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.