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Tag: fitting a stem

A House of Westminster Burl Restoration

November 5th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I don’t know if freehand is the correct term for this pipe. I’m not even sure if burl is, either. All I know is that I came across one several years ago just as a stummel and decided that the weird little thing needed me as an owner. I restemmed it and we have been getting along quite well.

I have seen one other pipe similar to this and it was stamped “Wally Frank”. Of course, I didn’t collect a photo of that example. The subject of this blog was seen on eBay back in August of 2025 and was quickly purchased. The fact that it was from Sioux City, Iowa, a mere 125 miles from my home was interesting, support local businesses, eh? The similarities between the two pipes was stunning. Both were formed from what appeared to be small briar burls. Having seen photos of briar burls which are large enough to be cut into numerous blocks for pipe making is the norm. I wondered if these small burls were not small individual plants which were dug up while the digger was excavating a larger “target” burl. Both of the burl pipes had the same general shape with the shank forming the trunk of the shrub and a “V” shaped cut to remove, what I thought was, the more spindly root. The only stamping on the newly acquired pipe was HOUSE OF WESTMINSTER in a single line on a panel of the shank. Below are some photos of the burl pipe prior to work.

The first thing I noticed was the thick clear coating applied to the pipe. It looked as though it had been sprayed or dipped several times into a finish. The briar was also heavily stained masking any of the wood’s natural color. There was a crack on the cut V at the front of the pipe. The stampings were crisp and well defined leading me to think the stamp was pressed prior to the application of the finish. The stem was oxidized with some slight tooth chatter near the button. Overall it looked to be a simple restoration.

Background

As I discussed earlier this appeared to be an entire, very small briar root. Perhaps something dug-up with a larger burl. Not wanting to waste a little bit of briar, I could imagine the diggers throwing it in with the larger burl and sending it off to the cutters for sale. Of course this is all just conjecture but it was a fun pursuit. Speaking of “fun”, not knowing what to call this pipe allowed me to reach out to Steve Laug (rebornpipes.com) and ask what he thought the shape might be called. His reply was amazing, “never seen anything like it…that is wild.” (Laug, Steve. Personal message). I have never stumped Steve before. With that in mind, I said that I’d call it a “Burl”. He replied, “I think that is good”, and so it was.

Normally a briar burl is a large mass below ground, photo below.

(Briar root on display in Chacom museum, Saint-Claude, France. : r/PipeTobacco). These are then cut into the blocks used by pipe carvers.I was able to find another example of a Burl pipe online:

(Sybarite pipe). That makes four that I recall seeing either in the flesh or online. I am sure there are more but being lazy has its limitations.

I next did a search of the “House of Westminster” for pipe related sites/information. Nothing was found on the traditionally useful sites pipedia.org and pipephil.eu. I did get a hit from WorthPoint.com of an old auction listing:

“Gorgeous 1940s House of Westminster Ltd Real Briar Paneled Prince Tobacco pipe Made in France House of Westminster Ltd. Was a Tobacco company that sold Tobacco and tobacco Pipes from their Store in New York NY.The Use of “Real Briar” was a commonly used Nomenclature during WWII when Briar was Hard to come by and nearly impossible to import, and less desirable alternatives were often used, so to reassure the buyer that thier pipe was indeed The real deal, makers would often stamp “Real Briar”” (1940s House of Westminster Ltd. Paneled Prince Real Briar tobacco Pipe France | #4810546746). This pipe looked nothing like the burl in hand, though. The information included was quite vague and contained little detail.

I then came across a discussion of the House of Westminster on the Brothers of Briar forum. Below is the original post requesting any information on the House of Westminster and a forum member reply.

(Pipe brand: House of Westminster | Brothers of Briar – Pipe Tobacco Forum). L&H Stern was a name I’d heard of and had some experience with. With this lead, I returned to pipedia.org. According to that site:

“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.” (LHS – Pipedia)

Continuing with that lead, I searched through all of the photos on the pipedia.org LHS page. I did not find any mentions of House of Westminster nor any photos of a burl pipe, but I did find an exact match of the stinger. This was not some ordinary aluminum tube, it was very unique. Below is the photo from pipedia.org:

(LHS – Pipedia)

And here is a photo of the stinger from the House of Westminster burl pipe, I tried to match the color and positioning of the burl stem to the previous photo:

For me, that settled who the maker was. House of Westminster was a L&H Stern product likely produced after the second world war and before the company closed down in 1960.

The Restoration

After the before photo shoot I took the Burl to the workbench where I placed it on a cleaned denim piece.

I was able to pull the stinger from the stem without much difficulty. I placed it in a medicine cup with 10 ml of 99% ethyl alcohol.

The stem was cleaned with ethyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners. The airway on the button end seemed rough and a bit constricted. I opened the airway with a Vermont Freehand Slot Tool (Slot Tool (with handle) – Vermont Freehand) and emery boards cut at an angle.

The bite zone above the button was filed with a small flat file to remove the tooth dents and chatter.

Sanding the stem lightly with a 400 grit sanding sponge was then done to prepare the stem for a bath in Briarviles’ Pip Stem Oxidation Remover (deox, as I like to call it).

A pipe cleaner was inserted into the stem to act as a handle for easy removal after the 2 hour deox bath.

With the stem soaking, I turned my attention to the reaming of the stummel. The ream team was gathered; PipNet with the #2 and #3 blades, General triangular scraper and the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer.

The PipNet and #3 blades did the majority of the cake removal.

The reamed tobacco chamber looked much better.

The chamber was then sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The sanded chamber showed no signs of heat damage.

I then cleaned the airway of the shank. This was done by softening the accumulated smoking residue with ethyl alcohol on cotton swabs as I cleaned the mortise. The softened yuck was then scraped using a dental scraper. Alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaners and alcohol dipped cotton swabs were also used.

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

Back at the workbench, I wiped the stummel’s stamp panel with 99% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad. This removed a lot of the shellac and some of the stain/dye. You can see in the photo below that the shellac had filled in the scratched on the panel. This layer of finish was quite thick.

I wanted to get rid of the old finish to see the briar detail more clearly and maybe some of the color of the wood. Shellac is soluble in ethyl alcohol (EtOH, an old organic chemistry abbreviation), so I gave the stummel an hour long bath in a jar of EtOH.

This allowed me some time to clean and polish the stinger. It was removed from the 10 ml of EtOH and scrubbed with a bristle pipe cleaner. I used another pipe stem to hold the stinger while I work.

The stinger was then buffed with white buffing compound on the white compound wheel.

After cleaning off any remaining buffing compound the stinger looked great.

After the hour-long soak in EtOH I scrubbed the stummel again but this time using the EtOH rather than Murphy’s. You can see from the photo below that there was a great deal of dye and shellac liberated from the stummel.

Again, back at the workbench the burl was looking less finish coated but it still had spots of shiny shellac in the low spots and a whole lot of purple.

With the airway residues further softened, I cleaned this out again with cotton swabs and EtOH.

I tried wiping the stamp panel again, as a test, with acetone on a make-up pad. I was amazed at how much color came off.

I decided to give the stummel a 30 minute bath in acetone.

After 30 minutes I removed the stummel.

The stummel was then taken to the sink where I scrubbed it with a nylon brush and additional acetone.

I used Castile soap and the nylon brush to scrub away acetone from the surface of the pipe. This was rinsed with water. I then placed the stummel outside in the sun to allow the acetone to evaporate from the briar. The stummel was left in the sun for over an hour.

I retrieved the stem from deox and vigorously rubbed it with a coarse shop rag. This removes some of the oxidized vulcanite softened by the deox solution.

The stem looked much better with minimal pitting.

Soft Scrub cleanser was used on make-up pads to scrub the stem.

The first pad removed a good deal of oxidized vulcanite.

The second make-up pad removed significantly less material.

Since the stummel was drying in the sun, I used a wood block with holes drilled for different diameters to hold the stem while I sanded it. I like to either have the stem connected to the stummel of a block like this to keep from rounding off the joint where the stem meets the shank.

After sanding with a 320 and a 400 grit sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil.

I checked back with the stummel after an hour. It still had a slight acetone smell so I knew it was not thoroughly dry. I did take a few photos of the stummel in the sun to show how much finish had been removed. Sorry, these shots were taken on the side-wall of my truck, not the best backdrop.

I was glad to see that I could tell this was wood and not some weird plastic or space-age-epoxy-resin. Still I wanted to lighten the briar further. I thought about my successful (and some unsuccessful) uses of oxalic acid to bleach stained wood. I thought that it might work here.

The saturated oxalic acid solution was applied with a cotton swab. This was allowed to sit for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes I again scrubbed the stummel with warm water then an additional scrub with Castile Soap and a final rinse with warm water.

I returned to the workbench and wiped the stummel with 99% EtOH on a make-up pad. The pad in the photo below is after the entire stummel was wiped. There was still a lot of dye coming off. I declared defeat, the remaining dye would remain. The oxalic acid treatment seemed to do little. I had been defeated by the purple plague.

All of these baths had made the slight crack in the front of the pipe to expand. I used a fly tying bodkin to pick the old fill from the crack.

The crack could not be compressed and it appeared to be superficial and not structural. I decided to just refill it using briar dust and cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). I pressed briar dust into the crack and tamped it with the bodkin.

Thin Ca was applied with a very narrow plastic tip.

The Thin CA soaked into the briar dust and bonded it to the existing briar. I repeated the filling of the crack with a second coating of briar dust and another drop of Thin CA. The excess new-fill was filed with a small flat file and sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

Below is the fill as seen from head-on.

And from the side with poor focus.

It was time to sand the stem and the shank-end. The area that I did not want sanded was taped with masking tape.

A series of sanding sponges were used in grits 320-3500. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.

After the 3500 sponge the stem was taken to the buffer and the shank-end and stem were buffed with rouge buffing compound followed by a buffing with white buffing compound. I returned to the workbench and wiped the remaining buffing compound from the pipe. The stummel was then coated with Before and After Restoration Balm applied with a baby toothbrush. This was allowed to sit for 30 minutes.

The stummel was hand buffed with an inside out athletic sock to remove the remaining balm.

The pipe was then returned to the buffer where several coats of carnauba wax were applied. Care was taken to work the carnauba into and out of the rough texture of the briar. The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth then off to the photo table.

This House of Westminster burl turned out well. I do wish it had a more natural color rather than purplish brown, but at least the clear coat is gone.The texture of the pipe is amazing to hold. It is like a natural rustication and has a wonderful hand feel. The smooth organic texture gives way to the polished stem, which turned out very nicely. Overall this pipe is a unique piece which will undoubtedly provide years of enjoyment to the next owner. The dimensions of the House of Westminster Burl are:

Length: 6.72 in./ 170.69 mm.

Weight: 2.40 oz./ 68.04 g.

Bowl Height: 1.51 in./ 38.35 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.28 in./ 32.51 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.80 in./ 20.32 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.90 in./ 48.26 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. If you are interested in purchasing this pipe or any other from previous blogs please feel free to contact me at scimansays1787@gmail.com.

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Below are some photos of the finished House of Westminster Burl.
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.
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.