NebraskaPeteGeek

Tag: “made in”US“”

An E. Wilke Squat Apple Restoration

April 1st, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I will probably catch grief for calling this a squat apple and be corrected by some saying it is a tomato or an author but to my eye, it looks like an apple and to be specific an Cortland Apple sans the anthocyanins and their red. Sorry, my previous life as a chemistry teacher emerged and demanded recognition. This plump little darling caught my eye along with its long shanked Marxman coconspirator. The eBay listing only had two photos, the below is a screenshot of one of them:

Those adorable chubby cheeks demanded that I buy the pair. There was a little bit of drama but I’ll leave that to the blog about the Marxman but after a few days wait, the E. Wilke and Marxman both arrived.

Below are some photos of the pipe prior to working on it.

Yeah, it had some issues but that shape, that amazingly round bowled shape. I was smitten. The stem looked like a Weber that had been left out in the sun. The pipe had obviously been smoked and showed the signs of moderate use, as shown by the charring and lava on the rim. There was also that strange dark streak of the right shank and that truly dreadful fissure on the bottom of the shank but those chubby cheeks could not be denied. I would reclaim this dilapidated doll and make her mine.

Background

E. Wilke stamped on the shank of this pipe refers to Edwin Wilke. According to pipedia.org,

“Edwin Wilke founded Wilke Tobacco in 1872. As the story goes, according to a 1937 New York World-Telegram article, he had no sons, and so he taught his two daughters, Anna and Louisa Wilke, how to make pipes and blend tobacco, and by his death in 1930 they were well versed in both trades, and adamant about only using quality briar. In 1950, when they were the focus of an article in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, they were the only women pipe makers in the United States, and had sold pipes to Herbert Hoover, Lord Halifax, John Steinbeck and others. The sisters also blended pipe tobacco and repaired pipes. They did not, however, smoke pipes.

Wilke prided itself on “unpainted pipes”, and promised that only Macedonian briar was used, without paint, varnish, plug, or putty of any kind. As of 1950, some of their pipes were selling for up to $100.00, or just under $1,000.00 dollars today. By the release of a 1970 New York Magazine highlight of the shop, that claim had risen to $500.00, or over $3,000.00 today.

The Wilke Pipe Shop was located for decades at 400 Madison Avenue and 48th, in New York City, and in the 1970s opened a satellite store in the famed Wanamaker’s department store in Philadelphia, selling Wilke pipes made by Steven Johnson. In 1983, the brand was purchased by pipe maker Elliott Nachwalter and his wife, Carole Burns. They continued to operate the Madison Avenue store until the early 1990’s, at which point the couple moved to Vermont and Pipeworks & Wilke was born as a mail-order business.

Carole Burns^[1] continued blending tobacco in Montpelier, Vermont till July 2017. Now John Brandt looks to continue blending Wilke’s traditional blends and bringing back some of the older blends from the early days to keep the 145 year old brand alive and growing.^[2^]“ (Wilke – Pipedia)

Now, this pipe did seem to fit a couple of the characteristics from the pipes.org article; it was unvarnished and it did not seem to have any putty filling imperfections in the briar. I cannot speak to the “Macedonian briar” as there is no stamp indicating the origin of the briar. I still think that the stem of this pipe reminds me of Weber made pipes from the same era. In researching further I found an old Google Groups discussion of E. Wile pipes from 2002. Here the user “” started a thread with the following,

“Can anyone give me a brief history about this manufacturer or brand? I

am curious about… if this was a NY company that made pipes, still in

business, overall quality…etc. thanks!” (https://groups.google.com/g/alt.smokers.pipes/c/w34OVfPNFfE?pli=1)

The interesting part came from another user named “LDaneman”. LDaneman, states the following”

“As a former employee and pipemaker for Edwin Wilke Company, I can give you a

little history. The little shop on Madison Avenue was purchased by a Stanley Becker, a jewish NY lawyer. Some pipes were left over from Wilke’s hey-day, . . . I forget the name of the Italian pipemaker who did extra-large art deco shapes.

Through the 80’s the old (80+) tobacconist still blended up on the 4th Floor
and I have fond memories of ‘time-traveling’ with him. The 524 blend was better
than Dunhill, and the 400 was pretty good as well. The key was an unflavored
golden Cavendish and a dark fine cut Cavendish in the 524.

I started a new pipemaking workshop in Philadelphia for Wilke’s concession shop
in John Wanamaker’s department store. Our pipes made national news and we
shipped tobaccos to European customers. My pipes sold from $65 to $1000 but our
main pipemaker was Stephen Johnson. Last I heard Steve worked for Zino
Davidoff.

Steve made some sweet smoking pipes and I smoke a few of my own make with the Wilke stamp, but still own a couple by Steve as well.

I was fired under dubious circumstances. The management of Wanamakers hated me since I successfully marketed Eltron razors when they failed, pens, and really
hit the roof when I began blending a men’s fragrance.

Wilke in Philly folded less than a year after my departure into the perfume
business and the New York shop was sold soon after that. I heard Wilke finally
vanished after the buyer was hit with unpaid employee taxes and was bankrupted,
but that is just a rumor to me, . . . I don’t know if that is true or not.

Most the Wilke pipes are not especially good, mass-manufactured by a factory
whose name escapes me. Unless made by the old Italian fellow (an indented tenon
is usually an indication of his make) or by Steve Johnson, . . . well just
forget it.

A grand history in the 20’s through 50’s. The 60’s brought on a slow demise.” (https://groups.google.com/g/alt.smokers.pipes/c/w34OVfPNFfE?pli=1)

In a later post LDaneman writes,

“. . . ., and if anyone is interested, most of the post Wilke sister pipes were

mass-produced by Weber pipe company. I think anyway. Trying to remember the

name of that company. They were crap and that’s why I set up the new pipemaking

shop on the mezzanine level at Wanamakers. It was in the original teak paneled

Tobacco Shop John Wanamaker used to hang his hat and coat in. Was lost when

they enlarged an underground parking garage.” (https://groups.google.com/g/alt.smokers.pipes/c/w34OVfPNFfE?pli=1)

Now, I have no reason to doubt anything that LDanman writes. The pipeda.org information indicates that the location of the Wanamaker’s in Philadelphia occurred in the 1970s and that LDaneman “Set up a new pipe making shop” on Wanamakers mezzanine. This too would likely be during the 1970s. His knowledge of the company is interesting but his jumping around in time, frustrating. The part about the Weber made pipes was particularly interesting as I thought the stem of this pipe looked like a Weber made stem.

The Weber connection is further supported by information again from pipedia.org,

“The firm grew to be one of the giants of the American pipe industry focusing itself in the middle price and quality zone. Trademark: “Weber” in an oval. Beside that Weber – especially in the years after 1950 – was a most important supplier for private label pipes that went to an immense number of pipe shops. Alone in New York, exactly the same pipes were found at Wilke’s, Barclay Rex, Trinity East, Joe Strano’s Northampton Tobacconist in Ridgewood, Queens, Don-Lou in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn… Nearly all pipes for Wilke were unstained and many models, for example the “Wilke Danish Bent”, could hardly deny originating of Weber.” (Weber Pipe Co. – Pipedia)

So, the question remains, “who made this pipe and when?” I honestly do not know. I feel pretty sure of my original thought that this was a Weber made pipe, likely from the 1970 or later. Produced for the E. Wilke company.

The Restoration

As usual the pipe made its way to the workbench and a clean denim piece. I actually undertook the restoration of two pipes during this project. That is not something I really like to do but my schedule has been filled with essential time sucking activities. Okay, I’ve been doing a bit of fishing and have not been at the workbench as much as I should.

The stem required some work before I could put it into the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer solution (deox). This will be called pre-deox and involved; some scraping of calcium/oxidation, filing tooth dents and light sanding with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

The stem was also cleaning out internally with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

The stem had trouble passing a pipe cleaner through the button so I did work on opening the airway a little bit. I used a tapered piece of an emery board to sand the interior of the airway.

The resulting airway was much better.

The stems of the two project pipes, the E. Wilke and another oval stemmed piece were suspended in deox with pipe cleaners as hangers. They each spent about four hours in the solution.

During this time I continued work on the E. Wilke stummel. The shank was cleaned out using a dental scraper, nylon shank brush, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners with 95% ethyl alcohol.

Once the shank was clean I turned to the tobacco chamber. The PiNet #1 and #2 blades along with the General triangular scraper and the Smokingpipes Low Country Reamer were used.

The below photo shows the results of each tool.

After reaming the chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The tobacco chamber showed no signs of charring or heat damage.

Next, the stummel went to the sink where it was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon scrub brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

The scrubbing revealed an unsightly charred rim and a dark stain I thought was accumulated grime.

A second scrubbing of the stummel was done with no effect on the supposed grime.

Back at the workbench I got a good look at the two areas of concern. The charred rim would require topping and then some.

The rest of the stummel looked pretty good.

An alcohol wipe confirmed that there was no finish on the stummel.

I took the stummel to the counter where I laid a piece of 320 sandpaper flat on the counter.

Using a figure 8 motion I topped the rim removing the charred wood.

The results of the topping are shown in the photo below.

The charred area below the rim was lightly filed and I attempted to blend the filing to minimize the noticeability of the filing.

The dark streak on the lower right shank was some strange stain on the briar.

I have had good results using a saturated oxalic acid solution to bleach stains from wood and thought it might be useful for both the rim and the shank.

The oxalic acid was applied to the darkened areas with a cotton swab and allowed to sit for 20 minutes.

After the initial 20 minutes I applied more oxalic acid to the entire stummel. This was allowed to sit for another 30 minutes.

After the stummel was scrubbed a third time using Murphy Oil Soap and a copious amount of rinsing the stummel was dried using the cotton hand towel. Once dry the results of the oxalic acid were observed. The stummel looked better but not as good as I had hoped.

The darkened areas had been lightened but they remained darker than the surrounding briar.

I started repairing the blemish on the bottom of the shank. I know E. Wilke was proud of their “no putty” but that pit was unacceptable to me.

I applied brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) to the pit with a fly tying bodkin.

A dental scraper was used as a spoon to scoop a small amount of briar dust and place it on the wet CA.

The back of the dental scraper was used to press the briar dust into the wet CA in the pit.

Additional brown CA was applied to the pit after the dust had been brushed off.

A second application of brown CA was applied once the first had cured.

After the second application had cured and set up, I filed the fill using a small flat file to remove the new fill material and smooth the surface.

The new fill was then sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

I sanded the entire stummel with a 400 sanding sponge followed by a sanding with a 600 sponge. I was looking for additional spots which might require CA filling. I found none.

I figured the best way to conceal the darker areas caused by the charring or staining was to give the stummel a contrast dye. I thought a black undercoat of dye might be the perfect camouflage. I covered the stamp with painters tape hoping this would prevent the dye from dying the stamp area. It didn’t.

The stems were removed from deox and allowed to drip excess solution back into the jar.

The E. Wilke stem was vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rag to remove both remaining solution and oxidized vulcanite.

The stem was then scrubbed with Soft Scrub cleanser applied to make-up pads. This removed more oxidized vulcanite.

Below you can see the E. Wilke and the other restoration victim. Both stems had been oiled with mineral oil after their Soft Scrub ordeals.

The dye kit was gathered. It consisted of Fiebing’s Black Leather Dye, a cork to keep dye from the tobacco chamber, a lighter and a pipe cleaner as an applicator.

The Fiebing’s Dye was applied and flamed, burning away the alcohol solvent of the dye and fixing it to the briar.

The stummel was then rinsed with 99% isopropyl alcohol and wiped with a paper towel.

Back at the workbench the results of the black dye can be seen. The dye penetrated the softer grained briar more than the harder grain. A light sanding removed the outermost layer of briar revealing lighter and darker areas due to penetration depth.

Below is a photo of the sanded stummel.

The stem and stummel were then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. The stummel was wiped with an alcohol dampened make-up pad between each sponge while the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel between sanding sponges.

The stem and stummel were then worked with micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000. Again stummel wiping with an alcohol make-up pad between micro-mesh pads was done. Between pads the stem was runned with Obsidian Oil and wiped with a paper towel.

The pipe was then taken to the buffer where it received several coats of carnauba wax.

The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.

Overall, I am very pleased at how well this E. Wilke pipe turned out. Though it is likely not an example of the highest quality E. Wilke pipe of the company’s heyday, still is a lovely little piece. The contrast stain did a good job of concealing the blemishes that the pipe accumulated over the years of use. The stem polished up nicely and the glossy black accentuated the light and dark grain from the contrast dye. The thick walls and the cheekiness that they provide are even more pronounced with the finished pipe than they were when it arrived and I think it is far more attractive now. The dimensions of the Carlyle Oval Shank Dublin are:

Length: 5.00 in./ 127.00 mm.

Weight: 1.08 oz./ 30.62 g.

Bowl Height: 1.42 in./ 36.07 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.06 in./ 26.92 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.58 in./ 40.13 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 E Wilke Squat Apple.

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A No Name Canadian Restoration

April 19th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Why is it that some pipes can’t qualify for the maker stamping their name on the pipe? Not to sound like President Biden but, “Come on, man.” IMPORTED BRIAR is not enough of a name to mean anything except that your briar is imported (Duh, isn’t it all imported?) and that the pipe was likely made in the US after World War 2 (WWII).

Fortunately our government is there protecting us from the diabolical domestic terrorist native briar cartels. As can be seen by,

“Section 304 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (19 U.S.C. 1304)

provides that, unless excepted, every article of foreign origin

imported into the U.S. shall be marked in a conspicuous place as

legibly, indelibly, and permanently as the nature of the article (or

container) will permit, in such a manner as to indicate to the ultimate

purchaser in the U.S. the English name of the country of origin of the

article. Congressional intent in enacting 19 U.S.C. 1304 was that the

ultimate purchaser should be able to know by an inspection of the

marking on the imported goods the country of which the goods is the

product.

    Part 134, Customs Regulations (19 CFR Part 134), implements the

country of origin marking requirements and exceptions of 19 U.S.C.

1304. As provided in section 134.41, Customs Regulations (19 CFR

134.41), the country of origin marking is considered to be conspicuous

if the ultimate purchaser in the U.S. is able to find the marking

easily and read it without strain.”

(https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1994-11-15/html/94-28159.htm)

Use your best Yoda impression to read the following, “The sarcasm is strong in this one.”

Okay, what are we looking at with this restoration?

The Restoration

Perhaps it is for the best that little information can be gleaned from the stamping to the heritage of this pipe. All that background and history research would just keep me from addressing the things that need fixing with this pipe. First off there is a clear coat to eliminate. Then there is the standard reaming and cleaning, followed by repairing the damaged rim and stem. I think the briar would benefit from a contrast stain allowing for a highlight red to be accented by black. Stay tuned to see what happens.

Of course I will begin with a clean denim piece protecting the work surface. Someday I will get around to stripping the finish from this old roll top desk that I use as a workbench. It has a shellac finish that does not agree with spilled alcohol or acetone. A polyurethane would make more sense but it was my grandfather’s desk and I don’t want to alter it too much.

I worked on reaming the tobacco chamber first. The PipNet with a #2 blades after I had scraped the hard dry cake a bit with the General triangular scraper. The problem was that the chamber had a diameter that was a touch too large for the #2 blades and too small for the #3 blades. This meant more scraping.

The chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper to get to clean briar then finish sanded with 320 sandpaper. There was no heat damage observed in the chamber.

That brings us to the rim. The lava deposits made inspection of the rim difficult. Though there did appear to be charring at the 8 o’clock position of the photo below and around the inside edge of the rim from 3-8 o’clock.

The rim was moistened with saliva then scraped with a shape pocket knife.

A further scraping revealed that the rim damage was all around the rim. The charing was also around most of the inside edge. Topping this stummel and removing the dents and dings would be required. I was hoping to only remove about 1/16 of an inch, 1-2 mm of briar from the rim. Beveling of both the inside and outside edges would remove the edge damage and keep me from removing even more briar.

After the reaming of the tobacco chamber, I poured 2-3 ml of 99% isopropyl alcohol into the chamber and allowed the alcohol to flow into the shank. I then used a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway. I poured this alcohol into a clean medicine cup. I was surprised that the alcohol did not have the dark color that I had expected. The long shank would make scraping the airway very difficult.

The stummel was taken to the sink. Here I used undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium stiff toothbrush to scrub the exterior of the stummel. The stummel was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton washcloth. I then decided to check the shank airway by using the shank brush with a bit of Dawn dish soap. I was still having trouble believing that the airway was as clean as the alcohol led me to believe. The Dawn shank brush scrub did not result in dark lather. Maybe the previous owner did keep the airway clean. The evidence was mounting in his favor but the question lingered, “If the rim was that fouled with lava, why did he keep the airway clean?”

I returned to the workbench for another go at cleaning the airway. About 5 ml of 99% isopropyl alcohol was used this time and scrubbed with the shank brush. When this alcohol was poured out I saw the dark color I had expected. The airway was dirty; it had just taken a bit of scrubbing to soften the yuck (yuck is a highly technical term to describe the smoking residue). It was present, not easily scraped and needed to be removed. This was going to be a long one. I just realized the unintended pun, there – long shank, long cleaning job.

Before I started the shank airway cleaning I wanted to top the stummel and remove the clear coat as it got sticky with the alcohol.

The topping was done by moving the stummel in a circular motion on a clean sheet of 220 sandpaper laid flat on a countertop. Every 3-4 circles I would rotate the stummel in my hand to keep an even pressure of all sides of the stummel. I wanted to remove about 1/16 inch or 2 mm of briar from the rim. This would not be enough to eliminate the rim edge damage but I figured I could remedy that by beveling the outside edge of the rim.

Next, I first tried removing it with 95% ethyl alcohol. That worked albeit slowly.

I then tried wiping it with acetone. This worked better and faster.

With the finish mostly removedI set to cleaning the stem. The airway was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 99% isopropyl alcohol. The outside was lightly sanded with a 320 grit sanding sponge then with Soft Scrub applied to make-up pads.

Next came the shank cleaning. The long shank did not allow for effective scraping with a dental scraper. The cleaning did utilize a nylon shank brush with numerous scrubbings of the airway with 5 ml of 95% alcohol poured into the bowl and allowed to flow into the shank. While in the airway the alcohol was scrubbed with the brush. Below you can see the medicine cup use to collect the alcohol after the scrubbing.

There were a couple of dents in the lower left section of the stummel. I used a hot iron and a damp rag to raise these.

Below is a photo of the stummel partially wrapped in the wetted cotton rag and pressed against the hot clothes iron.

The steam from the iron heated water raised the dents very nicely.

After the shank was cleaned the pits on the stummel were filled using a small drop of cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust. A small drop of CA was applied to the pit then sanded with a 400 sanding sponge. The dust from the sponge combines with the wet CA to fill the pit. Additional applications were used for deeper pits.

I wanted a contrast dye that had a base of black with a secondary dye of red. I hoped that this would give the pipe an accented grain in black with reddish hued highlights. To achieve this I first dyed the stummel black with Fiebing’s Leather dye. The dye was applied with a folded pipe cleaner and flamed with a disposable lighter.

A duct tape wrapped fishing bobber was used to keep dye from the tobacco chamber and to act as a handle.

The black dye was then wiped from the stummel using several make-up pads dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

The stummel was then sanded with a 320 sanding sponge to remove the outermost black dyed briar leaving the underlying black dyed briar in place, accentuating the grain.

A second dying of the stummel was then done with Fiebing’s Dark Red Leather Dye.

This was then wiped from the stummel using alcohol dipped make-up pads.

The sanding of the stummel with a 400 grit sanding sponge then wiped with a clean alcohol dipped make-up pad resulted in the stummel looking quite red, below. Notice the strange surface crack just above center – this was filled using thin CA then sanded, with the sanding dust filling the crack.

Below is the contrast dyed stummel before any sanding with finer sanding sponges.

I felt like this pipe was living up to the unofficial Nebraska motto – Go Big Red.

Next on the list was the stem repair. I admit to getting into the “stem repair” mode and losing track of documenting the process. I start by de-oiling the areas to be repaired with an alcohol dipped cotton swab. Then small drops of black CA are placed into the depressions on the stem. The wet CA is spritzed with a CA drying accelerator. Once dry or cured the CA is filed with a flat needle file. If the depression is deep it may take several small drops of CA and subsequent spritzes with an accelerator to fill the depression. That was the case here. When I started photographing, I was already filing the second application.

A third application was applied and spread around to thin over a larger area using the tip of the applicator on the bottle. This was then spritzed, filed and sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge. The next two photos show the depressions filled and sanded with the 4000 sponge.

The stem was slightly “over-clocked”. This led to the stem not aligning correctly with the stummel, as it had been over tightened. There are two ways to address this:

1) to heat the aluminum screw-in tenon until the stem is slightly melted, then rotate the aluminum to the correct position and allow it to cool.

2) Add a light layer of black CA to the edge of the stem and allow it to cure.

Both methods work but come with downsides of being time consuming and tedious. I chose to use the adding of black CA to the stem. Since the alignment was very sligh, only a few degrees I only needed to “paint” or apply a single coat of black CA to the stem.

The pipe was sanded intact. I wanted to smooth out the mortise tenon joint as the original fit was less than smooth feeling. I used a series of sanding sponges with grits from 1000-3500, in sequence. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol while the stemI received a bit of mineral oil rubbed in by fingertip then wiped with a paper towel.

After the sanding sponges I used a sequence of micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000. The stummel was wiped between each pad as above. The stem received a drop of Obsidian Oil between pads, rubbed in by fingertip and wiped with a paper towel.

The pipe then was coated with Before and After Restoration Balm. The balm was allowed to sit for 15 minutes.

The excess balm was wiped with an inside-out cotton athletic sock to reveal a beautiful rejuvenated contrast dyed briar.

The stem was further polished using Before and After Fine Polish. The polish was applied by fingertip and hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth.

The polishing was finished using the Before and After Extra Fine Polish using the above procedures.

The final step was to apply several coats of carnauba wax using the buffer.

I am quite pleased with how well this Italian Canadian of unknown make turned out. It is a large pipe yet is surprisingly light in hand. The contrast staining yielded the color that I had in my mind as I was imagining how it would look finished. The screw-in tenon fits and aligns well. Though not the most beautiful grain the contrast stain definitely improved the look of the briar and is accentuated by the high gloss black stem. I am certain that this will be a nice smoking pipe even without a maker’s stamp.

The dimensions of this large Canadian are:
- Length: 6.67 in./ 169.42 mm.
- Weight: 1.40 oz./ 39.8 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.88 in./ 47.75 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.65 in./ 41.91 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.78 in./ 19.81 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.46 in./ 37.08 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

Below are some photos of the finished no name Italian Canadian.

I think I might have to start selling these post restoration denim pieces as wall art.
A Pipe Den Zulu Restoration

April 17th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

The Pipe Den, the name harkens back to a day of local pipe and tobacco shops which our world appears to have mostly left in the past. Many pipe smokers love our local brick and mortar shops and it warms our hearts to hear the success stories of the local shop that is surviving in the world of big internet retailers. I live within an hour drive of one such shop and I admit to visiting it about once a year to stock up on a local blend assembled there. The place has a cigar lounge and will infuse your clothing with cigar aroma at no cost. I have been the only pipe smoker present on my last two visits. The world I live in enables me to have pipe tobacco from all over the world available with the convenience of no 60 minute drive in city traffic and the thrill of opening the aromatic box, freeing the imprisoned contents and allowing them to join their tobacco blend brethren in glass jars upon a shelf.

I warmly remember the smell of David’s Briar Shop in a local mall Westroads in the 1970’s and 80’s. That smell is firmly locked into the vault and I have to admit to wishing to experience it again. It is a nostalgic smell that when reminiscing with others about the mall, has never met with someone saying “I hate that smell”. To the contrary, it seems to only incite fond memories. These are the memories that stir when I work on a pipe stamped with the name of a pipe shop.

This Zulu came to me as part of an estate lot. Let me show you what I was looking at with this Pipe Den Zulu.

Background on the Pipe Den

The Pipe Den is a shop from Vero Beach Florida. According to the internet, source of only honest, truthful and accurate information, the Pipe Den still operates today. According to their website, Bob Marshbanks has been, “Serving pipe and cigar enthusiasts since 1977. We are your premier cigar, pipe and tobacco shop” (https://pipedenvero.com/). The website does not offer any online shopping yet invites patrons to the actual store to see what they have to offer. There is no mention of specific pipes but they do state the following:

“We offer a large selection of top quality pipes made by the world’s best pipe makers. I personally guarantee all my pipes, even “starter” pipes. Many “production” made pipes are manufactured of “Green” briar, heavily stained, varnished to cover poor grain and imperfections and smoke “hot”. To order a pipe, select your shape preference and let me know the price range you have in mind. Choose natural, dark or sandblast finishes. This will allow me flexibility in my efforts to ensure that you will get the very finest pipe available from my selection.

Even easier, just call, we can discuss your preferences and we can be more sure of the selection. I also have a selection of one-of-a-kind and freehand, hand carved Meershaum and Estate pipes.

The relaxed atmosphere at The Pipe Den is there for everyone. You are welcome anytime to come by, sit and enjoy a good cigar, fill your pipe bowl and get away from the hassles. I specialize in friendly old fashioned service.” (https://pipedenvero.com/pipes-%E2%80%A2-hints-%26-tips)

Here is a very nice review of the Pie Den with some photos taken by the author: The Pipe Den in Vero Beach My New Happy Spot in Florida (classyvice.com)

The question of who made this pipe for Pipe Den remains. In looking at the stem I see similarities to a couple of other pipes that I own. I have two Jobey pipes that appear to have very similar identical stems. They are saddle stems with a near 90 degree shoulder.

The quality of briar and the original stain color also match quite well. Given those last two qualities are hardly good indicators of a shared heritage but they do look similar. When looking up Jobey on pipedi.org, the first sentence of the entry says, “English – American – Danish – French… Sadly, solid information about Jobey is scamt…”(Jobey – Pipedia) Even misspelling scant. This should tell me something, what, I am not sure. The pipedia.org article goes on to discuss possible origins of the Jobey company. The most likely hypothesis, to me, is that Jobey was an American company and a subsidiary of the Norwalk Pipe Corporation (Norwalk Pipe Co. – Pipedia) and later sold to Weber. There is also another discussion mentioning that, “Weber Pipe Co. owned and manufactured Jobey pipes – when mainly sold in the USA by the Tinder Box from 1970’s – 80’s. In addition Jobey / Weber bought Danish freehands from Karl Erik (Ottendahl). These pipes were offered as Jobey Dansk. Ottendahl discontinued exports to the United States in 1987 and in the very same year – obviously only as a ghost brand – Jobey was transferred to Saint-Claude, France to be manufactured by Butz-Choquin.”(Weber Pipe Co. – Pipedia). This I believe is the most likely suspect. The Pipe Den Zulu has a Jobey/Weber feel to it. I can’t explain that other than the word “feel”. The age would fit for the Pipe Den history, according to their website the Pipe Den opened in 1977. I am of the opinion that this Pipe Den Zule was a Weber made pipe likely from the late 1970’s – 1980’s.

The Restoration

In the beginning… No, that sounds too biblical. How about, this restoration began with a clean piece of denim laid out on the workbench? Much better.

The fit of the stem was too tight and was left partially inserted to avoid dressing the mortise. The stem was also in dire need of oxidized vulcanite removal. That is where I began.

I sanded the stem with a 600 grit sanding sponge to remove the calcium deposits, surface oxidation and light tooth chatter. You can see that I used the denim to clean the sponge.

Next the interior of the stem was cleaned using bristle pipe cleaners and a nylon brush dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

With the stem cleaned inside and out, It was time to go into the Before and After Deoxidizing solution. A pipe cleaner was used as a hanger to suspend the stem in the solution.

I refer to this as the deox tank or deox, as a play on words with detoxification or detox for alcoholics and drug addicts.

With the stem in deox, I turned my attention to the reaming of the tobacco chamber. The below tools were assembled.

The chamber was bored with a very conical bit and did not fit the PipNet reamer at the bottom. This required more scraping with the Smokingpipes Low Country Reamer and the General triangular scraper.

The interior of the chamber was sanded to bare briar and no evidence of heat damage could be observed. The rim was the next target of restoration. I could see damage around the outer edge from tapping out dottle on surfaces not meant for tapping. There was also a thick coating of lava.

The lava was scraped with care and a sharp pocket knife after being moistened with saliva.

The stummel was then taken to the sink. Here it was scrubbed using a medium stiff toothbrush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water. At this point I decided to scrub the airway of the shank with a nylon shank brush and a bit of Dawn dish soap. The airwar was rinsed with warm water and the stummel was dried with a cotton washcloth.

Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol to remove any remaining wax or finish. The pad came back with reddish brown, indicating that I was removing some of the original stain. No finish could be observed.

The cleaning of the shank was next on the list. I poured about 4 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the bowl and allowed it to flow into but not out of the shank. I used a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway with the alcohol present. I then poured this alcohol into a medicine cup to be used until it was too blackened from dissolved tar. After the alcohol scrub I returned to the sink and scrubbed the airway with undiluted Castile soap. Then abc to the workbench for an alcohol scrub. This rotation continued until my nylon brush was no longer turning black with tar.

Between scrubbing rotations I would scrape the airway with a dental scraper and scrub with cotton swabs. Eventually the airway was cleaned.

14 hours later, I retrieved the stem from the Before and After Deoxidizing solution. I allowed it to drip off excess solution for a few minutes.

Below the stem is on my preferred coarse cotton shop rag. I like this rag for buffing a stem after the solution as it absorbs the remaining solution and abbrades some of the loosened oxidized vulcanite.

Below is the stem after the buffing with the rag.

After the hand buffing I used several make-up pads with Soft Scrub to further remove oxidized material from the stem. I could have sworn that I photographed the pads but failed to find the photos. Further proof than getting old is not for the… What was I saying?

The stem was then coated with mineral oil both inside and out.

There were a few small pits which needed to be filled prior to taking on the damaged rim. The small fills were repaired by placing a small drop of cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) into the pit then sanding immediately over the pit. The dust from the sanding and sanding sponge combined with the CA to fill the pit. Two applications were sometimes needed for slightly larger pits. Now to deal with that damaged rim I did not want to top the rim and remove an ⅛+ inch or 3-4 mm of briar thus changing the shape of the stummel. I lightly topped the pipe to restore sharp edges on the undamaged rim. My plan was to apply a bead of brown CA to the damaged outside edge of the rim then press it into a container of briar dust. The briar dust would then be combined with the CA to make a hard briar incorporated fill which could be sanded smooth.

Below is the bead of CA around the damaged areas

Below is after the first dip of the wet CA into the briar dust. The excess dust was scraped off with a pocket knife.

Below is a photo of the new edge. It would require a couple more beads of CA and dust dips but it was working.

Below is dust dip number two.

After filing and sanding the edge was restored. The fill did appear darker than the supporting briar but that would be addressed with a contrast dye (more on that later).

Now, to conceal the darker edge, I figured a darker stain or dye with the surface sanded away would provide a nice contrast showing off the grain of the briar and concealing the repairs. In preparation for this dye job, I wanted to keep the dye from the stamp if possible. I covered the stamp with a slightly irregularly cut piece of painters tape. I wanted it irregular to avoid the “CENSORED” block look.

I mixed equal volumes of both black and dark brown Fiebing’s Leather dye and added a couple of ml of 95% ethyl alcohol to allow them to mix thoroughly. The dye was applied with a folded pipe cleaner and flamed with a disposable lighter to burn off excess alcohol in the dye and set the dye to the briar.

Below you can see the tape had ignited during the flaming. Oops.

Back at the workbench, the stem appeared black.

I wiped the excess dye from the stummel. Several alcohol dipped make-up pads later the stummel can be seen to have a very dark brown color. Oh yeah, I actually remembered the nitrile gloves this time. I bet you didn’t see that coming?

The stummel was then sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge to remove the outer layer of dark dyed briar.

Next the damaged stem needed to be repaired. Below are the top and bottom surfaces of the stem.

Black CA was applied to the depressions on both the top and bottom of the stem. The CA was then spritzed with a CA drying accelerator.

These were then filed with a flat needle file until flush with the surrounding stem. Both top and bottom required a second application of CA. I prefer to use several light coats compared to a single large coat of the CA.

Additional filing and sanding eventually led to the below photos of the top and bottom of the stem.

The stem was then sanded using a sequence of sanding sponges in grits 1000-3500. Between each sponge I applied a bit of mineral oil then wiped with a paper towel.

After the sanding sponges I used a sequence of 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Between each pad I rubbed in a small drop of Obsidian Oil and wiped the stem with a paper towel.

On to sanding the stummel. It was sanded with the sanding sponges 1000-3500. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with an alcohol dampened make-up pad.

The stummel was then worked with a sequence of 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Between each pad the stummel was wiped as with the sanding sponges.

The stem then received polishing with Before and After fine then Extra Fine polish. Both were applied by finger and hand buffed using a soft cotton cloth.

The stummel then was given a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 20 minutes.

The excess Restoration Balm was removed with an inside out cotton athletic sock to reveal a lovely grained briar.

The pipe then received several coats of carnauba wax from the buffer.

Overall I am pleased with how well this Pipe Den Zulu turned out. I love the shape though I would appreciate a slightly larger size. The repairs of the rim and stem came out better than anticipated. The briar grain was accentuated by the contrast dye and shows itself far better now than when it was buried by years of grime. Though the make of this very nice little pipe may never be known I am sure that it can find a new stewart who will get years of enjoyment from it.

The dimensions of this little beauty are:
- Length: 6.06 in./ 153.92 mm.
- Weight: 1.05 oz./ 29.7 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.94 in./ 49.27 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.59 in./ 40.39 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.77 in./ 19.56 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.31 in./ 30.28 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 Pipe Den Zulu.