I was in bed last night reading some old threads on the forum when I happened upon a post from a chap that made me quite sad. He had just received a $50 (£35:20) bonus from work and went to his local B&M looking to spend his new found fortune on an estate pipe but was bemoaning the fact that all of the estates on offer were above his fund limit. What made sadder reading was a subsequent post from another member informing him not to expect any quality British or American estate pipes for anywhere near that price and suggested he save up to at least $100 then go looking afresh. It was that statement that inspired me to write these words on purchasing estate pipes from my own perspective.
I only started piping in September last year (2015) after many years a ‘roll your own’ smoker. An old pal (whom I never knew had smoked) very kindly gifted me his entire pipe collection that had been languishing in his garage some 20 years or so. Very generous of him. Up to that point I only had about four pipes, all cheap basket pipes + one rather nice Parker and all I had bought new. With my clutch of new (old) pipes I set about restoring them. I had had no experience of doing anything like this though I do have past experience working with wood.
Whilst embarking on this project I was also reading as much as I could find on the internet relating to the subject of pipe restoration. Most websites had something useful to offer but one in particular, Reborn Pipes (run by Steve Vaug) was the most useful (if a tad repetitive sometimes) in terms of variety of methods used and what materials to use and when to use them.
Those pipes were a great opportunity for me as I was able to make any mistakes without it costing me financially but more importantly I learned a heck of a lot working on those musty old briars. It was then that I realised I had very much enjoyed the experience and wanted to carry on. This is where eBay comes into the frame.
After a few false starts I began to have a steady flow of pipes coming in, usually in batches of perhaps 5 – 15 pipes per batch. I was of the idea that once restored to useable condition, any that didn’t quite take my fancy I would offload elsewhere. This is still my thinking, though I have yet to offload a single pipe! The problem is that I want to keep most of the pipes that I work on so I have to be firm with myself. Now, for every new ‘keeper’ pipe one existing ‘keeper’ pipe must go into the selling box. Thus far I have about 20 pipes in the selling box and about 80 – 90 pipes for keepers!
But back to the origins of this tale. Oftentimes folks advertise pipes without quite knowing what they have in their hands and this works to the buyer’s favour. I have had some stunning pipes that have cost me less than £10 ($14:23) and by stunning I mean great lookers and great smokers. As for named brands I have been very lucky in that department too, my best deal thus far was a Comoy’s 235 Extraordinaire Oom Paul that cost me a whopping £6:67 ($9:49) and a chap on this forum who is a known Comoy’s expert has valued at twixt $240 - $400 (£168:98 - £281:64) though granted that was based solely on information given, he had not seen the pipe. I spent roughly 4 hours in cleaning the whole pipe which is actually less than the average of circa 6 hours total.
Comoy's Extraordinaire before...
...and after
Another example is a Peterson 307 huge bent billiard pipe that cost me £3:72 ($5:29). That took a fair bit of work to make presentable (mainly due to the shape of the stem, lots of awkward places for oxidation to hide) but worth it in the end. Alas as I cannot smoke pipes with the P-lip stem so that will have to be sold off but rest assured, it will sell for considerably more than I paid for it. Of course any monies that are profits from non keepers will pay for all my restoration materials plus should actually pay for the pipes I decide to keep.
Peterson 307 before...
...and after
So for a minimal outlay on materials, some judicious eBay purchasing and a fair dollop of elbow grease one can indeed smoke a quality pipe for little money but one has to put the work in! I myself am disabled so pipe restoration suits me fine as I have plenty of time (other interests allowing) and the bulk of it is done sitting down. I do not possess a buffer by the way so all of my work is done by hand. My finished pipes might not win any awards but I am more than delighted with them, they are thoroughly clean and sanitised and on the whole are great smokers.
I appreciate that the chap who had the $50 to spend on an estate wanted a ‘ready to go’ pipe but really, one should give pipe restoration a go, it is useful, money saving and can become quite addictive. Plus, another skill learned is surely another string to one’s bow? So to say one needs to amass $100+ to invest in a decent estate pipe is absolute tosh.
I do hope that someone finds this info useful and perhaps tempts them to dip their toe into the lovely warm water that is estate pipe restoration.
Regards,
Jay.
(All price conversions are at the rates set for today, April 11 2016).
I only started piping in September last year (2015) after many years a ‘roll your own’ smoker. An old pal (whom I never knew had smoked) very kindly gifted me his entire pipe collection that had been languishing in his garage some 20 years or so. Very generous of him. Up to that point I only had about four pipes, all cheap basket pipes + one rather nice Parker and all I had bought new. With my clutch of new (old) pipes I set about restoring them. I had had no experience of doing anything like this though I do have past experience working with wood.
Whilst embarking on this project I was also reading as much as I could find on the internet relating to the subject of pipe restoration. Most websites had something useful to offer but one in particular, Reborn Pipes (run by Steve Vaug) was the most useful (if a tad repetitive sometimes) in terms of variety of methods used and what materials to use and when to use them.
Those pipes were a great opportunity for me as I was able to make any mistakes without it costing me financially but more importantly I learned a heck of a lot working on those musty old briars. It was then that I realised I had very much enjoyed the experience and wanted to carry on. This is where eBay comes into the frame.
After a few false starts I began to have a steady flow of pipes coming in, usually in batches of perhaps 5 – 15 pipes per batch. I was of the idea that once restored to useable condition, any that didn’t quite take my fancy I would offload elsewhere. This is still my thinking, though I have yet to offload a single pipe! The problem is that I want to keep most of the pipes that I work on so I have to be firm with myself. Now, for every new ‘keeper’ pipe one existing ‘keeper’ pipe must go into the selling box. Thus far I have about 20 pipes in the selling box and about 80 – 90 pipes for keepers!
But back to the origins of this tale. Oftentimes folks advertise pipes without quite knowing what they have in their hands and this works to the buyer’s favour. I have had some stunning pipes that have cost me less than £10 ($14:23) and by stunning I mean great lookers and great smokers. As for named brands I have been very lucky in that department too, my best deal thus far was a Comoy’s 235 Extraordinaire Oom Paul that cost me a whopping £6:67 ($9:49) and a chap on this forum who is a known Comoy’s expert has valued at twixt $240 - $400 (£168:98 - £281:64) though granted that was based solely on information given, he had not seen the pipe. I spent roughly 4 hours in cleaning the whole pipe which is actually less than the average of circa 6 hours total.
Comoy's Extraordinaire before...
...and after
Another example is a Peterson 307 huge bent billiard pipe that cost me £3:72 ($5:29). That took a fair bit of work to make presentable (mainly due to the shape of the stem, lots of awkward places for oxidation to hide) but worth it in the end. Alas as I cannot smoke pipes with the P-lip stem so that will have to be sold off but rest assured, it will sell for considerably more than I paid for it. Of course any monies that are profits from non keepers will pay for all my restoration materials plus should actually pay for the pipes I decide to keep.
Peterson 307 before...
...and after
So for a minimal outlay on materials, some judicious eBay purchasing and a fair dollop of elbow grease one can indeed smoke a quality pipe for little money but one has to put the work in! I myself am disabled so pipe restoration suits me fine as I have plenty of time (other interests allowing) and the bulk of it is done sitting down. I do not possess a buffer by the way so all of my work is done by hand. My finished pipes might not win any awards but I am more than delighted with them, they are thoroughly clean and sanitised and on the whole are great smokers.
I appreciate that the chap who had the $50 to spend on an estate wanted a ‘ready to go’ pipe but really, one should give pipe restoration a go, it is useful, money saving and can become quite addictive. Plus, another skill learned is surely another string to one’s bow? So to say one needs to amass $100+ to invest in a decent estate pipe is absolute tosh.
I do hope that someone finds this info useful and perhaps tempts them to dip their toe into the lovely warm water that is estate pipe restoration.
Regards,
Jay.
(All price conversions are at the rates set for today, April 11 2016).
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