This question is for those of us who look for, smoke, purchase and receive estate pipes. Personally, I love them. I have a few nice old pipes I've collected, some mid grade smokers and even some no names. I enjoy cleaning them up so others and I can enjoy the quality of an old smoker.
Lots of things can be done to an old pipe before it is loded up and fired again. I've seen folks at flea markets take old and burned up cobs, pay their buck and proceed to load them up with whatever tobacco they had in there pocket. Smokin' lovely again. I've come across pipes that needed a little attention and some that needed to be reamed, topped, reclocked, shined up, oxidation removed, retort, refinished, restemmed... etc. The list goes on and on. Some have burn out, burn through, bite through the stem, pulled out of a fire...
My question is personal in nature. I know all of us estate pipe lovers have our own threshold on how much manipulation on an estate aquisition is acceptable to us. I'm wondering, what's your threshold? When do you say, "I don't want that crap"? Or "That'll do". Or "Make this particular change so I can smok it".
Even on my no name daily smokers, I like to remove oxidation from the stem and wax it, remove rim char / blackening, I ream back cake to an "acceptable to me level", clear the draught hole, a few quick swabs of Everclear and then I'm firing up the Five Brothers to try and deghost. My estate pipe is now my pipe. I'm interested in hearing about your methods. There are so many.
Lots of things can be done to an old pipe before it is loded up and fired again. I've seen folks at flea markets take old and burned up cobs, pay their buck and proceed to load them up with whatever tobacco they had in there pocket. Smokin' lovely again. I've come across pipes that needed a little attention and some that needed to be reamed, topped, reclocked, shined up, oxidation removed, retort, refinished, restemmed... etc. The list goes on and on. Some have burn out, burn through, bite through the stem, pulled out of a fire...
My question is personal in nature. I know all of us estate pipe lovers have our own threshold on how much manipulation on an estate aquisition is acceptable to us. I'm wondering, what's your threshold? When do you say, "I don't want that crap"? Or "That'll do". Or "Make this particular change so I can smok it".
Even on my no name daily smokers, I like to remove oxidation from the stem and wax it, remove rim char / blackening, I ream back cake to an "acceptable to me level", clear the draught hole, a few quick swabs of Everclear and then I'm firing up the Five Brothers to try and deghost. My estate pipe is now my pipe. I'm interested in hearing about your methods. There are so many.