Ric Restoration on a Dunhill DR Before/after photos

[iamn8]

I got a deal on this DR from Austria. I immediately shipped off to Ric at Briarville and received it today. Here are the amazing before and after photos.... it's even better in person.

 

[shikano53]

Beautiful pipe and beautiful job!

Congrats!

 

[mymixture77]

Very nice work!

 

[georged]

Any after pics of the rim or the stem's bite zone & button?

 

[iamn8]

That's a hair by the way, not a crack

Here's a before also

 

[iamn8]

 

[saltedplug]

Beautiful pipe, hope you enjoy!

 

[danielplainview]

Good looking pipe. Removing the dark stain really made the grain pop.

 

[fnord]

It's beautiful, Nate, and Ric did a fabulous job. (On the other hand, being older, the darker look is still appealing to me.)
Did he top the bowl or just grab a root and growl? Regardless, it's pretty as can be.
Congratulations.
Fnord

 

[iamn8]

Fnord, I actually agree with you, but because of the purchase price of the pipe, my initial intent was to sell the pipe and Dunhill DRs fetch a better price if the grain pops because you're paying a premium for the straight grain. From a purely aesthetical standpoint, I prefer the dark aged look as well.

I'm not sure exactly how/what he did... Although it feels like I should so I'll drop Ric an email
Thanks guys! I had far lower expectations as to what this DR would look like post-restoration. I'm broke and needed money, but damnit now I wanna keep it, leaving me even broker and without prospects.
Hey, anyone wanna rent a Dunhill DR?!

 

[pruss]

It's interesting, looking at the pre cleanup shots it looks like the pipe was topped prior to going to Ric. It looks to me like he helped round the rim to remove the sharp edges and remaining burn marks from the top of the bowl. This is probably why he elected to strip the stain from the pipe. I agree with fnord that I preferred the pipe with a deeper colour. As it is now, it looks like there are some areas which are a little more bleached out than others, but this could just be a function of lighting and the pictures. If this were my pipe I'd be trying to tint it to match factory DR colour.

 

[iamn8]

It's the same color now as all of the DR's I've owned or seen. What do you mean factory color? And the lightness of the color near the rim isn't the finish or light, but the grain. It's only a one star.

 

[iamn8]

Here are a couple of photos sans flash...

 

[pruss]

Every Dunhill line I've seen has its own colour. I assume the DRs do too, maybe I'm off base here. What I'm suggesting is that I'd want to match that colour in a resto. If this what Ric did, then awesome. It's hard to tell from the pics Nate, but the colour difference between before and after is so great that the after shots look like the pipe is stripped but not stained, and the finish looks like it is lighter in some parts than others. Now I don't have the pipe in hand and am only basing observation on these photos. I could be totally off base. I think I'd do a light tint on this pipe to even out colour and to allow the grain to pop.
EDIT - The Dunhill DR pipes I've seen have an almost orange stain similar to the root briar series pipes, whereas in these photos the pipe appears more natural with greater contrast in colour between grain highs and lows.
Sorry if I was unclear.
Pat

 

[pruss]

Those newer pictures help, I think the pipe looks closer to factory finish in these photos than they did in earlier shots. I think I was seeing hot points in the photos caused by lighting.
-- Pat

 

[iamn8]

Yeah you're correct pat, the flash was making it look quite a bit different. Sorry about that.

 

[michail]

Really love the new colour, and actually it's closer to today's DR finish.
The rim of the pipe had this "roundness" before restoration, too?

 

[iamn8]

It appears round in that one photo looking down, but the second series of photos better shows the rim. I guess it was a trick of the light maybe. Thanks! I like the color as well, very traditional.