I've been having a very hard time winning auctions on ebay recently. It seems there are a few wealthy individuals with thousands of purchases in front of their stars who are willing to pay top dollar for the beat up pipes I'm used to getting for less than ten bucks. Must be a conspiracy!
I was able to snag this large rustic looking thing. The only identifying mark is "Baer Bowl" stamped in cursive on the bottom of the bowl. Here are a couple pre-resto pictures.
Cursory Google research showed me this pipe was made by Miles Baer in Wisconsin. He worked out of his basement shop producing pipes from 1941 until 1972. I found a post by one of his grandchildren in a Usenet archive from 2006 who was looking for some of his grandfather's work. He fondly remembered watching him make pipes in his workshop. I also found a pointer to a newspaper article featuring Mr. Baer as a local craftsman of interest. Too bad it requires a subscription fee to access the archived article.
As you can see from that picture this pipe was not in good shape. In reaming out all that cake I found quite a bit of unburned tobacco bits. The underside of the stem had one of those odd vampiric tooth holes in it. So after much reaming, cleaning and polishing and patching I think I have something smokable.
The pipe weighs in at under 3/4 ounce which seems fairly light for a pipe this size which is six inches long. The bowl height is about two inches.
One reference says Baer carved his pipes with a smoke cooling chamber under the tobacco chamber making this a sort of system pipe. I don't see any evidence of this but maybe it's true. I'll let everything dry overnight and give the pipe a try tomorrow.
Does anyone have any information on Miles Baer and his pipes?
I was able to snag this large rustic looking thing. The only identifying mark is "Baer Bowl" stamped in cursive on the bottom of the bowl. Here are a couple pre-resto pictures.
Cursory Google research showed me this pipe was made by Miles Baer in Wisconsin. He worked out of his basement shop producing pipes from 1941 until 1972. I found a post by one of his grandchildren in a Usenet archive from 2006 who was looking for some of his grandfather's work. He fondly remembered watching him make pipes in his workshop. I also found a pointer to a newspaper article featuring Mr. Baer as a local craftsman of interest. Too bad it requires a subscription fee to access the archived article.
As you can see from that picture this pipe was not in good shape. In reaming out all that cake I found quite a bit of unburned tobacco bits. The underside of the stem had one of those odd vampiric tooth holes in it. So after much reaming, cleaning and polishing and patching I think I have something smokable.
The pipe weighs in at under 3/4 ounce which seems fairly light for a pipe this size which is six inches long. The bowl height is about two inches.
One reference says Baer carved his pipes with a smoke cooling chamber under the tobacco chamber making this a sort of system pipe. I don't see any evidence of this but maybe it's true. I'll let everything dry overnight and give the pipe a try tomorrow.
Does anyone have any information on Miles Baer and his pipes?
