The Gourd Calabash pipe, in its current form with gourd body, rubber stem and meerschaum or clay bowl, has been around since the Second Boer War in South Africa (1899-1902). According to this article on smokingpipes.com, the war led to shortages of briar in Cape Town, pushing pipe makers to find an alternative material. Gourds… Continue reading Major Restorations for an Early 20th Century HBB Gourd Calabash
In the tobacco pipe world, pipe shops can usually be divided into two camps - those that make pipes and those that repair/restore pipes. It is somewhat counterintuitive, but these two activities are very different and require different skill sets and different equipment. I've been repairing and restoring smoking pipes since 2014 but have never… Continue reading And Now For Something Completely Different – Carving my First Hobby Block
Smoking pipes have traditionally been made from only a handful of materials - clay and meerschaum originally, then briar and an assortment of fruit woods like cherry and pear. Most recently, Bog Oak, also called Morta, has entered the fray. So what exactly is Bog Oak? Bog Oak/Morta is semi-petrified oak that has lain under… Continue reading Pinning Multiple Cracks in an Otherwise Lovely Rattray’s Bog Oak (Morta) Pipe
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
Often when we think of family heirloom pipes what comes to mind is Grandpa's collection of Patent-Era Dunhills or a complete set of Peterson Sherlock Holmes pipes, but the truth is that the vast majority of pipes sold during the Golden Age of pipe smoking (roughly the 1950s through to the 1970s) were relatively inexpensive,… Continue reading Rebirth of an Inherited Medico VFQ Foursquare Pot
This smaller Comoy's Sandblast Army Billiard arrived at the workshop recently as part of a larger lot of estate pipes sent in by an Ontario pipe shop for repairs and restoration. As this first series of pics shows, the stummel was in quite good condition, needing only a good cleaning and buffing to prepare it… Continue reading Stem Repair on a Pre-Cadogan Comoy’s Sandblast 24 Army 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
Every now and again I get the particular pleasure of working on a family heirloom pipe, a treasured part of someone's family history they wish to preserve for display or their own use. This Made in Czechoslovakia Bavarian style pipe is one such piece, first owned by the current pipe steward's grandfather. As this first… Continue reading Repairing a Horn Stem on an Heirloom Czech-Made Bavarian
This Pre-Republic K&P Dublin 207 Pot is a bit of an old friend as I first restored it for my own rack almost exactly five years ago, back in November of 2017. I enjoyed it for many of those years but, as many pipe smokers do, I found that I reached for other pipes more… Continue reading A New P-Lip Stem for a WWII-Era Peterson K&P Dublin 207
The Dr Plumb's brand has been around since 1925 when it was introduced by GBD as a budget line aimed primarily at the North American export market. First produced in France, Dr Plumb's pipes are now made in the UK and stamped accordingly. This Dr Plumb Bent Billiard arrived on the worktable for a basic… Continue reading Freshening a Dr Plumb’s 5091 Bent Billiard
