Tag: removing tooth marks

A Made in London, England No Name Panel Billiard Restoration

November 11th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

For some reason the Warren Zevon Werewolves of London was playing in my mind while I was restoring this pipe. In the mental soundtrack the line “He’s the heavy handed gent, ran amok in Kent” was substituted for “He’s the hairy handed gent gent, ran amok in Kent” (Warren Zevon – Werewolves of London Lyrics | Genius Lyrics). This pipe is large and would indeed fit well in the heavy hands of a gent from Kent. I have an affinity for panel pipes of various shapes. I do not recall how this one came into my possession but it was undoubtedly part of an estate lot. The pipe has no maker’s mark nor name, only the stampings MADEINLONDON over ENGLAND on the right shank. Below are some photos of the pipe prior to work.

The pipe was solidly built with good drillings. The fit of the stem to the shank was pretty good but only well fit in a single position. The stem was quite oxidized, calcium deposits around the bite zone and several deep tooth dents both top and bottom. The stummel was dirty with old grime. There were also moderate lava deposits on the rim and several old fills with their less than appealing pink spots. Overall a fairly straightforward restoration of a well used pipe.

Background

In researching the possible history of this pipe, I was limited to only the country of manufacture (COM) stamp. This led me to pipephil.eu for makers who used MADE IN LONDON over ENGLAND. The best I hoped for would be to find a stamp which matched. My first thought was a maker like Comoy, a large factory with numerous seconds brands. Most of Comoy’s lines of seconds used MADE IN LONDON in a circle with the ENGLAND offset. The below photo is a good example of this:

(Comoy — Pipes : Logos & Markings)

There were some examples of Comoy seconds which did use the MADE IN LONDON over ENGLAND.

(Gr-Gt — Pipes: Logos & Markings). In the Comoy’s examples the stamped words are clearly separated with a space. The No Name Billiard does not have these spaces. It is a single stamped word, “MAEDINLONDON”, without spaces.

The next contestant on, “Who Made That Pipe?” is a Conway. The

(Co-Con — Pipes : Logos & Markings)

(Mas — Pipes: Logos & Markings). Mason House is a maker which I could not find any information about. The only thing that did turn up was another Mason House pipe listed as sold on WorthPoint. I captured the stampings from that pipe.

(Mason House Comfort 810 Briar estate smoking tobacco pipe freehand restored | #4592714867). In zooming in and comparing the stamps from the two pipes, The WorthPoint Mason House on the left and the No Name Billiard on the right,

I was unable to make little conclusion other than the stamps were similar in their lack of spacing between the words and the ENGLAND did line up pretty much the same. Maybe I don’t have a discerning enough eye, but I other than those two things I couldn’t tell if they were the same stamp.

The final contestant was Parker. This one I discounted immediately due to spacing between the words and additional information in the form of a date suffix.

(Parker — Pipes : Logos & Markings).

My conclusion is that the No Name Panel Billiard share a similar stamp to that of Mason House. This could indicate a possible origin or merely show that both makers used the same lazy stamp maker. As for the age of this pipe, that too is only a guess. I would say that a large block of briar like this would have to be from post World War Two. The Briar is not as soft as the Algerian briar pieces I have worked with so another assumption is that it is likely from the south of France or Italy.

The Restoration

The pipe found its way to the workbench and a cleaned piece of denim.

I began work with the stem. It was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners and 99% ethyl alcohol. I was surprised that it did not take much to clean the stem.

The bite zone was filed with a small flat file to reestablish the button and eliminate most of the tooth denting.

Both the top and bottom of the stem were flame painted with a lighter in hopes of lifting some of the dents by causing the vulcanite to expand and contract with heat. This may have helped a little bit.

The stem was then placed into a bath of Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover (deox) for just shy of 4 hours (based on the time stamps from the photos). A pipe cleaner was inserted into the stem to act as a handle for easy removal from the deox.

While the deox solution did the magic that it does, I turned to reaming the tobacco chamber. The ream team was assembled and included the PipNet with the big blades, #3 and #4, along with the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper.

The #3 and #4 blades of the PipNet did the majority of the work.

The tobacco chamber was sanded with 180 and 320 grit sandpaper via my finger. I do like the larger diameter chambers for this task.

Below is the sanded chamber showing no signs of any heat damage to the bowl.

The rim remained lava encrusted. I was hoping not to find any charring under the lava.

The lava was moistened with saliva and allowed to soften for a few minutes.

Scraping was done with a sharp pocket knife. Yay, the rim was free of charring except around the inner rim edge. Good job, previous owner.

Next came the shank cleaning. Bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol were used for the initial passes through the airway. Once the smoking residues had softened I was able to scrape the airway with a dental scraper. Every little bit of tar and yuck scraped is worth several pipe cleaners. I also used the shank drill from the KleenReem reaming tool to drill its way through the stem. This further removed some of the yuck. Eventually the airway returned unstained pipe cleaners.

The stummel was then taken to the sink for a scrub with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. If you are playing along at home, feel free to use an old toothbrush. This stummel was pretty filthy with years of accumulated grime, testifying to a well loved and used pipe. 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 995 ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad. This produced little color indicating that I had pretty much clean briar.

Those nasty pink fills stood out even more with the cleaned briar.

My idea was to pick the old fills out with the use of my trusty fly tying bodkin. This proved to be far more difficult than I planned. The fills were very hard and resisted my bodkin picking. Ethyl alcohol did not seem to soften the fills, so I tried dabbing the fills with acetone on a cotton swab. This did work though it took numerous applications and about 10 minutes. The acetone evaporated quickly and allowed the fills to reharden. I had to constantly dab to keep them moist while watching TV. I don’t think the TV was necessary for the process.

Eventually the fills released their grip and were removed revealing rather deep pits.

These pits were filled with briar dust pressed into the pit then a small drop of This cyanoacrylate (CA, superglue) was dabbed onto the briar dust. The CA soaked into the dust and bonds to the briar. This sets up nearly instantaneously. The rough surface was then filed smooth with a small flat file and additional briar dust was pressed into the remaining pit, with another dab of CA. I find that small layers work better than trying to fill large pits all at once.

The stummel was then sanded with both 320 and 400 grit sanding sponges. I wiped the surface of the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol between sponges to remove sanding debris.

I thought that this pipe would look better with a contrast dye. My reasoning was that it would both bring out the briar’s grain and help conceal the new fills. Black Fiebing’s Leather Dye was used for the base coat. The tobacco chamber was plugged with a wine bottle cork and the dye applied with a folded pipe cleaner. I only used a single coat and did not flame off the alcohol solvent as it evaporated quickly with this large stummel.

I avoided the rim with the black dye. The stummel was allowed to dry for a few minutes then wiped with a dry paper towel.

Once dry, the stummel was buffed with rouge buffing compound to remove the black from the surface of the pipe. The dye penetrates the soft grained briar deeper than the hard grained wood.

Back at the workbench you can see the grain of the briar was accentuated with the black dye. I sanded the stummel lightly with the 400 grit sanding sponge and wiped the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol to remove a bit more of the black.

The stummel was then given a coating of Light Brown Fiebing’s Leather Dye. This was applied in similar fashion to the black except I did not avoid the rim.

After the Light Brown dye had dried for about 30 minutes I wiped it with an alcohol wetted make-up pad. Below are a couple of photos of the resulting dyes.

The stem was removed from deox and I was not pleased to see that it had a light-colored coating over the surface. I used a coarse shop rag to hand buff the stem. Some of the light coating came off onto the rag.

I hoped that Soft Scrub cleaner on make-up pads would remove the light film and oxidized vulcanite.

It did, but it took many more cleanser wetted pads, more than shown below.

I hadn’t seen a light film like that before so I was curious to see how the stem would look buffed. I used the rouge compound and the rouge wheel. I looked OK after buffing so I continued as I would normally.

I wanted to fill the remaining tooth dents. I first roughed up the freshly buffed surface with a 320 grit sanding sponge to allow the black CA more surface area to bond to. I then applied small dabs of black CA to the dents. These dabs were spritzed with a CA drying accelerator. The photos below show the top and bottom surfaces.

Both surfaces were filed with a small flat file then sanded with 320 and 400 grit sanding sponges.

WIth the shank still masked I sanded the entire stem with a series of sanding sponges from 320-3500 grit. Between sponges I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a dry paper towel.

I returned to the buffer, this time using white buffing compound and the dedicated white wheel.

The stem looked much better.

I failed to photo-document the stummel sanding, so you will have to trust me. It was sanded with the same sanding sponges from 320-3500. I did wipe the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol between sanding sponges to remove debris. The stummel was coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 30 minutes. During this time I returned to watching TV. Again, I do not think the TV was necessary.

The stummel was then hand buffed with an inside out athletic sock to remove excess Restoration Balm.

The pipe was taken back to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.

The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth then finished photo shoot.

This Made in London, England No Name Panel Billiard has been restored to a condition likely better than it’s factory original. The new contrast dye accentuates the briar grain and adds a warmth lacking in the original. The replaced fills blend with the new contrast dye and are so much better than the pink plague of the original. The stem is far better than it was but try as I did, I could not get the vulcanite to return to the black. The dark brown is really only noticeable under very bright lights or sunlight. The finish of the stem did turn out well with the previous tooth dents only noticeable under close scrutiny. This pipe is a large billiard and it has a hand feel that only a large pipe has. For those who love large billiards this pipe calls out to you. The dimensions of the No Name Panel Billiard are:

Length: 6.02 in./ 152.91 mm.

Weight: 2.22 oz./ 62.94 g.

Bowl Height: 2.11 in./ 53.59 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.88 in./ 47.75 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.89 in./ 22.61 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.55 in./ 39.37 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. If you are interested in purchasing this pipe or any other from previous blogs please feel free to contact me at scimansays1787@gmail.com.

Loading…

Type your email…

Below are some photos of the finished Made in London, England No Name Panel Billiard.
A House of Westminster Burl Restoration

November 5th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I don’t know if freehand is the correct term for this pipe. I’m not even sure if burl is, either. All I know is that I came across one several years ago just as a stummel and decided that the weird little thing needed me as an owner. I restemmed it and we have been getting along quite well.

I have seen one other pipe similar to this and it was stamped “Wally Frank”. Of course, I didn’t collect a photo of that example. The subject of this blog was seen on eBay back in August of 2025 and was quickly purchased. The fact that it was from Sioux City, Iowa, a mere 125 miles from my home was interesting, support local businesses, eh? The similarities between the two pipes was stunning. Both were formed from what appeared to be small briar burls. Having seen photos of briar burls which are large enough to be cut into numerous blocks for pipe making is the norm. I wondered if these small burls were not small individual plants which were dug up while the digger was excavating a larger “target” burl. Both of the burl pipes had the same general shape with the shank forming the trunk of the shrub and a “V” shaped cut to remove, what I thought was, the more spindly root. The only stamping on the newly acquired pipe was HOUSE OF WESTMINSTER in a single line on a panel of the shank. Below are some photos of the burl pipe prior to work.

The first thing I noticed was the thick clear coating applied to the pipe. It looked as though it had been sprayed or dipped several times into a finish. The briar was also heavily stained masking any of the wood’s natural color. There was a crack on the cut V at the front of the pipe. The stampings were crisp and well defined leading me to think the stamp was pressed prior to the application of the finish. The stem was oxidized with some slight tooth chatter near the button. Overall it looked to be a simple restoration.

Background

As I discussed earlier this appeared to be an entire, very small briar root. Perhaps something dug-up with a larger burl. Not wanting to waste a little bit of briar, I could imagine the diggers throwing it in with the larger burl and sending it off to the cutters for sale. Of course this is all just conjecture but it was a fun pursuit. Speaking of “fun”, not knowing what to call this pipe allowed me to reach out to Steve Laug (rebornpipes.com) and ask what he thought the shape might be called. His reply was amazing, “never seen anything like it…that is wild.” (Laug, Steve. Personal message). I have never stumped Steve before. With that in mind, I said that I’d call it a “Burl”. He replied, “I think that is good”, and so it was.

Normally a briar burl is a large mass below ground, photo below.

(Briar root on display in Chacom museum, Saint-Claude, France. : r/PipeTobacco). These are then cut into the blocks used by pipe carvers.I was able to find another example of a Burl pipe online:

(Sybarite pipe). That makes four that I recall seeing either in the flesh or online. I am sure there are more but being lazy has its limitations.

I next did a search of the “House of Westminster” for pipe related sites/information. Nothing was found on the traditionally useful sites pipedia.org and pipephil.eu. I did get a hit from WorthPoint.com of an old auction listing:

“Gorgeous 1940s House of Westminster Ltd Real Briar Paneled Prince Tobacco pipe Made in France House of Westminster Ltd. Was a Tobacco company that sold Tobacco and tobacco Pipes from their Store in New York NY.The Use of “Real Briar” was a commonly used Nomenclature during WWII when Briar was Hard to come by and nearly impossible to import, and less desirable alternatives were often used, so to reassure the buyer that thier pipe was indeed The real deal, makers would often stamp “Real Briar”” (1940s House of Westminster Ltd. Paneled Prince Real Briar tobacco Pipe France | #4810546746). This pipe looked nothing like the burl in hand, though. The information included was quite vague and contained little detail.

I then came across a discussion of the House of Westminster on the Brothers of Briar forum. Below is the original post requesting any information on the House of Westminster and a forum member reply.

(Pipe brand: House of Westminster | Brothers of Briar – Pipe Tobacco Forum). L&H Stern was a name I’d heard of and had some experience with. With this lead, I returned to pipedia.org. According to that site:

“Ludwig Stern, a successful pipe manufacturer since 1893 and closing around 1960, reorganized his company along with his brother Hugo Stern, opening a factory in 1911. They named the company L&H Stern Smoking Pipes & Holders. The newly formed company was moved into a six story building on the corner of Pearl and Waters street Brooklyn, NY.” (LHS – Pipedia)

Continuing with that lead, I searched through all of the photos on the pipedia.org LHS page. I did not find any mentions of House of Westminster nor any photos of a burl pipe, but I did find an exact match of the stinger. This was not some ordinary aluminum tube, it was very unique. Below is the photo from pipedia.org:

(LHS – Pipedia)

And here is a photo of the stinger from the House of Westminster burl pipe, I tried to match the color and positioning of the burl stem to the previous photo:

For me, that settled who the maker was. House of Westminster was a L&H Stern product likely produced after the second world war and before the company closed down in 1960.

The Restoration

After the before photo shoot I took the Burl to the workbench where I placed it on a cleaned denim piece.

I was able to pull the stinger from the stem without much difficulty. I placed it in a medicine cup with 10 ml of 99% ethyl alcohol.

The stem was cleaned with ethyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners. The airway on the button end seemed rough and a bit constricted. I opened the airway with a Vermont Freehand Slot Tool (Slot Tool (with handle) – Vermont Freehand) and emery boards cut at an angle.

The bite zone above the button was filed with a small flat file to remove the tooth dents and chatter.

Sanding the stem lightly with a 400 grit sanding sponge was then done to prepare the stem for a bath in Briarviles’ Pip Stem Oxidation Remover (deox, as I like to call it).

A pipe cleaner was inserted into the stem to act as a handle for easy removal after the 2 hour deox bath.

With the stem soaking, I turned my attention to the reaming of the stummel. The ream team was gathered; PipNet with the #2 and #3 blades, General triangular scraper and the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer.

The PipNet and #3 blades did the majority of the cake removal.

The reamed tobacco chamber looked much better.

The chamber was then sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The sanded chamber showed no signs of heat damage.

I then cleaned the airway of the shank. This was done by softening the accumulated smoking residue with ethyl alcohol on cotton swabs as I cleaned the mortise. The softened yuck was then scraped using a dental scraper. Alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaners and alcohol dipped cotton swabs were also used.

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’s stamp panel with 99% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad. This removed a lot of the shellac and some of the stain/dye. You can see in the photo below that the shellac had filled in the scratched on the panel. This layer of finish was quite thick.

I wanted to get rid of the old finish to see the briar detail more clearly and maybe some of the color of the wood. Shellac is soluble in ethyl alcohol (EtOH, an old organic chemistry abbreviation), so I gave the stummel an hour long bath in a jar of EtOH.

This allowed me some time to clean and polish the stinger. It was removed from the 10 ml of EtOH and scrubbed with a bristle pipe cleaner. I used another pipe stem to hold the stinger while I work.

The stinger was then buffed with white buffing compound on the white compound wheel.

After cleaning off any remaining buffing compound the stinger looked great.

After the hour-long soak in EtOH I scrubbed the stummel again but this time using the EtOH rather than Murphy’s. You can see from the photo below that there was a great deal of dye and shellac liberated from the stummel.

Again, back at the workbench the burl was looking less finish coated but it still had spots of shiny shellac in the low spots and a whole lot of purple.

With the airway residues further softened, I cleaned this out again with cotton swabs and EtOH.

I tried wiping the stamp panel again, as a test, with acetone on a make-up pad. I was amazed at how much color came off.

I decided to give the stummel a 30 minute bath in acetone.

After 30 minutes I removed the stummel.

The stummel was then taken to the sink where I scrubbed it with a nylon brush and additional acetone.

I used Castile soap and the nylon brush to scrub away acetone from the surface of the pipe. This was rinsed with water. I then placed the stummel outside in the sun to allow the acetone to evaporate from the briar. The stummel was left in the sun for over an hour.

I retrieved the stem from deox and vigorously rubbed it with a coarse shop rag. This removes some of the oxidized vulcanite softened by the deox solution.

The stem looked much better with minimal pitting.

Soft Scrub cleanser was used on make-up pads to scrub the stem.

The first pad removed a good deal of oxidized vulcanite.

The second make-up pad removed significantly less material.

Since the stummel was drying in the sun, I used a wood block with holes drilled for different diameters to hold the stem while I sanded it. I like to either have the stem connected to the stummel of a block like this to keep from rounding off the joint where the stem meets the shank.

After sanding with a 320 and a 400 grit sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil.

I checked back with the stummel after an hour. It still had a slight acetone smell so I knew it was not thoroughly dry. I did take a few photos of the stummel in the sun to show how much finish had been removed. Sorry, these shots were taken on the side-wall of my truck, not the best backdrop.

I was glad to see that I could tell this was wood and not some weird plastic or space-age-epoxy-resin. Still I wanted to lighten the briar further. I thought about my successful (and some unsuccessful) uses of oxalic acid to bleach stained wood. I thought that it might work here.

The saturated oxalic acid solution was applied with a cotton swab. This was allowed to sit for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes I again scrubbed the stummel with warm water then an additional scrub with Castile Soap and a final rinse with warm water.

I returned to the workbench and wiped the stummel with 99% EtOH on a make-up pad. The pad in the photo below is after the entire stummel was wiped. There was still a lot of dye coming off. I declared defeat, the remaining dye would remain. The oxalic acid treatment seemed to do little. I had been defeated by the purple plague.

All of these baths had made the slight crack in the front of the pipe to expand. I used a fly tying bodkin to pick the old fill from the crack.

The crack could not be compressed and it appeared to be superficial and not structural. I decided to just refill it using briar dust and cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). I pressed briar dust into the crack and tamped it with the bodkin.

Thin Ca was applied with a very narrow plastic tip.

The Thin CA soaked into the briar dust and bonded it to the existing briar. I repeated the filling of the crack with a second coating of briar dust and another drop of Thin CA. The excess new-fill was filed with a small flat file and sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

Below is the fill as seen from head-on.

And from the side with poor focus.

It was time to sand the stem and the shank-end. The area that I did not want sanded was taped with masking tape.

A series of sanding sponges were used in grits 320-3500. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.

After the 3500 sponge the stem was taken to the buffer and the shank-end and stem were buffed with rouge buffing compound followed by a buffing with white buffing compound. I returned to the workbench and wiped the remaining buffing compound from the pipe. The stummel was then coated with Before and After Restoration Balm applied with a baby toothbrush. This was allowed to sit for 30 minutes.

The stummel was hand buffed with an inside out athletic sock to remove the remaining balm.

The pipe was then returned to the buffer where several coats of carnauba wax were applied. Care was taken to work the carnauba into and out of the rough texture of the briar. The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth then off to the photo table.

This House of Westminster burl turned out well. I do wish it had a more natural color rather than purplish brown, but at least the clear coat is gone.The texture of the pipe is amazing to hold. It is like a natural rustication and has a wonderful hand feel. The smooth organic texture gives way to the polished stem, which turned out very nicely. Overall this pipe is a unique piece which will undoubtedly provide years of enjoyment to the next owner. The dimensions of the House of Westminster Burl are:

Length: 6.72 in./ 170.69 mm.

Weight: 2.40 oz./ 68.04 g.

Bowl Height: 1.51 in./ 38.35 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.28 in./ 32.51 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.80 in./ 20.32 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.90 in./ 48.26 mm.

I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover. If you are interested in purchasing this pipe or any other from previous blogs please feel free to contact me at scimansays1787@gmail.com.

Loading…

Type your email…

Below are some photos of the finished House of Westminster Burl.
A Mountbatten Billiard Restoration

October 28th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

You may have noticed that I have begun to only post one restoration blog per week. I am sure that you are thinking that the writing quality will certainly improve with more time spent on each individual post. Or, that I will make fewer mistakes because I have more time for perfection. Yeah right, like either of those are going to happen. Anyway, we are gathered together today for a pipe restoration, so here it is: A Mountbatten that came in with an estate lot back on February 6th, 2025. The pipe was stamped MOUNTBATTEN over MADE IN ENGLAND. There was another stamp but I didn’t notice it until after I’d started the restoration. See, I’ve already proven that I continue to make mistakes. Here are some photos of the pipe before work was started.

The pipe had obviously been smoked as evidenced by the lava deposits on the rim and the cake built up in the tobacco chamber. The stem was oxidized with some tooth chatter, more dents actually. The finish looked rather drab, which seemed strange because the sandblast texture was very nice with numerous bird’s eyes on both sides and straight grain on the front and back. I thought that some contrast dye would improve the look dramatically. Overall, this appeared to be a rather straightforward restoration.

Background

For some reason I always associated Mountbatten with Blatter of Montreal. Perhaps it is due to my lysdexic (or is that dyslexic?) brain wanting to see a pattern with pipe names and “tt”. This was the first Mountbatten that I recall working on. The pipe was well crafted with the fit of the stem to the shank excellent. I started with a search on pipedia.org for “Mountbatten”. Here I found the following:

“Mountbatten is often referred to as a Charatan second, but apparently the Mountbatten pipes were made by Charatan apprentices. So while they are not Charatans, they are perhaps on their way to becoming Charatans. A second would tend to be a pipe with a deficiency (in material or workmanship), a Mountbatten would perhaps be closer to a Charatan in quality.

The following is originally from a pipes.org forum post by Bill Ramsey.

“Friends, after 40 years of nosing around pipes, what I have gleaned is this: Charatan sold its seconds under private labels and later acquired the English rights for Ben Wade for just this purpose. Mountbatten, on the other hand was not a “second”(in that there was some physical deformity in the pipe) but rather a first line production from Charatan’s apprentice program. Each Charatan carver might have four or six apprentices at any one time of various skill levels. As they improved and started cutting pipes themselves, these pipes had to move… thus the Mountbatten. These were made on Charatan tooling with Charatan materials and teaching. Bear in mind that there was a high attrition rate and , perhaps, one apprentice in nine or ten made it to cutting their own bowls much less a Charatan carver. This is why you see more Charatans than Mountbattens on the market. You’re never going to put your kid through college by selling one but you’ve got a day to day workhorse of the first order. Good luck and happy puffing.”

Pretty interesting! This is information comes to us from an interesting post on rebornpipes.com about restoring the pips bellow” (Mountbatten – Pipedia).

So, I apparently had a pipe made by an apprentice that had mastered the fitting of stems to a shank and had advanced to blasting, which they were quite good at, then attempted finishishing blasts, which they were not quite as good at, yet. I merely say that because I was not impressed by the finish of this pipe. It looked kind of Play-doughy – unicolor and lacked definition.

I still wasn’t sure when the pipe was made. Reading through the pipedia content on Charatan led me to a convoluted history with several “eras” for Charatan pipes but little to no information of Mountbatten. If I assume the shape numbers remained the same for Chatatan and Mountbatten which I thought was a reasonable assumption, then they would be consistent. Hmm, I was wrong about that. 818 was never a Charatan shape. The pipedia.org does have a single photo of a Mountbatten with a very similar shape number and finish:

(File:Mountbatten 812, courtesy of Chris Rigol.jpg – Pipedia)

The Restoration

As per tradition, I placed a relatively clean denim piece on the work surface.

The ream team was gathered and included the following: PipNet with the #2 & #3 blades, the General triangular scraper with the tip ground round and the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer.

The PipNet’s #2 and #3 blades did the majority of the reaming.

The clean-up was done with the other two scrapers.

After Reaming the tobacco chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. There were a couple of gouges on the walls of the tobacco chamber from previous scraping/reaming but no signs of heat damage. I thought that a bowl coating may be beneficial and hoped that I’d remember to do it. The below photo also shows the lava deposits that I hoped the stummel scrubbing would eliminate.

The stem was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners and 99% ethyl alcohol. The stem was surprisingly clean.

A pipe cleaner was inserted into the stem to act as a handle for removing the stem from the Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover (lovingly called deox).

The shank proved to be a bit more difficult to clean than the stem. This cleaning was done in similar fashion to the stem but with a nylon shank brush joining the assault.

Once the shank was cleaned the stummel was taken to the sink for a scrub. Here I used a nylon brush with Murphy Oil Soap, undiluted. The soap was rinsed with warm water.

Not being completely satisfied with the scrubbing, I upgraded to a brass brush and repeated the process. After the rinse I dried the stummel with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with 99% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad. This removed a little bit of color, perhaps a stain or wax residue.

I wanted to give this pipe an alcohol-cotton treatment to eliminate any remaining smoking residue from the airway/tobacco chamber. The tobacco chamber was packed with cotton along with the shank. I figured that 10 ml of alcohol would be the right amount.

The 10 ml of alcohol was applied with a disposable pipette. It saturated the cotton completely and would dissolve the smoking residues and deposit them onto the cotton as the alcohol evaporated overnight.

The next day I saw a purple color on the cotton packed into the shank. This purple was usually from potassium permanganate (KMnO₄). KMnO₄ is an oxidizing agent that is/was used as a stain for wood. Maybe the shank end had been stained this way, certainly the whole stummel had not been.

The cotton in the tobacco chamber did not have any of the purple coloring.

The cotton was removed and the stem cleaned again to remove any of the remaining residues that the alcohol may have softened but not liberated from the airway.

I removed the stem from deox. It was placed on a coarse shop rag where I vigorously hand buffed it. This removed some of the oxidized rubber which had been softened by the deox process.

Bah! The deox had removed some of the definition of the logo. This occurs when the oxidation is deeper than the stamping. The stem was returned to the workbench where it received a coating of mineral oil to keep it from further oxidizing.

I thought that this stummel would look better if the low spots of the blast were darker than the high spots. To achieve this I thought a base coat of Fiebing’s Dark Brown Leather Dye would work nicely. The tobacco chamber was sealed off with a wine bottle cork. A folded pipe cleaner acted as my applicator for the dye and a lighter provided a flame to burn away the solvent portion of the alcohol based dye.

A single coat of dye was applied and flamed.

I allowed the dye to dry then took it to the buffer. I only wanted to remove the dye from the high spots so a light touch was used when buffing with rouge buffing compound.

TO give the pipe more definition I lightly sanded the high spots with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

The stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol to remove buffing compound and sanding debris then a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm was applied and worked into the briar with a baby toothbrush.

After about 15 minutes the Restoration Balm was hand buffed with an inside out athletic sock to remove the remaining balm.

I covered the stem logo with a piece of masking tape to preserve the remaining logo.

The shank was covered with a layer of masking tape to avoid sanding a well.

The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grits. Between each sponge, I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a paper towel.

The stem was then micro-meshed with the 4000-12000 pads. Between each pad, I rubbed the stem with Obsidian Oil and wiped it with a paper towel.

I buffed the stem with a blue compound on the dedicated blue compound buffing wheel.

After buffing the stem, I removed the tape from the shank and the stem logo. The logo was still slightly degraded by the deox process. Hmm, I had hoped it would heal. Yeah, unreasonable and foolish but still a hope. It didn’t.

To bend the unsanded/micor-meshed/buffed logo area, I tried to polish it with Before and After Fine Polish applied and hand buffed with a soft cloth.

I chose this white acrylic paint because I had it available, it’s water soluble, dries quickly and it reminds me that I need to paint a few miniatures for gaming.

I worked the white acrylic paint into the stampings of the logo with a cotton swab.

The excess white acrylic was buffed off with a soft cotton cloth then re-micro-meshed the logo with a 12000 pad.

I reassembled the pipe and thought back to the before photo.

And compared it to the after. I think the contrast dye brought out the texture of the blast better and added depth and character to the pipe.

The pipe was then returned to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.

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

Well, I thought I was finished then I saw the bowl when I was going to take the finished photos of the pipe. DOH! I forgot that I wanted to give this pipe a bowl coating. I coated the interior of the chamber with 100% applied with a cotton swab. A capsule of carbon powder was poured into the chamber after I had blocked the airway with a pipe cleaner.

The rim was covered with a piece of painters tape. The stummel was shaken for about one minute. I removed the tape, pipe cleaner, dumped the excess carbon powder and blew through the airway to clear the remaining powder.

The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth (the real final step).

This Mountbatten Billiard turned out very nicely. The contrast dye helped eliminate the unicolor of the original finish. The stem polished-up nicely even though I did lose some of the detail on the logo. I went with a bowl coating to address a couple of gouges in the tobacco chamber from overexuberant scraping. The blast texture is very pleasant in hand and brings out the lovely grain to this pipe. Overall this pipe looks well made and of quality briar that should provide years of enjoyment for the next owner. The dimensions of the Mountbatten Billiard are:

Length: 5.61 in./ 142.49 mm.

Weight: 1.41 oz./ 39.97 g.

Bowl Height: 1.92 in./ 48.77 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.63 in./ 41.40 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.74 in./ 18.80 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.48 in./ 37.59 mm. (from cheek to cheek)

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.

Loading…

Type your email…

Below are some photos of the finished Mountbatten Billiard.
A Big Ben Classic Line 702 Bent Bulldog Restoration?

October 2nd, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Have you ever wondered how to use the terms Dutch, Holland or the Netherlands? Well, this pipe may help. The pipe was made in Holland, two of twelve provinces of the country known as the Netherlands. Yeah, there are two Hollands, a north and a south. The makers of the pipe were Dutch, referring to the culture and language of the region. Okay, I have shown off my undergraduate geography major for four years quite enough for one day.

This pipe caught my eye on eBay recently. I was taken by both the shape and the price. I immediately sent Sascha Mertens a private message via Facebook, asking if it was a good deal. He replied quickly, as usual, saying that it was indeed a good deal for a relatively rare and desirable shape. He had me at “good deal”. I can’t say I place too much emphasis on popular things, I know what I like. While we are talking about Sascha, he keeps me laughing with his complaints of purchasing pipes that are very clean. Yeah, he complains when a pipe is too clean and does not provide him with the opportunity or challenge of cleaning them up himself. This pipe is a wonderful example of that. I think it had only been smoked once. I now completely understand Sascha’s disappointment. Below are some photos of the Big Ben 702 before I did any work, if you can call it that, on it.

The pipe was nearly brand new. There was some unsmoked tobacco remnants in the bowl and a very minimal residue on the rim. I cannot even call it lava. The stem was slightly oxidized due to age with maybe a few light tooth marks. The only other thing to complain about was a slight wax build-up in the beading. This was going to be an “easy button” restoration.

Background

I first searched Big Ben on pipephil.eu:

Here I found very similar stamps but no reference to the Classic Line.

(Big Ben — Pipes : Logos & Markings)

The next search was on pipedia.org. Here too, the entry was lacking specificity for the Classic Line. Well actually it was lacking pretty much everything stating only, “The brand name Big Ben was originally owned by a small trade company in Amsterdam which was already well established in several countries selling pipes among other goods. The firm was bought by Elbert Gubbels & Zonen B.V. – see Gubbels – who were in search for a suitable brand name to further expansion on international markets.

Big Ben became Gubbels’ mainstay brand with it’s own website” (Big Ben – Pipedia).

I did follow the link from pipedia.org to the Gubbbels’ website: Want to buy a Big Ben pipe? The best tobacco pipes since 1870 – bigben. This site was a nice shopping and informational site. I found the most impressive thing was that they opened the workshop up to the public every Friday from 10:00am-4:00pm. Here in the US, that would likely meet with stern warnings from Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

“Our store is open every Friday! We cordially invite you to take a look at our production workshop. In our store you will find a wide range of Big Ben pipes in all shapes and colors. If your ideal pipe is not listed, we may be able to manufacture a pipe especially for you! Light maintenance of your beloved old pipe can usually be done on site.

Making a pipe requires craftsmanship, a lot of fingerspitzengefühl and experience in working with the unpredictable and capricious material: the root of the Erica Arborea, better known as briar wood. Formed by the rocky bottom of the Mediterranean region, this noble and beautifully textured wood contributes its 50 to 80 years of growth to the value of the pipe. We are proud to be able to tell you the whole story – from carrot to tobacco pipe!

We are open every Friday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. On all other days you can visit us by appointment.

We look forward to seeing you in Beegden (Limburg)!” (Want to buy a Big Ben pipe? The best tobacco pipes since 1870 – bigben)

There was also a very nice history of the company and a look into their future. It is quite detailed so I will not include it here but this link will take you there if you are interested in a very interesting history.

The Restoration

The restoration began with a clean denim piece which I felt certain would remain clean upon finishing.

I lexamined the tobacco chamber more closely under the bright lights of the workbench. Only smoked once or twice, was my conclusion.

The look down the mortise reaffirmed my thinking.

The reaming of this tobacco chamber only required a brass bore brush, from a 20 guage shotgun and a light scrape from the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer.

I swabbed out the chamber with an alcohol dipped cotton swab. Below you can see that the reaming only produced a tiny bit of carbon and a few flakes of tobacco.

The shank was cleaned out using 99% ethyl alcohol on cotton swabs.
These too, came back with little grime.

The stem was cleaned with alcohol and a bristle pipe cleaner.

I used a dental scraper to clear the majority of the wax that was built-up in the bead around the bowl.

The light residue on the rim was removed with saliva and a cotton make-up pad.

I took the stummel to the sink for what was probably an unnecessary scrubbing with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush.
Some habits are hard to break.
The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench, the stem had a slight residue, likely from the airway cleaning.

I rubbed the stem with alcohol on a make-up pad and did get some oxidized vulcanite from the surface.

The stem was taken to the buffer where it was buffed with a blue buffing compound.
This removed any additional oxidation along with the slight tooth chatter.
It also dulled the bright silver of the stem logo.

To replace the silver, I used Silver Leaf Rub’nBuff. Before applying the fresh silver, I cleaned the logo with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol.

The silver leaf was applied and hand-buffed with a soft cotton cloth.

The resulting fresh silver was back to its original bright finish.

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

The final step was another hand buff with the microfiber polishing cloth.

This beautiful Big Ben Classic Line 702 did not need very much work. I love the shape and the balance of this pipe. It fits my hand well and clenches like a dream. The contrast dye was well done at the factory and really accentuates the briar. THe bright nickel accent on the stem goes very nicely with the silver stem logo. This is just a classy comfortable pipe that I am glad to add to my personal collection. The dimensions of the Big Ben Classic Line 702 are:

Length: 4.74 in./ 120.40 mm.

Weight: 1.48 oz./ 41.96 g.

Bowl Height: 1.97 in./ 50.04 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.57 in./ 39.88 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.68 in./ 17.27 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.63 in./ 41.40 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.

Loading…

Type your email…

Below are some photos of the finished Big Ben Classic Line 702.
A Thompson Block Meerschaum Billiard Restoration

September 30th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I have thought, “a billiard is a billiard”. I’ll admit that it is not my favorite shape for a pipe. Sure it is a classic and probably the most popular of pipe shapes, with its cylindrical bowl perpendicular to a round shank. Symmetrically, the shank and bowl are proportional, giving the pipe a look of balanced elegance. This Thompson billiard has all of those characteristics though its shank is more stout or substantial than a typical billiard. This trait reminded me of a Peterson pipe, renowned for their more substantial shanks. Perhaps that is what drew me to this particular pipe. That and the fact that I was able to get a high quality British-made block meerschaum pipe for quite a reasonable bid. Below are some photos taken of the pipe prior to any work done.

The pipe was in great shape, sure there were a couple of chips on the stummel but that added character to the pipe. The bowl had a light cake built up which would have to be carefully reamed but the rim looked pristine. The stem appeared slightly pitted. I do not know if that was the intended look or if that was a product of aging. Either way it would be sanded and polished. The shank end appeared to be very clean and the stem had no tooth chatter. This looked like an easy restoration.

Background

Having restored a few meerschaums I immediately thought that this specimen had to be a Laxey Pipe Ltd. product. I knew of no other British meerschaum makers. I tried searching for “Thompson” on both pipedia.org and pipephil.eu and came up with nothing. I then went to rebornpipes.com, Steve Laug’s catalog of restorations would certainly contain some information. It did: Thompson Meerschaum Pipes | rebornpipes. In this blog entry Steve references a restoration done by Dal Stanton, Diving into the Provenance of a Thompson Genuine Block Meerschaum GT. Britain Brandy – The Pipe Steward. I will use Dal’s research as the best source of information regarding the Thompson Block Meerschaum and quote it below:

“My research on the origins of the Thompson Block Meerschaum name can be summarized like this: It was made with African Meerschaum from the Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation (Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation – Pipedia) and produced by Laxey Pipe Ltd. on the Isle of Man. This conclusion was deduced from comments made about Thompson from various pipe forum threads. Here is one example from Pipesmagazine.com (2012) among several that I found that demonstrates what I have found generally:

@tschiraldi – Thanks! It’s my understanding that the Thompson Meerschaum pipes were made by the Manx Meerschaum Company on the Isle of Mann (Great Britain). Back story is that my 3x Great Grandfather was Sir Hall Caine who was a famous author known as the Manx Man and lived on the Isle of Mann. I thought it would be cool to own a pipe made by the Manx Meerschaum Company which was made on the Isle of Mann. Just thought it was interesting.

“It’s my understanding…” is the key idea. I found several comments with the assumption that Thompson Block Meerschaum pipes were produced by ‘Manx’ or ‘Laxey’ – the same producer. When doing the research on James’ first commission, I discovered that the Laxey Co. produced the Peterson’s Meerschaum. Here is the Pipedia information on Laxey Pipes Ltd.:

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

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

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

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

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

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

In this article from Pipedia, there is no direct mention of Thompson Block Meerschaum however, it was left open that there were other brands produced from the 1960s until 2001 beyond those mentioned – Peterson, Barling, and Nording.

I tend to agree with the sentiments of the Thompson Block Meerschaum pipes being produced by Laxey. Why? First, with the COM being ‘GT. Britain’ leaves few options (if any) of a Meer block being produced other than on the Isle of Man. Secondly, the Thompson on the worktable resembles other products of Laxey with the smokestack coloring and the usual stamping: “Genuine Block Meerschaum”. Here are examples of Laxey pipes including our Thompson.” (Diving into the Provenance of a Thompson Genuine Block Meerschaum GT. Britain Brandy – The Pipe Steward)

Thank you Dal for doing a bang-up job on the research for the Thompson Genuine Block Meerschaum pipes.

The Restoration

As usual the pipe received a cleaned denim piece for protecting it and the workbench.

The threads cut into the meerschaum were far from smooth but they looked remarkably clean. I figured after a thorough cleaning I would use a light coating of petroleum jelly to ease the threading of the tenon.

Below you can see the finish of the stem. It almost had a sandblast-like fishing, not unattractive but I thought a gloss would look more elegant.

The reaming was done with only the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper.

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

The stummel was scrubbed with Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton hand towel. It was set in a pipe stand and allowed to dry for an hour after the scrub.

I did not want to round the edges of the stem nor did I was to handle the stummel until it had been given a fresh beeswax coating so I used a wood block with a hole drilled for sanding.

The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 320-1500 grits. Between sponges the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.

After an hour I started prepping the beeswax. I use a water bath on the stovetop to heat the beeswax. The hot water keeps the wax liquified for a longer period of time and I don’t have to worry about overheating the wax as it never gets above 212F or 100 c.

The stummel was heated using a heat gun. The metal tin in the photo below is used to catch wax that drips from the stummel as it is applied with a small paintbrush.

The tobacco chamber was plugged using a cork and the shank plugged with the stem. The hot beeswax was applied with several coats and the stummel rotated around the heat gun constantly. Upon finishing, I wiped the stummel with a clean dry paper towel. The stummel was then allowed to cool over about 15 minutes.

Once cooled, I wrapped the shank in masking tape to protect it from sanding. I continued with the series of sanding sponges from 2000-3500 grits with oiling and wiping as above.

The stem was then micro-meshed with pads 4000-12000. I rubbed the stem with Obsidian Oil between pads and wiped with a paper towel.

The stem was then buffed with a blue buffing compound.

After the remaining buffing compound had been wiped from the pipe and the tape removed the pipe received several coats of carnauba wax on the stem and a light buffing of the stummel.

The final step was another hand buff with the microfiber polishing cloth.

This lovely Thompson Block Meerschaum Billiard is a fine example of Tanganyika African meerschaum. The mineral does not have the same fine grain and brilliant white of the Turkish meerschaum but it does have a character all its own, almost like a rustic version of the Turkish mineral. The fumed rim gives way to a buttery cream color which will change with use and form a truly individual pipe. The stem started out with a more rough texture. This was sanded and finished to a high gloss black which stands out against the light meerschaum. The dimensions of the Thompson Block Meerschaum Billiard are:

Length: 6.00 in./ 152.40 mm.

Weight: 1.72 oz./ 48.76 g.

Bowl Height: 1.90 in./ 48.26 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.54 in./ 39.12 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.74 in./ 18.80 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.44 in./ 36.58 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.

Loading…

Type your email…

Below are some photos of the finished Thompson Block Meerschaum Billiard.
A Peterson Croydon Square 42 Apple Restoration

September 25th, 2025
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I remember reading my first Sherlock Holmes in middle school, The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I loved the idea of a mystery, even though I knew about the great detective, the solution to the mystery was all new to me. I feel that way about this pipe, a Peterson Croydon Square 42. I had above average knowledge of Peterson pipes but had not heard of the Croydon Square line. Where would this mystery lead me?

The pipe was another single target eBay acquisition. I paid more than I really wanted to but it was a specimen that I had not seen before and I wanted to work on it. After a quick trip from LaGrange, Georgia to the wilds of southeast Nebraska, I had my prize. The photos below show the pipe prior to any work.

The Croydon Square looked like a well loved and used pipe. The restoration looked straight forward; cleaning, reaming, sanding of the stummel, deoxidation of the stem with sanding and polish. There did not appear to be any glaring issues with this old pipe, just use and time.

Background

Being unfamiliar with London, I’d not heard of Croydon nor of Croydon Square. I am familiar with Peterson pipes though, yet Croydon was an unfamiliar line of Petersons to me. I first wanted some information about the geography.

(London Borough of Croydon – Wikipedia)

Apparently Croydon dates back to:
- Croydon was first recorded in 809 CE as the site of a Saxon minster church. It later grew into a major medieval market town.
- Surrey Street Market has traded since 1276, making it one of the UK’s oldest continually operating markets.
- Croydon Palace and Addington Palace served as archbishops’ residences for over 500 years, notably under John Whitgift.
- Croydon Aerodrome pioneered international passenger flights and established the world’s first air traffic control tower.
- Modern Croydon blends cultural venues, a tram network and major office space, anchored by Fairfield Halls and St George’s House.
(Croydon’s History | Saxon Settlement to South London Hub)

With my curiosity settled on that account, I turned my gerbil-like attention to the pipe. I cannot give Kapp and Peterson the credit they are due. In the most comprehensive guide to the history of Peterson Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg wrote a wonderful book The Peterson Pipe (Irwin, Mark and Malmberg, Gary. The Peterson Pipe; The Story of Kapp and Peterson. 2018, Briar Books Press, Canada. First edition, second printing.). According to Irwin and Malmberg, the legacy of Peterson as “the world’s oldest continuously operating briar pipe maker” (Irwin, p. 3). This is a treasure trove of information for those interested in Peterson pipes. It is currently “sold out” from The Peterson Pipe Book (Softcover) | Smokingpipes.com.

As complete a guide to Peterson pipes as this book is, it was lacking in much information regarding the Croydon pipe in hand. I was able to glean additional information from Mark Irwin’s Peterson Pipe Notes (PPN) (Peterson Pipe Notes – Peterson Pipe Notes: Celebrating Peterson Pipes). Within the blog entry, “136. Filling the Gap: The 1939 Rogers Import Peterson Catalog & Download” (136. Filling the Gap: The 1939 Rogers Import Peterson Catalog & Download – Peterson Pipe Notes), I read the following:

“I’m also happy to report that a few revisions of the book are now in order. That didn’t take long, did it? So get out your pencil, it’s time to annotate your copy: (1) The Croydon Square origin date is given as 1949 in the book, as we only had an RDTA Almanac an unhallmarked specimen to go by. But now—surprise!—it’s clear that the line was being made as early as ’39. (The similarity between the name of Croydon Square and Trafalgar Square also has me wondering if the latter didn’t replace the former at some point.) (2) We can also pencil in ’39 as the earliest documented date (so far) for the Captain Pete. (3) The ad copy in the catalog also suggests that, at this date, the line was made exclusively at the London factory. (4) And if that’s not enough, at the beginning of the “N” section in the Information Guide, you can write, “An N prefacing two-digit shape numbers of English-made pipes refers to a natural finish.”” (136. Filling the Gap: The 1939 Rogers Import Peterson Catalog & Download – Peterson Pipe Notes)

In the above quote from Mark Irwin, the “RDTA” refers to “Retail Tobacco Dealers of America. The forerunner of the current Premium Cigar Association with a few name changes in between.” (Mark Irwin, personal communication. September 22, 2025). Don’t worry, I had no idea what it meant either. I emailed Mark and got a quick reply. The PPN blog also had the following page from a 1939 Roger’s catalog:

(136. Filling the Gap: The 1939 Rogers Import Peterson Catalog & Download – Peterson Pipe Notes)

AHA, specific historical information about the Croydon Square pipe was at hand. This put the pipe’s provenance from at least 1939 to ? and also the shape 42. Although this information led to more questions. There is no mention or illustration of fishtail stems, only P-lips. The pipe in hand had been smoked quite a bit leading me to the thought that the stem of this pipe may be a replacement.

In The Peterson Pipe, where the London production of pipes is discussed at length, was another interesting piece of information. Here, Irwin and Malmberg say, “Apparently, the London factory did not order a MADE IN ENGLAND die until after the war. Any Peterson stamped with an English COM must be no older than the later 1940s” (Irwin, p.150). If it is assumed that this pipe was not stamped due to there not being a stamp available then it would date from 1939-late 1940s. If it was merely not stamped with a COM then it is assumed to be made during the years of pipe production at the London factory 1936-1962. I prefer to think that it is due to the former. This is actually a selfish desire to have the dates of production to be a more definitive late 1930s-late 1940s. I know, too much conjecture…

The Restoration

The restoration began with a clean denim piece protecting both the work surface and the pipe.

I began with the stem. This was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners and 99% ethyl alcohol.

The stem was then submerged in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover (deox). It bathed for 18 hours.

In the meantime, I worked on the stummel. The ream team was gathered.

The PipNet #1 and #2 blades were both put to use. The General triangular scarper was also used to do some cleanup of the tobacco chamber and the rim.

Below is a photo of the tobacco chamber after the reaming.

The chamber was then sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. No damage to the chamber was observed.

The rim however was encased in a layer of lava.

The lava was softened with saliva and scraped with the blade of a sharp pocket knife.

Next came the shank airway cleaning. Again the 99% ethyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners were used. There was also a good deal of scraping with a dental scraper and use of a nylon shank brush.

I was not completely happy with my efforts to rid the airway of the residue of tar and general yuck. I thought an alcohol and cotton treatment would do the airway some good. The tobacco chamber and the airway were stuffed with cotton.

99% ethyl alcohol was applied via a disposable pipette to the cotton until it was saturated. This took about 10 ml of alcohol.

The alcohol was allowed to evaporate overnight. This allowed the alcohol to dissolve the tars and transfer them to the cotton as the alcohol evaporated. The next day the cotton was stained, telling me the process worked.

The cotton was removed and the airway was cleaned again. The below photo shows the 2nd cleaning and the tars that were removed after the overnight cotton alcohol treatment.

The stummel was then 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 a make-up pad dipped in ethyl alcohol.

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

The stem was then worked with Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads to remove more of the oxidation.

I then oiled the stem with a liberal coating of mineral oil and let the stem sit for several hours. Oh yeah, I also ran a pipe cleaner through the stem and oiled the interior as well.

The rim looked far better but still rather rough. I thought that a light topping was in order.

The topping was done with 320 sandpaper laid on a flat counter top followed by a piece of 400 sandpaper. This revealed two additional areas of concern. A deeper dent or ding in the inner rim (about 5:00) and a hairline crack (at about 7:00).

I used a wood sphere wrapped in sandpaper to reestablish the inner rim bevel and smooth the rim.

I deemed the crack to be superficial and not structurally important. It was given a dab of Thin cyanoacrylate (CAl super glue) to seal it and was topped a second time with the 400 sandpaper. The ding was filled by packing it with briar dust and then applying a small drop of CA. This was repeated a second time. The wooden sphere and sandpaper was used to smooth the fill and the rim was topped again with the 400 sandpaper.

The stamps were taped off with masking tape to protect them from sanding.

I prefer asymmetrical pieces of tape because they leave a less noticeable mark on the briar where sanding was not done.

The first two sanding sponges used were the 320 and 400 grit. Sanding with these two showed me where several dents and pits were. All of these blemishes were small so they were filled by placing a tiny drop of Thin CA on the spot and sanding it with a very dirty sanding sponge. By dirty, I mean a sponge that has a large amount of briar dust on it. Even with the extra briar dust sometimes the CA gets onto the sanding sponge. This can be seen below as the dark spots on the sponges.

The small fills were sanded with 324 and 400grit sponges.

Below are some photos of the fills after they’d been filled.

The pipe was then sanded with the full series of sanding sponges from 320 -3500 grit. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol. The stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a dry paper towel.

The pipe was then worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. The wiping of the stem and stummel was done as with the sanding sponges except the stem was rubbed with Obsidian Oil.

I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed it with blue buffing compound.

After wiping any remaining buffing compound from the pipe it was given a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for an hour. Why an hour? Because I got side-tracked with another project.

The excess balm was wiped away using an inside out athletic sock.

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

The final step was another hand buff with the microfiber polishing cloth then off to the final photo shoot.

This beautiful Peterson’s Croydon Square 42 is a great example of Peterson’s English workmanship. The stain of the original pipe was maintained and gives the pipe a slight contrast-dye look. It was finished with careful sanding and just carnauba wax. The stem sanded and polished to a gorgeous glossy luster. Though lacking any stunning briar grain there is some nice flame grain on the rear left. The dimensions of the Peterson’s Croydon Square 42 are:

Length: 5.67 in./ 144.02 mm.

Weight: 0.95 oz./ 26.93 g.

Bowl Height: 1.43 in./ 36.32 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.25 in./ 31.75 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.71 in./ 18.03 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.37 in./ 34.80 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.

Loading…

Type your email…

Below are some photos of the finished Peterson Croydon Square 42.
A Peterson Captain Pete Made in England Restoration

September 12th, 2025

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Loading…

My affection toward Peterson pipes is hardly a secret, you could even say that I wear it on my sleeve. Though it is more literally on my hat.

That said, I have restored dozens of Peterson pipes and I always enjoy doing it even when it is more of a pursuit of folly trying to salvage a very abused old implement rather than refreshing someone’s dear old frien.The subject of this blog is a Captain Pete I found last May on eBay. I probably paid more for it that I’d like to admit and certainly more than what I would have 3 years ago. Regardless, after a short trip from Englewood, Florida the not so lovely old pipe arrived. The stampings were mostly clear and read “CAPTAIN (0ver) PETERSON” on the top left shank. I’m not sure why the Peterson stamp folks like their quotation marks but they seem to. The stem was stamped with a worn and paint worn-off circled C. On the right shank the stamp read “A PETERSON PRODUCT” over MADE IN ENGLAND with an offset 046. The country of manufacture (COM) stamp is what intrigued me the most. More on that in the “Background”. The photos below show the pipe prior to any work.

This pipe appeared to look rough. The stem was severely oxidized, I feared saving the logo would be difficult at best. The bowl had been reamed but not very well. There was a layer of lava on the rim which looked like it had been removed and redeposited. I think what was thinking is that this l pipe appeared to have been smoked a lot but kind of kept up and cleaned on occasion.

Background

Back on December 21, 2023 I wrote a blog about a Captain Peterson apple. That blog is linked for those interested. In that blog I said the following about the Captain Peterson line:

“I highly recommend the book The Peterson Pipe, by authors Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg as well as a reading of pipedia.com’s Peterson pages. According to Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg, the Captain Pete:

“This line’s name was derived from the nickname of Charles Peterson, known affectionately as “Captain Peterson.” The first issue, c. 1940-62, was in a smooth finish produced for Rogers Imports with a white stamped P inside C, or a circled P on the mouthpiece. CAPTAIN over PETE on shank, and a MADE IN IRELAND in a circle. English made versions show CAPTAIN over PETE on shank or “CAPTAIN PETERSON” and A PETERSON PRODUCT over MADE IN ENGLAND or LONDON MADE over ENGLAND. The second issue (1998-), features an XL bowl with Sherlock Holmes shapes and compact stems, in rustic or combination of smooth and rustic, with a nickel band between two narrow brass bands.” (Irwin and Malmberg p.295)” (A Peterson Captain Pete Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek)

This example of a Captain Peterson is described above and likely dates from 1940-62 and was made in London. These dates can be further narrowed down by reading p.149-150 in The Peterson Pipe, where the London production of pipes is discussed at length. Here, Irwin and Malmberg say, “Apparently, the London factory did not order a MADE IN ENGLAND die until after the war. Any Peterson stamped with an English COM must be no older than the later 1940s” (Irwin, p.150). This would mean that this pipe dates from 1945-1962 as 1962 was when Peterson shuttered the London factory.

The Restoration

After the before photos the pipe made its way to the workbench and a clean denim piece.

I began work with the stem due to thinking that the stem would require the greatest amount of time. The cleaning was done with bristle pipe cleaners and 95% ethyl alcohol. The stem was very fouled with tar and smoking residue.

The stem has some tooth chatter on the bit above the button on both the top and bottom surfaces as the two below photos show in all of their poorly focused glory.

The bits of the top and bottom surface were filed with a small slat file to remove most of the chatter.

The stem was suspended in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover solution and allowed to soak for 24 hours. This solution is lovingly referred to as deox.

The next day the stem was removed and rubbed with a coarse shop rag. This removed a great deal of the oxidized vulcanite and can be seen on the rag in the photo below.

The airway of the stem was again cleaned with alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaners.

I was pleased to see that the logo stamped on the stem remained intact after the time in deox.

To further reduce the amount of oxidized vulcanite, I rubbed the stem with Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads. The oxidized vulcanite can be seen darkly coloring the pads.

The stem was oiled with mineral oil to keep the vulcanite from further oxidation.

The tooth chatter that was not filed from the bite zone was filled with black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). This was spritzed with a CA drying accelerator. The hardened CA was then filed with a small flat file to smooth and reshape the stem.

The shank of the pipe was wrapped with masking tape to protect the briar and allow me a handle while sanding. The stem logo was also masked for its protection. The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from grits 400-2000. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel to remove sanding debris.

The sanding continued through the 3500 grit sponge with oiling and wiping as above.

The stem was buffed using blue buffing compound on a low speed buffer with a flannel wheel dedicated to the blue compound.

The stem was wiped of any residual buffing compound and the logo area cleaned with alcohol on a cotton swab. I used a white acrylic model paint to repaint the imprint of the logo.

The white acrylic dried quickly and was hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth to remove the paint from the stem outside of the stamp.

The sequence of this restoration had me a bit out of sorts, but it was apparently time for the reaming. The tools were gathered.

The Pipnet #2 blade was the only one that fit and did most of the reaming. Both the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper were used but just for clean-up.

Below the reamed tobacco chamber can be seen.

The chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. I saw no signs of damage within the chamber. The lava on the rim was softened with saliva and allowed to soak for a couple minutes.

The rim was then scraped using the edge of a sharp pocket knife blade. There were some rough spots on the rim but they looked superficial and easily removed with a light topping.

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.

I packed the stummel with cotton and saturated it with 99% ethyl alcohol. This was allowed to sit overnight.

The next day the cotton was stained telling me the treatment had worked.

The cotton was removed and was far dirtier than I was used to. I could have sworn that I had cleaned the shank, yet I had no recollection of doing it. Remember when I said the sequence of this restoration had me out of sorts? It was apparently worse than I thought.

The airway was filthy and tar infested. The good news was that the tar was very soft due to the extended soaking in alcohol. The scraping with a dental scraper was very productive. The cotton swabs eventually started to lighten as more of the tars were removed.

I cannot say if this was a superior order to use than my normal sequence; reaming the chamber, then, clean the shank airway then alcohol/cotton treatment is needed for ghosting of severe dirtiness. In this case it worked well. The softening of the tar did make for easier cleaning.

There were several small dents, scratches or pits on the surface of the stummel. These revealed themselves more and I had started sanding. I had covered the stamps with masking tape for their protection. For the fills, I applied small amounts of thin CA using a long narrow applicator on the CA bottle. Immediately after application I used a dust sanding sponge to sand the fill area. The sanding sponge supplied the briar dust to join with the CA and for a fill. This method only works if the spots to be filled are very small and the sander has total disregard for their sanding sponges as some of the CA and briar dust will certainly get on the sponge making it have nonabrasive spots. I wonder if I will ever learn to use a piece of sandpaper like I did before I had sanding sponges. The next three photos show the fills.

The stummel was then sanded with the full series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. The stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol between each sponge

I removed the masking tape and cleaned any adhesive left behind by the tape. I then worked the stummel with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. Again I wiped the stummel between pads with alcohol on a make-up pad.

The stummel was coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit while I went out in search of a couple of evening Largemouth bass. This is also called my stroll with a pole and of course a pipe.

About an hour and a half later I returned and wiped the remaining Restoration Balm from the stummel with an inside out athletic sock. There is the photobombing fishing pipe lurking in the background. If you are curious it is a Peterson 127.

The pipe was taken to the buffer where a couple of coats of carnauba wax were applied.

I carefully dragged a knife blade around the beading to remove accumulated wax from the grooves. The final step was another hand buff with the microfiber polishing cloth then off to the final photo shoot.

This beautiful English made Captain Peterson 046 bulldog is a great example of post World War Two English workmanship. The walnut stain of the original pipe was maintained and was finished with careful sanding and just carnauba wax. The stem was deoxidized, sanded and polished to a gorgeous glossy luster. Though lacking any stunning briar grain the wood is solid and the few dents from wear were filled with minimal disruption to the original. The dimensions of the Peterson Captain Peterson Made in England 046 bulldog are:

Length: 5.71 in./ 145.03 mm.

Weight: 1.62 oz./ 45.93 g.

Bowl Height: 1.96 in./ 49.78 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.65 in./ 41.91 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.73 in./ 18.54 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.64 in./ 62.89 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.

Loading…

Type your email…

Below are some photos of the finished Peterson Captain Peterson Made in England 046 bulldog.

I did not want to affect the stamps here, so the existing scratches were not sanded away like I would have preferred to do.
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.

Loading…

Type your email…

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

Loading…

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.

Loading…

Type your email…

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

Loading…

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.

Loading…

Type your email…

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.