Photographed and written by 

John M. Young

I’ve restored a few Danish style pipes recently and there is just something I find appealing about their curves.  Kind of like the graceful curves of a 1940 Ford Coupe.  

(https://www.artandspeed.com/vehicles/290/1940-ford-deluxe-coupe)

I can’t say why I find them attractive, I just do.  Well this pipe screamed out to me in a similar fashion.  A far more affordable fashion, I may add.  I saw the pipe while perusing eBay.  

(the above three photos are from the seller’s original listing VINTAGE ESTATE PIPE | eBay)

I have to say that I was unfamiliar with the brand and had to do some research to find out even the name.  Still this pipe was calling out.  The bidding went on and was won.  The Jirsa arrived here and was bumped to the front of the queue.  Below are some photos of the pipe upon its arrival.

The pipe looked to be in good shape.  The stem was oxidized but not severely.  The worry there was that the stem looked like it was made of three different materials; an acrylic spacer, a briar band and the stem proper, with the stem only showing oxidation.  My worry was how the other two materials and their glue would react with the deoxidation treatment.  Otherwise the restoration looked like it should be pretty easy.

Background

As I said earlier, I was not familiar or even aware of Jirsa pipes.  To be honest, I didn’t even know what the logo was nor could I easily make out the stamps.  I went to pipephie.eu in search of the logo.  Starting with what I could see, a circled, “letter”?

(Pipes : Encircled letter)

Wow, the Jirsa logo looked the same, right down to the briar band.  Following that lead I gave it a click.  I had a match.  The JIRSA stamp on the example from pipephil.eu was even faint like the pipe in hand and a photo of the maker, Goldrich Jirsa.  

(Je-Jn — Pipes : Logos & Markings)

It was also the first pipe I had ever worked on from the Czech Republic.

I next visited pipedia in search of additional information.  The information found was surprisingly detailed.  I’ll include it in its entirety:

“Jirsa is a Czech Republic brand owned by the family company headed by the artisan Oldrich Jirsa. They use Ebonite and cumberland stems. Best Grading: SG (Grain), three stars. Symbol: stylized J coming out of an oval.^[1]

Sysop Note: Apparently Jirsa no longer uses Ebonite and Cumberland as reported above, but now makes there stems in house using a proprietary, food-safe plastic mixture, which is reported to be very bite-friendly and somewhat softer than acrylic.

The following is an excerpt from a blog post written by Christian Probst for Cigar World:

Jirsa pipes from the Czech Republic may have been known to some pipe smokers for several years. The pipe smokers who already know this brand value it for its excellent price-performance ratio, interesting shapes and good workmanship.

Olda Jirsa, the company owner, writes about his company on his website :

I have been making pipes since 1994. We are a small workshop and we have always strived for pipes with the intention of “making good pottery rather than expensive china”. A lot has happened over the years. We have moved three times and faced various crises, both privately and professionally. The world of pipes has changed, small pipe shops are disappearing and everything is shifting to the internet and social networks. The world is changing and new technologies are influencing more and more aspects of our lives, but we want to stick to traditional craftsmanship as much as possible. We use a modern CNC milling machine for standard production, but each tube is still more than 80% handcrafted. Most pipes are produced in small series, but a small part is personally and entirely handcrafted by me. But in any case, all pipes are made with an interest in them, and also in you.
Olda Jirsa

What can still be said is that although Jirsa is a small manufacturer, the manufacturing processes are very modern and economical. Some specialists speak of the most modern workshop equipment in a European pipe manufactory. This has a positive effect on the precision. Holes sit, transitions are right – perfect function.

Also worth mentioning is the in-house mouthpiece production, which gives Jirsa additional flexibility in shaping the pipes. Neither acrylic nor ebonite is used here, but a proprietary, food-safe plastic mixture is used, which is very bite-friendly and somewhat softer than acrylic.

As usual for a Central European manufacturer, they almost exclusively use pipes with a 9mm filter hole, which mostly suits German pipe smokers.

The design language and style are also very characteristic, a unique “handwriting” is clear. Especially bulldog variants of Jirsa have numerous lovers and fans. The fact that small, light-colored acrylic applications are often used between the stem and the mouthpiece is another very attractive detail that makes a Jirsa pipe recognizable as such at first glance.

If you take a look at our Jirsa range, you will see that we currently have predominantly rusticated pipes in the shop. The reason for this is simple – we can only upload the pipes one at a time, but smooth pipes will follow in a timely manner!

Among other things, there will also be very beautiful, light-colored pipes made of great wood quality.

So look forward to absolutely “cheap” pipes in the literal sense, which are worth trying out!” (Jirsa – Pipedia)

Observations were meeting with the information on the pipe with the exception of the founder’s name, is it Oldrich Jirsa, Olda Jirsa or Goldrich Jirsa.  Personally, I think Oldrich sounds more reasonable with the “Olda” as more informal.  The shaping of the pipe definitely looked far more artisanal than factory matching the 80% handcrafted claim.  The stem material, I found very interesting and concerning.  Would my standard practices work on restoring it?  Stay tuned…

I still wanted some first person knowledge about the company so I messaged my European Connection.  No not Gene Hackman, he passed away last February and he was only a French Connection.  The great Sascha Mertens, my German connection and European knowledge base.  I sent him a photo and asked what he knew about Jirsa pipes.  His reply was typical of the all knowing:  “Nice pipe! Have none but was told they’re pretty good!” ( Mertens, Sascha.  Personal communication).  There you have it, time to get to work.  Oh, one more thing, here is a link to the official Jirsa site:  Website for Jirsa Briar pipes.  Now I can get to work.

The Restoration

The pipe made its way to the workbench and a cleaned denim piece.  Have I mentioned how much I like this shape? 

I started with the stem.  It did seem slightly different from vulcanite in the way it had oxidized.  I did not appear to react adversely to 95% ethyl alcohol during the cleaning with bristle pipe cleaners.

Into the Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover.  I planned on leaving it overnight.

Returning to the stummel, I gathered the reaming kit.  The #2 PipNet blades were a loose fit but the #3 seemed too tight so I grabbed the Kleen-Reem.  The Kleen-Reem also proved to be too low of a gauge.  I scraped with the General triangular scraper and found the bowl had some kind of a bowl coating.  This concoction was more paint-like though I am sure it was not a type of paint.  I tried the PipNet #3 blades again and found the bore diameter was correct.  A great deal of effort later the old bowl coating was removed.

The interior of the tobacco chamber was in great shape, obviously well protected by that bowl coating.  The chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.

Next came the rim.  There was a little bit of lava deposited on the rim. 

The rim was moistened with saliva and scraped with a sharp pocket knife.  It looked much better but unfortunately also uncovered the charring of the briar from a lighter.

Hmm, I guess not everyone has access to soft flame pipe lighters and some poor souls have to use regular Zippos or war surplus flame throwers.

I lightly topped the rim with 320 sand paper followed by a lighter touch with 400 grit paper.

The rim appeared better but I did not want to alter the shape or the glorious curves of this pipe.  Have I mentioned how much I like the shape of this pipe?

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

Returned to the bench the stummel was wiped with 95% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad.  The stain color was unlike any that I’d seen before.  Apricot colored was the term that came to mind.

There were four factory fills of briar flaws.  The color of the fills was very similar to the briar but the fill material was very hard and shiny.  The reflective spots of the next three photos are of the factory fills.  I opted not to dig them out as they all were hard and secure.

I lightly sanded the stummel searching for additional spots which may require filling.  That is where I stopped for the night.  In the morning the stem would be ready and my eyes more awake.

The next morning I returned to the basement to check on the stem’s progress.   “AUGH, what have I done?”  May have been heard in surrounding counties.  I removed the stem from the Briarville solution and laid it on my shop rag.  The color was a spotty olive green, very similar to what I expect the color of a ½ composted zombie would be.

I feverishly rubbed with the coarse shop rag wanting to erase the sin of my putting the stem in that solution.  Oh, cool, it comes off with vigorous rubbing.

Back at the workbench the solution had been wiped off or dried and what remained was a buff colored residue.  This was definitely not vulcanite now acrylic.  By George, this must be, “proprietary, food-safe plastic mixture” as stated above.  From here on I’ll use PFSPM in place of proprietary food safe plastic mixture.  The second alarming thing to note was the darkening of the briar spacer.  I had an idea for a fix for this as well. 

I proceeded like I would with a vulcanite stem and scrubbed the surface with Soft Scrub cleanser on a make-up pad.  The buff colored residue came off with rubbing.  It did heavily foul the make-up pad as seen in the photo below.  The stem material was much softer than traditional vulcanite, perhaps from the extended time in the Briarville solution.  I decided that I would only work this PFSPM with dry methods going forward.

I used Scotch tape to cover and protect the logo.  I thought that it already was much more faint than it was before the Briarville solution and my rubbing/scrubbing.  I did not want to further degrade it.

I used Scotch tape on the shank stamps as well.  “Why Scotch tape?, you ask.  I wanted to sand as close as I could to the stamps and the clear tape is easy to see and trim.

I had left the stummel lightly sanded with 320 followed by 400 sanding sponges the night before.  I continued the hunt for briar flaws with fresh eyes and found one.  It was a tiny pit requiring a small drop of brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue).

Once the CA had cured it was filed with a small flit file.

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

The sanding did not lighten the color of the briar spacer of the stem.  Plan B, using a saturated solution of oxalic acid to bleach the wood.  I carefully applied the oxalic acid solution with a cotton swab.  

Below is a before oxalic acid photo.

And here is an after oxalic acid photo. It worked better than I had hoped.  I had a friend who used to say, “better lucky than good, any day”.  Truer words have rarely been heard.

Now I wanted to bring up the shine around the logo without eroding it, a tough job.  I carefully avoided the logo while buffing the stem.  

The stem looked great and the logo was still intact.

The original logo looked white so I tried a white acrylic paint.  This is a water based model paint for figures with fine detail for gaming.  I allowed the paint a few minutes of dry time and carefully tried scraping it from the stem while leaving paint in the depressions of the stamp.  Failure.  I tried a second time allowing additional dry time.  Another fail.  The paint was not adhering to the PFSPM.

Hmm, silver is not white but a close second.  I tried applying Silver Leaf Rub’nBuff.  This is a solvent based wax.  I thought that maybe it would adhere better.

Success.  You can see the area around the loge where the Scotch tape had kept the logo safe from sanding and also showed that my buffing hadn’t affected the logo much.  I hoped that the Rub’nBuff residuals would be removed with the next step.

Next came the Before and After Fine Polish followed by the Extra Fine Polish.  Both of these were hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth (AKA t-shirt rag).  The logo looked  good and the stem looked fantastic.

With the stem looking great it was time to see what magic the Before and After Restoration Balm would work on this lovely piece of briar.  Have I mentioned how attractive I think this pipe’s shape is? 

The remaining Restoration Balm was wiped from the stummel with an inside out athletic sock.  The balm did whatever it did beautifully.  

It was time for several coats of carnauba wax.  This was applied with the buffer.

The insides of the pipe were clean, the exterior had been restored, one thing remained, a bowl coating.  I like to use pure maple syrup and carbon powder or charcoal, if you prefer.

A cotton swab was used to apply a very thin coating of maple syrup to the interior of the tobacco chamber.  A pipe cleaner was inserted into the airway to keep carbon powder from the airway.  A capsule of activated charcoal was opened up and poured into the chamber.  The rim was sealed with a piece of painters tape.  I then vigorously shook and tapped the stemmel on my knuckles.  I rotated the stummel repeatedly and shook and tapped some more.

The tape was removed and the remaining powder dumped.  I removed the pipe cleaner and gave the airway a couple of hard blows from my mouth.  

Below you can see a nice even coating which would dry after a few days.

The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth further deepening the shine.

This Jirsa Danish Style Bent Egg was a fun pipe to work on despite what appeared to be a disaster at one point.  I love how it is such a unique piece and can only imagine the craftsmanship required to make such a wonderful shape.  Most of the restoration I do are on factory made pipes this is far from that.  Though Not a piece of flawless briar I commend the folks at Jirsa for making a very nice pipe.  The drillings are spot on the fills where well done and have withstood the test of time.  The stain or dye used was very nicely done and looks more like a natural finish.  The stem polished up beautifully and though I may never know exactly what PFSPM is, I can say that it can be restored to its past glory.  It also has a very nice feel between the teeth.   The dimensions of the Jirsa Danish Style Bent Egg are:

Length:  5.75 in./ 146.05 mm.

Weight:  1.81 oz./ 92.88 g.

Bowl Height: 2.26 in./  57.40 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.89 in./ 48.00 mm.

Chamber Diameter:  0.78 in./ 19.81 mm. 

Outside Diameter:  1.63 in./ 41.40 mm.

I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations.  If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons.  Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover. 

Below are some photos of the finished Jirsa Danish Style Bent Egg. Oh, have I mentioned how attractive I find the shape of this pipe? If you are interested in having this pipe for your own please feel free to email me: scimansays1787@gmail.com.