I love the oddities and curiosities, as I call them, regarding the designs of pipes. I have a 4 pipe rack on my mantle that holds pipes which rotate out occasionally as I find a new oddity. Currently they are; a c.1924 MLC Hell Maria, a Wally Frank Windcapped Horn, a Tracy Mincer Doodler and Weber Windpruf. These have all been featured in previous blogs and I linked their respective blogs to their name.
Medico’s Jet Stream fits in the category of oddities and curiosities with its uniquely streamlined shape and place in history. As a kid growing up in the late 1960s and 1970’s I remember advertisements for products using terms like “futuristic”, ”rocket age”, “space age polymers”, etc… Heck, George Jetson even sported a pipe back then,
I would never accuse Mr. Jetson of contributing to my obsession with tobacco pipes or addiction to nicotine , rather that was the world some of us grew up in. This Medico Jet Stream epitomizes that world for me.
Background on Medico and the Jet Stream
Medico, as a company, has roots back far further than that. 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.
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)
There was no mention of the Jet Stream in the above article. Further research into the Jet Stream led me to a post by Anthony Cook, on Steve Laug’s rebornpipes.com, from January 2015. Anthony was restoring a Jet Stream and wrote:
From all of the above I can pretty assuredly state that this Medico Jet Stream was produced sometime between 1963-1971.
The pipe upon arrival
This pipe came to me as one of 12 pipes in a lot from Minneapolis Minnesota. The Jet Stream was not the target of this acquisition. It was a bonus. Below are some photos of the condition of the pipe prior to any work being done.
The little pipe was in very good condition. It had been smoked though not very heavily. There were some lava deposits on the rim and there was a light cake in the tobacco chamber. The filter within the stem showed obvious signs of use as did the tooth chatter on the stem. The finish on the pipe was a heavy clear coat which I hoped was not some “space age polymer”. This looked like it would be a relaxing evening restoration of a pipe that may share my birthday.
The Restoration
This restoration, like most, started with a clean denim piece as a work surface.
I started working with the stem. The aluminum tenon cleaned up quickly with cotton swabs and 99% isopropyl alcohol. Deeper in the stem whe airway changed to the plastic or nylon of the stem. Here the cleaning became a bit more difficult. The draft hole was 6 mm for a good deal of the length of the stem, the aluminum inner tube. This is to fit the 2 ¼ inch Medico filter length. Apologies for changing measuring units, there. There was a slight change in diameter where the draft hole changed from aluminum to plastic. This “step” seemed to have trapped and deposited smoking residues. The diameter was too large to be cleaned with a single pipe cleaner but a doubled over cleaner worked well.
The shank cleaned up very quickly. This indicated that the previous owner had not only smoked the pipe little but also used a filter regularly. The draft hole from the bowl to the shank was the typical diameter and was cleaned out with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 99% isopropyl alcohol. I failed to photograph this.
Next I addressed the lava around the rim. The heat from smoking or from previous cleanings appeared to have removed some of the finish from the immediate rim. There also appeared to be some charring of the briar at the front rim area. I wetted the rim with saliva and scraped it with a sharp pocket knife.
Next I tried removing the old finish with 95% ethyl alcohol. The finish laughed at me and remained untouched. Hmm. The next assault was with acetone on a make-up pad. This met with success.
Several acetone soaked make-up pads and cold fingers later, the finish was removed. I will admit to using a little bit of 0000 steel wool dipped in acetone as well for a couple of spots where the finish coating had pooled.
Next came the reaming. This bowl is small in size and due to the PipNet having a broken #1 blade, I was forced to use the Scottie Stainless Steel Reaming Tool.
The Scottie performed well and cleared out the cake. I only had to scrape a minimal amount and sanded the chamber with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel and finish sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a Sharpie marker. The chamber was taken down to bare briar and showed no signs of any damage.
Next I addressed a few of the fills that the pipe had received during manufacture. They were the pink wood fill that was used by many makers. These were hard and difficult to pick out.
In preparation for the sanding that comes with new fills I taped the stampings to protect them.
None of the replacement fills were very deep. I used brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust to fill the pits. The fills were then sanded with a 400 sanding sponge.
With The new fills finished I taped over the “Jet” logo to keep it safe from my sanding. None of the tooth chatter was deep enough to require filling with black CA.
I wanted the pipe to remain intact for the sanding to preserve the tight contact joints on the stummel from being rounded by sanding. I sanded both the stem and stummel with the sequence of sanding sponges from 400-1500. The stummel and stem were wiped with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol between each sponge. Since this pipe had a nylon stem, I did not worry about it discoloring like vulcanite would have with alcohol wipes.
The sanding progressed through the 200-3500 sponges followed by alcohol wipes as above. The protective tape was removed with the completion of the 3000 sponge.
The final smoothing and polish came from using the micro-mesh pads in sequence from 4000-12000. Again wiping between pads with the alcohol moistened make-up pad.
I applied a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm to the stummel and allowed it to sit for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes the balm was wiped away using the inside of an athletic sock.
The “Jet” logo had gotten noticeably lighter with all the micro-meshing. I decided to paint it with a white acrylic model paint.
Once the paint was dry I lightly buffed the surface with the 4000 micro-mesh pad. In a couple of places I used the fly tying bodkin to scrape unwanted white paint from places between the letters.
The final steps of this restoration were to apply several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer.
Overall I am very pleased with how well this little Jet Stream turned out. I am not a fan of the clear coat finish and was quite glad to see it gone. The briar grain, though not spectacular, is nice. In hindsight, I think a contrast stain might have been interesting. The nylon stem sanded and polished better than I had thought it would. The light weight of this pipe would make for a very comfortable clencher but the small bowl is not something I would prefer. The dimensions of this pipe are as follows:
Length: 5.37 in./ 136.40 mm.
Weight: 0.88 oz./ 25.00 g.
Bowl Height: 1.22 in./ 30.99 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.04 in./ 26.42 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.75 in./ 19.05 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.30 in./ 33.02 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care 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 Medico Jet Stream.
If you have been following my restorations for a while first, thank you and second, you know I love Marxman pipes. Not just any Marxman pipe though; those made before Robert Marx sold the company to MasterCraft in 1953, Marxmans made in New York City from Algerian briar, pipes made from briar that seems to shed the cake when reamed, and the freshly reamed briar has a cinnamon spice like flavor, Marxmans that darken like a meerschaum pipe when smoked and Marxmans with briar that feels almost too soft to sand. That seems like a long list of conditions but the Marxman pipes made between 1939-1953 generally have those characteristics. And no, I am not a paid spokesman for Marxman.
Looking back at the completed restorations that I have blogged about there have been 5 Marxman pipes. This will be number 6. Personally I own far more Peterson pipes but my Petersons are all older acquisitions from before my blogging days. I suppose I could go back and freshen some of them up but I kind of feel that would be cheating for the restoration blog. I mean they’ve been restored already. Feel free to let me know in the comments if you think that refreshing a previously restored and then used pipe counts as a restoration.
Back to the Marxman in hand. This pipe came to me as one of two Marxman pipes back in January. The first pipe to be restored was a Marxman Jumbo Dublin (there is the link).
This poor billiard had to wait it’s turn in the queue until this week. The little walnut is still waiting. Mottos like, “Patience is a virtue” and “Good things come to those who wait”, were running through my mind.
Below are some photos of the Marxman Benchmade Biliard prior to working on it.
For a pipe that was at least 75 years old it was in pretty good shape. To my eye, the largest issue was the two large fills on the right side that would need to be removed and redone. The lava on the rim and cake within the tobacco chamber were minimal. The stem had a bit of tooth chatter and a couple of deeper dents that would need filling but overall this looked like a relaxing evening of a restoration.
Background on Marxman
Before I get to the restoration let me give you a bit of Marxman background. I will use the pipedia.org Marxman entry to briefly explain: ““Marxman (Marxman Pipe Company) was created by Robert (Bob) L. Marx in 1934, when he was 29, and after he had worked for the William Demuth Company. His pipes were not outstanding because of the quality of their wood (probably Algerian), but Bob started making unique sculpted pieces, which brought the brand fame in the World of Hollywood cinema. Actors like Zachery Scott, Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Alan Hale, Joel McRae, and Ronald Reagan were some of the faces that appeared on the bowls.
Bob knew how to innovate and took full advantage of marketing and press advertising in order to sell the brand–one of his slogans being “Relax with a Marxman”.”
Recently, Mark Irwin, author of Peterson Pipe Notes (https://petersonpipenotes.org/) and The Peterson Pipe book sent me a 1940s “Relax WITH A MARXMAN” brochure. Thank you Mark. I photographed the brochure and included it below.
The Restoration
I started with a clean denim piece on the work surface. The stem on this pipe was very tight and I did not feel comfortable forcing it into the mortise. The “Marxman” stamped stinger had a light coating of tar and smoking reside (tar lacquer, my term for it).
The stinger was placed into a medicine cup with a few milliliters (ml) of 95% ethyl alcohol to soften and dissolve the tar lacquer.
The reaming tools were gathered and set on the plastic coated envelope I use as a reaming surface.
As was typical of Marxman pipes, the cake was easily separated from the briar. I do not know why this is the case but it does make Marxman pipes easy to ream.
The chamber needed little scraping and was sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel and finished with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a Sharpie marker. The bare briar was exposed and was undamaged by use.
I then scraped the lava deposits from the rim with a sharp pocket knife.
At this point I wanted to see how fouled the airway of the shank was. I dipped a cotton swab into the 95% ethyl alcohol and scrubbed around the airway. It came back blackened with smoking residue. I figured that I would deal with that after the stummel had been scrubbed.
The next task I took on was the stem. There was some tooth chatter and a few deeper dents on both the top and bottom surfaces of the stem. The below two photos show the condition of the stem prior to any work (top, bottom).
Both the top and bottom were filed and lightly sanded with a 320 sanding sponge. This removed most of the chatter leaving only the dents to be filled. I decided to scrub the entire stem with Soft Scrub at this time. I used the Soft Scrub with cotton make-up pads.
With the outside cleaned I turned my attention to the interior. The airway cleaned out quickly with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.
The stinger was removed from the alcohol and scrubbed with a nylon stem brush to clean off the old tar lacquer.
The stem looked much better which made the stummel look a bit worse. OK, stummel you turn for some cleaning. I took the stummel to the sink. Here I used Murphy Oil Soap undiluted with a medium stiff bristle toothbrush to scrub the exterior. After the exterior was scrubbed I applied a small amount of Dawn dish soap to a nylon shank brush. I scrubbed the airway with the nylon shank brush and Dawn. I rinsed the stummel with warm water and dried it with a cotton dish towel.
The stummel was returned to the workbench. Here I used a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol to wipe/scrub the exterior of the stummel. The photo below shows that the pad removed some material from the stummel, most of it came from the rim.
The scrubbing of the airway softened the tars and yuck (the technical term for black smoking residue) within the shank. I scraped the airway with a dental scraper, the scrapings seen on the make-pad. 3-4 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol was poured into the bowl and allowed to flow into the shank. I scrubbed the shank with a nylon bore brush and the alcohol. This alcohol into a medicine cup and I scrubbed further with cotton swabs dipped in alcohol. The shank was not as dirty as I had initially thought and after a few alcohol scrubbings the cotton swabs were emerging clean.
All of this stummel cleaning had the effect of making the two large fills on the shank even more noticeable. They had to go. I tried to soften the original fill material with 95% ethyl alcohol.
The old fill material was picked out using a dental pick and scraper.
Since I knew that I would be doing a good deal or sanding during this fill replacement, I taped over the stamps for their protection.
First a drop of brown CA was placed in the newly opened pit and a healthy pinch of briar dust was pressed into the CA filled pit. The CA combined with the briar dust to create a hard CA/briar dust fill.
This new fill was then filed with both round and rounded needle files.
The filed left a rough surface on the new fill.
Additional Thin CA was applied to the rough surface of the new fill. This was quickly sanded with a 400 sanding sponge which had not had the briar dust removed from the sponge’s surface. The wet CA combined with the existing dust and the new dust generated from sanding to fill the rough surfaces of the fill and pit.
Below you can see the color change of the new briar dust fill. The dark color shows that the CA and briar dust have combined and are a single new fill. The fill on the shaft, by the stem has yet to receive the drop of Thin CA, adhering the fresh dust to the existing new fill.
WIth the fills completed I returned my attention to the stem. Below is the top surface of the stem after sanding and Soft Scrub cleaning.
The dents were filled by placing small drops of black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and spritzed with a CA drying accelerator. This is a new-to-me product that is supposed to be strengthened with rubber. The “About this item” from Amazon.com states:
(https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0188IHONQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) That sounds like it was made for this use. Or, that I am a sucker for a well written claim… Either way, I am always willing to try something new to see if it is better than the way I had been doing something. By the way, if you represent Bob Smith Industries, I am more than happy to accept corporate sponsorship.
The CA was filed smooth with a flat needle file and further smoothed with a 400 sanding sponge.
I then applied a drop of black CA and spread it out over a larger area. This was also spritzed with the accelerator. Once cured I sanded the area smooth and applied a light coating of mineral oil.
The next few photos show the same process with the bottom surface of the stem. Starting with the initial condition.
Here the surface had been filed and sanded with a 320 sanding sponge.
The CA had been applied and was spritzed with the accelerator.
The CA had been filed smooth.
The surface was then sanded with a 320 sanding sponge.
A drop of CA was applied and spread evenly over a wider area. This was then spritzed again with the accelerator and once cured, was sanded smooth.
Below is the sanded stem bottom after a coating of mineral oil.
At this point all that remained was the finish sanding, micro-meshing, stem polishing and waxing. That makes it sound like a lot of work but all these steps proceed quickly compared to the reconstructive work. The stummel and stem were sanded together in order to maintain the smooth joint where they contact each other. The sanding sponges were used in sequence from 400-3500. The stummel was wiped with an alcohol dipped make-up pad between sponges. The stem was wiped with mineral oil then a paper towel between sponges.
The micro-mesh pads were used in sequence from the 4000-12000 pads. The stummel received the alcohol wipe between pads. The stem received a drop of Obsidian Oil rubbed in by fingertip and wiped with a paper towel between pads.
The stem was polished with Before and After Fine Polish applied by fingertip then rubbed with a soft cotton cloth.
The stem was then polished with Before and After Extra Fine Polish applied by fingertip then rubbed with a soft cotton cloth.
Before and After Restoration Balm was applied to the stummel by fingers and allowed to do the magic that it does for 30 minutes.
30 minutes later the remaining balm was wiped from the stummel using the inside of an athletic sock.
After the sock wipe the pipe was taken to the buffer to receive several coats of carnauba wax on the stummel and stem.
There you have it – another Marxman pipe restored to what is probably better than factory finish. I am very pleased with how well this Marxman Benchmade Billiard turned out. I was almost as glad to see the original pink fill fill gone as I was to see the finished product. I am sure pink is a grand color for lung tissue but certainly not for pipe fills. The bird’s eyes on this stummel are just lovely and contrast very nicely with the radiating grain on the opposite side. The black of the stem sets off the briar grain beautifully. I am sure that this pipe will have that unique taste upon firing, that cinnamon/cardamom taste that is so hard to describe. I do hope that you found something here useful in the care and restorations of your own pipes. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you very much for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
Below are some photos of the finished Marxman Benchmade Billiard.
The first time I saw a Millard pipe I thought, “Cool”. This would have been several years ago long before I started blogging about restorations. I had always liked researching the pipes I was working with. I figured they had to have been made after WWII due to the amount of aluminum in the mortise and tenon. In my searching I found Steve Laug’s blog about two Millard pipes that he had restored back in 2015. I was fascinated by his blog and restorations. This may have actually been one of the first times I had visited Steve’s blog rebornpipes.com.
The two above photos are my first Millard pipe. I loved the shape and how well it smoked.
I recently acquired another Millar pipe, the subject of this restoration. The Millard Dublin was not specifically the target of the bid and subsequent win, it was just a bonus. The lot came to me from Fort Lauderdale Florida. The Dublin shape has long been a favorite of mine and I was looking forward to the restoration. It however did have to wait in que for about a month for its turn at the workbench.
The Pipe
When the pip arrived it appeared to be in well used condition. Below are some photos of the Millard Dublin prior to any work being done.
This Dublin needed some work. It did not look like it had any serious issues, just a lot of small ones. The most egregious was the damage to the rear rim. There was the typical dirt and grime of an old pipe, lava build up on the rim, a substantial cake in the tobacco chamber, an oxidized stem and numerous dents and dings on the briar. All of these things indicated a pipe that had been carried and smoked a good deal by a previous owner. It also indicated a good smoking pipe.
A bit about Millard Pipes
Millard pipes were another brand that I refer to as coupon pipes. Back in the late 1940s through the 1960s many pipe tobacco brands would enclose a coupon or certificate within the pipe tobacco packaging. These coupons could be collected then mailed, usually with a small amount of cash, to the company in exchange for a new pipe. Kentucky Club was one brand of pipe tobacco that used this marketing technique. Kentucky Club was a part of the Penn Tobacco company. I did a series of 4 Penn Tobacco co. pipes earlier this year, they included the following which I will link to their respective names: Vox Pop, Broadcaster, Bruce Peters and Silver Mac Duff. I will defer to Steve Laug’s well explained history of Millard:
“When I came across the Millard – the Perfect Pipe coupon in the two boxes of Kentucky Club that I found I was fascinated with the look of the pipe. It reminded me of the Keyser Hygienic pipes that I had restored over the years. The stem that fit into the metal mortise shank insert and the tubes on the inside of the stem and the shank were similar. While the Keyser tubing in the shank looked identical the one in the stem was different. Keyser was directed downward while the Millard was two straight tubes that met in the mortise. They did not touch but the metal chamber became a condensing chamber, or as they call it an Action Trap, for the smoke and collected the moisture before it continued through the tube in the stem. I looked up the brand online and found the following advertisement postcard that shows the way the system works. I found that the stems were interchangeable between the shapes that the pipe came in. The straight stems could be easily transferred from pipe to pipe. In fact the pipe originally came with an extra or replacement stem. The pipe came in a sandblast and a smooth finish in six shapes – apple, Dublin, billiard, pear, pot and bent. It came in two sizes: medium or large. In the advertisement below you can see that the pipe cost $3. I also found that Mastercraft supplied the pipes through the coupon sales. Knowing a bit of history about the company I know that they did not make pipe so they were sourced from the original manufacturer.”
Used with permission of Steve Laug – personal communication.
I started with a clean denim piece on the work surface. The stem of the Millard Dublin was very oxidized. I remembered my previous experience with the Millard Bent Billiard. It too had severe oxidation that I was not able to get rid of. Though that was my earlier days of restoring pipes.
I began with rubbing the surface of the stem with 0000 steel wool. I hoped to get rid of the outer layer of oxidized vulcanite and allow the Before and After Deoxidizing solution access to the underlying rubber. Even after the steel wool the brown was very evident.
I inserted a pipe cleaner into the stem to act as a hanger and submerged the stem into the Deoxidizing (deox, as I call it) solution. I figured that it would have to be in the solution for at least a couple of hours.
While I was waiting to forget the stem, I started reaming the stummel. I gathered the reaming gear; PipNet with #2 blades , Smokingpipes Low Country knife and the General triangular scraper on the plastic coated envelope.
The cake was hard and very brittle but succumbed to the PipNet without much trouble. Further scraping was done with the other two tools and the chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel and 320 sandpaper wrapped around a Sharpie marker. The bare briar of the tobacco chamber was free of any damage and looked good.
Next was the scraping of the rim.The rim had an inward angled bevel that was covered in a layer of lava. This was scraped off with a sharp pocket knife with careful scraping and scrubbed with a scotchbrite pad dipped in 99% isopropyl alcohol.
With the rim mostly clean, the stummel was taken to the sink and scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium stiff toothbrush. The stummel was rinsed with warm water, dried with a cotton dish towel and returned to the workbench. I then moistened a make-up pad with 99% isopropyl alcohol and wiped the stummel. Some discoloration
occurred to the pad indicating that some of the finish and original stain were being removed. Most of the discoloration came from the rim. I used a 1000 grit sanding sponge with the corner dipped in alcohol to lightly scrub the rim. I guess it was dirtier than I thought it was.
I do not like working on more than one pipe at a time. I will inevitably forget to do something to one while getting sidetracked on the other one. In this case I forgot two things, one was to document the shank cleaning and two, the stem in deox. It was about six hours from where I left off with the Millard Dublin and when I returned. I had forgotten the stem was in the deox and feared that it had been in for too long. I retrieved the stem and wiped the Before and After Deoxidizing solution from it. I ran a couple of pipe cleaners through the airway to make sure no solution remained. The airway was then cleaned with 99% isopropyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners on the inside and Soft Scrub on make-up pads on the outside.
The next task was picking out the old fill material. The manufacturers used a soft red tinted fill material that is not very becoming.
Ewwwe.
Next was the refilling of the pits, gouges, rim damage, etc… Since this would require sanding I taped the stamps with painters tape.
In order to show a step by step process for fills, I attempted to photograph each step. Some worked better than others but I think this may be helpful for those who haven’t done this many times. The things I use are briar dust mainly from the sandpaper when topping a stummel, brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue), Thin CA and a dental scraper. Oh, it’s also a good idea to wear nitrile gloves to keep the CA off your fingers. I usually forget this.
Below two pits are pictured.
I use the dental scraper to scoop up a little bit of the briar dust. The dust is placed onto the pit. I then use the back of the scraper to press the dust into the pit with a bit of pressure.
I then use the shaft of the dental scraper to brush off extra briar dust without knocking briar dust out of the pit.
I then use a fly tying bodkin (long needle) to dip into the Thin CA and get some onto the bodkin. The CA is then touched to the edge of the spot to fill. The CA soaks into the dust and bonds the dust to the edges of the pit. I got a little carried away with the application in the photo below and used a bit too much CA. That just means more sanding.
The CA is then filed smooth with a flat needle file (I file because I am a bit lazy. Filing means I don’t sand as much) and 400 sandpaper or sanding sponge.
There were several pits and scratches on this stummel which required filling. Below are some more. The CA fills are dark but they are not gross red and they sand very smooth.
Rebuilding the damaged rim used a similar technique just with more layers. The additional layers were needed to build up the damaged area to maintain the lines and shape of the pipe. I did not want to top this stummel. The damage was localized to the rear and not the whole rim.
I attempted to photograph step by step again with this rebuilding.
Below is a close up of the damaged rim.
First I laid a bead of brown CA on the damaged area.
Then I dipped the wet CA into the briar dust pushing the stummel into the dust with a bit of pressure.
Next, I filed the surface to fit the existing shape of the stummel.
The excess CA/briar dust fill was filed away. The surface needed additional material to fill the damage. Next two photos try to show this.
Another bead of CA was applied to the rim. This time I pinched briar dust between my index finger and thumb and pressed this pinch onto the rim. The next two photos show this pinched fill.
This pinched fill was then filed and smoothed with a 400 sanding sponge.
In the photo below, you can see the briar dust appears “dry” or light colored. This is because it has CA bonding it from the bottom and not bonding it throughout. I applied the Thin CA to this “dry” briar dust. The Thin CA soaked into it and bonded it all together.
Below you can see the darker colored briar dust fill. This is dust that is fully bonded together with CA.
This fill was then smoothed with a 400 sanding sponge.
In the photos below you can see that I have tried to rebuild the sharp edge where the rim meets the side of the bowl.
Now all these dark fills are kind of an eyesore. I thought maybe a contrast dye with black Fiebing’s Leather Dye sanded away would accentuate the grain and mask all the dark fills. I gathered the dying gear. The pipe cleaner used from the last dye job was still there. Recycle.
The stummel was held by the aluminum of the mortise, dyed black and flamed. The flaming burns off the alcohol base of the Fiebing’s and sets the dye into the briar.
The stummel was then wiped with a paper towel and returned to the workbench. Back at the bench I started lightly sanding the stummel with a 320 sanding sponge. The sponge was wiped frequently on the denim of the work surface to clean the black briar dust from the sponge.
For brevity I will not go into great detail about the sanding and micro-meshing of the pipe and stem. I’ll just say that they were sanded together using the sanding sponges in sequence from 600-3500. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol. The stem was wiped off with a paper towel. The micro-meshing was done with 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads in sequence. The stummel wiping was the same as above. The stem wiping included a drop of Obsidian Oil rubbed with finger and wiped with a paper towel.
The final step was to use the buffer to apply several coats of carnauba wax to the pipe.
Overall I am quite pleased with this pipe. I wish the stem would have cleaned up better. After all the time in the deox, scrubbing with Soft Scrub, the sanding, etc… it still is not the black that I would like it to be. The fills did turn out well. The reconstruction of the back rim also looks good. The contrast stain did exactly what I wanted it to do and I think it looks nice. I have yet to smoke this Millard but if it is anything like the bent Millard it will prove to be a great smoking pipe. I do hope that you have found something here useful towards your restorations or the care of your pipes. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe. Thank you very much for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
Below are some photos of the finished Millard Dublin.
I have a Passatore here. Wait a minute, I am getting ahead of myself. Let me start with what I had in my hand. This pipe came to me from Greece as part of a 6 pipe estate lot. Previous blogs have discussed a Parker and a Savinelli that were part of the same lot. I linked their names to the respective blog posts if you are interested in reading about them. Here are some photos of the pipe upon its arrival before I knew what to even call this beauty.
I looked at the stampings on the pipe in hand and tried to decipher the weak stamp and ornate logo.
I was thinking the stamp looked like it started with a “J” and was first drawn towards Jeantet. All of the “J” Jeantet logos were very clearly a “J” and not ornate. I started scouring pipephil.eu logos. Not finding any matches with their single letter or circled letter logos was getting disheartening. I then clicked their “ornate spot” logo and found a match.
This was the entry on pipephil.eu which led me to the maker. Though the photo was not great it was definitely the same as the pipe in hand. This led me to Passatore.
What I was thinking was a “J” from the weak stamp and logo was a “P”. The 3 digit shape stamp, I assume it is a shape stamp, also was present on the Passatore in hand.
Passatore. That was a pipe maker that I had never heard of. Actually it was a word I wasn’t familiar with either. It sounded Italian so I started with that.
That in itself is kind of fun, I think of it as, one’s pipe is a “guide” on how to live life – with relaxed and contemplative being key practices.
I struggled to find any substantial information about Passatore as a pipe brand. I reached out to Steve Laug, of rebornpipes.com, to see if he was familiar with the brand. He said that he had not restored one, which is saying something, but that he had received a Passatore box used to package a pipe sent to him from Budapest.
(Photo courtesy of Steve Laug)
Further internet searches led to a couple of European pipe shops that carried Passatore pipes:
https://www.haddockspipeshop.com/en/ This shop had 15 different Passatore models as well as an assortment of Passatore accessories like lighters, pipe tools and leather pouches.
All of my searching for historical information on Passatore was not leading me anywhere and I certainly do not need to go shopping for more pipes, even very pretty olive woods. I turned to restoring the Passatore that I had. Initial inspection revealed a pipe that needed some restoration to return it to glory or at least return it to proper working condition. The stem had come unglued to it’s brass accent bands and had deep tooth chatter on both surfaces, the rim was lava encrusted and probably darkened with char, the tobacco chamber had a respectable cake and there appeared to be two area where someone had attempted to glue cracks in the stummel. Both of these cracks looked superficial and not structural.
Cleaning the Stem
I started with a clean denim piece on the work surface. The parts of the stem made me
think of the old Wendy’s commercial “Parts is parts”. I’ll link to that for those wondering about my sanity or sense of humor. The first thing I did with the parts was to clean the existing glue from the surfaces to be reglued. This was done by softening the existing glue remnants with 95% ethyl alcohol and scraping with a sharp pocket knife. Removing the old glue was necessary to get a tight fit of the parts.
Before I reglued I wanted to clean the stem completely. It being apart made the cleaning much easier. Scraping with the brass rings and tenon would have been impossible.
With the stem cleaned I started scraping the calcium from the button end of the stem.
The calcium in the tooth dents was problematic until I used a brass brush. The brush dipped in alcohol made the process quick and easy.
Below you can see that the dent on the bottom side was deep.
The stem cleaned out quickly with alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaners.
Ready for gluing. Black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) was used to glue the stem parts back together.
Reaming the Tobacco Chamber
Once glued I turned my attention to the stummel while the CA was setting up. I gathered the reaming gear onto the plastic envelope I use as a reaming surface; the PipNet with #2 and #3 blades, Smokingpipes Low Country knife, General triangular scraper, the 220 sandpaper wrapped wood dowel and the 320 sandpaper wrapped Sharpie marker.
The PipNet with #2 blades enlarged the tobacco chamber by removing the first layers of cake. The cake was hard and brittle.
Subsequent reaming was done with the PipNet and #3 blades along with the knife and scraper. Once reaming was completed I sanded the interior with the 220 and 320 sandpapers to get to bare briar. This is when the first larger problem revealed itself. The chamber was charred with fairly deep burn damage. I looked like an over exuberant scraping had occurred and the charring occurred along the scraped surfaces.
I knew I would have to deal with the chamber interior in time. For now I continued with the exterior. The rim needed to be rid of the lava deposits. I did this with a sharp pocket knife and careful scraping.
Cleaning the Stummel
Next came the Murphy Oil Soap scrub. The Murphy’s was used undiluted and scrubbed with a medium bristle toothbrush. I should say the first application of Murphy’s was done as above. The second and third applications were also undiluted but with a more rigid nylon scrub brush. The stummel was very dirt and grime encrusted.
The stummel was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton dish towel.
I returned to the workbench and addressed the old crack repair glue. I used a pocket knife to carefully scrape the glue.
The same with the glue along the shank, careful scraping with a pocket knife.
Once the glue was scraped off I wiped the stummel off with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. The pad was removing some old finish or wax and stain.
There still remained a few shiny spots so I switched to acetone on a make-up pad and repeated the wipe. This eliminated the shiny spots and removed a bit more of whatever was left on the stummel.
I began sanding with the 320 sanding sponge. I wanted to remove the darkened briar from the rim without having to actually “top” it.. This worked, kind of. Oh, in the photo below you can see that tobacco chamber scrape burn scarring that I was trying to explain earlier.
The rim remained darkened with char. Below you can see the rim is lighter but still not what I wanted. I had only used oxalic acid one other time. That was a technique that I want to add to my toolkit. Practice makes perfect, eh?
My jar of oxalic acid from last week.
Oh yeah, it is supersaturated now. New crystals growing in the jar.
I applied the solution to the stummel with a cotton swab and let it sit for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes I applied a second coat and let that sit for 30 minutes. There is another better look at the tobacco chamber scrape charring (below).
During the hour that I was waiting for the oxalic acid to do what it does, I started working on another pipe. I really do not like having two projects going at the same time if I am trying to photo-document them. Hopefully the next pipe will be in a future blog. It is a Millard Dublin. Well, I guess I just ruined that surprise…
An hour later I took the stummel to the sink and rinsed off any of the white oxalic acid crystals and residue. I made a baking soda solution and dipped the nylon scrub brush into the baking soda and scrubbed the stummel. I re-dipped the brush many times in an attempt to neutralize the oxalic acid with the baking soda.
I returned the stummel to the workbench and wiped the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. Below are photos where I tried to show the lightening of the briar by the oxalic acid and the tobacco chamber damage.
The detail for the chamber damage is evident but the lightening with oxalic acid remained a work in progress.
Repairing the Tobacco Chamber
The next task was to deal with the tobacco chamber damage. I have successfully used J.B. Weld epoxy to repair heat damage like this before. I have also successfully used sodium silicate also known as waterglass in similar repairs. It had been a long time since I had used the sodium silicate so, I opted for it.
I used a disposable pipet to pull 2 ml of sodium silicate from the stock bottle and placed it onto a plastic tray.
I then opened a capsule of activated charcoal and mixed ½ of the contents to the sodium silicate.
The mixture was stirred with the pipe spike on my pocket knife. Once mixed the consistency was that of room temperature butter. It would spread but not flow. The spike was used to apply the mixture to the interior of the chamber filling the grooves. I put on a nitrile glove and used my finger to work the mixture into the rough areas and smooth the interior surface.
The stummel was set aside to dry for 24 hours. This is not a magic number. That is just how long I waited to sand the chamber. I still worked on the pipe since the sodium silicate was not flowing and had set-up within 20 minutes.
Repairing the Stem
While the sodium silicate was drying I continued to work on the now dry stem. I have to say, this may be my best documented stem rebuilding yet. Still not perfect but pretty complete. This stem was acrylic not vulcanite so there was no oxidation to deal with. I sanded the area that I was going to work on to roughen the surface and aid the CA sticking to it. Then I applied drops of black CA to the dents. None of these dents were too deep so I thought only one application would be sufficient to fill them.
Next I use a CA drying accelerator to spritz the wet CA . I did not photograph that stem but here is the product that I use.
The accelerator dries the CA in seconds greatly speeding up this process. Next, I filed the drops smooth to the acrylic stem surface with a flat needle file and smooth with a 320 and/or 400 sanding sponge.
The stem was wiped with a paper towel very lightly moistened with alcohol. This removes the sanding dust. I applied a drop of fresh black CA and spread it evenly over a larger area. The larger area makes it easier to blend the fills and is less noticeable when finished.
The larger area is spritzed with accelerator and again filed then sanded.
Tadah!
Now to rebuild the button. This is where my photo documenting went to heck. I used the cheap transparent Scotch tape, not the good stuff. The satin finish 3M tape, the good stuff, starts to dissolve with this accelerator while the cheap stuff doesn’t. I wrap the tape immediately behind the button sealing off the newly repaired surface from more CA. I then apply a layer of CA to the button. I then flip the stem over so the CA hangs down like a drop of water hanging off your fingertip. While holding the stem upside down I spritz the CA with the accelerator. Then before the CA completely sets up, you have about 3-5 seconds, I flip the stem back over and cut the still soft CA with a sharp knife along the back side of the button. This cut goes down to the acrylic stem. The Scotch tape is removed along with the excess CA that is now hard. Leaving you with a straight edge that requires little sanding or shaping. The button is then shaped with a needle file and sandpaper.
If you missed any of those steps, I will do it again with the bottom. And less typing this time.
Application of black CA to the dent. This one was deeper so a couple of applications were applied. Spritz with accelerator.
Apply additional CA, because it was a deep dent. Spritz with accelerator.
File the CA smooth
File and sand smooth.
Apply CA to a larger area. Spritz with accelerator. File and sand smooth.
Tape with Scotch tape.
Apply a layer of CA to the button. Invert and spritz.
Before it hardens, cut along the edge of the button with a sharp knife.
Peel the tape off along with the cut-off CA.
Shape the button with a file and sandpaper. Tadah! Now you know my process.
Filling the flaws in the Stummel
This stummel needed only a few fills but two of them were big ones; the crack at the bowl-shank junction and the bottom of the shank were long. I used a fine sharp dental pick to get as much material out of the crack as I could. Next I applied a layer of Thin CA with a fly tying bodkin to the crack, the thin CA flowed readily though the crack. I then sanded the crack with a dust filled (AKA dirty)sanding sponge. THe dust from the sponges along with new dust generated by the sponge filled in the crack and combined with the thinCA to fill the crack. It still was visible as a CA Fill appears dark but it was a strong smooth surface.
The pits on the stummel were filled using briar dust pushed into the pit. Then a small drop of Thin CA was applied to the dust. The CA soaked into the dust and affixed it to the surrounding briar. The surface was then sanded smooth.
Contrast Staining the Stummel
I was not happy with the oxalic acid lightening of the briar. I think I need more patience. I will continue to practice. Below you can see the pipe sanded from the 400-1000 sanding sponge. It was ready for the next step on my impatience.
Rather than patience and practice, I chose to contrast stain the stummel with Black Fiebing’s Leather Dye. I gathered the dye materials: Fiebing’s black, a pipe cleaner to use as an applicator, a disposable lighter, and covered the work surface with paper towels.
Below the stummel has been dyed black and flamed. The flaming is just that, since the dye is an alcohol based dye, flaming it lights the stummel on fire burning off the alcohol. There is a pretty blue flame that goes out quickly but the heat helps the dye set to the briar. THe whole thing is pretty much dry immediately after the flaming.
Since I did not care to let the dye dry, since I was going to be removing it from the majority of the stummel. I did not wait for it to dry completely. I started sanding with a 320 sanding sponge to remove the outer surface that was just dyed. The dye penetrates the soft textured briar more deeply than the harder briar. By sanding the surface I removed the outermost layer of briar leaving some of the grain darker from dye than other grain. THis accentuates the grain and darkens the whole stummel slightly.
More sanding with the 400-1000 sanding sponges. Care was taken around and on the stamps to remove as little material as possible to retain as much of the stamp as possible.
Now I was back to where I was before I dyed the stummel and it was bedtime.
Final sanding and Micro-Meshing
The next day was spent typing up this monstrosity of a restoration. I am so looking forward to doing a couple easy ones after this and the preceding restore. Anyway, the sanding employed the 1500-3500 sanding sponges in sequence. Between each sponge the stummel and stem were wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad.
Next, I used the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads in sequence. Between the pads the pipe was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad.
The pipe then received a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm.
The balm was allowed to sit for 45 minutes then it was wiped with an inside out athletic sock.
I was finally getting close to finishing this project. I polished the stem with Before and After Fine Polish followed by Before and After Extra Fine. Each polish was hand rubbed using a soft cotton cloth.
The pipe was reassembled and taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax applied with the flannel buffer wheel. There are stories of how Civil War surgeons were rated by how much blood they wore on their aprons. More blood equated to a better surgeon. If that holds true for pipe restorations then I must be a truly amazing pipe surgeon. I mean look at the denim piece on the work surface (AKA, my apron).
Overall I am darned glad this restoration is over, I mean I am happy with the way this pipe turned out. The gluing of the stem is secure and looks like nothing ever happened. The acrylic stem polished nicely. The contrast stain looks good and conceals the blemishes of the rim charring. The tobacco chamber repairs resulted in a smooth chamber that will receive a bowl coating of maple syrup and carbon powder in the morning. While the two large cracks are still obvious they are now smooth and have lost the Braille texture and appearance. This Passatore is a pleasure to hold and to clench. It is a super feeling little pipe. I am not sure what Passatore calls the shape 349 but whatever it is it is a great little shape in hand. I do hope that you not only survived the longest pipe restoration in the world but also can use something from this in the restorations or pipe care of your own. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. I thank you for sticking with this blog and reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
Below are some photos of the finished Passatore 349.
The interior looks rough but it feels smooth.
There is a slightly noticeable color difference between the black acrylic and black CA stem
I have a few Savinelli pipes and they are all fine smokers. This poor beat-up Porto Cervo must be an absolutely wonderful smoking pipe. It had been smoked so much that I questioned if it was even salvageable. I wondered this more than once during this restoration, “Can I return this pipe to service?” That is why I left the “before” photo up there with the title. I didn’t know if I could restore it and you, dear reader, are perhaps wondering the same thing.
This pipe came from an estate lot which I won from Greece. The Parker from the previous blog was also in this lot. When I first looked I thought that the pipes looked challenging to restore and so far I have not been disappointed. Here are a couple of screenshots of the lot. There were some interesting shapes and makers
Challenging can be fun. Testing one’s abilities and skills is seldom routine and so far the restorations have tested my abilities and made me think of some unique workarounds to problems. I will try to keep this write-up short but it was a rather extensive operation.
First off , let me provide some history of Savinelli. As usual I employed pipedia.org and pipephil.eu for source information. The pipedia.org section of Savinelli is well written and very informative. I know I said I wanted to keep this brief but much of this is worthy of repeating especially the “origins” of the company in 1876 and the post-WWII company as we know it.
Early Origins
“1876 was a year of breakthroughs: Thomas Edison patented the mimeograph, Julius Wolff-Eastport canned sardines for the first time, Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call,
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky completed Swan Lake, Melville Bissel patented the first carpet sweeper, Mark Twain published Tom Sawyer, and in Milan, Italy, Achille Savinelli opened one of the first shops exclusively focused on tobacco and smoking accessories.
That last item may seem relatively unimportant in the global scheme of advancements, but for those of us who love pipes, it was a monumental achievement, made even more difficult by the Italian government, which held a monopoly on tobacco. In addition, Achille was convinced that briar pipes represented the future of pipe smoking at a time when the market was dominated by clay and meerschaum. It may not have been obvious in 1876, but Achille Savinelli’s commitment to briar pipes would prove to be visionary.
He soon began designing his own pipes (different from the styling we associate with Savinelli today) and arranged their manufacture by local pipemakers in the Varese district of north-west Italy. The pipes became so popular that some were exhibited at the 1881 Esposizione Industriale Italiana (Italian Industrial Exposition)—the precursor to today’s Milan Fair, one of the largest trade fairs in the world.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Savinelli)
Post-WWII
“With his two best friends, Amleto Pomé and Mario Vettoruzzo, he assembled a team of fifteen employees to start a new business in the Varese region—the same area of northwest Italy in which his grandfather, Achille Sr., commissioned his own designs more than 60 years before.
Savinelli Pipes began production in 1948 and, although the pipes were of a superior quality and unique in their aesthetic, the brand wasn’t an immediate success. Few new brands are. It takes time for the public to catch on. Retailers were skeptical of placing Italian pipes alongside their best sellers from England or France, and customers, in turn, were hesitant to purchase a Savinelli over pipes by already established, foreign brands. Achille Jr. stood by his product, however; he knew it was only a matter of time before the world realized that these pipes were of a far superior quality, capable of competing with even the most well-established pipe manufacturers in the world. As it turns out, he was right. In less than a year, Savinelli pipes gained prestige in markets all across the world—heralded for their delicate balance of innovation and tradition, of form and function. Savinelli pipes were placed alongside the likes of Dunhill and Comoy’s in tobacconists from the United States to Europe, and, in time, this exposure modified Italy’s reputation; it was not only the premier exporter of briar, but now a premium source of fine briar pipes.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Savinelli)
Who doesn’t love a success story where hard work and producing a quality product pays off and builds a dynasty? A story for the soul. Anyway, the whole article is worth a read.
The line, Porto Cervo, refers to a seaside resort town on the island Sardinia (That’s the big island that looks as if the boot of Italy is kicking it towards France). This little port town with a resident population of only 421 is renowned as a hotspot for wealthy resort goers. As Tripadvisor claims, “Once an exclusive retreat for the crème de la crème of society, Porto Cervo is still one of the world’s most luxurious resorts, but thanks to the 2004 opening of an airport in nearby Olbia, you don’t have to own a megayacht to vacation here. You do, however, need to realize this is definitely not a backpack-and-Eurail Pass destination. Designer boutiques, luxury spas, fine restaurants and exclusive nightspots abound.” (https://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g194856-Porto_Cervo_Arzachena_Province_of_Olbia_Tempio_Sardinia-Vacations.html)
The 677 KS shape is “A bent Billiard with a supple, Brandy-like taper toward the rim, Savinelli’s “677 KS” is a compact yet full-bodied take on the classic English shape. Per the Italian marque’s shaping conventions, Savinelli has elaborated on the standard design, adding mass to the base and transition with extra height and taper lent to the bowl, all paired to one of their signature triangular shanks.” according to Smokingpipes.com. That is a mouthful of a description. Also you will later see that the “extra height” is a bit less extra after the restoration. The three digit shape code for Savinelli pipes was established in the 1970s according to information from pipephil.eu. One more detail is the “KS” – this stands for King Size.
So let’s take a look at what this Savinelli Porto Cervo 677 KS looked like upon arrival.
Now, I think you see why I called it a salvage rather than a restoration. This old girl had been through some rough treatment. Upon examination I thought, “can I save this one?”, several times. I decided that I could but that the shape of the stummel would have to be significantly altered. A close look at the front of the stummel below the rim showed an area that I initially thought was just very beaten up by dottle knocking, proved to have deep charing fractures. It looked as if the front of the pipe had been lit aflame then filed off in an attempt to hide the evidence of the crime. Then there was the condition of the stem – deep bite marks and calcium deposits reminiscent of limestone. Oh well, it ain’t gonna get done by talking about it.
A clean denim piece was added to the work surface and I was off and running. What to do first? I admit that the stummel had intimidated me, so I started with a more familiar task, the stem. I used a sharp pocket knife to scrape away the calcium deposits on the stem. There was no good way to get into the bite dents with the knife or with a dental pick so I used a brass brush dipped in a bit of 99% isopropyl alcohol. The results looked better.
The stem was then sanded with the 320 and 400 sanding sponges. I wanted to remove the oxidation and roughen up the surface to allow the black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) a better surface to adhere to.
I placed small drops of the black CA into the dents on the top side of the stem. I figured this would take several smaller applications with filing and sanding in between applications. THe drops were spritzed with a CA drying accelerator then filed flat..
After filing came a little bit of sanding.
This led to another application of CA to fill depressions over a much larger area. The larger area allows the blending of fill. This application also received a spritz of accelerator.
More filing and sanding to smooth and blend the repair.
Notice that I had not addressed the button. I prefer to get the dents smoothed before I try to rebuild the button. This process was then repeated on the bottom of the stem. Initial small drops, accelerator, filing, sanding and repeat.
Below is application 3, now over a larger area.
I Threw this photo in to show that the CA has a much smoother texture before the accelerator is used. THe rapid drying makes the surface rough and more bumpy.
After filing and smoothing with 320 and 400 sanding sponges I was ready to start rebuilding the button. This button did not need very much material added. The previous owner fortunately was not interested in mauling both the button and the stem. I like the cheap shiny Scotch tape for this next technique. The more expensive matte finish 3M tape dissolves when exposed to the CA accelerator. I wrap the newly smoothed stem in a layer of tape right up against the button. This will keep the next application of CA off the previous applications.
I then add CA to the area I want to build-up. I immediately invert the step so the wet CA hangs down but doesn’t drip (If it drips then I was using too much CA, thin coats are easier to work with). While holding the stem upside down, I spritzed with the accelerator. Now for the part that you have to do fast you will have about 5 seconds to work with. Flip the stem back over and while the CA is still soft use a sharp knife to cut along the edge of the button. This will give you a nice straight flat edge that you will not have to spend a lot of time filing and sanding. Once the CA was set-up the tape was removed. The cut off piece of excess CA was stuck to the tape and removed with it. The edge was straight.
The button was shaped with a flat needle file and smoothed with sanding sponges.
The above was then done with the top side button. Once both the top and bottom side were filed and smoothed I applied a thin coating of Thin CA over an even larger area. I did this to allow the Thin CA to penetrate into any small seams between the CA fils and the vulcanite and to fill and fine depressions which I may have missed.
This was then spritzed with a CA drying accelerator and sanded. Below is the rebuilt stem prior to finishing sanding and micro-meshing.
I think that may have been the best step-by-step procedure that I’ve written. I hope you find it useful.
Next, I cleaned the interior of the stem using bristle pipe cleaners and 99% isopropyl alcohol.
Now onto the object of intimidation and dread – the stummel. Normally I will ream the tobacco chamber first. This time I wanted a more clear idea of what I was working with so I proceeded to scrub the stummel’s exterior. The scrubbing was done at the sink with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium bristle toothbrush.
A typical scrubbing uses one application of soap. This one used 3 and a stiffer nylon scrub brush in addition to the toothbrush. The stummel was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton dish towel. Hmm, I was still wondering if this pipe could be saved.
I returned to the workbench and started the reaming. I used a plastic envelope to catch the reaming residue and the PipNet with the #2 blades. The cake in the tobacco chamber was softened by the water but it was still quite hard. I had to stop several times to scrape
with the Smokingpipes Low Country knife and the General triangular scraper then proceed with the PipNet. I replaced the #2 blades with the #3 blades and further cleared the cake from the chamber. The #3 blades proved to be too small to reach across the chamber as more cake was removed. This led me to scraping with the knife and the triangular scraper. Eventually the cake was removed and the chamber was sanded using a wooden dowel wrapped in 220 sandpaper. I felt certain that the walls of the chamber had to be charred due to the amount of material I was removing but upon inspection with a flashlight I saw no evidence of charring.
I did not bother with trying to scrape the rim clean of lava. In order to reshape the stummel the rim was going to lose about ⅛ of an inch of briar so scraping became a mute point.
I took the stummel to the counter where I top pipes. Here a sheet of 220 sand paper is laid flat on the counter and used to sand during topping. I started the sanding and quickly wished that I had a belt of disk sander. I moved the stummel in a circular motion every few circles, I would rotate the stummel 90 degrees. I was trying to keep an even pressure on the entire rim. The back of the rim looked good but the front was still showing charred wood. I decided that the new shape of this stummel would have to have a forward cant. Additional pressure was put on the front of the stummel during the sanding. The result looked pretty good.
Now to address the reshaping of the front of the pipe. I used a piece of 80 grit emery cloth wrapped around a wood block to coarsely remove and reshape the stummel. The goal was to remove the char while retaining most of the character of the Savinelli shape. I apologize for not photo-documenting this stage. Once happy with the progress I used 220 sandpaper to smooth the stummel. Eventually I was back to using the 320 sanding sponge followed by the 400 sandi sponge. THe below photos show the pipe at this point.
I was now certain that the Savinelli Porto Cervo 677 KS could be saved. The question of: “But, how will it look?” remained.
When I would wipe the stummel with alcohol I would get the following dark color below the rim at the front. I did not like the dark color. I had read about work workers using oxalic acid to bleach wood. This was usually done to remove water or iron stains from wood. I bought some oxalic acid thinking that someday I’d try it. Hmm, does oxalic acid work on burned spots with briar? I asked that very question in a pipe restoration group on Facebook. THe response from several people was yes.
Preparing chemical solutions was something that I had years of experience with as a high school chemistry teacher. I figured that I’d just prepare a saturated oxalic acid solution. I cleaned out my induction kettle with vinegar and soap then rinsed it with distilled water. I washed out a glass jar and lid and rinsed them with distilled water also. I brought 300 ml of distilled water to boiling in the kettle. I poured 250 ml into the clean jar. I added 2
teaspoons of oxalic acid crystals. They dissolved immediately. Hmm, maybe I should have read a recipe? Na, this is bucket chemistry. I added another 2 teaspoons. Again totally dissolved. One more – didn’t completely dissolve. Wait a few minutes. Crystals remained at the bottom of the jar. We have a saturated solution that will become supersaturated as it cools.
I allowed the solution to cool to room temperature and took the solution down to the workbench. I applied a coat to the stummel using a cotton swab. The oxalic acid solution
was absorbed quickly by the briar. I applied a second coat. I had read to allow the oxalic acid 20-30 minutes to work on the wood. I waited for about 40 minutes. In the meantime I prepared a baking soda solution to neutralize the oxalic acid on the briar. 40 minutes later I was ready to rinse away the oxalic acid and scrub the stummel with the baking soda solution.
I don’t know if the oxalic acid lightened the charred area a noticeable amount. I guess I should have taken before and after photos.
I returned to the workbench and worked on reestablishing the inner rim bevel that the Porto Cervo had before I so rudely sanding it away. I used a 2 inch polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe with a 2 inch PVC round end cap. The end cap was wrapped with 220 sandpaper. This gave me a uniform curved surface to reestablish the curve of the rim bevel. If you are interested in the real purpose of this tube, ask me in the comments.
With the Stummel reshaped and the rim beveled it was time to start sanding. I used painters tape to cover the stamps. I wanted to keep the stem and the stummel together for the sanding to avoid rounding any of the edges where joined from being rounded.
I used the 320-400 sanding sponges on the stummel only. The 600-1000 sanding sponges were used on both parts. In between sponges I wiped the stummel with an alcohol moistened make-up pad to remove the dust . I applied a drop of mineral oil with my fingertip to the stem and wiped that with a paper towel.
While wiping the stummel I couldn’t help focusing on the dark spot at the front of the pipe where the briar had been burnt. It still seemed too dark for my liking. I decided to give the stummel a contrast stain. I thought that maybe a black dye might penetrate into the softer grained areas giving them a darker appearance while I sanded the black dye off of the harder, more resistant grain. This would darken the pipe overall but would still show off the existing grain patterns.
I prepped the counter for dying. Actually for mitigating a dye spill if one occurred. I used an inverted plastic container as a work surface. This was topped with a couple of paper towels. The black Fiebing’s Leather dye, a disposable lighter, a folded pipe cleaner, a small medicine cup with 5 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol were gathered and the fishing bobber wrapped in duct tape. The bobber was pushed into the tobacco chamber giving me a handle. The pipe cleaner was the dye applicator. The lighter is to flame the dye once applied to the pipe.
I put on nitrile gloves and applied a single coating of the Fiebing’s Leather dye to the stummel. I flamed this with the lighter. This burns off the alcohol base of the dye and sets it into the briar.
After the stummel had been flamed I wiped the surface with a dry paper towel to remove any remaining dye. I was not concerned about the dye drying for a certain time as I was going to remove the majority of the dyed wood in short order.
I returned the stummel to the work bench and began sanding away the newly dyed briar from the surface of the stummel. I was very careful to avoid sanding the stamped areas.I wiped the sanding sponge off frequently of the denim work surface to keep the sponge clean. I used a barely wetted with alcohol make-up pad to wipe away the dyed briar dust and assess where I needed to sand in order to have a uniform color. Below is how the stummel looked after the black dye was sanded.
I was fairly pleased with how the black had accentuated the grain while masking the burned area.
The sanding continued as before with the 1500-3500 sanding sponges. I did not tape the stamps but I was careful to avoid them. I had to get close to avoid having a “CENSORED” box appearance around the stamps. As before, I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad between sponges.
It was at this point that I realized that I had completely forgotten to clean the shank airway. If you are a regular reader, you will probably be saying something like: “Forgot, nothing. You just didn’t want to do it.” Yeah, it’s not my favorite job. I did clean the shank, thank you very much. I started by pouring 3 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the bowl and letting it flow into the shank. I then used a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway with the alcohol. After a vigorous scrub, I poured the alcohol into a medicine cup to assess the progress. This process is repeated ad nauseam. After a few scrubs I would go back to the workbench and see if I could scrape some yuck out of the airway, scrub with a cotton swab and repeat the 3 ml alcohol scrub routine.
After what seemed like 4 hours of repeating the process the cotton swabs emerged clean. I did notice a cherry aromatic smell throughout this process. I had never had a pipe so heavily infused with cherry aromatic tobacco before. It wasn’t a bad smelling blend, just very cherry.
Next was the micro-meshing. Here I used the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads in sequence on both the stem and stummel. Between each pad I wiped the stummel with an alcohol dipped make-up pad. The stem received a drop of Obsidian Oil rubbed in with my finger and wiped with a paper towel between pads.
I was in the home stretch, the end was in sight. All that remained was to polish the stem and apply some carnauba wax with the buffer. So, that’s what I did.
The polish was Before and After Fine Polish followed by Before and After Extra Fine Polish. Both were applied by finger and rubbed with a soft cotton cloth. The waxing was done with my low speed grinder converted to a buffer and carnauba wax.
Well, I wasn’t sure if this pipe would be salvageable, much less restorable. I am glad to report that I smoked it today and it was lovely. Remember when I said that it had a definite cherry aroma? Well I may be giving her a cotton ball alcohol treatment. I didn’t find it annoying but it certainly did alter my Lane BCA to a vanilla cherry. The pipe looks pretty darn good. I am sure that a Savinelli connoisseur will spot that it is not really a 677 KS any longer. I bet they would agree that the contrast stain turned out nicely. I worried about it being too dark for the brass and wood banding on the stem but I think they work well together. The stem rebuilding also was a success and polished equally as well as the waxed stummel. I do hope that you found something here useful in restoring or just caring for your own pipes. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe. I know I said I wanted to keep this brief and I have done anything but that. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
Now for the moment you have all been waiting for: Some photos of the finished Savinelli Porto Cervo 677 KS.
It is kind of an American tradition to love the underdog. Maybe it goes back to our founding when 13 little colonies took on the greatest empire of the time. Nothing personal, United Kingdom. I look at Yello-Bole pipes in a similar light. They kind of have the reputation of being third string benchwarmers to the “real” players of Kaywoodie. Sure they were a second, but I am a guy who loves leftovers from the night before meals. So I kind of have a soft spot in my heart for seconds.
This little Yello-Bole billiard caught my eye because of the stamp “Honey Cured Briar”. This is a bit more of a rarity than the usual “Cured with Real Honey”. According to pipedia.org, “Pipes from 1933-1936 they were stamped “Honey Cured Briar” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Yello-Bole). That provides pretty finite dates for this old pipe. Let me show you what it looked like upon arrival.
Yello-Bole was started as a processor of briar that did not meet the quality standards for Kaywoodie pipes. I’ll allow pipedia.org to tell the story as a more reputable source than my failing memory.
“In 1932 Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy (KB&B), est. 1851, expanded their programm consisting of KB&B pipes, Reiss-Premier and Kaywoodie as the mainstay brand by introducing the Yello-Bole line. Yello- Bole was designed as an outlet for lower grade briar not used in Kaywoodie production.
At that time KB&B produced their brands in Union City and in West New York, both New Jersey. Deviating from that, Yello-Boles were manufactured by The New England Briar Pipe Company in Penacook, New Hampshire to use this KB&B subsidiary to capacity.1966 Add
As briar was hardly had during World War II, the KB&B Company embarked on a project of domestically grown briar wood, called Mission Briar or manzanita early in 1941. The Pacific Briarwood Company, a subsidiary founded for this purpose, began harvesting the burls growing on the slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. Though this wood is botanically the same as briar form the Mediterranean countries, the smoking characteristics were not quite as good and the project was abandoned after the war.
Was it for that reason? Advertising from the 1940’s pictures the Yello-Bole “Honey Girl”, who gently urges the pipe smoker to smoke the pipe with “a little honey in every bowl.” In fact, honey was an ingredient of the material used to coat the inside of the bowl. It was said to provide a faster, sweeter break-in of the pipe.
In 1952, 101 years after the Kaufmann brothers had opened a small pipe shop in the Bowery section of New York City, Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy Company with all subsidiaries was purchased by an unknown company strange to pipe industry. (At least, the new owner was economical because the KB&B managers had to leave their luxurious bureaus on 630 Fifth Avenue, New York – the Rockefeller Center – for new rooms in the factory on 6400 Broadway, West New York.) This interlude ended after only 3 years in March of 1955, when S. M. Frank & Co. bought Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy, The Kaywoodie Company, Reiss-Premier Corp., The New England Briar Pipe Co. and – of course – Yello-Bole.
From the time of S.M. Frank’s purchase in 1955 until 1972 Yello-Bole was run as a separate company, as division of the parent. Through this period, Yello-Bole, same as Kaywoodie, had it’s own officers, sales force and maintained the production facilities in West New York. These 17 years were probably the most glorious years in Yello-Bole’s history.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Yello-Bole).
“Tips for Dating Yello-Bole Pipes
KBB stamped in the clover leaf indicates it was made in 1955 or earlier as they stopped this stamping after being acquired by S.M. Frank.
Pipes from 1933-1936 they were stamped “Honey Cured Briar”
Post 1936 pipes were stamped “Cured with Real Honey”
Pipe stems stamped with the propeller logo were made in the 1930’s or 1940’s – no propellers were used after the 1940’s.
Yello Bole used a 4 digit code stamped on the pipe in the 1930’s.
Pipes with the Yello-Bole circle stamped on the shank it were made in the 1930’s, this stopped after 1939.
Pipes stamped BRUYERE rather than BRIAR it was made in the 1930’s.”
Using the above guidelines this pipe represents the 1st, 2nd and 5th bullet points:
KBB stamped in the clover leaf
“Honey Cured Briar”
4 digit code
Other than the stampings it also had some of the hallmarks of an older pipe. The button for example was filed in a “not so modern” fashion and had a narrow rectangular draft hole. Overall the pipe was in good condition for a 90 year old pipe that I paid less than 5 dollars for. Heck, the shipping cost more than the pipe. In examining the old girl I could still see some of the yellow bowl coating in the tobacco chamber. The stem was very tight, actually “scary tight”. I rubbed the tenon with olive oil when I reassembled it for the before photos.
I figured that the restoration would be fairly simple. It needed a light reaming, airway cleaning, stinger removal and cleaning, oxidation removal from the stem, stummel sanding and fills, button rebuilding with cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue), briar refurbishing, stem polishing and a wax. That sounded like a relaxing evening.
I started out with a clean denim piece to protect the work surface. Even though this pipe looked pretty clean I knew the denim wouldn’t stay clean
for long. I wanted to get the stinger out of the stem so I could let it soak in alcohol and soften the tar lacquer (that is my new name for that version of yuck – tar lacquer). The darn thing was stuck. I tried wrapping it in fabric and gripping it with pliers. Tried wiggling, tried sweet talking and swearing but it wouldn’t budge. When all else fails, alcohol. I used to use that saying for more things than a stuck stinger.
With the stem occupied with the alcohol, I turned my attention to the stummel.
The reaming of the tobacco chamber was easy and uneventful. I probably even could have skipped it. After the reaming I sanded the chamber smooth, some of the original yellow bowl coating didn’t want to budge so I left it to remind me that it was a Yello-Bole and because it’s probably a lead based paint. Just kidding, the environmental control laws of the 1930’s are well known for their extensive product testing. Yeah, kidding again.
I didn’t think the shank airway could be too dirty since the pipe did not appear to have smoked very much. Cotton swabs dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol would clear out any tar lacquer and associated yuck. I have to admit being a bit surprised by the number of swabs it took to get the airway clean but clean it was.
I must have been feeling lazy because I did not give this stummel the usual Murphy’s Oil Soap scrubbing. I figured that I would just clean and remove the finish in one fell swoop. Using 95% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad I started wiping the exterior of the stummel.
Now I remembered why I used Murphy’s. The first pad just removed the accumulated dirt and grime from 90 years of existence. The next pad did remove a little finnish but the alcohol was not having the desired effect of removing all of the finish.
Pad number three was enlisted with acetone. This one did what I wanted it to do. The acetone dissolved the finish readily.
A couple more for good measure and the stummel was ready for sanding.
I checked back on the stem. The stem retained it’s death grip on the stinger. Again, the pliers, fabric, sweet talk and swearing were employed with no result. I will be victorious, just not yet. I gave the stem a little bit of work with the flat needle file and 320 sanding sponge to smooth out the roughness around the button. How a pipe that appeared relatively little smoked could have a stem chewed up this badly is a mystery to me. Perhaps it had been smoked frequently and just well cleaned. That concept broke with my experience with pipes from this era but remained a possibility.
Once the worst of the oxidation had been removed by sanding, I started the rebuilding of the button. The dent above the button was filled first using thin applications of black CA, spritzing with CA drying accelerator, filing and sanding. The resulting area then received a second coat of black CA with the above speed drying and smoothing until it was filled.
The below photo shows the rebuilt area smoothed inside a yellow square.
The draft hole of this Yello-Bole was rectangular, nearly square. I thought about items to use to support the liquid CA prior to it setting-up with a CA accelerator. The cotton swabs I had been using had a plastic “stick portion. I thought I could square this off with a bit of force and make it work. I worked very well. The CA did not stick to the plastic and the size and shape fit with near perfection. The plastic was inserted into the airway, while I applied a drop of black CA to the chewed through section of the button. The wet CA was then inverted and held upside-down while I spritzed it with the CA drying accelerator.
Once the CA had set-up I continued adding additional thin layers of black CA followed by spritzing with the accelerator. Eventually the gap had been spanned with new material. This new material was shaped with a flat needle file and smoothed with a 400 sanding sponge.
Final shaping and smoothing were done until I was happy with the results. My reshaping did take away that “older look” and did make the stem look more modern. I have conflicting feelings about that. It is more comfortable and looks more finished but It lost that apparent “old pipe” look.
After the button was finally shaped I started cleaning the airway in the stem. This went quite smoothly using bristle pipe cleaners and 99% isopropyl alcohol.
For the sanding I wanted the two pieces together so as to not round the edges of the joint where the pieces join. I taped off the stampings; right, left and bottom. The sanding was done with a series of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grit. Between each sponge I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad moistened with 95% ethyl alcohol. The stem was rubbed with my finger dipped in mineral oil then wiped with a dry paper towel.
Next, I worked the pipe with the micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. I wiped the stummel as above but the stem received a drop of Obsidian Oil rubbed in with my finger and wiped with a paper towel.between pads.
The final stem polishing was done with Before and After Fine and Extra Fine Polish, respectively. Each polish was applied by fingertip and hand rubbed with a soft cotton cloth.
The entire pipe was coated with aBefore and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 30 minutes.
Once 30 minutes were up, I used the inside of an athletic sock to wipe away the excess balm.
THe stinger was still stuck. I said that I would be victorious and I had some thought as to how that could come about. The first plan was to try to soak the stinger in boiling water. The thought was that the aluminum would heat up the surrounding tar lacquer, softening it so that I could remove the stinger with a little bit of force. Good idea, no results.
THe next idea was to apply heat in the form of flame. The hotter than boiling water temperature would soften the tar lacquer releasing it’s death grip on the stinger and allow me to remove it. As I was heating the stinger I was steam coming from the point where the stinger was inserted into the stem. Some water must have seeped into the stem and was being vaporized by the flame heating the aluminum stinger. I knew that if the water was vaporizing I was at the boiling point of water also the temperature that vulcanite begins to soften. I wrapped the stinger in a cotton handkerchief and pulled on the wrapped stinger with a pair of pliers. It came free. Victory! I then cleaned the stinger with 99% isopropyl alcohol and a nylon scrub brush. I ran a couple more alcohol dipped pipe cleaners through the stem, now unimpeded to get it completely cleaned also.
All that remained was to apply several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer to the whole pipe.
I love how this 90 year old Yello-Bole turned out. The wood grain is beautiful. Sure, it has some fills. I left the old olds and only fixed a couple of small scratches while I was sanding. It was a “second” after all. The stem was cleaned-up and polished nicely. The logo and stampings all remained intact and are more clearly legible now than they were under the grime and finish. I did get to smoke this pipe earlier and it smokes very well for being a smaller pipe. The walls are thick enough that they remained cool throughout the bowl of tobacco. This pipe was never intended to be a showcase item and I intend to use it as it was designed as a nice pipe to smoke on the way to town for errands when a 15-20 minute smoke is what is needed. I hope that you have found something here useful to your restorations or were entertained. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
Below are some photos of the finished Yello-Bole Billiard.
I am starting to feel like I work at a lumber yard. This is the third Kaywoodie HandMade restored in the past couple of weeks. Good thing they are fun to work on. The first one had a push stem and no Kaywoodie logo on the stem. The second was a tapered stem with a white circle with a black 3 leaf clover logo. This one is all decked out with a saddle stem and the same white and black logo as the tapered stem. That logo was discontinued after 1955, according to pipedia.org and the shape first appeared in the 1947 catalog.
I’m just going to copy the historical information from the first HandMade restoration.. I am pretty sure that nothing historical has changed in the last few days.“Kaywoodie name first appearing in February of 1919.” (Kaywoodie History – Greywoodie LLC) The history of Kaywoodie pipes is fortunately well documented thus, allowing rather precise dates for a Kaywoodie collector to declare the provenance of their charges. The above pictured Kaywoodie is stamped HANDMADE over KAYWOODIE (left) and IMPORTED BRIAR (right). No shape number is present.
Using this information and referring to the Kaywoodie Collectors’ Guide listed on pipedia.org I found that these pipes were made during the following years:
“The Oversize Kaywoodies were, as the name implies, “Giants”. Lowndes notes that these pipes were stamped simply, “Hand-Made”. The pipes were all roughly “bulldogish” in appearance and were available in the following styles and grades7 : • Hand-carved “Colossus” ($10) • Walnut finish, banded “Hercules” ($20) • Hand-carved “John Henry” ($10) • Virgin finish, specimen grain “Paul Bunyan” • ($25)Virgin finish, banded specimen grain “Goliath” • ($25)Walnut finish “Atlas” • ($20)Hand-carved, Meerschaum-Inlaid “Samson” ($15)” (Kaywoodie Collector’s Guide – p10.pdf)
Looking into the stampings, I went to piphil.eu for confirmation. ThereI was able to find an exact match of this pipe’s stampings.
Well, that was easy. This large Kaywoodie Hand Made, though not very “bulldogish” was most likely made between 1947 and 1955 at the West New York, New Jersey factory. If you would like to see the 1947 Kaywoodie catalog here is a link: Kaywoodie_1947.pdf (pipedia.org). It is a fascinating read with great old marketing photos and illustrations. Just out of curiosity I wondered what $10 in 1947 was equivalent to today. According to a bis.gov inflation calculator it is $131.09 (Using Dec. 1947 and Dec. 2023)(CPI Inflation Calculator (bls.gov)). I highly recommend reading the above links for further Kaywoodie history.
This Kaywoodie HandMade saddle stem came from Las Vegas Nevada to southeast Nebraska. All three Kaywoodie HandMades were from the same seller. The first one bought on a whim the second two were negotiated for. I will link the first two restorations for you, if you are interested in reading about them: Hand Made 1 and HandMade 2. This third pipe was stamped HANDMADE over KAYWOODIE on the left shank and IMPORTED BRIAR on the right. No stampings were on the bottom. Below are photos of how the pipe appeared upon arrival.
This restoration began like most others with a fresh clean denim piece for the work surface. I should show the final version of the denim, I’ll probably forget but it’s worth a shot.
Since this stem was badly oxidized I decided to give it a several hour long soaking in the Before and After Deoxidizing Solution. I first sanded the stem with a 400 grit sanding sponge and cleaned out the interior with several alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaners. The final pipe cleaner You see in the photo above, inserted into the stinger.
The stem was too long to hang in the solution. I ended up using a wood sanding block to tilt the jar of Deoxidizing solution (deox, as I like to call it).
It wasn’t perfect but I was certain that it would work. At this point I actually went upstairs to type up the restoration of the second Kaywoodie HandMade. Oh, this is confusing. About 4 hours later, I returned to the deox jar to retrieve the stem. After allowing most of the excess solution to drip off the stem, I like to use a coarse cotton shop rag to vigorously rub off the remaining solution.
The stem looked much better. You can see the black has returned but the surface was rough and pitted.
I used Soft Scrub on make-up pads to rub off the remaining oxidized vulcanite.
After the Soft Scrub I oiled the stem with a coating of mineral oil and allowed it to soak up the oil while I started work on the stummel.
Looking back at my photos I apparently neglected to photograph the reaming of this HandMade. Don’t worry, you are not missing much. This pipe had been smoked very little as you will see when I describe the shank cleaning. The reaming was very quick and uneventful. I used the PipNet with the #3 blades to barely mess up my plastic drop surface. The scraper and knife were not used and the tobacco chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper on a wood dowel followed by 320 sandpaper wrapped around a Sharpie marker. The most interesting part was that there was a shallow groove inside the chamber that ran along the left side. I remembered that the second Kaywoodie HandMade also had a groove in it’s chamber. Upon looking very closely at both with a bright flashlight I saw what appeared to be a thin crack in both chambers. It did not go from the top to the bottom; rather it was about ½ to ¾ inches long in the center of the chamber on both pipes. It almost looked like it was a crack from improper drying or the chamber was bored out while the wood was not completely dried. I then remembered that both of these pipes had come from Las Vegas Nevada, a place not known for their humidity. Perhaps years of storage in the desert had not been good for the pipes. Either way I thought it would be best to mix up some J.B. Weld and fill the crack from within the chamber. Allow the epoxy to set and sand it smooth with the chamber surface. I thought that I would come back to do that step with both pipes when I was finished with the restoration.
I took the stummel to the sink. There I scrubbed the stummel with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a medium bristle toothbrush. The years of dirt and grime were evident in the lather. The stummel was rinsed in warm water and dried with a cotton dish towel.
When finished drying I poured 5 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the tobacco chamber and allowed it to flow into the shank. Without pouring the alcohol out I used a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway within the shank with the alcohol. This alcohol was poured into a medicine cup. The color indicated the extent of the tar accumulation in the airway.
THe very light color of the alcohol led me to believe the shank was relatively clean. A few alcohol dipped cotton swabs confirmed this.
With the internals cleaned out I returned to the exterior of the stummel. There seemed to be some yuck (the technical term for unwanted debris) in the grooves of the carvings. I wetted a make-up pad with 95% ethyl alcohol and wiped-down the exterior of the stummel. Very little color came off.
I then used a stiff nylon bristle brush dipped in the alcohol to scrub the carvings. Again I wetted a make-up pad and wiped the surface. This time the grooves looked deyuckified and it showed on the make-up pad.
The rim looked very clean after the alcohol and nylon brush scrubbing. Although it did show a bit of charring around the inside edge of the rim.
Now to deal with that charring. I used a wood sphere with a piece of 220 sandpaper. The sphere provided an even angle for a bevel and erased the charred briar. THe bevel was then sanded smooth with the sanding sponges by using the 400, 1000, 1500 and 2500 sponges in sequence.
The stummel required no real sanding other than a light buff with the previously mentioned sanding sponges. I wiped the stummel off with an alcohol dampened make-up pad and let it dry. The stummel was then coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit overnight.
In the morning the Restoration Balm was hand buffed from the stummel using the inside of an athletic sock. The terrycloth of the sock worked excess balm from the rustications of the carvings and left a very pretty shine on the stummel.
The stummel needed an equally attractive stem, so back to work. I wiped the excess mineral oil from the stem and began sanding with the series of sponges – 1000-3500. Between each sponge I would dip my finger in the mineral oil, rub the stem and wipe it dry with a paper towel. I would also wipe the sponge off on the denim to keep the sponges kind of clean.
After the sanding I started to micro-mesh the stem. Here I used the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads in sequence. Between each pad I applied a drop of Obsidian Oil. The oil was rubbed in with my finger and wiped away with a paper towel.
The final steps in polishing the stem were done with Before and After Fine and Extra Fine Polish. The polish was applied by finger tip and hand rubbed with a soft cotton rag. Fine Polish followed by the Extra Fine Polish.
The final touch was the application of several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer. I tried to only apply the wax to the high area but gave up on that. I used the edges of the buffing wheel to work the wax into the carvings. When I was finished I replaced the waxing wheel with a clean flannel wheel. I used this wheel without any wax and used the corner edge of the wheel to get into the carving grooves. My thought was to melt and absorb as much of the wax from the grooves as possible while still leaving a thin coating to protect the briar. It looked good.
Overall I was very pleased at how well this Kaywoodie turned out. These were fun pipes to work on and their size makes you feel like you have accomplished a real feat. The briar cleaned up beautifully and the stem again shines like new vulcanite should. As for the dimensions of this pipe, as I said it is large, the dimensions are as follows:
Weight: 3.12 ounce/ 88.45 g.
Length: 6.42 in./ 163.07 mm.
Bowl Height: 2.18 in./ 55.37 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.85 in./ 46.99 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.84 in./ 21.34 mm.
Outside Dimension (side-side): 1.60 in./ 40.64 mm.
Outside Dimension (front-back): 1.91 in./ 48.51 mm.
These are not pipes that you can clench while raking leaves or shoveling snow. This pipe demands you attention. I am sure the reward for such demands is a very nice cool smoke. I do hope that you have found this to be useful and entertaining. If you enjoy this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe. I thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
Below are some photos of the Kaywoodie HandMade Saddle Stem.
I have to admit to being smitten by this little darling when she arrived. She was not the target of my acquisition, more like an innocent bystander. The pipes I was after in that estate lot were the Senlars. If you are new to the blog I did three Senlar pipes in January. I’ll link them for you if you are interested: Senlar Canadian, another Senlar Canadian and a Senlar billiard. Anyway, this little bent sweetheart was so cute and had been smoked quite a bit. That indicates to me that she was a good smoking little pipe.
The stamping was crisp and clear and read, EXECUTIVE over IMPORTED BRIAR and she had an L stamped and painted on the saddle stem. My mind was eagerly thinking, “How difficult could it possibly be to research a pipe with that distinctive set of stamps?” Well mind, you got me into another situation with high hopes only to be dashed by reality.
Here is all I could find on the information highway.
Notice even the little flag symbol in the upper right corner is empty. My father frequently said, “when all else fails, read the instructions.” That old quote made me think to check Steve Laug’s rebornpipes.com blogs. His instructions on restoring pipes are amazing as are the vast number of pipes he has restored over the past dozen years. I searched his restorations for “Executive”. Well, heck, if he hasn’t done one then they are indeed a rarity. Any speculative nonsense that I could come up with would be just that – speculative nonsense. If you have any information regarding this brand please feel free, no feel obligated to share it in the comments (wink).
On to the restoration. The pipe looked to be in quite good condition. Below are the photos I took prior to doing any work.
Other than the stem fitting very tightly, there were only normal issues: The rim was lava encrusted, the bowl was caked and the stem was oxidized. There were no severe bite marks or tooth chatter on the stem and the cake only seemed to be in the middle section of the bowl with little at the top or bottom. The previous owner must have come up with a unique way of smoking a pipe and only smoked the tobacco in the middle of the bowl. Okay, I thought that was funny.
I started with a clean piece of denim on the work surface. I figured that I would need to have this stem in the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer solution for a minimum of 4 hours. So, I started prepping the stem for the deox (that’s my play on detoxification – detox).
The preparation included rubbing the stem with 0000 steel wool to clear off the worst of the surface oxidation and the calcium deposits around the button.
Next I wanted to clean out the air way to keep that tar and yuck (the technical term for smoking residue) from the deoxidizing solution. I first tried an alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaner. I could only get it about ½ inch or 1cm into the tenon end of the stem. I tried a non-bristle pipe cleaner with about the same result.
I retrieved the Falcon Extra Thin pipe cleaners. I dipped one into the 95% ethyl alcohol and worked it through the airway. Success!
Several Extra Thin cleaners later the stem was ready for deox.
I inserted a pipe cleaner into the tenon end of the stem to act as a hanger for suspending the stem in the deoxidizing. I was hopeful that the stamped logo would survive the process.
Time of entry was 13:00. I had a funeral visitation at 17:00 and some errands so by my return in the evening it should be ready.
In the meantime, I prepped the work surface for the reaming. I placed the white plastic surface, PipNet with the #2 & #3 blades, General triangular scraper (with the tip ground round), Smokingpipes Low Country knife, 220 sandpaper wrapped wood dowel and the 320 sandpaper wrapped Sharpie marker.
The PipNet with the #2 blade was a bit too small but it did a fine job at breaking up the cake and removing most of it.
The #3 blade was just a bit too large for the chamber so the knife and scraper were used to clean the chamber walls.
This was followed by the 220 sandpaper wrapped around the wood dowel and finally the 320 sandpaper. The photo below is after the 220 and shows there is still some sanding work to be done on the lower and bottom of the tobacco chamber.
With the tobacco chamber reamed, I turned to the rim. I moistened the lava with saliva and scraped it with a sharp pocket knife. This is a slow process that requires care and patience.
After the scraping I took the stummel to the sink for a scrub with Murphy’s Oil Soap. The soap was used undiluted and scrubbed with a medium bristle toothbrush. When finished the stummel was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton dish towel. At this point I poured approximately 3 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the bowl and holding my thumb over the rim and finger over the mortise, I let the alcohol flow through the interior of the pipe. The hydrophilic nature of 95% ethyl alcohol will pull water from the briar putting it in solution with the alcohol as well as soften the yuck in the shank. I used a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway. I poured the alcohol into a medicine cup. By looking at the color of the alcohol I could gauge how dirty the airway was – not too bad.
Returning to the workbench I wetted a make-up pad with 95% ethyl alcohol and wiped off the stummel. The pad came back with some color. I wasn’t sure if this was from a clear coat or just old wax. The pipe did appear to have a varnish-like coating originally but the dull/flat briar indicated that it had been mostly removed.
I decided to err on the side of certainty and scrubbed the carved areas with a brass brush dipped in the 95% ethyl alcohol. This removed a bit more color from the briar and cleaned up the rusticated areas better.
Once again I neglected to photo the cleaning of the shank. I think this is a subconscious effort by my damaged brain to avoid remembering the tasks which I do not enjoy as much. I assure you that the shank airway was cleaned and the world now has fewer clean cotton swabs and pipe cleaners.
With the stummel exterior and interior cleaned, it was now ready for some sanding. I taped the stamp with painters tape for its protection and began with a light sanding with the 600 sanding sponge followed by an alcohol wipe. I was looking for pits that would need to be filled. I did find a couple but in looking at them and thinking about it, I decided to leave them alone. I thought they actually added to the rustic look of the pipe.
I sanded the smooth areas of the stummel with the sanding sponges in sequence from the 1000-3500 sponges. Between each sponge I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad moistened with alcohol.
Once finished with the sanding sponges, I used the micro-mesh pads 4000-12000 in sequence again, wiping the stummel with an alcohol dipped make-up pad between micro-mesh pads.
The stummel then received a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm applied by finger then rubbed into the rustications with a baby toothbrush.
It was time to head into town and allow the Restoration Balm and the Deoxidizing solution to do what they do. It was 21:00 when I finally returned to the patiently waiting pipe parts. I removed the stem from the deox solution, letting most of the solution drip off. I like to use a coarse shop rag for the initial wiping off of the excess deoxidizing solution. It helps absorb and abrade the oxidized material from the stem.
Here is the stem freshly wiped off. Notice the white German Shepherd hair, she photobombs me even when she is upstairs.
YAY! The logo survived intact.
I used a couple more Falcon Extra This pipe cleaners to clear out the airway of any remaining deox solution then a third to apply mineral oil to the airway. I applied a liberal coat of mineral oil to the stem as well. The oil was allowed to sit and soak in overnight.
The next morning I returned to the workbench and started to finish the Executive. I wiped the oil from the stem and scrubbed it with Soft Scrub on make-up pads. The pads came back with oxidized vulcanite. Most of the color that you can see on the photo below was from the step-up of the saddle. The stem itself was pretty oxidation free. Once finished I reapplied mineral oil.
I then wiped the remaining Restoration Balm from the stummel. Normally, I do not let the balm sit overnight. It had dried to a consistency of refrigerated butter and took a bit more effort to rub off. I used the inside of an athletic sock for the hand-buffing and wiping of the stummel. It looked very nice.
I reinserted the stem and taped the shank stamps and stem logo with painters tape in preparation of the stem sanding.
I worked on the stem with the sanding sponges from 600-3500 in sequence. Between each sponges I applied mineral oil from my finger and wiped the stem with a paper towel.
To repaint the stem logo, I removed the tape and used a cotton swab dipped in alcohol to remove any oil. I used Pure White acrylic model paint on a detail paint brush to apply the paint to the stamped logo. This paint dries quickly. Once dried I used the 2600 micro-mesh pad to lightly scrub the white paint from the area above the logo.
The stem was then micro-meshed with the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. In between each pad I applied a drop of Obsidian Oil with my finger tip and wiped the stem with a paper towel.
The stem was then polished with Before and After Fine Polish applied by fingertip and hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth.
This was then followed by polishing the stem with Before and After Extra Fine Polish applied by finger tip and hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth.
The final steps were to use the buffer to apply several coats of carnauba wax to the pipe. I tried to avoid the rustications while applying the wax and just focus on the smooth areas.
Overall this pipe turned out very nicely. I love the shape. I think if I had to give it a name, I’d call it a bent pot or maybe a bent squat tomato. Either way, it feels great in the hand. I am sure it will be a fine smoking pipe especially for English blends with it’s nice wide bowl. The greatest disappointment is that the “BRIAR” from the IMPORTED BRIAR stamp, which was very light from the start, has seemed to evaporate. The briar grain is lovely and set off nicely by the rustications and the black vulcanite. The surviving stem logo with new paint looks great and will hopefully lead to additional information on the maker of this old darling. Again, if anyone has any thoughts or ideas of the provenance of this pipe, please leave it in the comments. I do hope that you have found something here useful. If you enjoy this sort of thing, please like and subscribe. I thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
Below are some photos of the finished Executive (whatever it is).
In other words, the person on the street interview. When this pipe was made, I’m guessing late 1940s-50s, radio was a much more important media for information. Don’t tell the Librarian but, I used Wikipedia for this next quote: “Vox Pop was a popular radio program of interviews, quizzes and human-interest features, sometimes titled Sidewalk Interviews (1936) and Voice of the People (the name is from the Latin “Vox Populi”, meaning “Voice of the People”). It was heard from the early 1930s to the late 1940s.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_Pop_%28radio%29). That actually helps confirm the date of this pipe and provides more meaning of the name. The Air Conditioned stamp refers to the carburetor feature of this pipe.
I am not certain of the name of this pipe shape. Henry Leonard and Thomas Inc. actually manufactured this pipe and the three other pipe lines for Penn Tobacco Company’s promotional pipes. The pipes were available to customers of Penn Pipe tobaccos such as
one of their largest selling brands, Kentucky Club pipe tobacco. According to https: //www.tobaccoreviews.com/:
“Original Kentucky Club pipe mixture. The label on the tin reads as follows: “White Burley – recognized as a better tobacco since 1867 – makes Kentucky Club the smooth, mild, satisfying pipe smoking brand with the grand aroma. An aromatic that you, and the family too, will enjoy. “Kentucky Club’s White Burley blend never tires your taste. Its delightful flavor, enjoyable taste, satisfying mildness, and grand aroma give you the greatest enjoyment in pipe smoking.”
Notes: Kentucky Club was introduced in 1934 by Penn Tobacco Company of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. In 1943 The Bloch Bros. Tobacco Co. of Wheeling, West Virginia bought the company. In 1969 it was purchased by general cigar. In the late 80’s it was purchased by John Middleton Inc. of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, where it was last blended.” (https://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend/1171/john-middleton-inc-kentucky-club/?pagenumber=2&orderBy=tr.UpVotes)
The association of Penn Tobacco Company and Henry Leonard and Thomas Inc. (HLT) was a marketing venture where both companies benefited; pipe smokers needed both tobacco and pipes. Vox Pop was a brand of pipes only available as a pipe from Penn via the coupons included in packages of pipe tobacco. Penn produced the tobacco while HTL produced the pipes for Penn. Pilehil.eu explains this and three other lines of pipes below.
Brand of the Penn Tobacco Company formed in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania in 1901 by Russell Uhl († 1914) and Henry Weigand († 1942). Bruce Peters was a Treasurer of the company.
There were four pipes in the line offered by the company: the Bruce Peters (top of the line), the Silver Mac Duff, the Vox Pop, and the Broadcaster. The pipes were manufactured for Penn by Henry Leonard & Thomas, manufacturers of Dr. Grabow pre-smoked pipes.
Back to the shape of this pipe, I originally wanted to call it a Dublin but it did not have the flared rim characteristic of a Dublin. Then I thought to call it a Zulu, which fits the forward cant of the bowl but this stem is straight and the shank is round, not oval. I then looked at the Dr Grabow shapes from 1960 flyers. I wanted to find a match and give this pipe shape a name. Nope, it couldn’t be that easy. Below are two shape charts from pipedia.org. The Dublin shapes, from the chart on the right, have a slight forward cant but it is slight.
That is a cant of less than 10 degrees. The Dr Grabow 65 Quarter Bent Oval Shank from the left chart has an angle of about 12.5 degrees. My computer protractor skills are still in development.
The Vox Pop has angles that match very close to the Dr Grabow 65 shape without the oval shank of the quarter bent stem. Now, this could be explained as this pipe does not have its original stem but I do not feel that I can refer to it as a Quarter Bent with no bend.
Here is the Executive decision: This is a Vox Pop Superb Briar Air Conditioned Zulu. Or, if you want to be crazy, you can call it a Zublin. I won’t tell anyone.
The blogs of the previously restored Broadcaster, Bruce Peters and Silver Mac Duff also have historical information and commentary. I added links with the names to their respective restorations. Feel free to peruse them all.
This Vox Pop was purchased as a lone pipe from an eBay seller. Upon arrival I photographed the pipe before doing any work to it.
The Vox Pop was a wonderfully dirty, well used pipe that appeared to have some very pretty briar hiding beneath 70 years worth of grime. I interpret a well used pipe as a good smoking pipe.
The first step was to prep the work surface with a clean piece of denim. Next was to call forth the plastic reaming surface and the reaming tools.
That included the Scotte stainless steel reamer, Smokingpipes Low Country knife, General triangular scraper, 220 sandpaper wrapped wood dowel and the 320 sandpaper wrapped Sharpie marker. If you are wondering why there was no PipNet its because my #1 blade broke. Apparently the translucent plastic PipNets are not nearly as tough as their older opaque versions.
The reaming liberated the cake from the briar. Scraping with the knife and scraper got down closer to the briar then the sanding exposed the briar. There was no sign of any heat damage to the interior of the tobacco chamber.
There was a thick deposit of lava on the rim from years of use and/or many bowls of tobacco. I moistened this with saliva.and scraped it with a sharp pocket knife.
Here you can see the rim ½ scraped with the scrapings wiped on the paper towel. Ew, gross.
Below the rim is all scraped.
After the rim was scraped I took the stummel to the sink. Here I scrubbed the stummel with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a medium stiff toothbrush. After the scrub the stummel was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton dish towel.
I returned to the workbench and examined the stummel for the finish that survived the scrub. There were several shiney areas. You can see the shank-bowl junction was shiney.
The front of the bowl had some shine as evident in the next two photos.
I rubbed the stummel with a make-up pad moistened with 95% ethyl alcohol to see if that would remove the finish. It did but there remained some stubborn areas.
I then tried acetone on a make-up pad. That removed the remaining finish revealing the briar grain and a couple spots to fill.
I do not know what happened during the airway cleaning of the shank and the stem. I can tell you that I did clean them but I failed to take any photos of the process. The only thing I can think happened was that I was pretty engrossed with watching the final couple of episodes of the Netflix Medici series. I know that is no excuse. One other thing, if you have watched Medici and Yellowstone, do you agree with me that they are really the same show? I mean, Lorenzo Medici saves the bank & family from nefarious villains in nearly every episode just as John Dutton saves the ranch & family from nefarious villains. I guess it is just a story telling formula that works.
To protect the stamps from the ravashes of sanding I cut strips of painters tape and covered the stampings.
Next I lightly sanded the area to be filled with the 400 sanding sponge. I let the sponge retain the dust from the sanding. The pits received a small drop of brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) applied with a fly tying bodkin. Before the CA set-up I sanded the area with the dusty sanding sponge. THe dust on the sponge combined with the CA to fill the pitted areas. This technique works best for small fills and will require a second application if the pit is larger or deeper.
The stummel was then sanded with the series of sanding sponges from 400-3500. Between each sponge I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol to remove any sanding debris. The tape was removed after the final sanding sponge.
After the sanding I used the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads in sequence. In between each pad I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad moistened with alcohol, as with the sanding sponges.
The last treatment for the stummel was to receive a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm. This was allowed to do the magic that it does for about 20 minutes.
I turned my attention to the stem. It was in pretty good shape and appeared to only have surface oxidation and calcium deposits. I opted to sand the vulcanite with the 600 sanding sponge to see if the oxidation was deeper than it first appeared.
The stem looked pretty good but I wanted to make sure there was no oxidation present so I applied Soft Scrub to a make-up pad and started scrubbing the stem. The Soft Scrub removed a good deal of additional oxidation. After the Soft Scrub scrubbing the stem was given a coating of mineral oil and allowed to soak for 30 minutes.
In the meantime I used an inside-out athletic sock to wipe away the remaining Restoration Balm, revealing some very pretty grained briar.
I then wrapped the shank in painters tape and inserted the stem. I did not want to round the edges of the stem at the stem-shank joint.
The stem was sanded with the series of sanding sponges from 1000-3500 grit. Between each sponge I applied mineral oil to the stem with my fingertip and wiped off the stem with a paper towel.
After the sanding sponges, I used the micro-mesh pads in sequence from 4000-12000. In between each pad I applied a drop of Obsidian Oil, rubbed that in with my finger tip and wiped the stem with a paper towel.
The stem looked good but all of the airway cleaning had a stem loosening effect that I was not happy with. Yeah, I know – the undocumented airway cleaning. I said I was sorry. Jeez. Anyway, it might have been tightened up by just smoking it but then I would have to clean it all again, probably without documenting it. If this were a pipe I was planning to keep I would be inclined to apply a little bit of molten beeswax to the tenon and tighten it that way. Since this pipe will hopefully find a new steward I wanted a more permanent solution. I used a short bristle paint brush known as a “dry brush” in figurine painting to apply a thin coating of black CA to the tenon. This is done carefully and allowed to dry without accelerant spritzing. Once dry the CA is micro-meshed smooth. The stem is inserted and checked for fit. If too loose another light coat of black CA can be applied. If the stem is too tight additional micro-meshing evenly around the tenon will adjust the fit. In this case a single light coat was all that was required. By the way, the CA will harden and make you think that you have destroyed your brush. Don’t worry, a soak in acetone dissolved the CA and returns the brush to near normal.
With the stem well fit I hand polished the stem with Before and After Fine Polish followed by their Extra Fine Polish. Both polishes were applied and buffed with a soft cotton cloth. Again no photos but here are the products in question:
I have to say that this pipe is probably my favorite of the four-pipe set from HT&L via the Penn Tobacco Company. The Zulu shape is just one of my all time favorites. The briar grain is pretty, the vulcanite polished up nicely and the aluminum spacer gives the pipe a little accent that I find endearing. I am glad that my compulsive personality led me to collecting and restoring each of the Penn pipes but seeing all four together is just a piece of history that can now be passed along to their next steward. I do hope that you found something here useful in restorations of your own or had some fun reading this. If you enjoy this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. I thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
Below are some photos of the finished Vox Pop Superb Briar Air COnditioned Zulu( that is a mouthful) and photos of the four Penn Tobacco co. crew.
If you are interested in acquiring the set of four pipes please, feel free to mention it in the comments or contact me at scimansays1787@gmail.com.
My quest to restore an example of the four pipes from the Penn Tobacco Company coupons or certificates continues. I took on the quest when researching the history of a Broadcaster pipe (the link will take you to that restoration). Upon discovering that there were four total pipes named in these offers, I was intrigued. Intrigued to the point where I wanted to restore an example of each.
I will refer back to the Broadcaster restoration for a history of the Penn Tobacco Company and their pipe offers and include a shortened version here. There is an interesting summary on piphil.eu regarding the Bruce Peters line:
The Broadcaster had come to me years ago as part of an estate lot. The second pipe was a Bruce Peters, restored and published last week. This Silver Mac Duff was discovered on eBay, offered as a lone pipe. I had been looking for over a month for a Silver Mac Duff and this was the first that I had seen. The photos on eBay were not bad but indicated what might be a serious problem. The below photos were taken by the seller as part of the description of the pipe.
I took screenshots of the photos and circled the area of concern. A dark spot over an area in briar can indicate a charring of the interior of the tobacco chamber. This can be caused by the tobacco actually burning the briar. Typically caused by the smoker smoking the tobacco too fast or by smoking in windy conditions. I messaged the seller, showed him the screenshots with circles and asked if they could provide additional photos. They were kind enough to do so. The newer photos did not completely erase my fears but helped lessen them enough to purchase the Silver Mac Duff.
The pipe arrived within short order and appeared in the condition shown in the following photographs.
I had the first and arguably the most important part of the restoration accomplished – getting the pipe to restore. Put kindly, the pipe was in rough shape. It was dirty, dented, dinged, worn and oxidized. I was happy.
Normally, my restorations begin with laying down a clean piece of denim as a surface to work on. Check. They also do not usually begin with a stem that is this badly oxidized.
Sidenote: I take the before and after photos of the pipes with my Nikon. The camera sends the photos taken to my phone. The phone camera is used for the photos during the restoration. I tell you this because this is how I can recall the order of operations with a restoration. When writing the restoration I refer back to the phone for the sequence of events. So, no you know, even if you don’t care.
I figured that this one would have to soak in the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer for at least 4 hours.
Before the stem would get its bath, it had to have a little pre-treatment with a rubdown with 0000 steel wool. A pipe cleaner was inserted into the stem to act as a hanger for suspending the stem in the solution.
With the stem safely submerged I turned my attention to the reaming of the tobacco chamber. The reaming tools were assembled: The PipNet with #3 blades, the Smokingpipes knife, General triangular scraper, 220 sandpaper wrapped dowel and 320 sandpaper wrapped Sharpie.
The PipNet took center stage and did most of the work. This pipe had a large chamber with most of the cake deposited on the upper half.
After the PipNet the scrapers were used to clean off the lower part of the chamber then the interior was sanded to bare briar with the 220 followed by the 320 sandpapers. There was no sign of any heat damage to the chamber.
This was a great relief referring back to that dark spot on the front of the bowl. Below is my photo of the left side of the stummel. There is a dark area but it was not associated with any charring damage from within the tobacco chamber.
Next, the rim was scraped using a sharp pocket knife on the lava. Yeah, I know it sounds gross but I moistened the lava with saliva before scraping.
After the scraping the stummel was taken to the sink and scrubbed with Murphy’s Oil Soap. The Murphy’s was used undiluted and the scrubbing done with a medium stiff toothbrush. The Murphy’s was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton dish towel. At this point I poured about 4 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the bowl and let it flow into the shank. I used a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway full of alcohol. I then poured the alcohol into a medicine cup. I can get a pretty good idea of how dirty a shank is by gauging the color of the alcohol in the cup. This one was dark indicating a lot of scrubbing would be required.
The counter, next to the sink, is where I top a rim if topping is required. This rim definitely needed some topping to remove the damage from dottle knocking.
I would have had to remove several millimeters or ⅛ inch from the rim to remove the damage. Instead I opted for a topping and to bevel the outer rim edge.
I used a funnel with sandpaper glued to the interior. The funnel established the angle. I then used a flat needle file and further funnel sanding to bevel the rim.
On to the shank scrubbing. I started with scraping as much yuck (the highly technical term for smoking residue) from the shank with a dental scraper. I then poured about 3-4 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the tobacco chamber. This was allowed to flow into the shank but not out. I then held the stummel at an angle and scrubbed with the nylon shank brush and alcohol. After a bit of scrubbing I’d pour the alcohol into the medicine cup and either scrape or use a cotton swab to check on the yuck removal. This was repeated several times, replacing the alcohol when it got fully yuckified (another highly technical term for something which has been exposed to large amounts of smoking residue).
I must have gotten bored with all the scrubbing and decided to work on the stummel. According to the order of photos on the phone, I then polished the silver then taped over it. Perhaps I was curious to see the condition of the briar after the Murphy’s scrub.
After taping the stamp and silver, I lightly sanded the stummel with the 400 and 600 grit sanding sponges. I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol to remove the sanding dust/sinish. I discovered a couple of spots that I filled using cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). I placed a small drop of the CA into the pit and used the dusty sanding sponge to provide the briar dust to the fill. You can see the red stain originally used on this pipe.
Without any more interruptions, I returned to the airway scrubbing. This is not my favorite part of restoring a pipe and I have been known to seek a distraction or two. Eventually the alcohol and the cotton swabs were returning lighter colored. Oh yeah, I also used a small piece of paper towel rolled around a round needle file dipped in the alcohol to scrub the airway. That’s what you see in the below photo on the right, below the shank brush.
Several more rotations of alcohol scrubs followed by cotton swabs later the airway was cleaned. And in the process the alcohol completely removed my carefully placed tape. Like I said, seeking distractions.
More tape and the sanding of the stummel was carried out. I used the sanding sponges in sequence from 1000-3500. Between each sponge I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol.
When finished with the sanding sponges I used the micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. Again between pads I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol. I am not sure what that dark spot is in the center of the stummel below. There was no pit there and it does not show on any other photo.
The next step in the restoration of the stummel was to give it a liberal coating of Before and After Restoration Balm. The balm was allowed to soak into the briar for about an hour.
An hour later the Restoration Balm was wiped off using the inside of an athletic sock. If you do not have an athletic sock covered in white German Shepherd hair, don’t worry. I am sure that an athletic sock without white German Shepherd hair would work equally as well.
Another sidenote: Thank you to all of you readers who have told me that they prefer the black background for my before and after photos. I now know exactly who does not have a white German Shepherd living in their homes.
The stummel was pretty much finished but I still needed to let the stem soak for a couple more hours. I suppose I should go make some dinner.
Finally the four hours were up. I returned to the stem, still soaking in the Before and After Deoxidizer. I removed the stem and let the solution drip off for a few minutes. While I cleaned up the workbench and retrieved the rough shop rag I like for wiping the deoxidizer from stems. This first photo shows the stem still wet with solution. The dark smudge to the left was from this stem when it first hit the rag. I rubbed the remaining solution off with quite a bit of force. I was trying to wipe off the solution and abbrade away as much of the oxidized rubber as possible.
Below you can see the stem after the solution has been rubbed off and a couple of pipe cleaners passed through to remove the solution from the airway. It is looking much better and black though you can see the dents from teeth and small pits left by the removal of the oxidized rubber.
Here is another shot showing the rough surface of the stem after the solution. I chose to use Soft Scrub of make-up pads to see how much more of the oxidized material was still present.
The answer, a lot. The good news was that the oxidized material was quite soft from the deoxidizer solution so this brown matter came off easily. Afterwards I oiled the stem with mineral oil and allowed it to soak in.
With fresh vulcanite, I used a cotton swab dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol to remove the oil from the area I needed to fill with black CA. I placed a small drop onto the dent and spritzed it with a CA drying accelerant. This makes the CA set-up within seconds.
I filed the dried CA smooth and applied a larger spot of black CA to the area. This time I spread the drop out to about ⅛ inch diameter or 4-5 mm. I spritzed it again with the accelerant. This area was again filed smooth then sanded with the 400 sanding sponge followed by the 600 sanding sponge. Below you can still see the larger CA area sanded.
From there, I sanded the stem with a series of sanding sponges from 1000-3500. Between each sponge I wiped the stem with mineral oil on my finger and wiped it with a dry paper towel. The stem had been reinserted into the stummel to avoid any rounding of the joint edges of the stem or the stummel. The stummel was also taped to protect the silver.
I failed to take a picture of the stem with micro-mesh pads. Let the record show that the stem was indeed micro-meshed with the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Between each pad I applied a drop of Obsidian Oil, rubbed that in with my finger and wiped the stem with a paper towel. The final steps of polishing the stem were with the Before and After Fine and Extra Fine Polish. These polishes were applied and hand buffed with a soft cotton rag.
All that remained was to apply several coats of carnauba wax to the pipe with the buffer.
This restoration brought me one pipe closer to the goal of having a restored example of each Penn Tobacco Company coupon pipe. The Broadcaster, Bruce Peters and now Silver Mac Duff could be checked off of the list. The final pipe arrived during the restoration of the Silver Mac Duff and will be the subject of the next restoration blog. Overall I am very pleased at how well this pipe turned out. It was rather rough looking at first. The grain is lovely with almost contrast stained features. The vulcanite polished very nicely and has that black luster that really makes the briar grain stand out beautifully. The accenting of the whole pipe with the broad silver band is like the icing on the cake. I do hope that you found something here useful. If you enjoy this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe. I thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
Below are some photos of the finished Silver Mac Duff, a name that continues to make me smile every time I type it.
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(Photo courtesy of Steve Laug) 
I worked on the stem with the sanding sponges from 600-3500 in sequence. Between each sponges I applied mineral oil from my finger and wiped the stem with a paper towel.
NebraskaPeteGeek 