Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I always feel humbled when someone reaches out to me to restore an old pipe.  I should say I’m humbled and nervous.  It is an honor to be asked but there is always the nagging feeling or insecurity of damaging someone’s favorite pipe or worse a family heirloom.  Today’s restoration emphasizes that very well.  The pipe was made by Peterson, I think everyone knows my feelings toward Peterson pipes.  If not, the handle Nebraska Pete Geek may give you a clue.  This example was a Captain Pete, an all time favorite line.  The owner reached out to me via email and lives only about 25 miles away.  Crazy small world, eh?  The Owner, let’s call him William to protect his identity (or less dramatic, privacy) had subjected himself to reading one of my restoration blogs.  The poor guy survived the ordeal and still wanted me to take a look at this pipe.  Descriptions and photos were sent and I gave an estimate of what I thought I could do for the old Captain Pete.  A few weeks later the pip arrived in the mail.  Below are some photos I took before starting work on the pipe.

The old Captain had seen some years in the service of a pipe smoker.  The most obvious issues were the pits where the old fills had failed.  The stem showed signs of oxidation and a bit of chomping.  Structurally the pipe was solid and in good shape the restoration would be more aesthetic.  William had said that he would like the stamping preserved as much as possible.  This would be a challenge due to the faint stamps, in general and specifically for the fills on the left shank amidst the stamps.

Background

I blogged about a Captain Pete back on December 31, 2023.  You can see that restoration HERE, if you are interested.  That was about the second month of my blogging.  Anyway, I wrote the following:

“Peterson pipes have a long and storied history which is rich and fascinating.  I highly recommend the book The Peterson Pipe, by authors Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg as well as a reading of pipedia.com’s Peterson pages.   According to Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg, the Captain Pete:

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

(A Peterson Captain Pete Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek)  I apparently was not concerned with notating Irwin and Malmberg’s work correctly so I will make amends and do that here, (Irwin, Mark and Malmberg, Gary (2018). The Peterson Pipe The Story of Kapp & Peterson, First edition, second printing 2021. Briar Books Press, Canada.).

This Captain Pete was certainly a first issue dating from 1940-62 made in Ireland.

The Restoration

As usual after the initial photo shoot the pipe made it to the workbench and a clean piece of denim.

The first thing I did was to use a fly tying bodkin too scratch the old wax from the beading around the bowl.

Next the ream team was assembled.  There didn’t appear to be a tremendous cake build up but the pipe had obviously been smoked.

The #2 blades of the PipNet did the majority of the reaming with both the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper used for clean-up.

The shank was dirty but considering the amount of cake present I thought the previous owner had used pipe cleaners on a daily regular basis.  The dental scraper was used to scrape the airway and did not produce as much tar as I was expecting.

Overall the shank cleaned out well with only alcohol dipped cotton swabs.

The stem also cleaned up fairly quickly with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

After a light sanding of the stem with a 320 grit sanding sponge I tried to paint the tooth dents with a flame from a lighter.  This helped raise the vulcanite a little bit.

The stem was then placed in a bath of Briarville’s Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover and let sit overnight.

I continued working on the stummel.  Below is a photo of the rim with  a light lava coating in places.

I moistened the rim with saliva to soften the lava.  The rim was then scraped with a sharp pocket knife.

I used a round polyvinyl chloride (PVC) end cap wrapped in 320 sandpaper to re-establish a good bevel on the inner rim.

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

BAck at the workbench, the stummel was looking clean. 

I gave the surface a wipe with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol .  Little color came off the pipe indicating that there was no wax or finish remaining on the stummel.  The alcohol also helped soften the old fills allowing me to remove as much of the fill material as possible.  With the stem in the oxidation remover and the stummel drying, I called it quits for the night.

The next day I removed the stem from the Briarville solution and wiped it with a coarse shop rag.  This absorbed the excess solution and removed some of the oxidized vulcanite.

There remained some brown oxidation on the surface.  I could not make out the stem logo that had been stamped 60+ years ago but could see the circle and imagined the P within.

The below photo shows two of the most exasperating details of this restoration:  How to preserve the remaining stamps while bringing the stamped material back to life.  I needed some serious thinking for this one.

I tried spot cleaning the remnant stem logo with Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover on a cotton swab.  I was not impressed with the results.

Maybe if I do it some more…  Still not impressed.

OK, more thinking time while I worked on repairing old fills.  This was done by placing a small dab of brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) into the pits using a fly tying bodkin.  

More CA in pits.

A small scoop of briar dust was then pressed into the wet CA.  This causes the CA to cure nearly immediately. 

The rough top of the new fills were filed off with a small flat file.  The fills then got another dab of brown CA to top-off the new fills.  This was allowed to cure over about an hour.

The cured CA/briar dust fills were then filed smooth with a small flat or ½ round file

When finished I realized that I wasn’t finished and that I’d missed two fills. DOH!  Repeating the above process except this time I ran a paper business card through the lower bead groove to remove excess CA before pressing the briar dust in and scraping the groove with a fly tying bodkin before the CA briar dust could cure.

The spot treatment of the logo area with Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover was less satisfactory than I hoped.  Perhaps my solution is losing potency due to the number of stems that I have bathed in the juice?  I turned to a tried and true method of removing the oxidation, SOFT Scrub on a make-up pad. 

The stem was rubbed with a heavy coat of mineral oil and allowed to sit for a few minutes before I wiped the excess off with a paper towel.

Next would be the sanding.  To protect those faint stamps I covered them with painters tape.  The pipe was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from grits 320-3500.  Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol.  The stem was rubbed with mineral oil then wiped with a paper towel.

After the sanding sponges I worked the pipe with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000.  The wiping between pads was repeated as with the sanding sponges but between pads I used Obsidian Oil rather than mineral oil.

The stummel was given a liberal coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 30 minutes.

An inside out athletic sock was used to hand buff away the remaining balm.

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

After the waxing I used a fly tying bodkin to clear the beading grooves of excess wax.

The pipe was hand buffed with a microfiber polishing cloth to raise the shine.

I gave this old Pete a bowl coating not because the tobacco chamber had any damage but because the owner had requested it and it gave me a little more time with the old Captain Pete.  I used 100% maple syrup and activated charcoal powder.

The airway was plugged with a cotton swab.  Another cotton swab was used to paint the chamber with a light coating of syrup.  The capsule was dumped into the chamber and sealed off with painters tape over the rim.  The stummel was then shaken vigorously for over a minute to evenly distribute the charcoal powder.

The tape was removed and the powder dumped.  

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

It is always fun to work on a Peterson pipe and working on someone else’s Peterson is like catch and release fishing.  Although in all honesty, my days of collecting Peterson pipes are pretty much over.  I am releasing more than I am catching today.  This old pipe was a fun challenge.  Yeah, I couldn’t restore it to how it looked when it came out of the factory in Dublin.  The stampings and logos were just too worn and those two pits by the stamps were just taunting me to obliterate the Stamps.  In the end I am happy with how the pipe turned out.  The overall finish is superior to how it would have looked coming out of the factory.  I do not want to be critical of Peterson but they typically only sand a pipe to 400 grit.  I am pretty certain that the owner will be as happy with the pipe as I am.  The dimensions of the Peterson Captain Pete bulldog are:

Length:  5.70 in./ 43.18 mm.

Weight:  1.21 oz./ 34.30 g.

Bowl Height: 1.80 in./  45.72 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.50 in./ 38.10 mm.

Chamber Diameter:  0.72 in./ 18.29 mm. 

Outside Diameter:  1.51 in./ 38.35 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 Peterson Captain Pete 155 bulldog.