Welcome to Part II of the repair and restoration of an 1850 Long Pipe! Last time, we covered the work completed on the pipe's long Cherrywood shank and unique Ebonite mouthpiece with a flexible leather-wrapped shaft. We also hand cut a new Ebonite bit to replace the original that had been broken short at some… Continue reading Restoration of an 1850 Meerschaum & Silver Long Pipe Part II
After a decade in the business, some pipe repairs and restorations have become routine, but every now and then a project arrives at the shop that is anything but ordinary. I love these projects as they often require outside-the-box solutions for unique challenges, involving methods and materials usually not found in more standard restoration work.… Continue reading Restoration of an 1850 Meerschaum & Silver Long Pipe Part I
Meerschaum, a soft whitish mineral, has been used to make smoking pipes since the early 1700s. It is easy to carve, will not burn, and, with time and use, turns from white to a rich, dark red/brown. On the down side, meerschaum is fragile - easily chipped, cracked or otherwise damaged - and due to… Continue reading Vintage Meerschaum Shank Rebuild and Re-Stem
Most of the time, pipes are sent to me because they need repairs of some kind - cracks, broken stems, or simply a good cleaning and polishing. Every now and then, however, I get a "passion project" pipe - one for which the client wants work done to customize the pipe to their particular preferences.… Continue reading Fulfilling a Client’s Passion Project – a Green Cumberland P-Lip Stem for a Peterson Meerschaum
The Gourd Calabash pipe originated in South Africa, quickly becoming popular among British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand soldiers stationed there during the 1899-1902 Second Boer War. There is a larger Canadian connection here, too, as it was H.L. Blatter, his brother Ernest and sister Marguerite that founded a company to manufacture Gourd Calabash pipes… Continue reading A Major Salvage Operation for a Gourd Calabash Churchwarden
The Peterson brand is world-renown for both the quality of their pipes and the longevity of the firm. Founded in 1874 by Frederick Kapp, a German immigrant to Dublin, the nascent firm would soon hire another immigrant, a Latvian named Charles Peterson, who was destined to change the company and the pipe world forever. Kapp… Continue reading Restoring a Pre-Peterson Kapp Bros Egg & Claw Meerschaum
Pipes end up in the oddest places sometimes. Many people have found pipes washed up on riverbanks or beaches, tucked into the rafters of sheds and barns, and in the case of today's estate pipe, in the attic of an old house. I was contacted by a fellow in Winnipeg, Manitoba about the possibility of… Continue reading Restoring an 1866 Bavarian Hunter Pipe Attic Find
As one might imagine, the majority of the pipes sent in to me for repair or restoration are fairly new, at least in pipe terms, dating from the Post-WWII years through to the present day. Every now and then, however, I get the chance to work with a genuinely old pipe like this 1902 Loewe… Continue reading Crafting a New Orific Stem for a 1902 Loewe & Co Army Mount Meerschaum
A long-standing DadsPipes client contacted me one day with an interesting project. As part of a large and ever-growing collection of pipes, he had acquired a very well used vintage meerschaum pipe carved in the shape of a hand holding a bunch of grapes. The laundry list of needed repairs was extensive - a good… Continue reading Sour Grapes – Rescuing a Vintage Meerschaum
One of the joys of meerschaum is that it is fairly easy to carve and thus meerschaum pipes come in just about every shape imaginable, from basic Billiards to fantastical dragons, castles and more. The carver of today's estate pipe project took this block of meerschaum in a very different direction - folk art. The… Continue reading Reviving a Rather Unsettling Folk Art Carved Meerschaum
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