Tag: removing tooth marks

A No Name Italian Bull Nose Restoration (salvage)

September 9th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I had never worked on this shape before, some might call it a pot, others a bullnose. Either way I found it interesting and I have a soft spot for basket pipes with an interesting shape. The thick walls and wide acrylic stem were the clincher. And honestly, the double brass bands just were an elegant bonus. This beauty was spotted on eBay and I was able to collect the prize as I was the only bidder and a tough over $15 seemed like a good deal. After the obligatory wait for shipping, The chubby cherub arrived. The only stamps were MADE IN ITALY on the bottom of the pipe. Below are some photos of the pipe in the pre-work or before condition.

The stem looked to be in very good condition, slightly oxidized, maybe. The stummel on the other hand showed signs of extensive fills. The gloss clear coat was an obvious attempt to conceal the fills and perhaps to help “glue” them together. The tobacco chamber seemed quite out of round. I couldn’t tell by initial inspection that the rim was all filled, charred or just lava covered. Oh well, it would still be a fun project.

Background

Pipes like this are nearly impossible to research. No shape number and a very standard country of manufacture (COM) stamp provide little to work with. I thought maybe, the double brass band would provide a clue.

The Restoration

The pipe made it to the workbench and a clean denim piece.

I examined the drillings. The draft hole was well centered and looked good.

The hole through the stem was off centered, but there was a nice chamfer cut.

I assembled the ream team. This tobacco chamber was wide and would require the PipNet #3 blade and perhaps the #4.

It turned out that the #3 PipNet was sufficient. A little bit of clean-up was done with the General triangular scraper.

The chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.

At the point I wondered if I should scrap the whole project. There were two surface cracks in the briar within the chamber. These would most likely be a source of chamber charring or burning with use.

There was a third pit within the chamber on the opposite side. This would be another spot where damage from smoking the pipe could lead to issues.

The “out of round” issue was mainly cosmetic and on the rim, not the tobacco chamber itself.

The rim looked to be encased in a layer of lava or smoking residue.

I moistened the rim with saliva and allowed it to soften the lava for a couple of minutes. The rim was then carefully scrapped with a sharp pocket knife blade. The result allowed me to see that the rim was indeed heavily filled with putty or filler.

I cleaned the shank with several cotton swabs, a nylon shank brush and a dental scraper. There was also copious amounts of 99% ethyl alcohol used.

The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrub with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water.

The stummel was dirty, so a second scrub with more Murphy’s and a brass brush was used. This was then rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wet with 99% ethyl alcohol. Little color was removed and the remaining finish seems to be unaffected by the alcohol.

I tried a wipe with acetone on a make-up pad. This did have an effect on the finish.

I decided to let the stummel soak in an acetone bath for a couple of hours.

During this down time, I worked on cleaning the stem. The stem access through the slot was difficult, at best. I could barely get a pipe cleaner through. This was not due to dirtyness, just a poorly made draft. I used an emery board to sand the interior of the button and improve the daft.

I finally got the draft opened up with Falcon Extra Thin Pipe cleaner, the Vermont Freehand slot tool and more sanding with the emery board.

I filed the end of the stem above the button to smooth it on both the top and bottom sides.

The initial carving of the stem was not very smooth. After my file work it was much improved.

Below you can see the reshaped stem after sanding with 300 and 400 sanding sponges.

The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 320-1000 grits. Between sponges the stem was wiped with a paper towel to remove sanding debris.

After the sanding I reattached it to the pipe and took the stem to the buffer. Here I used red compound to polish the stem. I have been working on bettering my stem polishing skills. Like nearly everything, practice makes perfect. I will never claim perfection, but I am getting better at buffing and polishing stems.

After two hours in the acetone, I removed the stummel. The clear coat that the Italian maker used was some darn tough stuff. I rubbed the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with acetone.

I then used the brass brush dipped in acetone to remove more of the clear coat as well as some of the fill material.

The fills were very soft and I picked out much of the material.

Below you can see more of the grooves left by picking out soft fill.

There was one large surface crack that was picked free of fill, seen below along the front rim. I decided to fill in the cracks and pit within the tobacco chamber with J-B Weld epoxy. I figured that I could do the same with the crack on the rim.

Below is the one pit in the chamber now filled with epoxy.

Below are the two cracks within the chamber also filled with epoxy. I also built up the rim with a bead of epoxy in an attempt at concealing the “out-of-round” rim.

24 hours later, I used a sharp knife to shave away most of the excess epoxy. I then sanded it smooth to the surface with 320 sandpaper.

The rim was re-beveled with a small wooden sphere wrapped in sandpaper.

Once I was pleased with the sanding, I prepped for dying the briar. I know the original pipe was red with brown but I wanted to conceal all the fills so I went with an all black. Fiebing’s Black Leather Dye was the choice. A folded pipe cleaner was the applicator. A wine pottle cork was used to plug the bowl to keep dye from the tobacco chamber and a lighter was used to flame the dye, burning off the solvent/alcohol.

I left a bit of the original brown at the shank end. My plan was to lightly sand the high spots of the rustications allowing the brown to peek through the black. Three coats of dye were applied and flamed.

The dye was flamed then allowed to dry for an hour.

Once dried, I lightly sanded the stummel revealing the browns underlying the new black dye.

The stummel was then wiped with a make-up pad wetted with 99% ethyl alcohol.

I gave the pipe a total of three coats of Danish oil applied with a cotton swab.

Below is the pipe and its first coat drying.

Below is the third coat drying.

The pipe was then given a couple of coats of carnauba wax. Extra care was given to buff with the grain of the sandblast patterns to avoid building up wax in the grooves.

The final step was a hand buffing of the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.

This pipe with its various pits, cracks and flaws was nearly discarded. I am glad to say that it smokes wonderfully and has now become another fishing pipe. Yeah, that is hardly a great endorsement or title, but I spend a good deal of time fishing and typically do not want to subject my best quality pipes to those less hospitable conditions. The wide stem is very comfortable to clench and the bend makes it even better. I love the wide bowl for my favorite Balkan and English blends. This old pipe will not be a winner of a beauty pageant even with the beautifully polished stem and brass bands, but she is more than a utilitarian addition to the fishing pipe club.

The dimensions of this No Name Italian Bullnose are:

Length: 5.19 in./ 131.83 mm.

Weight: 2.06 oz./ 58.40 g.

Bowl Height: 1.51 in./ 40.64 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.20 in./ 38.35 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.80 in./ 20.32 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.75 in./ 44.45 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.

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Below are some photos of the finished No Name Italian Bullnose.
A Briars ‘N’ Blends (Comoy’s 409) ¼ Bent Bulldog Restoration

September 5th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

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I really like Brick and Mortar (B&M) pipe shops and the thought of major pipe manufactures stamping individual shop’s name on a pipe for their store is a walk into the past for me. I cannot imagine that pipe smoking has become so popular again as to allow pipe shops to place an order for a large number of pipes with the name of the shop stamped on them. Ah, the good old days. When I saw this pipe listed on eBay in June of

2025, I thought it looked interesting. I bid and won. I knew that Briars and Blends was not a pipe maker but the shape looked very familiar. It was a ¼ bent bulldog with classic English lines and an eye-catching grain. Upon arrival the pipe looked as though it had been pretty well cared for or cleaned. The seller made no claim to have cleaned nor restored the pipe, which is usually better for me. The stampings were kind of a confusing double stamp but BRIARS ‘N’ BLENDS could be made out on the left shank. I did use a hand lens in sunlight. On the right shank was the words MADE IN over LONDON as a circle, over ENGLAND. Offset toward the bowl was 409. Below are some photos of the pipe prior to any work.

This looked like it would be a nice relaxing restoration. The stem was in need of the majority of the work. It was heavily oxidized, chewed on and had calcium deposits. The stumble looked great save for the faint double stampings.

Background

Last summer I worked on a Telford’s Canadian pipe (linked if you are interested). Telford’s is a pipe and tobacco B&M outside of San Francisco, CA. I talked to the owner on the phone and “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).” (A Telford’s Canadian Restoration – Google Docs). The “this pipe” referred to by Brian Telford was the Telford’s Canadian.

I thought that the Briar ‘N’ Blends pipe looked like a Comoy’s bulldog. It was just a feeling and though I have been quoted as saying, “feelings are irrelevant” by a daughter who is now okay, thanks to years of therapy, they can on occasion be useful. I used pipedia.org’s Comoy’s Shape Number Chart for the below screen shots:

(Comoy’s Shape Number Chart – Pipedia). Sure enough, the 409 is indeed a ¼ bent bulldog with a saddle stem.

Next I wanted to find out anything I could about Briars ‘N’ Blends tobacconist. The only “hit” that I felt (oh no, another feeling) good about was one for Briars and Blends Cigar Shop of St. Louis, Missouri.

“Briars & Blends Cigar Shop LTD was founded in 1990. At this location, Briars & Blends Cigar Shop LTD employs approximately 3 people. This business is working in the following industry: Tobacco stores. Annual sales for Briars & Blends Cigar Shop LTD are around 807,000.

Employees: 3

Revenue: 807,000

Founded: 1990”

(Briars & Blends Cigar Shop LTD | (314) 351-1131 | St. Louis)

The “Permanently Closed” was saddening (ahh, another feeling). The date fell later than the 1970s-1980s referred to by Brian Telford as when his shop arranged to have Comoy’s stamp pipes for his shop, but it was fairly close. The 1990 were the boom years of the most recent cigar movement.

So, what does this tell us about the Briars’N’Blends bulldog? It is probably a Comoy’s 409 shape from the 1990s, made in London, England and was about to get a restoration.

The Restoration

I was really impressed by the grain of this pipe and was eager to get it restored.

The first task was to submerge this stem into the Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. Before I could do that though I wanted to clean the airway and lightly sand the outermost oxidation from the stem. The airway was surprisingly clean. The calcium deposits were scraped with a sharp pocket knife and the stem sanded with a 320 grit sanding sponge.

I placed a pipe cleaner in the tenon for ease of removal from the Briarville solution (deox) after an overnight bath.

The ream team was collected. This pipe’s bowl was wider and would require the #2 and #3 PipNet blades.

There was not very much cake accumulated in the tobacco chamber and it was quickly removed.

Below is a photo of the reamed chamber.

The chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The bare briar showed no signs of any damage from use.

The rim had light deposits of smoking residue or lava and showed no signs of charring.

The lava was moistened with saliva and allowed to soften for a couple of minutes. The rim was then lightly scraped with a sharp blade of a pocket knife.

The shank was cleaned using 99% ethyl alcohol cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners. It was also quite clean. The first cotton swab below, blackened, was due to debris dislodged from the reaming and did not indicate a grimy airway.

The stummel was taken to the sink and scrubbed with a nylon brush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Below is a photo of the stummel after being scrubbed. I thought that there may have been a clear coating on the briar, but it must have just been a layer of wax.

I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with 99% ethyl alcohol. Only a slight color came off the briar, probably some of the stain used in the manufacture of the pipe.

The next day, I removed the stem from deox. I vigorously rubbed it with a coarse shop rage. This rubbing helps to remove oxidized vulcanite and is left on the rag.

I ran a pipe cleaner through the airway to rid the stem of any deox solution. As it dried, there remained a stubborn layer of oxidized material on the stem. I wonder if it is time to replace my Briarville solution or, if this stem was just that badly oxidized.

To remove the oxidation I used Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads. The stem was energetically scrubbed with these pads and produced a good deal of oxidized vulcanite.

And more oxidized vulcanite.

Finger cramping from scrubbing, I switched to some sanding of the stem. I wanted to keep the joint where the stem met the shank crisp so I sanded the stem intact. I wrapped the shank with masking tape to protect the briar.

The freshly sanded stem was coated with mineral oil to keep further oxygen away. It was looking much better.

To deal with the bite marks I painted the dents with the flame of a lighter. The heating and expanding of the rubber can sometimes reduce the dent. It had little effect. Rather than filling these dents with cyanoacrylate, I decided to file the whole area flat and smooth. The stem material was thick enough and the dents were not severe.

In the below photo you can still see the slight indentations from the tooth dents but it was very minimal. The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 320-1500 grit. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.

The sanding continued from 2000-3500 grit with the same oiling and wiping.

The stummel did not really need much sanding. There were no fills and only one little dent or pit which was so close to the shape number that I thought the risk of obscuring the stamping was worse than the pit. The stummel was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 600-3500. I am not sure why the 3500 sanding sponge didn’t make the photograph, shy perhaps. The stummel was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad between sponges to remove sanding debris. I should add that I did not sand the shank where there were any stampings. Only the bowl and lower shank was sanded.

The stummel was then coated with Before and After Restoration balm while the stem was coated with Before and After Restoration Balm while the stem was coated with Before and After Hard Rubber Balm. These products remained on the pipe for about two hours as I had to go fishing for my evening attempt at catching catfish.

Upon my return, the Restoration Balm and the Hard Rubber Balm were hand buffed and wiped away with an inside out athletic sock.

The pipe was taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax. After waxing I ran the flytying bodkin around the beading grooves to remove accumulated carnauba wax.

The final job was to hand buff the entire pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.

I think that this Briars ‘N’ Blends Bulldog is a gorgeous pipe. The shape is great to look at and it has a wonderful feel in hand. The briar grain is truly beautiful with the tiger-stripe shank and flame grain bowl. The walnut color is darker but still is contrasted well. The glossy black vulcanite polished-up better than I thought it would and the 1/4 bend curves of the stem give the pipe a smooth flowing appearance. This pipe will serve a new owner for many years to come and shows why Comoy’s has a look all its own.

The dimensions of this Blends’N’Briars Bulldog are:

Length: 5.51 in./ 139.95 mm.

Weight: 1.38 oz./ 39.12 g.

Bowl Height: 1.60 in./ 40.64 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.31 in./ 33.27 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.76 in./ 19.30 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.61 in./ 40.89 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.

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Below are some photos of the finished Blends’N’Briars Bulldog.
A Captain Fortune (John Redman) Bulldog Restoration

September 2nd, 2025
Photographed and written by

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John M. Young

Decisions, decisions. I had the urge to work on a bulldog this week but which one from the queue would be the lucky victim?

I had worked on Peterson and Marxman pipes recently, so they were out of the running. That left the Briars and Blends pipe (bottom) and the Captain Fortune (top). Well, from the title of this blog you have probably surmised my choice. TheCaptain Fortune was a purchase made to help out a Nebraska antique dealer I came across while looking for restoration subjects. I don’t usually opt to lend a hand to specific businesses but these guys were new, from Nebraska and had a pipe that I found interesting. Below is the original listing:

After submitting an offer, which was accepted, The pipe was on its way from northeast to southeast Nebraska. Upon arrival the pipe looked like the below photos.

The pipe had definitely been used. The condition of the stem with its calcium deposits, discoloration and bite hole on the underside indicated that. The bowl, as well, showed substantial cake. The rim had a lava deposit and several chips indicating that the dottle was knocked out on hard rough surfaces. There was also an area on the inside front of the rim that looked like charring from lighting the pipe from the front with a non-pipe lighter. The stinger looked surprisingly clean but oxidized. Perhaps the previous owner loved this pipe and a clean airway. That would explain the lack of smoking residue on the stinger. I doubted that the additional markings of Rudy and 1977 were factory marks, but they did add some context to the age of the pipe and when it was being smoked.

Background

Captain Fortune is a brand of pipes made by John Redman Ltd. and British Empire Pipe company. According to pipedia.org’s brief entry,

“Other lines include Aristocrat, Buckingham, Buckingham Palace, Canberra, Captain Fortune, Dr John, Golden Square, Redonian, Richmond (not Sasieni), Twin Bore

Former factory located at 3-11 Westland Place, Hackney, London N1 7LP” (John Redman Ltd./British Empire Pipe Co. – Pipedia). That was not much to work with then I recalled working on another John Redman pipe back in December of 2024. I will link to that restoration here. The research for that pipe was more productive and I will include a quote from it below:

“My thirst for knowledge remained unfulfilled. I tried searching the internet without a guide and found a wonderful article by an anonymous author on the vkpipes.com site.

“This famous picture above is perhaps the only broad known illustration to materials about John Redman LTD & British Empire Pipe Co. And the majority of sources doesn’t move usually far beyond a couple of sentenses: this company did really exist, it was located at this address and there is their former building. However…

However, this Edwardian building on Westland Place was only an annex and no actual manufacturing was located there. The principle place of business and offices were located in Whitecross Street 123/5/7, within 15 minutes of slow walking from Westland Place. Therefore, one of their series was named Whitecross – you may find it in the catalogue below. The building on Whitecross St. still stands there and you may see it on the picture below. The crossing street is the Fortune St., so we have got an explanation of another Redman’s brand name – Captain Fortune.

Indeed, many Redman’s brands bear such toponomical signs: the “Golden Square” series comes from the Golden Square located between the Lower John and Upper John streets, “Dr. John” is the most probably related to the abovementioned John streets. There are also Canberra road and Canberra House in London (which might inspire stamping of the famous Canberra pipes) as well as Canterbury House (Canterbury series). Burlington pipes named after the Burlington Arcade (see also H. Simmons). The majority of them are located quite close to John Redman’s main office. No wide explanations are needed for the series Westminster and Kensington. And of course, some British imperial charm was added with names Aristocrat, Redman’s Royal, King’s Ransom.

John Redman (as it happened later to Eric Nording) was both a carver and an owner of a business of the same name. The first pipes were born in 1934, but personal efforts appeared soon to be insufficient, what inevitably led to emerging of the name John Redman LTD. Unfortunately, we don’t have artifacts, which could be unambiguously carried to the “pre-war” period. In the WWII years the company could hardly got to the list of lucky manufacturers, who received scarce briar from the state.

But by the end of 1950s John Redman’s firm offered a well balanced portfolio – from popular and practical “Captain Fortune”, “Dr John”, “Golden Square” to top graded Redman’s Royal made of best briar and almost without any stains (comparable to GBD Virgin, but the “Royals” were usually much larger and carved in their own unique style). And of course, we shouldn’t forget about qualitative and still affordable Redonians, Aristocrats and Canberras – a very strong middle (and upper middle) segment. More details, list of offered brands as well as presentation and gift sets can be seen in the catalogue.

It is known that in late sixties and later a part of the production was ordered from subcontractors, for example Blakemar Briars, and since 1992 trademarks of John Redman were taken over by Gerald Grudgings of Loughborough; this company wasn’t a top manufacturer, but many sources attribute the invention of the lovat shape to it.

As the conclusion we are proud to express our sincere and warmest thanks to Robert Deering, who worked for John Redman in 1960s and gave us a number of very important directions.

Below you may enjoy the catalogue of the John Redman Ltd products approximately from the 1960s. A very rare finding!” (JOHN REDMAN Catalogue – Very Keen on Pipes)

(JOHN REDMAN Catalogue – Very Keen on Pipes)” (A Golden Square Apple Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek)

Now, the Captain Fortune pipe in hand has what I assume to be an owner’s autograph and a date etched into the briar along the underside of the shank. It reads “Rudy” and “1957”. I am going to go out on a limb here and say that those are not factory originated marks. I am also going to say that 1957 was the year that that date was inscribed. That would place this pipe squarely into the time quoted by the above article as of the , “end of 1950s John Redman’s firm offered a well balanced portfolio – from popular and practical “Captain Fortune…” This supposition and the apparent age of the pipe itself would make this Captain Fortune bulldog produced in London during the latter 1950s.

The Restoration

The captain Fortune made its way from the photo table to the workbench, a grueling 18 foot distance and to its denim piece.

Once at the workbench I removed the stem and gathered my official Stinger Extraction Device (SED). The SED is actually a strip of thick leather used to protect the aluminum of a stinger from the jaws of a pliers.

The suckedness of this stinger led to absolute failure in its removal. Not wanting to risk breaking the vulcanite, I devised plan B.

Being a big believer of Plan Bs, in general, I chose to soak the stinger and end of tenon in a medicine cup with 99% ethyl alcohol. Now, I know what you are thinking, “That stem is too heavy to stay in that little medicine cup.” Trust me, it will be fine.

PipNet led the ream team with the #1 blades.

That was until I realized that the cake was much thicker than I thought it was. The PipNet #2 blades came out and earned their keep. The Smoking pipes Low Country reamer was great for the curve at the bottom of the chamber and the General triangular scraper did cleanup on the interior walls.

The tobacco chamber looked much better and more spacious.

The chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.

Now, normally sanding does create some shaking of the workbench. This shaking was just enough to tell me that the stinger was ready to come out of the stem. No, the top heavy stem did not tip over the medicine cup of alcohol and spill the alcohol all over the workbench. That would indicate that the restorer was a total clutz and perhaps an idiot. No, let’s just say that after some using alcohol to clean the top of the workbench the stinger was ready removed using the official SED.

Now, back to the sanding. Things looked pretty good until I used alcohol wetted cotton swabs to clean out the sanding debris from the tobacco chamber. As the alcohol evaporated I saw several spiderweb patterns of heat damage to the chamber.

The below photo shows the webbing while the alcohol was evaporating, making the lines look darker. There were more spider webs on the interior right than left. None of them were very bad nor deep. The chamber felt nice and smooth to my finger. I thought that I should give this pipe a bowl coating to protect it and aid in the formation of a light cake.

Cleaning the shank came next. This was done with several bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs all dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. There was also some scraping with a dental scraper. Every successful scrape removed reduced the cotton swabs and pipe cleaners needed dramatically.

Next came the rim. I was a bit worried what I’d find under that layer of lava.

The lava was moistened with saliva and allowed to soak for a couple of minutes. Then I lightly scraped with a very sharp pocket knife. This did reveal some charring but not as bad as I had feared.

The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrubbing with a nylon brush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Returning to the workbench, the stummel was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad. This removed remaining wax and some lingering grime.

I turned my attention to the stem. This was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners and 95% ethyl alcohol. The stem was surprisingly clean.

I inserted a pipe cleaner into the tenon for easier removal of the stem in the morning. The plan was to leave it in deox, that’s what I like to call time spent in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. I have to say, this product is a good one and is available here: Briarville Stem Oxidation Remover 8oz | Briarville, Inc. And no, your’s will not come looking like this, it will be a bright yellow.

I thought this pipe would benefit from an alcohol cotton treatment so I stuffed the bowl and the shank with cotton.

I then poured out 10 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into a medicine cup, thinking that would be about the amount needed. A disposable pipette was used to transfer the alcohol to the cotton.

Lucky guess, you say. I say I missed it by 1 ml. This needed to sit and evaporate overnight and the stem was soaking overnight, I guessed it was time for me to end this session.

In the morning the cotton was no longer white. The evaporating alcohol had worked to dissolve the tar and smoking residues from the briar and move them into the cotton.

I removed the cotton and cleaned the airway with a cotton swab. It came back with minimal residue.

The stem was retrieved from deox and vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rag. This removed quite a bit of the oxidized vulcanite.

The stem logo was still visible but it was more faint. Extra care would have to be used to keep this stamp.

I used a piece of a plastic lid to act as a dam to keep the cyanoacrylate (CA. super glue), that I planned on using to fill the hole, from entering the airway.

I added several layers of painters tape to thicken the dam to achieve a tight seal.

The Bob Smith black CA was the product of choice due to having rubberizing agents in the formula. This gives it a bit more flex than regular CA. I applied the CA to the gap with a fly tying bodkin. I intended to allow the CA to cure on its own but after 15 minutes, I got impatient and spritzed it with a CA drying accelerator. I removed the dam and squirted some accelerator into the airway as well to assist in speeding up the curing process.

Once hardened, I filed the fill with a small flat file. There remained a small depression and the button also showed signs of wear.

A second application of the black CA to both the depression and the button edge was done with the fly tying bodkin.

Again lacking patience I spritzed the wet CA and sped the curing along.

The small flat file was again used to smooth the fill and reshape the button and an emery board for getting the angle of the button right.. Ahh, much better.

In preparation of the stem sanding, I covered the stem logo with a small piece of painters tape.

The shank was also masked off to keep the briar stamps from the evils of sanding.

The sanding was done with a series of sanding sponges in grits of 400-1500. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel. Yeah, the stem logo protector had to be replaced more than once.

The sanding continued with sanding sponges 2000-3500. The oiling and wiping were continued as well.

The next step in sanding/polishing the stem was a series of micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. After the 4000 pad, I removed the masking tape from the logo and cleaned the logo with alcohol.

The 4000-12000 micro-meshing continued. After each pad, I rubbed the stem with Obsidian Oil and wiped the stem with a paper towel.

The stem was looking very good. I now turned to the stummel. There were no areas which required filling but there was a damaged rim to address. The inner front of the rim was charred from a flame and the outer rear was damaged from dottle knocking. I planned on addressing these with a three pronged attack:
1. Topping the rim.
2. Using a wooden ball and sandpaper to establish an inner rim bevel, and
3. Use CA and briardust to build up the damaged outer rim.
Here you can see how the triploid plan is progressing.

And a close-up of the outer rim reconstruction.

Time to sand the stummel. I used a series of sanding sponges here as well. O didn’t mask the shank as the stamping covered the whole length. What I did instead was not sand it. The sanding was only done on the bowl. Between sponges I wiped the sanding debris from the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol.

The final sanding was done with sponges 2500-3500 with the same wiping as earlier.

The briar was finally micro-meshed with pads 4000-12000. Between each pad I continued to wipe with the alcoholic make-up pad.

The stummel was then coated with Before and After Restoration Balm. This is another great product and since I gave a shout-out to Briarville, I feel I owe one to Mark Hoover as well. Restoration Balm can be found here: Restoration Balm | La Belle Epoque

I waited about 30 minutes for the balm to do its magic before wiping the excess away using an inside out athletic sock.

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

The final step was to hand buff the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth. I then took the pipe to the photography table for the “finished” photos. Upon seeing that I forgot to do the bowl coating I immediately went back to the workbench. DOH! I used a cotton swab to apply a light coat of pure maple syrup to the interior of the tobacco chamber.

I then plugged the airway with a pipe cleaner and dumped about ½ of an activated charcoal capsule into the chamber. The rim was covered with a piece of painter’s tape. The stummel was then vigorously shaken for about a minute. The tape and pipe cleaner were removed then the stem reinserted and given a puff of air to clean excess carbon from the chamber.

The final touch was to hand buff the entire pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth, AGAIN.

This pipe turned out beautifully. I am sure Rudy would agree. I decided to leave the etched name and date because it told a bit of history about the pipe. I doubt any one named Rudy will buy this pretty Captain Fortune but, you never know. The briar has lovely grain and a rich color. The stem polished up beautifully and I think the repair will hold and enable years of faithful use. The dimensions of this Captain Fortune Bulldog are:

Length: 5.60 in./ 142.24 mm.

Weight: 1.02 oz./ 28.92 g.

Bowl Height: 1.64 in./ 41.66 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.42 in./ 36.07 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.43 in./ 36.32 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.

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Below are some photos of the finished John Redman Captain Fortune Bulldog.

Yeah, those first two photos were taken before I realized that I had not done the bowl coating.

The above photo was also taken before the bowl coating was done.
A du Pont Explosives Promotional Pipe Restoration

August 28th, 2025
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

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As a little kid I used to sit with my father at his reloading bench while he reloaded rifle shells. It was my job to line up empty cases in straight little rows. Important work, to be sure. Later in life I too shared my father’s love of high power rifles, reloading and the study of reloading manuals. I remember shooting my first deer with a hand loaded 25-06 Remington. To this day, I can recall the load: 54 grains of 4831, Federal large rifle primer, 100 grain Nosler Boat Tail Ballisting Tip bullet. I cannot recall the muzzle velocity, like I used to but I still do have the Yugoslavian made Mauser rifle imported by Interarms. “What the heck does all that have to do with a du Pont Explosives promotional pipe?” you demand to know. Well, du Post explosives were not only the reason for the pipe but they also manufactured gun powder. A lot of it. Long before Dwight Eisenhower warned us against the influence of the military industrial complex du Pont was the largest US maker of black powder

Background

I have to admit that I was surprised that there was anything written about this pipe. The first place I looked was pipedia.org and low and behold, I got a hit. Below is the full text.

“du Pont Explosives pipes were given out as souvenir pipes by the Explosives Department of the du Pont Company between 1912 and 1933. (Source: Debra Hughes, Curator of Collections and Exhibits, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE USA.) The original maker is unknown.

The shape is apparently intended to resemble an 18th or early 19th Century gunpowder barrel. Poker and bent shapes are represented. Some pipes may have ferrules. They are stamped with the duPont logo and “REG. US. PAT. OFF. EXPLOSIVES” on one side and “GENUINE FRENCH BRIAR” on the other side. Stems are vulcanite or similar material.”
- Example du Pont Explosives pipe bowl
- Example gunpowder keg with extra bands to prevent staving
- An unsmoked example, courtesy Brian Robertson Collection
(DuPont Explosives promotional pipes – Pipedia)

Well, that pretty much sums up everything I wanted to know. That dated the pipe to 1912-33 and put the production in the USA, probably. I can’t imagine a foreign carver being too concerned with US patent registration. The 1912-1933 dates would precede the briar shortages of World War 2. I have not read anything about briar shortages caused by World War 1 but I am certain that they would have existed. One other thing I found interesting was the painting of the indentations of the stamp, as seen in the photos above. There was no sign of any remnant paint in the stamp on the pipe in hand. I was not sure how to or if to replicate this on the restored du Pont pipe.

The Restoration

Much to my chagrin, I worked on two pipes simultaneously. I normally do not like to do this as I inevitably forget steps or the photographing of steps, but my schedule has included a couple of fishing tournaments as of late. Priorities, priorities… Both pipes shared a denim piece on the workbench.

The first task was to prepare the stem for a bath in Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. To do this I wanted the stem clean. I first tried my standard treatment of 99% ethyl alcohol on pipe cleaners. The stem started to feel slick in my fingers. The ethyl alcohol was dissolving the surface material on the stem. “Okay”, I thought and remembered the quote from the pipedia.org, “Stems are vulcanite or similar material” (DuPont Explosives promotional pipes – Pipedia). Hmm, I switched over to a 91% isopropyl alcohol thinking that the larger molecule would be less likely to act on the rubber. It worked and after several bristled pipe cleaners dipped in the 91% isopropyl alcohol the stem was clean.

Both stems were dropped into the bottle of Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. I will refer to this as deox from here out.

I thought back to April, 2025 after Briarville gave me a bottle of their product to try. Usage had discolored it severely but it was still working. Sorry, I digress. The stems were to be left in deox overnight.

The ream team was assembled. The PipNet #2 and #3 blades were the proper size.

The PipNet did its job of removing the cake, admirably. The General triangular scraper was just used to clean up at the bottom of the chamber.

The reamed chamber looked good but the rim definitely needed some work.

The lava on the rim was softened with saliva. After a couple of minutes the lava was scraped with a sharp pocket knife.

The cleaning of the shank airway was done with 99% ethyl alcohol on a nylon shank brush, bristle pipe cleaners and numerous cotton swabs. A dental scraper was also used.

After the shank cleaning, I sanded the tobacco chamber with 320 grit sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The bare briar showed no sign of heat damage. Below are photos showing the left and right chamber walls.

Next, the stummel was taken to the sink where it was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

I wiped the surface of the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol. The pad showed some sign of remaining grime. I wiped it a couple more times to remove whatever the scrubbing missed.

I was not convinced that the airway was completely rid of the smoking residues. The pipe also still had an aroma of old aromatic tobacco. Though not unpleasant, I wanted to remove them. TO do this I packed the tobacco chamber, airway and shank with cotton.

The cotton was saturated with about 10 ml 99% ethyl alcohol applied with a disposable pipette. This was allowed to evaporate overnight.

The next day revealed that the alcohol had worked at dissolving the yuck (technical term for smoking residue) from the walls of the airway and deposited said yuck into the cotton.

The yuckified (the technical term for cotton soiled with dissolved smoking residue) cotton was removed.

I ran an alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaner through the airway and scrubbed with a cotton swab also alcohol fortified. Both devices returned with little yuck. Triumph!

The inner and out rims of the bowl showed signs of abuse. I lightly topped the rim but refused to top it severely enough to remove all trace of the damage. That would have shortened the height of the bowl by nearly an 1/8th inch or 3 mm. Instead, I slightly beveled the inner and outer edges with a file and sandpaper.

The stem was taken from deox and vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rag. This removed a good deal of the oxidized material from the surface of the stem.

Below shows the pre-sanded but oiled stem and stummel.

I tried to paint the tooth dents on the stem with a soft flame lighter. This rarely makes a big difference but it’s fun to do.

The tooth chatter was filed with a small flat file and the edge of the button was slightly defined on both the top and bottom sides. These were also lightly sanded with a 320 sanding sponge.

Here is a great example of why I do not like to do two pipes simultaneously. I failed to document the application of the cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) to fill in the deeper tooth dents. Rather, all you get to see is the filled and filed smooth result.

With the fills on the stem complete, I turned to the one big fill on the left rear of the stummel. The old fill material was picked out using a fly tying bodkin. This new fill would certainly leave a scar but it would be a smooth shiny scar.

I used a fine applicator tip on a bottle of Thin CA to apply a tiny bit of CA into the depressions. I then placed briar dust on top of the wet CA. The excess dust was brushed off. I topped the briar dust with additional Thin CA.

The new fill was sanded to see where additional CA and briar dust would be required. Oh yeah, the reason for the masking tape of the stamps was to protect them from my sanding.

The stem and stummel were sanded simultaneously with a series of sanding sponges in grits 400-3500. Between sponges the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol while the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.

After the sanding the pipe was worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. The wiping between pads was done as with the sanding sponges except the stem was oiled with Obsidian Oil.

The stummel was then coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to soak in that balmy goodness for 20 minutes.

The remaining Restoration Balm was wiped from the stummel with an inside out athletic sock.

The pipe then received several coats of carnauba wax applied with the buffer.

The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.

This du Pont pipe was a fun restoration. Not only did it allow me to reminisce about my father and reloading but also gave me the chance to work on a pipe that was probably 100 years old. This old gal is still quite pretty and the bent poker, that’s what I am calling it, shape is intriguing and fun. The briar grain is mostly concealed by the ring carvings of the “gun powder barrel” but the shank sides show lovely bird’s eyes. The hard rubber of the stem did polish-up nicely and provides a fine accent to the natural color of the briar. This historical sitting pipe will make its next owner a fine and historical tobacco enjoyment tool. The dimensions of this du Pont Explosives promotional pipe are:

Length: 4.70 in./ 119.38 mm.

Weight: 1.53 oz./ 43.36 g.

Bowl Height: 1.79 in./ 4.47 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.58 in./ 40.13 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.80 in./ 20.32 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.

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Below are some photos of the finished du Pont Explosives promotional pipe.
A Peterson Irish Seconds Bent Billiard Restoration

August 26th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

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The story of the Ugly Duckling seems to come to my mind when I think of Peterson Irish Seconds. Though in the case of this pipe it’s more like an ugly duckling that got chewed on by a snapping turtle down at the pond.

Well, this looks like it might be another tough restoration. The reason this pipe didn’t make it as a “real” Peterson might have been the deeper than normal blastings at the front left of the pipe. In a couple of places the briar looks like the blasting cut deeper into the briar. I am no expert on Peterson quality control but that did seem suspect. As for what I planned to do was the following: A thorough cleaning of the pipe inside and out, a refinishing of the briar, and a rebuilding of the stem. This rebuilding would allow me to try to weld vulcanite kind of like I welded acrylic on a previous restoration (A Commissioned Stanwell 32 Button Repair – acrylic welding – NebraskaPeteGeek).

Background

Being a rather typical member of Generation-X, sometimes called lazy slackers, I will refer you to what I wrote about Peterson Irish Seconds in a previous blog,

I cannot begin to describe the history nor impact of the Peterson pipe company. I can tell you what I think is the best source of information on the subjects and that is Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg’s book, The Peterson Pipe The Story of Kapp & Peterson. According to the authors,Peterson’s seconds are as follows,

“Seconds Peterson seconds are pipes of all shapes with briar flaws deemed unacceptable for ordinary models and sold at reduced prices, sometimes unstained, fit with fishtail or round button mouthpieces. Since the early 1990s they have only been available in Ireland. Occasionally they are described in Peterson catalogs under different names, and documented specimens have various stampings. In roughly chronological order these include:

Stamped arched KAPP & over straight PETERSON”S over arched DUMMIES An early specimen preserved at the Peterson museum with this stamp has a round-button mouthpiece.

IRISH FREE STATE stamp (1922-37) COM stamp with no brand or model name. Documented with or without nickel bands.

System Reject (1968-) Noted first in the Price List for January 1968 as being available in all six system shapes. Also found in the ‘80 Peterson-Glass Price List.

Erica System Reject (1987-98)Noted in two US distributor catalogs. Fishtail mouthpiece, unstamped nickel band, with COM of MADE IN THE over REP. IRELAND or with no COM.

Irish Seconds (1982-98) Classic Range shapes stamped with no brand name , fishtail mouthpiece, in unstained, black rustic or dark brown finishes, no band. (Irwin, Mark and Malmberg, Gary (2018). The Peterson Pipe The Story of Kapp & Peterson, First edition, second printing 2021. Briar Books Press, Canada. p312).

Mark also writes a weekly blog titled Peterson Pipe Notes. If you have not already subscribed I highly recommend it. It will be one of the best $0 purchases you can make and is a vault of information on all things Peterson and various other topics. I am not just saying that because Mark has posted a few of my restorations either. His blog concerning the Irish Seconds is very well researched, written and can be found here: https://petersonpipenotes.org/tag/irish-seconds/. (Young, John. An Irish Seconds Oom Paul (Peterson 02) Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek).

As for this pipe, I believe it to be a Peterson 312 shape. The dimensions and shape match the 312 Bent Billiard. According to the official Peterson website,

“One of our largest and most robust variations on the classic, this bent Billiard offers a generous fire hole with thick insulating walls, as well as a more tubular transition and muscular shank that capture our House Style. Though bold and substantial, its half-bend lends it a natural impression when clenched in the teeth.” (Peterson Pipes: System Standard Heritage (312) P-Lip).

The shank is drilled with a reservoir making me think that the pipe was not intended as an Irish Seconds but as a 312 but it just didn’t make the quality control cut after the blast. That is all conjecture on my part though.

The Restoration

As much as I do not like to work on more than one pipe at a time, due to old brain issues, I did indeed do these two pipes simultaneously.

Stem cleaning was the first priority as I wanted to get this stem into the Briarville’s oxidation remover solution. I was looking forward to trying the vulcanite welding.

The exterior was lightly rubbed with 0000 steel wool to remove the outermost oxidation.

The stem then was placed into the Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover, or Deox, as I like to call it. I planned to leave it in the solution overnight.

I then turned to gathering the ream team.

The PipNet’s #1 and #2 blades did most of the work with the General triangular scraper doing clean-up.

The rim had lava deposits, but with its rusticated rim, it would be tough to scrape clean.

The scraping of the rim, once softened with a bit of saliva, was partially productive.

The tobacco chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The sanding revealed the briar and no damage due to heat.

No damage is always welcome.

Next came the cleaning of the air way within the shank. This was more difficult. Peterson pipes with their reservoirs are frequently difficult to clean. I do wish that their owners would have taken a few minutes to swab out the reservoir with a tissue or napkin as recommended, but I too have neglected to do this after a smoke. The airway was cleaned with a dental scraper, nylon shank brush, bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs all doused with liberal amounts of 99% ethyl alcohol.

The stummel was then taken to the sink for a scrub with a nylon brush and Murphy Oil Soap, undiluted. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

The deeper parts of the sandblast and the rim did not look like they were as clean as I would have liked so a second scrub was done with a brass brush and the Murphy’s. The rinsing and drying remained the same.

Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol. This did remove some of the black stain from the briar.

Still not happy with the cleanliness of the airway, I thought maybe a cotton and alcohol treatment would soften and draw out remaining tars from the briar.

The bowl, airway and shank were stuffed with cotton. The cotton was then saturated with about 10 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol and allowed to sit overnight. With the stem and stummel both soaking overnight with their treatments, I called it a night.

Remember I said that I was working on two pipes at the same time? Well, I continued the next morning. The cotton had done its job of absorbing the tars dissolved by the alcohol as it did its job of dissolving the tars and moving them to the cotton as it evaporated.

The cotton was removed.

I then cleaned the airway as before and was pleased that it took little effort.

The stem was retrieved from deox and placed on a coarse shop rag where it was rubbed vigorously. This helped remove some of the oxidation loosened by the deox solution.

The stem was filed and sanded exposing a cleaned surface to work with.

The same filing and sanding was done to the underside.

I cut a “dam” from a plastic lid to fit into the slot and block off the airway from unwanted welding material.

Below you can see the airway filled with the dam.

I selected a vulcanite stem from my extras.

The surface material was filed and sanded from the stem to expose clean fresh vulcanite.

I tried melting the vulcanite with a soldering iron, as I had successfully done with the acrylic. It did not work. I then tried to heat the vulcanite with a heat gun to soften it before using the soldering iron. This too met with failure.

All that it did was to make the surface of the vulcanite surface get rough, as if it were bubbling up. I could not get any material to melt off the stem for use as welding material for the Peterson’s stem.

Plan B began to form in my Multiple Sclerosis damaged brain. What if I cut a piece of vulcanite from an existing stem and welded it in place with rubberized cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue)? Hmm, the damaged brain thought this might work. I set off to find an appropriate donor stem. The donor’s button was removed with a cut-off tool with the dremel rotary tool. This also gave me a feel for cutting vulcanite.

I measured and drew out the piece which I wanted the donor to donate.

Except for a small chip off the donor piece where I tried to hold it in a forceps, it looked good and fit well. Okay, there was actually a lot of trimming and shaping with the dremel.

The Bob Smith rubberized CA was the glue of choice.

The CA was applied to the seam around the donor piece. The dam would hopefully keep the CA from dripping into the airway. Also from previous experiences the CA does not stick to this plastic.

After about 30 minutes I couldn’t wait anymore so I spritzed the CA with a drying accelerator. This hardened up the CA in moments. The plastic dam was pulled free.

I filed the repair with a small flat file and checked the airway. Everything was going according to the imagined plan.

A second application of black CA was applied to fill and blend the repair. I also added a line of CA to the back side of the button to re-establish its shape.

The underside of the stem was also coated with a thin layer of CA to fill the multitude of dents caused by the snapping turtle attack.

After the CA had cured it was again filed and sanded with 320 and 400 grit sanding sponges. The repair looked better than I had thought it would.

The underside was also filed and sanded.

WIth the stem issues resolved, I turned my attention to the refinishing of the briar. This pipe had some serious wear issues. The black stain had been worn away completely from the left rear side of the stummel.

I used Fiebing’s black Leather Dye diluted about 50% with ethyl alcohol.

I initially thought to just apply the dye to the areas where the finish had been worn away but as I did this I realized that blending the old and new finishes would be impossible. The best solution was to apply the black dye to the whole stummel.

Well, the whole stummel minus the lighter shank end. The dye was flamed with a lighter to burn off remaining alcohol and to help set the dye into the briar. After the flaming I wiped the surface with a make-up pad wetted with ethyl alcohol. I was not concerned with the dye drying because I wanted to remove the dye from the high spots of the blast. The lower spots would dry on their own accord.

After the stummel had dried, I lightly sanded the high spots and contours with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

This light sanding removed the black dyed briar from the surface revealing the lighter briar underneath.

The worn briar of the left side of the stummel looked much better.

The stem was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges. I did not worry about taping the shank as the sanding there would improve the lightening of the briar at the shank end. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a dry paper towel.

The sanding continued through the finest grit sanding sponge, 3500. The oiling and wiping also continued between sponges.

I buffed the stem with white buffing compound to further polish the vulcanite.

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

The remaining Restoration Balm was hand rubbed with an inside out athletic sock to remove the excess.

The stem was waxed with several coats of carnauba wax applied with the buffer.

I did not want to wax the stummel with carnauba due to the deeper recesses of the blast. I opted to use Renaissance Micro-Crystaline Wax. This product was applied with a baby toothbrush.

I used a shoe buffing pad to hand polish the Renaissance.

As a further buffing attempt, I used shoe buffing brushes to work the wax and raise the shine.

The final touch was to hand buff the entire pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.

My struggle to repair the damage caused by the snapping turtle attack on this poor Peterson was complete. Overall I think it turned out very nicely. Given, I will probably not sell this specimen as the stem repair was a technique that I have not tried before and have not tested sufficiently. I was disappointed by my failure to weld the damage with vulcanite but will probably do more research and attempt it again. The stem did polish-up very well and looks dramatically better than it did. I am sure the repair will hold and should be strong enough to combat the forces of extended clenching. The refinishing of the stummel also turned out very nicely. The definite deep blast is a feature that I really like the look of. Though this may have been the reason for this pipe being classified as an Irish Second. The dimensions of this Peterson Irish Seconds Bent Billiard are:

Length: 5.50 in./ 139.70 mm.

Weight: 1.83 oz./ 51.88 g.

Bowl Height: 1.75 in./ 44.45 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.54 in./ 39.12 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.32 in./ 33.53 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.

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Below are some photos of the finished Peterson Irish Seconds Bent Billiard.
A Design by Curtis Aluminum Pipe Restoration

August 12th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Yeah, metal pipes intrigue me. I don’t have many and frequently smoke even fewer. There is just something about them that makes me think of George Jettson, space age polymers and TANG. Although this pipe dates back farther than the 1960s space age, more on that in the background. Last winter I got a wild hair (sorry, American idiom meaning spontaneous enthusiasm) and decided that I needed to work on metal pipes. Like a typical ADHD gerbil (another idiom meaning, I have too short of an attention span), I lost interest after acquiring several in-need–restoration Kirstens and a bag of a dozen metal pipes that I purchased from Steve Laug (reborpipes.com). I sharpened my very dull metal polishing skill with some encouraging words and over the phone instruction from Doug Bisbee (dkmetalpipes.com/Estate Vintage Metal Tobacco Pipe Restoration & Sales). A couple of restorations later I had moved on to other projects and interests.

For some reason this pipe yelled out to me from a box on the shelf and demanded that I move it to the front of the queue. The pipe was one that I’d received from Steve Laug. It looked dingy and oxidized but I thought that it showed promise. On the bottom of the pipe was stamped Design by Curtis in a cursive script over PAT. PEND. Below are some photos I took prior to working on the pipe.

The aluminum was oxidized. So much so that I actually rubbed the pipe with a dry towel before photographing it on the black fabric. I didn’t want to get white aluminum oxide all over the fabric. The internals showed signs of dried hard smoking residue. I was sure that the pipe should disassemble more than I did in the above photos but the residue had stuck some parts together. The stem had tooth chatter top and bottom with a couple of deeper dents. This looked like it would be a great project allowing me to stay in the basement workshop and avoid the heat of August.

Background

The previously mentioned Doug Bisbee not only runs dk Metal Pipes but also is the manager or administrator of SMOKING METAL TOBACCO PIPE COLLECTORS & FANATICS. This is a repository of an immense collection of metal tobacco smoking pipes. It is also my “go-to” source whenever I want to learn anything about a metal pipe. According to the Smoking Metal site,

“The Curtis Custom-Built Pipe Model 100

Manufactured by Curtis Industries of 1120 East 222nd Street, Cleveland 17, Ohio. First seen around 1946

The actually markings are �Design by Curtis PAT .PEND. �.

The bowl insert appears to be briar, despite having only had many examples am still unable to get the bowl apart, I am loathe to risk damage. The top plate does revolve but whether it is a screw attachment or a push fit cannot yet be ascertained

The interior of the stem is more complicated, taking an inline filter inside the tube. The shape of the end plug makes it more than interesting to undo. On many examples this part is the piece most damaged by pliers

With so many threads in the �gunk� part of the pipe it can be a problem to clean.

25 Dec 1945 US patent # D143257 Inventor Howard Abrams, University Heights, Ohio” (CURTIS)

The smokingmetal site also had a photo of an old Curtis pamphlet. Though a bit difficult to read it is an interesting source of information from the origins of the company.

(CURTIS)

Inventor Howard Abrams applied for the patent on September 10, 1945 and received the patent, astonishingly quickly on Decemper 25 1945. A Google patent search resulted in the following:

(USD143257S – Design foe a smoking pipe – Google Patents)

(USD143257S – Design foe a smoking pipe – Google Patents)

With my search providing the above information and a definitive date I turned to the restoration.

The Restoration

As usual the pipe made its way to a cleaned denim piece at the workbench.

I started with cleaning the chassis. I do not know if that is the proper term for the main body of this pipe as Howard Abrams failed to leave us a labeled diagram of the parts of his innovation. Perhaps that is how he got it approved so quickly. I could not get the conical endcap to loosen at all during the cleaning so I let it soak in the 99% ethyl alcohol.

I call this stem assembly. The end of the assembly did come off, let’s call it the nozzle. The stem will accept a Medico filter if 0.58 inches or 15 mm of the filter is cut off.

The stem nozzle was also soaked in ethyl alcohol while I cleaned the stem with cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners dipped in alcohol.

The aluminum of the stem would be buffed with white compound along with the rest of the aluminum eventually

The stem’s bite zone had significant tooth dents on both the top and bottom along with the typical chatter. The top dent was deeper and small.

The bottom dent was broader but shallower.

Both bite zones were filed with a small flat file then sanded with a 320 grit sanding sponge.

The sanding debris was cleaned off with a cotton swab dipped in ethyl alcohol. A small drop of black rubberized cyanoacrylate was placed on each depression.

Both drops were allowed to cure and harden on their own.

While that was curing, I turned to the rim. It just needed some scrubbing. The little bit of lava was moistened with saliva and rubbed with a paper towel. Then I realized that I could use the alcohol freely since there wasn’t a finish to protect .

Tada, not perfect but far better.

The bottom of the bowl required several cotton swabs and more ethyl alcohol. It was pretty gunked up with smoking residue and tar.

I used the PipNet with the #2 blades to ream the tobacco chamber. It was a narrow bowl and had a surprisingly flat bottom. The General triangular scraper with its tip ground off with a grinder helped return the chamber to briar. At least I thought it was briar. Sanding the chamber walls with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel confirmed that the wood had the color of briar. The sanding also revealed no signs of heat damage. This was not surprising considering how well I imagined the pipe would remove heat via the conductive aluminum.

I took all of the aluminum parts to the buffer and polished the metal using white buffing compound on the flannel wheel dedicated to buffing this the white compound. I neglected to photograph any of this process partly out of the embarrassment caused by the oxymoronic black colored white compound wheel and partially/mostly because I forgot to. At this stage in a restoration I find it very helpful to go fishing during the half hour before and after sunset. This vital break allowed the CA the curing time it needed and me a break from sitting on my lazy butt.

Later that night, I returned to the now hardened CA to file it smooth with a small flat file and sand the fill with 320, 400 and 600 grit sanding sponges. The fill looked good.

The above process was repeated with the bottom fill.

The stem was coated with mineral oil and I went to bed.

The following day, I returned to the workbench and sanded the stem with a series of sanding pads from 320-3500 grits. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a dry paper towel.

The nicely polished aluminum of the stem was masked out of habit. I took it to the buffer and the oxymoronic black white compound wheel. Feel free to ask, “why did you mask the aluminum?” Because of habit and the fact that I’m not too bright. Anyway, the stem was buffed and looked very nice. Well, not so nice in the photo below but after the buffing compound was removed, it really did look good.

After the buffing compound was wiped from the stem, I unwrapped the tape and wiped the whole pipe with a cotton ball dipped in ethyl alcohol. The pipe was then returned to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax. The final step was a hand buffing with a micromesh polishing cloth.

I have to say that this pipe looks stunning in person. My ability to capture the polished surface of the pipe with my camera is mediocre at best. This pipe will certainly turn heads if smoked out in public. The aluminum polished up very nicely. Yes, there were a couple of places where the aluminum was pitted by oxidation and these are visible. The stem also polished very nicely and is an amazing contrast and accent to the aluminum. Here the CA repairs are only discernable upon very close inspection. I admit to being unable to free the conical endcap from the grip of the smoking residue. I will continue to soak the chassis in alcohol hoping this will eventually release the threads. Doug Bisbee said to soak it for a week and try again. The dimensions of this Design by Curtis are:

Length: 6.42 in./ 163.07 mm.

Weight: 1.65 oz./ 46.78 g.

Bowl Height: Attached to chassis 1.97 in./ 50.04 mm. Separated 1.42 in./ 36.07 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.03 in./ 26.16 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.61 in./ 15.50 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.48 in./ 37.60 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.

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Below are some photos of the finished Design by Curtis.
A Brigham 202 Billiard Restoration

August 7th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I’ve put a few bits in my mouth which were designed for denture wearers. Usually these are uncomfortable for me and my complete natural teeth. Heck, I’ve never even had a cavity. I know, hard to believe but true. I did try the bit of this Brigham and was surprised how good it actually felt. I am again getting ahead of myself. This restoration is of a 202 Brigham Two Dot Billiard pipe. It was another pipe that came from an estate lot. It was not the target specimen of the lot but more just a member of a group and subsequently got neglected in a box until I rediscovered it over the years later. I do not keep good records of when various pipes were purchased or from where. That may be a 2026 New Year’s resolution which I’ll likely forget to ever make much less abide by. Anyway, the pipe was stamped 202 (rather haphazardly on its bottom) to the right appears to be a double stamping of MADE IN CANADA, in a straight line over or under a more clear Brigham over CANADA. The photos show this more clearly than my description. Below are photos of the pipe prior to work being done:

The pipe had obviously been a well loved and well smoked pipe. The tooth chatter and oxidation of the stem proved that. The amount of lava on the rim also was an indicator of the use this pipe had experienced. The tobacco chamber had been well maintained and looked fairly clear of a thick cake. This told me the previous owner liked a cleaned chamber and judging by the lack of any deep groves cut into the chamber they also had used appropriate tools to keep the chamber clean. The aluminum of the Brigham system was mostly free of oxidation externally and generally clean on the inside as well. This looked like it would by a straightforward restoration of a classic Brigham pipe.

Background

I admit that being my lazy self, I did a search on pipephil.eu for Brigham logos, knowing full well that this is a Brigham pipe.

(Brigham — Pipes : Logos & Markings) The pipephil page had entries for the 1-6 dot pipes as well as some additional specialty pipes. The two shapes from the “Two dot” entry appeared to have a “2” as their prefix.

I stopped being quite so lazy and got out my Brigham Pipe – A Century of Canadian Briar book to look for the 202 shape. Hmm, there was no 202 but there was an 02 Billiard offered since a 1939 Brigham brochure (Lemon, Charles. Brigham Pipe – A Century of Canadian Briar. Copywell, Woodbridge ON. Second Printing, October 2023. Page 17). My conclusion is that the Two dot Brigham is thus stamped 202. A three dot Brighan with an 02 Billiard shape would be stamped 302. Now, enough guessing. I decided to re-read the book.

The ultimate source of information on Brigham pipes is Charles Lemon, the author of Brigham Pipes – A Century of Canadian Briar. This wonderful book is available from Mr. Lemon on his website, Books, from smokingpipes.com (Brigham Pipes – A Century of Canadian Briar | Smokingpipes) if you need to increase the total of your purchase to get the ever popular free shipping, and other various sources. I am unsure about Canadian immigration rules but I think this book should be required reading for prospective immigrants to Canada, especially if they are pipe smokers.

I could go on and quote Charles Lemon’s book extensively but that would require me to do so much typing and I have said it before and likely will say it again, I am a proud Generation-X slacker. Copy and Paste is so much easier. I will say that Lemon’s work is outstanding and it was a pleasure to read and in my case re-read, since old slacker minds apparently don’t hold as much information as they should. The re-reading was done to remind me how the shape numbering system works and to find references to the dental button. This elusive detail was not found and remembered from the first reading and failed to be found on the second round. I resorted to emailing Charles Lemon from the “contact” button on his website, www.DadsPipes.com. Mr. Lemon responded quickly to my request about information concerning the dental button of this pipe. I did include photographs of the pipe, stampings and button in my groveling email which also included a misspelling of the work “bok”. Yeah, it was supposed to say “book”, darn slackers…

Taking apparent pity on my groveling and lack of ability to spell, general ignorance about Brigham pipes, or maybe because he just a great guy, Charles Lemon replied with the following:

“Your pipe dates to the 1980s, and I suspect from the early 1980s. The 02 shape represents Brigham’s smallest Billiard, a shape that fell out of favour in later years as pipes became larger overall.

I don’t have any specific information about Brigham’s use of dental bits but I do know that Brigham offered a choice of stem shapes to clients when they ordered a pipe, dating to at least the 1960s. I suspect that your 202 is either one of the last of the optional stem offerings or a custom request. With the factory attached to the main retail outlet at the time, Brigham had an amount of flexibility to accommodate this sort of request if they chose to.

Hope that helps, It’s not a definitive answer, I know, but it is in keeping with how the company operated at the time. For what it’s worth, I have a small number of dental bits in the shop if you’re interested.” (Charles Lemon personal email)

Wow, is all I could say. Well, I did reply and say more than “wow”. There was also a thank you involved and probably some additional groveling.

That email response provided a pretty definitive date and explanation of the dental bit.

The Restoration

The restoration should have been a rather simple affair and as usual it started with a laundered denim piece on the workbench. Well, the stem got to sit on the denim at least.

I started to clean the stem airway with a bristle pipe cleaner dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol. It was a tight fit at the slot then it became much easier after a tiny “tick” was heard. “Oh crap”, was probably the next sound heard. I had chipped the vulcanite at the slot with my rambunctious behavior. At least that is what my mom always said after I broke something, “Stop being rambunctious!” Hmm, why didn’t she yell that before I broke something? The chip was tiny and fit back together very nicely so I set it aside where it would be safe.

I continued on filing the tooth chatter and smoothing the area above the button. Two small files, one flat the other a tapered ½ round. The rounded file fit the rounding of the underside of the dental button nicely. These areas were also sanded with a 320 sanding sponge as I went.

I then proceeded to clean the stem, with less rambunctiocity. Wow, spell check didn’t say that wasn’t a word.

The stem was allowed to soak in Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. It went in on a Sunday late afternoon. I had to attend a funeral for a cousin in northeast Iowa so it sat in the deoxidizer for about 30 hours.

Upon returning to the wilds of southeast Nebraska, I took up the restoration the next night. If you look carefully at the below photo you can see the chip from the stem propping the pipe up. Apparently that was the safe stop to keep the chip. I cleaned out the shank with a shank brush, cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners all dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol. If you are wondering about the purple on the cotton swabs it is probably potassium permanganate (KMnO4). Here is a quote from a chemical supplier who still sells KMnO4 “Potassium Permanganate is a dark purple solid. Dissolving 1 ounce in a pint of water is used to stain woods a pleasant brown. The Potassium Permanganate decomposes on contact with the wood and leaves a brown residue that stains the wood. If the color is too dark it can be lightened by washing the wood with a strong solution of hypo. The brown color imparted to fairly woods will gradually fade when exposed to direct sunlight. Mix only enough solution to do the job at hand as the solution on long standing will lose its effectiveness. Use it with caution as it is a strong oxidizer.” (POTASSIUM PERMANGANATE | WoodFinishing Enterprises)

Next came the assembling of the ream team.

The PipNet with its #1 and #2 blades did most of the work.

The Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper were used to touch-up the tobacco chamber.

The reamed chamber looked very good and showed no signs of any heat damage.

I sanded the interior of the chamber with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel followed by 320 sandpaper wrapped around a Sharpie marker.

The bare briar indeed was free from any damage.

The rim would hopefully be also free of damage under the layer of smoking residue, aka lava.

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

The stummel was then taken to the sink for a scrub with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench, I wiped the stummel with an alcohol wetted cotton ball. Some color came off the pipe. I did not want to change the look of this pipe by removing and rebuilding the finish.

I gave the stummel a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and set it aside to work its magic overnight. Hey look, that little ship is still there. Safe and sound.

After the funeral, still the next day though, I returned to working on the pipe. I saw a small black fleck on my denim and threw it into the trash. Stupid little black flecks. I then wiped the remaining Before and After Restoration Balm off of the stummel using an inside out athletic sock.

I retrieved the stem from the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. I’m just going to call it deox from here on. Nothing personal to Mark Hoover, but that is just too much to type. I placed the still wet with deox solution on my favorite coarse shop rag. The deox on the aluminum had foamed up, presumably a reaction of oxidized aluminum to the deox solution.

I vigorously rubbed the vulcanite with the coarse gag. This absorbed excess deox and abraded away some of the oxidized rubber. Actually a lot of the oxidized rubber.

Back at the workbench, I cleaned the interior of the stem with several thick pipe cleaners then coated the stem inside and out, with Before and After Hard Rubber Balm (HRB, henceforth). This is another great product from Mark Hoover. I like it best as a preservative on a finished stem to combat oxidation but it works well on a stem fresh out of deox too.

The deox had left a mark of the aluminum of the Brigham system. The cleaner shiny aluminum clashed with the more dull original aluminum.

I hand buffed this using Before and After Fine Polish on a paper towel. Tada, much better.

I looked over the tooth chatter and cleaned the HRB from the bite zone with alcohol on a cotton swab. I was prepping the area for a small drop of black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) to fill the depression.

It was about here that I realized the little black fleck that I threw away was the chip from the button. “Oh crap!”, may have been spoken. The poor little chip had evaded trouble by staying in its safe place for a couple days before some rambunctious oaf displaced it.

Hmm, how hard could it be to find a tiny black fleck in the trash bin of… a guy who dumps lots of black powdery debris… in the trash bin. Oh crap.

I set out a piece of scrap packing paper and went through the trash, shaking the bigger pieces to dislodge a small black fleck. Eventually I dumped the reaming debris onto the paper, got down on my less than flat belly and started sifting through the black powder searching for a fleck.

Hah! Victory. I actually found the little bugger. By the way, if you think that it’s easy being this dumb, you would be mistaken. It takes years of training and classes in rambuctiocty from the local community college.

And it still fits.

The wound was cleaned with alcohol in preparation of the regluing. I thought about drilling and reinforcing the chip with a 2 mm brass pin but the rough surface of the break and the contours of the fit seemed like they would provide good support on all three sides.

I used a plastic lid cut-out inserted into the slot to keep the CA from being rambunctious. Yeah, I’m going to see how many times I can use that word.

The glue of choice was This rubberized CA from Bob Smith Industries. It was getting a bit old and wasn’t as thin as it used to be but it coated the contact surfaces well. A drop of the CA was placed on the disposable pipette bulb then applied to the stem with a fly tying bodkin.

Once that CA had set, I applied a thinner black CA to fill the seams.

Once the thinner CA set, I applied a bead of the first black CA to the edge of the button to address the rounding of that edge by previous tooth wear and tear.

Once all the CA had cured, I again filed the CA with the two files used earlier then started the sanding with a series of sanding sponges. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil then wiped it with a paper towel.

I was still not happy with the seam of the glueing so I sanded that additionally with 400 grit sandpaper wrapped around the handle of an Exacto knife. I kept my rambunctious nature in check and did not skewer myself with the blade. Yeah, it would have been smart to remove the blade but, it is me we’re talking about here… I then polished the stem with new micro-mesh pads in grits of 4000-12000.

To avoid having another pipe cleaner chipped button incident, I used a cut-off bit in the Dremel rotary tool which was a fraction of a mm thicker than the original slot. This widened the slot enough to pass a pipe cleaner, even bristled, more easily. The slot was polished with a thin folded piece of 400 grit sandpaper.

The pipe was then taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax. This was then hand buffed with a microfiber polishing cloth.

I do hope that you had fun reading about the trials and tribulations of not being the sharpest tack in the pack. I will continue making mistakes and documenting them in hopes that you can learn from them in a less painful fashion than I. This Brigham was actually a fun little pipe to work on. The fact that it was a non-typical version with a dental stem made it more interesting to me. Thank you again Charles Lemon for the insights into Brigham pipes. The pipe itself is a lovely example of a two dot Brigham. The rustication provides an attractive and comfortable bit of briar and the stem though lacking the robustitude to weather a rambunctious restorer still turned out very nicely. The dimensions of this Brigham 202 are:

Length: 6.49 in./ 164.87 mm.

Weight: 1.33 oz./ 37.06 g.

Bowl Height: 1.72 in./ 43.69 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.41 in./ 35.81 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 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.

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Below are some photos of the finished Brigham 202 with a dental stem.
A Micoli Restoration

August 5th, 2025
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

The best man in my wedding is an artist. The creativity that artists have is an innate ability to create beauty from nearly anything. I was always amazed by this superpower. When I first saw this Micoli pipe I thought, “that carver is an artist, how in the world did he come up with that?” I merely have the ability to repair the toll of time on things of beauty and a sense of practicality. Though this Micoli pipe is an incredible pipe to look at, the carvings do not meet my sense of practicality. Aesthetic beauty and useful practicality are often at odds and this pipe strikes me as an example of that conflict. For whatever reason; desire to work on a Micoli pipe, infatuation with a truly artistic creation or “dang, that’s cool”, I had to have this pipe when I saw it on eBay. After the winning of the auction the waiting for arrival began. Five days seemed to go more slowly than usual, perhaps I have discovered a remedy for aging? The relatively short trip from Saint Charles, Illinois to the wilds of southeast Nebraska was done and below is what the pipe looked like upon its arrival. The only stampings were a signature style “Micoli” over “Fre…” I could not make-out the last letters of the lower word.

I wasn’t and still am not sure if the stem is intended to be a reverse tenon push stem or a threaded tenon. Maybe the artist designed it to be either or. The pipe looked to be in better condition than the eBay photos indicated. Minimal oxidation of the stem, good news. A nice polish to the smooth sections, I do hope that is just a very thick carnauba wax… A slight cake in the bowl, more good news. This looked like an “easy button” restoration.

Background

Micoli has an active website: Micoli is a master carver of freehand pipes

According to the site,

“Micoli or “Mic” as he is called by family and friends, has aquired the reputation of being one of the best American pipe makers. He is appreciated by the most prominent of collectors. Educated in the arts, He started this adventure in 1968. His craftsmanship and artistry were dedicated to over twenty years of full time pipe making, with no two alike. In the last thirty years plus he has been partially retired and limits carving to a few pipes a month. He has continued sculpting animals and other subjects fom brair and other rare woods.

Micoli is now 79years” (About Micoli)

That woud make chronological sense, I was born in 1966 and if he started carving in/after college he’d be about 79. Yeah, math works. The site has photographs of a lot of Micoli carved pipes. These were fun to look through though I did not find one similar to the pipe in hand. That is not too surprising since no two pipes look alike and the various styles are a veritable kaleidoscope of shapes.

For further information I checked pipephil.eu. Here I found the following quote and images:

“Artisan: Robert Eugene (Mic) Burns carved pipes at least from the early 1970’s. Last news about him dates from November 2001. His son Ryan Burns stated in a forum his father is still (2009) very much alive and is in excellent health.

The deeply Dremmel carved pipes are typical of R. Burns’ work.

Micoli’s second: E. Oslo” (Mi-Mk — Pipes: Logos & Markings)

The final search was at pipedia.org, where the below was taken along with several photographs. Hmm, it sounds remarkably like his own website. Darn these lazy writers… Oh wait, I’m one of them.

“Micoli or “Mic” as he is called by family and friends, has acquired the reputation of being one of the best American pipe makers. He is appreciated by the most prominent of collectors. Educated in the arts, He started this adventure in 1968. His craftsmanship and artistry were dedicated to over twenty years of full time pipe making, with no two alike. In the last twenty years plus he has been partially retired and limits carving to a few pipes a month. He has continued sculpting animals and other subjects from brair and other rare woods. Micoli is now 72 years old.

The signature of Burns’ work is the specific way of rustication he worked out using a Dremel power tool. (The Dremel had been introduced to pipemaking by Teddy Knudsen.)

Burns / Micoli also made the E. Oslo pipes. These can be considered his entry-level pipes as he did not carve these from scratch but rather purchased run-of-the-mill standard shapes from Italian and English pipe makers, such as Savinelli and Comoy’s, and dremeled his signature magic on them. The pipe shown was very likely a Savinelli 111 KS.”
- Example and detail, courtesy Doug Valitchka
(Micoli – Pipedia)

The Restoration

I took the pipe parts to the workbench and gave them a cleaned denim piece.

Looking over the pipe with a more critical eye, I again inspected the tobacco chamber. I hoped that the darkened rim was just a deposit of lava and that there was no charred wood beneath.

I reattached the stem and tried the draw. Yikes! There was barely any airflow. I pulled the stem and tried it. The stem was clear. I looked into the mortise.

I heard Jed Clampitt saying, “What in tarnation?” in my mind. I grabbed a thin forceps and grabbed at the obstruction. A wadded up abraded piece of plastic came out. It looked as if someone had been trying to get it out for some time and had scratched and pushed the piece of plastic into the airway. “Odd”, I thought.

The air way was now open and had a normal draw.

The ream team was gathered.

The PipNet #3 and #4 blades got used but not much. The wide bowl of this pipe was cleaned out with a little help from both the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper.

Below is the condition of the reamed tobacco chamber.

I sanded the interior of the chamber with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The briar showed no signs of heat damage.

I ran an alcohol dipped pipe cleaning into the shank and it went straight in but not into the bowl. Hmm, that is odd. “What is this little depression in the tobacco chamber and why is it wet?”

And why are there two airways? Those two pipe cleaners were not going through the same hole.

Here you can see two pipe cleaners in the bowl. Well, one complete pipe cleaner and the emerging tip of the second.

The correct airway was a bit difficult to get a pipe cleaner into with the Delrin tenon screwed into place. I bent the tip of the pipe cleaner downward and it would go through.

Below you can see a slightly bent pipe cleaner going through the airway.

It is kind of hard to make out in the photo below but if you use your imagination you can see two airways.

I used a length of aluminum tube which was 0.13 inches in outside diameter to go through the drillings. This was done so I could envision what in the heck was going on inside this shank. It was weird, there were two airways. One was only accessible if the Delrin tenon was removed. This one angled down from the shank-end and to the bottom of the tobacco chamber. The other drilling was straight inline with the Delrin tenon if it was screwed in place.

The below three photos with overlaid diagrams are representations of what I think the airway was like and how I thought repairs might proceed.

The first diagram is how the carver drilled the stummel. The angle is not precise nor probably to scale but for visualization purposes it works.

This second diagram shows what was done to the stummel by a previous owner. The angle here would follow the straight line entrance of a pipe cleaner or drill bit inserted through the threaded reverse tenon if it were screwed into the shank.

This photo shows the stummel with the threaded Delrin reverse tenon fitting.

This last diagram attempts to show my idea of a repair. I thought that I could use a disposable pipette to deliver J-B Weld epoxy and fill the incorrectly drilled hole, shown in dark gray, into the existing upper drilling. This would fill the hole and seal off the incorrect airway. The epoxy is inert and heat resistant. I would sand any epoxy that extruded into the tobacco chamber. This seemed like a grand idea if I could get the thick viscous epoxy to flow enough to use a pipette to deliver it into the hole.

For this plan to work the epoxy would have to be drawn up into a disposable pipette. I had two types of pipettes on hand, one with a larger diameter tip and one that was smaller. I thought the larger would work. If it did not, I figured I could cut the tip back a little and make the opening wider.

I needed to be careful not to get any epoxy onto the threads or into the correct airway. I made a tool to clear the correct airway of any stray epoxy by plugging the end of a 0.14 inch, outside diameter brass tube with a cotton swab.

I snipped off the extra cotton and hardened it with a drop of thin cyanoacrylate (CA). Once hard I sanded the CA hardened cotton smooth.

I had a plan now to see if the pipette would be able to deliver the epoxy. I measured out the epoxy.

Then mixed the two parts for 30 seconds as per instructions.

The moment of truth, would the plan work or force a “Plan-B” into effect? Success. The epoxy did flow up into the pipette. Very slowly and probably only for about 5 minutes but it was working.

Using the bright workbench lights I was able to see into the mortise of the shank, insert the pipette into the hole and deliver some of the epoxy. This was repeated a few times before the epoxy became too thick to be drawn into the pipette. The below photo shows the wet epoxy filled hole at the 10:00-11:00 position.

I checked the correct airway with the “brass correct airway clearing tool” (I wonder if there is a market for these?). It came through clean and epoxy free.

Next I cleaned the threads of the epoxy which I had carefully and purposely spilled using acetone on a cotton swab. Okay, that isn’t true. I did not purposely spill anything.

I set the stummel in a pipe holder and let the epoxy set-up for about 20 minutes. This was done so the epoxy would not flow out of the hole. Gravity can, on occasion, be your friend.

Once the epoxy was set-up, I held the stummel up to the light so that I could see light coming through the correct airway. Again, success. I thought that I had better quit. This many successful outcomes usually indicates a major FAIL in the near future. The pipe was set aside for 12+ hours giving the epoxy time to cure completely.

The next day I sanded the spot where epoxy had come through the hole into the tobacco chamber. I thought that I might have to use a bowl coating to cover this slight imperfection.

I also disassembled the “brass correct airway clearing tool” by dipping the tip in acetone and pulling the cotton swab with a pliers. Weird how my marketing team has not gotten back to me about the prospects of a nationwide campaign for “brass correct airway clearing tools”. O, yeah, I forgot, I don’t have a marketing team.

It was time to get this restoration back on track. The whole “easy button” theme had been severely violated. The stem was cleaned with ethyl alcohol dipped pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. All one each of them. You can tell I am not used to clean pipes.

The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrubbing with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a cotton ball dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol. Very little color came off on the cotton indicating that the stummel was free of any finish or wax.

I was very happy to see that the rim had not been charred much by use and that the lava coating the surface was mostly removed.

The stummel was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. Between each sponge the briar was wiped with an alcohol dampened cotton ball to remove sanding debris.

The stem was also sanded with a series of sanding sponges. Between sponges the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.

The stem and stummel were worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. I don’t know why there was no photograph documenting the micro-meshing of the stummel. Perhaps the photography team is off cavorting with the marketing team.

The stummel was then given a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm while the stem was coated with Before and After Hard Rubber Balm. Both the stem and stummel were then abandoned because the fishing team needed a guide.

Okay, there isn’t really a fishing team but there was fishing. The next day I wiped the remaining Before and After balms from the pipe with an inside out athletic sock.

I wanted to give the smooth parts of this pipe a nice coating of carnauba wax but I did not want the wax to gum-up the carvings. My solution was to mask off the carvings with masking tape.

The smooth shiny parts received their carnauba coatings and they looked marvelous.

The last steps were to remove the masking tape and to hand buff the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth. That made the shinies even shinier.

This Micoli was a treat to work on. Sure, the whole repair of a second airway was a pain but I learned that epoxy can be applied via a disposable pipette. Besides, I think the repair was a fun challenge and keeps my old brain working on problems that need solving. The grain on this Micoli is nearly flawless. Perhaps he carved away flaws but I do not think that was why he carved like he did. I think the artist was just being an artist and I got to share in that process. The stem polished-up beautifully. There is one tiny metal inclusion in the vulcanite that is reminiscent of the recycled rubber from wartime pipes. Overall the pipe is a whimsical adventure of flowing lines. I am not sure if this piece will enter my personal collection or if it will go on to another owner. I’ll just have to see if someone reaches out to me about purchasing it. Pipes like politicians are nearly all for sale. The dimensions of this Micoli are:

Length: 6.08 in./ 154.43 mm.

Weight: 1.43 oz./ 40.54 g.

Bowl Height: 1.87 in./ 47.50 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.43 in./ 36.32 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.88 in./ 22.35 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.54 in./ 39.12 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.

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Below are some photos of the finished Israeli Bent Billiard.

Yeah, I still don’t know what that second word is. I did email The carver via his website but have not heard back.
An Israeli Bent Billiard Pipe Restoration for the Real American Pipe Smokers (RAPS) Facebook group

July 29th, 2025
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

This is the third, though not likely final, restoration of a pipe for the Real American Pipe Smokers (RAPS) Facebook (FB) group. This pipe was sent to me by a fellow member who had asked if I’d be willing to restore some pipes to be given away to RAPS members. I love to work on pipes that I find interesting and doing so for a good cause is even better. The three pipes arrived and were indeed interesting.

The top and bottom pipes were blogged about last week and were a Porcelain Apple and a J. Rettke, Feel free to click those names for links to the respective restorations. The final pipe is a large bent billiard with a chimney-like bowl. The only identifying stamp of the pipe was ISRAEL on the underside of the shank. Below are some photos of the pipe before I began work on it.

The stem had been chewed on a great deal this normally would indicate a pipe that had been smoked a great deal. However the tobacco chamber appeared fairly cake free. The rim did have a layer of lava and the rim edges showed signs of being knocked against hard rough surfaces. Perhaps I had come across a heavily smoked pipe which had been owned by someone who appreciated a clean pipe? There was also a dreaded clear coat finish on this pipe which would have to go. I know, my job is to restore, but I have a disdain for heavy clear coat finishes. The stem did look salvageable and I hadn’t restored one that was this chewed up for a while. Oh, the things I consider fun… I was worried about the ISRAEL stamp surviving the finish removal. Oftentimes the stamping is done on top of the clear coat and the briar below does not preserve the stamp very well.

Background

The number of Israeli pipe making companies is pretty easy to count, one. According to pipedia.org:

“Not much is known about Israel’s sole pipe factory though it’s reported to have operated quite successfully on international markets.

Beside the brand “Shalom” the mainstay brand was Alpha – especially well known in the USA. Alpha was popular for a range of fresh and unusual shapes. Series (afaik): Caprice (s), Citation (s), Classic (b), Pedestal (s), Regent, Region (b), Rex (s). (1)

(1) (b) = blasted, (s) = smooth

Alpha also produced at least one of its Citation forms for Carey’s “Magic Inch” series.

Mentioned in context with Shalom Pipe Factory was a Danish pipemaker named ‘Muki Liebermann’, who later lived and worked in the USA. Muki is known for his unique briar bending technique and his original shapes that gave inspiration to many of the most praised Danish pipemakers.

Shalom was taken over by Robert L. Marx of New York City, later Sparta, NC, then of Mastercraft. Mastercraft continued the Alpha pipes introducing new lines.” (Shalom Pipe Factory – Pipedia)

Also at the bottom of the pipedia.org entry is a blurb about other Israeli brands. It is not clear that these are lines which Shalom produced or if they are separate companies. I assume that they are Shalom lines.

“Other brands from Israel:
- Andersen
- Burl King (Best known for their Danish-looking “thumbhole” pipes with plateau tops.)
- Fader (Presumably for Fader’s Tobacco Shop, Baltimore. Also known: Fader – Made In Denmark.)
- Goliath Briar (huge pipes)
- Krisson
- Mastersen
- Trophy” (Shalom Pipe Factory – Pipedia)
The Restoration

As usual the pipe got herself a cleaned denim piece, more for the protection of the workbench than for the pipe’s comfort.

I decided to work on the stem first as I thought it would require the most effort. The top was lightly chewed but had pretty significant calcium deposits.

The bottom side was really chomped on and would need to have black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) built up and then reshaped.

I started with a cleaning of the stem with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol.

The calcium deposits were scraped off with a sharp pocket knife.

The top and bottom were then filed with a small flat file to remove most of the teeth marks.

Rubberized black CA was used to build up material in the indentation on the bottom surface and button.

The built-up material was filed flat.

Additional black CA was added to allow for smoothing the underside of the stem.

This built-up area was then filed smooth and blended with the existing stem.

The whole area was sanded to check the blending of the vulcanite to the CA seams. It did not look bad. I had not started on the button as of yet.

To better blend the seams I applied a coating of thin CA. This penetrates any tiny crack of seams and would further blend the two materials with finer grade sanding.

The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from grits 400-3500. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a paper towel. The last thing I did, at this stage, was to apply a coating of Mark Hoover’s Before and After Hard Rubber Balm. Mark sent me this product to try and I think it does a very nice job at preserving a polished stem and keeping oxidation at bay during normal pipe smoking.

I turned my attention to the stummel. The reaming tools were gathered and included the PipNet, Smokingpipes Low Country Reamer and the General triangular scraper.

All three tools were used and the Kleen-Reem reamer was pulled into the fray because of the bowl depth and slightly conical boring.

The rim looked like it had suffered frequent hard knocks on concrete or stone surfaces. This roughened rim also had a coating of lava. Scraping lava from a flat surface is pretty easy but scraping lava from a rough surface is a different matter.

I tried to use the traditional scraping method of using saliva to moisten and soften the lava then scrape it with a sharp pocket knife. With the surface being as rough as it was, I met with limited success.

Normally a light topping of the rim would be done with 320 sandpaper but this rim was rounded and dented. Due to the very deep bowl, I decided that there was plenty of briar there and filing the rim would be a faster was to smooth the surface.

One smoothed with a flat file I topped the rim with 320 followed by 400 grit sandpaper.

The shank was then cleaned with several bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol.

Next up was the scrubbing of the stummel with a nylon brush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

I wiped the stummel with a cotton ball wetted with ethyl alcohol. The alcohol has no effect on the clear coat. Bah. In the next couple of photos you can see where the finish had been worn off the briar.

Since the ethyl didn’t affect the finish, I tried acetone. It did soften the finish but very slowly and with a great deal of work. I decided to give the whole stummel a bath in acetone. The old jar was not large enough so I had to make use of a wide mouth pint jar acetone bath.

I let the stummel soak for over an hour in the acetone before removing it. Apologies for the poor focus. I’d blame the nitrile glove but I was only wearing one. There was still a lot of finish remaining on the briar. I thought, “why the heck did they apply the finish so thick?”

The good news was that the soaking made the old fills easy to remove. Well, easy if I moved quickly before the acetone evaporated.

There were several deep pits in the briar.

The pits were pretty evenly distributed over the whole stummel and as I said, deep.

At least they didn’t use the bright pink fill that you often find on old pipes. Below are a few of the remnants of fill material.

I sanded the remaining finish from the briar using sanding sponges that I usually never would use on a pipe, 180 and 280 grit. The little 320 sanding sponge just couldn’t cut through the thick hard finish. You can also see the depth of the pits on the shank in the below photo.

Eventually the stummel was sanded with 320 and 40 grit sanding sponges and the fills were refilled with briar dust and brown CA. I could have sworn that I photographed the filling of the pits but I failed to.

I also sanded the interior of the tobacco chamber and discovered some pits there as well. Imperfections in a chamber like this can cause the briar to burn and smolder with the tobacco. That extra surface area is something I wanted to eliminate.

I mixed up a small batch of black J-B Weld epoxy to press into the pits within the tobacco chamber. I used the mini popsicle stick as an applicator to “squeegee” the epoxy into the pits.

After the epoxy had dried for 24 hours I would sand away the excess.

With the epoxy hardening I turned my attention to redoing the color scheme of the pipe. The plan was to use a base coat of black Fiebing’s Leather Dye. This would be buffed and lightly sanded, dying the softer grained briar black while removing the outer surface of the harder, less susceptible briar. Next a coating of Mahogany, again lightly sanded and finally a top coat of orange. The goal was to have a pipe with dark grain highlighted with an orange mahogany. It worked well in my imagination and it should conceal all those dark spots that were the new fills.

The first step, black Fiebing’s looked as expected.

After buffing with a rouge buffing compound and wiping with ethyl alcohol cotton balls the black had indeed penetrated the softer grain.

A light sanding brought out the lighter grained areas more to my liking.

Next came the mahogany dye.

Below is the mahogany after a light sanding and alcohol pad wipe.

Finally the orange top coat.

I discovered why the Israelis had applied such a thick clear coat to this stummel while I was sanding it. The briar was extremely soft and very difficult to work with. Sanding would remove one scratch and create two more. I decided that maybe a couple coats of Danish Oil would help to toughen the briar.

Below you can see how I hung the stummel on a vice for drying. I applied three coats of Danish oil to the pipe and the stummel looked like it had never even seen a drop of Danish oil. Good lord this briar was a pain to work with.

The final steps to the restoration included a trip to the buffer for several coats of carnauba was and a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth. It was at this point that I realized how completely unhappy I was to have forgotten to bend the stem to what I thought was a better bend.

I used a heat gun to heat the stem until it was pliable. I then bent the stem to have a more attractive and more comfortable shape.

The stem before the bending:

And, after the bend:

Of course the heating and bending of the vulcanite ruined the finish of the fill work that I had done to the stem. That was all resanded, a touch of thin CA, and some more sanding then rebuffed. This then led to a rewaxing and re-hand-buffing. Oh, for the love of transparency! I could have left all my mistakes out but then I’d feel dirty or something…

I think that the briar used in this Israeli pipe was the same or similar to the briar used by Robert Marxman, in other words it is Algerian briar. This briar is known to be a great smoking briar but is also known to be very difficult to work with due to the very soft nature of the wood. Think about the heavily rusticated pipes of Marxsman or the Custom-bilts. Those carving techniques were utilized to conceal the soft and imperfect grains of those pipes. Though they are renowned as great smokers, this pipe has the same cinnamon-cardamomscent as my Marxmans. The difficulties in trying to get this pipe to have a flawless smooth surface was difficult and I completely understand the Israeli’s use of a heavy masking clear coat. In the end I think that I did maintain the color scheme of the original pipe though I did lose the stamping, ISRAEL. The stem is another problem area. This vulcanite just would not lend itself to the high gloss sheen that I strive for. Overall I am sure this pipe will provide a great smoking experience but it does not have the aesthetic that I would be proud of. I guess I should be happy by giving this undoubtedly a “basket pipe” a new lease on life and provide its next owner with a good quality pipe.

The dimensions of the Israeli Bent Billiard are:

Length: 5.64 in./ 138.18 mm.

Weight: 2.10 oz./ 42.24 g.

Bowl Height: 2.35 in./ 49.02 mm.

Chamber Depth: 2.09 in./ 38.35 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.73 in./ 18.54 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.57 in./ 34.54 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.

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Below are some photos of the finished Israeli Bent Billiard.

I included the next two photos to show what the finished tobacco chamber fills looked like after the sanding.
A Porcelain Apple Restoration for the Real American Pipe Smokers (RAPS) Facebook group

July 22nd, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

In February of 2024 I joined the Facebook (FB) group Real American Pipe Smokers. I found my first post in that group, below:

I have found in this group a unique group of about 1,600 folks that are open to others and even accept pipe smokers who like Captain Black Grape. Yeah, I know, crazy right. Oh, by the way, I have a jar of Captain Black Grape and a dedicated MM cob for that aromatic delight. The members are everything someone like me is looking for in a FB group, a bunch of friendly, funny, knowledgeable, giving individuals who put up with my nonsense.

Anyway, I have been part of a cabal within the group who has been giving away some of the pipes I have restored and various other items like tobacco, tampers, rare bourbon samples, etc… I was recently asked if I would be interested in restoring three pipes, donated by another member, which we could in turn give away to group members. I said, “Sure”. So the next three restorations will be those pipes. Here is a photo taken of the three:

The first pipe I decided to work on was the porcelain apple, thus the title and subject of this posting. Below are some photos of the pipe before I did anything with it.

This restoration looked to be more of a cleaning and stem polishing than a true restoration. Some work would have to be done to improve the fit of the cork tenon. Other than that there was not a lot that the pipe needed.

Background

There really isn’t much I can say about this pipe without a whole bunch of imaginative conjecture. This pipe has no identifying stamps or marks. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say this pipe was made in Europe post WWII to 1980. I have included some links for those interested in porcelain in general and a couple more specific to pipes below.

Porcelain – Wikipedia

List of porcelain manufacturers – Wikipedia

Amsterdam Pipe Museum – Royal Goedewaagen,

Catalogue | Porcelain Tobacco Pipes

The Restoration

The pipe began on the workbench with a cleaned denim piece.

An Exacto knife kit was broken out for a little bit of cork trimming.

The cork tenon had a rough and unsightly end. This would need to be trimmed and sanded.

The cork proved to be very dry and brittle leading me to think that it was probably at least 50 years old.

With the cork trimmed and sanded, I cleaned out the stem using bristle pipe cleaners and 99% ethyl alcohol. I had been using 95% ethyl and recently switched to this product.

To address the dryness of the cork I got out the trusty old tea kettle and started some water on the stove.

The cork was steamed for about 5 minutes. This is precisely the amount of time it takes for the kettle’s whistle to become so annoying that you have to stop or become patient at Homicidal Acres Home for the Mentally Unstable.

I then rubbed some petroleum jelly onto the cork to hopefully preserve the now swollen cork. This did greatly improve the fit of the stem to the stummel.

Next came the reaming of the tobacco chamber. Porcelain is a hard material but in my mind, it is also brittle. I’ve never broken a porcelain pipe during cleaning but I have only worked with one other so my experience was rather limited. I chose to treat it more like a meerschaum pipe and only used the Smokingpipes Low Country reaming knife to scrape the chamber.

A small amount of cake had been deposited within the chamber.

Alcohol dipped cotton swabs removed the smaller particles and more soluble cake remnants.

I used 3200 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel and a piece of sandpaper wetted with alcohol to sand the interior of the tobacco chamber.

And some more sanding. The carbon cake seemed to be well on its way to becoming diamond.

I eventually called it quits on the sanding and thought that perhaps a cotton stuffing and alcohol soak treatment might soften the remaining cake and remove any residual “old tobacco” aroma.

The tobacco chamber and shank were stuffed with cotton and then saturated with the 99% ethyl alcohol.

The unglazed porcelain of the shank began to discolor from the alcohol. I did not think this would be permanent with the evaporation of the alcohol.

I compared my other example of a porcelain pipe to this pipe. I was struck by the color difference. My bent pipe has been smoked numerous times and it has taken on a very nice creamed coffee color. It was originally a bright white as well. The apple had obviously been smoked but had not experienced the same coloring.

After allowing the alcohol to work its magic overnight, I removed the now dry cotton. As you can see in the photo below very little smoking residue was absorbed by the cotton. The discoloration on the shank had also disappeared.

I turned my attention to the stem. I filed the tooth chatter with a small flat file and lightly sanded the bite zone with a 320 grit sanding sponge.

The stem was then worked with sanding sponges from 320-3500 grits. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a paper towel.

The stem was then worked with micro-mesh pads in grits of 4000-12000. Between these pads I rubbed the stem with Obsidian Oil and wiped with a paper towel.

I rubbed a coating of Before and After Hard Rubber Balm onto the stem and let it sit overnight.

The next day the pipe was taken to the buffer where I applied several coats of carnauba wax to the stem and stummel. The final step was to hand buff the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.

I think the porcelain pipe is a unique piece of our hobby and history. I only have a single example of my own and I have mixed feelings about it. I do like how mine has colored over time, taking on a creamed coffee color. I do worry about the fragility of the porcelain and my tendency to drop things. This porcelain apple is a wonderful shape and size. The exterior is a brilliant glossy white. The tobacco chamber interior has discolored and I suppose that I could have been more aggressive with the restoration but I did not want to damage the porcelain. My inexperience with this material kept me from “tough love” during the chamber restoration. The expansion of the cork tenon worked well and the stem polished up very nicely. The black and white of the piece is truly eye-catching. The double holes at the bottom of the tobacco chamber provide an exceptionally smooth draw and I am sure that this pipe will treat its new owner with years of contemplative relaxation. The dimensions of the Porcelain apple are:

Length: 5.78 in./ 146.81 mm.

Weight: 1.45 oz./ 41.11 g.

Bowl Height: 1.64 in./ 41.66 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.17 in./ 29.72 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.77 in./ 19.56 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.62 in./ 41.15 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.

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Below are some photos of the finished Porcelain apple.