Defining Restoration Versus Repair

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uperepik

(Oldtown)
Mar 8, 2017
533
14
So what makes a pipe be considered just restoration, cleaning and then repair. I would think as long as everything is original and you are just making it look clean it would be under restoration, those things like: reaming the bowl, romoving stem oxidation (including sanding), fixing loose tenons, removing rim grime. Now what about things like sanding stummel, re-staining, topping the rim. Are those repairs or still just restoration? Are those things always to be mentioned when selling or trading?

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,459
I'm not a restoration guy, but here's my sense of it. All of the clean-up and maintenance, reaming and refinishing, come under restoration. Repairs are addressing something that is broken and/or worn out, including cracks anywhere, burn-outs, holes in the stem, nicks, chips, burnt up (not just charred) rims, and so on.

 

saintpeter

Lifer
May 20, 2017
1,158
2,635
IMHO I believe all the terms have very fuzzy edges and in many cases overlap. As to info when selling. Yes, everything known about the pipe should be put out there. Sadly it is often either not, or not fully understood by the seller.

 

uperepik

(Oldtown)
Mar 8, 2017
533
14
It's the grey areas I wonder about like if a rim was pretty nasty and the stain was worn a bit while removing the crude. So I darken it back up a touch to match.

 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,542
14,286
It's a spectrum with lots of overlap and few definitions.
As a rule of thumb, if it can be done with tools and materials that can fit in a suitcase, it's cleaning.
If everything you need can fit in a minivan, it's restoration.
If it takes a full-size room (or two) and and multi-hundred-pound power tools are involved, it's repair.
:lol:

 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,542
14,286
George seems to have it down to specific measures.
Damn right. We're talking post-1994 General Motors and Ford minivans, not Japanese ones. And I indeed meant SUITcase, not BRIEFcase.
:rofl:

 

piffyr

Part of the Furniture Now
Apr 24, 2015
782
80
As a rule of thumb, if it can be done with tools and materials that can fit in a suitcase, it's cleaning.
If everything you need can fit in a minivan, it's restoration.
If it takes a full-size room (or two) and and multi-hundred-pound power tools are involved, it's repair.

I categorize these things pretty much like George does. Cleaning, restoration, and repair are each separate but interrelated things and each step up the ladder involves aspects, either whole or in part, of the categories that fall below it. It's not wise to make a repair on a dirty pipe for example.
To take things a step further, I also break the "restoration" category into two sub-categories; restoration and refurbishment. If you're attempting to return a pipe as close as possible to its original, as-sold condition, day-one faults and all, it's restoration. If you're intentionally making changes along the way (rustication, change of color, opened airway, etc.) it's refurbishment.
I would think as long as everything is original and you are just making it look clean it would be under restoration, those things like: reaming the bowl, romoving stem oxidation (including sanding), fixing loose tenons, removing rim grime.

I put all of these things, except for the loose tenon, firmly into the cleaning category. Think of it like this: If you wash a '67 Camaro to remove the road grime, you're just cleaning it, not restoring it.
Now what about things like sanding stummel, re-staining, topping the rim. Are those repairs or still just restoration?

Could be either/or, depending upon the reasons for the work. Then again, it could just be completely fubaring the pipe.

 
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