Peterson Silver Mounted Army has Arrived! (And It's Quirky...)

Well it finally arrived from way overseas, and turns out it's a 102. I've been wanting one of these small billiards for some time, I'm incredibly jazzed that it's a 102 and not a 106. This is my first sandblasted Peterson, and I've got to say I actually love the finish. It probably doesn't show in my terrible pictures but there is some nice ring grain on portions of the flanks.


This pipe does have a few quirks to it, though. If you can see in the picture below, the stamping on the bottom of the shank is pretty damn wonky. The "102" is so deep and jagged that it looks like "101" unless you turn it at just the right angle, then you can make out what it actually says.

The hallmarks are also somewhat interesting to me. For starters, they're TINY. I have 20/20 vision and I can hardly make out what it says. The "O" appears to correspond to the year 2000 which is awesome, this came to me unsmoked. However, if you look very closely you can see a distinct dot in the middle of the letter, which I don't see appear on the hallmark charts. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it, and it's simply a byproduct of the stamping process itself. Additionally, the band is ever so slightly deformed and elongated on the bottom edge beneath the hallmarks, which I've never seen on any of my other silver bands.

These minor cosmetic oddities aside, this little beauty smokes fantastically well. The drilling is top notch, a perfectly cool and dry smoke when I broke it in last night with a 2/3 bowl of Peterson's Perfect Plug. For $75 I think I did well on this one. I think my next pipe might be another 102, it's just the perfect size for my smoking needs. Cheers!

Thanks! I believe it is 1.3 ounces.

scloyd I know! I was sorely tempted to buy a Kapp Royal, but I find my growing collection is yellow stem heavy, so I thought a change would be nice. I wanted something simple and classic, and this fits the bill just right.
mso489 I couldn’t agree more, I love these smaller bowls. My last two pipes were 120’s, solely because I wanted another Rosslare and a Spigot and the two I got were too cheap to pass up. But they’re not nearly as comfortable in hand as these small billiards, Dublin’s feel a bit awkward for me, and it’s way more chamber than I need. My smallish bowl of 3 P’s last night kept me occupied for close to 50 minutes. Not totally in love with that particular tobacco, but I do love this pipe! I’m going to load up a full bowl of Irish Flake in it this afternoon and fly away on the sturdy wings of sweet, sweet nicotine.

Thanks, gents! It might be my favorite smoker of the bunch.

Didimauw I didn’t know you’d been having stem issues, all with military mount Peterson’s? I only own two but I’ve yet to have a stem pop out while smoking.
Or if you mean loose stems in general and army mounts might be the cure? If that’s the case, I think army mounts can definitely come loose. I press mine in pretty firm until I hear that plastic click a couple times. If you just lightly seat the stem I imagine it could come loose, especially when clenching. I don’t clench much at all, though. But, I would think the wood in the mortise would expand slightly as it heats up, and help better join the stem and stummel together? I’ve had zero issues, but I don’t think it’s necessarily foolproof in terms of coming loose.