Very Low Grade Pipe Restoration With Questionable Results (PICS)

The expression, "idle hands are the devils workshop" might apply here. Sometimes I wonder why I do the things that I do. A couple of months ago I got the hankering for a Prince Albert tobacco tin. While looking through the hundreds available, I came across a nice clean example that came with a pipe too. (a prince shape no less) No info was given on the pipe, and it was finished similar to a Savinelli alligator. So for about $8 I figured what the heck, why not another crappy pipe to play with. When I got the stuff, I was happy with the tin, but less so with the pipe, as it was crappier than I thought. It was a Whitehall "Gulf Stream", which looked like that's where it had been. Lousy with fills, cracks, especially a bad one on the shank, and a poorly fitted stem. I thought, oh well, and threw it in a drawer.
Ok, so a couple of days ago I was cleaning up a couple of Bari pipes I had come across, and I figured while I had all the resto stuff out I might as well see what I could do with that old Whitehall. After working on the fit of the stem and addressing the crack in the shank, I stripped the bowl down and found even more fills, and an especially long one on the back of the bowl. I don't what got into me at that point, but I decided I would just make it into a garish red pipe and accentuate the carvings with black while hiding the fills. I even gave the stem a little red dot like a cherry on top!
Now I don't know what to do with it, except smoke something in it, like G&H Top Black Cherry maybe. Might make a good Halloween pipe, or even a ugly Christmas pipe to go with an ugly sweater... :rofl:

Hey guys, thanks for all the comments!

Hunter, with the list of Whitehall attributes listed on that coupon, it's a wonder anybody would consider buying anything else! :roll:

Thanks to everyone else for the interesting info on these pipes. As some have pointed out, there are some Whitehall pipes that are better than others, particularly the English made pipes.
The proof is in the smoking as they say. So this morning I got around to smoking some PS Cherry Bon Bon, a cherry blend that is one of a few I can stand, as it doesn't have an over the top cherry flavor. Somehow a cherry blend just seemed the right thing for this red pipe. First off, I have to say is that despite my misgivings of the pipes quality, it smokes really well. I figure there are two reasons for this. First, it's a prince shape, which has a medium bowl diameter that is a little shallower than some pipes. I like this size bowl, and prince shapes and pot shapes always smoke good for me. Second, this pipe has one of the biggest draught holes I've ever seen. I measured with a drill bit and a 3/16 bit slid in easily but with no extra room. Man, what an open draw! I think the reason for this is that when cleaning the stem I found the tenon blocked with a twisted piece of aluminum. So I suspect it had a stinger or tube that went all the way to the bowl, that was filling a bit of space in the draught hole. I had to drill the tenon out to get about a 1/4" of aluminum out of it.
Anyway it was fun to work on and it was a nice surprise that it smoked so nicely. Still, not my favorite looking pipe, but it gained some respect from me now. ::