Have you ever wondered how to use the terms Dutch, Holland or the Netherlands? Well, this pipe may help. The pipe was made in Holland, two of twelve provinces of the country known as the Netherlands. Yeah, there are two Hollands, a north and a south. The makers of the pipe were Dutch, referring to the culture and language of the region. Okay, I have shown off my undergraduate geography major for four years quite enough for one day.
This pipe caught my eye on eBay recently. I was taken by both the shape and the price. I immediately sent Sascha Mertens a private message via Facebook, asking if it was a good deal. He replied quickly, as usual, saying that it was indeed a good deal for a relatively rare and desirable shape. He had me at “good deal”. I can’t say I place too much emphasis on popular things, I know what I like. While we are talking about Sascha, he keeps me laughing with his complaints of purchasing pipes that are very clean. Yeah, he complains when a pipe is too clean and does not provide him with the opportunity or challenge of cleaning them up himself. This pipe is a wonderful example of that. I think it had only been smoked once. I now completely understand Sascha’s disappointment. Below are some photos of the Big Ben 702 before I did any work, if you can call it that, on it.
The pipe was nearly brand new. There was some unsmoked tobacco remnants in the bowl and a very minimal residue on the rim. I cannot even call it lava. The stem was slightly oxidized due to age with maybe a few light tooth marks. The only other thing to complain about was a slight wax build-up in the beading. This was going to be an “easy button” restoration.
The next search was on pipedia.org. Here too, the entry was lacking specificity for the Classic Line. Well actually it was lacking pretty much everything stating only, “The brand name Big Ben was originally owned by a small trade company in Amsterdam which was already well established in several countries selling pipes among other goods. The firm was bought by Elbert Gubbels & Zonen B.V. – see Gubbels – who were in search for a suitable brand name to further expansion on international markets.
I did follow the link from pipedia.org to the Gubbbels’ website: Want to buy a Big Ben pipe? The best tobacco pipes since 1870 – bigben. This site was a nice shopping and informational site. I found the most impressive thing was that they opened the workshop up to the public every Friday from 10:00am-4:00pm. Here in the US, that would likely meet with stern warnings from Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
“Our store is open every Friday! We cordially invite you to take a look at our production workshop. In our store you will find a wide range of Big Ben pipes in all shapes and colors. If your ideal pipe is not listed, we may be able to manufacture a pipe especially for you! Light maintenance of your beloved old pipe can usually be done on site.
Making a pipe requires craftsmanship, a lot of fingerspitzengefühl and experience in working with the unpredictable and capricious material: the root of the Erica Arborea, better known as briar wood. Formed by the rocky bottom of the Mediterranean region, this noble and beautifully textured wood contributes its 50 to 80 years of growth to the value of the pipe. We are proud to be able to tell you the whole story – from carrot to tobacco pipe!
We are open every Friday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. On all other days you can visit us by appointment.
There was also a very nice history of the company and a look into their future. It is quite detailed so I will not include it here but this link will take you there if you are interested in a very interesting history.
The Restoration
The restoration began with a clean denim piece which I felt certain would remain clean upon finishing.
I lexamined the tobacco chamber more closely under the bright lights of the workbench. Only smoked once or twice, was my conclusion.
The look down the mortise reaffirmed my thinking.
The reaming of this tobacco chamber only required a brass bore brush, from a 20 guage shotgun and a light scrape from the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer.
I swabbed out the chamber with an alcohol dipped cotton swab. Below you can see that the reaming only produced a tiny bit of carbon and a few flakes of tobacco.
The shank was cleaned out using 99% ethyl alcohol on cotton swabs. These too, came back with little grime.
The stem was cleaned with alcohol and a bristle pipe cleaner.
I used a dental scraper to clear the majority of the wax that was built-up in the bead around the bowl.
The light residue on the rim was removed with saliva and a cotton make-up pad.
I took the stummel to the sink for what was probably an unnecessary scrubbing with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. Some habits are hard to break. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
Back at the workbench, the stem had a slight residue, likely from the airway cleaning.
I rubbed the stem with alcohol on a make-up pad and did get some oxidized vulcanite from the surface.
The stem was taken to the buffer where it was buffed with a blue buffing compound. This removed any additional oxidation along with the slight tooth chatter. It also dulled the bright silver of the stem logo.
To replace the silver, I used Silver Leaf Rub’nBuff. Before applying the fresh silver, I cleaned the logo with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol.
The silver leaf was applied and hand-buffed with a soft cotton cloth.
The resulting fresh silver was back to its original bright finish.
The pipe was given several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer.
The final step was another hand buff with the microfiber polishing cloth.
This beautiful Big Ben Classic Line 702 did not need very much work. I love the shape and the balance of this pipe. It fits my hand well and clenches like a dream. The contrast dye was well done at the factory and really accentuates the briar. THe bright nickel accent on the stem goes very nicely with the silver stem logo. This is just a classy comfortable pipe that I am glad to add to my personal collection. The dimensions of the Big Ben Classic Line 702 are:
Length: 4.74 in./ 120.40 mm.
Weight: 1.48 oz./ 41.96 g.
Bowl Height: 1.97 in./ 50.04 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.57 in./ 39.88 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.68 in./ 17.27 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.63 in./ 41.40 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished Big Ben Classic Line 702.
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.
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Below are some photos of the finished Peterson Croydon Square 42.
My affection toward Peterson pipes is hardly a secret, you could even say that I wear it on my sleeve. Though it is more literally on my hat.
That said, I have restored dozens of Peterson pipes and I always enjoy doing it even when it is more of a pursuit of folly trying to salvage a very abused old implement rather than refreshing someone’s dear old frien.The subject of this blog is a Captain Pete I found last May on eBay. I probably paid more for it that I’d like to admit and certainly more than what I would have 3 years ago. Regardless, after a short trip from Englewood, Florida the not so lovely old pipe arrived. The stampings were mostly clear and read “CAPTAIN (0ver) PETERSON” on the top left shank. I’m not sure why the Peterson stamp folks like their quotation marks but they seem to. The stem was stamped with a worn and paint worn-off circled C. On the right shank the stamp read “A PETERSON PRODUCT” over MADE IN ENGLAND with an offset 046. The country of manufacture (COM) stamp is what intrigued me the most. More on that in the “Background”. The photos below show the pipe prior to any work.
This pipe appeared to look rough. The stem was severely oxidized, I feared saving the logo would be difficult at best. The bowl had been reamed but not very well. There was a layer of lava on the rim which looked like it had been removed and redeposited. I think what was thinking is that this l pipe appeared to have been smoked a lot but kind of kept up and cleaned on occasion.
Background
Back on December 21, 2023 I wrote a blog about a Captain Peterson apple. That blog is linked for those interested. In that blog I said the following about the Captain Peterson line:
“I highly recommend the book The Peterson Pipe, by authors Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg as well as a reading of pipedia.com’s Peterson pages. According to Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg, the Captain Pete:
“This line’s name was derived from the nickname of Charles Peterson, known affectionately as “Captain Peterson.” The first issue, c. 1940-62, was in a smooth finish produced for Rogers Imports with a white stamped P inside C, or a circled P on the mouthpiece. CAPTAIN over PETE on shank, and a MADE IN IRELAND in a circle. English made versions show CAPTAIN over PETE on shank or “CAPTAIN PETERSON” and A PETERSON PRODUCT over MADE IN ENGLAND or LONDON MADE over ENGLAND. The second issue (1998-), features an XL bowl with Sherlock Holmes shapes and compact stems, in rustic or combination of smooth and rustic, with a nickel band between two narrow brass bands.” (Irwin and Malmberg p.295)” (A Peterson Captain Pete Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek)
This example of a Captain Peterson is described above and likely dates from 1940-62 and was made in London. These dates can be further narrowed down by reading p.149-150 in The Peterson Pipe, where the London production of pipes is discussed at length. Here, Irwin and Malmberg say, “Apparently, the London factory did not order a MADE IN ENGLAND die until after the war. Any Peterson stamped with an English COM must be no older than the later 1940s” (Irwin, p.150). This would mean that this pipe dates from 1945-1962 as 1962 was when Peterson shuttered the London factory.
The Restoration
After the before photos the pipe made its way to the workbench and a clean denim piece.
I began work with the stem due to thinking that the stem would require the greatest amount of time. The cleaning was done with bristle pipe cleaners and 95% ethyl alcohol. The stem was very fouled with tar and smoking residue.
The stem has some tooth chatter on the bit above the button on both the top and bottom surfaces as the two below photos show in all of their poorly focused glory.
The bits of the top and bottom surface were filed with a small slat file to remove most of the chatter.
The stem was suspended in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover solution and allowed to soak for 24 hours. This solution is lovingly referred to as deox.
The next day the stem was removed and rubbed with a coarse shop rag. This removed a great deal of the oxidized vulcanite and can be seen on the rag in the photo below.
The airway of the stem was again cleaned with alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaners.
I was pleased to see that the logo stamped on the stem remained intact after the time in deox.
To further reduce the amount of oxidized vulcanite, I rubbed the stem with Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads. The oxidized vulcanite can be seen darkly coloring the pads.
The stem was oiled with mineral oil to keep the vulcanite from further oxidation.
The tooth chatter that was not filed from the bite zone was filled with black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). This was spritzed with a CA drying accelerator. The hardened CA was then filed with a small flat file to smooth and reshape the stem.
The shank of the pipe was wrapped with masking tape to protect the briar and allow me a handle while sanding. The stem logo was also masked for its protection. The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from grits 400-2000. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel to remove sanding debris.
The sanding continued through the 3500 grit sponge with oiling and wiping as above.
The stem was buffed using blue buffing compound on a low speed buffer with a flannel wheel dedicated to the blue compound.
The stem was wiped of any residual buffing compound and the logo area cleaned with alcohol on a cotton swab. I used a white acrylic model paint to repaint the imprint of the logo.
The white acrylic dried quickly and was hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth to remove the paint from the stem outside of the stamp.
The sequence of this restoration had me a bit out of sorts, but it was apparently time for the reaming. The tools were gathered.
The Pipnet #2 blade was the only one that fit and did most of the reaming. Both the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper were used but just for clean-up.
Below the reamed tobacco chamber can be seen.
The chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. I saw no signs of damage within the chamber. The lava on the rim was softened with saliva and allowed to soak for a couple minutes.
The rim was then scraped using the edge of a sharp pocket knife blade. There were some rough spots on the rim but they looked superficial and easily removed with a light topping.
The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrubbing with a nylon brush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
I packed the stummel with cotton and saturated it with 99% ethyl alcohol. This was allowed to sit overnight.
The next day the cotton was stained telling me the treatment had worked.
The cotton was removed and was far dirtier than I was used to. I could have sworn that I had cleaned the shank, yet I had no recollection of doing it. Remember when I said the sequence of this restoration had me out of sorts? It was apparently worse than I thought.
The airway was filthy and tar infested. The good news was that the tar was very soft due to the extended soaking in alcohol. The scraping with a dental scraper was very productive. The cotton swabs eventually started to lighten as more of the tars were removed.
I cannot say if this was a superior order to use than my normal sequence; reaming the chamber, then, clean the shank airway then alcohol/cotton treatment is needed for ghosting of severe dirtiness. In this case it worked well. The softening of the tar did make for easier cleaning.
There were several small dents, scratches or pits on the surface of the stummel. These revealed themselves more and I had started sanding. I had covered the stamps with masking tape for their protection. For the fills, I applied small amounts of thin CA using a long narrow applicator on the CA bottle. Immediately after application I used a dust sanding sponge to sand the fill area. The sanding sponge supplied the briar dust to join with the CA and for a fill. This method only works if the spots to be filled are very small and the sander has total disregard for their sanding sponges as some of the CA and briar dust will certainly get on the sponge making it have nonabrasive spots. I wonder if I will ever learn to use a piece of sandpaper like I did before I had sanding sponges. The next three photos show the fills.
The stummel was then sanded with the full series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. The stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol between each sponge
I removed the masking tape and cleaned any adhesive left behind by the tape. I then worked the stummel with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. Again I wiped the stummel between pads with alcohol on a make-up pad.
The stummel was coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit while I went out in search of a couple of evening Largemouth bass. This is also called my stroll with a pole and of course a pipe.
About an hour and a half later I returned and wiped the remaining Restoration Balm from the stummel with an inside out athletic sock. There is the photobombing fishing pipe lurking in the background. If you are curious it is a Peterson 127.
The pipe was taken to the buffer where a couple of coats of carnauba wax were applied.
I carefully dragged a knife blade around the beading to remove accumulated wax from the grooves. The final step was another hand buff with the microfiber polishing cloth then off to the final photo shoot.
This beautiful English made Captain Peterson 046 bulldog is a great example of post World War Two English workmanship. The walnut stain of the original pipe was maintained and was finished with careful sanding and just carnauba wax. The stem was deoxidized, sanded and polished to a gorgeous glossy luster. Though lacking any stunning briar grain the wood is solid and the few dents from wear were filled with minimal disruption to the original. The dimensions of the Peterson Captain Peterson Made in England 046 bulldog are:
Length: 5.71 in./ 145.03 mm.
Weight: 1.62 oz./ 45.93 g.
Bowl Height: 1.96 in./ 49.78 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.65 in./ 41.91 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.73 in./ 18.54 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.64 in./ 62.89 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished Peterson Captain Peterson Made in England 046 bulldog.
I did not want to affect the stamps here, so the existing scratches were not sanded away like I would have preferred to do.
I had never worked on this shape before, some might call it a pot, others a bullnose. Either way I found it interesting and I have a soft spot for basket pipes with an interesting shape. The thick walls and wide acrylic stem were the clincher. And honestly, the double brass bands just were an elegant bonus. This beauty was spotted on eBay and I was able to collect the prize as I was the only bidder and a tough over $15 seemed like a good deal. After the obligatory wait for shipping, The chubby cherub arrived. The only stamps were MADE IN ITALY on the bottom of the pipe. Below are some photos of the pipe in the pre-work or before condition.
The stem looked to be in very good condition, slightly oxidized, maybe. The stummel on the other hand showed signs of extensive fills. The gloss clear coat was an obvious attempt to conceal the fills and perhaps to help “glue” them together. The tobacco chamber seemed quite out of round. I couldn’t tell by initial inspection that the rim was all filled, charred or just lava covered. Oh well, it would still be a fun project.
Background
Pipes like this are nearly impossible to research. No shape number and a very standard country of manufacture (COM) stamp provide little to work with. I thought maybe, the double brass band would provide a clue.
The Restoration
The pipe made it to the workbench and a clean denim piece.
I examined the drillings. The draft hole was well centered and looked good.
The hole through the stem was off centered, but there was a nice chamfer cut.
I assembled the ream team. This tobacco chamber was wide and would require the PipNet #3 blade and perhaps the #4.
It turned out that the #3 PipNet was sufficient. A little bit of clean-up was done with the General triangular scraper.
The chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.
At the point I wondered if I should scrap the whole project. There were two surface cracks in the briar within the chamber. These would most likely be a source of chamber charring or burning with use.
There was a third pit within the chamber on the opposite side. This would be another spot where damage from smoking the pipe could lead to issues.
The “out of round” issue was mainly cosmetic and on the rim, not the tobacco chamber itself.
The rim looked to be encased in a layer of lava or smoking residue.
I moistened the rim with saliva and allowed it to soften the lava for a couple of minutes. The rim was then carefully scrapped with a sharp pocket knife blade. The result allowed me to see that the rim was indeed heavily filled with putty or filler.
I cleaned the shank with several cotton swabs, a nylon shank brush and a dental scraper. There was also copious amounts of 99% ethyl alcohol used.
The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrub with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water.
The stummel was dirty, so a second scrub with more Murphy’s and a brass brush was used. This was then rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wet with 99% ethyl alcohol. Little color was removed and the remaining finish seems to be unaffected by the alcohol.
I tried a wipe with acetone on a make-up pad. This did have an effect on the finish.
I decided to let the stummel soak in an acetone bath for a couple of hours.
During this down time, I worked on cleaning the stem. The stem access through the slot was difficult, at best. I could barely get a pipe cleaner through. This was not due to dirtyness, just a poorly made draft. I used an emery board to sand the interior of the button and improve the daft.
I finally got the draft opened up with Falcon Extra Thin Pipe cleaner, the Vermont Freehand slot tool and more sanding with the emery board.
I filed the end of the stem above the button to smooth it on both the top and bottom sides.
The initial carving of the stem was not very smooth. After my file work it was much improved.
Below you can see the reshaped stem after sanding with 300 and 400 sanding sponges.
The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 320-1000 grits. Between sponges the stem was wiped with a paper towel to remove sanding debris.
After the sanding I reattached it to the pipe and took the stem to the buffer. Here I used red compound to polish the stem. I have been working on bettering my stem polishing skills. Like nearly everything, practice makes perfect. I will never claim perfection, but I am getting better at buffing and polishing stems.
After two hours in the acetone, I removed the stummel. The clear coat that the Italian maker used was some darn tough stuff. I rubbed the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with acetone.
I then used the brass brush dipped in acetone to remove more of the clear coat as well as some of the fill material.
The fills were very soft and I picked out much of the material.
Below you can see more of the grooves left by picking out soft fill.
There was one large surface crack that was picked free of fill, seen below along the front rim. I decided to fill in the cracks and pit within the tobacco chamber with J-B Weld epoxy. I figured that I could do the same with the crack on the rim.
Below is the one pit in the chamber now filled with epoxy.
Below are the two cracks within the chamber also filled with epoxy. I also built up the rim with a bead of epoxy in an attempt at concealing the “out-of-round” rim.
24 hours later, I used a sharp knife to shave away most of the excess epoxy. I then sanded it smooth to the surface with 320 sandpaper.
The rim was re-beveled with a small wooden sphere wrapped in sandpaper.
Once I was pleased with the sanding, I prepped for dying the briar. I know the original pipe was red with brown but I wanted to conceal all the fills so I went with an all black. Fiebing’s Black Leather Dye was the choice. A folded pipe cleaner was the applicator. A wine pottle cork was used to plug the bowl to keep dye from the tobacco chamber and a lighter was used to flame the dye, burning off the solvent/alcohol.
I left a bit of the original brown at the shank end. My plan was to lightly sand the high spots of the rustications allowing the brown to peek through the black. Three coats of dye were applied and flamed.
The dye was flamed then allowed to dry for an hour.
Once dried, I lightly sanded the stummel revealing the browns underlying the new black dye.
The stummel was then wiped with a make-up pad wetted with 99% ethyl alcohol.
I gave the pipe a total of three coats of Danish oil applied with a cotton swab.
Below is the pipe and its first coat drying.
Below is the third coat drying.
The pipe was then given a couple of coats of carnauba wax. Extra care was given to buff with the grain of the sandblast patterns to avoid building up wax in the grooves.
The final step was a hand buffing of the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.
This pipe with its various pits, cracks and flaws was nearly discarded. I am glad to say that it smokes wonderfully and has now become another fishing pipe. Yeah, that is hardly a great endorsement or title, but I spend a good deal of time fishing and typically do not want to subject my best quality pipes to those less hospitable conditions. The wide stem is very comfortable to clench and the bend makes it even better. I love the wide bowl for my favorite Balkan and English blends. This old pipe will not be a winner of a beauty pageant even with the beautifully polished stem and brass bands, but she is more than a utilitarian addition to the fishing pipe club.
The dimensions of this No Name Italian Bullnose are:
Length: 5.19 in./ 131.83 mm.
Weight: 2.06 oz./ 58.40 g.
Bowl Height: 1.51 in./ 40.64 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.20 in./ 38.35 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.80 in./ 20.32 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.75 in./ 44.45 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished No Name Italian Bullnose.
I really like Brick and Mortar (B&M) pipe shops and the thought of major pipe manufactures stamping individual shop’s name on a pipe for their store is a walk into the past for me. I cannot imagine that pipe smoking has become so popular again as to allow pipe shops to place an order for a large number of pipes with the name of the shop stamped on them. Ah, the good old days. When I saw this pipe listed on eBay in June of
2025, I thought it looked interesting. I bid and won. I knew that Briars and Blends was not a pipe maker but the shape looked very familiar. It was a ¼ bent bulldog with classic English lines and an eye-catching grain. Upon arrival the pipe looked as though it had been pretty well cared for or cleaned. The seller made no claim to have cleaned nor restored the pipe, which is usually better for me. The stampings were kind of a confusing double stamp but BRIARS ‘N’ BLENDS could be made out on the left shank. I did use a hand lens in sunlight. On the right shank was the words MADE IN over LONDON as a circle, over ENGLAND. Offset toward the bowl was 409. Below are some photos of the pipe prior to any work.
This looked like it would be a nice relaxing restoration. The stem was in need of the majority of the work. It was heavily oxidized, chewed on and had calcium deposits. The stumble looked great save for the faint double stampings.
Background
Last summer I worked on a Telford’s Canadian pipe (linked if you are interested). Telford’s is a pipe and tobacco B&M outside of San Francisco, CA. I talked to the owner on the phone and “He said that this pipe would have been for the 1970-1980s. During this time Comoy’s would offer lots, usually a gross, of their “seconds”. These were pipes that had imperfect blasts or fills which made them ineligible for sale as “Comoy’s” pipes. Mr. Telford explained that Comoys made a stamp for Telford’s and stamped the pipes for the shop (personal communication with Brian Telford 7-30-2024).” (A Telford’s Canadian Restoration – Google Docs). The “this pipe” referred to by Brian Telford was the Telford’s Canadian.
I thought that the Briar ‘N’ Blends pipe looked like a Comoy’s bulldog. It was just a feeling and though I have been quoted as saying, “feelings are irrelevant” by a daughter who is now okay, thanks to years of therapy, they can on occasion be useful. I used pipedia.org’s Comoy’s Shape Number Chart for the below screen shots:
Next I wanted to find out anything I could about Briars ‘N’ Blends tobacconist. The only “hit” that I felt (oh no, another feeling) good about was one for Briars and Blends Cigar Shop of St. Louis, Missouri.
“Briars & Blends Cigar Shop LTD was founded in 1990. At this location, Briars & Blends Cigar Shop LTD employs approximately 3 people. This business is working in the following industry: Tobacco stores. Annual sales for Briars & Blends Cigar Shop LTD are around 807,000.
The “Permanently Closed” was saddening (ahh, another feeling). The date fell later than the 1970s-1980s referred to by Brian Telford as when his shop arranged to have Comoy’s stamp pipes for his shop, but it was fairly close. The 1990 were the boom years of the most recent cigar movement.
So, what does this tell us about the Briars’N’Blends bulldog? It is probably a Comoy’s 409 shape from the 1990s, made in London, England and was about to get a restoration.
The Restoration
I was really impressed by the grain of this pipe and was eager to get it restored.
The first task was to submerge this stem into the Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. Before I could do that though I wanted to clean the airway and lightly sand the outermost oxidation from the stem. The airway was surprisingly clean. The calcium deposits were scraped with a sharp pocket knife and the stem sanded with a 320 grit sanding sponge.
I placed a pipe cleaner in the tenon for ease of removal from the Briarville solution (deox) after an overnight bath.
The ream team was collected. This pipe’s bowl was wider and would require the #2 and #3 PipNet blades.
There was not very much cake accumulated in the tobacco chamber and it was quickly removed.
Below is a photo of the reamed chamber.
The chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The bare briar showed no signs of any damage from use.
The rim had light deposits of smoking residue or lava and showed no signs of charring.
The lava was moistened with saliva and allowed to soften for a couple of minutes. The rim was then lightly scraped with a sharp blade of a pocket knife.
The shank was cleaned using 99% ethyl alcohol cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners. It was also quite clean. The first cotton swab below, blackened, was due to debris dislodged from the reaming and did not indicate a grimy airway.
The stummel was taken to the sink and scrubbed with a nylon brush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
Below is a photo of the stummel after being scrubbed. I thought that there may have been a clear coating on the briar, but it must have just been a layer of wax.
I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with 99% ethyl alcohol. Only a slight color came off the briar, probably some of the stain used in the manufacture of the pipe.
The next day, I removed the stem from deox. I vigorously rubbed it with a coarse shop rage. This rubbing helps to remove oxidized vulcanite and is left on the rag.
I ran a pipe cleaner through the airway to rid the stem of any deox solution. As it dried, there remained a stubborn layer of oxidized material on the stem. I wonder if it is time to replace my Briarville solution or, if this stem was just that badly oxidized.
To remove the oxidation I used Soft Scrub cleanser on make-up pads. The stem was energetically scrubbed with these pads and produced a good deal of oxidized vulcanite.
And more oxidized vulcanite.
Finger cramping from scrubbing, I switched to some sanding of the stem. I wanted to keep the joint where the stem met the shank crisp so I sanded the stem intact. I wrapped the shank with masking tape to protect the briar.
The freshly sanded stem was coated with mineral oil to keep further oxygen away. It was looking much better.
To deal with the bite marks I painted the dents with the flame of a lighter. The heating and expanding of the rubber can sometimes reduce the dent. It had little effect. Rather than filling these dents with cyanoacrylate, I decided to file the whole area flat and smooth. The stem material was thick enough and the dents were not severe.
In the below photo you can still see the slight indentations from the tooth dents but it was very minimal. The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 320-1500 grit. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.
The sanding continued from 2000-3500 grit with the same oiling and wiping.
The stummel did not really need much sanding. There were no fills and only one little dent or pit which was so close to the shape number that I thought the risk of obscuring the stamping was worse than the pit. The stummel was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 600-3500. I am not sure why the 3500 sanding sponge didn’t make the photograph, shy perhaps. The stummel was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad between sponges to remove sanding debris. I should add that I did not sand the shank where there were any stampings. Only the bowl and lower shank was sanded.
The stummel was then coated with Before and After Restoration balm while the stem was coated with Before and After Restoration Balm while the stem was coated with Before and After Hard Rubber Balm. These products remained on the pipe for about two hours as I had to go fishing for my evening attempt at catching catfish.
Upon my return, the Restoration Balm and the Hard Rubber Balm were hand buffed and wiped away with an inside out athletic sock.
The pipe was taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax. After waxing I ran the flytying bodkin around the beading grooves to remove accumulated carnauba wax.
The final job was to hand buff the entire pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.
I think that this Briars ‘N’ Blends Bulldog is a gorgeous pipe. The shape is great to look at and it has a wonderful feel in hand. The briar grain is truly beautiful with the tiger-stripe shank and flame grain bowl. The walnut color is darker but still is contrasted well. The glossy black vulcanite polished-up better than I thought it would and the 1/4 bend curves of the stem give the pipe a smooth flowing appearance. This pipe will serve a new owner for many years to come and shows why Comoy’s has a look all its own.
The dimensions of this Blends’N’Briars Bulldog are:
Length: 5.51 in./ 139.95 mm.
Weight: 1.38 oz./ 39.12 g.
Bowl Height: 1.60 in./ 40.64 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.31 in./ 33.27 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.76 in./ 19.30 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.61 in./ 40.89 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished Blends’N’Briars Bulldog.
Decisions, decisions. I had the urge to work on a bulldog this week but which one from the queue would be the lucky victim?
I had worked on Peterson and Marxman pipes recently, so they were out of the running. That left the Briars and Blends pipe (bottom) and the Captain Fortune (top). Well, from the title of this blog you have probably surmised my choice. TheCaptain Fortune was a purchase made to help out a Nebraska antique dealer I came across while looking for restoration subjects. I don’t usually opt to lend a hand to specific businesses but these guys were new, from Nebraska and had a pipe that I found interesting. Below is the original listing:
After submitting an offer, which was accepted, The pipe was on its way from northeast to southeast Nebraska. Upon arrival the pipe looked like the below photos.
The pipe had definitely been used. The condition of the stem with its calcium deposits, discoloration and bite hole on the underside indicated that. The bowl, as well, showed substantial cake. The rim had a lava deposit and several chips indicating that the dottle was knocked out on hard rough surfaces. There was also an area on the inside front of the rim that looked like charring from lighting the pipe from the front with a non-pipe lighter. The stinger looked surprisingly clean but oxidized. Perhaps the previous owner loved this pipe and a clean airway. That would explain the lack of smoking residue on the stinger. I doubted that the additional markings of Rudy and 1977 were factory marks, but they did add some context to the age of the pipe and when it was being smoked.
Background
Captain Fortune is a brand of pipes made by John Redman Ltd. and British Empire Pipe company. According to pipedia.org’s brief entry,
“Other lines include Aristocrat, Buckingham, Buckingham Palace, Canberra, Captain Fortune, Dr John, Golden Square, Redonian, Richmond (not Sasieni), Twin Bore
Former factory located at 3-11 Westland Place, Hackney, London N1 7LP” (John Redman Ltd./British Empire Pipe Co. – Pipedia). That was not much to work with then I recalled working on another John Redman pipe back in December of 2024. I will link to that restoration here. The research for that pipe was more productive and I will include a quote from it below:
“My thirst for knowledge remained unfulfilled. I tried searching the internet without a guide and found a wonderful article by an anonymous author on the vkpipes.com site.
“This famous picture above is perhaps the only broad known illustration to materials about John Redman LTD & British Empire Pipe Co. And the majority of sources doesn’t move usually far beyond a couple of sentenses: this company did really exist, it was located at this address and there is their former building. However…
However, this Edwardian building on Westland Place was only an annex and no actual manufacturing was located there. The principle place of business and offices were located in Whitecross Street 123/5/7, within 15 minutes of slow walking from Westland Place. Therefore, one of their series was named Whitecross – you may find it in the catalogue below. The building on Whitecross St. still stands there and you may see it on the picture below. The crossing street is the Fortune St., so we have got an explanation of another Redman’s brand name – Captain Fortune.
Indeed, many Redman’s brands bear such toponomical signs: the “Golden Square” series comes from the Golden Square located between the Lower John and Upper John streets, “Dr. John” is the most probably related to the abovementioned John streets. There are also Canberra road and Canberra House in London (which might inspire stamping of the famous Canberra pipes) as well as Canterbury House (Canterbury series). Burlington pipes named after the Burlington Arcade (see also H. Simmons). The majority of them are located quite close to John Redman’s main office. No wide explanations are needed for the series Westminster and Kensington. And of course, some British imperial charm was added with names Aristocrat, Redman’s Royal, King’s Ransom.
John Redman (as it happened later to Eric Nording) was both a carver and an owner of a business of the same name. The first pipes were born in 1934, but personal efforts appeared soon to be insufficient, what inevitably led to emerging of the name John Redman LTD. Unfortunately, we don’t have artifacts, which could be unambiguously carried to the “pre-war” period. In the WWII years the company could hardly got to the list of lucky manufacturers, who received scarce briar from the state.
But by the end of 1950s John Redman’s firm offered a well balanced portfolio – from popular and practical “Captain Fortune”, “Dr John”, “Golden Square” to top graded Redman’s Royal made of best briar and almost without any stains (comparable to GBD Virgin, but the “Royals” were usually much larger and carved in their own unique style). And of course, we shouldn’t forget about qualitative and still affordable Redonians, Aristocrats and Canberras – a very strong middle (and upper middle) segment. More details, list of offered brands as well as presentation and gift sets can be seen in the catalogue.
It is known that in late sixties and later a part of the production was ordered from subcontractors, for example Blakemar Briars, and since 1992 trademarks of John Redman were taken over by Gerald Grudgings of Loughborough; this company wasn’t a top manufacturer, but many sources attribute the invention of the lovat shape to it.
As the conclusion we are proud to express our sincere and warmest thanks to Robert Deering, who worked for John Redman in 1960s and gave us a number of very important directions.
Now, the Captain Fortune pipe in hand has what I assume to be an owner’s autograph and a date etched into the briar along the underside of the shank. It reads “Rudy” and “1957”. I am going to go out on a limb here and say that those are not factory originated marks. I am also going to say that 1957 was the year that that date was inscribed. That would place this pipe squarely into the time quoted by the above article as of the , “end of 1950s John Redman’s firm offered a well balanced portfolio – from popular and practical “Captain Fortune…” This supposition and the apparent age of the pipe itself would make this Captain Fortune bulldog produced in London during the latter 1950s.
The Restoration
The captain Fortune made its way from the photo table to the workbench, a grueling 18 foot distance and to its denim piece.
Once at the workbench I removed the stem and gathered my official Stinger Extraction Device (SED). The SED is actually a strip of thick leather used to protect the aluminum of a stinger from the jaws of a pliers.
The suckedness of this stinger led to absolute failure in its removal. Not wanting to risk breaking the vulcanite, I devised plan B.
Being a big believer of Plan Bs, in general, I chose to soak the stinger and end of tenon in a medicine cup with 99% ethyl alcohol. Now, I know what you are thinking, “That stem is too heavy to stay in that little medicine cup.” Trust me, it will be fine.
PipNet led the ream team with the #1 blades.
That was until I realized that the cake was much thicker than I thought it was. The PipNet #2 blades came out and earned their keep. The Smoking pipes Low Country reamer was great for the curve at the bottom of the chamber and the General triangular scraper did cleanup on the interior walls.
The tobacco chamber looked much better and more spacious.
The chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.
Now, normally sanding does create some shaking of the workbench. This shaking was just enough to tell me that the stinger was ready to come out of the stem. No, the top heavy stem did not tip over the medicine cup of alcohol and spill the alcohol all over the workbench. That would indicate that the restorer was a total clutz and perhaps an idiot. No, let’s just say that after some using alcohol to clean the top of the workbench the stinger was ready removed using the official SED.
Now, back to the sanding. Things looked pretty good until I used alcohol wetted cotton swabs to clean out the sanding debris from the tobacco chamber. As the alcohol evaporated I saw several spiderweb patterns of heat damage to the chamber.
The below photo shows the webbing while the alcohol was evaporating, making the lines look darker. There were more spider webs on the interior right than left. None of them were very bad nor deep. The chamber felt nice and smooth to my finger. I thought that I should give this pipe a bowl coating to protect it and aid in the formation of a light cake.
Cleaning the shank came next. This was done with several bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs all dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. There was also some scraping with a dental scraper. Every successful scrape removed reduced the cotton swabs and pipe cleaners needed dramatically.
Next came the rim. I was a bit worried what I’d find under that layer of lava.
The lava was moistened with saliva and allowed to soak for a couple of minutes. Then I lightly scraped with a very sharp pocket knife. This did reveal some charring but not as bad as I had feared.
The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrubbing with a nylon brush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
Returning to the workbench, the stummel was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad. This removed remaining wax and some lingering grime.
I turned my attention to the stem. This was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners and 95% ethyl alcohol. The stem was surprisingly clean.
I inserted a pipe cleaner into the tenon for easier removal of the stem in the morning. The plan was to leave it in deox, that’s what I like to call time spent in Briarville’s Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. I have to say, this product is a good one and is available here: Briarville Stem Oxidation Remover 8oz | Briarville, Inc. And no, your’s will not come looking like this, it will be a bright yellow.
I thought this pipe would benefit from an alcohol cotton treatment so I stuffed the bowl and the shank with cotton.
I then poured out 10 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into a medicine cup, thinking that would be about the amount needed. A disposable pipette was used to transfer the alcohol to the cotton.
Lucky guess, you say. I say I missed it by 1 ml. This needed to sit and evaporate overnight and the stem was soaking overnight, I guessed it was time for me to end this session.
In the morning the cotton was no longer white. The evaporating alcohol had worked to dissolve the tar and smoking residues from the briar and move them into the cotton.
I removed the cotton and cleaned the airway with a cotton swab. It came back with minimal residue.
The stem was retrieved from deox and vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rag. This removed quite a bit of the oxidized vulcanite.
The stem logo was still visible but it was more faint. Extra care would have to be used to keep this stamp.
I used a piece of a plastic lid to act as a dam to keep the cyanoacrylate (CA. super glue), that I planned on using to fill the hole, from entering the airway.
I added several layers of painters tape to thicken the dam to achieve a tight seal.
The Bob Smith black CA was the product of choice due to having rubberizing agents in the formula. This gives it a bit more flex than regular CA. I applied the CA to the gap with a fly tying bodkin. I intended to allow the CA to cure on its own but after 15 minutes, I got impatient and spritzed it with a CA drying accelerator. I removed the dam and squirted some accelerator into the airway as well to assist in speeding up the curing process.
Once hardened, I filed the fill with a small flat file. There remained a small depression and the button also showed signs of wear.
A second application of the black CA to both the depression and the button edge was done with the fly tying bodkin.
Again lacking patience I spritzed the wet CA and sped the curing along.
The small flat file was again used to smooth the fill and reshape the button and an emery board for getting the angle of the button right.. Ahh, much better.
In preparation of the stem sanding, I covered the stem logo with a small piece of painters tape.
The shank was also masked off to keep the briar stamps from the evils of sanding.
The sanding was done with a series of sanding sponges in grits of 400-1500. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel. Yeah, the stem logo protector had to be replaced more than once.
The sanding continued with sanding sponges 2000-3500. The oiling and wiping were continued as well.
The next step in sanding/polishing the stem was a series of micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. After the 4000 pad, I removed the masking tape from the logo and cleaned the logo with alcohol.
The 4000-12000 micro-meshing continued. After each pad, I rubbed the stem with Obsidian Oil and wiped the stem with a paper towel.
The stem was looking very good. I now turned to the stummel. There were no areas which required filling but there was a damaged rim to address. The inner front of the rim was charred from a flame and the outer rear was damaged from dottle knocking. I planned on addressing these with a three pronged attack:
Topping the rim.
Using a wooden ball and sandpaper to establish an inner rim bevel, and
Use CA and briardust to build up the damaged outer rim.
Here you can see how the triploid plan is progressing.
And a close-up of the outer rim reconstruction.
Time to sand the stummel. I used a series of sanding sponges here as well. O didn’t mask the shank as the stamping covered the whole length. What I did instead was not sand it. The sanding was only done on the bowl. Between sponges I wiped the sanding debris from the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol.
The final sanding was done with sponges 2500-3500 with the same wiping as earlier.
The briar was finally micro-meshed with pads 4000-12000. Between each pad I continued to wipe with the alcoholic make-up pad.
The stummel was then coated with Before and After Restoration Balm. This is another great product and since I gave a shout-out to Briarville, I feel I owe one to Mark Hoover as well. Restoration Balm can be found here: Restoration Balm | La Belle Epoque
I waited about 30 minutes for the balm to do its magic before wiping the excess away using an inside out athletic sock.
The pipe was then taken to the buffer where it received several coats of carnauba wax.
The final step was to hand buff the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth. I then took the pipe to the photography table for the “finished” photos. Upon seeing that I forgot to do the bowl coating I immediately went back to the workbench. DOH! I used a cotton swab to apply a light coat of pure maple syrup to the interior of the tobacco chamber.
I then plugged the airway with a pipe cleaner and dumped about ½ of an activated charcoal capsule into the chamber. The rim was covered with a piece of painter’s tape. The stummel was then vigorously shaken for about a minute. The tape and pipe cleaner were removed then the stem reinserted and given a puff of air to clean excess carbon from the chamber.
The final touch was to hand buff the entire pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth, AGAIN.
This pipe turned out beautifully. I am sure Rudy would agree. I decided to leave the etched name and date because it told a bit of history about the pipe. I doubt any one named Rudy will buy this pretty Captain Fortune but, you never know. The briar has lovely grain and a rich color. The stem polished up beautifully and I think the repair will hold and enable years of faithful use. The dimensions of this Captain Fortune Bulldog are:
Length: 5.60 in./ 142.24 mm.
Weight: 1.02 oz./ 28.92 g.
Bowl Height: 1.64 in./ 41.66 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.42 in./ 36.07 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.43 in./ 36.32 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished John Redman Captain Fortune Bulldog.
Yeah, those first two photos were taken before I realized that I had not done the bowl coating.
The above photo was also taken before the bowl coating was done.
As a little kid I used to sit with my father at his reloading bench while he reloaded rifle shells. It was my job to line up empty cases in straight little rows. Important work, to be sure. Later in life I too shared my father’s love of high power rifles, reloading and the study of reloading manuals. I remember shooting my first deer with a hand loaded 25-06 Remington. To this day, I can recall the load: 54 grains of 4831, Federal large rifle primer, 100 grain Nosler Boat Tail Ballisting Tip bullet. I cannot recall the muzzle velocity, like I used to but I still do have the Yugoslavian made Mauser rifle imported by Interarms. “What the heck does all that have to do with a du Pont Explosives promotional pipe?” you demand to know. Well, du Post explosives were not only the reason for the pipe but they also manufactured gun powder. A lot of it. Long before Dwight Eisenhower warned us against the influence of the military industrial complex du Pont was the largest US maker of black powder
Background
I have to admit that I was surprised that there was anything written about this pipe. The first place I looked was pipedia.org and low and behold, I got a hit. Below is the full text.
“du Pont Explosives pipes were given out as souvenir pipes by the Explosives Department of the du Pont Company between 1912 and 1933. (Source: Debra Hughes, Curator of Collections and Exhibits, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE USA.) The original maker is unknown.
The shape is apparently intended to resemble an 18th or early 19th Century gunpowder barrel. Poker and bent shapes are represented. Some pipes may have ferrules. They are stamped with the duPont logo and “REG. US. PAT. OFF. EXPLOSIVES” on one side and “GENUINE FRENCH BRIAR” on the other side. Stems are vulcanite or similar material.”
Example du Pont Explosives pipe bowl
Example gunpowder keg with extra bands to prevent staving
An unsmoked example, courtesy Brian Robertson Collection
Well, that pretty much sums up everything I wanted to know. That dated the pipe to 1912-33 and put the production in the USA, probably. I can’t imagine a foreign carver being too concerned with US patent registration. The 1912-1933 dates would precede the briar shortages of World War 2. I have not read anything about briar shortages caused by World War 1 but I am certain that they would have existed. One other thing I found interesting was the painting of the indentations of the stamp, as seen in the photos above. There was no sign of any remnant paint in the stamp on the pipe in hand. I was not sure how to or if to replicate this on the restored du Pont pipe.
The Restoration
Much to my chagrin, I worked on two pipes simultaneously. I normally do not like to do this as I inevitably forget steps or the photographing of steps, but my schedule has included a couple of fishing tournaments as of late. Priorities, priorities… Both pipes shared a denim piece on the workbench.
The first task was to prepare the stem for a bath in Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. To do this I wanted the stem clean. I first tried my standard treatment of 99% ethyl alcohol on pipe cleaners. The stem started to feel slick in my fingers. The ethyl alcohol was dissolving the surface material on the stem. “Okay”, I thought and remembered the quote from the pipedia.org, “Stems are vulcanite or similar material” (DuPont Explosives promotional pipes – Pipedia). Hmm, I switched over to a 91% isopropyl alcohol thinking that the larger molecule would be less likely to act on the rubber. It worked and after several bristled pipe cleaners dipped in the 91% isopropyl alcohol the stem was clean.
Both stems were dropped into the bottle of Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover. I will refer to this as deox from here out.
I thought back to April, 2025 after Briarville gave me a bottle of their product to try. Usage had discolored it severely but it was still working. Sorry, I digress. The stems were to be left in deox overnight.
The ream team was assembled. The PipNet #2 and #3 blades were the proper size.
The PipNet did its job of removing the cake, admirably. The General triangular scraper was just used to clean up at the bottom of the chamber.
The reamed chamber looked good but the rim definitely needed some work.
The lava on the rim was softened with saliva. After a couple of minutes the lava was scraped with a sharp pocket knife.
The cleaning of the shank airway was done with 99% ethyl alcohol on a nylon shank brush, bristle pipe cleaners and numerous cotton swabs. A dental scraper was also used.
After the shank cleaning, I sanded the tobacco chamber with 320 grit sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The bare briar showed no sign of heat damage. Below are photos showing the left and right chamber walls.
Next, the stummel was taken to the sink where it was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
I wiped the surface of the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol. The pad showed some sign of remaining grime. I wiped it a couple more times to remove whatever the scrubbing missed.
I was not convinced that the airway was completely rid of the smoking residues. The pipe also still had an aroma of old aromatic tobacco. Though not unpleasant, I wanted to remove them. TO do this I packed the tobacco chamber, airway and shank with cotton.
The cotton was saturated with about 10 ml 99% ethyl alcohol applied with a disposable pipette. This was allowed to evaporate overnight.
The next day revealed that the alcohol had worked at dissolving the yuck (technical term for smoking residue) from the walls of the airway and deposited said yuck into the cotton.
The yuckified (the technical term for cotton soiled with dissolved smoking residue) cotton was removed.
I ran an alcohol dipped bristle pipe cleaner through the airway and scrubbed with a cotton swab also alcohol fortified. Both devices returned with little yuck. Triumph!
The inner and out rims of the bowl showed signs of abuse. I lightly topped the rim but refused to top it severely enough to remove all trace of the damage. That would have shortened the height of the bowl by nearly an 1/8th inch or 3 mm. Instead, I slightly beveled the inner and outer edges with a file and sandpaper.
The stem was taken from deox and vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rag. This removed a good deal of the oxidized material from the surface of the stem.
Below shows the pre-sanded but oiled stem and stummel.
I tried to paint the tooth dents on the stem with a soft flame lighter. This rarely makes a big difference but it’s fun to do.
The tooth chatter was filed with a small flat file and the edge of the button was slightly defined on both the top and bottom sides. These were also lightly sanded with a 320 sanding sponge.
Here is a great example of why I do not like to do two pipes simultaneously. I failed to document the application of the cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) to fill in the deeper tooth dents. Rather, all you get to see is the filled and filed smooth result.
With the fills on the stem complete, I turned to the one big fill on the left rear of the stummel. The old fill material was picked out using a fly tying bodkin. This new fill would certainly leave a scar but it would be a smooth shiny scar.
I used a fine applicator tip on a bottle of Thin CA to apply a tiny bit of CA into the depressions. I then placed briar dust on top of the wet CA. The excess dust was brushed off. I topped the briar dust with additional Thin CA.
The new fill was sanded to see where additional CA and briar dust would be required. Oh yeah, the reason for the masking tape of the stamps was to protect them from my sanding.
The stem and stummel were sanded simultaneously with a series of sanding sponges in grits 400-3500. Between sponges the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol while the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.
After the sanding the pipe was worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. The wiping between pads was done as with the sanding sponges except the stem was oiled with Obsidian Oil.
The stummel was then coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to soak in that balmy goodness for 20 minutes.
The remaining Restoration Balm was wiped from the stummel with an inside out athletic sock.
The pipe then received several coats of carnauba wax applied with the buffer.
The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.
This du Pont pipe was a fun restoration. Not only did it allow me to reminisce about my father and reloading but also gave me the chance to work on a pipe that was probably 100 years old. This old gal is still quite pretty and the bent poker, that’s what I am calling it, shape is intriguing and fun. The briar grain is mostly concealed by the ring carvings of the “gun powder barrel” but the shank sides show lovely bird’s eyes. The hard rubber of the stem did polish-up nicely and provides a fine accent to the natural color of the briar. This historical sitting pipe will make its next owner a fine and historical tobacco enjoyment tool. The dimensions of this du Pont Explosives promotional pipe are:
Length: 4.70 in./ 119.38 mm.
Weight: 1.53 oz./ 43.36 g.
Bowl Height: 1.79 in./ 4.47 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.58 in./ 40.13 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.80 in./ 20.32 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.30 in./ 33.02 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.
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Below are some photos of the finished du Pont Explosives promotional pipe.
The story of the Ugly Duckling seems to come to my mind when I think of Peterson Irish Seconds. Though in the case of this pipe it’s more like an ugly duckling that got chewed on by a snapping turtle down at the pond.
Well, this looks like it might be another tough restoration. The reason this pipe didn’t make it as a “real” Peterson might have been the deeper than normal blastings at the front left of the pipe. In a couple of places the briar looks like the blasting cut deeper into the briar. I am no expert on Peterson quality control but that did seem suspect. As for what I planned to do was the following: A thorough cleaning of the pipe inside and out, a refinishing of the briar, and a rebuilding of the stem. This rebuilding would allow me to try to weld vulcanite kind of like I welded acrylic on a previous restoration (A Commissioned Stanwell 32 Button Repair – acrylic welding – NebraskaPeteGeek).
Background
Being a rather typical member of Generation-X, sometimes called lazy slackers, I will refer you to what I wrote about Peterson Irish Seconds in a previous blog,
I cannot begin to describe the history nor impact of the Peterson pipe company. I can tell you what I think is the best source of information on the subjects and that is Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg’s book, The Peterson Pipe The Story of Kapp & Peterson. According to the authors,Peterson’s seconds are as follows,
“Seconds Peterson seconds are pipes of all shapes with briar flaws deemed unacceptable for ordinary models and sold at reduced prices, sometimes unstained, fit with fishtail or round button mouthpieces. Since the early 1990s they have only been available in Ireland. Occasionally they are described in Peterson catalogs under different names, and documented specimens have various stampings. In roughly chronological order these include:
Stamped arched KAPP & over straight PETERSON”S over arched DUMMIES An early specimen preserved at the Peterson museum with this stamp has a round-button mouthpiece.
IRISH FREE STATE stamp (1922-37) COM stamp with no brand or model name. Documented with or without nickel bands.
System Reject (1968-) Noted first in the Price List for January 1968 as being available in all six system shapes. Also found in the ‘80 Peterson-Glass Price List.
Erica System Reject (1987-98)Noted in two US distributor catalogs. Fishtail mouthpiece, unstamped nickel band, with COM of MADE IN THE over REP. IRELAND or with no COM.
Irish Seconds (1982-98) Classic Range shapes stamped with no brand name , fishtail mouthpiece, in unstained, black rustic or dark brown finishes, no band. (Irwin, Mark and Malmberg, Gary (2018). The Peterson Pipe The Story of Kapp & Peterson, First edition, second printing 2021. Briar Books Press, Canada. p312).
Mark also writes a weekly blog titled Peterson Pipe Notes. If you have not already subscribed I highly recommend it. It will be one of the best $0 purchases you can make and is a vault of information on all things Peterson and various other topics. I am not just saying that because Mark has posted a few of my restorations either. His blog concerning the Irish Seconds is very well researched, written and can be found here: https://petersonpipenotes.org/tag/irish-seconds/. (Young, John. An Irish Seconds Oom Paul (Peterson 02) Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek).
As for this pipe, I believe it to be a Peterson 312 shape. The dimensions and shape match the 312 Bent Billiard. According to the official Peterson website,
“One of our largest and most robust variations on the classic, this bent Billiard offers a generous fire hole with thick insulating walls, as well as a more tubular transition and muscular shank that capture our House Style. Though bold and substantial, its half-bend lends it a natural impression when clenched in the teeth.” (Peterson Pipes: System Standard Heritage (312) P-Lip).
The shank is drilled with a reservoir making me think that the pipe was not intended as an Irish Seconds but as a 312 but it just didn’t make the quality control cut after the blast. That is all conjecture on my part though.
The Restoration
As much as I do not like to work on more than one pipe at a time, due to old brain issues, I did indeed do these two pipes simultaneously.
Stem cleaning was the first priority as I wanted to get this stem into the Briarville’s oxidation remover solution. I was looking forward to trying the vulcanite welding.
The exterior was lightly rubbed with 0000 steel wool to remove the outermost oxidation.
The stem then was placed into the Briarville Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover, or Deox, as I like to call it. I planned to leave it in the solution overnight.
I then turned to gathering the ream team.
The PipNet’s #1 and #2 blades did most of the work with the General triangular scraper doing clean-up.
The rim had lava deposits, but with its rusticated rim, it would be tough to scrape clean.
The scraping of the rim, once softened with a bit of saliva, was partially productive.
The tobacco chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The sanding revealed the briar and no damage due to heat.
No damage is always welcome.
Next came the cleaning of the air way within the shank. This was more difficult. Peterson pipes with their reservoirs are frequently difficult to clean. I do wish that their owners would have taken a few minutes to swab out the reservoir with a tissue or napkin as recommended, but I too have neglected to do this after a smoke. The airway was cleaned with a dental scraper, nylon shank brush, bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs all doused with liberal amounts of 99% ethyl alcohol.
The stummel was then taken to the sink for a scrub with a nylon brush and Murphy Oil Soap, undiluted. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
The deeper parts of the sandblast and the rim did not look like they were as clean as I would have liked so a second scrub was done with a brass brush and the Murphy’s. The rinsing and drying remained the same.
Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol. This did remove some of the black stain from the briar.
Still not happy with the cleanliness of the airway, I thought maybe a cotton and alcohol treatment would soften and draw out remaining tars from the briar.
The bowl, airway and shank were stuffed with cotton. The cotton was then saturated with about 10 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol and allowed to sit overnight. With the stem and stummel both soaking overnight with their treatments, I called it a night.
Remember I said that I was working on two pipes at the same time? Well, I continued the next morning. The cotton had done its job of absorbing the tars dissolved by the alcohol as it did its job of dissolving the tars and moving them to the cotton as it evaporated.
The cotton was removed.
I then cleaned the airway as before and was pleased that it took little effort.
The stem was retrieved from deox and placed on a coarse shop rag where it was rubbed vigorously. This helped remove some of the oxidation loosened by the deox solution.
The stem was filed and sanded exposing a cleaned surface to work with.
The same filing and sanding was done to the underside.
I cut a “dam” from a plastic lid to fit into the slot and block off the airway from unwanted welding material.
Below you can see the airway filled with the dam.
I selected a vulcanite stem from my extras.
The surface material was filed and sanded from the stem to expose clean fresh vulcanite.
I tried melting the vulcanite with a soldering iron, as I had successfully done with the acrylic. It did not work. I then tried to heat the vulcanite with a heat gun to soften it before using the soldering iron. This too met with failure.
All that it did was to make the surface of the vulcanite surface get rough, as if it were bubbling up. I could not get any material to melt off the stem for use as welding material for the Peterson’s stem.
Plan B began to form in my Multiple Sclerosis damaged brain. What if I cut a piece of vulcanite from an existing stem and welded it in place with rubberized cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue)? Hmm, the damaged brain thought this might work. I set off to find an appropriate donor stem. The donor’s button was removed with a cut-off tool with the dremel rotary tool. This also gave me a feel for cutting vulcanite.
I measured and drew out the piece which I wanted the donor to donate.
Except for a small chip off the donor piece where I tried to hold it in a forceps, it looked good and fit well. Okay, there was actually a lot of trimming and shaping with the dremel.
The Bob Smith rubberized CA was the glue of choice.
The CA was applied to the seam around the donor piece. The dam would hopefully keep the CA from dripping into the airway. Also from previous experiences the CA does not stick to this plastic.
After about 30 minutes I couldn’t wait anymore so I spritzed the CA with a drying accelerator. This hardened up the CA in moments. The plastic dam was pulled free.
I filed the repair with a small flat file and checked the airway. Everything was going according to the imagined plan.
A second application of black CA was applied to fill and blend the repair. I also added a line of CA to the back side of the button to re-establish its shape.
The underside of the stem was also coated with a thin layer of CA to fill the multitude of dents caused by the snapping turtle attack.
After the CA had cured it was again filed and sanded with 320 and 400 grit sanding sponges. The repair looked better than I had thought it would.
The underside was also filed and sanded.
WIth the stem issues resolved, I turned my attention to the refinishing of the briar. This pipe had some serious wear issues. The black stain had been worn away completely from the left rear side of the stummel.
I used Fiebing’s black Leather Dye diluted about 50% with ethyl alcohol.
I initially thought to just apply the dye to the areas where the finish had been worn away but as I did this I realized that blending the old and new finishes would be impossible. The best solution was to apply the black dye to the whole stummel.
Well, the whole stummel minus the lighter shank end. The dye was flamed with a lighter to burn off remaining alcohol and to help set the dye into the briar. After the flaming I wiped the surface with a make-up pad wetted with ethyl alcohol. I was not concerned with the dye drying because I wanted to remove the dye from the high spots of the blast. The lower spots would dry on their own accord.
After the stummel had dried, I lightly sanded the high spots and contours with a 400 grit sanding sponge.
This light sanding removed the black dyed briar from the surface revealing the lighter briar underneath.
The worn briar of the left side of the stummel looked much better.
The stem was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges. I did not worry about taping the shank as the sanding there would improve the lightening of the briar at the shank end. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a dry paper towel.
The sanding continued through the finest grit sanding sponge, 3500. The oiling and wiping also continued between sponges.
I buffed the stem with white buffing compound to further polish the vulcanite.
The stummel was coated with a layer of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 30 minutes.
The remaining Restoration Balm was hand rubbed with an inside out athletic sock to remove the excess.
The stem was waxed with several coats of carnauba wax applied with the buffer.
I did not want to wax the stummel with carnauba due to the deeper recesses of the blast. I opted to use Renaissance Micro-Crystaline Wax. This product was applied with a baby toothbrush.
I used a shoe buffing pad to hand polish the Renaissance.
As a further buffing attempt, I used shoe buffing brushes to work the wax and raise the shine.
The final touch was to hand buff the entire pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.
My struggle to repair the damage caused by the snapping turtle attack on this poor Peterson was complete. Overall I think it turned out very nicely. Given, I will probably not sell this specimen as the stem repair was a technique that I have not tried before and have not tested sufficiently. I was disappointed by my failure to weld the damage with vulcanite but will probably do more research and attempt it again. The stem did polish-up very well and looks dramatically better than it did. I am sure the repair will hold and should be strong enough to combat the forces of extended clenching. The refinishing of the stummel also turned out very nicely. The definite deep blast is a feature that I really like the look of. Though this may have been the reason for this pipe being classified as an Irish Second. The dimensions of this Peterson Irish Seconds Bent Billiard are:
Length: 5.50 in./ 139.70 mm.
Weight: 1.83 oz./ 51.88 g.
Bowl Height: 1.75 in./ 44.45 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.54 in./ 39.12 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.32 in./ 33.53 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished Peterson Irish Seconds Bent Billiard.
I was recently approached by a fellow member of the Facebook (FB) group The Real American Pipe Smokers (RAPS) to repair a chipped button on a Stanwell bulldog. The pipe’s owner, named Cash, had shown the chipped stem to other restorers or repairmen and they recommended stem replacement. Very understandably, Cash did not want to lose the brass inlaid Stanwell stem. I said that I thought that I could repair the chipped button making it usable again without a stem replacement. I do love a challenge. Cash and I never discussed the cost of this project.
Shipping was arranged and Cash sent the pipe off from Alabama to the wilds of southeast Nebraska. When the box arrived I was surprised by the size of the box. When I lifted it I was even more surprised by the weight. I wondered if a new packing material had been developed in Alabama which would replace the air filled bubbles with tungsten. Upon opening the box I was astounded by the number of pipe tobacco tins that had been included for me to sample. I immediately replied to Cash saying, “Good Lord, man. You sent me enough tobacco for a couple of full restores. Thank you so much. I have always wanted to try a couple of those. I am plotting a couple of “best ways” to fix the Stanwell as I type.” Cash’s reply spoke to his generosity, “Sharing is part of the fun and enjoyment of it haha. Glad you like it, can’t wait to see what you come up with for the pipe.”
The Stanwell was a delightful 02 shape. The shank had a double brass band separated by a zebra-wood band (I think it is zebra-wood). The stem was a polished acrylic with an inlaid S topped with the Stanwell crown. It was a stunning pipe. A stunning pipe that had a chipped button problem. There was also tooth chatter on both the top and bottom of the bite zone. This was a well loved stunning pipe. Below are some photos of the pipe prior to any work done.
The only significant issue was the chipped button. Other than that the pipe was in very good and very clean condition. Sure there was some tooth chatter on the stem which I would remove and a general cleaning followed by some polish and waxing. The stem repair was the reason for the commission.
Background
I will not bother you with a history of Stanwell pipes. If you are interested in this truly illustrious brand, I will include a link here: Stanwell – Pipedia.
This pipe is one of the oldest shapes in the Stanwell line-up. According to pipedia.org’s Stanwell Shape and Designer page,
“32. Two versions of this shape number:
a) Straight bulldog with a saddle stem; Stanwell’s first pipe shape (originally designed in 1942).
b) Bent Dublin-strawberry hybrid with a rounded rim and saddle stem, by Sixten Ivarsson. Redesigned by Tom Eltang in the early 1990s.” (Stanwell Shape Numbers and Designers – Pipedia).
This pipe is most certainly a member of the “a” club.
The Repair
The chip, which is the focus of this repair, spanned the lower button. With a normal repair I would have thought about bridging the span with a 2 mm brass rod set into the button then overlaid the brass with layers of black cyanoacrylate or black epoxy to conceal the brass. Finally reshaping the button back to its original shape. The Stanwell button, with a smaller, more delicate button had less material in which to conceal a 2 mm brass reinforcing rod. Now the pressure was really on me. I remember lying in bed thinking about potential repairs:
The standard black cyanoacrylate material build-up and reshaping.
An epoxy material build-up and reshaping.
Using a brass pin to reinforce the button underneath the new material.
A new idea formed in my sleepy brain, this stem is acrylic. What is the melting point of acrylic? What if a sample of black acrylic were to be melted and that was the source of the new material/replacement material build-up? Hmm, something to think about while more awake. Molten black acrylic material build-up and reshaping.
The next morning I researched the melting point of acrylic or Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) specifically. (Acrylic Melting Point | A Comprehensive Guide) According to this site the melting point was dependent on additives, which would alter the physical properties of the plastic by changing the flexibility, glossiness, hardness, etc… In general the melting point was about 320 degrees Fahrenheit. That was a relatively easy temperature to work with. I immediately started thinking about ways to achieve and maintain that temperature. I did not relish the thought of running my oven in the heat of August but this was for science!
Option 4, was seeming like more and more of an interesting potential solution. I would definitely want to test the technique on a guinea pig stem before trying on Cash’s Stanwell. I may have been born at night but not last night. I knew that this was all just an idea between my ears. One of the benefits of having no formal training in pipe restoration is that I have no set or “right” way of doing a repair. I reached out to Steve Laug and asked him if he had ever heard of using molten acrylic to rebuild a stem.
Sidenote:
Now, you are probably wondering if this is going to be a blog about repairing an acrylic stem using molten acrylic. Well, at this point, I had no idea. I was just waiting to hear back from Steve.
A return to critical thinking and scientification, Steve got back to me and said, “Yes. But have never tried it” (Laug, Steve. Personal communication). Hmm, Steve had heard of this idea. Good thing I didn’t say, “A return to original thinking and scientification.” He did make a good point though, I wondered “how will the molten plastic affect the hard cool acrylic I put it on.” That made me think that heating the receiving stem to around 280F would be a good idea. Why 280F? I don’t know, but it sounds good. Okay, enough thinking, time for some doing.
As if by coincidence and not by some algorithm the following link came up on my computer later that same day:
Not being one to give credit to conspiracy theories, I thought why couldn’t Al Gore write a better computer program and hook me up with a more appropriate “Repairing a Chipped Acrylic Pipe Stem Using Molten Acrylic” article. Maybe he is too busy saving the world from global warming or shopping for additional sea side properties and just had some lackey intern write it for him.
Another sidenote: In the previous blog: A Royal Danish 913 Pear Restoration – NebraskaPeteGeek I discussed and photographed the process of collecting acrylic material from fitting a new acrylic stem to replace a damaged vulcanite stem. This was the source of acrylic for the next portion of my experimentation.
I turned my scientificating brain toward the melting of the acrylic turnings I had generated. One article said that acrylic melted at 320℉. I set the oven to 320℉ and placed the snuff tin with acrylic shavings on a parchment covered pizza pan into the oven. I expected the acrylic to melt like a thick liquid like hot tar.
It didn’t. Hmm.
I raised the temperature10℉. And continued my expectation. Expectation dashed.
I raised the temperature to 340℉. At this point expectations were still alive though some life support may have been required. Another 10 minutes and another dashed expectation. Hmm.
I tried raising the oven temperature to 360℉. Still nothing, though the acrylic shavings were far more pliable (when poked with a knife) and seemed to be kind of flattening on the snuff tin. Hmm.
380℉ Seemed like the next logical step. Would you like to guess what happened? If you guessed nothing you would be quite correct. Running the oven for over an hour in August was proving to be another in a long list of poor choices that I had made. I called it quits, turned off the oven and left the acrylic in there until morning.
The next day I thought that maybe a small soldering iron would be a better tool for melting acrylic. My imagination ran through various unfounded thoughts. I decided that the imagination needed to take a back seat to good old scientification trial and error with an emphasis on error. Not wanting to try anything new and untested with a client’s pipe, I set out to practice on a sacrificial pipe stem. An acrylic test victim was selected from some pipe stems I had. Using a screwdriver, I broke out a portion of the practice stem. I then used a Dremel rotary tool and cut a gash into the button as well. This gave me two areas to attempt repairing with molten black acrylic and a soldering iron.
Using a pencil electric soldering iron, I applied the heated tip to the acrylic turning. They melted and stuck to the tip. I thought, “Success”. Now to transfer this material to the area on the practice stem. It transferred pretty easily. Two problems quickly became evident though:
The turnings were full of air pockets as they were like ribbons or shavings.
I wanted to make sure and melt the original stem acrylic also to bond the new and old together.
Solutions:
I found that by pressing the soldering iron down and rolling the tip, I could force the turnings into place and press out possible air trapped in the acrylic. There could still be unseen bubbles that would only be discovered when pressure was applied to the stem from biting down on the button and cracking through the thin unseen bubble.
I tried heating the original stem, melting the new and old acrylic together. That worked
I failed to photograph the developing soldering iron techniques but did take a few photos of the “welded” practice stem. The first two photos below show my attempts to fill the voids and file the added acrylic with a small flat file, reshaping the button.
The third photo shows the same fill but here I had gone over the previous fill and remelted the filled area and added additional weld acrylic. I tried to press the new material into the existing material with more force, hopefully pressing out any air pockets and smoothing the weld more than the previous attempt. The button was reshaped using the same file.
The rebuilt patch was finished with an application of black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue).
The CA was spritzed with a cyanoacrylate drying accelerator. This made the CA harden almost immediately. The hardened CA was then shaped with a small flat file and sanded.
The airway was rough. Unseen air bubbles within the weld were probably responsible.
I used a Dremel rotary tool and a small cutoff bit to reshape the end of the button.
Below is the reshaped button.
After further sanding and polishing, the stem repair looked pretty good.
A scar of the repair was visible, but only upon close inspection.
Below are two photos of the polished button.
I tested the fill by biting done on it simulating normal force applied during clenching. The fill seemed solid. I was and still am unsure how the weld will hold up over time and extended clenching.
Yet another sidenote: I am sure that you are wondering, “Good lord, man. 41 pages in and you still haven’t started the repair on this poor guy’s pipe!” Hmm, I wonder if I was a bit frightful of doing irreparable harm to the Stanwell?
I sent my preliminary findings and photos to the client, Cash. I wanted his opinion regarding this as a possible repair solution. He consented to the application of melted acrylic. More pressure but at the same time I thought I was onto a very workable solution to the problem at hand. One thing I had ordered since I started this project was a couple of ½ inch rods of black acrylic. I thought that the rods might be useful as a source of acrylic welding material where I did not have to deal with the problems with the turnings, aka, air bubbles within the weld.
The moment of truth had arrived. I was going to use the new black acrylic rods as a source for acrylic to fill the void in the Stanwell. I plugged in the soldering iron and patiently waited for it to heat. Testing the soldering iron on the acrylic rod allowed me to gain a feel for how the acrylic melted and the pressure I needed to shape it.
I had previously cut a plastic lid and applied layers of painters tape to thicken it until I had the thickness I wanted. This would act as a dam and provide a surface on which I could weld to while filling the void left by the chip.
I cleaned the shipped stem with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol making sure to carefully clean the broken surfaces. I also examined the area to make sure no pipe cleaner fibers were present.
With the dam in place and a feel for the melting of the acrylic rod, I was as ready as I could get to try welding with someone else’s pipe. I started melting material from the acrylic rod and moving it to the stem. Once there, I worked the material with the tip of the soldering iron into the existing stem acrylic by heating both and melting them together. Additional acrylic was added to fill the void again, remelting applied material and adding new. Yeah, at this stage it was quite ugly.
Slowly this process built up acrylic into the void.
The dam was removed to check its performance. Below you can see through the airway.
Once sufficient acrylic was added, it was time for some button reshaping. I used a small flat file, emery board and a 320 grit sanding sponge for the reshaping. Below is the stem top view.
And here is the stem bottom where the majority of material had been added. There were a couple of spots where additional acrylic was needed.
While doing the reshaping of the button a chip of new acrylic broke off from the button on the left side of the below. This re-emphasized that I needed to re-melt the existing material when applying additional acrylic to get the two layers to bond.
I used the soldering iron to create a narrow point of melted acrylic on the acrylic rod’s end to aid in the application of additional material to the stem. I wondered if an ⅛ inch diameter acrylic rod was available. This would be much more useful in future projects..
Below is the button after the second application of more acrylic.
Below is a photo of the end of the button after the second application.
And the bottom of the button after the reshaping of the second application.
Below is a stem top view of the reshaping after the second application.
The shape was getting there. In the below photo you can see seems where air bubbles were present. The end would need further sanding and a bit more shaping.
Eventually I had to call it quits on the shaping. There remained some small flaws in the new acrylic. To fill these, I chose to apply a thin coating of black CA. I hoped this would flow into any small seams and bubble voids. The CA was allowed to cure on its own for an hour.
Once fully cured the CA on the top and bottom was filed smooth with a small flat file.
The filed CA looked good and was only noticeable with close examination.
I wanted to clean up the slot at the end of the button. I did this, as with the practice stem, using a Dremel rotary tool and a small round cut-off bit.
The stem was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges in grits of 320-3500. I saw no reason to sand the stem above the saddle so it was not sanded. Between each sponge I wiped any sanding debris from the stem with an alcohol wetted cotton ball.
I proceeded to work the stem with 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Here I worked the stem along the full length. I applied masking tape to the shank to avoid any damage to the stamped areas. Again, between each pad I wiped the stem of any debris between pads.
The masking tape was removed and the pipe taken to the buffer where I buffed the bands and stem with white buffing compound. The next two photos show the stem, top and bottom, after buffing.
And the button after buffing.
I cleaned the airway of the shank with a nylon shank brush, bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs all dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol.
The tobacco chamber was reamed with the standard ream team.
The narrow chamber of the Stanwell only allowed the #1 blade of the PipNet with the remaining work done by the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer. I did not take the tobacco chamber back to bare briar and left a thin layer of cake.
The rim had a light layer of lava.
I moistened this with saliva and carefully scraped it with a sharp pocket knife blade.
The stummel was then wiped with an alcohol wetted cotton ball to remove surface dirt and grime. Most of this was probably deposited by me.
The stummel then received a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm which was allowed to do the magic that it does for 15 minutes.
The balm was removed by a hand buffing with an inside out athletic sock.
The pipe was then taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax. The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth to further raise the shine.
Well, there it is. The repair of a pipe stem by welding black acrylic onto a chipped stem. The page counter says 92 pages. If you stuck through the whole thing, thank you. I had my doubts that it would work. In the end, I think it worked quite well. I am glad to know that I now have another tool in my toolbox for repairing pipes. I am imagining using this technique of vulcanite, as I type this. I’m also glad to know that Cash was very pleased with the photos I sent him of the finished pipe. I have no idea how many hours were spent on this project. Given, a good deal of it was practicing on a sacrificial stem and not actually working on the Stanwell. I consider Cash’s account paid in full, with all of the wonderful tobacco he sent me. Besides, how else was I going to learn a new trick? Now don’t get crazy and say, “You should be paying him for this opportunity.” Don’t make me stop this blog and spank you. (That’s what my dad always used to say to me when I was brothering/bothering my little sister, in the car. Except, not the “blog” part) The dimensions of this Stanwell 32 are:
Length: 5.00 in./ 127.00 mm.
Weight: 1.32 oz./ 37.42 g.
Bowl Height: 1.80 in./ 45.72 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.48 in./ 37.59 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.69 in./ 17.53 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.
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Below are some photos of the finished commissioned Stanwell 32.
This is a restoration that didn’t start out as a restoration. It didn’t even start out as a restoration of this pipe. Now, if you were to say, “Huh?” I would completely understand. As it isn’t a normal restoration, the format is a bit different. I never photographed a set of “before” shots, only photos of the restoration and the “finished” pipe. I know, total slacker move but I think you will find the process informative or at least worthy of constructive ridicule. I mean constructive criticism.
The pipe had sat at the front of the queue and on the workbench in front of me for quite some time.
I always seemed to find another victim, I mean subject, to work on and skipped over this one. Probably because I liked the shape but felt that it would be a lot of work to repair this Danish darling and once done, I doubted anyone would want to buy it.
Anyway, a commission came in for a stem repair on a lovely Stanwell pipe.
This new job once again trumped the poor Royal Danish. Trust me, this is related and not just rambling. The Stanwell needed a button rebuild on an acrylic stam. The owner did not want to have the pipe re-stemmed out of love for the pipe and the fact that the original stem was inset with a brass “S” and crown. I don’t blame him, the stem was a beauty.
In thinking of ways to repair the Stanwell, I wondered about welding some black acrylic onto the original stem and reshaping the welded acrylic to a new button. To do this, I needed some black acrylic that I could melt and use as “welding” material. Stick with me, I know this sounds convoluted. The Royal Danish needed a replacement stem for a severely chewed vulcanite original stem. In looking through my stock of extra stems, I found a close match that was black acrylic. This new acrylic stem would need to have the tenon cut to fit the Royal Danish and quite a bit of shaping. This, I thought, would provide me with a good deal of black acrylic “welding” material. So, you see my plan? Re-stem the Royal Danish with a new acrylic stem, use the trimmings to see if Welding acrylic would actually work, then weld black acrylic to the commissioned Stanwell. Clear as opaque black acrylic?
Background
The stamp on the bottom of the Royal Danish is shown below and reads 913, offset to the left and Royal Danish in a cursive script over MADE IN DENMARK.
I then went to the “Stanwell Shape Numbers and Designers” entry on pipedia.org. I had a bit of confusion with the shape number “913” for this pipe as there was no 913 listed as a shape number on the Stanwell pages. Then I noticed that all of the Royal Danish pipes began with a 9.
I returned to the Stanwell shape numbers page on pipedia.org and found the 13. Below is that:
13. Three versions of this shape number:
a) Short cutty with a saddle stem (early 1950s – see catalog).
b) Slightly bent pear with an oval shank and a saddle stem, by Sixten Ivarsson (pictured, right).
That is a near perfect match to the pipe in hand. And, a Sixten Iverson shape as well. I knew I liked it for a reason. Alas, when this pipe will be finished it will no longer have that iconic saddle stem but a graceful taper instead.
The Restoration
After searching through my stems I found a possible replacement. As stated earlier, this new stem was an acrylic as compared to the vulcanite original. It also lacked the chewed through areas on both the top and bottom. I considered this a good thing.
Though not a perfect match, the cross section was close and could be shaped to fit without altering the shank. Well, I hoped to not alter the shank.
At this point I was still not set in restoring the Royal Danish. I was more interested in getting the acrylic stem trimmings to try melting them into a usable form for the commissioned Stanwell pipe. The next step was to generate the trimmings by fitting the stem to the Royal Danish.
To do this I used the (Adjustable Tenon Turning Tool & Parts – Vermont Freehand). This tool fits into the chuck of an electric hand drill. I planned on collecting the turnings in a metal snuff can lid, seen below. The steel guide rod of the tenon cutter was the correct size to fit into the airway of the acrylic stem. The 3 allen wrenches were used to adjust the tenon cutting tool while the drill bit seen below is the same size as the guide.
The guide rod did not fit the original vulcanite stem, it was larger. This meant that the first step would be to drill out the old stem so it would fit onto the guide rod. This may seem unnecessary but the old stem fits the mortise of the Royal Danish. I planned to set the adjustable tenon cutter using the old stem as a guide or template for cutting the acrylic stem.
Using the drill bit that came with the tenon cutter, I drilled out the vulcanite tenon to fit the tenon cutter’s guide rod.
Below are the two allen screws which are used to adjust the carbide cutter of the tool.
The metal snuff can lid worked beautifully.
With several attempts at adjust/trim/check fit/readjust/retrim/recheck fit, I finally achieved a good fit with the acrylic stem.
This sem would also provide me with additional acrylic material from the filings which would soon be produced.
Another source of acrylic.
So, the filing began. The shank was wrapped in painters tape to protect the briar for what was to come.
I quickly realized that recovering acrylic filing was much easier from a smooth surface than a denim covered surface.
The file did exactly what files are supposed to do, remove material.
The tape did exactly what tape is meant to do, protect what is underneath it.
I had to remove and reapply the tape several times. Oh, and look at all of that acrylic material.
The filing of the shank was necessary to fit the new steamboat just a small amount on the upper corners of the shank. You may also notice that I used a thinner masking tape for shank protection. This was done to reduce the step from shank to stem.
It was here that this project had temporarily ended. I had what I was after – acrylic material to test my Acrylic welding idea. I’ll write more about that fiasco in the commissioned Stanwell restoration.
The restoration of the Royal Danish did resume after a brief hiatus. I will continue that story now.
Having decided to actually restore the Royal Danish, I re-started by collecting the ream team
The PipNet proved most useful at removing the accumulated cake. The Smokingpipes Low Country reamer did a small amount of scraping at the bottom of the tobacco chamber and the General triangular scraper was used for a bit of chamber clean-up along the upper sides.
The reamed tobacco chamber is seen in the below photo.
I sanded the chamber with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The resulting bare briar showed no signs of damage from excessive heat.
The airway of the shank was cleaned with several bristle pipe cleaners , cotton swabs and a shank brush. All of these were dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol.
The stummel was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon brush. The accumulated grime of the pipe can be seen below on my fingers and the brush. This pipe was quite dirty/ The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.
Back at the workbench I wiped the outside of the stummel with a cotton ball dipped in 99% ethyl alcohol. I then decided to do a cotton alcohol soak. The tobacco chamber and the shank were stuffed full of cotton.
About 10 ml of 99% ethyl alcohol was poured into a medicine cup. I guessed this would be the amount needed.
The alcohol was applied to the cotton with a disposable pipette.
Alcohol was added until the cotton was saturated. The stummel was then set aside overnight to allow the alcohol to evaporate. This would draw out and dissolve the tar still in the briar then transport and deposit it to the cotton as the alcohol evaporated.
Upon returning to the pipe, I removed the now dry cotton with a forceps. The shank was again cleaned with alcohol dipped cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners.
I sanded the stem with a series of sanding sponges in grits400-3500. Between each sponge, I wiped the stem with an alcohol wetted cotton ball to remove sanding debris.
The stem was then worked with 4000-12000grit micro-mesh pads. Again the stem was wiped with a cotton ball between pads.
The smooth panel on the stummel had scratches and pits or dents which were no more obvious after the scrubbing.
I tried steaming the briar with a heated clothing iron on top of a water dampened hand towel.
The below two photos show the steamed panels. The steaming did raise some of the dents.
There remained three dents on the left panel which I filled with brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). This was allowed to cure/harden.
The CA was filed smooth using a small flat file.
The CA was then sanded smooth with a 400 grit sanding sponge.
The rim was lightly topped with 320 followed by 400 grit sandpaper laid on a flat countertop. The inner rim was beveled using 320 sandpaper wrapped around a small wood sphere.
The panels and rim were further sanded using 400-1000 sanding sponges.
The stem was taken to the buffer and buffed with white compound.
I then coated the stummel with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed it to sit for 15 minutes.
The remaining balm was removed by hand buffing the stummel with an inside out athletic sock.
The below photo shows the pipe after the hand buffing next to the original stem. A slight improvement was noted, Okay, more than slight.
The last things done to the pipe were an application of several coats of carnauba wax, then hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.
Not too shabby for a restoration that never really started and had starts and stops along the way. The distinctive shape is pleasing to view and to hold. The sandblast rustications, though worn, are comfortable. I think I would prefer a complete sandblast finish over the smooth panel but the panels are attractive and show off a little bit of the briar grain. The stem turned out nicely. The luster of the acrylic is beautiful and the fit is good. Yeah, the pipe is missing the original saddle stem but I confess that without more specialized tools like a belt sander, I did well. The dimensions of this Royal Danish 913 Pear are:
Length: 6.14 in./ 155.96 mm.
Weight: 1.61 oz./ 45.64 g.
Bowl Height: 1.86 in./ 47.24 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.67 in./ 42.42 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.51 in./ 38.35 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
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Below are some photos of the finished Royal Danish 913 Pear.
NebraskaPeteGeek 
