There is an old adage that tiny problems become large problems if left unattended, and the pipe on the bench this week is a prime example of this truism. This Savinelli Freehand Dublin was clearly a favourite of its steward but maintenance and repairs were put off, allowing hairline cracks down both sides of the… Continue reading Reviving a Hard Ridden Savinelli Freehand Bent Dublin
Over the years, many pipe retailers commissioned established makers to produce pipes marked with the retailer's own brand, in much the same way that grocery chains today contract existing producers to make their house brand merchandise. For pipe lovers, buying a house brand can be a more accessible ( read "less expensive") route to acquiring… Continue reading A Hand Cut Stem for a Tinderbox Unique by Charatan
Ask any pipe smoker, maker or collector and they will all tell you that the weakest part of a pipe, and thus the part most prone to damage, is the stem tenon. Most often cut as an integral part of the stem itself, the tenon holds the stem securely in place at the end of… Continue reading A New Delrin Tenon for an Interesting Tom Spanu Bamboo Freehand
This is the second heirloom pipe send to me for work, along with the Medico Square Pot about which I wrote last time. This time I'm working on an LL Bean Bent Billiard fitted with an interesting Smokemaster filter system first produced by Briarcraft in the USA in the early 210th Century, and again later… Continue reading Tenon and Stem Repair for an Interesting LL Bean Bent Billiard
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 is a restoration project I picked away at in between other jobs over the last few months. The subject is a French-made Kaywoodie Square Shank Pot with a large bowl and a handsome sandblast finish. Unfortunately, the aluminum fitment had been scavenged from the pipe, shattering the shank in the process. The broken shank… Continue reading Shank Repairs and a New Stem for a French Kaywodie La Roche Reject
This project was a first for me - hand cutting an Acrylic stem from rod stock. OK, not quite rod stock, as the chunk of acrylic I used was actually an off-cut from a 1" diameter by 4" long acrylic stem blank, so the airway drilling was already done when I started work. A stem,… Continue reading Making a Hand-Cut Acrylic Stem from Rod Stock for an Algerian Briar Bamboo Rhodesian
Tenon and shank repairs are often the bread and butter of pipe repair techs, and understandably so - the tenon is usually the weakest part of a pipe and can be easily damaged accidentally. That was the case with the subject of today's post, a striking Le Nuvole pipe in a shape I have dubbed… Continue reading A New Tenon for an Italian Le Nuvole Chubby Pickaxe
A DadsPipes reader and fellow Ontario piper dropped off a handful of eBay pipe purchases for me to go through before he added them to his rack and rotation. As many eBay pipe hunters have found, an estate briar listed as "cleaned and ready to smoke" may or may not actually be clean and ready… Continue reading A New Stem for a Savinelli Capri Root Briar 614
I received this extra large Billiard stummel in a box of pipes sent to me for repair by a pipe friend. I've called it a War Club in the post title as it is almost ridiculously oversized. The stemless stummel measures nearly 4 inches long from bowl to shank face, the shank is a whopping… Continue reading Resurrecting a Giant Kilimanjaro “War Club” Billiard
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