Tag: topping a pipe rim

A Wally Frank Ltd. Rusticated Billiard Restoration

June 10th, 2024

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I have restored a few Wally Frank pipes and find them ever-interesting. I suppose they are interesting because there is no archetypal Wally Frank pipe, this is opinion and meant to be taken as such. What I mean is that Wally Frank was an effective businessman and followed the trends and style changes like a master marketer. He seemed to always be searching for a “new” pipe that people would want to buy rather than focus on developing classic pipes which people would return to purchase as “classics”. I’ll stop talking about Wally Frank for a few minutes and just focus on the pipe at hand.

This Wally Frank came from an eBay auction that I just couldn’t ignore. Well, not for the price anyway. It is a carved or rusticated billiard in the fashion of the Custombilts from the 1940s-1950s. The little darling arrived in the middle of May and got bumped up in the restoration queue due to her good looks and to be completely honest, I was looking forward to a stress free restoration. Here is what she looked like upon arrival.

Stress free; some oxidation on the stem, a few decades of grime, minimal sanding, serious reaming and airway cleaning aside, this looks like relaxation therapy to me.

Wally Frank Background

Okay, back to my editorializing about Wally. The huge variety, nearly schizophrenic in nature, of Wally Frank style pipes may be due to his constantly trying to keep his offerings fresh in a competitive pipe market. Frank’s pipes were not what I would consider high end pipes. He was likely going after customers with less disposable income and mimicking a variety of popular styles . He was known to venture throughout Europe searching for less known carvers and small shops where he could purchase quality at lower prices. Wally Frank’s unique pipe offerings may make more sense when you consider the Wally Frank “Pipe of the Month Club”, an early subscription pipe offer. He apparently wanted to keep the customers satisfied with new and unique offerings. Here is the order form from http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-w1.html

The date on the form is difficult to make out but, I think it is 1947. $1 in January of 1947 is equivalent to $14.58 in April of 2024 (https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm). Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to get a new pipe every month for $15 dollars today?

The first paragraph about Wally Frank from Pipedia pretty much sums up Frank’s contributions to our hobby:

Wally Frank, Ltd. was one of America’s oldest and most respected names in pipes and tobaccos, beginning in the early 1930’s. Wally Frank operated a chain of tobacco stores in New York City (the flagship store was in Lexington Avenue) and had a vast catalog business for pipes and pipe tobaccos. Their numerous private-label pipes were made by many makers, including Charatan, Sasieni, Weber, and many others. Wally Frank, Ltd. also owned the Pioneer brand of meerschaum pipes, made from both Turkish and African meerschaum. In addition to importing pipes, he had many pipes made in his own name and also employed pipemakers like Peter Stokkebye, Svend Bang, and Ed Burak (who later became the owner of Connoisseur). As a result, each Wally Frank pipe must be individually evaluated on its own merit. (Wally Frank – Pipedia) Mr. Frank did this for many years, Wordcat.org is a library of print material available via interlibrary loans. They have several Wally Frank catalogs available from 1930-1958 (au:Wally Frank, Ltd. – Search Results (worldcat.org)).

Due to the large number of sources of Wally Frank pipes there is no Wally Frank shape chart to use as with Dunhill, Peterson, Kaywooodie and other manufacturers. I looked through the several Wally Frank pipes that I have kept for personal use and I could find only one with a shape number stamped on the pipe. And that is a Custombilt pipe from the Wally Frank Era of ownership. So, in a sense not really a Wally Frank pipe. The

Above photos are from a restoration I did in February 2024, here is the link for those interested: Custombilt Original 699.

The Restoration

Typical of my restorations I began with a cleanish denim piece on the workbench. Clean is a relative term and my denim pieces are losing family members quickly and few clean relatives remain.

I pulled the stinger from the stem and placed it into a plastic medicine cup with 95% ethyl alcohol.

The reaming tools were assembled.

The only tool that would fit into the tobacco chamber was the General triangular scraper. The scraper did well and eventually opened up a hole in the cake.

Once the hole was large enough the Scotte Stainless Steel reamer could enter the fight. The lava on the rim was so thick that I couldn’t tell where the cake ended and the briar began.

A large pile of cake scrapings had appeared on the plastic envelope, AKA reaming surface. The rim was still lava encrusted. I had to scrape the rim to assess the tobacco chamber reaming.

I was able to see the rim with the lava scraped away and able to get the PipNet into the reaming action.

I was curious about how much cake had been removed. I weighed a larger medicine cup of the electronic scale – 2.1 g (empty).

I brushed all of the reamed cake into the cup and re-weighed it – 5.4 g. I am pretty sure 3.3 grams is what the average kindergartener weighs in at.

On to the scrubbing. The stummel went to the sink where it was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium bristle toothbrush. A second soap application was used with a stiffer nylon scrub brush due to the years worth of grime and the rusticated surface of the stummel

After the scrubbing the stummel was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton hand towel. I returned to the workbench and scrubbed the stummel further with a nylon brush dipped in ethyl alcohol. I had to dip the brush numerous times. I was removing clear finish, which I assumed was shellac and stain from the stummel. The use of shellac made me think that this pipe may have been older than I had thought.

Since my fingers were already covered in alcohol and finish I figured a bit more alcohol would be good. I scrubbed the stinger and freed it from its tar coating. The alcohol and a .30 caliber brass bore brush were used since the regular brass brush was over by the sink and I’m lazy.

The stummel was wiped several times with make-up pads dipped in ethyl alcohol to remove any traces of finish and traitorous stain from the stummel.

With the stummel exterior cleaned I decided to let it dry for a few minutes and get the stem ready for a soak in an OxyClean solution. The stem was lightly sanded using a 320 grit sanding sponge.

Then it went into the solution. I cannot remember what concentration this solution was mixed at but it is less than a saturated solution.

I began cleaning the airway by softening the residues with alcohol wetted cotton swabs then scraped with a dental scraper. A nylon shank brush was used with alcohol poured into the bowl and through the shank. That is the brown liquid in the cup below. Alternating cycles of scraping, scrubbing, swabbing – repeat – were done until the airway was clean.

Finally a doubled over bristle pipe cleaner dipped in alcohol emerged from the airway non-brown.

The rim had seen some hard nocks, literally. Below is a photo with sunlight. This would require a light topping.

I topped the rim with 220 sandpaper (on the right) and 400 sandpaper (left) using small circle motion. I would rotate the stummel in my hand 90 degrees after 4 circles and repeat. This is done to keep even pressure on the entire rim surface.

Below is the rin in sunlight after topping with the 400 grit sandpaper.

I lightly sanded the highspots of the stummel with a 600 grit sanding sponge. I did not want to reduce the rustication but I did want to sand through the stain a little bit to add highlights to the briar.

The rim was sanded using a sequence of sanding sponges 600-3500. In between each sponge the rim was wiped with an alcohol dampened make-up pad.

The rim was then micro-meshed with pads 4000-12000, in sequence. In between each pad the rim was again wiped with an alcohol dampened make-up pad.

The stummel was coated with a thin layer of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit while I continued working on the stem.

The stem emerged from the OxyClean and was scrubbed with SoftScrub on make-up pads. Below you can see how the pads show a lightening with less oxidation removed from left to right

The interior of the stem was cleaned using bristle pipe cleaners and 95% ethyl alcohol. The stem was then coated with mineral oil and allowed to sit for several minutes.

Returning to the stummel – it was wiped of the Restoration Balm using an inside out athletic sock. The briar looked very nice and rejuvenated.

The stem was then worked with the sequence of sanding sponges from 600-3500. Between each sponge I would wipe a light layer of mineral oil onto the stem and wipe it with a paper towel.

The stem was then micro-meshed with the 4000-12000 pads. In between pads I rubbed in Obsidian Oil with my finger and wiped with a paper towel.

I failed to photograph it but the final polishing of the stem was done with Before and After Fine and Extra Fine Polishes. Each was hand buffed using a soft cotton cloth. Yeah, product placement, bring on the sponsors.

The final steps were to apply several coats of carnauba wax to the shank and stem with the buffer. I very lightly applied carnauba wax to the ridges with the buffer as well.

I think this old Wally Frank Rusticated Billiard turned out very well. I love the color of the original stain and think the rustication is perfect without me doing anything to it. I appreciate the rugged yet classic lines of this shape. The aluminum ring, though far from high class, does add a nice contrast to the glossy black vulcanite and the mahogany stummel. The draw of the pipe is a bit constricted by the stinger for my preference but they are removable and when removed it is quite nice. The dimensions of the Wally Frank Rusticated Billiard are:

Length: 6.09 in./ 154.69 mm.

Weight: 1.24 oz./ 35.3 g.

Bowl Height: 1.77 in./ 44.96 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.30 in./ 33.02 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.77 in./ 19.56 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.41 in./ 35.81 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Wally Frank Rusticated Billiard.
A Gold Medal First Prize Lovat Restoration

May 14th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Why do I keep doing this to myself? Here we have another wonderfully shaped pipe made with; quality briar, decent grain pattern that is well constructed and has a very pretty and unique stem. “So, what is the problem?”, you ask. I can find next to nothing on the maker of this delightful darling.

Let me show you some photos taken of the Gold Medal Lovat before any work was done to it.

The first places searched were pipedia.org and pipephil.eu. Neither of these sites had anything on the Gold Medal. Next was a Google search, it turned-up a reference to a very similar pipe. The stampings appear to be very similar to the pipe I have in hand, though the stem is quite different. I realize that the stem on the Gold Medal that I have could be a replacement but, I would prefer to think it original.

Gold Medal First Prize Century Imported Briar Tobacco Estate Pipe | #4573590166 (worthpoint.com)

I can safely say that whoever made the Gold Medal Lovat, made more than one of them. I remembered seeing a Peterson pipe stamped with Gold Block. In researching that memory, I came across Mark Irwin’s Peterson Pipe Notes blog post about the Gold Block Petersons. I will link the blog here, https://petersonpipenotes.org/tag/gold-block/, for those who are interested. In a nutshell, Gold Block was a pipe tobacco. “To qualify for the 1987 offer, one had to send them £9.95 and proof of purchase for three tins of their Gold Block tobacco.” (https://petersonpipenotes.org/tag/gold-block/). The same thing that American tobacco companies were doing with the coupon pipes like; Broadcaster, Van Roy, Silver MacDuff, Bruce Peters, Dr Grabow Westbrook, etc… At the end of this blog, if it ever does end, I will add links to other coupon pipes which I have restored.

Perhaps this Gold Medal Lovat was a promotional pipe affiliated with a tobacco brand. I started searching Gold Medal as a pipe tobacco rather than a pipe. Again a paltry amount of information but a couple of images did come up.

(Gold Medal Tobacco Tin • Antique Advertising)

(Gold Medal Tobacco Tin • Antique Advertising)

They are asking well over $200 for those old tobacco tins. I am apparently in the wrong business. Now there was information on Cameron and Cameron.

(https://rocketwerks.tumblr.com/post/185175224571/cameron-cameron-aka-kinney-tobacco-co-cameron)

(https://antiqueadvertisingexpert.com/project/cameron-cameron-co-richmond-va-finest-grade-tobacco-can-circa-1920/)

“By 1870 the tobacco-manufacturing companies owned by Alexander Cameron, William Cameron, and their younger brother, George Cameron, were among the largest in Richmond and Petersburg, and by continuing to expand their business throughout the remainder of the century, they made it one of the largest such enterprises operated by Americans at that time. They sold tobacco around much of the world through agents in Australia, China, India, Japan, South Africa, Europe, and North America. Although each company operated independently, they all worked together buying, manufacturing, and selling all forms of tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, plug tobacco, and smoking tobacco. In 1886 William Cameron retired, leaving the management of the far-flung business in the hands of Alexander Cameron and George Cameron, who purchased another Richmond firm within two years to create A. and G. Cameron and Sizer, later known as Cameron and Cameron.

By early in the 1890s the Camerons’ factories in Richmond and Petersburg alone employed hundreds of workers and could produce as much as four million pounds of tobacco each year. Alexander Cameron and his partners began to face increasing competition from the American Tobacco Company, created in 1890, which continually undercut the prices of independent manufacturers. Cameron attempted to compete but ultimately decided to retire from the business, and by 1904 he had sold the Cameron factories to the new British-American Tobacco Company.” (https://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Cameron_Alexander)

British-American Tobacco (BAT) is one of the world’s largest tobacco companies today. Their business is mainly selling cigarettes all over the world to people who want them and being sued all over the world by countries who want to share in the profits of BAT by doing none of the work. The sale of the Cameron tobacco business to BAT was done far earlier than this pipe. To me, it has the look of a much more recent vintage than a turn of the century specimen.

Well jumping down that rabbit hole, though entertaining and educational, delivered little information on the Gold Medal Lovat. How about turning to the stem and see where that may lead. The stem is some strange rubber that is soluble in 95% ethyl alcohol. More on that later. It has no stamps but does have a single brass dot on the upper surface. I searched through pipephil.eu for similar stems. I looked back at the stampings. SYNCHRO was an obvious clue. The Synchro-Stem was a Kaywoodie patent from 1932.

(Document: Kaywoodie’s SynchroStem patent — Pipes : Logos & Markings – (pipephil.eu))

The aluminum mortise and tenon are similar to a Kaywoodie synchro-Stem but the Gold Medal has twice as long a set of threads as a Kaywoodie. Another difference is the draft hole in the aluminum tenon extension. Kaywoodie draft holes are at an angle which makes cleaning with a pipe cleaner easier. The Gold Medal stem has a draft hole which is drilled perpendicular to the airway. I am sure this is easier to manufacture but makes cleaning more difficult. More on this later.

On the opposite side of the shank from the SYNCHRO stamp is a country of manufacture (COM) ITALY. The only Italian made Kaywoodies were very recent pipes, “The S.M. Frank Co. now owns the Kaywoodie name, but no longer makes pipes. However, Italian made “drugstore” grade Kaywoodies are still being marketed in this country. These Italian-made Kaywoodies have a “whiteoutline” cloverleaf logo.” (Collector’s Guide to Kaywoodie Pipes – Pipedia). Bah, another dead end.

Let’s see what can be found from the CENTURY OLD stamp. A search of CENTURY OLD leads to the following: “It’s possible this pipe was made by Lorenzo, who marked some of their pipes as Century Old Briar, although the script here is different. This pipe has a similar rustication to the Lloyds Canadian example seen below” (Century Old – Pipedia).

Comparing the above from pipedia.org to the Gold Medal the font is more italic above and block lettered below.

According to pipedia.org Lorenzo has a line of pipes called Lloyds. “Lloyd’s was strictly a Lorenzo second.”(Lorenzo – Pipedia)
- Lloyds Examples and details, courtesy Doug Valitchka
”

(Lorenzo – Pipedia)

As you can see the stamping here reads CENTURY OLD over BRIAR ITALY. Again far different than the Gold Medal but the Italy connection is present and if you are familiar with Lorenzo pipes there was a good deal of orange stained briar produced by Lorenzo. Orange is the color of the Gold Medal stem. Yeah, I am reaching for a link…

How about that nifty brass dot? Single brass dots are a bit more rare and may provide some insight. Savinelli’s Punto Oro line uses a single brass dot but let’s be honest,

Savinelli would never stoop so low as to have an aluminum mortise and tenon. I could not find any other Italian makers who had used a single brass dot as a stem logo. The last thing I thought about was the four pointed star on the stem of the worthpoint.com Gold Medal. Guess what, there is one maker who uses a four point star – Five Stars.

Again, not helpful as Five Stars is a French pipe maker. A whole lot of nothing when it comes to the provenance of this Gold Medal Lovat. I am really wanting to go back to restoring Yello-Boles and their well documented histories.

The Restoration

As usual I began with a clean denim work surface.

This restoration began with the stem. It is an amazing stem. It has the tooth feel of vulcanite but it softens with 95% ethyl alcohol like some plastics. The stem with alcohol on my finger felt slick initially then became sticky. Upon the alcohol evaporating the stem returned to its normal feel. I took this to mean that cleaning it with alcohol was not the best option. I ran a few pipe cleaners dipped in alcohol through the stem before making this discovery. Afterwards, I used Castile Soap and hot water to scrub the airway of the stem.

The next step was the reaming of the tobacco chamber. The cake built up in the chamber was very hard and resisted the PipNet with the #2 blades. I used the General scraper to scrape the majority of the cake and finished with the PipNet. The chamber was then sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wooden dowel. This was followed by sanding with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a Sharpie marker.

Below is a photo of the chamber after sanding and wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad. No evidence of heat damage was observed in the chamber.

The rim had lava deposits as seen in the below photo.

These were removed by wetting the rim with saliva and scraping the rim using a sharp pocket knife.

Next came the cleaning of the airway inside the shank. I poured 4-5 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the tobacco chamber and allowed the alcohol to flow into the shank. I then used a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway with the alcohol. The alcohol was then poured from the airway into a medicine cup. I also used cotton swab and folded bristle pipe cleaners in the scrubbing. The aluminum mortise did not allow for effective scraping of the airway with a dental scraper thus making the scrubbing process longer and more difficult. I repeated the alcohol/nylon brush scrub followed by the pipe cleaners/cotton swabs numerous times.

Eventually I was tired of the airway scrubbing and needed to give my cramping hands a break. I took the stummel to the sink for a scrub of the exterior. This was done with a medium stiff toothbrush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water and then dried with a cotton hand towel. While I was at the sink I scrubbed the airway with a nylon brush and some Dawn dish soap. This did remove some tar from the airway , based on the color of the lather.

Back at the workbench I continued with the airway scrubbing. The color of the alcohol was getting lighter and the cotton swabs less discolored from the tar residue. You can also see from the below photo that a good deal of the pipe’s finish was removed by the Murphy’s Oil Soap scrub.

Eventually the stummel was rid of the tar in the airway. A light sanding and wipings with 95% ethyl alcohol removed the remaining finish and revealed the spots that required either old fill removal or spots to fill. Old fill material was picked out using a fly tying bodkin. The depressions received a small drop of brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) applied with the bodkin then a pinch of briar dust was pressed into the wet CA. The below photos show the CA/briar dust fills.

The excess briar dust was brushed away and then topped with another small dab of brown CA. They were then filed using a flat needle file and smoothed with a 400 grit sanding sponge. Below you can see photos of the dark appearing sanded fills.

The stamps were taped with painters tape to protect them from the sanding that was to come. The pipe was sanded with a sequence of sanding sponges from 600-3500 grits. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad. Due to the small size and close quarters of this stem, I chose to use the buffer with red buffing compound rather than sanding.

After the sanding the stem and stummel were worked with the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Between each pad the stummel was wiped with an alcohol moistened make-up pad. The stem received a small drop of Obsidian Oil rubbed in by fingertip and wiped with a paper towel.

The pipe was then liberally coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes the excess Restoration Balm was wiped away using an inside out athletic sock.

A quick trip to the buffer for several coats of carnauba wax finished this Lovat up quite nicely.

Overall I think this Gold Medal First Prize Lovat restored very well. In hindsight, I think it would have looked very interesting with a contrast stain of black and maybe a top coat of orange to match with the stem colors. The existing stain looks good with the stem but I just wonder how a contrast stained stummel would look. The dimensions of the lovat are as follows::

Length: 5.33 in./ 135.38 mm.

Weight: 1.11 oz./ 31.50 g.

Bowl Height: 1.72 in./ 43.69 mm.

Chamber Depth: 1.49 in./ 37.85 mm.

Chamber Diameter: 0.76 in./ 19.30 mm.

Outside Diameter: 1.34 in./ 34.04 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Gold Medal First Prize Lovat

As promised some coupon pipe restorations (yeah, I may have a problem):

A Dr Grabow Westbrook Triangle Dublin Restoration

A Millard Dublin Restoration

A Vox Pop Superb Briar Air Conditioned Zulu Restoration

A Silver MacDuff Restoration

A Bruce Peters Dublin Restoration

A Broadcaster Billiard Renovation

A Van Roy Bard Selected Grain Restoration

A Ludwig and Hugo Stern (LHS) Sculptured Purex Dublin

An Amphora Bent Billiard Restoration

A Dr. Grabow Westbrook Restoration
A Bentley Lovat Restoration

May 2nd, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

The next pipe in que for the workbench is this cute little Bentley Lovat. Once again I have chosen a pipe to restore that appears old, beat up, dirty and has little information concerning its origin story. Yay ( feel free to read with extra sarcasm). The pipe itself is good looking, well good looking if you use your “imagination”. Structurally it was sound with well centered drillings and nice proportions. The stamps are BENTLEY on the left shank and ALGERIAN BRIAR over FRANCE on the right.

Below are some photos taken of the Bently prior to working on it.

Trust me, there is a pretty little pipe there. In planning the restoration in my mind, I saw the usual cleaning and stem oxidation removal. I also say the filling of pits and blemishes and a contrast staining to bring out the naturally occurring grain. I will be sad to see the stem logo disappear but it was only painted on, not stamped and will not make it through a deoxidation process.

Background on Bently pipes

I turned first to pipedia.org for a search of Bentley. There is a short article on Bentley, “This is the production Brand of Hans Jonny “Former” Nielsen. When the U. S. pipe demand for quality handmade “freehand” pipes diminished, W.Ø. Larsen in Copenhagen sent their several workshop pipemakers home to work out of their house. Former who was the Larsen foreman at the time, eventually went to Germany and started the Bentley line of production pipes made on frasing machines, several at a time. Some years ago he returned to Denmark with this type of equipment and continues to make these production pipes in his current workshop in between making his famous handmade pipes.

Bentley could also be a name of a line of Kaywoodie seconds.” (Bentley – Pipedia)

The last sentence of the quote is most applicable to the Bentley that I have in hand. The aforementioned Bentleys sound like much higher quality pipes than this little lovat. Next I turned to a search of Kaywoodie, again in pipedia.org. I could find no mention of Bentley in a search of any Kaywoodie pages. Things that make you say “Hmmm.”

I then went to pipephile.eu to look for logos. This pipe had a circle logo containing a “B”. of the several circle B logos none of them matched. Search for Bently did meet with several suspects.
1. Very unlikely.
2. This one has potential. The BENTLEY stamping looks very similar to the stamp on the lovat but the stem logo is completely different.

3. Very unlikely.

4. Stamping here is lower case except for the “B”and the stem logo is missing the circle.
5. Unlikely. Country of manufacture (COM) is England. The Bentley lovat is france.

6. OK, so maybe it is a Kaywoodie second but, does Kaywoodie have any ties to French made pipes? According to the below, yes. They are both stamped Kaywoodie. This might not be the case if a pipe were a true second as “KAYWOODIE” would not necessarily be present on a second.
Conclusions: This Bently lovat is stamped BENTLEY, ALGERIAN BRIAR over FRANCE and it is a pipe. Thank you Captain Obvious. Seriously that is all I can say with certainty. It is a pipe, made in France from Algerian briar.

The Restoration

This restoration started with a clean denim piece then reaming of the tobacco chamber.

The reaming went well except that the chamber is drilled with a size that is just a smidge too tight for the PipNet #2 blade. The General triangular scraper was used then followed by the sanding with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.

The tobacco chamber was in great condition with no sign of any heat damage or careless scraping with sharp pointy knives. The rim on the other hand needed some attention from a sharp knife. I moistened it with saliva and scraped it with a sharp pocket knife.

After the scraping it looked much better and only showed a bit of rim darkening.

The stummel was taken to the sink for a scrubbing with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a medium stiff toothbrush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel. Back at the workbench, I started picking the old fill material out of the pits.

Before repairing the pits I started cleaning the shank airway. The draft hole from the tobacco chamber was normal size then it widened considerably in the shank. My nylon shank brush was too thin to be very effective. I had to use two doubled over bristle pipe cleaners bent together to fashion a scrubbing tool. I poured 3-4 ml of ethyl alcohol into the chamber and allowed it to flow into the shank. I then used the two doubled over pipe cleaners to scrub the airway with the alcohol. Cotton swabs were then used to remove the remaining alcohol. This was repeated several times until the cotton swabs returned clean.

After the shank was cleaned I turned my attention to the stem. For such a short piece of rubber it certainly was dirty. Bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol were used to clean the airway of the stem.

The exterior of the stem was lightly sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge then it was submerged into the Before and After Deoxidizing solution. I planned on leaving it in the solution for 2-4 hours.

This allowed plenty of time to fill the newly excavated pits. I used a fly tying bodkin to apply a small drop of brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) to the pit. I then took a pinch of briar dust and pressed it into the CA filled pit. The briar dust combined with the CA and cured almost instantly. The new fill was then filed with a flat needle file flush with the surface of the stummel. A second small drop of CA was applied with the bodkin. While the CA was wet I sanded the area with a 400 grit sanding sponge. The briar dust from the sanding and the dust on the sponge combined with the CA to fill any remaining rough spots or slight depressions. The new fills appeared dark brown.

Oh yeah, I forgot to say that I covered the stamps with painters tape to protect the stamps from sanding.

The stummel was ready to have its grain accentuated. Due to budget cuts the same paper towels have remained on the dying station for a few restorations. Okay, maybe I’m just too lazy to lay down fresh clean ones. The plan was to use Fiebing’s Leather Dye to dye the stummel black. Sand away the dyed surface leaving the black dye on the softer grain where it had penetrated deeper. Then apply a light brown dye over the black adding a more yellow color to the non-blackened briar. The taped stamps would hopefully keep the black from giving the stamps an “Censored” bar appearance.

The black was wiped with cotton balls soaked in 99% isopropyl alcohol to remove the black dye from the surface.

The stummel was then taken to the workbench and sanded with a 320 sanding sponge to remove the outer layer of black dyed briar. After the sanding the stummel was again dyed but this time with light brown Fiebing’s Leather Dye.

After the light brown had dried I lightly sanded with a 400 sanding sponge. Below you can see the effect that I was hoping to achieve compared to the original surface.

The stummel was then sanded using the sequence of sanding sponges 600-3500. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol. Oh yeah, I forgot to say that I reapplied the painters tape to protect the stamps.

Then the stummel was polished with micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000. Again between pads the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol.

The stummel then was coated in Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 30 minutes.

I retrieved the stem from the deox, that is my term for the Before and After Deoxidizing solution. The excess solution was allowed to drip back into the jar. The stem was then rubbed vigorously with a coarse shop rab to remove remaining solution and help abrade oxidized vulcanite. A pipe cleaner was used to clear any deox solution from the airway. I then scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub applied to make-up pads. Energetic scrubbing with the Soft Scrub removed the oxidized material.

Since this stem is so short there was very little room to work with the sanding sponges or the micro-mesh pads. I took the stem to the buffer and tried to polish it with a flannel wheel and red buffing compound. This worked but did not have the finish that the sponges and pads would have achieved.

30 minutes later the Restoration Balm was wiped from the stummel using an inside out cotton athletic sock.

All that remained was to give the pipe several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer.

This little Bentley lovat of unknown origins is nevertheless an adorable pipe. The briar took the dye as I hoped it would and now sports a lovely contrast dye that accentuates the grain. The stem, though short, cleaned up well and works well with the dark contrast of the briar. The draw is smooth and promises to be a delight to smoke.

The dimensions of this Bentley Lovat are:
- Length: 4.95 in./ 125.73 mm.
- Weight: 0.94 oz./ 27.00 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.71 in./ 43.43 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.50 in./ 38.10 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.79 in./ 20.01mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.17 in./ 29.72 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

Below are some photos of the finished Bentley Lovat.
A No Name Canadian Restoration

April 19th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Why is it that some pipes can’t qualify for the maker stamping their name on the pipe? Not to sound like President Biden but, “Come on, man.” IMPORTED BRIAR is not enough of a name to mean anything except that your briar is imported (Duh, isn’t it all imported?) and that the pipe was likely made in the US after World War 2 (WWII).

Fortunately our government is there protecting us from the diabolical domestic terrorist native briar cartels. As can be seen by,

“Section 304 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (19 U.S.C. 1304)

provides that, unless excepted, every article of foreign origin

imported into the U.S. shall be marked in a conspicuous place as

legibly, indelibly, and permanently as the nature of the article (or

container) will permit, in such a manner as to indicate to the ultimate

purchaser in the U.S. the English name of the country of origin of the

article. Congressional intent in enacting 19 U.S.C. 1304 was that the

ultimate purchaser should be able to know by an inspection of the

marking on the imported goods the country of which the goods is the

product.

    Part 134, Customs Regulations (19 CFR Part 134), implements the

country of origin marking requirements and exceptions of 19 U.S.C.

1304. As provided in section 134.41, Customs Regulations (19 CFR

134.41), the country of origin marking is considered to be conspicuous

if the ultimate purchaser in the U.S. is able to find the marking

easily and read it without strain.”

(https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1994-11-15/html/94-28159.htm)

Use your best Yoda impression to read the following, “The sarcasm is strong in this one.”

Okay, what are we looking at with this restoration?

The Restoration

Perhaps it is for the best that little information can be gleaned from the stamping to the heritage of this pipe. All that background and history research would just keep me from addressing the things that need fixing with this pipe. First off there is a clear coat to eliminate. Then there is the standard reaming and cleaning, followed by repairing the damaged rim and stem. I think the briar would benefit from a contrast stain allowing for a highlight red to be accented by black. Stay tuned to see what happens.

Of course I will begin with a clean denim piece protecting the work surface. Someday I will get around to stripping the finish from this old roll top desk that I use as a workbench. It has a shellac finish that does not agree with spilled alcohol or acetone. A polyurethane would make more sense but it was my grandfather’s desk and I don’t want to alter it too much.

I worked on reaming the tobacco chamber first. The PipNet with a #2 blades after I had scraped the hard dry cake a bit with the General triangular scraper. The problem was that the chamber had a diameter that was a touch too large for the #2 blades and too small for the #3 blades. This meant more scraping.

The chamber was sanded with 220 sandpaper to get to clean briar then finish sanded with 320 sandpaper. There was no heat damage observed in the chamber.

That brings us to the rim. The lava deposits made inspection of the rim difficult. Though there did appear to be charring at the 8 o’clock position of the photo below and around the inside edge of the rim from 3-8 o’clock.

The rim was moistened with saliva then scraped with a shape pocket knife.

A further scraping revealed that the rim damage was all around the rim. The charing was also around most of the inside edge. Topping this stummel and removing the dents and dings would be required. I was hoping to only remove about 1/16 of an inch, 1-2 mm of briar from the rim. Beveling of both the inside and outside edges would remove the edge damage and keep me from removing even more briar.

After the reaming of the tobacco chamber, I poured 2-3 ml of 99% isopropyl alcohol into the chamber and allowed the alcohol to flow into the shank. I then used a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway. I poured this alcohol into a clean medicine cup. I was surprised that the alcohol did not have the dark color that I had expected. The long shank would make scraping the airway very difficult.

The stummel was taken to the sink. Here I used undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium stiff toothbrush to scrub the exterior of the stummel. The stummel was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton washcloth. I then decided to check the shank airway by using the shank brush with a bit of Dawn dish soap. I was still having trouble believing that the airway was as clean as the alcohol led me to believe. The Dawn shank brush scrub did not result in dark lather. Maybe the previous owner did keep the airway clean. The evidence was mounting in his favor but the question lingered, “If the rim was that fouled with lava, why did he keep the airway clean?”

I returned to the workbench for another go at cleaning the airway. About 5 ml of 99% isopropyl alcohol was used this time and scrubbed with the shank brush. When this alcohol was poured out I saw the dark color I had expected. The airway was dirty; it had just taken a bit of scrubbing to soften the yuck (yuck is a highly technical term to describe the smoking residue). It was present, not easily scraped and needed to be removed. This was going to be a long one. I just realized the unintended pun, there – long shank, long cleaning job.

Before I started the shank airway cleaning I wanted to top the stummel and remove the clear coat as it got sticky with the alcohol.

The topping was done by moving the stummel in a circular motion on a clean sheet of 220 sandpaper laid flat on a countertop. Every 3-4 circles I would rotate the stummel in my hand to keep an even pressure of all sides of the stummel. I wanted to remove about 1/16 inch or 2 mm of briar from the rim. This would not be enough to eliminate the rim edge damage but I figured I could remedy that by beveling the outside edge of the rim.

Next, I first tried removing it with 95% ethyl alcohol. That worked albeit slowly.

I then tried wiping it with acetone. This worked better and faster.

With the finish mostly removedI set to cleaning the stem. The airway was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 99% isopropyl alcohol. The outside was lightly sanded with a 320 grit sanding sponge then with Soft Scrub applied to make-up pads.

Next came the shank cleaning. The long shank did not allow for effective scraping with a dental scraper. The cleaning did utilize a nylon shank brush with numerous scrubbings of the airway with 5 ml of 95% alcohol poured into the bowl and allowed to flow into the shank. While in the airway the alcohol was scrubbed with the brush. Below you can see the medicine cup use to collect the alcohol after the scrubbing.

There were a couple of dents in the lower left section of the stummel. I used a hot iron and a damp rag to raise these.

Below is a photo of the stummel partially wrapped in the wetted cotton rag and pressed against the hot clothes iron.

The steam from the iron heated water raised the dents very nicely.

After the shank was cleaned the pits on the stummel were filled using a small drop of cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust. A small drop of CA was applied to the pit then sanded with a 400 sanding sponge. The dust from the sponge combines with the wet CA to fill the pit. Additional applications were used for deeper pits.

I wanted a contrast dye that had a base of black with a secondary dye of red. I hoped that this would give the pipe an accented grain in black with reddish hued highlights. To achieve this I first dyed the stummel black with Fiebing’s Leather dye. The dye was applied with a folded pipe cleaner and flamed with a disposable lighter.

A duct tape wrapped fishing bobber was used to keep dye from the tobacco chamber and to act as a handle.

The black dye was then wiped from the stummel using several make-up pads dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

The stummel was then sanded with a 320 sanding sponge to remove the outermost black dyed briar leaving the underlying black dyed briar in place, accentuating the grain.

A second dying of the stummel was then done with Fiebing’s Dark Red Leather Dye.

This was then wiped from the stummel using alcohol dipped make-up pads.

The sanding of the stummel with a 400 grit sanding sponge then wiped with a clean alcohol dipped make-up pad resulted in the stummel looking quite red, below. Notice the strange surface crack just above center – this was filled using thin CA then sanded, with the sanding dust filling the crack.

Below is the contrast dyed stummel before any sanding with finer sanding sponges.

I felt like this pipe was living up to the unofficial Nebraska motto – Go Big Red.

Next on the list was the stem repair. I admit to getting into the “stem repair” mode and losing track of documenting the process. I start by de-oiling the areas to be repaired with an alcohol dipped cotton swab. Then small drops of black CA are placed into the depressions on the stem. The wet CA is spritzed with a CA drying accelerator. Once dry or cured the CA is filed with a flat needle file. If the depression is deep it may take several small drops of CA and subsequent spritzes with an accelerator to fill the depression. That was the case here. When I started photographing, I was already filing the second application.

A third application was applied and spread around to thin over a larger area using the tip of the applicator on the bottle. This was then spritzed, filed and sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge. The next two photos show the depressions filled and sanded with the 4000 sponge.

The stem was slightly “over-clocked”. This led to the stem not aligning correctly with the stummel, as it had been over tightened. There are two ways to address this:

1) to heat the aluminum screw-in tenon until the stem is slightly melted, then rotate the aluminum to the correct position and allow it to cool.

2) Add a light layer of black CA to the edge of the stem and allow it to cure.

Both methods work but come with downsides of being time consuming and tedious. I chose to use the adding of black CA to the stem. Since the alignment was very sligh, only a few degrees I only needed to “paint” or apply a single coat of black CA to the stem.

The pipe was sanded intact. I wanted to smooth out the mortise tenon joint as the original fit was less than smooth feeling. I used a series of sanding sponges with grits from 1000-3500, in sequence. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol while the stemI received a bit of mineral oil rubbed in by fingertip then wiped with a paper towel.

After the sanding sponges I used a sequence of micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000. The stummel was wiped between each pad as above. The stem received a drop of Obsidian Oil between pads, rubbed in by fingertip and wiped with a paper towel.

The pipe then was coated with Before and After Restoration Balm. The balm was allowed to sit for 15 minutes.

The excess balm was wiped with an inside-out cotton athletic sock to reveal a beautiful rejuvenated contrast dyed briar.

The stem was further polished using Before and After Fine Polish. The polish was applied by fingertip and hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth.

The polishing was finished using the Before and After Extra Fine Polish using the above procedures.

The final step was to apply several coats of carnauba wax using the buffer.

I am quite pleased with how well this Italian Canadian of unknown make turned out. It is a large pipe yet is surprisingly light in hand. The contrast staining yielded the color that I had in my mind as I was imagining how it would look finished. The screw-in tenon fits and aligns well. Though not the most beautiful grain the contrast stain definitely improved the look of the briar and is accentuated by the high gloss black stem. I am certain that this will be a nice smoking pipe even without a maker’s stamp.

The dimensions of this large Canadian are:
- Length: 6.67 in./ 169.42 mm.
- Weight: 1.40 oz./ 39.8 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.88 in./ 47.75 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.65 in./ 41.91 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.78 in./ 19.81 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.46 in./ 37.08 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

Below are some photos of the finished no name Italian Canadian.

I think I might have to start selling these post restoration denim pieces as wall art.
A Pipe Den Zulu Restoration

April 17th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

The Pipe Den, the name harkens back to a day of local pipe and tobacco shops which our world appears to have mostly left in the past. Many pipe smokers love our local brick and mortar shops and it warms our hearts to hear the success stories of the local shop that is surviving in the world of big internet retailers. I live within an hour drive of one such shop and I admit to visiting it about once a year to stock up on a local blend assembled there. The place has a cigar lounge and will infuse your clothing with cigar aroma at no cost. I have been the only pipe smoker present on my last two visits. The world I live in enables me to have pipe tobacco from all over the world available with the convenience of no 60 minute drive in city traffic and the thrill of opening the aromatic box, freeing the imprisoned contents and allowing them to join their tobacco blend brethren in glass jars upon a shelf.

I warmly remember the smell of David’s Briar Shop in a local mall Westroads in the 1970’s and 80’s. That smell is firmly locked into the vault and I have to admit to wishing to experience it again. It is a nostalgic smell that when reminiscing with others about the mall, has never met with someone saying “I hate that smell”. To the contrary, it seems to only incite fond memories. These are the memories that stir when I work on a pipe stamped with the name of a pipe shop.

This Zulu came to me as part of an estate lot. Let me show you what I was looking at with this Pipe Den Zulu.

Background on the Pipe Den

The Pipe Den is a shop from Vero Beach Florida. According to the internet, source of only honest, truthful and accurate information, the Pipe Den still operates today. According to their website, Bob Marshbanks has been, “Serving pipe and cigar enthusiasts since 1977. We are your premier cigar, pipe and tobacco shop” (https://pipedenvero.com/). The website does not offer any online shopping yet invites patrons to the actual store to see what they have to offer. There is no mention of specific pipes but they do state the following:

“We offer a large selection of top quality pipes made by the world’s best pipe makers. I personally guarantee all my pipes, even “starter” pipes. Many “production” made pipes are manufactured of “Green” briar, heavily stained, varnished to cover poor grain and imperfections and smoke “hot”. To order a pipe, select your shape preference and let me know the price range you have in mind. Choose natural, dark or sandblast finishes. This will allow me flexibility in my efforts to ensure that you will get the very finest pipe available from my selection.

Even easier, just call, we can discuss your preferences and we can be more sure of the selection. I also have a selection of one-of-a-kind and freehand, hand carved Meershaum and Estate pipes.

The relaxed atmosphere at The Pipe Den is there for everyone. You are welcome anytime to come by, sit and enjoy a good cigar, fill your pipe bowl and get away from the hassles. I specialize in friendly old fashioned service.” (https://pipedenvero.com/pipes-%E2%80%A2-hints-%26-tips)

Here is a very nice review of the Pie Den with some photos taken by the author: The Pipe Den in Vero Beach My New Happy Spot in Florida (classyvice.com)

The question of who made this pipe for Pipe Den remains. In looking at the stem I see similarities to a couple of other pipes that I own. I have two Jobey pipes that appear to have very similar identical stems. They are saddle stems with a near 90 degree shoulder.

The quality of briar and the original stain color also match quite well. Given those last two qualities are hardly good indicators of a shared heritage but they do look similar. When looking up Jobey on pipedi.org, the first sentence of the entry says, “English – American – Danish – French… Sadly, solid information about Jobey is scamt…”(Jobey – Pipedia) Even misspelling scant. This should tell me something, what, I am not sure. The pipedia.org article goes on to discuss possible origins of the Jobey company. The most likely hypothesis, to me, is that Jobey was an American company and a subsidiary of the Norwalk Pipe Corporation (Norwalk Pipe Co. – Pipedia) and later sold to Weber. There is also another discussion mentioning that, “Weber Pipe Co. owned and manufactured Jobey pipes – when mainly sold in the USA by the Tinder Box from 1970’s – 80’s. In addition Jobey / Weber bought Danish freehands from Karl Erik (Ottendahl). These pipes were offered as Jobey Dansk. Ottendahl discontinued exports to the United States in 1987 and in the very same year – obviously only as a ghost brand – Jobey was transferred to Saint-Claude, France to be manufactured by Butz-Choquin.”(Weber Pipe Co. – Pipedia). This I believe is the most likely suspect. The Pipe Den Zulu has a Jobey/Weber feel to it. I can’t explain that other than the word “feel”. The age would fit for the Pipe Den history, according to their website the Pipe Den opened in 1977. I am of the opinion that this Pipe Den Zule was a Weber made pipe likely from the late 1970’s – 1980’s.

The Restoration

In the beginning… No, that sounds too biblical. How about, this restoration began with a clean piece of denim laid out on the workbench? Much better.

The fit of the stem was too tight and was left partially inserted to avoid dressing the mortise. The stem was also in dire need of oxidized vulcanite removal. That is where I began.

I sanded the stem with a 600 grit sanding sponge to remove the calcium deposits, surface oxidation and light tooth chatter. You can see that I used the denim to clean the sponge.

Next the interior of the stem was cleaned using bristle pipe cleaners and a nylon brush dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

With the stem cleaned inside and out, It was time to go into the Before and After Deoxidizing solution. A pipe cleaner was used as a hanger to suspend the stem in the solution.

I refer to this as the deox tank or deox, as a play on words with detoxification or detox for alcoholics and drug addicts.

With the stem in deox, I turned my attention to the reaming of the tobacco chamber. The below tools were assembled.

The chamber was bored with a very conical bit and did not fit the PipNet reamer at the bottom. This required more scraping with the Smokingpipes Low Country Reamer and the General triangular scraper.

The interior of the chamber was sanded to bare briar and no evidence of heat damage could be observed. The rim was the next target of restoration. I could see damage around the outer edge from tapping out dottle on surfaces not meant for tapping. There was also a thick coating of lava.

The lava was scraped with care and a sharp pocket knife after being moistened with saliva.

The stummel was then taken to the sink. Here it was scrubbed using a medium stiff toothbrush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap. The soap was rinsed with warm water. At this point I decided to scrub the airway of the shank with a nylon shank brush and a bit of Dawn dish soap. The airwar was rinsed with warm water and the stummel was dried with a cotton washcloth.

Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol to remove any remaining wax or finish. The pad came back with reddish brown, indicating that I was removing some of the original stain. No finish could be observed.

The cleaning of the shank was next on the list. I poured about 4 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the bowl and allowed it to flow into but not out of the shank. I used a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway with the alcohol present. I then poured this alcohol into a medicine cup to be used until it was too blackened from dissolved tar. After the alcohol scrub I returned to the sink and scrubbed the airway with undiluted Castile soap. Then abc to the workbench for an alcohol scrub. This rotation continued until my nylon brush was no longer turning black with tar.

Between scrubbing rotations I would scrape the airway with a dental scraper and scrub with cotton swabs. Eventually the airway was cleaned.

14 hours later, I retrieved the stem from the Before and After Deoxidizing solution. I allowed it to drip off excess solution for a few minutes.

Below the stem is on my preferred coarse cotton shop rag. I like this rag for buffing a stem after the solution as it absorbs the remaining solution and abbrades some of the loosened oxidized vulcanite.

Below is the stem after the buffing with the rag.

After the hand buffing I used several make-up pads with Soft Scrub to further remove oxidized material from the stem. I could have sworn that I photographed the pads but failed to find the photos. Further proof than getting old is not for the… What was I saying?

The stem was then coated with mineral oil both inside and out.

There were a few small pits which needed to be filled prior to taking on the damaged rim. The small fills were repaired by placing a small drop of cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) into the pit then sanding immediately over the pit. The dust from the sanding and sanding sponge combined with the CA to fill the pit. Two applications were sometimes needed for slightly larger pits. Now to deal with that damaged rim I did not want to top the rim and remove an ⅛+ inch or 3-4 mm of briar thus changing the shape of the stummel. I lightly topped the pipe to restore sharp edges on the undamaged rim. My plan was to apply a bead of brown CA to the damaged outside edge of the rim then press it into a container of briar dust. The briar dust would then be combined with the CA to make a hard briar incorporated fill which could be sanded smooth.

Below is the bead of CA around the damaged areas

Below is after the first dip of the wet CA into the briar dust. The excess dust was scraped off with a pocket knife.

Below is a photo of the new edge. It would require a couple more beads of CA and dust dips but it was working.

Below is dust dip number two.

After filing and sanding the edge was restored. The fill did appear darker than the supporting briar but that would be addressed with a contrast dye (more on that later).

Now, to conceal the darker edge, I figured a darker stain or dye with the surface sanded away would provide a nice contrast showing off the grain of the briar and concealing the repairs. In preparation for this dye job, I wanted to keep the dye from the stamp if possible. I covered the stamp with a slightly irregularly cut piece of painters tape. I wanted it irregular to avoid the “CENSORED” block look.

I mixed equal volumes of both black and dark brown Fiebing’s Leather dye and added a couple of ml of 95% ethyl alcohol to allow them to mix thoroughly. The dye was applied with a folded pipe cleaner and flamed with a disposable lighter to burn off excess alcohol in the dye and set the dye to the briar.

Below you can see the tape had ignited during the flaming. Oops.

Back at the workbench, the stem appeared black.

I wiped the excess dye from the stummel. Several alcohol dipped make-up pads later the stummel can be seen to have a very dark brown color. Oh yeah, I actually remembered the nitrile gloves this time. I bet you didn’t see that coming?

The stummel was then sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge to remove the outer layer of dark dyed briar.

Next the damaged stem needed to be repaired. Below are the top and bottom surfaces of the stem.

Black CA was applied to the depressions on both the top and bottom of the stem. The CA was then spritzed with a CA drying accelerator.

These were then filed with a flat needle file until flush with the surrounding stem. Both top and bottom required a second application of CA. I prefer to use several light coats compared to a single large coat of the CA.

Additional filing and sanding eventually led to the below photos of the top and bottom of the stem.

The stem was then sanded using a sequence of sanding sponges in grits 1000-3500. Between each sponge I applied a bit of mineral oil then wiped with a paper towel.

After the sanding sponges I used a sequence of 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Between each pad I rubbed in a small drop of Obsidian Oil and wiped the stem with a paper towel.

On to sanding the stummel. It was sanded with the sanding sponges 1000-3500. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with an alcohol dampened make-up pad.

The stummel was then worked with a sequence of 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads. Between each pad the stummel was wiped as with the sanding sponges.

The stem then received polishing with Before and After fine then Extra Fine polish. Both were applied by finger and hand buffed using a soft cotton cloth.

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

The excess Restoration Balm was removed with an inside out cotton athletic sock to reveal a lovely grained briar.

The pipe then received several coats of carnauba wax from the buffer.

Overall I am pleased with how well this Pipe Den Zulu turned out. I love the shape though I would appreciate a slightly larger size. The repairs of the rim and stem came out better than anticipated. The briar grain was accentuated by the contrast dye and shows itself far better now than when it was buried by years of grime. Though the make of this very nice little pipe may never be known I am sure that it can find a new stewart who will get years of enjoyment from it.

The dimensions of this little beauty are:
- Length: 6.06 in./ 153.92 mm.
- Weight: 1.05 oz./ 29.7 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.94 in./ 49.27 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.59 in./ 40.39 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.77 in./ 19.56 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.31 in./ 30.28 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

Below are some photos of the finished Pipe Den Zulu.
A Large Italian Oval Shank Billiard Restoration

April 11th, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Well, I have good news and bad news. Or maybe, it’s good news and good news. I have an Italian oval shank billiard, here. The bad news is that I can’t do much about the history of a pipe when the only stamp on it is “ITALY”. Now, if you find my histories or background sections annoying this is good news. The other good news is how well this pipe turned out. She is a very attractive no name.

The pipe came to me as part of an estate lot purchased in March of 2024. It was not the target of the lot. After looking over the pipes I found the shank shape very interesting. It was kind of an oval but with points on the ends and it was tapered from wide at the bowl to narrower at the stem. I thought that it was more like a Canadian shape but Canadian shanks are not tapered. The grain of the briar looked pretty uninteresting, at first glance, and there were no identifying markings so, it went back into the box of future projects. Several weeks later I was looking through the box again and the stem drew me back to the pipe. Here is what I was seeing:

Just another old pipe, right? But that shank was cool. I thought, “wait, there is some interesting grain under the grime and crappy stain. This old girl will clean up nice.” Well, spoiler alert – A contrast stain would really show off the grain. Yeah, the stem was a mess, she was dirty, there were pits to fill, and who knows what lies under that lava covered rim?

The Restoration

As usual a clean denim piece was added to the workbench. I knew this piece of denim was not going to look clean for very long.

I began with the stem. I figured that it was going to be in the Before and After Deoxidizing solution for several hours so, best to get it in there first. I sanded the worst of the oxidation and calcium from the stem with a 320 grit sanding sponge.

Yep, so much for the clean denim.

Next I cleaned out the inside of the stem with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol. Ignore the aluminum stinger soaking in the alcohol, that’s part of another project. After the cleaning the stem went into deox (my term for the Before and After Deoxidizing solution).

With the stem in deox, I turned to reaming the stummel. The pipe had a large diameter bowl and was drilled with a tapered tobacco chamber. This required using the PipNet with the #2, #3 and the Scotte reaming tools.

The reaming was finished with the General triangular scraper and sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel. The tobacco chamber showed no signs of any heat damage. The rim on the other hand was still doing it’s impression of a Hawian island with it’s lava flows.

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

After the reaming and rim scraping the stummel was taken to the sink. Here it was scrubbed with undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap and a medium stiff toothbrush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton dish towel.

After the scrub, I sanded the stummelwith 320 and 400 grit sanding sponges searching for pits, dents and dings to fill.

Several were found a couple had to have the old fill or dirt picked from them. ALl were filled using brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust.

The next day, I returned to the deox tank. The stem had been soaking for 12-14 hours. I removed the stem and let the excess solution drip back into the jar.

The stem was then hand buffed with a coarse shop rag.

Returning to the workbench I started scrubbing the stem with Soft Scrub on make-up pads.

I progressed to using the Soft Scrub with the remnants of my Magic Eraser.

Once the pads started to provide a significantly less color change the step was coated with mineral oil and allowed to sit.

I thought that a contrast stain would allow the grain of the briar to be more apparent. I chose Dark Brown mixed with Black Fiebing’s Leather Dye. I mixed the brown to black at a 2:1 ratio. Prior to applying the dye I heated the stummel with the heat gun, shown below. The dye was applied with a folded pipe cleaner and flamed with the lighter. Two coats were applied and flamed.

Returning to the workbench, I dipped make-up pads into 95% ethyl alcohol and wiped the stummel. I wanted to get as much of the dye off of the stummel as possible.

Once the dye had been wiped from the stummel I started sanding the surface with a 320 sanding sponge. The sponge needed to be wiped off on the denim frequently to free it from the accumulated briar dust. Below shows the stummel ½ sanded illustrating the accentuation of the grain.

When finished with the 320 sanding sponge I sanded with a 400 sponge. Between the sandings I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in alcohol.

I wanted to sand the stem and the stummel together to avoid rounding the edges of each piece. This meant that I needed to finish the stem. I wiped the mineral oil from the stem and used a cotton swab dipped in alcohol to clean the oil from the area I would be working on. I used black CA to fill the tooth dents.

I applied the black CA into the dents and spritzed the stem with a CA drying accelerator.

The cured CA was then filed smooth with a flat needle file.

Additional coats of CA were added to further smooth and blend the repaired areas.

I prefer to work with several light coats rather than a single heavy coat of CA. Below the dark spots are areas where another application is needed to fill a depression.

Below is after filing and sanding to 400 grit.

The same process was done for the bottom side of the stem.

Once the stem had been sanded with the 600 grit sanding sponge the two pieces were reattached and the pipe was sanded together. The 1000-3500 sanding sponges were used in series with care not to sand the ITALY stamp. Between each sponge the stummel was wiped off with an alcohol moistened make-up pad. The stem had a bit of mineral oil rubbed inby fingertip and then wiped with a paper towel.

The pipe was then polished with a series of micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000. Between each pad the stummel was wiped off with an alcohol moistened make-up pad. The stem had a small drop of Obsidian Oil rubbed in by fingertip and then wiped with a paper towel.

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

20 minutes later the Restoration Balm was wiped from the stummel using an inside-out athletic sock.

The final step of the restoration was to apply several coats of carnauba wax to the pipe using a buffer.

This lovely Italian oval shank billiard may not have a stamp indicating a maker and will thus be considered a “less than” pipe but looking at the before and after photo below, I dare you to call her “less than”. She is more than average in quality of briar, workmanship and quality of finish. I am quite pleased at how well this billiard turned out. The stem had me a bit

worried but after the repair it polished up nicely. The Contrast stain did indeed make the briar grain shine. This old girl will be a grand smoker and will hopefully bring someone many years of enjoyment.

The dimensions of this little beauty are:
- Length: 5.50 in./ 139.7 mm.
- Weight: 1.34 oz./ 37.80 g.
- Bowl Height: 1.97 in./ 50.04 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.72 in./ 43.69 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: .82 in./ 20.83 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 1.47 in./ 37.39 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.

Below are some photos of the finished Italian No Name Oval Shank Billiard.

Wow, I have to work on that button. The bright light makes it look oxidized.

By the way, here is the finished piece of denim.
A Savinelli Roma 677 KS Salvage Operation

April 1st, 2024
Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I remember a good friend of mine saying, “There are two kinds of battles in the world: Those worth fighting and those that aren’t. If it’s worth fighting then you’d better be damn sure you’re going to win.” Spoken like the true F-4 pilot that he was and darn good advice. So, why in the world did I try to restore the above dismal darling? I mean, you can buy a new one for under $100. That poor thing’s issues had issues. Perhaps it was Saint Jude Thadeus whispering in my ear? No, I’m not Catholic. Maybe it was because my right shoulder angel had a substitute that day and it was a Bad-Idea Fairy. Whatever the reason, I decided that this Savinelli Roma would live to smoke again.

Well deciding something and actually carrying through with the decision are two dramatically different things. If you frequent my ramblings, thank you, you may remember a similarly damaged Savinelli, Porto Cervo 677 KS. If you are new here, thank you as well. I’ll link it here for those who might be interested. This pipe had issues that the previous Savinelli had nightmares about. OK, I’ll show you what I mean rather than taunting your imagination with unspeakable eldritch pipeological horrors (yeah, I tried to make it sound like an H. P. Lovecraft horror story there).

Still, pretty scary, eh? The list of things to be addressed were long and would certainly stretch my comfort level as a restorer. The stem would need a great deal of oxidation removal and rebuilding of material to once again have a functional button. The bowl interior was charred and misshapen. The exterior would need reshaping, retextured, restrained and refinished. All of that was just discernible from a cursory evaluation. What diabolical horrors would lie within? Okay, there I go again in Lovecraft mode. Apologies.

Background on Savinelli

A good deal of this background is information what I wrote or ,used from other sources, from the Savinelli Porto Cervo restoration. I am a Generation-X slacker and have to live up to (or down) to that reputation.

Early Origins

“1876 was a year of breakthroughs: Thomas Edison patented the mimeograph, Julius Wolff-Eastport canned sardines for the first time, Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call,

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky completed Swan Lake, Melville Bissel patented the first carpet sweeper, Mark Twain published Tom Sawyer, and in Milan, Italy, Achille Savinelli opened one of the first shops exclusively focused on tobacco and smoking accessories.

That last item may seem relatively unimportant in the global scheme of advancements, but for those of us who love pipes, it was a monumental achievement, made even more difficult by the Italian government, which held a monopoly on tobacco. In addition, Achille was convinced that briar pipes represented the future of pipe smoking at a time when the market was dominated by clay and meerschaum. It may not have been obvious in 1876, but Achille Savinelli’s commitment to briar pipes would prove to be visionary.

He soon began designing his own pipes (different from the styling we associate with Savinelli today) and arranged their manufacture by local pipemakers in the Varese district of north-west Italy. The pipes became so popular that some were exhibited at the 1881 Esposizione Industriale Italiana (Italian Industrial Exposition)—the precursor to today’s Milan Fair, one of the largest trade fairs in the world.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Savinelli)

Post-WWII

“With his two best friends, Amleto Pomé and Mario Vettoruzzo, he assembled a team of fifteen employees to start a new business in the Varese region—the same area of northwest Italy in which his grandfather, Achille Sr., commissioned his own designs more than 60 years before.

Savinelli Pipes began production in 1948 and, although the pipes were of a superior quality and unique in their aesthetic, the brand wasn’t an immediate success. Few new brands are. It takes time for the public to catch on. Retailers were skeptical of placing Italian pipes alongside their best sellers from England or France, and customers, in turn, were hesitant to purchase a Savinelli over pipes by already established, foreign brands. Achille Jr. stood by his product, however; he knew it was only a matter of time before the world realized that these pipes were of a far superior quality, capable of competing with even the most well-established pipe manufacturers in the world. As it turns out, he was right. In less than a year, Savinelli pipes gained prestige in markets all across the world—heralded for their delicate balance of innovation and tradition, of form and function. Savinelli pipes were placed alongside the likes of Dunhill and Comoy’s in tobacconists from the United States to Europe, and, in time, this exposure modified Italy’s reputation; it was not only the premier exporter of briar, but now a premium source of fine briar pipes.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Savinelli)

The term “Roma” in English often relates to the ethnic people, Roma or Romani. In Italian Roma is Rome. I highly doubt that a worldwide company like Savinelli is referring to anything other than Rome with this line of pipes.

The current Savinelli line continues to offer a Roma 677 KS but with a lucite stem.

DESCRIPTION

Savinelli Roma Lucite pipe shows a charming and modern composition. The dark rusticated finish color highly contrasts with the bright colors of the particular acrylic stem. 677 KS is a model with great appeal. Its triangular shank ,which only few manufacturers are able to offer, easily slides into the perfectly carved bowl. A really well designed pipe.

(https://www.savinelli.it/rw_en/savinelli-roma-lucite-677-ks.html)

I add the below description of a Savineli Apple, 626 due to the nice description of the styling of the line.

DESCRIPTION

Roma Series is for sure one of the most famous Savinelli pipe in the world. Its dark rusticated finish gives a very masculine style. Thanks to the smooth bowl’s rim you could appreciate how a finish can change the briar final color result. In fact both rim and bowl are stained using the same natural burgundy color. A little brass band adorn the ebonite stem. Model 626 fully personifies all the Apple style elegance. Its soft lines and dimensions make it an aesthetically and well-proportioned pipe.

(https://www.savinelli.it/rw_en/savinelli-roma-626.html)

The 677 KS shape is “A bent Billiard with a supple, Brandy-like taper toward the rim, Savinelli’s “677 KS” is a compact yet full-bodied take on the classic English shape. Per the Italian marque’s shaping conventions, Savinelli has elaborated on the standard design, adding mass to the base and transition with extra height and taper lent to the bowl, all paired to one of their signature triangular shanks.” according to Smokingpipes.com. That is a mouthful of a description. Also you will later see that the “extra height” is a bit less extra after the restoration. The three digit shape code for Savinelli pipes was established in the 1970s according to information from pipephil.eu. One more detail is the “KS” – this stands for King Size.

(Document: Savinelli shape chart — Pipes : Logos & Markings – (pipephil.eu))

The Restoration

I started this restoration with a clean piece of denim on the workbench. In the back of my mind I was thinking, “you are going to need a couple of those,”

I admit that I was more than a bit daunted by the prospect of rusticating or texturing a stummel to match the amazing work that Savinelli does. So, I avoided that part. I addressed the part of the pipe I felt comfortable working on – the stem. Yeah, I know, “chicken, buck buck bawk.”

The stem had thick calcium deposits on both top and bottom, I scraped these with a sharp pocket knife and sanded with a 320 grit sanding sponge.

The remaining calcium was picked from the dents using a dental pick and brushing with an alcohol dipped brass brush.

Next the interior of the stem was cleaned using 95% ethyl alcohol, bristle pipe cleaners and cotton swabs.

It was at this point I started to rebuild the damage caused by the clenching habits of the previous owner. In hindsight, I wish that I would have scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub with Oxiclean at this time and worked on the rebuilding after that. Alas, I hope that you can learn from what I consider my mistakes. I used a product that was newer to me, Bob Smith Industries IC-2000. It is a cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) which has been toughened with rubber. It is designed to be used with rubber and sounds like it would be perfect for this use. I applied an initial few dabs to the depressions of both the top and bottom of the stem.

I use a CA drying accelerator to speed the drying of the CA. Both surfaces were spritzed with this accelerator. It makes the CA cure or dry in seconds. The cured CA was then filed with a flat needle file and smoothed with a 400 grit sanding sponge. The shiny surfaces in the photos below are areas where the file and sandpaper rode above and did not contact the CA in the depression. Further applications were required to fill the entire depression. I prefer to use several thin applications over a single thick application.

More applications followed by more filing and sanding. Voila.

And then of course there is more sanding. Here is where I scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub with Oxiclean.

I am not sure if this discolored the CA fills or if the new rubberized CA doesn’t have the same black color as the CA that I was used to previously. Either way I was not as happy with the results as I had been previously. Here is a photo of the finished stem and the fill is much more obvious than what I was used to.

Leaving my comfort zone, I started working on the stummel. This started out normally with the gathering of the reaming tools.

I began with the #2 blades in the PipNet reaming tool. This is where “normal” stopped and became “is this pipe salvageable” started. The cake was dry, hard and brittle. The reaming was a very rough feeling with large pieces of both cake and charred briar breaking off. The chamber was very rough and uneven. I moved to the #3 blades. They fit into the mouth of the chamber and with effort removed the cake and charred briar to the bottom of the chamber.

Scrapping with the reaming knife and General triangular scraper revealed large area of severely charred wood. This was chipped and broken out as thoroughly as possible. Some of the damaged wood was still strong while other places were quite brittle. Eventually the soft damaged wood was removed allowing me to sand the interior with the 220 sandpaper wrapped dowel. I failed to take photographs of the chamber, perhaps in fear of my inability to remedy the situation. The best photo I had was the following:

In the above photo the middle chamber area was undercut by several millimeters. I Thought it too deep to effectively use J.B. Weld, a product which I had successfully used for charred briar in the past. This time though, the damage was much more severe and the volume of material to be replaced was far greater. I decided to move on and think about other options.

I took the stummel to the sink for a scrubbing. If the internal charing was very bad it would undoubtedly darken the briar on the outside of the stummel. I wanted to see what was under the external grime. I started by using undiluted Murphy Oil Soap with a medium bristle toothbrush. As the photo below shows, the grime was extensive. This first scrubbing was rinsed with warm water and dried with a cotton dish towel. Afterwards the stummel still appeared dirty.

I scrubbed the stummel a second time with Murphy’s and a stiff nylon brush. This improved the results but after rinsing and drying there remained a tacky feeling residue. I scrubbed a third time again with Murphy’s Oil Soap but with a brass brush. Finally the grime rinsed away and left a clean surface when dried.

Below are photos taken of the scrubbed stummel back at the workbench. There was darkening of the briar around the rim, front and back. The wood in these areas seemed thick and solid enough for me to proceed and not throw the entire stummel into the dust bin.

To be sure of the integrity of the briar I needed to top the bowl quite a bit. The front edge was several millimeters lower than the sides. This was done using 220 sand paper laid flat on a countertop. A circular motion was used with the stummel being rotated in hand every few circles to keep the pressure and sanding even.

It appeared as though someone had tried to sand the charred wood from the front of the rim at some prior time. This had removed the factory texturing leaving a smoothed and darkened surface.

The topping of the rim did achieve a flat rim though a shorter stummel with a pronounced forward cant.

Not wanting to remove any more briar than absolutely necessary, I stopped sanding. The inside edge of the rin would be beveled as the pipe was originally made. Before this beveling, I wanted to address the filling of the charred material of the tobacco chamber. I had previously chatted with a fellow restorer about a “mortar” that he had used. The ingredients were plaster of paris (POP), charcoal powder and salt. In thinking about these materials I did not think that the charcoal dust was anything other than a coloring agent and it wouldn’t be strengthening the chemical bonds of the POP. If anything it would weaken the crystalline lattice of the calcium sulfate hemihydrate (chemical name of POP when hardened). I opted to try POP in this instance due to the its properties:

“There are two main properties of Plaster of Paris:
- Non-flammable:
- Non-combustible
Plaster of Paris is non-flammable as well as non-combustible as it has a low chemical reactivity. In extreme conditions, it also acts as an oxidizing agent. Plaster of Paris has fire resistance quality and its material is ideal for heat insulation. The material does not shrink when it sets. Hence, there are no cracks on the surface of the dry Plaster of Paris. At high temperatures, the plaster of Paris also decomposes and becomes toxic oxides.” (https://www.vedantu.com/jee-main/chemistry-plaster-of-paris)

The “toxic oxides” would be sulfur oxides. POP can withstand temperatures of 1200F (650C) without decomposing. A typical pipe will be combusting tobacco at 500-900F (260-482C) well below this threshold. (https://cameochemicals.noaa.gov/chemical/25054)

The POP powder was mixed with tap water as per product instructions. It was then applied to the interior of the tobacco chamber in an even coating using a wood splint. A pipe cleaner was used in the airway to prevent the POP from blocking it.

While the POP was setting-up I began working on re-texturing the stummel. I used a Dremel rotary tool with the bit shown in the below photo. I tried to carve irregular sized and shaped indentations to the surface of the stummel where they had been worn away.

The POP had begun to harden. While it was still soft enough to mold, I used the PipNet and the #3 blades to carve an even hole for the tobacco chamber. This newly surfaced chamber was smoothed with my finger wetted with water.

While still damp, I emptied a capsule of activated carbon powder (charcoal) into the tobacco chamber, plugged it with my palm and shook the stummel vigorously. The excess was dumped out aht I blew through the pipe to remove the remaining dust. The POP was allowed to dry for another 15 minutes.

With the stummel now re-textured it needed to be dyed. According to the Savinelly website the original dye or stain was a “natural burgundy color”. I did not have a natural burgundy dye so I used black. The black Fiebing’s Leather dye was applied with a folded pipe cleaner and flamed with a disposable lighter.

I then wiped the stummel dry with a paper towel. I was not concerned with waiting for a certain amount of time for the dye to dry or set. I was just wanting the dye to stain the textured indentations darker than the raised surfaces.

I returned the stummel to the workbench where I wiped the stummel with several make-up pads wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol to remove excess dye.

The stummel was then sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge. This removed the black dyed briar surface revealing.

The sanding could not completely lighten the previously charred briar at the front, back and around the rim.

The stummel was lightly sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 1500-3500. The stummel was wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad between sponges. I then micro-meshed the stummel with the 40000-12000 micro-mesh pads. I again wiped the stummel with an alcohol wetted make-up pad between pads.

I then applied a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm to the stummel and let it sit for 30 minutes.

30 minutes later the excess balm was wiped away using the inside of a cotton athletic sock. The terry cloth did a fine job of getting into the textured surface and made the stummel look better than it had in many years.

With the stummel looking very nice it needed a stem to go with it. I taped the shank with painters tape to protect it from my sanding.

I then sanded the stem with a sequence of sanding sponges from 1000-3500. Between sponges I rubbed mineral oil onto the stem and wiped away the excess oil with a paper towel.

Once finished with the sanding sponges I used micro-mesh pads 4000-12000 in sequence. Between each of these pads I applied a drop of Obsidian Oil, rubbed it onto the stem with my finger and wiped the stem with a paper towel.

I polished the stem with Before and After Fine polish using a soft cotton cloth.

The last polishing was done with Before and After Extra Fine polish using the same soft cotton cloth. Although a clean spot was used.

To protect the briar frown the elements I chose to use Renaissance Micro-crystalline Wax. And, no not because I love the smell of it, which I do. I applied it with a finger and a baby toothbrush. The product instructions say that it hardens instantly with a rub from a soft sloth. I allowed it to dry for a few minutes before buffing with a soft cloth. I did this 3 times then took it to the buffer where I buffed it with a clean flannel wheel. The stem received several coats of carnauba wax with the carnauba wax wheel from the buffer.

Overall I feel victorious with this restoration. No, the Roma will certainly not win any beauty contests but it has been returned to serviceable and it looks pretty darn good. I am not pleased with the finish of the stem. The more I think about it, the more I think it was my error in applying the CA prior to scrubbing the stem with Soft Scrub. I think the bleaching action of the Soft Scrub is what led to the discoloring of the black CA. Given, it can only be readily seen with bright light, it still annoys me. The polish of the stem turned out well. I am also rather pleased with my first attempt at re-texturing a Savinelli pipe. Though far from perfect it was definitely a learning process and one that I think deserves far more practice. The pipe feels very nice in hand and has proven to be a shape that is comfortable to clench. I am sure it will be a fine companion for outdoor activities where a more refined specimen might not venture; activities like gardening, fishing, yard work, etc… I do hope that you have found something here helpful in the care, maintenance or restoration of your own smokey companions. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. I thank you for reading the rambling of an old pipe lover.

Below are some photos of the finished Savinelli Roma 677 KS.