exploring the art of tobacco pipe restoration
Today I’m working on the second pipe I found on my birthday pipe hunt. This one is a classic Bent Billiard by Seville. Here’s what it looked like when I brought it to the worktable. . As you can see from the pics, the pipe needed a bit of spit and polish. The finish (a…
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I picked up this Bent Bulldog as part of a random lot of estate pipes quite some time ago. I dug it out of the box after Christmas, and have been working on it in between other jobs for the last several weeks. The pipe was in a certain amount of distress when it came…
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I thought I’d squeeze another pipe onto the DadsPipes Store shelves in time for the Holiday buying season. This Stanwell is one of the last survivors of the Danish Lot of 30 or so estate pipes I purchased about a year and a half ago. It had been sitting in the refurb box for quite…
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This is the second of six Blatter pipes sent to me for refurbishment. Of the lot, this Canadian is the owner’s admitted favourite, and I can see why. The long, elegant shape is rather appealing, and the amber acrylic stem on this pipe is quite eye-catching. The pipe hit the worktable in very nice estate…
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I was recently sent a box of six pipes for refurbishment from a gentleman in Iqaluit, Nunavut. All six pipes were made by Blatter & Blatter, Inc of Montreal, known at one point in the firm’s 100 year history as Blatter Bros. Established in Montreal in 1907, Blatter & Blatter has remained, by choice, a…
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I was presented with this gift by fellow piper and blogger David Wilson of Home Grown Hobbies at the last pipe club meeting a few weeks ago. He had found this Brigham stummel at an antique shop near him and thought I could do something with it. The semi-finished briar is a Brigham Sportsman circa…
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By all accounts, the Danish Fancy pipe boom of the late 1960s and 1970s caught the great English pipe house of Dunhill unprepared. Dunhill was unable to produce the new Freehand shapes in-house, so if the firm was to capitalize on the surging demand for Danish pipes, it would have to look elsewhere. The answer came…
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I’ve been sitting on this restoration for a while, mainly because it took some time for me to come to grips with the pipe’s pedigree. The pipe in question is a Stanwell Collectors Piece, a special series of pipes issued during the company’s “Regd. No.” era (roughly 1948 – 1970) and apparently quite rare in…
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Old friends, Sat on their park bench Like bookends. – Simon & Garfunkel, Old Friends Even a casual glance through the posts here at DadsPipes will quickly identify me as the vintage Brigham pipe fan that I am. I blame it on my father, who is, of course, not here to defend himself and therefore…
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“Step up, lad,” cried Silver. “I won’t eat you. Hand it over, lubber. I know the rules, I do; I won’t hurt a depytation.” Thus encouraged, the buccaneer stepped forth more briskly, and having passed something to Silver, from hand to hand, slipped yet more smartly back again to his companions. The sea-cook looked at…
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