Tag: polishing a stem

A Trapwell Large Apple Restoration

July 25th, 2024

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I just can’t stop myself from working on those darn 1940s pipes. This little gem is one of those World War II Mediterranean briar substitutes. Kind of like a substitute teacher, they try but just are not the same as the regular version. I’ll get to more detail on that in the Background section, below. I have restored a handful of Trapwell pipes over the years

and found them to be exceptional smokers. They all share the same system for cooling the smoke and condensing out steam. It is this system that makes them good smokers but also a bit troublesome to clean. The subject of this blog is a large apple that has seen some tough handling. The pipe was purchased through eBay and was not part of an estate lot, just a single pipe. After a journey from Union Dale, Pennsylvania to the wilds of southeast Nebraska the old girl arrived. Below are some photos of this Trapwell as she appeared prior to any work.

I am not all that familiar with pipe care practices in different parts of the country. Apparently in Pennsylvania, pipes are frequently placed into cages with hyperactive irate badgers. I could be wrong on this but it would explain the numerous gouges, scratches, dings, dents and other surface scars that the Trapwell had. There were also signs that the pipe was smoked in between badger treatments and perhaps tumble drying sessions with the previous owner’s rock collection. There was a definite lava accumulation on the rim and some caking within the tobacco chamber. The stem and band had marks along their length that indicated that the badgers of Pennsylvania have acquired the use of pliers. These tool marks indicated to me that the stem was probably quite stuck in the shank (It was). The stem also had a bit of tooth chatter which would have to be repaired. Overall, it looked like a fairly straight forward restoration (It wasn’t).

Background

To have an understanding of Trapwell, we have to look into their origin story. No, there are no radioactive spiders but it is still a good story. “Henry Leonard & Thomas, Inc. (HLT) was founded in Ozone Park, Queens, New York by Henry J. Lavietes and two partners on May 31, 1938. The company patented a stem design for pipes and cigarette holders designed by Henry on March 9, 1943. Henry was the son of David Lavietes, who moved to Sparta, North Carolina in the early 1940s to purchase laurel and rhododendron burl to ship back to his son and HLT. Lavietes decided to stay in Sparta and founded the D&P Pipe Works with his other son Paul, originally as a 15 person operation. David Lavietes was the inventor of the Ajustomatic feature incorporated into Dr. Grabow pipes even today.

In 1944, the trademark for the Royalton filter well was granted to HLT. Soon after, however, Henry Lavietes closed the New York operation with little warning and moved the entire production to Sparta, North Carolina. At this time in addition to the Royalton line, HLT was making many other lines of pipes.

In 1953, HLT acquired all assets and equipment of the Dr. Grabow company of Chicago, Illinois, and began production of Grabow and Hollycourt pipes. At the same time, they acquired the Continental Briar Company, owner of the Royal Duke, Duke of Dundee, and Honeydew pipe brands still evident in the common use of the word “Duke” to name Grabow pipes.

On October 21, 1969, United States Tobacco company, owners of the Mastercraft brand, announced that it had acquired HLT. It still ran as a separate company until 1985, however, when Sparta Pipes, Mastercraft and HLT were merged into Sparta Industries, Inc.

While, even after this time, the HLT brand was sold to Lane, and later, in 2006 to International Pipes & Assessories, the current owners, IPAL continues to make and sell the Royalton pipe with the original HLT logo as part of the Grabow line.” (Henry Leonard & Thomas Inc. – Pipedia) (Italics are mine)

So we have David Levietas and son, Paul, setting up a North American briar harvesting venture in North Carolina. All of this due to the Nazis waging war on Europe and shutting down exportation of the pipemans’ favorite wood – briar. That dynamic duo was D&P Pipeworks.

“Trapwell pipes marked with “World’s best briar” are made of Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) a species from the Ericaceae family.

The brand was made by D & P Pipe Works, owned by D. P. Levitas and located in Sparta, Alleghany County, North Carolina close to the population of Mountain Laurel in the area. Later, this company changed its name to Sparta Pipe Works and still later to Sparta Industries.

There were at least three pipe brands made from the Mountain Laurel: Trapwell, Breezewood and Custombilt.” (Trapwell – Pipedia)

David Levietas, as previously mentioned was the inventor of the “Ajustomatic”. He also was the inventor of the Trapwell system. The below diagram from the original US patent 2,262,159 was screenshot from the PDF. This PDF can be found here: US2262159A – Smoker’s pipe – Google Patents for those interested in the original.

The text of the patent was also saved as images and is included below. Again the original PDF can be seen here: US2262159A – Smoker’s pipe – Google Patents.

It is this feature that makes the Trapwell pipe what it is – a fine smoking tool.

The Restoration

This restoration began with me attempting to unscrew the stem from the shank of the pipe. This unscrewing actually removed the aluminum mortise from the shank. This was not an intended part of David Levietas’ design. From the photos above you can see the following images:

The photo on the right is what is supposed to happen when unscrewing the stem. Using a pliers with the jaws wrapped in painters tape, as to not mar the stem nor aluminum, I was able to unscrew the two aluminum threaded parts. I would have to reinsert and glue the mortise section back into the shank. This comes later in the restoration.

I set out cleaning the threads of the tenon by soaking the threads in 95% ethyl alcohol. The threads were then scrubbed with a brass brush dipped in the alcohol. This cleaned any residual tars and removed most of the oxidized aluminum.

The shank piece of aluminum was larger and required a larger medicine cup for soaking. It also required more alcohol. I opted to use 91% isopropyl alcohol for this larger amount. Yeah, I’m cheap. Isopropyl is far less expensive than ethyl. That extra carbon and two hydrogens of the isopropyl must reduce both the effectiveness of it as a solvent and the cost. It still worked to clean the aluminum along with cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners.

The stem was cleaned out with 95% ethyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners.

With the insides clean it was time to address the exterior. I lightly sanded the stem with a 320 and 400 sanding sponge. I then painted the tooth chatter with a lighter in hopes of raising the dents.

The sanding and flame painting helped with the tooth chatter but were unable to do much to the pliers scars. These would require filling with black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue).

I switched tasks to the stummel. Yeah, ADHD isn’t just for kids. I gathered the reaming tools and started working on the tobacco chamber. This was a relatively narrow chamber and would not fit my PipNet Reaming tool since I had broken the smallest size blades for it. The Scotte Stainless Steel reamer would suffice.

Looking down into the chamber I couldn’t see any damage from heat. It still needed additional scraping and sanding but still the Mountain Laurel appeared to be heat resistant. Not the badger claw marks through the lava.

Next the stummel was taken to the sink. Here it was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium toothbrush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and then the stummel was dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench you can see the grain of the Mountain Laurel. It is different from briar and lacks the bird’s eyes. I can’t say that it is unattractive, just different.

I wiped the surface with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol to remove any wax and or finish from the stummel. I got some color on the pad. It looked more like a stain than a finish.

The stummel was then sanded with a 320 and a 400 grit sanding sponge.

The rim needed topping to address the dents and dings on the surface. This was done with a piece of 320 sandpaper laid flat on a countertop. I used a circular pattern with rotations of the stummel in my hand every 3-4 circles. This process was repeated with 400 grit sandpaper.

In preparation of a contrast dye, I taped the stamps to keep them from being as heavily dyed as the stummel. The tape was cut in irregular patterns to avoid the blocky appearance when finished.

I planned to use a mixture of ⅓ black to ⅔ dark brown Fiebing’s Leather Dye.

The dye was measured out with a disposable pipette and mixed in a medicine cup. It was then applied to the stummel using a bent pipe cleaner as an applicator. The wet dye was flamed with a lighter to burn off the alcohol solvent of the dye.

The stummel was then rinsed with 91% isopropyl alcohol over the sink.

Excess dye was wiped from the stummel with a paper towel. The protective tape also came off during the wiping but it had done its job.

Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a couple of make-up pads dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. I was not sure how the Mountain Laurel would take the dye as I had never dyed Mountain Laurel before. The softer portions of the wood absorbed the dye very well while the harder grain seemed to repel the dye to some extent. This looked to give the wood a very interesting pattern.

I then tried to sand off the outermost black dyed layer of wood. It was here that I realized how woefully inadequate my previous sanding had been. The badger claw marks were everywhere. Stupid badger.

After thinking about how to deal with the scratches and dents for what seemed like hours, I thought, “try steaming them out”. I plugged in the iron, set it to high, wetted a washcloth and donned a left glove. I wrapped the washcloth around the stummel and proceeded to roll it over the hot iron. I would have taken pictures of this process had I more than the two hands.

The results of the steaming were better but still required far more sanding. And yes, it’s a kevlar glove, I clean fish down at this sink on occasion.

Okay, back to sanding. Lots of sanding. And then some more sanding.

Finally I was wondering if I had done so much sanding that the contrast dye had been completely removed. Out of curiosity I grabbed the Before and After Restoration Balm and gave the stummel a coating. I waited 15 minutes for the balm to do what it does – magic. Many of the dents and scratches seemed to have disappeared.

There were a couple of dents that were too much for even the wonders of Restoration Balm. These would have to be filled with brown CA and briar dust. Now that I write that I realize I should have used Mountain Laurel dust. I certainly had enough.

The new fills were filed with a flat needle file then smoothed with 400 sandpaper.

I must have left stummel mode and entered CA fill mode. I started filling the tooling and tooth dents on the stem. Here I used black CA and spritzed it with a CA drying accelerator.

These areas were again filed flat with a flat needle file then smoothed using a 400 grit sanding sponge.

For a final finish I applied a light top coat of thin clear CA. This CA flows more easily and filled any small depressions that remained. Once cured the areas were filed and sanded as above.

The wood of the shank was taped with painters tape and the stem was sanded using a series of sanding sponges from 400-1500. Between each sponge I dabbed mineral oil onto the stem, rubbed it in with my fingertip and wiped the stem with a paper towel.

The above was repeated with the 2000-3500 sanding sponges.

The stummel got new tape over the stamps. Then was sanded sith the sanding sponges 1000-3500. Between sponges I wiped the wood with a make-up pad moistened with alcohol.

The tape was removed and the adhesive wiped off with alcohol. The pipe was then polished with the micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. The stummel was wiped with alcohol on a make-up pad between pads. The stem received a drop of Obsidian Oil, rubbed onto the vulcanite and a wipe with a dry paper towel.

Once finished with the micro-meshing I pulled the aluminum shank insert out. Cleaned the hole and the aluminum with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol then applied a light coat of white all purpose glue to the toothed end of the aluminum and reinserted it into the shank. I adjusted the bit while the glue was wet. The joint where the two pieces meet was wiped with a paper towel and a bit of alcohol. The pipe was then taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.

This Trapwell Apple turned out far better than I thought it would. During the restoration I still had my doubts as to how it would look finished. It is truly a stunning pipe. Some of the scratches are still evident but the Mountain Laurel nearly has a glow to it. In sunlight it is remarkable. The contrast dye did far better than I hoped it would, even after all my post-dye sanding. The stem polished up nicely as well. There remain some deep scratches in the aluminum but removing them would probably alter the straight smooth shank to stem junction. Overall I am very pleased at how this pipe turned out. The dimensions of this beauty are:

Length: 6.11 in./ 155.19 mm.

Weight: 1.34 oz./ 38.00g.

Bowl Height: 1.47 in./ 37.34 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.26 in./ 32.00 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.68 in./ 17.27 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.56 in./ 39.62 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Trapwell Large Apple.
A Marxman Mel~O Pear

July 23rd, 2024

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Here I go again with another Marxman. Okay, I haven’t restored a Marxman since March 18, that’s like four months. In dog years it is over two years. I think it is about time to return to one of my favorite brands and this is a beauty. An unsmoked Mel-O Pear. How it ended up with a cracked shank, I’ll never understand. This darling came to me from eBay, and traveled all the way from Yuma, Arizona. Maybe that dry desert heat is what contributed to the crack. The description from the seller read as follows, “Vintage Marxman Tobacco Pipe Melo-O Imported Italy there minor cracked other than that very good”. Where they got the “Imported Italy” from is another mystery. True the stamps are faint and partial but I can make out a “B” after IMPORTED and the last time I checked Italy starts with an “I”. The other stamps are MEL~O over MARXMAN. The “MAN” looks to have suffered the same fate and the BRIAR never having been properly stamped. Below are some photos of the Marxman Mel-O as it arrived.

Background

On January 11, 2024 I blogged about a Marxman Gold banded Dublin (linked if you are interested) and wrote the following about Robert Marxman and Marxman pipes:

“My recent fascination with the post-World War Two (WWII, to properly use an acronym) led me to further appreciation of the Marketing genius of Robert Marx, the founder of Marxman Pipes Inc. Allow me to illustrate:

(Pipe Lovers Magazine 1946 all numbers : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive)

Those are the back covers of Pipe Lovers Magazine for each month of 1946. That represents a substantial investment in building and maintaining one’s brand name.

Here is a quick review of Marxman pipes from pipedia.org:

“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”.

(Marxman – Pipedia)

In a recent forum post on Pipesmagazine.com, contributor jguss posted the following from the February 2, 1935 issue of the United States Tobacco Journal:

A remarkable article showing the business acumen as well as a photo of the man himself. Thank you, jguss.

This is one of my favorite quotes about Rober Marx:

“Ted also said: Several years before UST bought Mastercraft, M/C had aquired Marxman Pipes. A wonderful kind man, Bob Marx was still working as a salesman in NYC, and I was fortunate to make a few sales calls with him. You all remember Charles Atlas? Bob Marx was about 76 and had just been awarded the (I think) Atlas Award for being the finest speciman of manhood over 70 years old in NYC, or maybe the state.

M/C had some inventory of Marxman stuff, but not a lot. I know very little about Marxman. Did they make, import, or both?” (Mastercraft – Pipedia)

The “Ted”, who is being quoted above, was the nickname of Tom Douglas. Here is an announcement of Mr. Douglas’ passing from Pipesmagazine forum November 26, 2018:

“Tom Douglas passed away at 71 years of age, this past Saturday, in Florida. It seems he had an infection in his stomach, but I don’t know much more than that, regarding what actually contributed to his death. He did have a history of heart and other health complications. I just spoke very briefly with his wife Joyce; you can imagine how she’s doing.

The impact Tom had on the pipe community is huge…beginning with an immense library of pipe knowledge through the pages of the Dr. Grabow Collectors Forum….his 25 years of service at the Grabow / Sparta pipe factory (where he retired in 1991)….his executive leadership over Mastercraft distribution for many years…”

(Broken Pipe: Tom Douglas, aka “TED” :: General Discussion :: Pipe Smokers Forums of PipesMagazine.com)

So, at 76 years old Robert Marx was still involved in the business that he must have loved. This would have been around 1980.”

Then last winter, Mark Irwin, of Peterson Pipe Notes and author of The Peterson Pipe book, sent me a c. 1945 Marxman Brochure. I photographed the pages of the brochure and included them below.

One of the easiest things to date is a Marxman pipe. The company was formed in 1939 and sold in 1953 to MasterCraft. Though the Marxman name continued after 1953 the pipes were made in France or Italy and stamped as such with Country of Manufacture (COM) stamps. This means that a non COM stamped Marxman pipe was made in New York City between 1939-1953.

The Restoration

A clean denim piece on the work surface began this restoration. The edge of the shank was given a very slight bevel with 320 sandpaper. You can see the lighter ring on the briar below from the sanding.

I checked which size of brass tubing would be the best fit for a band for the Mel~O, ⅝ inch was nearly perfect. I measured how wide I wanted the band. For this pipe a narrow band seemed appropriate and would provide the strength needed to compress the crack and not cover the carvings on the shank. A pipe cutter was used to cut the 5/8th inch stock.

The band was cut. The interior edges were lightly filed with a rounded needle file, giving them a very slight bevel on bothe the interior and exterior surfaces. Then the edges were lightly sanded with 320 and 400 grit sanding sponges.

There was zero draw through the pipe. I removed the stinger and noticed that it was completely sealed with some obstruction.

Using needle nose pliers I was able to pull a couple of tiny pieces of metal from the end of the stinger.

At this point I assumed the stinger was meant to be a tube rather than a cylinder. I thought that maybe a previous owner had somehow wedged a pipe cleaner into the draft hole. I tried pushing a fly tying bodkin through what I thought to the tube. It was completely sealed.

I figured that it might be worth a try to drill out the hole through the tube. I tried a couple of drill bits and found the 5/32 inch to be the best fit.

Holding the stinger firmly with a Vise-Grip I tried drilling the aluminum with an electric drill. This proved pretty futile. There was no way that I could hold both the stinger and the drill straight enough to allow a good hole through the aluminum.

To make matters worse there appeared to be a steel wire within the aluminum which was pushing the drill bit to the side. With continued drilling the bit would be forced to the side of the aluminum stinger not through the center. I abandoned the idea of drilling the aluminum. Hmm, perhaps this is the universe’s way of telling me that I need a drill press?

I thought about various stingers. Many are a solid piece of aluminum but they have a groove or slot milled in them to allow for an airway. Perhaps this piece was supposed to have a slot cut in it. How this was neglected, if it were indeed neglected, made little sense but stranger things have happened. I set the stinger aside and continued pondering as I worked on the next task.

The next task was cleaning up the stem. This pipe must have been stored in a box or drawer as it had minimal oxidation, pretty amazing for a 75 year old pipe. I first sanded the surface with a 600 grit sanding sponge. This removed the surface oxidation and dirt and also revealed a strange rough spot. Try as I might I was not able to get rid of the rough area with the 600 sponge so I backed off to a 400 grit sponge. This worked to remove most of the rough area. The spot was resanded and smoothed with the 600 sponge.

I then scrubbed the stem with SoftScrub on make-up pads. This removed additional oxidation and left the stem looking like and black with fresh clean vulcanite.

As I drew air through the stem I heard a whistling. I took this to mean that there was a turbulent flow of air through the airway. The tenon was flat cut. Why not give it a nice countersunk bevel and polish that a bit, I thought.

Using a couple drill bits I just held in hand and twisted the bits removing the rubber from the tenon. This was then sanded with 220, 320 and 400 sandpaper to smooth the bevel. Below you can see the polished bevel. Drawing through the pipe was now silent.

The stem airway was quite clean and only produced the dirt from manufacture and age on the pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

Next the stummel was taken to the sink to rid it of it’s accumulated grime. The three amigos of scrubbing were present and accounted for.

From previous experience with the soft Algerian briar that Marman used I opted not to use the brass brush on the rusticated carvings. I began with Undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium stiff toothbrush. Additional Murphy’s was added and a second scrub with the nylon scrub brush was done. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Below is a photo of the scrubbed stummel back at the workbench. I took the shininess to indicate that wax or finish was still present on the briar.

I scrubbed the stummel with 95% ethyl alcohol and a toothbrush to remove any traces of shine.

The stummel was then scrubbed with 95% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad. Extra attention was paid to the carving grooves.

And again.

There we go, no more shine. I then started to fit the band to the shank. The shank needed to have a slight bit of briar removed in order for the band to fit. I slowly and carefully filed the shank end. I wanted the band to be press fit. A hard press, that is.

Eventually I got the fit that I wanted. I applied thin cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) to the crack, the thin formula allows ready penetration into the crack. The band was then pressed into place using a tapping block. The outside end of the band required a little bit of filing to allow a precise fit with the stem and a light sanding with 400 and 600 sanding sponges.

The pipe, stem and stummel, were then sanded with a sequence of sanding sponges from 400-1500. Between each sponge I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol. The stem received a dab of mineral oil from my fingertip rubbed onto the vulcanite then wiped with a paper towel.

The above was repeated for the 2000-3500 sanding sponges.

The pipe was then micro-meshed with 4000-12000 pads. The stummel was wiped as before while the stem received Obsidian Oil rather than mineral oil.

The pipe was then given a coat of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 20 minutes.

@0 minutes later the Restoration Balm was wiped from the pipe with an inside out athletic sock. Again extra attention was paid to rubbing the carved grooves thoroughly.

I wasn’t sure which type of wax would be best for protecting and preserving the rusticated carvings. I opted for Renaissance Micro-Crystalline Wax. No, not because I like the smell. Well, yeah, kind of because I like the smell. Also because it seems to penetrate into the non-sanded briar.

The wax was applied with a baby toothbrush.

I let the wax dry for 15 minutes and replaced my carnauba wax buffing wheel with a clean flannel wheel and buffed the stummel. I used the corner of the wheel to work into the carvings.

The carnauba buffing wheel was returned to the buffer and the stem, rim and stampings received several coats of carnauba wax.

This was a fun restoration as I enjoy banding cracked shanks. I think the polished brass gives the rusticated briar a touch of classiness. The briar of this Mel~O shows some grain pattern on the rim, nothing great but still pretty. The color though is outstanding and is contrasted very nicely with the glossy black vulcanite separated by the brass band. Overall I am pleased with how the pipe turned out. I am looking forward to the first smoke with this Marxman. There is something unique about the briar with these old pipes, they have a slight spiciness like cinnamon and nutmeg when first smoked. You can get it from a freshly reamed and sanded Markman as well. Strangely satisfying or, I could be imagining it allowing my tastebuds to succumb to my weird emotional attachment to the brand. Either way, I like these old pipes. The dimensions of the Marxman Mel-O Pear are:

Length: 5.40 in./ 137.16 mm.

Weight: 1.30 oz./ 37.00 g.

Bowl Height: 1.61 in./ 40.89 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.10 in./ 27.94 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.78 in./ 19.81 mm. (conically bored)

Outside Diameter: 1.58 in./ 40.13 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Marxman Mel-O Pear.
A The Sterling Pipe 530 Canted Dublin Restoration

July 18th, 2024

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I am a sucker for a Dublin shaped pipe and I love the look of a forward canted bowl. These two features are present with the above The Sterling Pipe. I had never heard of the Brand but the briar looked like it was pretty good quality. The stampings on the pipe read, THE over STERLING over PIPE in an almost bubble-like block font. The logo looked like a cursive L or S, I assumed an S. Handwriting was never a strong point of mine. On the right side the shank is stamped AN EXCLUSIVE IMPORT over ENGLAND with 530 offset further towards the bowl. Only the 530, I assume shape number, is definite. The other stamps are all light and I feared that they would be hard to preserve intact. Below are some photos of how The Sterling Pipe appeared prior to work.

The terms; dirty, dinged, oxidized and pitted all came to mind. Yet with all the work needing to be done the “coolness” of the shape shined through and held promise. And the fact that the briar grain was pretty darn interesting too.

Background

An internet search of “The Sterling Pipe” only produced one result of note. A mention of a The Sterling Pipe” from an earlier auction:

(THE STERLING PIPE LONDON ENGLAND | #3769477577 (worthpoint.com))

That’s darn little to go on.

I then tried the big English makers searching to match the shape number to a known maker’s shape. Again no luck with Charatan, Comoy’s, GBD, Lorenz,e Rossi etc… Next I tried the “Phone a friend” approach. Well, actually it was a message a friend. I reached out to Steve Laug via Facebook private messenger, showed him a few photos and asked what he thought. He replied quickly with the following “According to Who Made that Pipe The Sterling was made by Comoy’s for export” (personal communication). “Who Made That Pipe” refers to the book:

Who made that pipe?: a directory of briar pipe names, their makers/sellers, and countries of origin in the 19th & 20th centuries1997, H. Wilczak

With that piece of the puzzle solved I proceeded on with the project.

The Restoration

Starting with a clean denim piece as a work surface I began work. The reaming was the starting point with this pipe even though I knew that the stem would require more work than the briar.

The reaming tools were assembled.

The reaming went very quickly. I find it interesting how different pipes take to the reaming. In my experience softer briar reams far more easily than harder briar. My favorite pipes to clean are the old Marxman Algerian briars. There is something about that briar that almost seems like the briar sloughs off the cake with a little pressure. This pipe did the same.

The tobacco chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper on a wooden dowel to bare briar and an inspection of the chamber revealed no damage to the chamber walls.

The airway of the pipe was very constricted and I could barely draw air through the pipe. I used the long drill bit-like tool from the Scotte Stainless Steel reaming tool to hand drill the airway clean.

With the airway open I took the stummel to the sink. Here it was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium toothbrush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench I got a much better look at the numerous pits and their old fills. I took out the dental picks and tried excavating the old fill material. It was very hard, nearly rock-like. The fine sharp points of the picks would not penetrate the fill material.

I thought, maybe a bit of 95% ethyl alcohol would soften the fill and sell as remove any remaining wax and or finish. The alcohol dipped make-up pad did show some color as it removed something from the briar.

I had no more success with the dental picks after the alcohol. I tried using a sharp tipped round needle file, hoping the harder and more stiff steel of the file would be more effective against the fills. Success.

The newly opened pits were filled with brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust. These were filed with a flat needle file and smoothed with 32 then 400 sanding sponges. This did leave several dark fill spots over the surface of the stummel. More on this later.

The rim of The Sterling Pipe had damage from knocking against things other than a palm of cork ashtray knockers. I think the previous owner preferred to knock out a dottle on pieces of broken concrete or lava rocks. To each their own…

I topped the rim using 220 sand paper laid flat on the countertop. A circular motion where I rotated the stummel in my hand was used to evenly sand the rim. Once topped to remove most of the dings I used a 1 ½ in round polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe cap wrapped with 220 sandpaper to give the inner rim it’s bevel.

The worst of the dings were still present. To these I applied a bead of brown CA and pressed the rim into a flat bottomed container of briar dust. This pressed the dust into the CA wetted depressions. The rim was then topped using 400 sandpaper to smooth the new rim fills. I unfortunately did not photograph this step, apologies.

I turned my attention to the stem. It was lightly sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge to remove the outermost oxidation. Then the stem was placed into a solution of OxyClean and water. It soaked in the Oxy for 2 hours.

Below you can kind of see the brownish clouds of oxidized rubber on both sides of the stem.

Upon removal the stem looks quite brown.

Rubbing the stem with a clean dry make-up pad removed a good deal of oxidized rubber.

The stem then got a pipe cleaner run through the airway to remove Oxy solution and was scrubbed with SoftScrub on make-up pads.

The stem was shedding oxidized rubber but looked little different after each pad. The oxidation was worse than I had originally thought. I decided to give the stem an overnight bath in Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. A pipe cleaner was inserted into the stem to be used as a suspension hook.

This allowed me to hang the stem suspending it in the solution.

I had decided that I was going to give this stummel a black dye base coat and try to achieve a contrast stain look. This would allow all those darker spots from the numerous fills to me slightly hidden and give the grain some added contrast. I did not want the rim to share in this contrast. I had used Vallejo Liquid Mask on a previous project to keep areas free from dye and thought this would be a perfect place to work on my technique with the product.

The mask is a relatively thick liquid that goes on blue-green and dries more clear. One dry it can be peeled off. I applied a coating of the Liquid Mask with a cotton swab. The mask was allowed to dry overnight.

The next day, I removed the stem from the Deoxidizer solution and let it drip off excess solution.

The stem was wiped with a coarse shop rag and a couple of pipe cleaners were run through the airway to remove any remaining solution.

The stem was returned to the workbench and scrubbed with numerous make-up pads with SoftScrub on them. Eventually the stem looked free of oxidation.

Next came the repair of the tooth chatter and hole in the stem. I used black CA for this. A plastic dam was used to stop the CA from penetrating the airway. This is just a piece of a plastic lid cut into a triangle. I wrapped scotch tape around the triangle until it was a tight fit into the airway.

Black CA was then applied to the button edge and the area where the hole was. I find that it is better to use several thin coats as compared to a single thick coat of CA when building up material in an area to be reconstructed.

The filled area was then spritzed with a CA drying accelerator. Photos of the product used are further below.

The new fill was then filed with a flat needle file and smoothed with a 320 grit sanding sponge.

As the fill progressed I applied the black CA to a wider area to allow for a more smooth blending of the flll.

Below is how the fill was progressing and what it looked like with further filing. It was eventually smoothed with 320 and 400 sanding sponges and the button was reshaped.

With the stem reconstruction completed I turned to dying the stummel with black Fiebing’s Leather Dye. The needed kit was gathered; a folded pipe cleaner as the applicator, a disposable lighter for flaming the dye and the duct tape wrapped fishing bobber for a handle and plug eeping dye from the tobacco chamber. Also notice the taped stamps. I did not want to have to sand the black dye from the stamps and further degrade the already faint stamping. I hoped the tape would keep most of the dye from the stamps.

The dye was applied to the briar and flamed with the lighter. This burns off the alcohol solvent of the dye and fixes the dye to the briar.

The tape was removed.

The stummel was then rinsed with 91% Isopropyl alcohol. Why Isopropyl? Because that is what was sitting next to the sink.

The stummel was then wiped with make-up pads dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol to remove excess dye. I must have grabbed a make-up pad from by the sink that had a spot of red dye on it. There was no red dye used for the contrast staining.

The Vallejo Liquid Mask was peeled off the rim. Only a slight seeping or bits where I didn’t apply it well enough remained undyed.

The black dyed stummel was then sanded with 320-600 grit sanding sponges to remove the outermost black dyed briar. This left the softer grained, more deeply black penetrated, wood black and removed the harder grained briar where the black had only slightly penetrated.

The stamps and loge were taped again with painters tape to protect them during the next sanding of the entire pipe. Sanding continued with the series of sponges from 320-3500. Between each sponge I wiped the stummel with an alcohol moistened make-up pad. The stem was rubbed with a dab of mineral oil on my fingertip and wiped with a paper towel.

The stem and stummel then were worked on with the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. The wiping between each pad was as with the sponges except I used Obsidian Oil rather than mineral oil on the stem.

The pipe was given a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 30 minutes.

The balm was wiped off with an inside out athletic sock with extra white German Shepherd hair. These dogs are also known as German Shedders by people who share homes with them.

The logo was repainted with Silver Leaf Rub’nBuff.

The pipe was then given several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer.

There you have it. A real beauty, The Sterling Pipe 530 Canted Dublin restoration. I am very happy with how well this one turned out and not just because I find the shape so intriguing. The pipe cleaned up nicely. The Contrast dye did what I wanted it to do – bring out the grain a bit more and conceal the fill spots. The stem polished up better than I thought it would after seeing how deep the oxidation had gone into the vulcanite. I was afraid that the stamping would be lost completely. They do remain but are so faint that they are hard to read without bright light and magnification. I am sure it will be a great little pipe for someone to enjoy for years to come. The dimensions of the The Sterling Pipe 530 Canted Dublin are:

Length: 5.67 in./ 144.02 mm.

Weight: 0.97 oz./ 27.5 g.

Bowl Height: 1.66 in./ 42.16 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.22 in./ 30.99 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.80 in./ 20.32 mm. (conically bored)

Outside Diameter: 1.35 in./ 34.29 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished The Sterling Pipe 530 Canted Dublin.
A Barclay Rex 357 Prince Restoration

July 16th, 2024

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I have to admit that I had no idea that Barclay Rex was a high end members only pipe shop. Actually I had never heard of a pipe shop where you could only access the premises via a membership. Although the old American Express ads where they said “Membership has its privileges”,’ now means a lot more to me. The below is from Barclays (https://www.barclayrex.com/rex-club)

I guess the good news is that you can redeem your quarterly dues for baccy and drinks. I do wonder what an accessory is. I would ask but the answer would probably come with another fee. Dang, I am glad I live in Nebraska and far removed from such things.

Back to the topic at hand, this lovely Barclay Rex 357. I’m not sure what shape to call it and cannot find anything on Barclay Rex shapes online. It is shaped similar to prince but with a straight stem the bowl is very apple shaped but slightly squashed. The pipe was part of the estate lot that contained the Peterson Red Premier Meerschaum 406 Prince which was blogged about a couple of weeks ago. I linked it if you are interested in that one. The lot came from Hollywood, Florida. This Barclay Rex 357 wears the following stamps: BARCLAY REX on the left and LONDON, ENGLAND over 357 on the right. On the bottom towards the stem there is a D stamped on the shank. Here are some photos of the Barclay Rex upon arrival.

There you can see the D stamp on the bottom of the shank.

Overall the pipe looked to be in very good shape. The stem was badly oxidized but it was oxidized evenly and there was no severe tooth chatter. The stain was brilliant and I wanted to keep that as original as possible. The briar had what appeared to be a clear coat of some kind, which had to go. The stampings were clear and defined. Yes, there was a lava deposit on the rim and some tobacco leaves in the bowl but the tobacco chamber was pretty clean. This looked to be a non taxing relaxing restoration.

Background

As previously mentioned Barclay Rex is a pipe shop in New York City. I will let Barclay’s speak for themselves, the following is from their website..

“REX THE FAITHFUL GREAT DANE

In 1910, Vincent Nastri, a pipe maker from Salerno, Italy, expanded his reach into the world of tobacco. A century later his vision is kept alive as Barclay Rex, a premiere Wall Street retail store. Originally nestled between Barclay and Church Streets, the store also borrowed inspiration from Nastri’s faithful Great Dane, called Rex, which led to the name Barclay Rex. In 1949, Barclay Rex moved to Maiden Lane, under the careful watch of Vincent Nastri and Vincent Nastri II.

For more than a half-century, father and son crafted pipes and expanded into other tobacco products. The torch would be handed down again as Vincent Nastri III stepped into the world that he had grown up in. At the turn of the millennium, Barclay Rex moved to a new location at 75 Broad Street, where it remained for 15 years.” (https://www.barclayrex.com/history)

Pipedia has an entry concerning Bracla’s as well. That article says this:

“Barclay-Rex, a downtown Manhattan tobacconist, was founded in 1910 by Vincent Nastri, a pipemaker from Salerno, Italy. The store was originally located at Barclay and Church Street, and the name was taken from that location and Nastri’s beloved Great Dane, Rex. The business is still run by Vincent Nastri, III and owned by Vincent Nastri, Jr.. They have several locations in New York City. The store has carried pipes from all fine makers, and the Barclay-Rex line of pipes is also much sought after, in that pipes were made in a range from the very inexpensive into the several hundreds of dollars. The pipes were, at least into the 1960’s, made of Algerian briar.

In addition to pipes made by Mr. Nastri over the years, Mr. Nastri, III, has been quoted as stating that a pipemaker just leaving Dunhill made pipes with a small off-white dot on the stem for a time for the shop. As was discovered by Steve Laug of Reborn Pipes, they were evidently made by a pipemaker whose initials were HGP, and stamped on the pipe as such. These pipes were made for a single run only, and then never made again.

While purportedly the initials of a pipe maker under the employ of Barclay-Rex, the initials “HGP” also appear in advertising for the Barclay Pipe Shop as early as 1920; the “HGP” initials evidently formed part of a trademark (see advertising below; The Pauw Wow, St. Peter’s College NJ 1935-left, and The Nation 1921-right) that was featured on pipes and (perhaps later) tobacco. If one accepts that Dunhill began manufacturing its pipes in earnest “from start to finish” in 1920, a year by which the “HGP” trademark was already in use by the Barclay Pipe shop, the likelihood of “HGP” signifying the initials of a pipemaker formerly in the employ of Dunhill diminishes considerably.

In addition, Sasieni at least for a time made private label pipes stamped with the Barclay-Rex name, but with their own shapes and shape numbers.” (Barclay Rex – Pipedia)

What can be gleaned from this? Well, I surmise that Barclay Rex did make pipes at one point. They are also known to outsource the pipe making to other companies and stamp their name on other makers’ pipes. This was a common practice for retail pipe merchants. Sasieni was a known supplier. Sasieni doesn’t produce a shape 357. What about other large English pipe manufacturers? Comoy’s do produce a 359 which is,

(Comoy’s Shape Number Chart – Pipedia)

GBD does produce a shape 357 and according to their shape chart,

It fits the pipe very well. The only discrepancy is the ⅛ bend to the stem. This most likely straightened with age and/or with heat (GBD Shapes/Numbers – Pipedia). I will therefore be referring to this pipe as the Barclay 357 Prince from here on. Judging by the oxidation on the stem I can say that this pipe has likely been exposed to years of light, heat and well, years. It did come from Florida after all and was part of an estate cadre that included the previously mentioned Peterson meerschaum pipe which was dated with pretty good certainty to the late 1970-early 1980s. I think this pipe is also of that era.

The restoration

As usual this pipe received a clean denim piece. Or, I should say, “The workbench received a clean denim piece” to protect it from the carelessness of the narrator.

The oxidation on the stem was job one. I started by buffing it with 0000 steel wool.

The stem stem was placed into a bath with OxyClean and water.

The reaming tools were gathered.

The PipNet did most of the work with this job. I only had to employ the scrapers near the end. The tobacco chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The bare briar showed no signs of any heat damage.

The rim had a relatively thick layer of lava.

This was moistened with saliva and carefully scraped off with a sharp pocket knife.

The stummel then made its way to the sink. Here it was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium stiff toothbrush.

The Murphy scrub seemed to have removed what I thought was a clear coat finish. Hmm, water soluble finish? I highly doubted that but was happy to see the unfinished briar.

The rim cleaned up nicely as well with the scrubbing.

The stummel was then wiped with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol to make sure that there was no finish nor wax remaining. There was some color on the pad. This was mostly due to remnant tars on the rim.

The shank airway was cleaned next. This was done with numerous bristol pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and several ml of ethyl alcohol.

The airway still had the scent of old tar and smoking residue. I decided to give the stummel an alcohol treatment by packing the bowl and shank with cotton, filling them with 95% ethyl alcohol and letting them sit overnight.

The cotton was saturated using a disposable pipette while positioning the stummel so the rim and the shank were at the same relative level

The stem was retrieved from the OxyClean bath. The color of the vulcanite was different than I was used to, more of a flat gray.

I started vigorously rubbing the stem with a make-up pad. A surprising amount of oxidized rubber came off the stem. This was just with a dry make-up pad.

I cleaned the stem with bristle pipe cleaners and more ethyl alcohol then lightly sanded the stem with a 400 grit sanding sponge. You can see where I wiped the dust from the sponge on the denim in the photo below.

The stem still showed a great deal of discoloration from oxidized rubber after the sanding. I thought that an overnight dip in the Before and After Deoxidizer solution was in order. I pushed a pipe cleaner into the tenon end of the stem as a hanger and submerged the stem into the solution.

Overnight unturned into 24 hours due to the birthday party for my youngest granddaughter. Happy birthday, Lael. The next evening the alcohol had mostly evaporated, drawing the tars from the briar and depositing them in the cotton.

The cotton was removed from the bowl and shank.

Upon drying out I could no longer smell the scent of old tar and smoking residue. I could see rim damage from about the 10:00-12:30 position on the photo below. This would have to be addressed with a light reshaping with sandpaper and topping the rim.

It is difficult to see in the photos but the outer edge was sanded around the rin and the rim topped using 320 sandpaper, sponges and the topping board (AKA sandpaper laid flat on the counter). Further sanding was done by repeating this with 400 grit.

The stamps were taped with painters tape for their protection. I like to use irregular cuts on the tape to avoid the boxy look that can sometimes result from rectangular pieces of tape.

The stem was lifted from the solution and allowed to drip the excess solution back into it’s jar. The high tech deoxidizer drip device was used for this process – patent pending.

The stem was then vigorously rubbed with a coarse cotton shop rag. The rough cotton helps to abrade some of the oxidized bubber as it absorbs the remaining solution.

After wiping away the solution and running a couple of pipe cleaners through the airway the stem was lightly oiled with mineral oil. It finally looked black.

The stem was then rubbed with several make-up pads with Soft Scrub applied to the pads. You can see a general lightening of the color on the pads as the oxidized material was removed leaving non oxidized vulcanite behind.

The stem and stummel were reunited for the sanding. I did not want to sand them apart as that can leave rounded edges at the joint where the stem meets the shank. Between each sponge I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad moistened with alcohol. The stem received a rubbing of mineral oil by fingertip and was wiped with a dry paper towel between sanding sponges. The tape was removed after the 2500 grit sanding sponge.

The final two sanding sponges, 3000 and 3500 were used without the tape covering the stamps. The between sponge wipes occurred as above.

The pipe was then worked with 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. I again wiped the stummel with an alcohol wetted make-up pad . I used Obsidian Oil rather than mineral oil between the pad on the stem.

The pipe was then coated with Before and After Restoration Balm, stem and stummel. The Balm was allowed to sit for 30 minutes.

30 minutes later the excess Restoration Balm was wiped away using an inside out athletic sock.

The pipe looked stunning. I took it to the buffer and applied several coats of carnauba wax. Then took all the “finished” photos for the blog. When I was typing I realized that I had not given the Prince the final bend to the stem. DOH! I retrieved a couple of my favorite Princes for comparison.

I then heated the stem in the oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. With a gloved hand I carefully bent the stem. I cooled the stem in cold running water at the sink to set the bend. I then re-waxes at the buffer and photographed the real “finished” shots of the left and right.

I am very pleased with how this Barclay Rex 357 Prince turned out. I was able to keep the original stain and preserve it’s wonderful contrast. The stem cleaned up very well and the high gloss black of the vulcanite really accents the briar. The ghost of any smell or taste from previous use is completely gone. The bend to the stem looks and feels great. I am sure that this pipe will be a grand easy to enjoy a nice English blend of tobacco.

The dimensions of the Barclay Rex 357 Prince are:

Length: 6.20 in./ 157.48 mm.

Weight: 1.28 oz./ 36.40 g.

Bowl Height: 1.44 in./ 36.58 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.23 in./ 31.24 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.79 in./ 20.07 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.69 in./ 42.93 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Barclay Rex 357 Prince.

The below photos were taken pre-bending of the stem.
A 1939-1941 Ken Pat. Apld. SE Billiard Restoration

July 11th, 2024

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Just when you thought I had moved on from my fascination with pipes from the 1940s I throw another one at you. I had been watching the auctions for a Ken after reading about them in the 1946-1948 Pipe Lovers Magazines for several months. The difficulty was in finding one that had an intact condenser apparatus and was in the price range I found acceptable. Complicated and delicate are two words that come to mind for the contraption within the stem.

Well, as you can see I found one that fit both of my criterion. This pipe was originally purchased on June 8 of 2024. When the box arrived my excitement was quickly dashed due to the wrong pipe was sent by the seller. eBay messages were exchanged and the incorrect pipe was returned to the seller. At this point I thought my search would have to start all over. Fortunately the recipient of the Ken pipe returned his incorrect shipment quickly. The seller was able to repost the Ken and I was able to purchase it again. I felt a little bad for the seller as he had to pay for the return shipping but was glad he made it right with us buyers. The correct pipe eventually arrived and waited in the queue for it’s spot on the workbench. Here is what the Ken looked like upon arrival.

Background

I’ll start with what drew me to want to restore a Ken in the first place, a full page ad from Pipe Lovers magazine January 1946:

I especially loved the “Smokers’ Guild of America”, rather than the company name. There is a union that I could support.

Here is a larger version of the Ken schematic diagram from Popular Mechanics 1946:

(File:Ken Ad 1946 Pop Mach.jpg – Pipedia). Notice the patent number “Pat. 2242805” and the “A Prim Product”. For comparison, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation calculator shows that a $3.50 pipe in June 1940 would cost you $77.96 in May of 2024 (https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=3.50&year1=194006&year2=202405).

According to Pipedia.org,

“KEN Brand Pipes are made by Prim Associates of America out of Chicago, Ill. The design is unique and somewhat complex and has a patent by Otto Turinsky.^[1] This patent was applied for in Dec. 1939 and granted in May 1941, Pat No 2,242,805. An ad in Popular Mechanics from 1946 shows the pipe costing $3.50 and shows Six Key features of the Ken Pipe along with a Money Back Guarantee! Stem is Lucite and the interior chamber contains various technical features to remove tar, moisture, burnt tongue and remove impurities.” (KEN – Pipedia)

I searched through Google patents, advanced search and found the original patent from Otto Turinsky:

(1498380862798272946-02242805 (storage.googleapis.com)). Perhaps Otto Turinsky was either very attorney averse or so innovatively clever as to make a device that rivals could not or would not try to copy thus freeing himself from all the trouble brought about by patent infringement litigation.

With only the smallest bit of conjecture I can safely say that the Ken in hand is a pipe made in Chicago, Illinois between the dates of December 30 1939, when the patent was applied for, and May 20 1941, when the patent application was granted. That was a tough time to start production of a new line of pipes as World War Two would have nearly eliminated the supply of briar from the Mediterranean.

The Restoration

I broke from usual and began cleaning without a clean denim piece for a work surface. I guess I was just excited to work on this pipe after waiting so many months to finally have one. The stem of the Ken had a scar from a battle with a cigarette, probably from a seedy bar down by the river.

The interior of the stem was truly tar and yuck infested. That should look like yellow acrylic rather than a black painted ceiling.

The patent diagram refers to the rounded cylinder as the “cup”. The cup was a black caked mess and needed into an alcohol bath, stat. Yeah, borrowing terms from hospital emergency room lingo makes me feel cool.

The stem was not accepting of the 95% ethyl alcohol so cleaning had to be done with something else. I used Castille soap diluted with water to soften the old smoking deposits within the stem.

The contraption’s tar was softening with the alcohol. I took it to the sink where I could scrub it with additional alcohol without making a mess of the workbench.

The aluminum was scrubbed with a nylon brush dipped in alcohol. The tar was relinquishing its grip on the old aluminum.

I eventually could see that the cup was just slid onto an aluminum tube coming out of the shank. I carefully slid the cup off and allowed it to soak further. In the 95% ethyl alcohol.

Every few minutes I removed the cup and tried cleaning inside the cup and the exterior. As you can see the alcohol was darkening from the soaking and scrubbing.

The aluminum cup was delicate feeling. I did not want to exert very much pressure on it or it’s flanges. I used pipe cleaners and cotton swabs with about ½ of their cotton removed to scrub the inside of the cum.

The inside of the cup was finally cleaned.

The exterior remained difficul to clean and was stained. This surface required a bit more of an abrasive cleaning. I lightly scrubbed it with 0000 steel wool dipped in the alcohol.

After soakin the stem’s interior was scraped with a dental scraper and scrubbed with various scrubbing tools; bristle pipe cleaners, small tube brushes, cotton swabs, a fy tying bodkin, etc… Actually almost anything I could fit into the stem was used to try to separate the tar from the plastic.

After the interior was looking better I used an emory board to flatten the cigarette burn. I then applied a thin coating of clear Thin Cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) to the depression in the center of the cigarette scar. I was afrain to speed the drying of the CA as the CA drying accelerator that I use reacts less than favorably to acrylic. I allowed the CA to dry at it’s own pace and smoothed the new material. I had to reapply several times to get the depression filled.

The stummel was prepped for reaming and the tools were gathered. The tobacco chamber war a bit too narrow for the PipNet #2 blade and the #1 blade remained broken. Apparently it will not heal itself and return to work.

The reaming was done mainly with the Scotte Stainless Steel Reamer Tool, scraping with both the General Triangular scraper the the Smokingpipes Low Country Knife was also done. The chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The chamber was taken to bare brian and no damage from heat was observed.

The stummel was then taken to the sink. There it was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium toothbrush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton dish towel.

Returning to the workbench the stummels was wiped with 95% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad. Some color came off on the pad indicating that there had remained wax and/or finish remaining on the briar.

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

I decided to give this stem an alcohol/cotton treatment as it still smelled of old tobacco residue and tar. Cotton was stuffed into the bowl and shank. Alcohol was added by a disposable pipette, approximately 10 ml. The alcohol was allowed to sit overnight to work on removing the remaining residue.

The next day the cotton in the chamber appeared as the photo below shows.

Finally the stem and stummel looked fairly clean.

The stamps were covered with painters tape to protect them during sanding.

The sanding of the stem used sanding sponges 1000-3500. The stem was wiped off with a make-up pad moistened with water between each sponge.

The sanding of the stummel was done with the same sanding sponges only from 600-3500. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped off with a make-up pad moistened with 95% ethyl alcohol.

Th stem and stummel were worked with 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. The stummel wiped with the alcohol wetted pad while the stem was wiped with a water wetted make-up pad.

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

After 30 minutes the excess Restoration Balm was hand buffed to remove the excess using an inside out athletic sock.

The pipe was then taken to the buffer fr several coats of carnauba wax.

I Though the pipe was finished yet there were still two things which bothered me slightly. Number one was the “KEN” stamp on the top of the stem. It needed something. I decided to repaint the stamp with silver Rub’nBuff.

The second thing that I found bothersome was that the stem had a slight looseness that I didn’t like. I thought that it would probably go away after the first smoke but what if I didn’t smoke this pipe? I decided to give the stem a touch of beeswax upon the tenon of the shank. This stem is actually a reverse mortise/tenon with the mortise being the stem and the tenon is the shank.

Molten beeswax was applied with a small paintbrush and allowed to cool.

The wax was then cut away using the Low Country Knife. The tenon was then rubbed with a cotton cloth to smooth and wipe away additional excess.

Here is the stem with new paint and a tight fitting stem. There, I was finally happy with it.

Well, I can mark off another 1940 pipe from the list of pipes that I wanted to restore. In all seriousness this Ken Billiard turned out better than I expected it to. The yellow stem had me worried. I’ve seen photos of red, blue and black stems. I think a red or blue would be easier to restore as the transparency of the stem would be less noticeable and the black would be easy mode. This one looks pretty good with the yellow accenting the yellow tones in the briar quite nicely. The nickel band looks good with the silver Rub’nBuff. The internals cleaned up well and I learned about how this aluminum contraption is designed and how it’s supposed to work. That was something that had really intrigued me about these pipes. I have very mixed feelings about smoking this old pipe. I want to know how the whole thing works but I’m not looking forward to cleaning it all out again. Oh, you know I’ll smoke it. The dimensions of the Ken PAT. APLD. SE areas follows:

Length: 5.72 in./ 145.29 mm.

Weight: 1.05 oz./ 30.00 g.

Bowl Height: 1.66 in./ 42.16 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.34in./ 34.04 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.74 in./ 18.80 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.30 in./ 33.02 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Ken Pat. Apld. 1350 SE.
A GBD Sierra 1350

July 9th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I left the style of this pipe blank and only used the shape number for reasons that you will see in a minute. I’ve restored a few GBD pipes over the years but this is the first that I have blogged about. This pipe seems very French or maybe Danish to me. A very nice shape which I would be inclined to describe as a slightly bent billiard. The pipe came in an estate lot which also brought a Jarl (https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.com/6336) a Stanwell (https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.com/6189) and 2 other pipes from Sacramento, California to the wilds of southeast Nebraska. I included the links to the previously restored two pipes.

This GBD was in need of some work. As my father used to say, “ Looks like it was rode hard and put away wet”. That phrase was originally intended for horses but dad used it for various things and occasionally women. The stamps were discernible through the grime and read; GBD, within an oval, over SIERRA offset to the right and perpendicular was 1350 over MADE IN FRANCE. The later stamp was quite faint and difficult to make out. Below are photos of the pipe prior to work being done.

The pipe was pretty filthy, the finish was faded, the stem heavily oxidized, bowl caked and the internals were anyones’ guess. This was going to be a fun one. I looked through a few GBD photos and found the below image:

(GBD – Pipedia)

That is the color that I wanted for this pipe. Yeah, I know, I am getting ahead of myself but I heard once that setting goals is important. Though, I think I’ll try to avoid getting dye in the tobacco chamber.

Background

The history of GBD is a long one. I reread the pipedia.org site and realized that including all of that might dissuade some readers from the blog. I will include the first paragraph mainly pertaining to the originators of the company and its name and include the link for those who would like more information.

In 1850 three gentlemen got together in Paris to establish a firm dedicated to the fabrication of Meerschaum pipes – a courageous step in politically restless times. Ganneval probably came from the area of Saint-Claude where he had learned making wooden pipes. Bondier’s family obviously came from Paris and had emigrated in 1789 to Geneva. He himself had worked as a wood turner in the clay and china pipe industry in and around Saint-Claude making stem extensions etc. Donninger was an Austrian or Swiss and had worked in Vienna, the world’s center of the Meerschaum pipe. They agreed on the acronym GBD selecting the initials of their surnames. Bondier survived his partners for nearly 30 years. Their places were taken by others. Hence the property of GBD and therewith the company’s official name changed several times.
- Ganneval, Bondier & Donninger
- Bondier, Ulrich & Cie.
- Bine, Marechal & Cie. and finally
- A. Marechal, Ruchon & Cie.
Meanwhile the GBD name was well established and thus retained. August Marechal and Ferdinand Ruchon led the firm into the 20th century. They were in charge of the company for more than 50 years.” (GBD – Pipedia)

In clicking another link from the above site I came across the following,

“The company was founded in Paris, France in the 19th century by Ganeval, Boundier and Donninger who were no longer associated with the company by the turn of the century. By the time they left the GBD name was well established and thus retained. In 1903 an additional factory was built in England and ran by Oppenheimer. The Paris factory moved to Saint-Claude in 1952. Since 1981 the majority of GBD pipes come from the English factory. At about that same time GBD merged with Comoys, since then all production for both GBD and Comoy comes from a single factory. ( I wasn’t kidding when I said it was brief! )

More history and addition information can be read in the main GBD article.”

(GBD Model Information – Pipedia)

Who doesn’t love a writer with a sense of humor, eh?

Now for the pipe in hand, the GBD Sierra. The stamped shape is a 1305, which according to another pipedia.org page has the following:

(above screenshots from: GBD Shapes/Numbers – Pipedia)

“shapes with an * are non standard bowl shapes, and stem angles with a “rev” conotation refer to pipes with bowls that are canted forward.” (GBD Shapes/Numbers – Pipedia). Now, I personally would not consider this pipe a Dublin nor an apple, I will differ and go with the “apple” designation.

Pepidia.org does have a listing of the models attributed to GBD and their “Seconds”. The Sierra is listed as,
- “Sierra — Rusticated finish, made in France: -”
(GBD Model Information – Pipedia)

Unfortunately, that is all. As for the age of the GBD 1350 apple, I cannot be certain of much other than it was made in France likely after 1970.

The Restoration

As usual I began with a clean denim work surface protection device (AKA a square of old blue jeans).

The stem would need some time soaking in an OxyClean and water solution so that was the first task. I hand buffed the stem with 0000 steel wool to remove the outermost oxidation.

The stem was then placed in the solution and allowed to soak for a couple of hours.

After the reaming the stummel needed to be rid of the years of accumulated grime. It was taken to the sink for a scrub with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a couple of different scrub brushes. The first brush was a medium stiff toothbrush. The stummel was rinsed and dried then I scrubbed it again with Murphy’s and a stiffer nylon scrub brush. This too was rinsed with warm water and dried again with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench the stummel was scrubbed agin, this time with the nylon scrub brush and 95% ethyl alcohol.

TO make sure there was no finish remaining I scrubbed the stummel again with acetone and the nylon scrub brush. The stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in acetone as well.

The shank was pretty well tar coated. I scraped with a dental scraper then poured 3-4 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the bowl and allowed it to flow into the shank. I then used a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway with the alcohol. I dumped the darkened alcohol into a second medicine cup. The shank brush was wiped on a cotton wash cloth to clean the tar from the bristles and the airway was scrubbed with cotton swabs dipped in additional clean alcohol.

This rotation of scraping, alcohol/shank brush scrubbing, cotton swab scrubbing went on for several rotations until the shank was clean.

The stummel had darkened with all the years worth of wear and tear and my scrubbing so I decided to bleach the briar with a bit of oxalic acid. I used a saturated solution of oxalic acid crystals in distilled water.

The solution was applied with a cotton swab and allowed to sit for 20 minutes.

After the 20 minutes the stummel was rinsed with copious warm water and again scrubbed with the nylon scrub brush, dried with a cotton hand towel and allowed to air dry for 15 minutes. Below is how the stummel looked after all the scrubbing and oxalic acid.

Next it was time for me to see if I could match the red/black dye of the GBD photos from pipedia.org. I gathered the dark red Fiebing’s Leather Dye and other needed gear. I couldn’t find the fishing bobber that I normally use to plug the tobacco chamber and provide a handle so I improvised. A spent 20 gauge shotgun shell fit nicely into the chamber.

The stummel was dyed dark red with the Fiebing’s Leather Dye applied with a folded pipe cleaner.

The dye was flamed with a disposable lighter. I recommend closing your jar of Fiebing’s prior to the flaming. I’ve never had one ignite but it’s probably a good idea to close it anyway.

The stummel was red, very red.

I allowed the dye to air dry for 20-30 minutes. I then mixed up some black Fiebing’s Leather Dye. I did this by diluting it – 2 parts black dye to one part 95% ethyl alcohol.

The stummel was then dyed black over the red. I was not quick enough to capture the flaming of the black dye. I allowed the black to air dry for 20-30 minutes.

Below are photos taken with the good camera of the dyed stummel.

The stummel was then taken to the buffer where I used a rouge buffing compound to lightly buff the high spots of the rustication.

The stummel was then wiped by hand with a clean cotton terry cloth towel to remove any remaining compound and wiped with a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm.

It was time for the stem to exit the Oxy solution and return to the atmosphere. I wiped the stem vigorously with a make-up pad to dry the solution and buff off some of the loosened oxidation.

Next the stem was scrubbed with SoftScrub applied to make-up pads.

The outside of the stem was looking much better. It was now time to clean the airway of the stem. It was far better than the shank but still required several bristle pipe cleaners and alcohol.

I couldn’t wait any longer to see how the stummel would look. I used an inside out athletic sock to hand buff the excess Restoration Balm from the stummel. Eureka! I was pleased with the dye job.

Back to the stem. I thought I could get rid of the tooth chatter by painting the stem with a flame and sanding. I was wrong. There was one spot that I was not happy with so it got the old black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) treatment. The depression received a small drop of black CA. This was then spritzed with a CA drying accelerator. The cured drop was filed with a flat needle file and sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge. This meant that I had to re-sand the top of the stem but the results were well worth it.

The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 600- 3500. Between each sponge I would dip the tip of my finger into mineral oil, rub the oil over the stem and wipe with a dry paper towel.

The stem was polished with Before and After Fine followed by the Extra Fine Polish. Then the pipe received several coats of carnauba wax on the buffer.

I think this GDB 1350 Apple turned out very nicely. Especially when looking back at the before photos. My goal of matching the red/black or burgundy stain was a success and the stem turned out better than I thought it would. The glossy black of the stem really works with the dark red dye on the briar. I do wonder how it would look with a bright brass band. I know it didn’t need a band but I think it would add something special to the pipe.

The dimensions of the GBD Sierra 1350 areas follows:

Length: 5.90 in./ 149.86 mm.

Weight: 1.13 oz./ 33.10 g.

Bowl Height: 1.81 in./ 45.97 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.39 in./ 35.31 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.69 in./ 17.53 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.26 in./ 32.00 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished GBD Sierra 1350 Apple.
A Peterson System 31 Billiard Restoration

July 4th, 2024

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

The Peterson System Pipes are a well known feature of pipe smokers and pipe collectors worldwide. They were originally designed and patented by Charles Peterson while working for the Kapp Brothers in 1890, 1894 and a third in 1898. In 1894 Charles Peterson and Henry Kapp bought out the shares of Christian Kapp of the Family business, which the brothers had run together.

Most pipe-people are familiar with the Peterson System pipes of the bent variety. Fewer folks know about the Straight System pipes. I am not sure of the reason for this. One can occasionally come across a Straight System pipe on eBay as an estate pipe though new specimens can be found as older stock in pipe shops in the UK. Shops like The Black Swan (https://www.thebackyshop.co.uk/) and Miss morans (https://missmoran.co.uk/) show that they have Peterson System 31s in stock yet when I try to order to order one I get the following messages,

(above screen shot from https://www.thebackyshop.co.uk/)

(above screen shot from https://missmoran.co.uk/)

Just when you think that everyone wants your money you find that due to unknown reasons the above companies cannot deliver to the US from the UK. This brings me to where this pipe came from. It was an estate pipe from eBay and made the journey from Cedar Park, Texas to the wilds of southeast Nebraska in June 2024. The pipe is a lovely smooth finished Peterson 31 and sports the following stamps PETERSON”S over SYSTEM (arched) on the left side and MADE IN THE over REPUBLIC over IRELAND and 31 on the right side. The below photos of the Peterson 31 show its condition upon arrival.

This Peterson 31 arrived without the aluminum tenon extension which is a vital part of it being a true “Peterson System” pipe. Fortunately I have been accumulating extra extensions from Smokingpipes.eu for this very situation.

(https://www.smokingpipes.eu/accessories/replacement-stems/)

I would like to say that I am a genius but I know better. I am just someone who plans for the worst to avoid disappointment. This looked to be a very stress free restoration. The pipe was in great shape with the stummel needing minimal cleaning and only a couple of fills. The stem was not severely oxidized and looked like all it needed was a bit of sanding, polish and a new chimney. That is what the Peterson factory workers call the aluminum tenon extension.

Background

The history of Kapp and Peterson (K&P) is long and eventful. In the past couple of weeks I have restored and blogged about several Peterson pipes. I previously wrote the following and it is still relevant: “For a great history Mark Irwin and Gary Marlburg’s book is a must read for a Pete Geek.

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

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

Here are an additional couple of sites with good Peterson information: History of Peterson by Jim Lilley (Peterson – Pipedia).

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

As for the specific background on the straight system pipes and this Peterson 31, I will be using the The Peterson Pipe book. According to Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg,

“The only straight System pipe in current production is the little shape 31 billiard. This was not always the case. Charles Peterson offered four straight Patent Systems in the 1896 catalog: a billiard, a straight-sided, a heel bowl and a bulldog. To these were added three half-bents in the same shapes. Each of the straights was offered in four sizes; the half-bents in one or two sizes each. By the 1906 catalog the half-bents had disappeared, and the original four straight Patents were reduced to two sizes each, making for four shapes and eight pipes.

The straight Systems were produced at least through the mid-1920s, as some of them appear in a Phillip Weiss & Söhne trifold brochure from that era. There is no indication of a straight System in the ‘37 Peterson catalog, and since ‘45 only shape 31 has routinely appeared in the catalogs. The 120 and 87 apple appeared at some point before ‘63, but are only documented in an Associated Imports brochure from ‘76.

The contemporary pipe smoker may also run across a straight 1890-1990 Patent System Commemorative on the estate market. This elongated, short stack billiard was actually a new design and not a reproduction.

The demise of the straight System is a bit of a mystery, because while its smoking properties and maintenance issues vary a bit from the best System, it works at least as well, if not better. As a cutaway demonstrator from the 1896 catalog reveals, the design of the straight System depends on the bore running under the tobacco chamber, necessitating a shallow-bowl geometry. In the case of the System 31, the bowl typically runs 18.5 mm wide by 26 mm deep (0.695 in. by 1.02 in.). But even the large-bowled Patent System Commemorative only has a chamber depth of 34 mm (1.34 in.). The small chamber of these pipes probably accounts for their disappearance, although they are excellent for especially strong or flavorful tobaccos like Gawith’s 1792 Flake, a dark-fired powerful virginia with tonquin flavoring.

Cleaning a straight System is also more complicated than the bent System, as the bore is really a small calabash chamber, not a reservoir, with the aluminum-tenon extension going down the center of its length and extending under the draft hole. After use, a straight System’s chamber should be swabbed out with a tissue twist, followed by a fluffy cleaner with its tip dipped in isopropyl or Everclear. This must be done carefully to avoid spilling the alcohol on the outside of the bowl and possibly damaging the stain. It is probably not necessary to clean it with alcohol after every smoke, but the straight System is extremely susceptible to ghosting.

The draft hole in the straight Systems is larger than in the bent Systems, going through the bottom of the bowl down into the chamber beneath it. This design requires a bit of vigilance to insure the draft hole doesn’t get clogged up or swollen with carbon-cake. The use of a bristle cleaner is therefore a good idea after each smoke.

As for the smoking qualities, the straight System smokes drier than the best System and could be argued to be the drest smoking briar pipe ever made – which may or may not be a good thing, according to each pipeman’s taste. The size and shape of the bore, as some pipe smokers have noticed concerning today’s artisan reverse-calabash briars, promotes the ghosting of tobacco flavors if bothe the chimney and the chamber aren’t cleaned on a regular basis. Many pipe smokers devote a single style of tobaccos (english, virginia, aromatic) to specific pipes in their rotation to avoid this kind of problem, and it’s a good rule to follow with the straight System as well. (The Peterson Pipe The Story of Kapp & Peterson, First edition, second printing 2021. Briar Books Press, Canada. Pp. 264-265)

It must be mentioned that Irwin and Malmberg wrote that in 2018. Since the original publication the Peterson System 31, the last straight System pipe, had been discontinued. This means that the only way you can now have a 31 of your own is to find either new old stock (NOS) from a dealer or to find one on the estate market. How old is the little darling I have in hand? I cannot say. I do have 4 31s and regretfully, I can say little about any of them. I can attest to them being wonderful smoking little pipes. Regarding their age I can only say that the upper left pipe in the photo below is very recent as it has an acrylic stem and was made shortly prior to the discontinuation of the line – approximately 2020.

The Restoration

This little billiard was worthy of a clean denim piece and it got one.

The reaming tools were gathered. No PipNet for this reaming due to the fact that the #1 PipNet blades suffered a break several months ago. So the Scotte Stainless Steel Reamer Tool stepped up as a replacement along with the Smokingpipes Low Country Reamer. The tobacco chamber also received a sanding with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel to take it down to bare briar. There was no heat damage observed in the chamber.

The shank’s airway was then cleaned using many cotton swabs dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol, a dental scraper, a nylon shank brush and pipe cleaners doubled over.

With the airway cleaned it was time for the exterior of the stummel to be scrubbed. Murphy Oil Soap was used undiluted with a medium bristle toothbrush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. As you can see very little old wax and stain were removed.

There were 3 pits which I scraped the old fill material from to prepare them for new fill material. The new fills would be done with brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust.

A small drop of brown CA was applied to the pits using a fly tying bodkin. A small scoop of briar dust was then pressed into the CA filled pit.

The excess briar dust was brushed away and the new fill was smoothed with a flat needle file then sanded with a 320 grit sanding sponge. In areas where additional fill was needed a second small drop of CA was added onto the new fill and then was sanded with the sanding sponge. The sanding sponge provided the briar dust this time. The stummel was further smoothed using the 400 sanding sponge.

In preparation for sanding the stamps were taped with painters tape for their protection. I like to use irregular cuts of tape to avoid the “censored” box look, to the area under the tape.

The stummel was then sanded using a series of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grit. In between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol.

The protective tape was removed and the stamp areas were wiped with alcohol to remove any residual adhesive from the tape. The stummel was then micro-meshed with pads 4000-12000. Again between the pads I wiped the stummel sith the alcohol and make-up pad.

The stummel was given a liberal coat of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit while I worked on the stem.

The stem cleaning was a breeze compared to the shank and only required a couple of alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaners.

The exterior of the stem was given a light sanding with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

I then used SoftScrub on a couple of make-up pads to scrub the stem in an attempt to remove any oxidation on the vulcanite.

The stem was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges 600-3500. There was no P logo on this stem thus no need to protect it with painters tape. Between sponges wiped the sanding dust from the stem by using my finger tip dipped in mineral oil, rubbed on the stem then wiped with a dry paper towel.

The stem was then micro-meshed with the 4000-12000 pads. Between each pad I applied a small drop of Obsidian Oil, rubbed that in and wiped the stem with a dry paper towel.

The stem was then polished by hand buffing Before and After Fine Polish with a soft cotton cloth.

The polishing was completed with Before and After Extra Fine Polish as with the Fine Polish.

The excess Restoration Balm was wiped from the stummel using an inside out athletic sock.

The pipe was then taken to the buffer where it received several coats of carnauba wax.

This was the fourth Peterson System 31 billiard that I have had the pleasure of restoring. As with the others the most trying task was the cleaning of the shank. The chamber within the shank is what makes these little pipes such amazing smokers but it does require a bit of extra work keeping it clean. Something that all previous owners had not been as serious about doing. The briar on this 31 is lovely and typical of Peterson pipes. The vulcanite polished very nicely and accents the briar very well. The nickel ferrule gives the pipe that classical Pterson look. The dimensions of the Peterson System 31 are as follows:

Length: 5.65 in./ 143.51 mm.

Weight: 1.20 oz./ 34.20 g.

Bowl Height: 1.70 in./ 43.18 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.02 in./ 26.00 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.71 in./ 18.03 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.27 in./ 32.26 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Peterson System 31 Billiard.
A Peterson “Donegal” Rocky 106 Billiard Restoration

July 2nd, 2024

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I had never had a Peterson Donegal pipe prior to the arrival of this 106. I know, crazy right? I mean the Donegal Rocky has been a staple of the Peterson line since 1945. I love the look of the texture with it’s craggy appearance and contrast stained briar. I could not speak to the “feel in the hand” until I actually laid hands on this pipe. Let me say, it is very nice. My neglect of the line was not due to purposeful malice, just an unwillingness to spend as much money as the pipes were commanding. Also, the fact that rustication has changed dramatically over the years. I’ll get into that more in the “Background” but let’s just say the “pineapple” years were not pretty. This rustication is what I think of when I think Donegal Rocky.

This pipe is stamped Peterson’s (the top portion of this stamp is weak) over “DONEGAL” ROCKY. Offset to the left is 106 with MADE IN THE over REPUBLIC over OF IRELAND to the right side of the stamping area. The stem was a very tight fit upon arrival from Brooksville, Florida. Maybe the humidity of that southern state was the cause. Below are some photos of the pipe upon arrival. Well, not quite as “upon arrival”. When the pipe arrived the stem was very much stuck in the mortise. A visit to my freezer for an hour allowed me to extract the stem easily. Once warmed it was a very tight fit. I did not completely reinsert the stem into the shank for fear of damaging the pipe.

The pipe looked like it was generally in good shape. The stem was heavily oxidized and had a pattern to the oxidation that I found amusing. As if the previous smoker had antioxidant saliva. The stummel was dirty with about 50 years worth of grime. The tobacco chamber was well caked but not to excess, just definitely smoked. The rim had a fair amount of lava, again indicative of a well used and loved pipe. This looked like a nice straight forward restoration.

Background

I recently restored a Peterson Dunmore 606 Pot and wrote the following in that blog: “As much as I love the history of the Kapp and Peterson company and Peterson pipes, I will not get into that other than give you resources to read the history for yourself. I will delve into the Dunmore, or Dunmoor line of pipes at greater depth.

For a great history Mark Irwin and Gary Marlburg’s book is a must read for a Pete Geek.

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

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

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

Now to the stuff regarding this pipe: A Peterson Dunmore. I refer to Mark Irwin again here and his blog, Peterson Pipe Notes. I can wholeheartedly recommend the free at

https://petersonpipenotes.org/ Yes, you will get emails but only for things like the weekly blog post and occasional Peterson pipe drops (like the Peterson Pipe Notes Pipe of the Year) or offers for cool Pete Geek merchandise. Anyway Mark has an article on the Dunmore line that is great. https://petersonpipenotes.org/226-documenting-the-dunmore-system-and-classic-lines/

I will include the text here in its entirety but recommend the link for the photos. This is used with permission of the author (thank you Mark).”

The above holds true for this blog as well except take out the “Dunmore” and add “Donegal Rock” in it’s place.

Once again I use Mark Irwin’s Peterson Pipe Notes as a primary source for this pipe. His Blog “148. The “Rocky” History of the Donegal Line” (https://petersonpipenotes.org/tag/peterson-donegal-rocky/) is a wonderful explanation of how the line originated and changed over the years. I include it here in it’s entirety, with permission of the author (personal email).

I recently acquired for study an amazing NOS (new/old stock) Donegal Rocky 01s with its box, sleeve and brochure. Hallmarked with a Celtic lower-case n for 1979, it’s a first-year release of this marvelous ‘short dutch’ bowl shape and convenient reason to take a look back at the long history of Peterson’s iconic “Donegal Rocky” line.

The “Donegal Rocky” (in quotation marks), released in 1945 or so, was Kapp & Peterson’s first rusticated line. Not that K&P hadn’t rusticated pipes previously, they just that they hadn’t devoted an entire line to rustication. And they were apparently proud of it, because they gave it a sterling mount along with a black finish and white-stamped P on the mouthpiece.

It was part of K&P’s “Product Line,” what I call gateway pipes and others might call an entry-level pipe, as you can see in this shape chart from the 1945 catalog. Like the Shamrock (European version) and “K,” it was originally a fishtail line.

For nearly thirty years, from 1947 until 1975, the line continued uninterrupted, black rusticated finish with fishtail mouthpiece and sterling band.

from the 1976 Associated Imports Point-of-Sale Brochure

Then in 1976, just a year out from their Centennial celebration, Peterson (in an expansive mood) pushed the Donegal up a notch, giving the line a P-Lip. The 1976 engraving doesn’t show it, but you can just glimpse a new, deeper rustication in the (still black) 1978 Associated Imports chart:

This rustication was done by a carver in Dublin, Paddy Larrigan told me this past June in Sallynoggin. The artisan did all of Peterson’s fantastic rustications from the period: the classic “Pebble Rustics,” the early Sherlock Holmes rustics, the Bond Street of Oxford Premier Systems, and the sterling-band P-Lip Donegals.

And that’s where this 1979 01s comes in handy, because we can see with much greater clarity the rustication as well as the details of a “Donegal Rocky” at its pinnacle of engineering and finish:

It’s worth remarking concerning the removable stinger. This spike-ended aluminum tube is easily removed, leaving the P-Lip mouthpiece strictly a graduated-bore regulation affair.

If I were more dedicated, I’d smoke this pipe a few dozen times with and without the stinger and give you a report on what purpose it serves. I wonder if the craftsmen at the factory installed the stinger to approximate the effect of the older bone tenon extensions routinely attached to Classic Range Dublin & London, Classic and Premier lines? With or without the stinger, the pipe smoker should enjoy the benefits of the “Sub-System,” which I talk about at length in The Peterson Pipe. As it is, I’ll leave that to someone else, and happily report their findings.*

Here’s the COM stamp, showing Peterson’s love of quotation marks (seen also in the “SPORTS” line) as well as a closer look at the stain and rustication technique:

Sometime between 1978 and 1980 the sterling band was dropped to a nickel band and the P-Lip abandoned in favor of the Donegal’s traditional fishtail, all of which may (or may not) indicate a lessening in the quality of the rustication.

Seen above from the 1981 Mark Twain brochure, the sterling band resurfaced, this time with the line’s first change in stain color to what some of us have in our rotations or remember: the contrast brown over black (seen in the dutch 339 hallmarked for ’81 below). The catalogs indicate some fluctuation from sterling to nickel bands on through the Late Republic era (1969-90) into the Dublin era (1991-2018), with the sterling being used (as happens so often with Peterson lines) in conjunction with a P-Lip in the 1997 catalog, but also in that year available with a nickel band and fishtail.

The dublin 120 seen above is from ’94, and as you can see, while the rustication technique is nearly identical to that of the ’81 dutch billiard, the stain color has changed for a third time to burgundy-over-black, which seems to have been the standard during most of the early Dublin era.

Sometime near the beginning of this century the Donegal was down-graded again to its original “Product” or gateway status by a nickel band and fishtail mouthpiece as seen in this B7, and while the stain remains the same, it looks less craggy:

Things would grow steadily worse in the following years, however, as the gawdawful pineapple rustication took hold, so that by around 2010 the Donegal was reduced to the etchings seen on this B39:

With the return of in-house rustication earlier this year, things are looking up for the Donegal, at least just a little, as you can see in this current 80s:

The finish and the rustication are, so nearly as I can tell, identical with that used on current rusticated SH pipes, so that’s something, right? I don’t think I’d call it a Rocky anymore, but at least it still has a vulcanite mouthpiece, a plus.

As for the future of the line—or the name—I couldn’t hazard any guesses. In the ideal Peterson of my imagination, the line would assume the craggiest crags, sharp textures and brilliant obsidian finish of the last batch of Rosslare Rusticated pipes, along with—of course—a vulcanite P-Lip. In the meantime, just to have it around, as one of the bedrock Peterson lines for almost 75 years, will do.

According to Mark’s well documented history of the Donegal Rocky line this pipe shouldn’t have the contrast stained black/brown that I see as that didn’t come about until the later 1970s. I emailed Mark asking him what he thought about my restoration of this pipe and at publication I have not heard back. I assume he and his wife are shipping out the most recent Peterson Pipe Notes pipe stand, so I understand his busy schedule. That is if my interpretation of the worn silver hallmark is correct.

The silver hallmark that I see on this pipe is a lowercase e as seen in this photograph:

Now an argument could be made for either an e, c or o. Respective dates would be 1972, 1970 and 1980. The o would move the pipe closer to the black/brown stain age range of 1981 as mentioned in the Mark Irwin blog above.

The Restoration

The restoration began as normal with a clean denim piece. I then started work on the stem.

The first job was to buff the stem with 0000 steel wool to remove the hard shiny oxidized coating.

This allowed the OxyClean solution easier and faster action at softening the oxidation. The stem was left to soak in the Oxy for an hour or so.

Next came the reaming and the reaming tools were gathered.

The lion’s share of the work was done with the PipNet reaming tool with its #2 and #3 blades. This cake was very hard and dry and the tobacco chamber size was a very tight fit for the #3 blade so scraping was required to allow easier reaming with the PipNet.

Eventually the chamber looked mostly cake free.

I was pretty sure that I should be receiving some sort of tax subsidy for the carbon sequestration I would be responsible for by sending this pile to a landfill.

Upon sanding the tobacco chamber I discovered that the cake had not protected the chamber as well as I would have thought that the previous owner was a puffing madman. The inside of the chamber had light spiderwebs due to heat damage both to the left and right front. Further sanding made it so that I could not feel anh roughness but I could still see the spiderwebs. A quick message and photos were sent to Steve Laug for a bit of advice. I wasn’t sure that this would need a waterglass, J.B.Weld of just a bowl coating. Steve got back to me quickly and said a bowl coating would probably be sufficient.

I proceeded to the scrubbing. This was done with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium toothbrush.

After the exterior was scrubbed I used a bit of Dawn dish soap with a nylon shank brush to see how bad the airway of the shank was. It was pretty bad. The stummel was thoroughly rinsed inside and out with warm water and dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench I poured 3-4 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the bowl and allowed it to flow into the shank. I scrubbed with a nylon shank brush and the alcohol then poured the alcohol into a medicine cup. Yeah, there may be North American megafauna stuck in that tar pit.

I scraped the airway with a dental scraper to remove as much of the tar as I could get out. Repeated alcohol and shank brush scrubbings yielded more dissolved tar.

Eventually the airway was cleaned and the smell of old smoking residue disappeared.

The stem was retrieved from the Oxy and I began cleaning it with SoftScrub on make-up pads.

It eventually was rid of the majority of the oxidation at least from the button. Which was the area I needed to work on. The button area was filed and sanded with a 320 grit sanding sponge.

I moved on to a 400 and 600 grit sponge to further smooth the stem surface. There would need to be some filling of dents with black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue).

The CA was applied then spritzed with a CA drying accelerator. The quickly cured CA was then filed and sanded with the above mentioned sanding sponges.

This was repeated until the fills were smooth.

With the button reshaped and filled I cleaned the airwair of the stem. The previous owner did apparently use a pipe cleaner through the stem as it was not nearly as fouled as the shank had been.

Next came the polishing of the silver. I used a Cape Cod Metal Polishing Cloth on the silver band. I love the smell of this product and it works well too.

The silver had a respectable shine but there appeared to be a film of surface flaw to the finish. I figured that I would spend more time with that later.

There was little to do with the stummel other than to clean it thoroughly. I used a baby toothbrush to work Before and After Restoration Balm into all of the craggy texture and let the balm work it’s magic.

I prepped the shank by wrapping it in painters tape to avoid stray sanding. The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 1000-3500. In between each sponge I dabbed a finger tip’s worth of mineral oil onto the stem and rubber it in. I then wiped the stem with a dry paper towel.

After about 20-30 minutes the Restoration Balm was wiped from the stummel using an inside out athletic sock.

I wasn’t sure which wax to use on such a wonderfully rough textured stummel. I opted to use the Decatur Pipe Shield No-Buff Wax. I cleaned the Restoration Balm from the baby toothbrush with 95% ethyl alcohol. I used the baby toothbrush to work the Decatur wax into the crags and let it dry for the recommended 10-20 minutes, as per the instructions on the label.

I then took the stummel to the buffer and swapped out the carnauba waxing wheel for a clean flannel wheel. I used the clean wheel to buff the N0-Buff wax. Yeah, I know…

Now to review: The stem before.

The stem after I had worked on it. There remained a serious amount of discoloration on the tenon end. This stubborn stuff required a less chemically subtle approach.

I went with a dip into the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. A pipe cleaner was inserted into the button end of the stem to suspend it from the jar top. I allowed the stem to soak in the solution for 2 hours.

After the 2 hours I removed the stem from the solution and let the excess solution drip back into the jar.

With the stem all drip dried, well not really dry, I wiped the stem with a coarse shop rag and ran several pipe cleaners through the airway. I then micro-meshed the stem with a series of 4000-12000 pads. Between each pad I applied a small drop of Obsidian Oil to the stem, rubbed it in with my finger tip and wiped the stem with a dry paper towel. I failed to photograph the micro-meshing. Darn old people.

The stem looked much better. If you can’t wait to see it, feel free to jump down a bit.

The spider webbing heat damage still needed to be addressed. I retrieved the maple syrup and applied a big drop to my finger tip. I rubbed this onto the surface of the tobacco chamber.

I then opened up a capsule of activated charcoal. I dumped the charcoal into the chamber, placed my palm over the rim and egan shaking the stummel distributing the charcoal powder and covering the sticky syrup. You can see the charcoal also left a very symmetrical spot on my palm. Having forgotten to plug the airway with a pipe cleaner I also got a nice coating of carbon powder all over the shank’s airway. Yay, more shank cleaning.

Below are the photos of the bowl coating.

I would say that my first Peterson Donegal Rocky restoration was a success. I think it turned out very well. I like the craggy appearance and feel of the pipe. The shape is a favorite of mine.The brown and black contrast stain was left intact and I think it still works . I was quite happy with the oxidation removal from the stem and the black vulcanite polished up nicely. The silverband looks as if it has experienced some trouble and I cannot get it to look bright and well, silver all around. I am sure this will be a great smoking pipe but will have to wait a couple of days for the coat coating to thoroughly dry. The dimensions of the Peterson Donegal Rocky 106 Billiard are as follows:

Length: 5.95 in./ 151.13 mm.

Weight: 1.54 oz./ 43.60 g.

Bowl Height: 1.96 in./ 49.78 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.70 in./ 43.18 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.83 in./ 20.8 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.58 in./ 40.13 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Peterson Donegal Rocky 106 Billiard.

Some of the above “finished” photos were taken slightly out of sequence. Example: the bowl coating was added after some of the shots.
A Peterson Red Premier Meerschaum 406 Prince Restoration (with addendum)

June 28th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

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

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

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

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

Background

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Laxey Pipes Ltd. resided in a historical 19th century four-storey Man stone building at The Quay, Old Laxey, Isle of Man, which thankfully has been preserved.

The company specialised in the production of meerschaum pipes using the Meerschaum mined by the Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation in the Amboseli basin in Tanganyika (since 1964 part of the United Republic of Tanzania).

Please note: you may often find names like “Manx Pipes Ltd.”, “Man Pipe Co.” and others more, but there is no indication of another Isle of Man pipe producer other than Laxey Pipe Ltd. at any time!

Laxey Pipes Ltd. marketed own brands like “Manxpipe”, “Manxman”, “Manxland” e.c. Names like “John Bull”, “White Knight” (unwaxed), “Domino” (black, or lined) indicated some shapes / colours of Laxey’s own series. The stems either showed the astronomical sign for “male” or “man” (circle + arrow), or the crest of the Isle of Man, the 3-legged X in a circle. Manxpipes and Laxey’s other brands were available through pipe retailers in general, but also were sold (mainly) to tourists through their own shop in Laxey.

Furthermore Laxey Pipes Ltd. manufactured the meer bowls for Peterson, Barling, Nørding and others from the later 1960’s until 2001. Man Pipe e.g. was a brand distibuted by Comoy’s. The bowls usually showed no nomenclature indicating the orderer. “Genuine Block Meerschaum” was engraved frequently. Often, just the stems were different, while bowls were the same.

Supply of meerschaum from East Africa run out (Kenya / Tanzania exhausted, Somalia inaccessible), and thus the last Laxey meers were supplied to trade in May, 2001. Laxey Pipes Ltd. tried to survive continuing with briar pipes – mainly in the Danish style -, but to no success. It closed down business in July, 2002.”

(Laxey Pipes Ltd. – Pipedia)

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

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

The Restoration

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The double boiler wax melter.

The empty snuff can wax catcher.

The heat gun

It’s “Go time”.

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

Absorbing the wax. Hot, hot, hot.

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

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

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

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

Length: 6.58 in./ 167.13 mm.

Weight: 1.63 oz./ 45.75 g.

Bowl Height: 1.46 in./ 37.08 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.17 in./ 29.72 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.78 in./ 19.81mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.65 in./ 41.91 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Peterson Meerschaum 406 Prince.

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

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

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

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

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

The below photos are of the Peterson meerschaum 406 Prince after readdressing the oxidation.
A Peterson Dunmore 606 Pot Restoration

June 25th, 2024

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

My Peterson Pipe Acquisition Disorder (PPAD) has come out of remittance and I have experienced an attack. Then again it was fully expected. I can’t run around with a name like NebraskaPeteGeek and not have full blown PPAD at least semiannually. The lovely 606 in the photo above did not arrive like that. It was spotted at an auction on eBay a couple of weeks ago. I couldn’t believe my eyes at first. A Peterson Dunmore with a shape other than the 300 System shape was very interesting. I’ll get more into that in the “Background” below.

This pipe has Peterson’s over “DUNMORE” on the left, the Peterson P on the stem and MADE IN THE over REPUBLIC over OF IRELAND and 606 on the right. There is also a beaded edge at the shank end, a characteristic of the Dunmore line. When the pipe arrived it appeared in the photos below.

Background

As much as I love the history of the Kapp and Peterson company and Peterson pipes, I will not get into that other than give you resources to read the history for yourself. I will delve into the Dunmore, or Dunmoor line of pipes at greater depth.

For a great history Mark Irwin and Gary Marlburg’s book is a must read for a Pete Geek.

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

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

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

Now to the stuff regarding this pipe: A Peterson Dunmore. I refer to Mark Irwin again here and his blog, Peterson Pipe Notes. I can wholeheartedly recommend the free at

https://petersonpipenotes.org/ Yes, you will get emails but only for things like the weekly blog post and occasional Peterson pipe drops (like the Peterson Pipe Notes Pipe of the Year) or offers for cool Pete Geek merchandise. Anyway Mark has an article on the Dunmore line that is great. https://petersonpipenotes.org/226-documenting-the-dunmore-system-and-classic-lines/

I will include the text here in it’s entirety but recommend the link for the photos. This is used with permission of the author (thank you Mark).

“226. Documenting the Dunmore System and Classic Lines

Milos “Mike” Bera at PipesPens&More.com on eBay recently wrote me to say that he’d run across two examples of a Peterson Dunmore Classic line he’d never seen before—a higher-grade line with a briar-in-brass sandwich band. As I thought they were not only gorgeous but undocumented, the time seemed right to take a look back at the history of the Dunmore System and Classic lines.

I’ve been a fan of the Dunmore lines since I first saw them through the case back in the late 1980s and had to have one, a fat-bottom 72 (the 302 equivalent). Like everyone else, I thought there was some kind of mistake—“Where’s the nickel mount?” I remember asking. But the Dunmore System set out to be something a little different, yet within the classic Kapp & Peterson house style.

The line originated in collaboration with Iwan Reis in 1971. How it came about is anyone’s guess at this point. Chuck Levi, the man who more than any other was responsible for bringing the great Danish artisan pipes to the US, was working with the creative minds at K&P to bring something new to the IRC catalog, and this was one of about a dozen K&P lines that debuted as exclusives in the Iwan Reis catalogs of that era.

The concept was to modernize the System pipe by removing what was perceived as the old-fashioned nickel mount. And old-fashioned it was—if you look at pipe catalogs from the 1940s on through most of the rest of the 20th century, nickel ferrules and even bands were almost non-existent. K&P was virtually the only hold out, using sterling bands on the Sterling Silver Classic line and on the Premier & De Luxe Systems. A bead was then carved around the stummel at the mortise end. As you can see from the IRC detail, sometimes the contrast stain made the beads stand out, and sometimes not.

But there were two more ingredients to the original Dunmore aesthetic which can be seen the photo below. Paddy Larrigan, K&P’s master-craftsman, was always striving to push the envelope in pipe engineering, and one of the things he dearly loved was a pipe that would sit, so he shaved off the bottom of the shank to allow the Dunmore System to sit on its shank and button, which gives it its uniqueness in the catalog. The downside of this is that I am not convinced that all the Dunmore reservoirs, being slightly smaller than the traditional System, are quite as effective.

The third distinguishing mark of the original Dunmore lines is the stem. Both the System and Classic versions utilized the wide-shoulder “Comfort Lip,” with a painted gold P on the stem. This doubtless helps the System sit as well as giving it a more muscular visual balance, strength being a long-standing concept in the design language of the company. While it gives the illusion of being an army “push” mount, of course it isn’t, but is a traditional tenon-mortise or “navy mount” as the old hands at K&P used to call it.

The 1971 IRC catalog description reads, “dunmoor briar IRC ’71 modern system without sterling band, natural $12.00.” This intentional misspelling of “Dunmore” would persist through subsequent IRC catalogs, the copy-writer evidently under the spell of e.e. cummings and favoring an English flavor to his pipes. The name, like almost all K&P line names, is taken from the Irish landscape, in this case the town in County Galway famous for Dunmore Castle.

The 1975 Orange Catalog shows the initial Dunmore System release was in only seven shapes:

This was later expanded to include both the original bent dublin shape 5 (75) and XL5 (XL75) and the replacement calabash shape 5 and XL5. The remaining “new” System shapes were also added to the Dunmore lineup, the 01 becoming the Dunmore 73, the 02 the 70 and the 03 the 76. The fact that the 304 and 306 “setters” introduced in 1984 never entered the Dunmore System lineup adds the probability that the line had been discontinued by then.

The smooth Dunmore System features a light brown natural finish, sometimes occurring with broad flames, as can be seen in these photos of an unsmoked 77 System:

The rusticated version of the Dunmore System seems to have been finished in at least two techniques or versions. Neither is as deep as the Pebble Rustic finish but they still feel very therapeutic under thumb and finger.

Even when we were beginning our research on the Peterson book (due out in reprint later this year), most Pete fans had no idea there was also a Dunmore Classics line featuring the same beading at the mortise and wide Comfort Lip mouthpiece. Documentary proof was found in the rare 1978-79 Peterson-Glass catalog:

The Dunmore System and Classic Lines from the 1978-79 Peterson-Glass Catalog

I don’t know whether the Dunmore Classics was a short-lived line or whether it was primarily available in Europe, but it almost never appears on the estate market here in the US. As you can see from the catalog and the 406 pictured above, the same aesthetic was followed for the Classic line—light brown, nearly natural, higher-quality smooth bowl (or dark rustic) and faux army mount with gold-painted P, wide saddle and P-Lip stem. Only the Dunmore System, as far as I have been able to document, had the flattened stummel allowing it to set.

I have always hoped to run across an unsmoked rustic Dunmore System with the dark contrast stains seen in the Peterson-Glass catalog. I wonder if this finish actually went into production, because the ones I’ve seen all look more-or-less like the XL75 shown above.

The original Dunmore lines seemed to have been dropped at about the time the company went through its worst redundancy in 1984, as there are no more traces of it in the company’s ephemera from 1983 on. I remember the proprietor of my B&M, Cavalier Pipe & Tobacco in Barracks Road Shopping Center in Charlottesville, telling me when I bought my shape 73 Dunmore that the line was out of production, so I’d better get it if I wanted it (don’t you miss high-pressure salesmen?)—and that would have been 1986 or ’87.

The second iteration of the Dunmore Classics line is that recently discovered by Mike at PipesPens&More on eBay. I would tentatively date it to c. 1995, well after K&P had gotten on its feet again and was doing some new and fascinating things. It seems to belong with three other briar adornment lines from the same period: Paddy Larrigan’s Briar in a Circle Systems and the Galway and Kapp-Royal higher-grade lines with their wonderful inset briar rings.

Mike’s Dunmore Classics line is certainly on a par, from the two examples he’s found, with the Galway and Kapp Royal briars and maybe better, although probably not as fine as the Briar in a Circle Systems. Take a closer look at this 80S, which Mike sold within 24 hours of posting it on eBay:

The last Dunmore Classics line made a brief appearance in the Dublin era’s second decade, somewhere in the 2000s, probably around 2005 or so. Jim Lilley’s old blog site made a reference to them, and I remember seeing them for sale at internet shops.

I know it appeared well before I got interested in writing the Peterson book, because I don’t have any internet images of it in my files. These photos of the B5 and B11 give a good idea of what the line was like, although it appears to have begun in a higher range and then slipped to a lower.

Updated Identification Guide

Dunmore (1971–c. 1984; c. 1995; 2006–2010) Appeared in 1971 as Iwan Reis & Co. exclusive line “Dunmoor,” Premier-grade unmounted System in smooth natural or rustic dark chocolate contrast in all shapes, with beading at the shank, faux wide-saddle P-Lip with gold paint P. Documented in Associated Imports catalog from 1973. Classic Range line from 1978 with same faux army mount and finishes. Second scarce Classic Range line, c. 1990, higher-grade smooth bowl with brass sandwich and briar band, P-Lip. A third Classic Range line, 2006–2010, mid-grade, featured standard and some B shapes, with beading around bowl instead of shank-face, for European market.

Many thanks to Mike Bera
Photos of the Dunmore 80s and 68 courtesy Mike’s Pipes Pens & More
Photos of the B5 and 406 Dunmore courtesy Smokingpipes.com” (https://petersonpipenotes.org/226-documenting-the-dunmore-system-and-classic-lines/)

With that information at hand I can date this Peterson Dunmore with a good deal of certainty. The 606 shape is of the “Classic Range line” thus from 1978-1984. A mere 6 year window.

The Restoration

There is a clean denim piece for a work surface so, it must be time to start another project.

The stem was the part of this that needed the most attention and it went into the OxyClean solution first.

The reaming tools were gathered. The PipNet with its #2 and #3 blades for this nice wide chamber would see some action.

The reaming started easy with the PipNet and the #2 blades. The the #3 blades were a tight fit and required some scraping with both scrapers to allow it access to the tobacco chamber. Eventually the chamber was reamed and sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. I finish sanded with 320 sandpaper and my finger. The chamber looked great with no signs of any damage.

The chamber may look good but the rim was lava encrusted.

Saliva and a sharp knife were used to scrape the rim.

The stummel then made its way to the sink for a scrub with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium bristle toothbrush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Returning to the workbench the stummel looked much better.

A quick wipe with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol to make sure there was no remaining wax or finish remaining was done. This produced some color on the pad but I think it was just dirty old wax and maybe a bit of stain.

I did see a few pits that would require filling with cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust.

I turned my attention to cleaning out the airway within the shank. I used a couple of alcohol soaked cotton swabs to soften the old smoking residues in the airway. I then poured 3-4 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the bowl and allowed it to flow into but not through the shank. I used a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway with the alcohol. The alcohol was poured into a medicine cup to assess the dirtiness of the airway. Not bad but still quite a bit of cleaning and repealed alcohol scrubs. Oh yeah, folded bristle pipe cleaners were also used to scrub with. Numerous more cotton swabs, folded pipe cleaners and a few ml of ethyl alcohol later the shank was clean.

The stem came out of the Oxy bath and was vigorously wiped with a dry make-up pad. The pad was heavily stained with oxidized rubber.

Several more make-up pads with SoftScrub were used to try to remove the stubborn oxidation. Adjectives other than “stubborn” may have been uttered during this process.

I oiled the stem and left it for 24 hours. The next day I returned and used SoftScrub again to remove the oil. Well, more than oil came off.

Back into the Oxy bath went the stem. It was there for another hour.

I turned my attention to filling the pits. A small drop of brown CA was applied to the pit and a small scoop of briar dust was then placed onto the wet CA and pressed into the pit. The excess briar dust was brushed off with a bristle pipe cleaner. This was repeated for each of the fills. The CA and briar dust set-up very quickly and were filed with a flat needle file then sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

The stummel was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grit, in sequence. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with an alcohol moistened make-up pad.

The stummel was then worked with a series of micro-mesh pads 4000-12000 grit. Between each pad the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol.

The stummel then was coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 30 minutes.

The stem was retrieved from the Oxy bath for the second time. And wiped with a dry make-up pad. This time much less oxidized rubber came off of the stem.

The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 600-3500. Between sponges I would rub a small drop of mineral oil onto the stem and wipe it with a paper towel. This was followed by the micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. Between the pads I applied a drop of Obsidian Oil to the stem, rubbed it onto the surface and wiped with a paper towel. I failed to photograph any of the stem sanding and micro-meshing, sorry if you were looking forward to that.

The stummel was wiped clean of any remaining Restoration Balm with an inside out athletic sock.

I debated showing this next step as it was a mistake. Since I am rather adept at making mistakes I thought I’d show you what not to do. I thought the Peterson P logo on the stem should be repainted in white. I cleaned the surface with a cotton swab and 95% ethyl alcohol and gave it a coating of white acrylic model paint.

While the paint was still slightly pliable I scraped the high spots of the logo with a plastic card and wiped away any paint from around the logo.

I then proceeded to wax the pipe with the buffer and carnauba wax and do the “finished” photographs. It wasn’t until I was refreshing my memory and writing the background section that I came across the “P-Lip with gold paint P” from Mark Irwin’s Peterson Pipe Notes dunmore description. Well the white P just wouldn’t do. Back to the workbench, I recleaned the white acrylic paint from the logo using the ethyl alcohol and a cotton swab.

I then made an applicator for the gold Rub’nBuff from the plastic tube of a cotton swab. I cut one end from the tube, heated the plastic with a lighter and flattened the hot plastic with a knife blade.

I used scissors to cut the flattened plastic into a micro-spatula type device.

The gold Rub’nBuff was applied with the plastic tool. The excess gold was wiped onto the denim. I let the gold Rub’nBuff dry for a minute of two and used the tool to scrape away the excess gold from around the logo. The area was then hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth.

There, that’s more like it and correct. Living and learning. I hope my mistakes help you to avoid making some of your own.

The pipe went back to the buffer for a touch-up re-waxing with carnauba. Then back to taking the real finished photos.

Overall this Peterson Dunmore 606 Pot turned out pretty well. I have to admit to not being happy with the finish of the stem. The oxidation was deep into the vulcanite. Even after the Oxy baths, SoftScrub and sanding it can still be seen. Given under normal light conditions the stem looks fine, bright light makes the oxidation stand out. I did not want to use the Before and After Deoxidizing solution for fear of losing the logo. That may be the only way to address the issue short of sanding the entire stem and losing the logo to that. This will be a personal pipe for the time being. Unless someone really wants it and makes me an offer I can’t refuse. The briar of the 606 is lovely, showing off Peterson’s Premier-grade and I was able to keep the original stain without altering it. Of the areas that I filled I think only one was a flaw in the briar and the others were dings from use. The very nature of the Dunmore non-System shape is a rarity and a pretty rarity at that. The dimensions of the Peterson Dunmore 606 Pot are:

Length: 6.21 in./ 157.73 mm.

Weight: 1.44 oz./ 41.00 g.

Bowl Height: 1.65 in./ 41.91 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.36 in./ 34.54 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.82 in./ 20.83 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.58 in./ 40.13 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Peterson Dunmore 606 Pot.

Oops, there is a finished photo showing the white logo. Darn lazy, I say.

There’s another white logo. Why do you keep reading stuff by this guy?