It is a liquid of about the same consistency as apple juice. While I was working on the bowl the stem was soaking in a new product I received from Briarville Pipe Repair – Pipe Stem Oxidation Remover.

It helped to blend the stain into the rest of the bowl. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I carefully avoided the stamping on the top and underside of the shank so as not to damage the already faint stamping. I polished the bowl and the rim top, sides and shank with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiping it down after each pad with a damp cloth. I also worked over the inner edge of the bowl with a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the damages there. To remove the damage to the rim top and the edges of the bowl I topped it on a topping board with 220 grit sandpaper. Now it was time to do my work on the pipe. I took a photo of the stamping on the left side if the shank. The worst damage was to the top of the button where there was a crease in the vulcanite. The stem surface showed heavy oxidation remaining and some tooth chatter and marks on both sides ahead of the button. The rim top and inner edges of the rim showed some damage. The rim top cleaned up really well with the lava coat removed. I took photos of what the pipe looked like when I brought to my worktable. I think this pipe may well been before we worked with Mark Hoover’s Before & After Deoxidizer so he cleaned the internals and externals. He was able to remove the lava build up on the rim top and you could see the damages to the top and edges of the rim. He scrubbed the exterior of the bowl, rim, shank and stem with a tooth brush and Murphy’s Oil Soap to remove the oils and tars on the rim and the grime on the finish of the bowl. He scrubbed out the mortise and the airway in the shank and the stem with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. Jeff reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and followed up with a Savinelli Fitsall pipe knife to remove the cake. Since Jeff follows the same pattern of work in his cleanup we do not include photos but rather just a simple summary. Jeff took a photo of the stamping on the sides of the shank and the top of the stem. There is some interesting grain under the grime. Jeff took photos of the sides and heel of the bowl to give a picture of what the briar around the pipe looked like. He also took photos of the top and underside of the stem to show the oxidation, calcification, light chatter and tooth marks as well as the damage to the top of the button. The inner bevel on the rim does not look too bad and the outer edge looks good. He took photos of the rim top and bowl to give a clear picture of the thickness of the cake and the overflow of lava on the rim top. Jeff took photos of the pipe before he started his cleanup work. The pipe certainly had promise but it was very dirty. The grain on the bowl of the pipe was gorgeous with even the few small fills well blended into the finish. There was a deep trough bitten into the top of the button but it did not go through the button. The vulcanite saddle stem and was calcified, oxidized and had light tooth chatter and marks on the top and underside but the surface of the button. It was hard to know what the rim top and beveled inner edge of the bowl looked like under the grime. The bowl was heavily caked and had an overflow of lava on the top of the rim. The smooth finish had a lot of grime and dirt ground into the briar. There is not a shape number stamped on either side of the pipe. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads The Tinder Box in an arch Milano Made in Italy. It is a beautifully grained Savinelli Made Pot that is really quite nice. Jeff did the original photographs of the pipe in June of 2017. It has been around for a while waiting to be worked on. The next pipe on the work table came to me from another of our estate purchases.

Tinderbox pipes