Mock – Briar Estate Pipe :: $9.00

My Sasieni Pipe Article

By Murder of Ravens

Connecting the Dots: A Concise History of the Sasieni Pipe

by Stephen P. Smith

A Rare Ad From 1926. Contributed by Anthony Goodman

     Theodore Justin Gage, the former publisher of the much missed “The Compleat Smoker”, called Sasieni pipes a “fascinating collectible, …representing all that is good about classic English pipe making.” And for good reason: the pipes made by the Sasieni company between the years 1919 and 1979 rank among the very best the London pipe industry had to offer. They featured superb wood, flawless bowls, outstanding smoking qualities, and a styling that was uniquely theirs.
Yet for all that, Sasieni’s are among the most underrated pipes on the collectible market, usually selling for far below their real worth. In this, they offer the astute collector a genuine opportunity, whether he or she is looking for a pipe with potential for appreciation, or simply a great pipe at a reasonable price.
However, in order for the collector to capitalize on this, it is vitally important to realize the Sasieni company changed hands on two occasions, and each owner had different priorities and agendas. Not surprisingly, this was reflected in the quality of the pipes made during these different times. All bore the Sasieni name, and yet they were very different pipes.
It is possible to divide the Sasieni history into three eras, similar to Barling. In fact, throughout this article, I will be referring to “Pre-Transition, Transition, and Post-Transition” Sasieni’s. While this may raise a few eyebrows, I believe it will become clear these classifications are actually quite appropriate.
Therefore, it will also become clear a collector must be able to distinguish between Sasieni’s of different eras, as it is mainly the family made pieces made between 1919 and 1979 which are truly desirable to collectors. The dual purposes of this article, then, are to trace the history of the Sasieni pipe, and to enable collectors to judge, with a reasonable degree of certainty, when the Sasieni in question was made.
I. A Brief History of the Sasieni Company
There is a great deal of mystery surrounding the Sasieni pipe, owing largely to the fact there is such a paucity of written information about them, as is the case with many collectible pipes. Even the name of the founder has been subject to debate. One respected source says the founder was named “Joel” Sasieni. Another equally respected source says with equal certainty the name was “Joseph” Sasieni. (A third, rather less reliable source once told me “Joel” and “Joseph” were brothers, but I think we can safely dismiss that.)
An old Sasieni catalog which I came maddeningly identifies the founder as “J. Sasieni”. However, some research at the U. S. Patent Office conclusively shows that his first name was Joel.
{Author’s note: I have since learned that Joel did in fact have an older brother named Joseph, who was not involved in the family business. But Joel, in his obituary was actually referred to as Joseph, no doubt because he was usually referred to as “Joe”.}
Joel Sasieni apprenticed at Charatan, and moved on to Dunhill, where he eventually rose the position of factory manager. Many men would have been perfectly satisfied with such a position, but not Mr. Sasieni. He opened up his own factory in 1919, believing he could improve on some of Dunhill’s methods. Mr. Sasieni was, if nothing else, an optimist.
Things did not go smoothly for the new firm. The factory burned down almost immediately. Apparently undaunted, Mr. Sasieni simply rebuilt the factory and carried on.
One change he incorporated in his pipes was the method of curing the bowls. While the briar blocks were air cured, similar to Barling, Sasieni took this process a step further by “oven curing” his pipes. Each pipe was cured in an oven over a period of six weeks, being removed periodically by a factory worker, who would wipe away the moisture as it emerged from the bowl with a rag, and check it for cracks. The end result was Sasieni pipes (the ones that survived) were extremely dry smoking.
Sasieni was not oblivious to the success Dunhill had achieved with its famous “White Spot” logo, and while he obviously couldn’t copy the logo exactly, he apparently saw no problem with reinterpreting it a bit. Therefore, each Sasieni pipe which came out of the factory had a single blue dot in the stem.
Not surprisingly, the idea of their former employee competing with them using a very similar trademark didn’t exactly make Dunhill’s day. They threatened legal action in both the U. K. and the U. S.  In an initial attempt to avoid a lawsuit, Sasieni moved the one blue dot to the side of the pipe. This unfortunately didn’t do the trick, and only a few side dot Sasieni’s were ever made, which are now extremely rare and collectible.  A settlement was eventually reached in 1924.
So, thanks in part to Dunhill’s patent attorneys, one of the most famous logos in the pipe industry was born. To clearly differentiate his pipes from Dunhill’s, Sasieni put four blue dots on the stem of his pipes, arranged in the shape of an elongated diamond.
Over the years, there has been a great deal of speculation about the “European One Dot”.  The belief persists that Sasieni continued to produce the One Dot well into the Sixties.  Personally, I find this highly doubtful, and many knowledgeable collectors agree with me.
The reason for this is one simply never sees a One Dot with a town name on it, or any other nomenclature that one would expect to find on a post 1930 Sasieni.  I know I haven’t, nor has any of the knowledgeable collectors of my acquaintance.  My personal theory is that some people were confused by the “Claret”, which was a second produced in the Sixties that did indeed have one blue dot on the stem (by this time one supposes Dunhill had simply stopped caring what Sasieni did), but these pipes were clearly seconds, and are instantly recognizable by a dark bruyere stain and a turquoise ferule.
The word “Claret” on the shank is also a bit of a tip off.
The distinctive new logo was an immediate hit in the U. S., where it, along with the pipes’ exceptional smoking qualities, helped the pipe to sell in such quantities the factory had trouble keeping up with the demand. In fact, by the 1930′s over 90% of Sasieni’s production was going to American shores.
Ah, but we Americans are a restless lot. We just don’t know when to leave well enough alone. So enamored had the U. S. market become of the four blue dots, the importer wanted to make sure they could be seen by everyone standing on each side of the smoker. Therefore Sasieni, reluctantly by some accounts, agreed to put four more dots on the right side of the stem.
The Sasieni Eight Dot is now the most collectible of all Sasieni pipes, due to both its scarcity and the fact that, unlike other Sasieni’s, the collector can be reasonably certain when the pipe was made. The Eight Dot made its debut in the late 1920′s or very early 1930′s, and was discontinued during W.W.II due to the inevitable shortages of supplies. Like the Four Dot, the Eight Dot had its logo made by individually inserting rods of blue plastic into pre-drilled holes in the stem, similar to the process used by Dunhill for their one white spot.
This was an excruciatingly difficult procedure, even on the Four Dot, for each dot had to be placed just right in order to create the desired diamond shape, and on the Eight Dot, both sets had to be symmetrical. For all that, it is rare to find a an original Sasieni bit in which the dots are even the slightest bit off. This in itself bears testimony to the fastidiousness with which Mr. Sasieni applied his craft. It also makes it fairly easy to spot a fake Sasieni stem.
Both the Eight Dot and the Four Dot were marketed in the U. S. during the pre-war years, with the Eight Dot fetching more money, even though both pipes used the same wood.
The post war years brought many changes at the Sasieni company, not the least of which was the death of Mr. Sasieni himself, in 1946. His son Alfred (named, perhaps, for his father’s arch-rival and former boss?) proved a worthy successor to his fathers’ business, and the company continued to thrive under his leadership. About this time the company started stamping “Four Dot” on the shanks of the pipes, to further capitalize on the now famous trademark’s prestige. There were other changes in both the shank nomenclature and the dots themselves, which will be reviewed in detail later on.
Through the post war years, Sasieni added shapes and lines. While the Four Dot remained their most famous product, the company also sold lines of “seconds” under various names, such as Mayfair, Fantail, Olde English, and Friar. These were pipes made of good wood, but possessed of some flaw, usually filled with putty. Pipes that were almost, but not quite, good enough to be a Four Dot were sold as Two Dots. I have two of these pipes in my collection. Both pipes are quite striking, exhibiting exquisite shapes and exceptional grain. At first I wondered why they were not Four Dots. Eventually, after long inspection, I discovered each pipe contained one very small filled flaw. In spite of this they remain two of my favorite pipes. However, it is clear Sasieni was determined to put the Four Dot logo on only the most perfect pipes.
Alfred Sasieni continued to run the company prosperously until 1979, when he sold out to another firm. Interestingly, he stayed on in the capacity of a director. At first it seems to have been a harmonious partnership. The new owners started their tenure with a limited edition reissue Eight Dot. This was a generous sized, natural stained smooth pipe which occasionally also had a gold band. Each pipe had a blue string running through the bowl, shank, and stem, affixed with a lead stamp and paper tab signed by Alfred Sasieni himself. These pipes are both strikingly handsome and maddeningly elusive, due to the fact only 100 (or so, accounts differ) were ever made.
This spirit of cooperation between the old and new owners does not appear to have lasted long. Alfred Sasieni believed only vulcanite should be used for pipe stems, eschewing the newer, trendier Lucite. When the new owners, contrary to Alfred’s wishes, issued a new Ten Dot, replete with Lucite stem, it seems Alfred decided he had had enough, and left the firm for good.
The new owners of what can accurately be called the “Transition” firm continued to create high quality pipes using the old wood and methods they inherited from the Alfred days. However, these pipes are not as collectible as the family pipes, and it is necessary for the collector to be able to differentiate between the two.
The new owners do not appear to have retained their interest in pipe making for very long, as they sold the company again in 1986. Unfortunately, this new, “Post-Transition” firm decided to abandon the high grade market place, and instead transformed the Sasieni into a mid range “smoker”, a metamorphosis from which it has yet to recover. The news owners decided to capitalize on the Four Dot mystique by eliminating all “second” lines, and issuing practically everything under the Sasieni banner as a Four Dot. This had the inevitable effect of lowering the overall quality of the line. For the first time, it was possible to find a Four Dot with a putty fill, which would have been unheard of when the family ran the company. Even the “Transition” firm maintained the integrity of the Four Dot line by marketing flawed pipes under some other line.
Ironically, it is generally agreed the two most active markets in this country today are the “high end” and “low end” markets, with the middle $35-$100 range being the most sluggish–precisely where the new Sasieni’s are now being marketed. Fortunately, fairly obvious changes in the nomenclature–to say nothing of the presence of putty–make it easy to spot a “Post-Transition” Sasieni.
II. Dating a Sasieni
No, this has nothing to do with asking the pipe to go out to the movies with you. As I have mentioned before, it is important to be able to date a Sasieni which you are contemplating purchasing. Pre-Transition Sasieni’s, as I will now call them, are obviously the most collectible and desirable, with the Transition pipes being marginally collectible (although the commemorative Eight Dot, when you can find one, is extremely collectible), and the Post-Transition Sasieni’s having little or no collector value at all.
Unlike Dunhill’s, Sasieni’s (and in fact most pipes) do not have an explicit system for dating the pipe to the year. However, by understanding an admittedly somewhat arcane combination of nomenclature, patent numbers, and dot arrangements, it is possible to narrow your Sasieni’s date of manufacture to within a certain era, and sometime even down to a certain decade.
Ironically, the pre-W.W.II pipes are easier to date than the post war pipes, because Joel Sasieni was always fiddling with the details which help to date the pipe. Son Alfred seems to have made some initial changes in the nomenclature after taking over the company in 1946, and been content to leave well enough alone. Sasieni nomenclature changed very little between 1950 and 1979, although the company continued to develop new shapes and finishes.
To begin with, there are three main elements to dating the Sasieni pipe, the patent number, the style of the name “Sasieni” as it appears on the shank, and the Dots themselves. Naturally, there are exceptions to these rules (this hobby would be boring without them), but for the most part these guidelines apply better than 95% of the time. All Sasieni One, Four, and Eight Dot pipes made before W.W.II carried a patent number on the shank, with 150221/20 stamped on pipes destined for the European Market  and 1513428 being stamped on pipes that were to be exported to the U. S. Also, the name “Sasieni” was stamped on the shank in a very florid manner, with the tail of the last “i” sweeping underneath the name forming a shape which has been compared to a fish by more than one collector. This script was discontinued by Alfred almost immediately after he took over the company, due, it believed, to the fact that the original stamps were melted down and contributed to the war effort, so this alone tells you your pipe is pre W.W.II. Underneath in block lettering are the words “London Made”, with the patent number making the third line.
The dots will help you narrow this down further. As we mentioned, the short lived U. S. market One Dot was introduced around 1920, and was replaced by the early to mid 1920′s by the Four Dot. The 1920′s Four Dot is distinguishable by the florid Sasieni script, a patent number, and four blue dots, which are quite small compared to the pipes of post war years. Furthermore, by 1935 Sasieni began stamping pipes, based on the shape, with their own names, which were usually, but not always, English towns. For example, apples were stamped “Hurlingham”, bulldogs were “Grosvenor” or “Danzey”, and panels were “Lincoln”. One rare and interesting variation of this was the large bent, dubbed “Viscount Lascelles”. Even in this soft Sasieni market, these pipes regularly sell for $150 in their rare appearances in mailers.
As mentioned above, the Eight Dot appeared in the late 1920′s or early 1930′s. These too have the florid script and the patent number, and the presence or absence of a town name will help you date this pipe fairly precisely. Although the Eight Dot remained in the catalogue through the war, it was for all intents and purposes discontinued during W.W.II.
Once Alfred took over the company in 1946, these elements changed in fairly rapid succession. The first thing to be changed was the nomenclature itself. In place of the elaborate “Sasieni” stamp of pre war pipes, a simpler, though still script style, “Sasieni” was used. This can be seen on patent pipes which have the small, old style dots.
Soon after, Sasieni enlarged the dots themselves, and they formed an equilateral rather than an elongated diamond. My pet theory on this is the dots were enlarged to make up for the fact there were no longer eight of them, but I can’t prove it. Finally the patent number was discontinued, and the words “Four Dot” were added. The shank thus read:
Sasieni
Four Dot
London Made.
Somewhat later still, this was modified to reflect the finish, e.g. Four Dot Walnut, or Four Dot Natural. All these changes seem to have been made in the years between 1946 and 1950. Therefore a pipe with new style dots and old style stamping almost certainly has a replacement stem.
This system changed little if at all in the ensuing thirty years. When the company was sold in 1979, one of the first things the new owners did was to eliminate the town names from the shanks. The dots were enlarged yet further, and the Sasieni name, though still done in script, was larger, as was the rest of the shank nomenclature, which in all other ways was similar to the Pre-Transition nomenclature. While these pipes are not as collectible as the family made pipes, they were made with care and are high quality.
The nomenclature changed again in 1986, with the sale of the company to the Post-Transition firm. The three line nomenclature was changed to two lines, with the first reading “Sasieni 4 Dot” and the second identifying the finish, e.g. Natural, Walnut, or Ruff Root. Note how 4 Dot is spelled, using an Arabic numeral 4, as opposed to spelling out the word “four”. This is the easiest way to spot a Post-Transition Sasieni, as the new company has used both script and block lettering to spell the word “Sasieni” on the shank.
III. Why Collect Sasieni’s?
There are many reasons to collect these pipes, ranging from the purely monetary to the aesthetic and esoteric. While I personally do not collect pipes to make money, nor do I advise same, the fact remains a high grade, flawless, first quality pipe that currently sells for less than $100, and often less than $50, surely must have some potential for appreciation. No less an authority than the late Barry Levin himself once told me he felt Sasieni’s were severely under valued, but as time went by they would eventually take their rightful place next to Dunhill and Barling, as people came to appreciate the wonderful qualities of this pipe.
There are many theories regarding the soft market for these pipes, the most logical and most accepted of which points to the low price of the currently made pipes. Sellers are often reluctant to price a pre-smoked pipe higher than an unsmoked one of the same brand, and buyers reluctant to pay more.. It is important to remember, though, there is a vast difference in quality between the Pre-Transition and Post-Transition Sasieni’s. The older pipes should sell for more than the new ones, simply because their quality is so much higher.
Monetary considerations aside, there are many other reasons to collect Sasieni’s. First, unlike many collectible pipes, the Sasieni is actually quite datable, contrary to popular belief. The ability to date a Sasieni at least within a certain era, and sometimes within a decade, not only deepens our appreciation of these pipes, it also ensures we spend our money wisely.
Furthermore, there is the company itself. Sasieni was a family owned company, run by people who took deep pride in their work. The firm has an interesting history, with links to two of England’s other great firms, Dunhill and Charatan, whose influence can occasionally be seen in Sasieni pipes.
Most importantly, there is the pipe itself. Sometimes it almost seems as though collectors forget the ultimate purpose of a pipe is to deliver a great smoke. Pre-Transition Sasieni’s fulfilled this purpose admirably, and continue to do so. The old Sasieni’s were renowned for being extremely dry smoking, and even today a well cared for Sasieni will deliver a cool, dry smoke, even though the pipe may be over seventy years old. While Pre-Transition Sasieni’s are usually available only on a pre-smoked basis, occasionally one can still be found unsmoked by the fortunate collector.
On top of all this, the pipe is truly pleasing to the eye. The wood is full grained, usually featuring striking cross cuts and astonishing birds-eye, as well as the occasional straight grain. The Four and Eight Dot, as well as the early One Dot pipes always had clean bowls. Any pipe with even a tiny fill was relegated to the “second” line.
One virtue of Sasieni’s which I rarely if ever see commented on deserves mention here. The Sasieni shape line, particularly prior to the war, has an undeserved reputation for being limited and overly conservative. Yet by 1935 their catalogue listed no less than 50 different shapes! As one acquires more of these pipes one will continually be surprised at the many unusual shapes, which show, perhaps, the influence of Charatan. Anyone who has ever seen the shape knows as the Exeter, which can only be described as a sort of freehand bull moose, will know what I mean.
Besides the Exeter, I have in my own collection a 1920′s One Dot shaped like a clay pipe, complete with tilted bowl and a heel underneath, and a 1970′s era Two Dot, which can only be described as a tilt bowl, diamond shank pear (Sasieni only used the descriptive town names on the Four and Eight Dot series). The Sasieni pipe is quite literally full of surprises. I have no doubt as I continue adding to my own collection, I will discover yet more unusual shapes.
Sasieni was also a pioneer in the concept of “Ladies’ Pipes”. Three styles, the “Argyle”, the “Montrose”, and the “Dorset” were designed specifically for ladies. Unlike many so-called ladies’ pipes, these pipes did not mar the finish with colored lacquer, or have a bowl so small the lady in question could only get a five minute smoke. Instead, they had reasonably sized bowls, and long slender stems and shanks. The “Argyle” and “Montrose” were carved and smooth versions of a Billiard, respectively, and the “Dorset” was a carved oval shaped bowl. Needless to say, these pipes could be enjoyed by anyone who simply wanted a smaller, slimmer pipe, as the finishes were exactly the same as the rest of the Sasieni line.
Finally, there are the dots. This may sound a bit silly to the non-Sasieni collector, but Sasieni collectors know exactly what I mean. Sasieni collectors have a fascination with the striking logo, which is both distinctive yet tasteful. Some would say it has an almost mystical quality about it. Over the years, the dots have changed both in size and color (although many of the seeming color “variations” are simply a result of aging.) Over the years the dots ranged in color from light blue to a vivid sky blue. Many collectors are as enthralled with the dot variations as with the pipe itself!
The delights of this pipe are almost endless. They deliver a great smoke, visual enjoyment, and maybe even the possibility of monetary appreciation. They deserve to take their place next to the other great collectible pipes of England’s recent past, and perhaps, with more understanding on the part of collectors, they will.
IV. Some Acknowledgments
It is impossible to write an article such as this without a lot of help from other people, and indeed, I received a great deal of help from the pipe collecting community, from both the famous and the obscure. It never ceases to amaze me that I could call someone from out of the blue, and, upon identifying myself as a fellow pipe collector, have that person gladly, often enthusiastically, drop whatever he was doing and talk to me about pipes for an hour or more.
An article like this is never truly finished.  Especially since I put it on the blog, it has become a work in progress.  Just when I think I’ve got it all figured out, I’ll talk to another collector, or read another magazine article, or come across some bit of long hidden information, and be forced to reconsider my ideas. Should anyone have anything to add to this article, I would enthusiastically welcome your call. Thanks first and foremost to Theodore Justin Gage, former publisher of “The Compleat Smoker”.  Gage graciously allowed me to quote from their published works, and gave generously of is time on many occasions each.
Thanks are due to Jim Cooke, the Vermont alchemist without whom there would be far fewer estate pieces in our collections. Jim answered many questions concerning the inner workings of the Sasieni pipe, describing in almost torturous detail the steps involved in creating the Eight Dot stem.
Many estate pipe dealers also gave generously of their time. Thanks go to Nikos Levin, Steve Leaders, and Jack Ehrmantraut, for discussing at length with me the current state of the Sasieni market.
Of course, there is the pipe collecting community itself, that legion of relentless individuals who scour the dark places in search of collectible briar. Thanks to Red Coombes, who played a crucial role in helping me verify the very existence of the seemingly apocryphal Ten Dot Sasieni. Thanks also to Mike Reschke, the well known Parker collector who’s also pretty smart when it comes to Sasieni’s. Mike introduced me to Jim Copic, and what amazing conversations those were! I felt like I had hit the mother load! Jim enthusiastically collects not only pipes but hard to find ephemera, and was an invaluable source of information about all kinds of obscure facts, including details of the Sasieni guarantee.
And finally, thanks to the members of the Massachusetts based Sherlock Holmes Pipe Club, particularly the late Col. Don Powers, who encouraged me to write this article when I myself had grave doubts about the project (“Aw shucks, Don! I don’t know nothin’ about writin’ in no fancy magazine!”), and who if fact was one of the people who got me started on the road to collecting Sasieni’s in the first place.
Copyright (c) 1996 by Stephen P. Smith
All rights reserved
Richard Carleton Hacker, The Ultimate Pipe Book, 2nd ed. (1984; reprint, Beverly Hills, CA: Autumngold Publishing, 1989), 234. Quoted with the author’s permission.
Theodore Justin Gage, “The Sasieni Pipe: A Discriminating Collector’s Delight,” Levin Pipes International’s The Complete Smoker Monograph #2, October, 1993. Quoted with the author’s permission.

 Responses to “My Sasieni Pipe Article”
------------------------------------------------------------
 

 christopher gaul February 27, 2007 at 11:07 am

Your article is fascinating and I am very grateful to you for having written it. I’m sure you get a lot of these kinds of questions but I was wondering if you might be kind enough to help me date a Sasieni I’ve had and cherished for many years. It is a rather long-stemmed smooth-briar billiard. The four dots on the left side of the stem are now rather more white than blue. On the left side of the shank the nomenclature (pretty faded) is “Sasieni” (script). Under the name is “Four Dot” and under that, “London Made”. On the right side is the name “MARLOW” in caps. Many thanks for your consideration. Chris Gaul.
Reply

 clint ausburn March 12, 2007 at 11:24 pm

Wow, what a cool article. I was recently given a Sasieni from my girlfriends father (who is a 50+year veteran pipe smoker) as a gift. I was curious about its age not so much its worth. After reading your article it appears to be a pre WWII pipe. It has the described script, London Made, Pat/150221/?0 on its stamp. What I really want to know is what town name or word is written below it. It is slightly faded. It reads: ?OOMPAUL There may be a slight space between the M and P. Any suggestions? Thanks again for the article.
It’s hard to say without seeing the pipe, but I can say that it’s either pre-war or very early post-war. This is one of the rare cases where the shape is not given a “town name” (Viscount Lascelle is another one). Your pipe is a shape known as an “Oom-Paul”, named for Oom Paul Kruger (1825-1904), who fought the British during the Boer War. He smoked a pipe of that shape incessantly, and his name became associated with it forever more. Because of this, Sasieni simply identified it with its already well known shape name.
Thanks for stopping by. I’m glad you liked the article!
Reply

christopher gaul March 26, 2007 at 2:55 pm

Steve, I have just acquired a Sasieni Fantail (smooth billiard size #3) with the patent number “D-170067″ Does that suggest anything as to the date it was made or, at least, a time period? Many thanks for your kind consideration. Best, Chris Gaul.
A patent number usually means a pre WWII piece. Very early post-war at latest.
Reply

christopher gaul April 27, 2007 at 2:48 pm

Dear Steve, I wonder if I might impose on you once more to gain your Sasieni insight? What can you tell me about the Sasieni “Rustic?” I have just acquired two 1930s Four Dot rustics, one a “Westmorland,” the other a “Canterbury.” They have the old Sasieni fish-tail script and four small dots on top of the stems. How might they rate in terms of collectibility (if there is such a word)? Also, were these pipes hand-carved, and might they be similar, in a way, to the old Barling “Quaints?”
I would be extremely grateful hear what you have to say. Many thanks, Chris Gaul.
Any pre-war Sasieni is collectible, if it’s in good condition, and has the original stem. Sounds like you have to really nice pipes there!
Reply

Barry Gault June 6, 2007 at 11:37 pm

Dear Steve,
Great article! I was looking for Sasieni pipes on eBay and ran across a Sasieni Four Dot with the equilateral dots on the side of the stem, the newer Sasieni script stamp, the words “FOUR DOT” stamped, but the 15221/20 pat. no. also stamped on the pipe. Clearly, this is a pipe made after Alfred took over, but the patent number is present. What do you make of that?
To answer your question, it is not uncommon to see the patent number on pipes like this, as it seems as though the patent number was the last thing to go. I don’t know exact dates, but i would guess the pipe is late ’40′s production.
Reply

Aaron August 5, 2007 at 10:30 pm

Steve,
I’ve been researching this pipe I got in a lot all evening and have finally found some answers, I think. The pipe I have has 8 dots, four on either side, and Sasieni over HAND MADE over something totally unreadable which I’m assuming was the patent number, but on the other side there is what appears to be XMEX. The pipe is obviously very old, and I’m assumig it is pre-war, but the dots aren’t blue, they’re yellow to really dirty white looking, but are small (no larger than 1.2 mm) and are in very nearly perfect diamonds on each side. I guess I’m asking is this an original stem and what is the faded word on the other side of teh shank? There is no sort of stinger or tube or anything, but I’m not sure there was supposed to be. I haven’t decided yet whether to clean it up and keep it or sell it or sell it as is (very heavy cake). I’m leaning against reaming if I’m gonna sell it as not to hurt it in anyone else’s eyes.
Thanks for the help,
Aaron Berwick
What you have is a Sasieni Eight Dot. These pipes are fairly rare and quite collectible, and go for quite a bit on eBay if they’re in good shape. “XMEX” is probably what’s left of the shape name. Sasieni identified their shapes by naming them (usually) after English towns. The stem is probably original, as the blue dots often faded to an off white with age. A replacement stem would have new, blue dots, which are often not arranged as well as the original.
-sps
Reply

paul November 3, 2007 at 12:05 pm

Hello I have two sasieni pipes one is an eight dot with floral script pat # 1513428 onther side of shank reads marlow and the other pipe is a sasieni mayfair under mayfair off to the side is made in england and other side is london made shape# 56 what are the pipes ages any other info thanks much
Not much I can tell you about the Mayfair, as they were made for many years, and yours could have been made at any time. Perhaps if I saw the pipe.
I can be more helpful with the 8 Dot. That, my friend, is a great pipe! They are very rare, and very collectible. They were only made in the 1930′s, possibly into the 1940′s. They were discontinued after WWII. Quite a find!
Reply

William Gallagher November 14, 2007 at 10:26 am

Stephen, Thanks for the very informative article. I have a small Sasieni (bowl height 44mm; inner bowl diameter 11mm) full-bent, in a golden colour with a very attractive tight birds eye grain. I detect no fills. The fantail stem is a well-fitted replacement, obviously, since it has no dots. The left side of the shank has three lines: Sasieni (in script), FOUR DOT NATURAL, and LONDON MADE. The right side of the shank has “RUTLAND” and MADE IN above ENGLAND in a small oval. May I assume from the information that you provide that this pipe was produced before 1979?
Kind regards.
You assume correctly, sir. Probably made some time after 1950. Sounds like a nice pipe.
Reply

Bryan Murphy November 22, 2007 at 8:06 pm

I have just picked an estate Sasieni that doesn’t seem to fit your criteria at all. Maybe european?
Bulldog about group 3, one blue dot and blue ring on stem-side. Left upper shank: CLARET / LONDON MADE / BY SASIENI (straight lines, top to bottom). Right upper shank: MADE IN / ENGLAND (football shaped), 97 (right & under ENGLAND).
Any ideas?
The reason your pipe doesn’t “fit” is because it was a second. The Claret was a “second” made primarily in the ’60′s. They’re not as collectible as the Sasieni “firsts”, but they are rare and kind of interesting because they’re so different.
Thanks for stopping by!
Reply

matthew miller December 6, 2007 at 1:08 am

i recently picked up a pipe marked St Andrews in a canted dublin shape with a rustic finish,the shape and finish comply to 1936 sasieni catalogue.It has one blue/green dot on the side and is marked with the number 243.However there is no sasieni mark or number,just a blank space between the name and the number over an inch long.any ideas? thanks, Matthew Miller
Tough to say without seeing the pipe. Dot on the side? It could be actually be quite a find. Sasieni, for a very brief time, slid the dot from the top of the stem to the side to avoid confusion with the Dunhill logo. Evidently not satisfied, they shortly thereafter created the now famous Four Dot logo. Side Dot Sasienis are very rare, and extremely collectible, but again, I’d have to see the pipe.
Thanks for stopping by.
Reply

Mary Reynolds January 25, 2008 at 3:11 am

I have been given a box of pipes that were my father’s. I decided to list them on EBAY as vintage since all of them were well smoked. I was going to group them all together but one was a Meershaum so that made me start reading the pipes.
I found your article by searching for the Sasieni. I read your entire article. So very interesting. My father’s pipe does not fit the descriptions, of course!!! I feel the stem was replaced even though it looks like it belongs to this pipe and looks to be the same age as the bowl. It has no dots. The markings simply state on left-side Sashar (fancy lettering) directly under it states in tiny letters all caps SASIENI MADE. On the right-side it states top line Made in and directly below England then to the right close to the close to the bowl it has 148 or possibly 14B. If there was anything else on the pipe, it was worn off as Dad must have loved this pipe. It was really smoked. The wood looks tiger stripped. Before I sell this, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a fake. I truly hate parting with any of his pipes but no one in my family smokes or would appreciate their value. Thank you for your help.

Hi, Mary! Thank you for stopping by! I’ve sent you an email.
It appears that your Sasieni is one of the many “second lines” that Sasieni produced in those days. I have to admit that I was hitherto unfamiliar with the “Sashar”, but that just goes to show that there’s always something new to learn with this hobby.
-sps
Reply

Dr. Michael Gardner February 1, 2008 at 5:16 pm

Hi Steve,
I need help and can send you pics if they will help. I have a very large straight grain Sasieni Freehand plateau on top of the bowl and end of shank.
Shank is stamped very clearly as follows:
Sasieni (in script)
Four Dot Natural
118 A LONDON MADE
The other side of the shank has:
MADE IN
ENGLAND in sort of a football shape
When I got it, it had a poorly made replacement stem, sort of freehand style.
Do you know when the pipe might have been made?
Have you ever seen one?
What would the original stem have looked like?
Dr. Michael Gardner
Wichita, KS

Michael,
Your pipe was made sometime between 1979-1986. Alfred Sasieni sold the company in 1979, but remained on the board of directors. During this time, the pipes were still very high quality, although they are not as collectible as the family made pieces. But it’s still a very nice pipe.
As far as the stem goes, I really can’t say, although I suspect that the original stem was not remarkably different from the one that’s on the pipe now.
Hope this helps.
Reply

Anthony Goodman February 8, 2008 at 11:51 am

Joel Sasieni was my great-grandfather. The confusion about his name might come from a Jewish family tradition that each child had a Hebrew/biblical first name and an Anglicized middle name which they were usually known by. So Joseph Joel Sasieni was the father of Abraham Alfred Sasieni (my grandfather).
Anthony, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance! Thank you for stopping by!
Reply

Robert Donnelly February 14, 2008 at 11:18 am

Steve,
I have been collecting and smoking pipes for some 34 years now with my main interest being early family era Sasieni’s, and specifically rustics. Although my collection isn’t large by some standards I like to think it does have some nice pieces. I can’t tell you how informative your article was to me and since that time I have been putting together my own personal Sasieni history page based on your excellent article with whatever additional facts I have been able to find i.e, additional stampings, initials, finishes, seconds(which now number 45).I would greatly appreciate it if you could take the time and look over what I have and make any comments. If you could please send me an email in reply to this I can then send you my history.
Best Regards,
Robert
email on the way!
Reply

Todd Platek March 27, 2008 at 4:09 pm

Fascinating article for me, a 2d generation pipesmoker who only recently got seriously into collecting. Thanks! Despite their newness, are Sasieni pipes of the current, post-transition period, good smokers and still made of high-quality briar? Todd
Hi, Todd!
The currently made Sasieni pipes are decent enough pipes, good wood for the money, although they usually have putty fills, which you never saw in the family pieces. In fact, it was my desire to be able to discern the family era pieces from the later ones that started the research which eventually led to this essay.
Thanks for stopping by!
-sps
Reply

rey de rivera March 31, 2008 at 9:33 am

hi sir,
i am selling an 8 dot sasieni in my ebay auction Item number: 370038082280
i would like to ask permission from you. if i could use full or partial excerpts of your blog.
thank you and have a good day.
best regards…Rey de Rivera
I have no problem with you quoting from my blog as long as you give me proper attribution (i.e. my name and the name of this blog), and you do not use my work for any deceptive or misleading purposes (I’m sure you wouldn’t anyway, but I have to put that in there). Apart from that feel free to quote me. Thanks for visiting my blog!
-sps
Reply

Jesse Silver May 30, 2008 at 5:51 am

Hello Stephen,
Great article! I’m hoping that you can help me with dating a Sasieni that I just purchased. I know that it’s pre-WWII, but I’m wondering if you have any information regarding hallmarks that can help me date it more precisely.
The best place to go for UK hallmarks is the Pipe Club of London site: wwwdotpcoldotcodotuk
What I have is a rusticated (spectacular symmetrical sandblast) 8 dot, model #35 with a patent # that reads as 1513428. All markings are crisp. It has a military bit. The sterling cap has the letters JS enclosed in a circle, and three hallmarks in a row: the letter “F”, a lion rampant, and what could be a shield.
Hallmarks are not really my strong suit, and obviously it helps to see the pipe. Furthermore, hallmarks really only date the silver, not necessarily the pipe. From what you’re telling me the hallmark is either from 1923 or 1948. My guess is the cap was added in ’48 after the pipe was made, but obviously I could be wrong.
The pipe is going to need a restoration. The “bones” are good, but it needs a thorough cleaning and the silver cap has split where it was soldered and will need to be mended. Any suggestions regarding a restorer will also be appreciated.
Were it not for the silver work, I could probably do it for you. I’m the person who restores estate pipes at the smoke shop where I work. New silver work is a different matter. I suggestyou go to wwwdotpipesdotorg and have a look around. Sorry I can’t be more help on that one.
Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to email me if I can help you any further.
 
Reply

Todd Litten August 29, 2008 at 4:04 pm

Greeting,
As a new smoker (at least new to pipes)I am constantly searching for pieces to add to my small, yet rapidly growing collection. After reading your essay (very nicely done by the way) I am now convinced that it would not be any kind of collection at all without a nice old Family Era Sasieni. I have found a “Sasieni” that I am considering for purchase, but am a little concerned about its authenticity (at least as a first rate Sasieni as opposed to a “second”). Below is a description of the marking stamped on the shank of the pipe…
“On the bottom of the shank is stamped COVENTRY over BY SASIENI next to shape number 62 next to MADE IN ENGLAND. On the stem is a readable though very light S stem mark. All stampings are crisp, a testament to the gentle handling of this distinctly vintage pipe.”
… if you could please offer any advice to a new pipe smoker about the true identity of this pipe, I would very much appreciate it.
Regards,
Todd Litten
Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I haven’t been doing much blogging lately due to personal reasons.
Your pipe is a second. I honestly don’t know a lot about the “Coventry”, but I do know that Sasieni was not shy about producing seconds. There are many second lines, and I’m sure I have yet to find them all. They are not as valuable as the Four Dot, for obvious reasons, but are often great pipes if you can get them at a reasonable (i. e. less than $100) price. Some people just see the Sasieni name and put on a high price tag.
Sounds like a nice pipe though. I hope you ended up getting it.
Reply

Hugo October 7, 2008 at 8:16 am

Hi Stephen
i have 4 unsmoked 1 dots that i would like to get your oppinion on
Email sent.
Reply

Bren October 7, 2008 at 4:44 pm

 
The Comoy's Focus Group at the Chicago Pipe and tobacciana Fair was a great success and over 30 people attended with some great pipes. Thank you to all who supported it.
This history page is continually updated as new information is found
    I have for many years been collecting pipes made by Comoy’s and have found them all beautifully made and excellent smokers. I quickly realised that there was very little information on the make generally and often the information published was inaccurate. Unlike Dunhills, Comoy's did not stamp their pipes with a date code and therefore I will never be able to produce the type of information that John Loring has been able to do with Dunhills. I hope however that the information that I have gathered will be of interest and use to both old and new collectors of these beautifully made pipes. As a collector and smoker of both Dunhills and Comoy's, I am convinced that Comoy's are just as well made, smoke every bit as well and only lack the cache of the name.
Although there is still a lot more research needed, this will no doubt surface as more Comoy’s are added to the collection or are viewed.  I now have well over 150 examples of pipes made by Comoy’s in my collection, of which 29 have hallmarked silver bands. These together with other dated examples I have seen together with original catalogues have enabled me to considerable flesh out some of the previously published facts.
I have also been fortunate to have had several long discussions with Jacques Cole who was at St Claude from 1948 to 1957 and was factory manager at Comoy’s from 1958 until 1963. Jacques is now retired but is still active in the pipe world being Grand Chancellor of the “Academie International de la Pipe.” I am most grateful to Jacques for allowing me to quote from an article he wrote about Comoy’s which was part of a series on The Pipe Makers (1850-1994). I am also fortunate to have a history of the company written by Louis Comoy in the 1950’s and believe that the history given as an introduction is as definitive as possible.

1902 Comoys
This is the earliest Comoy that I have seen. The silver band is hallmarked for 1902 and the H.C does not have the normal cartouche. The pipe has no markings other than London over Made.
 5 1/4 inches long 1 1/2 inches high

Introduction 
Francois Comoy and his brothers started making pipes (probably clays, boxwood and beech) in 1825 in the small monastic town of Saint- Claude in eastern France. Claude and his son Louis discovered that briar had vastly superior qualities and from 1848 made pipes only in this wood. In 1879 Francois’s son Henri who was born in 1850 moved to London with a small bag of tools, but a great deal of experience. Henri set up a small factory in Seven Dials which is today known as Cambridge Circus. He was one of the prime movers in the establishment of the briar pipe trade in London and is credited with being the author of the appellation “London Made.” He was helped at first by some of his brothers and around 1891 was joined by his two nephews, Louis and Charles Chapuis. Louis took the name of his adoptive parents.. By 1895 the business had outgrown the Seven Sisters site and a new factory was built in Newcastle Place, Clerkenwell. By 1905 markets were being sought in America and the extra business required a new factory to be built in 1913 at 72 Rosebury Avenue.In 1914 the partners Henri Comoy and his nephews Louis and Charles incorporated the business as H.Comoy & Co. Ltd. Before the 1914/18 war Henri was also joined by his sons, Adrien and Paul who were born after his nephews arrived in London. In 1921 Sam Zinberg was appointed Director of Sales for the USA and the House of Comoy was established. Henri Comoy died in 1924 at the age of 74 leaving the company in the hands of Louis and Charles.
In 1929 the company was invited to join Cadogan Investments Ltd. This was known as “The Merger” which consisted of the Civic Company and Oppenheimer Pipes with their associated companies. This merger was formed in order to create co-operation between the various companies.
In 1937 a new, model and splendidly-equipped factory was opened in Pentonville Road to accommodate additional staff of several hundred. The next generation had joined the firm by the time the Second World War broke out. Louis Chapuis Senior joined in 1938 and Pierre Comoy in 1947 after service in the Royal Armoured Corps.
The Second World War was a difficult period for the company, because the whole of industry in Great Britain was turned over to the production of armaments and the war effort, consequently the manufacture of pipes ceased except for a small workshop. After the war ended in 1945 it was an uphill struggle for all British companies to once again get established and it was not until 1950 and the opening of a new purpose built factory in Aldershot that production nearly met demand.
The main manufacturing companies in the merger known as Cadogan Investments Ltd were Civic, Comoy’s and Marechal Ruchon & Co Ltd and in the early 1960’s manufacture came under one management, but the marketing departments continued working independently for a number of years. My 1965 catalogue makes the following statement “And now, we the Comoys of the fourth generation, together with those of the fifth, Pierre Comoy and Louis Chapuis, continue to follow the course set by our forefathers, who would be gratified to see our latest ultra modern plant in Aldershot Hampshire.” Comoy’s remained a family owned company until it was finally taken over by Cadogan Investments during the early 1980’s. Cadogan have continued to manufacture Comoy pipes to the present day and under Michael Adler the Comoy brand is their flagship and efforts are being made to once more re-instate the well known quality of the brand.
The collector of Comoy pipes is really only interested in those pipes made before Comoy was finally taken over by Cadogan in the early 1980’s and I have therefore concentrated on that period. I have also, for the purpose of this article only briefly mentioned some of the other brands made by Comoy’s such as Cecil, Every Man, Town Hall, Guildhall etc, where they can contribute some evidence to help in dating.
Some indication of the period in which the pipe was made can be learnt from the name or grade stamped on the pipe, however the names are not reliable guides to dating unless associated with other factors. It is obvious that Comoy’s often reintroduced the same name at various dates, presumably as a marketing exercise or at the request of their wholesalers.
The Names or Grades.
There is insufficient knowledge at the moment to be sure exactly which of the names used in the 20’s and 30’s were intended as “Grades” as apposed to just names for a slightly different finish or market. I have a beautiful cased pair of small dark “plum pudding coloured” pipes with the name “Par Excellence” from the early 1920’s. The name is stamped below the arched Comoy’s. The name is shown in the same way in the cartouche in the lid of the case. Both the pipes and the case are also stamped Altson of Melbourne & Perth. It may be that the name “Par Excellence” was reserved for the Australian market or indeed just for Altson. An interesting feature of these pipes is that the three piece inlaid “C” is on top of the stem rather than the side. I have not seen this on any other pipe. (Addendum. I have now acquired from my friend Dennis Moore another Par Excellence which dates to the early 1930's and therefore we know that it was indeed a Grade.)
In the 1909 catalogue, it states “we are the manufacturers of the following well known brands: - Comoy’s Prima London Made, Comoys London Made, H.C. London Made, Yomac London Made, Standard London Made.”
The order in which I have illustrated the pipes is not neccessarily chronological because there was considerable overlapping of the introduction and discontinuation of the grades. It is also clear that Comoy's added extra definitions to the grades such as Supreme or Straight Grain if the pipe warranted it.
Prima
This was the top grade introduced in the early 1900’s. Jaques Cole kindly let me copy his beautifully illustrated catalogue dated 1909 which is almost certainly the first one produced by Comoy. It illustrates 96 pipes all with silver bands dated 1909. Apparently pipes were seldom graded during the 1914/18 war because the production effort was quantity rather than quality for the troops at the front.  

1917/18 Prima
H.C in cartouche with London hallmarks.
Stamped London Made.
5 1/4 inches long 1 3/4 inches high.
Note that the Comoy's does not have a tail.

Old Bruyere
I have two Old Bruyeres dated 1921 and a 1931 sales leaflet that states. “Out of every gross of Bruyere pipe bowls made, only 4 are good enough to be called Comoy’s Old Bruyere. At this time therefore it was definitely a high grade. By 1943 it had been downgraded, as it was listed at $7.50, the same price as the Grand Slam and Tradition. At this time the Blue Riband was $35 as was the Meerschaum lined. The Royal was $12 and the Virgin Briar $10. The Old Bruyere was no longer listed in 1965

1921/22 Old Bruyere
9ct Gold band with London Hallmark.
Shape 125
Made in London (Rugby Ball shape).
5 3/4 inches long 1 7/8 inches tall. (Dunhill Group 4) 

Virgin Briar
I have a Virgin Briar dated 1925. On the evidence of the pipes in my collection, these were definitely very fine quality however in the 1931 sales leaflet; the “Virgin Briar” was obviously the main grade below the “Old Bruyere” which was obviously the higher grade. In a 1936 advertisement the “Virgin” was priced at $6. I also have a “Virgin Briar Supreme,” but do not know whether this was a grade in its own right. The Virgin Briar was no longer listed in 1965.

Late 1920's Virgin Briar.
Shape 187
"London Made" (Curved)
Very small 3 Piece C
5 1/4 inches long 2 1/4 inches high. 

Tradition 
This grade was introduced in 1925 to mark 100 years of pipe making and continued in production until the 1970,s.  In 1965 it was priced at $20

1950's Tradition
Shape 4
Made in London over England.(Football Shape)
5 1/2 inches long 1 3/4 inches high.

Grand Slam
Introduced in 1933 with the patented (Patent Number 2001612) metal filter system and still in production until the 1970’s. The early Grand Slams had an inlaid bar on the top of the stem that was composed of two white inserts with a pale blue insert between them. Later this was replaced by the 3 piece inlaid C . I believe this occured around WW2. The “Grand Slam” was priced at $5 in 1936 and $20 in 1965.
Additional stamps on the Grand Slam
In addition to Patent being stamped underneath Grand Slam, the early pipes from the 1930's also had Pat Pending on the underside. Grand Slam pipes also have a * followed by a number on the underside this indicates the size of the filter. I have a shape 309 with *1, a shape 163 with *7 and a shape 64 with *6. Jerry Heifferon emailed me to say his shape 24 had *2. Recently Jerry has seen an Apple Shape 159 with *9. And more recently Regis McCafferty has acquired a shape 441 with *4
Note. I have now acquired some original packets of spare filters and it apparant that the number refers to the size of the leather washer that fits on the end of the aluminium stringer. 

1930's Grand Slam Patent
Shape 309 Comoy's equivalent of the Dunhill ES.
Made in England (Football shape)
6 1/2 inches long 1 3/4 inches high.

Deluxe 
I have one cased pipe stamped with this grade which has the arched Comoy’s and therefore dates to the 1930’s. It was made for “John’s Pipe Shop of Los Angeles” I also have a 1930’s Deluxe which is stamped “Straight Grain. Another in my collection is stamped “Supreme Patent”. ”The same grade is also featured in the 1965 catalogue as a walnut model for $22.50 and also sandblasted model at $20 with silver military mounts. 

1930's Deluxe Supreme Patent
Shape 250
Made in England (Football shape)
6 inches long 1 3/4 inches tall.

Royal
The Royal has always been a high grade Comoy, and pre WW II it was the highest standard grade after the Prima was dropped and before the Blue Riband was introduced.  Priced at $7.50 in 1936.

1930's Royal Comoy's
Shape 296
Made in England (F/B)
Pat Pending stamped across the under surface of the stem.
5 3/4 inches long 1 3/4 inches high.
 

Straight Grain
These two pipes are the earlist examples I have seen stamped Straight Grain. The one on the left is a hallmarked silver banded 1916 Prima Straight Grain and the one on the right is an early 1920's De Luxe Straight Grain. These both have as straight a grain as any "Specimen Straight Grain" I have seen. They are extremely rare.

Blue Riband
This name was a very clever marketing ploy by Comoy’s and it was given to celebrate the record crossing of the Atlantic by the great ocean liners of the Cunard Line. It is my belief that the name was first used by Comoy’s in 1936 to celebrate the crossing by the Queen Mary in 4 days 27 minutes. It was priced at $35 in 1943 and the same price in 1965. Certainly it was a rare pipe and Jacques Cole tells me that they always had great difficulty in meeting the demand for this brand. A catalogue from just after the war states “Of every thousand pipe bowls that are made in the Comoy’s workshops, forty or perhaps fifty will be picked out worthy to bear the Comoy name.” It goes on to say that of these only three or four will be given the name “Blue Riband”. The Blue Riband was the first pipe where the grain was carefully selected, given a dark stain to acentuate it and then finished with an orange top coat. The result was startling and although others tried to copy it, no-one could equal its appearance until recently. 

1950's Blue Riband
Shape 43
Made in London England (Football Shape)
5 3/4 inches long 2 inches high.

London Pride
This was introduced as the second grade to the Blue Riband in 1947 to meet the American demand for a lighter finish. It was priced in 1943 at $25 and in 1965 at $25 then in 1979 at $95

1950's London Pride Extraordinaire.
Shape 309
Made in London England (F/B shape)
7 1/2 inches long 1 7/8 inches high.
This pipe illustrates how Comoy's designated their pipes as Extraordinaire if they are of exceptional length.

Specimen Straight Grain 
I am not sure when this grade was first produced, but it probably appeared just before the Second World War. This certainly was the top grade from its introduction. It is described in my 1965 catalogue as “The rarest and finest of all Comoy pipes. It is so unusual to find a completely perfect straight grain that shapes and quantities are strictly limited” It was priced at $50 in 1943 and 1965. Jacques Cole recalls that in the 1950’s there was a very large bent which was reckoned to be about the” perfect” Straight Grain. It was not for sale but used as an exhibition piece and valued then at £500 

Specimen Straight Grain
Mid 1950's/60's
Shape 250
Made in London (Football shape) over England
Note the Comoy's without serifs
6 1/2 inches long 1 3/4 inches high.

Selected Straight Grain
These were in effect a “Specimen Straight Grain” second, which exhibited some small flaw or sand pit. They were listed in the 1965 catalogue at $15 or $17.50 in Extraordinaire size. 

Selected Straight Grain
1950' 1960's
Shape 290
Made in London (Football shape)over England.
Note the Comoy's with no serifs.
5 1/2 inches long 1 3/4 inches high.

Extraordinaire 
 This designation was given to any pipe that was out of the ordinary in size, shape or grain.  The E/O was introduced in the 1920’s and “Extraordinaires” can be found with no other designation or also stamped for instance “Blue Riband” or “London Pride”. The 1936 advertisement lists the “Extraordinaire” at $13 to $23 and the 1965 catalogue also lists a “Specimen Straight Grain Extraordinaire” at $60. I have one example, but cannot imagine many of these were made! There seem to be two distinct sized pipes that were called “Extraordinaire”.
• The  very large or Magnum sized variety are unique and were given shape numbers in the 800 series - my 1939 panel example is 803 and is 9 inches long with a bowl 2 3/8” high and 1 ¾” wide. I understand that BBB, Comoy and Dunhill made these Magnum sized pipes in the 1920’s and 30’s and that Dunhill purchased the bowls for their Magnums from BBB when they started producing them in 1921. 
• Other Extraordinaires are somewhat larger than a Dunhill LBS, for instance 6 ½” long with a bowl height of 2” and 1 ½” wide. These are given normal shape numbers and are illustrated in the 1965 catalogue.
The designation Extraordinaire was also given to unusual shaped pipes, for instance the pipes that were made for Brasenose College Oxford through the 1920's and 30's. See the one illustrated in my collection.

Comoy's Extraordinaire
Unusually this pipe has no stampings other than Comoy's Extraordinaire, so it is hard to put a date on it, but my guess is the 1930's because of the small sized C.
About 6 1/2 inches long and the bowl height is about 2 inches.

The “Extraordinaire was reintroduced in 1979 as the  “Extraordinaire 1” which was priced at $100 in the  1979 catalogue, which was in a light natural finish and the “Extraordinaire 11” a light two tone walnut finish. These were about the size of a standard Extraordinaire and not as large as the 800 series.


Magnum 
As mentioned above, the 800 series are “Magnum” sized but I also have one pipe that is stamped Magnum with the shape number 802 and is the same shape and size as my Extraordinaire 802. It dates from the 1960’s and Comoy’s may have used this name as a marketing exercise to supersede the 800 series. The name Magnum was re-introduced by Cadogan in the 1990’s but these were not magnum sized.

Late 1960's Magnum
Shape 802
Shown with a Dunhill Group 4 for comparison.
Made in London England (F/B)
Three piece C
7 7/8 inches long 2 1/4 inches high

Sandblast 
I am not sure when Comoy’s first produced the sandblast finish, but have one dating from the late 1920’s. I also have an Extraordinaire 802 which is “Rusticated” as apposed to Sandblasted, but believe this to be a very rare finish.
Sandblasted pipes normally have "Sandblast" stamped below the Comoy's and this is slightly longer than Comoy's and may have serifs. There are exceptions to this as I have several Extraordinaires that do not have "Sandblast" stamped.

1930's Sandblast Extraordinaire
Shape 805
Made in England (F/B)
2 1/2 inch high bowl 

Meerschaum Lined 
Meerschaum lined pipes were produced from the 1930’s onwards and perhaps earlier. I have a large ODA sized Virgin Briar from the 1930’s. My 1959 example has a hallmarked 22ct gold band and straighter grain than any “Specimen Straight Grain”. They were priced at $10 in 1936 and $15 in 1943. M is stamped after the shape number.

Virgin Briar Meerschum
Shape No. 127
This is a very large ODA sized pre 1930 Virgin Briar.
6 1/2 in long 2 in high 1 3/8 in wide

Specimen
It would seem that the name Specimen was given to hand carved pipes. These were always different and therefore unique. Horace (Ory) Jameson who was the well known carver for GBD, was known to have also carved several pipes for Comoy's and the Specimens may have been his masterpieces. Because of their individuality they always comand high prices.
 

 Comoy's Specimen Carved Head
This is a very rare Comoy's carved head of wonderful quality. I have yet to see another! Probably carved just before WW2

Comoy's Specimen
An unusual pipe for Comoy's with wonderful straight grain configuration under a light sandblast. Bought by the original owner through Churchill's Ltd in the 1960's
I have a GBD Unique Straight Grain carved by Ory Jameson that is almost identical.

Exceptional
I have only seen one example stamped with this designation, but believe there would probably have been others. I feel sure that it would have been reserved for pipes of exceptional quality or rarity.

Comoy's Exceptional
This is a quite outstanding pipe and was almost certainly carved by Horace (Ory) Jameson the famous carver who did most of his work for GBD but also produced pipes for Comoy’s in the early 1960’s.

Olympic

Comoy's Olympic
This was probably made to commemorate the 1948 Olympics which were held in England in that year.

Other named shapes. 
There were of course many other names used by Comoy's in the pre Cadogan era, over 400 names are recorded in "Who Made That Pipe" by Herb Wiczak & Tom Colwell. Most of these were given to pipes made for other companies or various seconds lines. In these cases they were not also stamped Comoy's. I have concentrated on, and only list those that I believe were grades or a special production. 
 A summary to help date a Comoy’s pipe. 
Unlike Dunhill who stamped a different number for each year of manufacture on all their pipes, we are not so fortunate with Comoy. Dating the Comoy pipe therefore is far more difficult, however there are certain changes of nomenclature that occurred over the long history that assist in arriving at approximate time scales. These changes include: -

The way that the Comoy name was stamped on the left side of the pipe. 

The way that the “Country of origin” stamps appeared.

 The introduction of and different ways that the inlaid C was formed on the stem.

The name of the pipe and when these names were introduced and or discontinued.
It should also be remembered that as the stamps used for stamping pipes get worn, new ones would have been ordered and used alongside the old ones and there could therefore be overlapping of a different style.
In England from the end of the 13th Century it was required by law to mark silver with an assay mark or “Touch”. In 1478 the date letter was introduced which leads to the three marks we see today. First a lion passant to indicate that it is silver, followed by a mark to show which assay area, for instance a leopards head for London and finally a letter for the year. I have in my collection nineteen pipes with hallmarked silver bands which provide a reasonably accurate date for that particular pipe and therefore a guide for when other nomenclature was used. I use the words “reasonably accurate” because there is always the possibility that the silver bands may have been ordered in by the factory in batches and therefore could have been used up over several months and be a year out of date by the time they were applied to the pipe.
Jacques Cole kindly let me copy his beautifully illustrated catalogue dated 1909 which is almost certainly the first one produced by Comoy. It illustrates 96 different styles of pipes all with silver bands dated 1909. All except 2 are Prima’s and have the long tail, on the “Comoy’s” stamp. The other 2 do not have a tail and are just stamped London Made. I will list below just some of the dated pipes in my collection to illustrate the different nomenclature to be found.
Comoy’s Name

1900 to about 1919. Normally the Comoy’s name will be found in a joined flowing script canted forward, with a long tail running backwards from under the “S” to below the “C”. There are however 2 pipes in the 1909 catalogue where Comoy’s does not have a tail at all.
This pipe is dated 1915 and has an amber bit with screw tenon and the long tail.

 

I also have examples between 1913 to 1919 where the Comoy’s name, is still in the same joined flowing script canted forward, but with a short tail running forwards from the bottom of the “Y” to under the “S”

This is a 1914 Prima Bulldog of large size. Equivalent to an LBS Dunhill. 5 7/8 inches long 2 inches high. London Made.

From about 1917 to the end of the 1930’s the slightly fancy “Comoy’s” can be found stamped in a curve, in upper case script with serifs, apostrophe before the “S” and the “C” larger than the other letters.  Pipes can also be found with the name stamped across the top of the stem as apposed to along the side.
During the 1940’s not many pipes were made, but just after WW11, in 1945 or slightly later the “Comoy’s” stamp was changed from the curve to a straight line.
From the 1950’s, the Comoy’s stamp can be found in three variants.
1. A simple block letter style without serifs but with the C larger than the other letters and the apostrophe before the “s”.
2. A return to the slightly more fancy block letters with serifs and the apostrophe. My 1959/60 gold banded example falls into this category.
3.  A simple block letter style without serifs and without the apostrophe and with the “C” the same size as the rest of the letters. I don’t think that this stamp was used for very long.
“London Made” (Straight Line)
Comoy’s were the first London pipe maker to use this phrase and it is the earliest stamp to be used. It can be found from 1902 or perhaps earlier and into the 1920’s . I have not yet seen it on any pipe after 1916. It can also appear as London over Made as below.

1904 Comoy's
London hallmark for 1904.
H.C in a cartouche.
5 inches long 1 3/4 inches high

"London Made" (Curved)

This would seem to be the next stamp to be used. London is in a curve and Made is underneath curving the other way. It would seem to be used from the mid 1920's until about 1930

Old Bruyere (Unsmoked)
Shape 205P
Comoys arched with serifs and the C larger. over In. over Old Bruyere arched upwards. (R/B)
5 1/2 inches long 1 1/2 inches high

“Made in England” (In Oval)

This is stamped in a circle with “Made” at the top, “in” in the middle and “England” forming the bottom of the circle. I call this the rugby ball shape or (R/B) for short. I have seen this stamp on a Cecil dated as early as 1919, the Old Bruyere illustrated below and then on pipes from the 1930’s

1921/22 Old Bruyere
H.C in a cartouche. London hallmark.
Comoys arched over In over Old Bruyere arched upwards. (R/B)
The C is larger than the other letters and has serifs.
6 1/4 inches long 1 1/8 inch high.

"Made in England" (In Circle)

This stamp is basically the same, but it forms a circle and I call it the football shape or F/B for short. I believe it appears early in the 1930's and continues up until World War 2.

1930's Extraordinaire
Shape 235
Bowl 2 1/4 inches high.

“Made in London England”

This is again stamped in a circle with “Made” at the top, “In” in the middle and “London” at the bottom with “England in a straight line beneath the F/B. I believe this stamp was first used in the export drive in the early 1950’s and I have not seen any pre WW11 Comoy’s stamped in this way.

1950's Blue Riband
Shape 9
Made in London England (F/B shape)
5 1/2 inches long 1 3/4 inches high.

 
Inlaid “C”

“C” was first inlaid in the side of the mouthpiece around 1919. This was a complex inlay needing three drillings. First a round white inlay was inserted, then the centre of the white was drilled out and a smaller round black inlay was inserted. Finally another drilling was made to remove the open part of the “C” and an even smaller black inlay was inserted. This inlaid “C” known as the “three piece C” was continued until the Cadogan era in the 1980’s, however the “C” in the 1920’s and early 30’s is much thinner and more delicate than the one used post war.

Cadogan first changed the “C” to a single drilling with an inlay that had the “C” in the centre and more recently it has become a laser imprint.
 

I have a cased pair of early 1920’s “Par Excellence” where the “C” is on top of the mouthpiece.
Pipe Shape Numbering
Comoy's pipes were given shape numbers in the 1909 catalogue and also names for each shape, but it would seem that these numbers were NOT stamped on the pipes until sometime in the 1920's. The earliest hallmarked pipe that I have with a shape number is 1925. The shape numbers are all 3 digits until after the Cadogan acquisition of Comoy's when some shapes were introduced with 4 digit numbers. The first catalogue that I have showing these is 1979 with the Designer range. No shapes were mentioned in the 1975 catalogue and I do not have catalogues for 1976, 77 or 78, so they may have been introduced earlier. On pre Cadogan pipes additional letters can be found after the three numbers:

M on Meerschaum lined pipes.

P on Panel shaped bowls. ( This may not always be the case as I have now seen a photograph of a non panel Shape 309 with a P)

C on some shapes with curved bits. This does not seem to be universal for all curved bits and it would appear to be mainly on Princes and Bulldogs.

F believed to indicate a "Fishtail" bit.
At the Chicago show in 2007 I acquired an early 1930's Virgin Briar with the shape number 206F and it has a fishtail bit exactly like the Dunhill F/T that was not introduced until 1950.
Finish
Every Comoy from the pre Cadogan era was finished to the very highest standard. Jacques Cole confirms that among other factors contributing to this quality was that every mouth piece was hand scraped to achieve the notable slim bit and that mouth pieces had to be an exact fit no matter which way around they were placed in the bowl. Perhaps this was a dig at Dunhill who placed a white dot on the top of the mouthpiece to show which way up it should be! All details had to be right and quality control was paramount and this ensured that Comoy's were amongst the very best London pipe makers.
There is no doubt that the finish on all Comoy’s pipes was excellent, however one of the factors that make the Comoy pipe so attractive and collectable is the stained finish that highlights the grain figuring. This was introduced with the Blue Riband so successfully and also in the Guildhall series. This accentuation of the grain has more recently been copied by the Danish pipe makers to great effect.
Derek Green  
Updated with illustrations January 2007
Updated February 2008
Further information has been gratefully received from : 
Jerry Heifferon, Jesper Klith, Regis McCafferty, Bob Herbert and other collectors.
References
Jacques Cole – The Pipe Makers (1850 – 1994)
Richard Hacker – Rare Smoke and The Ultimate Pipebook
Greg Pease – Article on the internet.
Comoy’s – Various Catalogues, sales leaflets and old letters.
This history appeared as an article in the December 2006 issue of  "The Pipe Collector", the newsletter of the North American Society of Pipe Collectors. Since then I have added further to my knowledge and been able to correct and add to it. I have also been able to illustrate it with photographs. I am hopeful that readers will be able to supply me with further information or indeed correct any information that I have got wrong. It will therefore be permanantly "Under Construction" 
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Pipe care/cleaning

From Pipedia

Maintenance
Not handy with tools, yet want to restore an old pipe? Rich Esserman wrote an excellent article that may be just the thing:
Try this at Home

   By Rich Esserman, this article was originally published in The Pipe Collector, the North American Society of Pipe Collectors newsletter (NASPC), and re-published here by permission. It's a great organization--consider joining.
   Our fearless Secretary, Bill Unger, sent me an email regarding part of my missive in the Ephemeris on cleaning up an old Parker Magnum I got from eBay. I thought I would expand on this a bit. A favorite actor of mine is Clint Eastwood, and I love many of his Dirty Harry cop movies. One of my favorite lines is "a man's got to know his limitations." I have the ability to solve complex financial problems and issues but change a light bulb...where is that darn instruction manual?
I am not handy with hands, to say the least. I have met many craftsmen who are naturals--pipe makers and collectors alike--who can use buffing wheels, sandpaper and a heat gun and can take a beat-up pipe and turn it into something beautiful. I can't. I probably would wreck the pipe. So I have had to modify traditional methods. Unfortunately, most of my techniques take more time so that it would not be feasible for a repairman to use many of them. One nice side effect of my techniques is that rarely do I change the original characteristics of the pipe. From my viewpoint as a collector, this is important.
Many of the techniques that I have adopted are based upon advice from many friends, including the late Clarence Mickles, "brother" Chuck Rio, Sam Barnett and Mike Reschke, to name a few. I am not suggesting that these techniques are the best or whatever, but they do work, and anybody can use them. Plus, the materials I use are common products that are easily purchased. I also hope that folks will write in other tips so I can learn something new.
Materials Needed :Tom's of Maine Toothpaste--regular (TOMR) and with baking soda (TOBS), baking soda, waterless hand-cleaner such as GOOP, whitening toothpaste (WT), paper matches, clear plastic cups, carnuba wax paste, unscented soap, orange Fantastic spray, masking tape, Q-tips, brushes (small sizes), olive oil, paper towels, cloth, cloth impregnated with "briarpipewipe" (BPWC), Everclear or unflavored vodka, an Exacto knife, tiny drill bits used for model railroad construction, and orange shellac.
Vulcanite stems. Note: all cleaning is done with the stem in the pipe.
Minor cleaning. No matter how careful you are with your vulcanite stems, over time they will discolor or become less shiny. What I want to do is remove the layer of sulfur that has accumulated. So I take a dap of my trusty TOMR and place it on a Q-tip. I rub against the stem in a circular motion until I see the Q-tip begin to get green or brown. I keep doing this until I hear a squeaky sound and/or the Q-Tip picks up no color. Then I apply WT to a Q-tip and rub again in a circular motion until I can see my reflection in the stem. Apply as many times as needed. If there is any excess toothpaste left on the stem, apply a very, very tiny bit of GOOP to the Q-tip and lightly apply to the stem. Wipe any excess off with a paper towel. Then polish up with a BPWC.
Major Cleaning With Tooth Indentations. I really do want to obtain my old pipes with brown or green stems--if it means that the stem has never been buffed. I recently saw an example of a fine old pipe whose stem had been "made shiny." The lip was completely rounded (no sharp edges), the stem had been thinned down and felt very slippery in the mouth, and the over lines of the stem were changed--but it was shiny! This really was a shame.
Let's say the stem of your pipe is dark green or brown and has teeth marks near and on the lip. If the stem has a removable logo like a CP, P (Parker), etc., cut out a tiny bit of masking tape to put over the logo. The first thing I do is get a clear plastic cup and make up my cleaning paste. First I put in a little GOOP, TOMR, TOBS, baking soda, and some Fantastic cleaner and begin stirring. If it is a bit too thick, I put in some more GOOP; if it is really runny, then I put in more TOMR. I apply the mixture to the stem and let it set for a minute or two. Then, using a rough paper towel, I rub off the paste in a circular motion. I should see brown and some green crap (a technical term) on the paper towel. I repeat this until the brown is gone as well as most of the green. After these wipe-downs, I should be able to see some black stem peaking through. Plus, when I put the stem in my mouth, there should be almost no taste.
Let's assume for the moment that there are bite mark indentations in the stem. I contrast this with a gash. Bite marks are such that the vulcanite has been pushed in; a gash is where someone has literally removed the vulcanite by gnawing and biting. I now mix up a different paste consisting of the above ingredients but much thicker, with TOMR constituting say 75% at least. I light a paper match, moving it over or actually lightly touching the bite-mark area for a count of 5 or 6 seconds. I may apply again so that the vulcanite is slightly warm. Then I apply the paste in a circular motion. What I am trying for here is to bring up the tooth-marks while smoothing out the area. The silica in TOMR acts like an extremely fine sandpaper.
I do this as many times as needed. As I am doing this, I am putting the stem in my mouth. I want the stem and lip to feel smooth going in and out of my mouth with no rough edges. For me, I am interested in having the stem smooth but not necessarily perfect. If given a choice, I would rather keep as much of the original bit material as possible rather than sanding the surface down and having a completely flat surface.
At this point, the stem should be turning black but not necessarily shinny. Now you can apply the whitening toothpaste (WT) via the Q-tip. Apply in the same manner as above. Apply as many times as necessary. Using this method, I have been able to get a mirror-like shine on my stems. My whole goal is to remove sulfur and retain as much bit material as possible without changing the original lines.
Lucite Stems. Getting bite marks out of Lucite (Plexiglas) stems with paper matches is very hard. However, I have found that applying TOMR in a circular motion to rough marks will smooth them out, leaving no jagged edges, and make it comfortable in the mouth.
Getting Rid of the Taste of Previous Owner's Tobacco. If you have bought a used pipe, then you have encountered the situation where the previous owner's tobacco interfered with the smoking quality of the pipes. Most of the time, it is the case where aromatics permeate cake. When folks smoke a Latakia mixture or a Virginia, the underlying taste of the aromatic comes through and spoils the smoke. There have been treatments, like the salt or using wine and other alcohol, baking the pipe with charcoal, and so on, but there is a much more simple method.
I have used the following simple method with great success. First, when I get a used pipe, I examine the cake to determine if the cake is a "hard" or "soft" cake. Hard cake is like cement, while soft cake flakes off somewhat easily. To remove the cake, I use the same procedure but am much more careful with the hard cake.
First, I apply either Everclear or unflavored vodka with a Q-tip to the cake. I let it sink in and begin to dissolve. I prefer to use an Exacto knife rather than a reaming tool because I can control what I remove from the cake. I lightly work around the bowl and carve off the cake. If I have to start scraping too hard, I apply more vodka and let it dissolve.
My goal is not to take the cake completely off (i.e., have the wood showing) but to leave on a little of the cake. I also am unconcerned if the cake is completely smooth. In fact, I want the cake to be a little uneven because it will allow for quicker cake development with my tobacco when I smoke it. After the cake is at the thickness I want, I take a dry paper towel and cram it into the bowl. I twist the towel to remove any loose cake.
Then I lay out some dry baking soda on a paper towel. I wet a Q-tip and roll it around in the baking soda. Then I simply scrub the interior of the bowl. Initially, the Q-tip may come out dark. After that, I cram in a wet paper towel, followed by a dry one, twisting it into the bowl. I repeat this procedure as many times as needed. It takes only minutes but is effective.
For the shank, after taking out the stem, I take a bristly pipe cleaner that has been dipped in alcohol and run it through the shank. I use as many as necessary to remove any gunk. Then I use either a wet miniature bristle brush or a regular wet pipe cleaner and roll it in the baking soda. I use this in the shank. Afterwards I use a wet and then a dry regular pipe cleaner to swab out the shank.
Stem does not come off the pipe. Occasionally, you get a pipe where the stem does not come out--basically the stem is frozen. Or the stem really creaks when you begin turning it. The first thing to do is put the pipe in the refrigerator or freezer. (I prefer the refrigerator because it causes less change to the exterior of the stem). After 15 to 30 minutes, begin turning the stem clockwise. GO SLOWLY while turning! You may need to put the pipe in the refrigerator many times. If you turn too quickly, the shank may crack. The record for taking a stem off is over 6 hours, and there needed to be two guys; one to hold the bowl! So remember that patience here is a virtue.
Putting the stem back on. Now that the stem is off, how do you get the stem back on? My preferred method is to carve off a few pieces of unscented soap and then rub a Q-tip in it. Apply the Q-tip to the tenon and/or mortise, covering them completely with a light coating. Insert the stem and twist clockwise.
Shank and stem do not fit flush. Sometimes after you have cleaned up a pipe, the shank and stem do not fit flush, and you can see a gap between the two. Oftentimes this is because the tar build-up in the tenon needs to be cleaned out. I apply vodka on a bristly pipe cleaner and swab out the tar. Occasionally, if the tar is really hard, I take a drill bit and insert in the still damp area (from the vodka) and lightly hand twist. BE CAREFUL NOT REMOVE ANY WOOD. I cram a dry paper towel into the area and twist to remove any excess.
Stem is too loose in the shank. If a pipe has not been smoked for a while, sometimes the stem will be loose in the shank. Oftentimes just smoking the pipe will do the trick, and the stem will tighten up. I may also apply water to the mortise before smoking, and this seems to help the process. If the stem is still too loose, you can heat up the tenon and push straight down. This may widen the tenon. Great care must be taken to push straight down; otherwise you will make the tenon crooked.
Pipe cleaner will not go through the lip area. Tar may build up in the lip area, preventing a pipe cleaner from going through. If this happens, I take a miniature drill bit, insert as far as it goes and hand-turn clockwise. After twisting for a bit, generally the blockage begins to loosen up. Then you insert a bristly pipe cleaner to remove any excess. You may have to do this several times to remove all the tar.
Pipe cleaner will not go through the middle of the stem in a bent pipe. This is a very tricky situation. With a rubber stem ONLY, I may take a pipe cleaner with some vodka and try to dissolve any buildup first. Then I take a very thin paper clip and insert it carefully in the stem. I move the paperclip in and out very carefully. Generally this works, but you must be very careful. First, you do not want to have the paper clip break off in the stem, and, second, you do not want to damage the air hole. That is why I do not sharpen the end of the paperclip
Dull shine on rough-finished (carved and sandblasted) pipes. After smoking a rough-finished pipe for a while, sometimes the entire finish becomes dull or one side of the pipe becomes dull, while the other side is still shiny. Applying carnauba wax or briar pipe wipe does not work. What does work is applying orange shellac. Shellac is a natural substance. It allows the briar to breath and is used by many pipe makers to maintain the shiny surface. Of interest is that one very well-known American told me that, when he first started to make pipes, he could never get his pipe to stay shiny--until he used shellac.
Some folks just apply shellac, but what I do is to mix olive oil and shellac (they mix like oil and vinegar) in a cup, apply lightly with a brush, and sponge off any excess. After the mixture has set, I then take a soft toothbrush and lightly brush over the surface for a final polish.
Dirty smooth pipe. Some smooth pipes have a sticky feeling and/or the grain is a bit obscured. Many times the surface of the pipes is simply dirty. A good washing using unperfumed soap and water with a cotton cloth will oftentimes do the trick. You can then either apply carnauba paste or just use briar pipe wipe to get the pipe shining like new. Clarence used to use a cloth impregnated with silicone. I had been told silicone clogged up the pores of the briar, but I used the cloth on a couple of pipes with no ill effects. I also once tried a carnauba/silicone liquid "paste" that produced a very lovely long-lasting shine. I found no ill effects save on one pipe, where I felt the smoking quality had been diminished, so I stopped using this mixture.
Dents on a smooth pipe. A dent in a pipe is where the briar has been pushed in. This happens when the briar is soft. When a dent occurs, no briar is lost. There is just compression of the wood. This is not the case when the briar gets scraped, scratched or dinged. In this case, there is actually a loss of wood.
To bring a dent back, heat up a screwdriver over a burner on your stove. You want to let the screwdriver lay for no longer than 2 minutes so that it is hot but not super hot. Then completely soak a cloth with water so that it is dripping wet. Fold the cloth over several times and lay over the dent. Then apply the screwdriver over the cloth. You should hear a sizzle and see steam rising. Apply the screwdriver for about 2 minutes and check the area. Apply as many times a necessary.
IMPORTANT. If the dent is near the nomenclature (stamping), be very careful. The steam treatment can greatly weaken the nomenclature and effectively remove it, as it does with the dent. I suggest applying masking tape over the stamping to protect it. However, if the dent is too close, most of the time I just live with the dent rather than taking a chance on ruining the nomenclature.
There are some issues with this procedure. First, the steaming may cause the color of the finish to fade. Some folks things believe you may need to re-stain the pipe. Instead, what I have found to be very effective is to apply olive oil a few times to the effected area. Then I will apply carnauba wax or briar wipe to the area to see if the briar can be polished to a gloss.
Sometimes I need to apply orange shellac to the area with a cloth or small paintbrush. I will wipe down the shellac before it completely dries. This part is a bit tricky, and it may take several applications before I get the finish I like. If things aren't working out, I use vodka or Everclear to remove the shellac finish and start over.
The above procedure also works on Matt-finished smooth pipes that were not meant to be a matt finish. (Ironically, John Tolle and I always remark that we have never seen a GBD Unique Matt finish that is actually matt--they are always polished.) Some pipes do not hold a shine using this method no matter what you do.
Tar on the top of the pipe. When I see a "dirty" top, I want to first find out if the wood is burned/charred or if the area is covered in cake. If I am at a show, I take the oil from my forehead and spread over top. Then I take a tissue and try to get a shine. If the wood is burned, then there will be little or no shine; with tar, the area will brighten up a bit. There is nothing you can do with burned wood except have someone sand it down and refinish it.
Assume the top is covered with tar. I get vodka or Everclear and spread it on the top. I want the tar to become a bit gooey. Separately, I then mix up a combination of goop, Tom's of Maine toothpaste and Orange Fantastic (it should be a bit watery). On carved pieces, I will use a soft bristle toothbrush with the GOOP combination and begin scrubbing on the gooey tar. I will then see where I stand by wiping it off with a rough paper towel. I do this until all the tar is gone (this may take some time, so be patient.) Then I wipe down with olive oil to ensure that the color is back. Use shellac or just carnauba to shine up as necessary.
Smooth pipes are a bit more delicate. I use the same applications as above--vodka or Everclear and the GOOP combination--but I "scrub" down with a Q-tip and a cotton cloth. If the tar is super thick, I might start off with a toothbrush but quickly go to a Q-tip. (Note: a toothbrush could cause indentations in the wood, and then you would have to stea m those out). I never use an exacto knife to scrap off tar because wood may come off with the tar. Then I wipe down with olive oil to ensure that the color is back. Use shellac or just carnauba to shine up as necessary. On a badly tarred smooth pipe this process could be very time consuming, but it is well worth it. Remember that the top could turn out darker than the rest of the pipe due to plain coloring from smoking.
These are but a few of the techniques that I have found to be successful for the less-than-skilled individual. I welcome comments and suggestions.
By Rich Esserman, this article was originally published in The Pipe Collector, the North American Society of Pipe Collectors newsletter (NASPC) and re-published here by permission. It's a great organization--consider joining.
Reaming
After a pipe has been smoked for a long time its cake may become so thick that it significantly reduces the capacity of the bowl. In very extreme cases, an overly thick cake may actually crack the bowl due to differential expansion. Ideally, the cake should not exceed one-sixteenth of an inch (about 1.5 mm) or so. When the cake exceeds this thickness, it should be carefully reamed. Some pipe tools have a blunt-pointed (to prevent gouging of the bowl bottom) knife blade for this purpose. While these will work, it is very easy to trim the cake unevenly or even inadvertently dig into bare wood. Numerous adjustable, multibladed reamers are available commercially, and these will do a much neater job. A favored tool for this task--suggested by pipe maker extraordinaire JT Cooke--is nothing more than a series of short wooden dowels of varying diameters that are wrapped with fine grit emery cloth or sandpaper. Whatever device you choose to use, work slowly and carefully so as not to damage your pipe. The idea is to gradually shave the cake down to the proper thickness, not scrape it out in chunks. If you have more than the usual number of thumbs, you might want to take the pipe to your tobacconist, who will usually perform this task for a nominal fee.
What can I do when my pipe "turns sour"?
A pipe, properly cared for, will probably outlast its owner. Occasionally, however, a pipe may begin to taste bitter or "sour." Sometimes this is caused by not allowing the pipe sufficient time to "rest" between smokes; other times, no cause can be determined with certainty. In any event, such a pipe can usually be rejuvenated by applying the "Professor's Pipe-Sweetening Treatment," publicized by Dennis Congos.
First, find some salt (non-iodized is preferred, but not essential), some alcohol (preferably "Everclear," or some other form of near-pure, non-denatured ethanol), and a place to rest your pipe in a semi-upright position. Insert a pipe cleaner into the stem of the pipe so that it extends into the shank. Fill the bowl to the rim with salt and drip or carefully pour alcohol into the bowl until the salt is just saturated. Try not to get any alcohol on the pipe's exterior, as this may damage the finish; any spills should be wiped up immediately. Leave the pipe alone for a day or two. After this time the salt will have turned brown from the absorption of "tars" from the bowl. Thoroughly clean all salt from the bowl and set the pipe aside overnight to dry completely. Your pipe will now be revitalized, and all traces of bitterness should be gone.
WARNING: Many people swear by this process, but the procedure is not risk-free. Some people have had pipes crack after this treatment, particularly when they allowed the salt and alcohol mixture to enter the pipe's shank and/or when they left the mixture in the pipe for several days. Any pipe with significant monetary or sentimental value should be sent to a professional pipe repair person.
You might also want to give the stem draft-hole a thorough cleaning by periodically cleaning it with a scrubbing bristle pipecleaner dipped in alcohol or a "pipe sweetener".
G.L. Pease also offers a more effective method:
"I reamed the pipe almost back to bare wood, pre-heated my electric oven to 220°F, and turned it off. After removing the pipe's stem, I filled the bowl with activated charcoal pellets purchased from the local aquarium supply shop. Placing the pipe on a soft towel in the oven, I left it to sit while the oven cooled - about an hour... No perceptible difference was detected.
A couple of conversations with Trever Talbert, friend, pipesmith extraordinaire, and constant experimenter with briar, provided an important piece of information; briar heats very slowly. He explained that it could take several hours for a piece of briar's temperature gradient to reach equilibrium with the ambient temperature. Clearly, my pipe's short stint in the Sauna was insufficient to do the job.
I reheated the oven, this time setting the thermostat to 180°F, knowing from my tests that the temperature in my empty oven would vary between about 180°F and a bit over 200°F, well below the temperature at which the briar would scorch. Stemless and empty, I placed the bowl on its towel in the oven, on the upper rack, far away from the source of radiant heat, where it would be left to sit for three hours.
After removing the now hot pipe, I filled the bowl with the activated charcoal, and placed it back in the oven for an additional three hours. When the pipe was finally removed, and emptied of the charcoal, there was absolutely no trace of its prior scent ... After allowing the pipe to cool overnight, the stem was refitted, the bowl filled with a favored blend, delicate enough to allow any vestigial flavors from the pipe to come through clearly. I sat down to experience the fruits of my labors. Success! Only at the very bottom of the bowl was a slight hint of the previous aroma, and this disappeared completely after a couple of smokes."
Polishing stems
Vulcanite stems can oxidize, turning a disgusting brownish green color. This is one case where "an ounce of prevention" definitely pays off. Avoid exposing vulcanite stems to direct sunlight whenever possible, and wipe off your stems after each use. When oxidation does begin to form, it can often be removed with a mild abrasive, such as baking soda or toothpaste. If the oxidation is too severe for this treatment, jeweler's rouge or an automobile rubbing compound will often do the trick. For truly stubborn stems more drastic measures may be required. An overnight soak in household bleach will turn your stems black again, but you should be careful to cover any stem logos with a blob of petroleum jelly to protect them prior to soaking, and you should be prepared to apply some elbow grease to polish the stem surface, which will be roughened by this treatment.
Professionals (and "serious amateurs") remove oxidation with a buffing wheel loaded with Tripoli or some similar abrasive and then apply carnuba wax to protect the stem and bring out a high shine. If you wish to use a buffing rig, consult with someone experienced in such matters. It's all too easy to burn a stem on a buffing wheel running at excessively high speed or, for that matter, to catapult a briar into your face.
Care for meerschaum pipes
First, and most importantly, don't drop it. Meerschaum is fragile, and it is very unlikely that your pipe will survive a dive to the kitchen floor. Second, do not allow a cake to build in the bowl (firmly swabbing out all the ash residue with a bent pipe cleaner after each smoke should do the trick). If your pipe does start to build a cake, then ream it out very carefully. Third, if your pipe has a screw-in shank fitting (as most meerschaums do), twist the stem clockwise while removing it; twisting counter-clockwise could unscrew the fitting, and doing so repeatedly can strip the shank threads. Finally, meerschaum is a very absorbent, inorganic material, and does not require the same "rest period" that briars do. Still, I would at least allow the pipe to cool and dry completely before loading up and smoking it again.
Many meerschaum aficionados claim that to ensure proper "coloring" of the bowl you should never hold the bowl with your bare hands while smoking. This may be true, but I would much rather have a meerschaum with an unevenly colored bowl than to have to go through the hassle of holding my pipe by the stem or (horrors!) wearing kid gloves to smoke.
Should I store my pipe with a cleaner in the stem?
There are three schools of thought on this issue:
1) Those who do not leave a pipe cleaner in their pipe between smokes. These people believe that doing so prevent their pipe from drying quickly and or properly.
2) Those who do leave a pipe cleaner in their pipe between smokes. These people believe that doing so assists in the absorption of nasty stuff.
3) Those who compromise by leaving a pipe cleaner in their pipe for a short period (usually overnight), then removing it to allow the pipe to dry completely.
Personally, I belong to group #1 a about half the time. The rest of the time I'm a #3, unless I forget to remove the pipe cleaner, in which case I'm an accidental #2. Bottom line: It really doesn't matter. Whatever works for you is fine.
 
Breaking In a New Pipe
See a great article by Fred Hanna called :

The Mysteries of the Break-in Process By Fred Hanna
   There is quite a bit of hidden mystery involved in the outwardly familiar phenomenon of breaking in a pipe. The traditional wisdom says that developing a cake is the primary process through which a pipe eventually attains that nutty, rich, sweet flavor that we all have come to love.
I have come to the conclusion that attributing this great flavor to merely developing a cake is rather like saying that a car reaches great speeds solely because of a great number of cubic inches in the engine. Of course, cubes are an important aspect of what contributes to speed, but this is hardly the entirety of the story. There is also the influence of weight, cams, turbo charging, type of fuel, the exhaust system, aerodynamics, and so forth. If all one has is a big engine in a huge, heavy frame, the car can actually be quite tame. On the other hand, a lot of horsepower can be generated from a relatively small engine, without much in the way of cubic inches. Similarly, the cake in the tobacco chamber of a pipe is but one of a variety of factors. I have put a fine cake on pipes that still never really broke in no matter what I did and never quite achieved that aforementioned great taste. It is clear that there is more to this story.
Before we address the mysteries, however, let us give the importance of cake its due. Cake builds up in the tobacco chamber, as we know, and mostly consists of carbon residue from the burning tobacco. We also know that carbon can absorb hundreds of times its own weight in other substances. The net result in a pipe is that much of the impurities in the tobacco smoke is absorbed or filtered by the cake, which "mellows" the smoke delivered to the tongue, especially if the bottom of the pipe has some cake. However, because of the capacity for absorption, relatively little cake is actually needed for a great-smoking pipe. I believe that we need far less than the traditional thickness of a dime. Thus, only a bit of cake is generally good for break-in purposes.
However, the traditional explanation of break-in stops right around this point. I have been collecting notes on breaking in a pipe for quite a few months now and would like to mention a few observations and speculations. For example, on the topic of cake, I have owned pipes that smoked well from the first bowl, with no bowl coating, but do not improve to any noticeable extent as a cake developed. Curiously, several years ago I bought a Charatan Selected from a guy who loved to ream pipes. He took the cake in that poor pipe down to bare walls, but you would never have known it by smoking it. It tasted sweet and nutty with no cake whatsoever. That was when I began to question how much the cake actually has to do with flavor and taste.
There are some other phenomena that got me to questioning the traditional wisdom. Some pipes smoke great from the first bowl and without any carbon coating in the bowl from the pipemaker whatsoever. And they then continue to get better and better. Contrast this with the fact that other pipes can smoke quite poorly--bitter and harsh--at first but then end up surpassing in smoking quality some pipes that smoked great from the beginning. An example of this is a Castello Collection Fiammata I currently own, as well as a L'Anatra Fiammata. I have had other pipes in which the first bowl was quite good and then the quality of the smoke degraded over the next four or five bowls and only then proceeded to improve. Why is this? What is going on here? I don't have the entire answer, but I would like to share with you a few thoughts on this matter. For the remainder of this discussion, let us assume that all the pipes discussed here are well made and their briar well cured so that we can focus on particular variables relative to the break-in process.
As for curing the briar, the traditional wisdom tells us that sap in a briar block is a bad thing, and there is no doubt that too much of it can clog a pipe and make it heat up and smoke wet. However, I have long wondered if saps may not be as horrible as many of us have come to believe. Breaking in a pipe may well involve heating--cooking if you will--the remaining saps in that briar as well as the wood itself. Wood is vegetal material, of course, but we tend to easily overlook this. Wood will slightly undergo subtle changes in its structure as it absorbs and endures heat from the burning leaf. Heat is one of the most powerful catalysts known to chemistry, and this "cooking effect" may be what is primarily responsible for that highly sought after sweet and nutty flavor to the smoke. Remember that the great taste of Vermont maple syrup (which is actually tree sap) only manifests after it is cooked for a long time and converted into that wonderful liquid. It is quite nasty before the cooking. Similarly, smoking tobacco certainly cooks the sap remaining in the briar after curing, and it cooks the wood itself as well. Just as the taste of a carrot or a clove of garlic changes after cooking or roasting, the taste of briar can change as it cooks or roasts during the smoking process. It can become sweeter and more mellow, and this translates as "breaking in."
I like the taste of briar, and I do not get excited over a pipe brand that seeks to remove all taste of the wood. If I wanted to remove all taste imparted from the smoking instrument itself, I would favor meerschaum. This line of inquiry makes me inclined to wonder if it is possible to "overcure" a pipe, that is, to remove so much of the flavor of the wood that the briar is left with no flavor at all. Some may believe more curing is better because it allows only the flavor of the tobacco to come through. But for me, I LIKE the taste of that briar, especially in those instances when it adds that sweet, mellow, nuttiness.
Unfortunately, not all chunks of briar add that sweet and nutty flavor after being fully broken in. It is a matter of degrees, and, once again, we come down to the variables in the briar itself, apart from brand. Many great grained pieces of briar do not have this flavor, while other plain pieces do, and this is one of the great mysteries of pipe smoking. I recently spoke at length with Rainer Barbi on this subject. He and I both agreed that the soil and climate in which the heath tree grew have a major role to play in how that briar tastes, as I have written previously. There are so many possible variations of climate and soil content that we still have much to learn as to which combination produces the best-tasting briar. However, Rainer and I both agreed that it is not a matter of geographical origin. In other words, whether the briar is from Greece, Corsica, or Italy is not an issue on the factor of taste. Each of those regions contains within its borders many microclimates and soil variations. And, of course, even though the briar is from the best environment, it must be well cured, and, as a pipe, it must be well made, or it will not produce a satisfying smoke, as we all know. And just for the record, I would not dream of using honey to break in a pipe.
There are quite a few variables involved in the break-in process that I have not addressed. I would like to hear the views of other pipe lovers on the various aspects of this fascinating part of our hobby.
This article was originally published in The Pipe Collector, the North American Society of Pipe Collectors newsletter (NASPC) and is used by permission. It's a great organization--consider becoming a member.
Basic Repairs
Airflow
Airflow issues are not exactly a repair, per se, but could perhaps be contributing to a pipe that is simply not smoking up to its potential. Rick Newcomb suggests that pipes with an open air flow smoke better. It is controversial, but bears exploration, as many pipe smokers are now sold on this concept. With it working for so many, it might just work for you and that problem pipe. Ken Campbell wrote an interesting article for The Pipe Collector called:

Airflow: The Key to Smoking Pleasure, by Ken Campbell
This article first appeared in The Pipe Collector, the official newsletter of The National Association of Pipe Collectors (NASPC) and is used here by permission. It's a great group, consider joining.
[I don’t know how controversial the following article might be, but I do know that Ken Campbell has worked long and hard on it, and I’m pleased to publish it. Of course, it would most interesting if our many pipe-maker members would respond with their thoughts on this issue. We encourage their responses, as well as those from experienced pipe smokers.--Ed]
Since high school days, I smoked a pipe off and on until 1986, when I took it up full time. I always enjoyed smoking a pipe despite a number of problems I encountered. The two most recurrent consisted in managing to smoke more matches than tobacco and occasional bouts with tongue-bite. Many were the remedies that other men offered me: filling the pipe more carefully, smoking slower, not allowing the pipe to get too hot, etc. These suggestions were all helpful but never solved the basic problems of how to keep a pipe lit and how to prevent varying degrees of discomfort from afflicting my tongue.
My first clue came from an article I read in Pipes & Tobacco in the Winter/1996/97 edition, early in 1997. The article was entitled “Nature’s Designs” by Dayton H. Matlick and was about Lars Ivarsson, his pipe making and some of his philosophy and knowledge about smoking. I quote Messrs. Matlick and Ivarsson from this article: “Unrestricted airflow through the entire channel is essential for an easy-smoking pipe....’Once you pick the shape and size of pipe you like, test the airflow,’ says Lars Ivarsson. ‘Draw in through the empty pipe at normal smoking force. There should be no sound or, at most, a deep, hollow sound. This means the airflow is not restricted, an essential element of a good-smoking pipe. If you have any whistling sounds,... meaning restricted airflow, you will probably have trouble keeping it lit and it will probably smoke wet. According to Lars, ‘You’re getting turbulence in the airstream when you exceed a certain speed. The sound of that turbulence indicates that the smoke will get separated. Smoke is actually microdrops of moisture containing hot air and aroma. When air passes quickly through a restricted passageway, turbulence moves the heavy particles, including the moisture, to the perimeter, like separating cream from milk. This can be caused by too small a diameter or sharp corners in the smoke passage [which is] an extremely important issue....[T]he physics of the boring of your pipe will definitely have an impact on the taste of the pipe and your smoking pleasure. For all of his pipes, Lars uses a four millimeter [Ed. about 5/32 nd of an inch] channel from one end of the pipe to the other. This may vary with the pipe maker, but the sound test will still hold true.”
The portion of the article I have just quoted caught my attention and interest, particularly with regard to keeping the pipe lit for longer periods of time, as well as to the taste of the tobacco and enjoyment of smoking. I noticed that certain of my pipes did tend to stay lit longer than others, particularly some of my Dunhill ODAs and LBs that were dated back in the early sixties. Unfortunately, those pipes comprised a very small segment of my collection. I did note that the air holes through the briar were somewhat larger in those pipes than most of my other ones; but I had no way of measuring the airflow through the stems. I also noticed that these Dunhills not only stayed lit longer but, when I smoked them back to back, produced substantially less tongue-bite. The taste of the tobacco seemed more pronounced, and I enjoyed it more.
I attributed these observations to the claims advanced by Dunhill for years to the effect that their pipes were made of the best briar that had been aged for many years and fitted with the best vulcanite mouthpieces. Thus I had not fully accepted the airflow theory.
Later in 1997, in its Fall edition, Pipes & Tobaccos printed an article by Rick Newcombe entitled “Easy Draw.” In that article, P&T stated: “The problem with most pipes today is that they are not drilled properly for the perfect smoking experience. Richard Newcombe’s theory of smoke hole geometry may help you modify your pipe from an average to a superb smoke.” I was all eyes and ears, and I devoured the article.
Rick Newcombe stated: “When you have a pipe drilled as I have described [opening the mouthpiece and smokehole to 5/32nds], you will be amazed at how easily it smokes and how easy it is to keep lit. There is no better feeling than being able to enjoy a pipe, put it down for a minute or two, and then pick it back up and puff gently as the tobacco is still smoldering.”
Rick went on to say that he questioned Jess Chonovitsch and Lars Ivarsson, two of the pipe makers he considers the best in the world, as to why they fail to open up the pipes they sell as he likes them and, as it turns out, as they do themselves. The explanation given was that hollowing out the vulcanite weakens it to the point that careless or inexperienced smokers may run the risk of biting through the bit and attributing this to inferior quality. Do they object to the buyer having his pipe opened by an experienced pipe man? Not in the least, since they do so for their own pipes themselves.
Further on in the article, Rick brings up Jim Benjamin, who has been his mentor on the subject of pipes and tobacco. Jim has been opening his own pipes for 50 years, having adopted the practice back in the late forties. He maintains that the open pipe produces a cooler smoke. The unrestricted airflow prevents tongue-bite, which he says is contracted from “tugging and tugging on a pipe with an inadequate draw, much like sucking molasses through a straw.”
At the time this article was written, Rick and Jim were employing both 5/32nds and 11/64th of an inch air-holes, depending on the size of the pipe. Since then, they have experimented with even wider holes and now seem to favor a diameter up to 3/16th of an inch, depending on the size and shape of the pipe. However, 5/32nd of an inch is still considered a minimum.
Intrigued, I contacted Jim Benjamin to discuss the matter of air-flow more thoroughly. Since then I have spoken at great length with both Rick and Jim, whom, despite my long experience, I consider my smoking mentors and special friends. The first pipes I sent Jim to open were the Dunhills I spoke about previously. But when I got them back and smoked them, the comparison was dramatic. I called Jim and asked him what he had done to improve even those pipes so markedly. He said he’d opened the bits as well as the shanks to keep the airflow perfectly even throughout the entire bore. That made a world of difference. Recall that I had recognized that the air hold in these fine pipes was wider than normal, but the air hole in the bit was still somewhat restricted. Most importantly, then what Jim had done was widen the air hole throughout the entire pipe, creating a completely unrestricted and even draw.
Since Jim has opened all my pipes, I have never enjoyed pipe smoking so much. My tongue-bite problem evaporated. My pipes remained lit for much longer periods of time, producing a cooler bowl, just warm to the touch, and thereby a cooler and more flavorful smoke.
Having your pipes properly opened, however, is not in itself a panacea for deriving the greatest smoking pleasure. Of course you must keep your pipes as clean as possible, not only from the standpoint of taste but, just as importantly, to keep the entire bore free from obstructions and narrowing due to tar deposits. Filling the pipe carefully to ensure a smooth and easy draw and smoking it slowly to keep it from becoming overheated are also requisites for an excellent smoke. Furthermore, lighting your pipe carefully and evenly and a judicious use of your tamper are also most important. But make no mistake about it: the perfectly even flow of sufficient oxygen through the entire bore is the foundation of a great-smoking pipe. With the easy draw throughout the opened air hole, the pipe can be smoked cooler with less effort, because it will stay lit without the necessity for heavy puffing.
As the old saying goes, “The proof of the pudding is in the taste.” If you don’t believe me, try it.
A surprising thing is the heated controversy that seems to swirl around the topic of airflow like smoke in a room with too many open windows. Hard to blow perfect smoke rings in an atmosphere like that and hard to fathom the real objections that are advanced against modifications to airflow.
Let’s look at the principal objectors’ arguments against the open air hole. At the end of Rick Newcombe’s article, Chuck Stanion, P&T’s editor, noted some of them. First, Ed Burac says the theory is too simple. In my experience, unequivocally, the theory works.
Now Chuck comes to a more serious objector, Jim Cooke. I have spoken to Jim myself. He maintains that the larger air hole causes the pipe to burn hotter--so hot in fact that it will burn out. I asked him for documentation on this point, and he said his own experience was all he had to go on. He gave me an example. Apparently a customer came to him with a number of old Barlings he had purchased that had been opened in the mortise but whose bits had not been worked on. He asked Jim what he could do to restore his pipes to their original condition, as they smoked very wet and very poorly. Jim said there was nothing that could be done. The hole in the bore could not be reduced.
I mentioned that one of the keys to the success of the process was filing the inside of the bit to the right size, so that every inch from bowl to the lip contains the same volume, preventing airflow distortion. Jim admitted that this was correct. But then he threw back that the pipe smokes too hot and will burn out.
Jim was making a pipe for me at the time, and I asked him to drill the air hole 5/32nds. He refused, saying he would not put his name on a pipe drilled that wide. I countered with the fact that he normally employs an air hole only 1/64th narrower. He said that was a big difference.
My answer is that Jim Benjamin has been opening his own pipes for 50 years, and, to date, none have burned out! I have been at this for five years, too short a time to really tell, but so far I have not had a burnout. Presently, I have a 3/16th air hole in the pipe Jim Cooke made for me. He would not recognize the pipe, as I made a number of modifications to its appearance and capacity. But if he smoked it blind, I would guaranty he would acclaim it as one of the best smoking pipes he had ever tried.
I also spoke to Bill Taylor about airflow. He was not particularly partisan either way. He says he uses 5/32nd as a standard for his Ashton pipes.
One other chap, Richard Esserman, has voiced objections to the open-bore practice. What he has said is indeed most didactic. He avers that if anyone thinks he might modify a pipe he is about to purchase, he should not purchase it. This might be the stance of a collector of fine objets d’art. Naturally, one would never attempt to change or “improve” a feature of one of Rembrandt’s subjects. I can even see the possibility of that principle being invoked if one owned a famous museum piece of intricately carved meerschaum. But carrying it to an oversized smoking pipe??? Well, to each his own.
I should like to pint out that the amount of work involved in “opening” a briar pipe is substantial. Opening the shank on a straight pipe is no problem and might take but a minute or two. But far more time consuming is the work to be done on the vulcanite mouthpiece to insure a consistent air hole throughout. In my opinion, that is the most critically important part of the process. Generally it takes me the better part of two hours. However, I would not advise anyone with little or no wood-crafting experience to attempt the job himself. Many a slip between bowl and lip, and a bad slip could ruin a fine pipe irreparably. For this reason, I would strongly recommend sending the pipe you want opened to Jim Benjamin at 12199 Avenida Consentido San Diego, CA. 92128-3248; 858-674-4900.
Jim not only has great expertise in opening pipes, but the pipes he returns look and smoke brand new, and for just $15 plus shipping?. They will bring back memories of how the pipe tasted after you broke it in and how it looked when you picked it out. He also has developed a secret process for restoring the original clean shiny appearance of the vulcanite mouthpiece. Yellowed or otherwise stained bits produce a bitter, unclean taste, and Jim’s restored bits have none of that. Even more remarkable is that the mouthpiece stays in its pristine condition over time. Pipes I have sent to Jim several years ago have completely resisted the normal oxidation process.
In a recent article in the Pipe Smoker’s Ephemeris, Dr. Mark Beale mentions that he is in the process of changing the original vulcanite bit of an S. Bang pipe for an acrylic bit! Rick Newcombe tells me that S. Bang uses the best-quality vulcanite in the world, very soft to the touch, that produces a wonderful feeling when smoking it. I would heartily recommend that Dr. Beale send the pipe and original mouthpiece to Jim Benjamin before he radically changes the smoking quality of his pipe. Certainly he can’t lose anything by trying and if the bit oxidizes, he can always go the Lucite route. But I know that it won’t oxidize and that he will be far happier with the bit once Jim has processed it.
In conclusion, master pipe maker Lar Ivarsson uses a 4 mm (5/32nd) channel from one end of the pipe to the other. The airflow must be consistent throughout the entire channel.
Once you have had one of your pipes correctly opened, filled it properly, and completed lighting it, you will realize that all your pains were an inconsequential price to pay for one of the greatest smokes you have ever had. Try this with one of your worst-smoking pipes. The result will make a believer out of you!
I think Rick Newcombe sums it up in a remarkable statement he made to me recently: “ I’d rather smoke a no-name pipe that has been opened than an S. Bang that has not been opened. But of course, my first choice would be an S. Bang pipe opened the way that I like.”
Fixing a loose stem
Even if you're careful to never remove the stem from a hot pipe, you may occasionally be faced with a loose stem. Often this problem will fix itself with time, but if the stem is so loose that it is in danger of falling out, then something must be done. The safest bet is to take the pipe to a tobacconist or send it to a repairperson. These people will have a great deal of practice performing this task, and they will do it for a very modest fee. It is remarkably easy for an amateur to crack a shank while attempting this repair, as many of us can sadly attest.
Nevertheless, if you are determined to do this yourself, you must first determine what sort of stem you have. If the stem is lucite, the easiest fix is to apply a very thin layer of clear nail polish to the tenon, allow this to dry *completely*, and then carefully sand the tenon to fit. A vulcanite stem, on the other hand, is a bit more complicated, as you will need to heat the tenon and expand it in some way. There are a number of variations to this procedure, but the most common one is described below.
First, remove the stem from the pipe and insert a pipe cleaner into the stem so that it just reaches the end of the tenon (this is to ensure that you don't collapse the air hole). Next, carefully heat the tenon over a match for about five seconds (the intent is to soften the vulcanite, not melt it). Then gently press the end of the tenon against a flat surface, keeping the tenon as perpendicular to the surface as possible, taking care not bend the tenon to one side or the other. After the stem has cooled, test fit it. If the stem is still too loose, repeat this procedure. If it is now too tight, then see "What should I do with a stem that's too tight?" below. NOTE: It is *very* easy to ruin a perfectly good pipe with this technique, and I feel I should reiterate my earlier statement that this job is best undertaken by a "professional."
A variation on the above that has less chance of bending or ruining the tenon is the following: Insert a tapered mandrel into the tenon. Apply heat to the mandrel (an alcohol flame is recommended). As the heat from the mandrel transfers to the tenon and softens it, move the mandrel further into the tenon. Repeat as necessary to get the desired expansion. Remove the mandrel and place tenon in cold water to set. Note that PIMOmakes a 'Stem Tightening Kit' that uses this principle.
A less radical (and *much* safer) procedure that has been recommended to me by several people is to simply rub the stem's tenon against a block of beeswax until the tenon is well coated. Once this is complete, reinsert the stem. I am told that the joint will tighten after a smoke or two.
Another less radical approach to try if the beeswax method doesn't work, is to simply heat the tenon and then allow it to cool. Very often the tenon will have expanded just enough to make a decent fit. Rather than an open flame, I suggest carefully using a heat gun, or a handheld hairdryer on high heat aimed at the tenon.
Fixing a stem that's too tight
If the stem is still inserted in the pipe and is so difficult to remove that you fear your pipe may be damaged, then place the pipe in the freezer for several minutes. This works the vast majority of the time; however, if the stem still proves too difficult to remove, smoke the pipe, allow it to cool, and try to remove the stem again. If neither of these techniques work, then send the pipe to a reputable repairperson.
If you do manage to remove the stem, place some sort of dry lubricant, such as graphite (from a soft pencil) or wax, on the tenon and attempt to reinsert the stem. If this does not provide satisfactory results, you will need to remove a small amount of material from the tenon. Wrap some very fine (400 grit or so) sandpaper or some "O" or finer grade steel wool around the tenon and twist the stem gently. Work very slowly and carefully, and check the fit frequently until it is satisfactory.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 
Because everyone appreciates a beautiful woman.
"Pipe Babes" is not meant in a derogatory way. It is a compliment to any woman to be called a "babe". In our observations, even women check out other women. Did you ever notice that men's magazines usually have a beautiful woman on the cover? Did you ever notice that women's magazines also usually have a beautiful woman on the cover? Of course, the men are looking because ... uh ... we're men! The women are looking because they are making comparisons, sizing up the competition, and getting ideas for themselves.
We hope you enjoy these lovely ladies smoking pipes.

Carmen Elegantly Smokes a Churchwarden Pipe

Carmen is the epitome of cuteness. You just have to love her big brown eyes, cute dimples, and luxuriously long dark brown hair.

And she can clench a churchwarden pipe! Wow!

Check out our amazingly beautiful Carmen as she enjoys smoking her Stanwell Hans Christian Andersen Churchwarden Pipe.

Cynthia Smokes a Nanna Ivarsson Pipe in Leather w/AK-47

Cynthia looks bad-ass smoking a Nanna Ivarsson pipe in her leather jacket, jeans & boots, and no one is getting near that pipe while she's packing an AK-47 assault rifle. The pipe was on loan from well-known collector and author of the book, "In Search of Pipe Dreams", Rick Newcombe. Rick tells us about the pipe; "This was the 24th pipe Nanna Ivarsson made in 1995, when she was working alongside her famous grandfather, Sixten Ivarsson, in his workshop in downtown Copenhagen. The shape was originally created by Lars Ivarsson, Nanna's father, in the 1980s. I saw the pipe in the workshop in rough form and said that it looked like a golf ball on a tee, and I ordered it on the spot. I waited many months before receiving the finished pipe, and it was worth the wait."

Chelsea Smokes a Stanwell Featherweight Sandblasted (244)

Chelsea is nice and relaxed in her jeans and sweater as she enjoys lounging on the couch smoking her Stanwell pipe. The pipe was acquired from SmokingPipes.com where they described it as; "Essentially the archetypal Danish horn shape writ small, the "244" possesses a graceful minimalism of form, and is additionally rather easier in the hand than most smaller pipes (particularly in keeping the rim above your thumb and fingers). The black sandblasted finish compliments it perfectly."

This was a fun shoot where we captured some new poses and angles that are quite attractive. Great job Chelsea!

Violet is a Blonde Blue-Eyed Babe that is Literally and Figuratively Smoking!

Violet is looking stunning and provocative, attired in her short red dress, wide leather belt and lacetop stockings. She is smoking a Lorenzette Black Matte Pipe No. 62 with Silver Ring. Be careful to not touch your computer screen while looking at this photo shoot as you might burn your fingers.

Carmen Enjoys a Summertime Smoke of Mac Baren 7 Seas Gold

Carmen is enjoying a mid-Summer's day smoking a flavorful bowl of 7 Seas Gold from Mac Baren. It is a golden blend of Burley and Virginia tobaccos. 7 Seas Gold is a soft and exceptionally mellow smoke with a delightful aromatic taste.

Carmen's pipe is a Kaywoodie G20 Lightweight No. 4757-3R. Being fashion-conscious, you will notice that her nail polish perfectly matches the color of her pipe.

This photo shoot is sponsored by the Mac Baren Tobacco Company and 7 Seas Gold Tobacco.

Ashley Sports a Polka-Dot Dress, Stanwell Pipe, and Mac Baren 7 Seas Tobacco

Ashley is a raven-haired hottie with big brown eyes and pouting lips that just love to pull on her Stanwell Han Christian Andersen VI Sandblasted pipe while smoking Mac Baren's 7 Seas Regular Blend.

7 Seas Regular Blend contains Black Cavendish and Golden Burleys. It is a soft and exceptionally mellow smoke with a delightful, aromatic taste.

Cynthia is a Classy Lady Smoking a Bo Nordh Horn

Cynthia is smoking a black sandblasted horn made by Bo Nordh in 1993. The pipe was loaned to us for the shoot by Rick Newcombe, (pipe collector and author of In Search of Pipe Dreams). Rick tells us; "This was the first Bo Nordh pipe I bought. It is elegant and beautiful. I paid $1,000 for it new, and today could sell it used for something like eight or 10 times that amount. I would never sell it. I bought the pipe from Peter Heinrichs at his store in Cologne, Germany after seeing a photo in the Pipe Smoker's Ephemeris of Bo smoking one, sitting in his wheelchair outside his farmhouse in Sweden."

Chelsea Smoking in Shades of Red, Black & Grey
Here's a great outdoor shoot with some great colors from the red brick wall combining and contrasting with Chelsea's auburn hair. The ebony Peterson pipe nicely matches Chelsea's black top and grey skirt, and then we bring more red into the picture with Chelsea's high heel shoes. Chelsea looks glamorous smoking her Peterson Killarney Ebony (999) Fishtail.

Violet, a Beautiful Blonde Lady, Elegantly Smokes 7 Seas Regular

Violet is a stunning blonde, blue-eyed babe that likes to smoke Mac Baren's 7 Seas Regular Blend pipe tobacco. 7 Seas Regular Blend contains Black Cavendish and Golden Burleys. It is a soft and exceptionally mellow smoke with a delightful, aromatic taste. Violet is smoking a classic billiard-shaped BBB Minerva No. 0667.

Ashley is "The Lady in Red" Smoking 7 Seas Gold

Diamonds are a girl's best friend, but Gold ... specifically 7 Seas Gold is a lady's favorite tobacco. Ashley, our latest "Pipe Babe" is enjoying 7 Seas Gold from Mac Baren. It is a golden blend of Burley and Virginia tobaccos. 7 Seas Gold is a soft and exceptionally mellow smoke with a delightful aromatic taste.

Ashley's pipe is a Lorenzette Black Matte Pipe No. 62 with Silver Ring.

Cynthia Needs to See You in Her Office to Discuss Pipe Smoking
There is just something about a beautiful woman dressed in office attire with glasses and her hair up. If you're "hot for teacher", think librarians are sexy, and feel the best part about working in an office is the ladies apparel, then you'll love this photo shoot. Cynthia, our newest "Pipe Babe" is smoking a Rad Davis Sandblasted Rhodesian Pipe provided by Quality Briar.

Country Girl Smoking a Corn Cob Pipe
Here's Chelsea hanging out at the farm enjoying a beautiful Summer day in the country. She is aptly decked out in her plaid shirt, denim skirt, and cowgirl boots. The Missouri Meerschaum "Mizzou" Corn Cob Pipe completes the picture of a perfect sunny day in the country relaxing with a pipe.

The Lady Smokes a Churchwarden
A Churchwarden Pipe has an elegance about it that perfectly fits the style of lady. Here is our resident elegant lady, Chelsea, smoking her Churchwarden, which is coincidentally named "Lady".

Chelsea Smokes a Full Bent Apple Meerschaum Pipe
Here's Chelsea relaxing at the local smoking lounge with her Full Bent Apple Meerschaum Pipe

Spring Has Sprung in Pipe Babe Land
Spring is in the air and it's time to smoke a pipe. Even though it was the first day of Spring yesterday, you can see that it was still a little cold out. Enjoy these photos of Kat as she smokes a pipe in her new Spring dress.

Devil With a Blue Dress On Smoking a Pipe
Tanya is a "Black-Haired Beauty with Big Dark Eyes" indulging in the succulent sweet taste of her pipe tobacco.

Melanie Warms Up with Her Pipe
Brrr ... it's been freezing outside lately. Here's Melanie warming up from the cold enjoying a pipe and relaxing.

Raven-Haired Beauty Elena Relaxes with Her Pipe
Elena is thoroughly enjoying smoking her pipe with rich large plumes of delicious premium pipe tobacco. Light up a pipe and join her for a smoke.

Alena Smokes a Pot
Alena took time out from her studies to relax smoking a "pot" shaped tobacco pipe.

Valerie Smokes a Pipe
Valerie is looking cool in her jeans and leather jacket while she smokes her Butz Choquin Pipe.

Pipe Smoking Blonde Babe
Alana is lounging in her red dress enjoying smoking her pipe.

Woman in Red Smoking a Pipe
Tanya is the Woman in Red smoking her long-stemmed pot briar pipe. Light up a pipe and join us. Let's enjoy the pleasant taste and aroma of premium pipe tobacco while enjoying the company of Tanya smoking her pipe.

Pipe Smoking with Melanie
We add another photo shoot to our pipe smoking women with the return of Melanie, our first pipe smoking woman to appear on the site.

Blonde Babe Kathy Smokes Her Pipe
Kathy is a tall blonde with long legs relaxing in her chair smoking a pipe.

Pipe Girl Valerie
Valerie invites you to join her as she enjoys relaxing at the end of a hard day at the office by smoking her pipe.

Tanya Smokes Her Pipe
Tanya is enjoying smoking her briar pipe while letting the smoke waft into the air to fill the room with the sweet smell of tobacco.

Girl Smoking a Pipe - Kelly
Kelly is a girl that likes to smoke a pipe. Here she is smoking a Butz Choquin Pipe. She is the latest addition to our photo galleries of girls smoking pipes.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Patent pipes
1935-1954

 
 
PATENT BRUYERE
 1935 

A: Bruyere
145: shape #
FABRICATION ANGLAISE
BREV.EN.SUSPENS
This stamping only lastened one year: 1935

▼▲

• Value (Estate): unknown
top ▲

DR R
 1936

DRR: Dead Root, Root Briar

PAT.N° 363582

Year suffix 16: 1920+16

▼▲

According to its Patent #, this DR Root Briar has a inverted Vernon fitting.
• Value (Estate): 365,30 US $ • 252,40 €

Dunhill's "DR" stampings
Vernon fitting

top ▲

PATENT SHELL
 1937 

60/3: shape #

Patent N° 417574
(without ".../34")

suffix17: 1920+17

▲ ▼

• Value (Estate): 224.50 US $ • 158,50 €

top ▲

U.S. PATENT
 1939 

335: shape #
R : Root Briar
U.S. PATENT 1343253/20
ENGLAND19 : 1920+19

▼▲

Weight: 30 grams
• Value (Estate): 350.00 US $ • 262,80 €

top ▲

PROVISIONAL PATENT
 1939 

No shape #

PROV. PAT N° 12505

PAT. N° 417574
Suffix 19 : 1920+19

▼▲

The wind cap can be swiveled to the bottom of the bowl. This device corresponds to the atypical 12505 patent number.
• Value (Estate): 765.00 US $ • 622,40 €

top ▲

PATENT BRUYERE
 1940 

DUNHILL over LONDON
A : Bruyere
351: shape #

PATENT N° 197365
ENGLAND0: 1940+0

▼▲

Value (Estate):128.50 US$ • 82,50 €

top ▲

PATENT ROOT BRIAR
 1940

R: Root Briar finish
Dunhill
London

PAT. N° 417574
Suffix 0 : 1940+0

▼▲

• Value (Estate): 306.00 US $ • 231.50 €

top ▲

U.S. PATENT
 1940 

483: shape # ('DON')
06: ?

ENGLAND0 : 1940+0

U.S. PATENT 1341418/20

▲

• Value (Estate): 500.00 US $ • 395,80 €

PATENT (without date code)
 1941 

R: Root Briar (after 1931)

No year suffix # *
PAT N° 1343253/20
(1927-1933, 1937-1941)

34 : Shape

▼▲

* The Dunhill stamp inventory log shows receipt of this patent stamps whithout any date code in 1927 and 1941. Since this pipe is a ROOT BRIAR and given its patent number, it cannot be a 1927 pipe.
• Value (Estate): 172.50 US $ • 110,55 €

PATENT
 1942 

39: shape #
R: Root Briar
ENGLAND2 : 1922, 1942 or 1952
PAT N° 417574/3
(1942-1954)

▼▲

Value (Estate): 242.50 US$ • 155.70 €

PATENT ROOT BRIAR
 1944

32: shape #
R : Root Briar

ENGLAND4 : 1940+4
PAT N° 417574/34

▼▲

White dot on a bone or a horn mouthpiece.
• Value (Estate): 129,61 US $ • 98,30 €
 

PATENT A
 1948 

A: Bruyère
48: shape #

ENGLAND8 : 1928 or 1948
PAT N° 417574/34
(1942-1954)

▼▲

Value (Estate): 305.00 US$ • 206,00 €
top ▲

PATENT SHELL
 1950 

DUNHILL SHELL
(4): Bowl size   R: shape
ENGLAND0 : 1930, 1940 or 1950
PATENT N° 417574/34 - ?
(1942-1954) 

▲ ▼

Value (Estate): 112,00 US$ • 73,30 €
 

DR R
 1950

DR: Dead Root +R: Root Briar
B: grade
LBS: Letter shape code

PAT. N° 417574/34
ENGLAND0: 1950+0

▼▲

It seems that this pipe is stamped with a "B" grade and simultaneously with an "R" holding for a Root Briar finish.
The DR letter grading was initiated in 1949.
The ROOT BRIAR stamping under DUNHILL was introduced in the 1950s and the "R" on the DR pipes with this finish will be discontinued then.
Consequently, this pipe illustrates one of the first attempts to grade a Root Briar DR.
The small square (left to the L of LONDON) was probably a help for the retailer to take a decision about the price.
• Value (Estate): 1,650.00 US $ • 1.295,34 €

Dunhill's "DR" stampings

ODA 841
 1950

ODA
841: shape #
F/T: Fish Tail
No date code
PATENT N° 417574/34
Original amber stem

▲ ▼

Despite the lack of the year suffix this pipe can be dated:
- The ODA 800 series were introduced in 1950.
- The patent 417574/34 stamping ran until 1951
- The DUNHILL SHELL stamping was replaced by DUNHILL SHELL BRIAR in 1951.
• Value (Estate): 1,038.00 US $ • 770,50 €

The ODA 800 series

ODA 805
 1950 

Three year suffixes:
ENGLAND0 2 3 : 1950+0
(0 suffix very week)

PAT.N° 417574/34
F/T: Fish Tail stem lip

▼▲

This pipe (Skate shape) was crafted in 1950: LONDON is under DUNHILL and the first year suffix is 0. It took more than two years to sell.

• Value (Estate): 360.55 US $ • 253,80 €

The ODA 800 series

top ▲

ROOT SHELL (Prototype)
 1951 

DUNHILL over ROOT SHELL
113: Shape #
2 (encircled): Bowl size
PAT N° 417574/34
ENGLAND1 : 1950+1
"C" stands for "Complementary"

▲ ▼

This pipe is not stamped with a " T " , as on the regular "TANSHELL" production. It was an attempt to produce a natural sandblasted pipe and its name (Root Shell) was transient. Dunhill finally arrived at "TANSHELL" name later in 1952.
• Value (Unsmoked): 1525.00 US $ • 992,30 €
top ▲

PATENT TANSHELL "LC"
 1953

LC: Letters shape code

PAT.N°417574/34

Year suffix: 3

▲ ▼

The LC mythical shape, characterized by a "swan's neck" shank, generally was crafted in a SHELL or sometimes BRUYERE finish. This TANSHELL finish is extremely rare.
• Value (Estate): 2,375.00 US $ • 1 616,00 €

Dunhill LC by David Enrique
Dunhill LC by Pierre Morel
Dunhill LC by David Wagner
Dunhill LC by Bill Ashton
Dunhill LC by Michael Parks

top ▲

PATENT ROOT BRIAR
 1954 

K: Letters shape code
4: Bowl size   R : Root Briar
ENGLAND4 : 1924, 1944 or 1954
PAT N° 417574/34
(1942-1954)
Root Briar > 1931

▼▲

According to its year suffix and its patent N° this pipe could be from 1944 or 1954. But the group numbers (here 4) were inroduced in 1951. Thus 1954 remains the only possibility.
 
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 

models & grades:Lane Era
Charatan's make freehand straight grains
Summa Cun Laude
Crown Achivement
Royal Achievement
Achievement
Coronation
Supreme 200
Supreme 150
Supreme 100
Supreme S
Supreme
Selected XLG
Selected
Executive XLG
Executive
Distinction XLG
Distinction
After Hours
Free hand Relief
Charatan's make "Apprenticeship" standard shape grades
Special
Relief Grain (tan)
Relief Grain (dark)
Beldevere
Perfection
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No.
charatan's shape name
shape

8
Large bulldog
saddle bulldog

11
bent
1/2 bent billiard

12
Large billiard
billiard

33
Bell dublin
dublin

47
Ritz
heavy shank pot

48
Large pot
pot

58
Newmarket
1/16 bent long shank dublin

61
Huntsman
horn

63
Zulu
zulu

72
Burlington
1/4 bent stack

73
Salisbury
pointed heel 1/4 bent apple

80
Large dublin
dublin

81
Gilpin
dublin-bowl poker

83
Cavalier
round rim calabash

84
The Ton
barrel bowl poker

89
Bent pot
diamond shank 1/4 bent pot

91
Medium dublin
dublin

101
Diamond billiard
dianmond shank billiard

102
Extra large billiard
billiard

109
Rhodesian
1/4 bent Rhodesian

122
Apple
apple

148
Outsize pot
pot

211
Outsize bent
1/2 bent billiard

402
Outsize lumberman
canadian

420
Outsize billiard
heavy shank billiard

502
Prince
prince

651
Banker
diplomat

652
Panel billiard
panel billiard

654
Skater
skater

655
Pot royal
pot

0104
Medium lumberman
canadian

0120
Large lumberman

canadian
 
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 
BARLING
 
   Since 1812, Englands oldest pipe maker has established a fine reputation for creating fine briar and African Meerschaum pipes. In the early stage of the Barling Company, Benjamin Barling started fitting silver mounts to his hand carved meerschaum pipes. Over time these pipes began to garner much recognition, as it did in 1851, when the Barling African Meerschaums received several awards at the London Great Exhibition. Using Algerian briar and air-curing the pipes for years, Barling was able to create exceptional pipes on par with the Dunhills of the day. By the turn of the century and right up until the company was sold in 1960, pipe smokers all over the world sought out the name "B. Barling & Sons", knowing they were purchasing one of the best smoking pipes the world had ever known.

Beginning in 1960, after numerous location and quality changes, the Barling Company entered a transitional stage. It was sold to what is now referred to as the transition company circa 1961 and the company implemented numerous label and naming changes. These changes were often very complicated and unnecessary. However, shortly thereafter, the company now referred to as The New Barling company was more concise in its numbering and branding of pipes and more assertive in bringing back the old quality and standards from the pre-transitional period. For instance, right after the sale of the company, the first thing that was done was that a numbering system was put in place that made a lot more sense. Four digit-numbering systems were implemented so that from the number alone one could ascertain many of the characteristics of the pipe. The first digit represented size, while the next three are shape number. So for example, 3374, 4374, and 5374 were all the same shape, while the first digit indicated three different sizes. Size started at "2" and went up to "6" followed by King. This loosely followed the old M, L, EL, EXEL, EXEXEL, G sizing system from the original Barling Company.
In addition, the post-transition company switched over to a "Barling London England" script for the shank nomenclature (instead of the block "BARLING'S arched over the word "MAKE".) However, you will occasionally see pieces that are stamped with a shape number like 6409 with the arched BARLING'S MAKE. For a little while, the 1960s transition company used a very small BARLING'S MAKE stamp from before the war to complement their new shape numbers. Many times they used the old pre-war briar blocks as well.
These pipes continue to be an exceptional value for the money. They generally contain Barling written in a cross shape on the stem and the numbering system still remains intact. The briar continues to be top notch and the African Meerschaum holds its own against Turkish meerschaums.
Regarding African Meerschaum:
There has been some speculation recently of an end to the African Meerschaum line of Barling and this information will be continually revised. This is, we believe, attributed to the inconsistent quantities of African block available. The quality has not changed, but the amount available from year to year varies widely. Traditionally, African Block Meerschaum comes from Tanzania and surrounding countries. Given the political instability of late in that part of Africa, it is not surprising that problems procuring the African Meerschaum exist. However, there has not been, to our knowledge, any official statement made to this effect. These suppositions are being made by us based on the evidence available and should not be construed as absolutely accurate. We will update here as we know more about the current state of African Meerschaum pipe production by Barling and other makers (Peterson, for example, has discontinued their line of African Meerschaum pipes). If you are interested and have further information on the matter, we would be delighted to hear from you. We do not fully understand the African Meerschaum situation, but this is as much as we can surmise at this point.
Regardless of the ultimate fate of the Barling African Meerschaum line, we encourage you to give these superb pipes a try they possess many of the benefits of Turkish Meerschaum, but are far less delicate and serve as a superb travel pipe that can both survive a trip and be smoked more frequently than a briar.
Barling continues to make superb pipes to this day, both from briar and African Block Meerschaum. Given their reasonable price, delightful traditional styling and the incredible history of the brand, Barling pipes would make a superb addition to any collection.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
S. Bang

From Pipedia

A few pipe manufacturers have made the conscious decision to search out and purchase the best briar available and to invest whatever time is necessary to provide the highest quality. Among the most famous of these high-grade makers is S. Bang of Copenhagen.
Svend Bang, the founder and namesake of S. Bang pipes, made his entry to the world of pipes and tobacco trade in 1941 managing to get a job at a small importer and wholesaler of tobacco. A real bad time to get started: Europe was at war and Denmark occupied by the German Wehrmacht. The supply of tobacco was extremely poor. If contemporary witnesses are to be believed, the Danes packed their pipes - increasingly made off homeland woods - with everything BUT tobacco. But evidently this wholesaler must have known a way to bring some tobacco leaves to the little kingdom for Svend Bang learnt so much about tobacco that he was employed by W.Ø. Larsen after the war.

Working for this old and well-reputed tobacconist in central Copenhagen he learnt even more about tobacco and tobacco-blending. Furthermore Ole Larsen, the proprietor, made him responsible for starting a new workshop for pipes situated in connection to the shop. Svend Bang managed to do this with flying colours and W.Ø. Larsen pipes became a bedrock of the Danish freehand fame!
No wonder - like many other businessmen Svend Bang, meanwhile a highly respected expert, wanted to have a business of his own. The opportunity occurred when he got the Danish distribution agency for Astley's tobaccos and in 1968 Svend Bang's pipe-shop was opened! It soon became a meeting-place for those citizens of Copenhagen interested in pipes and tobacco and the sale of the Astley tobaccos was great. Copying Larsen's conception he furnished a pipe workshop behind the salesrooms. At first only repairs were offered but Bang wanted more: pipes to bear his name!
Going for this goal Bang began to hire pipemakers. (He himself made several attempts to make pipes, but his talents evidently did lie in business and not in pipe carving! More later.)
The very first was Peter Rafn, whose career at Svend Bang's however lasted for hardly six months. He was followed by Ivan Holst Nielsen, Jan Windelov and Ph. Vigen. Also mentioned but not confirmed are Ib Olson, M. Thorhauer and others more. Like Rafn most of them came from Erik Nørding, stayed for strikingly short periods only and went off again. Does this indicate that it wasn't really easy to be on good terms with the boss?

Per Hansen

Ulf Noltensmeier
The first to come and stay was Per Hansen. Born in 1948 and educated as an electrician, he had started making pipes in his leisure times for Hans Hartmann before he worked short-term - appr. two months - for Preben Holm when S. Bang lured him away in 1970. At PH's manufacture he met and made friends with Ulf Noltensmeier.
Ulf Noltensmeier, also born in 1948 and a native German, began making pipes during his military service. He went to Denmark shortly after and was hired by Preben Holm in 1970, too. Evidently, Noltensmeier and Holm were not on good terms. When he asked him if they could do something about the noise in the workshop Holm, basically a lad of 23 at the time, said NO, if you don't like it, you can leave. So he did to work for Anne Julie subsequently for 15 months before he followed Svend Bang's call in 1971. Now the Bang crew was complete and the success story of the S. Bang Pipes really began!

The beginning wasn't free of conflicts and turbulences, for initially not all conceivabilities of Hansen and Noltensmeier concured thoroughly with Bang's. The latter was deeply impressed with the enormous success of Preben Holm, who managed a real pipe factory with more than 40 people at this time and produced high-value pipes in huge numbers. Svend Bang wasn't unwilling to see his business developing into this direction. Also detail questions had to be clarified. For instance, Bang found hand-cut mouthpieces too costly and time- consuming - His young pipemakers however were set on meticulous, complete handwork in every aspect and using the very best materials exclusively. Bang finally let convince himself by the success of the absolute quality Hansen and Noltensmeier produced. Fortunately, one would like to add.
The overwhelming worldwide success of these high-grade pipes soon exceeded the capabilities. By the end of 1975 the workshop bursted at the seams. So, in 1976 Bang's Pibemageri resettled in Struenseegade 9 in Copenhagen's northern area where it is yet today.

Time for an interlude - the Löfberg Pipes!
As insinuated above, Svend Bang himself never was nor became a good pipemaker. However that did not prevent that he occasionally tried it. Ca. around 1976/77 he got really serious about it. It’s conceivable that Hansen and Noltensmeier lended their boss a helping hand in his efforts to create pipes but as well they seriously dissuaded to offer these pipes as original S. Bang Pipes due to the minor quality.
Svend Bang wasn’t to be discouraged so easily and approached his German distributor Otto & Kopp with a suitcase full of sample pipes he presented to Bernd Kopp, at that time managing director. These pipes had been named Löfberg - the girl’s name of Bang’s wife. Well, Mr. Kopp was not convinced either - particularly of the pipes’ quality – and clearly stated his opinion that Bang would not do a favor neither to himself nor to the original Bang pipes offering them. - Thereupon Svend Bang went off empty-handed and deeply insulted - simply leaving behind the Löfberg pipes in Mr. Kopp’s bureau…
Almost forgotten the Löfberg pipes gathered dust in the warehouse of Otto & Kopp for approximately 28 years. Until Oliver Kopp showed them in 2005 to Volker Bier, engaged tobacconist, inspired pipemaker and founder of the Lohmar Pipe Show, who was in search of something special to offer to his customers. When Bier presented these pipes to the public, some well-known "pipe experts" felt called to cast doubt on the authenticity of these pipes at the top of their voices. The “arguments” and “evidences“ these gents cited are hardly to surpass for their absurdity. Obviously they found the idea intolerable, that there might be pipes that had remained unknown to them. Therewith not enough - Volker Bier had to fend off vilest personal defamation. Thankfully he was saved by Oliver Kopp and Hansen & Noltensmeier who confirmed the origin of the pipes and their authenticity: Löfberg pipes are real Bang pipes – made by Svend Bang in person!

After the grim end of his pipemaking efforts Svend Bang took up other meritorious activities. He was a very active member of The Nordic Smokers' Guild and became one of founders and following editors of the magazine Piber & Tobak started in 1978. He was also heavily involved in the arrangements of the first national competitions in pipe- smoking in Denmark.
Svend Bang retired in 1984. Evidently he felt a great deal of pride in the product that he initiated throughout his career and retirement and until his death in 1993.
Once Hansen and Noltensmeier took over the company (in 1984) they knew it was best to retain the S. Bang name - the two carvers always shared the same philosophy about that. Noltensmeier and Hansen were determined to maintain top quality at the expense of increased numbers. The only change they made concerns the stamping on the pipes changing from the English version "COPENHAGEN" to the Danish "KOBENHAVN".
Still, they are two separate carvers, with their own styles and preferences. Each makes his own pipes - there is no "assembly line" construction at S. Bang. They bounce ideas off of each other, of course, and admit that when problems arise in a pipe, it is nice to have a partner to discuss them with.
Though they carve pipes as individuals, there are similarities in their work. All Bang pipes are made with black, hand-cut vulcanite stems.
The same engineering is used by both carvers as well. The shape and size of the tobacco chambers vary according to size and design of the pipe, but each carver follows the same design guidelines for choosing the proper chamber dimensions. The smoke channel is always engineered for optimum performance.
Bang pipes are noted for the high definition and fine contrast in the grain. They undergo a double staining process to achieve that effect. The technique makes the grain leap from the bowl of the pipe, making well-grained wood become extra ordinary. The same coloring, however, will produce different results in different pieces of briar, making each pipe truly individual.
Per Hansen is the designated sandblasting artist for the team. He personally takes those pieces that are to be sandblasted to Stanwell, and is permitted to use the sandblasting equipment himself. That is the only S. Bang process, though, that is not executed by the individual carver of each pipe. Everything else, including the famous S. Bang silverwork, is done in the shop by each of the carvers on his own pipes.

According to the system introduced by Svend Bang in 1970 most European-bound pipes are stamped with letters to designate the grade in the following ascending order:
Black blast, Tan blast, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C and, very rarely, you might find a D.
Bang pipes for the U.S. market are stamped with year and number codes and the personal stamp of the carver. The number is not a grading stamp - it just indicates which pipe it is. For example, 9736 with the stamp PH would indicate that it was the 36th pipe made by Per Hansen in the year 1997. There are no grade stamps on U.S. pipes - all S. Bangs are high grade.
The S. Bang workshop is almost invisible in the bustling city of Copenhagen. A more elaborate storefront is not required, because S. Bang pipes are not sold in Denmark.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
            J T COOKE

Written by: David M.

 
   I can’t emphasize enough how lucky we in the pipe community are, to have someone like Jim Cooke with us. This is a pipe maker who easily spends on average up to 40 hours on a single pipe. Yet he still charges only $800 for his work. He is not interested in making the most money possible, although he could easily charge up to twice as much for his pieces. No, this is a man who is mainly interested in the pursuit and exploration of how he can make the ‘Mother Nature’ within the block of briar, shine and show itself as beautifully and magnificently as possible. He has dedicated the last 30 years of his life to finding the best possible route to take that will produce the best possible sandblast. He has experimented countless times with different types of equipment and different types of blasting materials and while he is doing 5 different stages of sandblasting on each pipe he makes today, he still admits that he is not even close to finding the best answer or approach to blasting. This is fantastic news for us pipe smokers, because this man’s drive to show us the briar in what he considers the most beautiful form of expression, Sandblasting, has consumed him utterly & completely. He is not stopping and he continues to push himself and his body to great lengths and at great physical cost. You will learn a lot about the man and most importantly his craft. He rightfully does not go into great detail about the process involved in his work. He still however provides an enormous insight into the detailed and laborious process that he undertakes with each block of briar. Pipe carvers will likely perk up a bit right now as they will soon get access to some of the secrets behind his blasts, however after they read the depths that this man goes to in search of the ‘perfect blast’, rest assured, 99% of them will happily let Jim Cooke search for these answers all on his own. It is simply too much for the average man to pursue such deep answers on one subject.  Jim is positively and absolutely, in a class all his own, when it comes to sandblasting. He is on a mad search and he will never, ever, settle down. He has no equal. He is the one and only Jim Cooke, supreme master of sandblasting.
 
David M: Where did you grow up?
Jim Cooke: In Vermont. Spent my whole life there. My sister and I live in the house that my Mom & Dad built by themselves in 1954. He worked on it for most of his life. I was a small fry at that time and I wet the bricks for him for the chimney and fireplaces.
 
DM: How was life growing up for you? Any major events happen that helped define who you are today?
JC: I suppose about the only thing that really stuck is that I was a sick little kid. This was back in the 50’s. I fought strep for quite a few years and this is back before they had really dialed in penicillin as far as using it every day. I spent a lot of with very high fevers. I think that fueled my imagination. Ever since then, I kind of knew from age 6 on, I knew that I was lucky to be alive. I could have just as easily gone the other way. At some point I had a certain appreciation for trying to enjoy every day because I never knew if it was going to be my last. It is kind of weird to be 6 years old and to realize that you could just as easily be dead. I think that gave me a certain amount of license to experiment and live life and pursue what I wanted to pursue because nobody is guaranteed tomorrow.
 
DM: Your sister Kit, can you tell us about your relationship with her?
JC: She is a retired College History Professor. We always got along and have been a pretty good team. When I got divorced 15 years ago, at that same time, she needed a change where she was living and my Mom had to move out and so Kit and I have been here for 10-12 years now. We are a great brother sister team and we have stuff in common but we stay out of each other’s way.
 

Jim, together with his sister Kit, holding a small (and functional) Brass Cannon
DM: You used to mark your pipes JT&D. Can you explain that please?
JC: That’s my ex-wife Deb. When I was doing a lot of production work for other American labels, she did a lot of the sanding back then we were a team and so the pipes were marked with both our initials.
 
DM: Do you guys still keep in touch?
JC: I see her and my daughter every two weeks.
 
DM: How old is your daughter?
JC: She is 28 now. I don’t know how that happened. Turn around and they are all grown up. I love my kids; we have a lot in common.
 
DM: What do the kids do?
JC: My son is a master technician at the local Volvo dealership. Volvo has brought him to Sweden twice to visit the factory so I guess he must be pretty darn good at what he does. My daughter is between jobs, not a surprise in this economy.
 
DM: What do the kids think of your pipe making?
JC: Well, they understand it and appreciate the ins and outs of it. They are not interested in pursuing it themselves. I do think they have enjoyed what success I have had.
 
DM: How did you discover your talent for making pipes?
JC: It was back in the early 70’s, I was working in Television as an Art Director and I decided that I wanted to stop smoking cigarettes and start smoking a pipe. And my ex bought me one of those carve it yourself kits. After I made the first one I knew that I finally found something that I was totally captivated with, with the block of briar. Worked on my own for a year or two and then got connected with Jorg and Elliott in Stowe Vermont, and you actually might know one of the other guys who worked there, Brad Pohlmann.
 

Old Friends All Smiles Jim Cooke and Brad Pohlmann
 
DM: Did you have any fears when you first started carving?
JC: Yes, when I went to the briar workshop I took a drastic cut in pay to be able to do that. At that point it was a job, one that I enjoyed, I had no idea that it was going to turn into what it did.
 
DM: What major influences did you have in pipe making?
JC: Back then in the 70’s, this is pre-internet days by a long shot. So information was really few and far between. Really the only thing I knew about pipe making was what I was learning at the briar workshop. There were virtually no American carvers, Paul Perri and a few guys in New York doing stuff. But there was no great communication, no pictures floating around.
 
DM: Was there any moment that shook and impacted you in some way?
JC: The briar workshop was planning to move to Florida. There was no way that my wife and I at that time were going to move. So I knew I was going to have to go out on my own. I made a few pipes for some different labels to tide me over but the major thing at that time was actually the pipe mailer done by Barry Levin. He was in large part responsible for getting people connected with other pipe collectors through his mailer. It had all these pages and pages of color photographs of pipes. At that point, he needed someone to do the restoration work on them and they needed someone to work on them. That was a real great education. Up until the time he died, I think I counted up that close to 20,000 pipes came through my shop. That really upped the game. I finally got to some of the great pipes that had been made over the last 100 years. I got to see what worked and what didn’t. That is when I really fell in love with the blasting process. That tickled my fancy.
 

Brown & Black Shell Canadians with repro Amber Stem
 
DM: Can you talk about Barry Levin?
JC: He had an absolute love for pipes. He was not a craftsmen but he loved everything about pipes. He also had a unique ability to find collections. He would go to New York to look at a collection and he would come back and say he found 3 collections. He would come to my shop with shopping bags, full of pipes. I really enjoyed Barry. Aside from working on the pipes, I did spend time with him as a friend. He had a great sense of humor, wonderful curiosity and he could be quite stubborn. I am really sorry that he was not around to see what the hobby became. When he passed, it was one of the few times in my life when I can honestly say that I got my heart broken. To this day I still do miss him.
 
DM: What events lead up to your idea to maximize the sandblast?
JC: I was still working for other labels at the same time that I was working with Barry. And he decided that he would like to put out a reasonably priced American made pipe and he wanted it to be primarily sandblast. He went to Europe to see what he could have made and after we talked about it, he decided to give me a shot. That is where I started. I gotta tell you, my first exposure to sandblasting was not only eye opening but totally humiliating.
 
DM: How was it those first few times sandblasting?
JC: This was pre-internet, zero information out there, late 80’s. The first experiment I did use sand and I tell ya, no matter what I did, I could not have any more grain showing than what the surface of an orange looks like. It was humiliating but at the same time it really lit a fire in me to find out what the hell was going on. The only people that I really saw doing something with sandblasts was John Taylor of Ashton pipes. Everybody else treated the sandblast as a bastard child. It was a second pipe. Has fills in it, put it in a basket and it’s a second string. For me, that just seemed so off the wall. Particularly looking at some of the Dunhill’s from the 20’s and 30’s, they were just these magnificent sculpted pieces of moonscape. I couldn’t get anything even remotely close to it. So I went the other direction. Sand does not work and I will find something that will cut this darn wood. So I tried something called Aluminum Oxide, which is great for removing rust from car frames. I got that set-up and I started blasting on this piece of briar and it was somewhat a king to holding a blow torch in front of an ice cream cone. It just evaporated in front of me in about 2 minutes. I could see no grain and literally, this block of briar just disappeared in my hands. I would have turned the blaster off sooner if my jaw was not hanging so far down. I was left with a shank and a stem and no pipe. This just sent me into overdrive. And I am still experimenting and still trying to figure it out.
 

Blackshell, Tanshell Diamond Shank and Brownshell Lovats with repro Amber Stems
DM: Upon the successful moments, whenever they finally came, did you see the open road in front of you?
JC: No, it never was an ‘a-ha’ moment. It was incremental progress and to this day, that is still what it is. I am doing a lot of trial and error. Trying to take from one pipe to the next pipe and applying it. Literally, the stuff I was doing 4-5 years ago, about the only piece of equipment I still have is the compressor. Everything else has changed. Updating equipment, re-designing equipment, re-manufacturing stuff, it is a constantly changing environment for me because I am always learning and always, absolutely always, picking up new ideas and taking them along for the ride. I have changed what I put through the pressure tanks, the nozzles, all of it is in a continuous state of flux. I learned a long time ago that everything I assume to know is wrong and be willing to learn and be open to the idea that I sure don’t know everything. The only thing I know is that I don’t know much.
 
DM: Is there any new innovation you are currently working on?
JC: The blind obvious is a good phrase. One thing I started working on last year and am still trying to develop is about the interior of the nozzle that I used to blast. I wont go into much detail about it but I learned that the interior shape of the nozzles really does have a huge impact, at least from my point of view under the magnifying glass, it has a huge impact on how the blasting media comes out and impacts the wood. I am spending a lot of time, trying to develop that.
DM: Your clearly a tinkerer with the medium you are using, have you thought of any other applications to the various equipment modifications you have made and continue to make?
JC: When I am finally too down worn out to work anymore, like the day before I croak, I will work on some other projects. Aside from the pipe stuff, I have 4 or 5 other projects that I would eventually like to pursue as hopefully patentable ideas. There are only so many hours in day though and I am having too much fun with briar right now. I need to get hooked up with an accomplished electrical engineer that night be willing to work on a project or two on some kind of shared profit basis. There are some markets out there that I do wonder, why is there no particular product out there like this?
 

1/8 Bents with repro Amber Stem
 
DM: What does the average Jim Cooke pipe go through before it gets into a customers hands?
JC: It depends on what I am trying to do with the piece. I haven’t made a smooth in maybe 2 years. It really does depend on what I am trying to do. If I am making a smaller group 4 piece, there is a whole different wood selection process that I go through. That scales everything down. Generally on a smaller piece I am trying to get tighter rings which means A) the pipe doesn’t get blasted into oblivion and B) you can actually see that the pipe has a good number of rings on it. Bigger pieces I am a little freer to choose what I am doing and as far as what country of origin, male or female block etc… right now they are taking about 20 hours to make on the smallest pipe. This past April, I worked on a Magnum, and in total I spent 5 long days on the pipe.
 
DM: Do you still do 3 stages with your sandblasting?
JC: Right now, as of this week, it is up to 5. That can be depending on the block of wood and what I am trying to do with it. The block dictates everything. I am along for the ride and pedaling for all I am worth not to screw the thing up. I am up to a 5-stage process and although I would like to get it to 4, but that is impossible with what I am trying to do. All of this goes back to the work I am doing with the interior of the nozzles. So right now its 5 stages. I got to be nuts. I have resigned myself to the fact that at least I am lucky enough to have one thing in life that I am good at. To balance that out though, there are a whole lot of things in life that I am clueless about.
 

Today's Cooke pipe goes through 5 different stages of Sandblasting
DM: When I asked the late Rainer Barbi if the block of briar’s age or origin is important, he generally said no. What are your thoughts on this discussion?
JC: You have to understand that since I am doing blasting, for me it does make a difference. I can tell you right off the bat that with the orange peel experiment, I was attempting to blast Grecian briar and I am sorry folks, that stuff, it makes beautiful smooth pipes, but if you want to go blast a piece of wood, go some place else. Because it has no real variation between the hard and soft areas. I stay as far from Grecian wood as I can. As far as the aging, I use Moroccan wood, and now I have started using some Italian wood. They are different and the Italian wood has to be treated a little differently. I like to get wood that is dry or semi-dry. I have my own curing process.
 
DM: Can you talk about that a bit?
JC: I will make an analogy. I know guys like to age their briar. Some say for 2 or 3 years. I learned in my experiments with Barry that there is a lot of stuff in briar, even the best briar, there is still some junk in there. Supposed you got a brand new pair of socks and you go run the Boston Marathon. And they are smelly and stinky and soaking wet. They are still stinky gooky socks. So what I learned is that after I turn the pipes on the lathe, I put a dummy stem on them and I run them through a curing process, remove what residual tar and oils and sap is still in the wood, I leach that stuff out and then I dry the wood. Most cutters do an admirable job, because it’s a competitive industry like anything else, they do a great job of cleaning the wood as best they can. But they are cleaning 50 or 100 blocks at a time. And there is no way they can get all the stuff out. Plus, they are trying to get some stuff out of a big hunk of wood. I am trying to get the sap out of the turned pipe so it is a smaller process. The difference in a pre-cured block of wood and a post-cured block of wood is that I can drop the weight between the two between 6 and 9%. When I started actually weighing and charting the whole thing, I knew I was getting stuff out but it blew my mind that there was so much stuff in even the best block of wood. And it’s important because you want the block to be able to breathe. If you have a dry block that still has sap in it and over the years, the sap polymerizes. Once that happens, there is no way to get rid of it and it sets up like epoxy in the pores. The pipe will be heavy, not particularly absorbent.
 
DM: How does that impact the taste?
JC: It will make the pipe smoke wetter. Also the pipe will be heavier, which means a less comfortable smoke. One of the benefits of going through the curing process, I flatten the taste of the wood. When you smoke, you don’t want to taste the briar but rather the tobacco. So the curing process I do, is a great leveler of the playing field as far as I am concerned. It gives every pipe that comes out of my shop a chance to be an even smoke once we say go!.
 

Five Stage Cooke Billiard
DM: Are there any other woods that you have experimented with?
JC: [Laughs] Yes. My father was a biology teacher and he gave me a lot of botanical information on briar. So I filtered down through that and being up here in Vermont, since at that point Deb and I were living in the woods and I asked him if there is anything out here that kind of does the same thing. He pointed me in a certain direction and I did find something and I proceeded to get my pick, shovel and ax and started chopping and cutting away. Eventually I did find something. Its not as tight but it grows in the same way. I have made some pipes out of it. I have even brought some of those pipes to shows and smoked it and nobody has caught on that it was not a piece of briar.
 
DM: Other than the grain, for all intensive purposes it passes muster?
JC: It does pass muster. It is a little more fragile. You have to build up cake in it more quickly or else you will burn it out but I kind of knew that going in and I knew it wasn’t as dense. Structurally though, it does the same thing as briar.
 
DM: We now have Morta being actively used and now Paolo Becker is making inroads using Strawberry wood. Thoughts?
JC: I haven’t turned any yet. But looking at it yes, it is a no brainer, it will work fine. You have to be careful that you don’t burn the stuff out but structurally, it is the same deal. Nature has a wonderful way of giving alternatives. I wouldn’t be surprised if there may be something else growing that would work, that is in the same family. There is a lot of room for experimentation out there and we should be doing that as much as we can.
 

Five Stage Smokey Cooke Cavalier
DM: Experimentation in a craft as old as ours, it is almost a requirement. How do we encourage more of it?
JC: Good question. I think in this craft, especially Americans, where we don’t have as much of a pipe making tradition over here, not as much of an apprenticeship system as other places, guys here feel a little less restrained in what they are doing. Experimentation can be both good and bad. I have seen some wonderful stuff and also some stuff that only a mother could love.
 
DM: Are there any carvers out there that you are really good friends with?
JC: I don’t really talk to anybody except myself and that fool in the mirror. I like Paul Bonacquisti. He’s a good guy, he makes some nice stuff. I wish he had more time to spend on his own stuff. Michael Parks is doing some real interesting stuff. I think he and others in that vain are the future of the hobby. I am very impressed with what he is doing. As far as experimentation, he can do the classic shapes and do some of the wild stuff on the other extreme. Really anybody that is able to find a way making a living doing this and doing it full time and making it their lifes work. I don’t however really spend much time talking to other pipe makers.
 
DM: Have you seen any Russian carvers work?
JC: Yes I have. They are a society coming into its own. They are definitely going to have some exciting stuff coming out of there. I hope that at some point the influences change a little bit and some of the traditional shapes come to the forefront. I have to laugh at myself, since I shouldn’t really be talking about traditional stuff. I am spending my time just trying to get the angles right on making the perfect damn billiard. Or still trying to make a decent Canadian. The Canadians just drive me nuts some times. I still really hope that we get back to more traditional shapes. It’s a lot easier to make an elephants nose than it is to make a good billiard. If your carving something and it doesn’t work, you can lop the bad part off and now it’s a hippo’s tail. I don’t mean to denigrate that type of sculpting but there is a lot of wiggle room there where guys are less interested in making a really fine smoking pipe than they are in making a really nice sculpture.
 
DM: Any advice for new carvers?
JC: I realize there is a huge influence the other way right now. Some of the Danes have a huge tradition all their own. They can make these beautiful, well designed just kick butt pieces. It’s very popular. And it becomes a hot button or flavor of the month. When I talk to young guys that ask my opinion. If you get a chance to find somebody who has a really good collections of Dunhill’s and Barling’s. Before you go off the deep end of the earth. Go and study the damn things and find out why these brands were successful. What’s the ratio between tobacco chamber size and wall thickness. How do they figure out the balance on these things? So that is what I encourage young guys to do. Understand the foundation first, before you go and try to build a palace. If you can go off and make a killer blowfish, by all means, go and do it. But understand the foundations first.
 

Squat Bulldog with repro Amber Stem & Blackshell Squat Bulldog
DM: Can you talk about your stems?
JC: When I first got into the business, we found some gorgeous cased meerschaums and obviously only a part of the stems were left or none at all. It was a crying shame. I remember as a little boy that my dad took a rattlesnake skull and he cast it in some Lucite. And he had all these problems with bubbles and what not but I still thought it was a unique material. So I started working with that stuff and boy did I ever piss away a lot of money to try and come up with a material in a way to salvage these old meerschaums. That’s kind of where that developed. Once I figured out what the formula was, first it was obviously the re-production amber but after that I quickly started tooling with different colors and different weights of colors and how I could get the colors to bounce off each other and work. And even now, I am still experimenting with stuff, there are two or three things that I am working on. It’s a never-ending process for me to learn more and improve my craft.
 
DM: Within your stems, there is a strong psychedelic quality, can you talk about that?
JC: [Laughs] Caught Me! I was a child of the 60’s and between ’68 and ’72 I was a student at the Rhode Island School of Design and it was hippie dippy time. So yah, you bet, we tried everything back then. And even now, n
 
DM: In the first year of making pipes, how much did you sell your first pipes for?
JC: The first pipes were portrait pipes. It was Sherlock Holmes or Doctor Watson set, Abe Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein sets. Back then I was getting about $400 for them. Beyond those portrait pipes though, which took about 100 hours to make, if I was making a normal piece, I would get $75.
 
DM: Today, your blasts sell for $800. What did you think about when you heard that one of your pipes sold for over $4,000 on eBay?
JC: I wasn’t aware of it. But a friend of mine started tracking this stuff. That pipe, I sold off my table to we all know who, for $800. And we watched that thing go through the roof. The long and short of it is that this friend of mine who was tracking it, is making a website for me. It will now give me an outlet for special order pieces that get returned. If someone can get $4,000 for my work. I wish I got a slice of the action. But hey, he bought it and he can do with it what he wants. Hey some people use a blowtorch on my pipes and proceed to fry the thing so you know, I can’t control what happens to my pipes afterwards. It did wake me up to the fact that there was a huge secondary market for my work.

Five Stage Natural Cooke Bent Bulldog
DM: Regarding your prices, are you trying to hold firm at $800?
JC: Yes I am. I realize that it’s a lot of money. I really can’t afford my own stuff. Economically I can’t do it. I consider myself average income. So I am trying to keep it at $800. Sometimes it works out for me, sometimes it doesn’t. Because the amount of time and the amount of energy and the physical wear and tear to produce one of these things, by the time I finish the pipe and they spend $800, I hope they know that they are getting their moneys worth. This thing did not just fly off the workbench. I think I will be able to do it. If Mother Nature comes around and says hey, 5 blasting steps ain’t gonna cut it anymore, I will say oh man, you gotta be kidding me. And if she says I have to do 6 or 7 and spend a whole extra day working on this critter, if that happens I will have to make some adjustments. But I am trying to hold firm because that is a pile of money to spend on a pipe.
 
DM: What is the most dramatic change in the pipe community for you since you started?
JC: The internet, without a doubt. Both as a positive and a negative. Like anything else. Its great for information but it also has produced some instant experts and guys that can talk a pretty good pipe but really what comes out of their work bench, really isn’t the same as what comes out of their mouth. Its made information and the sale of stuff different. It’s made the hobby global. That’s why I am getting a website. I will never work on my own website. I am dyslexic and the keyboard is not my thing.
 
DM: What retailers do you work with?
JC: With Neatpipes I have a separate deal. Since he is on the ground in Italy, he is essentially hand collecting briar for me. I give him certain specifications and he goes and hunts them down. Saves me from traveling. He gets some pipes and I get some wood. Other than that, nobody else. Hopefully once we get the website up and running, it will cure a lot of the secondary market.
 

NeatPipes.com, the only retailer that officially carries Jim Cooke pipes
DM: What’s your backlog for orders at right now?
JC: 3-4 years.
 
DM: Any other reasons for launching your own website?
JC: Yes, since I started tracking this, I found out that 29% of the pieces I make for people are returned to me. It’s either not the right group size, or the color is off or not quite what they wanted, a bigger tobacco chamber needed, my wife wanted to know what the package was, you name it whatever the reason could be, I have heard it. So that meant that I had to sit on a 1/3rd of my income until I made it to a show. Now with the website, I will sell those pipes directly to other collectors.
 
DM: How do you feel about the market demands compared to what your artistic desires want to do?
JC: Let’s put it this way, within the framework of classic shapes, there is a whole lot of exploration out there. I really enjoy working within those confines because it forces me to really focus and look at exactly what I am doing and how can this be refined and how can I take something that was made in a factory in England 75 years ago. What was the original design, what were the original specs that they tried to do yet couldn’t, perhaps because of equipment limitations. So there are other things out there that I’m picking away at. So on the website I will be able to work on some of these, I would say, more unique aspects within the classic field. You know there are a lot of panels out there, shank work and various things that can get a new twist on an old theme. I have notebooks full of drawings, just not enough hours in the day.
 
DM: What inspires you when you are blasting? Who or what idea are you looking up to?
JC: Mother Nature, I am following the dotted line and trying my best not to screw it up. I don’t have any preconceived notion of what the blast is supposed to look like. I am doing my best to expose what Mother Nature has gloriously laid out. The better I do my job, the better the pipe looks. I don’t have to look for inspiration. The work is already done. Believe me, when you spend 10 hours a day looking at briar through a magnifying glass, it is obvious that I am never going to capture all the beauty that Mother Nature has put into the wood. I don’t care how hard I work.
 
DM: Any thoughts on the pioneers, from 80+ years ago in the Dunhill factory in England?
JC: Looking at those pieces from that time under a magnifying glass, it is obvious to me that they really enjoyed it. I hope I am not assuming too much. They knew precisely what they were doing and they were working their butts off. For however long they had a piece in the booth, whatever the time constraints were, they were doing their best. And I would give my eye to hop in a time machine and go back 100 years and get just an hour and talk with them and look at what they were doing and thank them. Thank you very much, you changed my life, how about that. I don’t know who had the bright idea, they go unaccredited, I suppose they would give that to Alfred Dunhill but somebody had the idea. They stuck with it and god bless them for it. If their first experiments were anything like mine, my god, it must have been difficult. I am forever thankful that they stuck with it though. Barry Levin came through with one bag of about 50 shells and my face got permanently contorted with what I was seeing. And I didn’t understand why nobody was doing this these days. I could not believe that this beautiful tradition was being ignored, other than John Ashton. The shell was still the bastard child.
 

Jim Cooke, Five Stage Blasted Pipes
DM: We are so thankful that you are reinventing the way we look at sandblasts.
JC: I am glad to have played at least a part in it because it is obvious, in my point of view, because that is really where the beauty of a pipe is. I look at a smooth pipe as a beautiful women with her clothes on and a shell is a beautiful women with her clothes off. Thus to pine the term ‘woody’!
DM: Switching gears for a second Jim, how is the health of your hands and arms doing?
JC: I am holding my own. I have adapted, let’s put it that way. I am on daily medication for it and it is something that I have just resigned to. Get up, do the meds and go to work. You know I am not in a wheel chair. I can still do this.
 
DM: The love for pipe making is stronger than the pain you feel?
JC: Yah, you get used to it. It’s like anything else, it’s been going on a long time now. I am very glad that the pipe community got me the operations. Certainly if that had not happened, I would not be working now. I keep it at bay. It’s a mental game. It’s a good exercise in detachment. Knowing that it hurts like a bitch but I am just turning on the off switch.
 
DM: Can you recount your worst injury in the pipe studio?
JC: Good thing you were not around this winter. I wont go into it but I still got the scars. The other one you are talking about well, if you have seen a block turning in a lathe and if you’ve seen a hunk of briar after it’s been worked over there, you know its got some raggedy edges on it. I had a block come out of the lathe and it was entirely my fault. It came out and it got me in the jaw and split me from chin to lip. Just left a little bit of the lip in tact. Didn’t take out any teeth. I went to the hospital and it wasn’t the first nor last time they’ve seen me. They stitched me back up and I came home, had a cup of coffee and coffee came out of the front of my face, yes my mouth was closed. I had holes in my face. I put a picture of myself and put it up on the lathe, just to remind me. That lesson has absolutely in fact saved my life. Just after I moved here I got a much bigger lathe. You could turn truck axles on this thing. And it had a new type of attachment system that I had never used before. I thought I had that thing locked down and that chuck came off the lathe, weighing at least 20 lbs and it took off and bounced off the steel panel on the back of the lathe and pretty much cleared a path with whatever was in its way. Had I been standing there, I would have looked like Will E Coyote. I have cut myself up just about every way that a guy can and unfortunately I still do find either new ways to cut myself or I repeat mistakes. I really do try and avoid it but accidents do happen.
 

Blackshell LB Billiard, Xtra Large Natural Bent Billiard with repro Amber Stem and Brownshell Calabash with repro Amber Stem
DM: What do OGF and OKF stand for?
JC: OGF was the original and it stands for Old Gnarly Fuckers. I had a conservative old school pipe maker ask me and he was shocked to find out what I put on my pipes. It was Bob Noble, Brad McCluskey and I think it was after one of the Columbus shows and we were talking about the old Dunhill Shell’s and we got to chuckling about and we said they were old gnarly fuckers. The heritage that I am inheriting is important but it is also important to have fun. So the OKF is a less commonly known spelling and that essentially identifies the block of wood as coming from Morocco. OGF identifies the wood as coming from Italy.
 
DM: So you only work with either Italian or Moroccan briar?
JC: Yes. Right now, I do have some other stuff running around but I mostly use that stuff.
DM: Who is Bob Noble to you?
JC: He is a friend. He has a rich history in the hobby and he has been at it for a real long time. We both have a strong connection to the classic shapes. We can talk about a billiard for hours. He is a very fine wood craftsmen and he does some extraordinary stuff. We can talk about wood, stains and he is a cantankerous old devil.
 
DM: It seems like he doesn’t take any shit from people.
JC: Yah and I know that can rub people the wrong way and I know I can rub people the wrong way. That’s fine. You cant please everyone all of the time. I enjoy him because he doesn’t take shit. Quite frankly, the make population of America is taking an enormous amount of shit and they cold take some lessons from that gnarly old fucker.
 
DM: Have you seen Bruce Weaver’s sandblasts?
JC: Yes I have. It’s nice when someone sees the magic in the three-dimensional quality in a piece of briar. The fact that he does something different, with his own distinctive style, it will be easy for others to identify it. His approach is different, particularly, whatever he is doing for his final stage. He is asking himself probably a lot of the same questions that I am asking myself. He understands what he is attempting to do and he knows the limitations but you can see his enjoyment in the work?
 
DM: Are you still making smooth pipes Jim?
JC: I do have customers who once in a while ask me to make a smooth. I will do it. I haven’t forgotten how to make a smooth pipe. It just seems that there is a proliferation of smooth pipes out there. Frankly though, the briar that I want to use and the wood I have been collection and it is not the same stuff that I would be seeking if I were to make a smooth pipe. Those aren’t the kind of blocks I am looking for. I do run across some amazing blocks of straight grain and I tell you, I would much rather turn it into a beautiful blast than a smooth pipe. Any day of the week. No problem blasting a killer straight grain block, no problem at all.
 
DM: Do you feel like you have reached the pinnacle of your goals?
JC: Not even close. Mother Nature is way ahead of me. I have a lot to learn. I feel like I have scratched the surface. I feel like I have a decent foundation but I have so much more to learn. I have yet to make the perfect pipe. The list of things I would like to do is quite a bit longer than what I will be able to do in this lifetime.

Jim Cooke with Pipes
DM: Your really pushing yourself hard Jim.
JC: Well, what’s the sense of waking up in the morning if you don’t? Then pipe making would become a job and I don’t want a job. You know, it never has been a job. It’s a passion. I could have stayed as an Art Director and moved up the line in TV and probably made 10x what I am making now and looking at retirement, sitting on a beach making a sweater out of belly button lint. But I don’t want to do that. There is no challenge in that. It’s not about money and it’s not about having an easy life. It’s about having something that is continually fun, always challenging and something that I just barely got a hold of with my fingertips. It feels like I have a tiger by the tail and doing my best not to screw it up.
DM: How do you relax these days?
JC: I collapse into a lumpy heap after working in the shop. I am exhausted. The only thing I really do is ride the bike. When there is no ice on the road I ride the Buell. I still laugh to myself inside the crash helmet whenever I get out.

Jim Cooke on his bike, the Buell
DM: How does somebody order a pipe from you?
JC: Basically, they should write me a postcard and I put it on my list. The card stays in a file and I go through one postcard at a time. Then I send them a letter, we get together on the phone and we try and hash out what we want to do.
DM: Can they ask for special modifications like a thinner stem?
JC: Yes, within reason, I still will make damn sure that whatever they order is engineering wise smart. I will not make something that is off the wall. I have learned that one of the problems with doing special orders, some guy may want something that is different and when they get it, it’s not what they wanted. Then I have 40 hours of work into an unsaleable piece that nobody else wants. So it’s gotta be a well-balanced and well-engineered piece that will smoke fine. I am not interested in doing style exercises. Guys make hot rods all the time, I am not interested in making a trailer queen. I want to make something that the guy wants to reach for when he is looking at his rack.
DM: Do you make very light pipes, under 2oz or 50 grams?
JC: Yes, what I have to be careful of though, is that when you start blasting away on those, you can end up with a very fragile piece, depending n what the block of wood does. At that point, wood selection becomes absolutely crucial. It will certainly at that point be a female block, which tends to have much tighter ring. It will probably be a Moroccan piece because that stuff is a little bit harder and tighter than an Italian piece of wood. I work with quite a number of guys who have dental work and weight requirements are important. With my own false teeth now I am a better judge. I try to work with my customers within reasonable constraints.
DM: You smoke cigarettes right? Still smoke a pipe?
JC: I roll my own and then at the end of the day, I smoke a pipe. Either one of my Dunhills or my Barlings.
 
DM: How old are you Jim?
JC: 62.
 
DM: It doesn’t seem like you will ever stop making pipes.
JC: I don’t think so. Not unless they will be made illegal. Well, no, then I would have to go underground. I certainly hope that someday my sister looks around says, you know, I haven’t seem Jim in a couple of days. Then she goes downstairs and sees me keeled over on the workbench. That would be just fine.
-    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
If you would like to order a pipe from Jim Cooke, send him a post-card with information on what you would like him to make.
Send the post-card to:
J.T. Cooke
514 Appletree Point Road, Burlington Vermont, 05408
You can also visit his new website and buy a Jim Cooke pipe today.
 
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////