Photographed and written by

John M. Young

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

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

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

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

Background on Denicotea

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

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

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

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

Brands

Adsorba

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

Aldo Morelli

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Restoration

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

I began with a clean denim piece on the workbench.

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

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

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

Below is the stummel with a freshly scraped rim.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The dimensions of this Denicotea 201 are: 

• Length:  5.53 in./ 140.46 mm.
• Weight:  1.26 oz./ 35.80 g.
• Bowl Height:  1.83 in./  46.48 mm.
• Chamber Depth:  1.55 in./ 39.00 mm.
• Chamber Diameter:  0.75 in./ 19.05 mm.
• Outside Diameter:  1.43 in./ 36.32 mm.

I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations.  If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons.  Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

Below are some photos of the finished Denicotea 201.