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Tag: “Denicotea“ Pipes

A Denicotea Durabel Golf Bruyere Extra 710

February 11th, 2025
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Yeah, it’s another Denicotea. I Completely blame Sascha Mertens for the accumulation of Denicotea pipes over the past year. Sascha is a German pipeman and restorer who is actually a great guy and has led to my delinquency and departure from focusing on my beloved Peterson and Marxman pipes. Okay, that’s not quite fair, I also really like old Yello-Boles, Kaywoodies and Linkman’s Dr Grabow pipes. Come to think of it, I also have a fondness for the pipes of the 1930s-and 1940s and then there’s weird ones. Oh, and the metal pipes, I can’t leave those out. Wow, Maybe it’s not Sascha that is to blame. Maybe it is the raging attention deficit disorder? No, I’d rather blame Sascha.

Anyway, the subject of this restoration is a very lengthy named Denicotea. This pipe came to me all the way from “Vilnius, default, Lithuania”. That is what the location on eBay said, “default”. That rates right up there with the “Slow Child” caution signs. How’d you like to grow up with one of those signs in your front yard telling every motorist passing by that you are “Slow” or mentally handicapped. Cruel, I say. Wow, this blog is full of mental detours today. Back to the pipe. It came from Lithuania and was stamped with the following: DENICOTEA arched over a straight DURABEL. I think Denicotea had to make this pipe with a diamond shank to allow for all the Stamings. On the adjacent side, there is a stamp, GOLF over BRUYRER EXTRA. Adjacent to that is a 710, which I assume to be the shape number. The stem sports a stamped logo of an encircled D, which is a bit faint and lacking any paint. Below are some photos of the pipe before work was done to it.

The pipe was in great shape and the Lithuanian seller was a very good pipe cleaner. This made my job easy but I have to admit a touch of disappointment in having such an easy restoration. I still wanted to remove whatever clear coat was present and maybe touch up the fills.

Background

In a previous blog I wrote about the history about what little I found about Denicotea, I will link that post here, and include the information below:

“Pipedia.org has a short article on Denicotea. I will include it here in its entirety:

“Willy Heineberg founded the company Denicotea in 1932 and began manufacturing and selling smoking accessories such as filters, filter inserts, cigarette holders and pipes.^[1] The company headquarters was initially in Cologne, but was relocated to Bergisch Gladbach after the Second World War.^[2]

Denicotea is actually the name of a silica gel filter, cigarette holders and care products for pipes and cigarette holders.

I still find it a bit confusing as Denicotea seems to be a company^[3] and a brand as well which is operated by COMPOSING-STUDIO GmbH^[4].

Brands

Adsorba

Adsorba is a fantasy series of pipes produced by Luigi Crugnola for the German market.

Aldo Morelli

Aldo Morelli is a fictional name. The brand Aldo Morelli has been registered for Denicotea on February 26th, 1992.^[5]

Depending on the different lines the pipes are made by Cesare Barontini, Gigi or Molina Pipe for Denicotea GmbH.

Stefan Petzuch points out this brand appears to have similarities to the Mauro Cateni pipe brand, in particular they are both fictional Italian brands by German companies, and both have the “HAND CUT” imprint on the stem as seen bellow. This may connect the Aldo Morelli brand to Gebr. Heinemann KG in Hamburg, who had registered the Mauro Cateni brand. Or perhaps there is a connection between Denicotea and Gebr. Heinemann KG, or perhaps these pipe brands simply used “Hand Cut” stems from the same source.” (Denicotea – Pipedia)

Interesting and weird are the two qualifiers that come to mind in reading that. The four makers mentioned in the article; Luigi Crgnola, Cesare Barontini, Gig and Molina are all Italian pipe manufacturers. Where does the MADE IN ENGLAND stamp on the example on pipephil.eu or the stamp on the pipe I purchased come in, I cannot say. I can say that I am not the first person to have little success researching the origins of Denicotea pipes. Dal Stanton, who is far more diligent in his background research than I, had a French made Denicotea. He traced its origins to the St. Claude area but not to a specific maker. Dal’s blog was posted on Steve Laug’s rebornpipes.com site. Here is the link to Dal Stanton’s blog post: https://rebornpipes.com/2016/09/29/nice-find-in-plovdiv-bulgaria-denicotea-deluxe-curling-bruyere-extra/”

This Denicotea has neither the Country of Manufacture (COM) stamps of England nor France. It does have a shape number 710 which I could find no corresponding match with brands associated with Denicotea. This pipe’s heritage appears to remain a mystery.

The Restoration

I found myself feeling dishonest when I called this a restoration. It started out as more of a cleaning or refreshening.

I did want to get rid of whatever clear coat had been applied to the briar so, I guess that does make this a restoration. I first tried 95% ethyl alcohol on a cotton swab to test the finish removal. The swab was quickly stained red.

Seeing that ethyl alcohol worked, I decided on a bath of ethyl for a couple of hours. EtOH was the abbreviation for ethyl alcohol for a biochemistry lab I worked in, if you are wondering.

The stummel was submerged in the alcohol and the lid screwed back on tight. This alcohol had been used several times previously thus the very dark color.

The stem was very clean and my application of alcohol dipped cotton swabs and a pipe cleaner proved a bit unnecessary.

After the alcohol bath time, the stummel was removed and the briar vigorously rubbed with make-up pads. There still appeared to be some “shiny” to the stummel.

I lightly sanded the stummel with a 400 grit sanding sponge and wiped the surface with make-up pads wetted with acetone. This got rid of the shine that remained after the ethanol bath.

The tobacco chamber did not need a reaming so I just sanded it with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The chamber showed no evidence of any damage.

The stem was not oxidized and I suspected it was made of acrylic rather than vulcanite. I masked over the stamps with masking tape and began sanding with sanding sponges. This was done to better see the old fills. I wanted to pick the old fill material out and replace it with cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust.

There were several old fills. I used a fly tying bodkin to pick the old filler out. The ethanol bath had softened the old fills nicely. The pits were then given a small drop of brown CA and had briar dust pressed into the wet CA.

The new fills were filed smooth with a small flat file then the whole pipe was sanded with a sequence of sanding sponges from 400-3500. The stummel was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad between each sanding sponge while the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.

The masking tape was removed and the adhesive cleaned away with ethyl alcohol. The pipe was then worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. The stummel and stem wiping was done as with the sanding sponges.

I applied a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm on the entire pipe and set a timer for 30 minutes.

The excess Restoration Balm was wiped off with an inside out athletic sock.

The pipe looked wonderful after the Restoration Balm did whatever magic it does.

I Painted the stem logo with white acrylic paint and allowed it to dry for a few minutes. Using a plastic card, I scraped off the excess pain and neglected to photograph any of it. The pipe was then taken to the buffer where it received several coats of carnauba wax. The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.

This Deincotea Golf turned out very nicely. I admit that I have already smoked it one time and that was with an actual Denicotea crystal filled pipe filter. Sascha Mertens sent me a package of ten filters when we were exchanging care packages a while back. Thank you Sascha. I am not usually a filter pipe smoker but it seemed appropriate for the maiden voyage. The feel and look of the pipe are very excellent, as are the smoking characteristics. I like the slightly longer stems of the Denicoteas that I have added to my personal collection. They do require a bit of awareness at first though. This pipe is a touch too long to make for a comfortable clencher though it is a wonderful pipe for the contemplation of life. The dimensions of the Denicotea Durabel Gold Bruyere Extra 710 are:

Length: 6.04 in./ 153.42 mm.
- Weight: 1.55 oz./ 43.94 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.90 in./ 48.26 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.41 in./ 35.81 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.75 in./ 19.05 mm. (Conically bored diameter is at the top)
- Outside Diameter: 1.60 in./ 40.64 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 completed Denicotea Durabel Gold Bruyere Extra 710 (that’s still a lot of words).
An Aldo Morelli Bent Restoration

February 4th, 2025
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

This slightly brutalized bent beauty was part of an estate lot of 13 pipes from Germany. I was interested in getting some pipes less common in the United States. The first from this lot that drew my attention was this rusticated bent pipe with a unique briar ring adorning the stem. The pipe was marked with what appeared to be a signature though I had trouble making out the name. The only other markings on the pipe were a 5 digit number around the bottom of the shank. Below are some photos of the pipe prior to being worked on.

Based on previous experience a heavily smoked pipe is frequently a very good smoking pipe. Then again it could just be a heavily smoked pipe by a slob. The rim was heavily layered in lava, the tobacco chamber well caked and the shank to stem joint looked like it had issues retaining a tight seal. When I pulled the stem from the stummel I saw a replaceable filter which someone must have thought to be irreplaceable. The briar ring on the stem appeared to have been a two piece ring glued together and since separated slightly. The most redeeming quantity was that the stem did not appear to be chewed on. My vivid mental image of the previous owner was a German tweed jacket wearing man with a bottomless tobacco pouch and no teeth. Well, this was going to be an interesting restoration.

Background

For researching this pipe, the first place I visited was pipephil.eu. Not sure how to proceed without a logo, name or country of manufacturer (COM), I started with a hunch, Germany. I had no evidence that this pipe had a German provenance but I had to start somewhere and the pipe did come to me from Germany. I clicked the German flag in the section that read “Search by country”.

(Germany — Pipes : Logos & Markings)

And there, third from the left was Aldo Morelli. Hmm, that kind of looks like the first name of the signature.

(Al-Ale — Pipes : Logos & Markings)

Denicotea? Barontini? Molina? I have the song Synchronicity by the Police blaring in my head after I read those three names. I had just recently restored a Barontini pipe, and last Saturday I received a brand new Molina pipe and the next pipe in the restoration queue is a Denicotea. Good thing I like the Police, the genius of Sting, the amazing guitar work by Andy Summers and the incredible drumming by Stuart Copeland – what’s not to love.

Back to the pipe, I continued to pipedia and searched Aldo Morelli. Here I found the following:

“Aldo Morelli is a fictional name. The brand Aldo Morelli has been registered for Denicotea on February 26th, 1992.^[5]

Depending on the different lines the pipes are made by Cesare Barontini, Gigi or Molina Pipe for Denicotea GmbH.

Stefan Petzuch points out this brand appears to have similarities to the Mauro Cateni pipe brand, in particular they are both fictional Italian brands by German companies, and both have the “HAND CUT” imprint on the stem as seen below. This may connect the Aldo Morelli brand to Gebr. Heinemann KG in Hamburg, who had registered the Mauro Cateni brand. Or perhaps there is a connection between Denicotea and Gebr. Heinemann KG, or perhaps these pipe brands simply used “Hand Cut” stems from the same source.” (Denicotea – Pipedia)

Like I said earlier, “this was going to be an interesting restoration”. I now had an imaginary signature on an imaginary brand for an Italian made German pipe. All I could think was, “What the heck?” Continuing down this rabbit hole, I typed in “Denicotea” into pipedia.org and was rewarded with,

“Willy Heineberg founded the company Denicotea in 1932 and began manufacturing and selling smoking accessories such as filters, filter inserts, cigarette holders and pipes.^[1] The company headquarters was initially in Cologne, but was relocated to Bergisch Gladbach after the Second World War.^[2]

Denicotea is actually the name of a silica gel filter, cigarette holders and care products for pipes and cigarette holders.

I still find it a bit confusing as Denicotea seems to be a company^[3] and a brand as well which is operated by COMPOSING-STUDIO GmbH^[4].” (Denicotea – Pipedia)

This brought me back to the whole musical synchronicity idea, a composing studio, really? Just when you think that reality can’t match fiction something like this smacks you in the head. Anyway, this pipe is likely to have been made in the 1990s in Italy by Cesare Barontini, Gigi or Molina Pipe for Denicotea Gebr. Heinemann KG in Hamburg. Confused? I was.

The Restoration

The pipe was taken to the workbench where a cleaned denim piece was laid to protect the work surface.

The poorly fitting stem made me think that was where I should begin. The tenon and stem face were heavily fouled with smoking residue. Thinking back to the disgusting filter from the “before” images, I thought that a saturated filter would allow moisture and dissolved yuck to seep around the tenon. This also made me wonder about the condition of the airway.

The tenon was far more dirty than one would expect.

And, the separating briar band would have allied more seepage of smoking residues.

I started cleaning the stem with 95% ethyl alcohol,cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners. The tenon was as dirty inside as outside.

I tried to lightly sand the stem face but this seemed like a bad idea since I was sure that I could not keep from sanding one side more than the other and affecting the overall fit of the stem to the shank.

My home-grown solution was to drill a 10 mm hole in a hardwood block of wood. This would fit the tenon snugly. And keep the stem perpendicular to the stem face.

The fit was good.

I then placed a piece of sandpaper over the block and used a cork hole borer to cut a hole in the sandpaper.

The problem of sanding unevenly was solved.

I carefully topped the shank face with a piece of sand paper laid flat on a countertop.

The subsequent fit of the mortise and tenon was restored and the fit was good.

The stem cleaning continued with a lot of 95% ethyl alcohol, cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners.

The fit and briar ring itself needed a bit of polyvinyl acrylate (CA, super glue) to help make them look finished. I used brown CA to fill in the gaps in the briar ring and black CA to fill the area between the acrylic stem and the briar ring. I first applied a layer of transparent tape to the stem. Then cleaned out the gap with alcohol and a cotton swab. Using a fly tying bodkin I applied brown CA to the briar ring on both gaps. This was then spritzed with a CA drying accelerator.

The gap between the stem and the briar ring was then filled with black CA again using the fly tying bodkin. This too was spitzed with a CA drying accelerator.

While the CA was still soft, I removed the tape. The black CA that lay outside of the gap on the tape peeled off with the tape, limiting the sanding I would have to do to the stem.

With the stem now looking much better, I turned my attention to the stummel. The reaming kit was gathered.

The PipNet did most of the work here.

The Smokingpipes Low Country Reamer and the General triangular scraper finished the scraping of the tobacco chamber. The chamber was then sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The below photo shows a strange step at the bottom of the tobacco chamber.

Looking at the opposite side, there is no step but a patch of slight charring was evident.

The rim also appeared charred.

The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrubbing with a nylon brush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The color of the nylon brush indicates how dirty the stummel was. The sap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

A second scrubbing of the stummel was done using the same process. The nylon brush was less colored this time indicating progress.

Back at the workbench the stummel looked much better but the rim damage could also be clearly seen.

The rim was charred. This changed my vivid mental image again, now the previous owner was a German tweed jacket wearing man with a bottomless tobacco pouch and no teeth and clutched a torch lighter.

I lightly topped the rim on a piece of 220 sandpaper laid flat then started the shank cleaning. Both removed a lot of black material from the stummel. The airway of the shank was very encrusted with tar and required significant scraping with the dental scraper.

The topping of the rim with sandpaper was insufficient to redeem it. I used a couple of files to remove the charred briar. The bevel of the inside rim was gained using a 2 inch PVC pipe cap wrapped in sandpaper.

In an attempt to lighten or bleach the darkened briar I applied a saturated solution of oxalic acid by cotton swab.

I wetted the rim with several applications of the oxalic acid solution and let it sit for 45 minutes. The solution was then scrubbed and rinsed with copious amounts of tap water.

There remained a darkening which I did not like. I thought back to several conversations with Sascha Mertens about removing charred wood. Sascha is a German pipe restorer and all around great guy. Although he may start charging me consultant fees as he is becoming more well known here in the States and Canada and has helped big name restorers like Steve Laug recently. Anyway, He frequently uses a technique where petroleum jelly is applied to the charred area and allowed to sit. The charred area is then carefully scraped with a sharp knife to remove the char.

I did all of the above and as can be seen below it did indeed remove more of the darkened briar.

I finally gave up on trying to make the rim look pristine. The darkened briar would have to be worn as a mark of honor signifying the scars of previous battles. Next I wanted to further clean out any remaining residues from the bowl and shank so I packed both with cotton and saturated the cotton with 95% ethyl alcohol. While this was sitting, I also coated the briar of the stummel and stem ring with a layer of Before and After Restoration Balm. These were allowed to sit overnight.

The following day the cotton showed signs that additional tars had been liberated from the briar and deposited in the cotton.

The cotton was removed and the bowl and shank were cleaned again with alcohol dipped cotton swabs and pipe cleaners.

The remaining Restoration Balm was hand buffed from the stummel using an inside out athletic sock.

The stem pipe was taken to the buffer where I buffed the stem with white jewelers rouge. The pip then received several coats of carnauba wax applied with the buffer. The final step was a hand buffing of the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.

This pipe turned out pretty well overall. I am still thinking about what to do about the interior of the tobacco chamber. That step in the drilling bothers me perhaps, a sanding or maybe filling the step with JB Weld? If someone wants to adopt this pipe, I will let them decide. The small spot of charred briar would be taken care of with a bowl coating of a light layer of maple syrup and carbon powder. No sense in applying a bowl coating though before the step is addressed. The pipe feels wonderful in hand. The heavy shank fit for a 9mm pipe filter gives the piece a substantial heft. The rusticated finish is very pretty and is well accentuated by the smooth panel with the Aldo Morelli signature, the briar ring and the glossy black acrylic stem. The dimensions of the Aldo Morelli Bent pipe are:

Length: 5.53 in./ 140.46 mm.
- Weight: 2.36 oz./ 66.91 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.99 in./ 50.55 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.68 in./ 41.91 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.80 in./ 20.32 mm. (Conically bored diameter is at the top)
- Outside Diameter: 1.57 in./ 39.88 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, 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 completed Aldo Morelli Bent pipe.
A Denicotea Deluxe Hockey Restoration

November 5th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

DENICOTEA arched over DELUXE on the left shank with HOCKEY over BRUYERE EXTRA on the right. 741L on the underside of the shank next to the stem.

Background

In a previous blog I wrote about the history about what little I found about Denicotea, I will link that post here, and include the information below:

“Pipedia.org has a short article on Denicotea. I will include it here in its entirety:

“Willy Heineberg founded the company Denicotea in 1932 and began manufacturing and selling smoking accessories such as filters, filter inserts, cigarette holders and pipes.^[1] The company headquarters was initially in Cologne, but was relocated to Bergisch Gladbach after the Second World War.^[2]

Denicotea is actually the name of a silica gel filter, cigarette holders and care products for pipes and cigarette holders.

I still find it a bit confusing as Denicotea seems to be a company^[3] and a brand as well which is operated by COMPOSING-STUDIO GmbH^[4].

Brands

Adsorba

Adsorba is a fantasy series of pipes produced by Luigi Crugnola for the German market.

Aldo Morelli

Aldo Morelli is a fictional name. The brand Aldo Morelli has been registered for Denicotea on February 26th, 1992.^[5]

Depending on the different lines the pipes are made by Cesare Barontini, Gigi or Molina Pipe for Denicotea GmbH.

Stefan Petzuch points out this brand appears to have similarities to the Mauro Cateni pipe brand, in particular they are both fictional Italian brands by German companies, and both have the “HAND CUT” imprint on the stem as seen bellow. This may connect the Aldo Morelli brand to Gebr. Heinemann KG in Hamburg, who had registered the Mauro Cateni brand. Or perhaps there is a connection between Denicotea and Gebr. Heinemann KG, or perhaps these pipe brands simply used “Hand Cut” stems from the same source.” (Denicotea – Pipedia)

Interesting and weird are the two qualifiers that come to mind in reading that. The four makers mentioned in the article; Luigi Crgnola, Cesare Barontini, Gig and Molina are all Italian pipe manufacturers. Where does the MADE IN ENGLAND stamp on the example on pipephil.eu or the stamp on the pipe I purchased come in, I cannot say. I can say that I am not the first person to have little success researching the origins of Denicotea pipes. Dal Stanton, who is far more diligent in his background research than I, had a French made Denicotea. He traced its origins to the St. Claude area but not to a specific maker. Dal’s blog was posted on Steve Laug’s rebornpipes.com site. Here is the link to Dal Stanton’s blog post: https://rebornpipes.com/2016/09/29/nice-find-in-plovdiv-bulgaria-denicotea-deluxe-curling-bruyere-extra/”

This Denicotea has neither the Country of Manufacture (COM) stamps of England nor France. It does have a shape number 147L which I could find no corresponding match with brands associated with Denicotea. This pipe’s heritage appears to remain a mystery.

The Restoration

The restoration began with the reaming of the tobacco chamber. There was little cake to remove indicating that the pipe had not been used heavily. This premise was later shattered. The chamber was rather narrow making me use the Kleen-Reem, General triangular scraper and the smokingpipes Low Country reaming knife to clear the cake.

The below photo illustrates the very small amount of cake present. The bowl was sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel and no evidence of heat damage was observed on the bare briar.

The rim had no lava deposits again indicating that the pipe had not been smoked too heavily.

The stummel was taken to the sink and scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon scrub brush.

Next came the cleaning of the shank. This is where I realized that this pipe had indeed been smoked a good deal. For all the maintenance that the bowl had received the shank had been severely neglected. It was very full of tar and smoking residue, also known as yuck. Now, to cut the previous owner some slack, the shank was not easy to clean as the airway appeared to be bored at 9.5 mm. The plastic tenon was inserted into this bore and left with a step. There was another step at the bowl end of the airway where the drilling draft hole went from a normal small hole to the 9.5 mm. These two steps had accumulated a great deal of yuck and could not be reached with dental scrapers to help clear the yuck. Numerous cotton swabs dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol were used along with a nylon shank brush. I seemed to make little progress as the cotton swabs continued to emerge heavily stained with yuck. I then decided to try stuffing the tobacco chamber and the shank with cotton, filling them with 95% ethyl alcohol and allowing them to sit overnight.

The stem was not much better than the shank. I plugged the button end with my finger and poured some ethyl alcohol into the airway. Here I scrubbed with a nylon shank brush.

The alcohol was allowed to drain into the sink. It was full of yuck.

The stem was designed for use with 9 mm filters and judging by the accumulated yuck, they had not been used as I don’t think a filter could have been inserted with all of the residue in the stem.

I alternated between using Castile soap and 95% ethyl alcohol hoping that one of the two would help reduce the yuck.

It was about here that I noticed the fine scratched immediately above the button.

The scratches were present on both the top and bottom sides of the stem.

The stem was returned to the workbench where I continued cleaning the stem with more traditional methods. Bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in alcohol were used. I also wrapped small 5 cm square pieces of paper towel around a rat tail file and scrubbed the airway with these dipped in alcohol. Eventually I was victorious and the stem cleaned.

To address the scratches I sanded the button end of the stem with 400, 600 and 1000 grit sanding sponges. I used a small circular pattern while sanding. This eliminated the scratches.

While the stummel was still soaking with the cotton and alcohol I picked the old fill from the briar. There were two big fills on the left.

One large fill and one smaller fill on the right.

And two larger fills on the rim which were picked free of old fill material.

The whole stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grits. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a paper towel.

This is where day one ended. The pipe was to sit overnight allowing the alcohol to soften and dissolve the yuck in the airway.

The next day I returned to find the cotton, as expected, quite stained with removed yuck.

The cotton was removed and I tried cleaning the airway with cotton swabs and the 5 mm paper towel pieces wrapped around the rattail file.

The cotton alcohol had worked but not to the extent I had hoped for. Many more cotton swabs and scrubbings with alcohol yielded nothing but more stained swabs.

This prompted me to repack the bowl and shank with cotton and repeat the overnight soaking.

Since the cotton helb the alcohol in contact with the walls of the airway and was not dripping alcohol I went ahead with the filling of the pits. For this I used brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust. I applied the CA into the pit and then pressed some briar dust into the wet CA. These cured almost immediately. The subsequent fill was filed with a small flat file and smoothed with a 400 grit sanding sponge. The three photos below show the first application of CA/briar dust.

The filling process was repeated for each of the fills.

Where needed the brown CA was added a third time without briar dust and allowed to cure. The pipe was again allowed to sit overnight enabling the alcohol to further dissolve and remove the yuck.

The next day, I revisited the pipe.

The cotton was again stained with removed yuck. I removed the cotton.

The staining was far less than the previous attempt. I started cleaning with alcohol dipped cotton swabs. At first I thought that no progress had been made then suddenly the swabs began to come out with less staining. I had finally removed the yuck.

The stamps were covered with painters tape to protect them during the sanding. The stummel and stem junction was sanded with sanding sponges 400-3500. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad moistened with 95% ethyl alcohol.

The pipe was then worked with micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000. The stummel was again wiped with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol. The stem was rubbed with Obsidian Oil and wiped with a paper towel between micro-mesh pads.

The pipe was taken to the buffer where I buffed the entire pipe with Blue DIamond on a clean wheel. After the buffing compound was thoroughly wiped off the pipe received several coats of carnauba wax. The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.

This pipe is a perfect example of how my prejudice led me to inaccurate conclusions. Yeah, the tobacco chamber looked clean and there was no lava on the rim, both indicating a little used pipe, only to discover a heavily tarred mess of an airway. Overall I am pleased with the finished restoration. The briar grain is nice, the new fills are a bit too noticeable. In hindsight, I am thinking that a contrast dye of black would have concealed them and accentuated the briar grain. That might be another project for this winter when I am hunkered down avoiding the cold and snow. The stem polished up very nicely. The long sleek glossy black vulcanite is a great contrast with the briar. I do really like this shape, though it doesn’t quite fit a cutty nor a zulu. I guess that’s why it is called a Hockey. The dimensions of the Denicotea Deluxe Hockey are:
- Length: 6.66 in./ 169.16 mm.
- Weight: 1.18 oz./ 33.70 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.77 in./ 44.96 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.42 in./ 36.07 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.67 in./ 17.02 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.30 in./ 33.02 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

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Below are some photos of the finished Denicotea Deluxe Hockey.
A Denicotea 0823 Bent Billiard Restoration

August 20th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Here we have another Denicotea. I know what you are thinking, “Young, you chose that one so you wouldn’t have to do a bunch of research for the background section”. Wow, you guys are a tough crowd who are a bit cynical of my motives. True there is little information about Denicotea pipes but that is hardly the reasoning behind restoring this curvaceous cutie. I like a black sandblast and am drawn to the elegant curves of this old pipe. Besides, if I restore a couple of Denicoteas per year it makes my German friend Sascha Mertens happy.

This bent beauty came as part of an estate lot from Norman Park, Georgia earlier this summer. It was not the object of desire from the lot. The real target was a 2020 Dr Grabow Collector but this pipe trumped the Collector in the queue due to its intriguing shape and my desire to see how the Denicotea P-lip compared to that of my beloved Peterson pipes. The pipe has a full bend with the robust Denicotea shank/stem fitting for a pipe which takes a 9mm filter. The stampings are “denicotea” over “jolle” with a 0823 shape number to their right all on the bottom of the shank. The stem has a D within a circle. The stamps are well formed and sharp while the logo is much lighter. Below are some photos of the Denicotea as it appeared on arrival.

The black finish showered overall signs of wear with numerous spots of briar showing through the black. The stem surface was oxidized but free of tooth chatter or dents. The bowl needed a reaming and the rim a good scrubbing but all told this looked to be a straightforward restoration.

Background

As alluded to in the beginning, Denicotea pipes are rather lacking in the documentation of their carving, manufacture and business. As stated in my previous blog regarding a Deicotea billiard (linked), ““Willy Heineberg founded the company Denicotea in 1932 and began manufacturing and selling smoking accessories such as filters, filter inserts, cigarette holders and pipes.^[1] The company headquarters was initially in Cologne, but was relocated to Bergisch Gladbach after the Second World War.^[2]

Denicotea is actually the name of a silica gel filter, cigarette holders and care products for pipes and cigarette holders.

I still find it a bit confusing as Denicotea seems to be a company^[3] and a brand as well which is operated by COMPOSING-STUDIO GmbH^[4].” (Denicotea – Pipedia).

I cannot find anything pertaining to the shape numbers of Denicotea pipes yet in the photos that I have seen online there are almost always shape numbers stamped on the pipes. The company itself is registered as a German firm as an be seen from the pipephil.eu entry for Denicotea:

(Den-Dh — Pipes : Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu)). Anyone with any experience with German products knows that the Germans are exceptional and meticulous craftsmen. This can also be seen in their business and record keeping. Below is just a clip of the German registration of Denicotea:

(DPMAregister | Marken – Registerauskunft)(translated by Microsoft Edge). I show this because I think it is funny. According to the pipedi.org site Aldo Mollini is, “is a fictional name. The brand Aldo Morelli has been registered for Denicotea on February 26th, 1992.”(Denicotea – Pipedia). I find the fact that a fictional Italian appears to be the signatory for a German company. Yeah, I know it is just a brand and not the executive officer but it makes me think of Hamlet, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” Or in this case northern Germany.

In conclusion we have a Denicotea Jolle made somewhere and at sometime by a German company with brands named after fictional characters.

The Restoration

Fortunately the restoration was more clear than that of the background. I began with a cleaned denim piece for the work surface.

The reaming tools were assembled. The cake was not very thick and little overflow lava was noticed.

The cake was hard and dry but the PipNet with the #2 blades made short work of it. The interior of the tobacco chamber was scraped with the two reaming knives then was sanded with the 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. There was no indication of any heat damage to the briar within the chamber.

Next came the cleaning of the shank airway. This was a repetitive process of scrubbing the airway with an alcohol dipped nylon shank brush, followed by alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. Eventually the pipe cleaners and swabs emerged nearly the same color as when they entered.

The stem was cleaned in a similar fashion but without the use of the shank brush.

Once cleaned inside the stem was submerged in an OxyClean solution and set aside to soak for an hour or so.

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

Returning to the workbench the stummel was wiped with a cotton make-up pad wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol. Some color came off though this was mainly from the rim.

The scrubbing and alcohol wipe revealed the numerous scuff marks which had worn away the black stain from the briar.

I thought that a fresh dye application of black Fiebing’s Leather Dye would restore the overall color of the stummel. The Fiebing’s dye gear was gathered and included the dye, a folded pipe cleaner (as an applicator) , a duct tape wrapped fishing bobber (most folks use a wine bottle cork), and lighter.

Using the fishing bobber as a handle and to keep dye out of the tobacco chamber, I applied a couple of coats of the Fiebing’s Dye to the stummel. After each coat I flamed the wet dye burning off the alcohol solvent and fixing the dye to the briar. The excess dye was wiped from the stummel with a paper towel. Back at the workbench the stummel looked much better with a fresh coat of black dye.

The stem was retrieved from the OxyClean and wiped with a dry make-up pad. Some oxidation had been softened and lifted by this.

The stem was then scrubbed with Soft Scrub cleanser applied to make-up pads. The first pads became darkly covered with brown oxidized rubber. I did not want to get too aggressive with scrubbing the shank-ward end of the stem as the logo was not particularly deep and I feared the abrasive cleanser would remove it.

The stem was reattached to the stummel for easier holding. The shank was then covered with painters tape to protect it from sanding.

The stem logo was also taped for its protection.

The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. Between each sponge I dipped my finger tip into mineral oil, rubbed this onto the stem and wiped it with a dry paper towel.

The stem was then worked with 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads further polishing the vulcanite. Between each pad I rubbed in a small drop of Obsidian Oil and wiped the stem with a paper towel.

The now slightly fainter logo was given a fresh Rub’nBuff gold leaf application. I did not know what the original logo looked like but I thought the gold would look appropriate with the all black pipe.

All that remained was to apply several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer.

Overall I was very pleased with the restoration of this Denicotea Jolle 0823. The draw is very open and feels like it is meant to have a filter, when I placed a Stanwell 9mm filter into the stem the pipe retained a good comfortable draw. The pattern of the blast shows a nice ring grain on the left and interesting bird’s eyes on the right. The stem polished up fairly well but does still show a tinge of oxidation around the shank. I did not want to get too aggressive with the removal and diminish the stem logo.

The dimensions of this Denicotea Jolle 0823 are:
- Length: 5.95 in./ 151.13 mm.
- Weight: 1.86 oz./ 52.90 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.80 in./ 45.72 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.56 in./ 39.62 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.46 in./ 37.08 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 Denicotea Jolle 0823.
A Denicotea 201 Restoration

April 30th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I blame Sascha Mertens, a friend in Germany, for my desire to restore a Denicotea pipe. Okay, maybe “blame” is too strong of a word; I credit Sascha for piquing my interest in the Denicotea brand of pipes. Yeah, that sounds better. I think Sascha is even counting the number of times he is mentioned in my blogs. He really is a great guy and pipe restorer with a sense of humor very similar to my own.

I found this Denicotea interesting because of the stamps. The DENICOTEA on the shank left and GENUINE BRIAR over MADE IN ENGLAND over 201 on the right side matched everything that I had seen concerning Denicotea pipes on pipephil.eu. The top stamp was very weak, requiring a jeweler’s loupe to read.

The listing on eBay was for a $9.99 opening bid so, I figured what the heck.

I knew better to get too excited over an auction that only had two photos of the pipe. I fully expected the poor darling to have issues that were not visible in the two less than revealing photos. More on that in a minute.

Background on Denicotea

Pipedia.com has a short article on Denicotea. I will include it here in its entirety:

“Willy Heineberg founded the company Denicotea in 1932 and began manufacturing and selling smoking accessories such as filters, filter inserts, cigarette holders and pipes.^[1] The company headquarters was initially in Cologne, but was relocated to Bergisch Gladbach after the Second World War.^[2]

Denicotea is actually the name of a silica gel filter, cigarette holders and care products for pipes and cigarette holders.

I still find it a bit confusing as Denicotea seems to be a company^[3] and a brand as well which is operated by COMPOSING-STUDIO GmbH^[4].

Brands

Adsorba

Adsorba is a fantasy series of pipes produced by Luigi Crugnola for the German market.

Aldo Morelli

Aldo Morelli is a fictional name. The brand Aldo Morelli has been registered for Denicotea on February 26th, 1992.^[5]

Depending on the different lines the pipes are made by Cesare Barontini, Gigi or Molina Pipe for Denicotea GmbH.

Stefan Petzuch points out this brand appears to have similarities to the Mauro Cateni pipe brand, in particular they are both fictional Italian brands by German companies, and both have the “HAND CUT” imprint on the stem as seen bellow. This may connect the Aldo Morelli brand to Gebr. Heinemann KG in Hamburg, who had registered the Mauro Cateni brand. Or perhaps there is a connection between Denicotea and Gebr. Heinemann KG, or perhaps these pipe brands simply used “Hand Cut” stems from the same source.” (Denicotea – Pipedia)

Interesting and weird are the two qualifiers that come to mind in reading that. The four makers mentioned in the article; Luigi Crgnola, Cesare Barontini, Gig and Molina are all Italian pipe manufacturers. Where does the MADE IN ENGLAND stamp on the example on pipephil.eu or the stamp on the pipe I purchased come in, I cannot say. I can say that I am not the first person to have little success researching the origins of Denicotea pipes. Dal Stanton, who is far more diligent in his background research than I, had a French made Denicotea. He traced its origins to the St. Claude area but not to a specific maker. Dal’s blog was posted on Steve Laug’s rebornpipes.com site. Here is the link to Dal Stanton’s blog post: https://rebornpipes.com/2016/09/29/nice-find-in-plovdiv-bulgaria-denicotea-deluxe-curling-bruyere-extra/

Below are some photos of the Denicotea before any work was done.

I am not sure how I did it but the GENUINE BRIAR is very legible in this photo.

This is why I had to get the jeweler’s loupe out.

And this photo shows what I was referring to as issues not shown on eBay. A double shank crack.

Okay, my $10 pipe had some issues. The tooth chatter, grime, dents and dings were expected. The shank crack and dottle knocked rim damage was a set of bonus problems.

The Restoration

I just finished loading all of the photos onto this document in the correct sequence. I can’t help but feel that for the folks that have followed me for a few months, this is rather repetitive. I do thank you for your continuing readership. For those who are new to this blog or to restoration in general, welcome and thank you for stopping by. This blog will be number 81 since the end of last October when I began blogging. It’s crazy to think that I’ve restored that many pipes and wrote about them all. Then I think back to the number of pipes that I restored before I started blogging. Yikes, I really need to sell some of these. Oh well.

I began with a clean denim piece on the workbench.

The reaming tools were gathered and put to work. The PipNet with the #2 bladed struggled a bit with the tight fit and hard cake. The General triangular scraper was used to open up the tobacco chamber and thi the cake allowing the PipNet to do it’s job.

After the reaming the General was used again to finish the scraping. This was followed by the 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The chamber was sanded to bare briar and no damage from heat was observed.

Thi rim was encrusted with a deposit of lava. This was moistened with saliva and scraped with a sharp pocket knife. One of the many things learned from my father was how to sharpen a knife. He had worked at Rath Packing Plant in Waterloo Iowa after being discharged from the Army and knew well how to sharpen a knife. I can’t help but smile everytime I think of him, a high school dropout who later earned a PhD.

Below is the stummel with a freshly scraped rim.

Next came the cleaning of the airway inside the shank. I only took one photo of the process. This makes it look like it was not as long of a process as it really was. I use a rotation for shank cleaning. First 3-4 ml of 05% ethyl alcohol is poured into the chamber. This is allowed to flow into the shank. I use a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway with the alcohol then pour the alcohol into a medicine cup. I then use either cotton swabs or a pipe cleaner dipped in alcohol to further scrub the airway removing the softened and dissolved tars. This is repeated using the same alcohol, if it is fairly clean, or fresh alcohol if it is heavily fouled with tar. Eventually the pipe cleaners/cotton swabs return less dirty and the airway is cleaned.

With the airway cleaned out I took the stummel to the sink for a scrub. I used a medium stiff toothbrush and Murphy’s Oil Soap, undiluted, to scrub the stummel. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton washcloth.

Back at the workbench I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. This came back stained bright red. The alcohol was dissolving the original stain and removing it.

A second make-up pad yielded similar results. I sanded the stummel with a 320 sanding sponge and wiped the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with acetone. The acetone also was removing red stain. Additional wipes finally freed the red from the briar and I was able to proceed.

Below is a closeup of the rim damage from careless dottle knocking or perhaps using this pipe to build a deck and pound in several pounds of nails.

The rim was topped using a piece of 220 sandpaper laid flat on a countertop. A circular motion was used and every 5 circles I would rotate the stummel 90 degree and continue with the circles. This was done to apply an even pressure and equal sanding to the entire rim. The outer edge was sanded using a piece of sandpaper inside a plastic funnel to give the bevel while the inner rim was beveled with a 2 inch polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe end cap wrapped in sandpaper.

I then turned my attention to cleaning the stem. This was done with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

Once the airway was clean, I started scrubbing the exterior with make-up pads with a few drops of Soft Scrub. The soft scrub removed the oxidation from the stem with a good deal of “elbow grease”

Below you can see the stem after scrubbing and having received a coat of mineral oil. I allowed the stem to soak in the oil for about an hour.

There is a reason why screw in tenons usually have aluminum mortise and tenons, because they don’t crack when tightened. Duh. I really wanted to say that to the designer of this pipe. Perhaps that is why there is so little information about Denicotea pipes – they just didn’t want consumers showing up at their doorsteps saying ”There is a reason why screw in tenons usually have aluminum mortise and tenons, because they don’t crack when tightened, DUH!” Wll to repair this cracked shank I decided a brass band was in order. I checked my brass tubing stocks and found that the 9/16 inch outside diameter (O.D.) tubing was nearly the exact same O.D. as the shank. I would have to file and sand some briar from the shank to get it to slide onto the shank but it would ensure a nice fit and fairly flush band. The band had to be narrow to retain the DENICOTEA stamp.

After filing the shank and checking the fit of the tube I was ready to cut the band. I slid the 9/16 inch tube into a 19/32 inch tube. It was a tight fit but this larger diameter tube would allow me to use the pipe cutter without the 9/16 inch tube from moving in the cutter and cutting an uneven thickness band.

Below you can see the 9/16 slid into the 19/32 tube. The cutting wheel is at the bottom of the tube. This technique gave me a nice even 3 mm thick band.

Below is the band close to it’s new home. At this point the stem was taken to the buffer where I used a rouge buffing compound to polish the stem. I had not done this before. Normally I will sand with the sanding sponges then use the micro-mesh pads. This stem did not appear to need any sanding to smooth easy scratches or blemishes, except for immediately below the button. The tooth chatter was sanded using the sanding sponges but it was difficult to work between the saddle and the button.

A fly tying bodkin was used to apply thin cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) along the length of the crack. The thin CA penetrated into the crack. Brown CA was applied to the shank and the band was tapped into position. The excess CA was wiped off with a cotton ball wetted in acetone. The fly tying bodkin was again used to apply a bead of brown CA around the outside edge of the band filling the slight gap between the shank and the brass band. Once cured this was sanded smooth. Below is a closeup of the DENICOTEA stamp and the band.

Below you can see the new band and how it looked with the unsanded/unfinished stummel and stem.

The next step was to sand the stummel using the sequence of sanding sponges from 600-3500. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol.

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

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

After 30 minutes the stummel was wiped of the excess balm with an inside out cotton athletic sock.

All that remained was to apply several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer.

Overall I was very pleased with the restoration of this Denicotea 201. The draw is very open and feels like it is meant to have a filter, yet there is nowhere to place a filter. The briar grain is very nice showing some flame grain on the front and back with great bird’s eyes on the left. The band turned out as well as I think it could have. The shank crack is still very visible on the right side. Since the crack runs through the stampings I could see no way to fill the crack while retaining the stamps. I suppose that I will have to accept that crack and have faith in the band to keep it from spreading further.

The dimensions of this Denicotea 201 are:
- Length: 5.53 in./ 140.46 mm.
- Weight: 1.26 oz./ 35.80 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.83 in./ 46.48 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.55 in./ 39.00 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.75 in./ 19.05 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.43 in./ 36.32 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 Denicotea 201.