This is another “tag-along” pipe, one of those unintended-though-not-unwanted but part of the estate lot. This one is a Medico Medalist in the author shape. I have to say that Medico makes a very attractive author. The pipe arrived here last May and has been patiently waiting for restoration in the queue. The pipe is stamped MEDICO over Medalist (in script) over IMPORTED BRIAR on the left shank. No shape number nor country of manufacture (COM). There was also a stamped and painted M in between two aluminum rings on the stem. Below are some photos I took prior to beginning work.
Background
Medico pipes have a long history all the way back to SM Frank around 1900. According to TobaccoPipes.com,
“When you trace the Medico tobacco pipes history, you have to trace it back to the origins of the company that created it. The company that originated the Medico brand is the S.M Frank & Co. This company dates back to the year 1900. In that year, a man named Sam Frank began selling pipes and related tobacco products. Eventually, the company began making its own line of pipes. With the help of an experienced pipe manufacturer, Ferdinand Feuerbach, the company produced the popular Royal DeMuth and Hesson Guard Milano tobacco pipes. The company continued to grow well into the early part of the 1930s.
By the early 1930s, there were some concerns about the tars and nicotine found in tobacco smoke. In order to mellow out the flavor of hot tobacco smoke as well as to capture the tars and nicotine, the S.M. Frank & Co. introduced the Medico pipe filter. This is an absorbent paper filter that many people still use to this day. In order to accommodate the new filter, the company developed an accompanying brand of pipes known as Medico. That line of pipes continues in production today.
The company ended up buying some of their main competition in 1955. That year the Kaywoodie brands came under the S.M. Frank Company. The Medico brand continued production through this transition without many changes. The next big change for the brand came in the late 1960s. In 1966, the company developed a synthetic material that combined the traditional briar wood with resins. It is known as Brylon. At that time, all Medico pipes were made from imported briar wood. In order to keep production costs down, the company began offering some lines with Brylon. Today, that is still true.
Today, the Medico brand of pipes is still a top selling one for the S.M Frank & Co. This line of pipes comes in thirteen different finishes with five made of briar wood and the rest from Brylon. All come with the push bit with a filter inside. The filter is easily changed out when the smoker desires. In the briar wood finishes, this line includes the Silver Crest, Premier, Bold Rebel, Kensington, and Windsor. In the Brylon, the line includes the Lancer, Apollo, Standard, Varsity, Conqueror, Medalist, Cavalier, and V.E.Q. As far as price, the briar wood pipes tend to be higher in cost that the Brylon ones.” (Medico Pipes History | TobaccoPipes.com)
The days of “drug store pipes” are apparently over. I typed in the following question:
“Are Medico tobacco pipes sold at physical Walmart, Walgreen’s or drug stores anymore?”
Next I typed in, “Where can I buy a new Medico tobacco pipe?” into Google and got this:
Clicking the first link, Medico Pipes Exclusive Full Line Retailer!!!, took me to a remarkably blank page where not a single pipe was listed. Now please do not think that I am speaking ill of WVSmokshop.com, I have ordered from them and will continue to order from them. They are the only retailer where I can find Captain Black Copper which is a favorite aromatic of mine. The fact remains, Medico pipes are not readily available outside of the used or estate market. As for when this particular Medico Medalist was produced, I cannot say with certainty. I would hazard a guess between 1960-1980.
The Restoration
The Medalist made it from the photo table to the workbench minus the used filter from the stem.
I started with the stem. There was tooth chatter on both the top and bottom surface of the bite zone.
The interior of the stem was cleaned with 99% ethyl alcohol on cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners.
The tooth chatter was filed with a small flat file.
I scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads. Usually I do this after soaking a stem in a deoxidizing solution, I do not know why I’d always used that order, deox first the scrubbing.
After the Soft Scrub I suspended the stem into Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. I left the stem in the solution for 2-3 hours.
I turned my attention to the reaming of the tobacco chamber.
The PipNet and the #2 blade did this quickly with the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer doing some cleanup.
The chamber looked good. Next, I sanded the tobacco chamber with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. There was no damage to the chamber from heat.
I cleaned the shank with alcohol, cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners along with some scraping with a dental scraper.
I scrubbed the stummel with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush over the sink. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
Back at the workbench the stummel looked clean but was coated with a clear coat finish. I am not a fan of clear coat finishes, so it had to go.
Having already used 99% ethyl alcohol, I knew the finish was impervious to that solvent. I tried acetone on a cotton swab to see if it would dissolve the finish. I did.
To save myself time, I placed the stummel into a jar with acetone and let it soak for 20 minutes.
The stummel was removed and wiped with a paper towel. The vast majority of the finish had been removed.
I used acetone on make-up pads to scrub most of the remaining finish from the briar.
The acetone had softened the worst of the fills. I used a fly tying bodkin to pick the old fill material from the stummel.
A light sanding with a 320 sanding sponge and another wiping with acetone and the clear coat was gone.
In preparation for the sanding, I covered the stamping with masking tape.
The finish free rim looked like it could use a light topping.
A few figure eights on a piece of 400 grit sandpaper laid on the countertop.
The one fill to rework was refilled and packed with briar dust.
To this dust , I added a tiny drop of Thin cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). The thin mixture penetrates and bonds the dust to the briar.
The new fill was filed then sanded smooth.
After a couple of hours’ish, I pulled the stem from the deox and let the excess solution drip back into the jar for a few minutes.
The stem was then vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rag to absorb the remaining solution and abrade the softened oxidized rubber. This scrubbing the stem with Soft Scrub before the deox, will need more experimentation, but it seemed to work better.
The stem was lightly sanded then rubbed with mineral oil. It looked pretty darn good.
The pipe was reassembled and sanded, intact, with a series of sanding sponges 320-1500 grit. The stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol between sponges while the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel. Both wipings were to remove sanding debris.
The sanding continued with 2000-3500 grit sponges and repeated wipings between each sponge.
The pipe was then worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000, again the whipping between pads. I will add that instead of mineral oil I used Obsidian Oil on the stem.
A coating of Before and After Restoration Balm was applied to the briar and allowed to sit for 20 minutes.
An inside out athletic sock was used to hand buff the stummel and remove excess balm.
The stamps were re-masked with fresh masking tape to protect the stamps from buffing.
The pipe was then buffed using white buffing compound.
The M logo on the stem had lost it’s paint and some of detail during the deoxidation. I used a white acrylic model paint to repaint the logo.
The results were not as good as the original but the loss of detail was the price of deoxidation.
The pipe then received several coats of carnauba wax from the buffer.
The final step was hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.
I think this Medico Medalist turned out quite well. I love the author shape and am reminded to use an author off the rack when writing blogs. The briar grain of this pipe is pretty but I wonder if I should have given it a contrast dye. That might have made the existing bird’s eyes stand out better. The grain is still very nice for a drug store pipe. The stem polished up very well and the glossy black does accentuate the existing briar grain well. The dimensions of this Medico Gold Crest meerschaum apple are:
Length: 6.30 in./ 160.02 mm.
Weight: 0.96 oz./ 27.22 g.
Bowl Height: 1.29 in./ 32.77 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.07 in./ 27.18 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.71 in./ 18.03 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.53 in./ 38.86 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 Medico Medalist Author.
In all honesty, this is hardly a restoration. It is more of a cleaning and polishing. The pipe had never been fired. Why someone would do that is beyond me but after the last restoration I appreciate something that is more like pushing the easy button. I am not really sure when this pipe arrived other than it was at least a year ago. My record keeping started out very good when I began restoring pipes then went downhill quickly. Below are some photos of the Brigham billiard prior to starting work.
I am sure you noticed that the stem was not completely seated in the above photos. That is because it wouldn’t press into place without excessive force. The aluminum tenon was oxidized and I thought it best not to force it. The only other issue was the slight oxidation of the stem which made it look rather dull. Those were the only real things this pipe needed; aluminum polishing/oxidation removal and a stem polishing. Yay!
Background
Back on August 7, 2025 I wrote about a Brigham 202 Billiard with a dental bit. It is linked for those interested in that restoration. Anyway, I discussed The ultimate guide to Brigham pipes, a book by Charles Lemon. Here is a quote from that blog:
“The ultimate source of information on Brigham pipes is Charles Lemon, the author of Brigham Pipes – A Century of Canadian Briar. This wonderful book is available from Mr. Lemon on his website, Books, or from smokingpipes.com (Brigham Pipes – A Century of Canadian Briar | Smokingpipes) if you need to increase the total of your purchase to get the ever popular free shipping, and other various sources. I am unsure about Canadian immigration rules but I think this book should be required reading for prospective immigrants to Canada, especially if they are pipe smokers. ” (A Brigham 202 Billiard Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek)
I once again found myself rereading Mr. Lemon’s work. My mind is far better at relearning than it is at remembering, Though I admit to being able to find the information much faster this time. The 1990s to early 2000s brought unique challenges and opportunities to Brigham. According to Charles Lemon, “ The company rounded the decade with two major introductions. The first, in response to demand for a lower-priced pipe, was the Italian-made Brigham System Pipe”, the first Brigham pipe made completely outside of Canada. The second and more far-reaching change was the development of the composite tenon, still in use today.” (Lemon, Charles. Brigham Pipe – A Century of Canadian Briar. Copywell, Woodbridge ON. Second Printing, October 2023. Page p. 51). So this dates the Brigham System pipe to the late 1990s. The next page narrows the latest possible production date to 2001.
Again referring to Lemon, “In all, Brigham tested ten different composite formulas before landing on a material that was less expensive than aluminum, strong, lightweight and tolerant of high heat levels. The new composite tenons generated quite a stir among Canadian pipe smokers when introduced in 2001, but the benefits, especially the much lower risk of a cracked shank, outweighed the initial resistance from Brigham pipe fans” (Lemon, p.52). One other dating quote from Mr. Lemon is in regards to the stem logo:
“”Brigham System” Pipes (late 1990s to early 2000s) were the first Brigham pipes made entirely in Italy. These were entry-level pipes available in 12 shape sand marked first with a yellow star on the stem, which later changed after 2001 to a maple leaf.” (Lemon, p. 55)
Since this pipe is clearly stamped as a Brigham System with a country of manufacture (COM) of Italy, a yellow star stem logo and an aluminum tenon it must have been made in the late 1990s to 2001.
The Restoration
From the photo table to the workbench, a scenic journey of about 15 feet, the pipe made it without incident.
I chose to work on the oxidized tenon first.
Using 0000 steel wool the oxidized aluminum was cleaned up and polished.
The mortise showed signs of some oxidized aluminum residue within.
I used a .22 caliber rifle brass bore brush to clean the mortise.
The shank was then cleaned with cotton swabs dipped in 95% isopropyl alcohol.
Once the mortise and tenon were cleaned up the two joined as they should.
I wanted to revitalize the stem with some buffing. I did not want to affect the finish on the shank, so I taped the end of the shank with masking tape.
Being the lazy bum that I am, I didn’t replace the buffing wheel and just used the white wheel and white buffing compound on the stem.
The yellow painted stem logo did take a slight beating from the buffing. I used some Pale Saffron acrylic modeling paint to refresh the logo. This color was a nearly perfect match to the original color. The acrylic paint was allowed to dry for a few minutes.
The excess paint was removed using micro-mesh pads. These were fine enough that the finish from the buffing was not noticeable.
The stem then received several coats of carnauba wax at the buffer. The stummel also was waxed with carnauba but very lightly as I did not want to fill the rustications with wax deposits.
The final step was to hand buff the pipe with a microfiber polish cloth.
This Brigham System pipe is one of the last Brighams made using the aluminum tenon. With its traditional internals and a very traditional billiard shape it is a very well balanced pipe with great hand feel. The texture does not show any real briar grain and the dye is rather artificial in appearance; it would certainly make an excellent working pipe for those projects in the yard or garage. I have had experience with the Brigham maple inserts and found that they do remove liquids and tar from the smoke effectively. The stem of this pipe polished-up very nickel and overall it looks like a brand new pipe. Which, never having been smoked, it really is. The dimensions of this Brigham System are:
Length: 5.95 in./ 151.13 mm.
Weight: 1.42 oz./ 40.26 g.
Bowl Height: 1.85 in./ 46.99 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.66 in./ 42.16 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.84 in./ 21.34 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.44 in./ 36.58 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
Loading…
Below are some photos of the finished Brigham System Billiard.
I think I have only worked on 6-10 Savinelli pipes. There have been four that I have blogged about, including this one, and another 3 or 4 that I restored before I was writing about the restorations. Some of those early Savinelli restorations were Dry System pipes, Savinelli’s take on the Peterson System and a Punto Oro Mister G. In general I have nothing but praise to give Savinelli pipes except for their vulcanite. Savinelli’s acrylic stems are a thing of beauty with wonderful color schemes and excellent workmanship. Their vulcanite on the other hand is shaped with care and precision but the darn stuff is nearly impossible to restore to the original gloss black. I think I am getting ahead of myself again. This Savinelli Extra 616 KS is an amazing pipe due to its incredible shape. It’s classified as a bent billiard but that doesn’t do it justice. It has wonderfully thick walls and a very substantial shank, making it similar in size to a Peterson 307 but larger in all the right places. Yeah, I had to compare it to a Peterson since my experience with Petes is far more extensive than with Savinelli. I picked this pipe up by making an offer on the poor pipe which no one was bidding on. The seller accepted and the rest is history. Upon arrival I took some photos of the pipe prior to working on it.
I could definitely see why many people like this shape, it has wonderful proportions and feels great in hand. This one needed some work, though. The vulcanite stem was severely oxidized. I hoped my previous experiences with Savinelli vulcanite would be different this time. The stummel had a few dents which looked easy to fill and the existing fill were all secure and intact. The tobacco chamber had a layer of cake which I hoped would not reveal hidden damage. The rim looked good with only minor lava deposits. Overall, this looked like a pretty easy restoration.
Background
Re-reading the blog about the Savinelli Porto Cervo, I thought, “why rewrite good information?” So I didn’t. Below is what I said about Savinelli in March 9th of 2024:
“First off , let me provide some history of Savinelli. As usual I employed pipedia.org and pipephil.eu for source information. The pipedia.org section of Savinelli is well written and very informative. I know I said I wanted to keep this brief but much of this is worthy of repeating, especially the “origins” of the company in 1876 and the post-WWII company as we know it.
Early Origins
“1876 was a year of breakthroughs: Thomas Edison patented the mimeograph, Julius Wolff-Eastport canned sardines for the first time, Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call,
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky completed Swan Lake, Melville Bissel patented the first carpet sweeper, Mark Twain published Tom Sawyer, and in Milan, Italy, Achille Savinelli opened one of the first shops exclusively focused on tobacco and smoking accessories.
That last item may seem relatively unimportant in the global scheme of advancements, but for those of us who love pipes, it was a monumental achievement, made even more difficult by the Italian government, which held a monopoly on tobacco. In addition, Achille was convinced that briar pipes represented the future of pipe smoking at a time when the market was dominated by clay and meerschaum. It may not have been obvious in 1876, but Achille Savinelli’s commitment to briar pipes would prove to be visionary.
He soon began designing his own pipes (different from the styling we associate with Savinelli today) and arranged their manufacture by local pipemakers in the Varese district of north-west Italy. The pipes became so popular that some were exhibited at the 1881 Esposizione Industriale Italiana (Italian Industrial Exposition)—the precursor to today’s Milan Fair, one of the largest trade fairs in the world.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Savinelli)
Post-WWII
“With his two best friends, Amleto Pomé and Mario Vettoruzzo, he assembled a team of fifteen employees to start a new business in the Varese region—the same area of northwest Italy in which his grandfather, Achille Sr., commissioned his own designs more than 60 years before.
Savinelli Pipes began production in 1948 and, although the pipes were of a superior quality and unique in their aesthetic, the brand wasn’t an immediate success. Few new brands are. It takes time for the public to catch on. Retailers were skeptical of placing Italian pipes alongside their best sellers from England or France, and customers, in turn, were hesitant to purchase a Savinelli over pipes by already established, foreign brands. Achille Jr. stood by his product, however; he knew it was only a matter of time before the world realized that these pipes were of a far superior quality, capable of competing with even the most well-established pipe manufacturers in the world. As it turns out, he was right. In less than a year, Savinelli pipes gained prestige in markets all across the world—heralded for their delicate balance of innovation and tradition, of form and function. Savinelli pipes were placed alongside the likes of Dunhill and Comoy’s in tobacconists from the United States to Europe, and, in time, this exposure modified Italy’s reputation; it was not only the premier exporter of briar, but now a premium source of fine briar pipes.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Savinelli)
Yeah, I know, that was kind of lazy. Now about this pipe: Savinelli Extra 616 KS. According to the official Savinelli site, “Model 616 KS is one of the biggest models which Savinelli offers to its customers. The big and deep chambered cylindrical bowl is visually balanced by a thick and robust cylindrical shank. A really masculine style.” (Savinelli Pipe – FORESTA 616 KS). The number of Savinelli lines, brands, sub-brands etc… is dizzying:
(Savinelli – Pipedia). How anyone, even master factory craftsmen, can keep track of all that is remarkable.
The Restoration
The Extra 616 KS made its way to the workbench.
I started with the stem. The good news was there was no real tooth chatter. I used a flat file to redefine the button and remove the general tooth denting.
A wood block was used to help hold the stem for some light sanding to remove the surface oxidation.
The airway of the stem was cleaned out with bristle pipe cleaners and 99% ethyl alcohol.
I thought a 24 hour dip in the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer would be adequate.
Returning to the stummel I started cleaning the shank with the unused ends of the bristle pipe cleaners left from the stem.
Numerous cotton swab, and shank brushing, all with 99% ethyl alcohol along with a good deal of scraping with a dental scraper helped clear the accumulated smoking residues.
The reaming tools were assembled.
The PippNet with it’s #2 and #3 blades did the majority of the reaming.
I used the General triangular scraper and the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer for some clean-up.
The reamed tobacco chamber looked much better.
The chamber was sanded to bare briar using 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. No heat damage was evident.
With the amount of tar and yuck in the shank airway I thought it would be best if I gave the stummel a cotton alcohol treatment. The airway and tobacco chamber were stuffed with cotton.
Normally 10 ml of 99% ethyl alcohol would be sufficient for this but the 616 KS has a very substantial bowl, so 15 ml were measured out. The alcohol would be applied via a disposable pipette.
The cotton was saturated with alcohol and would be left overnight.
The next day the cotton showed the tell tale color of the deposited tars removed by the alcohol.
The cotton was removed and the airway was again cleaned using alcohol dipped cotton swabs and some more scraping.
The Savinelli made its way to the sink for a scrub with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
The dried stummel looked far better.
A wipe down with a make-up pad dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol removed a bit of color, probably wax and some remaining grime.
This did allow me a better look at the dents and dings in the briar.
The two old fills remained quite secure and I decided to leave them in place, even though I truly dislike their pink color.
The stem was removed from the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer (deox) and allowed to drip excess solution from the stem using the patented Drip-O-Matic.
The stem was vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rage to remove some of the oxidized vulcanite and the remaining solution. The oxidized rubber can be seen on the rag in the photo below rag
Returning to the workbench, the stem was worked with Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads to remove more of the oxidized material.
A liberal coating of mineral oil was applied to the stem to curtail further oxygen attack.
To further remove the oxidation I sanded the stem with 320-600 sanding sponges. The stem was secured to the shank and the shank masked with masking tape to prevent excessive sanding of the briar. Between each sanding sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.
Now, under normal room light the stem looked pretty good but when placed under the bright lights of the photography table the brown of oxidation was very evident. Darn that Savinelli vulcanite.
I wiped the stem with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol to remove the oil and reintroduced the stem to the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. I left it in the solution for another 12 hours.
This gave me plenty of time to work on the stummel. To fill the dents and dings, I used thin cyanoacrylate and briar dust. The new fills were filed with a small flat file and sanded smooth with sanding sponges.
The rim was lightly topped with 400 grit sandpaper laid flat on a counter and the inner rine bevel reestablished using a small wood sphere and sanding sponges in grits 320 and 400.
The stamps were taped over with masking tape for their protection.
12 Hours later the stem was removed from deox again and allowed to drip for a few minutes.
Back onto a clean side of the coarse shop rag.
More vigorous rubbing yielded more oxidized vulcanite.
Under normal lighting it looks good.
Under bright photo lighting, not so much. Darn Savinelli vulcanite.
The stem and stummel both met the serials of sanding sponges from 320-3500. The stem was again rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel between sponges. The stem was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad between sponges to remove sanding debris.
The stem was then taken to the buffer where I used a rogue buffing compound to buff the stem.
I switched wheels and then buffed with white buffing compound. The buffing had the desired effect of giving the stem a wonderful gloss finish but under bright light, brown oxidation could still be seen. Darn Savinelli vulcanite.
I returning to the workbench the stummel was coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and the stem coated with Before and After Hard Rubber Balm. These were allowed to sit for 30 minutes.
Both balms were hand buffed with an inside out athletic sock to remove the excess balms.
The pipe was returned to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.
The final step was to hand buff the pipe with a microfiber polish cloth.
I would love to say that I think this Savinelli turned out great. Unfortunately, the oxidation of the stem stops me from saying great. Acceptable, is a better term. The stummel turned out very nicely and the polish of the stem is beautiful. I think the only way to remove the oxidation would be to sand the shank and stem together and reduce the thickness of both to get to non-oxidized vulcanite. This would alter the dimensions of the pipe overall and I do not think that is worth it. I again say, “darn Savinelli vulcanite”. For those thinking about purchasing an estate Savinelli, I recommend going with models which have acrylic stems unless the oxidized vulcanite suits your fancy. This is still a wonderful pipe and will be a great smoker.
The dimensions of the Savinelli Extra 616 KS are:
Length: 5.58 in./ 141.73 mm.
Weight: 2.25 oz./ 63.79 g.
Bowl Height: 2.13 in./ 54.10 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.84 in./ 46.74 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.83 in./ 21.08 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.74 in./ 44.20 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 Savinelli Extra 616 KS.
I first laid eyes and hands on a Rettke pipe in July of 2025. You can see that entire restoration here. I was taken by the rather nontraditional, double drilled shank, of the pipe. These pipes are what I call “gimmick pipes”. Now, not all gimmicks are equal. I am sure that Charles Peterson was considered a gimmick pipe maker with his three patents for the Peterson system back in the late 1890s. That gimmick has been used to great result and success for well over 125 years.I made an offer to the seller and was turned down. The pipe sat through several auction cycles and remained unsold. I made a lesser offer and it was accepted. The virtue of patience strikes again. The pipe did not have far to travel after the purchase, merely from Washington, Missouri to the wilds of southeast Nebraska. Yes, the same Washington, Missouri as both the home of J. Rettke and Missouri Meerschaum pipes. Below are some photos taken before I began working on the pipe.
Overall a pretty clean specimen with no glaring issues. The stem had oxidation expected of a 60+ year old pipe. The internals looked clean. There were no obvious fills, indicating a good quality briar. The grain of this pipe was not as distinctive as the first Rettke I restored and I thought that maybe a contrast dye would bring out the existing grain. The rubber seal/end of the “whirler” ( J. Rettke’s term for the spiral aluminum condenser) showed signs of drying and oxidation and may need to be addressed or replaced. Otherwise a thorough cleaning was in order.
Background
I will use the same Background information that I used for the first Rettke restoration and include it here in its entirety:
“I started my research on Rettke pipes with a pipedia.org search on “rettke”. Below is the short entry from that site.
“J. Rettke, Washington MO, PAT. June 12 1962. The silver colored thumbscrew below the stem unscrews and is a 2⅜” corkscrew like device. The company is now gone having been purchased by Missouri Meerschaum. This odd looking pipe is made of briar and has a lower chamber with a metal condenser and an upper chamber that contains a filter. The smoke leaves the bowl thru the lower chamber then into the upper and out the stem. It smokes dry and cool. It has a large bowl.”
(Rettke – Pipedia) I could not read the above newspaper article even by zooming in.
The next search was using Google patent and searching for “Rettke 1962”. This search turned up the original patent diagrams:
My next search was for Steve Laug’s Rebornpipes.com. Steve Laug did a Rettke restoration back in 2017 and contained links to the State Historical Society of Missouri. I could not get this site to produce the same document or to even display the link Mr. Laug has in his blog post. I will link Steve Laug’s blog here: Restoring a J. Rettke Patent Pipe from Washington, Missouri | rebornpipes. It is a very well written and researched piece that does contain a transcript of the newspaper article as well as several photographs of Julius Rettke and the pipe making process.
My favorite quotes from the newspaper article are,
“The work is done in Mr. Rettke’s basement of his home at Third and Market streets. He doesn’t work at it every day only when he feels like it. He likes to fish and that comes before his pipes in the summer.”
I can completely understand the lack of enthusiasm for pipe work when fishing is taking a priority.
And this quote:
“Mr. Rettke received his patent on his pipe in 1962. What makes his pipe different from others on the market is the path the smoke takes from the bowl, and the passage of smoke through a twisted piece of aluminum, or a “whirler.” The smoke also travels through a standard filter in a standard hard-rubber stem. The “whirler” has a rubber tip that shows on the outside of the pipe under the stem. The “whirler” also can be used as a pipe cleaning tool. It pulls out easily for cleaning purposes.” Here the newspaper article talks about a rubber tipped “whirler”. That is how the whirler of my pipe is made. The other Rettke pipes I saw in photos all had a knurled aluminum tip. This little fact is mostly non-important, I just found it interesting.
Now for the fun part: How does this pipe work? In the news article transcript it said, “four holes are bored.” under the photo of J. Rettke at the drill press. I read that after I had done my exploration of the stummel and it was in near complete agreement of what I observed.
Using the above photo, I overlaid some image features to indicate the “four” drillings.
This pipe landed on the workbench and a cleaned denim piece.
I decided to work on the whirler first.
The rubber was dried and cracked. I hoped this was only on the surface.
The rubber was coated with Mark Hoover’s Before and After Hard Rubber Balm. Mark was kind enough to send me a bottle of this product to test. I doubt that he ever imagined it to be used on a Rettke whirler but hey, it is rubber. The whirler was set aside to allow the balm to work it’s magic.
The stem was cleaned with several cotton swabs and pipe cleaners dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol. The stem appeared to have been used without a Medico filter.
After numerous cotton swabs, I took the stem to the sink for a scrubbing with Castile soap and a nylon brush. The soap was used undiluted and as the photo below shows the brush came back with a good deal of smoking residue.
After the stem was rinsed with warm water, I returned to the workbench and found the cotton swab dipped in alcohol started coming back with far less color. Victory!
Once clean, the stem was suspended into a solution of Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. I ended up leaving the stem in the solution for a bit over 24 hours. The following day was Christmas Eve and I was away from home for the day.
The reaming gear was gathered.
The PipNet with the #2 and #3 blades did most of the reaming.
Some light clean-up scraping was done with the General triangular scraper.
The below photo is of the reamed tobacco chamber.
The chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The bare briar showed no signs of any damage from heat.
The shank cleaning was twice as much work as a normal pipe due to it having twice as many shank draft holes. Weird, eh? Again alcohol dipped cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners were used along with a bit of scraping with a dental scraper. The upper chamber returned swabs with less charred residue than the lower chamber.
I thought that an alcohol cotton treatment would be a good idea to fully clean and de-ghost the draft of this pipe. Not that the previous user had used a foul smelling tobacco, it actually was a pleasant burley based aromatic from what my nose could tell. The chambers and passageway was packed with cotton.
Usually a pipe holds around 10 ml of 99% ethyl alcohol. I figured this one might hold a bit more. The alcohol would be applied with a disposable pipette.
The saturated alcohol would be allowed to evaporate overnight. This would dissolve the remaining smoking residues and tar and move them into the cotton as the alcohol evaporated.
With the stem and stummel now occupied with long term waiting procedures, I cleaned up the aluminum of the whirler with 99% ethyl alcohol and cotton swabs.
The next morning I returned to the workbench for a few minutes before heading to the Christmas Eve celebrations. The cotton had picked up the color of deposited tars.
The cotton was removed with tweezers. I again used alcohol dipped cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners to repeat the airway cleaning to remove any remaining, now softened, residues.
The next evening, I removed the stem from the deoxidizing solution and used the patented Drip-Dry-O-Matic, okay, it’s not patented. Yet!
The stem was vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rag to remove remaining solution and some of the softened oxidized rubber.
Back at the workbench the stem looked kind of rough but black.
I used some Soft Scrub cleanser of make-up pads to clean off additional oxidized vulcanite.
The stem was then sanded, with more attention on the tooth chatter above the button, with 320-600 grit sanding sponges. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a dry paper towel to remove sanding debris.
It was time to see how a contrast dye would enhance the briar grain. I thought that a base of black with a top coat of Mahogany would look very nice. Both dyes were Fiebing’s Leather Dye applied with a pipe cleaner, flamed with a flighter.
Below you can see the stummel after a coating of the black Fiebing’s. The cork was placed in the tobacco chamber to keep the dye out.
I only wanted the black dye to be absorbed more deeply by the softer grain. I then rinsed the dye from the stummel using 91% isopropyl alcohol over the sink then wiped the stummel with a paper towel.
When sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge, both harder and softer grain was removed. The dye had penetrated the softer grain deeper than the harder grain.
Next came the mahogany applied with a pipe cleaner.
I again rinsed the dye from the stummel with 91% isopropyl and wiped with a paper towel. Returning to the workbench I sanded the stummel with 400 then 600 grit sanding sponges. Below you can see how the black accentuated the grain and how the mahogany added warmth to the non-blackened areas.
After a drying time of about 30 minutes I applied a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm to the briar and a coating of Before and After Hard rubber Balm to the stem and rubber of the whirler. This was allowed to sit for about an hour.
The balms were hand buffed from the pipe with an inside out athletic sock.
The pipe, both stem and stummel were then buffed with rogue buffing compound at the buffer. The pipe was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad to remove any remaining buffing compound then returned to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.
The final step was to hand buff the pipe with a microfiber polish cloth.
After restoring the first J. Rettke pipe, I wrote this sentence in the conclusion. “Of the many gimmick pipes I’ve had the pleasure of working on, I think this one would actually be an effective system for condensing steam. It just makes sense.” I could not have said it better, myself. Wait, I did say it. Anyway, this pipe turned out very well. The contrast dye is what I hope it would look like – greater definition of the briar grain. The stem polished up nicely. I tried the draw both with and without Medico filters and the draw was very good either way. With the first J. Rettke, I ended the conclusion by typing, “I would consider this an artisanal pipe from a time before artisanal was cool.” I couldn’t have said that better, myself. Now for the part I had been looking forward to since I saw the first Rettke, smoking it and seeing firsthand if J. Rettke’s patent was effective or another gimmick. The dimensions of the J. Rettke are:
Length: 5.88 in./ 149.35 mm.
Weight: 1.46 oz./ 41.39 g.
Bowl Height: 1.92 in./ 48.77 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.42 in./ 36.07 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.71 in./ 18.03 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.41 in./ 35.81 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 J. Rettke pipe.
If you have read a few of my blogs you know I have a thing for Peterson pipes. Oh yeah, the name NebraskaPeteGeek may also provide a clue. Anyway, I have returned to Peterson restoration. This particular pipe was a line unfamiliar to me, Brymeer. I found it strange that there were only 3 others bidding on this pipe and when I won it for less than $20 I was even more surprised. Given, it was in rough and dirty shape. After a journey from Lowell, Indiana to the wilds of southeast Nebraska the pipe arrived. Below are some photos taken before I began work on the pipe.
Hmm, where to start with this one? The stem was severely oxidized with a couple of deeper tooth dents. I feared losing the GREAT BRITAIN COM stamp with oxidation removal.The stummel was quite dirty but looked good otherwise. The rim was a mess with chips in the meerschaum liner. The tobacco chamber was carbon caked, who knows what lies under that? I do like a challenge.
Background
I have said it before and likely will again, “For a great history Mark Irwin and Gary Marlburg’s book is a must read for a Pete Geek.
Another amazing site full of Peterson information is, 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.
According to the Big Book, also known as The Peterson Pipe,
“Brymeer (1971-75) Offered only in Iwan Ries catalogs, meerschaum-lined black sandblast briar and P-lip of fishtail mouthpiece. Produced by Peterson-Manxman factory” (The Peterson Pipe Irwin, Mark and Malmberg, Gary. The Peterson Pipe; The Story of Kapp and Peterson. 2018, Briar Books Press, Canada. First edition, second printing. p. 308)
“What is this Peterson-Manxman Factory?”, you ask. Pipedia.org to the rescue.
“Laxey Pipes Ltd. resided in a historical 19th century four-storey Man stone building at The Quay, Old Laxey, Isle of Man, which thankfully has been preserved.
The company specialised in the production of meerschaum pipes using the Meerschaum mined by the Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation in the Amboseli basin in Tanganyika (since 1964 part of the United Republic of Tanzania).
Please note: you may often find names like “Manx Pipes Ltd.”, “Man Pipe Co.” and others more, but there is no indication of another Isle of Man pipe producer other than Laxey Pipe Ltd. at any time!
Laxey Pipes Ltd. marketed own brands like “Manxpipe”, “Manxman”, “Manxland” e.c. Names like “John Bull”, “White Knight” (unwaxed), “Domino” (black, or lined) indicated some shapes / colours of Laxey’s own series. The stems either showed the astronomical sign for “male” or “man” (circle + arrow), or the crest of the Isle of Man, the 3-legged X in a circle. Manxpipes and Laxey’s other brands were available through pipe retailers in general, but also were sold (mainly) to tourists through their own shop in Laxey.
Furthermore Laxey Pipes Ltd. manufactured the meer bowls for Peterson, Barling, Nørding and others from the later 1960’s until 2001. Man Pipe e.g. was a brand distibuted by Comoy’s. The bowls usually showed no nomenclature indicating the orderer. “Genuine Block Meerschaum” was engraved frequently. Often, just the stems were different, while bowls were the same.
Supply of meerschaum from East Africa run out (Kenya / Tanzania exhausted, Somalia inaccessible), and thus the last Laxey meers were supplied to trade in May, 2001. Laxey Pipes Ltd. tried to survive continuing with briar pipes – mainly in the Danish style -, but to no success. It closed down business in July, 2002.” (Laxey Pipes Ltd. – Pipedia)
There we have it, this pipe was made between 1971-1975 in the Peterson-Manxman factory on the Isle of Man. That is a darn definitive piece of provenance if ever there was one.
The Restoration
The slightly battered dirty girl made her way to the workbench and a clean denim piece.
The first order of business was to clear the accumulated cake from the tobacco chamber. This proved to be a much more difficult job that I imagined. I did not use a reamer like the Kleen-Reem or the PipNet due to the threat of cracking the meerschaum liner with additional torque, instead the Smokingpipe Low Country reamer and the very sharp pocket knife were deployed.
Let me assure you that both diamonds and cake on meerschaum have a similar hardness. The scraping continued.
Eventually I moved to the wood dowel wrapped in 320 grit sandpaper.
Next, came the cleaning of the stem. This was done with 99% ethyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners.
The stem was then hung, suspended, in Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. I had not used this wonderful product for a few months because the fine folks at Briarville had sent me a complimentary bottle of their Pipe Ste Oxidation Remover. That bottle had finally started giving less and less desired results after about 9 months and approximately 30 pipe stems. Mark Hoover’s Before and After product seems to last longer, doing more pipes, and though a bit more difficult to remove the solution after deoxidizing, I think it works slightly better overall. Since this stem was quite oxidized, I figured 24 hours in the solution would be adequate.
With the stem out of the picture for a day, I switched to the stummel. It was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush over the sink. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
The stummel looked much better once cleaned.
I wiped the stummel with a cotton ball wetted with 99% ethyl alcohol and it only removed a slight bit of dirt and no dye.
Still unimpressed with my removal of the cake from the tobacco chamber, I returned to scraping it with the General triangular scraper, the pocket knife and a rotary tool grinder mounted to a hand drill. This combination helped free the caked carbon from the bowl better but still not to my satisfaction. I feared marring the meerschaum with more aggressive methods.
The next evening, I removed the stem from the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer and let it drip excess solution back into the jar.
After drip drying the stem was vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rag to remove some of the oxidized vulcanite.
The shop rag shows the removed oxidized rubber.
Another of my fears with this pipe was the obliteration of the stem stamps from the deoxidation. I was glad to see that the stamps remained legible, though faint.
The tooth dents above the button were addressed with rubberized cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). These were filed smooth and sanded.
The stem was then sanded with 320-600 grit sanding sponges. The ste log and Country of manufacture (COM) stamps were masked with masking tape to protect them during the sanding.
The stem was then worked with a series of sanding sponges. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a clean dry paper towel to remove sanding debris.
The chip on the rim of the meerschaum bowl liner had me thinking of ways to repair it. The area was rough enough and the meerschaum porous, so I thought that I could use the old technique of egg white and meerschaum dust to fill the chipped area.
I made a paste with the egg white and meerschaum dust and applied it with a snuff spoon.
The chip looked better and I thought it would lighten as it dried. It did lighten then fell out. I repeated the attempt with the same results. I could not get the eggwhite-meerschaum dust paste to adhere to the existing meerschaum. Strike one and two.
With my brain engaged with chip solutions, I turned to a more repetitive task while I thought. I micro-meshed the stem with 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Between each pad I rubbed the stem with Obsidian Oil and wiped it with a dry paper towel. I then repainted the Stem logo with a white acrylic modeling paint.
I used the Before and After Fine Polish then the Extra Fine Polish on a soft cotton cloth and hand buffed each.
The stem was then buffed with carnauba wax on the buffer.
The stummel received a coating of Renaissance Micro-Crystalline Wax applied with a baby toothbrush.
In the above photo you can see the repaired chip loosening in preparation to fall out. The stummel was then worked with a shoeshine brush to polish the Renaissance Wax.
I was at two strikes for chip repair. My thought process was working out other potential solutions I had two other ideas for repairing the chip:
Cut a and shape a replacement chip from stock meerschaum and gluing it in place with clear JB Weld. This product was preferred due to its ability to withstand high temperatures.
Mixing some clear JB Weld epoxy and meerschaum dust. Then applying the epoxy-meerschaum to the chip, allow it to cure then sand to blend.
Both ideas relied on the ability of the epoxy to adhere to the meerschaum and I hoped the heating and cooling or expansion and contraction of the materials would be compatible.
I opted to try the chip replacement with a new meerschaum chip, first.
The first part of this idea required a fairly accurately measured replacement piece of meerschaum. My father, a Geography and Industrial Technology (shop) teacher by original training, frequently said, “Measure twice and cut once.” Cautious measurements were taken and transferred to the piece of block meerschaum. The only meerschaum I had was of Turkish origin and not the more off-white African version as with the bowl liner.
Below you can see a better view of the proposed chip replacement.
To cut this delicate material, I used a Dremel rotary tool with a thin cut-off bit.
Below is a photo of the replacement chip.
With some fine tuning of the replacement chip’s edges a good fit was eventually found.
As previously mentioned JB Weld clear epoxy was the adhesive of choice. Equal parts were measured and mixed according to packaging directions.
The epoxy was applied to both surfaces and the replacement chip fitted to the gap. I thought that I could come back to trim the excess epoxy after it had set-up for about an hour. It would still be soft enough to cut away from the meerschaum with an Exacto knife.
After the epoxy had set up for about 6 hours I applied a piece of masking tape and cut out for the replacement chip. This allowed me to remove the excess material using an emery board without marring the rim.
The emery board made short work of the soft meerschaum.
Additional sanding was done using a wood sphere wrapped in 320 sandpaper and a piece of 400 sandpaper by hand.
Below is a view of the replacement chip immediately before final sanding with the 400 sandpaper.
Since I had already waxed the stem and stummel , all that remained was a hand polish with a microfiber polishing cloth and a stop at the photo table.
I think this Peterson Brymeer Dublin turned out quite well compared to how she looked originally. The briar’s sandblast cleaned-up very nicely. With the dark original stain of the stummel there is a lovely contrast to the slightly off-white meerschaum lining. The stem deoxidized remarkably well. I was able to retain both the COM and the P logo on the stem. The fresh vulcanite looks great with the black of the briar. The chipped rim repair turned out about as well as I could have hoped. Yes, it is noticeable but with a few smokes, I think the meerschaum will color and conceal the repair almost completely. The tobacco chamber cake was very resistant to removal. I guess there is a reason that diamonds are so tough. This carbon was nearly diamond-like in its resistance to removal, but in the end most of it was cleared. The dimensions of the Peterson Byrmeer Dublin are as follows:
Length: 6.06 in./ 153.92 mm.
Weight: 1.22 oz./ 34.59 g.
Bowl Height: 1.89 in./ 48.01 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.55 in./ 39.37 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.71 in./ 18.03 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.38 in./ 35.05 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 Byrmeer Dublin.
The sheer number of pipe shapes and brands of tobacco pipes can be overwhelming. This does allow users and collectors to specialize and find something that suits their own personal fancy. All of these options can be daunting. As an example I put together a list of my top 3 favorite pipe shapes. This list had no fewer than 6 shapes. Yeah, math and choosing were never my strong suit. Then there are the pipe companies. Many pipe aficionados dedicate their collection to a single maker. I find that I can’t even do that. While organizing a pipe rack, my official Peterson shelf has several Marxman and one commissioned pipe in it. Proving once again that I like what I like and care little for convention. That brings us to the subject of today’s blog. I am fascinated by the pipe oddities. Whether they be the crazy innovations of inventors, promotional pipes or the Brick and Mortar (B&M) pipe shop stamped pipes made by renowned pipe manufacturers. I have restored pipes Stamped with; TROPICAL PAINTS (A Tropical Paints Cleveland Pot Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek), DUPONT EXPOSIVES (A du Pont Explosives Promotional Pipe Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek), BRIARS ‘N’ Blends (A Briars ‘N’ Blends (Comoy’s 409) ¼ Bent Bulldog Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek) and TELFORD’S (A Telford’s Canadian Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek). Researching these pipes is a journey into our hobby’s past and to a time when pipe smoking was far more popular than today.
This Gus’ Own Lumberman is a perfect example of that history. It was part of an estate lot which arrived here in August of 2024 from Hardin , Kentucky. I’d heard of Gus’ Smoke Shop in Los Angeles but had personal ties to the locale. The only stamping on the pipe was GUS’ OWN. No county of Manufacture (COM), which can indicate that the pipe was made in the US, but this is not always the case. Below are some photos I took of the pipe prior to working on it.
Judging by the tooth chatter on the stem and the thick cake in the tobacco chamber, this was a well loved and frequently used pipe. It also meant that it would require more time to clean it up. The stem showed signs of oxidation but the mortise to tenon joint was secure. The finish was worn, a further proof of a well used pipe. Overall it looked to be a fairly straightforward restoration. Another thing I have noticed is that heavily used pipes are frequently excellent smokers. Once they are cleaned up, I should add.
Background
I had heard mention of Gus’ Smoke Shop as one of the large pipe and tobacconist brick and mortar shops in Los Angeles, California. The search for Gus’ turned up a hit on the forum, PipesMagazine.com. The forum thread started with a member asking if anyone remembered the shop. Below is a very interesting entry from a member named huntertrw dated July 16, 2023:
“I correspond occasionally with Richard Carleton Hacker, and this is what he was kind enough to share today concerning Gus’:
“Gus’s started out as Boyd’s Pipe Shop in 1927, back when Ventura Blvd. was still largely a dirt road and horses vied with automobiles. In addition to pipes and cigars, Boyd raised and sold chickens and candy and a few other sundry unrelated items.
“Boyd sold the shop to Gus Pfender in 1937, who renamed it Gus’. Note the unusual apostrophe placement.
“Sometime before 1975 Pfender sold the pipe shop to an Englishman named Norman Fudge. Fudge wisely kept the Gus’ name – otherwise folks might have mistaken it for a candy store!
“I first began going to Gus’ in the late 70’s and remember seeing the original gas stove in the back room and the brass cash register that was sill in use. I also remember seeing the occasional chicken feather poking out from the floorboards, and Norm telling me how they got there. Although he had a reputation for being cantankerous, I got along with Norm, especially when he learned I wrote about pipes and had a collection of Sherlock Holmes memorabilia (which may have appealed to his British heritage).
“I met Jimmy and Paula Hurwitz when they came to the store and Jimmy was deciding on whether or not to buy it, as Norm was getting on in years and frankly, was tired of dealing with the public.
“Jimmy asked my opinion and I thought it was a good deal, especially since store ownership included the property on what now was now a main San Fernando Valley thoroughfare.
“Jimmy bought the store in 1985 and I continued to be a regular customer and even put the photo I took of the store in at least one of my books.
“I lived in the same area, as did a number of pipe smoking movie celebrities. with whom I became friends. William Conrad gave me one of his beloved Charatans (which I still have) and David Rose, the musician and I shared both pipe and train hobbies.
“An interesting side-note: David had an unusual triangular pipe rack he had purchased in London. I tried to buy it but he wouldn’t sell. When he died in 1990 Jimmy bought it and resold it to me – at I’m sure more than David would have wanted for it. It still have it.
“To his credit, Jimmy kept the old stove in the back room, remodeled the store to include a walk-in cigar humidor, and still occasionally cranked up the old brass cash register, although a newer electronic gadget saw much more use.
“Gus’ was the quintessential neighborhood pipe shop and might have still been there today if Jimmy hadn’t run afoul of some sort of California law and subsequently was imprisoned for a short while and, of course, lost the store.
“When he got out of stir he tried selling pipes out of the back of the corner liquor store, but of course, it wasn’t the same. That venture only lasted a short while and he sold socks at Nordstrom’s but eventually died of cancer some time back.
“Gus’ was next door to the Mistral’s restaurant and sat vacant for many years (it was always sad to walk by its shuttered facade) until Mistral’s purchase it, used it for the occasional private party, and now plans to open it as an extension of the main restaurant. But those plans were put on hold due to the pandemic.
SHERMAN OAKS — Here at Jim Hurwitz’s shop, as at hundreds of others like it, the redemption of the American male quite possibly is underway.
Before joining in the praising, however, you’ll have to put health considerations aside for a time, for Hurwitz’s place is a tobacco shop.
In the last year or two, sales of pipes and pipe tobaccos at his Gus’ Smoke Shop on Ventura Boulevard have begun ticking upward. Tobacconists in other parts of the country also report the trend, for the first time this generation.
This can mean only good things for the XY-chromosome contingent, not to mention those of the XX variety who must truck with them.
Unlike the case with cigarettes and cigars, no one keeps national aggregate figures on pipe sales, but “pipe sales have been increasing,” affirms Bill Fader, the Baltimore-based executive director of the Retail Tobacco Dealers of America, “especially in the case of the better, more expensive pipes, the ones that go for $100, $150, $300 and up, because they’re almost works of art.”
Along with the years-old cigar mania, this is more good news for Gus’ Smoke Shop, which has weathered many another trend, both up and down, in its seven decades.
Gus’, Hurwitz claims, was the first business to open on Ventura Boulevard and is the oldest tobacconist in Los Angeles. Founded in 1927 as Boyd’s, a store that sold candy and live chickens as well as tobacco, the business occupies its original premises.
The eponymous Gus Fender bought the store in the 1940s and sold it a couple of decades later to Norm Fudge. Hurwitz, a dedicated customer, bought it from Fudge in 1985. “I always thought Norm Fudge was Gus,” says Hurwitz, a heavyset man of 46 given to baggy jeans and untucked jerseys. “I guess whoever is behind the counter is Gus–and now I am Gus.”
Gus’ contains two walk-in humidors for cigars and specialty cigarettes, but the dense, moist aromas of more than 30 hand-blended pipe tobaccos in large, glass jars dominate the wood-paneled store. Sweet Virginia, spicy perique, sultry Latakia–these and other leaves vie for a visitor’s olfactories. Many of the mixtures are assembled according to recipes handed down from Gus to Gus to Gus.
More than 600 pipes are arrayed on various shelves and in a glass display case. These range in price from $30 to $3,500, the latter for a massive 1960s-vintage, gold-trimmed example from famed manufacturer GBD. Many of the great names in pipes are represented–Peterson of Ireland, Stokkebye of Denmark, GBD and Ashton of England, Savinelli and Ser Jacopo of Italy.
Although some meerschaums–cool-smoking, delicate pipes of white clay–are displayed, the majority are of briar, which comes from the roots of heath trees that grow in Mediterranean locales. Mediterranean briar, properly cured and dried, is prized for its hardness and the eye appeal of its grain.
Increasingly, people buy pipes simply as objects of beauty, Hurwitz says. Some buyers don’t even smoke. The thriving business Gus’ does repairing and reconditioning vintage pipes further indicates the new collectible cachet of pipes.
The increase in pipe sales, however, is not just another manifestation of affluent American thing-gathering. A small but significant percentage of those caught up in the cigar mania, which brought on inflated prices and supply shortages, have begun to smoke pipes, Hurwitz reports. Virtually all pipe smokers are male.
Wherein lies the potential for redemption.
“Cigarette smoking is an addictive, nervous smoking, and cigar smoking has the connotation of aggressive display and success,” Hurwitz offers. “Pipe smoking is more philosophical, i.e., associated with the professor type, much more laid-back. With even a very good, expensive cigar, you light it, burn it and it’s gone. But a pipe you can use for years. Pipe smoking is about the art of smoking. Everything else is about consumption.”
Hurwitz and his salesmen give new pipe smokers a short course in the fine points of the art: How to choose a style of pipe. How to load and light it. How to keep it from going out. How to break in a pipe and how to care for it.
Clearly, when a man commits to a pipe, he is committing to an altered form of being that values deliberateness, skill, patience and sitting more or less still for a while (it being hard to do much of anything else, especially anything exertive, when smoking a pipe).
Pipe smoking also is a turning away from massed-produced sameness. It feeds a man’s appetite for his own individuality, since the types and characteristics of pipes and of the tobaccos that can be stuffed in them are practically innumerable.
“If you take the band off a cigar, you many times don’t know what brand you’re smoking,” says Fader of the tobacco retailers. “A corona cigar is a corona cigar. A robusto is a robusto. Not so with pipes. They’re dramatically varied in appearance and style.”
In short, these new pipe smokers, like pond frogs who sense change in the environment before other species, may be the first to tune into an emerging male zeitgeist.
Maybe the American male who’s held psychological sway over society the last decade and a half–the compulsive, hard-driving, fire-breathing guy on the make–is about to retire from sheer exhaustion.
His successor looks like he might turn out to be a more reflective chap. A guy who won’t be quite so hard on the tire treads. One who doesn’t even have to inhale to appreciate existence.” (Pipe Dreams – Los Angeles Times)
Well that was all good information but who made this pipe for Gus’? Fine question, that. Unfortunately I had very little to go on. I initially thought it looked like a Stanwell pipe. You know, that whole, “looks like a duck” train of thought. I asked my best source for Stanwell questions, Sascha Mertens, if he thought it might be a Stanwell. His reply was, “I don’t think it’s a Stanwell because of the stem. This is quite an unusual bite.” (personal communication). Strike one.
I knew I had seen a stem very similar to that recently. I looked back through this year’s restorations and there it was – the Marseille Volcano (A Marseille Oval Shank Volcano Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek). Below is a photo I took while working on the stem.
Very similar, eh?
Well the Marseille Volcano was another near bust for background information. All I can speculate about this pipe is that the stem looks similar to French-made pipes. As for the year of production, that too is all speculation. Based on the styling, I would say 1970s.
The Restoration
After the “before” photos our patient made its way to the workbench and a somewhat clean denim piece.
I started with the reaming. PipNet with #2 and #3 blades, the General triangular scraper and the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer.
Yeah there was quite a thick cake with this pipe.
Even the clean-up produced a pile.
The tobacco chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper with a finger and 320 wrapped around a wood dowel.
The bare briar sanded chamber showed no signs of any heat damage. Apparently that layer of cake did its job protecting the briar.
I was dreading this next part and was very surprised when the shank was pretty clean. Normally a pipe with that much cake would have a filthy airway, this one was not too bad. I used the Cleen-Reem shank drill and it passed easily. A shank brush dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol also returned only slight stains on the paper towels.
Further cleaning with bristle pip cleaners also did not indicate a terrible airway. I was very glad to know the previous owner kept a relatively clean pipe.
I couldn’t accept the cleanliness of the shank and thought it certainly must have been a fluke. I therefore decided to give the pipe a cotton-alcohol soak. The tobacco chamber and shank were stuffed with cotton and I prepared 10 ml of 99% ethyl.
The alcohol was pipetted into the shank and bowl with a disposable pipette until the cotton was saturated. This would sit for several hours as the alcohol evaporated.
I turned my attention to the stem. More dirty than the shank but not terrible. Bristle pipe cleaners with more alcohol did the trick. Some of the tooth chatter was removed by filing the area with a small flat file.
There was one large toothmark that defiled removal with a file.
The stem went onto the Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover (deox).
The next day I removed the cotton from the bowl and shank. The shank cotton was far more discolored than that of the bowl.
The shank was cleaned again with bristle pipe cleaners and alcohol to remove any tar that remained.
The rim showed some lava or accumulated smoking residue in the rustication.
I took the stummel to the sink for a scrub with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush.
I then worked the rim with a brass brush to get rid of the stubborn lava on the rim. 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 99% ethyl alcohol. Some of the black dye came off. This was expected.
The newly cleaned rim showed no signs of charring. Yay!
The side panels had beautiful grain but the rusticated area was rather worn. I thought about leaving the pipe in this condition then though, “no, you should restore it to how it looked, factory fresh”.
I sanded the side panels with 400-1000 grit sanding pads.
Using black Fiebing’s Leather Dye and a paintbrush, I carefully reapplied the black dye to the black portions of the stummel.
This was a slow and careful process.
The remaining areas were re-dyed with a folded pipe cleaner and the black dye.
As the dye was drying I went to retrieve the stem for deox. The last two stems I have used the Briarville deox on have emerged with a tan crust. I am now wondering if I need to replace this solution. It has been used on many stems since last April, when the kind folks at Briarville sent it to me to try. I vigorously rubbed the stem with a coarse shop rag to remove the crust and any softened vulcanite.
I took the stem to the workbench and started scrubbing it with Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads. This produced pads well covered with oxidized vulcanite and the stem started to look better.
The stem was sanded with 400-1000 grit sanding sponges. You can see the two dents on the top side of the stem in the photo below.
And the one large dent on the button side of the stem.
All of these dents had very smooth edges. These smooth edges led me to fear that normal fills with cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) would risk the fills chipping and coming loose. To remedy this, I thought that deepening the dent with a 2 mm drill bit would provide far better surface area for the CA to adhere to.
I drilled a series of holes into the dented surface of the stem.
I used a “Rubber Toughened” black CA for the fill. The CA was applied using the tip of a fly tying bodkin. I also applied a line of the CA to the edge of the button.
The same was done for the top side of the stem.
The CA was allowed to dry or set on its own for an hour. The below two photos who the resulting cured CA.
The CA was then filed smooth with a small flat file the the stem was worked with a series of sanding sponged from 400-3500 grit. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a paper towel. After the final sponge I applied a coat of Obsidian Oil to the stem.
The stem was then taken to the buffer where I buffed it with white compound on a dedicated white compound wheel.
The masking tape was removed and I cleaned the pipe of any buffing compound. I returned to the buffer to apply several coats of carnauba wax to the pipe.
The final step was a hand buffing of the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.
I would love for this pipe to go to someone who has fond memories of Gus’ Smoke Shop. It is a lovely old pipe and it should provide years of service. The black dye turned out very nicely and is a lovely contrast to the smooth side panels. The grain present on the sides is also very pretty. The stem turned out well but I do admit that some browning of oxidation can still be seen in very bright light. In normal room light it remains undetectable. The stem fills are nearly unnoticeable without a very close examination.
The dimensions of this Gus’ Own Lumberman are:
Length: 5.74 in./ 145.80 mm.
Weight: 1.54 oz./ 43.66 g.
Bowl Height: 1.79 in./ 45.47 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.61 in./ 40.89 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.80 in./ 20.32 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.54 in./ 39.12 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
Loading…
Below are some photos of the finished Gus’ Own Lumberman.
I remember reading my first Sherlock Holmes in middle school, The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I loved the idea of a mystery, even though I knew about the great detective, the solution to the mystery was all new to me. I feel that way about this pipe, a Peterson Croydon Square 42. I had above average knowledge of Peterson pipes but had not heard of the Croydon Square line. Where would this mystery lead me?
The pipe was another single target eBay acquisition. I paid more than I really wanted to but it was a specimen that I had not seen before and I wanted to work on it. After a quick trip from LaGrange, Georgia to the wilds of southeast Nebraska, I had my prize. The photos below show the pipe prior to any work.
The Croydon Square looked like a well loved and used pipe. The restoration looked straight forward; cleaning, reaming, sanding of the stummel, deoxidation of the stem with sanding and polish. There did not appear to be any glaring issues with this old pipe, just use and time.
Background
Being unfamiliar with London, I’d not heard of Croydon nor of Croydon Square. I am familiar with Peterson pipes though, yet Croydon was an unfamiliar line of Petersons to me. I first wanted some information about the geography.
With my curiosity settled on that account, I turned my gerbil-like attention to the pipe. I cannot give Kapp and Peterson the credit they are due. In the most comprehensive guide to the history of Peterson Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg wrote a wonderful book The Peterson Pipe (Irwin, Mark and Malmberg, Gary. The Peterson Pipe; The Story of Kapp and Peterson. 2018, Briar Books Press, Canada. First edition, second printing.). According to Irwin and Malmberg, the legacy of Peterson as “the world’s oldest continuously operating briar pipe maker” (Irwin, p. 3). This is a treasure trove of information for those interested in Peterson pipes. It is currently “sold out” from The Peterson Pipe Book (Softcover) | Smokingpipes.com.
“I’m also happy to report that a few revisions of the book are now in order. That didn’t take long, did it? So get out your pencil, it’s time to annotate your copy: (1) The Croydon Square origin date is given as 1949 in the book, as we only had an RDTA Almanac an unhallmarked specimen to go by. But now—surprise!—it’s clear that the line was being made as early as ’39. (The similarity between the name of Croydon Square and Trafalgar Square also has me wondering if the latter didn’t replace the former at some point.) (2) We can also pencil in ’39 as the earliest documented date (so far) for the Captain Pete. (3) The ad copy in the catalog also suggests that, at this date, the line was made exclusively at the London factory. (4) And if that’s not enough, at the beginning of the “N” section in the Information Guide, you can write, “An N prefacing two-digit shape numbers of English-made pipes refers to a natural finish.”” (136. Filling the Gap: The 1939 Rogers Import Peterson Catalog & Download – Peterson Pipe Notes)
In the above quote from Mark Irwin, the “RDTA” refers to “Retail Tobacco Dealers of America. The forerunner of the current Premium Cigar Association with a few name changes in between.” (Mark Irwin, personal communication. September 22, 2025). Don’t worry, I had no idea what it meant either. I emailed Mark and got a quick reply. The PPN blog also had the following page from a 1939 Roger’s catalog:
AHA, specific historical information about the Croydon Square pipe was at hand. This put the pipe’s provenance from at least 1939 to ? and also the shape 42. Although this information led to more questions. There is no mention or illustration of fishtail stems, only P-lips. The pipe in hand had been smoked quite a bit leading me to the thought that the stem of this pipe may be a replacement.
In The Peterson Pipe, where the London production of pipes is discussed at length, was another interesting piece of information. Here, Irwin and Malmberg say, “Apparently, the London factory did not order a MADE IN ENGLAND die until after the war. Any Peterson stamped with an English COM must be no older than the later 1940s” (Irwin, p.150). If it is assumed that this pipe was not stamped due to there not being a stamp available then it would date from 1939-late 1940s. If it was merely not stamped with a COM then it is assumed to be made during the years of pipe production at the London factory 1936-1962. I prefer to think that it is due to the former. This is actually a selfish desire to have the dates of production to be a more definitive late 1930s-late 1940s. I know, too much conjecture…
The Restoration
The restoration began with a clean denim piece protecting both the work surface and the pipe.
I began with the stem. This was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners and 99% ethyl alcohol.
The stem was then submerged in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover (deox). It bathed for 18 hours.
In the meantime, I worked on the stummel. The ream team was gathered.
The PipNet #1 and #2 blades were both put to use. The General triangular scarper was also used to do some cleanup of the tobacco chamber and the rim.
Below is a photo of the tobacco chamber after the reaming.
The chamber was then sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. No damage to the chamber was observed.
The rim however was encased in a layer of lava.
The lava was softened with saliva and scraped with the blade of a sharp pocket knife.
Next came the shank airway cleaning. Again the 99% ethyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners were used. There was also a good deal of scraping with a dental scraper and use of a nylon shank brush.
I was not completely happy with my efforts to rid the airway of the residue of tar and general yuck. I thought an alcohol and cotton treatment would do the airway some good. The tobacco chamber and the airway were stuffed with cotton.
99% ethyl alcohol was applied via a disposable pipette to the cotton until it was saturated. This took about 10 ml of alcohol.
The alcohol was allowed to evaporate overnight. This allowed the alcohol to dissolve the tars and transfer them to the cotton as the alcohol evaporated. The next day the cotton was stained, telling me the process worked.
The cotton was removed and the airway was cleaned again. The below photo shows the 2nd cleaning and the tars that were removed after the overnight cotton alcohol treatment.
The stummel was then taken to the sink for a scrubbing with a nylon brush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
Returning to the workbench, the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in ethyl alcohol.
The stem was removed from deox and rubbed with a coarse shop rag. This removed a good deal of the oxidized rubber from the stem.
The stem was then worked with Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads to remove more of the oxidation.
I then oiled the stem with a liberal coating of mineral oil and let the stem sit for several hours. Oh yeah, I also ran a pipe cleaner through the stem and oiled the interior as well.
The rim looked far better but still rather rough. I thought that a light topping was in order.
The topping was done with 320 sandpaper laid on a flat counter top followed by a piece of 400 sandpaper. This revealed two additional areas of concern. A deeper dent or ding in the inner rim (about 5:00) and a hairline crack (at about 7:00).
I used a wood sphere wrapped in sandpaper to reestablish the inner rim bevel and smooth the rim.
I deemed the crack to be superficial and not structurally important. It was given a dab of Thin cyanoacrylate (CAl super glue) to seal it and was topped a second time with the 400 sandpaper. The ding was filled by packing it with briar dust and then applying a small drop of CA. This was repeated a second time. The wooden sphere and sandpaper was used to smooth the fill and the rim was topped again with the 400 sandpaper.
The stamps were taped off with masking tape to protect them from sanding.
I prefer asymmetrical pieces of tape because they leave a less noticeable mark on the briar where sanding was not done.
The first two sanding sponges used were the 320 and 400 grit. Sanding with these two showed me where several dents and pits were. All of these blemishes were small so they were filled by placing a tiny drop of Thin CA on the spot and sanding it with a very dirty sanding sponge. By dirty, I mean a sponge that has a large amount of briar dust on it. Even with the extra briar dust sometimes the CA gets onto the sanding sponge. This can be seen below as the dark spots on the sponges.
The small fills were sanded with 324 and 400grit sponges.
Below are some photos of the fills after they’d been filled.
The pipe was then sanded with the full series of sanding sponges from 320 -3500 grit. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol. The stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a dry paper towel.
The pipe was then worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. The wiping of the stem and stummel was done as with the sanding sponges except the stem was rubbed with Obsidian Oil.
I took the pipe to the buffer and buffed it with blue buffing compound.
After wiping any remaining buffing compound from the pipe it was given a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for an hour. Why an hour? Because I got side-tracked with another project.
The excess balm was wiped away using an inside out athletic sock.
The pipe was then taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.
The final step was another hand buff with the microfiber polishing cloth then off to the final photo shoot.
This beautiful Peterson’s Croydon Square 42 is a great example of Peterson’s English workmanship. The stain of the original pipe was maintained and gives the pipe a slight contrast-dye look. It was finished with careful sanding and just carnauba wax. The stem sanded and polished to a gorgeous glossy luster. Though lacking any stunning briar grain there is some nice flame grain on the rear left. The dimensions of the Peterson’s Croydon Square 42 are:
Length: 5.67 in./ 144.02 mm.
Weight: 0.95 oz./ 26.93 g.
Bowl Height: 1.43 in./ 36.32 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.25 in./ 31.75 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.71 in./ 18.03 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.37 in./ 34.80 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
Loading…
Below are some photos of the finished Peterson Croydon Square 42.
In the last restoration I discussed my Peterson Pipe Acquisition Disorder had ended its remission. Well, I neglected to say how severe the return to activity the PPAD had actually become. Please do not grieve for me. Your sympathy would be far better applied to another, for this is a disorder which I have brought upon myself.
This restoration deals with a lovely Peterson meerschaum pipe which came to me as part of an estate lot. I spied this Pete meer in the photos of the lot and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was as if the Peterson was hiding amongst the other old pipes. Apparently
it’s camouflage was good because there were only 6 other bidders. A few days later the goal and gem of the entire lot arrived here in the wilds of southeast Nebraska. Below are some photos showing the Peterson meerschaum prior to any work being done.
I had only worked on a handful of old meerschaum pipes. I figured that I should probably read a couple of Steve Laug’s rebornpipes.com concerning meerschaum. I have found that there are two main ways to learn; 1, from your own mistakes and 2, from listening to the wisdom of others who have made mistakes. One of these is free and painless, the other, not so much. I did know that I would be using far more soap and water than alcohol on this restoration. I also knew that I wanted to keep the P logo on the stem at all costs since that was the only indication of this pipe’s maker.
Background
In the last restoration I did a Peterson Dunmore 606 Pot (linked for those who are interested). I included a few links concerning the history of Peterson pipes. I will include those here also. “For a great history Mark Irwin and Gary Marlburg’s book is a must read for a Pete Geek.
For the history of Peterson Meerschaums I will mainly be citing Irwin and Marlberg’s The Peterson Pipe book. Peterson has a long history of meerschaum pipe making dating back to the 1870s (Irwin, 2018 p. 15). At the time when Charles Peterson began working for the Kapp brothers in Dublin, meerschaum was the old traditional material while briar was a new innovation destined to become more popular in the next century. It was with briar that Charles Peterson created his original patents for the reservoir in 1890 and for the graduated-bore mouthpiece with what we call the “Patent-Lip” (P-Lip) today, in 1894. 1893 was the year that Charles Peterson and Henry Kapp bought out the shares of Christian Kapp of the Family business, which the brothers had run together. “Christian was evidently not happy with this arrangement and disliked Dublin. He trained to become a doctor, and on 12 June 1893 he sold his share of the business to his brother and Charles Peterson” (Irwin, 2018 p. 48). The Kapp & Peterson company was born and the Peterson System has continued for over 130 years.
Now obviously the lovely Peterson meerschaum pipe in hand is not something made at the turn of the century. According to Irwin and Malmberg, “ In 1968, Peterson returned to making block-meerschaum pipes after forty years. They had made block meerschaums in all Patent Systems and many Classic Range shapes from 1896 until about 1929. The scarcity and rising cost of amber, fragility of meerschaum and popularity of briar all contributed to the end of meerschaum production.” (Irwin, 2018 p. 158). The authors go on to state that, “These Republic-era meerschaums were first made in partnership with Manxman Pipes, Ltd., on the Isle of Man, a company Peterson bought outright in the early 1970’s (Irwin, 2018 p. 158).
I am not quite sure how the purchase of Manxman pipes worked. Manxman was an apparent subsidiary of Laxey Pipes Ltd. According to pipedia.org:
“Laxey Pipes Ltd. resided in a historical 19th century four-storey Man stone building at The Quay, Old Laxey, Isle of Man, which thankfully has been preserved.
The company specialised in the production of meerschaum pipes using the Meerschaum mined by the Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation in the Amboseli basin in Tanganyika (since 1964 part of the United Republic of Tanzania).
Please note: you may often find names like “Manx Pipes Ltd.”, “Man Pipe Co.” and others more, but there is no indication of another Isle of Man pipe producer other than Laxey Pipe Ltd. at any time!
Laxey Pipes Ltd. marketed own brands like “Manxpipe”, “Manxman”, “Manxland” e.c. Names like “John Bull”, “White Knight” (unwaxed), “Domino” (black, or lined) indicated some shapes / colours of Laxey’s own series. The stems either showed the astronomical sign for “male” or “man” (circle + arrow), or the crest of the Isle of Man, the 3-legged X in a circle. Manxpipes and Laxey’s other brands were available through pipe retailers in general, but also were sold (mainly) to tourists through their own shop in Laxey.
Furthermore Laxey Pipes Ltd. manufactured the meer bowls for Peterson, Barling, Nørding and others from the later 1960’s until 2001. Man Pipe e.g. was a brand distibuted by Comoy’s. The bowls usually showed no nomenclature indicating the orderer. “Genuine Block Meerschaum” was engraved frequently. Often, just the stems were different, while bowls were the same.
Supply of meerschaum from East Africa run out (Kenya / Tanzania exhausted, Somalia inaccessible), and thus the last Laxey meers were supplied to trade in May, 2001. Laxey Pipes Ltd. tried to survive continuing with briar pipes – mainly in the Danish style -, but to no success. It closed down business in July, 2002.”
Tracing the 406 shape through the pipe charts from the early 1900’s to 1984 was interesting and made me realize it is time to visit the eye doctor again and get a new prescription for glasses. The first iterations of the prince shape are found in the 1947 shape chart. There are 4 prince varieties: “Sports” 4 Large Prince, 407 Prince (straight stem), 407 Prince semi-bent and the 406 Large Prince. The next catalog occurrence is in 1965. Here the Peterson 406 is a prince with a slight bend. The shape matches the pipe in hand very well. The next occurrence is in the Peterson-Glass 1978-79 catalog. This catalog shows the full range of Peterson’s meerschaum offerings and here the 406 prince has a slight bend. The last catalog tracing the prince is the shape charts from the 1983 issue. Here the 406 is shown with a slight bent stem and labeled as “406. Large Prince” (Irwin, 2018 p. 171). The 406 also has an asterisk denoting that this shape is also “Available in Meerschaum”. The 407 reappears as a prince with a straight stem and is not available in meerschaum.
The Peterson-Glass 1978-79 catalog also lists and discusses the available meerschaum finishes. These included: Golden Supreme, Tawny De Luxe, Golden Princess, Yellow Aboriginal, Red/Black Premier and Kapmeer. Now this may be taken with a grain of salt but I believe this to be a 406 Large Prince from the 1983 catalog but with the red staining of the Peterson-Glass 1978-79 catalog. Either way, I think this pipe is a late 1970s-early 1980s product.
The Restoration
In typical “me” fashion I began with a cleanish piece of denim for the work surface. I think I may need to visit the local thrift stores and see if I can pick up a couple pairs of jeans to turn into new denim pieces. The laundry guy here at this house has much to be desired when it comes to stain removal.
I removed the stem and gave it a light buffing with 0000 steel wool prior to a dunk in the OxyClean solution.
I figured I would start with an hour in the Oxy then reassess if more time would be needed.
The reaming was done with only scrapers. I heeded the warnings of others who said to avoid reaming tools that would apply torque to the meerschaum.
The previous owner either hadn’t smoked this darling very much or had taken care not to allow the build-up of a cake. Well done, unknown guy or gal (keeping it inclusive).
After sanding the tobacco chamber with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel I finish sanded it with 320 sandpaper and my finger. Next stop was the sink. Here I scrubbed the stummel with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium stiff toothbrush. The lather turned bright pink indicating that I was correct in identifying this pipe as a Red Premier from the Peterson-Glass 1978-79 catalog. The soap was rinsed with warm water. I also scrubbed the airway with a nylon shank brush and Dawn dish soap. This produced slightly brown tinted lather and was also rinsed with warm water. The stummel was then dried with a cotton hand towel.
Back at the workbench the stummel’s striped colors were more pronounced. I wasn’t sure what to do about that. Do I try to stain it with a red Fiebing’s Leather Dye or leave it alone and see how it looks after the molten beeswax? I opted for the latter.
I ran a bristle pipe cleaner dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol through the airway to judge how effective my scrubbing had been. It came out pretty clean. I proceeded to do this a few more times until no color was seen.
To make sure there was no wax or excess dye remaining on the stummel exterior I used a medium toothbrush dipped in ethyl alcohol to scrub the stummel. You can see that a little bit more red dye came off into the alcohol in the medicine cup and onto the toothbrush.
There were small brown clouds of oxidized rubber around the stem in the Oxy solution. I assumed this to mean it was working at loosening up that darn oxidation.
Upon removing the stem from the solution I wiped it vigorously with a dry cotton make-up pad. A significant amount of oxidized rubber came off on the pad.
I then proceeded to use several more pads with SoftScrub to attempt to rid the stem of the oxidized material. I was glad to see a general lightening of the pads but the oxidation was stubborn and remained difficult.
I then tried using a piece of a Magic Eraser with SoftScrub. I ended up taking the stem to the sink where I could rinse the Magic Eraser with water more effectively.
Once again, I forgot to take any photos of the sanding and micro-meshing of the stem. I get focussed or “in the zone” and kind of lose myself sometimes. Sorry, if it’s any consolation you can see the brown oxidized rubber dust from wiping the dust from the sanding sponges on the denim.
I cleaned the airway of the stem and found it was also fairly clean. Alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaners were the weapon of choice, here. The stem then received a coat of mineral oil.
I checked the photos to make sure that the P logo was painted white. I didn’t want to make the same mistake that I did on the last restoration and have to go back and repaint the logo. If you enjoy learning from the mistakes of others check out the Peterson Dunhill 606 restoration. The logo area was cleaned and de-oiled with a cotton swab and 95% ethyl alcohol.
I used the plastic tube of a cotton swab to form a plastic scraper. This was done with a lighter and pressed flat with a knife blade. It was then trimmed to shape with scissors. The white acrylic model paint was applied and allowed to mostly dry.
The paint was then scraped off using the freshly made plastic scraper.
I was ready to apply the beeswax. I think this is what I was planning out in my head when I failed to photograph the stem sanding. I wanted a fairly easy to apply and cleanup method to apply a layer of beeswax to the stummel. I came up with the following plan:
Melt the beeswax in a glass canning jar in a pan of boiling water.
Place the stummel in an empty metal snuff can. This is to catch the wax drippings.
While the wax is melting, heat the stummel with a heat gun.
Move the wax close to the stummel and paint the wax onto the surface of the stummel.
Use the heat gun to evenly melt/distribute the wax over the entire stummel.
Absorb the excess liquid wax onto a paper towel.
That sounded like a good plan based only on having done this two other times. And those were a couple of years ago.
The double boiler wax melter.
The empty snuff can wax catcher.
The heat gun
It’s “Go time”.
The nearly constant heating and making sure everything was evenly coated.
Absorbing the wax. Hot, hot, hot.
Ahhh, that’s better. Using a cotton glove to absorb the liquid wax was much more comfortable than the paper towel.
Here is what the pipe looked like back at the workbench.
All that remained was to give the stem a couple of coats of carnauba wax with the buffer and take some “finished” photos.
Overall this Peterson Meerschaum 406 Prince turned out quite nicely. I admit to not being totally comfortable working with meerschaum. At least not as comfortable as I am with briar. Nevertheless, I think the pipe cleaned-up well. I love the shape of the Peterson 406, the slightly bent stem gives it a graceful elegance not quite typical for the normal Peterson aesthetic of a more heavy shank. With it’s wide bowl it should make a grand English blend smoker. The stem polished up pretty well except for the tenon end which still retained some discoloration from oxidation. I feared being too aggressive here and risking the loss of the stem logo. The red stain of the meerschaum is attractive with the black rim and the stripe around the middle giving character. The dimensions of the Peterson Meerschaum 406 Prince are:
Length: 6.58 in./ 167.13 mm.
Weight: 1.63 oz./ 45.75 g.
Bowl Height: 1.46 in./ 37.08 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.17 in./ 29.72 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.78 in./ 19.81mm.
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.
Below are some photos of the finished Peterson Meerschaum 406 Prince.
Addendum: Additional work done on stem. I was not happy with my work on removing the oxidation from this stem. I mentioned that I did not want to risk losing the stem logo with a more aggressive deoxidation treatment using Before and After Deoxidation Solution. Mark Hoover, of Before and After products, reached out to me via Facebook personal messaging and stated, “I have never had loss so I am a bit perplexed. You should not have any loss as there is no abrasive. If the stamp is faint or heavily oxidized it was likely not strong under the oxidation so when you clean it it may just seem that way. I promise you will not have this issue with a deep stamp like the Peterson you just did.” I have had the loss of a stamp using the Before and After Deoxidizing solution when the stamp was weak. The Key point to Mark Hoover’s statement is “not strong under the oxidation”. With a weak stamp, removal of oxidized material can remove a faint stamp as the stamp has been oxidized as well.
With Mark’s assurance giving me more confidence, I returned the Peterson Prince to the workbench. I wiped the stem of 95% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad to remove the carnauba wax. I then placed a pipe cleaner into the button as a hanger. The stem was then suspended into the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer solution.
I allowed the solution to work on the stem for 90 minutes. After 90 minutes I allowed the stem to drip excess solution back into the jar.
After dripping I wiped the remaining solution from the stem with a coarse cotton shop rag. I ran several pipe cleaners through the airway to remove any solution from the airway as well. The oxidation was greatly reduced but there was still some discoloration. I returned the stem to the workbench and used SoftScrub on a make-up pad. SoftScrub is an abrasive and will wear away a stamp though it is far less abrasive than sanding.
The stem was micro-meshed using the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. I then polished the stem with the Before and After Fine Polish followed by the Extra Fine Polish. The stem logo was again repainted as earlier. The stem was finally given a couple of coats of carnauba wax at the buffer.
The below photos are of the Peterson meerschaum 406 Prince after readdressing the oxidation.
NebraskaPeteGeek 