Getting Rid of Pipes with Sentimental Value

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alex87

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jul 30, 2012
194
0
So as the title suggests this thread is about getting rid of pipes that for whatever reason have some sort of sentimental value for the owner.

I have my very first pipe that I purchased from Blatter and Blatter in Montreal and it is becoming very difficult to smoke it. I think if the bowl wasn't pre carbed I would have an easier time but alas that is not the case. I hold this pipe dear to me because it was my first foray into the world of briar, and I cannot come to part with it despite its relatively poor smoking qualities.

In the years since I started smoking I have purchased some very good smokers and they are very easy to get along with.

I was wondering if any of you have had a similar situation and how you either managed to part ways or hold on despite the flaws?

I will most likely keep the pipe even though it isn't my best just to have it around for "old times sake".

 

necron99

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 4, 2014
268
0
Ummmmmmm, keep it. Why get rid of it. It ain't worth anything and its ya first. Surely ya don't live so crowded that the space required for one pipe is taxing. Stick it in ya hat band.

 

cmdrmcbragg

Lifer
Jul 29, 2013
1,739
3
My first pipe was a plastic Chinese pipe with a metal bowl (1st timer mistake). My second was a Chinese cherrywood. Both are no longer around, I tossed em.
My first briar pipe. I'll never let that one go. Despite owning much nicer and more expensive briar this one is still my favorite.
kbb1-448x600.jpg


 

hawke

Lifer
Feb 1, 2014
1,346
4
Augusta, Ga
Yeppesr cmdrmcbragg, I love your Chesterfield too. Today I started on a matching Yelo Bole Canadian to keep my Chesterfield company. Gonna build a two pipe rack for them. Pics on that later...

Now alex87, my first two I got are in a drawer around here somewhere in the Man Cave, but my first briar is in my rotation still. Its not a fantastic smoker but has earned its keep. I cut my teeth on it learning cleaning and sanding techniques of old estate pipes. It had the name "PAT" on it and that had to go, but I left the fish carving intact. I say keep the pipe! In fact it might do fine again with some restoring. There's lots of ways from Salt Treatments, a Charcoal Process, and even Ozone Treatment which is said to remove 100% of old odors. If some of these estates Ive dealt with come out smokable, Id say there's still hope for yours. I repaired a burned out bottom of a corn cob with JB Weld even. Smokes fine!
My first Briar (I did polish the stem up after these pics)

As bought

Fish1.jpg


After some work

Fish2.jpg

More History on this pipe here

 

alex87

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jul 30, 2012
194
0
Like I said I will probably keep it. Might make an adventure out of trying to sand out the precarb to see if it smokes better without it.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
I'm skeptical that it is the pre-carb treatment that is the problem. About half my pipes have had that, and it usually fades

into the actual carbon and is never heard from again. Is there an airway problem? I think for not much money, a pipe

repairman could suss out the actual problem and make a good to great smoking pipe out of this one. You can sand and

ream a bit, but you might not hit on the problem.
To the larger question about keeping sentimental pipes, I'd give it due consideration. I'm more attached to pipes which

have connections to other people, like gift pipes mostly. I've been lucky that all my gift pipes have been truly good

smokers, but I'd struggle to make one right if it became a difficult smoker. I have traded off a few good old pipes,

because they just weren't getting smoked -- a L.L. Bean straight pot, a no-name but very handsome London-made

billiard that developed a crack at the bowl/shank joint, and a really elegant French Dublin with an airway that loved

pipe cleaner fluff no matter how I cleared it, and a few others. I think if you trade some of these sentimental favorites

toward a pipe you really like, that holds out hope of smoking qualities, it makes it easier to trade them off.

 

cmdrmcbragg

Lifer
Jul 29, 2013
1,739
3
@hawke, I think I've maxed out on how many times I can post a pic of my Chesterfield. But I do love that pipe. Only use it for that long smoke session as I can get most of my thumb into the chamber.
I did notice recently that the chamber is drilled off center.

 

voorhees

Lifer
May 30, 2012
3,834
937
Gonadistan
I have one pipe I'd like to move to a new home, but my wife has an attachment to it. See about 1.5 years ago I found an estate 1926 Dunhill Patent Shell Briar 120 shape(she kinda helped find it) and now if I talk about letting it go she says "Don't". I like the pipe, just fearful due to its age I will not use it much as my other pipes. It is m only Dunhill, but I did smoke it last week with some H&H Marble Cake.

I have been looking for a birth year 1971 and I'd let go of the 1926 for the right price, but I know I'd never find another one like it for $10.00

 

latbomber

Part of the Furniture Now
May 10, 2013
570
4
My actual first pipe, a crap medico, I never use but will always keep because it is worthless! lol My second pipe, and my first real one, a Peterson, still smokes great and I will NEVER part with.
@voorhees: Hold onto that Dunhill even just as an investment!

 

teufelhund

Lifer
Mar 5, 2013
1,497
3
St. Louis, MO
I say hang onto it as well. Any chance it could be cleaned up and you could tinker with it a bit? Sometimes all a pipe needs is a re-sized draft hole. Otherwise clean it up and set it on the mantle to display.

 

petergunn

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 3, 2013
183
2
I have no use for a pipe I can't smoke and I attach no value to a pipe other than it's quality of smoke.

 

yorkshirepipe

Starting to Get Obsessed
Nov 26, 2012
136
0
MY first pipe was a briar pipe branded "Knight", was literally a basket pipe - the basket was on the counter when I was after a couple of cigars, like many I thought of my granddad and picked one up - I can remember some of the others in the basket that I wish I now had the opportunity to buy again, at the time I didn't care for them, but how my tastes have changed!
I tried to smoke it with some gloopy aromatic, couldn't get it going, sought advice online, picked up a corn cob, a tin of Petersons and started properly from there - my first pipe hasn't been smoked to this day!

 

derrickyoung

Might Stick Around
Apr 11, 2013
97
2
This pipe for me is my biggest regret so far. I purchased it on eBay and it was not my first pipe but it meant something to me. When I sold off my pipes/tobacco last fall I regretted letting this one go from the time the buyer left my driveway. It is a LL Bean pipe that was made my Grabow, so nothing fancy. But for a whole host of reasons it was a pipe that I loved and meant allot to me. I kept a Jeantet in that sale that my daughter bought for me when she was in Paris. I am so glad I did, I just wish I kept that LL Bean too.

For whatever the reason if it means something to you keep it. Even if it smokes like crap. You will regret it.
derrick_y-albums-uploads-picture67072-3.jpg


 

pipestud

Lifer
Dec 6, 2012
2,010
1,749
Robinson, TX.
When I started dating my wife and she discovered I was a pipe smoker, she gave me a pipe for Christmas. I won't mention the brand name to protect the guilty. Hell itself could not have burned hotter. Here it is 15 years later and I still have the pipe and the gal. Both are hot!
Pipestud

 

gregprince

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jan 29, 2014
276
0
I still have the Imperial, sandblasted billiard that was my first pipe purchase. That was many pipes ago. I don't often smoke it, but I wouldn't give it up either.

 

layinpipe

Lifer
Feb 28, 2014
1,025
8
When I started dating my wife and she discovered I was a pipe smoker, she gave me a pipe for Christmas. I won't mention the brand name to protect the guilty. Hell itself could not have burned hotter. Here it is 15 years later and I still have the pipe and the gal. Both are hot!
Pipestud, awesome story, i lol'd. Glad to hear both are still "smokin'".

 

settersbrace

Lifer
Mar 20, 2014
1,565
5
I'd bet that there are very few here that didn't start out with stinker pioes, myself included. If your one who holds sentimental attatchments to inanimate things, by all means hang onto it. I've trashed, traded and sold away many pipes since my humble beginnings and have only 1or 2 regrets but there was a method to my madness. I am constantly trying to diversify my rotation to have on hand, an above average smoker at my disposal at all times. I'm currently seeking old London wood and have been picking up decent pieces here and there. The ones that are starting to collect dust are going to put into the Free Pipe Project and they should help get a few noobs off in the right foot.
There should be a bumper sticker that reads, "Friends don't let friends smoke bad pipes!"

 

pipestud

Lifer
Dec 6, 2012
2,010
1,749
Robinson, TX.
pipestud .... having seen your wife , all I can say is MAN did you marry way above your level. Which, btw I fully sympathize and know how you feel. I still haven't figured out how you tricked your spouse, or what redeeming qualities you might have. It sure can't be your choice in tobaccos. bbwaaahahahahahaha
Regards

Michael J. Glukler
LOL!
Well Mike, mostly it was my good looks and charm that swayed her. Uhh, and a few lies about myself here and there. :(
Pipestud

 
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