And a right bastard to work on, too! According to sources, this pipe is either a French pipe (Smokingpipes.com), an Italian Pipe (ditto), an American Pipe from Barnaby's in Brooklyn, or one offered through Sears and Roebuck. Because it does not have the fancier lettering, I'm leaning towards one of the first two suggestion because it does not bear the fancier lettering on its stamp that the Sears and/or Barnaby pipe had.
The pipe had a lot of cake and I reamed it and scrubbed it and reamed it some more. It came through the cleaning in good shape, but the rim was damaged (charred). That required me to "top" it--basically sanding beyond the damage. Since the rim is now bare briar, the rest of the stummel has to be sanded as well so everything matches up color-wise. So I sanded and sanded. One thing about big pipes: they require a lot of sanding. It's particularly difficult getting into the "crook" of a pipe this shape. Beginning with 220-grit, I sanded away the old color/finish and then worked on up to 1500-grit wet sanding with Everclear alcohol. With a nice clean stummel I had a choice to make: What color? I'm sick of BROWN. I have too many brown pipes. So I used mahogany leather dye. Unfortunately, it went on like paint, thoroughly covering any grain. Nuts! My experience with mahogany leather dye is that if you wipe the stummel quickly with alcohol, it tends to remove the "red", leaving the pipe...BROWN! Anyway, I sanded, and buffed, and polished, and waxed, and was quite happy to quit this one. About two hours total work.
The pipe had a lot of cake and I reamed it and scrubbed it and reamed it some more. It came through the cleaning in good shape, but the rim was damaged (charred). That required me to "top" it--basically sanding beyond the damage. Since the rim is now bare briar, the rest of the stummel has to be sanded as well so everything matches up color-wise. So I sanded and sanded. One thing about big pipes: they require a lot of sanding. It's particularly difficult getting into the "crook" of a pipe this shape. Beginning with 220-grit, I sanded away the old color/finish and then worked on up to 1500-grit wet sanding with Everclear alcohol. With a nice clean stummel I had a choice to make: What color? I'm sick of BROWN. I have too many brown pipes. So I used mahogany leather dye. Unfortunately, it went on like paint, thoroughly covering any grain. Nuts! My experience with mahogany leather dye is that if you wipe the stummel quickly with alcohol, it tends to remove the "red", leaving the pipe...BROWN! Anyway, I sanded, and buffed, and polished, and waxed, and was quite happy to quit this one. About two hours total work.