You could call this little pipe a Custom-Bilt knock off. This pipe is stamped SHORT over SNORTER on the left shank. It has that very Custom-Bilt look to it but it is diminutive. It reminds me of Dr. Evil and Mini-Me from the Austin Powers movies.
The term “short snorter” according to Google Is less comic,
“Origin: The tradition began before World War II, with bush pilots in Alaska signing bills as a sign of good luck and a way to remember their travels.
Meaning and Purpose:
“Snort” was slang for a shot of liquor, and “short” meant a smaller amount, so a “short snorter” was a way to remember a small drink or a flight”.
This pipe would certainly be that, a short smoke allowed by a small pipe. Below are some photos taken before I did anything but remove the stinger.
The pipe looks to be in good condition. There were still tobacco remnants in the tobacco chamber. The cake and the lava on the rim suggested the pipe had seen use. The stinger was quite stuck in the stem before I took the above photos. I had to soak the tenon for about 30 minutes and did quite a bit of wiggling of the stinger as I held it between the fold in a piece of leather and pliers. There were a couple of spots which needed to be filled and of course the usual cleaning.
Background
I really have no idea who made this pipe. Searches for “Short Snorter” yielded nothing on both pipedia.org and pipephil.eu. The big Custom-Bilt book, “Individual as a Thumbprint” The Custon-Bilt Pipe Story by William E. Unger also makes no mention of the Short Snorter though it does discuss a marketing scheme where a person could pick up a miniature pipe and a gift certificate for a person. The person could then keep the miniature pipe and exchange the certificate for the pipe that they wanted from the retailer.
I searched Short Snorter in the blog posts of Steve Laug (it’s a rare day when I restore a pipe brand that Steve has not worked with) there I came across a restoration by Dal Stanton, “Short Snorter Imported Briar” (https://rebornpipes.com/tag/short-snorter-pipe/). Dal’s search for information on the Short Snorter was more productive but not by much,
“In the little I found on the internet about the Short Snorter, it is described as a nose burner or as a pocket pipe, but most often with other shapes than the horn. Steve looked up the Short Snorter in the book, Who Made That Pipe, and it indicates that it was made by Weber or Wally Frank. With that information, I looked at old Wally Frank catalogues, but did not see the Short Snorter. I suppose the name is apropos, but I think a lady pipe smoker would give this pipe a look see.” (https://rebornpipes.com/tag/short-snorter-pipe/)
In conclusion the Short Snorter appears to have been made by Weber of Wally Frank after World War Two. I say after WWII because of the IMPORTED BRIAR stamping which was something added to reassure customers that briar was once again used in the pipe.
The Restoration
The restoration began with the stinger taking a dip in a medicine cup of 95% ethyl alcohol and the pipe proper, getting a cleaned piece of denim.
Ithen wiped a bristle pipe cleaner with toothpaste and clamped one end in the vice. I pushed the other end through the stem and buffed the airway with the toothpaste enriched pipe cleaner.
The tooth chatter was filed with a small flat file to remove the dents.
I turned my attention to the stummel. The dental scraper got quite a workout here removing the crunchy caked tar and smoking residues. Alcohol dipped pipe cleaners and cotton swabs were also used.
The reaming was surprisingly productive for such a small pipe.
Once reamed, the interior of the tobacco chamber looked good and showed no signs of heat damage.
Next came the scrubbing of the stummel’s exterior. This was done with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.
I used the make-up pad to scrub a little bit more on the rim to get rid of the remaining lava.
There were two areas which I thought needed to be filled. One small sand pit where the shank met the bowl. The pit was small and I thought that it would fill with brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue).
The other area was on the rin and right side. This area required CA and briar dust to fill the gap on the rim and CA alone on the side.
I allowed the CA to cure and filed the shank fill with a half-round file.
The rim and right side needed to be retextured to match the existing rustication or carvings. I did this with a rotary tool and a small carving bit.
Below you can see where the fills look like a crack. This was only superficial and did not penetrate through the side wall of the bowl.
The re-rusticated carvings looked good as I attempted to match the contours of the original carving.
The rim recarvings were nearly unnoticeable.
The shank was taped with masking tape to protect it from the stem sanding. I wanted the stem and stummel intact for the sanding to avoid any rounding of the joint between the two.
A series of sanding sponges from 40-3500 were used in sequence. Between each sponge I rubbed mineral oil onto the stem and wiped it with a dry paper towel to remove sanding debris.
The stem was then worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000 grit. Between each of these pads I applied a small drop of Mark Hoover’s new Hard Rubber Balm, rubbed this onto the stem and wiped the stem with a paper towel.
The stummel then received a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and was set aside to what I thought would be 15-20 minutes. It turned out to be the next morning.
The next morning I hand buffed the remaining Restoration Balm from the stummel with an inside out athletic sock.
The pipe was then taken to the buffer where it received several coats of carnauba wax on the stem and smooth surfaces of the stummel.
The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.
This little pipe was a fun project. I am enjoying practicing with the Dremel tool and improving my carving techniques. The blending of repairs to original rustications is a challenge which I find very enjoyable. This demure darling turned out very nicely. I have a Custom-Bilt with a near identical shape and seeing them side by side is quite amusing. The fills and re-carvings turned out beautifully and are only noticeable under serious scrutiny. The stem polished up very well with the glossy black complimenting the rustic carved rich brown of the stummel. The dimensions of the Short Snorter are:
Length: 3.92 in./ 99.57 mm.
Weight: 0.66 oz./ 18.71 g.
Bowl Height: 1.50 in./ 38.10 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.09 in./ 27.69 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.63 in./ 16.00 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.12 in./ 28.45 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…
Below are some photos of the finished Short Snorter.
I have said it before and I’ll say it again, “I blame Sascha Mertens for my Denicotea fascination.” Sascha is a pipeman from Germany and has become one of the few people that I communicate with on a near daily basis. When I asked him what shape this Denicotea is, he replied “Quaterbendzublin danish Style!
This thing is absolutely danish! Reminds me of an old Stanwell….” Hmm, “Quarterbendzublin”. That looks more like some Mayan word than anything I was familiar with but, I completely see what he was saying. I think I’ll just use the “072” though.
The previous owner was apparently not aware that they were not supposed to have a cake build-up in a meerschaum lined pipe or that wiping off the rim after a smoke is a possibility. Thus started the list of things to address with this restoration. There was one ugly fill on the left side of the shank that would have to be removed. The oxidation of the vulcanite would have to go. I was not sure how well the rim would clean-up, nor exactly what to do with the meerschaum part of the rim. Oh well, it will all get sorted out.
Background
Fortunately, for me, I have done a few Denicotea restorations. This makes the writing of this section easy. I can just recycle research from previous blogs. Yeah, I’m a Generation X slacker.
“Pipedia.org has a short article on Denicotea. I will include it here in its entirety:
“Willy Heineberg founded the company Denicotea in 1932 and began manufacturing and selling smoking accessories such as filters, filter inserts, cigarette holders and pipes.[1] The company headquarters was initially in Cologne, but was relocated to Bergisch Gladbach after the Second World War.[2]
Denicotea is actually the name of a silica gel filter, cigarette holders and care products for pipes and cigarette holders.
I still find it a bit confusing as Denicotea seems to be a company[3] and a brand as well which is operated by COMPOSING-STUDIO GmbH[4].
Brands
Adsorba
Adsorba is a fantasy series of pipes produced by Luigi Crugnola for the German market.
Aldo Morelli
Aldo Morelli is a fictional name. The brand Aldo Morelli has been registered for Denicotea on February 26th, 1992.[5]
Stefan Petzuch points out this brand appears to have similarities to the Mauro Cateni pipe brand, in particular they are both fictional Italian brands by German companies, and both have the “HAND CUT” imprint on the stem as seen bellow. This may connect the Aldo Morelli brand to Gebr. Heinemann KG in Hamburg, who had registered the Mauro Cateni brand. Or perhaps there is a connection between Denicotea and Gebr. Heinemann KG, or perhaps these pipe brands simply used “Hand Cut” stems from the same source.” (Denicotea – Pipedia)
Interesting and weird are the two qualifiers that come to mind in reading that. The four makers mentioned in the article; Luigi Crgnola, Cesare Barontini, Gig and Molina are all Italian pipe manufacturers. Where does the MADE IN ENGLAND stamp on the example on pipephil.eu or the stamp on the pipe I purchased come in, I cannot say. I can say that I am not the first person to have little success researching the origins of Denicotea pipes. Dal Stanton, who is far more diligent in his background research than I, had a French made Denicotea. He traced its origins to the St. Claude area but not to a specific maker. Dal’s blog was posted on Steve Laug’s rebornpipes.com site. Here is the link to Dal Stanton’s blog post: https://rebornpipes.com/2016/09/29/nice-find-in-plovdiv-bulgaria-denicotea-deluxe-curling-bruyere-extra/”
Now for this Denicotea 072 or as my German accomplice calls it, a “Quaterbendzublin danish Style!”, the world may never know where, when or by whom this pipe was made. I wonder if the added mystique adds to the smoking pleasure?
The Restoration
Dang, that’s a good looking pipe. Even all dirty and sitting on a cleaned piece of denim at the workbench.
I started by lightly sanding the surface oxidation from the stem. I’m not sure what to call the mortise attachment piece of vulcanite that is glued to the shank. Maybe stem one, the below and stem 2 the attached?
The stem was skewered with a pipe cleaner to act as a hanger in the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer (deox) and suspended in the solution.
Since this is a meerschaum lined pipe I relied on the Smoingpipes Low Country Reamer and the General triangular scraper for the reaming this very conical tobacco chamber.
Oh how I wish that someone had explained to the previous owner that meers could be washed out with warm water after a smoke and that cake is not a good nor necessary thing. Oh well, the scraping continued.
After the scraping and a bit of work with a 410 gauge brass bore brush, I used cotton swabs dipped in alcohol to clean the remaining cake from the meerschaum.
The lava on the rim was softened with saliva and scraped with a sharp pocket knife.
I cleaned the airway of the shank with several bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. Cotton swabs also dipped were used to clean out the mortise.
The stummel was taken to the sink where it was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stumel was dried with a cotton hand towel.
Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad. Once the alcohol had evaporated I wrapped the briar shank with masking tape to protect it from the sanding of the vulcanite part of the shank.
I wanted to preserve the logo as much as possible so a piece of Scotch tape was cut and placed over the logo. This proved tricky to sand as I didn’t want to round the edges where the vulcanite would meet the stem. I decided to give the rim top a beeswax coating to protect it from future lava and make the meerschaum more resistant to wear. I heated a small glass jar of beeswax in a pan of water on the stove top. This allows the liquid beeswax to remain liquid longer as the hot water allows the wax to cool more slowly.
The tobacco chamber was plugged with a cork. I picked up an assortment of different sized corks from Amazon and that has been much easier whenever I need to plug a chamber.
The meerschaum was heated with a heat gun then painted with liquid beeswax.
The beeswax cooled quickly and was then heated again with the heat gun. The cork remained in place. As the beeswax was remelted excess dripped off the stummel and was caught by a strategically placed tin.
The cork was removed and the rim was wiped with a clean dry paper towel.
Below is a photo of the newly rewaxed rim back at the workbench. Please ignore the photobombing S. Johnson pipe in the background.
The stem had been soaking in deox for a little over two hours. I removed it and let it drip excess solution back into the jar.
The stem was then vigorously rubbed on a coarse shop rag to rid it of remaining deox solution and some of the oxidized vulcanite.
Next the deox within the stem was cleaned out. Apparently I didn’t clean the stem prior to the deox dip. Darn old people…
The stem, both parts, were sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 320-3500 grit. Between each sponge I used Mark Hooovers new product, Hard Rubber Balm (HRB) rubbed on with my fingers and wiped off with a clean dry paper towel. Mark sent me a sample of the HRB and asked me to try it and give my impressions. So here they are, the HRB is thicker or more viscous than mineral oil. As such it tends to fold the sanding sponges more than mineral oil. A more careful wiping of the HRB from the stem with a paper towel lessens this. The fouled sponges are easily cleaned with a little bit of alcohol rubbed on with a finger tip then wiping them off on the denim surface protecting cloth. The HRB excels as a coating of stems after they have been restored. Since it is a heavier or thicker oil it should evaporate more slowly from the vulcanite. I really like how HRB works for preserving stems. How well it lasts over time is still undiscovered as I have only been using it for a couple of weeks but it looks like it is a solid competitor of Obsidian Oil and should actually last longer based on it’s properties.
The stems were then worked with micro-mesh pads in grits from 4000-12000. Again the HRB was rubbed on and wiped off between pads.
The stem was then taken to the buffer where I buffed it with white buffing compound on the dedicated white wheel.
The buffing compound was wiped from the stem and I cleaned the logo area with alcohol. I used a white acrylic modeling paint to repaint the depressions of the logo stamp.
The entire pipe was returned to the buffer where it was given several coats of carnauba wax.
The final step was a hand buffing of the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.
I think this Denicotea Quaterbendzublin Danish Style!, hmm, I just can’t do that. I think this Denicotea 072 turned out beautifully. The visual appeal is very much to my liking. The light weight along with the bend make it a very comfortable pipe to clench and the longer stem keeps the smoke out of my eyes. Though not uncomfortable in hand the pipe does not fit into my hand as well as many others. The rustications add character and seem perfect for the shape with the briar grain on the right side matching the lines of the rim. The stem polished up very well with its high gloss black accentuating the rustic mahogany of the briar. The dimensions of the Denicotea 072 are follows:
Length: 5.06 in./ 128.52 mm.
Weight: 1.42 oz./ 40.26 g.
Bowl Height 2.00 in./ 50.80 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.60 in./ 40.64 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.67 in./ 17.02 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.68 in./ 42.67 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. This one is going in the personal collection.
Loading…
Below are some photos of the finished Denicotea 072.
I love it when an attractive pipe comes across the bench that is stamped with a rather obscure maker. In this case S. Johnson and SFJ on the stem as well. Pride in workmanship and putting one’s name on a pipe is something that I find interesting. I’d never heard of S. Johnson and I have to say that this pipe was not the focus of purchasing the estate lot which it was featured in. The entire lot looked interesting and I couldn’t believe that I was the only bidder. Below is the original eBay listing photo.
The lot came to me from Ipswich, Massecheutets (dang, I can’t believe I spelled that right the first time) in mid-January of 2025. I guess not everyone gets excited about oxidized broken pipes with one missing a stem. The S. Johnson pipe had a broken acrylic stem and a reverse tenon. The stampings on the pipe were: S. JOHNSON over XXQ offset 8 on the left shank, HANDMADE over U S A on the right shank and SFJ stamped on the stem with a gold paint filling the impressed stamping. Below are some photos of the S. Johnson pipe prior to work. I was trying a white background for the initial photography of this restoration. I am unsure but generally not liking the white. Please feel free to comment.
The issues with this pipe seemed to increase upon close examination. The obvious ones were the chipped mortise and tooth marks on the stem. The plug on the bowl would require some serious investigation regarding the condition of the tobacco chamber but it looked as if it were professionally done. The reason why it was done is the thing which worried me. The exterior of the stummel looked great. I guess I need to focus on the positives and be glad I don’t have to worry about oxidized vulcanite.
Background
I was glad to see that there was information on S. Johnson on both of my “go to” pipe researching sites. I first found him mentioned on pipephil.eu. There I discovered the S. stood for Steve. Below is the pipephil.eu information.
Research stop number two was pipedia.org. Here I found a short entry and have included it in its entirety:
“Steven Johnson made his first pipe at the age of 9, as a friend had accidently dropped his pipe in a stream while fishing. This is according to an article in the Boca Raton News on May 16, 1982. It says further that by the age of 20 he had become a master pipe maker. He worked as the manager of the E. Wilke pipe shop, since 1977 was located in a large department store called John Wanamakers in Philadelphia. For his own pipes he’s reported to have produced 3 pipes a day, 6 days a week. His pipes are rare to find and are marked S. JOHNSON.
Richard Esserman, in an article entitled “Pipe Travels”, wrote of meeting Steve Johnson in 1978 at Wanamaker’s. At the time Johnson made pipes for Wilke’s in a small room right in the middle of the department store. The two became friends, and Esserman comments on one pipe going to the Wilke shop in New York City with an asking price of $500.00, a substantial sum in those days for any pipe.
In “Trial By Fire”, an article in Pipes and Tobaccos magazine by William Serad and Tad Gage, Mr. Serad speaks of Steve Johnson working as the manager of the satellite store in Philadelphia in the early 1970’s, and again offers great compliments to Mr. Johnson’s work.
Mr. Johnson is believed to have moved on from the Philadelphia Wilke’s shop to working for Zino Davidoff.
Markings: No. 1 BROAD STREET, (J.W), MADE IN ENGLAND (round stamping) made in the 1930’s-40’s timeframe reportedly by Comoy’s for the tobacco shop in the John Wanamaker department store in Philadelphia, located at No. 1 BROAD STREET. It’s stamped with the (J.W) logo and the early 1930’s-40’s circular MADE IN ENGLAND country of manufacture stamping. Here’s some info on the stamping from Trademark history: J.W. On Tuesday, April 18, 1933, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for NO. 1 BROAD STREET by JOHN WANAMAKER PHILADELPHIA, PHILADELPHIA. The USPTO has given the NO. 1 BROAD STREET trademark serial number of 71336921. Made for them by Comoy’s. The NO. 1 BROAD STREET trademark is filed in the category of Rubber Products . The description provided to the USPTO for NO. 1 BROAD STREET is SMOKING TOBACCO.” (Steven Johnson – Pipedia)
The last paragraph there was pretty much discussing the building that the pipe shops were in. I did not include the images as this blog is already a long one. So, Steven Johnson must have been a pipe making progeny and he got to live the dream of making pipes and working in pipe shops throughout the 1970s. If any of you would like to make this S. Johnson yours for $500, PLEASE say something in the comments. In all seriousness I’ll sell it for far less than $500.
The Restoration
The first step was to poorly focus on the S Johnson while it sat on a cleaned denim piece.
Next came the evaluation of stem banding material. I checked available spent cartridges for the correct size, thinking that one might look cool and the more traditional brass tubing. The diameter needed was .50 inches which coincided nicely with a 300 Winchester Short Magnum that I picked up somewhere.
The rifle case was tarnished but would polish up nicely. The question was, how to bore out the interior to fit the stem. Hmm, good thing I don’t have a lathe (said with extra sarcasm). I do know a great machinist though. I will call him Christian, because that is his name. I have employed the use of Christian’s unique skill set on other restorations here and here, if you are interested. More on Christian in a bit.
The stem had a large chip removed due to a previous break. My thought was to add a “band” to the stem, thus concealing the chipped portion and also filling it with epoxy within the band.
While considering the stem repairs I proceeded on to reaming the tobacco chamber. The tools needed were the PipNet, Smokingpipes Low Country Reamer and the General triangular scraper.
The pipNet with the #2 and #3 blades worked well for the deep chamber but (dramatic pause)
there was a good deal of extra scraping that required the General.
Eventually the chamber looked pretty well reamed. There was charring damage observed within the tobacco chamber. It was not severe but it was an issue which would require attention.
Next, the lava on the rim was addressed.
This was softened with saliva and scraped with a sharp pocket knife.
The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrubbing with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with 95% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad.
The shank was cleaned out using numerous bristle pipe cleaners dipped in the ethyl alcohol and a nylon shank brush.
I had reached out to Christian to ask when he would be available to assist with this project. The date was February 4. The project was put on hold until February 25 when I could make it to Christian’s new machine shop. Once there I showed him what my thoughts were regarding the band. He immediately thought that the cartridge would make a cooler looking band than the brass tubing or, maybe he relished the greater challenge of the cartridge.
The cartridge was measured and cut using a lathe. The edge was then slightly beveled.
I neglected to photograph the next steps, I know, loser move. I will try to explain them. A boring bar was used on the lathe to bore out the interior of the cartridge giving it an equal inside diameter with a flat bottom. This bottom would be the resting place for the end of the acrylic stem. The outside diameter of the tenon was measured and an appropriate drill bit was selected. The primer pocket was enlarged to .25 inch. The brass was then polished on Christian’s buffer.
Back at home I assembled the stem and fit it to the stemmel. Everything looked like it was coming together nicely.
Below are a couple of photos of the parts at this juncture.
I needed to build up epoxy to replace the chip on the stem. I found a surrogate stem which fit the mortise of the real stem nicely. This was greased with petroleum jelly to avoid the epoxy from sticking.
The surrogate was inserted into the stem. This would prevent the epoxy from getting in the hole meant for the tenon insert. The two part epoxy was mixed and added to the chipped area. I had to continuously rotate the stem for about 15 minutes while the epoxy was setting up.
Once the epoxy had set I removed the surrogate.
It would take the epoxy a full 24 hours to completely harden but the chip had been filled. While the epoxy was still soft I used an exacto knife to trim the edge flush with the original edge.
I could work on the tooth chatter while the epoxy was curing. I cleaned the top and bottom of the bite zone with acetone.
Once cleaned, I used Thin clean cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) to build up the tooth dents.
This was repeated on the opposite side of the stem.
The CA was allowed to cure then was filed with a small flat file and smoothed with a 400 grit sanding sponge.
Additional applications of This CA were used until the depressions were completely filled.
The airway of the stem was then cleaned using pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.
With the epoxy on the stem needing time to completely harden, I returned to working on the stummel. The rim had some charring that I wanted to remove. This was done by lightly topping the pipe.
A piece of 220 sandpaper was laid flat on the counter and the rim sanded using a figure 8 motion. I rotated the stummel in my hand and repeated the sanding a few times.
The topped rim looked much improved.
The next day I couldn’t help but think I was mistaken about the reverse tenon of this stem. I gripped the tenon insert with a jaw-taped pliers and gave it a twist. The tenon insert came out. I felt kind of dumb for not realizing that the tenon of this pipe was completely normal and that the tenon insert was not reverse but that the broken stem had merely released the gluck holding the tenon insert in the stem. DOH!
I used the two drill bits in the above photo to clear and clean the hole in the stem. The brass was roughened up with a piece of 80 grit emery cloth to allow epoxy to better adhere.
The tenon insert was test fitted to the stem. The airway looked very nice and clear.
The tenon insert was roughened up with the emery cloth again to allow better contact with epoxy.
The brass was thoroughly cleaned with acetone. The epoxy was mixed and applied to the tenon insert and to the brass.
The tenon insert was seated into place.
A pipe cleaner was run through the airway from the button out through the tenon insert to clear any epoxy which may have intruded.
The excess epoxy was removed using a cotton swab then was wiped clean with a soft cotton cloth wetted with acetone.
Next came the sanding of the briar. The stamps were both masked with painters tape for their protection.
The tape was cut in slightly irregular shapes to better conceal the lack of sanding immediately around the stamps.
The inner rim was beveled by sanding it with a small wood ball wrapped in 220 sandpaper to mask the slight rim charing.
The exterior of the stummel was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from grits 400-3500. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad moistened with ethyl alcohol.
The stummel was then worked with micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000 grit. Between each pad the stummel was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad.
The stummel received a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and was set aside for 15 minutes to allow the balm to work its magic.
The excess balm was wiped away with an inside out athletic sock.
The brass and stem were buffed using white compound on the buffer.
I wanted to revitalize the gold which the stem logo had. I used Run’nBuff Gold Leaf for this. The metallic wax was applied with a fly tying bodkin and buffed with a soft cloth.
The surrounding area was then cleaned of any gold using a cotton swab dipped in acetone.
The pipe then received several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer.
To address the charring of the tobacco chamber, I decided to give the pipe a bowl coating. I applied a light coating of 100% pure maple syrup to the interior with my finger tip. I ran a pipe cleaner up to the inner edge of the chamber via the mortise. This would act as a plug to keep the charcoal dust out of the airway.
A capsule of activated charcoal powder was then dumped into the chamber and placed a piece of painters tape over the rim.
The stummel was shaken for over a minute. The shaking was interrupted by me tapping the stummel on the denim covered workbench from several different sides. The goal was to evenly disperse the carbon powder. The tape was removed and the excess charcoal was dumped in the trash. I then blew air through the shank and avoided the black cloud of dust.
The final step was to hand buff the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.
This was a long restoration with several interesting twists. The whole misidentification of the reverse tenon made me feel foolish. I am not sure why the bowl was plugged. The interior of the tobacco chamber showed some light charing but did not show signs of excessive scraping. The plug looks very professionally done with a minimal footprint. The finish on the pipe with the checkering is interesting and something I think of with rifle stocks and not pipes. It does make the 300 Winchester Short Magnum brass more appropriate though.The color of the acrylic stem blends in well with the brass. Overall it turned out as a very large beautiful billiard which will hopefully give someone many more years of enjoyment. The dimensions of the S. Johnson 8 are follows:
Length: 8.76 in./ 222.50 mm.
Weight: 2.27 oz./ 64.36 g.
Bowl Height: 2.74 in./ 69.60 mm. (bowl only) 1.70 in. / 43.18mm (with tube)
Chamber Depth: 2.58 in./ 65.53 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.84 in./ 21.34 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.47 in./ 37.39 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. Oh, I almost forgot. I do not like the white background. Perhaps it’s my lighting but, I find the black better for me and my photography.
Loading…
Below are some photos of the finished S. Johnson 8.
I think my fascination with metal pipes began with Falcons. I always thought they looked cool. As a kid, I remember the next door neighbor, Joe Chase, always smoking a pipe while working on his yard and they were frequently Falcons or Vikings (my memory isn’t too specific). Later in life I tried the Falcon and appreciated the convenience of bowl swapping and easy cleaning. Even later, I started dabbling with restorations and researching the history of various pipes and their makers. This led me to http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/ when it was run by Tony Pringle. Tony proved to be very helpful in response to my questions via email. Doug Bisbe has taken the reins of the smokingmetal site, with Tony’s retirement from the arena, and is incredibly knowledgeable and helpful in providing information about metal pipes. As for this alluring aluminum darling, it came to me as part of a “grab bag” I asked Steve Laug to assemble for me consisting of metal pipes. I wanted to try improving my skills and techniques working on metal. Steve and his brother, Jeff, enabled this with a fun bunch of metal artifacts, this unmarked specimen included. When the unmarked pipe arrived it was photographed and appeared as below.
Background
How the heck do you research an unmarked metal pipe? Well, fortunately there is a site for that. Unfortunately, it does require you to do a lot of clicking and comparing. The site is http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/index.html. That is where I started. Now, I admit to having spent a good deal of time here on previous occasions so, I could narrow down the list of things to click. They also have a header with categories to help you find or narrow things down.
I was searching for a metal pipe with a screw through the bowl. So I began clicking on pipes which met those criteria. This led me to the following:
“unknown – MST – 20” Now, you may think the MST is short for Mystery but no. Metal Stem Through is far more likely. The text for this page is as follows as are the three images:
“Plastic bit, bowl that appears to be Bryson, certainly compatible. No markings
Two seen with DANCO boxes, needs further checking though
The above images match the pipe in hand exactly except for the texturing on the bowl. Okay, I had a match. The important part for me in terms of restoration was that I could see how the pipe would be assembled and disassembled. The stem was press fit, the end cap was threaded, the bowl was one piece with the screw and base attached to the wood bowl. This entry also contained a bit about Bryson.
I returned to the A_Z contest index and found the Bryson entry. There, the site listed the Following (highlighting added by me),
“Made by the Briarwood Corporation, Palo Alto, California, the BRYSON has number D120275 under the Bryson name on the pipe stem.
There is a crosshead screw to attach the briar bowl to the stem. The end cap attaches to the mouthpiece by means of a rod through the length of the pipe, in which the air hole is close to the mouth piece.
The stem is of polished duraluminum and hexagonal in cross section
The bowls are unusual in that they are not briar turned on a lathe, but briar wood, ground to a powder and compressed under very high pressure (no glue, heat or plastics are used, just pressure. It is claimed this produces a perfect bowl of aged briar every time with increased porosity. The varnished finish on the smooth bowl however is often very badly crazed. Two bowls, one smoth and one rusticated, were supplied with the new pipe. The bowl retaining screw is ‘locked’ onto the bowl by a gasket and metal collar, enabling rapid replacement of the bowls without the need of a screwdriver
The corn cob bowl, in centre image,is another version, not sure if this was manfactured by Bryson, or a home workshop job
The set here shown was available for $3.50 new, but in what year ? Adverts seen from 1946 magazine
The lower photograph was of a possible derivative on ebay in 2003, although US patent D122042 seems to be this pipe, invented by Max Bressler, Chicago Ill 1940
There are also other derivatives without the Bryson name stamped in the metal and variations on the shape and grooving of the stem
That with Pat Pend under the Bryson name has no grooves forward of the bowl and the front end cap is a larger thread than the other models, including my version with no name 30 April 1940 US patent # D120,275 Inventor Charles Rothman, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, assignor Briarwood Corp, also of Cleveland Ohio at that time”
Well, that explains what I saw completely and adds credence to the provenance of this pipe. Later in the restoration you will see photos of the bowl and can easily make out the particle board looking texture to the bowl due to its composition of pressed briar dust. I believe this pipe to be made by Bryson or an affiliate during World War Two. The style and composition of the briar bowl are in-line with the above description.
The Restoration
The restoration began as with most others, a clean denim piece to protect the work surface. At this point I would like to quote the smokingmetal.co.eu site with a warning regarding working on old metal pipes.
“A word of warning If you are thinking of buying online, be very very careful. Best policy with ‘metals’ is to see an image of the dismantled pipe. Buying otherwise unless desperate for an example can too often result in you ending up with a pipe that may be damaged when you try to dismantle and clean it. Mind you, you may learn how to repair them, but parts are of course getting rarer than hens teeth” (http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/news.php)
It was at this point that I started to dismantle the Unknown Metal pipe. The stem came loose fairly easily but that is where my progress stopped. I needed to know how this pipe was assembled before I tried to disassemble it. I went upstairs to the computer and started looking through the long list of metal pipe with screw through bowls. I looked through 64 individual pipes before I found the match. The photos showed that the end cap was threaded and that the screw in the bowl was part of the bowl and not just a screw holding the bowl to the aluminum tube.
With that knowledge my plan of attack was fine tuned. I would first ream and clean out the tobacco chamber. This would allow me better access to the screw at the bottom of the chamber. The reaming kit was gathered.
The bowl was rather large in diameter and it accommodate the largest, #4 blade for the PipNet. This pipe had been smoked fairly heavily based upon the amount of cake removed.
It was at this point I realized that something was very different about the “briar” of this bowl. I had not read about the Bryson pressed briar dust bowl at this point. I stopped researching when I found the matching pipe and determined how to disassemble it. The material reminded me of a Medico made Brylon pipe.
Undeterred, I started cleaning out the screw head slots. I scraped with a dental scraper and moistened the screw with 95% ethyl alcohol.
I retrieved my gunsmithing screwdriver bit set. I knew that I wanted a better quality screwdriver as I could tell this screw had been forced and looked slightly damaged.
I chose a flat tipped Phillips head bit of appropriate size. I thought this would allow a better grip on the screw and not force the bit upwards with increased pressure.
I soaked the screw with ethyl alcohol from the bowl as well as around the base of the bowl. With slow even pressure the screw relented. And the entire bowl was removed. The bottom of the bowl was quite corroded and this oxidation was the likely cause for the screw being so tightly stuck.
Below is the corroded base of the bowl with only a light brushing with a brass brush.
Below is the base after a thorough brushing with a brass brush and scrubbing with ethanol soaked cotton swabs.
It was time to visit the sink for the scrubbing. The bowl was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The Soap was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton hand towel.
The aluminum tube (tube from here on out) was scrubbed with a Scotchbrite pad and Castile liquid soap on the outside and with a nylon shank brush inside. The tube was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton hand towel.
Back at the workbench, the hope was that the soap, water and heat from the scrubbing would soften and get the endcap to loosen slightly. It didn’t. I used a thick piece of leather to protect the end cap from the jaws of the channel lock pliers.
The stem was cleaned out with bristles pipe cleaners and 95% ethyl alcohol.
I took the tube to the buffer to buff and polish the aluminum. While there I spent a little time on the plastic stem and inner tube.
Upon returning to the workbench the bowl had completely dried and I got a good look at the briar. Again, I emphasize that I had not researched the pipe beyond the initial “Unknown – MST – 20” (http://www.smokingmetal.co.uk/pipe.php?page=212) page. I could immediately tell that this was not typical briar. I ran upstairs for some further research.
This is when I came across the research material concerning the Brylon pressed briar bowl materia. Everything clicked in my mind. I knew that from here out I would be very judicious with any kind of solvents. I was unsure how or if they would react with the pressed briar of the bowl. Everything had seemed okay with the soap and scrubbing and with using the ethanol attempting to loosen the screw but I would be more cautious going forward.
Again returning to the workbench, the tube polished up beautifully and the stem looked far better but I was not completely happy with it.
Before I could re-dye the bowl I wanted to repair the two cracks at the bottom of the bowl. I figured that brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) would be the best course of action. The next two photos show crack one and crack 2 on opposite sides of the bowl.
I planned to use the brown CA applied with a fly tying bodkin and work the CA down into the crack.
Below you can see the CA filled crack.
The CA was allowed to cure and was then filed with a small flat file.
On the opposite side the curvature of the cracked area required sanding.
Next came a light topping of the bowl with a piece of sandpaper laid flat on a counter.
The topped bowl was looking better, still slightly out of round. I guessed that to be “normal” for pressed briar bowls.
The bowl would get a single application of Fiebing’s Leather Dye in black. A cork was used to plug the tobacco chamber and act as a handle. The dye would be applied with a folded pipe cleaner and flamed to set the dye and vaporize the alcohol solvents.
Below is the resulting black dyed bowl. The dye applied very similarly to normal briar.
Back at the workbench the bowl was wiped with a slightly ethanol wetted make-up pad then was sanded lightly with a 400 grit sanding sponge. You can see that the sanding revealed the brown of the briar on the ridges of the rustication.
The bowl was then given a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and set aside for 20 minutes.
The excess Restoration Balm was wiped away with an inside out athletic sock.
I used a dremel rotary tool and a wool polishing bit to lightly polish the bowl screw. I did not want to use any buffing compound in fear of not being able to get it out of the tobacco chamber.
To address my “not happy” with the stem, I used a small flat file to lightly resurface the button and the area immediately below the button on the top and bottom of the stem. This was then sanded with sponges 320-1000.
The stem was then returned to the buffer and buffed with white compound.
This produced a level of finish that I was happy with.
To make it even better, I hand buffed the stem with Before and After Fine followed by the Extra Fine Polish on a soft cotton cloth.
The stem returned to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax. The ridge tops of the bowl were also waxed with carnauba but I was careful not to apply pressure and to keep the wax out of the rustications.
The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.
This was a fun and interesting restoration. Next time I work on a metal pipe of unknown origin, I will definitely do my background research before starting rather than during, twice… This little pipe is adorable. I think the whole thing is pretty amazing, the history, the workmanship, the material used, all made for a fascinating project. I have no idea if it smokes well. I can’t imagine that it would not be, with the wide chamber excellent for English and aromatic blends. I can easily envision the ridges of the aluminum tube being very efficient at radiating heat from the smoke. This would make a very handy little working pipe for the fishing tackle box, garage or for a lawn mowing pipe. It’s small size and light weight are great for an active smoker. The dimensions of the Unknown Aluminum Pipe are as follows:
Length: 5.06 in./ 128.52 mm.
Weight: 1.27 oz./ 36.00 g.
Bowl Height: 1.17 in./ 29.72 mm. (bowl only) 1.70 in. / 43.18mm (with tube)
Chamber Depth: 0.82 in./ 20.83 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.85 in./ 21.59 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.49 in./ 37.85 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
Loading…
Below are some photos of the finished Unknown Aluminum Pipe.
I worked on several meerschaum pipes last summer. I wanted to improve my skill set by branching out from briar pipe. They were fun and produced some fine smoking pipes. You may be familiar with the saying, “use it or lose it”. I felt the need to work with meerschaum again. I am more than certain that what I know about the mineral would hardly fill a tobacco chamber so when I saw this lovely carved meer I had to bid. Winning it for under $17 was a bonus I hadn’t planned for. The pipe headed south from Cokato, Minnesota to the tropics of southeast Nebraska where the current temperature is 14° F (-10 c). I am sure it’s warmer here than in Cokato as they are about 350 miles north. The pipe was free of any markings or stamps. The style and early stages of coloring indicate that this is a Turkish made meerschaum pipe. The photos below show the pipe as it appeared before any work.
The pipe was in very good condition. It had been smoked but not a great deal. There was a light cake built up in the tobacco chamber and there were telltale signs of smoking residue and tar in the stem. There was a small crack along the back side of the bowl but this did not appear to be anything more than superficial. The pipe had begun to color something that I hoped to work on developing. The beeswax coating on the pipe was in good condition and there did not appear to be any “dry” looking spots to the meerschaum.
Background
I have pretty much told you all that I know about this pipe and I admit that a good deal of that is hypothetical. I think this is a Turkish made meerschaum pipe made from Turkish meerschaum. That sounds like there may be a woodchuck chucking nearby. Turkish meerschaum is known to be the best quality meerschaum and Turkish craftsmen have honed their skills well. According to Google’s Artificial Intelligence (AI)I when posed with the question “where is the highest quality meerschaum mined?”, “The highest quality meerschaum is mined in the region around Eskisehir, Turkey. This is considered the only place in the world where the purest and best quality meerschaum blocks are found, primarily in the Sarisu mines located within Eskisehir.” The below map was screenshot with a search asking for “sarisu meerschaum mines eskisehir turkey”. Thank you AI. I am trying to be nice and polite to the AI as I hope it will remember those who were kind to it when it unleashes the Terminators.
As usual I began with a cleanish piece of denim on the workbench.
The reaming tools were just scrapers and sandpaper on a stick as I did not want to cause any additional torsion to the reaming process with a reading tool.
The Scraping did a good job of removing the cake deposits.
Below is a photo of the tobacco chamber after being sanded. No interior damage was observed.
The ri had some lava which was removed with 95% ethyl alcohol on cotton swabs.
The stem was gunked up much worse than I originally thought. This required a good deal of scraping with the dental pick and numerous alcohol dipped cotton swabs.
A shank brush with alcohol was also used with numerous bristle pipe cleaners.
To improve the polish of the airway and remove the traces of dark tar I used a churchwarden pipe cleaner and some whitening toothpaste. The toothpaste was applied to the pipe cleaner.
One end was clamped into a tabletop vice. The stem was then threaded onto the pipe cleaner. The stem was moved up and down the length of the pipe cleaner allowing the toothpaste to scrub the airway.
The stummel was then taken to the sink for a scrub with warm water, no soap, and a nylon scrub brush. The stummel was dried with a cotton hand towel.
Back and the workbench the airway of the stummel was cleaned using a number of bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. At one point I thought that the airway was too constricted so I used a 532 inch drill bit, by hand, through the nylon tenon and into the meerschaum. I blew out the meerschaum dust and continued cleaning.
When the airway was finally clean I bega heating the beeswax in a small glass jelly jar. I placed the jar into water in a pan. This allowed the beeswax to melt in the jar using the hot water to melt it. This serves a couple of purposes; one, the hot water keeps the wax hot longer than hot wax alone and two, it keeps the wax from vaporizing. Vaporizing wax over a propane stove burner sounds like a bad idea to me.
Below is what I call the beeswaxing kit: A heat gun, an aluminum catch tin to collect dripping beeswax, the always needed paper towels and the pipe.
The stummel was heated with the heat gun prior to brushing on the liquid beeswax. Once hot, I started applying the beeswax starting at the shankend. The stummel was constantly moved around heating it from all sides. Excess melted wax accumulated in the catch tin.
Once I finished applying the beeswax I continued to move the stummel around in the hot air stream until it quit dripping. I put on a glove to protect my hand and wiped the surface of the pipe with a paper towel. The pipe was returned to the workbench and allowed to cool.
The stem on this pipe looked good so no sanding was done. I did give it a light buffing with white buffing compound with the white flannel wheel. The stem also received several coats of carnauba wax from the buffer. The stummel did not receive any carnauba due it having just gotten a nes coat of beeswax. The entire pipe was hand buffed with a microfiber polishing cloth to rain the shine.
Well there it is another learning experience of working with meerschaum and completing a lovely Carved Meerschaum Apple. I am still learning camera settings and photo editing for the white background. Feel free to comment on background preferences. As for the pipe, I think it turned out nicely. I can report that it is a fine smoking pipe. I am generally not a fan of carved pipes but the grapes, leaves and vines gave this piece a feel of the Mediterranean and seemed quite fitting. Besides, I am a sucker for a nice apple shape. The pipe looks very good with the new beeswax and it did seem to draw out more color. The pipe feels great in hand and is my perfect size chamber. The crack in the meerschaum does not appear to be an issue so I did nothing with it. If it fails in the future then I will have gained even more knowledge about meerschaums. The dimensions of the Carved Meerschaum Apple areas follows:
Length: 6.22 in./ 158.00 mm.
Weight: 1.44 oz./ 40.80 g.
Bowl Height: 1.88 in./ 47.75 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.65 in./ 41.91 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.78 in./ 19.81 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.60 in./ 40.64 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…
Below are some photos of the finished Carved Meerschaum Apple.
I have always thought that rooting for the underdog was an American characteristic. This is probably a very flawed thought as I am an American and the vast majority of my life experiences are with other Americans. Given, I taught English as a Second Language (ESL) science in a large urban school and had students from many different countries. The fact remains that most of my life was spent with American culture and Americans. Well, it turns out that psychologists have studied this rooting for the underdog and actually have theories for it. One article I read, Decision Affect Theory: Emotional Reactions to the Outcomes of Risky Options, by Barbara A. Mellers, Alan Schwartz, Katty Ho and Ilana Ritov found that;
“Emotional responses also depend on probabilities and unobtained outcomes. Unexpected outcomes have greater emotional impact than expected outcomes” (https://www.jstor.org/stable/40063228). So what does all this nonsense have to do with a pipe? The subject of this restoration is a terribly beaten up Peterson Donegal Rocky which I thought to be barely salvageable. In other words, this poor Pete was a major underdog. Below are some photos of the Donegal Rocky prior to work done:
I think you can see what I mean by an underdog. This pipe was a mess. The rim was severely charred and had extensive lava deposits on the remaining rim. There also appeared to be lava on the mortise. The rustications were filled with dirt and grime. The tobacco chamber still had tobacco in its cake constricted chamber. The stem was oxidized, calcium deposited and chewed on. The stem also wouldn’t correctly seat. All of these factors made me consider just depositing the old pipe in the trash then I thought why not root for the underdog and see what I could do with what I had.
Background
In a previous restoration blog I used the following: “As much as I love the history of the Kapp and Peterson company and Peterson pipes, I will not get into that other than give you resources to read the history for yourself. I will delve into the Dunmore, or Dunmoor line of pipes at greater depth.
For a great history Mark Irwin and Gary Marlburg’s book is a must read for a Pete Geek.
Now to the stuff regarding this pipe: A Peterson Dunmore. I refer to Mark Irwin again here and his blog, Peterson Pipe Notes. I can wholeheartedly recommend the free at
https://petersonpipenotes.org/ Yes, you will get emails but only for things like the weekly blog post and occasional Peterson pipe drops (like the Peterson Pipe Notes Pipe of the Year) or offers for cool Pete Geek merchandise.
I recently acquired for study an amazing NOS (new/old stock) Donegal Rocky 01s with its box, sleeve and brochure. Hallmarked with a Celtic lower-case n for 1979, it’s a first-year release of this marvelous ‘short dutch’ bowl shape and convenient reason to take a look back at the long history of Peterson’s iconic “Donegal Rocky” line.
The “Donegal Rocky” (in quotation marks), released in 1945 or so, was Kapp & Peterson’s first rusticated line. Not that K&P hadn’t rusticated pipes previously, they just that they hadn’t devoted an entire line to rustication. And they were apparently proud of it, because they gave it a sterling mount along with a black finish and white-stamped P on the mouthpiece.
It was part of K&P’s “Product Line,” what I call gateway pipes and others might call an entry-level pipe, as you can see in this shape chart from the 1945 catalog. Like the Shamrock (European version) and “K,” it was originally a fishtail line.
For nearly thirty years, from 1947 until 1975, the line continued uninterrupted, black rusticated finish with fishtail mouthpiece and sterling band.
from the 1976 Associated Imports Point-of-Sale Brochure
Then in 1976, just a year out from their Centennial celebration, Peterson (in an expansive mood) pushed the Donegal up a notch, giving the line a P-Lip. The 1976 engraving doesn’t show it, but you can just glimpse a new, deeper rustication in the (still black) 1978 Associated Imports chart:
This rustication was done by a carver in Dublin, Paddy Larrigan told me this past June in Sallynoggin. The artisan did all of Peterson’s fantastic rustications from the period: the classic “Pebble Rustics,” the early Sherlock Holmes rustics, the Bond Street of Oxford Premier Systems, and the sterling-band P-Lip Donegals.
And that’s where this 1979 01s comes in handy, because we can see with much greater clarity the rustication as well as the details of a “Donegal Rocky” at its pinnacle of engineering and finish:
It’s worth remarking concerning the removable stinger. This spike-ended aluminum tube is easily removed, leaving the P-Lip mouthpiece strictly a graduated-bore regulation affair.
If I were more dedicated, I’d smoke this pipe a few dozen times with and without the stinger and give you a report on what purpose it serves. I wonder if the craftsmen at the factory installed the stinger to approximate the effect of the older bone tenon extensions routinely attached to Classic Range Dublin & London, Classic and Premier lines? With or without the stinger, the pipe smoker should enjoy the benefits of the “Sub-System,” which I talk about at length in The Peterson Pipe. As it is, I’ll leave that to someone else, and happily report their findings.*
Here’s the COM stamp, showing Peterson’s love of quotation marks (seen also in the “SPORTS” line) as well as a closer look at the stain and rustication technique:
Sometime between 1978 and 1980 the sterling band was dropped to a nickel band and the P-Lip abandoned in favor of the Donegal’s traditional fishtail, all of which may (or may not) indicate a lessening in the quality of the rustication.
Seen above from the 1981 Mark Twain brochure, the sterling band resurfaced, this time with the line’s first change in stain color to what some of us have in our rotations or remember: the contrast brown over black (seen in the dutch 339 hallmarked for ’81 below). The catalogs indicate some fluctuation from sterling to nickel bands on through the Late Republic era (1969-90) into the Dublin era (1991-2018), with the sterling being used (as happens so often with Peterson lines) in conjunction with a P-Lip in the 1997 catalog, but also in that year available with a nickel band and fishtail.
The dublin 120 seen above is from ’94, and as you can see, while the rustication technique is nearly identical to that of the ’81 dutch billiard, the stain color has changed for a third time to burgundy-over-black, which seems to have been the standard during most of the early Dublin era.
Sometime near the beginning of this century the Donegal was down-graded again to its original “Product” or gateway status by a nickel band and fishtail mouthpiece as seen in this B7, and while the stain remains the same, it looks less craggy:
Things would grow steadily worse in the following years, however, as the gawdawful pineapple rustication took hold, so that by around 2010 the Donegal was reduced to the etchings seen on this B39:
With the return of in-house rustication earlier this year, things are looking up for the Donegal, at least just a little, as you can see in this current 80s:
The finish and the rustication are, so nearly as I can tell, identical with that used on current rusticated SH pipes, so that’s something, right? I don’t think I’d call it a Rocky anymore, but at least it still has a vulcanite mouthpiece, a plus.
As for the future of the line—or the name—I couldn’t hazard any guesses. In the ideal Peterson of my imagination, the line would assume the craggiest crags, sharp textures and brilliant obsidian finish of the last batch of Rosslare Rusticated pipes, along with—of course—a vulcanite P-Lip. In the meantime, just to have it around, as one of the bedrock Peterson lines for almost 75 years, will do.
Thanks go out to Mark again. Now, as for this Donegal Rock; the rustication and the color fit the late 1990s-2010, pre-”gawdawful pineapple” phase. The quote describing it best is “Sometime near the beginning of this century the Donegal was down-graded again to its original “Product” or gateway status by a nickel band and fishtail mouthpiece as seen in this B7, and while the stain remains the same, it looks less craggy:” This included the burgundy-over-black dye, the nickel band and the fishtail mouthpiece. The rustication is difficult to describe due to the worn nature of the pipe but it is definitely of a hand carved nature and not that of machine made look. Overall, I guesstimate this pipe to be from the 1990s-early 2000s. This makes it a more recent pipe but one that has seen a great amount of use and abuse.
The Restoration
Vivid mental images of how this pipe might turn out filled my head as I placed it on the clean denim piece.
I began with an initial sanding of the stem to remove the surface oxidation. TO maintain the crisp edges of the stem I wanted to keep it attached so the shank was wrapped in masking tape, protecting it from the sanding.
Once sanded, I removed the stem and examined the tenon. The below photo doesn’t do the layer of grime justice. The tenon was encrusted with smoking residue and tar.
I used a sharp pocket knife to scrape the end of the tenon and started cleaning it with a 95% ethyl alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaner.
Several additional alcohol dipped pipe cleaners and a good deal of nylon brush scrubbing the stem airway was clean.
A pipe cleaner was inserted into the tenon to act as a hanger suspending the stem in Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer (lovingly referred to as deox).
The edge of the mortise was as crusty as the tenon had been. I have seen thick lava deposits on a rim but not on a rim this bad before. I softened the crust with saliva and let it soak for a couple of minutes and scraped the surface with a sharp pocket knife.
I gathered the reaming kit; PipNet, Smokingpipes Low Country Reamer and General triangular scraper.
I initially thought that one the #2 and #3 blades of the PipNet would be needed. Wrong. The #4 blade was also put to work.
After the #4 blade there was still scraping to be done with the General.
The tobacco chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper to bare briar. There was some slight charring of the interior of the chamber. This was not severe and I thought that a bowl coating would suffice to protect the briar.
Next came the shank cleaning. I began with scraping the walls of the mortise with a dental scraper. The scrapings were thick and filled with cotton fluff from pipe cleaners. Well, I assumed that was the source of the cotton even though this pipe looked like it had never seen a cleaning nor a pipe cleaner.
The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrub with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon scrub brush. The amount of grime scrubbed from the stummel was impressive. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stumel dried with a cotton hand towel.
Looking at the freshly scrubbed and dried stummel I could see quite a bit of grime remaining on the mortise, within the rustications and on the rim. Another scrubbing was done with undiluted Murphy’s and a brass brush. The rinsing and drying were done as before.
Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. The alcohol lifted a red dye from the briar.
The scrubbing revealed the damage to the rim much more clearly.
Possible remedies came to mind. Plan A – was to cut a wedge of briar from another pipe. I had one of nearly equal chamber diameter.
This idea would glue the edge onto the existing rim, fill the seams with cyanoacrylate and briar dust, shape the wedge to match the lines of the 999 shape, carve the new briar to match the pattern of the existing briar then dye the stummel. This plan would produce a finished product that was a true restoration. The plan was also drought with issues. My greatest concern was with the gluing of new briar to the old briar. I thought that I could pin this briar patch in place to make it more secure. This plan sounded like it would take many hours of tedious work, though fun.
Plan B – cut the rim on both sides to match. This would give the stummel a forward canted look. The new rim would require re-texturing. This plan also completely changes the original shape of the pipe and would make this a salvage rather than a restoration. This plan would only take a fraction of the time of the previous plan as well.
I went with Plan B. If this worked it would produce a fine working pipe, one that would be perfect for knocking around while changing the oil in the truck, fishing or doing yard work and I’m lazy.
I used a Dremel with an abrasive sided cutoff wheel to cut the non-charred side of the stummel.
I tried to match both sides and used the abrasive side of the wheel to flatten the rim.
This did accentuate the out-of-round tobacco chamber. I then started cleaning the shank with numerous cotton swabs dipped in ethyl alcohol and more scraping with the dental scraper.
The draft hole was scrubbed with a nylon brush and numerous bristle pipe cleaners.
The tars of the airway were persistent and I thought maybe an alcohol cotton treatment would better soften and remove them. The tobacco chamber and shank were stuffed with cotton and 95% ethyl alcohol was added with a pipette until the cotton was saturated.
Below is a photo of the saturated cotton. This was allowed to evaporate overnight. As the alcohol evaporated it would hopefully dissolve some of the tar and deposit it into the cotton thus removing it from the walls of the airway.
The stem sat in deox for 4 hours. I removed the stem and allowed it to drip some of the excess solution back into the jar.
Below you can see the stem on a coarse cotton shop rag.
The shop rag was used to vigorously rub the remaining solution from the stem. This rubbing removed the solution and a good deal of oxidized vulcanite.
I then scrubbed the stem with several cotton make-up pads sprinkled with Soft Scrub cleanser. The below photo shows a general progression of reduced oxidized rubber removal. The stem looked much better. I had talked to Doug Bisbee of dk Metal Pipes (https://www.dkmetalpipes.com/dkmetalpipe) earlier in the week. Doug does amazing work restoring Kirsten pipes. We discussed how he restores the vulcanite stems using only a buffer rather than the sanding and micro-meshing that I had always used. I thought this would be a good time to attempt a similar technique with my existing equipment. Doug uses Airway buffing wheels rather than the felt wheels I have. I have not invested in these wheels yet but am considering trying them out. An issue is that I would need to get a new ¾-1 horsepower variable speed buffer as well as the wheels to properly use them.
Using what I already have I worked the stem with my buffer and the red abrasive.
I followed this with the white compound on the dedicated white wheel and produced a nice finish on the stem.
The next morning I returned to the stummel. The cotton was stained with smoking residue removed from the briar.
The cotton was removed and I continued cleaning the airway/mortise with alcohol dipped cotton swabs. This process started out similarly to the day before but quickly improved dramatically. The discoloration of the cotton swabs below show that the remaining tars were much more easily removed after the alcohol and cotton treatment.
The bristle pipe cleaners in the draft hole showed a similar result.
I used a couple different carving bits in the Dremel rotary tool to get the texture to match the Donegal Rocky rustication.
It was time to try matching the Peterson dye. I thought that I would start with a black undercoat topped with a dark red. Fiebing’s Leather Dye was the product of choice. Folded pipe cleaners acted as my applicators while a wine cork wrapped in several coats of masking tape provided a plug to keep the dye from the tobacco chamber and a handle.
The black Fiebing’s was applied and flamed with a lighter.
The black was wiped with a paper towel and allowed to dry for about 10 minutes. It was then taken to the buffer and buffed from the highspots.
The remaining buffing compound was wiped from the stummel using an alcohol wetted make-up pad. Below is a photo of the black dyed , buffed and wiped stummel.
Next, the stummel was dyed with the dark red Fiebing’s.
This was flamed and allowed to dry for an hour.
The pipe was starting to look more finished.
I wrapped the shank with masking tape to protect it during the nickel band polishing. The band was polished at the buffer with white compound.
The stem looked good but I wanted it to really look good. I hand buffed it with Before and After Fine Polish on a soft cotton rag.
The Fine Polish was followed by the Before and After Extra Fine Polish buffed by hand with the same but a clean spot with the same soft cotton cloth.
For the bowl coating I used maple syrup applied with my fingertip to the interior of the bowl. Before starting a thick pipe cleaner was inserted into the draft hole to keep the syrup and carbon out of the hole. Once the syrup was applied I opened a capsule of carbon powder and dumped it into the bowl. The bowl was covered with a 2 inch wide piece of painters tape and shaken vigorously for several seconds to distribute the carbon powder.
The tape was removed and the remaining powder dumped. Below is a photo of the new bowl coating.
The bowl coating would take a couple days to dry completely. The rustications of this pipe were worn fairly smooth with use. This allowed me to use the buffer to apply several coats of carnauba wax to the stummel and to the stem. The final step was to hand buff the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.
This is not my first Peterson Donegal Rocky restoration but it was the first time I attempted a white background for the before and after photos. I am still learning camera settings and photo editing for the white. Feel free to comment on background preferences. As for the pipe, I think it turned out about as well as it could have. I like the craggy appearance and feel of the pipe and the rim re-rustication. The 999 shape is a favorite of mine. The burgundy and black contrast stain does come close to matching the original dye and I think it still works . I was quite happy with the oxidation removal from the stem and the black vulcanite polished up nicely. The nickel band looks bright and well polished. I am sure this will be a great smoking pipe but will have to wait a couple of days for the coat coating to thoroughly dry. The dimensions of the Peterson Donegal Rocky 999 areas follows:
Length: 5.66 in./ 143.76 mm.
Weight: 1.58 oz./ 44.79 g.
Bowl Height: 1.42 in./ 36.07 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.17 in./ 29.72 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.90 in./ 22.86 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.65 in./ 41.91 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
Loading…
Below are some photos of the finished Peterson Donegal Rocky 999.
When naming this restoration I nearly called it a “A No Name Rusticated Pot Pipe”. I did not want to be considered a drug paraphernalia marketeer thus, the word “Pot” was eliminated from the title. The complete lack of any stampings makes me question the origins of this pipe. More on that in the “Background” section to the . The pipe has a very nice shape and size to it and though I prefer a tapered stem this saddle fishtail is a nice touch. Below are some photographs taken of the pipe before I started work on it.
Background
I know this is not a Custom-Built pipe but it has the characteristics of a Custom-built and is most likely a copied version of one Now Custom-Belts were first made in the mid 1930 by Tracy mMincer. They gained renown and popularity and this popularity most likely created a market for imitators.When I was a kid most knock-offs, as we called them, came from Taiwan and Japan Over the years those two countries greatly improved their quality control and craftsmanship and today are known to produce high quality products. After World War Two (WWII) There was a flood of cheaper made pipes entering the United States. The Tariff Act of 1930 had made an attempt to force countries to mark or stamp the country of origin on the products but this was not always as successful or regulated but usually it was. Enforcement after the early 1950s was much better and in 1963 new regulations specifically addressed pipes. (https://www.usitc.gov/publications/tariff_affairs/pub103s.pdf, p.533) Thus we see ENGLAND, FRANCE or ITALY stamped on lower quality or “basket pipes”. If a pipe has no Country of Manufacture (COM) stamp, that is an indicator that it was made in the USA.
During WWII the supply of briar wood was greatly limited. Various alternatives like Mountain Laurel, mainly from North Carolina, and Mission Briar, from California, were used. Neither wood was successfully adopted by pipe smokers. After the war the supply of briar was again accessible and most makers stamped their pipes stressing that they were indeed made from genuine briar. Thus we see stamps like IMPORTED BRIAR, REAL BRIAR, GENUINE BRIAR etc… What does this have to do with the pipe in hand? Since there is no COM I assume it was made in the US. Due to the lack of stamping about the origin of the wood, I questioned whether it is made of briar. Jumping ahead, after the restoration I was able to get a good look at the wood along the smooth surfaces and it is definitely briar. No other wood has the grain and bird’s eyes like briar. The heavily carved surface of this pipe and the large areas of fills, that you can see in the photos during the restoration, led me to hypothesize that this was a pipe made after Mincer’s Custom-Bolts had become popular. The briar is of lower quality requiring the heavy use of rusticated carving and fill/putty, again indicating war years. Could this have been a second of Custom-Bilt? Possible but I could not find any examples of a real Custom-Bilt pipe with a pronounced fish tail stem in William E. Unger’s book, Individual as a Thumbprint The Custom-Bilt Story. I also couldn’t recall any mention of “seconds” from the book.
The Restoration
I normally photograph a pipe on a cleaned denim patch at the beginning of a restoration. I did that this time also but completely failed to get a decent focus. Well, I can’t go back so here is another in the long list of documented mistakes.
This pipe did not need a reaming as the tobacco chamber had been recently done. It did need a date with a scrub brush and some Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
The pipe kind of looked cleaner but there were strange dark patches present all over the stummel. I used make-up pads wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol to wipe the exterior of the stummel. The pads were quickly stained with stain.
This got rid of some of the dark patches but not all. The below two photos show the patches. They appeared to be made of a fill material applied after the carvings then stained. The stain seemed to have penetrated easily and produced the dark patches.
At the front of the pipe the patch had a hole in it. This looked like the patch here was shoddily applied to cover a larger hole or pit in the briar.
I dipped a brass brush into the alcohol and worked the patch area in an attempt to get rid of the fills. The patches were again wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad.
This helped but did not remove the filler completely. I figured a longer soaking in ethyl alcohol may be required to soften the old filler.
The tobacco chamber looked good. I lightly sanded the interior with 220 sandpaper and inspected the chamber for any heat damage.
Everything in the chamber looked fine with no sign of damage.
No damage here either.
I checked the cleanliness of the shank.It was far from the level of clean that the tobacco chamber was. I ran the Kleen-Reem shank drill through the draft hole, did some scraping and swabbed the airway with cotton swabs. It was quite tar filled.
The shank would also benefit from an extended soaking in ethyl alcohol.
The jar of 95% ethyl alcohol was topped off with fresh alcohol and the pipe started it’s bath.
The stummel was in the bath overnight. Whe it emerged the fills were much softer.
I worked them again with a brass brush and they just disappeared leaving slight depressions.
These depressions were nothing that I felt obligated to refill.
Well, the obligation to fill did arrive when I looked at the front hole. This one would need to be refilled.
The airway of the shank was far easier to clean after the alcohol bath as well.
The hole in the front of the stummel was filled with brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) applied with a fly tying bodkin. While the CA was wet briar dust was pressed into the wet CA. This was allowed to cure Then was roughed up with 220 sandpaper.
The stem was lightly sanded with 320 and 400 sanding sponges to remove the worst of the oxidation.
The stem was then vigorously rubbed with Soft Scrub cleanser on a make-up pad. This was done mainly to assess the level of oxidation.
The stem was severely oxidized enough that I thought a bath in Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer (deox) was in order. A pipe cleaner was inserted into the tenon to act as a hanger. The stem was in deox for 4 hours.
Upon removal from deox, I let the stem drip excess solution back into the jar for a few minutes.
I used a coarse shop rag to energetically rub the remaining solution and some of the oxidized rubber from the stem.
Below you can see some of the oxidation which came off on the shop rag.
I wanted to sand the stem in place on the stummel to avoid rounding the joint where the two pieces meet. The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges frome 320-3500 grit. The smooth sections of the stummel were simultaneously sanded. The stummel was wiped with a make-up pad moistened with alcohol between sponges while the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a dry paper towel between sponges.
Normally I would have switched over to micro-mesh pads for the fine sanding but I wanted to try buffing the stem and stummel with rouge compound on the buffing wheel. That worked well and the finnish seemed adequate. The buffing compound was wiped from the pipe with make-up pads dipped in ethyl alcohol. The stummel then received a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm. The balm was allowed to sit and do it’s magic for 20 minutes.
The remaining Restoration Balm was wiped from the stummel using an inside out athletic sock.
I decided to use Renaissance Micro-Crystalline Wax as the finish for the stummel. I applied this with a baby toothbrush working it into the carvings. The product was allowed to dry for an hour then was buffed with a clean buffing wheel. The stem received several coats of carnauba wax also at the buffer.
The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.
I am quite pleased with how this No Name Rusticated Pot turned out. The briar is very lightweight and the shape feels amazingly good in hand. The stem polished up nicely with little indication of the previous oxidation. Saddle stems are not my favorite stem shape to restore as they are difficult to sand and polish. The area where the old fills were spread on so thick are noticeable under scrutiny but with a casual glance they appear to be just part of the rustication. I know they were there to cover for poor quality briar but the issues with quality are cosmetic, the structural integrity of the pipe is quite sound and I am sure this pipe will continue to serve me for many years. This gives me a “Custon-Bilt” like pipe for a fraction of the current market price of such a pipe. The Dimensions of the No Name Rusticated Pot are:
Length: 6.08 in./ 154.32 mm.
Weight: 1.67 oz./ 437.35 g.
Bowl Height: 1.69 in./ 4.93 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.36 in./ 34.54 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.85 in./ 21.59 mm. (Conically bored diameter is at the top)
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…
Below are some photos of the completed No Name Rusticated Pot.
Yeah, it’s another Denicotea. I Completely blame Sascha Mertens for the accumulation of Denicotea pipes over the past year. Sascha is a German pipeman and restorer who is actually a great guy and has led to my delinquency and departure from focusing on my beloved Peterson and Marxman pipes. Okay, that’s not quite fair, I also really like old Yello-Boles, Kaywoodies and Linkman’s Dr Grabow pipes. Come to think of it, I also have a fondness for the pipes of the 1930s-and 1940s and then there’s weird ones. Oh, and the metal pipes, I can’t leave those out. Wow, Maybe it’s not Sascha that is to blame. Maybe it is the raging attention deficit disorder? No, I’d rather blame Sascha.
Anyway, the subject of this restoration is a very lengthy named Denicotea. This pipe came to me all the way from “Vilnius, default, Lithuania”. That is what the location on eBay said, “default”. That rates right up there with the “Slow Child” caution signs. How’d you like to grow up with one of those signs in your front yard telling every motorist passing by that you are “Slow” or mentally handicapped. Cruel, I say. Wow, this blog is full of mental detours today. Back to the pipe. It came from Lithuania and was stamped with the following: DENICOTEA arched over a straight DURABEL. I think Denicotea had to make this pipe with a diamond shank to allow for all the Stamings. On the adjacent side, there is a stamp, GOLF over BRUYRER EXTRA. Adjacent to that is a 710, which I assume to be the shape number. The stem sports a stamped logo of an encircled D, which is a bit faint and lacking any paint. Below are some photos of the pipe before work was done to it.
The pipe was in great shape and the Lithuanian seller was a very good pipe cleaner. This made my job easy but I have to admit a touch of disappointment in having such an easy restoration. I still wanted to remove whatever clear coat was present and maybe touch up the fills.
Background
In a previous blog I wrote about the history about what little I found about Denicotea, I will link that post here, and include the information below:
“Pipedia.org has a short article on Denicotea. I will include it here in its entirety:
“Willy Heineberg founded the company Denicotea in 1932 and began manufacturing and selling smoking accessories such as filters, filter inserts, cigarette holders and pipes.[1] The company headquarters was initially in Cologne, but was relocated to Bergisch Gladbach after the Second World War.[2]
Denicotea is actually the name of a silica gel filter, cigarette holders and care products for pipes and cigarette holders.
I still find it a bit confusing as Denicotea seems to be a company[3] and a brand as well which is operated by COMPOSING-STUDIO GmbH[4].
Brands
Adsorba
Adsorba is a fantasy series of pipes produced by Luigi Crugnola for the German market.
Aldo Morelli
Aldo Morelli is a fictional name. The brand Aldo Morelli has been registered for Denicotea on February 26th, 1992.[5]
Stefan Petzuch points out this brand appears to have similarities to the Mauro Cateni pipe brand, in particular they are both fictional Italian brands by German companies, and both have the “HAND CUT” imprint on the stem as seen bellow. This may connect the Aldo Morelli brand to Gebr. Heinemann KG in Hamburg, who had registered the Mauro Cateni brand. Or perhaps there is a connection between Denicotea and Gebr. Heinemann KG, or perhaps these pipe brands simply used “Hand Cut” stems from the same source.” (Denicotea – Pipedia)
Interesting and weird are the two qualifiers that come to mind in reading that. The four makers mentioned in the article; Luigi Crgnola, Cesare Barontini, Gig and Molina are all Italian pipe manufacturers. Where does the MADE IN ENGLAND stamp on the example on pipephil.eu or the stamp on the pipe I purchased come in, I cannot say. I can say that I am not the first person to have little success researching the origins of Denicotea pipes. Dal Stanton, who is far more diligent in his background research than I, had a French made Denicotea. He traced its origins to the St. Claude area but not to a specific maker. Dal’s blog was posted on Steve Laug’s rebornpipes.com site. Here is the link to Dal Stanton’s blog post: https://rebornpipes.com/2016/09/29/nice-find-in-plovdiv-bulgaria-denicotea-deluxe-curling-bruyere-extra/”
This Denicotea has neither the Country of Manufacture (COM) stamps of England nor France. It does have a shape number 710 which I could find no corresponding match with brands associated with Denicotea. This pipe’s heritage appears to remain a mystery.
The Restoration
I found myself feeling dishonest when I called this a restoration. It started out as more of a cleaning or refreshening.
I did want to get rid of whatever clear coat had been applied to the briar so, I guess that does make this a restoration. I first tried 95% ethyl alcohol on a cotton swab to test the finish removal. The swab was quickly stained red.
Seeing that ethyl alcohol worked, I decided on a bath of ethyl for a couple of hours. EtOH was the abbreviation for ethyl alcohol for a biochemistry lab I worked in, if you are wondering.
The stummel was submerged in the alcohol and the lid screwed back on tight. This alcohol had been used several times previously thus the very dark color.
The stem was very clean and my application of alcohol dipped cotton swabs and a pipe cleaner proved a bit unnecessary.
After the alcohol bath time, the stummel was removed and the briar vigorously rubbed with make-up pads. There still appeared to be some “shiny” to the stummel.
I lightly sanded the stummel with a 400 grit sanding sponge and wiped the surface with make-up pads wetted with acetone. This got rid of the shine that remained after the ethanol bath.
The tobacco chamber did not need a reaming so I just sanded it with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The chamber showed no evidence of any damage.
The stem was not oxidized and I suspected it was made of acrylic rather than vulcanite. I masked over the stamps with masking tape and began sanding with sanding sponges. This was done to better see the old fills. I wanted to pick the old fill material out and replace it with cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust.
There were several old fills. I used a fly tying bodkin to pick the old filler out. The ethanol bath had softened the old fills nicely. The pits were then given a small drop of brown CA and had briar dust pressed into the wet CA.
The new fills were filed smooth with a small flat file then the whole pipe was sanded with a sequence of sanding sponges from 400-3500. The stummel was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad between each sanding sponge while the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.
The masking tape was removed and the adhesive cleaned away with ethyl alcohol. The pipe was then worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. The stummel and stem wiping was done as with the sanding sponges.
I applied a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm on the entire pipe and set a timer for 30 minutes.
The excess Restoration Balm was wiped off with an inside out athletic sock.
The pipe looked wonderful after the Restoration Balm did whatever magic it does.
I Painted the stem logo with white acrylic paint and allowed it to dry for a few minutes. Using a plastic card, I scraped off the excess pain and neglected to photograph any of it. The pipe was then taken to the buffer where it received several coats of carnauba wax. The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.
This Deincotea Golf turned out very nicely. I admit that I have already smoked it one time and that was with an actual Denicotea crystal filled pipe filter. Sascha Mertens sent me a package of ten filters when we were exchanging care packages a while back. Thank you Sascha. I am not usually a filter pipe smoker but it seemed appropriate for the maiden voyage. The feel and look of the pipe are very excellent, as are the smoking characteristics. I like the slightly longer stems of the Denicoteas that I have added to my personal collection. They do require a bit of awareness at first though. This pipe is a touch too long to make for a comfortable clencher though it is a wonderful pipe for the contemplation of life. The dimensions of the Denicotea Durabel Gold Bruyere Extra 710 are:
Length: 6.04 in./ 153.42 mm.
Weight: 1.55 oz./ 43.94 g.
Bowl Height: 1.90 in./ 48.26 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.41 in./ 35.81 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.75 in./ 19.05 mm. (Conically bored diameter is at the top)
Outside Diameter: 1.60 in./ 40.64 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…
Below are some photos of the completed Denicotea Durabel Gold Bruyere Extra 710 (that’s still a lot of words).
This is one of those pipes that I had always wanted to lay my hands on and restore. The novelty of these pipes are whimsical and a bit dark at the same time. I mean, who really wants to put the barrel of a pistol in their mouth? While at the same time they are fun looking and sure to draw comments from folks who observe them. A Facebook friend, Stacy Reddig, posted that he had picked up a pair of pistol pipes at a local antique shop and included photos. Once again, I was immediately jealous as I have only found two pipes at my local antique shops that were slightly interesting. Anyway, I commented that I’d always wanted to do a restoration on one of those. A couple of weeks later a package arrived. Inside was one of the two pistol pipes. Oh, this was a surprise and the highlight of my day. The pipe had only one identifying stamp, Italy. Below are some photos of the pipe prior to any work done.
I was not sure what material the pipe was made from. I had read of gutta-percha and Bakelite and knew both materials had histories in pipe making. The moldings of the pipe were of impressive intricate detail and appeared to be in great condition. There was some discoloration towards brown from what I assumed was an original black. The briar was of lesser quality judging from the number of pits and fills. The drillings were a bit irregular and out of round. The stem/button area had a few tooth marks from having been clenched. The pipe also showed typical signs of age and accumulated dirt and grime from its assumed 100’ish years on this planet. Alltold, this was going to be fun.
Background
Surprisingly little information could be found on the Italian Revolver pipe. Oh, there were plenty of revolver type marijuana or “weed” pipes as evidenced in the photo below.
I also found historic evidence of a revolver pipe similar to the pipe in hand on pipedia.org. This example was French made by the Colossus Pipe Factory. The information on Colossus is included below in its entirety:
“There is not much known about the Colossus Pipe Factory. By the mid 1890’s it was owned by Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy. Bill Feuerbach has an old invoice from KB&B dated 1898 that has “C.P.F.” in the upper corner, with Trademark underneath. So they owned the brand by then. It could have been a company that was acquired by KB&B or possibly even founded by them.
Bill is a VP at S. M. Frank & Co. (Kaywoodie) and has also provided the evidence to the name Colossus below.
I have always been under the impression that the intials C.P.F. stood for Consolidated Pipe Factory. Many pipe collectors that I know believe the same thing. However only this week I had that cleared up. A pipe collector friend in Seattle emailed a scan of a page from a trade magazine called “The Jeweler’s Circular”, dated August 23, 1899. A reader wrote in the following question, “Please inform us who manufactures briar pipes with trademark, C.P.F.?” The answer was, “These letters stand for Colossus Pipe Factory, the business being conducted by Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy, 129 Grand Street, New York.”
I have seen pipes with both the C.P.F. logo and KB&B logo on them that date to pre-1900. This may have been a way to let the public now that the companies were affiliated. As far as I can tell, the C.P.F. brand was discontinued sometime in the 1910-1920 range.
It has been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The thing that many people do not realize is that that saying is incomplete. The entire quote is often attributed to Oscar Wilde and should read, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness”. There is quite a bit of discussion about the origins of this quote and that it is not due to Oscar Wilde. If you would like to read about that, I included the link to a blog by Terence Eden, here. Whomever first said it, matters little to me. The point I’ll emphasize is the mediocrity of the imitation solely, based on the quality of the briar. Now this could also be the case where the Italian maker was indeed the first and CPF merely imitated their original. Without any documentation proving otherwise I’ll have to consider CPF as the originator and the poor little Italian Revolver as the imitator. As for the date of production, I would hazard a guess to the later 1920s-1940s.
The final question I had was,”what is the body of the pipe made of?” Materials of the era would have most likely been gutta-percha or Bakelite. Gutta-percha was an older latex derived early plastic which was used from the 1840s-early 1900s (gutta-percha history). According to wikipedia, “Bakelite was one of the first plastic-like materials to be introduced into the modern world and was popular because it could be moulded and then hardened into any shape.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakelite). An easy test to see if a plastic is Bakelite is to slightly moisten a cotton swab with water and touch it to baking soda, rubbing this on the surface of Bakelite will produce a yellow or brownish-yellow smudge on the cotton swab. I tried this and the cotton was indeed yellow-brown. Positive test? Yes. Positive identification of Bakelite? No, but quite probable.
The Restoration
As usual I started with a cleaned denim piece to protect the work surface.
Reaming the tobacco chamber was the first job undertaken. The PipNet blades #1 and #2 did the job nicely.
The interior of the chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. There was no indication of any damage to the chamber.
Unscrewing the bowl from the body of the pipe revealed a piece of fabric. Under this fabric were several pieces of what looked like charcoal.
The fabric and charcoal were removed.
The airway was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.
The pipe 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 pipe dried with a cotton hand towel.
Back at the workbench the pipe looked clean but now had a dry, oxidized appearance to the Bakelite.
I tried to clean the surface of the pipe with a cotton swab wetted with ethyl alcohol.
To get in the smaller crevasses I also used a bristle pipe cleaner.
The molding seams or ridges were filed with a small rat tail file to make them less noticeable. These were sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge to further smooth the surfaces.
The old fills were soft and very light colored. I picked the old fill material out with a fly tying bodkin.
New fills would be done with brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust.
The fly tying bodkin was used to apply a small drop of CA to the pit. Briar dust was then piled onto the wet CA and pressed into the pit.
The cured CA/briar dust fill was then filed with a small flat file and sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge. For deeper fills I used a second application of CA and briar dust.
The new fills were hard and secure but do stand out as dark spots on the stummel.
The bowl was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grits. Between each sponge I wiped the bowl with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol.
The button and mouthpiece area were sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grits, to remove the tooth chatter and to smooth the stem. I did not want to sand the other surfaces of the Bakelite in fear of rounding the edges.
The bowl and mouthpiece area were worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. Between pads I wiped the bowl with an alcohol wetted make-up pad. The Bakelite was wiped with a paper towel between pads to remove debris. I did use the micro-mesh pads on the flat surface of the barrel and the top of the pistol.
I used Before and After Fine Polish, which is a fine abrasive buffing polish on a cotton swab to polish the surfaces of the Bakelite. I could have sworn that I photographed this but could find no photos as I transferred the photos to the computer. Darn old people or gremlins…
The entire pipe was given a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for an hour.
The remaining Restoration Balm was hand buffed from the pipe with an inside out athletic sock. The pipe was then taken to the buffer where several coats of carnauba wax were applied to the bowl. The pipe was hand buffed with a microfiber polishing cloth as a final step.
Overall I am happy with how this pipe cleaned-up. The bowl looks much better. I cannot say that I am pleased with the brownish looking pistol parts of the pipe. I am uncertain how to clean and polish Bakelite without damaging the detail of the piece. I thought about using a buffing wheel with a buffing compound on the Dremel rotary tool but again feared that I would inadvertently remove detail from the molding. If this were my own pipe, I might have taken more risks with the material. It was a fun little project and another pipe which I can remove from the list of “pipes I want to restore”. The dimensions of the Italian Revolver pipe are:
Length: 5.09 in./ 140.46 mm.
Weight: 1.57 oz./ 44.51 g.
Bowl Height: 1.58 in./ 40.13 mm. (bowl only) 2.75 in./ 69.85 mm (connected)
Chamber Depth: 1.08 in./ 27.43 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.74 in./ 18.80 mm. (Conically bored diameter is at the top)
Outside Diameter: 1.22 in./ 30.99 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…
Below are some photos of the completed Italian Revolver pipe.
A volcano in Nebraska? Well the Lewis and Clark Expeditiondid come across a portion of a bluff along the Missouri River which had volcanic-like characteristics,
“On August 24, 1804, Clark explored a distinctive “180 or 190 feet high” bluff along the side of the Missouri River. He wrote, “Those Bluffs appear to have been laterly on fire, and at this time is too hot for a man to bear his hand in the earth at any debth, gret appearance of Coal. An emence quantity of Cabalt or a Cristolised Substance which answers its discription is on the face of the Bluff.” Ordway further elaborated that the bluff “had a Sulpheras Smell”.
Following Lewis and Clark, later fur traders and travelers frequently noticed dense smoke and fire in this region. In 1839, French explorer J. N. Nicollet attempted to prove that these phenomena were not of volcanic origin. He theorized that the decomposition of beds of iron pyrites in contact with water resulted in a heat capable of igniting other combustible materials. Still, by the late 1800s the bluff was known as the Ionia Volcano. It was named after the nearby town of Ionia, established in 1856. In 1878, a flooded Missouri River undermined the bluffs and a large section of the “volcano” fell into the river. The same flood heavily damaged the town of Ionia, which was later completely abandoned.” (https://www.nps.gov/places/ionia-volcano.htm)
This pipe also appears to have volcano-like characteristics and judging by its condition, it may be better tossed into a volcano as a sacrifice. But wait, I can make it usable. This pipe came as part of an estate lot from a ways south of here in Falls City, Nebraska.
The pipes were all in pretty rough condition and looked like they had spent considerable time in some barn of storage shed. Below are some photos of the Stone Age Volcano as it looked upon arrival.
The pipe stem was severely oxidized, to the point where I wondered if it could be salvaged. The stummel had a thick clear coating that was fading in places and would have to be removed. The briar itself, showed little grain or character and was a sickly yellow-tan. I thought, “well, it must have been a pretty good smoking pipe since it looked quite well used.”
Background
A search of both pipephil.eu and pipedia.org turned up nothing for Stone Age. I thought this strange because when you search for Stone Age on eBay there were five listed. Of the few that I looked at, a couple had stamps like this pipe, below is one.
All of them seemed to be Danish inspired freehands. This led me to believe that they were likely imported by the likes of a Mastercraft or Wally Frank. Importers that historically do not have good records. They were also likely to have been made during the heyday of pipe smoking and modeled after the Danish styling and produced for the 1970s American market. Given the above is all conjecture on my part and does not intend to speak ill of any carver or importer of these pipes.
The Restoration
This sun bleached oxidized volcano started with a clean denim piece to protect the work surface from the horrors sure to come.
I started with the stem as it looks like it would require a prolonged stay in the deox hotel, also known as Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. In preparation of the deox, I first sanded and steel wooled the stem to remove the worst of the surface oxidation.
Next I cleaned the airway with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.
The stem then made its entrance into the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. A pipe cleaner was inserted into the tenon to act as a hanger, suspending the stem in the solution.
Back at the workbench the tobacco chamber was reamed to remove the accumulated cake.
The PipNet did most of the work removing the cake. The Smokingpipes Low Country Reamer and the General triangular scraper saw some and the chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The chamber appeared free of any damage.
The shank airway was fairly dirty and was cleaned out with a Kleen-Reem shank drill, dental scraper, folded bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs along with a good amount of 95% ethyl alcohol.
The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrubbing with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
At the workbench the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. The alcohol had little to no effect on the clear coat finish. I then tried acetone, this too met with little result but the finish was softened by the acetone. I submerged the stummel into a jar of acetone topping the jar off with fresh acetone and let the stummel sit in there for an hour.
After the hour, the stummel was removed and rubbed with acetone soaked make-up pads. Apologies for neglecting to photograph this part. The clear coat was very stubborn and difficult to remove even after the hour long acetone bath. I eventually resorted to a coarse sanding sponge/block.
The next day the stem was removed from deox and allowed to drip excess solution back into the jar.
It appeared much better than when it entered.
Vigorous rubbing with a cotton rag removed the remaining solution and some of the surface oxidation.
Back at the benchI sanded the stem with a series of sanding sponges in grits of 400-3500. Between each sponge I rubbed mineral oil onto the stem and wiped it with a paper towel. I then used several applications of Before and After Fine Polish on a soft cotton cloth. This seemed to have removed the last of the oxidation.
The stummel had been sanded with 220-400 grit sanding sponges, maily to remove the finish but also removing scratches. I didn’t want to sand any finer as dye is not absorbed as well with very fine sanding. I decided to try to use a contrast dye to bring out the briar grain better. I wanted to use a black dye as the base. I prepped the area by covering it with a paper towel. Fiebing’s black Leather Dye would be the dye. A cork was used to pluck the tobacco chamber. A folded pipe cleaner would be my applicator and a lighter would be used to flame the wet dye, burning off the alcohol solvent and setting the dye into the briar.
Below is a poorly focused photo of the stummel with its new black coating.
After it had dried for about 30 minutes I took the stummel to the buffer and used rouge compound to buff away the black dyed outer surface.
This left me with a stummel which was still too dark for the look I wanted. I returned to the workbench and sanded away the outer surface. The black dye penetrated the softer grain more deeply than the harder grain. By sanding the outer surface I accentuated the grain leaving the softer wood darker than the harder wood.
Next came a second round of dye, this time with a diluted Mahogany. The Mahogany dye was diluted by about ½ with 99% isopropyl alcohol. The dye was applied with a cotton swab and flamed as before with the black dye.
The resulting dye-ed stummel was allowed to dry for about an hour then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with an alcohol dampened make-up pad. After the sanding the stummel received a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 20 minutes.
The stummel was wiped with an inside out athletic sock to remove any remaining Restoration Balm.
The pipe was then taken to the buffer where several coats of carnauba wax were applied to the stem and stummel. The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.
I have to admit that I am not a fan of the volcano shape nor do I like fancy stems. I do like a plateau top and shank end but I doubt these are actual plateau, merely carved versions. I can say that I was quite pleased with the results of the contrast dying. That brought out grain that I never thought would have been possible with this pipe. The stem did polish up nicely and does look good with this volcano. Overall it is a great improvement of how the pipe appeared before and I hope that it will bring someone hours of enjoyment in the future. The dimensions of the Stone Age Volcano are:
Length: 5.33 in./ 135.38 mm.
Weight: 1.10 oz./ 31.19 g.
Bowl Height: 1.43 in./ 36.32 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.08 in./ 27.43 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.60 in./ 17.53 mm. (Conically bored diameter is at the top)
Outside Diameter: 1.32 in./ 33.53 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
Loading…
Below are some photos of the finished Stone Age Volcano pipe.
The “Donegal Rocky” (in quotation marks), released in 1945 or so, was Kapp & Peterson’s first rusticated line. Not that K&P hadn’t rusticated pipes previously, they just that they hadn’t devoted an entire line to rustication. And they were apparently proud of it, because they gave it a sterling mount along with a black finish and white-stamped P on the mouthpiece.
It was part of K&P’s “Product Line,” what I call gateway pipes and others might call an entry-level pipe, as you can see in this shape chart from the 1945 catalog. Like the Shamrock (European version) and “K,” it was originally a fishtail line.
It’s worth remarking concerning the removable stinger. This spike-ended aluminum tube is easily removed, leaving the P-Lip mouthpiece strictly a graduated-bore regulation affair.
NebraskaPeteGeek 