Anyone who has taken a look through past posts here or on other pipe restoration blogs will know that stem replacement is one of the most common repairs, and with good reason. The stem is where the (Vulcanized) rubber meets the metaphorical road for pipe smokers. Stems are regularly dented or bitten though by teeth.… Continue reading Tutorial: Let’s Replace a Stem!
Merchant Service pipes were made famous in the late 1930s and 1940s by superstar entertainer Bing Crosby, who was a fan of the simple yet elegant pencil shanked billiards originally produced by Herbert Merchant Inc. Herbert Merchant died in 1944, and original production of Merchant Service pipes seems to have stopped sometime in the early… Continue reading Repairing a Merchant Service Pencil Billiard
Shank cracks are a common part of pipe repair, but there are situations where a standard external shank band just doesn't work - a tapered shank, for instance - or when, for aesthetic reasons, the pipe's steward doesn't want to change the outward appearance of the pipe. What to do then? This is where the… Continue reading Tutorial: Making an Internal Shank Repair
Bjarne Nielsen (1941-2008) left a promising career at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1973 to launch his own pipe making company and enticed few other pipe makers away from Prebem Holm's workshop in the process. Bjarne's Danish Freehand pipes became popular in the USA while his more traditional shapes caught on in Germany.… Continue reading A New Stem and a Cleanup for a Bjarne Handmade
Jobey pipes have been around in one form or another, made by one company or another, since about the end of World War I. The predominant appraisal of Jobey pipes over the years is that they were "good pipes for the price". Jobey made pipes in mostly classic shapes sold at low to midrange prices,… Continue reading A Gentle Restoration and New Link for a Patent Pending Jobey Extra Poker
Most of the time when clients bring me their pipes, they want me to make them look new again, or at least get close. Other times, like with today's project, I am asked to create something very different. The pipe on the worktable today is a brand I'd never come across before. The rather large… Continue reading Let’s Make A Vintage Style Cased House Pipe!
Toronto's Brigham Pipes Limited was a company in flux in the 1970s. After enjoying decades of growth and increased sales, the pipe industry suffered a global drop in demand, and by the middle of the 1970s, Brigham had truncated its main line of production pipes from seven quality levels to only five. Apart from the… Continue reading A New System Stem for a 1970s Vintage Brigham 424 Bent Billiard
Dunhill began using Bamboo for some of their pipes near the end of, or just after, the Second World War as an alternative to hard-to-source briar. Details on the first use of bamboo shanks by the English marque are a bit hazy, but the series is included at least as far back as the 1951… Continue reading Repairing a Seriously Cracked 1960 Dunhill W59 Whangee Bamboo Apple
BP JUM pipes are a bit of a mystery. On one hand, they bear a striking resemblance to Custombilt pipes, and some speculate they were made by Tracey Mincer. On the other hand, there is, to my mind, a reasonable theory that the maker is actually Biltmore pipes, and that "BP JUM" may be a… Continue reading A Hand Cut Green Cumberland Ebonite Stem for a BP JUM
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
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