Founded in London, England in 1863, Charatan’s began making meerschaum pipes but soon became renown for its briar pipes. According to this article on Pipedia, Charatan was the first brand to make briar pipes entirely by hand, “from rough block to the finished pipe, including the stems. The stamp “Charatan’s Make” refers to this method of production and was meant to differentiate Charatan from other brands who “assembled” pipes from pre-drilled bowls and delivered mouthpieces. In the mid 1950s, American Herman Lane became the sole distributor of Charatan pipes in the US, and later bought the company, ushering in the Lane Era of pipe production.
The pipe on the work bench this week is a Lane Era Charatan’s Make Special Saddle Billiard. As this initial series of images illustrates, the pipe was in good estate condition, but was in need of a little TLC and a new stem, as the original Double-Comfort stem had been bitten through and was missing a piece of the button.
The rim of the pipe was mostly hidden under a layer of carbon deposits, but it was fairly apparent that the rim was dotted with small dents, likely acquired through careless dottle-knocking against a hard surface.
The left side of the shank is stamped “Charatan’s Make” over “London England” over “Special”. Underneath and slightly left of this stamp is a scripted “L” in a circle, which indicates a Lane era pipe.
On the opposite side of the shank is another stamp in script. Though well worn, it reads “Made by Hand in the City of London”
Discussions with the pipe’ steward established the scope of the work to be done while the pipe was in the workshop. It would get a good cleaning, a new Vulcanite Double-Comfort stem and the rough rim would be smoothed out. To get the ball rolling on the restoration, I reamed the chamber of a light amount of carbon cake and used a bit of 0000 steel wool to remove the buildup from the rim, exposing the constellation of tiny pinhead dents acquired over decades of use.
I topped the bowl gently to smooth out the blemishes, then cleaned the pipe’s internals with 99% isopropyl alcohol, pipe cleaners and cotton swabs. This didn’t take much work – so little, in fact, that I skipped the obligatory photos. Oops!
With the pipe clean, I touched up the stain on the rim, then wiped the briar with a bit of mineral oil to bring out the grain and inject a bit of moisture into the dry briar.
With the stummel ready to go, I set it aside to rest while I worked on the new stem. This image shows the original Double-Comfort stem (a saddle stem that has an extra step down at the button end) above the Vulcanite stem blank chosen for this project. As you can see, I have marked the new stem for length and the rough location of the step-down at the end of the bit.
After mounting the new stem blank in the lathe, I removed the excess length and turned the tenon to size, reproducing the detail of the original stem as closely as possible. The next step, turning the shoulder of the saddle to match the diameter of the shank, is not shown but saves a lot of hand filing.
A few wraps of hockey tape on the shank protected the already fading stamps form errant file strokes as I worked to smooth the transition between shank and stem.
A quick bit of file work cut the Double-Comfort profile into the top and bottom of the bit.
When I was happy with the rough shaping, I sanded the stem with 220 through 2000-grit papers, each one erasing the scratches left by the previous sanding.
Just before final buffing, I warmed the stem until pliable and introduced a gentle bend to match that of the original stem.
Then it was off to the buffer where the entire pipe enjoyed a run on the Tripoli and White Diamond wheels to erase the last of the sanding marks and bring up the shine. A few light coats of Carnauba wax completed the restoration, adding more shine and a layer of UV protection.
The finished pipe is looking great after its time on the bench. The briar shines, the pitted rim is a distant memory and the new Double-Comfort stem looks like it has always been part of this pipe.
This Lane Era Charatan’s Make Special has been returned to its steward, where it has resumed active service in his rack and rotation. With a little care and feeding, this lovely English Saddle Billiard should perform trouble free for many years to come.
Thanks for joining me for this fairly basic but nonetheless dramatic pipe restoration. While the new stem is obviously a vast improvement over the broken original, the change brought on by a basic cleaning and polishing is always a bit surprising.
Until next time, Happy Piping! Here’s the finished pipe.
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