exploring the art of tobacco pipe restoration
I was temporarily between projects the other day so I dug down to the bottom of my refurb box and came out with an old, well worn Canadian stummel. I brought it to the table and snapped this series of pics. Judging by the cleanliness of the chamber, I’ll suggest that this stummel was never…
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About a year ago, I wrote about the rediscovery of Brigham’s early line of non-Patent pipes and the subsequent restoration of two examples. I recently acquired a third Non-Patent Brigham pipe to add to the collection, this time in what Brigham called a Club shape, otherwise known as a Lovat. Here is how the pipe…
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This is the second of five Castello pipes I have been asked to restore and sell. Last time, we lookd at a sandblasted Castello Old Antiquari Oom Paul. This week we’re cleaning up a Castello “Castello” G Bent Billiard. Castello was founded by Carlo Scotti in Italy in 1947 and has become known for its…
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This pipe is another one of those that has been languishing in my refurb box for quite some time – long enough that I can’t remember exactly when or where I acquired it! High time to give it some attention. Here is how the pipe looked when I brought it to the worktable. It was…
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I have had this late-1960s or very early 1970s Brigham 3044 Oversize Billiard in my box of refurbs for at least the last year if not longer. I’ve checked on it several times over that period, but I’ve never been able to tackle the work it needed until now. The problem has not been a…
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This pipe came to me in a large mixed lot of estates for repair. It is an attention-commanding fist-sized chunk of briar carved into an equally commanding bulldog figural pipe. As you will see in this series of shots taken when I first brought the pipe to the worktable, the briar was in pretty good…
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The work on this pipe has been started and stopped several times over the last few months, repeatedly sidelined in favour of more pressing repair jobs. It’s been so long, in fact, since I started working on it that it took me quite a while to find (most of) the pictures. This series of pics…
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I recently wrote about replacing a broken tenon and called it one of the most common pipe repairs. Today’s post is about another – a cracked shank. For many pipes, a cracked shank can be easily and permanently repaired by installing a shank band over the damaged briar. An external band like this is essentially…
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Amid all the work I’ve been doing on other people’s pipes lately, I try to squeeze in one of my own where I can. This Brigham 206 has been waiting patiently for a little love for quite a while, so I decided that it was time to give it some attention. The series of pictures…
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I’ve worked a lot on other people’s pipes lately, so thought it was high time I cleaned up an estate from my own box of Refurbs-in-Waiting. In this post I am working on a pretty Jobey Virgin Prime 345 in a Bent Pot Sitter shape. As you can see from this series of pics, the…
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