Nice Surprise Under a Painted Grabow

[cwarmouth]

Hi Folks,
I recently started work on a red Dr. Grabow Viscount. It appeared to be pretty rough and my intention was to see how it would respond to a good cleanup first, then refinish it to look like new again. Sometimes I strip these pipes down to bare briar, mainly out of curiosity to see what is beneath the paint. Up until now I have never found one that I thought would better stained and waxed rather than painted. Usually the grain is plain and uninspiring or full of filler. This one was a pretty nice surprise. No filler and a nice tiger-stripey grain. Here are some before and after pics:

Egads! Not sure what happened to the shank end of this stem but it sure is gouged up!

But the business end isn't too bad...

After a good cleanup it was apparent that this pipe's problems were bigger than could be solved with a sponge. Lots of scuffs, chips, and permanent scorching...

I didn't take any pics of the stripping or refinishing process but this is how it turned out. Pretty stately and handsome in my own opinion. And it smokes fine!

It was a fun restoration. Thanks for looking.

 

[nevadablue]

I don't see no pichers...

 

[cwarmouth]

I know. Has anyone else been having this problem? I have been trying to post this for three days. The pics show up in the post until I hit Send Post then they are gone. Or the entire post disappears. Even when I go back and edit they are there.

 

[cwarmouth]

Just tried again... same thing. I give up. Will a moderator please remove this post for me? Thank you.

 

[didimauw]

Man what a beautiful pipe! Why would they cover that up? I thought they saved the painting for the ugly pipes!?

 

[cwarmouth]

Well, the pics showed up. I take back my request to have the thread removed. Better late than never.

 

[cwarmouth]

I thought they saved the painting for the ugly pipes!?

Typically that has been my experience. This one apparently got by quality control.

 

[nevadablue]

I see 'em now. Wow, it is beautiful.

 

[fnord]

Cwrmouth:
I'm certainly no expert on DG pipes but I was always under the impression that Viscounts were just a notch or two down from the fabled El Dorados. Why they painted yours is beyond me.
DGs are funny though. I have fine smoking Viscounts and El Dorados but my very best smoking Dr. Grabow is a Berwyck coupon pipe. Go figure.
Great resto work and I hope it smokes like a furnace.
I miss Ed James' presence on this forum every day of the week. At this point, he would've quietly joined in and told us how the cow ate the cabbage. What a loss.
Fnord

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

I miss Ed James' presence on this forum every day of the week. At this point, he would've quietly joined in and told us how the cow ate the cabbage. What a loss.

He showed up in an older thread that had been revived yesterday. I was going to comment about it, but the right words wouldn't come. So I let it be. It was just strange seeing his avatar as I scrolled down through the posts. Well, in a way I suppose he's still making his occasional rounds on the forum.

 

[fnord]

I guess our Ed is going to be around here for a while longer, Anthony.
I find that comforting.
Fnord

 

[danielplainview]

Now that’s a proper example of “what’s under that Grabow.” Nice work.
I believe Viscount was the 3rd in line of the grading system. Emperor, Eldorado, Viscount.
I’ve seen several Color Viscount’s. I don’t know why they would paint a high grade.

 

[theloniousmonkfish]

Nice grain, congrats. Painting wasn't just for ugly pipes. This is according to Ted(former COO Grabow/Mastercraft)
By 1966 KW had a White Briar and Grabow needed to match it and the white Viscount came about. They sold well so
"Paul Fish decided to try some other colors so before long we had red, green, tan, blue, orange Viscounts. They became 'hits' among a lot of smokers. Logically, next was Color Duke, and it was a "REAL HIT".

These color pipes kept the factory busy for almost 10 years and generated a lot of profit for our little company.
The demand had gone away by 1980, but as a effort to resurrect color we made the white Viscount with the Olympic Logo for 1980. That was the last 'burst' for color pipes.
US Tobacco allowed us 'write off' excess inventory in 1984 or 85 and we buried over $100,000 dollars of inventory of color pipes in the sawdust pile at the old factory.

Imagine what archelogists will think in 500 years!
So.... One of my all time favorite pipes was a red Viscount #47, and I thank those colors for giving us 10 years of great sales.. (BTW Color Pipes put us ahead of KYM in sales and profit.. We became #1).
Do I like them? I owe the a lot.... ted"

 

[mikethompson]

That turned out very nice! I love the stripes on that one.

 

[joeman]

Alex...THANKS for posting that insight from Tom (Ted). As I scrolled thru this, I thought I was going to have to do a copy/paste...and then...there it was.
Since you gents are remembering Ed here on this thread (how can you not, if you've ever met him / talked to him / learned from him), I will make a post about the plaque which the guys from the DGCF (Dr. Grabow Collectors Forum) pitched in and had done to honor Ed. It was professionally made, and now hangs publicly on the walls of one of his favorite places in the world...the Dr. Grabow factory in Sparta. His family was very touched that we all thought so highly of him and had this made up.

 

[tslex]

Wow. Well done. Quite a transformation.