Dunhill: Real or Fake?

[anotherbob]

remember you can sell a new pipe for more then an old pipe. If you could make something that passes for cherished celebrated pipe you'd make more bragging about it then faking it. A lot of times it's helps to think of what would give the other person more. Seriously imagine if a modern carver could make a line of pipes that passes for an old house?

 

[georged]

Seriously imagine if a modern carver could make a line of pipes that passes for an old house?

Making "invisible" copies of stems and modifying/repairing stummels is what I do. Been at it for over 15 years.

Trust me, what's involved in making something that will fool experts is many times more demanding and difficult than anyone who hasn't tried it can imagine.

No modern carver who's sane would keep at it after trying even once.

Anyone with the skill set & tools to do it can do MUCH better financially making their own line under their own name.

 

[anotherbob]

Making "invisible" copies of stems and modifying/repairing stummels is what I do. Been at it for over 15 years.

Which is impressive. I am impressed though by functional and not ugly fixes, so feel free to add some grains of salt.

Trust me, what's involved in making something that will fool experts is many times more demanding and difficult than anyone who hasn't tried it can imagine.

Of course. It's specific. If you're just making a pretty/functional stem you have a window for the target zones. It blows my mind that just from being on this forum I've seen a button and thought Brebbia (as one example).

No modern carver who's sane would keep at it after trying even once.

What fun would anything be if they were all sane. We'd probably not even have gotten around to smoking tobacco.

Anyone with the skill set & tools to do it can do MUCH better financially making their own line under their own name.

By such a wide margin.

 

[karam]

I don't know much about Dunhill pipes, but there are some telltale signs: it is understated, it is a classic shape, it has perfect proportions.
I don't remember who wrote it here, probably several people, but making a perfect billiard is supposed to be FAR more difficult than 99% of the eyepuke that a lot of modern carvers churn out.

 

[mso489]

I'm not a Dunhill guy, so I am interested to read this thread as a sort of case study, and I take what some members with more experience with Dunhills say as pretty much final.

I sure would have jumped at that price for that pipe, but the thinness of the bowl wall would have raised suspicions. Apparently that is typical of a certain size and age of Dunhill.

At that price, I could be a one-pipe Dunhill guy.

 

[Terry Lennox]

I don't know much about Dunhill pipes, but there are some telltale signs: it is understated, it is a classic shape, it has perfect proportions.
I don't remember who wrote it here, probably several people, but making a perfect billiard is supposed to be FAR more difficult than 99% of the eyepuke that a lot of modern carvers churn out.

Very true about billiard shaping. The taper and the slim proportions of 1960's and earlier Dunhills are almost a lost art. Very few of the new Dunhills have the shapes right to my eye.

 

[Searock Fan]

I don't know if they're still available, but years ago there were some plastic toothpicks that were white and in the center were the same size (or close) as the Dunhill logo. It was easy to drill the stem, add a dab of glue to the tip of the cut toothpick, stick it in, cut and polish. Poof! A phony Dunhill.... I heard this was being done to some unmarked basket pipes and that one faker even had a "Dunhill" stamper.