Tag: stems

A Kirsten Restoration

January 14th, 2025
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Whenever I read about a pipe with a cult-like following I get interested, “what is it that all those people know, that I don’t”. Maybe it is the fear of being left out or just a general need for ignorance mitigation. Either way, I am drawn to finding out what it is that I have been missing. It was that way with Kirsten pipes, for me. I had read about them, seen people discuss their virtues on Facebook groups, and watched many auctions sell for what I considered high prices. Like the old codger tobacco blends, they must be good or they would have never lasted this long. I finally came across a Kirsten as part of an estate lot. This pipe wore the stamps Kirsten in a scroll type script on the left shank and PATS & PATS PEND with an M offset towards the stem. Below are some photographs of the Kirsten before any work had begun.

This pipe’s greatest issue was the oxidation of the stem. The aluminum was in great shape, needing only some buffing. The interior probably would require a good cleaning but it didn’t appear too bad. The bowl was in fine shape with little cake build-up and only moderate lava flow on the rim.

Background

The story of the Kirsten pipe begins with the inventor, Frederick K. Kirsten. According to wikipedia, the greatest source of information and spoken of with disdain by my sister the librarian, “Frederick Kurt Kirsten (born Kurt Friederich Johannes Kirsten, March 13, 1885 – November 19, 1952) was an American professor, engineer and inventor.^[1]

Kirsten was born in Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1902. He graduated from University of Washington in 1909 and later taught there as a professor of aeronautical engineering. During his life he was granted numerous patents on a wide variety of subjects.^[2] Among his inventions were the Kirsten pipe ^[3] (a tobacco pipe), and the Kirsten-Boeing propeller (a cycloidal propeller ).^[4] The Kirsten Wind Tunnel at University of Washington was promoted by and named after him.^[5]“ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Kirsten). I understand why librarians are so critical of wikipedia.org, the notion of people being able to openly edit entries without verifying content can be problematic for scholarly writing. It nevertheless is a wonderful source for general knowledge.

Turning to a more trustworthy though questionably objective source, the Kirsten Pipe Company website. Here is a short description of the founder and inventor:

“Professor Kirsten

It is by no means merely puffery to say that Professor Frederick K. Kirsten was a genuine American original. He first sailed to this country in 1902, as a cabin boy from Hamburg, Germany. After successfully rounding the Horn and eluding the Shanghai gangs of the West Coast, he navigated the educational system at the University of Washington to become a Professor of Aeronautical Engineering. Here, his inventive spirit took wing. He created the world-famous Kirsten Wind Tunnel, Air-washing equipment for factories, an air-cooled Utopian Bed, and, most notably, a revolutionary propeller which enables boats to stop and turn on a dime. Today, in the same waters where he jumped ship almost 100 years ago, ocean-going vessels are landed by sturdy tugs driven by Kirsten cycloidal propellers, piloted by equally sturdy captains smoking cool Kirsten pipes.

Rightly called the coolest pipe in the world, this latter innovation came about when a doctor advised Professor Kirsten to switch from cigarettes. He quickly dreamed up a way to trap the moisture, tars and tongue-biting acids which attack the users of briar pipes. After 80 years and counting, Kirsten pipes are still produced by the Kirsten family, faithfully following the basic designs of this father of invention.”

Professor Kirsten
- Inventor and Founder
(https://www.kirstenpipe.com/history.html).

The next source comes to us from the University of Washington, where Professor Kirsten was a staff member. Here too the information may have a slightly romanticized bent, it is still a fun and informative read and gives examples of his contributions in science and the university.

“The Inventive Mind

Frederick Kirsten — 1915-1951

I am a research man.

Frederick Kirsten

Fredrick Kristen explaining one of his inventions. (aa.washington.edu)

Frederick Kurt Kirsten was one of the founders of the UW Department of Aeronautics. He earned the first patent awarded to a UW faculty member. He was the public face of UW engineering for three decades, tirelessly promoting technology as the future’s greatest hope.

Born in Germany, Kirsten graduated from the UW in 1909 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He was immediately hired by an industrial firm and by 1913, was supervising construction of the underground electrical service at MIT. Recruited back to UW, he agreed in 1920 to teach the entire curriculum of the new Department of Aeronautics: aerodynamics, airplane design, and propulsion.

On December 1, 1921, Kirsten filed the first patent awarded to a member of the UW faculty. He and William Boeing went into business together as the Kirsten-Boeing Engineering Company to develop Kirsten’s invention – the cycloidal propeller, first for aircraft and then for boats. He obtained a $290,000 grant from the Guggenheim Foundation to build the UW aeronautical engineering laboratory in 1926, and led the campaign to finance a state-of-the-art wind tunnel in 1936.

Kristen Wind Tunnel – February 1939

The team lowers an experimental Kirsten cycloidal propeller boat for testing. (Kirsten Collection. University Archives. Special Collections, UW Libraries)

Kirsten was confident and stubborn; his designs were based more on trial and error than on analysis. Endlessly inventive, he never gave up the quixotic effort to perfect the cycloidal propeller, and patented more than two dozen other inventions, including the Kirsten pipe, air-raid sirens, fire extinguishers, neon lights, and air cleaners.” (https://www.washington.edu/innovation/the-inventive-mind/)

“It’s variations like this that give some of the Kirstens extra individuality. There is one pipe, a Generation 1.5, that shows up occasionally and has an entirely different valve than any others. It is a pipe that I have never seen in old Kirsten catalogs or brochures. In addition to the different shaped valve, which has an “O” ring while the mouthpiece does not, the pipe has a flat top with no bowl basin on top of the radiator tube. It usually has the Kirsten script logo but never a model letter on it. It is a short, straight pipe.

Kirstens are kept track of by their model numbers. The following table is an attempt generation by and shape to provide some guide to Kirstens and their genesis:
- 1st Generation No O rings – stamped “Pat. Appl. For” and “Pats. & Pats. Pending”
  - Straights
    
    Companion First edition in rough finish.
    
    S Standard 1st generation with full-length cooling fins
    
    M Medium
    
    L Large
    
    A Aristocrat Extra large 1st generation
- 1.5 Generation O rings either valve or mouthpiece, none on other end – stamped “Pat. Pending” and “Pats. & Pats. Pending” some with “Made in U.S.A.”
  - Straights
    
    K Companion
    
    M Medium
    
    L Large
- Other Transition Models
  - Thrifty Nice early model with black offset valve that works in reverse – O ring on valve, none on stem … takes same mouthpiece as No Letter/No Name model
  - No Letter/No Name Unmarked short pipe w/different valve and O ring, no O ring on stem
- 2nd Generation O rings – Stamped “Pat. & Pats. Pending” and “Made in U.S.A.”
  - Straights
    
    K Companion
    
    G Gem
    
    S Sportsman
    
    SX Sportsman Brass
    
    M Mariner
    
    MB Mariner Black
    
    L Lancer
  - Quarter-Bents
    
    A Aladdin
    
    V Vagabond
    
    CX Cavalier Brass
    
    T Tyrolean
  - Full bents
    
    W Westerner
    
    B Beau Geste
    
    P Premier
    
    F Firesider
- 3rd Generation O ring current models stamped “Made in U.S.A.”
  - Straights
    
    JX Jewel Brass
    
    M Mariner
    
    L Lancer
  - Quarter-Bents
    
    RX Regent Brass
    
    H Horizon
  - Full bents
    
    EX Esquire Brass
    
    DX Designer Brass”
(https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kirsten_Pipe_Company)

The next piece of information here is the original patent drawing from 1938. I will include the link to the PDF of the patent for those interested in reading that as well here: 1499073238500980922-02200237

()1499073238500980922-02200237. The diagram above is quite detailed and can be further explained by the writings within the patent documentation found in the PDF. For ease of understanding, I refer to a much simpler diagram of the Kirsten pipe from pipedia.org. Here we can see the four main parts of the Kirsten pipe; the imported briar bowl, the valve, the Kirsten “Radiator Stem” and the vulcanite mouthpiece. It could be argued that the screw holding the bowl to the stem is a fifth part.

(https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:Kirsten-Diagram.png)

Using the information from the pipedia.org article:
1. “It was determined that the ‘PAT APPLIED FOR” stamp was only used for a couple of years so I concluded that those pipes were probably produced in 1936 and were produced until 1938 and the ones stamped “PATS & PATS PENDING” were most probably made from around 1938 until about 1958” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kirsten_Pipe_Company),
2. “1st Generation No O rings – stamped “Pat. Appl. For” and “Pats. & Pats. Pending”
  1. Straights
    
    Companion First edition in rough finish.
    
    S Standard 1st generation with full-length cooling fins
    
    M Medium” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kirsten_Pipe_Company)
I can safely conclude that this pipe is consistent with a Generation 1 thus produced between 1938-1958.

The Restoration

The restoration began with a clean denim piece on the workbench.

The bowl was drilled with a pronounced taper so the only tools used would be the General triangular scraper and the Smokingpipes Low Country Reamer. Of course the sandpaper wrapped wood dowel would join for the bowl sanding.

The light cake was quickly removed.

The bowl was sanded to bare briar and showed no signs of heat damage.

The lava on the rim was obvious and I hoped that it did not conceal any underlying charing.

A moistening with saliva and scraping with a sharp pocket knife removed most of the lave

The bowl screw was removed and further cleaned with 95% ethyl alcohol dipped cotton swabs.

The bowl was taken to the sink for scrubbing with a nylon brush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the bowl dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench the bowl looked clear of finish and grime.

I wiped the surface with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol, which removed a bit of dye from the briar.

I started cleaning the aluminum parts with the valve. This piece looked fairly clean until I saw the inside. Here it was coated with black hardened smoking residue. The outside cleaned-up quickly with an alcohol dipped make-up pad.

The valve was placed in a medicine cup with 95% ethyl alcohol.

A few minutes later the alcohol had begun to dissolve the residue inside the valve.

Several cotton swabs were required to clear the residue along with a small piece of 0000 steel wool also wetted with alcohol.

The valve was eventually cleaned of the hardened yuck.

The body of the pipe or, “Radiator Stem” as Kirsten nomenclature called it, was also quite dirty with dried hardened smoking residue. Here a nylon scrub brush dipped in the ethyl alcohol and a bunch of folded over bristle pipe cleaners were used to clear the radiator stem.

The piece of 0000 steel wool was also wetted with ethyl alcohol and pushed back and forth through the stem.

The mouthpiece consisted of the vulcanite bit and an aluminum rod. The two were molded together and the aluminum exterior was cleaned with the alcohol wetted steel wool while the interior and vulcanite were cleaned with alcohol dipped pipe cleaners from the button end. was cleaned

The vulcanite was initially sanded with 320 and 400 grit sanding sponges.

A pipe cleaner was threaded through the draft holes and made into a hanger which suspended the vulcanite portion of the mouthpiece into the Before And After Extra Strength Deoxidizer solution.

Below is a side view of the mouthpiece suspension hanger.

After 4 hours in the solution the mouthpiece was removed and vigorously rubbed with a coarse shop rag to absorb excess solution and remove oxidized rubber.

Back at the bench, the vulcanite was worked with Soft Scrub cleanser applied to a make-up pad and rubbed aggressively. The mouthpiece was then worked with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a paper towel. I failed to photograph these steps.

The stampings on the aluminum were covered with strips of masking tape to preserve them from the buffer.

The radiator stem, valve and mouthpiece were then taken to the buffer and worked with the rouge compound.

The bowl was micro-meshed with pads 4000-12000. Between each pad I wiped the bowl with an alcohol moistened make-up pad to remove debris.

The bowl was coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 20 minutes.

I hand buffed the aluminum with a Cape Cod Polish Cloth. I absolutely love the smell of this product. It almost makes polishing silver bands on a pipe enjoyable.

The Restoration Balm was wiped from the bowl using an inside out athletic sock.

The stem still had areas of brown that I was not happy with. Mark Hoover, creator of the Before and After products, told me that he will give tough to clean stems a second dip in the Extra Strength Deoxidizer for 45 minutes. I tried it, and I left the mouthpiece in for a bit over an hour. Removed it and did the coarse rag rubbing.

Mark said that he just uses the Before and After Fine Polish hand rubbed with a piece of t-shirt material. I tried that, as well.

Under normal room lighting the stem looked nice. When I placed it under the bright photo lights the stem looked like the below photos.

I was about to claim defeat with this stem. Then I decided that two dips in deox and all of the sanding and micro-meshing could not be for naught. Those damned brown smudges had to go. I took the pipe back down to the workbench and started filing the oxidized vulcanite from the stem. This was an extreme measure for an extremely cool looking pipe.

Focusing on just the areas that had brown oxidation proved difficult so nearly the whole mouthpiece was eventually touched with the files.

For the curved area at the saddle a rounded file was used.

All this filing did mean that the entire sanding process would need to be repeated. And it was from grit 320-3500 to the mineral oil rubbing and paper towel wiping.

I micro-meshed with the 4000-12000 pads. Betweeneach pad the mouthpiece was rubbed with Obsidian Oil and wiped with a paper towel.

The Before and After Fine Polish was used again with a soft cotton cloth and was followed by the hand polishing with Before and After Extra Fine Polish. The pipe was then taken to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax to the mouthpiece and high spots on the bowl. The pipe was hand buffed with a microfiber polishing cloth as a final step.

I have to admit to being smitten by this old pipe. Having seen them only in photos and wondering about them for so long, I finally got to lay hands on one. I was impressed by the simplicity yet ingenuity of the design. I tried smoking the pipe shortly after finishing it and it performed very well. The Radiator Stem absorbed the heat from the smoke and dissipated the heat quickly, living up to the “radiator” name. The stem did indeed trap condensation and I was impressed with the amount of liquid collected. Cleaning was fairly easy with a disassembly and washing with soap and water. I appreciate the aesthetic of the aluminum and how it is set off from the black of the mouthpiece yet it retains the old school look of briar with the briar bowl. Overall a lovely old pipe that performs as advertised. The dimensions of the Kirsten are:
- Length: 5.43 in./ 137.92 mm.
- Weight: 1.22 oz./ 34.59 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.06 in./ 26.92 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 0.85 in./ 21.59 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.80 in./ 20.32 mm. (Conically bored diameter is at the top)
- Outside Diameter: 1.48 in./ 37.59 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 completed Kirsten pipe.
A Czech Churchwarden Restoration

January 9th, 2025
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I picked up a pipe rack for churchwardens the other day and upon placing pipes in it I realized I was short one churchwarden. Well, my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) could not stand for that. Actually I think it should be CDO (compulsive disorder of obsessions) that way it is in alphabetical order. Anyway, I did happen to have a little churchwarden in need of restoration. I had apparently led a life of sunlight exposure and wore the oxidation scars to prove it. The little Czech appeared as below prior to any work done.

Yeah, she looked rough. The glaring issues were the chipped faded clear coat, the charred rim and the heavily oxidized stem. The good news was that the briar was nice, thick and looked structurally sound, there were no deep bite marks on the stem and the mortise to tenon fit was tight. This restoration would be some work but it looked promising.

Background

I did not have much to go on researching this pipe. The only stamp was CZECH on the left shank. Both pipephil.eu and pipedia.org came up empty for that stamp. Surprisingly, pipephile.eu only has 6 makers listed from the Czech Republic and they all appear to be artisan carvers. This pipe does not strike me as artisanal. Pipedia.org lists significantly more than 6 with nearly all of them also artisan pipe makers. The one factory pipe maker mentioned was BPK. The BPK name in the country index listed had the following:

BPK Czech inexpensive brand with long tradition. Factory made pipes mainly for export.

(Pipe Brands / Makers – Pipedia)

Upon following the link to BPK this short entry is all the information to be found,

“A long tradition of producing pipes. BPK company exports pipes to more than 40 countries. The production of pipes has been traditionally connected with small town Prosec u Skutce since 1842. Prosec is situated in the heart of Czech Republic, approximately 150 km (93 miles) far from Prague. Since the change of political situation in 1989 the company BPK, Ltd has been continueing in the traditional production.” (BPK – Pipedia).

BPK

Located in the town of Proseč, Czech Republic, the BPK workshop makes pipes since 1842. The firm succeeded at a time when pipe market was growing. At first, BPK pipes were actually not made with briar, but with other types of wood: alder, maple or pear tree. M. Zabor Bernard Kopperle (officer of the company) will only begin to use briar in 1910 for his pipes. The result is stunning because of the briar properties, particularly for tobaccos combustion: more heatproof and better for smokers when it comes to the taste. The BPK pipes success was immediate, and pipes were therefore exported in numerous neighbor countries. In the late 30s, more than 600 craftspeople worked for the production of BPK pipes! Nowadays, these pipes are still liked by smokers thanks to their classical design. Their silhouettes are simple and without any flourishes. Last criterion, and an important one: BPK pipes are proposed at an affordable price!

(BPK pipes from 1842, made in Czech Republic – La Pipe Rit)

The Restoration

I think I need to get some larger and fresher denim for workbench working surfaces.

The reaming tools were gathered.

The #1 blades of the PipNet did the majority of the work with the Smokingpipes Low Country Reamer and the General Triangular scraper just finishing up the process.

The interior of the tobacco chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. No signs of any damage were observed in the bare briar.

The rim was scraped with a sharp pocket knife to remove the lava. The stummel was topped using a piece of 320 sandpaper laid flat on a counter. This was followed by topping the stummel with 400 grit sandpaper. I then tried a technique described to me by Sascha Mertens, a pipe restorer from Germany, where petroleum jelly is rubbed onto the charred briar and then gently scraped with a sharp knife. This application of petroleum jelly and scraping was repeated several times.

The stummel was then taken to the sink for a scrubbing with Undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon scrub brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench the now clean finish could be seen more clearly.

I tried dissolving the clear coat with an acetone dipped make-up pad. The finish did surrender to the acetone but the process was slow. The remaining finish was thickly applied and soaking the stummel seemed to be a more effective approach.

The stummel was submerged in a jar of acetone for 30 minutes.

Upon removing the stummel from the acetone, I could see the finish had softened and bubbled up from the briar. This was rubbed off with a couple of make-up pads dipped in acetone.

In places the remaining finish was scraped with my thumbnail while it was still soft. As the acetone evaporated the finish rehardened but was far easier to remove with additional rubbing with the make-up pads.

While the airway was still moist with aceti=one I quickly worked with folded bristle pipe cleaners to remove the softened tar. Additional cotton swabs dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol were used to clean the shank along with more pipe cleaners.

The rim looked far better than it did originally however there remained a darker area where the charring was the worst. This can be seen in the below image even with the poor focus.

I decided to try to lighten the briar by bleaching it with a saturated oxalic acid solution.

Rather than just treating the darkened areas I treated the entire stummel. An empty 20 gauge shotgun shell was used as a handle as it fit tightly into the tobacco chamber. The oxalic acid solution was painted using a cotton swab. As the solution soaked into the briar and/or dried additional oxalic acid was applied.

The stummel was allowed to dry and to let the oxalic acid work. 30 minutes later the dry stummel appeared as below.

The stummel was taken to the sink where it was rinsed with warm water and scrubbed with a dish detergent. My thinking was that the basic nature of the dish soap would neutralize any acid remaining. Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a95% ethyl alcohol on a make-up pad. No significant color came off the stummel with the alcohol.

The pits and old fills were picked with a fly tying bodkin to remove the old fill material. New fills were done using brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust. The CA was placed into the pit with a fly tying bodkin then briar dust was pressed into the wet CA. The subsequent fills were filed with a small flat file then sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge. This was repeated for larger pits.

To further conceal the slightly darkened rim and the new fills as well as accentuate the briar grain, I decided to give the stummel a contrast dye with black Fiebing’s Leather Dye. The counter was covered with a folded paper towel. The 20 gauge shell was wrapped with a layer of masking tape to tighten the seal to the tobacco chamber and limit dye from entering. A folded pipe cleaner acted as the applicator for the dye.

The black dye was applied with the pipe cleaner then flamed with the lighter. This allows the solvents in the dye to burn off and fix the dye to the briar. The process was then repeated.

The dye was allowed to dry for about 30 minutes. The stummel was then sanded with a 320 sanding sponge to remove the outermost layer of black dyed briar. The dye penetrates more deeply in the softer grained wood. By lightly sanding the surface and removing only the outermost layer the briar grain can be differentially dyed. The stummel was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grits. In between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad moistened with alcohol to remove sanding debris.

The stummel was then worked with 4000-120000 micro-mesh pads. Between each pad the stummel was again alcohol wiped.

The stummel was given a liberal coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 20 minutes while the balm worked its magic on the briar.

The balm was then wiped from the stummel using an inside out athletic sock.

This heavily oxidized stem was so long that I couldn’t manage a container which could hold Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. Removing that from my restoration arsenal, I had to rely on sanding alone. I knew that this would probably result with a finished product that retained some brown rather than the desired black. The brown oxidized vulcanite would probably be near the shank end where extra sanding would remove so much material that the fit to the shank would be negatively affected. Oh well, I figured that I would cross that bridge when I got there. I started the sanding with a light touch and the 320 grit sponge. The oxidation removed better than I had hoped. I proceeded through the series of sponges 400-3500, though the photo below only shows 400-1500. Between each sponge I rubbed mineral oil onto the stem and wiped it with a paper towel to remove sanding debris.

I cleaned the airway with bristle and soft pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. I had to approach the stem from both ends for the cleaning due to the length.

The stem was then worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. Between these pads I rubbed the stem with Obsidian Oil and wiped it with a paper towel.

The final polishing was done with Before and After Fine Polish hand rubbed with a soft cotton cloth. This was repeated several times with fresh Fine Polish. I eventually ended with the Before and After Extra Fine Polish and the soft cotton cloth. The stem looked good but did show slight oxidation at the shank end. I hate it when I’m right about these things.

The pipe was taken to the buffer where it received several coats of carnauba wax. The final step was a hand buffing of the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.

All told, this lovely Czech churchwarden turned out very nicely. The best part is that it completely fills the 6th slot of my churchwarden pipe rack enabling me to sleep OCD free at night. The contrast dye worked at accentuating the briar grain while concealing the previously charred rim and numerous fills. The stem polished up better than I had anticipated. And looks very good in normal room lighting. Bright lights do allow the oxidized vulcanite to be seen at the shank end. The dimensions of the Czech Churchwarden are:
- Length: 10.75 in./ 273.05 mm.
- Weight: 1.35 oz./ 38.27 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.59 in./ 40.39 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.19 in./ 30.23 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.63 in./ 16.00 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.38 in./ 35.05 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

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Below are some photos of the completed Czech Churchwarden.
A Baronet 906EX (Savinelli) Restoration

January 7th, 2025
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I like big pipes. No, it’s not the first line from a Sir Mix-a-lot parody. I can’t say I like to smoke them but I love the way they feel in my hand. The word substantial comes to mind. I also like the general hand warming powers they emit – it is winter. Anyway, this pipe has all of those characteristics. Well, maybe not the emitting heat one. I haven’t smoked this pipe but I’m sure it would excel at it. I am not sure sure when this bountiful beauty arrived due to my less than good record keeping but it has been patiently waiting in the queue for some time. The pipe is stamped with a winged crown over BARONET over BRUYERE. Offset to the right is 906EX over ITALY. Below are some photographs of the pipe as it appeared prior to receiving any work.

For comparison purposes I photographed her with a Peterson of more standard size.

The Baronet was in need of a good deal of attention. The outer surfaces had the expected dirt and grime associated with a well used pipe. The tobacco chamber needed to be reamed and inspected for any heat damage. The airway is nearly always expected to be yuck filled. The stem on this pipe seemed to be the most in need of attention. Previous experience with Savinelli pipes lead me to expect the oxidation removal from this stem would be troublesome along with some reconstruction of the button.

Background

Baronet is not a brand nor line which I had heard of. The stampings did look very familiar though. I first went to pipephil.eu, there I found Baronet without any trouble.

(Baro-Bd — Pipes : Logos & Markings)

The stampings on the Baronet in hand looked remarkably similar to the top two photos from pipephil.eu. I could not make out any stamping on the stem but that could just be to the state of heavy oxidation on the rubber. The crown of both photos lacked the wings which I thought were quite apparent on this Baronet.

Next I searched for “Baronet” on pipedia.org. There I also found a result immediately though not what I was expecting.

“The following pipe, marked Baronet with *** underneath, perhaps a grading system, was made in Denmark. Baronet is also a Savinelli Sub-brand, as well as a GBD brand. This one being made in Denmark, is apparently a different brand altogether.”
- Example and details, courtesy Doug Valitchka
(Baronet – Pipedia). The same name, similar shape, similar rustication but from a country of manufacture which was not supported by stamp evidence. Again the reference to Savinelli existed, so that is where I went next. The link from the above entry led me to the following.

Savinelli made sub-brands, seconds & order productions
- Alligator
- Amalfi
- Arnold’s – 40-50’s sub-brand
- Aurelia Ex.
- Baronet
- Bent Bob Pipes – Distributed in US
- Big Nine
- Bing’s Favorite
(Savinelli – Pipedia). The above list continues for quite a few more names. A total of 114, I counted. Baronet is number 5 on the list. Savinelli is a prolific producer of pipes, I’d say. This is wonderful if you are in need of a Savinelli pipe as the number of options is truly amazing and can fit nearly any style or budget. From a research perspective it is not so wonderful. Finding detailed information on an individual name is daunting.

I tried my luck at searching via Google for “Savinelli Baronet”. I thought, “this will never work” and was quickly proven wrong. The first result was the following:

(https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/new/savinelli/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=71710). The product description was pretty much spot on in describing a large pipe with a very generous bowl. There were a few others on the usual auction sites; eBay, Etsy and CollectionHero. There was an almost identical pipe featured as the subject of a Steve Laug restoration Breathing Life into a Savinelli Made Baronet Bruyere Blasticated 606EX Bent Billiard. Yet none of these carried the 906EX stamp. I checked against the Savinelli shape chart and again could not find a 906.

(https://www.smokingpipes.com/smokingpipesblog/single.cfm/post/our-favorite-savinelli-shapes). Perhaps the pipe was so big that the inclusion on the chart would have made it aesthetically unpleasing to the eye. Okay, I completely made that up. What was certain was that this was a pipe made by Savinelli, It was darn big and received the EX suffix due to that and that it was probably made in the 1970-80s based solely on the amount of oxidation on the stem.

The Restoration

The Baronet made her way to the workbench. I wondered about the word, “Baronet”, isn’t Baroness the correct feminine. I had to search for that. According to AI Google: “”Baron” and “baroness” are the correct terms, with “baroness” being the female equivalent of “baron”; “baronet” is a separate, lower ranking title in the British nobility system, where a baronet is addressed as “Sir” and a female baronet as “Dame”.” I learned something new.

The ream team was gathered and given a rousing, morale lifting speech.

The PipNet with it’s #2 blades lead the assault against the cake.

The #3 blades followed and served the cake a rounding defeat. The tobacco chamber was sanded to bare briar and proved most unphotogenic (kind of like photographing a black hole) but it showed no signs of heat damage.

Next came the cleaning of the stem.

The outside of the stem was far worse than the airway. A few 95% ethanol dipped bristle pipe cleaners and the interior was clean.

The exterior of the stem was lightly sanded with a 320 grit sanding sponge to remove the worst of the surface oxidation and the tooth dents were lightly filed.

A pipe cleaner was slipped into the tenn to act as a hanger and the stem was introduced to the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. It spent 6 hours in the solution.

The next task was dealing with the airway of the shank. The Kleen-Reem shank drill helped clear out a good deal of the tar but many cotton swabs, bristle pipe cleaners, and alcohol/nylon shank brush scrubs were required to exorcize the tar demons from the shank.

The lava flows on the rim were a concern. Lava on a rusticated rim can be problematic to remove without altering the rim. I thought maybe it could be removed during the stummel scrub.

The scrub was carried out at the sink with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon scrub brush.

I spent extra time working the rim with the scrub brush.

The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel. I was not pleased with the resulting scrub. The rim, especially, was still fouled with lava. I decided on a second scrub but with a brash brush. This removed more grime.

Back at the workbench the rim looked better but still not great.

The stummel was definitely clean but now showed serious signs of wear with missing finish.

I decided to file the rim and work towards a generally smooth finish but with spots with rustication.

I like what I saw.

The inner rim was beveled using a 2 inch round plumbing cap wrapped with 220 sandpaper. The outer rim was filed to a matching bevel.

The rim and bevels were sanded with a series of sanding sponges. I really liked the look of the smooth rim with a few spots of rustication.

Now to restore that black dye to the stummel while preserving the non-rusticated areas. I opted to use a product intended for use in the painting of miniatures for gaming – Vallejo Liquid Mask. The Liquid Mask applies as a thick liquid and dries clear. It is a rubber-like product which can be rolled or peeled off without damaging the covered surface.

I applied it to the rim, stamp area and shank end and allowed it to dry.

The stummel was taken to the kitchenette and an area was prepped for dying. This required a paper towel covered surface, Fiebing’s black Leather Dye and folded pipe cleaner applicator and a lighter. Oh, and a cork for the tobacco chamber opening which stops dye from entering the chamber and provides a handle.

The dye was applied and flamed with the lighter. This flaming fixes the dye to the briar and burns off the alcohol solvent of the dye.

A second coating was applied and flamed.

The result was a nice fresh black finish. This was allowed to dry for an hour.

The mask was rolled from the surface. It did a finance job of keeping the black dye from affecting the underlying briar, as seen in the photos below.

While the dye was drying, I removed the stem from the Deoxidizer and allowed excess solution to drip back into the jar.

The remaining solution was absorbed by a coarse shop rag during a vigorous rubbing of the stem. This removed some of the newly loosened deoxidized rubber.

The stem was looking better but I could still see areas of brown.

The stem was worked with make-up pads drizzled with Soft Scrub cleanser. This stem had a great deal of oxidation and it seemed to have worked its way deep into the vulcanite.

Below is a poorly focused shot of the tooth chatter that remained after filing and sanding the area..

I was still unhappy with the oxidation removal after sanding the stem. Back into the Before and After Deoxidizer for another hour. The drip dry and rubbing with the coarse shop rag followed. After round two there was still some slight browning. I hoped that the subsequent sanding and micro-meshing would remove this.

The tooth chatter area on both the top and the bottom of the stem were given a coating of black cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). This was spritzed with a CA drying accelerator.

I must have been getting tired of working on this stem as I failed to take many photos. The cured CA was filed then sanded smooth. The stem was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from grit 400–3500. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a dry paper towel.

The sanding was followed by a series of micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. Between each pad the stem was rubbed with Obsidian Oil and wiped with a paper towel.

There still remained areas of light browning from oxidation. I had chatted with Mark Hoover, the creator of the Before and After products, about how he uses the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. He said that he usually gives the stem a 4 hour soak followed by a buffing with a recycled t-shirt where he rubs hard. This was then followed by Before and After Fine Polish hand rubbed with t-shirt material. I figured I would give that a try. Many applications and a great deal of rubbing did indeed reduce the browning significantly.

The stummel was waxed using Renaissance Micro-Crystalline Wax applied with a baby toothbrush. The waz was allowed to dry for a few minutes and was taken to the buffer and buffed with a clean flannel wheel.

The stem received several coats of carnauba wax. The entire pipe was then hand buffed with a microfiber polishing cloth.

I am impressed by several parts of this pipe. It is a very large specimen with great hand feel and very ample bowl size. I love the shape with its massive yet graceful look. The black rustication works nicely with the areas of smooth lighter colored briar. I am also impressed by what a pain if the arse it was to get the stem looking acceptable. I can’t say that I am happy with the deoxidizing of the stem but I am calling it quits. In normal room lighting the stem looks great. Bright lighting however, allows the areas of brown oxidation to shine through. I was defeated by this stem and called it done. The dimensions of the Baronet 906EX are:
- Length: 6.14 in./ 155.96 mm.
- Weight: 2,43 oz./ 68.89 g.
- Bowl Height: 2.67 in./ 67.82 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 2.17 in./ 55.12 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.81 in./ 20.57 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.62 in./ 40.89 mm.
I do hope That you have found someThing here useful to your own pipe care,

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 completed Baronet 906EX pipe.
An Orlik Captain B9 Restoration

December 31st, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Orlik pipes have never really been an acquisition nor restoration target of mine. I’m not sure if that is due to the intimidating wig wearing judge on their advertisements or the fact that they don’t show up in estate lots as commonly. I’m going to go with the intimidating judge and my disregard for authority figures. Yeah right, you know it’s because they were a higher quality pipe that didn’t show up in the cheapo estate lots. This wonderfully shaped bent, what I’d call an apple, is robust yet graceful. It wasn’t the target of the lot but it did grab my attention and move forward in the queue solely based on its good looks. The pipe is stamped ORLIK CAPITAN ofer MADE IN ENGLAND on the left with the only stamp on the right being a B9. I assumed this to be a shape number. Below are some photos of the Orlik Captain before work started.

The most obvious issue was the amount of oxidation on the stem. The rest of the pipe looked to be in great shape.

Background

Being generally unfamiliar with Orlik pipes is a curable affliction. I have only restored a couple of Orliks and this one shares little in common with the others. I turned first to pipedia.org. The entry had a very brief history of the brand which I include here,

“In 1899, a pipe manufacturer was founded in London, Bond Street, by Louis Orlik. L. Orlik Ltd. started to produce high quality pipes for a relatively low price but high service and soon became quite popular. By 1907 they used the name L & A Orlik, which apparently added Louis’s brother, Alfred to the company name. In the first quarter of 1900 they also established in Birmingham. This can be verified by silver hallmarks. In 1980 the company was acquired by Cadogan. Like many of London’s other pipe manufacturers they moved to a new built factory in Southend-on-Sea. As all current brands in the Cadogan group, Orlik was being produced in those factories.

Orlik used the slogan “Smoked by all shrewd judges” “(who are also loved by his hard judge)” with a portrait of a judge wearing a wig. The picture is still used in Denmark for manufacturing of Orlik cigarettes.” (Orlik – Pipedia)

Here, I also found a link to an old catalog, date undetermined, with a shape 9 matching the stamp on the pipe in hand.

(Orlik – Pipedia)

(Orlik – Pipedia). Next I wanted to know what the B of the B9 Large Chubby Bent could stand for. There was a section which states the following:

Models & Grades: Pre-Cadogan era
- Virgin (Series Letter:Without letters)
- Old Bond Street (Series Letter:A)
- Old Bond Street Sandblast (Series Letter:AX)
- Supreme (Series Letter:T)
- Supreme Sandblast (Series Letter:TX)
- Meerschaum Lined(Series Letter:M)
- Corona (Series Letter:C)
- Old Root (Series Letter:R)
- De Luxe (Series Letter:L)
- De Luxe Sandblast (Series Letter:LX)
- Double Bore (Series Letter:W)
- Prince Regent (Series Letter:P)
- Major Black (Series Letter:MB)
- Captain Black (Series Letter:B)
- Captain Black Sandblast (Series Letter:BX)
- Clubman (Series Letter:6793)
- Clubman Sandblast (Series Letter:6793X)
- Black Prince (Series Letter:6791)
- Black Sandblast (Series Letter:6791X)
- 3/4 oz De-Luxe (Series Letter:1990)
- 3/4 oz (Series Letter:1986)
- 3/4 oz Sandblast (Series Letter:1986X)
(Orlik – Pipedia the bold and blue was added by me). The only problem with this discovery was that it refers to Captain Black and the pipe is only stamped with CAPTAIN. I did give some insight to the B. It also indicated a pipe that was made prior to the 1980 purchase by Cadogan.

I went to pipephil.eu seeking clarification of the CAPTAIN vs. Captain Black. Iere I was rewarded with greater confusion. The fonts from the below screenshot all look like the Orlik in hand. The stem of this pipe does not have the iconic brass circle though. Perhaps it is indeed a replacement stem.

(Op-Oz — Pipes: Logos & Markings)

The Captain Black stampings look vastly different than the block sans serif font stamped on this pipe.

(Can-Car — Pipes : Logos & Markings). The script like stamps from the photos are more a match for the Captain Black font used by the tobacco maker.

(https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipe-tobacco/CaptainBlack/original-1.5oz/product_id/105169)

I returned to the pipedia.org entry to look for clarification. Michael Lankton authored an entry titled DATING ORLIK PIPES (Talk:Orlik – Pipedia). In this piece he discusses the pre-Cardogan, desirable, and the Cadogan “These are not the pipes you’re looking for, move along.” (Talk:Orlik – Pipedia). He states that the pre-Cadogan pipes are stamped as follows,

“The Orlik series proper will be stamped in all caps in a sans serif font on the port side of the shank one of two ways

ORLIK SERIES_NAME

MADE IN ENGLAND

or

ORLIK SERIES_NAME

LONDON MADE” (Talk:Orlik – Pipedia)

He goes on to state:

“The following series are probably of little interest to Orlik collectors but I am including them for the sake of completion. In any event, if you picked up one of these pipes it would probably share the superior smoking qualities of their better lines, with obvious trade offs in the interest of producing a lower priced pipe.

We pick up where we left off above, again in descending order of quality with the series code in parentheses:
- Prince Regent(P)
- Major Black(MB)
- Captain Black(B)(BX)
- Clubman(6793)(6793X)
- Black Prince(6791)(6791X)
- 3/4 oz De-Luxe(1990)
3/4 oz(1986)(1986X)” (Talk:Orlik – Pipedia).

So, what do I make of all this? Well, I think this is an Orlik pipe made in England. Thank you Captain Obvious. Seriously, the stamps are indicative of a pre-Cadogan pipe but there is no mention of a CAPTAIN line without the “Black”. The pipe does have the “B” from the Captain Black line. Together this leaves me confused. The good news is that I can carry out a restoration while in a state of confusion. Perhaps a reader can add an explanation in the comments.

The restoration

The Captain settled onto the workbench with a clean denim piece.

I began with reaming or, I should say with gathering the reaming tools. The PipNet, Smoking pipes Low Country rReamer, General triangular scraper (with the tip ground round) and a wood dowel wrapped with 320 sandpaper.

The tobacco chamber had a light layer of cake and a little lava flowing onto the rim.

The PipNet made short work of the cake. With the other scrapers playing clean-up.

The interior of the chamber showed no signs of damage after being sanded. The rim on the other hand needed some light scraping.

Another photo of the chamber with more light.

The rim scraping was done with a sharp pocket knife and a bit of saliva.

The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrub with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon scrub brush.

The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel. Back at the workbench the stummel showed no signs of clear coat.

A quick wipe with 95% ethyl alcohol removed no stain indicating that this was a virgin finished pipe. The stain on the make-up pad was mainly from smoking residue around the mortise.

The stem was rubbed with 0000 steel wool to remove the outer hardened oxidation. A pipe cleaner was inserted into the stem to act as a hanger for the stem’s bath in Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer.

The stem went into the deoxidizer where it remained overnight.

The stummel had a few small dents. These were too deep to be removed by sanding without altering the shape of the pipe. I tried raising the dents with a hot iron and wet cloth.

The below 2 photos are pathetic attempts to show what I was seeing. There was an area that looked like it was from a drop onto concrete and two scratches.

Using your imagination and pretending that my photography is adequate is appreciated. The steaming did help raise the dents.

The next day the stem was removed from the deoxidizer and allowed to drip excess solution back into the jar for a few minutes.

I used a coarse shop rag to absorb the remaining solution and rub away some of the loosened oxidation.

Below you can see the oxidized rubber that was removed.

Back at the workbench the pipe was starting to look better but brown was very evident.

I used several make-up pads drizzled with Soft Scrub cleanser to remove more of the oxidized vulcanite. The shank was taped with masking tape for protection while the stummel gave me a handle for easier holding.

I then covered the stamps with painters tape for thor protection during sanding. The pipe was sanded with a series of sanding sponges. Between each sponge I wiped the stummel with an alcohol wetted make-up pad to remove sanding debris. The stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a dry paper towel.

Micro-meshing followed the sanding. The 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads were used with stummel and stem wiping as above except the stem received Obsidian Oil in place of mineral oil between each pad.

The pipe was then given a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm. This was allowed to sit for 20 minutes.

20 minutes later the balm was wiped from the pipe using an inside out athletic sock.

BAH! The stem still was showing brown under bright light. That oxidation had penetrated deeply into the vulcanite.

The solution? More time in deox was all I could think. I won’t bore you with the details of this second application of the previous protocols of deox, coarse rag wiping, Soft Scrubbing, micro-meshing and a trip to the buffer. I will show you the resulting stem top and bottom photos:

The pipe was taken to the buffer where it received several coats of carnauba wax. The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.

The Orlik Captain B9 is a true beauty. I decline to call it by the official Orlik name, “Large Chubby Bent” as I think that just sounds mean. I was finally happy with how the rim repair went. The oxalic acid treatment allowed me to remove nearly all signs of the charring without severely changing the shape of this wonderful old pipe. The briar grain of a Peterson De Luxe is on full display with this pipe. Beautiful bird’s eyes on both sides and lovely cross grain on the front and back. Though the cross grain is not quite centered it remains attractive. The stem was not severely oxidized leading me to believe this pipe was stored in a drawer and out of the light for a long time. The vulcanite polished up very well and the gloss black accentuates the briar grain. The dimensions of the Orlik Captain B9 are:
- Length: 5.35 in./ 135.89 mm.
- Weight: 1.76 oz./ 49.90 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.72 in./ 43.69 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.34 in./ 34.04 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.70 in./ 17.78 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.68 in./ 42.67 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

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Below are some photos of the completed Orlik Captain B9.
A Peterson Shamrock 5 Billiard Restoration

December 26th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I realize it is Christmas season and Saint Patrick’s Day is a few months away but this Peterson Shamrock was demanding some attention. As you may have surmised, I am a Peterson Pipe lover, also known as a Pete Geek and thus rarely turn away a poor Irish briar in need of attention. This pipe came to me as part of an estate lot from Canada last September. I failed to record or remember precisely from where. The stamps are clear and well defined reading, SHAMROCK on the left shank and “A PETERSON (over) PROCUCT” over MADE IN IRELAND next to a 5 on the right shank. The nickel band has the faux hallmarks of a shamrock, an Irish wolfhound and a round tower. Below are some photographs of the pipe taken prior to any work done.

The plan for the restoration of the Shamrock looked to be straightforward and included the usual cleaning, refinishing and stem oxidation removal. There were a couple of fills of both the briar and the stem but that too would be typical for a used pipe of this age.

Background

I have said it before will likely say it again, I am a slacker, and as such, I will use my own quote to provide the dear reader with additional information regarding Peterson pipes:

“I have written about the restorations of several Peterson pipes over the past 13 months. I will include here good sources of Peterson history for those who would like additional information:

For a great history Mark Irwin and Gary Marlburg’s book is a must read for a Pete Geek.

(Available at https://www.smokingpipes.com/accessories/books/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=471478) Given the price is a bit high but worth every penny for a Peterson aficionado.

The next site is pipedia.org’s History of Peterson by Jim Lilley (Peterson – Pipedia)

Lastly the pipephil.eu site for all things logo: Peterson: historical pipes — Pipes: Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu) They also have a few other links to things like the Peterson timeline and P-lip information.“

The definitive source of “all things Peterson” is The Peterson Pipe written by Mark Irwin and Gary Malmberg. According to Irwin and Malmberg,

“Shamrock (c.1941-2009) Originally stamped SHAMROCK with no brand name, an inexpensive line first described in George Yale (New York) mail order booklet in 1941, imported by Roger Imports. The line was actively promoted beginning in ‘45, aggressively promoted in US by Rogers from early ‘50s when they registered the Shamrock logo with US Patent Office, claiming propriety since ‘38. Over the years offered with P-lip or fishtail mouthpiece, with or without nickel band, with or without shamrock logo on band, with or without S stamped in white or later in gold on mouthpiece. Appearing in 2008 as unstained smooth and rustic, fishtail mouthpiece with gold impressed P on stem. COMS of MADE IN over IRELAND (c. 1945-c.1965), MADE IN IRELAND forming a circle (c.1945-c. 1965), “A PETERSON”S PRODUCT” over MADE IN IRELAND (c. 1945-c. 1965), MADE IN THE over REPUBLIC OVER OF IRELAND (c. 1948-98) or “A PETERSON”S PRODUCT over MADE IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (c. 1948-98). Model is always difficult or impossible to date. (Irwin, Mark and Malmberg, Gary (2018). The Peterson Pipe The Story of Kapp & Peterson, First edition, second printing 2021. Briar Books Press, Canada. p. 312).

The dates of 1945-1965 can be slightly narrowed with the faux hallmarked nickel band. Again I turn to The Peterson Pipe book, “The stamp was used until about 1963, when hand soldered nickel bands and ferrules were replaced by pressed ferrules and premade bands.” (Irwin, Mark and Malmberg, Gary (2018). The Peterson Pipe The Story of Kapp & Peterson, First edition, second printing 2021. Briar Books Press, Canada. p. 302). In keeping with the author’s terms, this may or may not reduce the production years by 2 to 1945-1963.

The Restoration

The Shamrock restoration began with a clean denim place setting. The stem being the part in most need of attention was the starting point.

I rubbed the stem with 0000 steel wool to remove the outermost oxidation.

Then cleaned the airway. It was surprisingly clean.

Next, I inserted a pipe cleaner into the stem to act as a hanger for its time in the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer or deox as I like to call it.

Suspending the stem in the deox enables the solution better access to every bit of the surface.

I had all day plans so the stem sat in the solution for about 8 hours until I returned to working on it. The stem was removed from deox and allowed to drip excess solution back into the jar.

I like wiping stems with a rough cotton rag after the deox bath.

The coarse material absorbs the remaining solution and helps to remove some of the oxidized vulcanite as well.

Back at the workbench the stem was given a liberal coating of mineral oil and allowed to sit for 15 minutes.

I wrapped the shank with painters tape in preparation for the sanding that was in the stem’s future. The stem was scrubbed with Soft Scrub cleanser applied to make-up pads.

I then turned my attention to reaming the tobacco chamber.

The #1 blades of the PiNet did most of the work with the reaming.

The General and the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer were used for some final scraping.

The chamber was sanded with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The briar of the chamber looked good and showed no signs of heat damage.

The cleaning out of the airway of the shank was next. This was done with several cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. There was also some drilling with the Kleen-Reem shank drill, scraping with a dental scraper and scrubbing with a nylon shank brush.

The lava on the rim was softened with saliva and scraped with a sharp pocket knife.

The rim showed a bit of a charring around the inside rim edges.

The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrubbing with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon scrub brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

The scrubbed stummel looked much better without its accumulated dirt. The alcohol on a make-up pad wiping produced very little color indicating that this stummel was not stained.

Curious to see how well the band would polish-up, I wrapped the shank with masking tape and took the stummel to the buffer. There I buffed the band with rogue compound. The results can be seen below.

The masking tape on the shank was removed and new tape was applied to the band. I also taped over the stamps to protect them from sanding.

There were two fills which needed to be done prior to sanding. The first was on top of the shank.

The second was on the bottom adjacent to the band.

I used brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust for the fills. I first applied a small drop of CA to the pit then pressed briar dust into the CA wetted pit. The fills were then filed smooth.

A second application of CA was done on each fill and left to dry on its own accord.

Once dried these were also filed smooth.

There was one dent in the stem that received filling very similar to the above briar fills except this was done with black CA. The photo below attempts to show the dent but the focus is poor.

The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a paper towel.

The stem was then worked with a series of micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000. Between each pad I rubbed the stem with Obsidian Oil and wiped it with a paper towel.

The briar was coated in Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 20 minutes.

The Restoration Balm was wiped from the pipe with an inside out athletic sock.

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

The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth to raise the shine.

Overall this Peterson Peterson Shamrock 5 Billiard turned out very nicely. The natural briar grain is both straight on the sides and flamed in the front. The band polished up better than I thought possible. The vulcanite lost the oxidation and revealed a lovely high gloss black that accentuates the glow of the briar and the shine of the nickel band. The dimensions of the Peterson Peterson Shamrock 5 Billiard are:
- Length: 5.89 in./ 149.61 mm.
- Weight: 1.31 oz./ 37.14 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.81 in./ 45.97 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.52 in./ 38.61 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.69 in./ 17.53 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.35 in./ 34.29 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 completed Peterson Shamrock 5 Billiard.

A Peterson 417 Straight Dublin For Shannon Airport Restoration

December 19th, 2024

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I probably do not need to tell you that with a nickname like Nebraska Pete Geek, I have a love for Peterson pipes. I also have a love affair with the Dublin shape in pipes. I know, I’ve said in the past that apples are my favorite but in checking my top 3 list of favorite shapes, I noticed that there are 5 on the list. Hmm, math was never my thing. Anyway, this dainty darling caught my eye from the auction block as it had a definite Dublin shape but a shaper number (417) that I was unfamiliar with. Winning the auction was surprisingly easy as I was the only person to bid. A few days later the demure Dublin Damselle arrived here in the wilds of southeast Nebraska. The stamps on the shank are crisp and clear except for the “1” in “417” and read as follows: PETERSON’S over DE LUXE over FOR SHANNON AIRPORT on the left shank. MADE IN THE over REPUBLIC over OF IRELAND and 417 on the right shank. The stem had a stamped Peterson’s script P with the paint completely worn away. Below are some photographs taken of the pipe prior to any work done.

Looking at that rim made me want to cry. The charing was going to be a tough one to remedy. Then there is that oh so cute bone tenon extension (chimney in Pete Geek speak). It too would need some restorative love. The stem was not in bad shape, old and pitted but not heavily oxidized. The briar looked wonderful with not a fill to be seen. This looked to be an interesting restoration.

Background

I have written about the restorations of several Peterson pipes over the past 13 months. I will include here good sources of Peterson history for those who would like additional information:

For a great history Mark Irwin and Gary Marlburg’s book is a must read for a Pete Geek.

(Available at https://www.smokingpipes.com/accessories/books/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=471478) Given the price is a bit high but worth every penny for a Peterson aficionado.

The next site is pipedia.org’s History of Peterson by Jim Lilley (Peterson – Pipedia)

Lastly the pipephil.eu site for all things logo: Peterson: historical pipes — Pipes: Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu) They also have a few other links to things like the Peterson timeline and P-lip information.

This portion of the blog is only regarding the history of Peterson Dublins and this Peterson 417 in particular. I began with the research of Dublin shapes by Peterson with a wonderful history in Mark Irwin’s Peterson Pipe Notes #172 titled, “A Catalog of Peterson’s Dublin Shapes, 1896–2020”. I’ll not go into the details that Mark does due to a general lack of both knowledge and writing ability. Combined with the fact that I am a Generation -X slacker, I’ll just give you the link and Mark all the credit for this great history lesson. (https://petersonpipenotes.org/tag/peterson-dublin-shapes/).

I will pick up the story of the 417 shape from within Mark’s teatease,

“Irish Free State-Era Straight Dublins (1922-1937)

A 120F for “Flat” with an oval shank

The IFS-Era added two new straight dublins to the 120, 121, and 122: the 120F (“Flat” or oval shank) and slender 417. The System straights seem to have disappeared by this time. The 120 “Flat” is a natural thought in Peterson’s design language, which always comes back to comfort and practicality, and I can imagine someone in bowl-turning or even a customer thinking how great it would be to set his straight dublin down in order to emphasize a point over a pint or a cuppa.

The first illustration of the 120F seems to be in the1937 “A Chat with the Smoker” pipe-box brochure issued not long after Peterson opened its London factory on White Lion Street. (It may well have been in production before then.) Examples of the shape appear as late as the 1965 catalog and may have been made for several years beyond that.

A 417 Donegal Rocky Sterling Band

The 417, a small-bowled Dublin with a long shank, first appeared in the 1937 catalog, but with two shape numbers: 417 for the Kapet and DeLuxe and 2022 for the “K” and 1st quality. The 2022 number would be dropped by 1945. Like the 120F, the last sighting of the 417 was in the 1965 catalog. The bowl seems bit more forward in its cant than the 120F.” (https://petersonpipenotes.org/tag/peterson-dublin-shapes/)

In the introduction of this blog I referred to this 417 as both a “dainty darling” and a “demure Dublin damselle”. Why?, you ask. To illustrate the size difference of the 417 and the more standard 120, I compiled the below with data From Mark Irwin’s PPN 172. The differences, though slight, are definite. Our darling dainty demure Dublin damselle is indeed a bit longer while a slighter in overall build than her more robust siblings.

Shape 417 Straight Dublin.	Shape 120 Patent Lip Straight Dublin.
Years of production: 1937 – 1965	Years of production: 1906 – present.
Average Measurements:	Average Measurements:
Length: 6.21 in./157.73 mm.	Length: 6.16 in./156.46 mm.
Weight: 1.00 oz./28.35 g.	Weight: 1.40 oz./39.69 g.
Bowl Height: 1.74 in./44.20 mm.	Bowl Height: 1.94 in./49.28 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.57 in./39.88 mm.	Chamber Depth: 1.63 in./41.40 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.67 in./17.02 mm.	Chamber Diameter: 0.83 in./21.08 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.24 in./31.50 mm.	Outside Diameter: 1.38 in./35.05 mm.
P-Lip: Yes	P-Lip: Yes

(https://petersonpipenotes.org/tag/peterson-dublin-shapes/)

The date two of production for this pipe is allowed by two particular pieces of information; the FOR SHANNON AIRPORT stamp and the bone chimney. According to Irwin in the Peterson Pipe,

““FOR SHANNON AIRPORT” (c.1947-c. 1983) Stamp on shank of pipes in several grades, indicates pipe was designated to be sold by duty free shops at Shannon Airport.” (Irwin, Mark and Malmberg, Gary (2018). The Peterson Pipe The Story of Kapp & Peterson, First edition, second printing 2021. Briar Books Press, Canada. p. 299)

This gives a fairly definitive time period for the production of this pipe. These dates can be further narrowed by the existence of the bone chimney or tenon extension. Again referring to The Peterson Pipe, “Vintage De Luxe or Premier Systems, those produced before about 1960, featured a bone extension, which will be white on an unsmoked pipe and gunmetal or dark brown on a smoked one. Nearly all of these seen on the estate market will have fused to their vulcanite stems, and many will have splits or cracks in them.” (p. 259). This fine tuning of production dates places this pipe as a product of the Dublin factory between 1947-1960.

The Restoration

First off, let me thank Canada for the gift of cold air. Yesterday’s cold front dropped the temperature 30 degrees Fahrenheit and yes, it came with 24 mile per hour winds (gusts over 40mph). This did drive me into the basement for cover and allowed me to work on this lovely old pipe, thus the thank you. I began with a clean denim piece to protect the work surface.

The reaming tools came out to play. These included the PipNet, SmokingpipesLow Country reamer, General triangular scraper (with the tip ground round) and a wood dowel wrapped in 220 sandpaper.

Reaming round one went to the PipNet with the #1 blades.

Round two, PipNet with #2 blades.

The tobacco chamber was drilled with a more conical drill, as appropriate for a Dublin. The reaming was finished with the Klee-Reem tool, for round three. The other scrapers wrapped up the scraping with the sandpaper finishing up.

I used the airway drill from the Kleen-Reem to clear the airway.

The bowl was wiped with a paper towel and scrubbed with a few cotton swabs dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol, shown below. No evidence of heat damage was observed within the bowl.

The shank cleaning went quickly after the Klee-Reem and only required a few folded bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs dipped in the ethyl alcohol.

The rim received a coating of Vaseline petroleum jelly and was scraped with a sharp pocket knife to remove both lava and charred briar.

After scraping the rim looked better but not nearly acceptable.

Topping the rim was required. I did this with 320 sandpaper laid flat on the countertop. The 320 paper was followed by a sheet of 400.

The topped rim can be seen in the photo below. It was getting more acceptable.

To sand and give the inner rim a bevel I used a 2 inch polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe cap wrapped with 320 sandpaper. The photo below shows two of these caps, one with sandpaper the other without.

The inner rin was sanded with the sandpaper wrapped cap, if you were wondering. Below is the resultant bevel.

There remained some charring on the outside rim edge. I did not want to remove too much material during the topping and risk changing the overall shape of the pipe. I returned to the sharp pocket knife and tried to scrape the edge and the side of the stummel to avoid a curved rim.

By scraping along the side, I was able to retain the sharp edge of the rim while still removing some of the char.

Next the stummel was taken to the sink for a scrub. This was done with undiluted Murphy Oil soap and a nylon scrub brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. Very little color came off the pipe and there did not appear to be any finish remaining on the briar.

The stamps on the shank and the logo were taped with painters tape to protect them from sanding. The pipe was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 320-3500 grit. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with ethyl alcohol. The stem was rubbed with mineral oil, applied by fingertip and wiped with a paper towel.

The pipe was then worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. The stummel and stem wiping was done as with the sanding sponges except that Obsidian Oil was used in place of mineral oil.

I cleaned the stem logo with a cotton swab dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol to clear out debris and oil from the logo. I then painted the logo with a water based white acrylic paint. This paint is intended for miniatures used in gaming. The paint dries quickly and I scraped the excess from the logo using a plastic card. The logo surface was then lightly worked with the 8000 and 12000 micro-mesh pads.

The stummel received a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and was allowed to sit for 20 minutes.

After the 20 minute timer beeped, I wiped the balm away with an inside out athletic sock. ANd finally got a look at the glory of the briar.

Next, I turned my attention to the bone tenon extension or as the Peterson factory folks call it, the chimney. This 65+ year old piece of bone had the tip and a bit of the side chipped. It also had a slight bulge at the tip back about 4 mm. The photos don’t show either of these pre-existing conditions very well. I decided to file it flat to remove the chipped area.

I used a small flat file to round the entire chimney. I then filed the tip down a bit removing about 1 mm of material. Instead of removing the entire chipped part and shortening the chimney, I opted to build up the tip using brown Cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue). The glue seemed to penetrate into the pores of the bone. I thought this would be good for strengthening the entire piece. The CA was spritzed with a drying accelerator. Then filed. The draft hole was opened up with a diamond needle file and the edges of the tip were slightly rounded with the flat file. The below two photos show the finished shape of the chimney.

I was still not happy with the dark spots on the rim of the stummel. I thought that maybe a treatment of the spots with a saturated oxalic acid solution would effectively bleach the dark spots. I have a jar of saturated oxalic acid which I had mixed several months ago.

The solution was applied with a cotton swab to the darkened areas. It dried quickly so I continued to apply additional solution.

More solution was added as the already applied liquid dried. I did this several times over a span of 15 minutes. I then allowed the oxalic acid to sit for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes I took the stummel to the sink and rinsed the briar with liberal amounts of water. I dabbed a bit of Dawn dish soap on my finger and worked that around the acid wetted areas also. My thought here was that the basic nature of soap would neutralize any remaining acid. The soap was also thoroughly rinsed. The photo below shows the dried rim. Much improved over the initial appearance.

The pipe was taken to the buffer where it received several coats of carnauba wax. The final step was a hand buffing with a microfiber polishing cloth.

The Peterson De Luxe 417 Straight Dublin For Shannon Airport looks amazingly better than it did originally. I was finally happy with how the rim repair went. The oxalic acid treatment allowed me to remove nearly all signs of the charring without severely changing the shape of this wonderful old pipe. The briar grain of a Peterson De Luxe is on full display with this pipe. Beautiful bird’s eyes on both sides and lovely cross grain on the front and back. Though the cross grain is not quite centered it remains attractive. The stem was not severely oxidized leading me to believe this pipe was stored in a drawer and out of the light for a long time. The vulcanite polished up very well and the gloss black accentuates the briar grain. The dimensions of the Peterson De Luxe 417 Straight Dublin For Shannon Airport are:

Length: 6.45 in./ 163.83 mm.
Weight: 1.11 oz./ 31.47 g.
Bowl Height: 1.81 in./ 45.97 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.54 in./ 39.12 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.28 in./ 32.51 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the completed Peterson De Luxe 417 Straight Dublin For Shannon Airport.

An English Made Kaywoodie Relief Grain Quarter Bent Prince of Wales 96

December 17th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Just when you thought that I had turned my back on American made pipes for those fancy European floozies, I jump back into a classic American brand. Hey, wait a minute. What’s this, a Kaywoodie made in England? What sorcery is this? More on that in the “Background” section below. This pipe came to me as the pipe from an estate lot that I really wanted. Not that the rest of the lot were all losers just, this was the target specimen. The lot included 5 other pipes and included a nifty rack all coming from Dunnellon, Florida. The Kaywoodie has the following stamps on the bottom of the shank:

96 KAYWOODIE RELIEF GRAIN over MADE IN ENGLAND. Below are some photographs taken of the pipe upon its arrival.

The good: Great shape, wonderful sandblast, clear well defined stampings and a well aligned stem are some of the better qualities of this pipe.

The bad: A moderately caked bowl, oxidized slightly chewed stem and lava encrusted rim will need attention.

The ugly: The altered stinger is a disappointment, accumulation of years of dirt and grime (ugly but easy to fix) and the light tooth chatter will need to be addressed.

Background

The history of Kaywoodie spans from 1915 to the present with its parent company Kaufman Bros. & Bondy going back even further, to 1851. I will not even attempt to do justice to the venerable brand with a brief history. I will, however, give a few links to great resources for those who are interested.

Kaywoodie History: https://greywoodie.com/pages/kaywoodie-history, https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kaufmann_Bros._%26_Bondy, http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-kaywoodie-1.html

This section is concerned with English Kaywoodies. The elusive and less well documented species of the Kaywoodie family tree. Robert W. Stokes wrote a Collector’s Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes that appears on pipedia.org. In this guide he states:

“English Kaywoodies. All of the catalogs reviewed in this research contained the following copyright notification: Printed in U.S.A., Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy, Inc., New York and London. Kaywoodie Pipe cases and smoker’s accessories were also marked with “New York and London”. The catalogs, however, do not present any information concerning Kaywoodie’s London operations, or how the English Kaywoodies might have differed from those manufactured and marketed in the U.S. Lowndes notes that he has several English Kaywoodies acquired in Vaduz and Zurich. English Kaywoodies are now made by Oppenheimer pipes. Lowndes notes that English Kaywoodies with the “screw-in bit” come in Ruby Grain, Custom Grain, Standard, and Relief Grain grades. The traditional push-bit models come in Continental Plain and Relief, London Made, Minaret, Airway Polished No. 707, and Lightweight grades. Prices in 1985 ranged from 9.50 (pounds) to 26.00 (pounds). Lowndes notes that the Super Star was a special edition English Kaywoodie made of finest briar with a handmade silver band. Lowndes has two: one from Zurich with a large white-outlined logo, and beautifully cased; and one in walnut finish with the black-in-white logo. A recent catalog shows the Super Star without a band and the ordinary small white logo. A 1985 letter from Oppenheimer states that the black-in-white logo has been discontinued and only the regular white logo is now used.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Collector%27s_Guide_to_Kaywoodie_Pipes#NOTES_ON_%22OTHER%E2%80%9D_KAYWOODIE_PIPES). This information places the Kaywoodie in hand as a pipe produced prior to 1985.

To narrow the production dates I next researched the shape number, 96. This shape number appears in the 1936 and 1947 Kaywoodie lines as the “Prince of Wales”. In 1955 it is listed as: “96 — Quarter Bent Apple (Prince of Wales)” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Collector%27s_Guide_to_Kaywoodie_Pipes#NOTES_ON_%22OTHER%E2%80%9D_KAYWOODIE_PIPES). In the 1968-69 literature it returns to being called the “Prince of Wales” without the Quarter Bent Apple descriptor.

The below two screen clips were from pipedia.org’s Kaywoodie Shape Number page:

(https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kaywoodie_Shape_Numbers). Well, not conclusive but the above information reduces the date of production from prior to 1985 to a range from 1931-1972.

Returning to the Kaywoodie Guide the following quote regarding the logo is slightly helpful for narrowing the production date: “Some of the pre-1936 Kaywoodies were stamped (on the shank) with a cloverleaf around KBB. Sometime between 1936 and 1947, the better pipes were marked with a black cloverleaf inside a white dot. However, because many of the pipes in the 1968-69 catalog still show this type of logo, the black-in-white logo merely indicates a “post 1936” vintage. Current (Italian-made) Kaywoodies have the “white outline” logo.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Collector%27s_Guide_to_Kaywoodie_Pipes#HINTS_ON_COLLECTING,_DATING_AND_PRICING_KAYWOODIES). Using that bit of information the production is reduced to 1936-1969.

Hoping to find even more precise dates, I turned to pipephil.eu. Here I found several links to Kaywoodie information but nothing to improve the previous dates.

(Kaywoodie not made in the US — Pipes : Logos & Markings)

In conclusion, I think it is safe to say that the disruptions caused by World War Two (WWII) would probably eliminate those years from the range. This leads me to guesstimate the production of this pipe to post-WWII-1969 London.

The Restoration

The restoration began with a clean denim piece on the workbench.

The reaming tools were gathered and included the PipNet reamer, General triangular scraper (with the tip ground round), Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and a wood dowel wrapped in 220 sandpaper.

The #1 and #2 blades of the PipNet were used for the majority of the reaming with clean-up duties to the other tools followed by sanding.

The sanding of the tobacco chamber revealed the original chuck marks within the chamber. The sanding also showed that the chamber showed no signs of any heat damage.

Next the stummel was taken to the sink for a scrub with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon scrub brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench the stem tooth chatter was filed with a fine flat file.

The stem, below the button, was then sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge to eliminate the file marks.

The screw-in tenon was cleaned with 95% ethyl alcohol and a brass .22 caliber bore brush.

The stem was reunited with the stummel and the shank wrapped in masking tape for protection. I then used Soft Scrub cleanser on a make-up pad to remove the oxidized vulcanite that remained after the sanding.

A second pad with the cleanser made the stem look pretty well free of oxidation. Further sanding and micro-meshing would get rid of the rest.

There remained a couple of small dents near the button. I decided that I did not like the look of these so I filled them with thin cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue).

Below is the application of the CA.

To speed the drying/curing of the CA, a drying accelerator was spritzed onto the wet CA. The fill was then filed agin and smoothed with the 400 sanding sponge.

The stem was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from grits 400-3500. Between each sponge the stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.

I removed the tape and decided to fix a few of the light spots where the stain had been worn through.

Using a walnut stain touch-up marker I stained the slight spots.

Ah, much better.

I was anticipating how the stummel would look with the Before and After Restoration Balm. My patience lost to my curiosity. I applied a coat of the balm to the stummel and let it sit for 20 minutes.

The balm was wiped with an inside out athletic sock revealing a lovely refreshed briar stummel.

I don’t know what the magic of the Restoration Balm is but it works very well.

Okay, enough procrastinating, back to work. I micro-meshed the stem with the 4000-12000 pads. Between each pad I rubbed the stem with Obsidian Oil and wiped the stem with a paper towel.

The stummel was then waxed with Renaissance Micro-crystalline Wax applied with a baby toothbrush.

The wax was hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth then taken to the buffer. I used a clean flannel wheel to lightly buff the Renaissance wax.

The stem received several coats of carnauba wax applied with the buffer.

I tested the draw of the pipe and tasted very slight “old tobacco”. I thought, “why didn’t I check for that before I waxed it?” An overnight cotton-alcohol treatment was ordered for the patient. I stuffed cotton into the bowl and the shank of the stummel. The stummel was placed on a pipe stand so both the rim and the end of the shank were at equal height. I then used a disposable pipette to saturate the cotton with 99% isopropyl alcohol. “Why not 95% ethyl alcohol?”, you ask. Well, my bench bottle of ethyl ran out and I was too lazy to grab another one and there was an isopropyl bottle at hand. The alcohol was allowed to evaporate overnight. The next day, the cotton appeared as below.

I removed the cotton and swabbed out the bowl and shank with cotton swabs dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol (yeah, I grabbed another bottle).

This treatment eliminated the smell and taste of old tobacco completely. As a final step the pipe was hand buffed with a microfiber polishing cloth.

This English Made Kaywoodie Relief Grain Prince of Wales just looks like a classy pipe, like it is ready for a night out at the opera. Okay, I admit I’ve not been to an opera since 8th grade German Club’s experience of Die Fledermaus. The pipe just looks good and it feels very nice in hand as well. The sandblast looks black at first then upon closer examination the dark burgundy reveals itself. The high gloss stem accents the more rustic briar very elegantly. Yeah, I think it is a darn good looking pipe. The clipped off stinger is a disappointment and may be a deal breaker to a Kaywoodie collector but this too is part of the history of the pipe. The dimensions of the English Made Kaywoodie Relief Grain Prince of Wales 96 are:
- Length: 5.82 in./ 147.83 mm.
- Weight: 1.17 oz./ 33.17 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.41 in./ 35.81 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.17 in./ 29.72 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.71 in./ 17.78 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.52 in./ 38.61 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 completed English Made Kaywoodie Relief Grain Prince of Wales 96.
A Golden Square Apple Restoration

December 10th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I really like the apple shape. It is one of those things that I can’t explain, kind of like the inexplicable pull to pat a dog on the head even though they haven’t done anything pat worthy. Now this pipe, through no fault of its own, has remained unrestored for quite a while due to a previous owner smoking marijuauna or some cannabis with it. I dread working on pipes used for pot. The resins and tars from cannabis are a pain to remove from a pipe. Those pot-heads who say. “But, smoking weed is “natural” and way healthier than tobacco” have apparently never compared the smoking residues of the two. Not only does the cannabis smell terrible, when exposed to ethanol it kind of dissolves then as the alcohol evaporates the remaining resins become more like a soft plastic and resist further applications of ethanol. Okay, I am sounding whiny, so I will leave it at this:

Cannabis users, please just eat your cannabis – edibles do not seem to leave any residue in a pipe. I think even Jeff Spicoli would agree with that statement.

(https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/great-character-jeff-spicoli-fast-times-at-ridgemont-high-3375d9e42a28)

Background

I began researching this pipe by visiting the pipephil.eu site. Here I found the following:

(Go-Gq — Pipes: Logos & Markings). John Redman, eh. As a kid I grew up on Redman avenue. I am going to assume that the street was named in honor of the pipemaker though in reality I know this not to be true. Stupid reality. This John Redman produced several very nice looking pipes in his London factory.

(Jo-Jok — Pipes : Logos & Markings).

Now I wanted to know more about this factory and the history of my childhood street namesake. I turned to pipedia.org. There the entry was what I call lacking. Though there was a nice photograph of the factory.

“John Redman Ltd. and British Empire Pipe Co.

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)

(File:John Redman Ltd.jpg – Pipedia)

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 the 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.

Below you may enjoy the catalogue of the John Redman Ltd products approximately from the 1960s. A very rare finding!” (JOHN REDMAN Catalogue – Very Keen on Pipes)

(JOHN REDMAN Catalogue – Very Keen on Pipes)

The Restoration

I did start with a clean denim piece but only photographed the stem. I’m not sure why. I guess I wanted to get rid of that nasty marijuana smell so bad that I wasn’t thinking straight. I used a channel lock with the jaws wrapped in masking tape to remove the stinger from the stem.

The stinger was placed into a medicine cup where it was submerged in 95% ethyl alcohol.

The stem cleaning went better than I thought it would, only requiring a couple of bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

Next came the ream team and the reaming of the tobacco chamber.

This too went quickly with the PipNet doing most of the work.

The Tobacco chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. After the sanding I scrubbed the bowl with alcohol dipped cotton swabs, hoping to get rid of the smell. The interior showed no signs of heat damage.

The rim was not in too bad shape requiring only a little bit of scraping with a sharp pocket knife.

The resulting surface looked better but there were two areas of charring, fore and aft as well as the deep rim dents.

I decided to lightly top the rim to better analyze the best way to proceed with restoring the rim. I used 320 sand paper laid flat on a countertop and circular sanding.

The rim was sanded wit 400 grit paper in the same fashion as with the 320.

The front rim looked pretty good but the rear would require some filling with cyanoacrylate (CA< super glue) and briar dust.

Next, the stummel was taken to the sink where it received a scrubbing with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon scrub brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

There was the shine of a clear coat present after the scrubbing. Alcohol had no effect on it soI tried acetone on a make-up pad. This worked but was very slow acting.

I recently refilled my acetone jar by topping it off with fresh acetone. I submerged the stummel in the acetone and set the timer for 30 minutes.

30 minutes later I removed the stummel and decided to scrub the airway of the shank while the tars and smoking residue were still softened by the acetone. The shank was filthy and reeked of non-tobacco. Scraping with a dental scraper and numerous cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners seemed to do little but anger the residues.

I continued the assault.

That unpleasant task finished, I turned to addressing the rim damage. I beveled the inner rim with 320 sandpaper and a wood sphere. The outer rim, I tried to bevel it with a flat file.

Though better, those dents had to go. I picked out the old fills with a fly tying bodkin figuring that I may as well do all the filling at the same time.

Since there would be a significant amount of sanding with the new fills, I finished removing all traces of the clear coat with acetone dripped make-up pads.

I placed a small drop of brown CA onto/into each of the pits. While it was still wet, I pressed a small scoop of briar dust into the pit. The briar dust causes the CA to set-up and cure nearly immediately. I used a brass brush to clear the loose dust from the area. The photo below shows what the new fills look like at this stage.

These new fills were filed with a small flat file to remove the excess new fill. The light color of the fill indicates that it needs an additional application of CA and perhaps briar dust. A completed fill appears dark.

An additional application of CA and more briar dust was done.

This created another round of light briar new fills to be filed.

Eventually the new fills were smoothed with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

At this point, I was thinking to myself, “Hey self, the name of the pipe is Golden Square. Let’s try to lighten the briar to a more golden color.” Self replied, “Brilliant, I’ll get the oxalic acid.” Oxalic acid can be used as a treatment to bleach darkened or stained wood. I had mixed this saturated solution several months ago and had used it successfully a few times.

I applied the solution with a cotton swab. The effects occurred quickly. Below is the stummel still wet with the solution.

The solution was rinsed thoroughly then scrubbed with dish soap. The basic nature of the soap helped neutralize any remaining acid. The stummel was towel dried and allowed to air dry for several minutes. The below photos show the lightened color of the briar.

I got the stem prepped for a dip into the deox tank, that is my term for the Skippy peanut butter jar filled with Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer. The stem would be spending overnight in the solution.

While the stem was soaking I apparently thought it best to completely not photograph the sanding of the stummel with sanding sponges 400-3500 and also not to photograph the micro-meshing of the stummel with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. I also failed to photograph me wiping the stummel with an alcohol moistened make-up pad between each sponge and pad to remove sanding debris. For the life of me, I cannot understand why I chose not to do any of the above. Darn old people…

I did however photograph the application of Before and After Restoration Balm after all the sanding and micro-meshing was completed.

After the balm had worked it’s magic for 30 minutes the remaining elixir was wiped from the stummel using an inside out athletic sock revealing the glorious briar of this Golden Square.

The next day, I removed the stem from deox and allowed the excess solution to drip back into the jar.

The stem was hand rubbed with a coarse shop rag to remove the excess solution and some of the loosened oxidized vulcanite.

Below you can see the oxidized rubber that was removed.

I cut a small piece of Scotch tape to cover the stem logo protecting it from the sanding barrage that was coming next.

I wanted the stem in place with the stummel for the sanding to avoid rounding the joint where the two pieces meet. I remembered that the stinger had been soaking in alcohol since the previous day. The medicine cup was retrieved

and the stinger cleaned.

The stem was reassembled and reinserted into the shank. Next, I wrapped the shank with painters tape to protect it from the stem sanding. The sanding progressed from sanding sponge 400-3500. Between sponges I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a paper towel. Oh, and photographed it.

The stem was worked with micro-mesh pads 4000-12000. Between each pad I rubbed the stem with a light coat of Obsidian Oil and wiped it with a paper towel. Oh, and photographed it.

The stem was looking very good but it needed to have the gold reapplied to earn it’s title Golden Square. I cleaned the logo area with an alcohol dipped cotton swaband fetched the Gold Leaf Rub’nBuff.

The gold was applied to the logo with a fly tying bodkin, pressing it into the stamped logo.

The Rub’nBuff was then rubbed and buffed to remove the gold from the high points of the logo.

I then used Before and After Fine Polish followed by the Extra Fine Polish. Both compounds were hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth.

The pipe, now cleaned, still had the lingering aroma of non-tobacco – yeah pot smoke. I decided to give it an alcohol and cotton ball overnight treatment. I stuffed cotton into the bowl and shank of the stummel then added 95% ethyl alcohol with a disposable pipette until the cotton was saturated. This sat overnight. In the morning, I found the following:

The cotton was removed and the bowl and shank were again scrubbed with alcohol dipped cotton swabs. The Ghost of Mary Jane was gone.

The pipe was reassembled and 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.

Overall this Golden Square Apple turned out very nicely. I love the traditional well proportioned shape. The pipe retained some of the contrast stain, enough that I did not think additional dying was needed. The oxalic acid treatment did a nice job at lightening the briar without diminishing the original stain too much. I could have continued with additional bleaching but I liked where I stopped. The vulcanite of the stem polished up nicely and accents the briar well. The dimensions of the Golden Square Apple are:
- Length: 5.58 in./ 141.73 mm.
- Weight: 1.51 oz./ 42.81 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.68 in./ 42.67 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.43 in./ 36.32 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.72 in./ 18.29 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 Golden Square Apple.
A Cesare Barontini Sultana Kuttel Selection B6 Restoration

December 5th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

The thing that drew me to this pipe for purchase and restoration was the thick briar wall of the Dublin shape. Recently I have become smitten by thick walled pipes. I know that I live by the phrase, “change is evil and must be destroyed” but this is different. I mean, thick walls are just cool, right? Both literally and figuratively. Well, I saw this multinational beauty, an Italian from Dublin, and had to have it. The auction was won and the pipe made the journey from Cedar Park, Texas all the way to the Northern Time Zone of southeast Nebraska. The stamps on this pipe read: Barontini, in a stylized script over SULTANA on the shank to and KUTTEL over SELECTION with a slightly offset B6 on the shank’s bottom. Below are some photos of the pipe as it appeared before any work was done.

The pipe looked to be in good condition with no obvious damage or evidence of mistreatment. There was of course the expected cake within the bowl, some tooth chatter near the button and oxidation of the stem. Other issues that appeared upon closer examination were the numerous fills and the dreaded clear coat.

Background

In researching the Barontini name, I first visited pipephil.eu for an affirmation of what I expected to be of Italian origin. There was what I had expected, an Italian flag.

(Baro-Bd — Pipes : Logos & Markings). There was no exact match to the stampings but this was obviously the same maker. The stylized signature script was an exact match and the fourth photo from the top had a shape number of B8 and was a very close match to this pipe and the B6 that it wears. The fifth photo from the top middle column, alludes to a briar band and an apparent black acrylic band at the stem shank joint. This also matched the pipe in hand. The stem of my pipe was lacking any of the cool logos of the included Barontinis which saddened me. None of the associated links lead to further information or similarities except for the “L’artigiana” link. Here there was a photo of a pipe which had a similar briar band on the stem.

(L-Lab — Pipes : Logos & Markings)

Next, I turned to pipedia.org for a bit more history on the Barontini company. Not much information was there to be had. I include it here in its entirety:

“In 1890 Turildo Barontini opened a factory for the production of briar. In 1925 his son Bruno began to produce the first pipes. Cesare Barontini, son of Bruno, started direction of the factory in 1955, and still runs it together with his daughters Barbara and Silvia.

Sub-brands & Seconds
- Aldo Velani
- Cesare
- L’artigiana
- Stuart
- Cortina”
(Barontini, Cesare – Pipedia). The “Sub-brand” Aldo Velani, did prove quite interesting:

“”Cesare” is a second brand produced by Cesare Barontini of Livorno / Italy. Cesare Barontini headed the company from 1955 on.

Another Barontini 2nd is named “Aldo Velani“. The name is fiction. Cesare Barontini Pipes are still relatively unknown and under appreciated here in the United States. They do however offer a value rarely matched by some of their more recognized Italian counterparts. Barontini makes very fine pipes, particularly his premium lines. They offer a fine smoking experience at quite a bargain. There are a few brands of Italian pipes on the U.S. market that are hardly known in Italy, as they are made in factories dedicated to the export trade. Aldo Velani is a line imported from Italy by Lane Limited, Dunhill’s distributor. Made mostly in Livorno by Cesare Barontini, one of the best known private-label manufacturers, Aldo Velani pipes are classic shapes with an Italian ‘twist,’ according to Frank Blews, a spokesman for Lane. “Billiards with more ‘ball,’ bulldogs with more ‘jaw,”‘ is the way he characterizes the line. A medium to large pipe specifically developed for American tastes, the finishes use the names of Italian wines – Soave, Novello, Barolo, Refosco – to suggest their colors, and there is a lot of ornamental work.” (Cesare – Pipedia). The phrase “Aldo Velani pipes are classic shapes with an Italian ‘twist,’” strikes me as an apt description of this pipe. I referred to it earlier as a “multinational beauty, an Italian from Dublin”. This sounds like exactly what Barontini is making with their Aldo Velani line – a traditional shape with a signature, Italian, twist.

I could not find any information as to Barontini employing P-lip (Peterson style) buttons on their pipes nor were any shape charts discovered. Perhaps some things are better off left as mysteries. This mysterious Dublin from Italy seems to be an excellent illustration of that idea.

The Restoration

I broke from tradition with this one and opted to not use a stained denim piece over the stained green flannel which underlies the denim. I thought you might like a change. Or, I was too darn lazy to get up and get a piece of denim from 6 feet (2 m) away.

The new-to-me PipNet got to go to work with this one along with the rest of the ream team.

PipNet #3 blades started the process of reaming.

The #4 blades continued and were followed up by the Smokingpipes Low Country reamer and the General triangular scraper. All of them were followed by the 220 sandpaper wrapped around the wood dowel.

The sanded tobacco chamber was taken to bare briar and appeared free of any heat damage. A condition the interior rim was not so lucky to avoid as there was some charing around the edge.

Another view of the interior of the tobacco chamber and the unsightly fill of the rim. Oh, you know that has to go.

And go it did. The old putty was picked out using a fly tying bodkin and a dental scraper. The old putty was surprisingly hard.

So hard, in fact, that I could not get all of it out. I’ll get more of it in a few minutes.

I used saliva and light scraping with a sharp pocket knife to scrape away some of the charred briar around the rim. That helped but the dark ring persisted.

Moving on to cleaning out the airway of the shank was the next task. I used a dental scraper to remove some of the tar and smoking residue then scrubbed the airway with cotton swabs and bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

My acetone in the acetone jar was getting pretty depleted due to use and evaporation. I unfortunately did not have more on hand. I tried to use a make-up pad dipped in the acetone to remove the finish on the stummel.

The finish was old, hard and thick. A trifecta of resistance to removal. I lightly sanded the stummel avoiding the stampings and placed the stummel into the jar to soak.

I had to repeat this twice, once for each end of the stummel since I could not completely submerge it into the remaining acetone.

After two soakings in the acetone the finish began to relent and was mostly removed with some rubbing with a make-up pad dipped in acetone. The stampings remained finish covered due to my unwillingness to sand. I needed fresh acetone but didn’t want to drive into town for a $1.25 bottle of the finish removing elixir. Fortunately A buddy and his son were coming down to go fishing and I asked them to pick up a bottle for me.

The shiny spots all indicated places with finish remaining.

The below photo is of the stamp on the bottom of the shank.

My delivery arrived and a quick fishing trip gave the remaining finish a short reprieve. Later that evening armed with a fresh bottle of acetone the finish was removed. Another benefit of the acetone was that it softened up the fills allowing me to pick the material out far more easily.

And there were quite a few fills to remove.

To refill the pits I used brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) by itself or with briar dust. I wanted to see if I could use layers of CA only on the rim hoping to achieve slightly transparent fills. While on the stummel I applied the CA to the pit and pressed briar dust into the wet CA. In both cases the CA was allowed to cure or dry then it was filed using a small flat file and smoothed with a 400 grit sanding sponge. If needed additional applications were done. The photo below shows application #1 to the rim.

The rim was propped to allow the CA to level and cure on its own.

While the CA was curing I turned my attention to the stem. I neglected to photograph the cleaning of the stem’s airway. This was done with several bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. Those tooth marks had to go. I used the small flat file to filed away material and blend the surface. This stem was rather thick feeling between my teeth and I did not feel the need to fill the dents with black CA. After the filing the stem was sanded with a 320 sanding sponge followed by a 400 sponge.

The CA on the rim contracted as it cured and required a 2nd application to the deepest pit. The two smaller fills can be seen in the photo below at 2:00 and 9:00 positions.

The big rim pit needed a third application.

Below you can see the other fills receiving their final sanding.

Once the fills were done, I taped the stamps and began sanding the entire pipe with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500. Between each sponge I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad moistened with alcohol to remove sanding debris. The stem was rubbed with mineral oil and wiped with a paper towel.

After the final sanding wipe I removed the painters tape and wiped the shank with alcohol to remove any remaining adhesive from the tape. The pipe was then worked with a series of micro-mesh pads in grits 3600-12000. Between each pad I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad moistened with alcohol to remove debris. The stem was rubbed with Obsidian Oil and wiped with a paper towel.

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

The Restoration Balm was removed with an inside out athletic sock. Sorry, I neglected to photo-document this step. The stem was then hand polished using Before and After Fine Polish followed by the Extra Fine Polish. Both compounds were applied by my fingertip and rubbed with a soft cotton cloth.

Overall this Barnotini Sultana Kuttel Selection B6 turned out very nicely. I love the shape and the thick walls. The pipe retained some of the contrast stain, enough that I did not think additional dying was needed. It did lose some of the deeper reddish hues which it had originally. I think the red and the thick clear coat were only used to hide the numerous fills and their absence added to the attractiveness of the briar. Okay, that is pure conjecture but I still think it looks better with a more natural briar than all the red. The vulcanite of the stem polished up nicely. If you are wondering why I did not use any deoxidation products on the stem it is because the filing and sanding were adequate to remove the oxidation without them. The dimensions of the Barnotini Sultana Kuttel Selection B6 are:
- Length: 6.04 in./ 153.42 mm.
- Weight: 1.81 oz./ 51.31 g.
- Bowl Height: 2.07 in./ 52.58 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.83 in./ 46.48 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.88 in./ 22.35 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.72 in./ 43.69 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 Barnotini Sultana Kuttel Selection B6.
A Peterson Dunmore System 79 Rustic Restoration

December 3rd, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

This blog was originally posted on 12/01/2024 on Mark Irwin’s Peterson Pipe Notes 432. It is reposted here as part of my ongoing saga. It appears here with permission of the author, me. Also, this pipe is not available for sale.

There are a few searches that I run on eBay frequently and Peterson Dunmore pipes are one of them. When I first saw this rusticated rascal I thought about my budget and decided to give it a go. The recent prices for estate pipes have been volatile to say the least. I’ve watched auctions increase in price significantly over the past several years, sometimes going for far more than what I think something is worth and other times nowhere near the item’s value, in my mind. This one would have been a hard pass 3 years ago but with inflation it fell within acceptable limits. Besides, it was gorgeous. The auction was won and after a Midwest adventure from Deerfield, Illinois to the wilds of southeast Nebraska it was home. The pipe came with what I thought was the original box and ephemera. At least that what they looked like in the eBay listing:

The box looked correct in style for the early 1970s. Upon examination I saw the following:

Well, this sure as heck is not a 313 and it certainly is not smooth. I messaged the seller explaining my disappointment. They sounded sincere in their explanation that the pipe arrived to them in this box and that they did not intend to mislead. I call this a learning moment for myself and was reminded to avoid getting caught up in emotion. I nevertheless provided very objective and honest feedback on eBay regarding the seller’s inaccurate item description. Live and learn, I guess.

Below are some photos of the pipe prior to doing any work on it. I also photographed the pamphlet and pipe sock and include those below as well.

Background

On June 25, 2024 I posted a blog about the restoration of a Peterson Dunmore 606. Being a proud Generation X member, also known as a total slacker, I will include the background from that post in its near entirety (Original post: Peterson Dunmore 606 Pot).

“As much as I love the history of the Kapp and Peterson company and Peterson pipes, I will not get into that other than give you resources to read the history for yourself. I will delve into the Dunmore, or Dunmoor line of pipes at greater depth.

For a great history Mark Irwin and Gary Marlburg’s book is a must read for a Pete Geek.

(Available at https://www.smokingpipes.com/accessories/books/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=471478) Given the price is a bit high but worth every penny for a Peterson aficionado.

The next site is pipedia.org’s History of Peterson by Jim Lilley (Peterson – Pipedia)

Lastly the pipephil.eu site for all things logo: Peterson: historical pipes — Pipes: Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu) They also have a few other links to things like the Peterson timeline and P-lip information.

Now to the stuff regarding this pipe: A Peterson Dunmore. I refer to Mark Irwin again here and his blog, Peterson Pipe Notes. I can wholeheartedly recommend the free at

https://petersonpipenotes.org/ Yes, you will get emails but only for things like the weekly blog post and occasional Peterson pipe drops (like the Peterson Pipe Notes Pipe of the Year) or offers for cool Pete Geek merchandise. Anyway Mark has an article on the Dunmore line that is great. https://petersonpipenotes.org/226-documenting-the-dunmore-system-and-classic-lines/

I will include the text here in its entirety but recommend the link for the photos. This is used with permission of the author (thank you Mark).

“226. Documenting the Dunmore System and Classic Lines

Milos “Mike” Bera at PipesPens&More.com on eBay recently wrote me to say that he’d run across two examples of a Peterson Dunmore Classic line he’d never seen before—a higher-grade line with a briar-in-brass sandwich band. As I thought they were not only gorgeous but undocumented, the time seemed right to take a look back at the history of the Dunmore System and Classic lines.

I’ve been a fan of the Dunmore lines since I first saw them through the case back in the late 1980s and had to have one, a fat-bottom 72 (the 302 equivalent). Like everyone else, I thought there was some kind of mistake—“Where’s the nickel mount?” I remember asking. But the Dunmore System set out to be something a little different, yet within the classic Kapp & Peterson house style.

The line originated in collaboration with Iwan Reis in 1971. How it came about is anyone’s guess at this point. Chuck Levi, the man who more than any other was responsible for bringing the great Danish artisan pipes to the US, was working with the creative minds at K&P to bring something new to the IRC catalog, and this was one of about a dozen K&P lines that debuted as exclusives in the Iwan Reis catalogs of that era.

The concept was to modernize the System pipe by removing what was perceived as the old-fashioned nickel mount. And old-fashioned it was—if you look at pipe catalogs from the 1940s on through most of the rest of the 20th century, nickel ferrules and even bands were almost non-existent. K&P was virtually the only hold out, using sterling bands on the Sterling Silver Classic line and on the Premier & De Luxe Systems. A bead was then carved around the stummel at the mortise end. As you can see from the IRC detail, sometimes the contrast stain made the beads stand out, and sometimes not.

But there were two more ingredients to the original Dunmore aesthetic which can be seen the photo below. Paddy Larrigan, K&P’s master-craftsman, was always striving to push the envelope in pipe engineering, and one of the things he dearly loved was a pipe that would sit, so he shaved off the bottom of the shank to allow the Dunmore System to sit on its shank and button, which gives it its uniqueness in the catalog. The downside of this is that I am not convinced that all the Dunmore reservoirs, being slightly smaller than the traditional System, are quite as effective.

The third distinguishing mark of the original Dunmore lines is the stem. Both the System and Classic versions utilized the wide-shoulder “Comfort Lip,” with a painted gold P on the stem. This doubtless helps the System sit as well as giving it a more muscular visual balance, strength being a long-standing concept in the design language of the company. While it gives the illusion of being an army “push” mount, of course it isn’t, but is a traditional tenon-mortise or “navy mount” as the old hands at K&P used to call it.

The 1971 IRC catalog description reads, “dunmoor briar IRC ’71 modern system without sterling band, natural $12.00.” This intentional misspelling of “Dunmore” would persist through subsequent IRC catalogs, the copy-writer evidently under the spell of e.e. cummings and favoring an English flavor to his pipes. The name, like almost all K&P line names, is taken from the Irish landscape, in this case the town in County Galway famous for Dunmore Castle.

The 1975 Orange Catalog shows the initial Dunmore System release was in only seven shapes:

This was later expanded to include both the original bent dublin shape 5 (75) and XL5 (XL75) and the replacement calabash shape 5 and XL5. The remaining “new” System shapes were also added to the Dunmore lineup, the 01 becoming the Dunmore 73, the 02 the 70 and the 03 the 76. The fact that the 304 and 306 “setters” introduced in 1984 never entered the Dunmore System lineup adds the probability that the line had been discontinued by then.

The smooth Dunmore System features a light brown natural finish, sometimes occurring with broad flames, as can be seen in these photos of an unsmoked 77 System:

The rusticated version of the Dunmore System seems to have been finished in at least two techniques or versions. Neither is as deep as the Pebble Rustic finish but they still feel very therapeutic under thumb and finger.

Even when we were beginning our research on the Peterson book (due out in reprint later this year), most Pete fans had no idea there was also a Dunmore Classics line featuring the same beading at the mortise and wide Comfort Lip mouthpiece. Documentary proof was found in the rare 1978-79 Peterson-Glass catalog:

The Dunmore System and Classic Lines from the 1978-79 Peterson-Glass Catalog

I don’t know whether the Dunmore Classics was a short-lived line or whether it was primarily available in Europe, but it almost never appears on the estate market here in the US. As you can see from the catalog and the 406 pictured above, the same aesthetic was followed for the Classic line—light brown, nearly natural, higher-quality smooth bowl (or dark rustic) and faux army mount with gold-painted P, wide saddle and P-Lip stem. Only the Dunmore System, as far as I have been able to document, had the flattened stummel allowing it to set.

I have always hoped to run across an unsmoked rustic Dunmore System with the dark contrast stains seen in the Peterson-Glass catalog. I wonder if this finish actually went into production, because the ones I’ve seen all look more-or-less like the XL75 shown above.

The original Dunmore lines seemed to have been dropped at about the time the company went through its worst redundancy in 1984, as there are no more traces of it in the company’s ephemera from 1983 on. I remember the proprietor of my B&M, Cavalier Pipe & Tobacco in Barracks Road Shopping Center in Charlottesville, telling me when I bought my shape 73 Dunmore that the line was out of production, so I’d better get it if I wanted it (don’t you miss high-pressure salesmen?)—and that would have been 1986 or ’87.

The second iteration of the Dunmore Classics line is that recently discovered by Mike at PipesPens&More on eBay. I would tentatively date it to c. 1995, well after K&P had gotten on its feet again and was doing some new and fascinating things. It seems to belong with three other briar adornment lines from the same period: Paddy Larrigan’s Briar in a Circle Systems and the Galway and Kapp-Royal higher-grade lines with their wonderful inset briar rings.

Mike’s Dunmore Classics line is certainly on a par, from the two examples he’s found, with the Galway and Kapp Royal briars and maybe better, although probably not as fine as the Briar in a Circle Systems. Take a closer look at this 80S, which Mike sold within 24 hours of posting it on eBay:

The last Dunmore Classics line made a brief appearance in the Dublin era’s second decade, somewhere in the 2000s, probably around 2005 or so. Jim Lilley’s old blog site made a reference to them, and I remember seeing them for sale at internet shops.

I know it appeared well before I got interested in writing the Peterson book, because I don’t have any internet images of it in my files. These photos of the B5 and B11 give a good idea of what the line was like, although it appears to have begun in a higher range and then slipped to a lower.

Updated Identification Guide

Dunmore (1971–c. 1984; c. 1995; 2006–2010) Appeared in 1971 as Iwan Reis & Co. exclusive line “Dunmoor,” Premier-grade unmounted System in smooth natural or rustic dark chocolate contrast in all shapes, with beading at the shank, faux wide-saddle P-Lip with gold paint P. Documented in Associated Imports catalog from 1973. Classic Range line from 1978 with same faux army mount and finishes. Second scarce Classic Range line, c. 1990, higher-grade smooth bowl with brass sandwich and briar band, P-Lip. A third Classic Range line, 2006–2010, mid-grade, featured standard and some B shapes, with beading around bowl instead of shank-face, for European market.

Many thanks to Mike Bera
Photos of the Dunmore 80s and 68 courtesy Mike’s Pipes Pens & More
Photos of the B5 and 406 Dunmore courtesy Smokingpipes.com” (https://petersonpipenotes.org/226-documenting-the-dunmore-system-and-classic-lines/)”

(https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.com/6410 referencing myself feels weird)

From the above documentation I think that I can safely assume that this Dunsmore 79 is of the original 1971-1978 time period.

Interesting side note here: In the above Mark Irwin says, “I have always hoped to run across an unsmoked rustic Dunmore System with the dark contrast stains seen in the Peterson-Glass catalog. I wonder if this finish actually went into production, because the ones I’ve seen all look more-or-less like the XL75 shown above.“ I emailed Mark and asked him if the Dunmore 79 in hand was what he was looking for. I included some of the before and after photos from this restoration. He replied, “Yup, that’s it!!” (Mark Irwin, personal email).

The Restoration

As boringly typical of my restorations, I began with a clean denim piece to protect the work surface. Yeah, I know, the term “clean” doesn’t really describe the stained denim.

The new to me PipNet came out and I had high hopes that it would be useful. The standard ream team consisting of the Smoking pipes Low Country reamer, General triangular scraper and 220 sandpaper wrapped wood dowel were along for clean-up duties. Low and behold the Dunmore 79 had precisely the wrong size bowl for either the #1 or #2 PipNet blades.

With the #1 blades too small and the #2 blades too large, plan B was put in motion. The adjustable Kleen-Reem tool was called in to remove the minimal cake in the tobacco chamber. The other two reamers were used then the chamber was sanded with the 220 on a stick. Once down to the bare briar I could see that there was no damage to the briar and that this pipe looked like it had only been smoked a hand-full of times.

Next was the cleaning of the shank. Typically with Peterson System pipes this can be a chore. Owners frequently fail to clean out the reservoir after a smoke which creates rather difficult tar deposits. This pipe’s tar was quickly removed and revealed the stain used at the Peterson factory. A surprisingly reddish-pink stain at that.

The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrub. Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon scrub brush were used to remove the age and grime from the stummel. Once scrubbed the soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench the stummel received a wiping with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. The alcohol removed a bit more of the reddish-pink stain

The stem was the next victim of my cleaning activities. I used both bristle and fluffy pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol to remove the slight smoking residue in the airway.

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

During this time I taped over the stem logo with a piece of Scotch tape. The stem was in very good condition and did not have a heavy layer of oxidation. There were some tooth marks near the button and those were filed and sanded with 320 then 400 grit sanding sponges.

The stummel was wiped with an inside out athletic sock to remove the excess Restoration Balm.

At this stage I couldn’t help but admire the beauty of the rustication and contrast staining of the Peterson workmen. I wondered if Paddy Larrigan himself had a hand in the crafting of this piece.

The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges in grits of 320-3500. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a paper towel to remove sanding debris.

I then taped the shank with painters tape to protect it from the buffing I was about to do. The stem was mounted to the stummel as a handle and buffed with Red Rouge compound (I remain confused as to why the product had both “Red” and “Rouge” on the label).

The stem was then worked with micro-mesh pads in grits of 3600-12000. Between each of the pads I rubbed the stem with Obsidian Oil and wiped it with a paper towel.

The stem was polished with both Before and After Fine Polish and Extra Fine Polish. These polishes were applied with a fingertip and hand buffed with a soft cotton rag.

The next step in the stem restoration was to pick out the old gold paint and to re-do the logo with Rub’nBuff Gold Leaf. The old gold was picked out using a fly tying bodkin then scrubbed with 95% ethyl alcohol on a cotton swab.

The new gold leaf was applied with the tip of the bodkin and allowed to dry.

The excess gold was scraped from the logo with my fingernail and hand buffed with a paper towel. I applied two coats. The photo below is after the first but before the second.

The stummel was given a coating of Renaissance Micro-Crystalline Wax applied with a baby toothbrush. This was allowed to dry for a few minutes then hand buffed with a clean cotton terry cloth towel.

The stem returned to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax.

The final stem was to hand buff the pipe with a microfiber polishing cloth.

This Peterson Dunmore System 79 Rustic has returned to the world in all of it’s original glory. The 309 shape, 79 in the Dunmore line, is a favorite of mine and I can’t help wondering why it was ever discontinued. The contrast stain on this pipe is lovely with the reddish highlights and the dark brown-black in the rustications. The stem polished up very nicely and contrasted the smooth shank-end briar in a unique and subtle way. The flat heel of the pipe does provide it with a “sitting” platform though not a terribly stable one. Fortunately Nebraska is not prone to earthquakes and I no longer have any little ones in the house to provide anthropogenic tremors. The dimensions of the Dunmore 79 are:
- Length: 6.31 in./ 160.27 mm.
- Weight: 1.80 oz./ 51.03 g.
- Bowl Height: 2.09 in./ 53.09 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.62 in./ 41.15 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.76 in./19.30 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.26 in./ 32.00 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 Dunmore System 79 Rustic.