When I first pulled this pipe from my refurb box, I thought I was looking at another Danish design. It was only after taking a closer look that I realized it was, in fact, an Italian pipe, a Savinelli Nonpareil 9904, which Savinelli describes as a Bent Dublin. The pipe is stamped “Savinelli” over “Nonpareil”… Continue reading Cleanup of a Savinelli Nonpareil Smooth 9904 Bent Dublin
This is likely one of the last “simple” restorations from the Danish Lot, the estate collection I purchased last Spring. I'll be getting into the weeds with some trickier repairs on future pipes, but cleaning up this Stanwell Royal Guard was about as straightforward as it gets. The pipe arrived on the worktable in excellent… Continue reading Refreshing a Stanwell Royal Guard 01-M Freehand Pickaxe
This freehand is one of those rare estate pipes that require very little effort to make smoke-worthy. This pipe was either very well cared for or smoked only once or twice in its previous life. The pipe is marked “Stanwell” over “De Luxe” on the left shank, and “Made in Denmark” on the underside. A… Continue reading A Quick Cleanup of a Stanwell Deluxe Shape 62
What's a compulsive pipe restorer to do with all those functional but not quite collectible pipes? If you think like me, the obvious answer is the new Estate Pipe Starter Kits now available on the DadsPipes Store! Starter Kits come with your choice of Straight or Bent Briar Estate Pipe, a soft fabric Pipe Sock,… Continue reading Estate Pipes Starter Kits – New at the DadsPipes Store!
This beautiful Søren freehand pipe is similar in shape to the Karl Erik pipe in a previous post. Both pipes are freehand sitters with plateau tops on rim and shank, and both have fancy turned stems, but of the two, this Søren takes the prize for perfect briar. Unlike the Karl Erik, which had a… Continue reading Cleaning Up a Stunning Søren Freehand Sitter
I recently returned from a family vacation to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. It was great to see family and friends again and do a bit of “touristing” with the kids before the back-to-school maelstrom hit. My father-in-law helped me track down this pipe at an antique shop not too far from the Confederation Bridge, which… Continue reading Restoring a Vacation Find – A Cased Bruyere Garantie Long-Shanked Billiard
My apologies on the wait for this post. I had hoped to get it done before our family vacation but there you have it. This one is for all you Danish Freehand pipe fans. The Danes invented Freehand pipes and have proven to be darned good at it. This example is a Karl Erik pipe,… Continue reading Refreshing a Karl Erik Grade 2 Freehand Sitter
This medium sized bent meerschaum is the third of five meers from my recent estate lot purchase. It is much smaller than the Egg & Claw meer I wrote about here, but I think many pipers will appreciate its more manageable dimensions. The pipe is carved from a single block of meerschaum in a tulip… Continue reading Quick Cleanup of a Tulip Meerschaum Sitter
Hi everyone! It was a little over twelve months ago that I uploaded the very first post to DadsPipes, which has proven to be the Little Blog That Could. Since then it has racked up 120 posts (this one is #121) and over 35,000 views! Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to… Continue reading It’s DadsPipes First Anniversary!
Several months back I picked up an odd lot of "pipe tobacciana" from an erstwhile local collector. It contained a half dozen or so basket pipes, a Decatur pipe rack and two old pipe tobacco tins - a ubiquitous Prince Albert pocket tin, and a 7 oz sized tub of Middleton's Cherry Blend. The Prince… Continue reading An Experiment in Rehydration – a 1970’s Era Middleton’s Cherry Blend
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