Here we have another Denicotea. I know what you are thinking, “Young, you chose that one so you wouldn’t have to do a bunch of research for the background section”. Wow, you guys are a tough crowd who are a bit cynical of my motives. True there is little information about Denicotea pipes but that is hardly the reasoning behind restoring this curvaceous cutie. I like a black sandblast and am drawn to the elegant curves of this old pipe. Besides, if I restore a couple of Denicoteas per year it makes my German friend Sascha Mertens happy.
This bent beauty came as part of an estate lot from Norman Park, Georgia earlier this summer. It was not the object of desire from the lot. The real target was a 2020 Dr Grabow Collector but this pipe trumped the Collector in the queue due to its intriguing shape and my desire to see how the Denicotea P-lip compared to that of my beloved Peterson pipes. The pipe has a full bend with the robust Denicotea shank/stem fitting for a pipe which takes a 9mm filter. The stampings are “denicotea” over “jolle” with a 0823 shape number to their right all on the bottom of the shank. The stem has a D within a circle. The stamps are well formed and sharp while the logo is much lighter. Below are some photos of the Denicotea as it appeared on arrival.
The black finish showered overall signs of wear with numerous spots of briar showing through the black. The stem surface was oxidized but free of tooth chatter or dents. The bowl needed a reaming and the rim a good scrubbing but all told this looked to be a straightforward restoration.
Background
As alluded to in the beginning, Denicotea pipes are rather lacking in the documentation of their carving, manufacture and business. As stated in my previous blog regarding a Deicotea billiard (linked), ““Willy Heineberg founded the company Denicotea in 1932 and began manufacturing and selling smoking accessories such as filters, filter inserts, cigarette holders and pipes.[1] The company headquarters was initially in Cologne, but was relocated to Bergisch Gladbach after the Second World War.[2]
Denicotea is actually the name of a silica gel filter, cigarette holders and care products for pipes and cigarette holders.
I still find it a bit confusing as Denicotea seems to be a company[3] and a brand as well which is operated by COMPOSING-STUDIO GmbH[4].” (Denicotea – Pipedia).
I cannot find anything pertaining to the shape numbers of Denicotea pipes yet in the photos that I have seen online there are almost always shape numbers stamped on the pipes. The company itself is registered as a German firm as an be seen from the pipephil.eu entry for Denicotea:
(Den-Dh — Pipes : Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu)). Anyone with any experience with German products knows that the Germans are exceptional and meticulous craftsmen. This can also be seen in their business and record keeping. Below is just a clip of the German registration of Denicotea:
(DPMAregister | Marken – Registerauskunft)(translated by Microsoft Edge). I show this because I think it is funny. According to the pipedi.org site Aldo Mollini is, “is a fictional name. The brand Aldo Morelli has been registered for Denicotea on February 26th, 1992.”(Denicotea – Pipedia). I find the fact that a fictional Italian appears to be the signatory for a German company. Yeah, I know it is just a brand and not the executive officer but it makes me think of Hamlet, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” Or in this case northern Germany.
In conclusion we have a Denicotea Jolle made somewhere and at sometime by a German company with brands named after fictional characters.
The Restoration
Fortunately the restoration was more clear than that of the background. I began with a cleaned denim piece for the work surface.
The reaming tools were assembled. The cake was not very thick and little overflow lava was noticed.
The cake was hard and dry but the PipNet with the #2 blades made short work of it. The interior of the tobacco chamber was scraped with the two reaming knives then was sanded with the 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. There was no indication of any heat damage to the briar within the chamber.
Next came the cleaning of the shank airway. This was a repetitive process of scrubbing the airway with an alcohol dipped nylon shank brush, followed by alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. Eventually the pipe cleaners and swabs emerged nearly the same color as when they entered.
The stem was cleaned in a similar fashion but without the use of the shank brush.
Once cleaned inside the stem was submerged in an OxyClean solution and set aside to soak for an hour or so.
The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrub. Here, undiluted Murphy Oil Soap was used with a nylon scrub brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton dish towel.
Returning to the workbench the stummel was wiped with a cotton make-up pad wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol. Some color came off though this was mainly from the rim.
The scrubbing and alcohol wipe revealed the numerous scuff marks which had worn away the black stain from the briar.
I thought that a fresh dye application of black Fiebing’s Leather Dye would restore the overall color of the stummel. The Fiebing’s dye gear was gathered and included the dye, a folded pipe cleaner (as an applicator) , a duct tape wrapped fishing bobber (most folks use a wine bottle cork), and lighter.
Using the fishing bobber as a handle and to keep dye out of the tobacco chamber, I applied a couple of coats of the Fiebing’s Dye to the stummel. After each coat I flamed the wet dye burning off the alcohol solvent and fixing the dye to the briar. The excess dye was wiped from the stummel with a paper towel. Back at the workbench the stummel looked much better with a fresh coat of black dye.
The stem was retrieved from the OxyClean and wiped with a dry make-up pad. Some oxidation had been softened and lifted by this.
The stem was then scrubbed with Soft Scrub cleanser applied to make-up pads. The first pads became darkly covered with brown oxidized rubber. I did not want to get too aggressive with scrubbing the shank-ward end of the stem as the logo was not particularly deep and I feared the abrasive cleanser would remove it.
The stem was reattached to the stummel for easier holding. The shank was then covered with painters tape to protect it from sanding.
The stem logo was also taped for its protection.
The stem was sanded with a series 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 it with a dry paper towel.
The stem was then worked with 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads further polishing the vulcanite. Between each pad I rubbed in a small drop of Obsidian Oil and wiped the stem with a paper towel.
The now slightly fainter logo was given a fresh Rub’nBuff gold leaf application. I did not know what the original logo looked like but I thought the gold would look appropriate with the all black pipe.
All that remained was to apply several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer.
Overall I was very pleased with the restoration of this Denicotea Jolle 0823. The draw is very open and feels like it is meant to have a filter, when I placed a Stanwell 9mm filter into the stem the pipe retained a good comfortable draw. The pattern of the blast shows a nice ring grain on the left and interesting bird’s eyes on the right. The stem polished up fairly well but does still show a tinge of oxidation around the shank. I did not want to get too aggressive with the removal and diminish the stem logo.
The dimensions of this Denicotea Jolle 0823 are:
Length: 5.95 in./ 151.13 mm.
Weight: 1.86 oz./ 52.90 g.
Bowl Height: 1.80 in./ 45.72 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.56 in./ 39.62 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.46 in./ 37.08 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 Denicotea Jolle 0823.
SilverKing a name that everyone has heard of and associates with … Umm, what? Haven’t heard of em, eh? Well neither had I but it is still a darn fine looking piece of briar. And it’s made in France, maybe. Okay, I am reaching for some enthusiasm . This lovely old billiard was one of six pipes that I won from ebay back in June of this year from Hollywood, Florida. The target of my desire was the Peterson meerschaum (2nd from the right) which was hiding amongst these pipes as seen in the photo below. I have restored all but one of the lot. As a matter of fact, the Barclay Rex was sold right after the restoration blog was published. I will add links to the restorations of the others for those who might be interested: Canted Dublin, Barclay Rex, Telford’s Canadian, Peterson meerschaum. The finished pipes look far better than their below photo.
Back to the subject at hand, this lovely Silverking billiard. The pipe was stamped with SILVERKING over SYNCHROMATIC on the left shank and ALGERIAN BRIAR over FRANCE on the right shank. The stem has a crown stamped logo and the silver band is stamped EP within a diamond and three Hallmarks (middle and stem-ward worn to illegible). Below are photos of the Silverking billiard prior to working on it.
This looked to be a straightforward restoration with no glaring difficulties. There were a few deep fills to be made to the briar, a slightly overclocked stem and the missing stinger but other than that a nice relaxing afternoon in the basement avoiding the heat of mid-summer.
Background
I would love to be able to tell a good story about the trials and tribulations of the Silverking pipe factory but alas, there is scant information concerning this maker. If you have any additional information, please feel free to leave it or links in the comments. All I could find is the following from pipephil.eu:
(Si-Siq — Pipes: Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu)). Referring to the “?” at the top right of the screenshot below, I am not sure why there is a question about the country of manufacture (COM) of this pipe as it is clearly stamped MADE IN FRANCE or in the case of my Silverking FRANCE. “Made in France” is also stated in the text above.
I looked at the “Otherline from this factory” links and they are included here:
Not much to work with. A quick search on pipdedia.org resulted in the following quote,
“This is probably not a brand but rather the name of a line of an unknown french factory.
Other line from this factory: Big Ben Reputation , Gold King”(Silverking – Pipedia).
It looked like pipedia.org got their information from pipephil.eu as well.
Now we can assume a bit of information about the date of production. Algeria had been a source of briar from the mid to late 1800s and into the early 1900s. During the years of World War Two briar production was severely limited. After the war briar production returned. Algeria was a French colony and like many colonies during the mid 20th Century, experienced a wave of anticolonialism. The French attempted to squelt this anticolonialism leading to the Algerian war of independence from 1954-1962. During this time Briar production from Algeria was greatly reduced. According to the Wikipedia.com article fatalities of the conflict were, “between 400,000 and 1,500,000 Algerians,[40][24][22] 25,600 French soldiers,[15]: 538 and 6,000 Europeans.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerian_War).
Well that about sums up all I know about this old pipe. It was made in France of Algerian Briar. Most likely between the second world war and 1954.
The Restoration
As typical this restoration began with a relatively clean denim piece as a work surface.
The reaming tools were gathered and included the Scotte Stainless Steel reamer rather than the traditional PiNet reamer due to the narrow tobacco chamber and the fact that my PiNet #1 blade suffered a catastrophic failure. The Scotte did a fine job and only required a small amount of scraping with the Smokingpipes Low Country Reaming knife and the General triangular scraper.
After the reaming the chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. No heat damage was observed in the chamber.
The shank cleaning was done with 95% ethyl alcohol, a nylon shank brush, bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs.
After the shank was cleaned I turned my attention to the stem. Here the ethyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners were used to clean the airway of the stem.
The rim of this old French billiard had definite lava accumulations. This was softened with saliva and scraped with a sharp pocket knife.
The scraped rim looked better but would require a good scrubbing.
Seque to the scrubbing. The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrubbing with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium toothbrush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel was dried with a cotton dish towel.
Back at the workbench the stummel appeared to have most of the finish removed during the scrubbing. The briar looked dull and flat except in a few areas where some finish remained.
An 95% ethyl alcohol wetted make-up pad was used to scrub the stummel. A good deal of color came off the stummel. This indicated that wax, finish and stain were being removed.
A second alcohol wipe yielded more color.
To make sure no coatings remained a wipe with a make-up pad with acetone was used. This time only a little bit of stain was present on the pad.
All of the scrubbing and wiping allowed me to see the pits and damage to the stummel. These would require a fill of brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust.
The gouges received a small drop of CA applied with a fly tying bodkin. While the CA was still wet I scooped a small amount of briar dust with a dental scraper and placed the dust on the wet CA. This was then pressed into the wet CA in the depressions..
The briar dust causes the CA to cure almost instantly so once the dust is placed, pressing had to occur immediately. The excess dust was brushed off with a brass brush.
The new fill was filed with a flat diamond needle file to remove and smooth the fill then was sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge.
In deeper fills this process was repeated until the fill was complete. The completed fills appear much darker than the surrounding briar. The light spots seen below are slight depressions with dry briar dust from sanding in them. A final coat of clear thin CA was applied to the dry spots and they were sanded with a dusty 400 grit sanding sponge. The dust was incorporated into the slight depression with the clear thin CA to fill the last of the low spots.
The above procedure was used to fill pits of the shank.
And the heel of the stummel.
To conceal the fills and to add contrast to the briar grain, I decided to contrast dye this stummel. Black Fiebing’s Leather Dye was chosen for this. The duct tape wrapped fishing bobber acts as a plug to keep dye out of the tobacco chamber and as a handle. The folded pipe cleaner is the applicator for the dye while the lighter provides a flame when burning off the alcohol solvent of the dye fixing it to the briar. Notice that I used painters tape to cover the stamps. This is done to keep the dye from penetrating the briar on the stamp. Were that area to become darkly dyed, extra sanding/buffing would have reduced the stamps.
Below is the black dyed stummel, still wet with Fiebing’s Leather Dye.
I wiped off the remaining damp dye with a paper towel. This also removed my painters tape stamp protectors. Here you can see that the stamped area received less dye thus reducing the amount of sanding/buffing that the stamp will be exposed to.
The blackened stummel was taken to the buffer where rouge buffing compound was used to buff away the router black dyed briar. The results looked good but I wanted the stummel to be lighter overall in color.
To further lighten the briar I lightly sanded the stummel with 320 and 400 grit sanding sponges. This removed more of the black dyed briar. When I was happy with the shade, I sanded the stummel with a series of sanding sponges 600-3500 grits and wiped the stummel with an alcohol dampened make-up pad between each sponge..
I turned my attention to the stem. The slightly over-clocked stem could have been adjusted a couple of different ways; by heating the aluminum threads until the rubber softened and then turning the aluminum slightly or to add a bead of black cyanoacrylate to the end of the stem. I chose the later as the overclocking was so slight. Here I sanded the stem from about its middle to the button with 320 and 400 grit sanding sponges.
I then used Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads to scrub the entire stem. The pads became very dark with oxidized stem material. I was uncertain as to the material used with this stem. Normally oxidized vulcanite yields a brown color on the make-up pad. This was nearly black. I coated the stem with mineral oil and allowed it to sit for 30 minutes. After the sitting, the stem looked black with no signs of a brown oxidized stem.
The stem was then sanded with a sequence of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grit. I did cover the stem logo with a small piece of painters tape to protect it from the sanding. Between each sponge I rubbed mineral oil onto the stem with my fingertip and wiped the stem with a paper towel.
After the sanding sponges the stem was polished with 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Between each pad I applied a drop of Obsidian Oil to the stem, rubbed it in with a fingertip and wiped the stem with a paper towel.
After micro-meshing the stem, I cleaned the logo area with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol to remove any oil.
I then used Silver Leaf Rub’nBuff on the logo. The silver was worked into the stamped logo, allowed to dry for a couple minutes and buffed with a paper towel to remove the excess. I know, the pipephil.eu information said that the Silverking used white on the logo but I thought that silver would look a touch more classy.
The stummel was micro-meshed in a similar fashion except without the Obsidian oil. Here I wiped the stummel with an alcohol dampened make-up pad between pads.
The stummel was given a coat of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 20 minutes. I failed to photo this step. After 20 minutes the Restoration Balm was wiped off with an inside out athletic sock. I failed to photo that as well. The final step was to take the pipe to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.
This pipe turned out very well. I really like how the contrast staining brought out the differences in the grain. It made the bird’s eyes stand out much better than I hoped it would. The stem polished up well. I still do not know exactly what the stem material is but it looks good and didn’t turn my lips black when I sampled the draw of the pipe. I do wish the stinger was intact though the draw is very nice without it. I am sure this will be a nice smoking pipe for someone who loves a long billiards. With it’s relatively tall and narrow tobacco chamber I expect it would make a fine Virginia or Virginia Perique blend pipe. The dimensions of this French beauty are:
Length: 6.34 in./ 161.04 mm.
Weight: 1.38 oz./ 39.30 g.
Bowl Height: 1.83 in./ 46.48 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.53 in./ 38.86 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.69 in./ 17.53 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.46 in./ 37.08 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 Silverking Synchromatic billiard.
This is something that you don’t see everyday: An original unfired early 1900s Frank Dublin pipe with a nickel plated band, horn stem and threaded bone reverse tenon. This pipe was part of an eclectic estate lot which contained a couple of old pipes in unsmoked condition. This was the first of that lot I have tackled. The stamps on this pipe read, Frank (in a cursive script) over ITALIAN BRIAR. There is no shape number. The band is stamped with three five pointed stars over 3 faux hallmarks (an anchor, a star and a walking figure with a bird-like head) over NICKEL PLATED. Judging by the horn stem with an orific style button and the bone tenon, I am guessing this pipe was made prior to 1920.
Below are some photos of the Frank Dublin prior to it receiving any work:
Okay, this is more of a clean-up than a full restoration since the pipe has never been smoked. And, yes, keeping to the original aesthetic is usually paramount to a restoration but, I am pretty sure that there is briar grain under that stain that needs to see the light of day. The finish will be removed. The stem sanded and polished and the whole thing made beautiful. All without having to clear the yuck from a shank – YAY!
Background
The name Frank refers to Sam Frank Sr. who started building a pipe empire in 1900. I will let the article for pipdia.org explain this, “In the year 1900 Sam Frank Sr. started his own business, selling pipes and other tobacco items. His original office was located at 20 W. 17th Street, NYC. He was also closely associated with the sales staff of Wm. DeMuth & Co., selling their line of pipes. It was at this time that Mr. Frank first met Ferdinand Feuerbach and formed what would be a lifelong friendship. Mr. Feuerbach started working for the DeMuth company in 1897 and by 1903 had become the production manager. In 1919, when Mr. Frank needed an experienced pipe man to run his pipe factory, located at 168 Southern Blvd., in the Bronx, he persuaded his old friend Ferdinand to join him. Mr. Feuerbach is credited with developing DeMuth’s popular Royal DeMuth and Hesson Guard Milano pipelines. In 1922, when S. M. Frank purchased the Manhattan Briar Pipe Co. the company incorporated. In 1933, the paper Medico filter was introduced along with the Medico brand line of pipes. The Medico filter is the “original” and most absorbent paper filter on the market that is recognized by pipe smokers world-wide. Filtered pipe smoking, a debatable issue among pipe smokers, reduces tars and nicotine in the smoke stream to make a “safer” smoke.” (S. M. Frank & Co. – Pipedia) (italics are mine)
As for the year that this ppe was produced, I found an article on S.M. Frank which states, “The earliest recorded location of the S. M. Frank pipe factory was 292 Ave. B in Manhattan in 1903. This was their factory until the late 1910s, when they moved to 168 Southern Blvd. in the Bronx.” (https://www.14to42.net/21street.html) The above quote from pipedia.org mentions that Frank, “In 1919, when Mr. Frank needed an experienced pipe man to run his pipe factory” (S. M. Frank & Co. – Pipedia). These two pieces of information indicate that the Frank pipe factory was established in 1903 and produced pipes through 1919 and beyond. Judging by the orific style stem of this pipe, I am assuming that it was made in the Frank factory located in the Bronx of New York City. Steve Laug, of rebornpipes.com, discusses the orific button in depth (https://rebornpipes.com/2013/05/17/whatever-happened-to-the-orific-button/). In this post he notes that pipes with orific buttons in his collection date from 1850s-1912. Personally I do not think that I have ever seen an orific button on any pipe from later than 1920. This reinforces my claim that this Frank Dublin was made prior to 1920. More specifically between 1903 and 1919.
The Restoration
As typical with my restorations, I began with a clean denim piece. No tar stains from this old girl. There would be a bit of black sanding dust though.
The annoying sticker and its old adhesive would have to go.
The sticker was scraped free and the stubborn adhesive removed with 95% ethyl alcohol on a cotton swab.
The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrubbing with Murphy Oil Soap and a medium toothbrush. The Murphy’s removed the century worth of dirt and grime and was rinsed with warm water. The stummel was dried with a cotton dish towel and returned to the workbench.
The stummel looked much better and I could see briar grain peeking through the layers of stain.
I first tried 95% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad to free the briar.
Next, I tried acetone on a make-up pad.. The chemical solvents made advances on removing the finish and more grain was apparent.
I resorted to physical rather than chemical removal and was rewarded with a lovely contrast stained piece of briar. The stummel was sanded with a 320 grit sanding sponge, removing the outer layer of black stained wood.
Another wipe with acetone on a make-up pad removed yet more stain.
The rim was lightly topped with 400 grit sandpaper laid flat on a countertop. I did not have to sand away dents of ding, just the stained briar.
Next I started sanding the stem. I first wrapped the nickel plated band with painters tape to protect it from the sanding. I then used a series of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grits. Between each sponge I wiped the stem with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol. The stem was looking very good after the sanding.
The stummel sanding revealed an old fill at the front of the stummel. The old fill material was picked out with a fly tying bodkin. The new fill was made with brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust.
I placed a drop of brown CA into the depression then scooped up a small mound of briar dust with a dental scraper. The briar dust was placed onto the wet CA and pressed into the pit. The CA cures very quickly with the dust and allows sanding within seconds. The new fill was brushed off with a brass brush to remove the excess briar dust then the new fill was sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge. This was a large fill and it required repeated applications of CA and briar dust.
The stamps on the shank were covered with painters tape and the band was retaped for their protection. The stummel was then sanded with the series of sanding sponges from 600-3500. Between each sponge I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol.
The protective tape was removed and the stem and stummel were micro-meshed with pads 4000-12000. Again, between each pad I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol.
The entire pipe was given a coat of Before and After Restoration Balm. The balm was allowed to soak into the stem and stummel for 20 minutes.
The Restoration Balm was wiped off with an inside out athletic sock, revealing the beautiful old briar.
To raise the shine on the stem I hand polished it using Before and After Fine Polish on a soft cotton cloth.
The Fine Polish was followed by Before and After Extra Fine Polish, again hand polished with a soft cloth.
The Frank Dublin was then taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.
This was a nice relaxing restoration which turned out wonderfully. The previous stain did a fine job of staining the briar and when sanded allowed a beautiful contrast stain. The horn stem has aged very well and was fortunately never attacked by beetles. I have to admit that the feel of a horn stem is not bad on the teeth. I think a non-orific button would make it even more comfortable. The coloring of the horn is a feature that I appreciate the most. I am sure that this pipe will find its way to its next steward who may take it into the next century.
The dimensions of this unfired darling are:
Length: 5.68 in./ 144.27 mm.
Weight: 1.13 oz./ 32.20 g.
Bowl Height: 1.85 in./ 46.99 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.48 in./ 37.59 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.76 in./ 19.30 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 Frank Dublin.
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:
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.
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!”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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”.
In a recent forum post on Pipesmagazine.com, contributor jguss posted the following from the February 2, 1935 issue of the UnitedStatesTobaccoJournal:
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…”
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.
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:
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:
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.
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,
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.
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NebraskaPeteGeek 