A filterless, or Non-System, Brigham pipe is a rare bird, indeed. The Toronto-based manufacturer sold non-system pipes alongside their patented Brigham System pipes featuring the Rock Maple Distillator from the late 1930s until the mid-1950s. By that time the vast majority of Brigham pipes sold were system pipes, so the non-filtered versions were quietly retired.…
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Last week I wrote about a Meerschaum Canted Billiard stummel that had been lost in the back of a drawer for decades. Hidden away with that pipe was another stummel, the Orlik P9 Bent Apple that is the subject of this week’s post. The stummel was in above average estate condition, with the most notable…
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The pipe on the bench today was sent to me by a gentleman who has become a regular client of mine over the last year or so. We have been restoring the pipes in his extensive collection batch by batch and just when he thought he was finished, a few loose stummels were discovered at…
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As some of you may be aware, I have recently started doing repairs and restorations for a Toronto-based pipe seller. Some of these jobs are more involved but many are straightforward projects like this Ashton Pebble Grain, which really just needed a bit of sprucing up. As you can see in this series of shots,…
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If you are a lover of oversized or extra large pipes, then this post is for you! This Comoy’s Extraordinaire 800 Straight Billiard was sent to me recently along with a few other pipes for restoration. There was a short laundry list of tasks to get this pipe ready for a new steward – a…
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Not all estate pipes need major refurbishment work to bring them back to life, but, like everything else, benefit from regular cleaning and, every so often, a bit more involved TLC. The pipe on the worktable this time is a handsome Dunhill Chestnut in a classic Straight Billiard shape. It presented in reasonably good estate…
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As I’ve mentioned before, a broken tenon is by far the most common pipe repair, and for good reason. The stem tenon is the smallest structural part of a pipe and is subjected to a disproportionate amount of stressors as the pipe smoker removes and reinserts the stem in the shank. An overly-enthusiastic twist with…
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Pipe manufacturers are constantly looking for ways to make their products more appealing to a wider audience – new shapes, new finishes, new colours, etc. The Chacom Atlas Calabash on the worktable today demonstrates one such innovation, the dip-dye finish. First seen in the 1990s, the finish process seen here consists of a solid base…
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The hunt for hidden gems keeps a good number of pipe smokers and collectors wandering through antique shops, secondhand stores and other repositories of the past. One such treasure hunting prize, a John Brumfit Billiard, was sent to me recently for restoration along with its original box and sock. The manufacturer was unfamiliar to me…
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Unlike the vast majority of estate pipes that pass across my worktable, whether found at antique shops, estate sales or, like this pipe, sent in by their current stewards, there was actually nothing wrong with this Savinelli Veritas 316KS when it arrived in my mailbox. Instead, it had been sent to me for a bit…
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