Sometimes a product doesn't catch on with the public until some time after it has been put to bed - movies that scrape by at the box office but sell millions of copies when released to DVD; books that sit on shelves or in boxes until someone writes a golden review; pipes that don't do… Continue reading A Quick Refresh for a Grabow CDL
Hi everyone. If you've been browsing the site recently or follow DadsPipes on Facebook, you may have already noticed the changes happening to the Pipe Inventory page. I have been in the shop daily for the past few weeks, working hard to build up the inventory of restored estate pipes. I'm adding fresh estate pipes… Continue reading Updates to the Pipe Inventory Page(s)
This is another of the pipes I picked up over the summer, a good-looking silver-mounted Savinelli Extra 2005 Apple. The pipe came to me in decent estate condition. It was dirty, of course, with a fair bit of dust, grease and wax jammed into the wire-rusticated finish. The chamber carried a light cake, and there… Continue reading Cleaning Up a Wire Rusticated Savinelli Extra 2005
As we move through September and people settle into their Fall routines, I've finally been able to get to work on some of the pipe I acquired over the summer, including this interesting, though sadly unmarked, Gourd Calabash. As you can see from this set of pictures, the pipe came to me without a stem… Continue reading A New Stem and a Refresh for a Briar-Bowled Gourd Calabash
Those of you familiar with the Brigham Shape Chart will already be aware that Brigham made many of the classic pipe shapes in a number of different sizes. Prior to the shift to European production, Brigham Billiards came in four regular sizes (Shapes 01, 02, 03 and 04) with several variants, including Tall, Chimney and… Continue reading Freshening up the Smallest of the Vintage Brigham Billiards – a 1980s 201
This smaller Peterson Canadian came to me in an estate lot I purchased earlier this summer. It was unremarkable at first glance, but I soon took another look at it after noticing the Peterson stamp on top of the slim oval shank. This series of pics shows the pipe as it was when I first… Continue reading Preserving a Piece of Pipe History – A Peterson Patent Era P-Lip 104 Canadian
This week's estate pipe restoration is the fitting of a new stem to a Hardcastle's Seaton Billiard stummel, which came to me as part of a large lot of pipes for repair. As this series of pics shows, the stummel was in very good, if not unsmoked, condition. It had clearly been without a stem… Continue reading A New Stem for a Hardcastle’s Seaton 172 Billiard
The fifth and final pipe in the Castello lot, an Old Antiquari KKKK Saddle Billiard, was arguably the most difficult of the lot to refurbish, not because of any major flaws or damages, but rather due to its regular, if not favourite, position in the owner's rotation. While just as well cared for as the… Continue reading The Last of Five Castello Pipes – an Old Antiquari KKKK Saddle Billiard with Fumee Finish
The fourth of five Castello pipes sent to me for cleanup and sale is a sandblasted Old Antiquari KKKK 1/8th Bent in what I will label as a Billiard despite its slightly unusual contours. While the rear line of the bowl is straight, the front of the bowl is slightly concave, giving the pipe a… Continue reading Quick Cleanup for a Castello Old Antiquari KKKK
This is the third of five Castello pipes sent to me for cleanup and sale. I posted the refurbishments of the first two some time ago but have been distracted by the Brigham book for a bit. Now that I've got a bit of breathing room in the schedule it's time to finish off this… Continue reading Freshening a Lovely Castello Natural Virgin G Bent Billiard
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