exploring the art of tobacco pipe restoration
Sourcing the correct materials to restore vintage pipes is a constant task, and one made more complicated as the years go by. The youngest of the Canadian-made Brigham pipes are now nearly 20 years old, production having shifted to France and Italy in 2001. At about the same time the original aluminum tenon/filter holders were…
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Although some pipe retailers out there carry estate pipes, many of us find our vintage briars at antique shops, garage sales or similar places. Sometime, however, a new pipe smoker will inherit a cherished pipe from a family member. Such is the case with this Chacom Auteuil Bent Billiard, which belonged to the current owner’s…
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Today’s restoration is really more of a very good cleaning. This Brigham 321 (which Brigham called a Woodstock shape but other may label a Zulu) was well cared for by its previous owner as evidenced by the lack of dents, dings and scratches in the briar and vulcanite. The pipe had certainly been previously enjoyed…
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I dug this old Bewlay Reject out of my refurb box recently, and puzzled over it a bit as I couldn’t quite recall where or how I acquired it. I think it must have come to me in an eBay lot, but the details have completely escaped me. According to Pipedia’s page on Bewlay, the…
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I received an email from Peterson pipe aficionado Mark Irwin of Peterson Pipe Notes recently, with a request for some help restoring the stem on an intricately carved bulldog shaped pipe. The brand is a new one for me. As Mark explained in his note, the fellow who owned the tiny BPL (Briar Pipe Line)…
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This pipe belongs to a fellow Ontario piper and DadsPipes reader who wrote to me asking what could be done to get this older meerschaum Egg back into his rotation. At first glance, the pipe looked to be in good shape, but a closer inspection revealed that the stem had been damaged at the button…
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This restoration was fairly simple – just what I was looking for after tackling a run of trickier repairs. This Trypis pipe hit the worktable in fairly good estate condition. The rim was hidden under a coat of lava but looked to be in decent shape otherwise. The stem was a bit oxidized and the…
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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…
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This is the third pipe sent to me for repairs by a DadsPipes reader in Birmingham, Alabama USA. You can see by the first pics that this pipe continues the owner’s run of large pipes – this David Jones rusticated pipe is a true fistful of briar! I’ve called this pipe an Author, as apart from…
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This is the second pipe sent to me by the owner of the Ardor Urano S. Holmes pipe I wrote about recently. This time I’m working on repairs to a very nice Claudio Cavicchi Bologna 04 Bent Billiard. It’s a larger pipe, the owner’s tastes tending heavily towards over-sized Italian briars. Unfortunately for the stem…
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