brush, dump the alcohol in a medicine cup and check for color routines. After many of these the color of the scrub alcohol became lighter. The two photos below show a lightening of the alcohol in the medicine cup. Eventually the cotton swabs emerged clean.

I removed the stinger from the screw-in tenon and dropped it into the alcohol for a soak. While it was soaking I gave the stem an initial sanding with the 320, 400 and 600 sanding sponges to remove the calcium deposits and the worst of the oxidation. I oiled the stem with mineral oil and let it soak while I cleaned the internals. It too was dirty but cleaned out well with alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaners. The alcohol soaked stinger was scrubbed with a 0000 steel wool dipped in the alcohol and gave up its tar varnish.

With the airways cleaned out it was time to start sanding the stummel. I began with the 600 sanding sponge followed by an alcohol dipped make-up pad wipe. I was trying to see any spots that would require filling. There were four small spots on the front of the stummel. I placed a small spot of thin cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) on each spot and sanded over it with the 600 sanding sponge. The briar dust from the sponge and the sanding combined with the CA and filled the small pits. The area was then sanded smooth.

The next area that needed restoration was the rim. The photo above also shows the damage that needed to be dealt with. For this I took the stummel to the counter where I had a sheet of 220 sandpaper laid flat. I sanded the rim in a circular pattern while turning it in my grip every 3 revolutions. I tried to sand the rim evenly without changing the shape of Bruce. Once I had sanded enough material to erase the damaged areas I had to reestablish the bevel of the rim. I did this with a 1 ½ inch rounded polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe end-cap wrapped with 220 sandpaper. The below photo shows two of them, one with sandpaper and one without. The rounded end was ideal for the rim bevel.

I proceeded on to the 1000-3500 sanding sponges wiping the stummel with the alcohol wetted make-up pad between sponges. I was careful to avoid the areas immediately around the stampings.

Next I turned my attention to the stem. I’d already sanded it through the 1000 sanding sponge but there were a couple of dents on the underside that needed to be filled with black CA. I failed to photograph the process. I will describe it briefly. I used alcohol on a cotton swab to remove the oil from the dented area. I placed small drops of black CA onto the depressions then spritzed the area with CA drying accelerant. After the accelerant had evaporated the CA had hardened. I used a small needle file to smooth the drop and sanded with the 400 and 600 sanding sponges. I then applied additional black CA over the entire area in a smooth uniform coat. I again spritzed with the accelerant. This larger area was then filed smoothly. The larger area blends the black CA to the vulcanite better merging the two better than blending two individual spots.

The stem was then sanded with the 1000-3500 sanding sponges. Between each sponge I applied mineral oil to the stem then wiped the excess off with a paper towel.

I micromeshed the stummel separate from the stem. The micro-mesh pads were used in sequence from 4000-12000. I wiped the stummel with an alcohol dampened make-up pad between each pad.

The stem was returned to the pipe and I micromeshed the stem attached to the stummel for ease of holding. I allowed myself to micromesh the first few millimeters of the shank while doing the stem. Between each micro-mesh pad the stem received a coat of Obsidian Oil rubbed in and wiped with a paper towel.

This little beauty, wait, that sounds wrong for a pipe named Bruce. This handsome pipe was looking nearly ready. Bruce got a nice coating of Before and After Restoration Balm for the stummel and a coat of Obsidian Oil for the stem. They were allowed to soak or whatever they did for 30 minutes. After that they were wiped off with the inside of an athletic sock and by the power of terry-cloth they looked very good. The final step was to give the pipe several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer.

This brings the total to two of four Penn Tobacco Company coupon pipes restored. I don’t want to get your hopes up too much but, there is a Vox Pop pipe in route to southeast Nebraska as I type this. I think this Bruce Peters Dublin turned out very nicely. My curiosity of the coupon pipes had lessened but was far from cured. The grain of the Bruce Peters is a beautiful mix of bird’s eyes on the front, back and left side with more horizontal stripes on the right. The stem polished up very nicely with the glossy black accentuating the briar grain even more. I am not a big fan of metal screw-in tenons and their stingers but this aluminum ring doesn’t detract from the pipe’s looks. This pipe was a textbook example of a well used pipe just needing some restoration to change it back into the beauty that it was in 1950. The best part about a pipe that has been smoked as much as this one indicates that it is probably a very good smoking pipe. I do hope that you have found something here that fits your needs. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe. I thank you very much for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

Below are some photos of the finished Bruce Peters Dublin.