I love Hilsons. I have about a dozen of these Belgian made pipes, and there is something unique about them. The Belgian style seems to have that Danish-like Dr Suess-ishness to them, but with a country simpleness, and yet with a lilt of rakishness. My favorite Hilsons are from the late 50's to 60's, including the Elan line. I have a few from this line that I swear are strawberry wood briar, and if they aren't they are as close to it in every quality as possible. But, I have one Hilson elan chimney, that is short stemmed, with a nice bend that almost makes it like a dangling cigar when I smoke it, with the chimney tilted down, and it's way less than an oz, probably half an oz in weight.
So, when I saw another Hilson Elan on an Ebay search, I got excited. These don't come up often, and this one was a stacked dublin of the exact proportions as my chimney, except dublinish. The stem was obviously oxidized to a pale green, and that lacquered stain, I knew, had to go. So, BAM, pulled the trigger.
The pipe came, and surprisingly it had maybe been smoked a couple of times and probably tucked away in a drawer somewhere. Yet, it did have an awful smell, like rotten lakelands and tractor grease. So, as I do quite often with yucky smelling pipes, I took the stem off and soaked the stummel in acetone over night. Pulling it out the next day, I could easily wipe out all remnants of any carbon inside the chamber and the lacquer and stain just came off with a wipe of a towel. Acetone evaporates at an extremely fast rate, and any residual chemical foolishness gets washed away as I sanded the stummel and stem to a fine polish using micro-abrasive pads under running water. I then buffed the whole pipe, stummel and stem, with carnuba wax on my benchtop buffer. Please excuse my junky benchtop full of rocks that I cut for jewelry inlay. I then worked the inside of the stem back and forth with about a dozen pipe cleaners vigorously with solvents ranging from acetone, alcohol, and then finally with rum.
You can see my other Elan in this one. Now she has a sister to join her on the rack.
I am a big fan of stacks and chimneys. I really enjoy tobaccos that stove very well as they smoke, changing flavors as the bowl progresses, and a stack and chimney focuses the flavor on this. And, for the last couple of days, these two girls have been RO Acadian Gold burning machines. I pack them a tad looser than I would a normal shaped pipe, and just lightly tamp them as the cherry is established. Then, quickly, I just forget about the pipe, and every now and then note the flavor and how it has changed. I don't typically have to relight a chimney, but when I do... I just hold the Bic lighter about half and inch above the bowl, and draw the heat down to the tobacco. I don't have to suck hard, just a gentle but strong long pull, and usually when I relent the pull, a flame jump up out of the bowl. I never hold a flame down towards the chamber.
Anyways, this cute little Hilson will be a nice addition to my collection. Here is a picture of me from a few years ago smoking my Elan Chimney while playing my ukulele for my girlfriend, now wife. Not a great picture, but note, the rakish-like quality of the slant, giving me a devil-may-care aesthetic to my prowess with the uke. Ha ha.
So, when I saw another Hilson Elan on an Ebay search, I got excited. These don't come up often, and this one was a stacked dublin of the exact proportions as my chimney, except dublinish. The stem was obviously oxidized to a pale green, and that lacquered stain, I knew, had to go. So, BAM, pulled the trigger.
The pipe came, and surprisingly it had maybe been smoked a couple of times and probably tucked away in a drawer somewhere. Yet, it did have an awful smell, like rotten lakelands and tractor grease. So, as I do quite often with yucky smelling pipes, I took the stem off and soaked the stummel in acetone over night. Pulling it out the next day, I could easily wipe out all remnants of any carbon inside the chamber and the lacquer and stain just came off with a wipe of a towel. Acetone evaporates at an extremely fast rate, and any residual chemical foolishness gets washed away as I sanded the stummel and stem to a fine polish using micro-abrasive pads under running water. I then buffed the whole pipe, stummel and stem, with carnuba wax on my benchtop buffer. Please excuse my junky benchtop full of rocks that I cut for jewelry inlay. I then worked the inside of the stem back and forth with about a dozen pipe cleaners vigorously with solvents ranging from acetone, alcohol, and then finally with rum.
You can see my other Elan in this one. Now she has a sister to join her on the rack.
I am a big fan of stacks and chimneys. I really enjoy tobaccos that stove very well as they smoke, changing flavors as the bowl progresses, and a stack and chimney focuses the flavor on this. And, for the last couple of days, these two girls have been RO Acadian Gold burning machines. I pack them a tad looser than I would a normal shaped pipe, and just lightly tamp them as the cherry is established. Then, quickly, I just forget about the pipe, and every now and then note the flavor and how it has changed. I don't typically have to relight a chimney, but when I do... I just hold the Bic lighter about half and inch above the bowl, and draw the heat down to the tobacco. I don't have to suck hard, just a gentle but strong long pull, and usually when I relent the pull, a flame jump up out of the bowl. I never hold a flame down towards the chamber.
Anyways, this cute little Hilson will be a nice addition to my collection. Here is a picture of me from a few years ago smoking my Elan Chimney while playing my ukulele for my girlfriend, now wife. Not a great picture, but note, the rakish-like quality of the slant, giving me a devil-may-care aesthetic to my prowess with the uke. Ha ha.
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