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Tag: Peterson pipe restoration

A Peterson Captain Pete Restoration

December 21st, 2023

Written and photographed by John M. Young

It has been said that I suffer from Peterson Pipe Acquisition Disorder (PPAD). Though not a painful affliction, except in a financial way, it can prove detrimental to one’s long term mental stability. I believe the early symptoms include a strange desire to only smoke Peterson pipes. As the disorder progresses afflicted individuals feel a compulsion to own each of the Peterson 300 series shapes. In its latter stages individuals can become obsessed with owning an example of every Peterson pipe ever produced. These poor souls have been known to have and hoard hundreds of Peterson pipes which they refer to as “a collection”.

Fortunately, for myself, I seem to be in an early stage of the disorder and only have mild symptoms. This stage is often referred to as being a “Pete Geek”. Some symptoms in PPAD include rambling conversations with patients repeating the terms 1896, patents, well, chimney and P-lip. Some patients have been known to speak poorly pronounced Gaelic phrases like “Sláinte”, “Dia duit” and “Póg mo thóin!”   In my case, I can still see the beauty of other brands and lines of pipes and, so far at least, not fallen into true Obsessive Compulsive Peterson Pipe Acquisition Disorder (OCPPAD).

The subject of this blog is a Peterson Captain Pete. The pipe was purchased via an auction from eBay. Peterson pipes have a long and storied history which is rich and fascinating. I highly recommend the book The Peterson Pipe, by authors Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg as well as a reading of pipedia.com’s Peterson pages. According to Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg, the Captain Pete:

“This line’s name was derived from the nickname of Charles Peterson, known affectionately as “Captain Peterson.” The first issue, c. 1940-62, was in a smooth finish produced for Rogers Imports with a white stamped P inside C, or a circled P on the mouthpiece. CAPTAIN over PETE on shank, and a MADE IN IRELAND in a circle. English made versions show CAPTAIN over PETE on shank or “CAPTAIN PETERSON” and A PETERSON PRODUCT over MADE IN ENGLAND or LONDON MADE over ENGLAND. The second issue (1998-), features an XL bowl with Sherlock Holmes shapes and compact stems, in rustic or combination of smooth and rustic, with a nickel band between two narrow brass bands.” (Irwin and Malmberg p.295)

Photos of this Peterson Captain Pete when it arrived are below:

As you can see from the photos and by comparing them to the description of Irwin and Malberg, this is a first issue 1940-1962 pipe. The condition of the pipe is remarkable. I would judge that it was only smoked a handful of times. The lathe marks inside the tobacco chamber are visible though not shown in the photos. The condition of the stem and lower bowl interior are nearly factory fresh. When I first examined this pipe I thought the only work that I would need to do was minimal. It included; redoing the factory fills, 8 of them in total, reaming the slight cake of the tobacco chamber, fine polishing of the stem with a logo touch-up painting and a thorough cleaning of the airway.

I began with a look at the airway. It was remarkably clean, after swabbing the shank with a cotton swab dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol and a pipe cleaner

dipped in the same alcohol I only got a slight discoloring of the swab and cleaner. Though not spotless far cleaner than I would have expected from a pipe that was 60-80 years old. I suspected that someone had cleaned this pipe recently.

Next on the agenda were the fills. I do not enjoy replacing fill. Yes, I know it is a part of my pursuit and that the very nature that creates this wonderful wood, briar, would not have the characteristics that we require if it were to grow in more hospitable, less sandy environs. I still do not like fixing fills. “Quit whining, ya big baby.” “Oh good, you’re back. I was beginning to think I was alone.” “You’re not getting paid by the word so knock it off and fix the dang pits.”

I tried to photograph the pits and their factory fills. They were not badly done, just done in a factory. I know this pipe would never have made the cut at Dunhill’s due to the sand pits but a Peterson isn’t a Dunhill. Although

the finished goal is to have a finish that rivals a smooth Dunhill. Anyway, I began by picking out any old fill material that was soft enough to remove with a fly tying bodkin. There were 8 pits in all. I used the same bodkin to place a small drop of brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) into a pit. I then used nitrile gloved fingers to take a pinch of briar dust and forcefully press the dust into the CA filled pit. The CA sets up near immediately with the briar dust so the motion of placing and pressing must be done quickly. Once one was filled I moved on to the next pit. Once all were filled I allowed them to sit and cure for a few minutes.

The beautiful Captain Pete now looked like a pox ridden mess. I remember learning the word carbuncle in High school English, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, perhaps. For some reason that word popped back into my mind.

The next task was to file the majority of the CA and briar dust “new fill” from the stummel while doing as little damage as possible to the stummel. Slow and steady are the keys to this. Now, a normal person can do this by feel. The CA is much harder than the briar and I am sure it feels significantly different than filing the briar. I cannot feel very much with my fingers. They are perpetually numb due to me having multiple sclerosis (MS). I have to use my eyes and ears to see and hear the file working rather than relying on a sense of touch. Since the file is covering the area being filed it is mostly by hearing that I do this. Once filed smoothish I turned to the sandpaper. I

used nothing coarser than 320 and this only with a very light touch. 400 was mainly used after which I went directly to the 1500 micro-mesh pad. Once sanded smooth I then checked for any slight spots where the briar dust had left tiny pores in the surface. When a tiny pore or depression was found I would lightly touch it with the bodkin touched with, not dipped in, brown CA. These very small spots of CA were then allowed to sit for 15 minutes to cure. After curing they were again smoothed using the 2400 micro-mesh pad.

I was now ready to start the micro-meshing of the whole stummel. I used painters tape to mask the stampings and reinserted the stem. I also taped over the stem logo. I used the 1500 and 1800 micro-mesh pads dry with a very light touch. After the pads I wiped the stummel off with a make-up removal pad moistened with 99% isopropyl alcohol. The stem did not require micro-meshing at this coarse of a grit so it was ignored. The 2400 micro-mesh pad was used on both the stummel and stem. The wiping of the stummel remained the same while the wiping of the stem between pads was done with a drop of Obsidian oil rubbed in by fingers followed by a wipe with a clean paper towel. This continued through the 3600 micro-mesh pad with the above mentioned wiping between pads.

Upon finishing with the 3600 micro-mesh pad and wipe I removed all of the painters tape. I then repainted the logo with acrylic model paint. This was allowed to dry for 10 minutes.

Once the paint had dried I began micro-meshing the stummel and stem with the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. There were a couple of spots inside the logo that needed to have paint scraped off. This was carefully done with the edge of a pocket knife. Between each of the micro-mesh pads the stummel and stem surfaces were wiped as before.

In examining the pipe after the micro-meshing I was not happy with the briar color. There were light areas where I had sanded during the filling of blemishes that did not match the stummel. I thought it would be best to lightly restrain the stummel using a diluted Fiebing’s Leather Dye.

I poured 5 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into a medicine cup. I then used a clean soft pipe cleaner as an applicator. The pipe cleaner was dipped into the Light Brown Fiebing’s and stirred into the 5 ml of ethyl alcohol. THe dye was then applied to the surface of the stummel.

Several coats were applied to achieve complete coverage. The wet stummel was then flamed with a disposable lighter to set the dye. I then allowed the dye to dry for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes I began wiping the stummel with a make-up pads wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol. The pads removed much of the dye and blended the area very nicely.

Once all of the alcohol had evaporated I slathered the entire pipe with Before and After Restoration Balm. The balm was allied to sit and do its magic for 20 minutes.

I was definitely in the home stretch and the pipe was looking good. I wiped off the Restoration Balm with a soft cotton rag. I then polished the stem using Before and After Fine Polish applied with my finger and rubbed with a cotton rag followed by the Before and After Extra-Fine Polish.

The final step was to apply several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer. After buffing the pipe was hand buffed with a microfiber cloth and taken upstair for a photo session.

Overall I am very pleased with how well this Captain Pete turned out. I had always wanted to restore one of these and can now check it off the list. I do think that the previous owner had cleaned up this pipe and perhaps tried their hand at a restoration. It was remarkably clean, except for the need of a reaming, when I received it. One other thing that I noticed when working with the stem was the lack of any oxidation. For a pipe that is 60-80 years old there should be oxidation. I could tell that the stem had been buffed with noticeable buffing marks running perpendicular to the length of the stem. These were all removed during the micro-meshing. I do hope that you have found this informative and or entertaining. If you like this sort of thing please hit like and subscribe. Thank you very much for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

*Irwin, Mark, and Gary Malmberg. The Peterson Pipe The Story of Kapp & Peterson. First Edition, second printing ed., Canada, Briar Books Press, 2018.

Below are some photos of the finished Peterson Captain Pete.
A Marxman Regular Apple Restoration

November 14th, 2023

Written and photographed by John M. Young

I remember when I first started down my pipe restoration path. I’d picked up an estate lot figuring that would be the best way to practice and hone my skills. Within the lot there was a dark dirty poorly grained small billiard pipe. The stamping said “MARXMAN”. It was quite nondescript. I immediately had an aversion to the name, as many of my generation might, Carl Marx was no hero of mine. I started researching Marxman pipes to find out more about this company which I hadn’t heard of. As I read, I became fascinated. Yes, many of the Marxman pipes were filled with fills, others so ugly that they were kind of cute, and there were the carved pipes of people (effigies that today would probably get you in trouble for being racist), animals and famous celebrities as well as the traditional pipe shapes. Indeed something for everyone.

The history of Robert (Bob) Marxman was also intriguing. To start a company at 29 years old and turn it into a successful business is impressive but to do that when the world is at war and the supply of your main material, briar, is cut off due to the war is even more impressive. Then to see the marketing; innovative, clever, good advertising all creating success. I saw parallels in Marxman’s business to things we do in restoration – like making the best with what you have. I also discovered that there is no book about the history of Marxman. There are great books that can be used to research Falcon pipes or Peterson pipes and web sites for Dr. Grabow and Custom-bilt pipes but alas, little to go on for Marxman. All we have for certain are the dates of a beginning in 1934 and a merger with Mastercraft in 1953. I guess that makes dating then easy. (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Marxman)

I have restored a number of Marxman pipes and find them fun and relatively inexpensive to practice with. At the same time some are my favorite pipes to smoke. The spigot and the chunky lovat, to the left, are great smoking pipes. The lovat is one that I would surely be ridiculed for if I tried entering her in a beauty contest.

This brings us to the Marxman Regular Apple, the topic of this restoration and the photo at the top of the page. This little darling arrived as many Marxmans do – well used. That is a polite way of saying beat-up and filthy. She had a cake so thick that only a tiny bowl of tobacco could be smoked. How she avoided a cracked bowl is amazing. This cake was equally as thick as the briar walls of the tobacco chamber.

The bright lights used in these original photographs actually make her look better than the normal room lighting. I could see very little grain of any kind.

Then there was the condition of her stem – all I could think of was that a teenager with a channel-lock had heard there was a $20 bill in the shank and he was going to be the first to retrieve it.

Of course the internals were in a condition that is expected of a pipe in this state.

Other than those issues this should be fun, although fun to a restorer may not be universally accepted.

Normally I start with a thorough cleaning of the exterior of the stummel. This time I started with the reaming of the tobacco chamber. I was actually afraid that it might just burst like a balloon cracking into several pieces. Okay, slight exaggeration, there. I began with the PipNet and the Smoking pipes knife. I soon realized that I did not want to put that much pressure on the handle of my PipNet.

I got out the Tsuge reaming blade and the Scotte adjustable reamer. I started opening up the chamber one step at a time and finished with the PipNet. The aftermath of the reaming was a pile of carbon cake that if properly sequestered will aid with global carbon control. The chamber was finally sanded with 220 sandpaper on a wooden dowel. The chamber looked good with no signs of any damage from excessive heat.

With the chamber reamed I turned my attention to reaming out the shank and draft hole. I used the draft hole reamer from the Scotte tool to clear the airway. It felt rather “greasy”. I took this to mean that there was still a thick residue of tar and yuck in the shank. I tried scraping the airway with a dental pick without much success.

To the sink. I took the stummel to the sink to scrub the externals with Murphy Wood Cleaner and a medium stiff toothbrush. Given, my hands still had carbon on them from the reaming but, wow. The dirt and grime that came off the stummel with the soap was impressive. It was still impressive with the second application of Murphy’s. By the third time I removed the years of accumulated grime. Now for the shank. I started that with the nylon bore brush with Dawn dish soap. The lather produced was dark brown. This was rinsed with hot water. The bore brushing with additional Dawn and rinsing continued several cycles. Finally the lather was not brown. I was sure that the entire stummel would need to be dried overnight with all of that exposure to water.

I returned the stummel to the workbench and proceeded to wipe it down with a make-up pad soaked in 99% ethyl alcohol. The pad removed little else from the stummel, just picking up a very slight brown tint, probably a bit of dye from the wood. I poured a couple milliliters of alcohol into the chamber and sloshed it about and allowed it to fill the draft hole with my finger plugging the mortise end. The alcohol will draw much of the water out of the wood as it is very hydrophilic. I poured the remaining alcohol into a medicine cup and used a paper towel to dry the remaining alcohol from the bowl. I then used a small round needle file to feel for tar in the shank. The needle file came back with tar embedded in the teeth. Hmm, lets try a little technique I came up with – wrapping/rolling a piece of paper towel around the needle file, dip the tip in alcohol and scrub the shank. It works and it allows you to put more pressure on than you can with a cotton swab. The tip end will absorb the tars and can be unwrapped, flipped over, rerolled for a clean side. After doing this repeatedly I finally made progress cleaning the draft hole.

Here is what the Marxman Regular Apple looked like after the scrubbing:

You can really see that there is some wood grain and some big dings and chips to the rim. To the topping table. This is actually just a new piece of 220 sandpaper laid flat on the counter. I sanded in a circular pattern until I had removed most of the dings. I rotated the stummel in my hand several times to keep the pressure even across the entire rim. There was still the chip. For that I sanded until the remaining chip could be removed by beveling the inside edge of the chamber using a wooden ball wrapped in a small piece of sandpaper. After the 220 sandpaper I repeat the process with 400 sandpaper.

The left photo is topped only while the lower photo is topped and beveled.

The sanding of the stummel was done starting with 400 wet dry sandpaper. I was careful of the stampings as to not remove any material from them. After the sandpaper the stummel was

wiped off with an alcohol soaked make-up pad. I then began using the micro-mesh pads. The most coarse pad I have is 1500. This pad was used with a couple drops of water on the pad. Between pads the stummel was wiped off with the alcohol dampened make-up pad. After the 1500 came the 1800, also with a bit of water. I continued up through the micro-mesh pads to 4000, wiping between each with the alcohol.

Once the stummel had been sanded and micro-meshed I gave it a coating of Restoration Balm and allowed it to marinade in the balm while I addressed the stem. I did not soak the stem in the Deoxidizing solution since I knew that it was going to be sanded extensively in order to remove the numerous dents and teeth marks from what appeared to be pliers. The cleaning of the stem began with the removal of the stinger. Stingers or “metal filters” are

kind of a misnomer as they hardly filter the smoke. They most likely allow a surface onto which water can condense out of the smoke and maybe some smoking particles will absorb into this water but, filter? They are usually press-fit into the stem. This one was quite stuck. I tried to soften the dried residue with alcohol and used a brass brush to clean it off. Eventually I wrapped the stinger in a piece of denim and pulled it out with a pair of pliers. I then dropped the stinger into a medicine cup with alcohol to soften the dried residue. Knowing how dirty the shank had been and not wanting to use hot water on the stem and risk discoloring it. I decided to use a technique with long churchwarden bristle pipe cleaners, a pipette with alcohol and a vice. You clamp one end of the pipe cleaner in the vice, thread the stem onto the

pipe cleaner, lightly moisten the pipe cleaner with alcohol (not dripping wet, just moist) then holding the free end of the pipe cleaner tight you vigorously move the stem along the full length of the long pipe cleaner. This can be repeated as many times as needed. After an alcohol soak the stinger cleaned easily and was re-inserted into the now cleaned stem.

I had to be careful not to sand the tenon end of the stem as I did not want to change the shape or size of the stem to make fitting with the shank unsightly. I used 180 sandpaper to roughly sand the problem areas. This rough sanding was smoothed and blended by lighter sanding with 220 followed by 400 sandpaper. This was a slow process and I was sure that the results would leave a stem that had waves along the surface where I had to remove so much material in order to erase the dents. Eventually I got to the point where I was happy with the look of the stem. I then proceeded to use the finer and finer grade micro-mesh pads. The stem was wiped down with Obsidian Oil between each of the different micro-mesh pads. When finished I could still see some of the dings from the abuse but overall I was pleased with the look of the finish.

With the stem in acceptable condition and the stummel well marinated, it was time to reassemble the renovated darling. I wiped the remaining Restoration Balm off the pipe and gave it a good rub with the inside of a cotton athletic sock. It always amazes me at how well the Restoration Balm breathes life back into a piece of dry briar. Truly amazing stuff. The pipe needed a few coats of carnauba wax applied via the buffer. After the buffer waxing I hand buffed the entire pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth to add that little extra shine.

If I were a professional restorer I would have been more inclined to strive for perfection. The only problem there is how perfect can a well used 80 year old pipe get? This one will most likely be either used by me as a work-in-the-yard/fishing pipe or it will be gifted to someone and I was quite pleased at the improvement. Either way it has returned to the task that it was originally made for: To be used to smoke tobacco and look darn good doing it. I hope that you can use some of the techniques that you see here in your own work, were slightly entertained or both. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

PS: Here are those books/websites I referred to earlier:

Back From The Ashes: Uncovering the Lost History of G. L. Hunt and the Falcon Pipe,

by Worth, K. A.

Available at: https://www.amazon.com/Back-Ashes-Uncovering-History-Falcon-ebook/dp/B006VOOFNC/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=falcon+pipe+history&qid=1699996641&sr=8-1 ($2.99 digital version on Amazon)

The Peterson Pipe: The Story of Kapp & Peterson,

by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmburg

Available at: https://www.smokingpipes.com/accessories/books/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=471478 (Still available from Smokingpipes.com, though not $2.99 it is a remarkable book)

Review of: THE CUSTOM-BILT PIPE STORY, by William E. Unger, Jr.,Ph.D

https://pipedia.org/wiki/Custom-Bilt

The Pipes of Sparta: Dr. Grabow, by Leigh Ann Henion https://www.ourstate.com/the-pipes-of-sparta-dr-grabow-tobacco-pipes-north-carolina/

Below are some photos of the finished Marxman Regular Apple.
A Peterson Premier Selection 51 Restoration

November 8th, 2023

Written and photographed by John M. Young

The below auction appeared in October of this year. I had already exceeded the amount I budgeted for pipes but I justified it by saying, “They will be Christmas presents for someone.” That was my story and I was sticking to it. Besides, how can I say “no” to a pair of classic Petersons who’s restoration would provide me with entertainment and a new shape for the

collection. Er, I mean a potential present to a loved one. I already had a beautiful Peterson Deluxe 14S so the Kildare 14S would, most likely, become a present. The Premier Selection 51, on the other hand, was awfully cute and a new shape for me.

The auction was won and the two darlings arrived in short order. The first pipe that I began working on was the 51. She was in very good shape with clear stampings and I wondered what her history and pedigree were. Obviously she was a Peterson and that meant that she was made by the oldest continuously operating briar pipe company in the world. I got out Mark Irwin’s big The Peterson Pipe book and began researching the “Premier” line. According to Irwin, the Premiers are:

“A high-grade line of Classic Range shapes for the US market introduced by Rogers Imports in their 1953 catalog. Offered in smooth or sandblast finish, a P-Lip mouthpiece with an aluminum P, the first occurrence of this logo in the ephemera. The Tan Bark Premier appeared in the ‘69 Iwan Ries catalog. COM of MADE IN over IRELAND, A PREMIER stamp also appears over SELECTION and will be distinguished by an inset brass P on the mouthpiece.” (Irwin 310) This pipe did not have the PREMIER over SELECTION as they were stamped in line.

The term “Classic Range” refers to pipes not of the Peterson System variety. This also indicated that the 51 was made for the US market in the ‘50-60 and imported by either Rogers Imports or Iwan Ries. I wanted something more specific so I did a bit of looking into the 51 shape. This led me to marking and tagging several pages in the big book. The 51 shape was only shown in the 1953 Rogers Imports catalog. (Irwin pp.156-157)

These catalog pages also illustrate “Peterson’s Comfort Bit” which matches the bit for my pipe in the same catalog. The problem is that this pipe does not have the aluminum P. Looking at the Iwan Ries catalog photos there is no mention of shape 51. The only Lovat is called “53 Large Lovat” (Irwin p.171).

The next stamp to examine is the Country of Manufacture (COM) stamp.

This 51 is stamped with MADE IN over IRELAND. Pipedia claims “At the start of the 1950s, all pipes at Kapp & Peterson were stamped with “Made in the Republic of Ireland” stamp…” (Lilley) Yet Irwin states: “This stamp appears on many models spanning most decades of Peterson’s history” and that “Without hallmark dates or other clues, this stamp provides no reliable indication of a pipe’s age.” (Irwin p. 296). Further evidence is the complete lack of a shape 51 in the 1975 Peterson Catalog. This catalog was “Peterson’s first attempt since 1906 to illustrate their complete catalog.” (Irwin 160-161) The Lovat in these illustrations is now called shape 53.

I take all of this to mean that the Premier Selection 51 I have is from the Rogers Import times of 1953- 1968.   Why it dos not have the aluminum P on the mouthpiece and why the PREMIER and SELECTION are stamped in line are a mystery. With that bit of history finished. I was off to work on the pipe.

I began with an examination and photo shoot of the pipe. Below you can see the “before” photos of how the 51 looked upon arrival. The briar was in good shape, the rim had a significant build-up of lava, the tobacco chamber did not have a thick cake build-up and the mouthpiece had calcium deposits and oxidation issues. Overall, I did not think there were any issues that would require abnormal work for restoration.

The first step of this restoration was to ream the tobacco chamber. This was done using the PipNet reamer and a reaming knife. There was not a great amount of cake to remove and the process went quickly. After the cake was

removed I sanded the chamber with 220 sandpaper on a wooden dowel.  When finished sanding I wiped the chamber with a cotton make-up removal pad moistened with 99% ethyl alcohol. Next was the lava build up on the rim. I moistened the lava with a bit of saliva on my finger tip. I then carefully began scraping with the edge of a sharp knife.

Next was the shank interior. I start out with a dental scraping tool. If I can scrape out a little bit, that means my scrubbing is greatly reduced. This one didn’t give me much scrapings but, judging from the lava on the rim I knew there was a bit of residue lurking inside. I used cotton swabs soaked in 99% ethyl alcohol. At first I thought, “this isn’t too bad”. Then, I realized the alcohol had to soften the tars and residues. Black, black and black was the only word to describe the cotton swaps. Lots of them. After about 15 there was a bit of improvement and a color change to brown – progress. I needed a break from the shank so I decided to take the stummel to the sink and scrub the exterior. This was more to use some different muscles in my cramping hands than for other real reasons.

At the sink I used Murphy’s Oil Soap (undiluted with water) on a medium stiffness toothbrush to scrub the stummel. The rim had come mostly clean with the scraping but there was still some residual lava present. Even with what looks like a clean pipe the Murphy’s Oil Soap does wonders at removing dirt and grime that I didn’t even realize was there. I’ll usually run the warm water while I scrub so I can rinse with warm water. After the initial rinse I used the oil soap a second time focusing on the rim. Some of the warm water was allowed into the shank as well. I figured that it might help loosen the stubborn residue inside as well as out. After I’d rinsed the stummel for the second time I dried it is a cotton towel. I then used a nylon bore brush and a small amount of Dawn Dish Soap to scrub the interior of the shank. The scrubbing produced a brown lather that showed me that it was working. This scrubbing was rinsed with liberal amounts of warm water with and without the brush until I was certain the soap had been washed away.

I returned to the bench and gave the stummel a vigorous rub with a make-up pad soaked in alcohol. I then poured about 5 ml of the alcohol into the tobacco chamber and swirled it around. I plugged the shank with my finger and heard the pip pip pip of air bubbles being replaced by alcohol all through the shank. The alcohol is used to pull the water out of the briar. 99% Ethyl alcohol is very hydrophilic meaning that it will pull the alcohol out of the wood and into solution with the alcohol. The alcohol then dries quickly leaving the wood dry after a few minutes. I hoped that all of my scrubbing had removed the residues within the shank. It helped but there were still another 15 alcohol soaked cotton swabs before I considered the shank cleaned out.

The below photos are what the Premier 51 looked like after the scrub-fest. There was no finish remaining, there were a few scratches that would need sanding and the rim would require a light topping to remove the dents, dings and a bit of char. Overall she was looking good .

Topping the stummel required a new piece of 220 sandpaper laid flat upon the counter top and a light touch. I Help the stummel firmly yet gently and sanded in a circular motion rotating the stummel in my hand every 2 rotations. I wanted to sand the rim as evenly as possible. After the 220 sandpaper I repeated the whole process with a new piece of 440 sandpaper. I did not want to change the shape of the stummel and stopped sanding after most of the blemishes where removed. The photo, right, shows what it

looked like when finished. Next came the sanding of the whole stummel. Since the pipe was in good shape I did not start with sandpaper but rather the micro-mesh pads. The 1500 was used first dampened with a bit of water. After micro-meshing I wiped the stummel off with a make-up pad moistened with alcohol. I repeated the same “wet” technique with the 1800 micro-mesh pad. After those two I proceeded to use the pads dry in order of increasing fineness, always wiping between pads with the alcohol. When finished with the micro-mesh pads I applied a coating of Lbepen’s Restoration Balm to the stummel and allowed it to do what it does to the wood.

With the stummel absorbing the Restoration Balm, I turned my attention to the stem. It had calcium deposits and oxidation on its surface. I used 0000 steel wool to lightly buff the entire stem. I then inserted a pipe cleaner into the stem from the shank side and dipped it into the Lbepen Deoxidizing Solution. I place the lid on the jar using the pipe cleaner as a suspension rack to hold the stem completely under the surface of the solution. I left the stem in the solution for approximately an hour. Upon removing the stem from the deoxidizing solution I allowed the excess solution to drip from the stem back into the jar. I vigorously rubbed the remaining solution from the stem using a cotton rag. I recommend using nitrile gloves for this as does the manufacturer. The draft hole needed to be cleared of solution also. This was done with a couple of pipe cleaners. Immediately after removing the deoxidizing solution I wiped down the stem with my fingers dipped in mineral oil. I also ran a pipe cleaner dipped in mineral oil through the stem. The oil stops the vulcanite from further oxidizing with contact with the air.

The stem looked nice and black with no signs of oxidation. I then used the micro-mesh pads to smooth and polish the stem. I began with the 2400 pad and proceeded through each pad up to the 12000. In between pads I wiped the stem off with Obsidian Oil on a make-up pad. Once the micro-mesh pads were each used I used Lbepen’s Fine Polish and Extra-Fine Polish with a cotton cloth. These were applied like a rubbing compound to further polish the vulcanite. When finished with the polishing I applied a final coating of Obsidian Oil to the stem and allowed it to sit for about an hour. I am not sure if this is necessary but I think that allowing the oil to penetrate into the vulcanite provides a bit more protection from the effects of oxygen.

The before and after photos show the great improvement of the restoration of the stem’s vulcanite.

It was time to wipe the remaining Restoration Balm off the stummel and reunite the stummel and stem. They looked great together. The next thing to do was to take the old girl to the buffer and apply a few coats of carnauba wax. A final hand buffing of the entire pipe was done with a microfiber polishing cloth. This added a little more depth to the final shine of the wax.

I am very pleased at how well this restoration went. There were no hidden issues and everything went smoothly. The pipe turned out very well and should be a pleasure to smoke for many more years. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover. Below are a few photos of the finished Peterson Premier 51.

Irwin, Mark. The Peterson Pipe The History of Kapp & Peterson. First Edition, second printing 2021 ed., Canada, Briar Books Press, 2018.

Lilley, Jim. “Peterson.” Pipedia, 23 October 2023, https://pipedia.org/wiki/Peterson#1950_-_1989_The_Republic_Era. Accessed 7 November 2023.