“Kaywoodie Relief Grain Imported Briar”

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Just when you thought that I had turned my back on American made pipes for those fancy European floozies, I jump back into a classic American brand. Hey, wait a minute. What’s this, a Kaywoodie made in England? What sorcery is this? More on that in the “Background” section below. This pipe came to me as the pipe from an estate lot that I really wanted. Not that the rest of the lot were all losers just, this was the target specimen. The lot included 5 other pipes and included a nifty rack all coming from Dunnellon, Florida. The Kaywoodie has the following stamps on the bottom of the shank:

96 KAYWOODIE RELIEF GRAIN over MADE IN ENGLAND. Below are some photographs taken of the pipe upon its arrival.

The good: Great shape, wonderful sandblast, clear well defined stampings and a well aligned stem are some of the better qualities of this pipe.

The bad: A moderately caked bowl, oxidized slightly chewed stem and lava encrusted rim will need attention.

The ugly: The altered stinger is a disappointment, accumulation of years of dirt and grime (ugly but easy to fix) and the light tooth chatter will need to be addressed.

Background

The history of Kaywoodie spans from 1915 to the present with its parent company Kaufman Bros. & Bondy going back even further, to 1851. I will not even attempt to do justice to the venerable brand with a brief history. I will, however, give a few links to great resources for those who are interested.

Kaywoodie History: https://greywoodie.com/pages/kaywoodie-history, https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kaufmann_Bros._%26_Bondy, http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-kaywoodie-1.html

This section is concerned with English Kaywoodies. The elusive and less well documented species of the Kaywoodie family tree. Robert W. Stokes wrote a Collector’s Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes that appears on pipedia.org. In this guide he states:

“English Kaywoodies. All of the catalogs reviewed in this research contained the following copyright notification: Printed in U.S.A., Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy, Inc., New York and London. Kaywoodie Pipe cases and smoker’s accessories were also marked with “New York and London”. The catalogs, however, do not present any information concerning Kaywoodie’s London operations, or how the English Kaywoodies might have differed from those manufactured and marketed in the U.S. Lowndes notes that he has several English Kaywoodies acquired in Vaduz and Zurich. English Kaywoodies are now made by Oppenheimer pipes. Lowndes notes that English Kaywoodies with the “screw-in bit” come in Ruby Grain, Custom Grain, Standard, and Relief Grain grades. The traditional push-bit models come in Continental Plain and Relief, London Made, Minaret, Airway Polished No. 707, and Lightweight grades. Prices in 1985 ranged from 9.50 (pounds) to 26.00 (pounds). Lowndes notes that the Super Star was a special edition English Kaywoodie made of finest briar with a handmade silver band. Lowndes has two: one from Zurich with a large white-outlined logo, and beautifully cased; and one in walnut finish with the black-in-white logo. A recent catalog shows the Super Star without a band and the ordinary small white logo. A 1985 letter from Oppenheimer states that the black-in-white logo has been discontinued and only the regular white logo is now used.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Collector%27s_Guide_to_Kaywoodie_Pipes#NOTES_ON_%22OTHER%E2%80%9D_KAYWOODIE_PIPES). This information places the Kaywoodie in hand as a pipe produced prior to 1985.

To narrow the production dates I next researched the shape number, 96. This shape number appears in the 1936 and 1947 Kaywoodie lines as the “Prince of Wales”. In 1955 it is listed as: “96 — Quarter Bent Apple (Prince of Wales)” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Collector%27s_Guide_to_Kaywoodie_Pipes#NOTES_ON_%22OTHER%E2%80%9D_KAYWOODIE_PIPES). In the 1968-69 literature it returns to being called the “Prince of Wales” without the Quarter Bent Apple descriptor.

The below two screen clips were from pipedia.org’s Kaywoodie Shape Number page:

(https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kaywoodie_Shape_Numbers). Well, not conclusive but the above information reduces the date of production from prior to 1985 to a range from 1931-1972.

Returning to the Kaywoodie Guide the following quote regarding the logo is slightly helpful for narrowing the production date: “Some of the pre-1936 Kaywoodies were stamped (on the shank) with a cloverleaf around KBB. Sometime between 1936 and 1947, the better pipes were marked with a black cloverleaf inside a white dot. However, because many of the pipes in the 1968-69 catalog still show this type of logo, the black-in-white logo merely indicates a “post 1936” vintage. Current (Italian-made) Kaywoodies have the “white outline” logo.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Collector%27s_Guide_to_Kaywoodie_Pipes#HINTS_ON_COLLECTING,_DATING_AND_PRICING_KAYWOODIES). Using that bit of information the production is reduced to 1936-1969.

Hoping to find even more precise dates, I turned to pipephil.eu. Here I found several links to Kaywoodie information but nothing to improve the previous dates.

(Kaywoodie not made in the US — Pipes : Logos & Markings)

In conclusion, I think it is safe to say that the disruptions caused by World War Two (WWII) would probably eliminate those years from the range. This leads me to guesstimate the production of this pipe to post-WWII-1969 London.

The Restoration

The restoration began with a clean denim piece on the workbench.

The reaming tools were gathered and included the PipNet reamer, General triangular scraper (with the tip ground round), Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and a wood dowel wrapped in 220 sandpaper.

The #1 and #2 blades of the PipNet were used for the majority of the reaming with clean-up duties to the other tools followed by sanding.

The sanding of the tobacco chamber revealed the original chuck marks within the chamber. The sanding also showed that the chamber showed no signs of any heat damage.

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

Back at the workbench the stem tooth chatter was filed with a fine flat file.

The stem, below the button, was then sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge to eliminate the file marks.

The screw-in tenon was cleaned with 95% ethyl alcohol and a brass .22 caliber bore brush.

The stem was reunited with the stummel and the shank wrapped in masking tape for protection. I then used Soft Scrub cleanser on a make-up pad to remove the oxidized vulcanite that remained after the sanding.

A second pad with the cleanser made the stem look pretty well free of oxidation. Further sanding and micro-meshing would get rid of the rest.

There remained a couple of small dents near the button. I decided that I did not like the look of these so I filled them with thin cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue).

Below is the application of the CA.

To speed the drying/curing of the CA, a drying accelerator was spritzed onto the wet CA. The fill was then filed agin and smoothed with the 400 sanding sponge.

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

I removed the tape and decided to fix a few of the light spots where the stain had been worn through.

Using a walnut stain touch-up marker I stained the slight spots.

Ah, much better.

I was anticipating how the stummel would look with the Before and After Restoration Balm. My patience lost to my curiosity. I applied a coat of the balm to the stummel and let it sit for 20 minutes.

The balm was wiped with an inside out athletic sock revealing a lovely refreshed briar stummel.

I don’t know what the magic of the Restoration Balm is but it works very well.

Okay, enough procrastinating, back to work. I micro-meshed the stem with the 4000-12000 pads. Between each pad I rubbed the stem with Obsidian Oil and wiped the stem with a paper towel.

The stummel was then waxed with Renaissance Micro-crystalline Wax applied with a baby toothbrush.

The wax was hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth then taken to the buffer. I used a clean flannel wheel to lightly buff the Renaissance wax.

The stem received several coats of carnauba wax applied with the buffer.

I tested the draw of the pipe and tasted very slight “old tobacco”. I thought, “why didn’t I check for that before I waxed it?” An overnight cotton-alcohol treatment was ordered for the patient. I stuffed cotton into the bowl and the shank of the stummel. The stummel was placed on a pipe stand so both the rim and the end of the shank were at equal height. I then used a disposable pipette to saturate the cotton with 99% isopropyl alcohol. “Why not 95% ethyl alcohol?”, you ask. Well, my bench bottle of ethyl ran out and I was too lazy to grab another one and there was an isopropyl bottle at hand. The alcohol was allowed to evaporate overnight. The next day, the cotton appeared as below.

I removed the cotton and swabbed out the bowl and shank with cotton swabs dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol (yeah, I grabbed another bottle).

This treatment eliminated the smell and taste of old tobacco completely. As a final step the pipe was hand buffed with a microfiber polishing cloth.

This English Made Kaywoodie Relief Grain Prince of Wales just looks like a classy pipe, like it is ready for a night out at the opera. Okay, I admit I’ve not been to an opera since 8th grade German Club’s experience of Die Fledermaus. The pipe just looks good and it feels very nice in hand as well. The sandblast looks black at first then upon closer examination the dark burgundy reveals itself. The high gloss stem accents the more rustic briar very elegantly. Yeah, I think it is a darn good looking pipe. The clipped off stinger is a disappointment and may be a deal breaker to a Kaywoodie collector but this too is part of the history of the pipe. The dimensions of the English Made Kaywoodie Relief Grain Prince of Wales 96 are:

Length: 5.82 in./ 147.83 mm.
Weight: 1.17 oz./ 33.17 g.
Bowl Height: 1.41 in./ 35.81 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.17 in./ 29.72 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.71 in./ 17.78 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.52 in./ 38.61 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.