This Brebbia was picked-up as an estate pipe bound for my personal collection. I thought I needed a panel and had been searching for a Savinelli Ottogono bent billiard for what seemed like a couple of years. I saw this little darling and thought, “that is a great shape”. The auction timed out with no one wanting to pay the buyer their asking price. I watched and waited for another posting period or two and the pipe remained. I finally broke-down and made an offer that I thought was reasonable. The offer was accepted and the Brebbia made it’s way to the wilds of southeast Nebraska. Upon arrival I was amazed at the condition of the pipe. It looked far better than the description or photos indicated. Happy, but I have to admit, disappointed at the same time for the restoration would be so uneventful. Actually a cleaning and polishing would be a better description than calling this a restoration. Anyway, The below photos were taken of the pipe prior to it being worked on.
It really did look like a new pipe. You could tell that it had been smoked a couple of times by the condition of the tobacco chamber, the light cake build up and sure there were a couple of light tooth marks on the stem, but this pipe was in great shape. This one was going to be a breeze.
Background
The official Brebbia site, Pipe Brebbia | Official Website and Online Shop has a very nice history of the company section, History. This is recommended reading for those more interested in the brand and history. In a nutshell, Brebbia and Savinelli are like siblings. They grew up together then split off and went their separate ways. Like I said, a nutshell – a very small one too.
Additional reading about Brebbia can be found at Brebbia – Pipedia. As for the Brebbia logos, Brebbia — Pipes : Logos & Markings has a nice selection of photos including this one showing both the stem logo and the “Golden Gnome” as on the Brebbia in hand:
(Brebbia — Pipes : Logos & Markings). As for the date of production of this pipe, I could not find anything specific to the Sabbiata line other than the following:
After the photo shoot for the before photos the Brebbia made it to the workbench. The verdict is still out on the new cloth surface protection towels. They look OK for photography but everything seems to snag on the fabric and wants to lift the cloth from the surface. I think I prefer the denim pieces but they were getting very stained.
A look down the mortise showed a very clean shank.
The tobacco chamber was also clean but did show signs of use.
The only tool I used for reaming was the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer. And it didn’t have much to do.
I started swabbing the chamber out with cotton swabs dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol and discovered that Bebbia used a rather thickly applied bowl coating.
The coating must have been sprayed into the bowl and allowed into the shank because cleaning it with the same method provided the same black stained cotton swabs.
Some of the coating must have also made its way into the stem.
With that bowl coating stuff removed, I was able to say, “To the sink!” Here the stummel was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed away with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
The stem showed ever-so-light tooth chatter scars.
I did not think that sanding or micro-meshing was necessary to address this and that buffing with Blue Diamond compound would take care of the marks.
A couple of coats of carnauba wax at the buffer and the stem looked like new.
That’s it. That is all I did. I didn’t even bother taking a full set of after photos since the pipe didn’t look enough different to warrant taking them. I can say that it is a fine smoker and will be used and enjoyed for many years to come (hopefully).
The dimensions of the Brebbia Sebbiata 880 are:
Length: 5.78 in./ 146.81 mm.
Weight: 2.06 oz./ 58.40 g. (with band)
Bowl Height: 2.03 in./ 51.56 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.64 in./ 41.66 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.75 in./ 19.05 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.60 in./ 40.64 mm. (each facet was slightly different)
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 Brebbia Sabbiata 880:
I have wanted to work on a cavalier style pipe for quite some time. Unfortunately, they always seem to exceed what I am willing to pay for them. Perhaps this is what piques my interest even more, peoples’ apparent desire to obtain a cavalier. They must be good smokers, eh? Well, I came across this estate lot on eBay and it had a cavalier, along with a couple of other interesting pipes. The description called it a “Bireba” and it had a wonky looking band. I figured what the heck, I’d never heard of Bireba and it looked like a fun pipe to work on.
I won the auction for what I considered a reasonable price and the pipes made the short 185 mile journey from Lawrence Kansas to the wilds of southeast Nebraska. Upon arrival I couldn’t figure out why such a poor fitting band was even put on this pipe. I first thought that it was a repair of a cracked shank. The mortise was in perfect condition. Then I thought, decorative, but why such a poor fit.
The band seemed too loose to be of any real purpose. The finish was worn away from the band sliding up and down the shank. It was while inspecting the stampings under the band that I discovered this pipe was actually a Brebbia. I thought, “Cool, I’ve never worked on a Brebbia before” and “Sweet, I didn’t pay what Brebbias normally cost.” The stampings read, BREBBIA over ITALY offset was the Alpina in a scrolling cursive with the tail of the final “a”sweeping below forming an underline. Anyway, here are a few photos of the pipe prior to working on it.
A shot of what I first saw.
Here is a shot with the band in its “proper” place.
Finally a photo of the stampings without the band.
Bah, cavalier pipes are difficult to photograph. This pipe was in relatively good condition. Yeah, the finish was worn through the factory black dye, especially where the band rubbed through. The tobacco chamber looked either recently reamed or seldom used. The stem has some minimal oxidation and a couple of tooth dents. Overall this looked like a relaxing restoration.
Background
I started researching Brebbia with a look at what pipephil.eu had to say. Brebbia appears to have used a wide array of stamps, lines and logos over the years, here are a few: Brebbia — Pipes : Logos & Markings. Alas, none of the examples were of a Brebbia Alpina.
Next stop on the research express was pipedia.org. This entry was relatively short, so I included it in its entirety, minus the photos:
“Pipe Brebbia Srl, or better the M.P.B. (Manifattura Pipe Brebbia) was born in 1953 from the denouement of the association between Achille Savinelli and Enea Buzzi in 1947, where the first was employed in the marketing and the second in manufacturing of pipes under the name of Savinelli. It was made in exclusive up to 1953 and extended without further rights up to 1956.
The production, which is always careful and perfect, has continued in a traditional way for 60 years, using old lathes for the first steps, but finishing every piece by hand.
The secret of their manufacture, if we may put it this way, is the respect for the traditions with the experience acquired in several years of successful work, which could be summed up in two words: high quality.
The factory is currently managed by Enea’s son, Luciano.
For the last few decades, many of Brebbia’s pipes have been made by a number of small, otherwise independent pipe manufacturers, being marketed under the trade name Brebbia. For the northern European market, 9mm filter pipes are being produced, some of which employ VAUEN‘s Konex system (which ensures a good seat of the filter).” (Brebbia – Pipedia)
I was unable to find any information about the Alpina line. A quick Google search of “Brebbia Alpina tobacco pipe” did turn up this:
Before I begin the next section, I think a quick diagram of the drillings of this pipe might be helpful. Below, I took a photo of this pipe and overlaid the drillings (not perfectly to scale). The tobacco chamber and the draft through the shank are in a light green. The drilling of the draft hole from the tobacco chamber to the shank is done in a light gray. If you want a pipe that you can run a pipe cleaner through the stem and exit via the tobacco chamber, this pipe is not for you.
The Restoration
The pipe made its way to the workbench and a cleanish piece of denim. The confusing band was removed.
I began with reaming the tobacco chamber. I thought that the PipNet would be the correct tool.
The conically drilled chamber proved my supposition wrong. The Kleen-Reem was the correct tool. Either way there was little for the reamer to do.
The scrapers were used to remove the little cake at the button of the chamber.
Sanding with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel showed that the chamber had no signs of any heat damage.
Next came the shank cleaning. This was surprising. There was some cake in the tobacco chamber. Given, not much, but the shank was much cleaner than I would have thought.
Surprise number two, was the depth that the shank was drilled.
Nearly an entire cotton swab fit into the drilling.
I was not expecting that.
I used a forceps to hold the cotton swabs and dipped them in 99% ethyl alcohol. This pipe was showing signs that it had either been well cleaned by a previous steward or it had not been smoked very much.
The stem cleaning was next. Here I used bristle pipe cleaners and 99% ethyl alcohol.
The mortise was drilled slightly smaller than the draft hole.
The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrubbing with a nylon brush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
Back at the workbench it was obvious that the scrub had removed even more of the black finish.
A thorough wiping with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol removed a little more of the black.
Below are photos showing the sides, front and back of the pipe.
To remedy the worn black finish, I chose to apply Fiebing’s Black Leather Dye. Below is the dye kit; a cork to plug the tobacco chamber, a folded pipe cleaner as the applicator and a lighter to flame the dye heating it and evaporating the dye’s solvent (alcohol).
Several coats of black dye were applied with a couple flamings. The stummel was allowed to dry for about an hour.
Yeah, there is a reason I need at least 3 layers of paper towels under me when dying a stummel.
During the drying time, I turned my attention to the stem. There was bite damage to the top of the button.
To hold the stem I used a wood block in which I had previously drilled various size holes for this very purpose.
The underside of the stem had additional bite marks.
I used a fine flat file and sanding to try to reestablish the button and remove the tooth damage
This met with success except for one small tooth dent that I needed black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) to fill and repair.
One drop of black CA is all that was needed.
This drop was spritzed with a CA drying accelerator.
The drop was then filed and sanded smooth.
I rubbed on a little bit of Obsidian Oil to see if the fill was noticeable. It was nearly invisible.
I retrieved the stummel. The black dye looked good and the wear marks were gone.
Next, I masked off the shank and fitted the stem. I had sanded the bite zone of the pipe to 1000 grit with sanding sponges during the repairs to the button. I thought that the rest of the stem would be fine if I just buffed the stem at the buffing wheel. Besides, I wanted to work on my buffing skills.
Starting with the rouge buffing compound and the dedicated rouge wheel, I buffed the stem.
I wiped the rouge compound from the stem then switched wheels and proceeded to use white compound.
The stem looked great. I removed the masking tape and applied a coat of Before and After Restoration Balm with a baby tooth brush. This was allowed to rest for 20 minutes.
After the resting, the stummel was hand buffed with an inside out athletic sock to remove the excess balm.
I figured that I should buff the band as well. Maybe the next owner of this pipe would want the band and if so, it should look good. I used a corn cob pipe shank to hold the band during the buffing.
The band fit over the cob’s band and was snug.
Back to the buffer.
Below you can see the polished band on the pipe.
And the pipe without the band.
Well, it looks like someone came and used my baby tooth brush and did not clean it when finished. Hmm, I wonder who that could have been? Oh well, cleaning the brush was done by dipping it in 99% ethyl alcohol and brushing the denim work-top protector a couple of times.
I like using Renaissance Micor-Crystaline Wax for rusticated pipes. “How much wax?”, you ask. About this much.
Baby tooth brush time, the little brush works very well to work the wax into all of the rustication crevasses.
As per the label instructions the wax was hand buffed with a soft cloth.
A little bit of shoe shine brush work to make sure there is no accumulated wax “white” film in the depressions.
The stem and stamping area received several coats of carnauba wax applied with the buffer.
Normally this would be the end but I wanted to clean the baby toothbrush after the Renaissance Wax in case the granddaughters come over for a grandpa sleep-over. Just kidding, I have toothbrushes for them.
This Brebbia Alpina Cavalier turned out very beautifully. I still don’t know what is going on with the band but then my input wasn’t asked for or needed when this pipe was made. The black dye returned the pipe to its original colors. The button reshaping turned out very nicely and appears as original as well. The stem polished up very nicely and the glossy black provides an interesting contrast with the rusticated black briar. The drillings of this pipe should allow the moisture from the smoke to condense out and drip the liquid into the large chamber or shank extension. This should act as a very large reservoir for accumulating liquid. Kind of like a Peterson System pipe on steroids. The band could be customized and included if the next owner would prefer it on or off. The dimensions of the Brebbia Alpina Cavalier are:
Length: 5.76 in./ 146.30 mm.
Weight: 1.55 oz./ 4394 g. (with band)
Bowl Height: 1.78 in./ 45.21 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.36 in./ 34.54 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.71 in./ 18.03 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.39 in./ 35.31 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 Brebbia Alpina Cavalier.
Finally, photos of the finished pipe with and without the band. If you are interested in this pipe let me know which you would prefer. I can glue the band in place for you, if that is the way you would like it or leave it off. I will include it with the pipe if you prefer it unattached.
I do love a smooth bent billiard. There is just something classic and elegant about the shape. This Wally Frank Naturals is a nice example of a bent billiard and it also has the distinction of a classic American name. The pipe caught my eye on the eBay auction due it having the original box and pipe sleeve. I was surprised when I won the pipe for the meager bid that I made. Perhaps it looked like too much work for someone to give the poor old girl. A journey from South Carolina to Nebraska shortly after Thanksgiving and the pipe arrived. The stampings were clear and read: WALLY FRANK over NATURALS. No shape number nor country of manufacture. This led me to believe it truly was an American made pipe. Below are some photographs I took of the pipe prior to starting work.
Overall, the pipe was in very good shape. The box is just a fun piece of ephemera that you don’t see frequently with estate pipes. There were a few pits that would require filling. The “Natural” finish would have to be maintained. The stem showed little evidence of oxidation, I thought that it must have been stored in that box and never saw the light of day. Of course a reaming of the tobacco chamber and a thorough cleaning were needed, but this looked like a very relaxing restoration.
Background
I am going to use my own writing on the background of Wally Frank from a blog I wrote back in June of 2024.
“Okay, back to my editorializing about Wally. The huge variety, nearly schizophrenic in nature, of Wally Frank style pipes may be due to his constantly trying to keep his offerings fresh in a competitive pipe market. Frank’s pipes were not what I would consider high end pipes. He was likely going after customers with less disposable income and mimicking a variety of popular styles . He was known to venture throughout Europe searching for less known carvers and small shops where he could purchase quality at lower prices. Wally Frank’s unique pipe offerings may make more sense when you consider the Wally Frank “Pipe of the Month Club”, an early subscription pipe offer. He apparently wanted to keep the customers satisfied with new and unique offerings. Here is the order form from http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-w1.html
The date on the form is difficult to make out but, I think it is 1947. $1 in January of 1947 is equivalent to $14.58 in April of 2024 (https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm). Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to get a new pipe every month for $15 dollars today?
The first paragraph about Wally Frank from Pipedia pretty much sums up Frank’s contributions to our hobby:
Wally Frank, Ltd. was one of America’s oldest and most respected names in pipes and tobaccos, beginning in the early 1930’s. Wally Frank operated a chain of tobacco stores in New York City (the flagship store was in Lexington Avenue) and had a vast catalog business for pipes and pipe tobaccos. Their numerous private-label pipes were made by many makers, includingCharatan,Sasieni,Weber, and many others. Wally Frank, Ltd. also owned thePioneer brand of meerschaum pipes, made from both Turkish and African meerschaum. In addition to importing pipes, he had many pipes made in his own name and also employed pipemakers likePeter Stokkebye,Svend Bang, andEd Burak (who later became the owner ofConnoisseur). As a result, each Wally Frank pipe must be individually evaluated on its own merit. (Wally Frank – Pipedia) Mr. Frank did this for many years, Wordcat.org is a library of print material available via interlibrary loans. They have several Wally Frank catalogs available from 1930-1958 (au:Wally Frank, Ltd. – Search Results (worldcat.org)).
Due to the large number of sources of Wally Frank pipes there is no Wally Frank shape chart to use as with Dunhill, Peterson, Kaywoodie and other manufacturers. I looked through the several Wally Frank pipes that I have kept for personal use and I could find only one with a shape number stamped on the pipe. And that is a Custombilt pipe from the Wally Frank Era of ownership. So, in a sense not really a Wally Frank pipe. The
I apparently neglected to take a photo of the pipe arriving at the workbench and jumped right to the stem. Slight creases could be seen on the stem. I assumed these were from the bending of the stem, likely after it had been polished. There was also some light tooth chatter.
The chatter on the bottom of the stem was also visible but here, there were fewer creases.
The tobacco chamber had a light development of cake.
Due to the chamber being right in between the blades of the PipNet, I had to use the Kleen-Reem, Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper.
I was a bit surprised with the amount of cake removed.
Once sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel, I could see that the tobacco chamber was free of any heat damage.
The rim was encrusted with smoking residue or lava.
This was moistened with saliva and allowed to soak while I went upstairs to sharpen the pocket knife on a stone. Once that was done the rim was scraped with the resharpened blade.
The airway of the shank was cleaned with 99% ethyl alcohol on cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners.
The same alcohol and pipe cleaners were used with the stem. Well, different pipe cleaners, I mean the same is ridiculous because the first ones were dirty. Stupid English… My students used to find it funny when I said that. Most of them were English Language Learners and loved it when I made fun of English.
At the sink, I scrubbed the stummel with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton hand towel.
Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with 99% ethyl alcohol. Very little color came off the briar indicating that it was clean of dirt and wax.
I went to work picking old fill material from the observable pits using a fly tying bodkin.
Several surface flaws were noted and I hoped that these could be filled with cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue)
The larger pits would require briar dust and CA.
There was also a small flaw on the rim. This would be tougher for fill due to the bevel of the rim.
The larger pits were packed with briar dust by pressing the dust in with my finger tip or the curved back of the dental scraper..
Using a fine disposable applicator tip on the bottle of CA, I applied a small drop of Thin CA to the briar dust.
Once set-up the new fill was filed with a small flat file then smoothed with a 400 grit sanding sponge. If the fill required additional briar dust , more was added and the CA application repeated.
The process was repeated for the rim.
Now, I bet you are wondering, “why does this clown have a tea pot on his workbench?” Good question. This clown thought that I did not have any round surface large enough for sanding the bevel of this rim. Violla, a tea pot might just be a fitting curve.
And it was.
I held a piece of 400 sandpaper in place on the teapot and was able to sand the curved bevel quite well.
Covering the stamps with masking tape to protect them from sanding was necessary.
The stem was then sanded with 320-600 sanding sponges. There was also a little bit of filing of the tooth chatter, but I failed to photograph that. You can see the tip of the file in the photo below, though.
The stummel was then sanded to match the stem. Between sponges I wiped the stummel with an alcohol wetted make-up pad. The stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a dry paper towel between sponges.
The sanding and wiping continued through the series of sanding sponges to 3500.
After the sponges came the micro-mesh pads. These were wiped as with the sanding sponges except I used Obsidian Oil on the stem rather than mineral oil.
I placed a pipe cleaner in the stem then used a heat gun to heat the vulcanite and rebend it
The stem was then polished on the buffer with white buffing compound.
A coating of Before and After Restoration Balm was applied to the briar and allowed to work its magic for 30 minutes.
A thorough hand buffing of the stummel with an inside out athletic sock was used to remove the excess balm.
The final steps were to apply several coats of carnauba wax to the shank and stem with the buffer. This was followed by a hand buffing of the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.
I think this old Wally Frank Natural Bent Billiard turned out very well. The “Natural” nishing of the briar looks good though it does not conceal the fills. Fills in briar are necessary to give a smooth pipe the expected uniform even surface. I have not found a way to have them match the color of briar, perhaps someday a product will be discovered to aid this dilemma. The stem was in good condition before but looks very good with the removal of the creases and the adjusted bend. The stark difference between the glossy black and the natural briar is very attractive. The dimensions of the Wally Frank Natural Bent Billiard are:
Length: 5.94 in./ 1540.88 mm.
Weight: 1.57 oz./ 35.3 g.
Bowl Height: 1.95 in./ 49.53 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.65 in./ 41.91.02 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.76 in./ 19.30 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.51 in./ 38.35 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 Wally Frank Natural Bent Billiard.
The last Tom Howard pipe I restored could probably be considered a salvage rather than a restoration, here’s that one. This pipe is in far better shape, though still in dire need of some restorative care. This pipe came to me as part of a trade with fellow restorer Donald Cole. If memory serves, and it usually does not, I traded a Custom-Bilt billiard for this pipe and a couple others. I sent Donald a message with before and after photos and his reply was, “Hey now that’s lookin goooood!” (personal communication). I have to agree, but I am getting ahead of myself again. This large Tom Howard bulldog was stamped with Tom Howard, with a cursive script on the left shank and IMPORTED BRIAR on the right. Below are some photos of the pipe prior to beginning work.
A big job yes, but not a bad job. Big job, because of the huge size of the briar. The pipe was in very good shape for being 85ish years old. The stem appeared to require the most attention. The oxidation was strangely grainy looking, probably from lax quality control while vulcanizing the rubber. It certainly was thick enough to take a good deal of sanding though. The tooth chatter on the stem was not bad which indicated the previous owner was not a clencher or that this pipe was just too heavy to attempt clenching. The final stem issue was the incredibly tight fit of the mortise and tenon. Even with this thick shank, I did not want to force the two together and risk cracking it. The briar was in good shape minus the lava accumulation on the rim. I did hope that there was not any charring of the briar beneath the lava.
Background
I documented Tom Howard’s work in the previous Tom Howard pipe restoration blog. I will include that again here.
“I have to say that I was unfamiliar with any of Tom Howard’s work outside of pipemaking. I began with a search for his pipes on pipephil.eu. Here there was a short entry:
The next stop was pipedia.org. At that site there was more information but not a great deal. According to pipedia.org,
“Tom Howard was a popular comedian and personality in the 1940s/50s, known for vaudeville stage and radio work. But he also was a skilled pipe maker. In a Popular Mechanic article from 1947 he is written up as the “Hobbyist of the Month, Tom Howard.” He made pipes in his workshop outside his home in Red Bank, NJ. starting about 1939, and looks like into the late 1940’s or later. He purchased briar blocks by the bag as well as stem blanks, and in his well equipped shop he hand crafted his pipes, in about three hours on average. He was a true craftsman, also specializing in intricate model boats, trains and brass cannons, all built to scale.” (Howard – Pipedia)
There were also several photos of Tom Howard working in his shop. I found these interesting and include them below.
This pipe was likely made between 1939-1950 in the shop of Tom Howard in New Jersey. I had done a restoration of a Greenwich pipe back in November of 2023 that restoration can be seen HERE. Little information was available other than Greenwich House Corporation of New York City produced or imported Algerian briar pipes and produced and sold a metal pipe, Thoro-Kleen.” (A Tom Howard Billiard Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek)
The Restoration
The very tight stem was hopefully just due to accumulated yuck in the mortise.
The first task was to prep the stem for deox, a term used to describe the bath in Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. I used a wood block to preserve the edge of the stem from rounding from working it with 0000 steel wool. The pocket knife in the photo below was used to scrape some of the calcium despots from the button area.
The stem was clean on the inside.
The tenon was slightly smoothed with a 320 grit sanding sponge. I feared working it too much and reducing the fit from too tight to too loose.
The stem was then placed into deox for 18 hours.
Next came the reaming of the tobacco chamber.
The #3 and #4 blades of the pipeNet were used for most of this work with the General triangular scraper doing a little clean-up.
The interior of the chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel and with my finger.
The chamber showed no signs of any heat damage.
The rim had a worrying lava layer, though.
As gross as it sounds, saliva was allied to soften the lava before scraping. This scraping was done with the edge of a sharp pocket knife. This revealed uncharred briar, all that worrying was for nothing.
The clean stem was misleading, though, I kind of expected the shank to be a mess due to the tight fit with the stem. There was a great deal of scraping with a dental scraper and boring out of the draft hole with the Kleen-Reem shank drill. The shank was also scrubbed with numerous cotton swabs dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol.
A scrubbing of the stummel with a nylon brush and Murphy Oil Soap was done at the sink. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
99% alcohol was used to wipe the stummel after the scrub. Below you can see that there was still some residue removed on the make-up pad.
Due to the severe fouling of the shank, I thought it would be a good idea to allow the bowl and airway to have a cotton/alcohol treatment. Both were packed with cotton.
15+ml of 99% ethyl alcohol was added to the cotton with a pipette until the cotton was saturated. This would sit overnight.
The next day the alcohol had evaporated. In the process it had dissolved some of the tar from the bowl and shank and moved that yuck to the cotton.
The cotton was removed and showed that my previous shank cleaning was indeed insufficient.
Some more shank cleaning was done with bristle pipe cleaner and cotton swabs dipped in alcohol.
The stem was removed from deox and allowed to drip excess deoxidizer back into the jar.
The stem was then vigorously rubbed with a coarse cotton shop rag. This removed a lot of oxidized rubber that had been softened by the deox.
Back at the workbench the stem was rubbed with mineral oil on the outside and in the airway. The color had returned to mostly black but the surface was rough and pitted.
I used Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads to remove additional oxidized rubber from the stem.
A second oiling was done and the stem set aside for 20 minutes. I doubt that the oil was absorbed by the vulcanite but I needed a snack.
The moment of truth, would the mortise and tenon be a good fit after all my shenanigans? Yes!
The stamps on both sides of the shank were covered with masking tape.
The stem and shank were sanded together using a series of sanding sponges in grits from 320-1500. Between sponges the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and the shank wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad.
It was here that I finally came to the conclusion that I could not leave two old fills alone. I thought that I could, but they were just too darn annoying. Kind of like a scab over a healing wound that you just have to pick at.
I used the Dremel rotary tool with the below carving bit. The old fill material was solid and not at risk of falling out but the edges were rough. I used the Dremel to smooth the rough edges.
Once smoothed I used the sharp edge of the bit to carve grooves into the fill to match the rustication grooves surrounding it.
It was far from perfect but it looked far better.
Once happy with the reshaping, I used a walnut Furniture Touch-up Marker to get rid of the pink color of the old fills.
With that done, I was able to finish the sanding. I continued with the series of sanding sponges from 2000-3500 grits with wiping in between sponges as before.
The stem was then worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. Between each pad I oiled the stem with Obsidian oil and wiped it with a paper towel.
I wrapped the shank with masking tape then took the pipe to the buffer and polished the stem with white buffing compound on the dedicated white compound wheel.
After cleaning the stem of all buffing compound and wiping the stummel with an alcohol wetted make-up pad, I gave the stummel a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm.
After about 20 minutes the excess balm was wiped from the pipe using an inside out athletic sock.
The pipe was then taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.
The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth further improving the shine.
Tom Howard pipes are typically large but this pipe is massive, 2.42 ounces worth of wonderful old briar and vulcanite. Even with it’s bend I doubt this pipe will make a clencher without some serious muscle building. The pipe is a beautiful example of Tom Howard’s workmanship. The smooth sections of briar are accented by the rough carvings. I’m sure the carvings are there to cover flaws in the briar but who cares? They give the pipe the characteristics Custom-Bilts and pipes of this ilk are known for. The vulcanite polished-up nicely and the glossy black further accentuates the briar. I am very pleased with how well this old pipe turned out. The dimensions of the Tom Howard Bulldog are:
Length: 5.43 in./ 137.92 mm.
Weight: 2.42 oz./ 68.61 g.
Bowl Height: 1.74 in./ 44.20 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.34 in./ 34.04 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.94 in./ 23.88 mm.
Outside Diameter: 2.03 in./ 51.56 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 Tom Howard Bulldog.
I kind of think who ever came up with leather clad pipes either had some structurally sound but ugly briar blocks or they were hallucinating due to taking Ambien and took a break from walking their frozen turkey while wearing a tangerine Speedo and a sombrero long enough to wrap a piece of briar in leather. Yeah, let that vivid mental image marinate before continuing. Either way, they do show up on the estate market and can be pretty pipes. This Jeantet with a faux alligator-skin texture for example is a pretty pipe. Once again, I can’t recall how it came to me other than as part of an estate lot. Below are some photos of the pipe before work began.
The stem showed signs of oxidation and tooth chatter. The stem’s stinger was well lacquered with smoking residue indicating frequent use. The tobacco chamber had a bit of cake and the rim was lava encrusted. The seams of the leather looked good and intact and the condition of the leather, overall, was good. There was some discoloring of the edges of the leather around the rim which I thought would be difficult at best to remove. Overall though the pipe looked like it had great potential.
Background
Jeantet is an old name in briar pipes and harkens back to southern France in the late 1800s. My first stop on the research train was to pipedia.org. Here I found the following:
“The firm of the Jeantet family in Saint-Claude is first mentioned as early as 1775. By 1807 the Jeantets operated a turnery producing in particular wooden shanks for porcelain pipes and wild cherry wood pipes. The firm was named Jeantet-David in 1816, and in 1837 the enterprise was transformed into a corporation as collective name for numerous workshops scattered all over the city.
The manufacturing of briar pipes and began in 1858. 51 persons were employed by 1890. Desirous to concentrate the workers at a single site, the corporation began to construct a factory edifying integrated buildings about 1891 at Rue de Bonneville 12 – 14. This took several years. In 1898 Maurice Jeantet restructured the business. He is also presumed to enlarge Jeantet factory purchasing a workshop adjoining southerly. It belonged to the family Genoud, who were specialized in rough shaping of stummels and polishing finished pipes. (In these times it was a most common procedure to carry goods from here to there and back again often for certain steps of the production executed by dependant family based subcontractors. Manpower was cheap.)
Jeantet was transformed to a corporation with limited liability in 1938. By that time a branch workshop was operated in Montréal-la-Cluse (Ain), where mainly the less expensive pipes were finished. 107 employees – 26 of them working from their homes – were counted in Saint-Claude in 1948 and 18 in the Ain facility.
The Saint-Claude factory was considerably modernized by ca. 1950 installing (e.g.) freight elevators. In 1952 the southern workshop was elevated. 80 workers were employed in 1958. The factory covered an area of 2831 m²; 1447 m² of the surface were buildings.
The climax of the pipe production was reached around 1969, when thirty to thirty-five thousand dozens of pipes were made by 72 workers (1969). But then the production continuously dwindled to only six or seven thousand dozens in 1987 and only 22 workers were still there. Even though, around 1979 a very modern steam powered facility for drying the briar had been installed in the factory’s roofed yard.
Yves Grenard, formerly Jeantet’s chief designer and a great cousin of Pierre Comoy, had taken over the management of Chapuis-Comoy in 1971. Now, to preserve the brand, the Jeantet family went into negotiations with him, and resulting from that Jeantet was merged in the Cuty Fort Group (est. 1987 and headed by Chacom) in 1988 along with the pipe brands of John Lacroix and Emile Vuillard. Chacom closed the Jeantet plant, and the City of Saint-Claude purchased it in 1989. After alternative plans failed, the buildings were devoted to wrecking. The southerly workshop was wrecked before 1992.
Today Jeantet pipes were produced as a sub-brand by Chapuis-Comoy who’s mainstay is Chacom of course.” (Jeantet – Pipedia). If you were wondering, 2831 m² is about 0.7 acres. That doesn’t seem like much by today’s standards but I am sure in southern France that was expansive for its time. I am going to assume that this pipe was made some time prior to the demolition of the Jeantet plant in 1992, that is a pretty easy conclusion to draw. Moor likely it was produced prior to the closing of the plant in 1988.
Leather wrapping of briar has an equally interesting history and again pipedia.org details one of the most renowned leather workers who specialized in pipes. “In 1948 Jean Cassegrain inherited a small shop near the French Theater on the Boulevard Poissonnière in Paris, called “Au Sultan”. Articles for smokers and fountain pens were offered there.
Now, the absolute bulk of the pipes Cassegrain found in the inventory was from war-time production and due to the sharp restrictions on pipe production the French government had enforced in 1940, these pipes were of very poor quality and showed large fills. Strictly speaking, they were not marketable now that the French pipe industry produced pipes of pre-war standards again. In this situation Cassegrain had the probably most enlightened moment in his life: he took some of these pipes to a leather worker who clad bowls and shanks in leather. Only the rims of the bowls and the shanks’ faces remained blank.
E voila – the pipes looked pretty good now and were eye-catching enough to become an instant success in sale. Above all among the thousands of Allied soldiers who populated Paris in those days. The thing worked well, and even unexperieceid pipesters liked the covered pipes very much for they did not transmit the heat to the hand. Very soon Cassegrain had sold the old stock of pipes, and the leather-clad pipes became his only product. He began to place orders with renowned firms like Ropp or Butz-Choquin.
Because the name Cassegrain was already registered as a trade name for one his relatives, Cassegrain, a big fan of horse races, named his newly created firm after his favorite race course Longchamp near Paris. Hence an outlined galopping race horse with jockey was chosen as logo. The wind mill – see the frontpage of the catalog – symbolizes the name Cassegrain.
The numerous contacts with American soldiers bestowed an official contract on Cassegrain to supply the PX shops with his leather-wrapped pipes. According to his grandson, also named Jean and now CEO of the family firm, “There wasn’t an American GI in Europe who didn’t have one of these pipes at the time. They were exported and sold in PXs worldwide. That’s how it all started.”
In the course of the following years Cassegrain enlarged and refined the Longchamp pipe program continuously. More precious kinds of leather like calf and suede came in use. The top range was clad in alligator leather and even pony fur was used. In addition, many models showed vibrant colors now, and small sized pipes, the “Royal Mini”, made that also women interested themselves in the pipes. The hype was pushed furthermore, when well-known persons of public interest, like TV moderators or pop icon Elvis Presley, began to flaunt with a Longchamp put on.
The Cassegrain family expanded their business in 1955 starting a sortiment of pipe bags, tobacco pouches, pipe stands, ashtrays, tampers, lighters – all made of or clad in leather. (Going from there Longchamp turned to other gentleman’s leather-goods around 1960 and finally established itself as a global brand at the end of the 1960’s introducing the Xtra-Bag for ladies.)
After 1970 the interest in leather-clad pipes slowly diminished. The Longchamp pipes were offered for the last time in the 1978 catalog though previously placed orders were delivered until 1980.
The splendid success inspired many other renowned producers to offer their own lines Ropp, Butz-Choquin, Gubbels, GBD, Sasieni… Maybe Savinelli was the very last producing them for the label of the famous designer Etienne Aigner.” (Longchamp – Pipedia). Now there is no reference to Jeantet in the Longchamp article above but, it is pretty easy to imagine that the number of companies specializing in covering briar pipes in leather, with attractive results, would not have been an extensive list. The dates also coincide nicely with the heyday of pipe production during the 1950-1980s period. This would narrow down the production of this particular pipe to a product produced prior to the late 1970s.
The Restoration
After the before photos the pipe made it to the workbench.
The stem was a tight fit and not wanting to force things unnecessarily, I began work on the stem. The stinger was fouled with smoking residue and quite stuck in the stem. I used a strip of thick leather to protect the aluminum of the stinger from the jaws of the pliers.
Well I’ll be, the stinger was threaded. A nice touch showing a higher quality of workmanship than I was expecting.
I dropped the stinger into a medicine cup of 99% ethyl alcohol to soften the residue and proceeded to clean the vulcanite threads of the stem.
The airway of the stem was scrubbed using a nylon shank brush and the ethyl alcohol.
Numerous bristle pipe cleaners joined in the fun of removing the yuck from the airway.
The bite zone of the stem was filed with a small flat file to remove the tooth chatter and reestablish the button.
Below is a close-up of the top surface of the stem after filing.
And the bottom surface also after filing.
The stem was then suspended into Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer (deox). I planned to leave it in the solution for at least 12 hours but more likely 18.
I retrieved the stinger from the ethyl alcohol and scrubbed it with a brass brush, cotton swabs, bristle pipe cleaners, and regular pipe cleaners. It eventually looked pretty good.
I then took the stinger to the buffer to make it look even better by polishing it with white buffing compound. I hoped that I could not launch the stinger across the room as I lost a grip on it.
When, I didn’t lose my grip and the stinger now looked better than good.
The reaming gear was gathered.
The #1 PipNet blades proved too narrow for use but the #2 blades were about perfect.
The “about perfect” did require me to do a bit more clean-up with the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper.
The reaming done, it was time to sand the tobacco chamber and assess for any heat damage.
The sanding was done with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The bare briar showed no signs of any heat damage. The rim on the other hand, needed a good scraping.
The lava was moistened with saliva and scraped with the edge of a very sharp pocket knife.
I used a wood sphere and a sanding sponge to restore the inside edge bevel and to remove most of the charring from lighting the pipe.
To clean the leather I went looking for my saddle soap. I could have sworn I had some but could find none. After a little research, I discovered that Castile soap could be diluted with water and used as a leather cleaner.
Below is the result of the stummel being scrubbed with the diluted Castile soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton hand towel.
I had Mink Oil and Neatsfoot oil. I opted to use the Mink Oil since I liked the smell of it better.
The leather was liberally coated with Mink Oil and the rim with Before and After Restoration Balm. These were allowed to sit for 30 minutes. It was about here that I realized that I had not cleaned the shank airway. DOH!
The excess Mink Oil and Restoration Balm was wiped away using an inside out athletic sock after 30 minutes.
The shank cleaning then began, completely out of order and with extra caution as to not get the newly cleaned leather dirty. A good number of cotton swabs dipped in alcohol were used as was scraping with a dental scraper.
I was pretty sure there was still a good deal of yuck in the airway so a cotton/alcohol treatment was prescribed. The bowl and airway were packed with cotton and 12 ml of 99% ethyl alcohol measured into a medicine cup.
The alcohol was slowly added to the cotton with a disposable pipette until the cotton was thoroughly saturated. This would be allowed to evaporate overnight. The goal was to allow the alcohol to dissolve the residues and move them to the cotton as the alcohol evaporated. Since the stem was in deox overnight and the stinger was clean, I had only some Mark Twain reading to keep me occupied and sleep, of course.
The next day after lunch I returned to find the alcohol evaporated and the cotton stained.
The cotton was removed using forceps.
The cleaning of the shank proceeded again but much faster this time around.
I gave the leather a second coating of the Mink Oil and allowed it to absorb into the leather briefly before hand buffing with the athletic sock.
The stem was removed from deox and allowed to drip excess solution back into the jar.
A coarse shop rag was used to vigorously rub the stem to remove the loosened oxidized vulcanite and to absorb the solution. You can see from the stains on the rag how effective this was.
The stem was then scrubbed with Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads. One pad was used on each face of the stem.
The bite zone, top and bottom, were sanded with a 320 sanding sponge.
I wanted to keep the squared shape as much as possible. To do this I used a piece of 400 grit sandpaper wrapped around a wooded block. This was in an attempt to keep the square shank preserved as much as possible.
Mineral oil was rubbed onto the stem and wiped from the stem with a paper towel.
The stem was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grits. Again, the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with paper towels between each sponge.
The stem was then worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. In place of mineral oil, Obsidian Oil was used between micro-mesh pads.
The stem was then buffed with a blue buffing compound on a dedicated blue wheel on the buffer.
The stem was then given several coats of carnauba wax on the buffer.
The final step was to hand buff the pipe with a microfiber polish cloth.
I can’t say that I am a user of leather clad pipes, I actually don’t think I have ever tried one. I can appreciate their appearance and their feel in the hand. They do feel good with their softer texture and in this case the faux reptile skin texture. The stem of this pipe polished up very nicely; this is a credit to Jeantet’s use of quality vulcanite. The glossy black stem is a beautiful contrast to the rich brown leather and the briar rim looks very nice together. The stitching and seams of the leather are niche and tight and show little wear. The dimensions of the Jeantet Leather Clad Panelled Apple are:
Length: 5.88 in./ 149.35 mm.
Weight: 1.70 oz./ 43.18 g.
Bowl Height: 1.74 in./ 44.20 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.42 in./ 36.07 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.73 in./ 18.54 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.53 in./ 38.86 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 Jeantet Leather Clad Panelled Apple.
I remember studying the Ancient Greeks in 9th grade. The whole philosophy of Stoicism struck me as great. Relying on rational thought over emotion was somehow appealing, which is funny because having worked with adolescents for a 33 year career as a secondary teacher, I quickly learned that nearly all of their decisions have nothing to do with reason. Come to think of it neither do mine. This pipe for example, a Kaywoodie meerschaum apple which by the seller’s description:
What rational thinker would want to deal with a meerschaum pipe that has a hole that ”goes all the way through”? That is the fun part of rationality, one can rationalize just about anything. The pipe called out to me partially because of the uncommonality of Kaywoodie meers but also because of the shape. Yeah I know, two more irrational thoughts. Then there was the whole challenge of, “can I restore it?” That one I could more easily rationalize with, “it would be a good way to practice repairing meerschaum pipes.” Besides, it is cold outside, there is snow on the ground and the lake is becoming covered with hard water, limiting my fishing.
The pipe had no markings or stamps indicating the maker other than the Kaywoodie cloverleaf on the stem and the Kaywoodie 4 hole stinger. My immediate thought was that it was actually a Laxey product. More on that in the background. Normally I would write something like. “Below are some photos of the pipe before work began.” but I actually had picked at the apparent fill on the outside of the pipe a little bit before I took the following photos.
For the most part this looked like a pipe in great condition. The stem was not oxidized, there was no tooth chatter and it aligned correctly when screwed in. The interior of the tobacco chamber had been scraped and sanded and looked good, except for the gaping hole. This hole continued through the side of the stummel. I developed a plan in my mind of how to address this hole:
Cut a piece of meerschaum, from a piece of scrap meerschaum, that would be fit to the hole on the inside of the tobacco chamber. This would be like an inlay.
Fill the hole in the side of the pipe with a mixture of epoxy and meerschaum powder from both the tobacco chamber and from the outer-side of the stummel.
Place the meerschaum inlay onto the epoxy fill and into the hole.
Allow the epoxy to cure.
Top the outside fill with meerschaum powder mixed with eggwhite and sand the meerschaum inlay smooth with the tobacco chamber.
Dye the fill on the outside of the pipe with a strongly brewed tea to match the color of the meerschaum.
Apply a molten beeswax to the surface of the stummel.
Hmm, it sounded like a reasonable plan but like all of my plans, they tend to have trouble when exposed to reality. You may be wondering, “What the heck is egg white used for?” There is a technique for repairing meerschaum pipes using powdered chalk mixed with eggwhite. I have used this technique previously in the restoration of a Kiko Caveman (Kiko Caveman Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek). In that blog post there is the original recipe and instructions as well as an exchange between me Dal Stanton and Paresh Deshpande regarding the durability of the repair. I now have a small supply of meerschaum pieces so I planned on replacing the chalk with meerschaum powder.
Background
Having restored a few meerschaum pipes, I had a feeling (yeah, not very Stoic) that this was a Laxey. The following reasons were indicators: The color was not the bright white associated with Turkish meerschaum, the lack of any maker marks, the proprietary Kaywoodie stinger and the general lower quality of the meerschaum as seen by the flaws.
Like I mentioned earlier, I thought the pipe was likely a Laxey product. Below is the entry on Laxey Pipes from pipedia.org:
“Laxey Pipes Ltd. resided in a historical 19th century four-storey Man stone building at The Quay, Old Laxey, Isle of Man, which thankfully has been preserved.
The company specialised in the production of meerschaum pipes using the Meerschaum mined by the Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation in the Amboseli basin in Tanganyika (since 1964 part of the United Republic of Tanzania).
Please note: you may often find names like “Manx Pipes Ltd.”, “Man Pipe Co.” and others more, but there is no indication of another Isle of Man pipe producer other than Laxey Pipe Ltd. at any time!
Laxey Pipes Ltd. marketed own brands like “Manxpipe”, “Manxman”, “Manxland” e.c. Names like “John Bull”, “White Knight” (unwaxed), “Domino” (black, or lined) indicated some shapes / colours of Laxey’s own series. The stems either showed the astronomical sign for “male” or “man” (circle + arrow), or the crest of the Isle of Man, the 3-legged X in a circle. Manxpipes and Laxey’s other brands were available through pipe retailers in general, but also were sold (mainly) to tourists through their own shop in Laxey.
Furthermore Laxey Pipes Ltd. manufactured the meer bowls for Peterson, Barling, Nørding and others from the later 1960’s until 2001. Man Pipe e.g. was a brand distibuted by Comoy’s. The bowls usually showed no nomenclature indicating the orderer. “Genuine Block Meerschaum” was engraved frequently. Often, just the stems were different, while bowls were the same.
Supply of meerschaum from East Africa run out (Kenya / Tanzania exhausted, Somalia inaccessible), and thus the last Laxey meers were supplied to trade in May, 2001. Laxey Pipes Ltd. tried to survive continuing with briar pipes – mainly in the Danish style -, but to no success. It closed down business in July, 2002.” (Laxey Pipes Ltd. – Pipedia)
Side Note
If you are interested, I wrote more extensively about the meerschaum deposits in Tanzania when doing research on a Kiko Caveman pipe. That can be found here: Kiko Caveman Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek.
Back to this Kaywoodie. In trying to date this pipe we can use the stinger as a kind of reference. According to pipephil.eu the 4 hole stinger began in 1924. These early stingers were part of a push fit mortis-tenon. In “1931 when the SynchroStem patent was granted” (Document: Kaywoodie’s Drinkless patent — Pipes : Logos & Markings –) Kaywoodie’s screw-in stinger was adopted.
Another clue to the date of this Kaywoodie can be found with the stem logo. According to the Kaywoodie Collector’s Guide from the pipedia.org site, “Early (pre-1936) Kaywoodies had an “elongated” white cloverleaf on the bit, a large fitment, and four-digit shape numbers. The 1936 catalog shows a larger, “fuller” leaf, but lists two-digit shape numbers. Sometime between 1936 and 1947, the better pipes were marked on the bits with a black cloverleaf in a white circle. The white cloverleaf continued on the lesser pipes. However, this was not a consistent convention, as pipes of the same grade could have either type of leaf.” (Collector’s Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes – Pipedia). Again the dates here intricate the 1936-1947 period but show no definitive years.
Using the Synchrostem information from pipephil.eu and the logo information from pipedia.org the dates 1936-1947 overlap from both sources. The issue here is that Laxey produced pipes from the “latter 1960’s until 2001” (Laxey Pipes Ltd. – Pipedia). Okay, I have no actual proof that this was a Laxey carved piece of meerschaum and the latter 1960s are 20 years from the stated time of Kaywoodie’s black cloverleaf in a white circle. This leads to some conjecture on my part. I still believe this pipe to be a piece of African meerschaum, likely manufactured by Laxey perhaps fitted with a stash of older bits provided by Kaywoodie in the late 1960s.
The Restoration
The Kaywoodie made its way to the workbench. Actually, back to the workbench after my earlier exterior picking of the older fill.
I picked at the pit on the outside edge of the stummel to remove the loose material. I assumed this to be an attempt at filling the pit from the factory. The material was white and much softer than the surrounding meerschaum.
As I was examining the pipe more closely I noticed that the drillings were not very precise. The draft hole was slightly off-center. I did not think this would affect the performance of the pipe significantly.
Next I looked at the meerschaum pieces I had on hand. I bought an old “carve your own meerschaum pipe” kit over a year ago as a source of scrap meerschaum to use for projects like this. It had several pieces of the mineral.
These pieces showed many surface flaws. I assumed that these flaws would also likely be found inside the pieces and would only be exposed by drilling or cutting the meerschaum This is what I thought were the source of the “hole” in the Kaywoodie.
Below is another photo of the flaws in a piece of meer.
The piece of meerschaum that I selected to be a donor.
My father, the high school drop-out with a PhD., earned his original teaching degree in wood shop and geography. His accomplishments likely influenced my own interests in life. I remember him saying, “measure twice, cut once” on many occasions when we were doing various projects. I continue using his advice except, I typically measure more than twice.
This piece of meerschaum was selected because it seemed to have far fewer flaws than some of the other pieces.
Due to the very brittle nature of meerschaum I opted to do the cutting with a Dremel and a narrow cutoff wheel.
Below is a photo of the cutoff bit.
I tried a sample cut to get a feel for cutting meerschaum with the dremel before cutting the real piece. It worked! I was amazed at how the meerschaum smelled like talcum powder.
The Dremel was used to cut the rough inlay piece. Below you can see the inlay piece laid on top of the pit.
More measuring and marking to get the inlay to fit the pit was done.
Trimming and fitting to the pit took more time than I would like to discuss. Lets just say it was a long tedious process.
Loooong and teeedious. Eventually I was happy with the shape and fit of the inlay piece of meerschaum.
Next, I need meeschaum powder. I used the same piece of meerschaum and an emery board to generate some powder.
Clear J-B Weld was the epoxy of choice due to its ability to withstand high temperature. The epoxy was mixed as per label instructions then mixed with some meerschaum powder.
This meer-epoxy mix was applied to the pit and worked into the hole.
The inlay piece was then gently pressed onto the meer-epoxy.
From the outside hole, I applied more of the meer-epoxy filling the hole from the outside. I allowed a slight depression here thinking that I would fill this depression with the meer-eggwhite mixture once the epoxy had completely cured.
I did top the still “wet” epoxy with some meerschaum powder, in hopes of giving the meerschaum-eggwhite mixture greater surface area to adhere to.
Below is a photo of the outside fill after the epoxy had cured for 8 hours.
The inlay was sanded smooth to the surface of the tobacco chamber using 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel then by hand with 400 grit sandpaper.
The next day the epoxy had partially cured and the fill had a slightly transparent look. The topping with the meerschaum powder did not seem to have formed the rough texture I had hoped for.
Dinner that night now had to include some egg mixed with the fried potatoes and Thanksgiving turkey leftovers burritos that was planned. No sense wasting an entire egg for a few ml of eggwhite, eh? The eggwhite was mixed with meerschaum powder.
This mixture was applied to the area I wanted filled. As the eggwhite-meer mixture dried, it contracted, leaving a crack and pulling away from the sides of the fill. While it was still soft I was able to add a tiny bit more of the mixture and work it to repair the cracks. I also tried to give the slightly pliable mixture a bit more texture so it blended with the texture of the surrounding meerschaum.
The stummel needed an overnight to fully cure. I turned my attention to the stem. I cleaned it with bristle pipe cleaners and 99% ethyl alcohol.
I touched-up the edge of the button with a small flat file and sanded the stem with a 400 grit sanding sponge.
Then I scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub cleanser to remove the light oxidation.
The shank of the pipe was wrapped in masking tape to protect it from the buffing which I wanted to do next.
At the buffer I worked the stem with white buffing compound hoping to remove the surface oxidation and restore the shine.
The buffing helped but I thought that my buffing skills could use a bit more work. I used Before and After Fine and Extra Fine Polish on a soft cloth to hand polish the stem.
The next day, now 36 hours of cure time for the epoxy and 14 hours of eggwhite-meer drying, this is how the fill looked. Still an ugly scar. Maybe it will look better after the new beeswax?
I proceeded with cleaning out the shank with bristle pipe cleaners and 99% ethyl alcohol.
Next, the pipe was taken to the sink for a scrub with warm water and a nylon brush.
The stummel looked clean but I still didn’t like that scar.
Hmm, tea time for me and the too white meerschaum scar. I brewed a nice strong Irish breakfast tea for me and to stain the meerschaum.
The tea was applied with a paintbrush and it softened the white, slightly.
It remained a rather ugly scar.
I use a hot water bath to melt the beeswax. A small jelly jar with the beeswax is set in boiling water. The water, once hot, melts the wax and will keep the beeswax liquid for longer amounts of time. The tin is used to catch dripping wax as I brush it onto the meerschaum while the heatgun provides heat to the stummel and to the wax as it is applied.
I pre-heated the stummel with the heat gun. A wine bottle cork was used to plug the tobacco chamber and as a handle.
Below you can see the boiling water melting the beeswax.
Once melted I turned off the burner and had plenty of time to work with the liquid wax.
The pipe was returned to the workbench to cool.
The new beeswax application did little to improve the scar. I added additional wax to the repair fill to cover the slight cracks present. This new wax was melted with a lighter to fill the cracks.
The final step was to hand polish the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.
I would like to say that this Kaywoodie Meerschaum Apple turned out beautifully, but that darn scar still bothers me. I was pleased with the hole filling and meerschaum inlay of the tobacco chamber. That part of the plan worked better than I imagined. The stem also turned out very nicely. The glossy black provides a great contrast to the creamy meerschaum. Overall the color of the meerschaum is a warm light yellow and should age and color nicely with use. If nothing else, this pipe allowed me to work with another meerschaum pipe and try a repair which went from a problem to a potential solution to an actual repair. It will be interesting to see how well the repair lasts and how the coloring of the meerschaum develops. The dimensions of this Kaywoodie Meerschaum Apple are:
Length: 6.10 in./ 154.94 mm.
Weight: 1.17 oz./ 33.17 g.
Bowl Height: 1.55 in./ 39.37 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.21 in./ 30.73 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.80 in./ 20.32 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.74 in./ 44.20 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 Kaywoodie Meerschaum Apple.
This is the third Kaywoodie Tuckaway that I have come across. The previous two were purchased and restored before I started blogging restorations, prior to October 31, 2023. They are two of my favorite pipes and have places in a three-pipe rack on my mantleplace. Below is a photo of the three amigos.
The stamping of my original two, the first has KAYWOODIE over Super Grain (in script) over IMPORTED BRIAR (on the shank bottom), a 042 on the right side shank and a logo-less stem. The second pipe has KAYWOODIE over Standard (in script) over IMPORTED BRIAR on the left shank with 022 on the right and a Kaywoodie clover logo stem. I identified the newest pipe from what appeared to be an assortment of pipe parts on eBay. Apparently no one else thought this mess was worth the $9.99 opening bid.
The newest pipe has no discernable stampings but it does have a Kaywoodie clover logo stem. The stems of all three pipes are interchangeable. Below are some photos of the pipe prior to starting work on it.
No stamping bottom, left nor right.
The only distinguishing feature is the stem logo.
The pipe was in relatively good shape. It had a moderate cake in the tobacco chamber and some lava on the rim. The stem showed signs of tooth chatter but without any deep dents or wear. The fit of the stem in the mortise was snug and proper. The grime on the stummel made it a bit difficult to see the grain of the briar but there were hints of beauty under the accumulated dirtiness. As for the slightly off colored clover logo, I thought it would brighten to the original white once sanded. Overall, this looked like a nice and easy restoration.
Background
Kaywoodie has a long and colorful history dating back to their origins, “Kaywoodie name first appearing in February of 1919.” (Kaywoodie History – Greywoodie LLC) The history of Kaywoodie pipes is fortunately well documented thus, allowing rather precise dates for a Kaywoodie collector to declare the provenance of their charges. Rather than deposit it here, I will link the two outstanding histories of KB&B/Kaywoodie – Greywoodie’s site has a well written history of the company (Kaywoodie History – Greywoodie LLC) and pipedia.org has pretty much the same written history with a rich library of Kaywoodie catalogs, photos and images of old print advertisements, (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kaywoodie). I can’t recommend them enough for those interested in reading more about the company and the products. There is a third document which provides information more specific for tracing the providence of a specific pipe or model of pipes and that is he Collector’s Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Collector%27s_Guide_to_Kaywoodie_Pipes).
Tuckaway. The 1955 catalog shows a Drinkless Tuckaway that was simply a smaller version of other Kaywoodie styles. The Tuckaways of the 1955-1968 period had military mountings, filter-free see-thru bits, and were packaged in a leatherette case. Available in Standard, Relief Grain, and Super Grain grades ($6-$8, depending on grade). Miniatures. Two-inch miniature replicas of “their big brother”, complete with the Drinkless fitment and Synchro Stem. The catalogs show these as individually-cased pipes but multiple pipe sets were apparently available. Price: $5.00 (Collector’s Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes – Pipedia)
Back in October, 2025 Dal Stanton published a restoration blog about a Kaywoodie Tuck away that he did New Life for a Rare, Early 1960s Kaywoodie ‘Tuckaway’ Standard 050B – The Pipe Steward. This well researched and written post does a fine job at documenting the Kaywoodie Tuckaway far better than I have done. Dal’s pipe also has the “filter-free see-through bits” alluded to in the Collector’s Guide quoted above. This forces the question of when did Kaywoodie produce the three examples which I have come across? Well the only thing which I state is the above quote, “The Tuckaways of the 1955-1968 period had military mountings” (Collector’s Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes – Pipedia). The bits associated with these three pipes are not exactly vulcanite, nor are they nylon. They are apparently some different plastics. They do not oxidize like vulcanite but they are softer than acrylic. They dent from tooth chatter more like nylon but they are easier to sand file and sand than the nylon bits of Medico or Falcon pipes. The white clover logo does show a yellowing with age which was refreshed to the white with sanding.
The Restoration
After the “Before” photos the pipe made its way to the workbench.
Reaming was the first task. The PipNet with #1 and #2 blades, the Smokingipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper were recruited for the task.
The PipNet blades did most of the work.
This Tobacco chamber was drilled with a more conical bit, as is traditional for a Dublin shape pipe. The Kleen-Reem fit this chamber better that the PipNet and was used as well.
There was little for the General to do, but for a bit of clean-up.
Below is a down chamber photo of the reaming results.
The chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The exposed bare briar showed no signs of any heat damage.
The rim had a layer of lava on the back half. I hoped there wouldn’t be any charring underneath.
The rim was moistened with saliva. I then took the knife upstairs for a resharpening on the sharpening stone. A few minutes later the rim was scraped with a very sharp blade.
I was surprised at how clean, relatively, the airway of the shank was.Some scraping with a dental scraper was done followed by an alcohol soaked shank brush and several bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs also dipped in the 99% ethyl alcohol.
Below are two close-ups of the tooth chatter on the top and bottom sides of the bit. Notice how it looks more like the nylon of a Medico pipe.
I was able to file the bite zone to eliminate most of the chatter on both the top and bottom surfaces.
After the file, I moved to an emery board, like for filing fingernails.
The emery board was also used to reestablish and redefine the button.
There were still some minimal dents which were being difficult. I thought, “maybe a flame painting”. This is where the flame from a lighter is moved along the dented surface. In my experience this is usually to minimal effect but it did seem to work.
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 hand dried with a cotton hand towel.
Back at the workbench I rubbed the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with 99% ethyl alcohol. This produced some color on the pad as dye or stain was removed from the briar.
I wanted this pipe to be lighter in color to show off the briar grain. I first started a light sanding with a 320 grit sanding sponge.
The sanding helped but not as much as I had hoped. Hmm, plan-B: An application of oxalic acid was the remedy that came to mind.
The crystals present at the bottom of the jar indicate the solution is fully saturated. Oxalic acid is known to bleach stains in woods. My hope was to lighten the color of the briar. Previous attempts at this have met with varying degrees of success.
I applied the first coating of oxalic acid to the stummel with a cotton swab.
This was allowed to sit for 30 minutes while I finished watching an episode of Homeland (glad that it finally made it’s way to NetFlix).
After 30 minutes I recoated the stummel with a second application of the oxalic acid solution.
This one sat for another 20 minutes. The photo below shows what it looked like dried.
The stummel was returned to the sink for rinsing with copious amounts of water. To make sure the oxalic acid was completely rinsed and neutralized I scrubbed the stummel with Castile soap and a nylon brush. I figured that the basic nature of the soap would neutralize the remaining acid.
More rinsing and then some more rinsing, oxalic acid can continue the bleaching if not completely removed.
Once dried I wiped the stummel with 99% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad again. Far less color came off on the pad and the stummel did appear lighter, though not to the extent I was hoping for.
The only fills that I thought necessary were two on the lower left of the stummel.
The pits were filled with briar dust which was pressed into the pit. The dust then received a small drop of thin cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). The CA was absorbed into the briar dust and bonded the dust to the stummel nearly instantly.
The fill was then sanded smooth with a 400 grit sanding sponge.
The aluminum collar was covered with masking tape, then the stummel was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. Between sponges the stummel was wiped with an alcohol moistened make-up pad to remove sanding debris.
The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. The masking tape remained on the collar for this sanding. Between sponges the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel. This wiping was to remove any sanding debris. Once the sanding was finished the masking tape was removed and the stem oiled with Before and After Hard Rubber Balm.
I thought that the entire pipe would look better with a buffing with white buffing compound.
After cleaning the buffing compound residue from the pipe I was happy with the briar and the collar but not with the stem. I worked the stem with a series of micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000 grit. Between each pad I rubbed the stem with Obsidian oil and wiped it with a paper towel. The stem looked better but not as well as I thought it could look.
I got out the Before and After Fine and Extra Fine polish and worked the stem, especially the bite zone with these and a soft cloth.
That did the trick, the stem looked good. Next I returned to the buffer and applied several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer.
The final step was to hand polish the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.
This Kaywoodie Tuckaway turned out beautifully. I was pleased with the way that the briar lightened with the oxalic acid and subsequent sanding. The briar needed no additional stain or dye and has a lovely warm brown appearance. The stem did turn-out nicely. I cannot say that I like working with whatever plastic it is made of but the end result is attractive. I do wish that this pipe had some official Kaywoodie stampings though. I know they would not affect the pipe’s performance and I am certain of this pipe’s provenance, still I do miss the stampings. The dimensions of this Kaywoodie are:
The dimensions of this Kaywoodie are:
Length: 5.54 in./ 140.72mm.
Weight: 1.03 oz./ 29.20 g.
Bowl Height: 1.74 in./ 44.20 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.51 in./ 38.35 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.32 in./ 33.53 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 Kaywoodie Tuckaway.
You may have noticed that I have begun to only post one restoration blog per week. I am sure that you are thinking that the writing quality will certainly improve with more time spent on each individual post. Or, that I will make fewer mistakes because I have more time for perfection. Yeah right, like either of those are going to happen. Anyway, we are gathered together today for a pipe restoration, so here it is: A Mountbatten that came in with an estate lot back on February 6th, 2025. The pipe was stamped MOUNTBATTEN over MADE IN ENGLAND. There was another stamp but I didn’t notice it until after I’d started the restoration. See, I’ve already proven that I continue to make mistakes. Here are some photos of the pipe before work was started.
The pipe had obviously been smoked as evidenced by the lava deposits on the rim and the cake built up in the tobacco chamber. The stem was oxidized with some tooth chatter, more dents actually. The finish looked rather drab, which seemed strange because the sandblast texture was very nice with numerous bird’s eyes on both sides and straight grain on the front and back. I thought that some contrast dye would improve the look dramatically. Overall, this appeared to be a rather straightforward restoration.
Background
For some reason I always associated Mountbatten with Blatter of Montreal. Perhaps it is due to my lysdexic (or is that dyslexic?) brain wanting to see a pattern with pipe names and “tt”. This was the first Mountbatten that I recall working on. The pipe was well crafted with the fit of the stem to the shank excellent. I started with a search on pipedia.org for “Mountbatten”. Here I found the following:
“Mountbatten is often referred to as a Charatan second, but apparently the Mountbatten pipes were made by Charatan apprentices. So while they are not Charatans, they are perhaps on their way to becoming Charatans. A second would tend to be a pipe with a deficiency (in material or workmanship), a Mountbatten would perhaps be closer to a Charatan in quality.
The following is originally from a pipes.org forum post by Bill Ramsey.
“Friends, after 40 years of nosing around pipes, what I have gleaned is this: Charatan sold its seconds under private labels and later acquired the English rights for Ben Wade for just this purpose. Mountbatten, on the other hand was not a “second”(in that there was some physical deformity in the pipe) but rather a first line production from Charatan’s apprentice program. Each Charatan carver might have four or six apprentices at any one time of various skill levels. As they improved and started cutting pipes themselves, these pipes had to move… thus the Mountbatten. These were made on Charatan tooling with Charatan materials and teaching. Bear in mind that there was a high attrition rate and , perhaps, one apprentice in nine or ten made it to cutting their own bowls much less a Charatan carver. This is why you see more Charatans than Mountbattens on the market. You’re never going to put your kid through college by selling one but you’ve got a day to day workhorse of the first order. Good luck and happy puffing.”
Pretty interesting! This is information comes to us from an interesting post on rebornpipes.com about restoring the pips bellow” (Mountbatten – Pipedia).
So, I apparently had a pipe made by an apprentice that had mastered the fitting of stems to a shank and had advanced to blasting, which they were quite good at, then attempted finishishing blasts, which they were not quite as good at, yet. I merely say that because I was not impressed by the finish of this pipe. It looked kind of Play-doughy – unicolor and lacked definition.
I still wasn’t sure when the pipe was made. Reading through the pipedia content on Charatan led me to a convoluted history with several “eras” for Charatan pipes but little to no information of Mountbatten. If I assume the shape numbers remained the same for Chatatan and Mountbatten which I thought was a reasonable assumption, then they would be consistent. Hmm, I was wrong about that. 818 was never a Charatan shape. The pipedia.org does have a single photo of a Mountbatten with a very similar shape number and finish:
As per tradition, I placed a relatively clean denim piece on the work surface.
The ream team was gathered and included the following: PipNet with the #2 & #3 blades, the General triangular scraper with the tip ground round and the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer.
The PipNet’s #2 and #3 blades did the majority of the reaming.
The clean-up was done with the other two scrapers.
After Reaming the tobacco chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. There were a couple of gouges on the walls of the tobacco chamber from previous scraping/reaming but no signs of heat damage. I thought that a bowl coating may be beneficial and hoped that I’d remember to do it. The below photo also shows the lava deposits that I hoped the stummel scrubbing would eliminate.
The stem was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners and 99% ethyl alcohol. The stem was surprisingly clean.
A pipe cleaner was inserted into the stem to act as a handle for removing the stem from the Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover (lovingly called deox).
The shank proved to be a bit more difficult to clean than the stem. This cleaning was done in similar fashion to the stem but with a nylon shank brush joining the assault.
Once the shank was cleaned the stummel was taken to the sink for a scrub. Here I used a nylon brush with Murphy Oil Soap, undiluted. The soap was rinsed with warm water.
Not being completely satisfied with the scrubbing, I upgraded to a brass brush and repeated the process. After the rinse I dried the stummel with a cotton hand towel.
Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with 99% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad. This removed a little bit of color, perhaps a stain or wax residue.
I wanted to give this pipe an alcohol-cotton treatment to eliminate any remaining smoking residue from the airway/tobacco chamber. The tobacco chamber was packed with cotton along with the shank. I figured that 10 ml of alcohol would be the right amount.
The 10 ml of alcohol was applied with a disposable pipette. It saturated the cotton completely and would dissolve the smoking residues and deposit them onto the cotton as the alcohol evaporated overnight.
The next day I saw a purple color on the cotton packed into the shank. This purple was usually from potassium permanganate (KMnO₄). KMnO₄ is an oxidizing agent that is/was used as a stain for wood. Maybe the shank end had been stained this way, certainly the whole stummel had not been.
The cotton in the tobacco chamber did not have any of the purple coloring.
The cotton was removed and the stem cleaned again to remove any of the remaining residues that the alcohol may have softened but not liberated from the airway.
I removed the stem from deox. It was placed on a coarse shop rag where I vigorously hand buffed it. This removed some of the oxidized rubber which had been softened by the deox process.
Bah! The deox had removed some of the definition of the logo. This occurs when the oxidation is deeper than the stamping. The stem was returned to the workbench where it received a coating of mineral oil to keep it from further oxidizing.
I thought that this stummel would look better if the low spots of the blast were darker than the high spots. To achieve this I thought a base coat of Fiebing’s Dark Brown Leather Dye would work nicely. The tobacco chamber was sealed off with a wine bottle cork. A folded pipe cleaner acted as my applicator for the dye and a lighter provided a flame to burn away the solvent portion of the alcohol based dye.
A single coat of dye was applied and flamed.
I allowed the dye to dry then took it to the buffer. I only wanted to remove the dye from the high spots so a light touch was used when buffing with rouge buffing compound.
TO give the pipe more definition I lightly sanded the high spots with a 400 grit sanding sponge.
The stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol to remove buffing compound and sanding debris then a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm was applied and worked into the briar with a baby toothbrush.
After about 15 minutes the Restoration Balm was hand buffed with an inside out athletic sock to remove the remaining balm.
I covered the stem logo with a piece of masking tape to preserve the remaining logo.
The shank was covered with a layer of masking tape to avoid sanding a well.
The 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.
The stem was then micro-meshed with the 4000-12000 pads. Between each pad, I rubbed the stem with Obsidian Oil and wiped it with a paper towel.
I buffed the stem with a blue compound on the dedicated blue compound buffing wheel.
After buffing the stem, I removed the tape from the shank and the stem logo. The logo was still slightly degraded by the deox process. Hmm, I had hoped it would heal. Yeah, unreasonable and foolish but still a hope. It didn’t.
To bend the unsanded/micor-meshed/buffed logo area, I tried to polish it with Before and After Fine Polish applied and hand buffed with a soft cloth.
I chose this white acrylic paint because I had it available, it’s water soluble, dries quickly and it reminds me that I need to paint a few miniatures for gaming.
I worked the white acrylic paint into the stampings of the logo with a cotton swab.
The excess white acrylic was buffed off with a soft cotton cloth then re-micro-meshed the logo with a 12000 pad.
I reassembled the pipe and thought back to the before photo.
And compared it to the after. I think the contrast dye brought out the texture of the blast better and added depth and character to the pipe.
The pipe was then returned to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.
The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.
Well, I thought I was finished then I saw the bowl when I was going to take the finished photos of the pipe. DOH! I forgot that I wanted to give this pipe a bowl coating. I coated the interior of the chamber with 100% applied with a cotton swab. A capsule of carbon powder was poured into the chamber after I had blocked the airway with a pipe cleaner.
The rim was covered with a piece of painters tape. The stummel was shaken for about one minute. I removed the tape, pipe cleaner, dumped the excess carbon powder and blew through the airway to clear the remaining powder.
The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth (the real final step).
This Mountbatten Billiard turned out very nicely. The contrast dye helped eliminate the unicolor of the original finish. The stem polished-up nicely even though I did lose some of the detail on the logo. I went with a bowl coating to address a couple of gouges in the tobacco chamber from overexuberant scraping. The blast texture is very pleasant in hand and brings out the lovely grain to this pipe. Overall this pipe looks well made and of quality briar that should provide years of enjoyment for the next owner. The dimensions of the Mountbatten Billiard are:
Length: 5.61 in./ 142.49 mm.
Weight: 1.41 oz./ 39.97 g.
Bowl Height: 1.92 in./ 48.77 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.63 in./ 41.40 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.74 in./ 18.80 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.48 in./ 37.59 mm. (from cheek to cheek)
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 Mountbatten Billiard.
I remember reading my first Sherlock Holmes in middle school, The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I loved the idea of a mystery, even though I knew about the great detective, the solution to the mystery was all new to me. I feel that way about this pipe, a Peterson Croydon Square 42. I had above average knowledge of Peterson pipes but had not heard of the Croydon Square line. Where would this mystery lead me?
The pipe was another single target eBay acquisition. I paid more than I really wanted to but it was a specimen that I had not seen before and I wanted to work on it. After a quick trip from LaGrange, Georgia to the wilds of southeast Nebraska, I had my prize. The photos below show the pipe prior to any work.
The Croydon Square looked like a well loved and used pipe. The restoration looked straight forward; cleaning, reaming, sanding of the stummel, deoxidation of the stem with sanding and polish. There did not appear to be any glaring issues with this old pipe, just use and time.
Background
Being unfamiliar with London, I’d not heard of Croydon nor of Croydon Square. I am familiar with Peterson pipes though, yet Croydon was an unfamiliar line of Petersons to me. I first wanted some information about the geography.
With my curiosity settled on that account, I turned my gerbil-like attention to the pipe. I cannot give Kapp and Peterson the credit they are due. In the most comprehensive guide to the history of Peterson Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg wrote a wonderful book The Peterson Pipe (Irwin, Mark and Malmberg, Gary. The Peterson Pipe; The Story of Kapp and Peterson. 2018, Briar Books Press, Canada. First edition, second printing.). According to Irwin and Malmberg, the legacy of Peterson as “the world’s oldest continuously operating briar pipe maker” (Irwin, p. 3). This is a treasure trove of information for those interested in Peterson pipes. It is currently “sold out” from The Peterson Pipe Book (Softcover) | Smokingpipes.com.
“I’m also happy to report that a few revisions of the book are now in order. That didn’t take long, did it? So get out your pencil, it’s time to annotate your copy: (1) The Croydon Square origin date is given as 1949 in the book, as we only had an RDTA Almanac an unhallmarked specimen to go by. But now—surprise!—it’s clear that the line was being made as early as ’39. (The similarity between the name of Croydon Square and Trafalgar Square also has me wondering if the latter didn’t replace the former at some point.) (2) We can also pencil in ’39 as the earliest documented date (so far) for the Captain Pete. (3) The ad copy in the catalog also suggests that, at this date, the line was made exclusively at the London factory. (4) And if that’s not enough, at the beginning of the “N” section in the Information Guide, you can write, “An N prefacing two-digit shape numbers of English-made pipes refers to a natural finish.”” (136. Filling the Gap: The 1939 Rogers Import Peterson Catalog & Download – Peterson Pipe Notes)
In the above quote from Mark Irwin, the “RDTA” refers to “Retail Tobacco Dealers of America. The forerunner of the current Premium Cigar Association with a few name changes in between.” (Mark Irwin, personal communication. September 22, 2025). Don’t worry, I had no idea what it meant either. I emailed Mark and got a quick reply. The PPN blog also had the following page from a 1939 Roger’s catalog:
AHA, specific historical information about the Croydon Square pipe was at hand. This put the pipe’s provenance from at least 1939 to ? and also the shape 42. Although this information led to more questions. There is no mention or illustration of fishtail stems, only P-lips. The pipe in hand had been smoked quite a bit leading me to the thought that the stem of this pipe may be a replacement.
In The Peterson Pipe, where the London production of pipes is discussed at length, was another interesting piece of information. Here, Irwin and Malmberg say, “Apparently, the London factory did not order a MADE IN ENGLAND die until after the war. Any Peterson stamped with an English COM must be no older than the later 1940s” (Irwin, p.150). If it is assumed that this pipe was not stamped due to there not being a stamp available then it would date from 1939-late 1940s. If it was merely not stamped with a COM then it is assumed to be made during the years of pipe production at the London factory 1936-1962. I prefer to think that it is due to the former. This is actually a selfish desire to have the dates of production to be a more definitive late 1930s-late 1940s. I know, too much conjecture…
The Restoration
The restoration began with a clean denim piece protecting both the work surface and the pipe.
I began with the stem. This was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners and 99% ethyl alcohol.
The stem was then submerged in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover (deox). It bathed for 18 hours.
In the meantime, I worked on the stummel. The ream team was gathered.
The PipNet #1 and #2 blades were both put to use. The General triangular scarper was also used to do some cleanup of the tobacco chamber and the rim.
Below is a photo of the tobacco chamber after the reaming.
The chamber was then sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. No damage to the chamber was observed.
The rim however was encased in a layer of lava.
The lava was softened with saliva and scraped with the blade of a sharp pocket knife.
Next came the shank airway cleaning. Again the 99% ethyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners were used. There was also a good deal of scraping with a dental scraper and use of a nylon shank brush.
I was not completely happy with my efforts to rid the airway of the residue of tar and general yuck. I thought an alcohol and cotton treatment would do the airway some good. The tobacco chamber and the airway were stuffed with cotton.
99% ethyl alcohol was applied via a disposable pipette to the cotton until it was saturated. This took about 10 ml of alcohol.
The alcohol was allowed to evaporate overnight. This allowed the alcohol to dissolve the tars and transfer them to the cotton as the alcohol evaporated. The next day the cotton was stained, telling me the process worked.
The cotton was removed and the airway was cleaned again. The below photo shows the 2nd cleaning and the tars that were removed after the overnight cotton alcohol treatment.
The stummel was then taken to the sink for a scrubbing with a nylon brush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
Returning to the workbench, the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in ethyl alcohol.
The stem was removed from deox and rubbed with a coarse shop rag. This removed a good deal of the oxidized rubber from the stem.
The stem was then worked with Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads to remove more of the oxidation.
I then oiled the stem with a liberal coating of mineral oil and let the stem sit for several hours. Oh yeah, I also ran a pipe cleaner through the stem and oiled the interior as well.
The rim looked far better but still rather rough. I thought that a light topping was in order.
The topping was done with 320 sandpaper laid on a flat counter top followed by a piece of 400 sandpaper. This revealed two additional areas of concern. A deeper dent or ding in the inner rim (about 5:00) and a hairline crack (at about 7:00).
I used a wood sphere wrapped in sandpaper to reestablish the inner rim bevel and smooth the rim.
I deemed the crack to be superficial and not structurally important. It was given a dab of Thin cyanoacrylate (CAl super glue) to seal it and was topped a second time with the 400 sandpaper. The ding was filled by packing it with briar dust and then applying a small drop of CA. This was repeated a second time. The wooden sphere and sandpaper was used to smooth the fill and the rim was topped again with the 400 sandpaper.
The stamps were taped off with masking tape to protect them from sanding.
I prefer asymmetrical pieces of tape because they leave a less noticeable mark on the briar where sanding was not done.
The first two sanding sponges used were the 320 and 400 grit. Sanding with these two showed me where several dents and pits were. All of these blemishes were small so they were filled by placing a tiny drop of Thin CA on the spot and sanding it with a very dirty sanding sponge. By dirty, I mean a sponge that has a large amount of briar dust on it. Even with the extra briar dust sometimes the CA gets onto the sanding sponge. This can be seen below as the dark spots on the sponges.
The small fills were sanded with 324 and 400grit sponges.
Below are some photos of the fills after they’d been filled.
The pipe was then sanded with the full series of sanding sponges from 320 -3500 grit. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol. The stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a dry paper towel.
The pipe was then worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. The wiping of the stem and stummel was done as with the sanding sponges except the stem was rubbed with Obsidian Oil.
I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed it with blue buffing compound.
After wiping any remaining buffing compound from the pipe it was given a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for an hour. Why an hour? Because I got side-tracked with another project.
The excess balm was wiped away using an inside out athletic sock.
The pipe was then taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.
The final step was another hand buff with the microfiber polishing cloth then off to the final photo shoot.
This beautiful Peterson’s Croydon Square 42 is a great example of Peterson’s English workmanship. The stain of the original pipe was maintained and gives the pipe a slight contrast-dye look. It was finished with careful sanding and just carnauba wax. The stem sanded and polished to a gorgeous glossy luster. Though lacking any stunning briar grain there is some nice flame grain on the rear left. The dimensions of the Peterson’s Croydon Square 42 are:
Length: 5.67 in./ 144.02 mm.
Weight: 0.95 oz./ 26.93 g.
Bowl Height: 1.43 in./ 36.32 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.25 in./ 31.75 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.71 in./ 18.03 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.37 in./ 34.80 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished Peterson Croydon Square 42.
My affection toward Peterson pipes is hardly a secret, you could even say that I wear it on my sleeve. Though it is more literally on my hat.
That said, I have restored dozens of Peterson pipes and I always enjoy doing it even when it is more of a pursuit of folly trying to salvage a very abused old implement rather than refreshing someone’s dear old frien.The subject of this blog is a Captain Pete I found last May on eBay. I probably paid more for it that I’d like to admit and certainly more than what I would have 3 years ago. Regardless, after a short trip from Englewood, Florida the not so lovely old pipe arrived. The stampings were mostly clear and read “CAPTAIN (0ver) PETERSON” on the top left shank. I’m not sure why the Peterson stamp folks like their quotation marks but they seem to. The stem was stamped with a worn and paint worn-off circled C. On the right shank the stamp read “A PETERSON PRODUCT” over MADE IN ENGLAND with an offset 046. The country of manufacture (COM) stamp is what intrigued me the most. More on that in the “Background”. The photos below show the pipe prior to any work.
This pipe appeared to look rough. The stem was severely oxidized, I feared saving the logo would be difficult at best. The bowl had been reamed but not very well. There was a layer of lava on the rim which looked like it had been removed and redeposited. I think what was thinking is that this l pipe appeared to have been smoked a lot but kind of kept up and cleaned on occasion.
Background
Back on December 21, 2023 I wrote a blog about a Captain Peterson apple. That blog is linked for those interested. In that blog I said the following about the Captain Peterson line:
“I highly recommend the book The Peterson Pipe, by authors Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg as well as a reading of pipedia.com’s Peterson pages. According to Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg, the Captain Pete:
“This line’s name was derived from the nickname of Charles Peterson, known affectionately as “Captain Peterson.” The first issue, c. 1940-62, was in a smooth finish produced for Rogers Imports with a white stamped P inside C, or a circled P on the mouthpiece. CAPTAIN over PETE on shank, and a MADE IN IRELAND in a circle. English made versions show CAPTAIN over PETE on shank or “CAPTAIN PETERSON” and A PETERSON PRODUCT over MADE IN ENGLAND or LONDON MADE over ENGLAND. The second issue (1998-), features an XL bowl with Sherlock Holmes shapes and compact stems, in rustic or combination of smooth and rustic, with a nickel band between two narrow brass bands.” (Irwin and Malmberg p.295)” (A Peterson Captain Pete Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek)
This example of a Captain Peterson is described above and likely dates from 1940-62 and was made in London. These dates can be further narrowed down by reading p.149-150 in The Peterson Pipe, where the London production of pipes is discussed at length. Here, Irwin and Malmberg say, “Apparently, the London factory did not order a MADE IN ENGLAND die until after the war. Any Peterson stamped with an English COM must be no older than the later 1940s” (Irwin, p.150). This would mean that this pipe dates from 1945-1962 as 1962 was when Peterson shuttered the London factory.
The Restoration
After the before photos the pipe made its way to the workbench and a clean denim piece.
I began work with the stem due to thinking that the stem would require the greatest amount of time. The cleaning was done with bristle pipe cleaners and 95% ethyl alcohol. The stem was very fouled with tar and smoking residue.
The stem has some tooth chatter on the bit above the button on both the top and bottom surfaces as the two below photos show in all of their poorly focused glory.
The bits of the top and bottom surface were filed with a small slat file to remove most of the chatter.
The stem was suspended in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover solution and allowed to soak for 24 hours. This solution is lovingly referred to as deox.
The next day the stem was removed and rubbed with a coarse shop rag. This removed a great deal of the oxidized vulcanite and can be seen on the rag in the photo below.
The airway of the stem was again cleaned with alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaners.
I was pleased to see that the logo stamped on the stem remained intact after the time in deox.
To further reduce the amount of oxidized vulcanite, I rubbed the stem with Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads. The oxidized vulcanite can be seen darkly coloring the pads.
The stem was oiled with mineral oil to keep the vulcanite from further oxidation.
The tooth chatter that was not filed from the bite zone was filled with black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). This was spritzed with a CA drying accelerator. The hardened CA was then filed with a small flat file to smooth and reshape the stem.
The shank of the pipe was wrapped with masking tape to protect the briar and allow me a handle while sanding. The stem logo was also masked for its protection. The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from grits 400-2000. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel to remove sanding debris.
The sanding continued through the 3500 grit sponge with oiling and wiping as above.
The stem was buffed using blue buffing compound on a low speed buffer with a flannel wheel dedicated to the blue compound.
The stem was wiped of any residual buffing compound and the logo area cleaned with alcohol on a cotton swab. I used a white acrylic model paint to repaint the imprint of the logo.
The white acrylic dried quickly and was hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth to remove the paint from the stem outside of the stamp.
The sequence of this restoration had me a bit out of sorts, but it was apparently time for the reaming. The tools were gathered.
The Pipnet #2 blade was the only one that fit and did most of the reaming. Both the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper were used but just for clean-up.
Below the reamed tobacco chamber can be seen.
The chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. I saw no signs of damage within the chamber. The lava on the rim was softened with saliva and allowed to soak for a couple minutes.
The rim was then scraped using the edge of a sharp pocket knife blade. There were some rough spots on the rim but they looked superficial and easily removed with a light topping.
The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrubbing with a nylon brush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
I packed the stummel with cotton and saturated it with 99% ethyl alcohol. This was allowed to sit overnight.
The next day the cotton was stained telling me the treatment had worked.
The cotton was removed and was far dirtier than I was used to. I could have sworn that I had cleaned the shank, yet I had no recollection of doing it. Remember when I said the sequence of this restoration had me out of sorts? It was apparently worse than I thought.
The airway was filthy and tar infested. The good news was that the tar was very soft due to the extended soaking in alcohol. The scraping with a dental scraper was very productive. The cotton swabs eventually started to lighten as more of the tars were removed.
I cannot say if this was a superior order to use than my normal sequence; reaming the chamber, then, clean the shank airway then alcohol/cotton treatment is needed for ghosting of severe dirtiness. In this case it worked well. The softening of the tar did make for easier cleaning.
There were several small dents, scratches or pits on the surface of the stummel. These revealed themselves more and I had started sanding. I had covered the stamps with masking tape for their protection. For the fills, I applied small amounts of thin CA using a long narrow applicator on the CA bottle. Immediately after application I used a dust sanding sponge to sand the fill area. The sanding sponge supplied the briar dust to join with the CA and for a fill. This method only works if the spots to be filled are very small and the sander has total disregard for their sanding sponges as some of the CA and briar dust will certainly get on the sponge making it have nonabrasive spots. I wonder if I will ever learn to use a piece of sandpaper like I did before I had sanding sponges. The next three photos show the fills.
The stummel was then sanded with the full series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. The stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol between each sponge
I removed the masking tape and cleaned any adhesive left behind by the tape. I then worked the stummel with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. Again I wiped the stummel between pads with alcohol on a make-up pad.
The stummel was coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit while I went out in search of a couple of evening Largemouth bass. This is also called my stroll with a pole and of course a pipe.
About an hour and a half later I returned and wiped the remaining Restoration Balm from the stummel with an inside out athletic sock. There is the photobombing fishing pipe lurking in the background. If you are curious it is a Peterson 127.
The pipe was taken to the buffer where a couple of coats of carnauba wax were applied.
I carefully dragged a knife blade around the beading to remove accumulated wax from the grooves. The final step was another hand buff with the microfiber polishing cloth then off to the final photo shoot.
This beautiful English made Captain Peterson 046 bulldog is a great example of post World War Two English workmanship. The walnut stain of the original pipe was maintained and was finished with careful sanding and just carnauba wax. The stem was deoxidized, sanded and polished to a gorgeous glossy luster. Though lacking any stunning briar grain the wood is solid and the few dents from wear were filled with minimal disruption to the original. The dimensions of the Peterson Captain Peterson Made in England 046 bulldog are:
Length: 5.71 in./ 145.03 mm.
Weight: 1.62 oz./ 45.93 g.
Bowl Height: 1.96 in./ 49.78 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.65 in./ 41.91 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.73 in./ 18.54 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.64 in./ 62.89 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 Peterson Captain Peterson Made in England 046 bulldog.
I did not want to affect the stamps here, so the existing scratches were not sanded away like I would have preferred to do.
NebraskaPeteGeek 
