My Get Rich Slow Scheme

[danielplainview]

After only 10 hours of work, I've successfully turned a $1 pipe into a $5 dollar pipe. That's quite a profit margin.
I acquired this piece of firewood in an estate lot with several other pipes. I was going to throw it into the pipe parts box, but decided to make it my nightshift project for last week. While most of the guys at work sleep or watch movies all night, I work on pipes.
This is an Italian stamped Whitehall Thermofilter. I have an English and American made Whitehall but have been looking for an Italian made for sometime.
The button was completely missing and it had several deep gashes in the briar.

I started out by sanding the bowl with 400 grit. Then after topping,I beveled the rim. After beveling the rim I now have a new found respect for all the pipe carvers that shape pipes by hand.
Next up, the stem. This is the biggest stem rebuild I've done so far. I had no idea what the original looked like so I wanted to make it look like the turn of century rounded buttons. I used my old Loewe & Co. pipe for reference because of the similar shape and size.

It took 4 or 5 applications of Ca & charcoal to get a rough shape of what I was going for.

 

[tuold]

All hats off to you, sir! Makes me very much wish I had paid attention in my woodshop class in middle school all those years ago!

 

[scrooge]

Thanks for saving it. She's a bute. an for $5 send it my way! LOL seriously Great Job.

 

[agnosticpipe]

Great transformation! Looks to be worth more than $5 now, so you may be getting rich quicker than you think! Love the Bowl bevel too.

 

[papipeguy]

WOW! That is an incredible save. :worship:

 

[tarak]

That's incredible work. I never see that much potential- well done!

 

[davet]

A truly amazing transformation

 

[stickframer]

Great job. Wow.

 

[brass]

A terrific job all around but the button work is unbelievably good.

 

[huntertrw]

Dave:
Once again you have made the proverbial silk purse out of a sow's ear. I especially like your transformation of the button, top-notch, Sir!
Shall we expect to see you soon on late-night infomercials touting the benefits of your "get-rich-slow" program? I can see the testimonials now: A.G. of West Virginia says, "Restoring old pipes paid my daughter's way through beauty college." K.G. of Florida says, "Dave's methods enabled me to afford the purchase my own server, and the rest is Internet history!" And last, but not least, W.R. of Pennsylvania says, "Soon I will have made enough in profits to start my own small tobacco company. I couldn't have done it without the GRS program. Thanks, Dave!"

 

[mrenglish]

That is nice work!

 

[mso489]

Beautiful job. Five dollars my ass. Put it on ebay with a starting bid of $1,100 and see what happens. It's as pretty as some at that price. (I'm kidding, but just.)

 

[warren]

Very nice! You're seriously under paying yourself at $0.40 an hour, leaving out the cost of materials. You've got a good eye and it shows great execution. I do have doubts about the get rich scheme however.

 

[wyfbane]

That was exceptionally good work your referb of the stem was just awesome. Good work and keep doing what you do and posting photos. I love to see it.

 

[tobyducote]

Dave, that is a top notch fantastic job...well done!!

 

[johnnyreb]

Fantastic job! Will we be seeing you on Shark Tank soon?

 

[dmcmtk]

Dave, very well done!

 

[okiescout]

Dave, you keep em coming. As always just beautiful. :worship:

 

[danielplainview]

Beauty college... :rofl:

 

[jkrug]

Another amazing restoration. Most including myself would have tossed it into the trash! Well done. :clap: