How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Pipe

tuold · Feb 9, 2014

I was browsing eBay tonight looking for a deal when I ran across an Astor "London Made" pipe. It had some good grain and clean up potential for it's measly $12.00 price until I saw this:

That would take some pretty deep sanding and refinishing!
Has anyone done anything like this to one of his beloved pipes? Unthinkable!

pruss · Feb 9, 2014

It would make for a pretty pipe on which to practice rusticating techniques. While you might be able to sand those out (depending on what kind of thickness exists at the bottom of the bowl, I'd be getting out my gouges.
-- Pat

oldmannk · Feb 9, 2014

Wow dumb a....

petes03 · Feb 9, 2014

Shoot, for $12.00 I'd just leave it as is or make a project pipe out of it. Either way it's a good deal!

virginiacob · Feb 9, 2014

I can appreciate folks wanting to "personalize" their pipes, but that's a bit much! What a shame.

ejames · Feb 9, 2014

Doesn't look that deep. A little steaming before sanding might help. I once had a Sasieni that someone had engraved a large"O" on,almost an inch high. Refinished it and sold it to a gent in Russia.

latbomber · Feb 9, 2014

I think it stands for "Dim Wit"

yachtexplorer · Feb 9, 2014

It is already flattened on the bottom to make it sit nicely. Sand 2mm more off the bottom, making sure it stay symmetrical and that guys defacing will be gone.

lonestar · Feb 9, 2014

Bloody hell ! How did they get Denzel Washingtons pipe ???? $12 ? I'd ask $12,000 ! :lol:

rmbittner · Feb 10, 2014

For $12, that wouldn't be a deal-killer at all for me. At least it's on the bottom, where it'll only be seen by pets and small children.
Bob

joeray · Mar 19, 2014

Nice grain, but need more affort to make it perfect : puffy

:

cosmicfolklore · Mar 19, 2014

I prefer to scrape those words and marks the makers will put on the pipes. That way my bucket pipes are on equal par with the Dunhills, and they'll all smoke better. :wink:

judd · Mar 19, 2014

I have seen expensive firearms for sale that the stocks were mutilated just like the pipe . I wouldn't buy a firearm like that, but I would probably buy a pipe. At least it's on the bottom and you can't smoke it upside down. You're the only one that will ever know it's there.

johnnyiii · Mar 20, 2014

DW means Darell Waltrip if you like racing. :P
By reading your post it seems you saw it but did not buy it. If you bought it I like PRUSS's suggestion of practicing rustication. ++++1 to that.

ssjones · Mar 20, 2014

There was a Comoys Blue Riband on Ebay recently that had 1957 in the ad title. I thought that was odd, since Comoys didn't date their pipes. It seems someone had scratched that number into the bottom of the pipe.

tuold · Mar 20, 2014

The last LHS pipe I bought on ebay has the former owner's initials on the bottom also, but they are stamped on instead of scratched. After all the sanding, buffing and refinishing they are barely noticeable. Just enough so I drink a toast and take a puff in his memory each time I pick up that pipe

mso489 · Mar 20, 2014

OK, everyone please forgive me in advance. I'm going to speculate. Although this is a good grade pipe

I would expect to be owned by someone in comfortable circumstances, it could have been owned by someone

who lived or worked in a situation where theft was an hourly possibility. In the Navy I bought a jacket in Hong

Kong that got stolen from a locker at a locker club (where enlisted men had to stow their civilian clothes). So,

if I had broken for a particularly nice pipe, I guess the thought might have crossed my mind to despoil in this

way to give myself a fighting chance (which is what it would have been) to keep it. My point is, things aren't

always as they seem. As for this pipe, I think it could be sanded smooth and refinished without having to

rusticate it. It might change the shape of the bowl slightly, but it would be unnoticeable, I believe.

ssjones · Mar 20, 2014

I'd forgotten about this GBD, gifted to me by member "Weezel". It has the name "Ed Kollar" scratched into the bottom of the worn bowl. It was part of a box of pipes that Weezels dad inherited from one of his friends in Ohio. I googled the name and found a 92 year old Ed Kollar living in a nursing home in Ohio. I called and asked to speak to him but couldn't reach him. A few months later, I tried again and they said he had passed away recently.

mikestanley · Mar 20, 2014

I'm sure the original owner never dreamed anyone else would want to smoke his used pipe!
Mike S.

papipeguy · Mar 20, 2014

At least it's on the bottom. Astor was a Comoy brand so you did OK for $12.

How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Pipe

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