About half way done now. A lot of good info and history on estate eBay sleeper brands like early Linkman's Dr. Grabow, Marxman and Merchant Service pipes. And Edward's pipes out of Florida. All great smokers to be had for a song. A real solid chapter on collecting Yello-Boles. Lots on Kaywoodies too. And a bit of praise for Israel's Shalom Pipe Co. and Karl Erik Ottendahl freehands. A really nice section on Tracy Mincer's The Doodler pipe with its funny rings and drilled vertical air holes for cooling. I almost bought one of those, and now I'm gonna aim for one. I think they're cool. Carl Weber, the noted author, also produced a lot of pipes in his Jersey City factory. Weber's Scoops are a handsome pipe that I think I'll look into as well. Plus I'm going to pick up Weber's two books, now long out of print. Then there's a section on those crazy leather covered French Longchamp pipes. Also there's a huge scholarly section on dating Kirsten pipes that's really valuable, and represents a solid contribution to the literature on these types of pipes. This is followed by a Comoy's dating guide, and a section on English estates. I wish he spent more time on English estates, but this book is really focused, understandably, on his first love, which are American estate pipes. Then a major section on America's most famous pipe, the Kaywoodie, President Ford's favorite pipe. And here the author provides a real nice chronology of the company that helps date specific pipes. And all this before you even reach the second half which goes into everything you need to know about restoring estate pipes, and learning about the market, called simply "Restoring Good Smokers". In fact the whole book is about finding good smokers amongst brand names most here have probably never heard of. By the way the book is also filled with web hyperlinks that take you to sites expanding on what he's talking about. Very nice feature of Kindle to be able to jump between book text and the web. I've been really pleased with this book. It's greatly expanded my search terms for eBay, to snag an old American briar of good smoke. An ideal companion to pour over while enjoying a good solid bowl of Latakia leaf. High praises for a truly exceptional book.
