Savinelli--late xmas pt. II

[romeowood]

Couldn't resist. Found it local from a collector, we had a good chat going through his hundreds of pipes--a lot of high-end ones like Ben Wades, vintage Charatans, etc. that were nice but just didn't appeal to me--and I couldn't resist this one. My first real bent-stem, of course in a billiard, and it smokes amazingly cool and comfortable. If not for seeing Savinellis so much on this forum I'd have likely passed it by, and I'm glad I didn't. It's a Chiara model, but a discontinued incarnation of it; I haven't been able to date it precisely, but his reckoning was 1980's. Looked like it was smoked twice before I got it--box and all.

Think I'll have to name her 'Bella'

 

[hilojohnny]

She is pretty, isn't she?.... :D

 

[dd951]

damn pretty pipe

 

[romeowood]

She is! I think I'm in love
And I'm impressed with how she smokes--I've had Sweet Killarney and Bella Vanilla in it, both thoroughly sweet aromatics, and have smoked through the bowls easily without gurgle or too many relights, and all the way to the bottom. The draught hole is in the sweet spot, for sure. I've not got any of the balsa filters for it yet, so I'm doing without them for now, yet it seems to not detract from the pleasure at all.
Thanks for the compliments!

 

[python]

Nice pick up!
I don't ever use the balsa filter, not many people do. The pipes smoke just fine without them.
Save the money that would be spent on filters and put it towards pipes and tobacco!

 

[flipflopsandshades]

I have a question regarding Savinelli filters, if you don't use one, will it hurt the pipe? I use the filters but would stop if I didn't need them.
Thanks.

 

[romeowood]

Shouldn't hurt the pipe at all, flips; from everything I've read it's merely a matter of preference. Although I will say on my Medicos I prefer using the filter as they have a tendency to 'burp' tobacco juice on me if I don't (the Jet Streams are rather small billiards basically), and find that it offers an easy cleaning as well. I'll try the balsa filters for this one just to see, and report my findings at a later date.

 

[unclearthur]

Pretty pipe. Looks very classy!

 

[bytor]

Very nice indeed! I really like the gold accent ring between the shank and stem.

 

[yoru]

very pretty lady indeed

 

[romeowood]

@ bytor--I haven't done a chemical test yet, but it may even be gold plated. It has a too-good shine for brass. I need to research this a bit more.
So today I wandered into a little junk shop, a place I'd stopped a few times before, and looked for pipes. They never have pipes. But today they did. It was old, a completely oxidized stem, but the briar looked nice. I asked to see it.

Wouldn't you know, a Savinelli Capri Bruna 606! 8O

I calmly asked how much. $4 and the kid probably thought he was taking me for a ride.

So my new Sav has a playmate.

Here's a couple before pictures, and I'll post the after pictures when I'm done rehabilitating. Aside from the oxidation, there's only light chatter, and the stampings are all crisp. A nice bent billiard military mount, not fitted for filter. The color in the pictures is a bit on the yellow side, I didn't set up the whole photo rig; the briar has a very nice natural caramel color to it. Beautiful rusticated wood.

Any help on dating it would be appreciated, I can't find much in my cursory search.

 

[bubbadreier]

Nice pick up!! Congrats!

 

[seakayak]

Bella it is. I've come to really appreciate the the simple elegance that the folks at Savinelli build into their pipes. The filters are purely optional and can be used or set aside. Either way, with minimal care, it will bring you pleasure for the rest of your life and will only improve with time.

 

[brazz]

nice grab love that stem