Baer Bowl Pipe

I've been having a very hard time winning auctions on ebay recently. It seems there are a few wealthy individuals with thousands of purchases in front of their stars who are willing to pay top dollar for the beat up pipes I'm used to getting for less than ten bucks. Must be a conspiracy!
I was able to snag this large rustic looking thing. The only identifying mark is "Baer Bowl" stamped in cursive on the bottom of the bowl. Here are a couple pre-resto pictures.


Cursory Google research showed me this pipe was made by Miles Baer in Wisconsin. He worked out of his basement shop producing pipes from 1941 until 1972. I found a post by one of his grandchildren in a Usenet archive from 2006 who was looking for some of his grandfather's work. He fondly remembered watching him make pipes in his workshop. I also found a pointer to a newspaper article featuring Mr. Baer as a local craftsman of interest. Too bad it requires a subscription fee to access the archived article.
As you can see from that picture this pipe was not in good shape. In reaming out all that cake I found quite a bit of unburned tobacco bits. The underside of the stem had one of those odd vampiric tooth holes in it. So after much reaming, cleaning and polishing and patching I think I have something smokable.

The pipe weighs in at under 3/4 ounce which seems fairly light for a pipe this size which is six inches long. The bowl height is about two inches.
One reference says Baer carved his pipes with a smoke cooling chamber under the tobacco chamber making this a sort of system pipe. I don't see any evidence of this but maybe it's true. I'll let everything dry overnight and give the pipe a try tomorrow.
Does anyone have any information on Miles Baer and his pipes?

lucky695, first I filled in the hole on the bottom and the deep bite marks with black super glue gel. I let that dry and sanded it down smooth with a sanding sponge, then with steps of fine micro-mesh pads. I then buffed it with white diamond compound, applied some stem polished and buffed that, then went over it with carnauba wax. Works just about every time!

Welcome to the forums, kbaer! It's great to see your post here with more information on the Baer Bowl pipe. It is a wonderful smoker and currently in my weekly five pipe rotation and even more prized now with this provenance. Please post a few pictures sometime of the pipes you have from your grandfather.

It was abused. However, it's condition has been stabilized, at least for the next 60 years.
Trust me gigger48, I think I've contributed to at least two of the site sponsors since the original post! Sadly, my PAD is crazy out of control at the moment. I spent the weekend boxing up major parts of my collection and only leaving out my favorites.
I wanted to ask kbaer, do you have any other relatives who made pipes? I've found references to two pipe patents and a pipe ad from 1915 by an Abraham Baer of Wisconsin. This is from The Wisconsin Agriculturalist.

Sorry about the low res image. It was a small ad.

Thanks for the clarification, kbaer. I see using Ancestry.com that the Abraham (Lincoln) Bear family is from Switzerland and settled in the Milwaukee area.
Also saw a Rhynold and Amelia Baer living in Winnebago in the 1910 census which could be some of your ancestors.
Genealogy and pipe carving....never would have thought of that combination.
I also saw online one of Louis Baer's duck decoys for auction. That's serious business. I can imagine what it would be like to have Decoy Acquisition Disorder. I'd have to rent a hanger to keep them in.