My First Estate: Amphora Xtra

[tjameson]

Here are some photos just after I began cleaning this Amphora 733 Xtra. $6 at a Gem/junk shop in Quartzite, AZ. The bowl had already been reamed down at this point it was a really thick cake...I dont have a reamer yet so I used my trusty pocket knife. After these were taken I also used sand paper to take remaining cake down. I then did a salt and alcohol treatment. I cleaned the stem as best I could and got a good bit of oxidation out with just a toothbrush and toothpaste. It still needs work but it is smokeable. I need to get some more supplies to finish it to the point I'd like. but here we go.

 

[tjameson]

And the progress so far....

 

[crk69]

Nice job on the cleanup, especially the bowl without a reamer..

 

[numbersix]

Really nice job - the bowl looks great - nice pipe!

 

[shawn622]

Wow Tucker!!! You really Did well. I am amazed. Just toothpaste. :worship: I like my Amphora. Shantiques gave it to me my first week here. I actually have it getting a sand blast job from my neighbor and should be getting it soon. Great show man!!!! Cheers!!!

 

[fnord]

Excellent work, friend. Especially with such limited resources.
Consider purchasing the Micromesh pads folks around here praise so highly. They do great work on stems and briar and then finish up with some Halcyon II wax.
The finished product will make a grown man weep.

 

[sparroa]

Good progress so far.
Are the Amphora pipes supposed to be decent, all things considered?

 

[tjameson]

Thanks guys! I'll be getting some micromesh asap, just got paid today. Also need more pipe cleaners. The only alcohol I had was Patron lol but I didn't use a lot. I also used oxyclean dish soap as a soak for the stem cause I didn't have bleach or oxyclean it didn't do much of anything but it did help with grime on the outside of the bowl. I also finished up the inside of the stem with alcohol free listerine to kill any remaining germs. Once I get the micresh it should look beautiful. The rim char and chips are pretty gnarly but it adds character ::

 

[ejames]

Looking good! You really need to get a reamer- Castlefords are cheap and work well,and keep that pocket knife away from your pipes! I've found that it is not necessary to completely remove the cake from an estate pipe. Leave just a thin layer. If you get the shank clean-and I mean spotless- you should have very little problems with ghosting. Usually a few bowls of burley will take care of that.PA or CH work well for me for ghost bustin'.

 

[tjameson]

EJames I will certainly use a reamer in the future. At the moment I'm on a really tight budget because I have my first child on the way and my wife is a full time student. I will be investing in one probably when I have some money to pick up my next estate. Thanks for the tip on Ghost bustin'!

 

[igloo]

Those old Amphoras are usually good smokers . I for one am glad that more people have not caught on to them .

 

[hanymamdouh]

Good job, pipe looks great and classy, wish you happy smoke

 

[pilgrim]

Hey; does your pipe have a stinger? i ask because i found one with a push-in filterless bit; i had thought the amphora was a thing like the magic inch or something....oh, mine has a shorter shank; it's the x-tra 723-643. thanks!

 

[pilgrim]

speaking of ghosts, the few old pipes i found did not smell all that bad...do the ghosts come alive once i start to smoke it? thanks

 

[igloo]

The old Amphora pipes did not have stingers .The newer ones have a magic inch thing going on . Ghosts are caused by toppings or latakia and can be quite hard to get rid of even after a good cleaning .

 

[tuold]

I also bought an estate Amhphora Xtra but in a poker shape, stamped 815. I got it because I liked the shape and thought it would a be good restoration project. The shank was cracked and it has about 11 ugly fills. I fixed the crack, sanded it down and refinished it with a dark stain so the fills wouldn't show so much. Now it's a very serviceable pipe.

 

[rymw]

Like everyone here, I agree that Amphora are half-decent smokers and I've been very lucky to have collected a few of these very affordable estate pipes. Here are two of my favourite, an Axe shape and an Oom Paul Sitter. Both are smallish pipes and are great for travelling. Since I prefer to not smoke a pipeful for more than 30 minutes, these are ideal for my habits.

 

[rymw]

My apologies, gentleman, the image attachment thingy didn't quite work in my last post but if you're interested to have a look at the two pipes I mentioned, just copy this URL:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/27804337@N03/16165497139/

and paste it in a new tab/window to view my photostream in flickr.

Happy puffing...

 

[papipeguy]

Nice job getting that pipe into shape. Here's some info on the maker. Sadly, they went our of business.
http://pipedia.org/wiki/Gubbels

 

[pilgrim]

"mine has a shorter shank; it's the x-tra 723-643."
I just found one one these as well...push stem and i must try my hand at bit repair :/ ejames says to buy a reamer...i need to understand the significance in that aspect of piping. I'm watching these reaming videos and they take a long slow time to do it and say to just shave it bit by bit...creating dust...keep going till you are just to the wood....or you will RUIN your pipe...this one guy said that like three times.i took one old pipe, loosened the cake by just moistening it with alcohol and then took that little shovel on my pipe tool and just scraped it out....i mean, i didn't gouge into the wood or anything. mostly that cake just fell away in chunks.....what's wrong with that? have i 'ruined' my pipe?

thanks y'all; your help has been invaluable