Mail It In One Piece, Please
-
Kevin Godbee - Oct 8, 2012
- 8 min read
Rick Newcombe
It was a Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles, and I was in my garage with the great Danish pipe maker Jess Chonowitsch, showing him how I cleaned the inside of my pipes. We had three on a table, and I had separated all three — meaning, pulled the mouthpiece out so that each pipe was in two pieces. Just as I brought down the alcohol and tube brushes that we were going to use for cleaning the pipes, my wife called out to say that lunch was ready.
I started to walk into the house, and Jess said, “We can’t leave the pipes separated like that.” I explained that we would be back in less than an hour, but he was concerned, saying that pipes should be held together as one piece except for very short periods of time. “Otherwise,” he said, “the wood will expand or contract and you will lose your perfect fit.”
Jess was talking about pipes with a stem that is flush with the shank, and by “perfect fit,” he meant that the two appear to be inseparable when together. This was one of the first things I noticed about his pipes nearly two decades ago. A blind man running his finger along the mouthpiece and shank of a Jess Chonowitsch pipe could not tell which was rubber and which was wood — they were seamless, as if one piece.
When you receive pipes in the mail, have you noticed how often the senders separate the mouthpiece from the pipe and send them as separate items in the same box? If it is a Peterson system pipe or any other military mount or push-pull type of mouthpiece, that is fine. But if it is a traditional flush-fitted pipe, I believe they should be sent as one piece. Otherwise, pipes with a perfect fit, if separated for shipping, arrive with a bump when they are put back together.
When I have asked pipe sellers why they separate the two before shipping, their explanation is that it is too dangerous, that the pipe is much more likely to break in shipping if it is connected as one piece.
However, if you use enough bubble wrap, the pipe is no more likely to break or be damaged, and the advantages are enormous.
The pipe makers I have written so much about over the years — Lars Ivarsson, Jess Chonowitsch, Bo Nordh and S. Bang — all send their pipes as one piece and have never had a problem.
In fact, Bo used to ask me not to separate the pipe after it arrived for at least three weeks and preferably six weeks.
This is because wood expands and contracts depending upon the temperature as well as the amount of humidity or dryness of the air.
If you ever get an old pipe that you are afraid to separate because the stem appears glued to the shank, just put it in a baggie in the freezer for a half hour and then slowly open it. The wood contracts in the freezer, which loosens the fit of the tenon in the mortise. When the wood contracts, it actually creates a larger space for the tenon to fit into. Thus, you will be able to open a previously-stuck pipe.
One time when I was at a ranch in Santa Barbara I had left a few pipes on a table for cleaning. They were separated and I got called away for several hours. This was before Jess taught me not to keep them apart for more than a few minutes at a time. They were separated for three or four hours in 90-degree heat that was incredibly dry, and when I tried to put the mouthpieces back together, it was very risky. I was afraid of cracking the shank. So I put beeswax on the tenons and gently twisted them together, but only after waiting until the outside temperature had cooled down quite a bit.
If you don’t have beeswax around, just use a bar of soap. Ulf Noltensmeier of the S. Bang pipes gave me that tip, and I have used it many times in hotel rooms over the years. Just take the bar of soap and rub a little on the tenon. You don’t need much, and a little bit on two sides of the tenon will do the trick.
Have you ever had your fingers swell up and found it difficult to get your wedding ring off? The solution is to wash your hands with soap so that your finger becomes slippery and the ring slides off much more easily.
I remember once flying from Chicago to Miami in January, when it was 10 degrees below zero in Chicago when I got on the plane, and 90-plus degrees in Miami when I got off the plane. I distinctly remember that my wedding ring practically fell off my finger in Chicago, while I needed soap and water to get it off in Miami. Heat expands matter.
Have you ever taken your shoes off during a flight and then had difficulty putting them back on because your feet have swollen so much? Imagine what is happening to any pipes that might also be on that flight!
Todd Johnson, the talented American pipe maker, once showed me how water can expand the wood inside the shank by applying a teardrop of water to the mortise area on a pipe with a loose-fitting stem. After waiting for a minute or two, for the water to dry, he then put the mouthpiece together with the pipe, and the fit was tight.
Prior to that, if I had a loose-fitting stem, I would heat the tenon and then, when it was warm, gently press it against a firm surface to expand the tenon so it would fit. But I much prefer Todd’s way of adding a teardrop of water to the shank. It is so natural, and it does not require permanently expanding the tenon.
I corresponded with Todd about this article, and he mentioned that he prefers Delrin tenons. I know of other pipe makers who have used Delrin, including Jess Chonowitsch and Jeff Gracik. Speaking as a customer, I much prefer that material too. As Todd says, “With Delrin there is more ‘fudge’ room for the mortise to expand and contract.”
Todd characterized the practice of separating the pipe into two pieces as something that “is ALWAYS a foolish endeavor. If things change–expand or contract–you want them to change TOGETHER!” He also pointed out that he does not want for his pipes to arrive with a note saying, “some assembly required.”
I realize that many old estate pipes have a bump — a slightly raised ridge where the shank meets the mouthpiece — so it’s probably not that big a deal to send them as two pieces. But with all the new artisan pipes being made today, I hope that sellers of their pipes will keep them together for shipment.
A related problem occurs if the pipe maker rushes the process, if he makes the pipe and ships it out before the tenon has had a chance to sit in the shank for a few weeks. That is why pipe makers like Jess and Bo always had a dozen half-finished pipes on their work benches at a time. They were letting the wood dry out and form as one with the mouthpiece.
When I buy a new pipe that has a perfect flush finish, I try not to separate the stem for at least several months, and never for more than a few minutes at a time. I have found that by being cautious at the beginning, the smooth transition between rubber and wood will be preserved for many years.
But the starting point is to make certain that these pipes are sent in the mail as one piece, not two.
Rick Newcombe’s new book, STILL SEARCHING FOR PIPE DREAMS, is available from www.sumnerbooks.com.
Notes on the pictured pipes: All three pipes are from Rick’s personal collection. He loaned them to PipesMagazine.com for use in our Pipe Babe photo shoots with Cynthia. Here’s what Rick told us about the pipes from the top of the page to the bottom …
1. The top photo was the 24th pipe Nanna Ivarsson made in 1995, when she was working alongside her famous grandfather, Sixten Ivarsson, in his workshop in downtown Copenhagen. The shape was originally created by Lars Ivarsson, Nanna’s father, in the 1980s. I saw the pipe in the workshop in rough form and said that it looked like a golfball on a tee, and I ordered it on the spot. I waited many months before receiving the finished pipe, and it was worth the wait.
2. The middle photo is a black sandblasted horn made by Bo Nordh in 1993. This was the first Bo Nordh pipe I bought. It is elegant and beautiful. I paid $1,000 for it new, and today could sell it used for something like eight or 10 times that amount. I would never sell it. I bought the pipe from Peter Heinrichs at his store in Cologne, Germany after seeing a photo in the Pipe Smoker’s Ephemeris of Bo smoking one, sitting in his wheelchair outside his farmhouse in Sweden.
3. The bottom photo shows a pipe in the prince shape that was made in the 1940s or 50s by the famous French department store Hermes. The pipe was not actually made by the department store. They probably commissioned pipes to be made by pipe makers in St. Claude, France that were stamped with the Hermes name. I bought this pipe unsmoked years ago at a pipe show from Steve and Roswitha Anderson of S&R Woodcrafts of Ohio.
Written by Kevin Godbee
10 Responses
Smokingpipes.com Updates
6 Fresh BriarWorks Pipes |
12 Fresh Neerup Pipes |
130 Fresh Peterson Pipes |
9 Fresh Estate Pipes |
6 Fresh Brigham Pipes |
Recent Posts
There’s a pipe in my collection that I cannot bring myself to smoke, though I’ve had it for more years than I care to recall. It’s old, or shall I say, well experienced; that experience, that oldness came to it long before it was in my possession. The pipe is an old Comoy’s Grand Slam from the 1940s. The shape (#93), a slightly canted, stack billiard (sometimes referred to as a Belgian) is right up my alley, and it’s a beautiful example of it. It came to me with some wear and tear; nothing unusual for an old pipe, but more the signs of one that has been well loved, smoked a lot, treated as a favorite tool, cherished, in a sense, by frequent use. It’s the pipe equivalent of a vintage car that’s been driven a lot, enjoyed fully and maintained adequately, rather than one kept in a spotless garage, dusted and detailed weekly, brought out only for leisurely Sunday drives, or to be ogled behind the ropes at the next Concours d’Elegance. When it arrived, those uncounted years ago, it wanted a little restoration. Nothing dramatic needed to be done to it, but the stem was oxidized, the finish a little dingy. The cake was even and fairly thin, and the airway was relatively clean, both signs that its previous owner cared for it, but the bowl’s surface was a little drab and dull. It took little effort to reveal its beauty, to show the lovely contrasted stain and interesting grain beneath the old wax. I often think I should do before and after photos of pipes that I work on, but those thoughts always come after the work’s been done. This one would have been a great illustration of how years of handling that can sometimes make a pipe more beautiful, can other times make it just look grungy. Once I’d cleaned up the externals, it was time to address the inside bits. I approach this a little bassackwards, I realize. It would be more sensible to take care of the inside before addressing the outside, but it’s how I roll. If an old pipe isn’t pretty to look at, it’s unlikely that I’ll care much about it, and cleaning is usually the hardest part, or at least the most boring part of any restoration for me. Alcohol and pipe cleaners. Lots of pipe cleaners. That’s why I leave it for last. Sometimes, I’ll even give a pipe a test smoke before a deep cleaning, just for a point of reference. I gave it a sniff to get an idea of what I was up against, and it stopped me cold. There in that bowl was an aroma that I had not smelled in decades. My head was instantly filled with memories of being in the back room of a fabled Berkeley tobacconist’s shop where I stumbled upon a few jars of long discontinued blends. One of them, a blend called Forty and Eight, had the most engaging and unusual scent of any tobacco I’d stuck my schnoz into. It was sweet, but not in a candy store way. There were none of the usual vanilla, cherry, berry or anise notes of typical aromatics, nothing that could be compared to aftershave or deodorant soap, but something almost musky, a little earthy, something exotic. The shop’s owner couldn’t tell me what was in it, how, or where it had been produced. The old blend had been retired before he’d bought the place. The printed catalogue gave no clues, either, other than being overprinted with the word “DISCONTINUED” in bold, rubber-stamp type. (And, I don’t recall it as being “highly aromatic” as the description indicates.) There was still quite a bit in the jar. Being, at that point, an intrepid explorer of all kinds of tobaccos, whether I thought I’d like them or not, I had to give it a try. It was burly based, but also comprised a good measure of virginia leaf, and maybe some other varieties; I didn’t have enough experience at the time to really pick it apart. But, that aroma was unlike anything I’d experienced before or since. It was something now completely lost to time. Until it wasn’t. Memories are powerful things, and there is no sense more tightly bound to memory than our sense of smell. One whiff was all it took to carry me back in time, conjuring a vivid recollection of something long submerged in the inky depths of a subconscious mind. Look, I know as well as anyone that pipes are meant to be smoked, and that many feel it almost sacrilegious to have a pipe and not set it to its intended task. In this case, I simply can’t. I won’t. Ever. Rationally, I am fairly certain this pipe would probably be a great smoke. It was too well loved by its previous caretaker to be anything less than that. My choice not to smoke it is an emotional one, not something rational. Of the thousands of pipes that have passed through my hands over the years, this is the only one to create such a singular and vivid, almost Proustian recollection of temps perdu, of lost time. It revivified a long dormant memory that is mine, and mine alone, and that’s enough. I keep it in a drawer with other old English pipes. In some ways, it’s nothing special, just a nice old pipe. I don’t lavish it with any particular care that arguably befits the hidden treasure that it holds. It’s not in a special box, or displayed preciously in a glass cabinet. Every once in a while, I take it out, point my nose bowlwards, and every time, those memories return just as powerfully as they did the first time. I have no idea how long it’s been since its last owner smoked it, but in the years I’ve had it, there seems to have been very little degradation of the aroma, and that’s […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 635. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with James Ravenwood. James is the boutique tobacco blender of Ravenwood Blends. His blending started out as a fun hobby, and he now has professionally packaged commercially available products with some great tin art. Part of his interest in pipe smoking goes back to fond memories of a retired Navy Veteran that lived on his street while he was growing up that would sit in his driveway smoking a pipe all day. Later, in 2011 he began smoking pipes and soon after started experimenting with mixing different tobaccos. His other hobby, that he has been doing for 30 years, is photography. He takes wonderful photos of outdoor spaces, and still life pictures of pipes and tobacco. You can see them on his Instagram @thebriarfellowship. At the top of the show we’ll have an Ask the Pipemaker segment with renowned pipe artisan Jeff Gracik.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. Or the wild turkeys gobbling in the backwoods or all the fuss and feathers over the big one—Christmas. No, it is that we might need to take note of all the little things that mean so much to us. Like a good sunrise (seriously, Pundit has not gone all Pollyanna.) Mayhaps we need to appreciate more of what we have than what we have not. Or something like that. Like, a good pipe in the morning with coffee as the dawn brings us coolish weather now that we have flipped the calendar to autumn. But it also brings beautiful leaves that have become a spectacle of technicolor in the wind. It is the little things. The rereading of an enjoyable book and finding something you did not see or learn in the first go-round. Or a stunning phrase you commit to memory with the re-read, while smoking that favorite pipe. And you notice a superior puff that just seems to be different. It’s in the air and the seasons of meaningful little things. It’s aromatic! Or perhaps it is that sense of satisfaction knowing and appreciating you made it to another day. With the world in a kind of rinse-and-repeat history, reminiscent of a Shakespearean play, it is perhaps a good moment to remember some of Pipedom’s philosophers whose cogent thoughts brought light to clear a path in the mists of confusion and confounding opinions. Ok. No gloom and doom. Just some down-home thoughts. Think of times in the past when history was running off the rails. It took our pipe-smoking thinkers (the mind workers of the world) to speak of better pathways to more light. Think for a moment, with a pipe in hand, these wizards of the world and word: Albert Einstein, J. R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edwin Hubble, Bertrand Russell, C. S. Lewis, and Jean-Paul Sartre. All learned and enlightened. They offered wisdom instead of storms of meaningless roads to nowhere. All while smoking their pipes! Maybe especially with the help of their pipes in the art of thinking and philosophy. Recall the words of Mr. E=MC2 when he said, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.” Amen and amen! Dealing with world-rattling events takes a calm and objective view of things, to the Pundit’s way of summing it up. You just don’t go messing around with quantum physics without a calm and objective approach, methinks. Or as the extraordinary physicist Robert Oppenheimer said after he and a team in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Labs developed a way to split atoms into bombs during World War II. “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” said Oppenheimer referring to the development of the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. It must be pointed out that Oppenheimer was more of a cigarette smoker than a pipe smoker. Nonetheless, pipes were part of his personality. Now, if you have read some of the great authors of the past and present, their pipes were always nearby. Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be a three-pipe problem at times. S. Lewis and Jean-Paul Sartre require time with your pipes to reflect on the existential problems and solutions these authors provide in learned novels and other narratives. Or take Edwin Hubble and Bertrand Russell, philosophers of another world. Pipes are required for reading. The quantum lode of ideas Pundit is attempting to sort out is that our pipes are relaxing and stimulate our thoughts and creativity. Especially in these last months of the year. Many times Pundit has had that light bulb flick on while smoking my beloved pipes. And friends in Pipedom, it ain’t easy to turn on the lights in Pundit’s rock pit head. Now it’s time for a quote from a Pipe Smoker of the Past. Shelby Foote was born Nov. 17, 1916, in Greenville, Miss., and died June 27, 2005, in Memphis, Tenn. A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
Well there’s nothing like a touch of the plague to usher in the changing season. Leaving the airport just when the first advertisements for all things pumpkin spice began to appear—lattes, muffins, shampoos, trash bags, and myriad other concoctions—so, too, my ability to breathe freely disappeared. The unfortunate side effect of losing one’s sense of taste and smell for weeks is the utter inability to enjoy tobacco. Not that I consider myself an expert on anything but my own tastes, but be forewarned that this review was made with mildly impugned sensory equipment. Just when a comforting pipe was most needed, its comfort was denied. Be that as it may, the road to recovery found me limping along on one lung this past month, trying to wrest the particulars of two blends on offer from Sutliff: the latest 175th Anniversary blend, Silver Quarter, as well as their spooky seasonal Maple Shadows II. Silver Quarter is a new style on offer from Sutliff, their first coin-cut blend. Naturally a Virginia-Perique, it is enhanced with a traditional core of black Cavendish. In the tin it holds much promise, with a lightly bready and very woody, if ever-so-slightly sour, aroma. After some time acclimating to air, the bouquet softens further and offers hints of the burley with some chocolaty notes wafting through the more dominant dry grassy aspect. The tin art is of a coin-style bas-relief bust, presumably of a founding Sutliff brother, Ă la The Old Boss On the reverse of the tin we find the blend’s description: Reflecting on Sutliffs 175 years of tobacco excellence, we came across a brand that embodies true value, SILVER QUARTER. This name pays homage to Sutliffs roots, the legacy of two brothers who popularized pipe smoking in the burgeoning mining society of San Francisco. We celebrate this heritage with a coin cut composed of the finest African Virginias, complemented by a core of Perique and Black Cavendish. The tin notes are, forgive the pun, on the nose for a good VaPer blend: mild tart sweetness peeking out from behind dried hay and slight chocolate undertones, with a lightly tannic finish of weathered oak. It is always a joy to prepare a coin cut, my preference being to put a few in my palm and vigorously warm my hands together to fully break them apart. These well-formed discs pack and light easily, and smoke with little prodding to the end of the bowl. For technical points it scores well—it smokes light, and it’s easy to tend the ember. While it gets sharp after a few quick bowls, pacing should be heeded to easily smoke down to the heel without inviting bite. Of the flavor, though, I am left a bit wanting. There are tart and high notes aplenty, but very little of the lemony citrus I would anticipate, as well as scant midtones; they tend more toward the red wine-vinegary and sour. The flavors are muted, also, lacking the sweetness and piquancy of other marques—the small measure of Perique tickles the nose now and again with peppery hints, and there is a smidge of a deeper sweetness to be found in the Cavendish from puff to puff, but overall it lacks some dynamism. The Virginias, to my palate, come off a bit on the dry side, and here they dominate the blend. The aftertaste and mouthfeel are neutral, again evincing more of the dry, woody, tartly tannic end of the spectrum. The blend has plenty of polish, but not enough depth or richness (*yet) to make it a standout. Here, comparisons are inevitable: Luxury Bullseye Flake has more sweetness, both from its Virginia as well as its Cavendish, and a better finish; Davidoff is similar but with a pronounced umami that is absent here; as for Escudo, I haven’t had any fresh tins lately so it would be unfair to compare. While it rates as a solid, fairly mild smoke, particularly to lovers of the genre, it does not surprise with any exceptional flavors. To be fair, all the boxes have been checked for the blend to benefit from some real aging, and it would be worth checking in on this after a couple of years sealed away. I’ve set half my tin aside to sample again in a month or two, in case I’m merely suffering from the lingering effects of parosmia, and will amend this review in that case. Maple Shadows II, on the other hand, made up for the weeks of sniffling and sneezing I’d endured. Offered in a full 8 ounce tin with delightfully spooky Halloween art, it’s (hopefully) enough to last through the season. Somehow I had missed this last year, so it’s a real pleasure to get some in my candy bucket this year. As the chilling winds of autumn draw eerie prattle from contorted, deciduous limbs, we find ourselves possessed by the spirit of the season. Bewitched by a dissonant charm, we’ve created Maple Shadows. In a season that is defined by the unlikely harmony of treats and frights, we’ve joined the enchanting sweetness of maple with the earthy spice of Dark Fired Kentucky for a smoking experience that captures the senses with an otherworldly fusion of flavor. This may be the best aromatic blend Sutliff’s ever made—and they make a ton of them. First off, it’s not overbearing in the least—quite the opposite, it is also one of the more restrained aromatics they’ve ever made, with a clear but very light topping that melds oh-so-well with their choice Kentucky added to the mix. Opening the tin, the sweet maple is up front and center, but so too is the must of fallen leaves, bready pie crusts, and a crackling fire in the hearth—a perfect invocation of HerbstdĂĽfte in a can. Packing best in an open and capacious bowl, the flavoring is subtle, and recedes to the background while puffing. With a sweet coffee or tea to accompany, the aftertaste of the maple is reinvigorated on the palate […]
Very interesting. Something new to remember to keep pipes nice.
Interesting, I can appreciate those points. However, not matter how it is packed, if the pressure is exerted on the package and the pipe is one piece, the stem could be snapped. Separated, packed properly and shipped in two pieces, that damage is nearly impossible. FWIW, I’ve never encountered an issue with stem fitment, including pipes sent from the UK to the States. Perhaps I was lucky, but I’ll take my chances and separate pipes I ship (and hope for the same from my seller).
I did receive one Upshall, sent in once piece, tucked into an unpadded envelope. Now that’s a whole different story….
Very interesting article, I always learn something new here at PipesMagazine.
Thanks for a very helpful and excellently written article; nicely illustrated, and with plenty of good tips that will insure our pipes will be in service for decades to come.
Here’s an interesting aside: at the 2009 Chicago Show, John Low, director of the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian in Evanston, IL, made a presentation in which he noted that Great Lakes Indians (Lakota, I think) would never store or display an assembled ceremonial pipe. Joining a pipe and stem is an invitation to the gods to come into one’s presence; and if one does so without immediately smoking tobacco, it’s like calling God on the phone, and then putting Him on hold! I guess if you have to make a choice between a poorly fitting stem or an offended deity, the pipe loses. 🙂 PM.com has the video on file at:
.
https://pipesmagazine.com/blog/pipe-videos/use-of-tobacco-by-the-north-american-indians-and-the-use-of-the-catlinite-pipes/
.
and you will find Mr. Low’s remarks at about the 40% mark in the progress bar.
LOL Cortez!
Very interesting read. I learn something new almost everyday on this site, thanks Kevin. Al, I got one of those exact same envelopes from Upshall and told him he was an idiot for sending it like that. The next one came in a box. lol
A damn fine read. Thanks for taking the time to put these thoughts down. Makes great sense.
Great article! I have actually figured this out from buying estates online on my own. I have also found that if the seller send it with the stem connected to the bowl and it is hotter than my apartmet outside that the stem fits best if I put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes and then don’t clean it for 24 hours. It adjusts to my room temperature. I have been considering for the future to only have pipes shipped connected to prevent the problems you mention above as tight stems can be fixed easier than loose ones IMHO.
Great article! Thanks for the info.
Wow, I learn something new every time I log in. I have two pipes that have stems that won’t go on more than half way. I didn’t think the hot days over the summer had an effect on the wood. I cleaned my pipes in the garage where I spend 80% of my day.
So, If I put the pipes in a baggy and place them in the freezer the stem will go to the bottom when I take them out? I’ll try that and see what happen’s.