A Yello-Bole Chesterfield (1933-1936) Restoration

Written and photographed by

John M. Young

In the past I have written about how I think Yello-Bole pipes are considered the Cinderella of the KB&B line.  Kind of like the homely, overworked but trustworthy step-sister from the Disney adaptations.  When that ugly clearcoat is removed there is frequently beautiful grain underneath also like the Cinderella story, when the heroine gets all gussied-up she is a beautiful young woman.  I guess that makes me the Fairy Godmother or Godfather in this restoration.  Now if I could just get some magical forest critters to do the work for me…

I go through phases.  For a while I was hunting for estate pipe lots, then I started targeting individual specimens of interest then back to lots.  Currently I am in specific targeting mode again.  This one was a targeted acquisition from eBay.  It made the journey from Fleming Island Florida to the wilds of southeast Nebraska and looked to be in very good condition after the travels.  Here are some photos of the Chesterfield before any work had been done.

Bah, they even lacquered the aluminum collar.  Stupid clear coat.

Judging by the faded stummel and the heavily oxidized stem this pipe had been stored or displayed out in the light.  It had not been used heavily as evidenced by the lack of smoking residue in the reservoir and the still visible yellow bowl coating.  The stem also showed minimal tooth chatter.  There was still plenty to do to make this old girl into the Belle of the Ball.

Yello-Bole Background

A couple of reasons I was bidding on this pipe were that I had never resotored a Chesterfield and the “Honey Cured Briar” stamp.  This is a bit more of a rarity than the usual “Cured with Real Honey”.  According to pipedia.org, “Pipes from 1933-1936 they were stamped “Honey Cured Briar” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Yello-Bole).  That provides pretty finite dates for this old pipe.

Back in March I blogged about a Yello-Bole billiard.  In this blog I wrote about the history of the company and will include that here.  Yello-Bole was started as a processor of briar that did not meet the quality standards for Kaywoodie pipes.  I’ll allow pipedia.org to tell the story as a more reputable source than my failing memory.

“In 1932 Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy (KB&B), est. 1851, expanded their programm consisting of KB&B pipes, Reiss-Premier and Kaywoodie as the mainstay brand by introducing the Yello-Bole line. Yello- Bole was designed as an outlet for lower grade briar not used in Kaywoodie production.

At that time KB&B produced their brands in Union City and in West New York, both New Jersey. Deviating from that, Yello-Boles were manufactured by The New England Briar Pipe Company in Penacook, New Hampshire to use this KB&B subsidiary to capacity.1966 Add

As briar was hardly had during World War II, the KB&B Company embarked on a project of domestically grown briar wood, called Mission Briar or manzanita early in 1941. The Pacific Briarwood Company, a subsidiary founded for this purpose, began harvesting the burls growing on the slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. Though this wood is botanically the same as briar form the Mediterranean countries, the smoking characteristics were not quite as good and the project was abandoned after the war.

Was it for that reason? Advertising from the 1940’s pictures the Yello-Bole “Honey Girl”, who gently urges the pipe smoker to smoke the pipe with “a little honey in every bowl.” In fact, honey was an ingredient of the material used to coat the inside of the bowl. It was said to provide a faster, sweeter break-in of the pipe.

In 1952, 101 years after the Kaufmann brothers had opened a small pipe shop in the Bowery section of New York City, Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy Company with all subsidiaries was purchased by an unknown company strange to pipe industry. (At least, the new owner was economical because the KB&B managers had to leave their luxurious bureaus on 630 Fifth Avenue, New York – the Rockefeller Center – for new rooms in the factory on 6400 Broadway, West New York.) This interlude ended after only 3 years in March of 1955, when S. M. Frank & Co. bought Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy, The Kaywoodie Company, Reiss-Premier Corp., The New England Briar Pipe Co. and – of course – Yello-Bole.

From the time of S.M. Frank’s purchase in 1955 until 1972 Yello-Bole was run as a separate company, as division of the parent. Through this period, Yello-Bole, same as Kaywoodie, had it’s own officers, sales force and maintained the production facilities in West New York. These 17 years were probably the most glorious years in Yello-Bole’s history.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Yello-Bole).

“Tips for Dating Yello-Bole Pipes

• KBB stamped in the clover leaf indicates it was made in 1955 or earlier as they stopped this stamping after being acquired by S.M. Frank.
• Pipes from 1933-1936 they were stamped “Honey Cured Briar”
• Post 1936 pipes were stamped “Cured with Real Honey”
• Pipe stems stamped with the propeller logo were made in the 1930’s or 1940’s – no propellers were used after the 1940’s.
• Yello Bole used a 4 digit code stamped on the pipe in the 1930’s.
• Pipes with the Yello-Bole circle stamped on the shank it were made in the 1930’s, this stopped after 1939.
• Pipes stamped BRUYERE rather than BRIAR it was made in the 1930’s.”  

(https://pipedia.org/wiki/Yello-Bole).

Using the above guidelines this pipe represents the 1st and 2nd bullet points:

1. KBB stamped in the clover leaf
2. “Honey Cured Briar”

The Restoration

With the usual clean denim piece placed, I began with the stem on this restoration.  I knew it was going to require a bit of time in the Before and After Deoxidizing solution or, deox, as I like to call it.  I cleaned the airway with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.  The exterior was rubbed with 0000 steel wool in an attempt to remove the oldest of the oxidation.

The stem then received a pipe cleaner to act as a hanger and handle for lowering it into the deox.  I left the stem soaking for 2-2.5 hours.

During the deox time I turned my attention to the stummel. I began with reaming the tobacco chamber with the PiNet and #2 blades.  The original yellow bowl coating was still slightly pliable and made reaming difficult.  That and the more conical drilling is why the Scotte Stainless Steel Reaming tool was also used to ream the bottom of the chamber.  The Generar triangular scraper had no difficulty scraping it away.  The chamber was then sanded using 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel followed by 320 sandpaper wrapped around a Sharpie marker.

No damage from heat was expected nor discovered.

The stummel was then taken to the sink for a scrub.  The scrub was done with a medium stiff toothbrush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap.  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 numerous make-up pads soaked in acetone.  This removed the clear coat and a good deal of the excess red stain from the briar.  I used a nylon scrub brush dipped in acetone to free the stampings of the clear coat covering them.

The removal of the clear coat revealed 3 old fills which had softened from the acetone.  The old material was picked from the pits and they were refilled using brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust.  

The new fills were smoothed with a flat needle file, topped with a small drop of brown CA then sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

The stummel received painters tape over the stamps to protect them from sanding or polishing in the case of the aluminum collar.

The collar was taken to the buffer where it was polished with red buffing compound followed by buffing with white compound.

The stummel 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.

After sanding the stummel, I worked with the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads.  Between each pad the stummel was wiped with an alcohol moistened make-up pad.

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

It was time to work on the stem.  I retrieved it from deox and allowed the solution to drip from the  stem.

And drip.

And drip.

Finally I used a coarse shop rag to wipe away the remaining excess deox solution.  I like the shop rag as it is rough textured and it makes me think it is helping abrade away oxidized rubber while wiping.

Stimm quite a bit of brown.

Many make-up pads with Soft Scrub later the stem was looking better.  I took it to the buffer and buffed it with red followed by white buffing compounds to remove more of the stubborn oxidation.

The stummel was wiped clean of the Restoration Balm with an inside out athletic sock.  The sock had many white hairs from the local White German Shepherd.  I am not sure if this is a necessary part of the restoration but it seems inevitable in this house.

Tha stem was looking far better after the buffing however I worked it over with the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads anyway.  Between each pad I wiped the stem with a drop of Obsidian Oil.

The last step was to apply several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer.

I am very pleased with the restoration of this Yello-Bole Chesterfield and can attest to it being a very good smoking pipe.  The time honored and proven Peterson system works well with or without the name “Peterson” stamped on the pipe.  The removal of the clear coat allowed the briars grain to be seen and appreciated.  The stem still shows some signs of the heavy oxidation but cleaned-up quite well.  The drilling of the stem is excellent and would make Charles Peterson proud to be imitated so well.  I know Peterson litigated patent infringers early on but am unaware of any litigation against KB&B.  Although patent law in the US allows 20 years of protection from the time the original patent is filed.  That would have made KB&B free to imitate after 1911. 

The dimensions of this Chesterfield are: 

Length:  5.31 in./ 134.87 mm.

Weight:  0.96 oz./ 27.4 g.

Bowl Height:  1.71 in./  43.43 mm.

Chamber Depth:  1.47 in./ 37.37 mm.

Chamber Diameter:  0.66 in./ 16.76 mm.

Outside Diameter:  1.19 in./ 30.23 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 Yello-Bole Chesterfield.

A Gold Medal First Prize Lovat Restoration

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 Yello-Bole Yacht (1933-1936) Restoration

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

Here I go again, making you all read about some of my favorites rather than going out and finding obscure makers to educate myself about the history of pipes and pipe smoking.  But just look at the curves and lines of that adorable, dare I say sexy yacht shape Yello-Bole.  And to think she is 90 years old.  How can that not be of interest?  

Yes, Yello-Bole was considered a second of Kaywoodie but, in my mind, that is like calling Mary Ann a second to Ginger on Gilligan’s Island.  I always thought Mary Ann was way prettier than Ginger.  But what do I know, I like Yello-Boles.  I also think that the pre-Second World War pipes were of a higher quality than those of post-WWII.  The mass production, limited briar and lower quality of briar in general probably all played a role in the decline of quality.  Then again I may be looking through some weird romanticized glasses.  I do need to get to the eye doctor.

Yello-Bole Background

Being a proud member of Generation X, I will refer to one of my previous blogs about Yello-Bole for an account of the brand’s history and the age of this specimen (https://wordpress.com/post/scimansays1787.wordpress.com/3929):

“ Yello-Bole started as a processor of briar that did not meet the quality standards for Kaywoodie pipes.  I’ll allow pipedia.org to tell the story as a more reputable source than my failing memory.

“In 1932 Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy (KB&B), est. 1851, expanded their programm consisting of KB&B pipes, Reiss-Premier and Kaywoodie as the mainstay brand by introducing the Yello-Bole line. Yello- Bole was designed as an outlet for lower grade briar not used in Kaywoodie production.

At that time KB&B produced their brands in Union City and in West New York, both New Jersey. Deviating from that, Yello-Boles were manufactured by The New England Briar Pipe Company in Penacook, New Hampshire to use this KB&B subsidiary to capacity.1966 Add

As briar was hardly had during World War II, the KB&B Company embarked on a project of domestically grown briar wood, called Mission Briar or manzanita early in 1941. The Pacific Briarwood Company, a subsidiary founded for this purpose, began harvesting the burls growing on the slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. Though this wood is botanically the same as briar form the Mediterranean countries, the smoking characteristics were not quite as good and the project was abandoned after the war.

Was it for that reason? Advertising from the 1940’s pictures the Yello-Bole “Honey Girl”, who gently urges the pipe smoker to smoke the pipe with “a little honey in every bowl.” In fact, honey was an ingredient of the material used to coat the inside of the bowl. It was said to provide a faster, sweeter break-in of the pipe.

In 1952, 101 years after the Kaufmann brothers had opened a small pipe shop in the Bowery section of New York City, Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy Company with all subsidiaries was purchased by an unknown company strange to pipe industry. (At least, the new owner was economical because the KB&B managers had to leave their luxurious bureaus on 630 Fifth Avenue, New York – the Rockefeller Center – for new rooms in the factory on 6400 Broadway, West New York.) This interlude ended after only 3 years in March of 1955, when S. M. Frank & Co. bought Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy, The Kaywoodie Company, Reiss-Premier Corp., The New England Briar Pipe Co. and – of course – Yello-Bole.

From the time of S.M. Frank’s purchase in 1955 until 1972 Yello-Bole was run as a separate company, as division of the parent. Through this period, Yello-Bole, same as Kaywoodie, had it’s own officers, sales force and maintained the production facilities in West New York. These 17 years were probably the most glorious years in Yello-Bole’s history.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Yello-Bole).

“Tips for Dating Yello-Bole Pipes

• KBB stamped in the clover leaf indicates it was made in 1955 or earlier as they stopped this stamping after being acquired by S.M. Frank.
• Pipes from 1933-1936 they were stamped “Honey Cured Briar”
• Post 1936 pipes were stamped “Cured with Real Honey”
• Pipe stems stamped with the propeller logo were made in the 1930’s or 1940’s – no propellers were used after the 1940’s.
• Yello Bole used a 4 digit code stamped on the pipe in the 1930’s.
• Pipes with the Yello-Bole circle stamped on the shank it were made in the 1930’s, this stopped after 1939.
• Pipes stamped BRUYERE rather than BRIAR it was made in the 1930’s.” (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Yello-Bole).

Using the above guidelines this pipe represents the 1st, 2nd and 5th bullet points:

1. KBB stamped in the clover leaf
2. “Honey Cured Briar”
3. 4 digit code”

Now for the shape number.   This is a four digit number.  Using the shape chart from the Kaywoodie Collector’s Guide I made the following:

(https://pipedia.org/wiki/Kaywoodie_Shape_Numbers)

So there we have it, a 1933-36 Yello-Bole Yacht, oval bit.  And a lovely Yello-Bole Yacht it is.  Well, maybe not lovely now but wait until the restoration is complete…  Speaking of before and after, below are some photos of the Yacht prior to any work being done.

Yeah, I know.  It is kind of hard to see the loveliness in those before photos.  The old girl needs to have some work done.  The restoration will require, cleaning, finish stripping, dent and ding repair of the stummel and stem, oxidation removal from the stem and rebuilding of the stem’s button. 

The Restoration

In my typical fashion I began with a clean (kind of, the stains are getting harder to launder) denim piece as a work surface.

The stem was removed.  The stinger appeared to be quite stuck and was placed in 95% ethyl alcohol to soak.

Reaming tools were assembled.  The PipNet would have to sit this restoration out since I broke the smallest size, #1 blades.  The Scotte Stainless Reaming Tool would suffice along with the General triangular scraper and the 220 sandpaper wrapped dowel.

Below is a post reaming photo of the tobacco chamber showing no damage from excessive heat.

The rim was scraped with a sharp pocket knife to remove any lava and some of the charred briar.

There were several spots where the rim had been damaged by dottle knocking or other rough handling.  Remedies included topping the rim by a few millimeters or filling with cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust.  I chose the latter so as to not change the shape of the yacht’s proportions.

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

Back at the workbench the stummel looked significantly better.  It also showed exactly where the old finish needed to be removed.

What solvent would be best for finish removal?  I usually start with the least offensive and work up from there.  I began with 95% ethyl alcohol on a cotton make-up pad.  It removed the fishing but at a very slow and tedious rate.

Next I tried acetone on a make-up pad.  Much faster results came with this solvent.

A few pads later and the finish was mostly removed.  I did not want to submerge the stummel into a jar of acetone.  My acetone jar is getting pretty dark with finish and stain from other pipes and I did not want to risk darkening the briar of this Yello-Bole nor did I have enough fresh acetone on hand to discard the old and make a new acetone bath.  

A light sanding with a 400 grit sanding sponge followed by a make-up pad with acetone freed the thicker finish from spots.  Notice the stamps still had a heavier layer of finish.

The stamps were cleared of their finish with the use of a nylon scrub brush dipped in clean acetone then scrubbed.  

It turns out that the singer was immune to being pulled from the stem not my tars but by threads.  Cue the Homer Simpson, “DOH!”  Even though the threads look rather shoddily cut and tar filled they cleaned up nicely with alcohol and a bristle pipe cleaner.  The brown dust that you see on the denim is from a light sanding of the stem with a 400 grit sanding sponge.  I wipe the sponge frequently to clean the dust from the abrasive surface.

The airway of the stem was cleaned with bristle pipe cleaners and 95% ethyl alcohol.

Next came the cleaning out of the airway in the shank.  I had a feeling this one was going to be difficult and it was.  I started by pouring 4-5 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the tobacco chamber and allowed it to flow into the shank.  I used a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway with the alcohol.  The alcohol was then poured into a medicine cup.  The first time doing this is sometimes misleading.  It can take a couple of applications of alcohol to get the tar and yuck loosened up and dissolve into the alcohol.  Cotton swabs were used to further scrub the airway.

The process was repeated numerous times.

Feeling like I was making little progress I chose to pack the tobacco chamber and airway with cotton and saturate it with 95% ethyl alcohol and let it sit overnight.

While the alcohol was working on softening and dissolving the yuck.  I set to repairing the stem.  I cut a piece of plastic to use as a dam to keep the black CA from flowing into the airway.

Below you can see the placement of the dam.

The black CA was layered onto the surface of the dam then quickly flipped over to keep gravity from pulling the CA into the airway.  The CA was spritzed with a CA drying accelerator.  Once I had a layer of solid cured CA on the dam I no longer had to invert the stem and could slowly layer additional CA to build up the missing stem material.  One of the keys to successful rebuilding of a stem is the multiple slow thin layer build up of CA rather than a thicker layering.

Once I had enough material built up I removed the dam.  And sanded the end of the button flat.  The newly formed button was then shaped with a flat needle file and 320 sandpaper.

Below you can see the restored/rebuilt stem with a coat of mineral oil.  The Stummel had sat for over 12 hours and the cotton was now mostly dry.

I removed the cotton from the chamber and airway and resumed my cleaning with alcohol scrubbing.

For a more abrasive approach I started using two bristle pipe cleaners folded over (4 pipe cleaners in thickness).  This allowed me to more forcefully scrub the airway.  After many more repetitions of the alcohol- scrub-alcohol-scrub the airway was finally cleaned.

All of that scrubbing had an unintended consequence – the stem was now too loose.  To remedy this I applied a small drop of black CA to two sides of the tenon.  I used a paint brush to evenly spread the CA over the tenon, “painting” it in a light coat of black CA.

Once cured the back CA was sanded using a 400 grit sanding sponge until the fit was perfect.

The next task was to repair the damage around the rim of the stummel.  There were several dents which required a drop of brown CA in the dent then a pinch of briar dust pressed into the CA wetted depression.  A second small drop of CA was then added to the briar dust surface of the fill.  This allowed the CA to fuse the briar dust into a solid mass of fill material which could then be shaped and sanded.

The fills using CA and briar dust are dark brown in color.  To minimize their appearance and to enhance the briar grain, I decided to contrast stain or dye the stummel with Fiebing’s Leather Dye in black.  I taped over the stampings to keep as much of the black dye as possible from the stamp areas.

The dying gear was assembled. 

The stummel was coated with the black Fiebing’s Leather Dye then flamed with the disposable lighter to burn off the alcohol solvent of the dye.  This also helps to set the dye into the briar.  I then used 70% isopropyl alcohol to rinse the entire stummel over the sink.  

Returning to the workbench I used make-up pads wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol to wipe/scrub as much of the black dye from the stummel as I could.

The stummel was then sanded with a 320 sanding sponge followed by sanding with a 400 grit sanding sponge.  Below are three photos of the results of the black contrast dye after being sanded.

The stem and stummel were sanded together with the series of sanding sponges from the 600-3500 sponges.  The stummel was wiped with a make-up pad moistened with alcohol.between each sponge.  The stem had a light coat of mineral oil applied by fingertip then wiped with a paper towel between each sponge.

After the sanding sponges the pipe was further polished using micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000.  The stummel was wiped with a make-up pad moistened with alcohol.between each pad.  The stem had a drop of Obsidian Oil applied by fingertip then wiped with a paper towel between each pad.

The stem and stummel were then given a coat of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for an hour.

An hour later the Restoration Balm excess was wiped from the pipe using an inside-out athletic sock.

The pipe was then taken to the buffer where it was given several coats of carnauba wax with the buffing wheel.

I am very pleased with the restoration of this Yello-Bole yacht.  I can also report that it is a very good smoking little pipe.  This one will be going into my personal collection.  I think the contrast staining accentuated the briar grain beautifully.  The stem repair also went well and though not completely invisible is only noticeable under close scrutiny.  This old Yello-bole should be in service for another 90 years and will hopefully amaze someone in the early 2110s.

The dimensions of this yacht are: 

• Length:  5.31 in./ 134.87 mm.
• Weight:  0.96 oz./ 27.4 g.
• Bowl Height:  1.71 in./  43.43 mm.
• Chamber Depth:  1.47 in./ 37.37 mm.
• Chamber Diameter:  0.66 in./ 16.76 mm.
• Outside Diameter:  1.19 in./ 30.23 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 Yello-Bole Yacht

.

A Two Kings Billiard Restoration

Photographed and written by 

John M. Young

This pipe is an enigma.  The shank is stamped with MADE IN ThE  over REPUBLIC over OF IRELAND.  I will refer to this stamp as MITROI from here on.

The stamp above is faint and this was taken prior to the cleaning or any restoration work.  The only pipes that I know of that bear a stamp like this are Peterson pipes.  It was for this reason that this pipe was purchased from eBay.  There was another pipe in the lot and it was a cute little GUILDHALL apple shape.

If you have followed this blog for a while you may have picked up on the fact that I am a big fan of Marxman, Dr Grabow Westbrook and Peterson Pipes.  The number of Peterson I own far exceeds their representation in the blogs due to the fact that I have been restoring pipes for several years and only been blogging about restorations since the end of October of 2023.  Most of the Petersons had been restored long before I started blogging. Perhaps I shall start to make them the subjects of the blog in the future.  Below are some photos of the object of my confusion prior to having any work done.

Two Kings Background

I am not sure why I made the above bold.  There is nothing on Two Kings.  Nothing on pipedia,org, pipephil.eu, Google search, Google images, nothing.  I am pretty sure that this pipe may evaporate at any second leaving the only record of its existence in these photos.

So, what does one do when facing questions about all things MITROI?  Email Mark Irwin, of course.  Mark is one of the authors of the great Peterson Pipe book.  

(Available at https://www.smokingpipes.com/accessories/books/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=471478)

The below is an email exchange I had with Mark Irwin.

Me:  “I’m looking forward to reading the X Pipe.  Congrats on that by the way.  I’m emailing you with a question:  What have I found?  I recently picked up a TWO KINGS (left shank stamp) with MADE IN THE over REPUBLIC over OF IRELAND.  The stamps are light and dirty, as I’ve not started the restoration yet.  The dimensions of the pipe are:

• Length:  5.99 in./ 152.15 mm.
• Weight:  1.54 oz./ 43.9 g.
• Bowl Height:  2.01 in./  51.05 mm.
• Chamber Depth:  1.65 in./ 42.00 mm.
• Chamber Diameter:  0.78 in./ 19.81 mm.
• Outside Diameter:  1.50 in./ 38.10 mm.

All fit within the range of a 105. Have you ever heard of “Two Kings”. I cannot find anything on it.

(I included some photos of the Two Kings which you saw above.)

Thank you for you time,

John”

(Personal email)

Mark Irwin’s reply:

“Hi John,

I suspect the TWO KINGS is similar to the B.P.L. pipes, i.e., someone connected to K&P was buying stummels already stamped with the MITROI, then stamping their own brand. You can read about B.P.L. pipes at the blog.  I agree, this looks like a 105.

Best,

Mark” 

(Personal email)

For those of you who were as curious as I was about this B.P.L. which stands for Briar Pipes Limited. I have included  the two links below.  They are both to Mark’s Peterson Pipe Notes blogs regarding B.P.L. and a wonderful restoration of a B.P.L. carved pipe by Charles Lemon.

Mark Irwin’s response to the MITROI stamp:

141. The B.P.L. (Briar Pipes Limited) – Peterson Connection

Restoration of a B.P.L.:

142. Restoring an Irish-Made B.P.L. Carved Bent Bulldog

So the mystery is kind of solved.  This is a pipe that was based on a stummel carved by Peterson.  It was stamped at the Peterson factory then sold to an unknown party who then finished the pipe and stamped it with their own product name.  The time frame for this was probably about the same as the B.P.L. pipes; 1970-1980s.  I think I will call this subterfuge a Peterson made Peterson knock off.  I don’t think the descriptor will stick but it was fun to think of.  

Well if I’m going to start imagining scenarios then here goes another:  Late one evening in 1972 a group of Antarctic Atlantean terrorists broke into the newly opened Peterson factory at Sallynoggin.  They were hoping that the move to the new factory had created the confusion needed for their evil plot.  They loaded up backpacks with stummels from the factory floor, careful not to select any stummels stamped with PETERSON as this would prove far more difficult for them to fence.  The terrorists then snuck from the factory and entered their get-away lorry.  It may not have been a lorry but, I’ve always wanted to use that word in a sentence and I can mark that off my “bucket list”.  They sped off into the dark Dublin suburbs.  At the top secret Antarctic Atlantean terrorist hide out they repackaged the pipes and contacted their devious network of underworld underlings each would deliver the MITROI stamped pipes to Tobacconists throughout Europe where they would be stamped with the name of the respective establishment and confound MI6.  The money from this illicit larceny was used as an attempt to reestablish the Atlantean State and end the exile of Atlanteans from their frosty abode in Antarctica.  Yeah, where are the college demonstrators for restoring the homeland of the Atlantean Exiles? 

Side note: Atlanteans were used in the above scenario to avoid hurting anyone’s “woke” feelings about real ethnic groups. No Atlanteans were harmed in the imagining of this scenario.

The Restoration

As usual the pipe received a clean denim piece after the “before pictures” photo shoot.

The first task was to ream the tobacco chamber.  The PipNet with #2 blade did most of the world.

After sanding with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel I could see no sign of damage to the chamber.

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

After the scraping the stummel was taken to the sink for a scrub.  The scrubbing was done with a medium stiff toothbrush and undiluted Murphy Oil Soap.  The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench the stummel was wiped off with a cotton make-up pad moistened with 95% ethyl alcohol.  Some remaining grime and/or old wax was removed.

I started cleaning out the airway of the shank.  I poured 3-5 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the tobacco chamber and allowed it to flow into the shank.  I used a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway with the alcohol present.  The alcohol was then poured into a medicine cup.  I wiped the residue from the brush onto a paper towel.

I used a dental scraper to scrape the airway as much as I could .  Tar removed by scraping reduces the scrubbing dramatically.  Cotton swabs dipped in alcohol were used to further scrub the airway and remove excess alcohol.  I repeated the scraping, alcohol/nylon shank brush scrubbing several times.

Eventually the airway was cleaned.

After the shank I set to work on cleaning the airway of the stem.  Bristle pipe cleaners were dipped in alcohol and used to scrub the airway.  I could get the nylon shank brush into the airway from the tenon end of the stem but not through the button.  I scrubbed with the brush as well.

Once the interior of the stem was cleaned I sent the stem to deox.  Okay, that means that I submerged the stem into the Before and After Deoxidizing solution. (deox).  Normally I’ll leave a stem in for 2-6 hours.  This time I forgot about it and left it in for about 20 hours.  

With the stem in deox, I returned attention to the stummel.  The rim needed a light topping.  This was done with a piece of 220 sandpaper laid flat on a countertop.  I used a circular motion and rotated the stummel 90 degrees every 3-4 circles.  This was done to keep the pressure equally distributed around the entire rim.  The 220 sanding was repeated with 400.

That was a much improved rim.

The extra time in deox had me a bit worried.  I don’t normally forget stems.  My name or what I was doing at that moment, yes, but not stems.  What was I talking about again?  Oh yeah, the stem in deox.  20 hours later I let the stem drip excess solution back into the deox jar.   

I like to use a coarse shop rag to wipe the deox solution from a stem.  It absorbs the excess solution and is a bit more abrasive for removing oxidized vulcanite.

Below you can see the rag stained with brown oxidized vulcanite.

The stem was then scrubbed with Soft Scrub on make-up pads.  This removed still more of the loosened up oxidized rubber.

For a better grip while sanding the stem I taped the shank and inserted the sem into the stummel.  I then sanded the stem with the sequence of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit.  Between each sponge I wiped the stem with a finger dipped in mineral oil then wiped the excess oil off with a paper towel.  When finished the stem was oiled with mineral oil and set aside.

Back to the stummel.  There were a few pits that needed to be filled.  The below shows the largest of them.  These were filled with a drop of brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust.  The CA was placed in the depression, a pinch of briar dust is then pressed hard into the depression.  You can try not to get the CA and briar dust onto your fingers or wear nitrile gloves.  Personally I kind of like the brown speckled fingertips.  The fill was then filed smooth with a flat needle file.  Usually a second application of CA was needed.  This was sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge.  The sponge provided the briar dust and smoothed the fill in the process.

After the fills were finished the stamps were taped with painters tape and the stummel was sanded with the sequence of sanding sponges, 400-2500.  Care was taken to not sand very much on the stem as it had already been sanded.  Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol.  Below you can still see the adhesive from the painters tape around the TWO KINGS.

The final sanding with the 3000 and the 3500 sponges was done without the painters tape.  The alcohol wiping was the same for each sponge.

After the sanding sponges the stummel was micro-meshed with the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads.  Between the pads I wiped the stummel as with the sponges.

A coating of Before and After Restoration Balm was applied to the pipe, stem and stummel, and it was set aside.

12 Hours later I returned and was ready to finish the Two Kings restoration.  

The excess Restoration Balm was wiped away with an inside-out athletic sock.

The pipe was then taken to the buffer where it received several coats of carnauba wax with the buffing wheel.  A final hand polish with a nano-fiber polishing cloth and the Two Kings was ready for the “after” photo shoot.

Overall I am very pleased with the restoration of this Two Kings billiard.  It is a large pipe and feels very substantial in hand.  The shape is typical of a wonderfully muscular Peterson billiard .  The fishtail stem polished up nicely and its glossy black accents the natural grain of the briar.  I am sure this will make someone a great smoking pipe for years to come.  Maybe even one of the descendants of the Atlantean terrorists.

The dimensions of this Two Kings billiard are: 

• Length:  5.99 in./ 152.15 mm.
• Weight:  1.54 oz./ 43.9 g.
• Bowl Height:  2.01 in./  51.05 mm.
• Chamber Depth:  1.65 in./ 42.00 mm.
• Chamber Diameter:  0.78 in./ 19.81 mm.
• Outside Diameter:  1.50 in./ 38.10 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 Tow Kings billiard.

A Bentley Lovat Restoration

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 Denicotea 201 Restoration

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

I blame Sascha Mertens, a friend in Germany, for my desire to restore a Denicotea pipe.  Okay, maybe “blame” is too strong of a word; I credit Sascha for piquing my interest in the Denicotea brand of pipes.  Yeah, that sounds better.  I think Sascha is even counting the number of times he is mentioned in my blogs.  He really is a great guy and pipe restorer with a sense of humor very similar to my own.

I found this Denicotea interesting because of the stamps. The DENICOTEA on the shank left and GENUINE BRIAR over MADE IN ENGLAND over 201 on the right side matched everything that I had seen concerning Denicotea pipes on pipephil.eu.  The top stamp was very weak, requiring a jeweler’s loupe to read. 

The listing on eBay was for a $9.99 opening bid so, I figured what the heck.  

I knew better to get too excited over an auction that only had two photos of the pipe.  I fully expected the poor darling to have issues that were not visible in the two less than revealing photos.  More on that in a minute.

Background on Denicotea

Pipedia.com has a short article on Denicotea.  I will include it here in its entirety:

“Willy Heineberg founded the company Denicotea in 1932 and began manufacturing and selling smoking accessories such as filters, filter inserts, cigarette holders and pipes.^[1] The company headquarters was initially in Cologne, but was relocated to Bergisch Gladbach after the Second World War.^[2]

Denicotea is actually the name of a silica gel filter, cigarette holders and care products for pipes and cigarette holders.

I still find it a bit confusing as Denicotea seems to be a company^[3] and a brand as well which is operated by COMPOSING-STUDIO GmbH^[4].

Brands

Adsorba

Adsorba is a fantasy series of pipes produced by Luigi Crugnola for the German market.

Aldo Morelli

Aldo Morelli is a fictional name. The brand Aldo Morelli has been registered for Denicotea on February 26th, 1992.^[5]

Depending on the different lines the pipes are made by Cesare Barontini, Gigi or Molina Pipe for Denicotea GmbH.

Stefan Petzuch points out this brand appears to have similarities to the Mauro Cateni pipe brand, in particular they are both fictional Italian brands by German companies, and both have the “HAND CUT” imprint on the stem as seen bellow. This may connect the Aldo Morelli brand to Gebr. Heinemann KG in Hamburg, who had registered the Mauro Cateni brand. Or perhaps there is a connection between Denicotea and Gebr. Heinemann KG, or perhaps these pipe brands simply used “Hand Cut” stems from the same source.” (Denicotea – Pipedia)

Interesting and weird are the two qualifiers that come to mind in reading that.  The four makers mentioned in the article; Luigi Crgnola, Cesare Barontini, Gig and Molina are all Italian pipe manufacturers.  Where does the MADE IN ENGLAND stamp on the example on pipephil.eu or the stamp on the pipe I purchased come in, I cannot say.  I can say that I am not the first person to have little success researching the origins of Denicotea pipes.  Dal Stanton, who is far more diligent in his background research than I, had a French made Denicotea.  He traced its origins to the St. Claude area but not to a specific maker.  Dal’s blog was posted on Steve Laug’s rebornpipes.com site.  Here is the link to Dal Stanton’s blog post:  https://rebornpipes.com/2016/09/29/nice-find-in-plovdiv-bulgaria-denicotea-deluxe-curling-bruyere-extra/

Below are some photos of the Denicotea before any work was done.

I am not sure how I did it but the GENUINE BRIAR  is very legible in this photo.

This is why I had to get the jeweler’s loupe out.

And this photo shows what I was referring to as issues not shown on eBay.  A double shank crack.

Okay, my $10 pipe had some issues.  The tooth chatter, grime, dents and dings were expected.  The shank crack and dottle knocked rim damage was a set of bonus problems.  

The Restoration

I just finished loading all of the photos onto this document in the correct sequence.  I can’t help but feel that for the folks that have followed me for a few months, this is rather repetitive.  I do thank you for your continuing readership.  For those who are new to this blog or to restoration in general, welcome and thank you for stopping by.  This blog will be number 81 since the end of last October when I began blogging.  It’s crazy to think that I’ve restored that many pipes and wrote about them all.  Then I think back to the number of pipes that I restored before I started blogging.  Yikes, I really need to sell some of these.  Oh well.

I began with a clean denim piece on the workbench.

The reaming tools were gathered and put to work.  The PipNet with the #2 bladed struggled a bit with the tight fit and hard cake.  The General triangular scraper was used to open up the tobacco chamber and thi the cake allowing the PipNet to do it’s job. 

After the reaming the General was used again to finish the scraping.  This was followed by the 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.  The chamber was sanded to bare briar and no damage from heat was observed.

Thi rim was encrusted with a deposit of lava.  This was moistened with saliva and scraped with a sharp pocket knife.  One of the many things learned from my father was how to sharpen a knife.  He had worked at Rath Packing Plant in Waterloo Iowa after being discharged from the Army and knew well how to sharpen a knife.  I can’t help but smile everytime I think of him, a high school dropout who later earned a PhD. 

Below is the stummel with a freshly scraped rim.

Next came the cleaning of the airway inside the shank.  I only took one photo of the process.  This makes it look like it was not as long of a process as it really was.  I use a rotation for shank cleaning.  First 3-4 ml of 05% ethyl alcohol is poured into the chamber.  This is allowed to flow into the shank.  I use a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway with the alcohol then pour the alcohol into a medicine cup.  I then use either cotton swabs or a pipe cleaner dipped in alcohol to further scrub the airway removing the softened and dissolved tars.  This is repeated using the same alcohol, if it is fairly clean, or fresh alcohol if it is heavily fouled with tar.  Eventually the pipe cleaners/cotton swabs return less dirty and the airway is cleaned.

With the airway cleaned out I took the stummel to the sink for a scrub.  I used a medium stiff toothbrush and Murphy’s Oil Soap, undiluted, to scrub the stummel.  The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton washcloth.

Back at the workbench I wiped the stummel with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.  This came back stained bright red.  The alcohol was dissolving the original stain and removing it.

A second make-up pad yielded similar results.  I sanded the stummel with a 320 sanding sponge and wiped the stummel with a make-up pad wetted with acetone.  The acetone also was removing red stain.  Additional wipes finally freed the red from the briar and I was able to proceed.

Below is a closeup of the rim damage from careless dottle knocking or perhaps using this pipe to build a deck and pound in several pounds of nails.

The rim was topped using a piece of 220 sandpaper laid flat on a countertop.  A circular motion was used and every 5 circles I would rotate the stummel 90 degree and continue with the circles.  This was done to apply an even pressure and equal sanding to the entire rim.  The outer edge was sanded using a piece of sandpaper inside a plastic funnel to give the bevel while the inner rim was beveled with a 2 inch polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe end cap wrapped in sandpaper.

I then turned my attention to cleaning the stem.  This was done with bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.

Once the airway was clean, I started scrubbing the exterior with make-up pads with a few drops of Soft Scrub.  The soft scrub removed the oxidation from the stem with a good deal of “elbow grease” 

Below you can see the stem after scrubbing and having received a coat of mineral oil.  I allowed the stem to soak in the oil for about an hour.

There is a reason why screw in tenons usually have aluminum mortise and tenons, because they don’t crack when tightened.  Duh.  I really wanted to say that to the designer of this pipe.  Perhaps that is why there is so little information about Denicotea pipes – they just didn’t want consumers showing up at their doorsteps saying ”There is a reason why screw in tenons usually have aluminum mortise and tenons, because they don’t crack when tightened, DUH!”  Wll to repair this cracked shank I decided a brass band was in order.  I checked my brass tubing stocks and found that the 9/16 inch outside diameter (O.D.) tubing was nearly the exact same O.D. as the shank.  I would have to file and sand some briar from the shank to get it to slide onto the shank but it would ensure a nice fit and fairly flush band.  The band had to be narrow to retain the DENICOTEA stamp. 

After filing the shank and checking the fit of the tube I was ready to cut the band.  I slid the 9/16 inch tube into a 19/32 inch tube.  It was a tight fit but this larger diameter tube would allow me to use the pipe cutter without the 9/16 inch tube from moving in the cutter and cutting an uneven thickness band. 

Below you can see the 9/16 slid into the 19/32 tube.  The cutting wheel is at the bottom of the tube.  This technique gave me a nice even 3 mm thick band.

Below is the band close to it’s new home.  At this point the stem was taken to the buffer where I used a rouge buffing compound to polish the stem.  I had not done this before.  Normally I will sand with the sanding sponges then use the micro-mesh pads.  This stem did not appear to need any sanding to smooth easy scratches or blemishes, except for immediately below the button.  The tooth chatter was sanded using the sanding sponges but it was difficult to work between the saddle and the button.  

A fly tying bodkin was used to apply thin cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) along the length of the crack.  The thin CA penetrated into the crack.  Brown CA was applied to the shank and the band was tapped into position.  The excess CA was wiped off with a cotton ball wetted in acetone.  The fly tying bodkin was again used to apply a bead of brown CA around the outside edge of the band filling the slight gap between the shank and the brass band.  Once cured this was sanded smooth.  Below is a closeup of the DENICOTEA stamp and the band.

Below you can see the new band and how it looked with the unsanded/unfinished stummel and stem.

The next step was to sand the stummel using the sequence of sanding sponges from 600-3500.  Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol.

After the sanding the stummel was worked with 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads.  Again between each pad the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol.

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

After 30 minutes the stummel was wiped of the excess balm with an inside out cotton athletic sock.

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

Overall I was very pleased with the restoration of this Denicotea 201.  The draw is very open and feels like it is meant to have a filter, yet there is nowhere to place a filter.  The briar grain is very nice showing some flame grain on the front and back with great bird’s eyes on the left.  The band turned out as well as I think it could have.  The shank crack is still very visible on the right side.  Since the crack runs through the stampings I could see no way to fill the crack while retaining the stamps.  I suppose that I will have to accept that crack and have faith in the band to keep it from spreading further.

The dimensions of this Denicotea 201 are: 

• Length:  5.53 in./ 140.46 mm.
• Weight:  1.26 oz./ 35.80 g.
• Bowl Height:  1.83 in./  46.48 mm.
• Chamber Depth:  1.55 in./ 39.00 mm.
• Chamber Diameter:  0.75 in./ 19.05 mm.
• Outside Diameter:  1.43 in./ 36.32 mm.

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

Below are some photos of the finished Denicotea 201.

An 1876 Adolphe Oppenheimer Co. (A.O.C.) Poker Restoration

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

No, I am not getting political with this restoration and would greatly prefer you not to associate this restoration with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also known as AOC, an American left-wing politician and activist, who has represented New York’s 14th congressional district since 2019, with a capital D after her name.  I remain a card carrying Libertarian and want the record to show that I do not support Representative Cortez in any way.  That said, this little pipe was probably made 70 years prior to the birth of Ms. Cortez and also owes her no affiliation.  I think that covers the political and legal requirements of distancing myself from the people and parties involved in dismantling the Constitution of the United States.

The original purchase was made from eBay due to what appeared to be two interesting pipes. In the photo below the two are on the left. The middle poker with the orific bit and the orange logo indicating a Dr Grabow Westbrook. Upon arrival this poker was very dirty with grime obscuring the briar almost completely. 

I wasn’t even sure if there was wood under there as I could not see much grain.  The band read, STERLING SILVER but it appeared more like a black plastic.  The stampings on the shank were clear showing what appeared to be a globe with latitude and longitude lines surrounding the letters A.O.C. on the left and LONDON ENGLAND on the right.  The stem was stamped with a globe identical to the shank.  The button was the type I’d seen on pipes dating to pre-1920.  This old style bit is called orific.  Steve Laug did a nice article on “Whatever Happened to the Orific Button?” (used with permission of S. Laug).  Steve says the following of the pipes in his collection “are all older pipes with stems made of a variety of materials – amber, vulcanite, Bakelite and horn. In this group there are 45-50 pipes with this type of airway. All of them come from the mid to late 1800s and the early 1900s, literally another time and place.”

Oppenheimer Background

According to pipedia:

“The Oppenheimer Group was a British holding company, which through the Cadogan company had various pipe brands. It was founded in 1860 by Charles Oppenheimer, along with brothers Adolphe and David, and Charles’s brother-in-law, Louis Adler. They established connections with GBD in 1870. With business interests in Saint-Claude, Oppenheimer bought the Marechal Ruchon & Cie. factory, which from then on had two directors in London (Adolphe Oppenheimer and James Adler, son of Louis Adler), and two in Paris (August Marécel and Ferdinand Ruchon). In 1906, the group built a large factory in Saint-Claude, under the direction of Lucien Verguet, which led to the merger of Sina & Cie. and C.J. Verguet Freres. In 1920, the London factory took over A. Frankau, which produced BBB. Between the wars, Oppenheimer assumed the management of Ropp and used countless pipe factories around the world. In the 1970s, with the creation of Cadogan France, which had the GBD, Chacom, and Ropp brands, the last two being sold later, it separated from its English partner. ^[1] (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Oppenheimer_Pipe)

Wow, I had to read that paragraph several times to wrap my damaged brain around all that was written.  I think the pertinent information to this pipe are the 1870 and 1906 dates.  That would have been times when Adolphe was still alive and directing production.  I am assuming here that a line of pipes with one’s name would occur while the one is still alive.  It would also fit with the existence of the orific button on the stem of this pipe.

Looking closely at the stamping on the silver band the left marks are illegible but the right mark is definitely a capital “A”.  Assuming that the pipe was indeed made in London, as indicated by the stamp, it would be relatively safe to assume the silver stamp would be that of the London assay office.  Below are the London assay date letter associated with their respective years.  1876 is an “A”. 

(https://www.925-1000.com/dlLondon.html)

I think the date stamp pretty much locks this providence of this pipe up.  It is an Adolphe Oppenheimer Company poker made in London England with a silver hallmark stamp indicating manufacture date of 1876. 

I came across a few other interesting tidbits while researching this pipe.  I’ll leave the links for those who might find them interesting.

History of Vulcanite (https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/threads/history-of-vulcanite-article.37354/)

Smokingpipes.com example of an AOC  (https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/england/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=533251)

Pens Pipes and More video of an AOC Bulldog

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MkmBA4-F5c)

The AOC Poker as it appeared prior to  any work being done.

The Restoration

As usual the pipe was moved to the workbench where it was placed on a clean denim piece.  I was most interested in seeing what was under the many years of grime that shrouded the briar.  That would have to wait a few more minutes.

Reaming the tobacco chamber was the first task to complete.  The pipe had been recently reamed so there was little for me to do.

During this process the sterling silver band came loose.  The band was very thin and I thought that it would be easily damaged.

After sanding the tobacco chamber, I needed to rid the rim of the lava deposits.

The lava was moistened with saliva and scraped with a sharp pocket knife.  There were a couple of dents on the rim but it looked good and was free of charing.

Next was the moment I was most interested in, seeing what was under the grime.  I scrubbed the stummel with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium toothbrush.  The lather became gray with grime and was rinsed away with warm water.  I also used a nylon shank brush and a small amount of Dawn dish soap to scrub the airway of the shank.  This was also rinsed with warm water.  The stummel was dried with a cotton wash cloth and returned to the workbench. 

At the workbench the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.  The pad changed color only slightly during the siping.  There was briar under the grime, yay!  The briar also had some nice grain.  The scrub and wiping also revealed a fairly large pit at the bottom of the left side.

The briar grain at the back of the bowl was the most attractive.

I wanted to see how well the sterling silver would look after a cleaning.  The Cape Cod Metal Polishing Cloths were selected for this.  These clothes are moistened with  chemicals which I did not want to affect the briar.  I wrapped the briar with a layer of 3M Scotch tape. And proceeded to hand buff the band in situ on the shank inorder to retain the shape and protect the band.

After a good deal of hand buffing the black tarnish was removed and the underlying silver could be seen.  Some areas of black stubbornly remained.

The pit on the lower left side of the stummel needed to be filled.

The pit was filled using brown cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briardust.  The pit was first picked out using a fly tying bodkin.

A drop of CA was applied into the pit.  I used a dental scraper to scoop a small amount of briar dust and placed this onto the pit and used the back side of the dental scraper to press the dust into the wet CA and into the pit.

The fill was filed with a flat needle file then sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge.

Next the interior of the stem was cleaned using bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.  The surface of the stem was lightly sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge.  After the sanding the stem was coated in mineral oil and set aside to absorb some of the oil.

I then turned my attention to cleaning the airway of the shank.  I used cotton swabs dipped in alcohol to scrub the mortise, then the dental scraper to scrape the tar and yuck (yuck is the technical term for smoking residue and tar) from the shank as deeply as I could reach.  The yuck that was removed was dry and crumbly even after the dawn dish soap and the alcohol cotton swab scrubbings.

I poured 5 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the bowl and allowed it to flow into the airway.  I used a nylon shank brush to scrub the airway with the alcohol.  The alcohol was then poured into a medicine cup.  The color was dark but I could still see through it.  The scrub brush was thickly caked with yuck.

More scraping and using alcohol dipped cotton swabs to clear the shank were used.  Further alcohol-nylon shank brushings were done.  Note the alcohol in the cup is much darker.

More of each of the above.  I started going to the sink and applying Castille soap to the shank brush and scrubbing the airway with that.  The soap was rinsed with warm water then alternated with the alcohol scrubbing.

Even after all that scrubbing with soap/alcohol.I was still scraping crumbly yuck from the airway.

I was becoming a bit frustrated with the lack of progress.  I knew it was progress but I had other things I needed to do.  I decided to pack the bowl and shank with cotton and fill each with 95% ethyl alcohol.  Hopefully the alcohol would dissolve the yuck and allow it to be absorbed by the cotton.

Below you can see the cotton pushed through from the mortise.

Shank view stuffed with cotton.

The bowl was stuffed with cotton.  I figured that 10 ml of alcohol would suffice.  I used a disposable pipette to soak the cotton.

I was close with my 10 ml prediction.  Only about a ml remained in the medicine cup.  The alcohol was allowed to soak for several hours.  

While the alcohol did its dissolution magic, I returned my attention to the stem.  I cut a piece of painters tape to cover the stem logo to protect it from scrubbing and sanding.

First I scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub on a make-up pad.  Surprisingly little oxidation came off.

The stem was then sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 1000-3500 grits.  Between each sponge I would dip my finger in mineral oil, rub the oil onto the stem then wipe the stem with a paper towel.

After the final sponge I removed the tape and used a series of mich-mesh pads from 4000-12000 grit to polish the stem.  Between each pad I applied a drop of Obsidian Oil, rubbed it onto the stem and wiped the stem with a paper towel.

The stem was then polished with Before and After Fine Polish using a soft cotton cloth.

The fFine Polish was followed by Before and After Extra Fine Polish with a clean section of the same cloth.

Several hours later I removed the cotton which was now just slightly damp with alcohol as most of the alcohol had evaporated.  The cotton was brown from absorbing the yuck as the alcohol evaporated.

Alcohol dipped cotton swabs and pipe cleaners finally returned with just a slight discoloration.  A few more of each and the airway was finally clean.

The stummel was then sanded with a sequence of sanding sponges from 1000-3500.  Between each sponge the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad moistened with alcohol.

After the sanding the stummel was polished with a series of micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000 grit.  Between each pad the stummel was wiped with a make-up pad wetted with alcohol.

The stummel was then coated with Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for about an hour.

An hour later the Restoration Balm was wiped off the stummel using the inside terry cloth of an athletic sock.

The silver band was removed and the inside was cleaned with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol.  This band was very thin, slightly thicker than heavy duty aluminum foil.  Care was taken during the cleaning.  The inside of the stem was then polished with Before and After Fine Polish on a cotton swab.

The end of the shank was then sanded with 600 grit sanding sponge to remove and smooth any remaining old glue.  A bead of white all purpose glue was applied to the shank.  The silver band was then slid into place.  Excess glue was wiped off with the cotton swab and the surface cleaned again with alcohol.  Once the glue had set up the silver was carefully buffed with white diamond abrasive on the buffer.   The whole pipe then received several coats of carnauba wax with the buffer as well.

That was a personal record for me.  The AOC Poker was the oldest pipe that I had ever restored.  I am very pleased with how well the restoration turned out.  The briar grain is beautiful; the old stain was preserved and not modified.  The stamps indicating the pipe’s heritage were also preserved intact.  The vulcanite cleaned up well and was returned to a lovely high gloss black.  It was sad that the stamps on the silver band did not fare as well in their battle against time, wear and oxidation.  Fortunately the date letter was legible.  I would like to think that 150 years from now someone will rediscover this old poker and really have an old pipe to restore.

The dimensions of this Adolphe Oppenheimer Company (A.O.C.) Poker 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 A.O.C Poker.

A No Name Canadian Restoration

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

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.

An Excelsior Poker Restoration

Photographed and Written by

John M. Young

Now there is a cute little pipe.  Great traditional poker lines, pretty stain, interesting carvings, comfortable bit, clear stampings, beautiful clear coat – Screeerttttttt (that was the sound of an old needle scratched across a vinyl record).  There will be NO clear coat!  Yes my nemesis, the dreaded clear coat, more annoying than little sisters when you bring a date home to meet the parents.  More annoying than Northwoods mosquitoes.  More annoying than flat tires on the highway, in the freezing rain when you are in a hurry to get to work.  I know what you are thinking, “Hmm, I don’t think this guy likes clearcoat, sisters, mosquitoes or going to work.  I also wonder about his mental stability.”  I say, “Hah, I love my sister (most of the time), I love teaching (though retirement is far more enjoyable), I love the Mesabi Iron Range AKA Northwoods (Hi, Tomassoni family), the flat tires and the clear coat, not so much.

This darling Excelsior came to me as a member of an estate lot purchased in January of this year.  It was not the item of interest of the lot.  I was after the 3 Senlar pipes of that lot.  If you are wondering what a Senlar pipe is here are links to those restorations:  Billiard, Canadian 1 and Canadian 2.  I had been smitten by the little Excelsior poker but it had to wait it’s turn at the bench until last night.  Let me show you what it looked like.

Not quite sure how the White German Shepard got her hair in there.

The pipe was in excellent shape.  I figured the restoration would be a quick and easy affair with the usual reaming, cleaning, deoxidizing and a bit of finish removal and refinishing.   The term “figured” can be replaced with assumed and we all know what happens when one assumes.  You make an “ass” of “u” and “me”.

Background of Excelsior pipes

This section proved more difficult than I originally thought.  I came across an entry for octagonal logo outlines a few weeks back on pipephil.eu.  Fortunately I took a screenshot and saved it into a folder for the Excelsior poker.  I knew that I would eventually get around to restoring the poker.  I then forgot about the screenshot.  When I started researching Excelsior, I remembered seeing the octagonal logo outline but I couldn’t find it again.  When saving the photos for this restoration I saw the screenshot and felt lucky that I had the foresight to save it weeks ago.

The Excelsior has an “E” rather than the “D” as shown in the image below.

(Dra-Duk — Pipes : Logos & Markings (pipephil.eu))

The EXCELSIOR over ALGERIAN BRIAR over MADE IN FRANCE is the same naming sequence that Jeantet used but, that is more circumstantial evidence and block letters pretty much all look alike, making positive identification of the maker inconclusive.

Jeantet has a long history of pipe making.  According to Pipedia.org:

“The firm of the Jeantet family in Saint-Claude is first mentioned as early as 1775. By 1807 the Jeantets operated a turnery producing in particular wooden shanks for porcelain pipes and wild cherry wood pipes. The firm was named Jeantet-David in 1816, and in 1837 the enterprise was transformed into a corporation as collective name for numerous workshops scattered all over the city.  The manufacturing of briar pipes and began in 1858. 51 persons were employed by 1890. Desirous to concentrate the workers at a single site, the corporation began to construct a factory edifying integrated buildings about 1891 at Rue de Bonneville 12 – 14. This took several years. In 1898 Maurice Jeantet restructured the business. He is also presumed to enlarge Jeantet factory purchasing a workshop adjoining southerly. It belonged to the family Genoud, who were specialized in rough shaping of stummels and polishing finished pipes. (In these times it was a most common procedure to carry goods from here to there and back again often for certain steps of the production executed by dependant family based subcontractors. Manpower was cheap.)

Jeantet was transformed to a corporation with limited liability in 1938. By that time a branch workshop was operated in Montréal-la-Cluse (Ain), where mainly the less expensive pipes were finished. 107 employees – 26 of them working from their homes – were counted in Saint-Claude in 1948 and 18 in the Ain facility.

The Saint-Claude factory was considerably modernized by ca. 1950 installing (e.g.) freight elevators. In 1952 the southern workshop was elevated. 80 workers were employed in 1958. The factory covered an area of 2831 m²; 1447 m² of the surface were buildings.

The climax of the pipe production was reached around 1969, when thirty to thirtyfive thousand dozens of pipes were made by 72 workers (1969). But then the production continously dwindled to only six or seven thousand dozens in 1987 and only 22 workers were still there. Eventhough, around 1979 a very modern steam powered facility for drying the briar had been installed in the factory’s roofed yard.

Yves Grenard, formerly Jeantet’s chief designer and a great cousin of Pierre Comoy, had taken over the management of Chapuis-Comoy in 1971. Now, to preserve the brand, the Jeantet family went into negotiations with him, and resulting from that Jeantet was merged in the Cuty Fort Group (est. 1987 and headed by Chacom) in 1988 along with the pipe brands of John Lacroix and Emile Vuillard. Chacom closed the Jeantet plant, and the City of Saint-Claude purchased it in 1989. After alternative plans failed, the buildings were devoted to wrecking. The southerly workshop was wrecked before 1992.

Today Jeantet pipes were produced as a sub-brand by Chapuis-Comoy who’s mainstay is Chacom of course.” (Jeantet – Pipedia)

The pipedia.org article also had an image of the 1980 Jeantet catalog.  

(File:Jeantet 1980 cat.jpg – Pipedia)

From the catalog image we can see that Jeantet is using the octagonal logo outline around the letter “J”.  Likely for Jeantet.  I do not think it is too large of a leap to think that Jeantet used the octagonal logo outline around an “E” for the Excelsior pipe in hand.  With this in mind I conclude that the Excelsior poker is a Jeantet product with an undetermined year of production.

The Restoration

The restoration began as do most with a clean denim piece on the workbench.  This pipe needed to have that stinger soaked for a bit in 95% ethyl alcohol so, that was job #1.

Job #2, see what solvent will remove this clear coat.  First attempt 95% ethyl alcohol on a cotton swab.  Mostly negative.

Attempt two, acetone on a cotton swab.  Success.

That means that the stummel needed to take an acetone bath for 30 minutes.

While the acetone was doing what it does, I started on the stem.  The initial sanding was done with a 6000 grit sanding sponge to remove the light tooth chatter and oxidation.  Care was taken to avoid the logo.

The interior of the stem was then cleaned out using bristle pipe cleaners dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol.  The button of this pipe seemed very constricted.  Not from damage or accumulated yuck (the technical term for smoking residue).  It was just a slightly smaller daft hole than would fit a bristle pipe cleaner.  I had to use Falcon Thin Pipe Cleaners to get through it.  As a remedy I cut an angular piece from an emery board, nail file, and used that to enlarge the airway.

The stem was then scrubbed with several make-up pads with Soft Scrub applied.  I had not noticed how light the stamp was for the logo.  Once the Soft Scrub was not producing oxidized rubber the stem was oiled with a coat of mineral oil and allowed to sit.  The Soft Scrub was abrasive enough to remove the paint and most of the logo indentation.  I hoped that it would be deep enough for some fresh white paint.

The stummel was retrieved from the acetone bath.and scrubbed with an acetone dipped toothbrush then wiped with acetone dipped make-up pads to make sure all the clear coat was dissolved and removed from the briar.

I then worked on reaming the tobacco chamber.  Since the chamber was small I used the Scotte Stainless Steel Tool and the Smokingpipes Low Country Reamer.  

The reaming was followed by sanding the chamber with 320 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.

The removal of the clear coat allowed me to discover three things I had not previously noticed.  One, a lage fill at the end of the stamp and two, a small pit on the base of the stummel and three a 6-7 mm long shank crack.  I decided that there was little I could do for the fill without damaging the stamp and the old fill was secure, so I left it alone.  

The pit on the base was small and probably could have been ignored.  It wasn’t. 

I used thin cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust to fill the pit.  A small drop of CA was applied then sanded with the 600 sanding sponge.  The briar dust on the sponge and the newly created dust from sanding combined with the wet CA to fill the pit. 

The top, rim, and the bottom of the stummel were sanded with the sequence of sanding sponges 100-3500.  Between each sponge the stummel was wiped off with a make-up pad moistened with 95% ethyl alcohol.

I stayed in stummel mode and cleaned out the shank next.  This was done by pouring about 5 ml of 95% ethyl alcohol into the bowl and allowing it to flow up the shank but not out.  I then used a nylon shank brush to scrub the shank interior with the alcohol in place dissolving the yuck from the airway.  The alcohol was then poured into a medicine cup and the shank scrubbed with cotton swabs.  This alcohol shank brush scrubbing was repeated until the cotton swabs came back clean.

Before I started the new band, I wanted to get the stem sanded and micromeshed to ensure a perfect fit with the band.  I wiped the mineral oil from the stem and started lightly sanding with the 1000 sanding sponge.  I was careful to avoid the logo.  I continued with the sponges through the 3500 sponge.  Between each sponge I dipped my finger into the mineral oil, rubbed this onto the stem and wiped it with a paper towel.

 I then proceeded to the 4000-12000 micro-mesh pads.  Between each pad I applied a drop of Obsidian Oil, rubbed it with my finger and wiped it with a paper towel.

The dreaded shank crack.  I am pretty sure there is no such thing as a good shank crack.

This crack needed a band.  I checked my stock of brass tubing.  The 17/32 inch outside diameter (O.D.) brass tube was nearly a perfect fit.  A pipe cutter was used to cut the brass to 0.2 inches or 5 mm. 

Nearly meaning that I had to file and sand a small amount of material from the shank.  This actually made for a smoother fit for the band.   I had to tap rather hard to get it to seat as far back as I wanted it.  I replaced the stem and it too was tight, too tight (I’ll come back to that in a minute).  Normally I would have used a tiny drill bit to drill a hole at the end of the crack to assure that it would not continue but that would have required a fill immediately beyond the band and into the rustication.  I could not see the crack opening at all with the band on and the stem inserted.  Both edges of the new band were sanded to give them a slight bevel to make them less obvious to the touch. I applied a bit of thin CA which seeped into the crack then forced the band into place.  Using a flat piece of steel and a hammer I tapped the band into place.  

Below, you can see there is a slight overhang of the band.  This allowed the stem to slip under the band almost like a double mortise.  The full fit was pleasing to both the eyes and the fingers.  Now, remember when I said I’d come back to the tight fitting stem?  I used a 600 grit sanding sponge to sand the tenon by pinching the sanding sponge around the tenon.  The stem was then rotated.  I checked for fit every few rotations until I got a perfect snug fit.

The logo had been near completely obliterated.  I tried to clean the area of any oil with a cotton swab and alcohol before painting it.

I applied a white acrylic model paint and allowed it to dry.

Using a rigid piece of plastic I tried to scrape the paint from the area above the stamp indentations.  It was no use.  I tried a couple of times to no avail, the stamp was just too light.  I then used the Before and After Fine Polish with a soft cotton cloth.

I followed the Fine Polish with the Before and After Extra Fine Polish again with a soft cotton cloth.

The final steps were to apply a couple of coats of Renaissance Microcrystalline wax to the stummel. 

The label said to apply and wipe off with a soft cloth.   Instead I applied it with a baby toothbrush and buffed it with a clean flannel wheel on the buffer.  I changed wheels and buffed the stem and, staping, top and bottom with several coats of carnauba wax.

Overall I am pleased with how well this Excelsior Poker turned out.  The clear coat was gone and the underlying briar looked great.  The step polished to a very nice high gloss.The new band accentuated the look of the pipe overall all adds a touch of class to the rustic carvings.  The sligh bent to the stem gives the pipe a comfortable balance for clenching along with the light weight.  I am sure that it will be a nice smoking little pipe.

The dimensions of this little beauty are: 

• Length:  5.64 in./ mm.
• Weight:  1.04 oz./ 29.50 g.
• Bowl Height: 1.64 in./  41.66 mm.
• Chamber Depth:  1.52 in./ 38.61 mm.
• Chamber Diameter:  0.69 in./ 17.5 mm.
• Outside Diameter:  1.19 in./ 30.23mm.

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 Excelsior Poker.