I picked this one up in bad shape. Only marks I could see were the fancy lettered "French Briar". It had an Art Nouveau look that suckered me in. And the stamp is in great shape.
Turned out the stem had been super glued. By the look of it I assumed it was Bakelite. I tried the heat gun to loosen it. The stem started turning opaque and splitting. Yeah, not Bakelite. Bakelite can easily take a little heat. I tried an alcohol soak. Nada. Finally with great trepidation I tried acetate. It took awhile, but I finally got it loose without doing anymore damage.
I set about wet sanding the stem to fix the heat damage. I got a very strong and distinct odor of camphor. I believe that indicates celluloid. After some filing, wet sanding and polishing it came out nice.
What with the celluloid stem and the French Briar stamp, this pipe could be 1900 or earlier. No way to really know.
The bowl has a couple small fills. It was probably a lower range pipe. And it has a couple dings and burns on the upper front. I decided to just clean it, polish it and wax it.
I found a WDC logo on the nickel collar that was turned 180 degrees from the usual spot. A little heat allowed me to turn it around.
It turned out as well as I could expect. For the money spent I got a good value. It's the only old military mount like this I've had. I'm going to smoke it a bit. :
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Turned out the stem had been super glued. By the look of it I assumed it was Bakelite. I tried the heat gun to loosen it. The stem started turning opaque and splitting. Yeah, not Bakelite. Bakelite can easily take a little heat. I tried an alcohol soak. Nada. Finally with great trepidation I tried acetate. It took awhile, but I finally got it loose without doing anymore damage.
I set about wet sanding the stem to fix the heat damage. I got a very strong and distinct odor of camphor. I believe that indicates celluloid. After some filing, wet sanding and polishing it came out nice.
What with the celluloid stem and the French Briar stamp, this pipe could be 1900 or earlier. No way to really know.
The bowl has a couple small fills. It was probably a lower range pipe. And it has a couple dings and burns on the upper front. I decided to just clean it, polish it and wax it.
I found a WDC logo on the nickel collar that was turned 180 degrees from the usual spot. A little heat allowed me to turn it around.
It turned out as well as I could expect. For the money spent I got a good value. It's the only old military mount like this I've had. I'm going to smoke it a bit. :
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