New Female Member

[KP Christensen]

Hi everyone! Middle aged woman here. Been wanting to use my great grandpa's old pipes that I was lucky to come across decades ago. My wish has been to live out in the Black Hills somewhere ( I live in SD) and have a cabin and smoke my pipe on the porch. hahaha Lofty goals, huh? ) Anyway... needing to learn about making the old pipes useable , if possible, and learning all I need to know to enjoy a good pipe. Looking forward to the whole process.

 

[MattRVA]

Welcome from Virginia

 

[CoffeeAndBourbon]

Welcome from NC!

 

[mav]

Welcome from Chicago, those are great goals indeed. Used pipes are called "estate pipes" in the pipe smoking world. Look up "cleaning estate pipes" on this forum and youtube and you will have more than enough to go on. Btw, I have a good friend who is a woman and she smokes pipes too, you're not alone . Enjoy!

 

[JOHN72]

Greetings from Spain, and welcome to this great forum of brother smokers.

 

[Michigan_Bill]

Welcome from Michigan! Very glad you’re here!

 

[KP Christensen]

Welcome from Chicago, those are great goals indeed. Used pipes are called "estate pipes" in the pipe smoking world. Look up "cleaning estate pipes" on this forum and youtube and you will have more than enough to go on. Btw, I have a good friend who is a woman and she smokes pipes too, you're not alone . Enjoy!

Thanks! Yep, already been reading and watching videos . The two pipes I have are quite old. The stems even have bite holes. haha Might want to just replace those. One says "Frank Medico" and the other only says Panatela. All I can find on that type is cigars. And yes, I bet there are more women out there than we realize .! I've loved the smell of pipe tobacco since I was a kid.

 

[kschatey]

Hi everyone! Middle aged woman here. Been wanting to use my great grandpa's old pipes that I was lucky to come across decades ago. My wish has been to live out in the Black Hills somewhere ( I live in SD) and have a cabin and smoke my pipe on the porch. hahaha Lofty goals, huh? ) Anyway... needing to learn about making the old pipes useable , if possible, and learning all I need to know to enjoy a good pipe. Looking forward to the whole process.

Welcome! For cleaning help, I recommend posting pictures. They may need to be reamed and depending on where you live and/or confidence level, there may be a local shop that can do that part for you. Otherwise, high proof alcohol and lots of pipe cleaners and cotton swabs are what's needed to get the insides all cleaned up and sanitized. There are various other methods, but again, posting pictures of the pipes will help other provide targeted recommendations. There may also be pipe friends nearby that can help and/or services from other for members to consider. Enjoy!

 

[LotusEater]

Welcome from Kansas City!

It was my grandfather’s pipes and memories of him smoking them that initially got me interested too.

 

[AJL67]

Welcome from Florida Tons of great info and people here to help you achieve your goal!

 

[craig61a]

Welcome from Minneapolis.

Often it doesn’t take much to get a lot of these old pipes back in smoking condition. There’s plenty of information available on the interwebs… good and not so good.

 

[Sgetz]

Welcome from Durham in the UK

 

[telescopes]

Bringing a pipe back to life is a wonderful and joyful experience.

 

[dunnyboy]

Welcome from NYC.

 

[sablebrush52]

Welcome from the Center Of The Known Universe!

Burbank...

Here's a link to a post I made not long ago about what I do to clean up old pipes. You might find it useful:

Pipe Cleaning Essential Recommendations. :: Pipe Repair and Maintenance

After buying some estate pipes online, I now appreciate the hit and miss nature of buying from the interweb. What looks like a clean example can soon turn out to be sour - literally in some cases; pictures don’t tell the full truth After researching pipe maintenance and deoxidisation of the...

pipesmagazine.com

There are hundreds of threads on cleaning and restoring pipes. Some of them are good, some have really terrible advice. Same goes for videos. Watch them, but do a little checking before just following suggestions, as a lot of these are garbage.

 

[anotherbob]

hi by the way if you're not too picky you could make a cardboard fort and pretend it's a cabin. Which will be great until pretty much anything happens. Also cardboard tends to go up in flames a lot quicker then does a traditionally made cabin.

 

[mso489]

Welcome aboard from central North Carolina. There is a lot of expertise here on restoring pipes, so I think you'll find what you seek on that score. Starting out, be careful not to over-ream; a beginner can do a world of damage with a reamer. Don't over-buff, or buff at all if possible, since you can obliterate the stamping and distort the finish. Old pipes do best when the character and patina are preserved. Mainly, have fun and enjoy the process.

 

[KP Christensen]

Welcome! For cleaning help, I recommend posting pictures. They may need to be reamed and depending on where you live and/or confidence level, there may be a local shop that can do that part for you. Otherwise, high proof alcohol and lots of pipe cleaners and cotton swabs are what's needed to get the insides all cleaned up and sanitized. There are various other methods, but again, posting pictures of the pipes will help other provide targeted recommendations. There may also be pipe friends nearby that can help and/or services from other for members to consider. Enjoy!

 

[Grangerous]

Welcome from the New Jersey Shore

 

[kcghost]

Welcome from KC!!