Blatter & Blatter Collection - Refurb In Progress

[pruss]

Hey gang.
Some of you have been asking about this collection which I purchased last year...


... and my progress on cleaning them up and turning them around. Well, with the birth of Megan, a major work transition, and a two month trip to New Zealand over the subsequent monts, I've been sloth in getting these refurbished.
They spent most of the last year like this:


But last weekend I got into them and got a third of the way through the restoration.




So I've made progress. I have to say, I'm not looking forward to weighing, measuring and photographing all these bad boys!
I'll post more as I get further along, and am documenting the whole process for Steve Laug's blog.
-- Pat

 

[ericthered]

Thanks for the update, Pat, and the motivation!! For many of the same reasons (minus the sweet trip to NZ) I've stalled out on a box of estate pipes that I'm trying to turn around. Time to get back on the horse!

 

[mso489]

pruss, good progress there. You've put in some hours, with excellent results. What a handsome set of Blatter & Blatter briars, very impressive, and they restore so well. It makes me want the biography of the original owner who was so devoted and had such good taste in his special favorite brand of pipes. There's a guy who knew what he wanted and didn't vary. My stable is all over the map -- brands, stains, shapes, national origins, and so on.

 

[captainprophesy]

Man I can't wait to see the final results... your off to a good start to say the least

 

[pruss]

It makes me want the biography of the original owner who was so devoted and had such good taste in his special favorite brand of pipes.

You're in luck, my friend. I purchased these in a direct sale from the original owner. He is a lovely gentleman who lives in Quebec, east of Montreal. He is a retired lawyer who traveled to Montreal frequently, and always stopped in at B&B to buy tobacco and the occasional pipe. Over the years he amassed a collection of over 200 Blatter & Blatter pipes, and was selling 75 of them on Kijiji (which is kind of like Craigslist). He sold me 35, plus an additional 10 pipes from makers like Paradis and Genod, as well as the long meerschaum sultan warden pictured in the top photos above. He decided at the last minute that he wanted to hold on to the remaining Blatters to pass on to his grandkids. Either that, or he decided that he didn't want to sell more to some English dude from Ontario. :: Regardless, he was very cordial to deal with, and clearly took care of his pipes. The oldest were made in 1969 and the youngest was made in 1989.
I can also hazard a guess that he only smoked one type of tobacco in them, a mild English. Having reamed out and sanded the tobacco chambers on all those pipes there was only one aroma pervading my pipe cave during the process and it had the tell-tale nose notes of a blend with Latakia and other Oriental leaf.
Thanks for the kind words, all, I can't wait to have these pipes cleaned, documented and ready to move on to the next guy or gal who is going to take care of them.
The hardest part of this process, for me, is determining which I'm going to keep.
-- Pat

 

[mso489]

pruss, I love it; this narrative gives a biography to the beautiful array of pipes. Many of us who love acquiring pipes a little too much can identify with his predicament, the pleasure of acquiring the pipes over time being incongruous with the ability to really use the number we accumulate. If yours are the ones he culled, what a treasure trove the ones he kept must be. They are handsome pipes, and I think the full selection illustrates what fine designs they are, the way one or eight might not. Thank you for passing that along. I wish now I'd been purchasing pipes when I was doing business travel, though I had many different destinations. Glad he also liked Genod since I just bought my first which I like a lot.

 

[fearsclave]

I am insanely jealous. My pair of Blatter & Blatter bulldogs are my favourite pipes. I'll likely be down in Montreal this October and will pick up a couple more...

 

[fnord]

Patty:
I can't wait until you bring these beauties to market! My solitary Blatter is a burner I look forward to smoking every week and the thought of possibly adding another to my rotation is causing heart palpitations and tiny little beads of sweat to pop out on my upper lip.
Honest to God, I'm truly grateful more smokers don't - repeat - don't know that vintage Made in Canada Brigham and Blatter and Blatter pipes are some of the best values in this piping aftermarket. (I put this buy right up there alongside Shaintique's epic Dunhill score courtesy of his father in law.)
Pat, I don't know what you're keeping and/or releasing, but it doesn't matter. I know I'll find something to fall in love with.
Bring them on, kiddo.
Fnord

 

[danielplainview]

Wow. That is one epic batch of pipes. I like your Henry Ford approach to pipe refurbishing. Good luck matching the stems and stummels again. It will be a difficult decision of what to keep and sell. Everyone of them have wicked grain. Keep us updated. Great post Pat.

 

[ssjones]

That is a lot of work and cake!

 

[pruss]

@fearsclave - I'd love to see your bulldogs. Would you mind posting pictures of them here? There is only one true bulldog in this collection, and it is the one pipe (of 35) that is a factory made stummel and pre-formed stem. So it aint my thing. There are a couple Bulldesian-esque pipes, but I have yet to see a true bulldog in any of the Blatter hand made pipes.
@fnord - James, I'm likely only keeping two of these beauties. So you'll be spoiled for choice, pal. I am agonizing over the choice, as you can imagine.
@Dave - I find it SO much easier to work on pipes in batches, it only makes sense to my wee brain to work this way. Economy of motion, and efficiency is so much more fluid and I spend less time pulling out materiel and setting up my meager bench working in batches versus working on one pipe at a time. The downside is the absence of immediate gratification. Which is why a take a crapload of photos and post project threads like this one.
@al - At least it was good smelling cake. It made me want to stop what I was doing, and load a bowl of 965.
I'm in Montreal for the next four days, and while I'll be working during most of my time in town, I hope to be able to stop by the shop and speak to Robert directly. He has been supremely accommodating in responding to emails from me, and I'd like to meet the man who made these pipes, shake his hand and share a coffee with him.
-- Pat

 

[wolfe64]

Alot of nice pipes there Pat.

Congrats on the acquisition!!!
Mark

 

[wolfe64]

Not to derail the thread too much here :lol: but what kind of salt and alcohol do you use for your treatments ?

I want to do this to a couple of my pipes.
Mark

 

[pruss]

I use kosher salt and 99% isopropyl alcohol.
-- Pat

 

[voorhees]

Wow. Nice selection of Blatters. You did a wonderful job on the cleanup pruss!

 

[blueeyedogre]

Are you planning on selling them after the cleanup? I'd love to add a couple Canadian made pipes to the collection.

 

[blueeyedogre]

Are you planning on selling them after the cleanup? I'd love to add a couple Canadian made pipes to the collection.

 

[fearsclave]

Happy to oblige! Here are pics of my B&B Bulldogs:

 

[cmdrmcbragg]

@blueeyedogre, right?! That's a box I'd like to dig through and make some purchases from.

 

[tobyducote]

Nicely done...enjoy working on those