Tag: “meerschaum pipes

A Kaywoodie Meerschaum Apple Restoration

December 5th, 2025
Photographed and Written by

John M. Young

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:

(Kaywoodie Meerschaum Apple/Ball Rusticated Estate Tobacco Pipe Sold As Is | eBay)

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:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Place the meerschaum inlay onto the epoxy fill and into the hole.
4. Allow the epoxy to cure.
5. Top the outside fill with meerschaum powder mixed with eggwhite and sand the meerschaum inlay smooth with the tobacco chamber.
6. Dye the fill on the outside of the pipe with a strongly brewed tea to match the color of the meerschaum.
7. 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.

Kaywoodie’s Synchrostempatent can be seen here:(Document: Kaywoodie’s SynchroStem patent — Pipes : Logos & Markings –).

The move to the 3 hole stinger over the 4 hole stinger occurred at an “indeterminant date”. (Document: Kaywoodie’s 3 hole stinger — Pipes : Logos & Markings –)

The pipephil quote, “Four hole stingers may still occur on pipes in the 60’s.” (Document: Kaywoodie’s 3 hole stinger — Pipes : Logos & Markings –) does give a reasonable ending date to the production of this pipe.

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.
A Man Sculpted Black Meerschaum Dublin Restoration

December 12th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

It’s a Dublin… It’s Poker… It’s Super Pipe! Yeah, it sounds way cooler in the original form – It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman. I have to admit I wasn’t quite sure what to call this Man pipe when it arrived. I asked my German pipe expert, Sascha Mertens, via Facebook messenger what he’d call it. His reply was classic Sascha, “Dublin, accidentally! Planned as a poker! Nice pipe.” He included an artistically modified photo that I sent him and even signed it: I am not sure I want to call it an “Accidental Dublin which was supposed to be a Poker Man pipe”. That seems even wordy, for me. I guess, I will just call it a Man Sculpted Black Meerschaum Dublin Pipe and hope the shape critics will read this intro before criticising the name.

The pipe itself was part of an estate lot purchased in September from Calgary Alberta, Canada. It included 11 other pipes I recognized this one from the photo below:

The male symbol could even be clearly made out. It is always fun to pick up a lot from somewhere other than the States as locally available pipes in one location are rare and exotic in another location. This lot had a couple of pipes with Canadian country of manufacture (COM) stamps. Stick around and I’m sure they will make appearances in upcoming blogs. The pipe has the male symbol and ISLE OF MAN stamped on the stem. The meerschaum remains free of any marks indicating its origin. Below are some photographs of the pipe prior to any work done.

This looked to be an easy relaxing restoration. The meerschaum was in great shape. Yeah, the stem was oxidized and looked as if someone thought they might improve the appearance by trying to give it a nice suntan by storing it in direct sunlight. Besides, I had wanted to work on a Man meerschaum for some time.

Background

From previous research on several European meerschaum pipes I recalled that this line was a product of Laxey Pipes. I refreshed my memory with a revisit on pipedia.org. Below, I have included that entry.

“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.” (Laxey Pipes Ltd. – Pipedia)

(File:Manx.jpg – Pipedia). I love the stone work of this old building and can’t help thinking, “watch that first step, it’s a doozy”, regarding the step from the pier to the boat at low tide.

My next search was of pipephil.eu. Here I was able to find logos from other Man pipes, reaffirming the family heritage.

I find it interesting that African meerschaum was used. In a couple of previous blogs, I discussed the history of meerschaum or sepiolite mining in the Amboseli region of Tanzania (links: https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.com/7350 and https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.com/7485). Meerschaum from this region is not considered to be as high quality as the meerschaum of Turkey and is usually left rusticated and frequently stained or “painted”. I put painted in quotes as I am unsure of how or with what Laxey coated the stummels of their pipes.

Further research came across a forum post in pipesmokersdens.com by a member named Siv. They state the following in their post:

“Laxey Pipes Limited was established in the mid-1960s on the Isle of Man to manufacture various decorative smoking pipes, based in a historically important 19th century four-storey building on the quay in the east coastal village of Laxey. The building was erected in 1866 by Richard Rowe (c.1823-1886), Captain of the Laxey Mines, as an additional grain store for the Laxey Glen Flour Mill. The building was also used as a storage facility for other material, such as coal and corn, and it was utilised as a base for community meetings and events. The property had several owners before the Isle of Man Government acquired it in the 1960s and leased it to the pipe factory. Other company names such as Manx Pipes Ltd and Man Pipe Co. have been noted but no other pipe producer was active during this time, thus all names must have fallen under the Laxey Pipes Ltd umbrella.

The company specialised in the manufacturing of meerschaum pipes using the mineral meerschaum (sepiolite) mined by the Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation, situated in the Amboseli basin, Tanganyika (now the United Republic of Tanzania). Meerschaum is a soft white clay mineral, mainly found in Turkey with large deposits also found in Tanganyika, Africa. Meerschaum is a popular material for pipes because its properties allow it to be carved into finely detailed and decorative shapes. It is also porous by nature and can draw moisture and tobacco tar into the stone. Another organic material used by Laxey Pipes Ltd for its smoking pipes was briar wood. Briar is a type of wood that is native to Africa and is abundant the Ethiopian Highlands, the Ruwenzori Mountains and the Cameroon Mountains. It is a particularly good material to use for pipes because it has a natural resistance to fire and it has an ability to absorb any moisture.

Laxey Pipes Ltd produced and marketed their own pipe brands such as ‘Manxpipe’, ‘Manxman’ and ‘Manxland’. Other pipe names indicated various shapes and colours of the Laxey pipe series, for example ‘White Knight’ (unwaxed) and ‘Domino’ (black or lined). The Laxey brands were sold through general pipe retailers but they were also sold through the company’s shop on its Isle of Man premises. Laxey Pipes Ltd also produced meer bowls (the compartment where the tobacco goes in the pipe) for pipe brands such as Peterson, Barling and Nørding from the 1960s until 2001.

As the company entered the 1990s and early 2000s the supply of meer from East Africa was becoming increasingly difficult; Kenya and Tanzania had been extensively mined and places like Somalia was inaccessible due to civil war. The last Laxey meers were traded in May 2001 but the company continued making briar pipes. Changing attitudes to smoking led to a general decline in popularity of pipe smoking. The company closed its doors indefinitely in June 2002.” (https://pipesmokersdens.com/threads/man-pipes-laxey-pipes-ltd-isle-of-man.17931/)

Siv also provides photos of of their Man pipe along with photos of the brochure accompanying the pipe.

(photos: https://pipesmokersdens.com/threads/man-pipes-laxey-pipes-ltd-isle-of-man.17931/)

According to Mark Irwin, “By ‘78 Peterson had bought the Isle of Man company and moved its operations to their Dublin factory.” (Irwin, Mark (2018). The Peterson Pipe (1st ed. 2nd printing). Briar Books Press. p.308). Using the above information, I estimate this pipe to have been made on the Isle of Man between the 1960s-1978. Siv’s pamphlet provided great information about the shape – 62/2, unfortunately no descriptor though. I guess I’m stuck with Sascha’s “Accidental Dublin”.

The Restoration

The restoration began with a clean denim piece for both the protection of the pipe and the workbench top.

THe reaming tools included only the General triangular scraper, the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the 220 sandpaper wrapped dowel. The PipNet and Kleen-Reem were not employed for fear their torque would be detrimental to the meerschaum.

The reaming was uneventful due to the light cake build-up within the tobacco chamber.

After a light sanding I scrubbed the chamber with a few cotton swabs dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

Before cleaning the shank, I looked close at the mortise. There appeared to be an insert of some plastic.

I remembered the pamphlet Siv, the pipesmokersdens.com forum contributor, provided.These little things never cease to amaze me.I had no idea that pipe makers in the 1960s-1970 were in the habit of using Delrin or Delrin-like mounts for meerschaum pipes.

THe airway of the shank was cleaned out using alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaners. I think the vast majority of the black that was staining the pipe cleaners was excess black dye or stain used in the production of the pipe and not accumulated filth from smoking.

The stem was cleaned next. It was only slightly dirty and only required a couple of alcohol dipped pipe cleaners. This further reaffirmed my conclusion to the black from the shank cleaning was dye.

The stem was lightly buffed with 0000 steel wool to remove the surface oxidation in preparation for a dip in the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer (lovingly referred to as deox). A pipe cleaner was inserted into the tenon to act as a hanger while in the solution.

I left the stem in deox overnight as it was heavily oxidized. The next day I removed the stem and allowed it to drip excess deoxidizer back into the jar.

After the drip dry I placed the stem on a coarse shop rag. I like these rags because the rough texture and open weave absorb the remaining solution and lightly abrade the softened oxidized rubber from the stem.

After hand buffing with the shop rag, you can see the amount of oxidized rubber which was removed.

Even though the stem was looking nicely black I had the feeling that there was additional scrubbing in my future. I used Soft Scrub on make-up pads to further scrub and remove the oxidation.

A lot of make-up pads.

Eventually the color left on the pads was lightened. I checked the condition of the logo. Frequently in cases of severe oxidation logos can suffer or be nearly eliminated. Yay, the loge was still there!

The stem was oiled with mineral oil and allied to soak in the oil for a few minutes. I am not sure if this is necessary or not but it does provide a nice little break for one to go upstairs and get some lunch.

I covered the logo and the COM stamps with small pieces of Scotch tape to protect them from the sanding. The stem was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with additional mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.

At this point I wanted to repaint the stem logo. I prepped the area by cleaning it with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol. I used a water based acrylic modeling paint for the paint.

The paint was applied with a fly tying bodkin to the stamp. THis paint dries quickly.

THe surface was scraped with a rigid plastic card to remove the excess paint without cleaning out the grooves. I could not get the paint to stay in the top left of the male symbol even after a couple more attempts.

The stem was then worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. Between each of these pads the stem was rubbed with Obsidian Oil and wiped with a paper towel.

THe stem was then polished with Before and After Fine followed by the Extra Fine polish. Both were hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth.

THe pipe was then taken to the buffer for a few coats of carnauba wax. The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth to raise the shine further.

Overall I find this Man Sculpted Black Meerschaum Dublin to be a lovely pipe. I continue to adore the shape. I do find that the shape is almost hard to view though. The high gloss finish and the sculpted edges make it hard for me to accurately determine them. Once in hand things become far more clear. Though the handling of the pipe is intriguing in itself, the pipe is unnaturally light weight. Almost alarmingly so. This too could be illusionary due to the stark black color making me think that it should feel more substantial. The removal of the oxidation revealed a very nice flat saddle stem which matches the gloss black of the pipe very well. The dimensions of the Man Sculpted Black Meerschaum Dublin are:
- Length: 5.68 in./ 144.27 mm.
- Weight: 1.20 oz./ 34.02 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.91 in./ 48.51 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.47 in./ 37.34 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.75 in./ 19.05 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.36 in./ 34.54 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 Man Sculpted Black Meerschaum Dublin.
A Medico Gold Crest Meerschaum Apple Restoration

November 28th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

The quest to improve my skills of restoring meerschaum pipes continued with this Medico Gold Crest meerschaum apple. Medico is one of those American classic brands which many people look at like they do codger blends – those were cheap drugstore pipes for grandads. Well, maybe grandpa was right. I can’t imagine that they sold millions of pipes merely because they were cheap. I’ve restored a good number of Medico pipes though mostly prior to my blogging. Over the last year I can only think of three: A Frank Dublin, Medico Jet Stream and a Medico Guardsman. That is only three of the 139 blogs (thus far published) so they are not what I’d consider a target species. This one called out to me, perhaps it was the apple shape or the Austrian made meerschaum or that adorable gold band. Whatever the reason, The auction was won and the pipe was mine. The initial examination of the pipe revealed that the only marking proclaiming its origin was the Crest enclosed M on the stem and the stamping on the band: MEDICO over 1/20 14K G.F. over MADE IN AUSTRIA. Below are some photos of the pipe as it appeared upon arrival.

The Medico was used, though not abused. There were some scratches on the meerschaum and some bite marks on the stem. The bowl looked pretty good even with the lava flowing over the rim. I thought that this looked like a nice relaxing restoration.

Background

According to TobaccoPipes.com,

“When you trace the Medico tobacco pipes history, you have to trace it back to the origins of the company that created it. The company that originated the Medico brand is the S.M Frank & Co. This company dates back to the year 1900. In that year, a man named Sam Frank began selling pipes and related tobacco products. Eventually, the company began making its own line of pipes. With the help of an experienced pipe manufacturer, Ferdinand Feuerbach, the company produced the popular Royal DeMuth and Hesson Guard Milano tobacco pipes. The company continued to grow well into the early part of the 1930s.

So, where did Medico pipes come into the picture?

By the early 1930s, there were some concerns about the tars and nicotine found in tobacco smoke. In order to mellow out the flavor of hot tobacco smoke as well as to capture the tars and nicotine, the S.M. Frank & Co. introduced the Medico pipe filter. This is an absorbent paper filter that many people still use to this day. In order to accommodate the new filter, the company developed an accompanying brand of pipes known as Medico. That line of pipes continues in production today.

The company ended up buying some of their main competition in 1955. That year the Kaywoodie brands came under the S.M. Frank Company. The Medico brand continued production through this transition without many changes. The next big change for the brand came in the late 1960s. In 1966, the company developed a synthetic material that combined the traditional briar wood with resins. It is known as Brylon. At that time, all Medico pipes were made from imported briar wood. In order to keep production costs down, the company began offering some lines with Brylon. Today, that is still true.

Today, the Medico brand of pipes is still a top selling one for the S.M Frank & Co. This line of pipes comes in thirteen different finishes with five made of briar wood and the rest from Brylon. All come with the push bit with a filter inside. The filter is easily changed out when the smoker desires. In the briar wood finishes, this line includes the Silver Crest, Premier, Bold Rebel, Kensington, and Windsor. In the Brylon, the line includes the Lancer, Apollo, Standard, Varsity, Conqueror, Medalist, Cavalier, and V.E.Q. As far as price, the briar wood pipes tend to be higher in cost that the Brylon ones.” (Medico Pipes History | TobaccoPipes.com)

I was unable to precisely identify the years in which the Gold Crest line was made. I did find a couple of print advertisements from 1958 and 1966, at least that is what the eBay sellers were claiming. The first ad is from 1958 and shows a Gold Crest with a list price of $5. The ad says “NEW! See the 1958 series of MEDICO Crest”. This could be read as meaning that the Crest line changed from year to year or that 1958 was the first year of the line.

(1958 Medico Pipes Ad Filter Pipes Crest | eBay)

The second ad looks quite “1966” but it doesn’t mention the Gold Crest pipe. Neither advertisement had the M within the crest as with the Medico Gold Crest in hand.

(1966 Medico Gold Crest Pipe Art Illustration Photo Vintage Magazine Print Ad | eBay)

Looking at just those two advertisements I would feel comfortable saying that this pipe is from around 1960.

The Restoration

As usual the restoration began with a clean denim piece. Now, I have received slight criticism for the apparent boring appearance of the work surface covers. Perhaps I will look into alternative fabric choices. Maybe Sascha Mertens would prefer something in a paisley?

Due to the more fragile nature of meerschaum, the PipNet reamer remains in its case allowing the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper (with the tip ground round) to take center stage. The wood dowel wrapped in 220 sandpaper also was used after the scraping.

The bowl was not terribly caked and was cleaned out quickly.

The bowl was free of any gouging from previous reamings. The grate at the bottom of the bowl can readily be seen in the photo below. In the Medico Guardsman restoration I discovered how to remove the grate. This pipe was slightly different in design and I was not able to remove the grate for cleaning.

The next step was to clean the airway of the shank. 95% ethyl alcohol, cotton swabs, bristle pipe cleaners, a nylon shank brush, and a small rat tail file with a paper towel wrapped around it.

After the airway cleaning I turned my attention to the rim. One of the great benefits of meerschaum is the immunity of the mineral to charring.

The rim was moistened with saliva and carefully scraped with a sharp pocket knife.

The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrub. This scrub was done with warm tap water and a nylon scrub brush. The stummel darkened with the scrubbing. I assumed this would be a temporary condition that drying would eliminate.

The darkening seemed to be associated with areas which received greater wear. I assumed that this was due to the wearing away of the beeswax coating.

The next phase of the restoration was to micro-mesh the meerschaum. I wanted to make sure that the micro-mesh pads were clear and would not be transferring any vulcanite dust to the slight grooves and scratches in the meerschaum. To do this I washed the pads with a small amount of Dawn dish soap and a nylon scrub brush. Each pad was scrubbed, rinsed and dried.

The cleaned pads looked much better than they looked before.

I wrapped the gold band with painters tape to protect it from the micro-meshing of the stummel.

The stummel was worked with each pad in succession. Between each pad I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad moistened with 95% ethyl alcohol. I did not try to completely remove all of the scratches as I thought they added a bit of character to the pipe.

The next step was to apply a fresh coat of beeswax. I like to use a pan of water to heat a jar filled with beeswax. The hot water melts and allows the wax to remain molten for longer periods of time as well as not getting the wax too hot. Achieving the vaporization point of wax is not a great idea when heating with the open flame from natural gas. I plugged the bowl with a wine bottle cork wrapped with several layers of masking tape.

While the wax was melting I heated the meerschaum with a heat gun. This allows the molten beeswax to better penetrate the pores of the meerschaum.

Once the max was melted and the stummel heated, I held the stummel by the cork and painted the wax onto the meerschaum. Even with all of the heating the wax cools and builds up quickly. I rotated the coated stummel under the heat from the heat gun. Any wax that was not absorbed by the meerschaum was caught in a tin, which can be seen in the above photo. The below photo shows the newly waxed stummel cooling back on the workbench.

As the stummel was cooling, I began work on cleaning the stem. Again, 95% ethyl alcohol, cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners were used for this.

The stem of this pipe was made of nylon. Nylon is harder than the plastic of a Missouri Meerschaum pipe stem but softer than a traditional vulcanite. It is also more resilient to abrasion from sanding and filing. This makes smoothing out imperfections on a nylon stem a bit more difficult and time consuming than vulcanite. I filed the tooth chatter smooth using a small flat file.

Some of the marks in the nylon just refused to be removed. I continued on with the sanding telling myself that perfection is not needed for a pipe I planned on keeping and using for myself. The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 320-3500 grit. Between each sponge the stem was wiped with a paper towel lightly moistened with alcohol.

The gold band was taped over with masking tape and the stem log taped over with Scotch tape to protect them from the buffer and tripoli buffing compound. I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed the stem.

The Scotch tape was removed to repaint the stem logo gold. I used a modeling acrylic paint applied with a wooden skewer.

The gold paint was allowed to mostly dry then I scraped away the paint from outside the stamp.

Below is the mostly cleaned newly repaired logo. The tripoli compound can still be seen on the masking tape.

The gold band was cleared of masking tape and the band polished with a Cape Cod Polishing cloth.

The pipe was then returned to the buffer for several final coats of carnauba wax to the band and the stem. The stummel was not waxed with carnauba as it just had fresh beeswax.

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

I think this Medico Gold Crest meerschaum apple turned out beautifully. I love the apple shape and think the scratches and scars add to the character of the pipe. The beeswax brought out a slightly more buttery look to the meerschaum which is accentuated by the glossy black of the nylon stem. Though not perfect the stem is far far smoother than it was originally. The pipe will surely bring enjoyment for another 60 years. Probably not for me but I hope that it will be passed down to the next generation of grandpas who can appreciate the pipe’s heritage and utility. The dimensions of this Medico Gold Crest meerschaum apple are:
- Length: 5.90 in./ 149.86 mm.
- Weight: 1.65 oz./ 46.78 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.78 in./ 45.21 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.30 in./ 33.02 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.82 in./ 20.83 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.59 in./ 40.39 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 Medico Gold Crest meerschaum apple.
Kiko Caveman Chimney Restoration

November 7th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

“Another Kiko Caveman?”, you ask. I reply. “YES!” These pipes are so interesting, not just to look at but to hold. The feel in the hand is remarkable. The first thing that strikes me is how lightweight they are especially for a hunk of rock. Second, is the sheer idea of the age of the mineral itself. One source dates this Amboseli sepiolite (meerschaum) to the Late Pleistocene to Holocene age so, approximately 12,000-10,000 years ago (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S007045710870027X). This is interesting since several pipes advertise “century old” briar. How many can claim to be 100 centuries old? Anyway, this Kiko came from an eBay auction and has a much less interesting acquisition story than the first Kiko Caveman. Meerschaum is a hydrophilic mineral, meaning water loving. A few weeks ago I was chatting with Sascha Mertens, a pipeman from Germany, he was explaining how to tell a block meer from a pressed meerschaum. You need only to place your tongue on the meerschaum. It will stick to a block meerschaum and not with a pressed. This reminded me of testing minerals as a geologist. The same thing would occur with anhydrous hydrophilic minerals. Well, my tongue stuck most uncomfortably to the Kiko. It was in need of a fresh coat of beeswax.

The stem is the only part of the pipe that is stamped with any identifiers. Here we can see the elephant logo on the left side of the shank and TANGANYIKA on the bottom surface.

The Meerschaum was in good shape and the tobacco chamber was mostly clean, no cake to speak of. It looked like this restoration would be mostly stem work and of course a fresh beeswaxing.

Background

I did a restoration of another Kiko Caveman a couple of weeks ago. I will include a link here to that restoration. I will also use the background of the previous restoration here as both pipes are similar.

The first step that I took in researching this pipe was to look up the logo at pipephil.eu. There I found the following:

(Ki-Km — Pipes : Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu))

Turning to pipedi.org for some history of Kiko led to the following entry:

“Kiko, meaning “pipe” in Swahili-Kiswahili to English translation, is probably the best known of the various brands listed below. In East Africa Meerschaum is found in Tanganyika, once known as German East Africa, and since 1964 part of the United Republic of Tanzania. The main deposit comes from the Amboseli basin surrounding the Lake Amboseli. Tanganyika Meerschaum is normally stained in shades of brown, black and yellow, and is considered to be inferior to Meerschaum from Turkey. Eventhough, the raw material is mined by the Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation and to a large extent used for pipemaking. Uncounted pipemakers throughout the world were supplied with Amboseli Meerschaum, preferentially used for Meerschaum lined briars or leather-clad pipes. In Tanganyika the Kilimanjaro Pipe Company Ltd.” (Kiko – Pipedia)

And, more specifically the Caveman line of Kiko pipes.
- “Caveman Fashioned from a piece of natural meerschaum.Every pipe is unique and – is in fact a geological specimen over a million years old.Attractively boxed.” (Kiko – Pipedia)
A second entry at pipedia.org discusses the Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation in greater detail.

“From Pipes, Artisans and Trademarks, by José Manuel Lopes

Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation is a company that formed in 1955 by Kenyan businessmen from Nairobi after the discovery of a meerschaum mine relatively close to the surface on Kilimanjaro. The meerschaum is tougher, less porous, and cheaper than the Turkish variety. Another mine was soon discovered in Sinya, in the famous Amboseli Game Park.

The company, previously based in Arusha (Tanzania), became an associate of a Belgium firm, but closed some years after. It produced the Caveman, Countryman, Kiko, Killimanjaro, Sportsman, Townsman, and Wiga brands. It maintained a link with GBD for the making of the GBD Block Meerschaum series, and after its closure, the English firms, London Meerschaum and Manx Pipes (Manx Meerschaum) continued producing with African meerschaum.” (Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation – Pipedia)

To give more depth to the meerschaum story here is a quick lesson in geography.

Lake Amboseli is a rainy season body of water along the shared border of Kenya and Tanzania, northwest of Mount Kilimanjaro. The straight white line on the image below is that border. Sinya refers to the Sinya Mine (https://www.mindat.org/loc-266724.html).

(https://www.google.com/maps/@-2.7763709,37.2580582,99656m/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e4?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDkyMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D)

Zooming in on the south western shore of the temporary Lake Amboseli you can actually make out the excavations of the old mining activities. On the below image from google maps; pits, tailing piles, roads etc… can be discerned.

(https://www.google.com/maps/@-2.7763709,37.2580582,99656m/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e4?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDkyMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D)

It appears that little to no mining is done at the site today. Several sources say that the meerschaum deposit were close to the surface, not very large and were played out

Super fast history lesson:

Before World War I, Tanganyika formed part of the German colony of German East Africa. It was gradually occupied by forces from the British Empire and Belgian Congo during the East Africa Campaign, although German resistance continued until 1918. After this, the League of Nations formalised control of the area by the UK, who renamed it “Tanganyika”. The UK held Tanganyika as a League of Nations mandate until the end of World War II after which it was held as a United Nations trust territory. In 1961, Tanganyika gained its independence from the UK as Tanganyika, joining the Commonwealth. It became a republic a year later. Tanganyika now forms part of the modern-day sovereign state of Tanzania. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanganyika_Territory)

With all of that information in mind and assuming that the TANGANYIKA stamp on the stem is referring to the country of manufacture (COM) this pipe was made not after 1962.

The Restoration

After getting a clean denim piece this pipe needed to have the stem freed from the tenon. It was firmly attached firmly, as if someone appeared to have glued the stem in place.

I wrapped the stem with several wraps of masking tape to protect the stem from the channellock pliers. A twist and turn later the stem was freed.

The tenon appeared to be aluminum as it was not attracted to a magnet and glued in place in the meerschaum. When inserted completely the stem was loose but if backed out about 2 mm it was a perfect fit. I decided that a cork washer would be the easiest fix for this situation.

The photo below shows the light cake deposits in the bowl were removed with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.

The stem was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. The stem was then placed into a jar with Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. The jar needed to be propped at an angle due to the length of the stem.

The stummel was cleaned with warm tap water and a nylon scrub brush.

Fresh beeswax was melted in a small glass canning jar placed in a pan of boiling water. The surrounding water keeps the wax molten for longer enabling me to have more time with the molten wax.

The heat gun was set up in proximity.

I did not have a cork of suitable size to plug the tobacco chamber so through the power of adaptation I discovered a 20 gauge shotgun shell was the perfect diameter. The shotgun shell was my plug and handle for the heating of the meerschaum with the heat gun.

The molten beeswax was brushed onto the stummel and the meerschaum was heated with the heat gun. The aluminum lid acted as a wax drop catch pan. Several coats of beeswax were brushed onto the meerschaum.

Below you can see the meerschaum was set aside to cool.

After four hours the stem was removed from the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer and it was allowed to drip excess solution back into the jar.

The stem was hand rubbed/buffed with a coarse shop rag to absorb the remaining solution and abrade the softened oxidized vulcanite.

The below photo is blurry but does show the oxidized rubber left behind on the rag.

The stem was rubbed with mineral oil to prevent new oxidation.

My masking tape protective layer was not quite adequate to protect the stem during the freeing from the stummel. Doh! That would need to be repaired with an application of black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). Well, now you know that I make mistakes. A lot of them… The stem stamping and logo were covered with painters tape to protect them during the sanding.

The dent was filled with black CA and allowed to dry/cure on its own.

Once cured the repair was filed with a small flat file. The stem was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grit. Between sponges the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.

The elephant logo area was cleaned with a cotton swab and ethyl alcohol to remove sanding debris and mineral oil in preparation of a new paint job. White acrylic modeling paint was used.

The paint was applied using a bamboo skewer.

When dried the paint outside of the depressed logo was removed during the micro-meshing. This was done with 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Between each pad the stem was rubbed with Obsidian Oil and wiped with a paper towel.

The stem was taken to the buffer where it was polished with Blue Diamond compound . The stem then received several coats of carnauba wax. The stummel, having just received fresh beeswax, did not have any carnauba wax applied.

I am very pleased with how well this Kiko Caveman turned out. I could not find any information concerning the shapes that the makers tried to carve for. This pipe was very different in regards to the tobacco chamber drilling than the previously restored Kiko Caveman. This pipe has a narrow 16.26 mm bore while the other Kiko has an 18.29 mm bore. I tried the narrow bore with Carolina Red Flake virginia blend and it smoked very nicely. The stem of this pipe polished nicely and the glossy black vulcanite accents the lighter meerschaum well. The long stem does not make for a very comfortable clenching pipe but the “hand feel” makes up for that. Besides, the flat bottom of this pipe provides a perfect and stable sitting base. The dimensions of the Kiko Caveman Chimney are:
- Length: 6.85 in./ 173.99 mm.
- Weight: 1.92 oz./ 54.43 g.
- Bowl Height: 3.02 in./ 76.71 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.69 in./ 42.93 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.64 in./ 16.26 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.92 in./ 39.88 mm. In line with the stem
1.47 in./ 37.34 mm. Perpendicular to the stem

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 Kiko Caveman Chimney.
A Peterson Meerschaum 120 Dublin Restoration

August 27th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Back in the 1990s I worked with a fellow teacher and Nebraska Air Guard F4 pilot who often said, “Better lucky than good, any day.” That phrase has stuck with me over the years and applies to so very many daily occurrences. The acquisition of this pipe for instance. It was part of a lot of 12 pipes. The other 12 were nothing to be too excited about; Yello-Boles, Dr Grabows, a split seam leather Longchamp, etc… and what appeared to be a Peterson Meerschaum hiding in the background ashamed at it’s lot in life. The photos of the lot were as usual, less than perfect yet, I knew what I thought I was seeing. I was sure that someone else would see the same thing and the lot would sell quickly. It didn’t. The auction closed with no sale and was relisted. I cannot remember how many times this relisting occurred. I finally couldn’t take the thought of a Peterson meerschaum going unloved and messaged the seller with an offer. The auction was not set as a “Make Best Offer” but I figured it was worth a shot. The seller messaged me back saying that he reduced the price to my offer. Well, that was easy.

Needless to say, after a few days of waiting the package arrived here in the wilds of southeast Nebraska. The anticipation was palpable as I tore through the packaging. I eventually unwrapped a P-lip stem with the unmistakable P stamped clearly. I knew it! Next the stummel emerged from it’s protective tissue paper. The seller knew how to package and ship pipes and not just for dramatic effect. The stem and stummel were reunited and I saw my latest prize. As typical, the only stamp was the Peterson stem logo but the shape was unmistakable a 120 Dublin. Below are some photos of the pipe prior to doing any work on it.

Background

Earlier this year I restored a Peterson meerschaum 406 Prince. I will use a good deal of the “Background” from that blog here again:

I included a few links concerning the history of Peterson pipes. I will include those here also. “For a great history Mark Irwin and Gary Marlburg’s book is a must read for a Pete Geek.

(Available at https://www.smokingpipes.com/accessories/books/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=471478) Given the price is a bit high but worth every penny for a Peterson aficionado.

Irwin, Mark and Malmberg, Gary (2018). The Peterson Pipe The Story of Kapp & Peterson, First edition, second printing 2021. Briar Books Press, Canada.

The next site is pipedia.org’s History of Peterson by Jim Lilley (Peterson – Pipedia)

Lastly the pipephil.eu site for all things logo: Peterson: historical pipes — Pipes: Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu) They also have a few other links to things like the Peterson timeline and P-lip information.”

For the history of Peterson Meerschaums I will mainly be citing Irwin and Marlberg’s The Peterson Pipe book. Peterson has a long history of meerschaum pipe making dating back to the 1870s (Irwin, 2018 p. 15). At the time when Charles Peterson began working for the Kapp brothers in Dublin, meerschaum was the old traditional material while briar was a new innovation destined to become more popular in the next century. It was with briar that Charles Peterson created his original patents for the reservoir in 1890 and for the graduated-bore mouthpiece with what we call the “Patent-Lip” (P-Lip) today, in 1894. 1893 was the year that Charles Peterson and Henry Kapp bought out the shares of Christian Kapp of the Family business, which the brothers had run together. “Christian was evidently not happy with this arrangement and disliked Dublin. He trained to become a doctor, and on 12 June 1893 he sold his share of the business to his brother and Charles Peterson” (Irwin, 2018 p. 48). The Kapp & Peterson company was born and the Peterson System has continued for over 130 years.

Now obviously the lovely Peterson meerschaum pipe in hand is not something made at the turn of the century. According to Irwin and Malmberg, “ In 1968, Peterson returned to making block-meerschaum pipes after forty years. They had made block meerschaums in all Patent Systems and many Classic Range shapes from 1896 until about 1929. The scarcity and rising cost of amber, fragility of meerschaum and popularity of briar all contributed to the end of meerschaum production.” (Irwin, 2018 p. 158). The authors go on to state that, “These Republic-era meerschaums were first made in partnership with Manxman Pipes, Ltd., on the Isle of Man, a company Peterson bought outright in the early 1970’s (Irwin, 2018 p. 158).

I am not quite sure how the purchase of Manxman pipes worked. Manxman was an apparent subsidiary of Laxey Pipes Ltd. According to 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)

As for the age of this 120 Dublin, the first documented 120 shape I found in The Peterson Pipe book was on the 1947 shape chart (Irwin, 2018 pp. 156-157). During the Free State Era ( 1922-1937 the Dublin looking shape had an R413 number. The Patent Pipes from 1890-1921 had a Dublin-esque shape named the “Kaffir” and did not have shape numbers (Irwin, 2018 p. 122, 124).

In the “A New Leaf” meerschaum brochure from 1968 there appear photos of the Peterson meerschaums offered (Irwin, 2018 p. 105). The 120 shape is represented however the stem/shank joint is very flush and smooth with a continuous taper. This 120 has a rounded shank end at the stem shank joint. The 1975 catalog photos show meerschaum pipes with stem/shank joints like this pipe (Irwin, 2018 p. 164, 166). This leads me to believe that this Peterson Meerschaum was made in the mid1970s-early 1980s.

The Restoration

Like I usually do, I began with a clean denim piece to work on.

My old Oxiclean solution was getting discolored and was not smelling very good so a new solution was made. 1 ½ tablespoons of Oxiclean powder in about 500 ml of tap water.

The stem of the Peterson was placed in the solution for a soak in the oxy.

Reaming with a reaming tool like the PipNet is not recommended for meerschaum due to it’s brittle nature and the torque generated with a tool like the PipNet would probably not be a good thing. Instead I used the Smokingpipes Low Country reaming knife and the General triangular scraper. The tip of the General had been ground from the original sharp point to a more rounded tip with a grinding wheel. A wood dowel wrapped in 220 sandpaper joined in.

The scraping did not produce a great deal of removed cake but it did clear the tobacco chamber.

When cleaning the rim I noticed what appeared to be filled cracks. I saw no evidence that these cracks joined together and actually represented a large piece of the pipe that had been broken off and later repaired. Though looking at the outer stummel surface the finish is smoothed (without rustication) between the two cracks. The area between the crack also looked thinner than the rest of the stummel. I think this was evidence of a repair by a previous owner or an attempt by the factory to salvage a flawed stummel. Either way the stummel looked and felt structurally sound.

Scraping the tobacco chamber was difficult as the cake was very hard and held firmly to the walls of the chamber. Sanding was slow and exposed fresh meerschaum at the rim of the chamber.

After the chamber was sanded I scrubbed the stummel with warm water and a medium toothbrush. The traditional Murphy Oil Soap was not used, only warm water. The water and toothbrush did appear to remove some of the accumulated grime making the stummel look a bit more clean than previously.

To unify the staining of the pipe’s rim, I used furniture touch-up stain markers.

I started with black around the rim.

I then used the mahogany immediately below the black. Sorry about the blurriness of the photo.

After the stain had dried a few minutes I used a make-up pad wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol to blend the two lines of stain together. Below you can see the results of my blending.

The stem was removed from the oxi bath after 2 hours and was wiped vigorously with a dry cotton make-up pad. A good deal of oxidized vulcanite was removed.

I cleaned the shank airway with folded over bristle pipe cleaners, a nylon shank brush and cotton swabs dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

The stem was then scrubbed with Soft Scrub cleanser applied to make-up pads. After scrubbing I applied a layer of mineral oil to the stem.

The airway of the stem was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

The pipe sat neglected for a whole day due to the incredibly busy schedule of a retired slacker, I mean teacher. When I returned to work on the stem I wiped the excess mineral oil and lightly sanded with the 320 sanding sponge.

There were a few deep dents in the stem that would require filling with black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). Small drops of CA were placed onto each of the dents.

The CA was then spritzed with a CA drying accelerator. This allows the CA to cure almost instantly.

The cured CA was then lightly filed with a small flat file. This removes the top of the CA fill, getting it smooth with the surrounding vulcanite.

The new fill was then sanded with 320 and 400 grit sanding sponges. The logo was covered with a piece of painters tape to protect the logo from further sanding. The stem was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 600-3500. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with a dab of mineral oil by fingertip and wiped with a dry paper towel.

The flaws on the surface of the rim were filled with a different black CA. The product I use for the stem is “rubberized”. I wanted a hader CA fill for the rim so I used a non-rubberized black CA. I placed a drop of the black CA on the bottom of an upside down medicine cup. I dabbed a fly tying bodkin into the drop to get some CA onto the bodkin then applied it to the flaws. This allowed me to have precise placement of the CA limiting the sanding of excess CA fill.

I allowed the CA to cure on its own without any accelerator. This was a slow process with a good deal of waiting between applications. Once cured, I very lightly sanded the rim with a 400 and 600 sanding sponge to remove the excess CA.

Several applications and sandings later I was pleased with the result. You can see that the sanding was very light leaving most of the previously dyed rim black or, mostly so.

The rim was then re-dyed with the black stain touch-up marker. And allowed to dry.

The finished rim has imperfections which I purposely left. I thought that a pristine smooth finish would look out of place with the rustication of the stummel.

Next I cleaned the logo of any Obsidian Oil with a cotton swab dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

Using white acrylic model paint and a fine detail paint brush I applied white paint to the logo. This acrylic paint is water based and dries quickly.

The 4000 grit micro-mesh dam was used to remove the excess white paint.

I worked the stem with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. Between each pad I applied a small drop of Obsidian Oil, rubbed it onto the stem and wiped with a dry paper towel.

Before and After Fine Polish was used with a soft cotton cloth on the stem to increase the level of polish.

The Fine Polish was followed with Before and After Extra Fine Polish applied and hand buffed with the same soft cotton cloth.

To finish the stummel I needed to prepare for a beeswax coating. I gathered the heat gun, canning jar with beeswax & brush, a catch tin for wax drips and a shallow pan with water. The pan and water help to heat/melt the wax and keep it melted while I work.

The canning jar with beeswax was placed into the water in the pad and the stove lit. The boiling water will melt the wax.

WHile I was waiting for the wax to liquify, I waxed the Peterson stem at the buffer with carnauba wax.

The hot water bath melted the wax. I heated the stummel with the heat gut. I have to admit I was a bit worried about heating the mortise and tenon too much.

With the stummel hot and the beeswax melted I started painting the liquid wax onto the stummel. I painted the top 1.3 and the entirety of the shank. As I painted the accumulating wax was cooling making a lumpy looking mess.

The heat gun was again turned on and the stummel was rotated in all directions in the flow of hot air. The wax remelted and flowed over the surface of the stummel. I herded the wax around with the paint brush to make sure that everything was getting it’s fair share of melted wax. The excess wax drips were accumulating in the catch tin.

With every part of the stummel well coated with hot liquid wax I used a paper towel to absorb the remaining excess wax from the stummel.

The pipe was hot to the touch so I laced it onto the workbench to cool.

There you have it, the restoration of a Peterson Meerschaum 120 Dublin. This old girl turned out pretty well. I still wonder what happened to the Dublin Darling from the Isle of Man regarding the cracks in the bowl. I believe that the whole rear of the bowl was chipped out at some time and repaired with a pretty darn good glue job. The crack seems can kind of be made out in the photo below of the back/shank side of the pipe. Whatever happened she should continue being a grand little pipe for many years. The fresh beeswax looks good and the stem polished up very well. The dimensions of this 120 Dublin are:
- Length: 6.00 in./ 152.40 mm.
- Weight: 1.28 oz./ 36.50 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.71 in./ 43.43 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.47 in./ 37.34 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.74 in./ 18.80 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.33 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.

Below are some photos of the finished Peterson Meerschaum 120 Dublin.
A Peterson Red Premier Meerschaum 406 Prince Restoration (with addendum)

June 28th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

In the last restoration I discussed my Peterson Pipe Acquisition Disorder had ended its remission. Well, I neglected to say how severe the return to activity the PPAD had actually become. Please do not grieve for me. Your sympathy would be far better applied to another, for this is a disorder which I have brought upon myself.

This restoration deals with a lovely Peterson meerschaum pipe which came to me as part of an estate lot. I spied this Pete meer in the photos of the lot and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was as if the Peterson was hiding amongst the other old pipes. Apparently

it’s camouflage was good because there were only 6 other bidders. A few days later the goal and gem of the entire lot arrived here in the wilds of southeast Nebraska. Below are some photos showing the Peterson meerschaum prior to any work being done.

I had only worked on a handful of old meerschaum pipes. I figured that I should probably read a couple of Steve Laug’s rebornpipes.com concerning meerschaum. I have found that there are two main ways to learn; 1, from your own mistakes and 2, from listening to the wisdom of others who have made mistakes. One of these is free and painless, the other, not so much. I did know that I would be using far more soap and water than alcohol on this restoration. I also knew that I wanted to keep the P logo on the stem at all costs since that was the only indication of this pipe’s maker.

Background

In the last restoration I did a Peterson Dunmore 606 Pot (linked for those who are interested). I included a few links concerning the history of Peterson pipes. I will include those here also. “For a great history Mark Irwin and Gary Marlburg’s book is a must read for a Pete Geek.

(Available at https://www.smokingpipes.com/accessories/books/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=471478) Given the price is a bit high but worth every penny for a Peterson aficionado.

Irwin, Mark and Malmberg, Gary (2018). The Peterson Pipe The Story of Kapp & Peterson, First edition, second printing 2021. Briar Books Press, Canada.

The next site is pipedia.org’s History of Peterson by Jim Lilley (Peterson – Pipedia)

Lastly the pipephil.eu site for all things logo: Peterson: historical pipes — Pipes: Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu) They also have a few other links to things like the Peterson timeline and P-lip information.”

For the history of Peterson Meerschaums I will mainly be citing Irwin and Marlberg’s The Peterson Pipe book. Peterson has a long history of meerschaum pipe making dating back to the 1870s (Irwin, 2018 p. 15). At the time when Charles Peterson began working for the Kapp brothers in Dublin, meerschaum was the old traditional material while briar was a new innovation destined to become more popular in the next century. It was with briar that Charles Peterson created his original patents for the reservoir in 1890 and for the graduated-bore mouthpiece with what we call the “Patent-Lip” (P-Lip) today, in 1894. 1893 was the year that Charles Peterson and Henry Kapp bought out the shares of Christian Kapp of the Family business, which the brothers had run together. “Christian was evidently not happy with this arrangement and disliked Dublin. He trained to become a doctor, and on 12 June 1893 he sold his share of the business to his brother and Charles Peterson” (Irwin, 2018 p. 48). The Kapp & Peterson company was born and the Peterson System has continued for over 130 years.

Now obviously the lovely Peterson meerschaum pipe in hand is not something made at the turn of the century. According to Irwin and Malmberg, “ In 1968, Peterson returned to making block-meerschaum pipes after forty years. They had made block meerschaums in all Patent Systems and many Classic Range shapes from 1896 until about 1929. The scarcity and rising cost of amber, fragility of meerschaum and popularity of briar all contributed to the end of meerschaum production.” (Irwin, 2018 p. 158). The authors go on to state that, “These Republic-era meerschaums were first made in partnership with Manxman Pipes, Ltd., on the Isle of Man, a company Peterson bought outright in the early 1970’s (Irwin, 2018 p. 158).

I am not quite sure how the purchase of Manxman pipes worked. Manxman was an apparent subsidiary of Laxey Pipes Ltd. According to 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)

Tracing the 406 shape through the pipe charts from the early 1900’s to 1984 was interesting and made me realize it is time to visit the eye doctor again and get a new prescription for glasses. The first iterations of the prince shape are found in the 1947 shape chart. There are 4 prince varieties: “Sports” 4 Large Prince, 407 Prince (straight stem), 407 Prince semi-bent and the 406 Large Prince. The next catalog occurrence is in 1965. Here the Peterson 406 is a prince with a slight bend. The shape matches the pipe in hand very well. The next occurrence is in the Peterson-Glass 1978-79 catalog. This catalog shows the full range of Peterson’s meerschaum offerings and here the 406 prince has a slight bend. The last catalog tracing the prince is the shape charts from the 1983 issue. Here the 406 is shown with a slight bent stem and labeled as “406. Large Prince” (Irwin, 2018 p. 171). The 406 also has an asterisk denoting that this shape is also “Available in Meerschaum”. The 407 reappears as a prince with a straight stem and is not available in meerschaum.

The Peterson-Glass 1978-79 catalog also lists and discusses the available meerschaum finishes. These included: Golden Supreme, Tawny De Luxe, Golden Princess, Yellow Aboriginal, Red/Black Premier and Kapmeer. Now this may be taken with a grain of salt but I believe this to be a 406 Large Prince from the 1983 catalog but with the red staining of the Peterson-Glass 1978-79 catalog. Either way, I think this pipe is a late 1970s-early 1980s product.

The Restoration

In typical “me” fashion I began with a cleanish piece of denim for the work surface. I think I may need to visit the local thrift stores and see if I can pick up a couple pairs of jeans to turn into new denim pieces. The laundry guy here at this house has much to be desired when it comes to stain removal.

I removed the stem and gave it a light buffing with 0000 steel wool prior to a dunk in the OxyClean solution.

I figured I would start with an hour in the Oxy then reassess if more time would be needed.

The reaming was done with only scrapers. I heeded the warnings of others who said to avoid reaming tools that would apply torque to the meerschaum.

The previous owner either hadn’t smoked this darling very much or had taken care not to allow the build-up of a cake. Well done, unknown guy or gal (keeping it inclusive).

After sanding the tobacco chamber with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel I finish sanded it with 320 sandpaper and my finger. Next stop was the sink. Here I scrubbed the stummel with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium stiff toothbrush. The lather turned bright pink indicating that I was correct in identifying this pipe as a Red Premier from the Peterson-Glass 1978-79 catalog. The soap was rinsed with warm water. I also scrubbed the airway with a nylon shank brush and Dawn dish soap. This produced slightly brown tinted lather and was also rinsed with warm water. The stummel was then dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench the stummel’s striped colors were more pronounced. I wasn’t sure what to do about that. Do I try to stain it with a red Fiebing’s Leather Dye or leave it alone and see how it looks after the molten beeswax? I opted for the latter.

I ran a bristle pipe cleaner dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol through the airway to judge how effective my scrubbing had been. It came out pretty clean. I proceeded to do this a few more times until no color was seen.

To make sure there was no wax or excess dye remaining on the stummel exterior I used a medium toothbrush dipped in ethyl alcohol to scrub the stummel. You can see that a little bit more red dye came off into the alcohol in the medicine cup and onto the toothbrush.

There were small brown clouds of oxidized rubber around the stem in the Oxy solution. I assumed this to mean it was working at loosening up that darn oxidation.

Upon removing the stem from the solution I wiped it vigorously with a dry cotton make-up pad. A significant amount of oxidized rubber came off on the pad.

I then proceeded to use several more pads with SoftScrub to attempt to rid the stem of the oxidized material. I was glad to see a general lightening of the pads but the oxidation was stubborn and remained difficult.

I then tried using a piece of a Magic Eraser with SoftScrub. I ended up taking the stem to the sink where I could rinse the Magic Eraser with water more effectively.

Once again, I forgot to take any photos of the sanding and micro-meshing of the stem. I get focussed or “in the zone” and kind of lose myself sometimes. Sorry, if it’s any consolation you can see the brown oxidized rubber dust from wiping the dust from the sanding sponges on the denim.

I cleaned the airway of the stem and found it was also fairly clean. Alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaners were the weapon of choice, here. The stem then received a coat of mineral oil.

I checked the photos to make sure that the P logo was painted white. I didn’t want to make the same mistake that I did on the last restoration and have to go back and repaint the logo. If you enjoy learning from the mistakes of others check out the Peterson Dunhill 606 restoration. The logo area was cleaned and de-oiled with a cotton swab and 95% ethyl alcohol.

I used the plastic tube of a cotton swab to form a plastic scraper. This was done with a lighter and pressed flat with a knife blade. It was then trimmed to shape with scissors. The white acrylic model paint was applied and allowed to mostly dry.

The paint was then scraped off using the freshly made plastic scraper.

I was ready to apply the beeswax. I think this is what I was planning out in my head when I failed to photograph the stem sanding. I wanted a fairly easy to apply and cleanup method to apply a layer of beeswax to the stummel. I came up with the following plan:
1. Melt the beeswax in a glass canning jar in a pan of boiling water.
2. Place the stummel in an empty metal snuff can. This is to catch the wax drippings.
3. While the wax is melting, heat the stummel with a heat gun.
4. Move the wax close to the stummel and paint the wax onto the surface of the stummel.
5. Use the heat gun to evenly melt/distribute the wax over the entire stummel.
6. Absorb the excess liquid wax onto a paper towel.
That sounded like a good plan based only on having done this two other times. And those were a couple of years ago.

The double boiler wax melter.

The empty snuff can wax catcher.

The heat gun

It’s “Go time”.

The nearly constant heating and making sure everything was evenly coated.

Absorbing the wax. Hot, hot, hot.

Ahhh, that’s better. Using a cotton glove to absorb the liquid wax was much more comfortable than the paper towel.

Here is what the pipe looked like back at the workbench.

All that remained was to give the stem a couple of coats of carnauba wax with the buffer and take some “finished” photos.

Overall this Peterson Meerschaum 406 Prince turned out quite nicely. I admit to not being totally comfortable working with meerschaum. At least not as comfortable as I am with briar. Nevertheless, I think the pipe cleaned-up well. I love the shape of the Peterson 406, the slightly bent stem gives it a graceful elegance not quite typical for the normal Peterson aesthetic of a more heavy shank. With it’s wide bowl it should make a grand English blend smoker. The stem polished up pretty well except for the tenon end which still retained some discoloration from oxidation. I feared being too aggressive here and risking the loss of the stem logo. The red stain of the meerschaum is attractive with the black rim and the stripe around the middle giving character. The dimensions of the Peterson Meerschaum 406 Prince are:

Length: 6.58 in./ 167.13 mm.

Weight: 1.63 oz./ 45.75 g.

Bowl Height: 1.46 in./ 37.08 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.17 in./ 29.72 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.78 in./ 19.81mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.65 in./ 41.91 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 Peterson Meerschaum 406 Prince.

Addendum: Additional work done on stem. I was not happy with my work on removing the oxidation from this stem. I mentioned that I did not want to risk losing the stem logo with a more aggressive deoxidation treatment using Before and After Deoxidation Solution. Mark Hoover, of Before and After products, reached out to me via Facebook personal messaging and stated, “I have never had loss so I am a bit perplexed. You should not have any loss as there is no abrasive. If the stamp is faint or heavily oxidized it was likely not strong under the oxidation so when you clean it it may just seem that way. I promise you will not have this issue with a deep stamp like the Peterson you just did.” I have had the loss of a stamp using the Before and After Deoxidizing solution when the stamp was weak. The Key point to Mark Hoover’s statement is “not strong under the oxidation”. With a weak stamp, removal of oxidized material can remove a faint stamp as the stamp has been oxidized as well.

With Mark’s assurance giving me more confidence, I returned the Peterson Prince to the workbench. I wiped the stem of 95% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad to remove the carnauba wax. I then placed a pipe cleaner into the button as a hanger. The stem was then suspended into the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer solution.

I allowed the solution to work on the stem for 90 minutes. After 90 minutes I allowed the stem to drip excess solution back into the jar.

After dripping I wiped the remaining solution from the stem with a coarse cotton shop rag. I ran several pipe cleaners through the airway to remove any solution from the airway as well. The oxidation was greatly reduced but there was still some discoloration. I returned the stem to the workbench and used SoftScrub on a make-up pad. SoftScrub is an abrasive and will wear away a stamp though it is far less abrasive than sanding.

The stem was micro-meshed using the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. I then polished the stem with the Before and After Fine Polish followed by the Extra Fine Polish. The stem logo was again repainted as earlier. The stem was finally given a couple of coats of carnauba wax at the buffer.

The below photos are of the Peterson meerschaum 406 Prince after readdressing the oxidation.