Adam Davidson

  An Ebony B64 from the 2013 Antique Collection We’re extremely fortunate to have with us this morning two of my favorite pipe experts to deepen our understanding of what—apart from Natural—is the rarest of all K&P’s standard finishes, the Ebony. Adam Davidson, one of the world’s great pipe artisans as well as Estate Manager at SPC, will give us some history on wood ebonizing as well as DIY advice about how to create and restore this type of finish. Sykes Wilford, whose name you may be familiar with, is on board to tell us about current production of ebony pipes by the major players as well as Kapp & Peterson’s own current work.  But first a word a contextualizing word or two. Sillems Peterson Ebony 03 Spigot before restoration I confess I never gave ebony pipes much thought one way or another until restoring a an ebony Spigot 03 back in 2018 (Post #81). Documenting some of Mario Lubinski’s creations for Peterson not too long afterwards, I got interested in his fascinating Gaelach Dubh (“Black Irish”) line. This original bent-apple shape B42a is still available at Bollitopipe.it. I knew that the acrylic F/T stems of the GD and I would never get along, so like Chuck Jones’s remarkable Ralph Phillips, I dreamt up my own P-Lip Ebonys, the Trom Dubh (“Chubby Black”) quartet for April Fool’s Day of the same year (Post #85). Although Peterson never contacted me about the brainy idea of a black-on-black pipe with its anodized black aluminum bands and ferrules, I feel fairly certain this was only because it was a dark post and they never saw it. The Trom Dubh Strutcard (2018) And so everything went along for about 200 posts until last April, when everything went dark. I had long since given up on ebony Petes, consoling myself with the thought that ebony was “a Dunhill thing” and that ebony pipes were probably too difficult to maintain in any case. Then in one of those “Can this really be happening?” moments on eBay I saw a long sought-after grail pipe, the Sherlock Holmes System Original. It was in ebony, but my PPAD (Peterson Pipe Acquisition Disorder) being what it is, I had no choice (Post #277). The Sherlock Holmes Ebony System Original (1990) It wasn’t but a few months before CPG Chris Mendoza’s “Postcards from Madrid” appeared (Post #306). I remembered when K&P had last done a big release of ebony Standard Systems around 2010 or so—and there filling one of the trays in the display case of R. Moreu’s beautiful shop, were several Standard ebonys. And one of them was—could it be? Not surely a 309?  Moreu’s wasn’t equipped to sell that pipe to me, but fortunately another CPG, Brandon Labudde, read Chris’s post and wrote me to say there was a 309 ebony at Stag Tobacconist in Scottsdale, AZ. . . . Can you detect a trend here? 309 Ebony System Standard, c. 2010 I said a minute ago that for…