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.

The other Bertram

Here's a photo of the other Bertram in my work box--this one a big straight Dublin. If I'm not mistaken, that's some mighty fine straight grain on that pipe. The rim has some nicks, but not nearly as bad as the other one did. I'm pretty sure I still have the stem for this one, but it's a complete loss and will have to be replaced.

Revisiting the Bertram

I did some pipe work today, cleaning up the unidentified lovat and another Kaywoodie (also a lovat). I'll post about them later. In one of my pipe boxes I discovered that I still had the stem that came with the refinished Bertram, so I thought I'd clean it up and see how the pipe looks with a stem.

The stem was badly oxidized and took a good long bleach bath, followed by diligent buffing with tripoli. After further waxing, it didn't look too bad. However, I'm not sure this is the original stem. The tenon is slightly too long and it doesn't fit flush against the shank (might need to sand the tip of the tenon off just a little). Also, I think the taper stem is a mistake on this pipe. It is a big hunk of briar and is quite heavy. The tapered bit and all that weight causes it to slide right down to the button (the bulgy part on the end of the bit). What you can't see in this photo is that there is a big hole on the bottom of the bit from bite-through. I'm even more convinced now that my previous idea of putting a saddle bit on this pipe is correct. It would be flatter and should be easier to hold in the mouth.

No matter what kind of bit goes on it, it's still going to need some hand support. It's just big. Here are some dimensions.

Outer bowl diameter: 1 5/8 inches
Inner bowl diameter: 1 inch. One full (holy cow) inch. The bowl walls are a solid quarter-inch thick.
Bowl depth: 1 1/2 inches.
The stummel alone weighs just a hair less than 2 ounces. I have a small digital scale that use to weigh various small items. I had never thought of weighing pipes before, but now that I've done it, I think I'll have to do it more often. That will be interesting. For me, anyway.

I still plan on getting a new stem for this pipe because of that big bite-through hole, but I think I might have to try it out as is tonight.

UPDATE: What a fantastic pipe! This bowl is so cavernous that I could hear echoes as I trickled the tobacco in. Definitely not a writer's pipe, unless that writer chooses this pipe to take a break from writing. But wow, what a pipe!

Two mystery pipes I'm working on

I didn't do much of anything today, which is typical when I have only a one-day weekend. While catching up on last night's adult swim anime, I went through my boxes and half-heartedly worked on a couple of pipes. Above is a straight Dublin shape Yello-Bole which has the "KBB inside a cloverleaf" logo of the early (and pre-) Kaywoodies. The only Yello-Boles I've heard of with this kind of logo are very old, but this pipe doesn't seem all that old. I'll have to poke around on the internet and see if I can find some information about it. The previous owner somehow managed to chew up the bit without ever smoking the bowl all the way down; the trademark Yello-Bole honey cake is still coating the heel of the bowl. It's too dark to get a sharp close-up of the logo, but I'll try again when I have good sunlight. This is one that I might try sanding and then attempting to stain the rim to match the rest of the pipe.


I spent a lot of time reaming out this lovat. It has no nomenclature on it that I can discern, so I don't know the maker. Normally, pipes in the Canadian family don't show up as "basket pipes." This is a term used by pipesters to refer to the cheap pipes that you might find jumbled into a basket at the tobacconist instead of prominently displayed on a rack like the more expensive pipes. Someone had to go to the trouble of finding and cutting a long piece of briar that was suitable for this style of pipe, so the lack of nomenclature is puzzling. That white mark and possibly the design of the stinger are the only clues, but I'm stumped. I gave this bit a quick bleach dip but obviously it still looks bad and is a long way from being finished. I also spent a lot of time cleaning the tar build-up from the rim. This pipe should look pretty good once I'm finished with it, except for some tooth marks on the bit.

A couple of "in progress" pipes

Only stummels, actually, since neither one has a stem. The lighting outside is not ideal right now, but these are just some in progress pictures, so what the hey.

This is a Bertram, and according to the nomenclature on the shank (other side), it was made in Washington, D.C. I scored a few Bertrams in a lot some time ago, and they all had two things in common: they are big, and they are battered. Someone didn't take very good care of them.

The only real damage to the briar of this one was on the rim. It had some serious nicks and scratches. As you can see, I already made a start by sanding off the damage. I had to shave a millimeter or two to get it nice and flat. It's a little uneven, though, and will require more careful sanding with continuously finer grits before I can call it done. Then I'll be stripping the original finish off and sanding around the bowl with fine grit to erase the last few scratches and make it all nice and smooth and even. The shank has no nicks or scratches and will not be sanded because I want to preserve the nomenclature. And finally, I'll try re-staining it. This will be a new adventure for me; I haven't done it before. I have all the stuff I need to do it, I just need to do it.

This pipe impressed me with its size and the sheer mass of briar that makes up this stummel (actually, all of the Bertrams impressed me this way). The bowl walls are quite thick and I have no doubt it will be a good smoker if I don't destroy it. When I'm satisfied that I've done all the damage I can do, I'll have it fitted for a new stem. It didn't have a stem with it when I got it, and I'm not quite ready to attempt stem replacement myself. When I picture this finished pipe in my imagination, I see it with a saddle bit stem, so that's what I'll be going for. I plan on smoking this one myself for a while, and making a final decision on whether to try and sell it or not later.


This unusual-looking pipe is a House of Westminster cherrywood made in Switzerland. It not only looks unusual, it is unusual. Most cherrywoods have two wooden parts; the bowl is carved separate from the shank. The bowl and shank will have threads drawn in the wood so they can screw together, or sometimes they are carved so that the shank just sticks into the bowl. This one is unusual because they managed to find a knobby elbow of a cherry tree limb that they could carve into a single piece pipe.

This one had no damage to the wood. It had heavy tar build-up on the rim which cleaned off very nicely, leaving a rim almost as slick and clean as the bottom. The stem that came with it was very odd and disproportionate from the stummel. I have a suspicion it was not the original stem. It was very short and turned this rugged-looking pipe into a nose-warmer. I would not have wanted to smoke it like that. Also, the stem it came with was badly chewed. It looked like someone had tried to beat a snake to death with it. Fortunately, there was no nomenclature on the stem, so I didn't lose anything by discarding it. I picture this one with a long tapered stem. Not churchwarden long, but maybe a little longer than usual.

I'll be keeping this one, if only for the simple rarity of having a one-piece cherrywood pipe.