Sure we all expect the high grade or custom made pipes to smoke great, and I expect most of them do. Also, many here sing the virtues of inexpensive factory pipes smoking wonderfully too. But what about the odd clunker you picked up at the thrift store, or antique shop? Or a pipe on ebay that just looked interesting but had some issues that needed attending to? Ever have one of those that smoked so flawlessly that you could hardly believe it?
I was smoking an old KBB Twin Bit Yellobole last night, and got to thinking how good this pipe always smokes. I picked this up for a couple of bucks about 6 months ago in a thrift shop, and it was a hot mess. It's a bent billiard, that had a straight Kaywoodie stem stuck about halfway in, and a broken piece of shank was held together with some fine wire wrapped around it to repair the piece. I posted about this back then showing how I repaired the shank and made a repair band out of a slice from the top of a Magic Marker. I replaced the non fitting Kaywoodie stem with an old straight stem that fit, but I bent to work with the bent shape of the pipe. Very much a cobbled together pipe. But here I was having one of those great moments that you get from time to time when relaxing with a smoke. Why did this little crappy old Yellobole smoke so great? I started thinking about other pipes that I have that are kind of little orphans that I've worked on and how they smoke better than some of the higher priced pipes I have. I mean really, if a pipe is a really bad smoke, and it has no historical value, I usually get rid of it, so I don't have any pipes that I smoke that I would consider really bad.
So I found two more examples of pipes that needed some extensive work to make decent smokers, but now for some reason they are not only better than before, but smoke better than many others. The pipes have different construction, fittings, and are from different time periods.
So here's a pic of the three pipes I'm talking about:
As you can see I decided to show the right side of the pipes for a change, as I've posted pics of these pipes individually in the past. The nomenclature is sort of beside the point with these anyway, and the grain was quite nice on this side. No noticeable fills on any of them, only a couple of pits or dings here and there. I know the tops of the bowls could be sharper, but they're not ugly.
Anyway the top pipe is a pipe I got in 1992 at a B&M in the central coast of CA when I lived there. It's simply stamped Christmas 1992 on the shank, and France on the stem. I could never get along with this pipe, it gurgled, wouldn't pass a pipe cleaner, and it had a red stain that I didn't like. I stripped the stain and finished it in a natural color, used a Dremel to form a curve to the draft hole in the shank that was way at the top of the mortise, and also opened it up a little. I beveled the inside end of the tenon too. For some reason, this pipe now smokes so well and also passes a pipe cleaner I don't just wait for Christmas to smoke it anymore.
The next is an old LHS Filter King Deluxe that needed some bad rim charring removed, the stem was badly out of clock to the right, and the staining was horrible. It has an aluminum screw in tenon, that takes a filter, but I never use one. This pipe never disappoints me, even though it's not the greatest looking old pot.
Last is the poor old KBB Yellobole with the shank repair and replacement stem. I'm sure the stem I used is shorter than the original, but it works just fine.
So how about anyone else? Got a sad little pipe that you've nursed along and found it to be a great smoker?
I was smoking an old KBB Twin Bit Yellobole last night, and got to thinking how good this pipe always smokes. I picked this up for a couple of bucks about 6 months ago in a thrift shop, and it was a hot mess. It's a bent billiard, that had a straight Kaywoodie stem stuck about halfway in, and a broken piece of shank was held together with some fine wire wrapped around it to repair the piece. I posted about this back then showing how I repaired the shank and made a repair band out of a slice from the top of a Magic Marker. I replaced the non fitting Kaywoodie stem with an old straight stem that fit, but I bent to work with the bent shape of the pipe. Very much a cobbled together pipe. But here I was having one of those great moments that you get from time to time when relaxing with a smoke. Why did this little crappy old Yellobole smoke so great? I started thinking about other pipes that I have that are kind of little orphans that I've worked on and how they smoke better than some of the higher priced pipes I have. I mean really, if a pipe is a really bad smoke, and it has no historical value, I usually get rid of it, so I don't have any pipes that I smoke that I would consider really bad.
So I found two more examples of pipes that needed some extensive work to make decent smokers, but now for some reason they are not only better than before, but smoke better than many others. The pipes have different construction, fittings, and are from different time periods.
So here's a pic of the three pipes I'm talking about:
As you can see I decided to show the right side of the pipes for a change, as I've posted pics of these pipes individually in the past. The nomenclature is sort of beside the point with these anyway, and the grain was quite nice on this side. No noticeable fills on any of them, only a couple of pits or dings here and there. I know the tops of the bowls could be sharper, but they're not ugly.
Anyway the top pipe is a pipe I got in 1992 at a B&M in the central coast of CA when I lived there. It's simply stamped Christmas 1992 on the shank, and France on the stem. I could never get along with this pipe, it gurgled, wouldn't pass a pipe cleaner, and it had a red stain that I didn't like. I stripped the stain and finished it in a natural color, used a Dremel to form a curve to the draft hole in the shank that was way at the top of the mortise, and also opened it up a little. I beveled the inside end of the tenon too. For some reason, this pipe now smokes so well and also passes a pipe cleaner I don't just wait for Christmas to smoke it anymore.
The next is an old LHS Filter King Deluxe that needed some bad rim charring removed, the stem was badly out of clock to the right, and the staining was horrible. It has an aluminum screw in tenon, that takes a filter, but I never use one. This pipe never disappoints me, even though it's not the greatest looking old pot.
Last is the poor old KBB Yellobole with the shank repair and replacement stem. I'm sure the stem I used is shorter than the original, but it works just fine.
So how about anyone else? Got a sad little pipe that you've nursed along and found it to be a great smoker?
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