Amber has been prized for its beauty and workability for thousands of years. Used in the creation of jewelry, trade goods and once believed to have magical and medicinal properties, Amber also made its way into the pipe making world as a stem material. Unfortunately, Amber, while beautiful to look at, isn't a really good… Continue reading Crafting an Acrylic Amber Stem for a 1924 K&P Meerschaum
In somewhat startling contrast to today's pipe collecting and preserving mindset, there was a generation of pipe smokers who saw their briars as mere utility objects, tools for capturing and delivering the smoke from all-days blends. Bowls were cleared of dottle and ash by knocking them against the closest convenient surface, chambers were rarely, if… Continue reading Salvaging the Rim of a Very Knocked About Brigham 1-Dot
As any long term reader of this blog can tell you, the stem tenon is the number one weak spot on any pipe. The tenon is the smallest component, and has an airway drilled through it, further compounding its fragility. Add a 6mm or 9mm filter pocket in the tenon and the tenon walls get… Continue reading Remaking a 6mm Faux Spigot Stem for a Savinelli Eleganza 111KS
A client from the Greater Toronto Area sent me a few pipes for work not too long ago. Among them was a very large JM Boswell Jumbo Bent pipe that the client really enjoyed smoking but was a rather imposing pipe visually. As this first series of images illustrates, Jim Boswell wasn't kidding when he… Continue reading Lightening a Heavy Looking JM Boswell Jumbo Bent
As 2025 draws to a close, I'd like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who supported the shop over the last year, either by sending in repairs and restorations or by stopping by the site to read the latest blog posts. Your patronage allows me to continue to serve the Canadian,… Continue reading Happy Holidays from DadsPipes!
Hi everyone. The first week of December is ending, so I thought I'd put out a reminder about Holiday shipping. With larger shipping volumes, Canada Post can take longer than usual to deliver your parcels. If you plan to send pipes in for repairs this month, I recommend doing so as soon as possible and… Continue reading Holiday Shipping Reminder
Anyone who has taken a look through past posts here or on other pipe restoration blogs will know that stem replacement is one of the most common repairs, and with good reason. The stem is where the (Vulcanized) rubber meets the metaphorical road for pipe smokers. Stems are regularly dented or bitten though by teeth.… Continue reading Tutorial: Let’s Replace a Stem!
Merchant Service pipes were made famous in the late 1930s and 1940s by superstar entertainer Bing Crosby, who was a fan of the simple yet elegant pencil shanked billiards originally produced by Herbert Merchant Inc. Herbert Merchant died in 1944, and original production of Merchant Service pipes seems to have stopped sometime in the early… Continue reading Repairing a Merchant Service Pencil Billiard
Shank cracks are a common part of pipe repair, but there are situations where a standard external shank band just doesn't work - a tapered shank, for instance - or when, for aesthetic reasons, the pipe's steward doesn't want to change the outward appearance of the pipe. What to do then? This is where the… Continue reading Tutorial: Making an Internal Shank Repair
Bjarne Nielsen (1941-2008) left a promising career at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1973 to launch his own pipe making company and enticed few other pipe makers away from Prebem Holm's workshop in the process. Bjarne's Danish Freehand pipes became popular in the USA while his more traditional shapes caught on in Germany.… Continue reading A New Stem and a Cleanup for a Bjarne Handmade
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