I know what you're thinking, how can a average Peterson be a birth year pipe? Well here's my story on this.
I know that finding a birth year pipe can be difficult, and expensive to accomplish. Unless you luck into a commemorative pipe with the year stamped on it, or find a Dunhill that can be accurately dated, it can be hard if not impossible to do. I never figured I would luck out with anything as my birth year is 1946, and not to many pipes can be dated to that year, and if I did find one, I'm sure it would be out of reach financially.
In the mean time I'd decided I wanted to try a Peterson system pipe, as I've never had one. New ones seemed kinda of pricy for me, and the nice ones on ebay always seemed to go for a lot too. I've always like older pipes, so as I had been looking at old Petes online, I would occasionally bid on one, and I finally got one! The pics on the auction were fairly typical, dark, blurry, not a lot of info, but I could determine it was a pre-republic Pete anyway. Truth is the nomenclature was pretty worn. It was a pistol to clean out though, dirtiest pipe I've ever run across inside. But I think I got it where it needs to be, inside and out.
After I received the pipe, I did a little research online on it and it's stampings, and it looks like it's shape 309, and has a nickel cap on the shank. Also it appears, from all I read, that this pipe was probably made between 1945-1947. What's the middle year? Oh yeah, 1946! Maybe it was made earlier, maybe not, I'm sure there are Peterson experts out there that will have an opinion on this. Feel free to rain on my parade, but as far as I'm concerned, it has a good chance of being made on birth year, or at least close enough. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
I do have a couple of questions about this pipe though. I've never seen a Pete with the stem removed so I don't know if it's correct or if something is missing. The diagrams I've seen show a tube coming out of the tenon that goes farther into the shank. Or is this stem made correctly and will work ok as is?
Also, is there anything I need to do to secure the stem in the shank other than twist and push? I'm afraid it might come apart while smoking. I didn't wax it on the lower part, but I doesn't feel real tight unless I twist and push quite hard. Open to a little advice for a newbie Peterson user. (I have another one coming in the mail too that I'll post about when I get it) Thanks, Paul
Before
After
I know that finding a birth year pipe can be difficult, and expensive to accomplish. Unless you luck into a commemorative pipe with the year stamped on it, or find a Dunhill that can be accurately dated, it can be hard if not impossible to do. I never figured I would luck out with anything as my birth year is 1946, and not to many pipes can be dated to that year, and if I did find one, I'm sure it would be out of reach financially.
In the mean time I'd decided I wanted to try a Peterson system pipe, as I've never had one. New ones seemed kinda of pricy for me, and the nice ones on ebay always seemed to go for a lot too. I've always like older pipes, so as I had been looking at old Petes online, I would occasionally bid on one, and I finally got one! The pics on the auction were fairly typical, dark, blurry, not a lot of info, but I could determine it was a pre-republic Pete anyway. Truth is the nomenclature was pretty worn. It was a pistol to clean out though, dirtiest pipe I've ever run across inside. But I think I got it where it needs to be, inside and out.
After I received the pipe, I did a little research online on it and it's stampings, and it looks like it's shape 309, and has a nickel cap on the shank. Also it appears, from all I read, that this pipe was probably made between 1945-1947. What's the middle year? Oh yeah, 1946! Maybe it was made earlier, maybe not, I'm sure there are Peterson experts out there that will have an opinion on this. Feel free to rain on my parade, but as far as I'm concerned, it has a good chance of being made on birth year, or at least close enough. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
I do have a couple of questions about this pipe though. I've never seen a Pete with the stem removed so I don't know if it's correct or if something is missing. The diagrams I've seen show a tube coming out of the tenon that goes farther into the shank. Or is this stem made correctly and will work ok as is?
Also, is there anything I need to do to secure the stem in the shank other than twist and push? I'm afraid it might come apart while smoking. I didn't wax it on the lower part, but I doesn't feel real tight unless I twist and push quite hard. Open to a little advice for a newbie Peterson user. (I have another one coming in the mail too that I'll post about when I get it) Thanks, Paul
Before
After
