Flaky Meets Reborn! - A Fill in a Dunhill Patent Era!!

flakyjakey · Sep 16, 2013

I've bought quite a few of reborn's pipes from his website and auctions, and he has also restored (to perfection) all the estates I have bought. But I had never met him in the flesh, until yesterday. He and his other half (I should now say 'better half! LOL) were in Scotland for a wedding, so we arranged to meet up in a suitable pub for a pint and a pipe then to meet the ladies for dinner.
Peter, who runs the Edinburgh Pipe Club, joined us in the pub. Entre nous Reborn drinks EXTRA COLD Guiness - sacrilege! - as an Irishman he should be ashamed!! LOL. Between them they know a huge amount about British pipes, Peterson's in particular. So I showed them my two recently-bought Peterson's that I considered imperfect and I will report their views in the appropriate existing thread - very interesting they are too.
After dinner reborn and I repaired with our better halves (certainly true in my case) to my place for some port and more smokes. We discussed my 'Dunhill DR' saga (the auction had 4 hours to go at that point), and again I will post the outcome in the appropriate existing thread - Mods please note! LOL
Anyway, I showed him one of my 'patent era' Dunhill Shells which I thought had a fill. Reborn has handled and restored more old British pipes than anyone I know. He confirmed my suspicions and said he had never seen another example of such! It doesn't bother me as the pipe is a perfect smoker, and I will never sell it. But maybe it adds to its rarity and would attract a premium?! LOL
Anyway, he proved to be great company as well as a 'Ninja' pipe restorer and scholar. All in all it was a grand day and I learned at least three things about British pipes that I didn't know before.

flakyjakey · Sep 16, 2013

@peterpiper, thanks. I know you have a lot of experience of British pipes. Ever heard of a 40's Shell with a fill? Alfred D would be writhing in his grave and planning retribution from 'the other side' LOL

cigrmaster · Sep 16, 2013

Sounds like a great time. Nothing better than getting together with pipe buddies and sharing a smoke. It is always fun to learn from people with more experience.

flakyjakey · Sep 16, 2013

@cigrmaster, you are so right! Which is why I spend so much time on this site!

rebornbriar · Sep 16, 2013

After 5 pints of Guinness (EXTRA COLD!), a dram of Highland Park whisky, a pint of Peroni Italian lager, half a bottle of red wine and half a bottle of LBV Port, my recollection of events late in the evening were Flakey (pun). A great day and night had by all and I will now keep a watch out for cheap flights for round 2

ssjones · Sep 17, 2013

Sounds wonderful and fortunate for your purchase, snap some pix the next time you two meet up.

rebornbriar · Sep 17, 2013

@peterpiper I'm afraid you will have to ask Flakey about where the fill was! :D I'm sure if I found it, it was there. By that stage I probably couldn't have bitten my own finger as it was right at the end of the night. I have no recollection of getting back to the hotel, getting into bed etc. although my OH promised me that I managed to undress myself :D
@Al My OH did snap one quick picture when we were still with the other guys from Edinburgh Pipe Club. Flakey is on the right looking like he was just about to nod off!! But he was on the telephone to the taxi company. I am sat next to him and the organiser of the EPC is next to me.

flakyjakey · Sep 17, 2013

Nota bene - I am the only one who has finished his pint - That's called Leadership!! LOL

flakyjakey · Sep 17, 2013

Nota bene - I am the only one who has finished his pint - That's called Leadership!! LOL
Double post - apologies!

papipeguy · Sep 17, 2013

That's it! I have to get to Scotland. You guys really now how to spend and evening. I'm reading the entire M.C. Beaton Hamish Macbeth series so I'm primed.

pruss · Sep 17, 2013

Congrats, gentlemen, for what sounds like an evening to remember. Good on you both for making connections, creating fraternity, and eating, drinking and smoking well. It sounds like a truly lovely evening.
Flaky, I had noticed the conspicuous rate of pint consumption. Well done.
-- Pat

misterlowercase · Sep 17, 2013

Sounds like a great time indeed!
Love the pic!
It seems if there ever was a Dunhill with a fill, it'd be around the Wartime or right after...
John Loring wrote:
In America we have long forgotten just how great the impact of World War II was on Britain and most certainly on Dunhill. In fact for all intents and purposes it put a full decade of pipe making on hold, so much so that in addressing the overall history of Dunhill pipe making one moves from the late 1930s to the early 1950s barely noting the intervening decade. This is quite in contrast with the Great War (World War I for younger readers) where Britain controlled the sea lanes. Thus from all appearances in that first World War pipe tobacco was readily available, pipe making while perhaps limited to some extent if only because most bowls were rough cut in France, seems to have continued apace, and the post war quickly blossomed into a quite remarkable worldwide Dunhill expansion.
World War II was a sharp contrast, sea lanes were much contested, briar fields for Dunhill pipes were part of the front lines, as was the Duke Street shop itself which was bombed during the 1941 blitz, and war time rationing was both draconian and continued post war into the early 1950s. To wit: Dunhill published pipe catalogs for every year of World War I, each progressively more elegant, but none at all from 1940 through 1950.
Few, and for the most part uninteresting, Dunhill pipes were produced during the 1940s. It would appear that during World War II and for a good bit afterwards the Italian briar necessary for Dunhill smooth finished pipes was in extremely short supply while the situation for Algerian briar necessary for the Shell finish was only somewhat better. Likewise vulcanite for bits was either a rationed or prohibited material, so that many, if not most, and perhaps all war time pipes were fitted with horn bits...

flakyjakey · Sep 17, 2013

@misterlowercase, the evening got even better from there! It was great to meet reborn in the flesh; he has done so much fantastic work on my pipes, and his practical knowledge of old British pipes is amazing.
Re the fill, I'm looking at the pipe right now. I'm sorry I don't have a pic, but while we have a very good camera I am technically inept and not able to get the pics to the post! lol . A number of members have asked to see pics of my World War One Barlings, so I will get one of my 'techy' colleagues to drop round and set things up for me.

The shell is definitely a 'patent era' but the date number is rubbed. The pipe does not look to have been over-restored, which as peterpiper suggested could have left it needing a fill. The fact that the stem was heavily oxidised when I got it and it 'felt right' would be against this. All I did was clean it and de-oxidise the mouthpiece and it smoked like champion!

To me it looks like a 1940's shell, with an inner tube. Reborn had lost the power of speech at this stage of the evening LOL, so was not much help except to confirm with a nod that it did indeed have a fill, which is tiny, and is located to port on the bottom of the bowl. I have no intention of interfering with it!
So it all fits with your hypothesis about it being a 'war pipe'!! I am sure you are right LOL
Thanks for all the invaluable info - may you be a fount of historical piping detail which never dries up!!
@pruss - sometimes we oldsters can show the youngsters a thing or two, not much, but a thing or two!!
@papipeguy - you should! Cold weather and warm beer! But some Scottish Rattray's tobaccos you can't get in the US and a VERY warm welcome!! LOL

ssjones · Sep 17, 2013

I love that photo, exactly what I thought some British pipers would look like!

papipeguy · Sep 17, 2013

I've been reading flaky's posts and have come to the conclusion that he is one of the coolest guys in the world.

flakyjakey · Sep 18, 2013

@papipeguy that is very kind, but I must disabuse you of your fanciful notion! lol:
I am old, and not at all 'cool'
I am irritable, cantankerous, curmudgeonly and downright ornery! I hate cold beer, put water in my malt and don't eat 'foreign muck'.
I was a rugby front-row forward, renowned for belligerence!
I smoke only plugs, ropes and flakes and think 'ready-rubbed' tobaccos are for babies! I collect old English pipes - I hate those new-fangled Danish articles!
I am verging on homophobic - anyone using one of those 'poofy' shoulder bags to carry their pipes definitely 'plays for the 'other team'.
I'm glad handguns are outlawed in the UK - I would shoot anyone who abused my dog!
The only people who love me are my OH (who bought me a lovely Barling's), and my dog - if anyone tells me she is not a 'person' I will seek them out and throttle them!
Nuff Said?? LOL

ssjones · Sep 18, 2013

I am verging on homophobic - anyone using one of those 'poofy' shoulder bags to carry their pipes definitely 'plays for the 'other team'.

That made me a laugh, I have said shoulder bag (SmokinHolsters) and take a constant ribbing from my family and neighbors. I'm very comfortable with my sexuality! At a recent trip to Boswells in PA, where there are usually many old-timers, one such gentleman saw my bag laying on the table and picked it up saying "I should get me one of those man bags for my pipes". I just didn't make eye contact.....

rebornbriar · Sep 18, 2013

I am old, and not at all 'cool'

I feel old and no longer cool.

I am irritable, cantankerous, curmudgeonly and downright ornery!

Gathered that

I hate cold beer, put water in my malt and don't eat 'foreign muck'.

I love cold beer, drink my malt like a man without H2O, and you treated us to an Italian :roll:

I was a rugby front-row forward, renowned for belligerence!

I was a scrum half, reliant on the belligerent for protection

I smoke only plugs, ropes and flakes and think 'ready-rubbed' tobaccos are for babies! I collect old English pipes - I hate those new-fangled Danish articles!

Something we agree on

I am verging on homophobic

That's the Ulster blood

- anyone using one of those 'poofy' shoulder bags to carry their pipes definitely 'plays for the 'other team'.

I had a small one on on Sunday - but will qualify that my pipes were in a separate pipe bag. The small one was purely for my tins of flakes. How I am still in possession of it I have no idea - but am absent a Czech tool. Not a bad loss

Glad my OH was present which confirmed my playing for the "same team".

I'm glad handguns are outlawed in the UK - I would shoot anyone who abused my dog!

Gun laws did not matter here, there were plenty of guns in Belfast :D
The only people who can understand me are my OH and my dog - both are the other half of me!

You, Alan (Reborn) and Troy (MrLowerCase) are three relatively new members here, but I always search for your threads and posts and thoroughly enjoy each and every one. So thanks, guys

Thank you kindly Sir

papipeguy · Sep 18, 2013

It all sounds good to me, flaky. I'm 61 and sort of set in my ways but willing to learn new things.....to a point.

Flaky Meets Reborn! - A Fill in a Dunhill Patent Era!!

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