You and posts like this are getting me interested in mild restoration. I’m very unhandled, but the idea of cleaning up old pieces of discarded history is appealing. I like the idea of uncovering the crud and finding beautiful pipe underneath.
I just got into it myself and it is quite simple and a ton of fun. A lot of pipes really only need some stem-deoxidation, light sanding, and a good wax. And of course a little scraping, reaming, and cleaning. Done a few now and it's a lot of fun. Practiced on a few cheapo grabows and no name pipes to get the hang of it. This Comoy's is the first non-grabow/no namer I've done. This one is quite simple though, really in good shape outside the chamber. Working on it as we speak!
I'd encourage you to give it a shot, its a ton of fun and can be done mindlessly while watching the tube. Plus sometimes you get a nice surprise. I bought a small lot of Grabows with a few ugly ones in it the other day, and when they showed up one of the better looking pipes in the lot ended up being an unsmoked dr. grabow westbrook adjustomatic with a pat no. It's no Sixten Larsen, but still well worth the $3 I paid for it, hahaha.
