Yet another Bertram

When I posted about the last Bertram stummel, I kept thinking I had a third one somewhere, and I found it. Somehow it got dropped into my "finished" box instead of my "work on" box. This one is a big bent billiard that shows some nice grain.

Plenty of cake and rim tar on this one, but the physical condition of this rim is much better than the other two. It looks like it got some paint or something on it (those white specks), so that might be a problem.

Here's a bottom shot. I took lots of pictures for practice. There's a nick on the bottom of the shank but it's nothing serious. Unfortunately, this one has the same big problem in common with the other two: the stem is a total loss. It looks like it was smoked by a beaver.

All three of these Bertrams are big pipes, and I recently found some info on Bertrams at the my-pipes.com forum. After I get a chance to study it and compare these pipes to what I find, I'll post additional info on all three if I can glean anything pertinent.

William Demuth Co. Wellington

Here's a scannergraph of the old Wellington not long after I brought it back from the brink of oblivion. It was part of an eBay lot and I immediately decided it was a keeper, because I had no other pipe like it.

The Wellington is the WDC copy of the Peterson System pipe. Here's a cutaway diagram that I snagged from Pipe & Pouch to help explain this pipe's design.

The bit, rather than connecting directly to the bowl via the shank, fits into a sort of pocket or reservoir where the air sort of swirls around as it goes into the bowl. The upper air passage goes on into the bowl, and the bottom reservoir collects moisture. This looks like another odd gimmick, but in my opinion, this one works very well. Of course, it requires additional attention when cleaning. I use a cotton swab to clean out the reservoir, and pipe cleaners as usual to clean the air passage.


Another thing about the Wellington (and other Peterson copies) is the military bit. Rather than the traditional tenon/mortise arrangement, the bit simply tapers down slightly and wedges into the shank, remaining in place from the pressure of insertion. This design makes it safe to remove the bit while the pipe is still warm--something that is not a good thing with a tenon/mortise design.

A third thing that sets the Wellington/Peterson pipes apart is the button on the bit. Go back and look at the first photo as well as the cutaway graphic and pay attention to the end of the bit. This is a bit design created by Peterson and is called the P-lip. The hole is on top of the button rather than in the very end, and is angled upward to direct smoke toward the roof of the mouth rather than straight into the tongue. Also, the curved underside of the bottom helps to prevent the tongue from touching the opening of the air passage. The upward-pointing opening is supposed to help prevent tongue-bite, and the curved "tongue shield" helps keep saliva from getting into the stem by being touched with the tongue (something that is a troublesome unconscious reflex for some pipe smokers).

Some people hate the P-lip because it feels different. I have no special preference nor objection to it, at all. To me it's just another bit. The P-lip bit does have a more rounded shape than most bits, and it does feel somewhat different, but it's nothing that anyone shouldn't be able to get used to.

This old Wellington has become one of my favorite pipes. It's size and deep bend gives it an impressive appearance and a comfortably low center of gravity. As you can see in the second photo, I have managed to wear off some of the finish since it came into my hands, and I will eventually be refinishing this one. Meanwhile, this is one of my regular truck pipes and I often smoke it on the long commute home in the afternoon. If I manage to come across any more of these pipes in my eBay adventures, I will probably keep them all--at least until I build up a good week's worth of pipes for rotation.

FYI, Kaywoodie also had a copy of the Peterson System pipe, called the Chesterfield. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to acquire one of those yet.

Yello-Bole Chinrester billiard

This is the last of the four pipes that I purchased together at an estate sale in the mid-90s. This is not a fantastic pipe, but it's serviceable. I bought it mostly because at the time I had never even heard of a Chinrester, and didn't know then that it had a special name. I just bought it because it was different. Yello-Bole was the seconds line for Kaywoodie, so Yello-Bole pipes are very similar in shapes and gimmicks to Kaywoodies.


This is also a Carburetor pipe. The Carburetor was another gimmick side-line that Kaywoodie used. They put a tiny aluminum pipe in the bottom center of the bowl. It extends a few millimeters up into the bowl so cleaning out the very bottom of the bowl is a little tricky because you have to clean around it. I also recommend running a pipe cleaner through the Carburetor to keep it from gunking up. The theory was that in addition to the "hot" air that came from drawing air down through the burning tobacco, a very small amount of "cool" air was also drawn in from the bottom through the Carburetor to "cool the smoke," you know, the usual.

I don't think the Carburetor makes any difference. I will say, however, that this is by far the most comfortable straight pipe I have--and yeah, it's more comfortable than some of my bents. If I had the wherewithal to make my own stems, I would put a chinrester stem on every straight pipe I have. The drawback, of course, is that it's impossible to slide a pipe cleaner down the stem into the shank to sop up excess moisture during a smoke. But still, as far as I'm concerned the comfortability makes up for that.

Another unusual thing about this pipe is that it was made in France. The vast majority of Kaywoodies and Yello-Boles were made in the United States. So this old pipe has three things going for it that will keep it in my collection: the chinrester stem, the carburetor, and being a vintage Yello-Bole that was not made in the U.S.

These four pipes together (the Tyrolean, the Ben Wade, the Longchamps, and this one) were what originally prompted me to begin attempting to actually refurbish pipes--going above and beyond mere cleaning. I never thought I'd begin a new hobby of actually trying to salvage old and abused pipes, but it has been a lot of fun and I've learned a lot about pipes just from handling so many different brands and shapes.

Ben Wade Chesham bent billiard

Ben Wade was another English pipe maker that was at some point bought by Charatan. After the Charatan takeover, Ben Wade was used as a Charatan seconds line. I don't know if this Ben Wade is an original or a Charatan second, but either way, it's a great pipe.

This pipe was another that I purchased at the same estate sale where I acquired the Tyrolean. Actually, this pipe was free. I had already purchased an antique pipe rack. Very nice pipe rack, by the way. It has two six-pipe racks on top with a brass humidor in between, and two small drawers underneath. I had also selected the Tyrolean and two other pipes, so the seller told me to pick out any other pipe I wanted for free, and I took this one. All the pipes were dirty and fairly caked up, but this one really turned out well and has become one of my favorite pipes. It was one of the pipes I spent a good deal of time on this morning, because I had allowed the cake to build up so much that the bowl volume was probably cut in half. I do want to replace the stem eventually because I'm a pretty heavy biter and I've managed to bite a small hole in the top of the bit, but there's no nomenclature on the bit so I'm not going to feel bad about it.

I'm running a bowl of C&D's Bayou Night through it right now and this morning's reaming has returned it to fine smoking form.

Velani Fumata #75 bent billiard

Back in those early years, my collection was still quite small and I desperately needed a larger rotation. Word spread on alt.smokers.pipes that the Aldo Velani company of Italy was having some kind of "clearance" sale on pipes. I remember there being some controversy about this, but I don't remember any details. All I knew at the time was: good pipes, cheap. I ordered five pipes for about $65. One of them, a Canadian, I later sold because I was smoking it so rarely. The other four are bents of various styles and I still have them. They are all still part of my regular rotation.

The above pipe was one of the most frequently smoked. I used it so often that I wore off some of the finish. It doesn't look like that anymore. Before I use it again, I will have to perform a complete refurbishing. Also, I managed to break the tenon, so this is another pipe that I will need to send away for stem repair. I doubt that I will be able to accurately reproduce the shaded, two-tone finish, but I'm sure it will look just as well with a single color stain. Before I begin work on it, I will post a current photo so I can document my "before" and "after."

Since my favorite smokes tend to be quite robust and heavy in Perique, this pipe is used for robust Perique blends, and will remain part of my permanent collection.

Smokemaster rusticated bent billiard

Here is the third pipe that I purchased from the Blue Ridge place mentioned in the previous post. They had several Smokemasters in their catalog; I've also seen a few on eBay now and then. Smokemasters come in a variety of shapes and finishes. In my regular postings of vintage pipe ads on my other blog I often talk about what I call "gimmick pipes." By which I mean pipes that have some sort of odd gimmick that's supposed to improve flavor, reduce tongue-bite, cool the smoke, etc., etc. The Smokemaster has a gimmick stem. The stem on this pipe is not original.

The stem of the Smokemaster has an special aluminum insert. The gimmick is that you take a standard-length pipe cleaner, bend it exactly in the center, and stick the ends up into the aluminum insert so that the pipe is using a pipe cleaner for a filter. Sounds good in theory, at least to a novice, but perhaps someone more experienced (such as myself, I add humbly) will tell you that this sounds like a really good moisture trap and will actually make the smoke wetter and more likely to bite.

I did smoke this pipe as it was intended until I decided that it was just a waste of good pipe cleaners, then I just smoked it without. Until one day I accidentally sat on it and broke the stem. So I had it replaced with a plain old traditional stem. The original stem was a taper; as you can see, this one is a saddle bit. I think it looks better this way.

I began smoking this pipe with aromatics many years ago, but when I dropped aromatics I gave this one the salt treatment and switched it to latakia blends. Since then I have used it for both latakia and Perique blends without any qualms. It's just a good pipe. I keep this one in my truck most of the time and it's part of my regular rotation, but it's about time to give it a good stem bleach and buff & wax, because it's starting to look a little dingy. The above scanner photo was taken a few years ago after such a cleaning.

Two more unnamed pipes

I thought I should go back to the early days and work forward from there, so here's a twofer because neither of these pipes are especially remarkable.

Back in the early days of my pipe smoking, that is, before internet access, I had no resources to help guide me. I bought what I could find. This meant I pretty much smoked nothing but various flavors of Captain Black and Borkum Riff. I still love the smell of Captain Black Whiskey, and although I'm sure it would make a nice sachet, I would never smoke it again. Anyhow, in one of those pouches was an ad for a place called Blue Ridge Pipe Company or something like that--Blue Ridge was in there somewhere, but I don't remember the exact name. So I sent for their catalog and to me, back then, it was a treasure-trove of pipe smoking supplies and paraphernalia. Over the course of a year or two I ordered tobacco, three pipes, a beautiful rosewood-bolstered pipe tool that I have since misplaced (but it's gotta be around here somewhere), and a pipe rack from them. These two pipes are from there.

Pipe #1 above is simply a small filter pipe. Like most small pipes of this nature, there is not enough mass in the bowl and it smokes hot. The interesting thing to me about this pipe is that it was described as a "pear" shape. This isn't a shape name that I've ever run into anywhere else and is worth keeping just so I have an example of the "pear."

This little bent billiard is actually a nice pipe and has some beautiful grain for such a cheap pipe. It's one of those unnamed Italian pipes. I have kept this pipe set aside for occasionally sampling aromatic blends, however, I just don't smoke aromatics at all anymore so I think I will give this one a salt treatment to try and remove the last vestiges of vanilla and then start putting some Perique blends through it.

What is the "salt treatment?" This is something I do often with estate pipes to remove the old flavors and rejuvenate it. First remove the stem and plug up the shank with a q-tip, a small piece of cotton, or a pipe cleaner. Prop up the stummel so that it will remain upright and won't fall over. Then you fill the bowl with salt. Then you carefully pour a small amount of alcohol into the bowl, just enough that the bowl is filled without any liquid slopping out on the rim. Most people prefer to use potable types of alcohol for this. I prefer to use Everclear, which in my opinion is the best pipe cleaning fluid you can get. Any kind of high-proof alcohol that doesn't have much flavor will work. Rum is another good one. So you've got it all filled and propped up, and you let it sit. How long you let it sit is up to you, but I always let it go until the salt is brown from absorbing gunk from the old cake and all the alcohol is pretty much evaporated. It usually takes a few hours. Use your pipe pick to remove the salt, then give it a regular cleaning like you always do with pipe cleaners and pipe sweetener (or more of your favorite high-proof alcohol beverage). Put it aside and let it rest for a day or two, then load it and light it.

If this doesn't work, it can be repeated but one must be careful because the salt treatment can dry out the wood. I destroyed a cheap basket pipe like this once by giving it too many treatments and it caused a bad crack in the shank.

There is an even more drastic measure that can be taken if the salt treatment doesn't work, but I will talk about it in a later post.

The third pipe that I purchased from Blue Ridge is a much better pipe, and will get it's own post (probably) tomorrow.

Unnamed Italian bent billiard sandblast

I'll see if I can keep posting one pipe per day from my "keeper" collection until I run out. After that, we'll see how things go. This particular 'blast was the only other pipe besides the Irish Second that I purchased at a store instead of online or mail-order. It was also purchased at The Humidor, and it was on the day my son was born.

I didn't start out that morning planning to buy a pipe. But after all the excitement was more or less over, my wife suggested (rather strongly) that I get out "for a few hours and get something to eat or go to the mall or something." I guess she was tired of my hanging around the hospital room and being a nuisance. So I did get something to eat, but still had plenty of time to kill. I ended up at The Humidor poring over their cheap pipe rack for a long time. I finally decided on this $15 unmarked sandblast. The only nomenclature is the word "ITALY," much like any number of other unnamed pipes.

It had a problem that I noticed during the first couple of bowls. There was a tiny pinhole in the briar which apparently went all the way through the bowl wall. I only discovered it because I noticed a tiny droplet of moisture bubbling out during the smoke. But after a few bowls worth of cake got built up, that problem vanished and has never recurred.

Anyway, unlike the time a few years before when I had bought the Irish Second, this time they offered me a free bowl of tobacco with my new pipe. So I had them load me up with some of their Balkan Texas Style (a fairly robust latakia blend) and enjoyed my new pipe on the drive back across town to the hospital.

I generally avoid Perique blends with this pipe, since I have more or less dedicated it to latakia blends. It is the only sandblast in my collection, and is one of my most frequently-used pipes.

SOLD: Red Dot rusticated straight billiard

THIS PIPE HAS BEEN SOLD. IT IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE.

I've been going through pipes that I cleaned up a long time ago but never got around to putting on eBay. Most of them are not in the best of shape, anyway. This one is the best of the bunch, so it gets its own post.

The nomenclature is "RED DOT" over "IMPORTED BRIAR" on the left shank. It's about 5 1/2 inches long, with a bowl width of a little over 3/4 inch and a bowl depth of about 1 1/2 inches.

The bowl and shank are all rusticated. The rim is not nicked. Those are part of the rusticated finish.

This is a screw-stem pipe without any kind of condenser ball. The bit is in excellent conditon and has no tooth marks. All in all, this pipe is in great shape for an estate pipe. I just wish I had more information on the maker.

This one is for sale, $5 plus shipping. Leave a comment or email me at alandp (at) blazeisp (dot) com if you're interested.

Irish Second bent billiard

This is one of the few pipes I have that I purchased in an actual brick & mortar store (The Humidor on San Pedro). The Irish Second is the brand given to the seconds line of Peterson pipes. Irish Seconds are in general very good pipes, although less expensive than Petersons.

It's too bad I didn't get a picture of this pipe when it was new, because it had a virgin finish. That is, it had a wax polish but nothing else. No stain or anything, and was as blond as the ebauchon I blogged about recently. The dark coloration of this pipe is due solely to the absorption of tobacco oils.

This was one of the first pipes I purchased, back when I was still smoking aromatics (artificially flavored tobaccos). The first few bowls were a plain vanilla burley that the Humidor sold back then. After that I was converted and gave up aromatics. Starting with the fourth or fifth bowl, this pipe was dedicated to a single blend: Yale Mixture from Cornell & Diehl. Yale is a Virginia/latakia blend and for a long time it was my favorite smoke. I still keep this pipe dedicated to latakia blends. Since Yale is still my favorite latakia, this pipe is still used to smoke almost nothing but Yale Mixture. But I will use it for any blend that is primarily Virginia and latakia.

If you are looking for an inexpensive but very good quality pipe, you can't go wrong with an Irish Second (in my opinion). But this one is a treasured part of my own collection.

S.M. Frank-era Kaywoodie straight billiard

Here is a scannergraph (a photo that I took with my old scanner) from several years ago, right after I had done some major restoration on this pipe. It is one of the more modern Kaywoodies that are made by the S.M. Frank company. This pipe, along with the Dublin in the previous post, was one of the pair of pipes that were my first Kaywoodies ever purchased.

There's nothing special about this pipe. A plain straight billiard with a heavy finish, it is reliable and has stood up well to repeated smokes with little or no rest between. But it will serve as an example of something that, when it comes to pipes, fills me with rage.

In this photo I took this morning (overcast and dark, so it's not the best but it will do), the billiard in question is at top and the apple that I posted on a few days ago is beneath. The stem of the apple shows a typical Kaywoodie "stinger," or screw fitment. Stingers are not all identical, but they should all look something like the one pictured. As you can see, the billiard has been mutilated.

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to take a hacksaw to the stinger of a Kaywoodie pipe. If there is a moisture problem, the aluminum fitment makes it perfectly safe to unscrew the stem while the bowl is still warm so you can run a pipe cleaner into the shank or wipe off the stinger itself. If you want to cut it off because it makes cleaning the stem more difficult, well then, that's a personal problem you need to deal with. You still have no business castrating a Kaywoodie this way.

This pipe will also serve to show an example of the difference between Kaywoodie logos. The old logo is a white material (I don't know what it is) set into a cloverleaf-shaped indentation in the stem (or on older Kaywoodies, the shank). The modern S.M. Frank Kaywoodies simply have a cloverleaf outline on the stem which is originally marked in white. It is cheaply done and the color wears off easily, as you can see.

In spite of all its problems, this has always been a very reliable pipe for me. It can bang around in my truck all day with no problem, and handles strong Perique blends with aplomb. Since it is not an original American Kaywoodie and also since the stinger has been cut off, I would never try to sell it. It is just an everyday pipe and remains part of my collection for the examples it provides--and it smokes well, I must admit.

Bertram billiard

Previously...



I should add that the other side that I didn't take a picture of had a worse scratch than that.

And now...

At first I was worried that the stain I used was too dark. It made this stately stummel look like a dark blob. But the buff & wax turned it into a real jewel. I just need to sandpaper the inside of the bowl to make the cake smooth. I'm looking forward to getting a stem on this one.

Kaywoodie #67 Prime Grain Long Shank straight billiard

Several years ago I got lucky and scored a lot of five 1960s-era Kaywoodies that were all in excellent condition, except for one that had a huge fill on the shank. If I had acquired the same lot now, I would have put them all on the rack and not considered reselling. But back then I was more interested in getting funds into my Paypal account (if I recall correctly, I was saving up to buy some Makarov accessories from makarov.com). I sold the other four, but this one looked so nice I couldn't bring myself to auction it right away. Finally I put it up with a starting bid of $20. No one took it. A few months later I tried again with a start of $15. Still, nobody wanted it. Your loss, folks, because it won't be offered again.

This one is most likely from the late 1960s, and it looks like it was never smoked at all. I still haven't smoked it because it looks so pristine, and who am I to soil a 40-year-old pipe? Just kidding. I'll smoke it eventually, but I'm in no hurry. I'll be taking extra care of this one because it just looks so good. By the way, I uploaded a picture that's a little higher-res than usual, so click to enlarge and glory in all that slick briar.

With a shank longer than the usual, but not long enough to fall into the Canadian family, Kaywoodie understandably called this one the Long Shank. The shape number 62 designates it as a small billiard. The bowl still cants well right of center, so it likely has not been used at all. The Prime Grain is toward the upper end of the Kaywoodie system, although not as high as the Flame Grain, so a better-than-the-average-quality burl went into the making of this pipe. This pipe certainly merits a place in the permanent collection. Maybe someday I'll smoke it, or maybe I'll just save it for the next generation--or both.