If you believe the rant below is completely off base, feel free to flame away as my computer screen is rated by NASA to withstand flames of up to 3000 words.
First, a confession. I love estate pipes. I love looking at them. I love buying them. I even love cleaning them up most of the time. Most of all, I love the caliber of pipe I can get for $15-40 on that infamous auction site if I really do my research and hunt. In the last 7 months, I have acquired a large number of estates and sold some of them locally. I clean them up, smoke them and if they aren't to my tastes, I pretty them up, clean again and sell them. I hope to sell on BriarBid sometime soon and the ones being sold will be at least fairly clean.
Some of the estate pipes I have purchased have been billed as "Clean and Ready To Smoke". With one exception, a seller in Germany whose name eludes me, they have all been filthy. Now I am a bit anal retentive about my cleaning so I understand that not everyone's standards are the same as my own. I retort and/or clean with pipe cleaners, q-tips, and brushes until a pipe cleaner soaked in alcohol comes out of the stem, shank, and mortise the same color it went in. This can take a couple hours or more with an exceptionally dirty pipe but, to me, it is worth the trouble to have a pipe that is actually "clean". The estate pipes I have purchased from smokingpipes.com have arrived on my doorstep as clean as I can get them myself and for the money they had better be.
The problem comes when an ebay seller, or in one case a respected internet shop, represents a pipe as clean and it really isn't. One seller even banned me for calling him on it. When I say "not clean" I mean that a pipe cleaner or q-tip moistened with everclear comes out of the mortise, shank, and stem absolutely black. Invariably, subsequent pipe cleaners come out the same shade and it takes quite a few before the color starts to lighten. I know many people must be ok with that because the sellers keep selling at a fairly high volume.
Now before you say that I'm just whining, here is a picture of what I'm talking about. The q-tip is from the mortise and the cleaner is from the stem.
This is from halfway through cleaning a pipe I just got yesterday. It came from not only a highly rated ebay seller but a respectable pipe repairman. I won't say any more because I am not doing this to damage his reputation, just bring to light the problem as I see it. The pipe was represented in bold as "clean and ready to smoke" (getting tired of that phrase yet? me too) but that is about as far from it as you can get IMO. This pipe wasn't even the worst of the "clean" pipes I have ordered. It just baffles me that somebody can be that dishonest and keep getting away with it. Is it because people who order are just happy to get the pipe? Do they not care? Do they even check? I do not have the answers so if you do, feel free to enlighten me.
Now for my warning. If you buy a "clean" pipe, check it first unless the pic above doesn't bother you.
First, a confession. I love estate pipes. I love looking at them. I love buying them. I even love cleaning them up most of the time. Most of all, I love the caliber of pipe I can get for $15-40 on that infamous auction site if I really do my research and hunt. In the last 7 months, I have acquired a large number of estates and sold some of them locally. I clean them up, smoke them and if they aren't to my tastes, I pretty them up, clean again and sell them. I hope to sell on BriarBid sometime soon and the ones being sold will be at least fairly clean.
Some of the estate pipes I have purchased have been billed as "Clean and Ready To Smoke". With one exception, a seller in Germany whose name eludes me, they have all been filthy. Now I am a bit anal retentive about my cleaning so I understand that not everyone's standards are the same as my own. I retort and/or clean with pipe cleaners, q-tips, and brushes until a pipe cleaner soaked in alcohol comes out of the stem, shank, and mortise the same color it went in. This can take a couple hours or more with an exceptionally dirty pipe but, to me, it is worth the trouble to have a pipe that is actually "clean". The estate pipes I have purchased from smokingpipes.com have arrived on my doorstep as clean as I can get them myself and for the money they had better be.
The problem comes when an ebay seller, or in one case a respected internet shop, represents a pipe as clean and it really isn't. One seller even banned me for calling him on it. When I say "not clean" I mean that a pipe cleaner or q-tip moistened with everclear comes out of the mortise, shank, and stem absolutely black. Invariably, subsequent pipe cleaners come out the same shade and it takes quite a few before the color starts to lighten. I know many people must be ok with that because the sellers keep selling at a fairly high volume.
Now before you say that I'm just whining, here is a picture of what I'm talking about. The q-tip is from the mortise and the cleaner is from the stem.
This is from halfway through cleaning a pipe I just got yesterday. It came from not only a highly rated ebay seller but a respectable pipe repairman. I won't say any more because I am not doing this to damage his reputation, just bring to light the problem as I see it. The pipe was represented in bold as "clean and ready to smoke" (getting tired of that phrase yet? me too) but that is about as far from it as you can get IMO. This pipe wasn't even the worst of the "clean" pipes I have ordered. It just baffles me that somebody can be that dishonest and keep getting away with it. Is it because people who order are just happy to get the pipe? Do they not care? Do they even check? I do not have the answers so if you do, feel free to enlighten me.
Now for my warning. If you buy a "clean" pipe, check it first unless the pic above doesn't bother you.
