EDIT: Fixed Capitalization in Title (See Rule 9)
I began collecting pipes as a kid (really!) because of my grandfather's pipe smoking and his small collection. He mostly smoked Sir Walter Raleigh and something called Sugar Barrel (anyone know what the latter was?) in corncobs, but he had a Turkish meerschaum, a few briars, a decorative clay pipe... I still have his wooden pipe rack.
He had a briar oom paul. He had smoked it, but no longer did. When I was about eight, I "turned it into a meerschaum" by painting it white. I have no idea what happened to it, but I always look at oom pauls, hoping to find one that strikes me as similar enough, and I haven't found one yet. I suppose, more than anything, I'm just telling a bit of my pipe collecting past, but part of me hopes this vague description will spark something and someone will have an example of a similar pipe.
The bowl was tapered slightly, narrower at the top, and had the tiniest bit of curve or bulge. I've seen many oom pau;s where the connection between bowl and shank was almost flat on the bottom, and this one was slightly curved; it didn't look squared, but neither was it fully rounded like a full 180-degree curve. The shank was slightly canted away, not vertical, and I think it was either straight or had only a teensy taper. It had a very narrow, say 2mm, silver-colored ferrule, not a band but a spacer, and a saddle-type vulcanite stem. The briar was rusticated, and the carved pocks were maybe a mm wide and 3 or 4 mm tall. Looking very close it was dark brown stained, but that was only visible on the smooth patch on one side of the shank, which I think only said "imported briar." The rest of the pipe looked black.
Does this terribly vague description sound like a pipe anyone has seen? I'm sure it, like the rest, was bought in whatever shop sold pipes in the small Texas town where he lived; my mother or my aunt likely bought it for him as a gift.
I began collecting pipes as a kid (really!) because of my grandfather's pipe smoking and his small collection. He mostly smoked Sir Walter Raleigh and something called Sugar Barrel (anyone know what the latter was?) in corncobs, but he had a Turkish meerschaum, a few briars, a decorative clay pipe... I still have his wooden pipe rack.
He had a briar oom paul. He had smoked it, but no longer did. When I was about eight, I "turned it into a meerschaum" by painting it white. I have no idea what happened to it, but I always look at oom pauls, hoping to find one that strikes me as similar enough, and I haven't found one yet. I suppose, more than anything, I'm just telling a bit of my pipe collecting past, but part of me hopes this vague description will spark something and someone will have an example of a similar pipe.
The bowl was tapered slightly, narrower at the top, and had the tiniest bit of curve or bulge. I've seen many oom pau;s where the connection between bowl and shank was almost flat on the bottom, and this one was slightly curved; it didn't look squared, but neither was it fully rounded like a full 180-degree curve. The shank was slightly canted away, not vertical, and I think it was either straight or had only a teensy taper. It had a very narrow, say 2mm, silver-colored ferrule, not a band but a spacer, and a saddle-type vulcanite stem. The briar was rusticated, and the carved pocks were maybe a mm wide and 3 or 4 mm tall. Looking very close it was dark brown stained, but that was only visible on the smooth patch on one side of the shank, which I think only said "imported briar." The rest of the pipe looked black.
Does this terribly vague description sound like a pipe anyone has seen? I'm sure it, like the rest, was bought in whatever shop sold pipes in the small Texas town where he lived; my mother or my aunt likely bought it for him as a gift.
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