Tag: polishing stems

A Telford’s Canadian Restoration

August 8th, 2024

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Decisions, decisions. That is what I was thinking before selecting this Telford’s Canadian for the next restoration. The SilverKing and the no-name billiard were looking for love but it all went to the Telford’s.

I have a few restoration blogs finished and scheduled for publication on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I figured that I could try my hand at a restoration that might require some extra time and I didn’t want to feel rushed with a self-imposed deadline. This Telford’s has a cracked bowl and will be my second attempt at using the Charles Lemon pinning technique (I linked it so you can read the original).

I had never heard of Telford’s as a pipe maker and assumed it to be a tobacco shop which had stamped it’s name on a pipe made by a London based pipe maker. Why London? Well, the stamps on the bottom of the shank read TELFORD”S in the center on the end of the shank by the stem there was a 296, I assumed was a shape number. There was a circular MADE over IN over LONDON with the “IN” inside the circle and the “MADE and LONDON forming the circle and an E stamped on the end of the shank. Below are some photos of the Telford’s as it appeared prior to work being done.

Oh yeah, some serious work would be required to get this old girl back into the game. Obviously there was the cracked bowl to repair. There were some big fills to be made on the left heel area and the right shank. The stem was severely oxidized with some deep tooth imprints and a layer of calcium. The bowl itself was caked with carbon and the subsequent lava flow onto the rim.

Background

Normally the first place I go when researching a brand is to pipedia.org. The search for “Telford’s” met with “no results matching the query”. Strike one. The second place I usually visit is pipphil.eu. Here the “Telford’s” search led me to the following:

(Te — Pipes: Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu)). Well, at least it wasn’t a total bust. I could find no sign of a present or worn “T” on the stem. There was scant information to go on, though. A quick Google.com search of Telford’s did come across a Telford’s Pipe and Cigars, Inc., located at 664 Redwood Highway, Mill Valley, CA 94941. That was quite specific. The website included this at the bottom, “Copyright © 2012 – 2013 – All Rights Reserved.” By the look of things like events and photos the site had not been updated from the 2012-2013 dates. When I perused their “About us” page, I found that in 2012-2013 Brian & Susie Telford were the owners and that the shop had been in business for 30 years. Now, I was a science teacher, not math but my limited skills would deduce that the shop opened in the 1980 or thereabouts. I vowed to call during business hours the next day. On the “Events” page, again not updated since 2012-2013, there was mention of a Golden Gate Pipe Club who met at Telford’s on October 4, 2012 for their monthly meeting. A search for “Golden Gate Pipe Club” led to a Facebook page. This page was also from 2012 and showed a meeting at Telford’s on October 4, 2012. I am assuming that it would have been the first Thursday of the month with a stated time of 8:30-10:00.

A further check of Telford’s Pipe and Cigars, Inc. showed that there was an active Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/events/telfords-pipe-cigar/golden-gate-pipe-club/159196560885720/).

One question remained, who made this pipe? I started with Comoy’s due to the fact that I had seen a couple of mentions of Comoy’s pipes on Telford’s website. Comoy’s shape chart from pipedia.org verified that the 296 shape was indeed a Canadian.

(https://pipedia.org/wiki/Comoy%27s_Shape_Number_Chart). That was enough proof for me. Using the Telford’s shop website as a timeline source the pipe was made from the early 1980s-present. The pipe did appear to have been heavily used with worn sandblast and heavy oxidation so I assumed it was used heavily during the 1980s and 1990s. That call to Telford’s might provide a more narrow date.

I was able to contact Brian Telford at his shop and he was quite gracious with his time. He said that this pipe would have been for the 1970-1980s. During this time Comoy’s would offer lots, usually a gross, of their “seconds”. These were pipes that had imperfect blasts or fills which made them ineligible for sale as “Comoy’s” pipes. Mr. Telford explained that Comoys made a stamp for Telford’s and stamped the pipes for the shop (personal communication with Brian Telford 7-30-2024).

This narrowed down the maker and date of production of this Telford’s 296 Canadian made by Comoy’s of London. Now it was time to return this old girl to service.

The Restoration

The restoration began with a light buffing of the stem with 0000 steel wool to remove the calcium and outermost oxidation.

A pipe cleaner was inserted into the tenon end of the stem as a hanger and the pipe was placed into Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. And allowed to soak overnight.

The reaming tools were assembled and put to work.

The PipNet with its #2 blades did most of the reaming. The #3 blades were too large and the tobacco chamber needed a good deal of scraping after the PipNet.

Below you can see a much better photo of the cracked bowl from inside the chamber.

The chamber did show signs of light spider webbing all around the interior of the chamber.

The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrubbing with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium toothbrush. A second scrubbing of Murphy’s was done with a stiffer nylon scrub brush to better remove the accumulated grime. The stummel was rinsed of soap with warm water and dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench the stummel looked much cleaner and the crack could be examined in greater detail.

Other areas in need of repair were also made more apparent, the two deeper pits on the right shank and (shown below).

And the two depressions immediately above the left heel.

The rim also still had lava issues and would require a light topping. There were a couple of smaller surface cracks which appeared to be only superficial in nature.

I wiped the surface of the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. The made came back with more grime. My scrubbing was not as good as I thought it was.

I then proceeded to scrub the stummel with the toothbrush and 95% ethyl alcohol and wipe it with a clean make-up pad. More accumulated grime came off.

A repeat of the above scrubbing cleaned off additional grime.

And a third alcohol toothbrush scrub.

All told, the stummel was scrubbed 3 times with alcohol and toothbrush after the double Murphy Oil Soap scrub. I was pretty sure the previous owner was a car mechanic who smoked the pipe while working on car engines with dirty oily hands during the day and labored in a coal mine at night. Now the coal mine scenario might be a stretch as coal dust and smoking would probably create a bit of mischief but I’m sure you see my reasoning.

The shank cleaning was next. Cleaning here included pouring 3-4 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the tobacco chamber and scrubbing with a nylon shank brush. After the scrubbing the alcohol was poured into a medicine cup. The airway was then scrubbed with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in ethyl alcohol. Alcohol dipped cotton swabs were also used to clean out the mortise area. This process was repeated numerous times. I was making progress albeit slowly. I decided to give the airway a cotton alcohol overnight soak to dissolve and loosen the remaining tar deposits. The tobacco chamber and shank were stuffed with cotton and 95% ethyl alcohol was added to the cotton via a disposable pipette until the alcohol pooled on top of the cotton. The pipe was angled allowing the shank end and rim to be approximately level and saturated with alcohol.

The next morning the cotton showed that it had absorbed old smoking residue as the alcohol evaporated.

The cotton, now fairly dry, was removed and with it a good deal of the tar.

Further cleaning of the airway went much faster and soon revealed clean pipe cleaners.

The stem was removed from the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer and allowed to dip excess solution back into the jar.

The remaining residual solution was wiped with a coarse shop rag.

The stem looked much better.

Several make-up pads drizzled with SoftScrub were used to scrub the remaining oxidized rubber from the stem surface.

I then went to work repairing and rebuilding the tooth damaged stem using sanding sponges to prepare the damaged areas.

The dents were painted with the flame of a lighter in an attempt at raising the dent a little bit. This met with little success. Filling the dents with black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) was required. The dents received a light fill of the black CA.

This was then spritzed with a CA drying accelerator. This allows the CA to cure within seconds.

The cured CA was then filed with a flat diamond needle file to smooth the CA.

The remaining depressions appear shiny as they had not been touched by the file.

An additional fill of black CA was applied and spritzed with a drying accelerator.

The second application once cured was then filed and smoothed with a 320 followed by a 400 grit sanding sponge.

Additional small applications of CA, filing and sanding were done.

Eventually the stem looked far more acceptable.

The stem airway was cleaned out using bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

It was time to start planning the crack repair. A little about this technique: Charles Lemon of dadspipes.com wrote a wonderful restoration blog about his technique for repairing cracked bowls (https://dadspipes.com/2016/03/08/a-crack-pinning-tutorial/). I had tried this pinning with a cracked diamond stem on a blog a while back (https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.com/5886). Now I realize that I tried to use it on a stem not a bowl but I was more interested in practicing using the technique and to see if it would work with a stem. Besides, I did not have a pipe with a cracked bowl at that time. Anyway, It worked and I learned several things from my hands-on practice. Feel free to check out my blog and comment on all my mistakes, I own-up to all of them. Below you can see the steps of Charles’ pinning technique as they were intended.

I first marked the two entrance points where I wanted to drill two 2mm holes to place the 2mm brass rods. The brass rods reinforce the cracked area and are glued in place.

I used a rat-tail needle file to make depressions for the drill bit.

The plan was to drill the holes at two different angles to prevent the crack from being able to widen.

Below is a photo attempting to show the two angles without a big dumb thumb in the way.

The stummel was clamped into an adjustable vise allowing the best angle for me to comfortably drill while seeing the path of the drill bit.

I accidentally went too far with the top hole and exited the stummel. I had marked the drill bit with a sharpie marker but either I was not paying enough attention or the path of the boring was shorter than anticipated. The bottom drilling went as planned and did not exit on the far side of the entrance. Note that you can see the top brass pin through the crack.

Another view of the pinning angles.

And another view.

I used a wire cutter to cut the brass rod to length. I wanted the rods short enough that there would be no brass visible when they were placed into the holes. This was something I learned from my first attempt. The brass rods were roughed up with 320 sandpaper to allow the glue additional surface area to bond to.

I mixed J-B Weld 2 part epoxy as per the instructions on a plastic lid.

Once thoroughly mixed the epoxy was dabbled into the hole with a longer piece of brass rod and worked into the crack itself.The sanded rod pieces were pressed into place and pushed deeply into their respective hole with a longer piece of brass rod. Epoxy pushed out through the miss-drilled exit hole. This made me happy to know that the glue had indeed made it deep into the holes.

The excess epoxy was removed using a dry cotton swab. The area on each side of the crack was cleaned of epoxy with a cotton swab dipped in acetone. The interior of the tobacco chamber was wiped of excess epoxy with a small wooden popsicle stick. A clamp was used to compress the sides of the stummel and the stummel was set aside to dry/cure for 24 hours.

The next day, Iremoved the clamp and everything looked like it had gone according to plan.

It was now time to work on filling the holes, crack and other flaws in the briar. I used brown CA and briar dust for the fills.

Careful placement of CA with a fly tying bodkin was needed for this as the blast patterns would not allow for sanding. I then used a dental scraper to scoop up a small pile of briar dust and placed it onto the wet CA and used the back side of the scraper to press the briar dust into the CA. The extra briar dust was then brushed off with a brass brush and the fill was filed with a rounded or rat-tail diamond needle file. I tried to file to match the grain pattern of the blast.

The depression of the crack on the rim was filled in similar fashion to the above. Here I was able to sand the fill smooth with a topping board, AKA a piece of 320 sandpaper laid flat on a counter.

The shank depressions were also filled with CA and had briar dust pressed into them. The new fill was filed and in an attempt to leave some texture to match the existing blast pattern.

The heel fill proved to be quite large. This area had most of the blast pattern worn away by I assumed, use. I used a Dremel rotary tool to retexture the surrounding area.

Once all the fills were completed, I wanted to blend and conceal the fills. I chose Dark Brown Fiebing’s Leather Dye for this. The needed dye kit was gathered.

Below is the pipe after having been dyed and flamed with the lighter.

I then took the pipe to the buffer and used rouge buffing compound to buff away the outermost layer of dark brown dyed briar. Returning to the workbench I wiped the stummel with a couple of make-up pads dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

The pipe was given a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 15 minutes absorbing the balm and letting it work its magic.

The pipe was then taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax. Normally I don’t like to use carnauba wax and the buffer for rusticated or sandblasted pipes but the blast of this old pipe had been worn quite smooth by handling and I thought that it would turn-out ok.

Upon seeing the stem of the Telford’s Canadian under the bright light of the photography station I was unhappy with the way it turned out. Given, it was far better than it was upon arrival.

Back to the workbench. I taped the shank of the pipe and redid the entire sanding sequence. This is probably never going to be a pipe put up for sale so I wasn’t sure why I was doing this. I guess my obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which should be CDO so that the letters are in alphabetical/proper order, got the best of me. After the sanding sponges I micro-meshed the stem and failed to photograph that.

The stem was rewaxed and returned to the photo station. It was better but… I was done, this time.

If the goals of this restoration were to successfully repair a cracked bowl using brass pins and to find the provenance of the pipe, I was successful. Regarding the worn nature of the blast, the oxidation of a stem or the heavily and hotly smoked tobacco chamber, there was only so much restoration could do. Still the pipe turned out fairly well.The crack repair and the subsequent blending of the repair looks good. The fills and their retexturing also turned out well. The rebuilding of the stem is nice and comfortable. Its appearance is not what I would call good. I cannot figure out how brown oxidation is still showing. I layered at least three coats of black CA over that sanded vulcanite and the result remains brown in appearance. Well at least in normal room lighting it looks good. The final let down is the fact that the MADE IN LONDON, 296 and the E were lost during the restoration. These were all on the faint side to begin with and seemed to have been stamped onto the finish of the pipe rather than onto bare briar. Their loss still bothers me. The dimensions of this beat-up beauty are:

Length: 5.80 in./ 147.32 mm.

Weight: 1.12 oz./ 31.30 g.

Bowl Height: 1.70 in./ 48.01 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.73 in./ 43.94 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.83 in./ 21.08 mm.

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 Made in London Telford’s Canadian 296.

I had to take one photo of how the stem appears at a slight distance. It looks good.
A Malaga Bulldog Restoration

August 6th, 2024

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I blame or give credit, depending on your view, to Steve Laug of rebornpipes.com for my fascination with Malaga pipes. I remember reading his blogs about the history of the brand and the maker and thought it to be an American success story. Maybe not the empire building story of a Wally Frank but nevertheless a story worthy of a pipeman’s attention. Perhaps fascination is too strong of a word as I have only restored two Malaga pipes so far. Interest, may be a better descriptor. This lovely bulldog came to my attention via a saved search for Malaga pipes on eBay. Those pesky email alerts can be handy on occasion.

The Malaga Bulldog came to southeast Nebraska via Davenport, Iowa. A journey of a mere 325 miles (523 km). The pipe was stamped “MALAGA ” on the top left shank and IMPORTED BRIAR on the adjacent topright. No other stampings were observed. Below are some photos of the pipe upon arrival.

Though not Unfired, the pipe was nearly in a “new – old stock” condition. There was very slight charing around the inside rim or perhaps a light lava deposit. The stem had oxidation and light tooth chatter. The briar was free of flaws, pits or fills. There was virtually no cake accumulated within the tobacco chamber. This looked like more of a clean-up than a restoration.

Background

In a previous blog of a Malaga Apple , I wrote the following:

“Piedia.org has a nice history of Malaga pipes. I will include the text here in its entirety:

“The Malaga Pipe Company was founded circa 1939 by George Khoubesser, (b.1892 d.1971), and located in Royal Oak, Michigan at 1406 East Eleven Mile road. The second generation owner’s name was Emmanuel Khoubesser (b. 1942 d. 1981), who everyone knew him as “Manny”. He was a big jovial man that was easy to converse with, always had a smile and a good joke to tell his very loyal customers. He had the ability to befriend anyone within minutes. The small store was packed with curious customers every Saturday morning looking for the latest design made earlier in the week. He also carried a full line of custom mixed tobaccos that you could sample and an array tobaccos in tins.

I was first introduced to him in 1969. I remember him taking me in the back to show me each step involved in pipe making. He was very serious about the quality of the product he sold and would never sell a flawed pipe, even if it was very minor. My step father purchased several of his pipes and really enjoyed them. He once said he’s never found a better pipe (his words).

Manny passed away in 1981 and his wife and oldest children took over the business. Malaga closed in 1999 after 60 years in business. The building still exists on Eleven mile, looking almost like it did back then, but now houses the Michigan Toy Soldier Company. I would think the pipes Manny produced are now more valuable than ever. If you happen across one of these pipes, you’ll know a little bit more about it’s rich history. Enjoy!”

(Malaga Pipe Company – Pipedia)

If your taste for the history of Malag pipes has yet to be satiated I will refer you to Steve Laug’s blog regarding the history of the brand (George Khoubesser and Malaga Pipes | rebornpipes). Steve also received a treasure trove of ephemera from the estate of one of his reader’s fathers (Malaga Pipes Catalogue of Pipes and Tobaccos | rebornpipes). Wonderful information and valuable insights from people who are far more industrious than I with providing you with background information.” (https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.com/5958)

The Restoration

The Malaga received a laundered denim piece to protect the work surface. I would say clean but, the denim was a bit stained from previous restores.

The reaming gear was gathered.

Then put to work. Well work might be an exaggeration. Put to use, is a better term. The PipNet with the #2 blades did remove some cake from the tobacco chamber, mainly from the bottom of the bowl.

The PipNet’s #3 blades did fit better in the chamber and removed significantly more cake. The scrapers were also used to clear any remaining tobacco residuals then the chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The chamber showed no signs of any damage.

Next was a trip to the sink for a scrubbing with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium stiff toothbrush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench the stummel looked very good. No signs of any finish or wax remained.

The rim had cleaned up nicely as well.

The stummel was wiped off with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. The pad showed nearly no color change indicating that the stummel was bare briar inside the chamber and out.

The airway of the shank did have some yuck. Yuck is a very technical term used by pipe restorers to describe the accumulation of tar and smoking residue. Typically yak is dark brown or black in color with an aroma of general yuckiness. This yuckiness can approach vomit inducing levels of perfume sprayed composting flowers in the case of a pipe used for Lakeland blends. Frequently this disgusting perfumy smell is called “Granny purse”. Fortunately there was no Granny purse present with this lovely old Malaga. The airway was scrubbed with a nylon shank brush with 3-4 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol. The alcohol was then poured into a medicine cup.

Repeated alcohol/nylon shank brush scrubbings were followed by cotton swabs and folded bristle pipe cleaners, both dipped in ethyl alcohol. How a pipe that was used relatively little had this much yuck is a bit of a mystery.

The airway of the stem was also cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners and ethyl alcohol and had yuck levels that were more acceptable.

The exterior of the stem was scrubbed with SoftScrub on make-pads to remove the light oxidation. The stem was then coated with mineral oil.

The stummel was prepared for sanding with a couple slivers of painters tape to cover the stamps.

Sanding was done with a series of sanding sponges with grits of 400-3500. The Stem and stummel were connected and sanded together. Thus avoiding any rounding of their edges. Between each sanding sponge I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol while the stem received a dab of mineral oil rubbed on by fingertip and wiped away with a dry paper towel.

The pipe was then worked with micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000 grit. Again the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol the stem now received a small drop of Obsidian Oil rubbed in and wiped with a paper towel between pads.

The stummel was coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 30 minutes while the balm did whatever magic that the balm does.

30 minutes later the Restoration Balm was wiped away with an inside out athletic sock revealing that the magic had occurred. I often wish that I could capture the puff of glitter and the mini-rainbow that accompanies the magic but alas, I keep missing that part.

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

The Fine Polish was followed by Before and After Extra Fine Polish hand worked with the same soft cloth.

The pipe was then taken to the buffer where it was given several coats of carnauba wax. After waxing the pipe was hand buffed with a nanofiber polishing cloth which raised the shine a bit more.

This Beautiful Malaga Bulldog turned out well, beautifully. This is now the second Malaga pipe that I have restored. I am very impressed with the briar which Manny Khoubesser selected for his pipes. It was exceptional, not a fill or flaw to be seen. The vulcanite polished up well. The previous owner of the pipe must have buffed the stem and stummel separately causing the very slight rounding of the edges where the two parts meet. The pipe is very light weight and feels wonderful in my hand. It was truly a shame that Mr. Khoubesser left us so young, his pipes are a testament to his character and I hope to discover and restore more of them in the future. The dimensions of this beauty are:

Length: 5.71 in./ 145.03 mm.

Weight: 0.98 oz./ 27.90 g.

Bowl Height: 1.70 in./ 43.18 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.50 in./ 38.10 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.81 in./ 20.57 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.49 in./ 37.85 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 Malaga Bulldog.
A Super Majestic System V.D. Billiard Restoration

July 30th, 2024

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

As if Majestic wasn’t a good enough name they had to add the SUPER. That made me laugh when I first read the stampings. Here we have a delightful classic billiard pipe that has gained its turn at the workbench. The pipe was purchased as a single from a seller in Green Bay Wisconsin. I was attracted to it by the name and star inlay logo. I had seen neither and thought they looked intriguing. Besides, how can a guy say no to an attractive lass with good briar like this for under $15? The pipe was stamped SUPER (diagonally) Majestic (script) over SYSTEM V.D.. There was no country of manufacture (COM) leading me to think it was an American made product. The stem, as mentioned, had a silver-like 5 pointed star inlay. Below are some photos prior to working on the pipe:

The pipe showed signs of frequent use. There was a definite, though far from excessive cake in the bowl, the stinger had a coating of dried tarlac ( personal term combining tar with shellac). There were some minor tooth chatter dents on the stem and the strange banded oxidation. The oxidation pattern was perhaps due to the darker part being in a pipe rack and slightly protected from light. The stinger contraption was very unique, it looked as if it were machined by a prison inmate car engine fan wanting to make a stinger look like a crankshaft and be able to double as a shank (prison weapon). The final interesting part to note was that the shank had a cork insert acting as the mortise for the aluminum tenon. This struck me as a rather old fashioned connection of the stem and shaft.

Background

As you may expect there is not much information on Majestic pipes. Pipephil.eu led me to a couple deadends.

(Ben Wade — Pipes: Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu))

(M-Man — Pipes: Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu))

Undeterred, I went to pipedia.org. There a search for “Majestic” returned the following:

A. Pandevant & Roy Co.

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Catalog Listing similar to the EPC Majestic example

A. Pandevant & Roy Co. of Paris had its beginning in 1884 and disappeared with the commencement of WWII in the late 30s or early 40s. “E.P.C.”, “La Savoyarde”, “MAJESTIC”, “La Parisienne” and “E.P.” were registered trademarks of the company.

Note: The following example and the information for this article is courtesy of Dal Stanton, The Pipe Steward, and his wonderful research from this restoration project: Discovering the History with the Reclamation of this Petite EPC Majestic Bent Horn Stem Billiard on RebornPipes.com. (A. Pandevant & Roy Co. – Pipedia)

Now, let it be known that Dal Stanton is a wonderful restorer of old pipes. Though his skills are very impressive, one of the things that I admire most is his attention to detail when writing up the history of a pipe that he is working on. The above is a perfect example of his diligence. While I was reading about the restoration of the above pipe I came across his description of the mortise of his pipe: “What I see next surprises me. I see the briar shank ringing something else inserted into to the mortise. A lining of some sort. I discover then that it appears to be cork. Cork seats the horn tenon in the mortise much like cork seats the Meerschaum bowl on a Gourd Calabash. I have never seen this before, but it seems to work quite well. I will condition the cork with a little petroleum jelly later. The challenge becomes protecting the cork while I’m cleaning the rest of the stummel internals. I’m not sure that I want the cork saturated with alcohol – I’m not sure that will be the best thing.” (Discovering the History with the Reclamation of this Petite EPC Majestic Bent Horn Stem Billiard | rebornpipes) (italics added by me).

There it is the same cork insert that I am looking at with the Majestic which I am restoring. Coincidence? I think not. I believe that the Super Majestic Billiar is indeed an EPC Majestic produced prior to WWII in France.

I asked Dal Stanton to review this blog prior to publishing. He also saw the similarities that I did. He was unsure about the claim that my Majestic was an EPC product due to the differences in stem material, the star logo and the lack of the three hearts associated with the EPC stamping. He also recommended discussing the pipe with Steve Laug. I reached out to Steve, and sent him a link to this article as well. Steve also thought the link between the two Majestic pipes was reasonable. He commented, “I think you are right in connecting the two. There is a link. The fact that the bone insert is replaced with a metal can help to date it a bit. I am pretty sure that between WW1 and WW2 metal was used for the tenons in replacing the bone ones.” (Steve Laug, personal communication)

I think the Majestic Systeme V.D. Billiard is an EPC made pipe produced several years later than the Majestic pipe which Dal Stanton had restored. Perhaps the Systeme V.D. specimen was one of the latter pipes produced prior to WWII and the demise of the company.

The Restoration

The restoration began with a clean denim piece to protect the workbench

Due to the narrow bore of this pipe and the fact that I had broken my #1 blade of my PipNet, I relied on the Scotte Stainless Steel reamint tool.

The Scotte is more than adequate for the job and was aided by the Smokingpipes Low Country reaming knife and the General triangular scraper. The tobacco chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.

The chamber was sanded to bare briar and no sign of heat damage was observed. Yes, the resident white German Shepherd is always living up to her better descriptor of German Shedder.

The rim had a respectable layer of lava on it.

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

The stummel was taken to the sink where it received a scrubbing with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium stiff toothbrush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

While waiting for the stummel to air dry, I began work on the stem. The sinter was firmly attached to the stem and would not budge. I wasn’t sure if it was just a push fit stinger or if it was threaded. Either way it was stuck. I submerged it in 95% ethyl alcohol for a soak.

While the stinger was soaking I examined the stummel. The briar was of good quality and no pits were observed. The scrubbing had removed most, though not all of the finish. Patches of shiny finish can be seen in the photos below.

Back to the stinger. I scrubbed the stinger with a brass brush frequently dipped in the ethyl alcohol. The shape of the stinker was even more amazing when cleaned. This was a serious piece of millwork.

I started to clean out the shank of the pipe. Attempting to be cautious around the cork insert. A dental scraper was used to clean the tar from the airway as well as a nylon shank brush, numerous cotton swabs and folded bristle pipe cleaners. Eventually the airway was cleaned.

While in the cleaning mode, I cleaned the airway of the stem. This only used bristle pipe cleaners and 95% ethyl alcohol. Oh yeah, I forgot. The stinger was threaded into the stem. I don’t know why I would have expected anything less after seeing the machine work used for its manufacture.

The stem was given a light hand buffing with 0000 steel wool to allow the Before and After Deoxidizer solution access to the oxidized vulcanite.

A pipe cleaner was inserted into the tenon and used as a hanger to suspend the sem into the solution.

This stem was fairly oxidized so I figured at least 2 hours would be needed perhaps overnight.

I returned attention to the stummel. I wiped the surface with a make-up pad wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol. I hoped that the finish was shellac which is soluble in alcohol.

The alcohol seemed to have worked but to be completely sure I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with acetone.

If a little acetone is good, more must be better. This removed the last of any finish remaining on the stummel.

The briar was nice in that it had no pits of outward flaws; it also did not have much in terms of grain. I thought that a contrast dye would add a bit of depth to the existing grain. I did not want to sand and risk reducing the stamps so I taped over them with painter tape. This should keep the majority of the dye from the stamps and allow me to touch-up dye them later.

The stummel was then lightly sanded with 400 and 600 grit sanding sponges with the white German Shepherd attachments.

I applied a coating of black Fiebing’s Leather Dye to the stummel with a folded pipe cleaner and flamed the wet dye burning off the alcohol solvent.

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

The stummel was then wiped with a paper towel to remove the excess dye. Notice the areas where the tape had been. The briar there is much lighter colored than the surrounding wood.

The stummel was then sanded to remove the outer layer of black dyed briar. The dye penetrated the softer open grain of the briar more than the harder grain. When sanded the area where the dye penetrated deeply is darker than the area where the dye was more on the surface.

I returned attention to the stem. It was removed from the Before and After Deoxidizer and allowed to drip excess solution back into the container. This drip dry device is quite the remarkable feat of engineering, eh?

After the stem drip dried for a few minutes I wiped any remaining solution off with a coarse shop rag. Two pipe cleaners were also run through the airway to clear it of solution as well.

The stem was lightly sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

The stem was then scrubbed with SoftScrub cleanser on make-up pads to remove the oxidized rubber.

To try something different I decided to take the pipe to the buffer and buff the entire pipe with rouge buffing compound. I had seen restorers use the buffer to remove the outer layer of dyed wood. I had tried it in the past and never felt comfortable with the technique. I thought, practice and trying new things is good, right? Below you can see the results.

I liked the way the briar looked but I was not happy with the stem. That would need the old fashioned sanding sponges and micro-mesh pads. Another thing I noticed when buffing the pipe was that the stem was too loose. I thought about ways to refresh the cork. I read how Dal Stanton used petroleum jelly. I thought to myself, wood swells with moisture. Why not try steaming the cork? I put the kettle on and it soon started its annoying whistle. The exiting steam was allowed to flow into the shank. It flowed right through the shank out the tobacco chamber and onto my hand. Hmm, maybe a glove would have been a good idea. The steam worked very nicely at swelling the cork and a the stem was a perfect tight fit afterwards.

The buffing did not produce the finish that I thought this pipe was worthy of. I returned to doin things the way I was used to doing them. The stem was sanded with a sequence of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. Between each sponge I dipped my finger tip into mineral oil, rubbed this onto the stem and wiped the stem off with a clean dry paper towel.

I then used the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads to polish the stem. This time I used a drop of Obsidian Oil between sponges, rubbed in and wiped off with a paper towel.

The stem was then further polished with Before and After Fine Polish on a soft cotton rag.

The Before and After Extra Fine Polish was used with the same cotton cloth.

The entire pipe was given a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 30 minutes to ensure the Balm had enough time to work it’s magic.

The pipe was then wiped, cleaning off the Restoration Balm with an inside out athletic sock.

It was then taken back to the buffer to receive several coats of carnauba wax.

This Majestic turned out quite nicely. It is of a darker finish than I usually strive for but I think it works well with the classic elegant lines of this billiard. The silver tone star inlay on the stem also accentuates a darker finish and looks great surrounded by the glossy black vulcanite. I am not sure how I feel about using the buffer with red polishing compound rather than sanding to achieve a smooth finish. I mean it looks good but still it feels like cheating somehow. Either way, this pipe will make a fine smoker for its next companion. Te dimensions of the Super Majestic are:

Length: 5.98 in./ 151.89 mm.

Weight: 1.00 oz./ 28.40g.

Bowl Height: 1.72 in./ 43.69 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.42in./ 36.07 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.

PS: If you know anything about the brand or the meaning behind the “V.D. stamping, please leave a comment. Thank you.

Below are some photos of the finished Super Majestic Billiard.
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.