Half the fun of doing pipe repairs and restorations is seeing what arrives in the mail. Many pieces sent in for refurbishment date from the 1960s and forward, while every now and again a real antique crossed my bench. This 1906 Peterson Bent Billiard Meerschaum is just one such example. Like many pipes from this… Continue reading A New Stem and a Refresh for a 1906 Peterson Patent Meerschaum
Ask any pipe smoker or collector and they will tell you that pipes can be a lot more than simple smoking instruments. They can become conduits through which the pipe steward is connected to a person, place or philosophy that holds deeper meaning for them. Many of us have at least one pipe, stand or… Continue reading Rescuing an Heirloom Lion Head Figural Meerschaum
This intricately carved meerschaum figural pipe came to me as part of an estate lot. It had waited patiently for restoration for a few years before I managed to get repairs underway, and even then it took me months to complete the work, picking away at it in the spaces between other jobs. As you… Continue reading Restoration of an Edwardian Lady
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
Back in November of last year, I wrote about a meerschaum billiard with a loose bone tenon joint. The threads in the meerschaum shank had worn and the tenon could no longer get a firm grip on the stummel. My solution at the time was to build up the threads on the tenon with CA… Continue reading The Repair I Should Have Done – Revisiting an Old Meerschaum Billiard
I found this somewhat battered meerschaum billiard at a local antique sale recently. It’s unmarked, so I can’t even begin to guess at who made it, but the Bakelite stem with orifice style opening puts the year of production somewhere between 1907 (the year Bakelite was invented) and the late 1920’s when orific stems were… Continue reading Undue Haste Leads to Shank Repair on an Old Meerschaum Billiard
I recently attended a large, semiannual antiques and vintage items sale about an hour away from home. It was one of those outdoor, rain or shine, events and so of course it rained the entire time I was there. Despite a golf umbrella, raincoat and waterproof hiking boots, I was wet to the skin within… Continue reading The Thrill of the Hunt and a Bakelite Learning Curve with a 1920’s Grundel Special Canadian
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